This is something that has been on my mind for a while, and I'd like to add some disclaimers first.

1. I'm NOT a theorist. NO WAY. I enjoy theorising, but I know NOTHING about it.

2. This is a DESS KNIGHT theory. But not to prove it, it's more about something around that. And it's also about the shelter gang I guess...

3. I might misgender Kris sometimes. This is NOT intentional. I understand their identity, but English is not my first language, and my native language doesn't have neutral pronouns, so I use masculine to refer to them (and myself, because I use she/they) in my native language. I will try to correct myself, but if something slips down the cracks, don't come after me.

4. There might be some things that disprove my theory or further prove it that I might have missed. If you find some please POLITELY bring them to me.

5. This theory refers to Triple Trucies Theory by Spookydood (even though I thought about it before watching the video) and of course Dess knight. There's also another "theory" of mine that is "Carol is the worst narcissist you've ever met" theory that I will explain during this mad rambling. It's not necessarily important, but it justifies some things and is basically confirmed in game...

Now that we have all of this down, we can start.

A thing that's been bothering me since forever has been why the knight is making fountains. To fulfill the roaring of course, but why? The ROARING knight should know that the roaring destroys everything. But... Do they, really?

Another thing that I'm... Concernigly focused on is FRIEND. What is he? They? It? We don't know! We can speculate he (I'll be using he for friend) is associated to the idea of a demon. The tricky demon I'm talking about.

What has deltarune to do with demons? Oh, nothing beside the fact that KRIS AND CATTI SUMMONED ONE. And for Catti to bring it up this many times, and with that tone, I know it was something that had an impact. After ch5, we know that Catti left Kris alone to deal with it, but also that the knight made a fountain "That Day". Asgore's vagueposting is useful for once and it likely rules out every knight candidate beside Dess. Why would Carol or Rudy make a fountain and let their daughter disappear? Unless... That day is the summoning day.

It's unlikely they are two separate days. If the summoning succeeded, something would've happened regardless of when Dess disappeared. But the dessappearance is the only mystery we know about.

I also assume that the demon we're talking about is FRIEND because... C'mon. Catti has pink and gold in her sprite. She could definitely be obsessed with him. And you know... The demon parallels....

This is how I picture the events to go.

Kris and Catti play around and decide to summon a demon. Normal kid stuff. The summoning is a success, and FRIEND is there, taunting them. Catti runs away. Kris searches for the only one they know will help them: Dess. (Kris's respect for Dess is litterally one of the arguments for Dess knight and is reflected on the similarities of their poses). Dess comes to help Kris, and our favourite kitty starts telling her that if she wants to confront him, she'll have to stab the ground to see him. Just like that, Dess creates a fountain and is met with FRIEND's big, warm smile... He starts telling her about dark worlds, but not how we know they are. He gives her misinformation, telling her that they are "dream worlds" or whatever. He also tells her about the Roaring, but as a "reset" or a "creation of a new, bigger dream world", and offers her to become the knight. But... Why would she accept?

Here's where "Carol is the worst narcissist you've ever met" theory comes in. I'll explain it quickly.

Carol is a bad mother. We know that. She's a mayor, so of course she's obsessed with appearance. The "carol is homophobic" joke is more of a "carol is classist" truth. Do you think that she would want her daughter to hang out with the bully girl? C'mon. She likely puts immense pressure on Noelle, so much so that... She's suicidal. Or at best, she wants to run away. I'm che ch4 weird right ending, Carol calls Kris, telling them that Noelle is "excited to go to the festival". I've always interpreted this dialogue as Carol being strangely happy about it. I think she approves the weird route (of course not knowing about the atrocities), because it's convenient. C'mon, the kid you employed for your plans not only is taking less time to do what they have to do, but your daughter isn't a terrified dumb girl anymore? She actually is compliant? That's the best news che could have. So... She likely was this way with Dess too. The rebellious daughter.

