Game Over

THEN THE WORLD WAS COVERED IN DARKNESS.

Voice, when the player chooses to give up during a Game Over

A Game Over occurs when every member of the party is defeated in Deltarune. If the player chooses to continue after receiving a Game Over, they are sent back to the last autosave (often the most recent SAVE Point).

If a Game Over occurs during a battle with a substantial amount of dialogue leading up to the encounter, the dialogue is often abbreviated or skipped entirely during the next attempt.

The Game Over screen can be skipped by pressing the "[CONFIRM]" button four times after the SOUL shatters into pieces but before the scattered pieces disappear.

Standard Game Over

Chapter 1

The initial Game Over dialogue in Chapter 1

During a Game Over, the SOUL shatters into pieces and the screen changes to black. The voice then speaks to the player while AUDIO_DRONE plays in the background. During the first Game Over, the voice states "IT APPEARS YOU HAVE REACHED AN END." and gives the player the choice to continue or give up. On subsequent Game Overs, the voice instead asks "WILL YOU PERSIST?" Exclusive to the original Chapter 1 release is the window name being set to "THE DEATH", which does not occur on later releases.

If the player continues, the voice responds "THEN, THE FUTURE IS IN YOUR HANDS." (only on the first Game Over) as the screen fades to white. If the player gives up, the voice says, "THEN THE WORLD WAS COVERED IN DARKNESS.", followed by a black screen that remains until the entirety of Darkness Falls plays. After the song is complete, the game closes (on PC, except in Chapter 2 of the Deltarune Chapter 1&2 demo), returns to the Chapter Select screen (in Chapter 2 in the non-LTS demo, and on all console versions), or returns to the Chapter's title screen (in Chapter 2 of the Deltarune Chapter 1&2 LTS demo).

Chapter 2 onward

During a Game Over, the SOUL shatters into pieces and a screen with "Game Over" written in large text appears. Either Ralsei or Susie provide encouragement, then the player is presented with the options to "CONTINUE" or "GIVE UP". Only a character currently in the party can provide encouragement — if neither Ralsei nor Susie are in the party, no additional dialogue is displayed on the Game Over screen.

• Ralsei says, "This is not your fate...! Please, don't give up!"
• Susie says, "Come on, that all you got!? Kris, get up...!"

Faint Courage plays while on the Game Over screen. If the player chooses to give up, the Darkness Falls section repeats, same as in Chapter 1.

Special conditions

In some conditions, the Game Over screen does not show or is entirely different.

Chapter 1

If the party loses to Susie and Lancer in the Thrashing Room, the screen simply turns black while Susie and Lancer laugh. Kris and Ralsei are then returned to the SAVE Point immediately before the Thrashing Room, with 10 HP each. Upon re-entering the Thrashing Room, Susie and Lancer blow up another Thrash Machine. Ralsei offers to join Susie and Lancer as bad guys due to losing to them, but Lancer complains that it is boring if the party gives up, initiating a second battle. If the party loses to Susie and Lancer again, they blow up another Thrash Machine. Ralsei and Susie get into an argument about whether the party is allowed to become bad guys, but Susie and Lancer ultimately commence another battle.

Chapter 2

The Annoying Dog destroying the Undertale-styled Game Over screen

In Cyber City, when Kris walks into the back alley leading to the dog dumpster for the first time (while not on the Weird Route), they appear alone in an alleyway. After walking a short distance down the alleyway, the Annoying Dog appears in a small car and drives directly into Kris, with damage numbers appearing until Kris collapses. The Game Over screen from Undertale then appears, followed by the Annoying Dog destroying the Game Over text with its car. The party then appears in front of the dog dumpster.

When losing the arcade game in Cyber Field, the text "YOU LOSE!" appears in the game, followed by "GIVE UP?" with the options "FIGHT AGAIN" and "RETIRE". The player is unable to actually choose "RETIRE", as Susie points towards "FIGHT AGAIN" upon selecting it.

