Attack Types

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In the battle room, bullets of varying color represent monster attacks. These colors are the **attack types**. Each attack type corresponds to one of the SOULS of the eight humans, or the SOULs of monsters.

## White Attack

**White attacks** hurt the protagonist if their SOUL collides with them. The only way to counter white attacks is by dodging them.

White is associated with monster souls.

## Grey Attack

**Gray attacks** deal no damage and are used for aesthetic purposes, such as spelling out messages in the Bullet Board. Napstablook introduces this attack type; they spell out "*REALLY NOT FEELIN UP TO IT RIGHT NOW. SORRY.*" One of Ice Cap's attacks also features gray attacks (in addition to red and white); Mettaton EX uses a gray attack to spell out "Happy Breaktime!".

Gray is not associated with a soul color, and may simply reference doing nothing in battle.

## Red Attack

**Red attacks** do not deal damage but are used to warn of upcoming attacks. The warning can take on several forms, such as an attack itself flashing red (as used by Ice Cap, Mad Dummy, and Undyne), a simple red outline bordering the area of the attack (as used by Photoshop Flowey and Sans), or a red rectangle with an exclamation point in the center and a flashing sound effect (as used by Mettaton EX, Asgore, and Asriel). Ice Cap is the first monster to introduce red attacks.

Red is associated with the the protagonist's and the fallen human's SOUL, which may imply that the warnings are protecting the protagonist's SOUL.

## Green Attack

**Green attacks** heal the protagonist, progress the battle in some way, or both. Some enemies require the protagonist's SOUL to collect green attacks so that the protagonist can spare them. Vegetoid introduces this attack type, and it is also used by Woshua, Parsnik, Whimsalot, and the human SOULs during the Photoshop Flowey battle. Tsunderplane and the Royal Guards also use the green attack, but their green attacks do not heal the protagonist, unlike other enemies.

Green is the attack type and color of the green SOUL and is associated with Shield Mode and kindness.

## Light Blue Attack

**Light blue attacks**, also known as **blue attacks**, do not deal damage if the protagonist's SOUL remains still. Blue attacks are the opposite of orange attacks. Doggo introduces blue attacks and the attack type is used later on by Lesser Dog, Greater Dog, Dogamy and Dogaressa, Gyftrot, Woshua, Papyrus, So Sorry, Mettaton, Asgore, Sans, and the colored laser beams found in Hotland.

After the *Undertale* patch, the blue attacks use a slightly different shade of blue so it can be easier to see for people who are colorblind.

Light blue is the color of the light blue SOUL and is associated with patience.

## Orange Attack

**Orange Attacks** do not deal damage if the protagonist's SOUL is moving. Orange attacks are the opposite of light blue attacks. The attack type first appears with the colored laser beams found in Hotland and is also used in the fights against Pyrope, So Sorry, and Asgore.

Orange is the attack type and color of the orange SOUL and is associated with bravery.

## KARMA

All of Sans's attacks use **KARMA (KR)**. This effect drops invincibility frames to zero (allowing the attack to hit every frame or 30 times per second). It also applies a "poison" effect to the attack (in terms of a general RPG): getting hit for even one frame inflicts not just the one damage, but also increases KARMA by some amount (depending on the attack). Whenever KARMA is above zero, it eventually drains back down to zero in increments of one, inflicting one damage with each drain.

For example, getting hit by a certain attack for one frame inflicts one damage but may also increase KARMA by five. This means that even if the protagonist does not get hit by any more attacks, even while the menu is open, they slowly take one damage five more times, for a total of six damage (after which KARMA goes back down to zero). Getting hit by multiple attacks causes the KARMA increases to stack up, so if the protagonist gets hit by another attack, their KARMA may increase by five again (even if it has not finished draining yet), causing the protagonist to take one damage another six times.

While KARMA is above zero, it appears as a purple health bar overlapping the usual yellow health bar, and also causes the protagonist's HP to be displayed in purple text instead of white.

KARMA cannot exceed 40 and also cannot cause the protagonist's HP to fall below one. The more KARMA damage is built up, the faster it drains.

### Technical Mechanics

Sans's various attacks increase KARMA by different amounts:

* Bone vertical loop: 5
* Gaster Blaster: 10
* Single menu bone (top left): 2
* Four menu bones (bottom): 1
* Other: 6

For KARMA to stack up linearly, the protagonist must be hit by separate attacks (e.g. three Gaster Blaster hits for one frame each increases KARMA by 30, dealing an eventual total of 33 damage)l If the protagonist stays in a single attack, KARMA only increases by one per frame (e.g. one Gaster Blaster hit for three frames increases KARMA by 12, dealing an eventual total of 15 damage).

KARMA takes one frame to drain if maxed out at 40, two frames to drain if between 30 and 39, five frames to drain if between 20 and 29, fifteen frames or half a second to drain (if between 10 and 19), and thirty frames or one second to drain (if between 1 and 9). This means that KARMA when maxed out drains halfway within 66 frames (2.2 seconds) and completely within 491 frames (~16.4 seconds).

The items that increase INV, the Torn Notebook and Cloudy Glasses, grant small fractions of INV during the Sans battle. Specifically, the Torn Notebook increases INV by 1/5, the Cloudy Glasses increase INV by 1/4, and both items together increase INV by 1/3. This means that with both items together, the protagonist obtains a single frame of INV every three frames, causing Sans's attacks to hit up to 23 times per second instead of 30. The two items also slow down the rate at which KARMA drains, increasing the frame delays to 2, 4, 8, 20, and 40 respectively when equipped together. This means that KARMA when maxed out drains halfway within 114 frames (3.8 seconds) and completely within 682 frames (~22.7 seconds).

It was intended that equipping only the Torn Notebook would give a 1 in 2 chance that KARMA drain is slowed down, and that equipping only the Cloudy Glasses would give a 2 in 3 chance, but due to a bug in the code, there is barely any slowdown when one of the two items is equipped. Equipping both items together behaves correctly.

Purple is the mode and color of the purple SOUL and is associated with Trap Mode and perseverance, but it is unknown if this is related to KARMA.

## See also

* Eight Humans
* SOUL Modes