now we have reached the absolute.

These posts are meant to be a relatively comprehensive, chronological list of important events in the development of Undertale and Deltarune. This was initially conceived as one post, but it got so long that I had to split it into multiple parts, and I might even have to split it up further in the future. I also plan to update these posts to account for new information that will inevitably be revealed. Don't forget! that reblogs don't include edits made to the post, so you'll have to check the originals to see any updates.

Below are links to other parts in the series.

2005 - 2015 2016 - 2021 2022 - 2025 2026 ONWARDS

All posts in chronological order

--------------------------------------

2000~

At some point when Toby was a young child, he and his older brothers discovered RPGMaker 2000 and began using the software to create their own games. Toby appeared in one of the games his brother made as a green mage, and its main protagonist, named "Ralse", would later have his name cribbed when Toby was coming up with Ralsei for Deltarune. [*]

2005

On March 26, in perhaps Toby's earliest surviving Starmen.net post, he posts Ness's Halloween Spontanza, an EarthBound fanfic about "old man Giygas". It's basically a load of nonsense. [*]

On March 27, Toby, at age 13, releases Arn's Winter Quest, a winter-themed EarthBound romhack, on Starmen.net. One of Toby's first forays into what could be called game development, it (if nothing else) spawned the "I'm Old!" injoke. [*] The hack was well-regarded on Starmen.net, at the very least enough to have people creating strategy guides for it two years after its release referring to it as a "popular rom hack". [*]

2006

On September 30, Toby creates a post titled "Manegg" on Starmen.net, with an image attached - a sprite intended for the romhack PoeTrader.smc, named after a fellow Starmen.net user, that never ended up getting made. In spite of the conspicuous title, teenage Toby says it's not worth asking about. [*]

On May 6, Toby posts a piece titled "Debug Menu" on Starmen.net. Its an evocative little drawing of what seems to be Ness fighting a personification of the debug menu within EarthBound's internal workings. The meta theming prefigures some of what Toby would do later in his games. [*]

On July 6, Toby posts a joke thread with the title EarthBound Hidden Mysteries - Theo? where he plays the character of an EarthBound dataminer who purports to have made a shocking, scary discovery of an unused entity in the game files, which he calls Theo. The image links on the post are broken, but Theo is described as a disembodied face (at least after the dataminer manipulated the original image). The dataminer speculates about what Theo might've originally been, whether Giygas's first phase, Dr. Andonuts, or a secret PSI ability, which would apparently have summoned a "CAT". Notable for being a very early instance of Toby coming up with an idea that pretty straightforwardly prefigures aspects of Gaster. [*]

2007

On November 3, Toby posts an EarthBound fanfic to Starmen.net, titled Ness's Halloween Bashareeno, or alternatively Ness's Bangin' Hot Halloween. This evocative but somewhat abstruse piece of writing appears to detail an interpretation of the confusing predicament presented near the end of EarthBound, involving Giygas, the Apple of Enlightenment and the Devil’s Machine. In the fic, Giygas seemingly becomes aware of his own place within the fictional narrative and game program of EarthBound, and realizes that he himself is Ness, and possibly every other character. The violent, incomprehensible descriptions of Ness-Giygas transcending his embodied form as he eclipses the strictures of time and space, along with the musings on a potential “higher entity with true free will”,  very much seem in retrospect to be portents for Gaster and his role within Deltarune. [*]

2008

On November 4, Toby, age 17, releases Radiation's Halloween Hack, also known as Press the B Button, Stupid! or simply the Earthbound Halloween Hack, on Starmen.net for the Halloween Funfest. The many, many ways in which this hack prefigures the imagery, symbolism, themes and narrative of Undertale and especially Deltarune deserves a post all of its own, but the Halloween Hack is perhaps best known for being the origin of the most popular track in the entire series, MEGALOVANIA. An accompanying document Toby made detailing the development of the hack, containing musings about its narrative and themes, is preserved here.

2009

On January 11, Toby submits radiations holiday hack (also known as peepee.exe) to the Starmen.net Holiday Funfest. Not actually an EarthBound hack but rather made in RPGMaker, this game is more akin to a playable shitpost, though it elaborates slightly on the Halloween Hack's narrative and continues Toby's exploration of meta themes. [*]

In April, the same month Homestuck is launched, Toby joins the MS Paint Adventures forum, marking the beginning of his involvement with the comic. He would go on to post "bad piano covers" on there, capturing the attention of the comic's author Andrew Hussie and getting him recruited into the music team in December, with Toby initially reaching out to Andrew through a private message. [*] [**]

2010

Toby becomes friends with Andrew Hussie and gains a reputation in the Homestuck fandom during his time as a musician for the comic.

In February, music composed by Toby for Homestuck is released to the public for the first time with the Homestuck album Midnight Crew: Drawing Dead.

On October 14, Toby releases The Baby Is You on the MSPA forums, a crude 14 minute album about Homestuck character Dave Strider giving birth to his friend John Egbert. Not really relevant to anything but I thought it should be mentioned. [*]

2011

Toby resigns as moderator of the PKHack forum on Starmen.net to focus on his Homestuck work. Toby eventually assumes a leadership position on the Music Team.

At some point prior to Undertale's development, Toby moves in with Homestuck creator Andrew Hussie and begins development of the game in his basement. [*]

On January 5, Megalovania is covered for Homestuck and released as MeGaLoVania. [*]

Suffering from a fever, Toby has a dream at some point this year about an ending to a video game. After waking up, he decides he wants to make this game he dreamed of into a reality. This would eventually become Deltarune. [*]

On July 9, Toby tweets: "The edge of the shadow, where reality and dream meet." Likely teasing Penumbra Phantasm, an infamously planned but never finished Homestuck track. For a long time widely speculated to be Deltarune-related because of thematic similarities, but this is somewhat dubious. May relate to the dream Toby had this year. [*]

On August 22, Toby posts on Tumblr: " ＡＴ ＂ＳＨＡＤＯＷ＇Ｓ ＥＤＧＥ，＂ ＳＨＡＴＴＥＲ ＴＨＥ ＴＷＩＬＩＧＨＴ ＲＥＶＥＲＩＥ｡ " in response to an ask about Penumbra Phantasm. [*]

On September 2, Toby was the first person to like a post by a Wingdings-themed joke blog. [*]

