W. D. Gaster

W. D. Gaster was the Royal Scientist before Alphys, and was stated to have irreplaceable brilliance. Gaster's Followers imply that he created the CORE and has disappeared. During normal gameplay, W. D. Gaster is typically unmentioned. Despite this, River Person, rare Fun Value events, and certain Inaccessible Rooms hint at his existence. This includes Room 264, named room_gaster.
In particular, Gaster's Followers relay Gaster's implied fate. One iteration says that he "fell into his creation," the second states that "his experiments went wrong," and the third claims he was "shattered across time and space." Similar to Sans and Papyrus, W. D. Gaster's dialogue uses a unique typeface, named Wingdings.
== Profile ==
=== Appearance ===
W. D. Gaster does not have an officially known form, but there are several rooms and unused assets found in Waterfall that point to what he may have looked like.
==== Room 268 and 269 ====
In Room 269 (room_mysteryman), a figure (spr_mysteryman) widely believed to be Gaster can be found. The figure is black and white with a distorted, cracked face. Unlike every other NPC, they have no collision physics, and interacting with them causes them to react in surprise and vanish while a sound effect plays.
This room can only be accessed when the game's fun value (which can be changed by editing file0 and undertale.ini) is set to 66. In this scenario, Room 268 (room_water_fakehallway), a hallway with a 10% chance to contain a gray door, appears between Room 94 (room_water_savepoint1) and Room 95 (room_water11). These are the "Crystal" SAVE Point and Sans's telescope rooms, respectively. The door in the aforementioned hallway leads to Room 269.
Once the protagonist leaves Room 269 back into Room 268, the door disappears from the corridor, though it is possible to exit the room and trigger the door's reappearance, as the fun values do not reset until the protagonist leaves the hall. The corridor itself becomes inaccessible once the protagonist leaves it and all values drop to 0.
Upon attempting to call someone using the Cell Phone in either of these rooms, the default message "There's no response..." appears.
==== Room 123 ====
Room 123 (room_water_prebird) is a removed corridor with tall grass that is presumed to connect Room 99 (room_water_bird), where the Small Bird is located, and Room 116 (room_water_friendlyhub), where the six-way fork in Waterfall is. The characters in this area mention that this corridor is a bug catching spot.
An unknown character on the left side of the tall grass mentions that "there is somebody with a creepy smile behind you." The unseen character presumably disappears after the dialogue is triggered. The character with the "creepy smile" is possibly the Mystery Man seen in Room 269 which may be Gaster, and the evidence supporting this theory lies within the word "smile" in the dialogue, as the track that plays in Entry Number Seventeen is named mus_smile. However, it could also be Flowey (who follows the protagonist throughout the game), Sans, or even the fallen human.
==== Room 272 ====
Room 272 is black and has a ghostly figure (nicknamed "Redacted", as the file name for it is spr_redacted_a) in the middle of it that becomes less transparent as the protagonist approaches. If the protagonist attempts a conversation with the NPC, it returns "* [redacted]" in lowercase Wingdings, which implies that a conversation was planned here but was removed for security purposes.Room 272 Exiting Room 272 leads to the Sound Test Room, where the player can listen to Gaster's Theme.
To access this room and avoid the Annoying Dog error screens, a hexadecimal editor needs to be used to change the "Dogcheck" value.
==== The Stable ====
Inside the game's files are strings of text that implicate a horse stable was planned to be put into the game. There would be a trash can where a key can be found; if the key is brought to the stable, the same figure from Room 272 appears and says "* x" in Wingdings.
== Main Story ==
=== Room 264 ===
In Room 264 (room_gaster), the text below is displayed in uppercase Wingdings. While it appears to be the missing seventeenth lab entry from the True Lab, this could be a red herring, as there was an alternate seventeenth entry in the game's files prior to version 1.001-4, which added Japanese localization. The alternate entry is heavily implied to have been written by Alphys, as it mirrors her entry format, writing style, and correlates with her Determination experiments. Both entries are inaccessible in normal gameplay; Alphys's entry can only be found in the game's text files, and Gaster's entry is only accessible through SAVE manipulation or debug mode. Room 264 immediately follows the generator room in the True Lab.
