Deltarune Unveils Hidden Dialogue Connecting Three Major Mysteries

A new patch for Deltarune dropped today, and while Chapter 5 just launched a few weeks ago, these updates mainly focus on bug fixes and some tweaks to difficulty. So, why bother discussing it?

Well…

**TEXT CHANGES**
– The shop in the Cliffs has new dialogue under a very specific condition.
– Credits have been added for the following contributors:
– Matt Cummings – Festival Concept Art
– Zu Ehtisham – Platforming VFX
– Marcy Nabors – Music Assistance
– The manual in Castle Town now references Susie’s SCYTHEMARE.
– Various minor fixes.

Now, about that new dialogue in the Cliffs shop. What could it possibly say? Probably something harmless, right?

Wrong. This dialogue carries significant weight for Deltarune’s narrative. It’s one of the rare mentions of a well-hidden, mysterious collectible, and it’s the only acknowledgment we have of a deeply unsettling secret that players have speculated could range from a mere joke to the true antagonist of Deltarune.

**Spoilers for all of Deltarune, including Chapter 5, follow:**

Let’s set the stage. As the patch notes indicate, this dialogue only triggers under a very specific set of circumstances. First, you need to have defeated the chapter’s secret boss, Mew Mew, who gives Kris one of five Shadow Crystals. These Shadow Crystals are enigmatic items obtained by defeating the secret bosses in each chapter, and while theories abound about their purpose (perhaps they forge an epic sword?), no one knows for sure. There’s a wealth of fan speculation surrounding the secret bosses and the crystals, but I’ll leave that for another time since it’s crucial to understand their connection to this new dialogue.

The second requirement is that you must have found Chapter 5’s Egg. If you haven’t stumbled upon an egg in Deltarune, don’t worry; they’re notoriously well-hidden. Each chapter contains one egg, and they’re given to Kris in bizarre circumstances by a Mysterious Man who remains unseen. For instance, the first chapter’s egg is obtained by moving back and forth between two rooms until you randomly land in a secret area. Chapter 3’s egg involves a convoluted side quest that requires specific item manipulation and sneaking past a guard while answering his questions correctly.

In Chapter 5, you find the egg in the wheat field area. One stubborn sheaf of wheat refuses to be cut down, no matter how many times you try. Keep at it until a balloon appears, then follow it:

So, to unlock the secret dialogue, you need to beat the secret boss, find the egg, and finally…

You must interact with FRIEND.

Who is FRIEND? That’s still a mystery. We’ve been calling a creature that appears in various parts of the game FRIEND, and it looks like this:

You’d be forgiven for missing FRIEND entirely. Named after the file name of his image, FRIEND only shows up once in a typical Deltarune playthrough: during Ralsei’s explanation of Dark Worlds in Chapter 3, where he’s part of a collection of images meant to be unsettling.

However, FRIEND can be spotted lurking in other areas. His eerie grin hides in the shadows near the Spamton fight in Chapter 2, on several webpages related to a past event, and even in the background during Chapter 4. More notably, he appears during Chapter 3’s secret battle against the game-within-a-game entity ERAM, as part of an attack that sends several of his creepy smiles flying at Kris.

In Chapter 5, FRIEND shows up in a peculiar situation. After obtaining the feather and starting your ascent to the cliffs, stop before the vine leading to the next screen. Instead, dash to the right and jump. You’ll begin to fall, but just before you do, open Kris’ action menu. There’s nothing to target, but the SOUL will still lock onto something. Confirm the interaction, and FRIEND’s horrifying smile will flash on screen, causing the entire party to take damage.

That’s the final step to unlock the secret dialogue. Once you’ve completed all these tasks, head back to the shop in the Cliffs and select “Talk.” Mew Mew will then notice Kris’ cat bite wound, leading to unexpected dialogue that seems to be the first acknowledgment of both FRIEND and the Eggs. It references how cats, like the one that bit Kris, are relentless in their pursuit of protein, such as that found in eggs.

“The cats are not too smart, but once they find a target, they never stop chasing it until they get bored. And when they find you, the bite… very, VERY hard. Some people would do anything to get away from them, even change their appearance, or go into hiding…”

The fan community has erupted over this new dialogue, and while no one is entirely sure what it means, theories are flying. Most importantly, it connects three of Deltarune’s biggest mysteries: FRIEND, the eggs, and the secret bosses, which previously had only tenuous links. FRIEND is now more than just a quirky addition by the developer; he’s a genuine, in-universe threat, seemingly after the eggs we’ve been collecting throughout the chapters.

There’s so much to unpack regarding theories about how the eggs symbolize some trauma Kris has been repressing, or how this all ties back to the enigmatic figure behind the tree that fans speculate is Undertale’s missing scientist, W.D. Gaster. The recurring pink and gold eye colors associated with FRIEND pop up everywhere, from Spamton’s glasses to a knock-off game controller in Chapter 3 to the entire color scheme of Chapter 5. This unexpected addition is intriguing, and it’s unclear why it was introduced weeks after the launch. The FRIEND encounter has been there since the beginning, so it seems unlikely it was simply overlooked. I suspect this hints that the journey from Chapter 5 to 6 won’t be a quiet one, especially with the ongoing ARG tied to the game’s secret route.

Bring on the eerie teases. My eggs are ready, and I’m bracing for whatever horrors FRIEND has in store for us.