When losing to GIGA Queen, GIGA Queen crouches a few times, then the screen changes to show the Thrash Machine sitting on a bench, with the text "Don't give up...!" and the options "FIGHT AGAIN" and "RETIRE". Choosing to "FIGHT AGAIN" returns to the start of the GIGA Queen fight; choosing "RETIRE" returns to the most recent SAVE. Prior to v1.0.5, this screen just said "Don't Give Up" and restarted the battle.

Losing in the Party Dojo does not cause a Game Over. The current challenge is aborted, and Jigsaw Joe tells the party that they "beefed it".

Chapter 3

Tenna preventing the party from receiving a proper Game Over during Round 3

If the party is defeated during the bonus round of TV Time, Tenna says that fainting is not part of the script, and gives all of the party members a TV Dinner, restoring their HP by 100 each.

The battle against the Knight is intended to be lost. If the party is defeated, no Game Over appears and a cutscene showing the Knight trying to kidnap Toriel plays out. After obtaining a Completion FILE for Chapter 3, the first time the party is defeated by the Knight, the SOUL moves to the top of the screen and the voice speaks to the player, stating that a loss is almost certain. However, they then offer a choice between "GO BACK (FIGHT AGAIN)" and "GO FORWARD (MOVE ON)" after noting the player's persistence; the former returns to the start of the Knight encounter, while the latter proceeds with the standard cutscene after losing. The second time this happens, the voice comments that the player has met with the same fate; if the party does not have the Shadow Mantle, the voice warns the player that they are missing something important. The voice usually does not appear on subsequent losses, with the two options simply appearing without any dialogue leading into them. However, if the party brings down the Knight's HP below 80% before losing, the voice encourages the player to try again.

The Legend of Tenna

Main article: The Legend of Tenna § Game Over

Tenna commentating on a Game Over in The Legend of Tenna

If the party is defeated during The Legend of Tenna, instead of the SOUL shattering, a gray filter overlays the screen, and Tenna appears on top of the filter complaining that the party is not allowed to lose on TV, so he takes some of the party's POINTs as a penalty but allows the contestants to continue the game. If the party does not have a TV Dinner and has less than 20 POINTs, Tenna gives them two TV Dinners. If this occurs in an encounter, the encounter ends without POINTs being awarded. If this happens while Tenna is out of the room, he comments about that fact, but does not return to the room.

If the party is defeated during the Lanino and Elnina encounter on the Desert Board, after the standard Tenna penalty, the party is sent back to the front of the pyramid. If the party approaches the dry oasis, Lanino and Elnina comment that they had just made up and challenge the party again. At the start of the repeat encounter, Tenna has only a short comment about the goal of saying "I Love TV" 99 times, then reminds the duo to stay professional.

If this occurs during the Shuttah encounter on the Island Board, after the standard Tenna penalty, the party is sent back to the stairs leading to Shuttah's room. Shuttah adds "(again)" to the end of its photo prompt and mentions that the previous photo shoot did not go well instead of complaining about the theft of its camera.

Original Game

HERO_SWORD losing all of their HP in the Original Game

In the Original Game, if HERO_SWORD is defeated, the game's screen turns red, and HERO_SWORD turns into a black silhouette. The character rotates clockwise in place a few times as the game screen and the upper HUD fade to black. The game then completely shuts down with a white blip. Kris can immediately restart the game by plugging their controller back into the console, but any progress in the current board or dungeon is lost—items collected (such as the sword) are lost, all enemies respawn, HERO_SWORD's LV is reset, and all roadblocks are put back in place.

The dungeons — Ice Palace and manhole dungeon — are treated as separate areas to the boards they are accessed from. If HERO_SWORD is defeated in one of these dungeons, rebooting the game starts from the start of the dungeon, not the entire board, with progress from the previous area preserved.

Unlike the rest of the Original Game, if HERO_SWORD is defeated in the shelter, the SOUL shatters and the screen fades to black. Kris then reappears from the right side of the room containing the console.

