Wrist Protector

Wrist Protector
Obtaining the Wrist Protector
Type	Gameplay Mechanic

In the demo version of Chapter 1, the Wrist Protector was a feature that could be found in the first room of ??????. After obtaining it, textboxes could be skipped by holding the "[MENU]" button.

The Wrist Protector would only appear if Kris entered ?????? less than 8 minutes after a new game was started. This could be done either by completing the introductory School sequence as fast as possible, or by going back to sleep in Kris's bed to reach ?????? immediately (an option only available if Chapter 1 has already been completed at least once). When obtained, this text appears: "("Even in a rush, you need to take care of yourself.")"

As of the Chapter 1&2 demo released in 2021, textbox skipping is a default feature. The Wrist Protector cannot be found regardless of how fast the first room of ?????? is reached.

Trivia

• The name "Wrist Protector" is likely literal, as the feature protects the player's wrist from potential injury by reducing the number of hand motions used to skip large amounts of text.
• The idea of a Wrist Protector may come from Toby Fox experiencing wrist injuries.
• This feature seems to be intended for speedrunners. Casual players are unlikely to encounter the Wrist Protector unintentionally due to the requirement for finding it, and its effect is only beneficial to players not focused on the dialogue.
• While the Wrist Protector is found and acquired as though it were an item, it does not appear in the party's inventory.
• If Kris stayed in the room containing the Wrist Protector without collecting it as the 8-minute mark elapsed, it remained and did not despawn until there was a screen transition.
• A Chapter 1 save file made with the SURVEY_PROGRAM demo allows the player to obtain the Wrist Protector and does not enable text skipping by default until entering Chapter 2, even when opened with the Chapter 1&2 demo. This is because the flag for text skipping is only set when entering a chapter initially, thus not adding it to existing save files.
  • After taking the Wrist Protector, if Kris interacts with the area that once held the item, the dialogue "(Nothing.)" appears.
• In Undertale's debug mode, there was a feature accessed by hex editing that allowed the player to skip text using the menu key as well. It is likely that this was made an actual gameplay feature due to the convenience and ease-of-access.