Flowey

Flowey (pronounced Flowee) is the first character you meet and talk to after beginning Undertale, who shows you most of the basics of gameplay by attempting to "raise your LV (or LOVE) by use of his 'friendliness pellets'", which are actually harmful bullets. He tends to call everyone an idiot.

Appearance
Flowey appears as a large flower in the ground with six golden yellow petals around his head. His face changes dramatically depending on his emotions. Sometimes, he is shown with leaves.

Personality
Flowey wears a mask of friendliness and politeness. He has a habit of greeting you with "Howdy!", calling himself "your best friend", and, like his father, appending polite words such as "gosh" and "golly" to the ends of his sentences. Whenever dropping his facade and gloating, he also has a habit of calling you an "idiot". His central philosophy is that of Chara: that the meaning of the world is "kill or be killed."

His facade first drops entirely during his "tutorial", the moment the player foolishly runs into his bullets, and he announces his "kill or be killed" attitude to the player. Alternatively, the player can dodge his bullets up to three times, which causes his act to gradually slip, until he hypocritically snaps at the player for toying with him. Either way, he then surrounds the player in an inescapable ring of bullets which close in on the player. His assassination attempt is halted by the timely arrival of Toriel.

At the exit to the Ruins, Flowey reappears to judge the player's actions up to that point, including whether they have killed or spared Toriel in the current run, as well as whether they've reloaded the game to get different results. If the player spared Toriel but killed other monsters, he calls the player a selfish brat and lists all the monsters that the player killed. The only circumstance in which he doesn't mock the player is if they have met the requirements to begin the Genocide Route; instead, he sees a kindred spirit in them.

As shown throughout the game, Flowey has a generally malevolent and cruel disposition, regularly berating a pacifist player for ignoring his kill-or-be-killed advice and generally talking about his desire to destroy the world. He is a cunning planner and subtle if the circumstances require it, even manipulating the player into bringing him as many monster SOULs as they can find in the neutral ending. He is notably able to retain his memories between SAVEs (having once had the ability to do so himself). He also possesses a disturbing sense of humor, as shown in his boss fight, in which he turns into what is referred to as "Photoshop Flowey".

For all of his cruelty and generally evil actions, however, it is hinted he genuinely regards the player as something of a friend. As revealed in the Pacifist Ending and Genocide Ending, he lacks a SOUL, and with it, the ability to feel love or most other emotions—his evil may be an attempt by him to feel anything at all, even self-loathing.

Main story
same as Asriel Dreemurr

Attacks
In his regular form as a mere flower, Flowey uses only two attacks, consisting of a five-bullet spread that slightly home in on the player's SOUL, and a large ring of bullets which surround the SOUL and cannot be dodged. He is able to speed up the spread, though the limits of his attacks and speed are unknown. Getting hit by his five-bullet spread leaves the player's SOUL at 1 HP.

Photoshop Flowey
If, during the boss battle with Asgore on the neutral/first pacifist run, Asgore is weakened and then spared, Flowey will appear and kill Asgore himself, absorbing the six bottled human SOULs and increasing his own strength. Otherwise, Flowey steals the six human SOULs after the player kills Asgore.



The game will then crash. Upon reloading the game, your SAVE file appears to be gone and the game's title, Undertale, is replaced with FloweyTale. The protagonist's name is Flowey, who's LV is listed as being 9999. The location is titled "My World". Flowey's Determination is now overriding Frisk's, allowing him once again to manipulate the game, its data, and its timelines.

After opening this SAVE, Flowey will gloat that because of your idiocy, Asgore is dead, he has absorbed the six bottled human SOULs, and he has permanently deleted your SAVE file. He states that once he absorbs his seventh SOUL—your SOUL—and becomes godlike, he will teach monsters, humans, and everyone else the "true meaning of this world": kill or be killed.

A boss battle then begins with Flowey, who has now taken on a terrifying visage: a grotesque flower-shaped hybrid of plant tissue, human organs, and machine. This form is Photoshop Flowey. It is often also called Omega Flowey by fans. Photoshop Flowey's new body also strongly resembles that of The DT Extraction Machine's structure, albeit now filled with teeth, gums, and eyes. This machine was created by Alphys to extract Determination from the six previously captured human SOULs, the same SOULs that Photoshop Flowey would use to power himself.

This battle is not RPG-oriented, but instead based entirely as a bullet-hell encounter. Flowey saves and loads during his attacks to disorient the player. These include firing star-shaped projectiles from his eyes, launching numerous vines, flamethrowers, finger guns, pulling in flies, dropping bombs, lasers, and using the weapons of the Six Humans. When Flowey activates the powers of one of his six human SOULs—indicated by a warning on his screen and the glowing of one of his six metal petals—that human SOUL will give an attack based on their associated objects and concepts.

