Weird Route

For the alternate route in Chapter 3, see Sword Route.

Kris...
Being around you...
Is changing me, too.
K... Kris...
Kris, when I cast "Snowgrave..."
I...
I felt stronger than I have in my entire life.

Noelle, Chapter 5's Weird Route

The Weird Route is an alternate route in Deltarune that progresses over the course of multiple Chapters via Completion FILEs. It significantly alters the main story of the game, with events mainly revolving around Noelle, the relationship between Kris and the player, and the underlying theme of trying to break free from the normal path and behavior that is set for these characters.

Progression

Chapter 2

Main article: Weird Route/Chapter 2

The Weird Route begins in Chapter 2, when Noelle joins the party in Cyber City. It involves backtracking to Freeze all enemies with IceShock and acquiring route-exclusive weapons to facilitate this. The route is set for the duration of the Chapter once Berdly is frozen at the end of his second encounter, which drastically alters the final area and replaces the final battles with Queen with Kris in a solo battle versus Spamton NEO.

Chapter 3

While the Weird Route does not progress in Chapter 3, it is directly referenced in the Original Game via the Ice Palace:

In the Ice Palace, there is a room with the text, "THE FORBIDDEN PATH BEGAN WITH ICE MAGIC". HERO_SWORD gains White Cloak as a party member, who resembles Noelle's Dark World visage with a hood, and is internally named as obj_board_enemy_deer. In the area, White Cloak's ice magic is used to freeze enemies (including a blue bird) into hexagonal blocks of ice that resemble the one that Berdly is frozen in. The alleyway that leads to the manhole dungeon is reminiscent of the alleyway in Cyber City that Kris traverses after Berdly is frozen in Chapter 2. Both alleyways are dark, have the same shape, and lead to manholes.

There are also minor changes after completing Chapter 2's Weird Route:

• In the Cold Place, Ralsei can warn Kris that going alone with Noelle at the Festival is a "bad choice", but backtracks on the suggestion.
• Spamton does not appear in the Bonus Zone blue wardrobe cutscene despite obtaining the PuppetScarf, making the Pipis obtainable.
• The Shadow Mantle holder also states that a part of Kris must have "enjoyed yesterday".
• If the player answers "Of course. Games are fun" to Susie after the Sword Route, Kris reacts negatively to Susie's comment comparing them to Berdly.

Chapter 4

Main article: Weird Route/Chapter 4

In Chapter 4's Weird Route, the core events occur in the Light World when Kris and Susie visit Noelle's House.

Noelle asks to speak to Kris privately, and she recalls the Chapter 2 events with them. If the route is continued, this conversation culminates in the player directing Kris to force a thorn into Noelle's hand. After this, the Weird Route is once again impossible to abort for the Chapter, with some changes in dialogue and the Chapter's ending.

Chapter 5

Main article: Weird Route/Chapter 5

In Chapter 5's Weird Route, the course of the story is dramatically altered, and the Dark World is skipped entirely.

After skipping the Festival, Kris is forced out of bed by the SOUL to walk around the empty Festival with Susie, having a brief moment with Sans, and then go to the lake, where Noelle is waiting. She monologues about how limited her life felt until Kris changed her, and tells Kris to come with her to do "something crazy": cross the lake "to somewhere no one has ever been before!". She takes Kris's hands and walks backwards into the lake. Successfully completing all the choice prompts causes the game to generate a unique Chapter 5 Completion FILE and reset to the Chapter Select screen. As no SAVE points are available during this chapter, a Weird Route SAVE file cannot be made on Chapter 5.

Failing the lake cutscene causes the game to continue into Flower Kingdom, but with multiple altered differences.

Future Chapters

It is currently unconfirmed how future chapters will progress with the Weird Route. The ending statement of the route in Chapter 5, "Insert Chapter 7 Side B", may imply that Chapter 6 will be skipped, with the route continuing in Chapter 7.

snd_ominous_cancel does not play when aborting the lake cutscene in Chapter 5. It is possible that the Weird Route splits into two versions depending on the player's actions. This is supported by the minor changes in the normal route gameplay after the lake scene occurs, caused by flag 1743 in the game's code.

Inaccessible features

Castle Town

The only enemies that the party cannot encounter on the Weird Route are Swatchlings, which completely disappear from Queen's Mansion, and all enemies introduced in Flower Kingdom, as it is skipped entirely, meaning they cannot be RECRUITed.

The party also cannot RECRUIT Ambyu-Lance, Virovirokun, Werewire, Maus or Tasque since they need to be frozen with IceShock and LOST to continue the route.