2012

In January, an EarthBound fan album is released, including tracks which had been made by Toby Fox. Among these is Fallen Down, later used as Toriel's theme in Undertale. Also included is Megalo Strike Back, which would become a popular song in Undertale's fandom. [*]

On April 1, Toby releases a Yume Nikki fan album he composed, titled made up yume nikkis. It includes waltz of seccom masada and its chiptune variant, which would later be repurposed as the Forgotten Man's theme in Deltarune, along with a track called amphitheater, referenced in a (previously unused but since patched) Bibliox ACT option in Chapter 4 of Deltarune, indicating it might be included in a future Chapter's soundtrack. [*]

Digital artist Kanotynes posts custom playing card designs in March. [*]

Toby comes across them in April, [*] and decides he wants to make an RPG using those designs. He asks Kanotynes if he can, and gets consent. [**]

Kanotynes had also posted drawings that same month which feature suspiciously FRIEND and Kris Deltarune looking characters... but this could just be a coincidence. [*]

By late April/early May, Toby has already created sprites for Lancer, and written dialogue for him and Jevil. [*]

He composes Heartache as "Joker Battle", Nyeh Heh Heh as Lancer's theme, and Bonetrousle as the main battle theme. [*] [**]

Ultimately, development of this game doesn't even get past a single playable room before being put on ice. [*]

In October, "sans." is committed to the Sburb game engine as part of the sample project, and a bit later "April 2012" from Deltarune is as well. [*]

On October 15, Toby posts the unfinished track "patient" on his tumblr, originally intended to be used in Homestuck. This track would be remade and repurposed for Undertale as Another Medium (a title referencing the Medium from Homestuck). [*]

In December, Toby hits the random button on Wikipedia and ends up on a page about arrays. This inspired him to begin game development again. He began by programming a combat menu, inspired by Shin Megami Tensei, and developed the story of Undertale around it. [*]

At some point in 2012 or 2013, Toby composes Undertale's Snowy, likely originally for the Tundra biome in Starbound. [*]

2013

Toby brainstorms ideas for Undertale. Conceptualizes a "karma system" which he ends up not implementing. Comes up with the Blue SOUL platformer mechanic. Comes up with Orange/Cyan attacks. Comes up with the idea of the final boss attacking you in the menu. Comes up with Toriel. Comes up with dating the bosses. Comes up with "Memmaton", the "hot robot". [*] [**]

Toby uses a random name generator website to come up with "Napstablook" and "Asgore". [*]

Asgore is initially conceived as an intimidating silent type, but Toby makes him goofy after thinking of his friend Reid from Fangamer. [*]

Toby comes up with Papyrus (originally called Times New Roman), basing his initial design on Dedan from OFF. Initially conceives of him as a basement dwelling neckbeard type, but changes this to make him more likable. Around this time, also comes up with Sans and another character who Toby censors - very likely either Gaster or Grandpa Semi. [*]

Toby comes up with Undyne, initially conceiving of her as a goofier-looking "anime fish". [*]

Toby comes up with Dr. Alphys, initially conceiving of the character as a man, as more of a mad scientist type, and having him be responsible for magical technology in the Ruins.

Toby, at some point, plans a boss fight against "Grandpa Semi", likely related to the skeleton brothers since SEMI is a font. By the time of Undertale's final release, almost all information about Grandpa Semi would be expunged from the game and never mentioned publically by Toby.

At some point, Temmie draws the intro cinematic to the game. Initially, both Toby and Temmie think she's drawing illustrations of the main character's backstory. But, mistakenly, Temmie only draws one stripe on their shirt instead of the two on their in-game sprite. It's unclear exactly when, but at some point later, Toby goes back to these drawings, already planning "certain things", and decides to capitalize on this fortunate accident.

In February, Toby jokingly reveals the project on Starmen.net under the name "UnderBound 2", and shows off a number of WIP screenshots. Flowey is shown and his description references FACE from NES Godzilla Creepypasta, later cited as an inspiration for the character. The track Enemy Approaching is also included. [*]

Also in February this year (I think it's this year, anyway? Maybe next year, but archives from Wayback Machine seem to indicate otherwise) Toby posts a joke tweet thread about Luigi "getting the sack" because of Nintendo's biggest financial failure happening on the "year of Luigi" (which was 2013). Notable for sounding suspiciously similar to the motif of erasure in the Gaster and Forgotten Man material in UT/DR.

In April, Toby takes screenshots of the game where the menu displays the name "CHARA". [*]

On May 9, Toby posts a track on Tumblr which sounds suspiciously like Tenna's theme. [*]

In May, Toby teases Undertale during a meeting with fellow Homestuck musician "Jit", playing Enemy Approaching and MEGALOVANIA. [*]

In May, Fangamer streams an older, WIP build of the Undertale demo. [*] Later that month, Toby releases the demo to the public. In the demo's files, information about future bosses and characters can be found, including Papyrus, Sans, Mettaton, Alphys, Asriel, "Undine" and Grandpa Semi, who was initially supposed to call your cell phone ordering a pepperoni pizza, like happens in one of the Fun Events of the final game. [*]

On June 24, Toby launches the Kickstarter campaign for Undertale, including its demo (containing the part of the game set in the Ruins and ending shortly after the Toriel boss fight), with the game projected to release in Summer 2014. Marketing mostly features assets from the Ruins, but also Sans and Papyrus, and a shadowy silhouette of Asgore. Toby emphasizes the meta elements, stating that fourth-wall breaking concepts such as LV and Saving are integrated into the narrative world, and also highlights the sparing mechanic, additionally promising that the game's bosses can be befriended and dated. Toby writes as a short plot synopsis: A long time ago, two races ruled peacefully over the Earth: HUMANS and MONSTERS.  One day, a terrible war broke out between the two races.  After a long battle, the humans were victorious. They sealed the monsters underground with a magical spell. In the year 201X, a small child scales Mt. Ebott. It is said that those who climb the mountain never return.  Seeking refuge from the rainy weather, the child enters a cave and discovers an enormous hole.  Moving closer to get a better look... the child falls in.  Now, our story begins.  Toby sets the funding goal at 5000 dollars, with an Extended introduction manual ($7500), Macintosh port ($10000), and Secret Boss ($12500) as stretch goals. [*]

Undertale's Kickstarter campaign reaches 200% funding in 10 hours, immediately meeting the first two stretch goals. Toby starts cooking up additional goals. [*]

On June 25, the Secret Boss stretch goal is met and Toby announces a $17500 stretch goal where Magnolia Porter will make additional monster designs for the game. [*]

On June 26, Magnolia Porter's stretch goal is met and Toby announces that at $20000 backers will get patches and wallpapers, and at $25000 they'll get exclusive soundtrack remixes. [*] Monster Kid is among the first designs Magnolia creates.

