Weird Route/Chapter 4

Kris... that's... not the thorn, is it?
That's not... the... ThornRing, is it...?

Noelle, Chapter 4

Chapter 4 features an alternate story route that continues the Weird Route from Chapter 2 and Chapter 3. Like the Weird Route in Chapter 2, this route changes key aspects of the Chapter and revolves around Noelle. The route can be continued in Chapter 5.

Prerequisites

Main article: Weird Route/Chapter 2

The Weird Route in Chapter 4 can only be pursued if the Weird Route was completed in Chapter 2.

Method

The steps required to progress and maintain the route in Chapter 4 are much simpler in comparison to Chapter 2, as the main events of the route mostly occur only within Hometown at the beginning of the Chapter. The mandatory steps begin after the study session starts while Susie and Kris visit Noelle's House, with a few small differences prior.

1. Once Kris hides the SOUL in the closet and the player is moving the SOUL through the vents, the player will not be able to access most of the basement like on the normal route, as most of it is blocked by Susie. Instead, the player must take the SOUL to Noelle's room, in which Noelle and Kris are present.
2. After some dialogue, a choice prompt appears, causing the SOUL to teleport out of the closed vent and into the choice box at the bottom of the screen. The SOUL will remain in the same place on the screen even after the prompt is closed, allowing it to move around by selecting a dialogue option. The option "Proceed" must be chosen, which puts the SOUL inside the room.
3. The player must now move the SOUL over Kris, upon which it will enter their body. The route is aborted if the player fails to move the SOUL inside Kris within a given time.
4. As the scene progresses further, more choice prompts appear, and the player must select the following options:
   1. "Me"
   2. "Because it wasn't a dream"
   3. "I heard"
   4. "It's not a coincidence"
5. After this point, the route can no longer be aborted, regardless of the dialogue choices selected. At the end of the scene, ominous_worse plays, and the game is locked into the route for the remainder of Chapter 4.

Differences

Story changes

Events in the Light World are, barring small differences, largely the same up to the point where Susie and Kris visit Noelle's House. When the study session first begins, Noelle receives a call from her mother telling her she will not be home for a while, rather than from Berdly. Accordingly, Susie comes up with a different excuse for Kris, as opposed to throwing Noelle's phone.

Later, when Kris pulls out the SOUL in Dess's room, Noelle comes upstairs and asks to speak to Kris privately, prompting Kris to hastily shove the SOUL in a drawer. Noelle then asks Kris to speak in her room, after which Kris hides the SOUL in the gift room, and enters Noelle's room off-screen. The player maneuvers the SOUL through the vents to the room, wherein Noelle and Kris are having a conversation. Noelle tells Kris that she was scared by her "dream", but now feels more hopeful, as Kris came to her house yesterday, apologized for being weird, and told her it was a prank. She remarks that it felt like she had not heard Kris's real voice in a long time.

Noelle asks Kris if she can say something else, and the SOUL re-enters Kris's body via the consequent choice prompt. She describes how Kris pulled a thorn out of her finger, and told her not to mention any of this. Suddenly, Kris covers her mouth. Noelle asks why Kris is being so paranoid, noting that they are alone, and wonders who they think might hear. The player answers "Me", at which point the screen adopts a blueish hue and a vignette, and Noelle faintly asks Kris if they are pranking her again. She is shocked to hear the voice from her "dream" again, to which the player replies "Because it wasn't a dream". Noelle jumps back in terror, muttering that there is no way the player could have heard her thoughts; the player reiterates that "[they] heard" and she again jumps back, telling Kris that she did not say anything. She attempts to convince herself that the voice cannot possibly hear her thoughts, and that it must be a coincidence. The player confirms that "It's not a coincidence".

Noelle tells the voice to name some specific colors if it can hear her, and the player answers in both cases. She then tells the voice to say that it "didn't happen" and "didn't snow", and the player confirms that "It happened" or "It snowed". Noelle tells the voice that they are lying, to which the player insists that she "will get" or "becomes" stronger, and she is taken aback as a low-pitched version of snd_ominous plays. The player then directs Kris to "Equip". snd_ominous plays again as Kris holds up the thorn, and Noelle shakily asks them if what they are holding is the ThornRing. The player responds by commanding Kris to "Proceed". Kris begins crawling towards Noelle; she weakly denies what is happening, and asks herself why she is not stopping Kris. The player keeps commanding Kris to "Proceed". Kris grabs Noelle's wrist, the player directs them to "Equip" once again, and they forcibly equip the ThornRing to Noelle. The screen goes black, and a red crack appears, growing outwards from her hand. An extended version of snd_ominous (ominous_worse) plays after the crack fades to black.

