You throw the stick. Mettaton catches it in his mouth and winks.
Text upon using the stick during Mettaton EX’s fight
The Stick is a weapon item equipped at the beginning of Undertale. Its defensive counterpart is the Bandage. It provides no statistical improvement. When it is used to FIGHT, it depicts a curled, red slash animation. This animation and the sound effect it makes is shared with the Toy Knife, Worn Dagger, and Real Knife.
Once unequipped, it cannot be re-equipped, but it can be used against certain monsters in Encounters with differing results.
Additional Uses
Using the Stick causes the protagonist to throw it, then pick it back up. This does not cause the Stick to be consumed, and, in most cases, using it does absolutely nothing. However, using the Stick in some battles can affect the outcome of the battle.
- Using the Stick against any dog enemy (including Endogeny) immediately makes them spareable.
- If used against Papyrus, he fetches it.
- Using it against Madjick makes it think of the protagonist as a fellow wizard, allowing for it to be spared.
- The first time using it during Mettaton EX’s fight rewards 700 rating points.
- If used during the final stage of the fight, when he has been reduced to just his head and torso, the reward is 1400 rating points instead.
- However, if used any more times, it only gives 1 rating point.
Trivia
- The red slash animation and sound is preset at certain moments, regardless of the equipped weapon:
- It is the default animation when the protagonist attacks Photoshop Flowey.
- It is used to kill Flowey at the end of Neutral and Genocide Route.
- On the Genocide Route, it is used twice when the protagonist attacks Sans during his "special attack."
- On the Genocide Route, it is used without the FIGHT option versus Asgore.
- It is used by the first human at the end of the Genocide Route.
- Comments in the code of the original UNDERTALE demo imply that the Stick was originally called the "Butterknife".