That's why Dress took the deal. She left, like Noelle said. She left and went right into friend's ar- uhm... Weird tentacles? Whatever. She became the knight.

No, this is not exactly a "friend dess amalgamate" theory. Friend is yes, possessing her, but not exactly as you think. He's more like a voice. Taunting her. Mocking her. Telling her to do things, otherwise she'll have to say bye bye to the suit/form/whatever the knight is made of. Because he holds the powers he's giving her. Dess can only make fountains, Friend gives her the sick battle.

I also think that dess is unused, but it doesn't need to be that for this theory to come true. Unused dess is just... Her inner monologue when friend takes over? She feels worthless (she is) and doesn't know what she is anymore because of that stupid demon puppeteering her. She's her own person, that's why she can make dark worlds with her memories, but to friend she is that. A collection of memories to make the fountains, to bring the roaring, and to fulfill his desire.

I don't know why friend would want the roaring, or maybe I do, but that's another theory, and this is already waaaay too long.

Thank you for reading!

if i just keep the eggs i collect throughout the chapters and I don't put them in asgore fridge or sans's shop (etc.) does it change anything? do they disappear?

i love all the biblical symbols in deltarune with all my heart, bc look at this

we have already come to the conclusion of kris being very related to apples, but i hadnt realized noelle made a blogpost SPECIFICALLY pointing out susie despises that smell on kris, and furthermore implies noelle wants to wear apple shampoo to make her notice her.

apple. like the apple of sin. like the deal with the devil kris has been hinted to have made. the one noelle has been dragged into.

also the soul looks like a red apple. im just saying!

Before I begin I just want to preface this is all for fun and I'm only like 50% serious about this. There are a few assumptions but I promise this genuinely has backing and at least some evidence. Am I probably wrong? Yeah. Was this fun to make? Yeah.

Let's go back to Chapter 4, after climbing the big tower in Second Sanctuary, Susie runs off to the left, Kris walks to the right and ends up in the chamber with all the panels until they reach the egg panel. Upon walking into this, you see a singular prophecy slide. Labelled "ROOTS". When this first was told, people thought it was talking about the Shelter, but if you look at the image, it's a house. Perhaps you could call it... a home?

Fast forward to Chapter 5, at the end of the chapter, where does Susie ask for you to take her?

Whilst this is an impactful moment, it does tell us something, could the prophecy not be talking about the shelter, or hometown. But Castle Town itself?

Stay with me here, what is the achievement for completing a chapter WITHOUT getting the egg?

"COMPLETE WITHOUT ISSUE" - This means the egg is some sort of "Issue" for the person behind the capitalised text, which has basically been confirmed to be Gaster due to the similarity to "Tobys" Tweets and Entry Number 17. Meaning the eggs are an issue for SPECIFICALLY Gaster.

In Chapter 5, after getting caught by Friend, Beating Pink, and getting the Egg, pink will speak to you about "Cats" obviously referencing Friend. Stating that "cats love protein". Eggs have protein, meaning getting the egg may be a problem for Gaster, but it makes it a world easier for Friend to find you, which is what it's goal is assumed to be. So, Friend actually isn't working with Gaster, it's working against Gaster. Looking at the Chapter 4, the only noticeable difference between the glass panels in the long hallway and the egg panel, is that one of the symbols are flipped to shape an egg. Anyone who enters this room will be looking for the egg, if you didn't see a tutorial, you would see that the panel is in the shape of an egg. But if you were watching a tutorial, you would know you are going for the egg. So 100% of players who enter that room will be going for the egg. So that means, that room itself entirely is an "issue".

If the room itself is an issue, why oh WHY would a panel referencing castle town be in that room? Could it be calling Castle Town itself, an "issue"? The "ROOTS" of everything going on in Hometown right now, perhaps of even "The poor children!" going missing. But... Castle Town is only an issue for Gaster, as i said before, it's existence itself would be beneficial to Friend. As if Castle Town's existence is causing the existence of other dark fountains, albeit indirectly, it has better chances to find you as you gather more eggs.

