Sans/In Battle



Sans is the final boss of the Genocide Route. He is widely considered the most difficult enemy in the game among players, despite the fact that his CHECK claims that he is "the easiest enemy" (due to the fact he only has 1 HP, 1 AT, and 1 DF). He gets around these limitations by dodging attacks (thus negating the need for high defense or health) and removing the protagonist's INV through Karmic Retribution.

Much like his brother Papyrus, Sans uses bones in his attacks and uses blue mode. Sans, however, uses faster and trickier attacks, frequently switching the protagonist's SOUL between blue and red mode. He also uses straight beam projectiles that emerge from skeletal faces, known as "Gaster Blasters."

Despite being considerably difficult, his dialogue implies he has not been going all out on the protagonist. This is likely due to his knowledge of the protagonist's ability to SAVE and reset, which he talks about extensively between turns. He even goes as far to say that even going to the surface does not appeal to him anymore, since one day they will all be stuck in the underground again, with no memory whatsoever of the previous timeline.

Sans's method of fighting can be seen as an opposite to Photoshop Flowey's fighting style. Whereas Flowey fights the protagonist using bullet hell techniques, Sans utilizes gravity to make his attacks require platforming skills, such as slamming the protagonist's SOUL against the walls of the bullet box, and making the protagonist jump through gaps between bones and onto platforms.

Sans immediately starts off the battle with his "strongest attack": an array of bones and beams. He is the only enemy in the game that has the first turn rather than the protagonist, which can catch the unwary off-guard. If the protagonist loses to Sans and re-fights him, he skips to the last part of his pre-fight dialogue.

Eventually, Sans will offer mercy, and if accepted, he covers the whole Bullet Board with bones, until the protagonist's HP is drained to 0. The Game Over screen will then appear with a sped up version of Dogsong instead of the regular game over theme, and will read "geeettttttt dunked on!!! if we're really friends... you won't come back" in Sans's voice. This means Sans must be killed to continue past him in the Genocide Route.

Should the protagonist survive this (via cheating), Sans will eventually remove the bones from the box, but the protagonist will be trapped in the box, and nothing will happen after that, forcing the player to restart.

To progress the fight, the protagonist must keep attacking Sans, as he cannot dodge forever. If the protagonist performs any other action besides FIGHTing, then the battle will not progress, as his dialogue does not appear or advance. After getting past his mercy offer, this part of the fight has Sans constantly flickering the screen as he transitions through his attacks, uses his beams more often, and even attacks the protagonist as they navigate the menu. After enough turns, Sans will then perform a "really cool regular attack," launching the entirety of his arsenal at the protagonist, including a bevy of Gaster Blasters, slams against the Bullet Board's walls, amongst his other attacks.

Once the protagonist survives his final attack, Sans will use his "special attack," which is nothing. Because of the lack of attack, his turn does not end, which prevents the protagonist from accessing the menu, in hopes of the protagonist becoming bored as time flies. If one tries to move to the left before Sans falls asleep, his eye will flash blue/yellow, and the SOUL will be teleported back to the center of the bullet board. After several minutes and dialogue, Sans will eventually fall asleep, allowing the protagonist to push the Bullet Board towards the fight button; Sans will wake up and dodge the first attack. However, the cursor is still on the FIGHT button and the protagonist automatically attacks, instantly finishing him off for good. Unlike most enemies, however, he starts to "bleed" (which is theorized to be injected determination, ketchup, or even blood) then limps offscreen before dying, raising the protagonist's LOVE to 20 and HP to 99.

Flavor Text

 * The easiest enemy. Can only deal 1 damage. [Check]
 * Can't keep dodging forever. Keep attacking. [Check, if attacked at least once]
 * You feel like you're going to have a bad time. [Encounter]
 * You felt your sins crawling on your back. [Neutral, 0-10 KR]
 * You felt your sins weighing on your neck. [Neutral, 10-20 KR]
 * KARMA coursing through your veins. [Neutral, 20-30 KR]
 * Doomed to death of KARMA! [Neutral, 30-40 KR]
 * Sans is sparing you. [When Sans pretends to spare the protagonist]
 * The REAL battle finally begins. [Neutral, 2nd phase]
 * Reading this doesn't seem like the best use of your time. [Neutral, 2nd phase]
 * Sans is starting to look really tired. [Neutral, 2nd phase]
 * Sans is preparing something. [Neutral, when he talks about his special attack] 
 * Sans is getting ready to use his special attack. [Neutral, when he talks about his special attack again]

Trivia

 * The "Gaster Blaster" animation features the skeletal attack's left and right eyes flickering, similar to how Sans has one pupil while he performs psychokinesis.
 * Sans is the only character that dies off-screen, which leads players to question if he actually died or if he fled from battle.
 * Sans's initial dialogue in his fight parallels Asgore's dialogue in a Neutral Route. They both open with "Birds are singing, flowers are blooming..." The following dialogue differs between the characters.
 * Sans's initial dialogue in his fight relates to that of Captain Strong's of Earthbound, with Captain Strong's dialogue being "At times like this, kids like you should be playing Nintendo games."
 * In battle he says, " ... you'll just keep going. not out of any desire for good or evil... but just because you think you ' can ' ... ... ' you have to. '  " This quote could refer to the "completionist" gamers who do everything possible in a game because they feel they must.
 * After hacking in infinite health and surviving Sans's Mercy attack, the bones will fall, and Sans will remain shrugging. One cannot do anything other than restarting the game (as shown in this video) to progress.
 * It is possible to survive the battle with no HP by getting hit until HP bar dissapears, then you can continue the battle with 01 Karmical Retribution