SOULs are a big deal in Toby Fox's hit indie-RPG Undertale. Not only are they significant from a game mechanic standpoint, but they're also important within its lore. SOULs are the energy of all living things in Undertale. Monsters and humans all have SOULs, though the game makes it pretty clear that human SOULs are far more powerful than those of monsters -- hence why they disintegrate when they die.

However, the game never directly says exactly how much more powerful human souls are. There more than likely isn't meant to be a direct comparison, however, there are enough details in Undertale to figure out just how powerful both human and monster SOULs are.

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Undertale

Since Undertale is an RPG, there are plenty of numbers to compare when trying to determine strength. The game's main character, Frisk, starts the game with their Level Of Violence set at one. This LV means Frisk hasn't killed any other humans or monsters and absorbed their SOULs, meaning their power should be comparable to that of the average human.

Level of Violence is still important since it can actually be used to determine how many average monster SOULs make up one average human SOULs. While it theoretically would be helpful to compare attack and defense stats, the fact that Frisk has zero attack and zero defense at LV one (since the tutorial Froggit enemy is scripted to die in a single hit) makes this difficult. Instead, it's better to take the average EXP, or execution points, Frisk needs to go from LV one to LV two.

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Frisk only needs 10 EXP for LV two, and the game's tutorial battle against a Froggit is scripted to give Frisk just that. This implies there's a one-to-one comparison between monster SOULs and human SOULs, though given that Frisk's stats start at zero, the tutorial battle may not be the best metric to use. Instead, averaging the EXP rewarded from every monster in the game's first area, the Ruins, and figuring out how many monsters it'd take to get Frisk to level two may work out better.

On average (and without counting bosses like Nabstablook and Toriel), monsters in the Ruins give about four EXP each. Since Frisk needs 10 EXP to get to level two, that means it takes about two-and-a-half monster SOULs to equal the power from one human SOUL. So, in theory, human SOULs are about 2.5x stronger than monster SOULs within the context of Undertale -- a number that certainly matches up with what's shown in the game.

For example, as Frisk's SOUL gets stronger alongside their Level of Violence, it ends up taking more monster SOULs to match their SOUL in power. In game mechanic terms, the EXP curve keeps getting higher as the player's level gets higher. Frisk is always more powerful than the monsters in the Underground, but it's the fact that they keep getting more powerful that leads to certain boss fights in the game's genocide route being over in a single hit from Frisk.

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As for boss monsters, they are implied to have stronger SOULs than normal monsters. The first boss monster Frisk fights is Toriel, who grants Frisk 150 EXP when killed. Looking at the normal monsters in the ruins and their average EXP, it'd take about 37 normal monster SOULs to make up Toriel's boss monster SOUL. This number isn't a great estimate, however, as it doesn't take into account the varying amount of EXP that other boss monsters grant throughout the game.

In the end, the 2.5x stronger estimate is really only just that: an estimate. In Undertale and Deltarune, all players really need to know is that monsters have weaker SOULs than humans, as that's enough to understand the lore implications. Still, it's fascinating to see that, in a game known for hiding small bits of lore in plain sight, there may actually be some in-game evidence pointing to just how strong human and monster SOULs are.

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