The Ch2 All Stars challenge in the Party Dojo is inaccessible along with the TensionGem it rewards since most of the RECRUITs needed for the challenge to appear need to be LOST to continue the route.

Nubert will never go to Castle Town since you need all RECRUITS for him to appear and stay. This also means the Trashy Trio challenge is inaccessible.

The miniature Electro-Dasher cannot join Castle Town since the segment you obtain it in does not happen in the Weird Route.

Items

Due to most Addisons not being present in Cyber City, the Teas and Mannequin cannot be purchased from them.

The rooms with the Annoying Dog and the man in Cyber City are inaccessible, meaning Chapter 2's Dog Dollar and Egg cannot be obtained.

Rouxls Kaard blocks the entrance to Color Cafe, meaning the ButJuice, SpagettiCode, B.ShotBowtie and multiple RoyalPins cannot be purchased from Swatch. This also means the TensionBow cannot be obtained since a B.ShotBowtie is needed for it. One RoyalPin can be obtained from Noelle when she joins the party as she automatically has one equipped.

As the Shortcut door is inactive, Spamton's shop cannot be accessed meaning the KeyGen, S.POISON, BrokenSwd, FrayedBowtie, EmptyDisk and LoadedDisk cannot be obtained.

Since parts of Queen's Mansion are inaccessible, the ChainMail and ReviveDust cannot be obtained. The Glowshard cannot be obtained either, but infinite can be obtained from the Ball machine in Chapter 3.

On the Weird Route, Spamton NEO is a required battle and cannot be spared, meaning the Dealmaker cannot be obtained, but the PuppetScarf and a Shadow Crystal always are.

Since Kris shows no flavor text when interacting with items in the Light World in Chapter 5's Weird Route, the Honey Toast cannot be obtained. Instead, Kris obtains the Bread.

Since the Flower Kingdom Dark World is skipped on the Weird Route, items exclusive to the Chapter 5 Dark World cannot be obtained:

Consumable	Weapon	Armor	Key Items
Flavigne GreenTea OrangeJuice TreeCake Raw Moon Phanta FlowerySoda Shikacola	WoodBlade2 AquaKnife Thatchet BlueShoes MistleWP FloweryScarf BrokenScarf	RedRibbon NetskieHat SethSpecs YellowHat O.Glove GreenApron	Petal Feather BlueString PerpBook TrainPlan RedSplatter YellowShred BootOil Scissors BromideR BromideF Seeds

Castle Town can also not be accessed in the Chapter 5 Weird Route, meaning the MonarchRBN, PunchBowl, a Tension Max and the DogWidow cannot be obtained. The S.POTION and TrueTie are also exclusive to Castle Town, but require the S.POISON and FrayedBowtie respectively, which cannot be obtained on this route.

Spamton Sweepstakes teasers

The Spamton Sweepstakes' Silence ending added the /chapter1, /chapter2, /chapter3, /chapter4, and /chapter5 pages to the Deltarune website. These pages appear to hint at the relevance of the Weird Route to each chapter.

• The Chapter 1 page says "Not applicable", since Chapter 1 does not have any Weird Route content.
• The Chapter 2 page says "Applicable", since Chapter 2 has the beginning of the Weird Route.
• The Chapter 3 page says "Not applicable", but contains the text "But..." rendered off the right side of the screen so that it is not visible. This is likely a reference to the fact that, while the Weird Route has little effect on Chapter 3, the Sword Route is present.
• The Chapter 4 page has a red dot that slowly fades in over time. As part of the Spamton Sweepstakes, a puzzle involving this page leads to the subpage /chapter4/thankyou, containing the text "Thank you." upon submitting an answer or when the thank you survey closes. This is a reference to a scene in the Chapter 4 Weird Route where the player can choose to think about Noelle, causing a red pixel to appear on-screen, while "Thank you..." is slowly typed out with Noelle's voicebyte, as well as the same occurrence at the start of the Chapter 5 Weird Route.
• The Chapter 5 page contains the numbers 1 to 5 at different sizes. The numbers' sizes may represent the extent to which your specific actions affect the events in the chapter, while their visibility represents whether or not they are Weird Route chapters.
  • 1 is rendered at 8px but invisible. This is likely referencing the minor differences when acting violently in Chapter 1, and the lack of anything related to the Weird Route.
  • 2 is rendered at 72px, and contains a link to d, the track that plays before the fight with Berdly on the Weird Route. The number's size is likely referencing the large differences on the Weird Route in Chapter 2.
  • 3 is rendered at 72px but nearly invisible, and contains a link to ma, the sound effect that plays after defeating the Shadow Mantle holder on the Sword Route. The number's size is likely referencing the substantial amount of content on the Sword Route, while the near invisibility is referencing the fact that, while it references the Weird Route and its content in the Sword Route, it is not a Weird Route chapter.
  • 4 is rendered at 16px, and contains a link to the /chapter4 page. The number's size is likely referencing the smaller relevance of the Weird Route in Chapter 4 relative to Chapter 2.
  • 5 is rendered at 36px, and contains a link to h, a shorter version of happy_town, an unlisted track which plays during the Weird Route in Chapter 5. The number's size likely relates to the length of the route's unique content, being shorter than Chapter 2's, but longer than Chapter 4's.

