Frisk

Frisk is the playable character in Undertale, who attempts to escape the Underground and go back up to the Surface. Frisk is the last of the eight humans to fall into the Underground after traveling to Mount Ebott.

Appearance
Frisk is depicted as a young human child of ambiguous age, gender, and ethnicity, with medium length straight brown hair, short bangs, and a blank expression. Throughout the game, monsters refer to Frisk as "they" (when not using common nouns such as "human" and "child"), implying that the monsters are unable to determine Frisk's gender. Frisk wears a striped light magenta-and-blue shirt, blue pants, and plain brown shoes.

While Frisk's sprites always show Frisk with a blank expression, the game often describes Frisk making other expressions. For example, in the battle with Napstablook, Frisk is described as giving "a patient smile".

Personality
While Frisk is shown to be peaceful in canon (as Frisk's name is only revealed in the True Pacifist ending), much about Frisk remains unknown, allowing the player to project other personality traits onto Frisk. It is evident throughout the game that Frisk does speak to the other monsters. However, the exact dialogue is not shown. During battles, the flavor text describes Frisks thoughts. Outside of battle, when Frisk speaks independently, often another character's dialogue box will display "..." to show that the character is listening to Frisk.

Frisk should not be confused with the fallen child the player names at the start of the game, as this character is later revealed to be Chara.

Depending on the ending that Frisk is moving towards, Frisk can be depicted as friendly or cold. In the Pacifist Ending, some characters emphasize Frisk's kindness, understanding, and grace.

Abilities
Frisk has a great deal of determination, which grants the power to SAVE and heal at SAVE points. This is the SAVE file that is loaded when the game is started, and after death. This power extends back to the point when Frisk first landed in the Underground, such that Frisk can reset the game to the beginning. However, this is not enough to completely erase the memories of others about prior events, unless it is a True Reset.

Neutral Route
Having landed in the Ruins, Frisk meets Flowey. After initially pretending to be friendly, Flowey attempts to kill Frisk, who is then saved by Toriel. Toriel guides Frisk through the ruins, completing all of the puzzles herself. After a certain point, Toriel asks Frisk to wait for her to return, and she needs to run some errands. She then gives Frisk a cell phone just in case.

After reaching Toriel's home, Frisk asks Toriel how to exit the Ruins, causing her to leave with the intention of destroying the Ruins' exit. Frisk can either kill Toriel or convince her to step aside. Either way, Frisk begins a journey through the rest of the Underground.

Entering Snowdin Forest, Frisk meets Sans and Papyrus, who set up traps and puzzles in an attempt to capture "the human". After passing through Snowdin, Frisk battles Papyrus, who reveals that the exit of the Underground is in the king's castle.

In Waterfall, Frisk is pursued by Undyne, head of the Royal Guard. While attempting to elude Undyne, Frisk meets Monster Kid, who had ventured into Waterfall hoping to catch a glimpse of Undyne. After being chased some more, Frisk is cornered by Undyne on the edge of a bridge. Undyne then destroys the bridge, causing Frisk to fall into the Garbage Dump, and recall a memory from the first human. Here, Frisk encounters Mad Dummy, who attacks to avenge the treatment of his friend who inhabited the tutorial dummy in the ruins. After defeating Mad Dummy and progressing through the remainder of Waterfall, Frisk battles Undyne, who discloses Asgore's plan to destroy the barrier by collecting seven human souls (of which Frisk's soul would be the 7th).

In Hotland, Frisk encounters the royal scientist Alphys. After confessing she has grown attached to Frisk while watching the previous events from her lab, she reveals she does not want to stop Frisk. However, she mentions that a robot she built will likely attack, and immediately after saying this, Mettaton attacks and allegedly attempts to kill Frisk. After surviving Mettaton, Alphys upgrades the cell phone received from Toriel and decides to remotely guide Frisk through Hotland and the CORE, the only known way to the capital. At the end of the CORE, Mettaton reveals that Alphys had set all of the traps herself so that she could endear herself to Frisk, and that there was never any danger in the first place. At this point, Mettaton reveals he has grown tired of the charade and actually attempts to kill Frisk.

While passing through New Home, the capital of the Underground, Frisk learns the story of Asgore and Toriel's children from passing monsters. After passing through New Home, Sans confronts Frisk in the Last Corridor, gives a speech based on the number of killed monsters, explains the meaning of LOVE and EXP, and reemphasizes Frisk's important to the fate of the Underground.

