True Pacifist Route

The True Pacifist Route is one of the endings of Undertale. This can be considered the "true ending," as it leads to a happy conclusion and the complete credits. It can only be achieved after completing a Neutral Route, and if the protagonist does not kill any monsters.
== Method ==
If the protagonist spares Flowey, he appears after the Neutral Route phone call. He provides a hint on how to earn the True Pacifist Ending, excluding an aborted Genocide Route attempt. If Flowey was killed, the game immediately returns to the Start Menu. The protagonist can then reload their SAVE file to fulfill any missing requirements as long as they have not gained any EXP/LOVE. Otherwise, they must reset their game. Note that killing Asgore or Flowey does not acquire any EXP.
The list of requirements is as follows:
# Defeat Asgore and Photoshop Flowey, completing a Neutral Route. It is possible to combine this with the following steps 2-6 requirements, then backtrack after defeating Asgore and reloading the SAVE file.
# Throughout the game, never kill any monsters or gain any EXP/LV. Only use non-lethal encounter exits, which can range from: MERCY options, such as spare and fleeing, battle-ending ACTs, or items.
#* FIGHTing monsters, killing the Dummy in the Ruins, or attacking Mad Mew Mew when she can be spared does not cause this route to be aborted, as they do not accrue EXP.
#* If a monster was accidentally killed, the protagonist can reload their SAVE file.
# After fighting Papyrus, visit his house and complete the date/hangout with him.
# After Undyne passes out from pursuing the protagonist, get a cup of water from the nearby water cooler and pour it on her.
#* Leaving the room while she is still passed out aborts the True Pacifist Route, as she disappears from her spot when coming back. Papyrus appears in front of her house and tells the protagonist that she got heat stroke, and they cannot hang out with her.
# Return to Waterfall and go to Undyne's House. If done correctly, Papyrus should be waiting outside. Talk to him to enter the house, then complete the "cooking lesson", dinner, and faux battle with Undyne.
#* If Photoshop Flowey and Mettaton EX have previously been defeated, she immediately gives the protagonist her letter. If their inventory is full, she waits to give it to them outside Papyrus's house.
#* Otherwise, go through Hotland and the CORE. In Mettaton EX's fight, get the ratings to 10,000 (12,000 if Mettaton still has legs) to end the battle peacefully. This includes using Alphys's phone upgrade to shoot at his heart during some of his combat rounds.
# Backtrack out of the CORE towards the MTT Resort, to the bridge connecting the two places. Undyne calls the protagonist there to ask if they can deliver a letter for her. This phone call can also be triggered in several other locations if the most recent SAVE is outside of the CORE and New Home.
# Talk to Undyne outside of Papyrus's house to receive Undyne's Letter.
#* If the protagonist discards the letter, they can return to Undyne to receive Undyne's Letter EX, which cannot be discarded.
# Put the letter under the door of Alphys's Lab and complete the "date" with her.
# Upon leaving the Garbage Dump after Alphys's date, Papyrus calls and tells the protagonist to meet Alphys at her lab. Return to Alphys's Lab to find a note leading to her "bathroom," which is an elevator leading to the True Lab. The elevator suddenly breaks down while descending, forcing the protagonist to continue through to the True Pacifist ending at this point.
# Find the four keys scattered throughout the True Lab and put them in their proper slots to open the generator room. Turn on the generator to trigger a conversation with Alphys. Head back to the elevator near the generator room to be warped to New Home, with the exit blocked off by vines. This signals that the True Pacifist Ending will occur. It is impossible to leave New Home after this point.
== Main Story ==
=== Completing Friendships ===
* If Papyrus has not been befriended, backtrack to his house in Snowdin, where he is standing outside. Interact with him to initiate the date/hangout.
* If Undyne has not been befriended, backtrack to her house in Waterfall, where Papyrus is standing outside. Interact with Papyrus to initiate the hangout.
=== Befriending Alphys ===
At the entrance to the CORE, Undyne calls the protagonist to ask them to deliver her letter to Alphys.
If Undyne was not befriended in the Pacifist-Neutral Route, and the protagonist returns to Undyne's house after defeating Asgore, she gives the protagonist the letter immediately after befriending her. She says that Papyrus suggested giving the protagonist the letter earlier, but that Undyne still hated them at the time.
After delivering the letter to Alphys, she mistakes the letter as being from the protagonist and goes on a date with them.