On July 3, the $25000 goal has been met and Toby announces the Undertale Alarm Clock app as a reward for $32500. [*]

On July 10, the Undertale Alarm Clock is funded, and Toby announces a $37500 goal where backers get a PDF showcasing Undertale's production art. This would eventually become the Undertale art book, released in October 2016. [*]

On July 17, the Art Commentary booklet is funded, and Toby announces the final stretch goal: $45000 for an expansion to the Undertale universe, in either the form of comics or a sequel game. Of the latter, Toby says: I can't tell you anything about it. Its very nature is shrouded in darkness. Ha ha ha. [*]

This is to say that by July of 2013, ca. 13 months after the initial conception of Deltarune and 7 months after the initial conception of Undertale, we have proof that Toby has already decided that Undertale and Deltarune will share a narrative world.

On July 24, Undertale's Kickstarter campaign comes to an end, with over $50,000 in funding. Toby thanks his backers for not only making this game possible, but also ensuring the future of its narrative world. To commemorate the successful campaign, Temmie draws teaser art featuring Flowey, Toriel, Napstablook, Sans, Papyrus, Monster Kid, Undyne, Alphys, Mettaton and Asgore. [*]

In July and August, Toby creates what seem to be sprites or concept art for Susie. [*]

Susie's initial conception came shortly after Toby played Phoenix Wright for the first time, and Toby thought of her as being like Maya Fey - a small, cute, sassy companion. [*]

In one of Toby's "oldest text document[s] about Deltarune [he] can find", Susie is mentioned to rest her chin on Kris's head. In 2025, Toby mentioned that he's happy that even though this hasn't happened in the game, everyone intuitively understands it as true (referencing its common appearance in Krusie fanart), proclaiming that he "won". [*]

At some point this year, Toby composes the melody of Rude Buster. [*]

At some point, Toby draws concept art for flashbacks to Asriel and Chara spending time together, for the climax of the Pacifist route's final boss. [*]

2014

On February 3, Toby says that he just found out that someone else is making a game that sounds "VERY VERY similar" to an idea for a non-Undertale game he's had for 2 years (which we now know is Deltarune). Likely referring to Omori, which was announced as part of a Kickstarter campaign later in April that year, and which also features a mysterious, depressed, knife-wielding protagonist, and a plot structure split between dreamworld adventures and life in a mundane American suburb. [*]

On February 7th, Toby posts a fansong made for the character Noisemaster from the comic Cucumber Quest by Gigi D.G. [*] Toby later remakes and repurposes this theme to be Mettaton's boss theme. Gigi, for their part, would work on both Undertale and Deltarune as a concept artist. [*]

On February 21, Toby says that Undertale is nearing 50% completion but that progress may slow down as he's becoming increasingly busy with schoolwork. He indicates the game might have to be delayed. [*]

On May 3, Toby graduates, and begins full-time work on Undertale. Also, a Korean translation of the Undertale demo is officially released. [*]

On June 21, Waterfall is nearly content complete, and Toby begins work on Hotland, the final major area of the game before the endgame. Teases the tracks Quiet Water and Spooktune and shows off sprites of Monster Kid. [*]

On August 15, Toby posts another Cucumber Quest fansong, a boss theme against the Nightmare Knight. Would later become a mainstay of deranged Knight speculation in the Deltarune era, which itself would be somewhat vindicated when the Roaring Knight's eventual leitmotif would sound not too dissimilar to this track's melody. [*]

By August 31, Toby has gotten a lot of work done on Hotland and the CORE, and teases some things from them. [*]

On October 30, Toby gives a small status update and says that he's been working on time-consuming parts of the game. Hopes that by the end of the year, a rough draft of the full game will be finished and playable, and that work will have begun on Asgore, the final boss. At the end, he teases that there might be more beyond the final boss and "ending". [*]

On December 7, a friend of Toby's replies to a tweet on his old personal account, referencing an idea he had once about a player character that develops their own agency. Clearly prefiguring Chara and Kris.

On December 18, Toby finishes creating the Asgore boss fight and announces it on Kickstarter. He once again teases that there might be something more to Undertale after its "ending". [*]

2015

On January 15, Toby puts Undertale on Steam Greenlight, along with a new trailer for the game. [*] [**]

On February 22, Undertale has been greenlit on Steam, the Alphys date has been finished, and Burgerpants has been created and added. Toby teases that he still, incredibly enough, has some bosses and areas left to make, along with "a certain path =)" [*]

In April 2015, Toby draws what he calls the "first ever sketches" of Noelle, Ralsei and Susie. [*] Puzzlingly, this is in spite of having shown screenshots of files from 2013 labelled "susie" and "susies".

Toby creates concept art of the main characters of Deltarune, and titles the file simply "THE FUN GANG". Toby would later publically post it in 2018, but cover up certain parts of it for fear of spoiling the game's plot points. Later, in 2025, he would reveal more parts of the image following the release of Chapters 3 and 4, and presumably intends to do so again in the future. [*] [**]

Toby writes rudimentary dialogue and response options for Ralsei, which he would in 2018 remark accurately reflected how people ended up feeling about the character. [*]

On May 30, Toby teases that the Genocide Route is almost fully complete, except for one boss fight, likely Sans. [*]

On June 30, Toby reveals some heartbreaking news: you can't marry the robot. [*]

On August 22, Toby announces that Undertale will be released on September 15 that year. He excitedly says that the game may be better than "just alright", based on the impressions he's gotten so far. [*]

On September 8, a week from release, Toby puts out the now-iconic release trailer, featuring the Hotland vents for the first time. [*]

On September 15, Undertale is released.

