Zapper

Hey! Youse ain't supposed to be back here!

Zapper, Chapter 3

Zappers (JP: ザッパー) are Darkner enemies and NPCs in Chapter 3 of Deltarune. They act as bouncers in TV World, tasked to guard certain doors and punish rulebreakers.

Profile

Appearance

Zappers are tall Darkners that resemble television remote controls. They have long navy blue heads with a red light on the top of them. They do not have any facial features, though they can still blush. They wear a navy blue suit that has six triangular buttons in the middle of it, three red, three white. They have white shoulder pads and red gloves. They seem to only have one leg, or have their legs held together. Their animation in battle depicts them jumping in place, which may be a visual pun on their role as "bouncers".

Susie holding a TV remote control

Zappers are implied to be TV remote controls in the Light World.

Personality

There are two types of Zapper personalities. One type speaks in an approximation of a New York accent, replacing "the" with "da", "this" with "dis", and "you" with "youse" in their dialect. They are quite dim-witted yet strong. The other type appear as more "refined" or sanitized, lacking the accent and explaining things like the lettered doors in the Green Room to the party. Both show the utmost respect towards Tenna until the end of the Chapter where they refuse to fight, either thinking the Lightners are too kind or being too scared to fight.

Etymology

"Zapper" is slang for a TV remote control, as remotes are often seen as "zapping" signals through the air to affect a TV. A "zapper" is also a term for a person who uses a remote to change the TV channel to avoid watching commercials.

Main story

Chapter 3

A Zapper silhouette

Zappers appear in various locations throughout TV World. Initially, outlined silhouettes of Zappers appear in the couch cliffs area. Most of them are unmoving, though in the room left of Chapter 3's initial starting point, one of them sneezes after a few seconds pass.

The first Zapper that can be physically seen and interacted with appears in the pre-show area, explaining achievable ranks to the party.

A Zapper after having his button pushed

Within the Green Room, one Zapper guards the east door leading to the Cold Place, under Tenna's orders. This Zapper must leave for the party to proceed after the Island Board, which can be done by either pressing his buttons twice, which causes him to leave, or ignoring him, which causes him to initiate battle. The first time his buttons are pressed, he sneezes, which turns off the player's screen and teleports the party to the red carpet hall of the Green Room.

One Zapper mans the station at the start of the ABC-Rank rewards room, where it explains the ranks achieved and which areas are accessible to the party. If the party earned a Z-rank, it forbids them from entering the normal doors but opens the pathway that leads to the Z-rank changing room. Two Zappers are present in the C-rank room, drinking water. Once the Watercooler is defeated, the Zappers will notice and say that the water is scarce now. The one to the right gives a hint that the oasis of the Desert Board can be drained by interacting with it 8 (technically 9) times.

A Zapper getting deceived by a counterfeit S-rank

One Zapper guards the entrance of the S-rank changing room. This Zapper lets Kris in if the party got at least an S-rank on the boards or if they bought the counterfeit S-rank from a Pippins, which resembles a Cool S.

A Zapper in the red carpet hall of the Green Room is good friends with a Pippins, despite Pippins usually being rulebreakers. After the completion of the Island Board, he worries that his Pippins friend might turn to stone due to the Pippins originating from Card Castle. Contradicting with his prediction, the Pippins remains unaffected and the Zapper himself turns to stone after the end of Round 3 of TV Time, likely due to being stolen from the Cattenheimer household. The Pippins worries for his Zapper friend and urges Kris to seal the Dreemurr residence Fountain.

During an encounter against Tenna and a Zapper for Round 3 of TV Time, the Zapper's unique ability to turn off the screen is utilized by the party in order to escape from Tenna's imprisonment. They teleport into a pile of gachapon capsules at the entrance of TV World.

A Zapper asking for permission to join the sneak party

After escaping from Tenna in Round 3, various Zappers in TV World's backstage areas stop the party whenever they are caught by a stoplight in stealth zones. They appear in the form of outlined silhouettes in the darkness, then bounce into appearance and jail the party. The prisons the party is put in are ineffective and easy to break out of. One Zapper stops the party during their escape in TV World, before saying it does not want to be there either and joining them for the remainder of the stealth section; this event does not occur if Shadowguy, Pippins, and/or Zapper are LOST.

One Zapper stops the party if they step in the light near the edge of TV World. It asks Kris if they are "a cheater". Selecting "I'm a cheater" triggers further dialogue of the Zapper saying "Now, honesty, that'll take you somewhere", then asking Kris where they want to go. If they pick "Nowhere", Zapper refers to Kris by name and the OffButton ACT animation plays. This sends Kris alone to a room part of the Chapter 3 Egg puzzle. Kris can talk to the Zapper at any time to teleport back to the Green Room.

Chapter 4

If Zappers are recruited to Castle Town, one appears in the town square in a cleaning contest against a Swatchling. A Rabbick is cheering for the Swatchling, while a Ribbick is cheering for the Zapper. A particular Zapper is one of three Mike impersonators, assuming the role of Cowboy Hat Mike.