During Alphys's date, the two go to the Garbage Dump. They bump into Undyne, who decided to deliver the letter herself. Alphys tells Undyne some truths about her "scientific" work, which was just her laying around, watching anime, and reading manga. Undyne expresses her support for Alphys, sending her off to train with Papyrus. She then confronts the protagonist about anime, asking if it is real. Regardless of the protagonist's response, Undyne thanks them for the information, and the event ends.
After the date, Papyrus calls the protagonist and specifically instructs them to go to Alphys's lab, citing no reason other than a "good feeling" he claims to have.
=== True Lab ===
Arriving at the lab, the protagonist finds a note from Alphys, in which she declares she is going to "face her own mistakes." The note tells the reader to enter what was previously thought to be Alphys's bathroom to discover the truth in case Alphys does not return.
The protagonist enters the door, which leads to an elevator. They take the elevator down to the True Lab, but it loses power and malfunctions, leaving them stuck in the lab. Exploring the lab, they find logs from long ago, detailing Alphys's experiments with SOULs and determination to allow monster SOULs to persist after the body turns to dust. Injecting determination into the monsters who had "fallen down" woke them up, to which Alphys comes to believe that they turned out okay despite her disappointment that the experiment failed to get the desired results. However, the experiment went wrong, and the monsters melted and turned into Amalgamates - fusions of several monsters. Several of these amalgamates attack the protagonist, but the protagonist appeases and spares them. The protagonist sees the determination extractor, resembling part of Flowey's form during his boss battle in the Neutral Route, and they learn that Alphys did some experiments with Golden Flowers, which produced a single living specimen, Flowey, who escaped.
Further in the True Lab, the protagonist enters a room with a television and a VHS player. Inspecting the television allows the protagonist to view five different VHS tapes. The tapes reveal Asriel's interactions with the fallen human, and their plan to break the barrier with seven human SOULs, including the fallen human's.
After collecting all the keys, the protagonist switches the power on, restoring power to the elevators. Some Amalgamates appear but Alphys stops them, apologizing that they can be aggressive due to hunger. She further explains that the monsters' bodies could not handle the determination, and thus melted together. Alphys thanks the protagonist for their support and declares to the Amalgamates that they will return home.
Alphys leaves the True Lab, and the protagonist returns to one of the elevators. They receive a call from someone they do not recognize. The voice, implied to be Asriel, calls the protagonist by the name given to the fallen human at the beginning of the game, and tells them that "everything has fallen into place" and that they will "see you soon."
The elevator appears to malfunction and lands the protagonist at the entrance to New Home. Vines jam the elevator shut.
=== The Barrier ===
: Before the barrier, it is witnessed that the vines shut off the entrance to the elevator the protagonist came from. While traveling through Asgore's Home, non-combative enemies do not appear, and Sans does not judge the protagonist in the Last Corridor.
At the barrier, the protagonist confronts Asgore. As they prepare to fight, Toriel arrives, incapacitates Asgore, and consoles the protagonist. After reprimanding Asgore for his actions, even going as far as to give him a simpler way to retrieve human SOULs, she is shortly later followed by Sans, Papyrus, Undyne, and Alphys, who all begin to chat. To Alphys's surprise and horror, Papyrus reveals that a "tiny flower" helped him call everybody to the Throne Room.
Flowey arrives and traps the other monsters in vines. He then thanks the protagonist for bringing them all to one spot, saying that he absorbed the six human SOULs while the protagonist's friends were chatting, claiming he will absorb them all as well to achieve his "real form." He then reveals his true motive for causing the protagonist so much trouble - to keep them playing the "game" so that they can "play" with him forever. He gives the protagonist a chance to face him, promising to return everyone's SOULs and break the barrier if they win. As if to deny them even this, he plans to keep them trapped before mercilessly attacking them, saying he is willing to "kill them 1,000,000 times" to prove his point. Before delivering the final blow, the protagonist's friends protect them from Flowey's attacks while both healing and encouraging them to win. Shortly afterward, many of the monsters that the protagonist spared throughout the game arrive, healing the protagonist, cheering them on and seemingly putting Flowey off guard. However, he suddenly laughs at them for their "stupidity" and absorbs all of their SOULs.
The protagonist sees that Flowey is now a young Boss Monster in a striped shirt, similar in appearance to Toriel and Asgore. He calls the protagonist by <Name>, then transforms into an older, more powerful-looking monster, introducing himself as Asriel Dreemurr. Asriel attacks the protagonist; if the protagonist's HP reaches 0 and their SOUL breaks, the message "But it refused." appears as the SOUL reforms through determination and fully restores its health. After this happens once, the SOUL simply reforms, and the protagonist returns to the battle.