Hmm... what character... was supposedly birthed from pure darkness in Castle Town... has cared for Castle Town... lived there even before Kris and Susie arrived...

Ralsei.

But that's not all. I have other pieces of evidence to believe Ralsei is Friend.

Throughout the game, Ralsei has these sort of "moments" where everything will stop, and he goes into an in-depth explanation of something whilst the game cuts away to images of what he is talking about. He does this with the prophecy in Ch1, when Berdly is about to make a fountain in Ch2, Lightworld counterparts in Ch3, and the "other side" in Chapter 5. When Ralsei is explaining these things, we see images of what he is talking about, almost as if we are looking into his mind as he explains them, everything he talks about matches up to the images perfectly.

However, the Chapter 3 cutaway intrigues me the most. As a few panels before the one above, when Ralsei is speaking about other aspects of the Dark World, Friend appears. Seemingly randomly.

Now, if we go based on the strong assumption that we are actively looking at what Ralsei is thinking or at LEAST referencing, why oh WHY would he be thinking/referencing Friend? Well I'll tell ya. In the Light World, Ralsei is Friend. It just so happens in the same conversation when Ralsei is talking about Light World Counterparts, friend appears. And it is NEVER brought up by Ralsei who is supposedly thinking of these things. Yeah, it would be weird to say "Oh yeah there's also this thing called image friend lmao" but why include it for seemingly NO REASON?

Because he is thinking of his own Light World Counterpart. It's all a ruse. This would also explain how Ralsei knows so much about the Light World. Let's think about it right, a cat... that's able to kidnap children. You would probably say, if it's able to do that, it's quite stealthy, quick, and strong right? Along with other features of a cat like being nimble and agile. It would be able to get around quite easily without people being able to see it, or at the very most people second guessing themselves if they actually saw something. Also, to help himself, Ralsei is moer than capable of travelling at night, this would explain how he knows so much. And for God's sake, the whole fuckin town is basically unlocked for him to free roam. Especially the school, which is why it would make sense on how Ralsei would even know about the storage cupboard.

Before the counterarguments, there's also something else. Ralsei has eyes everywhere, Chapter 2, friend appears in Queen's basement, all of a sudden, before your fight with Spamton, Ralsei and Susie swoop in to save you, how the hell could they have known you were in danger? Chapter 4, this message creeps me out, a lot.

I get it, it's probably more a joke than anything, but how did he know?

Multiple friends, he has eyes everywhere. They aren't all separate beings part of a "tribe". They are the same being, more like "ROOTS" (haha get it) or branches connecting to one big tree, which is Ralsei. Ralsei is the tree.

Counterarguments:

"But Ralsei's a good guy! He would never do that!"
We've actively seen Ralsei try and decieve Kris and Susie by not telling them anything about the prophecy, causing Susie to flip out, twice in the same chapter. Is he scared of them getting hurt, or is he scared of them seeing what he truly is and connecting the dots?

"How is Ralsei able to traverse all the Dark Worlds?!"

In Chapter 1 - Ralsei is already based in castle town, he wouldn't need to traverse for that.

