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W.D. Gaster

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Alphys might work faster. But the old Royal Scientist, Doctor W.D. Gaster?
One day, he vanished without a trace.
They say he shattered across time and space.

Gaster follower 2

W.D. Gaster (JP: W.D. ガスター) is a hidden character in Undertale. During normal gameplay, he is typically unmentioned. However, rare fun value events and certain inaccessible rooms hint at his existence. This includes room_gaster.

Similarly to Sans and Papyrus's dialogue, some text associated with Gaster uses a unique typeface, namely Wingdings.

Profile

Etymology

"W.D. Gaster" is presumably derived from the font "Wingdings" (the font ENTRY NUMBER SEVENTEEN is written in). It could also be a reference to "M.D. Seeger", the alias of Shigeru Miyamoto used in the ending credits of EarthBound.[2]

Main story

History

Gaster was the royal scientist preceding Alphys. He was supposedly responsible for the creation of the CORE[1] and is stated to have had "irreplaceable" brilliance.[3] His fate is relayed by the Gaster followers: one of them claims that he "fell into his creation", the other claims that "his experiments went wrong", and the third one claims he was "shattered across time and space".

Hints

room_gaster

Room 264 screenshot.gif
ENTRY NUMBER SEVENTEEN in room_gaster

In room_gaster (room 264 in most versions and room 265 in the Xbox version), the text below is displayed in uppercase Wingdings. While it appears to be the missing seventeenth lab entry from the True Lab, this could be a red herring, as there was an alternate seventeenth entry in the game's files prior to version 1.001–4. The alternate entry heavily aligns with Alphys's entries, as it mirrors her entry format, writing style, and correlates with her determination experiments.[4]

Both entries are inaccessible in normal gameplay; Alphys's entry can only be found in the game's text files, and Gaster's entry is only accessible through SAVE manipulation or debug mode. In sequential room order, room_gaster immediately follows the generator room in the True Lab, and is immediately before the mysterious door.

ENTRY NUMBER SEVENTEEN is written in all caps, with no preceding asterisk. Transliteration of the Wingdings text is as follows:

  • ENTRY NUMBER SEVENTEEN
  • DARK DARKER YET DARKER
  • THE DARKNESS KEEPS GROWING
  • THE SHADOWS CUTTING DEEPER
  • PHOTON READINGS NEGATIVE
  • THIS NEXT EXPERIMENT
  • SEEMS
  • VERY
  • VERY
  • INTERESTING
  • ...
  • WHAT DO YOU TWO THINK

Once the message ends, the screen turns black for a second before the game closes. The audio that plays during the entry is internally referred to as mus_smile. This file can be sped up by 1000% to reveal Muffet's laugh, reversed and then looped over.[5]

The voice bites used in this room (snd_wngdng1 through snd_wngdng7) are excerpts from the text-to-speech voices used in abc_123_a.

"The man who speaks in hands"

River Person screenshot hands.png
River Person's message about "the man who speaks in hands"

During one of the travels with River Person, they say "Beware of the man who speaks in hands." It is speculated that this alludes to Gaster, since the Wingdings typeface used in room_gaster uses hand symbols.

A similar line from the River Person is "Beware of the man who came from the other world." Considering the similarities it shares with the previous quote, it may refer either to Gaster or Sans, who is implied to have knowledge of alternate timelines.[6]

Sound Test room

If the fun value is 65 and Papyrus has been defeated, there is a 50% chance the player can enter the Sound Test room by going north of the "Box Road" SAVE Point in Snowdin (or by exiting room_water_redacted regardless of fun value). This "room" is a menu containing four short, looping tracks, including Gaster's Theme; none of the tracks are used anywhere else in the game.

Upon selecting Gaster's Theme, the other three songs are unable to be selected again. After Gaster's Theme plays for 20 seconds, the text "Thanks for your feedback! Be seeing you soon!" is displayed, and the protagonist is transported into the room with the fishing pole in Snowdin. If the player came from room_water_redacted, the game crashes.

In the game files, Gaster's Theme is named mus_st_him, unlike the other rooms in the sound test that have their song names explicitly shown (such as mus_st_happytown).

Relationships

Gaster followers

Gaster followers are gray NPCs that are found near the elevators in Hotland if the fun value is right. They all resemble certain NPCs in the game but with a few minor differences (excluding Gaster follower 3, though the striped bird NPC in Deltarune resembles them).

The Gaster followers each possess knowledge of Gaster that is not displayed in any other character. They claim to know what happened to him through cryptic hints.

Mystery man

The mystery man, referred to as mysteryman internally[7], is a figure that only appears if the fun value is 66. When interacting with them, they disappear using the same sound effect as Gaster follower 2. This interaction, as well as the nature of their appearance, suggests a connection to Gaster.

Redacted

Redacted, internally referred to as spr_redacted_a,[8] is an inaccessible character found in room_water_redacted. If the protagonist attempts a conversation with the character, it returns "* [redacted]" in lowercase Wingdings. This suggests a connection to Gaster.

Goner Kid

There is inconclusive evidence as to whether Goner Kid is related to Gaster. Like the Gaster Followers, Goner Kid only appears when the fun value is between 90-100, and their sprite is a monochrome version of Monster Kid's sprite with minor differences.

Clam Girl

On the Nintendo Switch and Xbox One/Xbox Series X|S versions of Undertale, if the fun value is exactly 81, Clam Girl has alternate dialogue in the True Pacifist Route epilogue. At the final line of her dialogue, Clam Girl turns grayscale and disappears with the same sound effect as the mystery man and Gaster follower 2, suggesting a possible connection to Gaster.

