Flowey

Flowey ( [ˈflaʊ iː], FLOU-ee ) is the first character encountered in Undertale. He provides an introduction to the mechanics of encounters, by "sharing friendliness pellets"; which are actually harmful bullets. He attempts to mislead the protagonist by urging them to take a violent approach throughout their journey in the Underground.

Appearance
Flowey usually takes on the appearance of a sentient, grinning, golden flower with golden petals, a white stamen and a green stem. Although he initially maintains a friendly smile, Flowey is able to contort his face dramatically into a variety of different expressions.

Personality
Initially, Flowey operates under a facade of friendliness and politeness. He has a habit of greeting the protagonist 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 he drops this guise of friendliness, he also has a habit of calling the protagonist an "idiot". His central philosophy is that "In this world, it's kill or be killed."

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 protagonist 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".

Main Story
Flowey first appears at the start of the game, and provides a tutorial of sorts. He urges the protagonist to run into his "friendliness pellets." However, if the protagonist runs into these "pellets," which are actually bullets, Flowey announces his "kill or be killed" attitude to the protagonist. Alternatively, the protagonist can dodge his bullets up to three times, which causes his act to gradually slip, until he hypocritically snaps at the protagonist for toying with him. Either way, Flowey will then proceed to surround the protagonist in an inescapable ring of bullets which close in on the protagonist. However, this attack is prevented by the timely arrival of Toriel.

Ruins Exit
At the exit to the Ruins, Flowey reappears to judge the protagonist's actions up to that point.
 * If the protagonist spared Toriel, then Flowey calls them "clever", but reminds them that they only spared a single person's life:
 * If the protagonist has killed any other monster, he lists the names of every killable monster in the Ruins and points out that every one of them may have had families and loved ones, regardless of which enemy types you have killed or how many you have killed. He calls the protagonist a selfish brat and says: "Somebody is dead because of you."
 * If the protagonist did not kill anybody, and has never killed Toriel, Flowey speculates that if they meet a "relentless killer", they will be killed repeatedly until they eventually give up; Flowey wonders if they will either kill out of frustration, or if they will quit the game entirely, leaving control over the world (through the ability to SAVE, though this is not stated) to Flowey. He tells the protagonist that he won't kill them, and instead will watch them struggle through the rest of the Underground.
 * If the protagonist had killed Toriel at least once before, then reset or loaded the game to spare her, Flowey tells them not to get cocky and proceeds to taunt them by pointing out what they had done: "You murdered her. And then you went back, because you regretted it." He informs the protagonist he previously had the power to SAVE and reset, and that he played as the world's god before the protagonist's arrival superseded his. He tells the protagonist that he will be watching them.
 * If the protagonist killed Toriel:
 * If the protagonist killed Toriel once and hadn't gotten past her before that point, Flowey mocks Toriel for trying to save the protagonist when she ultimately couldn't save herself.
 * If the protagonist kills Toriel, reloads the game, and then kills her again, Flowey calls the protagonist a "disgusting animal" for not even trying to spare her.
 * Repeated kills will have him question how many times the protagonist will continue to do this.
 * If the protagonist had spared Toriel once before, then killed her, Flowey calls them "utterly repulsive." He remembers the protagonist had spared her life, then goes on to taunt them, saying they went back and murdered her just to see what would happen. He informs the protagonist he previously had the power to SAVE and reset, and that he played as the world's god before the protagonist's arrival superseded his. He tells the protagonist that he will be watching them.
 * If the protagonist has met the requirements to begin the Genocide Route, Flowey questions if they are really human. He sees a kindred spirit inside them - Chara. He tells them of his plan to become all powerful and destroy everything in the world together.
 * If the protagonist has completed the game once before, Flowey won't appear at all.

Neutral Route
After the Ruins, Flowey will be seemingly absent from the remainder of the game until the end of the encounter with Asgore. However, there are several moments throughout the game where if the protagonist backtracks, Flowey can be seen at the edge of the screen, before he rapidly disappears into the ground.

At the end of the fight with Asgore, if the protagonist decides to kill Asgore, Flowey will appear, and absorb the six bottled human souls. If Asgore is spared, Flowey will appear nevertheless, and kill Asgore himself.

After this occurs, the game will suddenly crash. Upon relaunching the game, there will be an option to open a SAVE file entiled "My World," and the game's title, Undertale, is replaced with "Floweytale."

After this SAVE file is opened, Flowey will appear, and gloat, stating that because of the protagonist's idiocy, Asgore is dead, and Flowey now possesses the six human souls. He states that once he absorbs his seventh SOUL—the protagonist's—he "will become god," and he will teach monsters, humans, and everyone else the "true meaning of this world": kill or be killed.

After this, an encounter with Photoshop Flowey occurs. This battle is not RPG-oriented; instead, it is entirely a bullet-hell encounter. As the battle progresses, the protagonist manages to call for help from each of the six souls. After doing so, the souls reduce Flowey's defense to zero, which allows the protagonist repeatively attack Photoshop Flowey until Flowey's health drops to zero. After doing so, Flowey will reload the save file to an alternative slot, and gloat about their power. He then will repeatively kill the protagonist, and reload, before finally deciding to save over their death. However, before Photoshop Flowey manages to do this, the souls manage to revolt against Photoshop Flowey, and defeat him.

