Napstablook

Napstablook is a melancholic ghost monster and musician who lives in Waterfall. They are the game's first mini-boss.

Personality
Napstablook is a very dour individual, with low self-esteem and a very introverted attitude. Despite this they're shown to be courteous to others, such as treating the player as a guest in their home, often blaming themselves and apologizing for inconveniences to be polite.

Neutral/Pacifist Route
The player first finds Napstablook blocking your path in the Ruins, pretending to be asleep. Once the player cheers them up, they will cry themselves a nice hat, calling the trick "Dapperblook". They will thank the player for being so friendly and then leave.

Napstablook appears again when the player is fighting the Mad Dummy; they interrupt the fight by crying on the Dummy until they run away. Napstablook welcomes you into their house, which is just east of Undyne's. From this point on, Napstablook wears headphones. In their house, you can listen to their music, and they will tell you they are working on a mix CD. You can also try to eat a ghost sandwich with them, but after you are unable to eat it, Napstablook suggests that the two of you lie on the floor together, and that this is a family tradition. If you choose to lie down, after some time the music and background will change, evocative of the Earthbound 'tea time' segments. They have three playable CDs: Spooktune, Spookwave, and Ghouliday. If the player is listening to any of the CDs when they leave Napstablook's house, it may trigger an event where Woshua and Aaron encounter the player, but are turned off from fighting due to the odd music.

Later during the Mettaton fight, Napstablook is the first viewer to call and express their gratitude for the program, saying they watched it all the time.

Pacifist Ending
Napstablook is seen outside their house with Mettaton, having been recruited as the celebrity's sound mixer. They reveal that they were not absorbed by Asriel because when the light of Asriel knocked on their door, they just closed the blinds and continued mixing music. As a result, they initially didn't learn Frisk's name. In the credits, they're seen on tour with Mettaton and Shyren.

Genocide Route
If the player has killed all of the possible monsters before their encounter, Napstablook will simply fade away when the player approaches. Later on, they do not intervene in the Mad Dummy fight as they normally would, instead the scene ends on its own.

Snail Farm
East of Napstablook's house is a snail farm owned by their family, where they are the remaining worker. Here, you can participate in a snail race for 10 g. By encouraging your snail as it crawls across the track, it allows it to go faster. But too much encouragement can cause it to light on fire and encouraging it too little makes it believe their best wasn't enough. If the player manages to win the race, they only receive 9 g back as Napstablook needs to make a profit. If the snail loses by a slim margin, Napstablook will observe that it will think it won and will give you 30 g in order to be polite and not hurt its feelings.

Attacks

 * Napstablook starts crying, the tears falling straight down.
 * Napstablook starts crying long, wiggly tears that change direction upon approaching the walls, eventually falling back down towards you once they are above you.
 * Harmless grey text says "REALLY NOT FEELIN UP TO IT RIGHT NOW. SORRY."

Strategy

 * After selecting the ACT 'Cheer' thrice, Napstablook shows the player their "Dapper blook" trick; they start crying again, but the tears move upwards to form a top hat on their head. Napstablook then stops attacking, awaiting the player's response.
 * Selecting 'Cheer' or 'Flirt' will peacefully end the battle.
 * Selecting 'Threat' or attacking with FIGHT will make Napstablook extremely sad. In this state, Napstablook's attacks begin to involve an absurd amount of tears. After 6 turns of cheering up, the attacks lower in intensity. After 8 turns of cheering up, Napstablook returns to their normal state. It is then possible to cheer them up some more and end the encounter peacefully.

Quotes

 * oh, i'm REAL funny. [Neutral]
 * i'd just weigh you down. [Flirt]
 * go ahead, do it. [Threat]
 * heh... [Cheer]
 * heh... heh... [Second Cheer]
 * let me try... | i call it "dapper blook" | do you like it? [Third Cheer]

Flavor Text

 * This monster doesn't seem to have a sense of humor... [Check]
 * Missed the memo and is the same difficulty as normal. [Check in Hard Mode]
 * Here comes Napstablook. [Encounter]
 * Here comes Napstablook. Same as usual. [Encounter in Hard Mode]
 * Napstablook is wishing they weren't here. [Neutral]
 * You gave Napstablook a patient smile. [Cheer]
 * Napstablook looks just a little bit better. [Cheer]
 * You told Napstablook a little joke. [Cheer]
 * Cheering seems to have improved Napstablook's mood again. [Cheer]
 * Napstablook wants to show you something. [Cheer]
 * Napstablook eagerly awaits your response. [Cheer]

Trivia

 * If you deplete their health, Napstablook will inform you that you can't defeat them due to their incorporeal state and that they were just pretending to be damaged. You will win the battle, losing an experience point (This does not actually lower your EXP.)
 * Interestingly, this is the only battle to explicitly mention experience points instead of EXP (execution points), this would logically explain why it is not actually subtracted from your EXP.
 * In the puzzle room with the six holes, Napstablook can be found in the center-bottom section. They have some dialogue, which is as follows: "*i fell down a hole... *now i cant get up... *go on without me... *wait, ghosts can fly, can't they... *oh well..." They fade away afterwards.


 * Due to dialogue from the Mad Dummy, it is implied Napstablook's tears feel like or are composed of acid rain.
 * If you activate any one of Napstablook's CDs, they will continue playing once you leave their house. If you move southwards into the area with the SAVE star, you can trigger a special, humorous encounter with Aaron and Woshua which is the only way to yellow text Aaron on the credits. (only once per reset).
 * In Napstablook's home, the CD "Spookwave" is a reference to the music genre Vaporwave. Spookwave also sounds very similar to the theme from the Inspector Gadget Animated Series (1983) when sped up slightly. This could be a reference to how Vaporwave commonly consists of slowed down samples of other songs.
 * Naming yourself Napsta or Blooky will get the message "............ (They're powerless to stop you.)"
 * Napstablook's name seems to be a reference to the file-sharing software Napster, whose logo is a cat wearing headphones. Napstablook is seen wearing headphones in their house, and inspecting their computer says it's on a music-sharing forum. This could also explain the similarities between some music in the game.
 * They are the only enemy in Hard Mode that never changes in difficulty, due to missing a memo regarding Hard Mode.
 * By simply ignoring the light to go back to mixing their music, Napstablook is the only monster whose soul wasn't taken during Asriel Dreemurr's absorption process.


 * Napstablook used to work with their cousins at the snail farm before they went off on their own to gain a corporeal form. Their story is expanded upon if you enter the house next to Napstablook's, which can be unlocked with the Mystery Key that can be bought from Bratty and Catty. The cousin who lived next-door to them is heavily implied to be Mettaton, with one unnamed cousin going off to become training dummy.
 * Napstablook's combat music is composed in a style based on Musique Concrete, an electroacoustic genre that also features in the avant-garde RPG OFF, in which ghosts are a common enemy type.