Name

This route does not have an official name. The name "Weird Route" is used in the names of several objects and variables in-game, such as the object gml_Object_obj_weirdroute_manipulator, and is also alluded to by Susie in route-exclusive dialogue. Deltarune developer Fred Wood consistently refers to the route as the "Weird Route".

The term "Side B" is used in the ending screen of the Chapter 5 Weird Route, hinting at the route's continuation in Chapter 7, as well as internal labels of certain objects, such as gml_Object_obj_ch2_scene_sideb_noelleroom, and scripts such as gml_GlobalScript_scr_sideb_get_phase. Additionally, within the dr.ini file in the game's save data folder exists a variable labelled SideB, and completion files are appended with a 'b' (eg. filech5_3_b for a Chapter 5 slot one completion file) when completing a Chapter 5's Weird Route and reaching the CRT ending.

Several other names are also used for the route:

• "Snowgrave Route" is a popular name in the community, and is derived from a spell Noelle casts in Chapter 2's Weird Route. However, this name has become less used with the release of Chapters 3 and 4, often referring solely to the events of Chapter 2 during the Weird Route.
• Likewise, "Aルート" seems to be a popular name in the Japanese community, meaning "Alternate Route".
• The route is referred to as "THE FORBIDDEN PATH" during the Sword Route.
• The ending of Chapter 5 on the Weird Route refers to said route as "Side B", as per one of the route's internal naming schemes.

Genocide Route similarities

The Weird Route shares several similarities with Undertale's Genocide Route, and could be seen as a successor to the concept.

• Both routes are initiated by choosing exclusively aggressive/violent options in battle, which causes major changes in dialogue, story, and encounters. Furthermore, the player must go out of their way to trigger and remain on the route; playing the game normally while responding aggressively to ordinary encounters is not enough to trigger either route.
• In both routes, some of the game's background music is slowed down and/or distorted, and overworld puzzles are disabled. Optional areas are blocked off, forcing each game's respective protagonist along a more linear and darker path.
• The bosses in both routes are considerably more difficult — on the Genocide Route, the protagonist faces off against Undyne the Undying and Sans, while Chapter 2's Weird Route has Kris fight Spamton NEO solo while skipping the Queen and GIGA Queen fights.
• Both routes require the player to defeat every enemy in an area, and feature indicators of the number of enemies remaining. On the Weird Route, the indicator is Cyber City's dog dumpster. On the Genocide Route, the indicator is the locations' SAVE Points.
• Both routes use the text "... but nobody came." It is a prominent phrase on the Genocide Route, usually displayed after all monsters in an area have been killed. On the Weird Route, it appears during the final phase of the battle with Spamton NEO, when Kris attempts to call for Ralsei and Susie.

Trivia

• On the Weird Route, there are several indications that the player and Kris are separate entities, and that the former's pursuit of the route is upsetting to the latter:
  • If Kris is DOWNed during the fight with Berdly, Noelle remarks that she can still hear their voice, and describes the voice that has been coming from Kris as different from what they usually sound like; this hints that the voice may not be Kris's.
  • Susie and Ralsei notice Kris seems off and possibly hurt after the battle with Berdly, which could indicate they are distraught.
  • When calling for help from Susie and Ralsei during the fight with Spamton NEO, the narration states "Kris" is performing the action. When calling for Noelle, the narration refers to "You", which could be the player in the second person.
  • When in Noelle's room in Chapter 4, one of the dialogue prompts has the options "Proceed" and "Please don't". Choosing the latter aborts the route, with Noelle noting that Kris did not say anything. This may imply that Kris is begging the player via dialogue options to not continue the Weird Route.
  • At the beginning of Chapter 5, Kris is seen laying in their room, and is implied to have spent the entire day doing so. The player has to repeatedly press the movement keys to get Kris out of bed, showing Kris heavily resisting the player's influence. When the player is finally able to get Kris to walk, they walk noticeably slower than usual while twitching every couple of seconds and no flavor text is displayed upon interacting with objects until Susie begins following Kris.