Frisk

Frisk is the playable character who also serves as the main protagonist of Undertale. After falling into the Underground, Frisk embarks on a journey to return 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 human child of ambiguous age, gender, and ethnicity who wears a striped light magenta-and-blue shirt, blue pants, and plain brown shoes, and has medium length straight brown hair, short bangs, and a blank expression. Throughout the game, monsters refer to Frisk using "they" and "them" pronouns, when not using common nouns such as "human" and "child."

Though blank-faced in the overworld, the game often describes Frisk making other expressions. For example, in the battle with Napstablook, Frisk is described as giving "a patient smile" when "cheering" up Napstablook.

Personality
While Frisk is shown to be peaceful in canon (as the name is only revealed in the True Pacifist ending), much about Frisk remains unknown, allowing the player to project their personality traits to reflect the reaction given by 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 Frisk's thoughts. Outside of battle, when Frisk speaks independently, often another character's dialogue box will display "..." to show that the character is listening.

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 the First Human.

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. Frisk also seems to be very obedient, since the only time when they disable player input is when they are following someone else's instructions, as in when Papyrus tells them to "catch that meddling canine!" and when Sans tells them to go behind the lamp.

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. However, this is not enough to completely erase the memories of others about prior events, unless a True Reset occurs.

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, who serves as a guide throughout the ruins, completing all of the puzzles herself. After a certain point, Toriel asks Frisk to wait for her to return, stating that she needs to run some errands. Toriel provides a cell phone just in case anything happens while she is away.

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, with both options resulting in progression.

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 engages a fight 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 her grown attachment to the human while watching the previous events from her lab, she reveals that she aborted the plan to stop Frisk's journey. However, she mentions that a robot she built will likely attack, and immediately after saying this, Mettaton attacks and allegedly attempts to kill Frisk with a deadly quiz show. After surviving Mettaton, Alphys upgrades the cell phone received from Toriel and decides to guide Frisk remotely 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 the human, 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 himself.

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 re-emphasizes Frisk's importance to the fate of the Underground.

Escape
Frisk enters the Throne Room and finds Asgore. Asgore tries to make small talk, only to realize their fated confrontation. 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, preparing the containment process after the battle. Right before the fight starts, Asgore destroys the MERCY button, making it impossible to spare or flee. 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 to destruction. After reducing his HP to 0 and listening to his monolog, the SOULs remove Flowey's ability to SAVE or LOAD. After this, the SOULs leave Frisk and Flowey alone. At this point, there is an option to kill or spare a weakened Flowey before leaving the Underground, return to the surface, and end their journey.

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.

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 LV (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 acquires any EXP or LV, they will have to reset the game to achieve the True Pacifist Ending.

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's 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, a reset is needed to achieve Undyne's trust and friendship. Frisk visits Undyne with Papyrus' help, and Undyne gets "revenge" by trying to befriend Frisk and become besties, 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 traveling to Alphys's lab. In the lab, there is a letter on the floor that, when picked up, reads a monolog and the instructions needed to proceed to learn "the truth." Walking through the bathroom door reveals an elevator which goes down to the True Lab after a malfunction. Frisk proceeds to explore the True Lab and along the way 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 an unknown voice. The elevator immediately 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 Undyne, Toriel, Alphys, and Papyrus 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 has 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 can 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 result in death will instead cause the heart to split, but reform back 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) begin to play in a slideshow style. It is then revealed this "someone else" 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 choice made, 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, there is a choice to hug Asriel or do nothing.

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.

Backtracking to the very first room in Undertale reveals that Asriel is tending to the flowers. Asriel will ask about Frisk's desire to travel up Mt. Ebott in the first place. Receiving no answer, Asriel lists off foolishness or fate as possible motives, but comes to the conclusion that "only you (Frisk) know the answer." The actual reason is never revealed.

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.

After choosing to stay with Toriel, the ending scene shows Toriel bringing a slice of pie to Frisk's bedroom. Otherwise, if Frisk has "places to go," the game ends with a group photo of the main monster cast with Frisk in the middle.

Genocide Route

 * See the Fallen Human 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 the first human's SOUL also has a great deal of determination since they are the one who restore 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).