Where is Sans’ HP Bar? (Spoilers)

Sans’ fight in the game is strange for a variety of reasons, mostly for the lack of an increase in your kill counter and the very nature of Sans’ attacks. There’s another thing about his fight that’s strange, and that’s something that never actually shows up.



At no point in the game do we see Sans’ HP bar, and he is the only monster for whom this is true. Even the Amalgamates have an HP bar under the FIGHT command. So why doesn’t Sans, and why does it matter? Placed under the cut because of length and pictures!



TL;DR: Giving Sans a ridiculously small HP bar doesn’t fit in with how the game treats HP with the other monsters, and even at 1 pixel Sans’ HP bar would still be visible. The absence is more likely to be due to an in story reason than a purely visual choice on Toby’s part.

Edited after some great feedback on reddit!



All monsters in the game have their own HP bar in two separate places: beside their name in the FIGHT menu and underneath the damage numbers on the battle screen after your attack successfully lands. Sans is the only monster, who in his fight, shows no sign of an HP bar in either place.

HP In The Fight Menu

In the fight menu, all characters have an HP bar next to their name. This HP bar is always the same size. Whimsun with his 10 HP has the same size bar as Undyne the Undying’s 23000 HP, which is also the same size as Asriel Dreemurr’s infinite HP. An exception is certain Amalgamates, but while their HP bar will extend past normal lengths, they still possess one. As we can see, Sans simply doesn’t.

Sans should have an HP bar, and normally it seems he does (as the Lost Soul fight shows us), which is in keeping with how the game treats and shows monster stats. Yet in the genocide run Toby has chosen to keep the HP bar hidden.



HP On The Battle Screen



Sans is not the only character to lack an HP bar in this screen, Asgore and Flowey do as well in some instances, but Sans is the only character for whom the absence doesn‘t seem to make immediate sense, as the possible reasons behind Flowey and Asgore’s lack of an HP bar wouldn’t apply to him.

Asgore’s Missing HP Bar



Asgore has two instances where we don’t see his HP bar appear upon attack. One is the ending where he commits suicide. Here the screen fades to white, turns to black, and then returns to Asgore, who has done the deed and is mortally wounded. The game itself keeps us from seeing the HP bar, or anything at all. It’s clearly visible that this would not apply to Sans’ situation, as he is onscreen the entire time.



The other instance is when Flowey deals the final blow to Asgore. Here we see neither the amount of damage that has been done, nor Asgore’s HP bar.

I think this is likely because only the attackers are able to see the result of the attack. Every time in the game where we successfully attack and cause damage, we see the results of the attack. This is the only case in the game where we aren’t the ones at fault for the damage, so while the theory can’t be tested, I think it’s probable.

Regardless of whether that’s the reason for the absence of the numbers and HP bar upon Flowey’s attack, this still doesn’t apply to Sans, since Sans isn’t missing both elements, he’s only missing one.



Flowey’s Missing HP Bar



Flowey’s reasons for lacking HP or any damage numbers are a result of not having a soul, which is not a thing that Sans lacks and so the reasons for lacking HP are different for both of them.

When we’re first introduced to our soul in the game, Flowey explains this to us:

Flowey: “See that heart? That is your SOUL, the very culmination of your being!”

And of course, as we are hit, our HP decreases. HP is directly connected to the soul.

When we attack Flowey, a soulless vessel, there are no damage numbers to suggest that there have been any change in the HP, and no HP bar to confirm this. As a soulless being Flowey has no more need for HP than Papyrus’ mailbox would.



The only times Flowey gains an HP bar is when he gains souls. Absorbing the souls of others turns him into a powerful being with a combined soul. The souls are separate things within this larger being’s soul. When Flowey became Asriel again by absorbing every soul around him, despite not having his own original soul, the game still treats him as having one.

“Within the depths of Asriel’s SOUL, something’s resonating!”

“Strangely, as your friends remembered you… something else began resonating with the SOUL, stronger and stronger.”

It shows the souls of your friends being separate, but at the same time as part of something bigger. The concept still applies to Photoshop Flowey, a being with only six souls, and Asriel and Chara, a being with just one monster and one human soul.