On the day of release, Toby tweets an answer to those asking what to name the fallen human: "Your own name" (if you can't think of anything else) [*]

Undertale's release features a number of allusions to Deltarune, mostly through vague elements of Sans's backstory, "unused" files in the game's data such as "room_gaster", where ENTRY NUMBER SEVENTEEN can be found, and through the game's Fun Events, which were intended to be rare events dependent on an internal random number generated at the start of a playthrough; however, Toby messed up the code, accidentally spelling the word "fun" with inconsistent capitalization, leading to the events not being accessible except through manipulation of the game. Despite this, Gaster is discovered by dataminers almost immediately following the game's release, leading to many years of speculation and fueling an active and passionate theorizing community. [*]

On September 19, Toby responds to a fan inquiry, with a cryptic teaser involving Sans's broken machine.

On the same day, Toby responds to someone asking about Undertale secrets and a potential boss fight against Gaster.

On September 24, Toby says that he almost included an enemy with an "I'm Old!" text bubble in Undertale (an inside joke from his old EarthBound hacks). Possibly referring to Grandpa Semi or Gerson. [*]

On October 5, Toby responds to some fandom controversy in-character as Sans, but notably has him almost quote a Gaster follower, saying that "it's rude to talk about people that are listening". [*]

At some point in the second half of 2015, Toby composes an early version of Deltarune's TV WORLD using Death by Glamour as a base. [*]

In early December, the Deltarune.com domain is registered, and fansite with that domain is politely asked by Toby not to use it, resulting in them changing it to dreemurr.com. [*]

On December 8, some fans notice him.png on Deltarune.com, a darkened image of all caps Wingdings stating: "THIS NEXT EXPERIMENT SEEMS VERY VERY INTERESTING", but it goes largely unnoticed otherwise. The next day, someone archives the page on the Wayback Machine. [*]

On December 31, Toby thanks his fans for all the support he received in 2015, but says that lately something has left him with a "burning, inexplicable feeling", something whose "very nature is shrouded in darkness", and that in 2016 it would be nice to start something else.

The Undertale Essentials

1

Go play Undertale! (you can skip any steps you've done before) It's on Steam, Xbox, Playstation, Switch. You can find android mobile ports of it pretty easily too, apparently. You can find a way to play it, I promise.

Just get to the end however you want, it largely doesn't matter what you do since a large appeal of the game is it reacting to your decisions. But if you get an encounter with no enemies, that means you've killed enough of them to activate an optional mode that skips a lot of the normal stuff in the game. So I would quit out to reload your save in that instance. You absolutely need to experience the game that started it all because a lot of Deltarune's enjoyment comes from the knowledge you'd have after playing this game first! Including the music! Don't mute the game just because you think the Ruins music is kinda mid!

2

Play Undertale...Again! This time, you need to be going for the True Pacifist Ending. Which just means you do all the important side quests, and don't kill anyone at all.* Don't worry about this being boring, there's actually plenty of unique dialog for a second playthrough.** If you don't super-kill The Flower™ from the trailer and all the marketing during a playthrough, he'll give you tips and hints on how to do it without having to look up a guide after the normal final boss. But really just try and maximize the dialog you see in this playthrough and you should get it. Just make sure you pour water on the blue lady after she passes out in the lava area, if you leave the screen on accident before pouring the water on her it locks you out of a side quest and you'll have to load a save from before the boss fight. If you save after this, that means you have to start all the way over...again again! *If you never killed anyone in your first playthrough and didn't lock yourself out of any important side quests, you can just hit continue to load into the room before the finale, and go back to do the side stuff you missed. **If you can't tell that the dialog is new, that means you can't complain about it being boring since you didn't remember the original dialog anyways! (This is a spiteful remark towards my biological older sister)

3

Play Undertale...Again Again Again! In step 1, I mentioned an optional mode that skipped a lot of the normal parts of the game. Well now you're going to do that on purpose, by not fighting an area's boss until you've exhausted the encounter limit. It's one of my favorite parts of the game to play. This can only be done by Fighting enemies until they fall to ashes before you, and stop showing up entirely. After the first area, save points start giving you an enemy count so you can't miss them on accident. Do this for the whole game, and you'll be able to reach The Final Conclusion to Undertale.

...Or...

You could watch someone else do it. (Don't click that out of curiosity if you're not at this step yet, it starts with super spoilers for the True Pacifist Ending!) This video playthrough features no commentary and uses YouTube's chapters feature, allowing you to skip through the monotonous enemy grinding if you just want to see what's new. Not everyone wants to do this playthrough, for obvious reasons.

This step might feel optional, but it's so important that I would highly recommend watching the video if you don't want to play it yourself. (You can check the end of this video yourself even if you played it, as this ending does change some things in other parts of the game!)

Congratulations! You've now finished The Undertale Essentials! (or you already did all of this like 10 years ago) Time to move on to...

The Extracurriculars!: Part 1

I don't believe any of this section is skippable if you want to really get the most out of Deltarune, despite the name. Feel free to use this time to think about Undertale even more, on a deeper level. These are events that happened between Undertale and the surprise release of Deltarune Chapter 1. Starting with...

The UNDERTALE Anniversary Q&A

Just make sure you read those instructions! It's not very long, so you could read it all in a single bathroom break.

The UNDERTALE 2nd Anniversary Alarm Clock announcement

This has since been cancelled, but it has some unique dialog for the characters found nowhere else. Again, very short.

The trailer for UNDERTALE's Switch release I guess?

This one is just funny, I really like this trailer. It didn't even release for the third anniversary on time outside of Japan. However, there is a fan favorite Exclusive Boss Fight and also Whatever This Is (<- 1/100 chance) that you'll miss if you didn't play the game on Switch! These are essential to know about going forward, as it's effectively two entirely new characters.

Here's the Exclusive Dog Shrine for the Playstation release, which is...Not Important...I'm watching this just now for the first time and it kind of sucks...badly. Okay just this one is skippable.

The Deltarune Essentials: Chapter 1

0

I want to take a moment to set the mood here for you. We just had the Switch release for Undertale, for the third anniversary. Nobody is expecting anything from Toby, who's now a multi-millionaire off of game sales alone (official merch comes from Fangamer, I wouldn't look at it yet though as you might run into spoilers) and if he does release anything else, we expect it to be just his "next project."