The game cuts to Kris in the bathroom, with a high-pitched ringing sound known as tinnitus and a sickly blur effect. Kris grabs the SOUL, throws it in a trash can, and repeatedly kicks it - with each kick being more aggressive than the last - until they are interrupted by Asgore. He tells Kris that Carol is asking everyone to leave, at which point Kris puts the SOUL back into their body and exits the mansion. Upon taking a step, Kris falls to the ground before picking themselves back up; their HP will be lowered to 10 as the result of the beatdown.

On the way back to the church, Susie asks Kris about what happened with Noelle. The player is presented with a choice prompt with four blank options, during which the rain disappears, the sound cuts out, and the screen is tinted pink for the duration of the prompt. After a moment, Susie moves on from the conversation. Similarly to the end of Chapter 2, the rest of the Chapter's events carry on largely the same as normal.

Dark World differences

• The SAVE points of My Castle Town, Dark Sanctuary - Lower Right, Dark Sanctuary - Study, and Dark Sanctuary - Library will not have flavor text.
• Kris's title changes to "Dark Bead", with the description "Broken off, but still locked."
• Soon after the Old Man's introduction, he asks Kris where they think the right way to go is. If they reply "Nowhere", he notes that their words hold a "peculiar ring", presumes that they are having "some relationship trouble" and comforts them, claiming everything will be alright.
• During the Jackenstein fight, there is a 3/100 chance to get a flavor text about Berdly. The code checks if Spamton NEO has been defeated in Chapter 2's Weird Route, meaning the message can still appear even if the Weird Route was previously aborted in Chapter 4.
• During the tea scene in the Dark Sanctuary, once Susie leaves, the Old Man observes that Kris is "really just going through the motions" and assures them not to give up. After this, if the player refuses to drink the Old Man's tea, Kris ravenously eats the apple he offers them, including the core.
• En route to obtaining the MusicSheet, Susie immediately jumps to reach for the green book, in contrast to her trying to reach out, then jumping.
• When Ralsei gives Kris the option to think of Susie as she writes down sheet music, the player has the option to say no and then think of Noelle. The screen fades to black and a single red pixel appears in the center. The pixel slowly moves on its own for a few seconds. A text box then slowly types out "Thank you..." with Noelle's voicebyte, followed by a red flash and Susie waking Kris up.
• At the end of the 3rd Sanctuary, if Kris comforts Ralsei, his dialogue is fearful about the course of the story rather than hopeful.
• Your Power does not play when Kris seals the 3rd Sanctuary Fountain.