In battle

Appears with

• Another Zapper
• Tenna (bonus round encounter)
• Shuttah

The duo Zapper encounter can only occur once, if the Zapper in the Green Room was dismissed by pushing its buttons instead of fighting.

Attacks

• Laser: Slow-moving, white-colored laser beams are shot from the Zapper's head. When touching the bottom or top of the bullet board, they bounce off of the bottom or top and become red- or blue-colored, respectively.
• Cannon: Zapper bows and its hat opens like a cannon. It shoots barrages of seven diamonds at the SOUL.

Strategy

Several conditions allow for Zapper to be spared:

• VolumeUp increases mercy by 25% for one Zapper and greatly increases TP gain along with bullet size for one turn, making the below ACTs easier to use.
• Mute costs 32% TP. It makes every enemy TIRED and increases mercy for one Zapper by 75%.
• OffButton costs 100% TP and uses Susie's and Ralsei's turns, but instantly spares every enemy.
  • In the Tenna encounter, using OffButton teleports the party out of the gachapon bubbles, making this the only way to progress.
• S-Action and R-Action both increase mercy by 25%.
• Sparing when its name is not yellow increases mercy by 10% for one Zapper.
• If Zapper is encountered in battle with a Shuttah, any photo ACT increases mercy by the same amount that Shuttah's mercy increases by.

Quotes

• Hoofah doofah. [Neutral]
• Yeah, yeah, Mr. Tenna's orders. [Neutral]
• Yeah, yeah, show your ID! [Neutral]
• Deez buttons ain't for show, twerps. [Neutral]
• CAN SOMEONE TURN THAT BACK DOWN? [VolumeUp, Zapper #1]
• WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!! [VolumeUp, Zapper #2]
• TURN IT UP?? OKAY, YOU DA BOSS! [VolumeUp, Zapper #3; unused]
• <blank speech bubble> [If Mute was used the previous turn]
• D-don't touch that, you's! [S-Action]
• Hey, I can see da music.! [R-Action]
• My buttons... pushed. [Sharpshoot response; unused]

Bonus round

• [OffButton]
  • [Tenna] H-huh!?
  • [Tenna] Susie...? Kris...? Hey...? HEY!!!
  • [Tenna] DON'T TELL ME YOU DIDN'T LIKE YOUR CUSTOM MADE TOY BALLS!?
  • [Tenna] Hey, Mike?
  • [Tenna] Could you, uh, cancel my 4am shock therapy session?
  • [Tenna] 'Cause it looks like it's happening right now.
  • [Tenna] ALL HANDS ON DECK!!! EVERYONE FIND THE LIGHTNERS!!!

Flavor text

Normal

• "Hoofer", "Clicker-Clacker", any name, it'll do the work. [Check]
• Zapper blocked the way! [Encounter]
• Zappers blocked the way! [Encounter with another Zapper]
• It's an infrared photo shoot. [Encounter with Shuttah]
• Zapper clicks and clacks, zip and zaps. [Neutral]
• Zapper quickly presses the buttons on its chest. [Neutral]
• Zapper keeps just popping all night long. [Neutral]
• Zapper checks if Tenna is watching. [Neutral]
• [VolumeUp]
  • You turned up the volume!
  • 
  • ...
  • The bullets increased in volume, too...! (But, they'll give more TP!)
• The bullets increased in volume! Try getting close to gather TP! [Subsequent uses of VolumeUp]
• [Mute]
  • You hit the MUTE button!
  • ...
  • All foes became TIRED!
• You hit the OFF button! [OffButton]
• Susie mashed random buttons! [S-Action]
• Ralsei enabled captions! [R-Action]
• Zapper's seeing visions of Lanino. [Tired]
• Zapper's buttons feel mushy. [Low HP]
• Zapper blushes in infrared, too. [Spare conditions met]

Bonus round

• When it changes channels, who knows where you'll end up? [Check]
• [VolumeUp]
  • You turned up the volume!
  • 
  • ...
  • The bullets increased in volume, too...! (But, they'll give more TP!)

Gallery

• 
  A Zapper quickly sneaking in TV World's Third Stealth Zone
• 
  A Zapper turned to stone
• 
  Zapper's cannon attack
• 
  An unused image of a Zapper searching for the party

Trivia

• The sound effects heard upon using an S-Action against a Zapper are snd_damage and a distorted, truncated version of snd_fountain_make. The latter sound effect is typically used upon a Dark Fountain's creation.
• A Zapper is supposed to have a 10% chance of appearing together with dancing Shadowguys and Pippins in the Cooking Show room, at the right side of either the top or the bottom row. However, due to a bug in the code, this does not happen.
• In some unused battles, Zapper can appear with Swatchling, Ribbick, Shadowguy, two Shadowguys, or Shadowguy and Shuttah.