Transliteration of the Wingdings text is as follows:
* ENTRY NUMBER SEVENTEEN
* DARK DARKER YET DARKER
* THE DARKNESS KEEPS GROWING
* THE SHADOWS CUTTING DEEPER
* PHOTON READINGS NEGATIVE
* THIS NEXT EXPERIMENT
* SEEMS
* VERY
* VERY
* INTERESTING
* ...
* WHAT DO YOU TWO THINK
Once the message ends, the screen turns black for a second before the game closes. The audio that plays during the entry is labeled as "" in the game files. This file can be sped up by 1000% to reveal Muffet's laugh, reversed, and then looped over. An excerpt from Entry Number Seventeen was also available at deltarune.com/him.png from 2015.
=== "The Man who Speaks in Hands" ===
During one of the travels with River Person, they say "Beware of the man who speaks in hands." There is speculation that this alludes to Gaster since the Wingdings typeface used in Entry Number Seventeen (room_gaster) uses hand symbols.
A similar line from the River Person is "Beware of the man who came from the other world." Considering the similarities it shares with the previous quote, it might either refer to Gaster or the monster So Sorry, whose check text reads "This creature is definitely in the wrong time and space!" as well as the file name of So Sorry's theme being mus_wrongworld.
=== Sound Test Room ===
If the Fun Value is 65 and Papyrus has been defeated, there is a 50% chance the player can enter the Sound Test room by going north of the "Box Road" save point in Snowdin Forest (or by exiting Room 272 regardless of Fun Value). This "room" is a menu containing four short, looping songs, including Gaster's Theme; neither of which are used anywhere else in the game. Upon playing Gaster's Theme, the other three songs are unable to be played again even if the player tries to do so. After Gaster's Theme plays for 20 seconds, the text "Thanks for your feedback! Be seeing you soon!" is displayed and either the protagonist is put in the room with the fishing pole in Snowdin Forest or (if the player came from Room 272) the game crashes, suggesting Room 272 was intended to be focused on Gaster.
== Relationships ==
=== Goner Kid ===
There is some inconclusive evidence as to whether Goner Kid is actually related to Gaster. Like Gaster's followers, Goner Kid's sprite has minor differences compared to the monster their sprite is based on. Goner Kid's clothing has a blocky, checkerboard-like pattern, they have a bow or two horns/spines on one side, two lines behind their head, and their eyes have no pupils. However, unlike Gaster's followers, the protagonist's phone works if they attempt to use their cell phone while in the room, and Goner Kid never mentions Gaster's name.
=== Gaster's Followers ===
Gaster's Followers are gray NPCs that are found near the elevators in Hotland when the fun variable is at a certain value. They all resemble certain NPCs in the game but with a few minor differences (excluding Gaster Follower 3, though an NPC in Deltarune resembles themhttps://www.reddit.com/r/Deltarune/comments/9tbs15/we_finally_found_g_follower_3s_corresponding/).
If the protagonist tries to call Papyrus (or Papyrus and Undyne) while in a room with a follower, they only get the line "The phone won't turn on." The protagonist can still attempt to reach Toriel over the phone. The phone works normally after leaving the room.
=== Goner Clam Girl ===
Goner Clam Girl, also known as Clam Goner, is a Waterfall NPC exclusive to the Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S versions of Undertale. If the fun value is exactly 81, Clam Girl has alternate dialogue in the True Pacifist Route epilogue. At the final line of her dialogue, Clam Girl turns into Goner Clam Girl, and the song Reunited stops. She then disappears with the same sound effect as Mystery Man and Gaster Follower 2, which shows a possible connection to Gaster.
=== Sans ===
Sans is presumed to have a connection with W. D. Gaster due to the workshop behind his house and the name of his weapons used in the Genocide Route.
Goner Kid, the NPC that discusses alternate timelines, says, "An umbrella...? But it's not raining." This may relate to the song "It's Raining Somewhere Else" which plays when Sans takes the protagonist out to dinner in the MTT Resort and in his workshop.
The official Undertale Tumblr features a post, written in-character as Sans, that includes the line "besides, it's rude to talk about people that are listening, right?" This quote is similar to a line from Gaster Follower 3.