Hometown differences

• Kris can no longer go back to sleep at the start of the Chapter, which would normally allow the player to skip straight to the Dark World.
• After the sermon in the church, the conversations with Rudy and Noelle no longer allow the player to choose topics other than the shelter. Additionally, after deliberating with Susie, Noelle approaches her and Kris about studying, rather than the other way around. Kris does not react positively to this, after which Susie remarks that "maybe things took a weird route right now..."
• Berdly now appears in the hospital, unconscious. The narration notes that he seems cold, but "[that] might be your imagination". Interacting with Berdly gives the option to heat him up by changing the hot water bottle resting on his head. Afterwards, the narration notes that he seems relaxed. The player can also interact with the space heater in Berdly's room, which prompts Kris to turn it to a higher setting without any further input from the player.
• The hospital's nurse has new dialogue thanking Kris for bringing Berdly into the hospital.
• As a result of Berdly's condition, the library is closed "due to a lack of volunteers" and cannot be accessed. The same thing occurs if Berdly's arm is injured during the fight against Queen in Chapter 2.
• Wrap Mouse, the mouse-like Lightner who talks about having babysat Noelle and Kris, notes her muttering "You don't scare me" while complimenting them, rather than "Mice are cute".
• The player is free to interact with the piano in Noelle's kitchen, since Kris is now absent. Similarly, Asgore is not present in the bathroom nor Carol's room.
• While Kris and Noelle are in Noelle's room, Susie investigates the basement and has moved a large pile of gift boxes near the vent. The SOUL cannot move any of the gift boxes, blocking off a majority of the basement. This prevents the player from continuing the normal route by interacting with the circuit breaker (unless the Weird Route is aborted). The basement vent no longer closes if the SOUL enters the basement, and The distance between two keeps playing instead of switching to the basement audio track. The player may stay in the basement for a while and Susie will monologue about searching for clues.
• While Kris and Susie are walking to the church in the rain, Susie stops and asks Kris what they and Noelle were talking about. The world seemingly freezes for the player as all sounds stop, the screen adopts a pink tint, and a choice prompt with four blank options appears. Selecting any of these options gives a delayed response before the game resumes as normal, and Susie asks if it was about her.
• Following the Dark Sanctuary, Kris can inspect the piano keyboard in the church's storage room. After Susie tells her story, selecting "I'll play again someday" makes her question why Kris "sound[s] so mad", while selecting "I'll never play again" causes Kris to bite their hand.
• In the church lobby, Kris has the option to interact with a collection of hope candles with names on them. If Kris is directed to pray for Noelle, they instead kick the candle collection, prompting a shocked reaction from Susie.
• In the Chapter's ending, Kris no longer hears Susie's voice outside the window; instead, they receive a call from Carol, confirming their attendance to the festival and remarking on how eager Noelle is to see them. The screen goes dark and a small red square appears, bigger than the single pixel that appears in the optional scene in the Dark Sanctuary. It is also the first time a Chapter gets an alternative ending.

Aborted route differences

• If the player chooses "Please don't" at the first prompt, Noelle chooses not to progress the conversation after Kris does not say anything, and the two leave the room. Since this option is located over the vent system (unlike "Proceed" which is located over the interior of the room), the SOUL is placed back inside the vent system and the player can continue exploring the house.
• If the player gets the SOUL to enter the room, but fails to maneuver it into Kris in time, Kris notices the SOUL, grabs Noelle, and drags her out of the room, knocking it to the ground if within the path Kris runs. Kris then grabs the SOUL and places it back in the closet.
• Noelle's reaction to the player aborting the route changes based on how late it was aborted:
  • If the player chooses "..." after Noelle asks who would hear their conversation, Noelle laughs and tells Kris to "never do something like that again".
  • If the player chooses "It was a joke" or "Sorry, just a prank" at any prompt after they say "Me", Noelle slaps Kris hard and yells "THEN DON'T SCARE ME LIKE THAT ANYMORE!", then apologizes.
  • In either case, Kris places the SOUL back in the closet and the game continues as normal.
• If the weird route is aborted in Chapter 4, Berdly does not show up during the festival segment in Chapter 5, and the option to vote him as the Festival King does not appear.

Trivia

• During the search for clues in the church, Rudy is the one who tells Kris all the information. However, when they tell Susie about the clues, her dialogue remains the same as in the normal game, stating that Noelle was the one who gave the clue.
• In the Japanese translation of Deltarune, the "Proceed" option during Noelle's private conversation with Kris is written in kanji, contrasting the game's general use of hiragana and katakana in the Light World.
• When Kris is offered an apple by the Old Man, they immediately begin to try to eat the core of the apple. Apple seeds, located inside the core, notably contain cyanide; though, not a high enough dose to cause any actual harm. This could be read as Kris intentionally trying to cause harm to themselves, or trying to ingest a lethal dose of cyanide.

Version history

First and current ThornRing animations side-by-side

Game edition	Version tag	Changes
Deltarune Chapter 4	v1.01A	Changed the image that appears when equipping ThornRing from an animation of a rose that spiraled into formation and then wilted into several fragments to a single red pixel; said red pixel is the first visible frame (spr_rose_1) of the original animation.
	v1.01C	Changed the image that appears when equipping ThornRing from a red pixel into a visual of a large red crack forming. This was intended to strengthen the imagery while still carrying across the scene's intended meaning.