Chapter 4

Kris (the sole party member at the time) is intended to lose all of their HP on the overworld the first time the Knight appears in the chapter. If Kris makes it through all of the Knight's overworld attacks, the Knight sends an unavoidable row of sword attacks at them in a cutscene. Either way, a Game Over does not occur and Kris and Susie are sent deeper into the Dark World.

If the player attemps to play MEGALOVANIA on the organ, the Annoying Dog runs into Kris again, the screen then cuts to black and returns back to normal. Trying to replay it causes Kris to not finish the song.

If Susie loses against the Hammer of Justice, a Game Over does not occur. Instead, Susie laments her loss in the overworld, and is instantly healed. On the first loss, the Old Man offers the JusticeAxe to Susie, but Susie rejects it in favor of getting a fair win. The dialogue changes again after the second and third loss, after which only the third loss dialogue appears on subsequent losses. Losing multiple times also changes the dialogue Susie says when she successfully defeats the Old Man.

Chapter 5

The party sleeping on flowerbeds

If the party is defeated by an enemy or loses all HP in the overworld prior to reaching the "exit" room of the Garden, the scene cuts to a room where the three of them are sleeping in flowerbeds. The first time, Flowery appears and says he prepared them. The party is fully healed by that, and leaving the room teleports them to the room they died, or one close to it.

If the party is defeated during the fight with Flowery, a Game Over does not occur. The party is sent back to the overworld fully healed with their items recovered, as Flowery lambasts the party. Losing multiple times changes the dialogue between Flowery and the party.

Autosaves

Normally, when continuing from a Game Over, the party is returned to the previous SAVE Point. However, on several occasions, the game autosaves to reduce the amount of content that needs to be replayed. These autosaves are not retained if the game is closed.

Chapter 1

The game autosaves in the Forest immediately west of the Starwalker room.

Chapter 2

There are some autosaves prior to Queen's Mansion.^{[incomplete list]}

• If the party loses to the first overworld damage or to the 2 Werewires at the very beginning of Cyber World, the party is sent back to the first screen of the library Dark World. However, if Kris used the bed to skip the Castle Town section, this autosave does not apply and the player is sent all the way back to the first text line of Chapter 2.
• If the party loses a short distance after Cap'n and K_K's temporary makeshift shop, they are sent back to just after Ralsei joins the party.

There are several autosaves in Queen's Mansion.

• If the party is defeated in the Queen battle, they respawn immediately before the battle with full HP. This was introduced in v1.0.5.
• If Kris is defeated in the teacup ride in the Mansion Basement, they respawn at the bottom of the teacup ride. This was introduced in v1.0.5.
• If the party is defeated in the Spamton NEO battle, Kris respawns immediately before inserting the LoadedDisk (allowing Kris to back out). Prior to v1.0.5, Kris would instead respawn after having inserted the disk.
  • If the player uses the funnycheat tactic to rapidly fire Big Shots, Spamton NEO becomes angry, boosting his AT, with each additional shot using this technique boosting his AT further. However, each time the party receives a Game Over against Spamton NEO, the bonus he gets per Big Shot, as well as his maximum AT stat, decrease. After 10 Game Overs, he no longer becomes enraged by this tactic.

Chapter 4

In certain sections of the endgame, after being defeated the party is returned to the beginning of the section, such as Kris climbing each part of the petrified Dark Fountain, or to the area before the Titan fight.

If the party is defeated by the Titan Spawn, after selecting Continue from the Game Over screen, the game resumes from the very end of the cutscene where the Titan Spawn appear, and the battle starts from there. The player is not given an opportunity to heal from the menu at this time.

Trivia

• In 2019 (two years before the release of Chapter 2), Toby Fox teased the Annoying Dog Game Over in Cyber City, tweeting "This is the last thing you see before you die" with the sprite of the Annoying Dog in a toy car.