Ruins/Puzzles

The protagonist is introduced to puzzles through Toriel as ancient fusions between diversions and doorkeys. Toriel assists the protagonist in solving the first three puzzle in the Ruins then shortly abandons them.

The Middle Road Puzzle
The middle road puzzle is the first puzzle that the protagonist encounters in the Ruins. This puzzle features six switches placed on the ground and a lever. A plaque on the wall reads "Only the fearless may proceed. Brave one, foolish ones. Both not walk the middle road." This gives the protagonist the hint that need to not step on the switches on the marked path. Solving this puzzle opens up the door to the switch puzzle.

Sadly, Toriel solves this puzzle in front of the protagonist before they can actually interact with the puzzle. As it is always completed after Toriel solves it, the protagonist cannot solve it themselves afterwards.

The Switch Room
The switch room is a room with three switches on the wall, two bridges, spikes that prevent the protagonist from entering the next room, and a plaque on the wall that reads "Stay on the path." This gives the protagonist the hint that they need to hit the switch that can be reached on the path.

The labels "Please press this switch" and "Please press this switch too" have been added by Toriel next to the switches that the protagonist needs to press. In Hard Mode, these labels have faded away making the puzzle more challenging.

The Blueprint Puzzle
The blueprint puzzle is two-part room where one side of the room features markings on floor and the other sides features spikes and water. The plaque in the middle of this room reads "The western room is the eastern room's blueprint." This means that the markings on the floor resemble the way to get across the spikes on the room to the right.

When coming across the spiked portion of this puzzle for the first time, Toriel will hold the protagonist's hand and walk across the spikes in the intended manner.

The Rock Puzzle
The rock puzzle is two rooms with a barrier of impassible spikes and rocks waiting to be pushed onto switches. The plaque in the first room reads "Three out of four grey rocks recommend you push them."

The first room can be solved by pushing the only rock onto the white tile and the spikes will be deactivated. This is the first puzzle that the protagonist solves alone. The second room contains the other three rocks and white tiles those rocks can be pushed onto, this can be solved by repeatedly asking the bottom rock to move onto the switch. Once the protagonist approaches the deactivated spikes, the rock will then move again which will reactivate the spikes. From there, the protagonist needs to tell the last rock to stay into place.

If you talk to this talking rock at the end of a True Pacifist Route, they will ask the protagonist to push them out onto the surface.

The Leaf Puzzle
Between the two rock puzzle rooms is a two story room with numerous cracked tiles on the upper floor. If the protagonist happens to fall through the cracked tiles, they will be dropped onto the leaves found on the bottom floor.

The plaque on the bottom floor reads "Please don't step on the leaves." indicating the arrangement of the leaves on the ground found on the lower floor is the solution on how to walk across the cracked tiles on the upper floor. Reading the plaque on the upper floor will give you the message "Didn't you read the sign downstairs?" since the protagonist has to be stepping on the leaves to read this plaque. A month before the public Undertale Demo was released, according to Toby Fox, this puzzle was slated to be harder than the final version and originally had no markings on the ground.[1]

The One Switch Puzzle
The one switch puzzle is a room that has six cracks on the upper floor, each of these cracks leads to smaller individual rooms with leaf piles in them on the bottom floor. The plaque on the wall reads "There is just one switch." hinting that the protagonist needs to trigger one switch to solve the puzzle in this room. Solving this puzzle will disable the spikes and allow the protagonist to progress into the rotating puzzle room.
 * The top left room contains a Vegetoid.
 * The top middle room contains the switch needed to progress.
 * The top right room contains nothing but the leaf pile.
 * The bottom left room contains the Faded Ribbon.
 * The bottom middle room contains Napstablook who will fade away after being spoken to. If the protagonist was aggressive towards Napstablook, they will not appear in this room.
 * The bottom right room contains another Vegetoid.

The Rotating Puzzle Room
<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[5411,5636,0,0]}">The rotating puzzle room is the last puzzle found in the ruins. The puzzle consists of the same room rotated four times and a room that brings the protagonist back into the first room if the protagonist hits the wrong switch.


 * The first room has a plaque that reads "The far door is not an exit. It simply marks a rotation in perspective." The protagonist does not need to do anything in this room since the spikes are deactivated.
 * The second room has a plaque that reads "If you can read this, press the blue switch." If the protagonist fails to solve the puzzle in this room, the flavor text will point then to the blue switch behind the pillar near the entrance.
 * The third room has a plaque that reads "If you can read this, press the red switch" which can be found in plain sight.
 * The fourth room has a plaque that reads "If you can read this, press the green switch" which can be found behind the pillar in the top-left corner of this room.