After this, one of the Neutral Endings will occur. Then, Flowey will reappear, and advise the protagonist on how to get a better ending. If you had gone through the game killing enemies, 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 then reset the game, Flowey will remind you to make friends with everyone, skipping the tutorial "fight", and Flowey's post-Toriel dialogue entirely.

If you had spared every single enemy, yet you have not met all the requirements for the True Pacifist Route, he mentions that maybe you could get closer to Papyrus, Undyne, or Alphys depending on whether or not you had completed their side quest to become friends. Flowey then allows you to recover your previous save file and follow his advice.

If the protagonist kills Flowey, he will acknowledge you successfully finishing him off, before seemingly becoming a regular flower. He will not leave a message for the protagonist after credits' close, and after a reset will not appear at all until the fight with Asgore, where they will berate the protagonist for thinking that killing them solved anything, and he will explain that he was brought back when the protagonist loaded their SAVE file, and that they still cannot achieve their happy ending. He then destroys Asgore Dreemurr's soul. This time around, the protagonist is not able to fight Flowey, as the game leads straight to Sans' phone call.

True Pacifist Route

 * For further information, see Asriel Dreemurr.

Genocide Route

 * For further information, see Asriel Dreemurr.

Attacks
In his regular form as a mere flower, Flowey uses only two attacks, consisting of a five-bullet spread that slightly hone in on the protagonist'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 reduces HP to 1.
 * See Photoshop Flowey.

Relationships

 * See Asriel Dreemurr

Trivia

 * During an early stage of Undertale when it was called "UnderBound 2", it was revealed that Flowey was planned to be the reincarnation of "Face" who was the protagonist of the non-existent EarthBound hack, UnderGround.
 * Flowey's laugh is not an entirely new asset and can be recognized in other media such as the PlayStation title, Tomba!, by a flower-like enemy in Mushroom Forest. It is also heard in "The Lordling" which is another track that Toby Fox composed for the Homestuck album, Cherubim.
 * Flowey is one of the two Undertale characters to 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 protagonist 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." After this, an audible voice clip can be heard as Flowey's overworld sprite "talks", saying "Hmm, that's a wonderful idea!"
 * 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 when the game was started, but all the other images will be replaced with the demo's Genocide Route ending screen, and the last image will be replaced with a faceless Flowey.
 * If "Flowey" is inputted for the character's name, the response becomes "I already CHOSE that name" and prevents the name from being used. This also implies that Flowey chose the name for his flower form himself.
 * If the game is reset during a Genocide Route, Flowey says "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 a Neutral Route is completed after aborting the Genocide Route, Flowey will scold the protagonist about quitting before achieving true victory, before realizing that perhaps the protagonist wanted to see everything before they destroyed it.
 * Sans mentions that Papyrus has heard a flower talking to him when no one else is around. It is heavily implied that this is Flowey's doing.
 * This is proven during one of the Neutral Route endings where Flowey says Papyrus started a "Flowey Fan Club" in multiple timelines. Additionally, in the end of the True Pacifist Route 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.
 * Near the end of the Genocide Route, 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 protagonist from within the game's code.
 * When starting a new game, if the game is closed during the initial event with Flowey, and then reopened, Flowey's dialogue will slightly differ; he will question if introducing himself was necessary, implying that the protagonist already knew about him, and will proceed to teach them "proper manners" and start the tutorial. Doing this again will cause Flowey to say "Don't you have anything better to do?" before starting the tutorial, which will loop the game is restarted again.
 * If the player as already fought Flowey in a timeline, fighting him again is impossible. Attempting to fight him again, Flowey will remark that the 6 human souls would probably revolt again. Attempting to fight him a second time, he will ask the player is they have "anything better to do." Attempting to fight Flowey anymore times will leave him speechless.
 * After completing the True Pacifist Route, at the end of Flowey's talk with the protagonist in which he begs the protagonist not to restart the game, as everyone is now happy. He then chuckles and nods his head, and comments that the protagonist has probably heard his speech several times. Before disappearing, he gives the protagonist a smug look and tells them that he'll "See you around, [NAME]."
 * When some certain monsters are attacked, the same sound effect when Flowey is interrupted by Toriel at the beginning of the game will play.
 * After Defeating Asriel in the True Pacifist Route, Asriel starts flowting in the air and giving all of the Souls back to the Monsters of the Underground, that means a being in the Undertale Universe can Absorb up to 1000 souls or more.
 * If you talk to the Echo Flower Explainer at the beggining of the Waterfall in your second run, he will say "Never trust a flower... That's one of the constants of this world". This is an obvious reference to Flowey.
 * It seems that if Flowey had not destroyed Asgore's SOUL at the end of the Genocide Route, Chara might have escaped the Underground unopposed to destroy humanity at their leisure. Instead however, Flowey unintentionally traps Chara behind the now unpassable Barrier, which proves to be fruitless since the world is destroyed anyways.