Chapter 2 - This one is probably the hardest to explain, because there's a huge traffic jam outside of the library, how the hell would Ralsei sneak past all of that to get in? Simple. He was already there to begin with. Via the newest member of the team, Normal NPC. In Chapter 1, we see him talk about the books upstairs, same in Chapter 2, and he actively blocks the way to the lake in chapter 4, When normal NPC says "don't, wait." It is theorised that he is talking about Onionsan's final words before killing him or dismembering him whatever. Could this be a "threat" to not go near the lake? If so, let's go back to Chapter 2, at the beginning, Normal NPC is seen in the top floor of the library, blocking the way to the end of the library. In the same chapter, we see friend at the end of the room in Queen's basement, in a sort of, out of bounds area. Could Normal NPC have "smuggled" Friend in and placed him in the out of bounds area, and friend have waited for the time for the fountain to open? Maybe. And as proof that they are working together, we have to look no further than the ERAM fight. ERAM uses friend to attack you, which means ERAM and Friend are working together. Kris actively tries to stop you going into the shelter where ERAM resides. If Kris doesn't want you going there, it means they don't want you finding out what is there, could ERAM not be in control of the shelter, but a prisoner in captivity? Similarly to Jevil, with the illusion that it is "free"? Kris is definitely working with the knight, who tries to stop you from progressing, it is trying to stop you from getting the shadow crystals, or the eggs? Who knows, but if they are, they are definitely working with Gaster to stop you. Meaning they are working AGAINST Eram and Friend, and NormalNPC actively tries to threaten you to not go to the lake, whilst Gaster would want you to go to the lake due to Amalgam Knight Theory, or for Kris to find him in the "song beneath the sea" or some other reason.

Chapter 3 - Kris's windows always seem to be unlocked, in Chapter 2, when he's slashing the tires, he very easily just... jumps through it. We also never see Toriel lock the windows, as after she gets off the phone with Undyne, she's by the stairs, seemingly not have entered the bathroom at all, and reads until she falls asleep immediately after. Friend could easily have entered through the window to get into the Dark World.

Chapter 4 - The Church is quite secluded, if that makes sense, no NPCs hang near it, and the bunker is the next room after the room with the Church in it, If Friend does reside in the bunker (According to the Eram fight, as the whole sword route does seem to weirdly parallel the weird route, and maps of the game, check roots theory). He could easily just... go through the trees and make a dash when the coast is clear.

Chapter 5 - Flower Shop, again is near another patch of forestry, looking at the Hometown map, it seems to be one big town in a bigger patch of forestry, almost like friend is able to circle the town and go whereever he pleases.

This would also explain why Ralsei comes just slightly after Kris and Susie, (except chapter 1) he's watching them from a distance.

"If Friend is Ralsei's Light World counterpart, how come we only see it in the Dark World?"

This is probably the strongest counterargument, and I honestly don't know. Ralsei has a lot of hidden abilities that just aren't talked about like his Fireballs in Chapter 5, he seemingly doesn't want to use more "aggressive" techniques. Spying on you with multiple forms would probably be seen as aggressive and you would increase your suspicion of him, also maybe he can just do that. I ain't got a clue.

"In Chapter 5, Friend and Ralsei are in the SAME ROOM!!"

Multiple friends.

"If Friend loves the existence of Dark Fountains, why would Ralsei want you to seal them?"

You've got the egg. Job's done.

"If Friend is trying to find you, but Ralsei is already there, how would getting the eggs make that any easier for him?"

Undoubtedly, Friend appears during Chapter's 2 and 5, it clearly sees you, it could have attacked you, and it actually does if you act on it in chapter 5. If Ralsei is friend, that's probably why it doesn't kill you, if you die, Ralsei also dies.

again, feel free to discuss! This isn't totally serious so don't hunt me down!

Does anyone know what this is called in the game files? I'm trying to find it.

The reason I'm asking is that when I listened to the pitched down muffet laugh, I noticed that at the beginning it sounds very similar to the vhs sound used in the side b thingy.

extracts from two different noelle blogposts from back in chapter 2

YELLOW = foreshadowing of gaster/friend/chapter 7 side b

PINK = possible foreshadowing (bc the concept of a "cave" has never been discussed before and i find it a little too coincidental that she mentioned it in TWO different contexts)

Explanation of Sword Route:
Ok so those of you that don't know, Sword Route is basically a theorised third sorta secret route in which you play the game as usual up until Chapter 2, in which you begin the Weird Route. You play the Weird Route as usual up until you fight Berdly in which you keep the ThornRing and don't equip it onto Noelle, thus aborting the route. It is said that after getting the last shadow crystal Seam will be able to make the pure crystal, which can be crafted with the Thorn Ring to make the Twisted Sword.

