Deltarune Chapter 5 Surprises Players on Its Darkest Route with a Major Twist

Deltarune Chapter 5 has dropped this week, and it’s an absolute blast. As a huge fan of the game, I’ve been going through what most would call a “normal” playthrough. I’m all about giving friendly responses, sparing enemies when I can, and definitely not manipulating my childhood friend’s trauma to turn her into a powerful ice cannon that could break the game.

Why would anyone even think of doing that?

Alright, I’m just kidding. But I really want to dive into the “Weird Route” in Deltarune and the shocking twist that Chapter 5 throws at players who have fully embraced the game’s darkest path. Just a heads up: I’m going to spoil the Weird Route all the way through Chapter 5, but I won’t touch on the regular route (which is very different), so if you’re aiming for a pure playthrough, you’re good to go.

The Weird Route in Deltarune is incredibly tricky to find and complete without a guide. It kicks off in Chapter 2, where you need to use Noelle to freeze every enemy in the Dark World instead of the usual killing or sparing. You also have to respond to Noelle in increasingly harsh ways, pushing her to brute-force through puzzles and encouraging her to trust Kris (the character you’re controlling). Equipping her with the Thorn Ring boosts her power. If you pull it off, Chapter 2 ends with Noelle freezing Berdly, sending him to the hospital in the Light World. You can then continue this route in Chapter 4 by interrupting a conversation between Noelle and Kris and re-equipping Noelle with the Thorn Ring in the Light World, which seems to create a bond between you (the player) and her. It’s a chilling moment that permanently damages your relationship with Kris.

If you manage to carry the Weird Route into Chapter 5, things get even darker. Kris sleeps through the entire festival sequence and actively resists the player as you try to wake them up. Eventually, you meet Noelle at the lake, where she gives a powerful speech about how Kris was able to “change” after their shared trauma, while she feels stuck in her old ways. She pleads with Kris—or rather, the player—to help her “do something crazy,” and they start walking into the lake together. You’re prompted to tell them to “Proceed” repeatedly until the water covers their heads, Noelle screams at you not to stop, and the screen glitches out into white.

Then you’re hit with this ominous screen:

Uh, yikes!!!

That’s it for Weird Route players! It’s about a 15-minute segment. You don’t visit the Dark World, engage in battles, or anything. From the looks of that screen, it seems Weird Route players are completely locked out of Chapter 6 and will have to wait until Chapter 7 to continue. Plus, finishing this sequence creates save data for the Weird Route, even if you delete or alter your save file. This has led to speculation that, similar to Undertale’s Genocide route, reaching this point on the Weird Route might permanently mess up all your save files, making it impossible to achieve a truly happy ending later on. But no one knows for sure yet.

There is a way to escape, though. When Noelle asks you to tell her to Proceed, you can choose to tell her to Stop instead. Initially, it seems to have no effect. You’ll still be prompted to tell her to “Proceed” as she walks into the lake with Kris. But when their faces start to sink, stop spamming Proceed. If you succeed, the screen will fade out, Noelle will realize she was wrong and that Kris “hadn’t changed,” and you’ll get a series of scenes that seem to steer the game back onto the normal route, with Noelle repeatedly stating that “Nothing changed.”

Some fans speculate that bailing out here might lead to a third route that could be significant later. They point to a character who can create the “Twisted Sword” using the Thorn Ring and a Pure Crystal. The Thorn Ring is only obtainable in the Weird Route, while the Pure Crystal comes from defeating five secret bosses across five chapters. The fifth secret boss is in Chapter 5, but you can’t fight it if you go into the lake with Noelle, meaning you miss out on the Twisted Sword. This weapon is currently the strongest in the game and particularly effective against dark enemies like Titans, suggesting it could be crucial for defeating them in a future chapter.

We’re still piecing together what all this means! Reactions from fans are mixed: some feel cheated out of a full chapter (though they can still play Chapter 5 normally with multiple save files), while others (myself included) are thrilled and intrigued by the twist and what it might lead to. This whole situation is sparking a ton of exciting fan theories about what it means to defy Deltarune’s prophecy and whether the Weird Route is necessary to finally encounter Undertale’s elusive scientist, W.D. Gaster.

With at least another year until Chapter 6 and even longer before we see the conclusion of the Weird Route, let’s keep those fan theories rolling!