Then, the morning of October 30th, the day before Halloween, the official Undertale account tweets this and this. (<- start that one at the bottom I formatted it wrong) Then, after waiting a full 24 hours and finally downloading the new thing it greets you with THIS terrifying premise. We were terrified!

Now, after reading that, it is finally time for...

1

Playing Deltarune! But just chapter 1. It's free! After installing it, if it's the steam demo version, right click it and open up the "properties..." menu. Then go down to Betas and set it to "chapter1.2.lts.test - 11-25-24" to make sure you're playing the latest version, if you can't it's not a big deal but this does make some changes that will be in the final game. Meaning it's just a way to play the final-ish version of chapter 1+2 a bit early!

It's your first playthrough, just do whatever you like. It's only a single chapter rather than an entire game, so replaying it won't take nearly as long even if you mess something up. I will warn you though, you will need at least 90 minutes in a row after fighting the final boss of Card Castle to complete the next section that has no save points. This is, technically, for the best. You'll see. But please, for your own sake, do not start Chapter 2 yet. I promise, it's worth it.

2

Playing Deltarune But Just Chapter 1...Again! Or don't. While I do personally recommend playing through it again and doing the opposite of what you did the first time, that's not really important. At least not that we can tell yet. What you will want to do is load your first save file, and then making sure you have the White Ribbon armor item and watching the chapter 1 portion of [PENDING REPLACEMENT] to make sure you didn't miss anything important for Chapter 2! (it starts in partway through the video to avoid spoilers, make sure you stop the video before he starts talking about Chapter 2) You will need to get to the ending cutscene again to make sure any changes to your file transfer to Chapter 2 properly.

This is just a general playthrough tip: When you're in town, you can just go all the way down to the bunker at the south-most area first thing. This will let you explore through the town in "layers", making it hard to miss anything that isn't hidden (the guide does mention the hidden part of the town!) Really, the most important part is just talking to sinks before anyone else in the room though.

FOR NOW: Just a short checklist for Ch1

Now that you've finished Chapter 1, it's time for...

The Extracurriculars!: Part 2

At this point, you're probably thinking to yourself "Why should I wait? Why would I not just go into the next part of the game now? Why do all these extra parts?" The simple answer is, Deltarune uses its Chapter releases to give you time to think about it. Probably, too much time, given the way some of us react to it. But this does play into its strengths as a series, giving us tidbits and mysteries to dive into. Trying to predict and figure out what's being foreshadowed and find the characters hidden and all the little interactions you could of missed. This really is the true strength of the series, and why people love talking about it. There's so much to find, there's almost always more you haven't seen.

This section covers the events that happened between chapters 1 and 2 of Deltarune. It's honestly quite a doozy, but less of it as vital as last time. Starting with:

Toby Fox talking about his thoughts on the game he's been working on since 2012.

Yeah, it turns out Deltarune started development before he even started working on Undertale. This is more or less unimportant if you don't care about Toby Fox or the creation of the game.

Honestly a lot of what's here and between the 5th Anniversary is mostly little tweets here and there. If you DO care about a little behind the scenes stuff, you'll just have to open the Toby Fox's twitter account and scroll down until you see the big blue "Windows protected your PC" images because everyone's PC's thought he was releasing a virus because he called the game "SURVEY_PROGRAM" lol. (then you can start scrolling up to see the stuff!)

Also the Chapter 1 Demo released on Switch with a very funny trailer

Seriously though, it's all just other stuff he's worked on, jokes, behind the scenes/scrapped content, or previews for chapter 2 which you're about to play anyways.

This all changed on the 5th anniversary however...

THE UNDERTALE 5th Anniversary Orchestra Concert

This doesn't have much exclusive in it (excluding the music itself, of course) other than a commercial for some merchandise that was released on the 5th anniversary. There are also some piano covers from Toby Fox himself at the 3:03:00 mark, including a song you might not have heard yet. It's a very fun listen and watch, but it isn't vital if you just care about the story and characters instead of the music. Somehow. (If you played through the game muted you're doing it wrong [Unless you're deaf. Sorry.])

The UNDERTALE 5th Anniversary Alarm Clock Dialog

Unlike the other alarm clock dialog, this is actually very entwined with the characters, to the point where despite it being their Undertale versions, it actually gives insight for their Deltarune versions as well. A very important read, if you ask me, and very enjoyable if you just like the characters. Not nearly as short as last time, but it's sectioned so you can come back to your spot easily if you get interrupted.

The UNDERTALE 5th Anniversary Deltarune Status Update

This is more or less just talking about how far along chapter 2 was, and why it's been taking so long! Non-vital if none of that interests you, but there are some cool screenshots of Chapter 2.

Microsoft (probably) paid Toby a ton of money to release the game on Xbox for some reason lol

Again: really funny trailer. Here's most of the Exclusive Xbox Stuff (the rest can be found here, thanks @undertale-encyclopedia for having such a good pinned post) which doesn't sucks and gives more information on a few characters, even some we only meet in Deltarune!

Now for the 6th anniversary we have something very special.

The UNDERTALE 6th Anniversary SO WE PLAY deltarune CHAPTER 1 FOR SOME REASON live stream featuring 3 dads

This is really cool and important to the experience if you ask me! I genuinely recommend watching it, beginning to end, skipping nothing and keeping your eyes peeled throughout. It's not a very "normal" playthrough, and the waiting periods have exclusive songs & information.

You'll see why at the end of it, but now that you've definitely watched that entire video (it's okay if you did it at 2x speed) it's time for...

The Deltarune Essentials: Chapter 2

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More spooky tweets...So Spooky... (again, bottom to top. Just like manga!)

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Playing Deltarune Chapter 2! Your first playthrough, do whatever you want. There aren't any long stretches without save points this time either. I highly recommend getting at least 1 of everything you come across and keeping it safe, with your new storage ability this shouldn't be too hard. There's plenty of secrets to find too, so keep an eye out!

This will save you a lot of time though: There is a part in Chapter 2 where the party changes in some meaningful way I'm being intentionally vague about. As SOON as this happens, use the new Chapter 2 save menu to copy your save into an unused save slot (I recommend the bottom slot) and don't touch it or save over it for the rest of this playthrough.