Room 80 (room_tundra_sansbasement) is a workshop that has four drawers and a strange machine covered up with a curtain. One drawer contains a badge, and another contains a photo album with numerous people that the protagonist does not recognize. If the protagonist has encountered Clam Girl earlier in the route, interacting with the drawer causes a card to slip into the protagonist's view; it displays a poorly drawn picture of 3 people, with the words "don't forget" written on it. The other two drawers causes the protagonist to read the blueprint on the countertop, which is said to be written in unintelligible symbols or handwriting that could potentially be related to W. D. Gaster or Alphys, as she also writes in illegible handwriting, as shown in the note before entering the True Lab.
The note written on the picture with three people is most likely from Sans; Unlike Papyrus, he does not write in his typeface, which can be seen when the protagonist reads the note on his treadmill.
In Room 264 in one of the parts of Gaster's version of Entry Number 17, he says, "WHAT DO YOU TWO THINK". By "two," Gaster may be referring to Sans and Alphys, as it is hinted at the end of the True Pacifist Route that they had a past together and Gaster could be the missing link to where they possibly could have had a relationship.
The broken machine in the room has been said to be unfixable according to Toby Fox. This means that the machine was never meant to be fixed.
Additionally, one of the types of attacks Sans uses against the protagonist during his boss fight in the Genocide Route is called the "Gaster Blaster," suggesting it's connected to W. D. Gaster. If the Genocide Route is aborted by sparing Papyrus and the protagonist interacts with his box of bones, Papyrus says that if he had used his "special attack," he would have "blasted" the protagonist away, but suddenly realizes that he can't find it. The use of the verb "blast" implies a connection to the Gaster Blaster, suggesting that the Gaster Blaster was either Papyrus's missing special attack or was somehow created by Sans from Papyrus's attack.
== Gallery ==
 Mysteryman screenshot upside down.png | Mystery Man sprites upside down, before and after interaction.
 Wingdings sprite.png | The Wingdings font package used in Undertale.
== Trivia ==
* "W. D. Gaster" is presumed to be a combination of the fonts "Wingdings" (the font Entry 17 is written in) and "Aster" (similar to the font Sans snores in during his battle). 
** W. D. Gaster's name could also be a reference to "M.D. Seeger," the alias of Shigeru Miyamoto used in the EarthBound end credits (as "Opening Rock Guitar").MOTHER 2 / EarthBound Factoids & Trivia - STARMEN.NET
* Attempting to name the fallen human "Gaster" causes the game to return to the intro.
** In the PS4 and PS Vita versions, this would cause the game to crash. As of v1.03–4, it simply restarts the game.
* If the protagonist's name is changed to "Gaster" through the SAVE files, the ability to reset becomes unavailable as the game restarts upon clicking the Reset button.
* In the True Lab, if the protagonist does not activate the fans and enters the area where the protagonist encounters Snowdrake's Mother and interacts with the second refrigerator in the room, the narration describes a figure obscured by the fog in the shape of a man. This figure could be Gaster. However, it may simply be the "watching man"The sprite name for this character is spr_watchingman_0. Amalgamate that tucks the protagonist into bed in the True Lab.
** It could also be the "Man" character from Deltarune, as he is described in a similar fashion. The narration also describes another refrigerator as "a tree, ripe with delicious fruit," like those the Man hides behind.
* The voice bites used in Room 264 (snd_wngdng1 through snd_wngdng7) are excerpts from the text-to-speech voices used in abc_123_a, possibly indicating a connection to Toby Fox or other meta-knowledge.
* If Entry Number Seventeen is considered, Gaster is the only individual character to have a unique typeface and soundbite without their face accompanying the text box when he talks. The other main-game examples of a unique soundbite but no dialogue portrait are Mettaton (during his initial form) and the species of Temmie, though they both keep the Determination Mono typeface.
* The figure in Room 272 speaks with an asterisk and in lowercase, similar to Sans. Entry Number Seventeen is written in uppercase and without an asterisk, similar to Papyrus.
* It is possible that Gaster could have created the DT Extraction Machine in the True Lab as Alphys uses blueprints to operate it. These may be the blueprints found in Sans's Workshop.
* On the official Undertale Tumblr, Sans suggests doing research about Shyren's lower body. Shyren's head and body are two different beings, but an optical illusion makes them look like one entity.
