Guei

鬼

Guei, Chapter 4

Guei (JP: グウェイ) is a Darkner enemy in Deltarune that can be encountered in Chapter 4's first Dark Sanctuary. It takes the form of a blue flame, only revealing itself when it comes into contact with the party.

Profile

Appearance

Guei appears to be a grounded spectre with long, bird-like limbs with three long claws each. It has two light blue will-o'-the-wisps levitating around its head, which briefly fade out and reappear. It has a blue ruff around its neck, and its head appears to be a white sphere with a black cross for a face and a black protrusion on top of its head. Its shape resembles the Chinese hanzi "鬼", which can be transliterated as "guei" in Tongyong Pinyin or simplified "gui" in Pinyin.

Concept art and an unused sprite show that Guei was once intended to rarely stand up, which would reveal it as having a more bird-like body.

Personality

Guei speaks exclusively in Mandarin Chinese, albeit with broken grammar. For example, "我鬼" is missing a copula, making its translation closer to "I ghost", rather than "I'm a ghost", which would be "我是鬼". The caption of the social media post that revealed it, as well as Toby Fox being documented speaking Mandarin, indicates these errors may have been intentional.

It is susceptible to becoming Tired, especially after exercising. Some of its flavor text seems to indicate its behavior is animal-like, with references to it wagging its tail and howling.

Etymology

"Guei" is the romanization of the Chinese word「鬼」(meaning "ghost, apparition, spirit, devil") in Tongyong Pinyin. In the Hanyu Pinyin transcription for Mandarin Chinese, it is written as guǐ (or gwai in Cantonese).

Main story

Chapter 4

Guei appears as a fairly common enemy mainly during the first Dark Sanctuary. After a piano puzzle directly before the Old Man's Study, an encounter with two Gueis can be found. Using the OldMan ACT twice if Guei is not a LOST enemy will cause both Gueis to be recruited and be found as NPCs in the Study. If recruited by the Old Man, when asked what he is doing with the money from his shop, the Old Man says that the money is for feeding his recruits. When interacting with the Guei on the bottom floor of the study, the narration says that it appears to be studying.

Later, backtracking to the first Dark Sanctuary, another Guei NPC can be found after continuing directly left of the Study. It appears to be standing still with a single Cuptain charging repeatedly into it. When talked to, the Cuptain remarks about Guei being an unsightly beast, claiming it is upsetting their "m'lady" despite not actually having any lady to call their own. They then continue charging into the Guei, hoping to impress any potential onlookers.

In the 2nd Sanctuary, a petrified Guei is found among other petrified Darkners. A nearby Organikk philosopher believes it to have been an awful beast which may have mainly eaten meat and fire.

In the 3rd Sanctuary, if some Darkners in the Dark Sanctuaries are recruited, and none beaten by violence, Guei joins the stack tower and helps the party reach the top to confront the Knight.

During the Dark Sanctuaries, wisps resembling Guei in its fire form can be found allowing for backtracking to previous points. It is unknown if Gueis assist in this process or if the wisps are simply similar in shape.

Chapter 5

2 Gueis appear in Castle Town's church upon choosing the "Raise dead" option from a Wafer.

Creation and development

Guei's design was first revealed through a screenshot that was added to the Deltarune Steam page after the release date for Chapters 3-4 was announced on April 2, 2025. The enemy's name was not shown, but it did show two of its possible attacks.

On May 19, 2025, a small preview teaser on the official UNDERTALE/DELTARUNE Bluesky and Twitter accounts revealed battle footage of Kris, Susie, and Ralsei in an encounter against two Gueis. This footage revealed the enemy's name, as well as its dialogue, available ACTs, and its attacks in motion.

In battle

Appears with

• Another Guei
• Balthizard
• Balthizard and Mizzle

Attacks

• A line of three diamonds descends into the bullet board. Once they reach it, they lengthen and speed up, falling across like shooting stars.
• Pairs of flames materialize and travel across the bullet board, toward where the SOUL was when they appeared. They spin around and away from each other.

Available ACTs

Exercism

20% & Delayed TIRED

Increases MERCY by 20% and inflicts TIRED at the start of the party's next turn.

Xercism

60% & Delayed TIRED

Increases MERCY by 60% and inflicts TIRED at the start of the party's next turn.

OldMan

I'm old!

The first time this ACT is used, the Old Man drops his cane on the bullet board. The cane moves around during the enemies' turn, indicating safe spots for the SOUL. The second time this ACT is used, the Old Man recruits all enemies, ending the battle. This second effect does not happen if any of the enemies still in the battle are damaged.

Increases MERCY by 40%.

Increases MERCY by 40%.

Quotes

Guei will say the first six quotes from the following list in this order, starting from the first, and repeating once it reaches the sixth one. If the Exercism or Xercism ACTs are used on that turn, Guei will instead say the last quote, then resume where it left off on the following turn.