During the attacks of the Six Humans, there will be an "ACT" button that can be activated using the "Z" key. The protagonist will then call for help, and the attacks of the SOULs will turn into green attacks shortly after, healing the player. Once dealt with, the six SOULs will all encourage you to finish Flowey, by healing you and dropping his defense to zero. The player will then be given a "FIGHT" button which shows up every few seconds until Flowey's health drops to zero.

The first two times the player dies during this battle, Flowey will taunt them in the Game Over screen before crashing the game. After that, the game crashes immediately upon death. When reloading, Flowey will continue taunting you. Each death brings a new taunt (up to 9), and quitting provokes a special reaction of its own.

The player must dodge Flowey's attacks to move towards and activate the FIGHT/ACT buttons. In order to lower Flowey's high Defense, the player must ask for help from each of the human SOULs—the game remembers which SOULs have been asked for help, even if the game is closed during the battle.

When Flowey's HP is depleted, it is possible to kill (FIGHT) or SPARE him. Upon SPARING him, Flowey will be very confused as to why you are nice to him and give you several opportunities to change your mind, telling the player that he hasn't changed at all and will kill them and everyone they love if he is allowed to survive. Upon showing mercy multiple times after his threat, he will express frustration that he can not understand why you spared him, before running away.

After this and the neutral endings, Flowey, believing his "kill or be killed" philosophy may be meaningless, will ask you to prove it to him by playing the game again without killing anyone; he then promises not to kill the king and will give you your "happy ending". If you run into the neutral route again after failing to meet all of the conditions for a pacifist route, he mentions that maybe you could get closer to Papyrus, Undyne, or Alphys depending on how far in their side quest you had progressed to unlock the True Ending. Flowey then allows you to recover your previous save file and try again.

If the player kills Flowey, he will acknowledge you successfully finishing him off, before seemingly becoming a regular flower. He does not appear in the opening sequences if the player restarts, but he will still appear in the ending and in occasional glimpses off the edge of the screen. Finishing a neutral run again after killing him will cause him to remark that he was brought back when the player loaded their SAVE file, and that they still cannot achieve their happy ending. He then destroys Asgore Dreemurr's soul. This time around, the player is not able to fight Flowey, as the Storyline ends and leads straight to the Neutral Ending call.