** This could relate to the face that shows up on the body of the Mystery Man. Further interpretation could be that the Mystery Man is actually two different monsters or an Amalgamate.
* If Mystery Man is turned upside down, their clothing and hands resemble another face. Notably, before interaction, this face appears to be surprised, but after interaction, it appears calmer, contrary to Mystery Man's surprised expression.
* Mystery Man shares some visual similarities with Uboa from Yume Nikki. This appearance is also shared with Dr. Andonuts from Toby's EarthBound Halloween Hack.
* In the game files, Gaster's Theme is named mus_st_him, unlike the other rooms in the sound test that have their song names explicitly shown (such as mus_st_happytown).
* snd_mysterygo uses the same piano sound as Gaster's Theme.
* Until version 1.001, events related to Gaster were inaccessible unless a SAVE file was edited to have "fun" capitalized to "Fun."
* In a tweet, Toby Fox showed very early concept art for Papyrus. In the same image was a note saying that Papyrus "had a _ named _" with the nouns censored out. It is possible this refers to Gaster, due to the popular theory that Gaster is related to Sans and Papyrus in some way. This note may also refer to the unimplemented character Grandpa Semi.
* The Gaster card is not included in the official Undertale tarot, which indicates that this card is not canon. Toby Fox has also stated the merchandise is not canon.
* Gaster's Theme is 17 seconds long, possibly alluding to Entry Number Seventeen.
* Mystery Man appeared faintly on the cover of Fangamer's UNDERTALE Complete Vinyl Soundtrack Box Set for a brief period of time, but the image was removed from later releases.
** Similarly, on the artwork of the iam8bit vinyl release, Mystery Man was removed and replaced by a save point. The art also includes a depiction of "Redacted," which was not changed.
* The company founded by Toby Fox in October 2015 to manage the copyrights of Undertale and Deltarune is named "Royal Sciences LLC", possibly referencing Gaster's job as the royal scientist.
* Gaster is heavily associated with the Number of the Beast (666), repeating 6s, or the number 6 in general.
** Gaster's typeface value in Entry Number Seventeen is 666.
** Gaster's unused battle stats found through datamining are all repeating 6s.
** All Fun Value events directly related to Gaster are within the 60s range.
*** The fake hallway in Waterfall, and the Mystery Man's room by extension, is accessible when the Fun Value is 66; the value's only possible number with repeating 6s. This may suggest the figure has a strong connection to Gaster, or may truely be his actual appearance.
* Deltarune contains several references to Gaster, possibly alluding to him being an important character in the game:
** An excerpt from Entry Number Seventeen in Wingdings was available on Deltarune's website from 2015. This excerpt would then be replaced in 2016 with a paraphrase from The Legend of Delta Rune, also in Wingdings. The filenames for these images are him.png, similar to Gaster's Theme.
** mus_smile is used as the "garbage noise" that plays when the cell phone is used in a Dark World, and can be heard near the Bunker south of Hometown further slowed down to 15% speed.
** The "Voice" character from the game's introduction has several similarities with Gaster, implying they are probably the same:
*** Leading up to the release of Chapter 1, both English and Japanese Undertale Twitter accounts would tweet in-character as the Voice, stating they have something to show to the player that they think they will find "VERY, VERY, INTERESTING"; paraphrasing Entry Number Seventeen. 
*** The filename for Gaster's Theme in Undertale is mus_st_him, whereas the OST that plays during Deltarune's introduction is called ANOTHER HIM.
*** The Vessel created in the introduction is referred to as a "GONER" in the files, similarly to Goner Kid, Clam Goner, and Gaster's Followers.
*** The typeface value for the voice during the introduction is also 666.
*** The version number for the SURVEY_PROGRAM installer for Chapter 1 is 0.6.6.6.
== See Also ==
* Extracted Resources
* Subreddit for Undertale Datamining
* Steam Guide to W. D. Gaster
== References ==
de:W. D. Gaster
es:W. D. Gaster
fi:W.D gaster
fr:W. D. Gaster
ja:W. D. Gaster
pl:W. D. Gaster
pt-br:W.D. Gaster
ru:В. Д. Гастер
uk:Ст. Д. Гастер
zh:W. D. Gaster