And I should've never let myself get attached

What is LOVE baby don't hurt me ?

In Undertale, LOVE (or LV) is an acronym that stands for Level of Violence: a way of measuring someone's capacity to hurt. The more you kill, the easier it becomes to distance yourself. The more you distance yourself, the less you will hurt. The more easily you can bring yourself to hurt others. Essentially, it removes emotional ties and responses to the world around a character, and in doing so, enables them to gain strength, health, and defense in fights, whilst corrupting the SOUL itself. The higher Chara's LV, the more likely they are to become aggressive, and even demonic. At LV 20, Chara has canonly been capable of ripping the fabric of life itself apart.

What is EXP?

EXP, or Execution Points, is the canon method of quantifying the pain you have inflicted on others. The amount of EXP gained directly affects a character's LV, allowing them to "gain a LV" in the usual RPG standards, after killing a bunch of helpless people and terrorizing an already trapped and dying race. You monster.


How does Chara's LV and EXP differ in Sol?

Chara's LV and EXP differ greatly within Sol, whilst still holding onto the initial game mechanics. During the no Mercy Run, where Chara is most widely accepted as being present by the fandom, at no point does the "protagonist" speak or emote. Within a setting like Sol Raveh Chara is essentially forced to interact, and treats each conversation as a battle in itself. 

Of course, unlike a FIGHT, Chara's hardly going to die at the end of a chat just because they didn't walk away victorious. Thus, their EXP does have the ability to go down, should the conditions be just right.


So my character affects this all the time?

Yep. Like I said above, Chara treats each conversation/interaction as a battle in itself. They can gain or lose EXP through any interaction- unless there's just not enough of an interaction to go off. If your character basically just says hi and the thread drops, unfortunately I just can't use it. Sorry!


Okay, so how do I make sure my character affects them positively/negatively?

Well that's the thing- you can't!

Much like any relationship, things can go sour, and not everyone can know what's going on in someone's head. Chara can take well to some people, and react in a completely opposite manner if presented with practically the same thing from another. Here's some helpful tips, but even then- depending on their relationship, Chara's current state of mind, and even the way things are phrased, the outcome can be sorely different than what's expected:

-Don't advise them. Not even well meaning advice. Don't do it.
-Respect their personal space. The less inclined someone is to invade Chara's bubble, the more likely they are to be comfortable.
-Have multiple threads with them. Yes, just like a real human being, the more Chara sees someone around, the more likely they are to come to a conclusion about them; though that conclusion could still be a bad one.


This is too hard wow.

Yeah, no kidding.

Undertale is a game that very heavily plays on how people expect things to actually work, and flips those things on their head. Chara especially is a character whose main mechanic in game is heavily pronounced to ensure players face a consequence to their actions, and the same still applies in Sol. It doesn't mean Chara's always right (they're actually pretty hypocritical a lot of the time) but just think of it as CR shaping a character's development: extreme mode.

And yeah good luck with them they are a giant ball of cactus. Keep in mind as well that just because you cause their EXP to raise doesn't signify a bad relationship; it signifies that something went wrong in a conversation, or was taken a certain way from Chara's perspective. Keep trying, because that's what causes a better effect in the long run!