• 我鬼 (I ghost) [Neutral]
• 鬼 (Ghost) [Neutral]
• 我很鬼 (I'm so ghost) [Neutral]
• 你鬼嗎 (You ghost?) [Neutral]
• 你鬼不鬼 (You ghost or not?) [Neutral, Unused]
• 你喜歡鬼嗎 (Do you like ghosts) [Neutral]^[sic]
• 哦 哦 哦！(Oo! Oo! Oo!) [Exercism/Xercism used]

• [OldMan #1]
  • [Old Man] How's it goin'?
  • [Susie] Get out of here!! These guys are tough!!
  • [Old Man] Alright, alright...
  • [Old Man] Whoops, dropped my cane.
  • [Old Man] Ya mind getting that for me?
• [OldMan #2]
  • [Old Man] Hmm, you called it a battle, but I don't see much fightin'.
  • [Ralsei] We don't hurt the enemies, we SPARE them!
  • [Old Man] Spare, huh? Like this?
  • [Ralsei] Y... you recruited them!?
  • [Old Man] Huh, whaddya know, it works!
  • [Old Man] I'll let you kids finish your battle! Geh heh heh!

Flavor text

• A strange spirit said to appear when the moon waxes. [Check]
• Guei wisps in your way! [Encounter]
• Smells like scented candles. [Encounter with Balthizard]
• Water, fire, air. [Encounter with Mizzle and Balthizard]
• Guei turns its head like a bird. [Neutral]
• Guei rattles its claws. [Neutral]
• Guei wags its tail. [Neutral]
• Guei howls hauntingly. [Neutral]
• Smells like teens. Smells like spirits. [Neutral, 3% chance]
• Guei looks satisfied in some odd way. [100% Mercy]
• Guei's flames flicker weakly. [Low HP]
• You started the exercism! You encouraged Guei to exercise! [Exercism]
• Everyone encouraged Guei to exercise! [Xercism]
• [Susie] Damn, that stupid cane made us get hit! [OldMan #1, if the player get hit]
• [OldMan #2]
  • (But, the battle was already over.)
  • (The Old Man received 438 Dark Dollars.)
• Called the OldMan! Nothing happened! [If Guei is LOST in this battle before using OldMan #2]
• Susie told a story about the living dead! [S-Action]
  • Susie told a ghost story!
• Ralsei told a family-friendly story about a lovable yet lonely ghost! [R-Action]
  • Ralsei quoted a holy book!
• Guei looks TIRED. Perhaps Ralsei's MAGIC, PACIFY would be effective... [Tired]
• Guei looks TIRED. DEFEND to gain TP, then try Ralsei's MAGIC, PACIFY...! [Tired, without enough TP]

Gallery

• 
  Guei as a statue in the 2nd Sanctuary
• 
  Unused sprite of Guei standing up
• 
  Concept artwork of Guei

Trivia

• Guei's connections to fire, the mentions of wax in some of the flavor text referring to it, and it drinking wax from a candle at the Cafe indicates that its Light World form is most likely a candle, specifically the memorial candles located in the lobby of the church.
  • Its flavor text also implies that the candles are for the 2 buried monsters at the graveyard, excluding Gerson and Shyra:
    • Guei turns its head like a bird.—Crystal
    • Guei rattles its claws.—Crystal
    • Guei wags its tail.—Muttler
    • Guei howls hauntingly.—Muttler
• The name of the acts Exercism and Xercism are likely references to exorcism, which is the act of dispelling a demon. This aligns with Guei having the form of a spectre.
  • However, the flavor text when using these acts talks about exercise, an apparent play on words.
• The description of the "OldMan" ACT option is a reference to one of Toby Fox's previous projects, Arn's Winter Quest, in which the sprite for the "Starman Senior" enemy has a speech bubble beside it, reading, "I'm old!".
  • Furthermore, the Old Man also has a cane.
• Guei speaks Chinese in both the English and Japanese translations of the game, with all its dialogue being exactly the same in either version. This makes it currently the only character in the game to have identical dialogue between both versions, not counting untranslated unused strings.
  • Guei's spoken dialogue is in fact not stored as strings in the game files at all, as its speech bubbles in battle are sprites with the dialogue written directly onto the images.
  • Guei's dialogue is written using traditional Chinese characters, as seen in the use of (喜)歡 and 嗎 in its battle quotes.
• The rare flavor text "Smells like teens. Smells like spirits." is a reference to the song Smells Like Teen Spirit by the American rock band Nirvana.
• Guei's "aversion to whips, water, and the like" is likely a reference to the Castlevania video game series, where the protagonists attack candles with a whip to reveal items and use holy water to defeat undead enemies and spirits.
• In some unused battles, Guei can appear with Organikk, Mizzle without Balthizard, Bibliox, and Winglade.

Version history

Game edition	Version tag	Changes
Deltarune Chapter 4	v1.04	The Old Man's cane bounces and slides into the Study instead if the OldMan ACT was used and both Gueis are SPAREd on the same turn.