Toby Fox's ongoing RPG saga, Deltarune, has released its fifth chapter, continuing its blend of quirky humor, memorable music, and meta-commentary. Chapter 5 sees protagonists Kris and Susie engaging with festival activities in Hometown before exploring a new Dark World within Asgore's flower shop, provided the player follows the main storyline.
However, for those who opt for an alternate path reminiscent of Undertale's genocide route, Deltarune offers a "weird route." This path involves Kris exerting a troubling influence over Noelle Holiday, a reindeer character. While the weird route has consistently featured unsettling moments, Chapter 5 escalates these to a more sinister level.
This path, which appears in Chapters 2, 4, and 5, is triggered by forcing Noelle to defeat every enemy using her ice magic in Chapter 2. Initially hesitant, Noelle gradually becomes more accustomed to this, especially with the acquisition of items that enhance her abilities. One such item is the ThornRing, which enables the use of the SnowGrave spell, the only magic in the game stated to inflict "fatal damage." At the conclusion of Chapter 2's weird route, Kris compels Noelle to use this spell on their classmate Berdly, strongly implying his death in this narrative branch.
Chapter 4 further develops the weird route, with a significant portion set at Noelle's home. During a private conversation, Noelle recounts a dream of a snow-covered world and alludes to Berdly being hospitalized. Kris, however, insists the dream was real and persuades Noelle to re-equip the ThornRing. This scene is followed by a cut to black, depicting a red rose shedding petals with red lines resembling shattered glass appearing on screen. Fox made undisclosed changes to this scene shortly after the release of Chapters 3 and 4 in June 2025, following player interpretations of the sequence as a metaphor for sexual assault.
Chapter 5 introduces another disturbing event within the weird route. As the festival's sun sets, Noelle expresses feeling empowered by the SnowGrave spell and asks Kris to "do something crazy" with her. She then pulls Kris into the lake, and they walk hand-in-hand into the deepening water. The player is repeatedly prompted to "proceed" as they become fully submerged, with Noelle's character portrait and sound effects becoming distorted. The screen flashes white with a roaring static sound, followed by an image of a CRT television displaying the text "Insert Chapter 7 side B." The player is then returned to the chapter select screen. This sequence can be avoided by refusing to engage with the button prompts.
This unsettling scene stands in stark contrast to the main storyline's sunset moment by the lake, which features a heartwarming exchange between Susie and Noelle expressing affection for each other.
While Noelle and Kris's immersion in the lake appears to be a climactic event, it may not be the definitive end of the weird route. Noelle's desire to go "somewhere no one has ever been before" suggests the lake might conceal a physical location. Deltarune's established world, where inanimate objects can transform into cities, lends credence to this possibility. The game's community on Reddit has theorized that this event could represent Noelle's attempt to escape the confines of the video game itself, a theme present in the main story.
Players will have to wait for future installments for definitive answers. Toby Fox has confirmed that Deltarune Chapter 6 is slated for release in 2027, with no current timeline for Chapter 7.