Escape
Frisk enters the Throne Room and finds Asgore. Asgore tries to make small talk, but Frisk remains silent. The two walk to the Barrier and Asgore gives Frisk one last opportunity to leave before fighting. Just before the fight, Asgore shows the six collected human SOULs to Frisk. Right after the fight starts, Asgore destroys the MERCY button, preventing Frisk from sparing him or fleeing from him. However, at the fight's conclusion, Frisk can explicitly choose whether to spare or kill Asgore. Regardless of the choice made, Flowey will appear, destroy Asgore's SOUL, and take the human SOULs. The game then abruptly closes.

After reopening the game, Frisk finds that Flowey has saved his own game over the SAVE file, having gained the power to do so with the stolen human SOULs. Loading Flowey's game, Frisk confronts a powered up Flowey and defiantly steps forward, entering an initially hopeless battle with him. After Frisk calls for help several times, the stolen SOULs begin to revolt: first they heal Frisk, and then they weaken Flowey, leaving him vulnerable. After reducing his HP to 0 and listening to his monologue, the SOULs remove Flowey's ability to SAVE or LOAD. After this, the SOULs leave Frisk and Flowey alone. At this point, Frisk can choose whether to kill or spare a weakened Flowey before leaving the Underground. It is not explained how Frisk passes through the barrier, but the barrier remains active and keeps the monsters trapped.

After leaving the underground, Frisk receives a call from Sans, who leaves a message about what happened to the underground after Asgore died. This varies based on what monsters were killed and what friendships were completed. None of the monsters know Frisk's name.

True Pacifist Route
To complete the True Pacifist Route, Frisk must have first completed the Neutral Route.

If Frisk has completed the Neutral Route without gaining any EXP or LOVE (i.e. without killing anyone), it is possible to backtrack in the existing SAVE file to complete any missing friendships, then achieve the True Pacifist ending.

If Frisk gained any EXP or LOVE in the Neutral Route, Frisk will have to reset the game to achieve a True Pacifist Route.

Friendships
While Frisk befriends many of the monsters in the Underground, only the Undyne, Papyrus, and Alphys friendships are necessary to achieve the True Pacifist Ending.

Frisk gains Toriel's friendship by sparing her, but she does not make another appearance until the end of the route.

Frisk gains Sans' friendship by sparing Papyrus, and can optionally hang out with him twice (once at Grillby's, once at the MTT Resort,)

Frisk gains Papyrus's friendship by visiting him at his home and hanging out or dating him.

Napstablook can be befriended by smiling at them in the Ruins, and hanging out with them at their house.

If Frisk chooses to give Undyne some water after being pursued, Undyne can be befriended. Otherwise, Frisk will need to reset to achieve friendship with Undyne. Frisk visits Undyne with Papyrus' help, and Undyne gets "revenge" by trying to befriend Frisk, setting her house on fire in the process. She tries to fight Frisk to regain honor but realizes that Frisk is a "wimpy loser with a big heart" just like Asgore, and decides to be friends.

Mettaton can be befriended by sparing him; survive enough turns without killing him.

Undyne, having been encouraged to send a love letter to Alphys, gives the letter to Frisk, who delivers it to Alphys. This results in a date sequence with Alphys in which she and Undyne realize their feelings for each other and Alphys begins to come to terms with her past mistakes.

After befriending Alphys, Papyrus will recommend that Frisk goes to Alphys's lab. In the lab, there is a letter inviting Frisk to proceed to learn "the truth." Walking through the bathroom door reveals the True Lab. Frisk proceeds to explore the True Lab and learns of Alphys' failed experiments with determination and also about the origin of Flowey. After exploring the True Lab and talking to Alphys, she gains the confidence to reveal the truth about her experiments to the rest of the Underground. While attempting to leave, Frisk receives a phone call in the elevator from a mysterious voice (later revealed to be Flowey). The elevator immediately goes out of control and forcibly brings Frisk to New Home.

Barrier
After returning to the throne room and confronting Asgore again, the pre-fight dialogue is interrupted by Toriel, who stops Asgore from fighting Frisk. Toriel is immediately followed by the other main characters who encourage everyone to get along. However, in a surprise twist, Papyrus reveals that it was actually "a little flower" who told him to bring everyone there. Immediately after this reveal, Flowey appears, having stolen the SOULs of the six other humans. He attempts to kill Frisk, but Toriel, Papyrus, and Undyne use their power to block Flowey's finishing blows. Directly after this, all of the underground's monsters arrive to encourage Frisk in the fight against Flowey. However, Flowey reveals that this is what he wanted all along so that he could absorb the souls of all the monsters in the Underground along with the six human SOULs.