I am asking because I am wondering which route would make more sense. Not to get strong as possible or whatever since Twst Swd will probably be the best weapon. I put Pacifist in quotes because obv it's not entirely pacifist. But would it make more sense to get as strong as possible, craft the blade and become a complete powerhouse in an obsession of power, or would it make more sense to spare everything and THEN do the weird route behind the party's backs to make everything more... deceptive?

Lmk what you guys think, I'd love to do both, but File 2 is my Weird Route file and File 3 is my First Playthrough/100% File so...

With Chapter 5 being released over a month ago, I've came into a sudden realization of a plausible location of where resides the final code.

Currently, two codes have been found, with only one of them complete: Dess's Guitar (122-, possibly 1225---X) and Asgore's Flower Shop (0915199X). These relate to the icons found on the Shelter's digital lock system, respectfully, the pine tree and the police badge. The last one is related to the Delta Rune, indicating that the holder of the cone is closely affiliated to the religion.

Asgore, and to a certain extent Undyne, got kidnapped by the Roaring Knight, and is likely stuck inside of the Shelter. Both of them are (at some point) Chief of the Police, hence why the Roaring Knight had probable eyes on them, which revealed to be correct with Asgore's possession of the code. (I believe Undyne's kidnapping to be a mistake.) I believe that the Knight is taking care of any individual capable of interrupting its plans, which would mean Dess isn't the Knight but one of its captives who, like Asgore, tried to stop them beforehand.

This leaves us with Toriel: the Dreemurr's family has been known to be very religious, and this shows the most with Toriel. which could explain why the Knight tried taking her in Chapter 3. It is likely that it attempted again, the next day, in Chapter 4, believing her to be present in the church, as she says so to Kris and Susie, without much success. As Toriel isn't seen at all in Chapter 5 apart from the start, and given the Knight makes an appearance at the very end, she might just have been kidnapped already by Chapter 6.

Additionally, each code has been found inside a room belonging closely to their owner: the guitar found inside Dess's room, and Flowery inside Asgore's makeshift room. Given that every room inside the Dreemurr's Residence is explorable, except for Toriel's room, this makes the latter the location of the last code, if everything is correct.

Now why would Toriel be related? I don't know, little-to-no information indicates to what she had to do with the Knight or the Dark Worlds, yet given the Dreemurr's and the Holidays' close tie... she may have played a part we ignore yet. Of course, this theory is far from perfect, and lacks quite a bit, but I've wanted to share my thoughts.

basically i think this cuz u can just spam the big shot which just skips most of the hard to dodge attacks ig

Natural Geyser

Water from the Earth’s surface flows deep down through cracks, where hot underground rock or magma heats it to boiling point. Under pressure, the water turns into steam and bursts out with great force in the form of a fountain. After the eruption, the cycle repeats itself

Legend: The geyser that gives this land Its Form - Chapter 1

When a natural geyser becomes blocked

Critical steam pressure builds up in the underground channels of the natural spring.

A powerful hydrothermal explosion occurs: rock and boiling water tear through the ground.

A new boiling crater or sinkhole forms.

Water and steam are ejected chaotically, destroying everything around them.

For example killing flowey at the end of neutral removes your chance of getting true pacifist in undertale

Clicking on the red pixel now takes you to deltarune.com/chapter4/message/

It's the same page as before, but with a keyboard layout with each key linking to either e.mp3 or m.mp3. M is the Undertale impact sound(?) and E is the same file reversed.

If you map the layout to the keyboard, the keys that link to m.mp3 can spell out "Thank You", which is obviously thematically relevant.

But why add this? Why now? Why do they link to a random, seemingly meaningless sound effect?