Relationships
Main Article: Asriel Dreemurr

Trivia

 * When Flowey absorbs the six human SOULs (and changes the save files to his own), if you quit and relaunch the game, you're greeted by Flowey with "Hee hee hee, you thought you could run away?".
 * Flowey's laugh is not an entirely new asset, and can be recognized in other media, such as the Playstation title Tomba. It's also heard twice in the Homestuck soundtrack song, The Lordling, which was also composed by Toby Fox.
 * If you spare Toriel but kill monsters, Flowey will call you a selfish brat for doing so and keeps track and lists every one you chose to kill at the end of the ruins.
 * Flowey is one of the two Undertale characters to possibly have a "canon" voice (the other being Mettaton), at least in his flower form. Near the beginning of a Genocide run of the game in which the player kills every enemy they encounter (including Toriel), Flowey will recognize you as the original fallen human and propose to "destroy everything in this wretched world" with you. After this, an audible voice clip can be heard as Flowey's overworld sprite "talks", saying "Hmm, that's a wonderful idea!"
 * If you kill Toriel, and restart before you save the game in order to spare her, Flowey still remembers you killed her and brings it up, saying that you only restarted because you regretted it. Vice versa, if you spared her, then reload the game just to kill her, he accuses you of doing so out of boredom. He then lets you know that he used to have the power to save and reset as well before you started the game. Repeated kills will have him question how many times you will continue to do this. He then mocks you, calling you a "disgusting animal" for not even trying to spare her in the current run.
 * Before the final battle with Sans during the end of the Genocide Route, Flowey states that he and Chara would have no problem about killing each other if they got in each others' paths, possibly alluding that Flowey would have no qualms about killing his surrogate sibling. This probably angered Chara completely which resulted in Flowey's demise at Chara's hands at the end of the final scene after killing Asgore.
 * If you abandon a Genocide playthrough (reset without completing it) then restart the game—to perhaps begin a more gentle playthrough—Flowey will say to you "Really, [name]? Well, do what you will. I'll be waiting for you." implying some disappointment or sense of betrayal. Additionally, this will skip the tutorial "fight", and Flowey's post-Toriel dialogue entirely.
 * If the player resets and completes a True Pacifist run before ending the Genocide Route, Flowey will also appear at the end of the game and will scold the player about quitting before achieving true victory, before realizing that perhaps the player wanted to see everything before they destroyed it.
 * Similarly, if you complete a neutral playthrough and spare Flowey then restart the game, Flowey will remind you to make friends with everyone, skipping the tutorial "fight", and Flowey's post-Toriel dialogue entirely. Other effects are unknown.
 * On the other hand, if you kill Flowey at the end of the neutral playthrough instead of sparing him, he will not leave a message for the player after credit's close, and after a reset will not appear at all until the fight with Asgore, where they will berate the player for thinking that killing them solved anything.
 * Near the neutral ending fight with Flowey, when Flowey surrounds the player with bullets and starts his monologue, if the player starts running into the bullet circle instead of avoiding it, Flowey gets annoyed with the player and angrily tells them to stop.
 * After completing a true Pacifist run and at the end of Flowey's talk with the player (he begs the player not to restart the game, as everyone is now happy), he chuckles and nods his head as he comments that the player has probably heard his speech several times. Before disappearing, he gives the player a smug look and tells them that he'll "See you around, [NAME],"
 * During the complete game, there are several moments that when you turn backwards, you might spot Flowey on the edge of the screen, then rapidly disappearing. Some examples of this can be seen when walking backwards after Toriel's inventory space call in the Ruins, or walking backwards after Papyrus' bridge "trap". This is also spotted in the entrance of the room in which the Mettaton's Bomb Game occurs after you win it, after Mettaton's cooking "show", going back to the ruins after meeting Sans, and near Waterfall.
 * During your conversation with Flowey at the end of the demo, Flowey's face disappears from the flower in the first image in the "instructions" folder. In addition to this, the final image will change to a note that reads: "A Note From Your Friend - Don't get too cocky."
 * However, if this is a genocide run, the first image in the "instructions" folder will remain the same as it was before you started the game, but all the other images will be replaced with the demo's Genocide Route ending screen, and the last image will be replaced with Flowey, but with no face at all.
 * Sans mentions that Papyrus has heard a flower talking to him in his sleep. It is heavily implied that this is Flowey's doing.
 * This is proven during the Pacifist Ending when Alphys asks Papyrus, who called all of them to meet up at The Barrier, how he knew about this when he wasn't the first to show up. He replies that a flower told him before Flowey ensnares them all.
 * If you type "Flowey" for the character's name, the response becomes "I already CHOSE that name" and prevents you from using the name.
 * You can dodge Flowey's bullets during the tutorial. Doing it once will cause him to tell you you missed them, and decides to try again. If you dodge them a second time, he will become enraged and shout "RUN!!! INTO!!! THE!!! BULLETS!!!" before the word "BULLETS" is corrected to "friendliness pellets" to try to redeem himself after accidentally saying he's attacking.Bullets.png
 * If you dodge the bullets a third time, Flowey's face will turn evil as he realizes you know what's going on. He'll then accuse the player of coming back to watch him suffer over and over again, as well as calling the player an idiot, as restarting the game has given him another chance to go through with his original plan. He then tries to finish off the player with a large ring of unavoidable bullets, but is stopped by Toriel. Going into the bullets causes them to do nothing, and Flowey portrays the same confused face. The music also gets progressively lower-pitched with each dodge, until it suddenly drops in pitch until silence at the third time.
 * Although not given an official name, most fans of the game refer to his boss fight form as "Omega Flowey."
 * However, in the Neutral Ending Credits, "Omega Flowey" is named "Photoshop Flowey". Whether this is his true name for that form isn't fully known, as the 'Photoshop' part of the form's name may actually be referring to the use of Photoshop to design his monstrous body.
 * Flowey will mention that some people are watching gameplay rather than playing the game near the end of a Genocide Route, talking about "those pathetic people that want to see it, but are too weak to do it themselves" and claiming that "I bet someone like that's watching right now, aren't they...?". This is also a possible reference to W.D. Gaster, who is supposedly watching the player from within the game's code.
 * When starting a new game, if you close the game during the initial event with Flowey, and then go back, the dialogue you get after Flowey introduces himself differs from the original; he will question if introducing himself was necessary, implying you already knew about him, and will proceed to teach you proper manners (Since abruptly closing the game while talking to Flowey could be considered as to leave him hanging), starting the tutorial with Flowey. Doing this again will cause Flowey to say "Don't you have anything better to do?" before starting the tutorial. It is unknown if closing the game during any point of this tutorial triggers any other effects on the next time you play the game.
 * The game stores data for the Flowey fight in undertale.ini under the header "[FFFFF]".
 * If the line [FFFFF] does not exist in your undertale.ini, copying and pasting these lines into your ini file will cause the game to boot into Floweytale (if the line does exist, overwriting it and the variables P, E, and F if they exist underneath will have the same effect), but the game stands a good chance of crashing after defeating Flowey due to your character-data not being what it should be at that point in the game:
 * [FFFFF]
 * F="1.000000"
 * The variables P, F, and E are constantly saved over during the fight, with P most likely tracking how many calls for help have been made, as this is saved across deaths, which crash the game.
 * To make the game think you have already beaten Flowey (which will make him unfightable upon reaching the end of an existing Neutral Run), replace the existing [FFFFF] and its variables with:
 * [FFFFF]
 * P="7.000000"
 * F="0.000000"
 * E="0.000000"