EDIT: The Following passage has what could now be considered spoilers! Back in the day there was a secret in chapter 2 so Weird it wasn't reasonable to figure out how to do something on your own, however new content has made it far easier to find the right Route. As such, I've obscured it. You can translate it here. Whether you want the original experience this guide is offering, or want to figure it out on your own is up to you. ❄︎♒︎♏︎❒︎♏︎ ♓︎⬧︎ ♋︎ ♒︎♓︎♎︎♎︎♏︎■︎ 👌︎📫︎⬧︎♓︎♎︎♏︎ ❒︎□︎◆︎⧫︎♏︎📪︎ ❒︎♏︎❑︎◆︎♓︎❒︎♓︎■︎♑︎ ♏︎♓︎⧫︎♒︎♏︎❒︎ ♋︎ ♑︎◆︎♓︎♎︎♏︎ ⧫︎□︎ ♑︎□︎ ⧫︎♒︎❒︎□︎◆︎♑︎♒︎ ♓︎⧫︎ □︎❒︎ ⬧︎□︎❍︎♏︎□︎■︎♏︎ ♌︎♏︎♒︎♓︎■︎♎︎ ⍓︎□︎◆︎❒︎ ⬧︎♒︎□︎◆︎●︎♎︎♏︎❒︎ ⧫︎♏︎●︎●︎♓︎■︎♑︎ ⍓︎□︎◆︎ ⬥︎♒︎♋︎⧫︎ ⧫︎□︎ ♎︎□︎📬︎ 💧︎♋︎❖︎♓︎■︎♑︎ ♋︎⧫︎ ⧫︎♒︎♓︎⬧︎ ❍︎□︎❍︎♏︎■︎⧫︎ ⬥︎♓︎●︎●︎ ♋︎●︎●︎□︎⬥︎ ⍓︎□︎◆︎ ⧫︎□︎ ♎︎□︎ ⧫︎♒︎♓︎⬧︎ 👌︎📫︎⬧︎♓︎♎︎♏︎ ❒︎□︎◆︎⧫︎♏︎📪︎ ⬥︎♓︎⧫︎♒︎□︎◆︎⧫︎ ♒︎♋︎❖︎♓︎■︎♑︎ ⧫︎□︎ ⬧︎⧫︎♋︎❒︎⧫︎ ⧫︎♒︎♏︎ ♍︎♒︎♋︎◻︎⧫︎♏︎❒︎ □︎❖︎♏︎❒︎ ♐︎❒︎□︎❍︎ ⧫︎♒︎♏︎ ♌︎♏︎♑︎♓︎■︎■︎♓︎■︎♑︎📬︎ ☟︎♋︎❖︎♓︎■︎♑︎ ⬧︎□︎❍︎♏︎□︎■︎♏︎ ⧫︎♏︎●︎●︎♓︎■︎♑︎ ⍓︎□︎◆︎ ⬥︎♒︎♋︎⧫︎ ⧫︎□︎ ♎︎□︎ ♓︎⬧︎ ⧫︎♒︎♏︎ ❒︎♏︎♍︎□︎❍︎❍︎♏︎■︎♎︎♏︎♎︎ ⬥︎♋︎⍓︎ ⧫︎□︎ ♎︎□︎ ♓︎⧫︎📬︎

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👎︎□︎ ⧫︎♒︎♏︎ ♒︎♓︎♎︎♎︎♏︎■︎ 👌︎📫︎⬧︎♓︎♎︎♏︎ ❒︎□︎◆︎⧫︎♏︎📪︎ ⬥︎♒︎♓︎♍︎♒︎ ♓︎⬧︎ ⬧︎♓︎♑︎■︎♓︎♐︎♓︎♍︎♋︎■︎⧫︎●︎⍓︎ ⬧︎♒︎□︎❒︎⧫︎♏︎❒︎ ⧫︎♒︎♋︎■︎ ♋︎ ■︎□︎❒︎❍︎♋︎●︎ ◻︎●︎♋︎⍓︎⧫︎♒︎❒︎□︎◆︎♑︎♒︎📬︎ ✋︎♐︎ ⍓︎□︎◆︎ ⬧︎♋︎❖︎♏︎♎︎ ♓︎■︎ ⧫︎♒︎♏︎ ♍︎□︎❒︎❒︎♏︎♍︎⧫︎ ⬧︎◻︎□︎⧫︎📪︎ ⍓︎□︎◆︎ ⬧︎♒︎□︎◆︎●︎♎︎ ♒︎♋︎❖︎♏︎ ♋︎ ⬧︎♋︎❖︎♏︎ ♐︎♓︎●︎♏︎ ❒︎♏︎♋︎♎︎⍓︎ ⧫︎□︎ ♑︎□︎ ❒︎♓︎♑︎♒︎⧫︎ ♌︎♏︎♐︎□︎❒︎♏︎ ⧫︎♒︎♏︎ ♌︎❒︎♋︎■︎♍︎♒︎♓︎■︎♑︎ ◻︎□︎♓︎■︎⧫︎📬︎ ✌︎♑︎♋︎♓︎■︎📪︎ ⬧︎□︎❍︎♏︎□︎■︎♏︎ ♏︎●︎⬧︎♏︎ ⧫︎♏︎●︎●︎♓︎■︎♑︎ ⍓︎□︎◆︎ ⬥︎♒︎♋︎⧫︎ ⧫︎□︎ ♎︎□︎ ♓︎⬧︎ ❒︎♏︎♍︎□︎❍︎❍︎♏︎■︎♎︎♏︎♎︎📬︎ 👌︎◆︎⧫︎ ♓︎♐︎ ⍓︎□︎◆︎ ■︎♏︎♏︎♎︎ ♋︎ [guide] for it, there's one on the wiki in the "Method" section near the top. Try not to read anything outside of the method section, and start at the number 1.