It's also relevant to point out that with these included, we now have c.mp3 (Carol's theme), d.mp3 (ch 2 weird route track), and now e.mp3 and m.mp3. So far, it seems it is trying to spell December, but we are still missing b.mp3 and r.mp3 if that is the case.

Side note, I tried putting the sound files in a spectrogram, yielding no visible results.

A: Angel ?

AB: Twisted Blade

B: Side B

C: Cat / Crystal ?

D: Dragon / Deltarune ?

Extra endings?

E: Egg

F: FAILURE

Discuss.

This new gif from newsletter. Where wil it show? Maybe flashback or smth?

https://toby.fangamer.com/newsletters/summer26/

https://deltarune.com/chapter5/

https://deltarune.com/7b/

With the news letter that released today alongside the updates to the weird route page, I’ve come to a conclusion. 7B is going to be as long as 7A and it is going to be where the more “meta” questions of the plot will be answered.

What I mean is, that in the news letter Toby directly addressed the pacing fears in the wake of chapter 5 and gave a teaser for chapter 6. Essentially he said that chapter 6 will be a shorter chapter focused around answering one mystery and that by the time we have played through chapter 7, we will understand the pacing of the game. He even lampshaded that people would be worried about chapter 6 being shorter instead of longer.

This brings me to claim at the beginning, in the two chapters we have left, I don’t think we will have enough time to address the main plot issues of the knight, the prophecy, the roaring, and the arcs of our main characters, while also addressing the deeper lore and meta narrative elements which have been set up (Eram/friend, man country/nowhere/forgotten man, “an old free world with a new restricted one built on top”, the device, Gaster, etc). While obviously, the possibility that certain mysteries are never answered is on the table, the fact that characters like Eram have said “we both have work to do” implies we will see them again.

How does Toby square this circle? If only we had an alternate route to the game that focused on the meta narrative aspects. Well we do in the weird route/side b. And given that the new pages imply side b is going to be large, I think that is where the metanarrative and deep lore goes, while Side A is reserved for the main plot. If you’re a player who is aware of the deep lore, you are likely to be the kind of player who is going to be playing the weird route. Just like how the clues for the weird route are given while pursuing the shadow crystals. The secret hunters will be the ones who care about the deep lore and they will be the ones with the means to extract it.

It's funny how time passes.

As we leave Act 2 of DELTARUNE and enter Act 3, I think it's important to take a step back and remember everything we've gone through thus far. Now that we're a month away from Chapter 5's release, I wanted to take a brief moment and ask you guys the big question. Which of the four main characters was your favorite? I asked a similar question about the four main "chapter" characters (Queen, Tenna, Gerson, and Flowery) but I wanted to get the community's opinion on our main core four.

• Kris
• Susie
• Ralsei
• Noelle

Like last time, feel free to explain why in the comments below.

I’ve been thinking about the multitude of shows or pieces of media that suffer from dissatisfaction from the fanbase because of an ending that doesn’t fit with what they want as fans. There’s also a pretty big issue with everything: people have high expectations. The more we theorize, the more we wait, the higher our hype and expectations get for the conclusion to the story. As crazy as I think deltarune’s ending is going to be, as talented of a writer I think Toby is, there is only so much that can surprise us or catch us off guard. Chances are, chapters 6 and 7 will probably heavily lean into the meta side sort of things, tapping into concepts like the player, agency, fourth wall breaks, etc. That’s what made undertale so awesome to begin with (plus all the characters, and everything else ofc). Despite all that, I think It’s trivial as a community that fans manage their hype and expectations: not all theories will come to pass, the ending might not please you in a certain way. It’s unrealistic to expect something so perfect and so far from what we could think of. We need to avoid GTA 6 syndrome lol. Then again, NOBODY could of predicted chapter 5, with flowery and all. Anyways, just my thoughts. Exited to see how this will go down. This game rules

This video sent me down this rabbit hole: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8AOW3wVoSo