Due to the immense power gained from the six human SOULs and all of the monster SOULs, Flowey is able to transform into his true form, and just before the fight begins it is revealed that he is actually Asriel Dreemurr. During this fight, Frisk is invincible, and any hit that would normally kill Frisk instead causes the heart to split and then reform together. The first time this happens, it is accompanied by the text "but it refused". After stalling for long enough, Asriel transforms again. At this point, Frisk can feel the souls of Toriel, Asgore, Alphys, Undyne, Papyrus, and Sans within Asriel and the ACT button changes to SAVE to represent the act of freeing everyone's souls. This is accomplished by completing a short sequence of ACT options to restore the memory of each lost soul after selecting a friend that. After saving each monster, Frisk realizes that there is still one more person to save. After choosing to save "someone else," Asriel's memories of the first human (who strongly resembled Frisk) play for Frisk to see. It is then revealed the "someone else" Frisk saves is Asriel himself. After this, Asriel starts to feel the love the monsters feel for Frisk through the souls he has absorbed, and slowly loses the will to fight as he is overcome with his fear of dying alone.

After reverting to his child form, Asriel learns Frisk's name. He apologizes for hurting everybody, and Frisk can choose to forgive or not forgive Asriel. Regardless of the Frisk's choice, Asriel destroys the barrier using the power of all of the SOULs before releasing them. Knowing that he will turn back to a flower without the power of the SOULs to sustain him, Asriel says one last goodbye to Frisk before leaving. At this point, frisk can choose to hug Asriel.

Freedom
After the scene with Asriel finishes, Frisk wakes up in front of Toriel, Sans, Papyrus, Undyne, Alphys and Asgore. While the monsters remember little about Flowey and nothing about his incarnation as Asriel, they do know Frisk's name. At this point, Frisk can backtrack through the underground and talk to the other monsters, before returning the surface.

If Frisk backtracks to the very first room in Undertale, Frisk will find Asriel tending to the flowers. If Frisk chooses to talk to Asriel, Asriel will ask about Frisk's desire to travel up Mt. Ebott in the first place. Although Frisk does not answer - Asriel lists off foolishness, fate, and (indirectly) suicide as possible motives. Frisk never reveals the actual reason.

After passing through the final door to the surface, Frisk leaves the underground with friends. Asgore offers Frisk the chance to be the monsters' ambassador to the humans. Most of the main monster cast then leave, except for Toriel, who asks about Frisk's plans. At this point, Frisk can choose to stay with Toriel or to go elsewhere

If Frisk chose to stay with Toriel, the ending scene shows Toriel bringing a slice of pie to Frisk's bedroom. Otherwise, the game ends with a group photo of Frisk and friends.

Genocide Route

 * See Chara for more information of this route.

Name
To "Frisk" means to skip or leap playfully, or to pat down on someone, looking for a hidden item. "Frisk" is the Swedish and Norwegian word for "healthy", and the Danish word for "fresh." "Frisky" means "playful and full of energy."

Naming the fallen human "Frisk" will initiate Hard Mode.

Trivia

 * In a joke thread on Starmen.net, Toby Fox posted early files from Undertale saying they were from an EarthBound hack called "UnderBound 2."
 * It was said that Frisk was a young androgynous child who was the step-cousin of "Squeezo" from the non-existent EarthBound hack, "UnderBound."
 * Frisk was also shown to have black outlines with darker hair and shoes compared to the lighter brown seen in the final version of the game.
 * It was also mentioned that Frisk's love interest was a female Cuban cigar.
 * Frisk and Flowey are the only two with the ability to SAVE, LOAD, and reset their SAVE FILE. Flowey is more proficient at this, as he can SAVE and LOAD multiple SAVE states at any moment.
 * It is also implied that Chara has (or used to have) this ability since Chara is the one who restores the world after a Genocide run.
 * While Frisk is allergic to Temmie, this is not true of the other furry residents of the underground.
 * Because Frisk holds Toriel's hand, the umbrella, and the cup of water left handed, it is possible that Frisk is left handed.
 * Out of all the humans that fell to the Underground. Frisk is the only human to survive the adventure ( If the pacifist or neutral route is taken).