W. D. Gaster Explained: Undertale’s Wingdings Scientist
Undertale's hidden Royal Scientist speaks only in Wingdings. Here is what the game actually shows about W. D. Gaster, and how to read his messages.
W. D. Gaster is the most famous character in Undertale that most players never meet. He has no boss fight, no shop and no place on the map, yet a decade after the game’s 2015 release fans still trade theories about him. The reason is simple: almost everything we know about Gaster comes in fragments, and the most important fragment is written in Wingdings.
This guide collects what is actually in the game, separates it from fan theory, and shows how to read his messages yourself with the Gaster translator.
Who W. D. Gaster is in the story
According to the game’s lore, Gaster was the Royal Scientist of the monsters’ kingdom in the Underground before Alphys took the job. He is credited with creating the Core, the machine in Hotland that turns geothermal heat into the magical electricity that powers the Underground.
Then he disappeared. The few characters who mention him describe a scientist who fell into his own creation and was “shattered across time and space”. That phrase is the root of most Gaster theories: he is not dead in the usual sense, just scattered, which explains why he only shows up in broken, glitchy moments.
Why his name points to a font
Toby Fox named several Undertale characters after typefaces. The skeleton brothers Sans and Papyrus are named after the fonts Comic Sans and Papyrus, and their dialogue is even set in those fonts. The “W. D.” in Gaster’s name is widely read as Wing Ding, which fits perfectly: the font he speaks in is Wingdings.
It is a neat piece of design. Sans and Papyrus talk in fonts anyone can read. Gaster talks in the one Microsoft font that nobody can read without a decoder, which is exactly how a character lost between dimensions should sound.
Where Gaster appears in Undertale
You will not find Gaster by playing normally. He is reached through a handful of hidden routes:
- The fun value. When you start a new game, Undertale stores a random number called fun. Certain values trigger rare events, some of them tied to Gaster, such as unusual rooms and characters.
- Gaster Followers. Grey characters who appear only with specific fun values. They talk about the scientist who fell into his creation.
- The Mystery Man. A hidden sprite that fans generally use as Gaster’s portrait, although the game never confirms the link.
- Entry Number Seventeen. A short text in Wingdings stored in a hidden room called
room_gaster, which can only be reached by modifying the game files. We cover it in detail in our guide to Gaster’s Entry Number 17.
How Gaster speaks: all caps Wingdings
Gaster’s lines are standard Wingdings with capital letters. That detail matters, because in Wingdings upper and lower case letters are completely different symbols. “hello” becomes ♒︎♏︎●︎●︎□︎, while “HELLO” becomes ☟︎☜︎☹︎☹︎🏳︎. If a decoded Gaster message looks like nonsense, the most common reason is that the symbols were typed in lower case.
The opening of Entry Number Seventeen, “DARK DARKER YET DARKER”, shows the style well: 👎︎✌︎☼︎😐︎ 👎︎✌︎☼︎😐︎☜︎☼︎ ✡︎☜︎❄︎ 👎︎✌︎☼︎😐︎☜︎☼︎. Hands, suns and pointing fingers do most of the work, because the capital letters A to L in Wingdings are mostly hand gestures and faces.
Try it: write like Gaster
Type a line below. Gaster mode is switched on, so your text becomes capitals first and then Wingdings, just like in the game.
Your text in all four fonts
For longer projects, the full Gaster translator page adds a clickable symbol keyboard so you can decode Gaster text from screenshots and videos.
Gaster in Deltarune
Toby Fox’s follow up game, Deltarune, does not show Gaster directly. It does contain allusions to him: musical references to his theme appear in the soundtrack, and some dialogue echoes Entry Number Seventeen. Fans treat these as proof that Gaster’s story is not finished, though the games themselves leave it open.
Theory versus text
Gaster has attracted so many theories that it helps to separate them from what the game shows:
| In the game | Fan interpretation |
|---|---|
| A former Royal Scientist who built the Core | Alphys inherited his unfinished work |
| Characters say he fell into his creation | He exists outside time and watches the story |
| Entry Number Seventeen is written in Wingdings | The entry is Gaster’s own lost log |
| His initials read as Wing Ding | Confirmed pun, matching Sans and Papyrus |
| The Mystery Man sprite exists in the files | The sprite is Gaster, though this is unconfirmed |
Decoding Gaster text yourself
- Copy the symbols from a transcript, or open a screenshot next to the Gaster translator.
- Paste the symbols, or click them one by one on the symbol keyboard.
- Read the result in capitals. If some symbols stay unchanged, check whether they belong to Wingdings 2 or another font, since fan edits sometimes mix fonts.
- Keep the Wingdings chart open if you want to check individual symbols by hand.
Frequently asked questions
Why does Gaster speak in Wingdings?
His initials are widely read as Wing Ding, and his dialogue is written in the Wingdings font, matching how Sans and Papyrus speak in the fonts they are named after.
Can you meet Gaster in a normal playthrough?
No. Gaster content appears only through rare fun value events, hidden rooms and file modifications.
Is Gaster in Deltarune?
He does not appear directly, but Deltarune contains allusions to him, including musical references to his theme and dialogue that echoes Entry Number Seventeen.