Weird Route/Chapter 5

Tell me...
Tell me to grow wings...
And let's fly out of this stupid town!
To somewhere no one has ever been before!

Noelle, Chapter 5

Chapter 5 features an alternate story route that continues the Weird Route from Chapter 4. Like the Weird Route in Chapters 2 and 4, this route changes key aspects of the Chapter and revolves around Noelle. Uniquely, it starts from the very beginning of the Chapter, and ends the Chapter substantially earlier, skipping the Dark World segment.

Prerequisites

Main article: Weird Route/Chapter 4

The Weird Route in Chapter 5 can only be pursued if the Weird Route was completed in Chapter 4.

Method

1. Once Toriel begins talking to Kris at the start of the Chapter, the player must repeatedly mash their directional inputs to make Kris leave their bed and stand up.
2. The player must exit the Dreemurr residence and walk with Susie to Sans's ice cream stand situated outside his grocery store, and talk with him to obtain the Bread.
3. The player must walk with Susie to the lake, where after a brief confirmation prompt, she leaves Kris alone.
   • If the player attempts to go to the lake without having first visited Sans, Susie will comment about Noelle wanting Ice Cream, asking Kris to help her look for some.
   • It is impossible for the player to leave the lake room once they have entered.
4. After Noelle's monologue, the player must select either option on all 13 of the choice prompts they are presented with.
   • It does not ultimately matter for the cutscene whether "Stop" or "Proceed" is chosen for the first 6 choice prompts, as the events continue regardless. However, the game does store how many times "Stop" was chosen via incrementing flag 1742 in the code.
   • From the 7th choice prompt onwards, "Stop" is replaced with "Proceed", and flag 1742 can no longer be incremented.
5. Once Kris and Noelle's faces are submerged (from the 14th prompt onwards), the player must begin to quickly select either of the options on all 60 of the choice prompts they are presented with afterwards. From this point onwards, a hidden timer will immediately abort the route if it is allowed to expire. Each selection makes the timer reset, but makes its duration get progressively shorter.
   • The timer's progression is signified by the entire screen quickly fading to white, alongside a constant static noise getting louder and higher-pitched as the timer gets closer to its expiry.
   • The choice prompts will become gradually harder and harder to see as the cutscene reaches its final stage, but the SOUL will remain (albeit barely) visible until the last few choice prompts.
6. If the player completes the cutscene, the screen will then cut to the ending CRT screen. Waiting for 10 seconds or pressing any non-directional input after the text has finished typing out will end the Chapter, thus successfully continuing the route.

Differences

Story changes

A red dot floats above Noelle narrating "T H A N K   Y O U"

The Chapter begins with the red dot previously seen in Chapter 4's Weird Route and Noelle slowly saying "T H A N K   Y O U".

Kris sleeps in, skipping the Festival entirely. Toriel asks if they are okay before asking them to come downstairs and eat. Kris gets out of bed very slowly, heavily resisting the player's directional inputs. Their movement once they get out of bed is similarly slow, and their walk shakes occasionally. Toriel notices that Kris looks unwell. This is possibly due to Kris keeping the SOUL out of their body as long as possible to avoid going to Noelle, and why the game starts at sundown with the SOUL already inside Kris. All dialogue boxes that are not spoken by another character are blank, with the exception of the narration when interacting with the Bread.

Kris leaves their house, with Susie telling them that Noelle wants to see Kris at the lake. Susie then offers to explore the Festival with Kris, even though everyone has left by now. Interacting with the different stands at the Festival prompts Susie to tell Kris about how the day went and what her and Noelle were up to while Kris was asleep. Interacting with the Normal NPC's Takoyaki stand has her state that no one ran it. Susie seems to suspect something is wrong with Kris. She tries to make Kris laugh repeatedly, and tells Kris to "Cheer up".

Noelle explains to Kris how she has felt trapped in her life's routine

After obtaining the Bread from Sans, Kris can go to the lake, where Noelle expresses her gratitude to Kris for helping her break free from her usual routine that she felt forced into ever since Dess's disappearance. Notably, she speaks to Kris through her thoughts at first, since in Chapter 4 she learns Kris can hear them. She is frustrated that no one has noticed Kris's changes, and how "interesting" they have become. Noelle tells Kris that they believe if they tell her to do anything, no matter how impossible, she knows it can be done. She reminisces that she, her sister, Kris, and Asriel had always wondered what was on the other side of the lake when they were younger and states that she wants to do "something crazy" (mirroring what Susie proposes her to do in the normal route). Kris does not resist as Noelle takes their hand and leads them into the water. Noelle begins to ask Kris to say "Proceed". If the player selects "Stop", Noelle will force Kris to "Proceed" instead, stating that they should stop pretending to still be their old self.