I recommend to stop reading the guide as soon as possible, as□︎■︎♍︎♏︎ ⧫︎♒︎♏︎ ❒︎□︎◆︎⧫︎♏︎ ♓︎⬧︎ ♓︎■︎♓︎⧫︎♓︎♋︎⧫︎♏︎♎︎ ♋︎ ●︎□︎⬥︎📫︎◻︎♓︎⧫︎♍︎♒︎♏︎♎︎ ⬧︎□︎◆︎■︎♎︎ ⬥︎♓︎●︎●︎ ◻︎●︎♋︎⍓︎ ⬥︎♒︎♏︎■︎♏︎❖︎♏︎❒︎ ⍓︎□︎◆︎ ⬧︎◆︎♍︎♍︎♏︎⬧︎⬧︎♐︎◆︎●︎●︎⍓︎ 🙵♏︎♏︎◻︎ ⧫︎♒︎♏︎ ❒︎□︎◆︎⧫︎♏︎ ♑︎□︎♓︎■︎♑︎📬︎ ✋︎♐︎ ♋︎ ♎︎♓︎♐︎♐︎♏︎❒︎♏︎■︎⧫︎ ⬧︎□︎◆︎■︎♎︎ ◻︎●︎♋︎⍓︎⬧︎📪︎ ⍓︎□︎◆︎ ♒︎♋︎❖︎♏︎ ♋︎♌︎□︎❒︎⧫︎♏︎♎︎ ⧫︎♒︎♓︎⬧︎ 👌︎📫︎⬧︎♓︎♎︎♏︎ ❒︎□︎◆︎⧫︎♏︎📪︎ ❍︎♏︎♋︎■︎♓︎■︎♑︎ ⍓︎□︎◆︎ ■︎♏︎♏︎♎︎ ⧫︎□︎ ❒︎♏︎●︎□︎♋︎♎︎ ⍓︎□︎◆︎❒︎ ●︎♋︎⬧︎⧫︎ ⬧︎♋︎❖︎♏︎📬︎ ✋︎♐︎ ⍓︎□︎◆︎ ♑︎♏︎⧫︎ ⬧︎⧫︎◆︎♍︎🙵📪︎ ⍓︎□︎◆︎ ♍︎♋︎■︎ ♑︎□︎ ♌︎♋︎♍︎🙵 ⧫︎□︎ ⧫︎♒︎♏︎ ♑︎◆︎♓︎♎︎♏︎ ♋︎⬧︎ ■︎♏︎♍︎♏︎⬧︎⬧︎♋︎❒︎⍓︎📬︎ 👎︎□︎ ■︎□︎⧫︎♏︎ ⧫︎♒︎♋︎⧫︎ ⍓︎□︎◆︎ 🕈︎✋︎☹︎☹︎ ■︎♏︎♏︎♎︎ ⧫︎□︎ ♐︎♓︎■︎♎︎ ❄︎♒︎♏︎ 👎︎◆︎❍︎◻︎⬧︎⧫︎♏︎❒︎ ♋︎■︎♎︎ ♌︎◆︎⍓︎ ♐︎❒︎□︎❍︎ ♓︎⧫︎📬︎

✌︎♐︎⧫︎♏︎❒︎ ⍓︎□︎◆︎ 👎︎□︎📫︎❄︎♒︎♏︎📫︎❄︎♒︎♓︎■︎♑︎ ⬥︎♓︎⧫︎♒︎ ⧫︎♒︎♏︎ 👎︎◆︎❍︎◻︎⬧︎⧫︎♏︎❒︎📫︎❄︎♒︎♓︎■︎♑︎📫︎✡︎□︎◆︎📫︎☠︎♏︎♏︎♎︎📫︎❄︎□︎📫︎☼︎♏︎❍︎♏︎❍︎♌︎♏︎❒︎📫︎❄︎□︎📫︎☜︎❑︎◆︎♓︎◻︎📪︎ ⍓︎□︎◆︎🕯︎●︎●︎ ♌︎♏︎ ●︎□︎♍︎🙵♏︎♎︎ ♓︎■︎, so you won't need to consult the guide anymore for the rest of the playthrough.

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You can now watch the entire [PENDING REPLACEMENT] video beginning to end.* I originally linked it at the 6:40 mark, so you can watch what was before that to see what spoilers I skipped. If you just want the Chapter 2 guide portion, it starts at 13:30. This step of "making perfect save files" is technically skippable, but there are some REALLY good items in Chapter 2 that are VERY missable! This will make sure you get them all, maximizing your Chapters 3 & 4 experience. But this one really isn't vital if you're enough of a gamer to not need strong items for "optional" hidden bosses. I do want to note that not having all recruits locks you out of side things, but... Oh, and make sure you talk to sinks before people whenever possible.

FOR NOW: All I can give is this checklist *if you’d rather just read a checklist, here’s one by @brixbraxium. It covers both chapters 1 & 2, so I couldn’t link it earlier. It doesn’t cover absolutely everything like the video guide, but if you just want the big points this is perfect.

The Extracurriculars!: Finale

The Finale. All the extra bits and pieces that have been dropped for us here and there as we've been waiting for the past 3 and a half years for that Trailer. You may not want to read this section until after you're done with Chapter 2! It's easily the longest section to get through. But I'm sure you've been wondering...

Who the hell is that guy from the intro that's been making those spooky tweets before chapter releases? and Part 2 of it. (Parts 3&4 covers the stuff in Ch3&4! Be careful!) These videos are, of course, not gospel. Something like this really can't have one. But it's a very good summary of the information we had and what the common consensus was/is for some things.

Also there's been this unused code that has a person talking the entire time lol. This actually changed between the chapter 1 and chapter 2 release. This is probably Dess? Who you may or may not even know exists at all. Hope you've been paying attention!

The UNDERTALE 7th Anniversary Deltarune Status Update

This one has content you, someone who just played Chapter 2, will actually care about! It previews content and music for chapters 3 & 4, but still effectively tells us nothing! It's awesome! More importantly though it tells you about

THE SPAMTON SWEEPSTAKES

Don't watch the video at the top. This is for your own safety. You can't handle it. Not Yet. This features tons of exclusive music, previews of stuff you already saw and other stuff that wasn't featured in the Switch 2 direct trailer, and ads that you actually SHOULD click on. Can you find all 40 hidden pages? No? Are you sure you checked the product descriptions really thoroughly? Both homepages? Okay here's the wiki page that lists them all. Really do go through them all though, there's a lot of character building that just won't happen in the game here! Also, here's a live Spamton FAQ that got buried in Fangamer's twitter for some reason. Very funny and informative.

Successfully managing to get through all 40 hidden pages, and reading all of the text on the normal pages, and the FAQ, should inoculate you to [Spamton's Essense] allowing you to now watch the video at the top of the sweepstakes page. I am not liable for any [injures] you suffer.