After a certain amount of turns, Asriel attacks with an attack called "Hyper Goner," which resembles a goat skull, inhaling bullets and the SOUL until the screen turns white. The protagonist's HP is left at one after this attack if they get hit. Surprised at the protagonist's amount of determination, Asriel reveals that he was only using a fraction of his real power.
Asriel then transforms into a more powerful form of himself, threatening to reset the world's timeline, restraining the protagonist and preventing them from doing anything except struggling. The protagonist realizes that while they cannot SAVE their game, they can save the monsters' SOULs, transforming the ACT option into the SAVE option. They reach out to their friends' SOULs and bring them back by restoring their memories. After saving all their friends, the protagonist begins to save Asriel himself and sees memories of him befriending the first human. The protagonist's friends' SOULs resonate within Asriel; he begins to cry, and his fire attacks start avoiding the protagonist's SOUL. He begs the protagonist and refers to them by <Name>, to let him win and attacks them with his strongest attack, causing all the protagonist's options to be wiped out leading to the SAVE option being the only way to use the protagonist's turn. The protagonist survives with their HP reduced to one ten-billionth of one point, and then saves Asriel, returning him to his form as a child.
Asriel apologizes to the protagonist, and acknowledges that they are not actually <Name>, the fallen human. He tells them that the first human has been gone for a long time, and asks them for their real name, which is revealed to be "Frisk." Asriel tells Frisk that the monsters' SOULs allowed him to feel their emotions and desires - their love for Frisk and their desire for freedom, respectively. He expects Frisk not to forgive him for everything that happened, but they can choose to anyway, surprising Asriel. Using the six humans' SOULs and the monsters' SOULs along with their determination, Asriel destroys the barrier.
Asriel returns the SOULs and tells Frisk that without everyone's SOULs, he will eventually return to a flower. He asks them to forget about him and leave, but Frisk has the option to console Asriel, causing Frisk to approach and hug him. After this decision, Asriel leaves.
=== Epilogue ===
Frisk wakes up in the room behind the Throne Room, much to the relief of their friends, who all know Frisk's name, but do not remember much about what just happened. Toriel encourages Frisk to do as they wish, whether that be heading for the Surface or going for a walk back through the Underground to see the rest of their friends before they go. The monsters inform Frisk that they will follow Frisk to the surface when they are ready.
Frisk can go through the Underground and talk to NPCs, including the several monsters encountered only during battle. They express their feelings, often about being free at last. In the beginning area with the golden flowers, Asriel can be found tending the flowers and can be talked to.
=== The End ===
Leaving for the Surface by crossing through the Delta Rune arch ends the game.
Frisk and their friends watch the sunset on Mount Ebott's cliff. Thinking about the future, Asgore asks Frisk if they would act as the monsters' ambassador to the humans.
Papyrus leaves to make a good first impression on the humans, having declared himself the mascot or ambassador depending on Frisk's decision. Sans retreats to the Underground to use a shortcut, to ensure he does not have to check on Papyrus, while Undyne leaves to help Papyrus, followed by Alphys and Asgore.
With everybody else gone, Toriel asks Frisk what they will do now. The protagonist can choose to stay with Toriel or not, and their decision affects the post-credits scene.
After Toriel and Frisk leave the screen, the True Pacifist Ending Credits starts. The names of many monsters that can be encountered in the game scroll down in a list ordered by area of encounter, interspersed with more developed main character animations. After this, a final bullet hell introduced by Asriel is initiated. This section includes the names of Kickstarter backers, and if all of the names are dodged, the Mysterious Door is unlocked.
After the credits, if Frisk is staying with Toriel, another scene plays, showing them in their new home on the Surface. If Frisk responds that they "have places to go," Toriel ends her conversation with Frisk. "See you around." As Toriel leaves, Frisk turns north and does not watch her. After the True Pacifist Ending Credits, a sepia photo of Frisk and their monster friends is shown. The Annoying Dog appears on the ending screen after some time. The player can do nothing except quit.
 True Pacifist Route screenshot ending.png | "I want to stay with you."
 True Pacifist Route screenshot ending photo.png | "I have places to go."
 True Pacifist Ending Credits screenshot dodge everything.png | The text that appears after dodging every name.
If the player reopens the game, Flowey speaks to either the player or the first human, telling them that "there's nothing left to worry about." He points out that they are the only threat left, as they have the power to reset everything. He then asks them not to reset the game, which would return everybody to when they were trapped underground, and asks them to let Frisk go. Flowey then tells them that if they still wish to reset the game, they need to erase Flowey's memories as well. Believing they might have heard this a hundred times already, Flowey says his goodbyes to <Name>.
