Weird Route

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

If Kris tells me to do it...
I can do things I could never do before.
Isn't it a good thing?
... I'm getting stronger.
...
As long as I... just do what they say.

Noelle, Chapter 2'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 with 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. The route becomes possible to attain upon Noelle joining the party in Cyber City, and involves backtracking with her in order to freeze as many enemies as possible using her IceShock ability, and acquiring route-exclusive weapons in order to facilitate this. Until Chapter 4, the game is locked onto the Weird Route after Berdly is frozen at the end of his second encounter in Cyber City, which drastically alters the final area of the Chapter and replaces the final battles with Queen with a battle of Kris alone against Spamton NEO.

Chapter 3

While the Weird Route does not progress in Chapter 3, there are minor changes as a result of completing the route in Chapter 2:

• Even if the PuppetScarf is in the inventory or equipped to a party member, Spamton does not appear upon opening the blue wardrobe in TV World's Bonus Zone. The scene continues as if neither the Dealmaker nor the PuppetScarf was obtained, and ends with the Pipis being obtainable.
• At the Cold Place, if Kris tells Ralsei that they will be going to the festival with Noelle instead of Susie, Ralsei states that it is a "bad choice" before backtracking.
• The Shadow Mantle holder remarks that a part of Kris must have "enjoyed yesterday" before the final battle of the Sword Route.
• 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.

Additionally, the Original Game, which is accessible regardless of the route taken in Chapter 2, features direct references to the Weird Route; many of these seem to hint at to how to pursue the route.

• In the Ice Palace, HERO_SWORD recruits the White Cloak, who resembles a pixelated version of Noelle's Dark World appearance. Internally, she is known as obj_board_enemy_deer, solidifying her connection to Noelle.
  • White Cloak's ice magic is used to freeze enemies in the Ice Palace (including a blue bird) into hexagonal blocks of ice that resemble the one that Berdly is frozen in during the Chapter 2 Weird Route.
• The Ice Palace contains a room with the text "THE FORBIDDEN PATH BEGAN WITH ICE MAGIC", alluding to how the Weird Route must be initiated beforehand in Chapter 2, and the importance of Noelle's powers to the route.
• 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.

Chapter 4

Main article: Weird Route/Chapter 4

The Weird Route continues in Chapter 4. It can only be continued by starting with completion data from Chapter 2.

Most major changes in this Chapter center around the events in the Light World, when Kris and Susie visit Noelle's House. During this visit, Noelle asks to speak to Kris privately, whereupon she tries to talk about the events of Chapter 2 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

The Weird Route continues from the very start of Chapter 5, dramatically altering the course of the story.

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' hands and walks backwards into the lake. Regardless of if the player selects "Stop" or "Proceed," Noelle and Kris will keep walking into the lake, eventually overwriting "Stop" with "Proceed" as well. As the two begin drowning and the screen starts fading into white, Noelle screams at Kris to keep saying "Proceed," as Kris repeating the phrase seemingly keeps both of them alive. The deeper into the lake the two are, the faster the choice prompt appears and lasts for a shorter time. Choosing "Proceed" fast enough is necessary to postpone the fade to white. Eventually the screen will cut to black and a CRT display appears with the words "Insert Chapter 7 Side B". This 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.

The route can seemingly be aborted if the Player does not proceed fast enough once Kris and Noelle are underwater. Notably, however, snd_ominous_cancel is never played.

The game then apparently jumps back in time, continuing the normal route from the moment when Susie, Kris and Noelle are sitting at the table, but their interactions are interspersed with black screens of Noelle internally lamenting that "Nothing changed" and that "Noelle is just a Noelle".

It is later revealed that the Weird Route events at the lake up until that point did, in fact, still take place, with Susie noticing that something was amiss. "Aborting" the Weird Route this way causes some minor changes through the Chapter;

• 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.ogg loops until entering the Dark World, overlapping wind_highplace.ogg after leaving the lake area. Susie has to help Kris get up multiple times at the lake.
• 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.
• Further in the Chapter, after the "Castle - Left End" SAVE point, selecting "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.
• While the internal flag associated with aborting the Weird Route (flag 916) is still set to 1, another previously unused flag is set (flag 1743), which is the flag that determines if these changes occur or not.

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.

Because attempting to abort the route during the sequence in Chapter 5 does not play snd_ominous_cancel, 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.

Name

This path is officially named "Side B" after the events of Chapter 5. Prior to that, the name "Weird Route" is also used in the names of several objects and variables in-game, such as the object gml_Object_obj_weirdroute_manipulator, and was also alluded to by Susie in route-exclusive dialogue. Deltarune developer Fred Wood consistently referred to the route as the "Weird Route".

Several other names are also used:

• "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.

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.

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 may be 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.
• The Chapter 5 page contains the numbers 1 to 5 at different sizes. These numbers may represent the relevance of the Weird Route to each Chapter.
  • 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 route's distinction from the Weird Route.
  • 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.

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.

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 Dog Dollar and Egg in Chapter 2 cannot be obtained.

Rouxls Kaard blocks the entrance to the 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 cannot be spared meaning the Dealmaker cannot be obtained.

Since the Chapter 5 Dark World is skipped on the Weird Route, items exclusive to the Chapter 5 Dark World, including its Shadow Crystal, cannot be obtained.

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 crying 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 and no flavor text is displayed on interacting with objects until Susie begins following Kris.