THE NEWSLETTERS

After this, everything became consolidated into Seasonal Newsletters (sign up here, I recommend truck freak) that are archived here on Toby Fox's website. Just click into the Newsletter archive, and scroll down to the bottom first and work your way up. Seriously, just go up through them and enjoy what we've been waiting for months apart.

The Chapter 3&4 spoilers start in the Undertale 10th anniversary Newsletter.

These talk about everything Toby Fox has been working on and have cool stuff like interviews with the characters and also real people who work on the games! It'll cover a couple things that happened before this section too, so don't worry about me missing anything if you think I haven't mentioned it here. However, there are some Famitsu articles linked, and you may notice that when you try to read them...that you do not speak Japanese...

Here's translations by @chartcarr of pretty much every Toby Fox Japanese only interview! You can find the one's mentioned in the newsletters under the "Toby Fox's Secret Base" link if they're not on the front page. (Chartcarr is going to re-do most of these at some point. That might have already happened, check’em out again if you’ve already read them!)

Newsletter Issue #5 Has 3 Random Valentine's Day Cards. Here's All Of Them In One Page. We had to hunt these down as a community, together! It was brutal! A lot of them only went to a few people, and if those people weren't online or aware we didn't have theirs yet, we just didn't have it! It was great.

All that's left for you now is to remember to click the snowman at the bottom of Issue 8.

Don't want to miss anything once Chapters 3&4 come out? Here's a speculative checklist by @brixbraxium (again!) that predicts everything we'll need to do based on the previous chapters. If I never update this, it can't ever be spoilers! Woohoo!

I'm Ready For Chapters 3&4!

Hell yeah! Just before it released, there was another Gaster Take Over and some previews. None of the stuff linked in the paragraph below matters if you aren't a super fan who wants to see literally everything.

The easiest way to see the previews is to scroll down to the bottom of the Undertale Bsky account which does not have a lot of anything on it really except previews and patch notes. (here's one they forgot about) Toby also did some posting on his personal account, including replying to people with 1 William Dog Yum Yum Eating Treat Videos. There are also spoilers outside of his media tab, be careful! (The 2024 Black Friday sale with Seam is his first post not archived in the Newsletter)

With that, there's nothing left to hold you back...You can now play Deltarune Chapters 3 & 4! Forever!

Big Questions FAQ:

This Series Has Irrevocably Rewired My Brain How Do I Cope With This

Watch this. It's a great video, even if you don't have this problem. It's basically what happened to me.

How Do I Become A Theory Lord With All Of This In My Brain Now?

Here's Device Theory, by @m0llystars, it should get your gears turning just watching it. Yes all 3 parts are out. It's especially worth your time if you like thinking about this game perhaps a bit too much really.

I Really Need Specifically More Undertale Not Deltarune Right NOW!!!...Please?

Here's an [PENDING REPLACEMENT] on the show "That's Never Happened Before." You can probably just google "Undertale Theory" or scour the wiki.

I Need To Give This Man More Than The $1-$35 I Have Already Given Him For His Game(s), How?

Official Merch can be found here, there are also EU and JPN sites linked at the bottom of the page. Here is the Bandcamp page to Buy the digital versions of the soundtracks (also on most streaming platforms)

I Like Music Theories

Here you go!

All Of This Happened So Fast I Need Something To Help Analyze The Characters In This Largely Character Driven Series! Help?!

Here's Dorked's Undertale & Deltarune Analysis playlist who you can also find on this website running the blog @megaderping

I've Managed To Consume All Of This Before Deltarune Chapters 3 + 4 Released, Or Came Back After They Released, And I Crave More. Now What?

The biggest inspirations for Undertale and Deltarune are Earthbound, Mother 3, Live A Live, OFF, Yume Nikki, MOON: Remix RPG, Brandish, Cave Story, and the TouHou series. (and a few more not mentioned here!)

OFF The RPG is getting a re-release on Switch & Steam soon with new music (some is by Toby Fox!) and revamped combat, so look forward to that. Or you can play the original OFF for free.

Earthbound is on every Nintendo console ever. Here's an excellent Let's Play of Earthbound you can watch if you don't want to play it yourself. It will show you more than you could possibly find on your own. A great series just in general, if you need something to watch.

Here's a video on how to play Mother 3.

Live A Live can be purchased on Steam or Nintendo Switch, and is excellent. Each campaign is relatively bite sized so you'll never be stuck on anything for long. I recommend disabling tutorials and starting with Imperial China, it's very linear and simple so it's perfect to learn with. Looking up guides to make sure you don't miss anything is fine though!

Cave Story is just free.

Yume Nikke is just free.

MOON: Remix RPG is on steam and Nintendo Switch. If you're a theory head, I highly recommend playing this one through to the end.

TouHou has a very dedicated unofficial translation scene, as there is no official translation for most of the games, so you'll need to go through them to play the games unless you can read Japanese.

I don't really have anything for the Brandish series, I just absorbed information about it from a blog that's no longer active. If anyone knows a truly exceptional let's play of it or the best way to play it, I'll edit it in here!

Stuff from other people who worked with Toby Fox

Temmie Chang has made a couple short games that Toby Fox has helped with

Splendidland (Mickey’s Dicksmasher Person) has done several things, including making Franken RPG. Which is fantastic.

Space Funeral isn’t really related at all but if you liked Franken it’s an obligatory recommendation. A friend of mine played it because they just got into Deltarune and didn't want to burn out replaying it before release, then immediately recommended it to me.  

Toby Fox helped with the music for Soul Of Sovereignty, by ggdg, who did some art for Undertale and got interviewed in one of the newsletters.

Fred Wood has his own website, definitely check out LOVE 3.

Taxiderby, creator of UNDERTALE RED, has their own itch page also.

Stray Children, by the creators of MOON: Remix RPG, was directly inspired by Toby Fox's own Undertale & Deltarune! Probably worth checking out if you like talking to monsters and dodging attacks. On Steam and Nintendo Switch.

I can also strongly recommend ZeroRanger & Void Stranger if you just want that feeling of digging deeper. Finding obscure interactions and details buried deep within the game, challenging but deeply rewarding in gameplay and lore discovery...Also play them both if you want to hear the music do that thing where the motif is established in the first game to give hints towards stuff in the second game in action. It's very cool.