Kris and Noelle proceed into the lake

As they both hold hands and cross the lake, the screen gets increasingly shakier and starts to gradually fade into white, the textbox border becomes increasingly redder and Noelle's face sprite becomes increasingly darker the deeper they are submerged. All the player can do at this point is to select "Proceed" over and over, which will briefly reset the colors to normal, while Noelle keeps encouraging them to continue. Notably, the last two times it happens, she no longer looks wet in her talking sprite, which seems to show a glow illuminating her from below. If "Proceed" is not selected fast enough, the route is seemingly aborted. A cutscene plays where everything goes back to normal, with her narrating, "I was wrong. Kris hadn't changed."

The CRT screen displayed after the route is completed

If successful, the screen cuts to black, and a CRT screen pops up, with text instructing the player to "Insert Chapter 7 Side B". The game then exits back to the Chapter select screen. No SAVE points are accessible during this Chapter.

Internally, a unique Completion FILE is generated within the game's files upon completing the Chapter, appending "_b" on the end, which does not fulfill the completion star on the in-game Chapter Select screen. A file named filech5_9_b is also generated seperate to the other Completion FILE. This file cannot be loaded. In addition, the dr.ini file (located within the same directory as the newly-added "_b" files) is edited to set the "[side_b] complete=" variable to "1.000000", indicating that the Weird Route for Chapter 5 has been completed.

Aborted route differences

For other Chapters, see Weird Route/Chapter 2 § Aborted route differences or Weird Route/Chapter 4 § Aborted route differences.

• snd_ominous_cancel does not play upon aborting the route.

Light World

Noelle narrates that nothing has changed

• Noelle says that she was wrong, and that "The dream never happened." The game then cuts to the scene with Susie and Noelle at the table singing the French Fry song. It then cuts to Noelle saying "Nothing changed." and Susie holding her while standing in the lake, before cutting to Noelle saying "Nothing changed." again and again, each time showing a different section of the cutscene with Susie and Noelle at the lake.
• After Carol calls Noelle about Rudy's fall, the screen cuts to black one last time, with Noelle narrating "Nothing changed. Because a Noelle is just a Noelle." Eventually, it cuts back to Kris sleeping on the table as Susie walks in holding ice cream, with Noelle missing.
• Kris takes longer to get up from the bench than on the normal route and actually collapses shortly after getting back up on their feet, necessitating Susie to help lead them around. Once Kris breaks away from Susie shortly after, they collapse once again.
• Susie expresses concern for both Kris and Noelle, noting how they have been acting strange.
• Unlike the normal route, ocean loops until entering the Dark World, overlapping wind_highplace after leaving the lake area.

Dark World

New dialogue options with Susie at the hot springs of Flower Castle

• After meeting Ralsei in the Garden, he is ecstatic that Kris is okay.
• During the Chapter's Dark World segments, Kris's title is changed to "Shattered Rose", with the description "Only one knows the rose's meaning." Getting a "Walkerstar" will switch it, however.
• At Flower Castle's Left End, Susie can question the events that transpired from Chapter 4.
• Also at the Left End, choosing "Walk over and see Susie normally" and then "..." after Susie asks Kris if they have ever liked anyone, will prompt the music to cut and Susie to talk about how she thought Kris and Noelle were a couple due to the events prior in the route. Susie will then ask if she is getting in the way of Kris and Noelle's relationship. Selecting "Don't get inbetween me and Noelle" will cause Kris to jump into the water after "Don't" as to not to finish the sentence.
• The Berdly rubber duck is absent in the BromideF illustration.

Creation and development

The Thank you survey teased a screenshot of Kris facing away from the lake for any correct answer.

Gallery

• 
  1st face sprite of Noelle when she starts submerging
• 
  2nd sprite
• 
  3rd sprite
• 
  4th sprite
• 
  5th sprite
• 
  6th sprite
• 
  7th sprite, notably the darkest
• 
  8th and final sprite
• 
  Unused 9th sprite
• 
  Noelle looking out over the lake
• 
  Noelle glancing back at Kris

Unused "old" face sprites

Alternate, unused face sprites for Noelle submerging herself in the lake labelled as "old" exist in the files of the game. Four of these differ from the final sprites in meaningful ways. Notably, Noelle sinks gradually lower in each sprite, something that does not happen in the final sprites. In addition, air bubbles appear in the sprites, and the last two sprites become darker than any of the final sprites.

• 
  "Old" version of the 6th sprite
• 
  "Old" version of the 7th sprite
• 
  "Old" version of the 8th sprite
• 
  "Old" version of the 9th sprite

Trivia

• Deleting the appended "_b" on the end of the completion file and launching it will result in a Dogcheck due to room_beach not being in the game's list of allowed rooms to load a save file into. Disabling Dogcheck returns the player to the prologue.
  • Debug Mode allows the player to actually load the file, putting them on the beach from before the cutscene with Noelle started.