Sans

Sans attack Gaster Blaster.png
spr_gasterblaster

One of the types of attacks Sans uses against the protagonist during his boss fight in the Genocide Route is internally referred to as spr_gasterblaster, suggesting it is connected to Gaster. If the Genocide Route is aborted by sparing Papyrus and the protagonist interacts with his box of bones, Papyrus says that if he had used his "SPECIAL ATTACK", he would have "BLASTED" the protagonist away, but suddenly realizes that he cannot find it. The use of the verb "blast" implies a connection to the Gaster Blaster, suggesting that the Gaster Blaster was either Papyrus's missing special attack or was somehow created by Sans from Papyrus's attack.

Outside of Undertale

Merchandise

A Gaster card was originally included in the Undertale tarot card collection designed by Dogbomber, as IX - The Hermit. When the collection became officially licensed. This card used the mystery man's design for Gaster. However, Gaster's card was replaced by Gerson, which indicates that this card is not canon. Toby Fox has also stated the merchandise is not canon.[9]

It was possible to search the term "Gaster" in Fangamer's search engine and yield a result for the Blaster Pin.[10] This keyword association was removed on November 25, 2025, making it no longer possible.[11]

Deltarune

For Deltarune's initial development, see Deltarune#Initial development.
Him increased contrast.png
him.png from deltarune.com from December 2015, with increased contrast

An excerpt of ENTRY NUMBER SEVENTEEN, reading "THIS NEXT EXPERIMENT SEEMS VERY VERY INTERESTING", was featured on Deltarune's website in 2015, written in the Windgings font. In 2016, the excerpt was replaced with a paraphrase from the prophecy in Wingdings. The images were named him.png, paralleling the filename of Gaster's Theme, mus_st_him.

In Deltarune itself, ENTRY NUMBER SEVENTEEN's first paragraph, "DARK DARKER YET DARKER", is referenced by Seam[12] and Ralsei.[13] Likewise, a hymn about the prophecy references the entry with the line "of the shadows cutting deep".

mus_smile is used as the "garbage noise" that plays when the Cell Phone is used in a Dark World. It can also be heard near the Shelter south of Hometown and in the basement of Noelle's House, at 15% speed.

Additionally, ANOTHER HIM, the track that plays when directed by the introductory voice to create a vessel, shares its naming convention with the filename for Gaster's Theme.

Trivia

  • Attempting to name the fallen human "Gaster" causes the game to return to the intro.
  • If the protagonist's name is changed to "Gaster" through the SAVE files, the ability to reset becomes unavailable as the game restarts upon clicking the Reset button.
  • Gaster is heavily associated with the Number of the Beast (666), repeating 6s, or the number 6 in general.
    • The global.typer value for the text in ENTRY NUMBER SEVENTEEN is 666.
    • Gaster's global.monstertype value is 666.[14]
    • Gaster's unused battle stats found through datamining are all repeating 6s.
    • All fun value events directly related to Gaster are within the 60s range.
      • The fake hallway and room_mysteryman in Waterfall are accessible when the fun value is 66 - the only possible fun value with repeating 6s.

Version history

Version tag Changes
v1.001 Fun events related to Gaster no longer check for "Fun" instead of "fun", making them accessible without SAVE editing.
v1.001-4 Due to a bug, Gaster's name crashes the game on the PS4 and PS Vita versions, instead of restarting as intended.
v1.03-4 Gaster's name now restarts the game instead of crashing on the PS4 and PS Vita.
v1.05 In the naming screen, the game now restarts once the "R" is typed, rather than upon confirming.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 It makes sense why ASGORE took so long to hire a new Royal Scientist.
    After all, the old one... Dr. Gaster. What an act to follow!
    They say he created the CORE.     — Gaster Follower 1
  2. ↑ MOTHER 2 / EarthBound Factoids & Trivia - STARMEN.NET
  3. ↑ I understand why ASGORE waited so long to hire a new Royal Scientist.
    The previous one... Dr. Gaster.
    His brilliance was irreplaceable.     — Gaster Follower 3
  4. ↑ monsters' physical forms can't handle "determination" like humans' can.
    with too much determination, our bodies begin to break down.
    everyone's melted together...     — ENTRY NUMBER 17, True Lab
  5. ↑ W.D. GASTER "Mus_Smile" Dissected! on YouTube
  6. ↑ our reports showed a massive anomaly in the timespace continuum.
    timelines jumping left and right, stopping and starting...     — Sans, Genocide Route
  7. ↑ gml_Object_obj_mysteryman_Step_0 script
  8. ↑ gml_Object_obj_redacted_a_Alarm_0 script
  9. ↑ Some people wonder about canonicity of UNDERTALE merchandise. None of it is canon (incl. the figurines) except this — November 25, 2016.
  10. ↑ IT SHOWS UP WHEN YOU TYPE HIS NAME??????
    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6lTd2AbwAI_MwV?format=jpg     — November 25, 2025.
  11. ↑ AIN’T NO WAY
    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6oBFotaMAAuz2v?format=jpg     — November 25, 2025.
  12. ↑ And my view of this world has gotten darker, yet darker. — Seam, Deltarune, Chapter 1
  13. ↑ What if it became even darker? Darker than dark. — Ralsei, Deltarune, Chapter 3
  14. ↑ gml_script_scr_monstersetup script, line 959
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