Wrist Protector

(You found something shining in the dark.)

Wrist Protector collection narration, Chapter 1

The Wrist Protector (JP: リストバンド wristband) is a removed mechanic exclusive to the demo version of Deltarune's Chapter 1. It was an item that could be found in the first room of the unknown cliffs area. After obtaining it, textboxes could be skipped by holding the "[MENU]" button, intended for people speedrunning the game.

The Wrist Protector would only appear if Kris entered the Dark World less than 8 minutes after a new game was started. This could be done either by completing the introductory school sequence as fast as possible, or by going back to sleep in Kris's bed to reach the unknown area immediately (an option only available if Chapter 1 has already been completed at least once). If Kris stays in the room containing the Wrist Protector without collecting it as the 8-minute mark elapses, it despawns upon a screen transition.

When obtained, this text appears: "("Even in a rush, you need to take care of yourself.")" This is because the feature protects the player's wrist from potential injury by reducing the number of hand motions used to skip large amounts of text.

While the Wrist Protector is found and acquired as though it were an item, it does not appear in the inventory.

Starting with the Chapter 1&2 Demo, and continuing into the full release, textbox skipping is a default feature. The Wrist Protector cannot be found regardless of how fast the first room of the unknown area is reached.

Trivia

• The idea of a Wrist Protector may come from Toby Fox experiencing wrist injuries.
• A Chapter 1 SAVE file made with the SURVEY_PROGRAM demo allows the player to obtain the Wrist Protector and does not enable text skipping by default until entering Chapter 2, even when opened with the Chapter 1&2 demo. This is because the flag for text skipping is only set when entering a Chapter initially, thus not adding it to existing save files.
• After taking the Wrist Protector, if Kris interacts with the area that once held the item, the dialogue "(Nothing.)" appears.
• In Undertale's debug mode, there was a feature accessed by hex editing that allowed the player to skip text using the menu key as well. It is likely that this was made an actual gameplay feature due to the convenience and ease-of-access.