The game's Start Menu has none of Frisk's friends, as they have all left. The Start Menu music is a significantly slowed-down version, giving an ominous tone. The player can load their SAVE, which takes place before the ending, and they can replay the credits and the special thanks from there, though Asriel does not appear. The menu's reset option is replaced with "True Reset"; this allows the player to rename the fallen human. Choosing a name erases most data from the undertale.ini file; exceptions are limited to border data on console versions and the special thanks-dodging flag.
== Post-Genocide Game ==
After the protagonist completes the Genocide Route and restores the world after erasing it, several things are significantly altered.
* If the protagonist chooses "I have places to go" when Toriel asks, the picture in the credits shows all of the characters' faces crossed out, and the protagonist is replaced with the sprite of the first human.
* If the protagonist chooses "I want to stay with you", after Toriel leaves the pie in the room, within four seconds, Frisk would turn in the bed to face the screen, only to reveal the first human's face with red eyes. A low-pitched version of Flowey's laugh plays, and the screen cuts to black.
* The Annoying Dog does not appear to sleep under THE END after the credits.
* The "THE END" text is displayed in red instead of white.
* On the end screen, Anticipation plays at a slower speed than in Genocide Route, whereas Memory would usually play at normal speed.
 True Pacifist Route screenshot Soulless ending.png | "I want to stay with you."
 True Pacifist Route screenshot Soulless ending photo.png | "I have places to go."
== Trivia ==
* Inspecting Alphys's trash can after the date reveals she received another letter afterwards. The letter has "strange handwriting," and implies the writer knows Alphys's past.
* The narration for the sudden Cell Phone call on the elevator is distinct. It lacks the typical overworld dialogue sound, has spacing between the letters, and the letters are displayed at a slower pace.
* The voice the protagonist has "never heard before" is Asriel's God of Hyperdeath and Final Form soundbyte.
** However, Flowey is his usual self until he absorbs the SOULs. It is implied he mimicked his past self's voice for the call.
* The monsters that appear on screen to encourage the protagonist before the Asriel battle are as follows, from left to right: Muffet, Royal Guard 01, Froggit, Greater Dog, Monster Kid, Vulkin, Shyren, and Snowdrake.
* Only in the True Pacifist Route does the player learn the protagonist's name, Frisk.
** Naming the fallen human "Frisk" at the beginning of the game activates Hard Mode.
* At the end of the True Pacifist Route, Napstablook is the only known monster whose SOUL was not absorbed by Asriel. Due to this, Napstablook is also the last monster to learn Frisk's name.
* During the epilogue in the Nintendo Switch version, Clam Girl has different dialogue if the fun value is exactly 81. She states that the time to meet an unseen character named "Suzy" "is fast approaching." As she says this, the song Reunited stops playing, and her sprite turns greyscale, similar to the Gaster's Followers. Clam Girl disappears after the dialogue advances, with the same sound used for Gaster Follower 2 and the Mystery Man.
** The Nintendo Switch version of Undertale was released on September 18, 2018, about one month before the release of Deltarune, October 31, 2018. One of Deltarune's main characters is named Susie.
* If the protagonist chooses to stay with Toriel, the room they are seen sleeping in bears strong similarities to Ness's room in EarthBound; the rooms are a similar shade of blue, the bed is kept to the far right, the door to the far left, and the window, lamp, and dresser are kept to the back of the room.
* If the True Pacifist Route has been completed before, Sans's Workshop contains a photo of the protagonist "standing with Sans and all [their] friends". This is likely the picture shown at the end if the protagonist chooses not to stay with Toriel.
* The scrapped UNDERTALE Alarm Clock App dialogue is implied to take place after the True Pacifist Route.
* There was a glitch in which the protagonist could fight and kill enemies in the CORE before receiving Undyne's Letter. This glitch allowed the protagonist to reach this ending even after gaining EXP and LOVE. This was patched in version 1.001.
* There was a glitch where if the spacebar was pressed when Alphys and Undyne were standing close to each other, after the faux Asgore battle, their kissing animation would start very early. This was patched in version 1.001.
== References ==
de:Wahre Pazifisten-Route
es:Ruta Pacifista Verdadera
fi:Pasifistireitti
fr:‎Route Pacifiste
ja:True Pacifist Route
pl:‎Prawdziwa Pacyfistyczna Ścieżka
pt-br:A Verdadeira Rota Pacífica
ru:Истинный Пацифистский путь
uk:Істинний Пацифістський Шлях
vi:Lối chơi Pacifist
zh:完美路線