“Frisk, when Chara and I combined our SOULs together…”

So this is likely why Flowey has no HP bar, and Photoshop Flowey and Asriel Dreemurr do. And Flowey’s lack of HP is not a situation that can be applied to Sans, as it’s clear that he has a soul. And as we see with Asgore, Flowey has neither an HP bar nor the damage numbers when he is struck, while Sans is only missing his HP bar, so again, the circumstances are different.



The Length of Sans’ Missing HP Bar In The Battle Screen.



Is it possible that the reason his HP bar doesn’t show up on the battle screen is because it’s just too small or because it depletes too fast? After all, in the files Sans only has 1 HP.



Sans’ HP bar should work like Asgore’s on the genocide run. We hit Asgore with nearly 10 billion damage and Sans with nearly 10 million. Both are incredibly high numbers, and both should deplete the HP bar in no time at all. In fact, that’s what happens with Asgore. We just barely see the green of his HP because it goes down so fast. Likewise, with Sans, we probably wouldn’t be able to see any green on his HP bar.

But if you’ll notice, despite Asgore’s HP being nonexistent right now, we can still see the bar. The empty, grey bar lasts on screen just as long as the damage numbers do. So despite barely having a chance to see Asgore’s HP bar with any HP still in it, we can still see the bar itself; we can still see that he actually has one and that it’s empty. So logically, despite having no HP left, Sans should still have an empty HP bar beneath the damage, but he doesn’t. And even if both his HP bars were 1 pixel in width, they would still be visible, as we can see in the image below.



Would his HP bar actually only be 1 pixel in length? For this to be true, a monster’s HP bar should be dependent on their HP; however, we can see from the calculation in the game that this is not the way the game calculates the HP bar. For those who are interested, here’s the link to the Underminer’s thread I made about the topic!



hp bar width = round(max hp * (wd variable / max hp))

The length of a monster’s HP bar is based on the wd variable each monster has, which I can only assume stands for width. Toriel’s wd variable is set to her sprite width. Aaron’s is 100. Looking in game, these match up.

What‘s interesting to note though, is that Sans does indeed have a wd variable of 120, despite never using it. So really, if the HP in Sans’ fight was treated like all the others, based on what Toby has in the code we should be seeing something like the image below.

But as we can see in the game itself, what we actually get is this:



Toby specifically chose not to include the HP bar for Sans’ fight, despite having given Sans the necessary number for one. This may have been for a scrapped pacifist fight, or perhaps it was indeed meant for the genocide fight, but Toby decided against it in the end.

Sans has no HP bar either under the FIGHT menu or on the battle screen. There is no immediate explanation for either of these to be missing, and while there may be other characters who also lack an HP bar, those instances do not apply to Sans, so his reasons remain unexplained.

Is there perhaps a design or gameplay reason for it, as opposed to one from the game’s lore? Perhaps, but for Toby to go against how he has handled the HP bar throughout the rest of the game, I feel like there would have to be a very good or solid reasoning for it.

Is Sans’ lack of an HP bar in the FIGHT menu meant to help guide the fight, subconsciously letting the player know that hacking away at his HP isn’t the way to advance? Perhaps, but there are also other ways the game guides the player, through the dialogue advances and “can’t dodge forever. Keep attacking” check, so the lack of an HP bar in the FIGHT menu isn’t something that‘s absolutely needed. Even then, such a choice for the game design there wouldn’t explain the lack of an HP bar when he dies, since by this time the fight is over and thus there’s no longer any need to guide the player.



Isn’t it just pointless? Why bother adding in the HP bar if it’s only one HP and Sans dies in one hit? We can ask this question in other areas of the game as well. Why add in HP bars to the Lost Souls if we’re never able to damage them? Why give them to the Amalgamates who can never die either? Why give it to Asgore on the genocide route if he also dies in one hit? Toby has shown us that he’ll include the HP bar, even in places where it doesn’t seem to be needed. So why should Sans be the only exception?

We aren’t the ones dealing the final blow, so his HP bar isn’t something we’re able to see. But if this were the case, we should not have seen Asgore’s in the genocide run either, since we certainly didn’t press the fight option there.



Is This Tied Into The Possibility of Sans’ Survival? Personally, I think that there is something strange/different about Sans’ fight/death and his lack of an HP bar is part of that, but whatever that may be, I don’t believe it played any part for his survival.



In summary again: Sans has no HP bar whatsoever in his fight. This is unique to him in the genocide fight and there is no definite reason for it. IMHO, there is an in game reason for this, rather than a design or gameplay choice by Toby.

