Tainted Keeper#33

Tainted Keeper is a character added in The Binding of Isaac: Repentance. He is the alternate version of Keeper. Tainted Keeper is unlocked by reaching Home and using the Red Key, Cracked Key, or Soul of Cain to access a special room in one of the walls while playing as Keeper. Tainted Keeper starts with (and has a maximum of) 2 coin hearts and 1 Bomb. Tainted Keeper shares the same mechanics with the regular Keeper, including recovering one coin heart upon picking up a coin, as well as converting any heart pickups to blue flies. Picking up a coin to restore a heart does not add a coin to his coin counter. Tainted Keeper shoots four tears at a time, similar to the item Mutant Spider.

• The Hanged Man - Defeat Ultra Greedier as Tainted Keeper.
• Soul of the Keeper - Defeat Hush and Boss Rush as Tainted Keeper.
• Golden Penny - Defeat Mega Satan as Tainted Keeper.
• Keeper's Kin - Defeat Delirium as Tainted Keeper.
• Cursed Penny - Defeat Mother as Tainted Keeper.
• Strawman - Defeat The Beast as Tainted Keeper.

• Tainted Keeper having two coins on his eyes is possibly a reference to Charon's Obol, a tradition in northern Mediterranean cultures, particularly Greek and Roman cultures, where one would place a pair of coins on the deceased's eyes to pay Charon, the ferryman of the river Styx, for the trip across, but also to pay for a return trip from the world of the dead if one was expected. This is further supported by the fact The Lost, whose starting coin is also suspected to be a reference to Charon's Obol, only has one coin and is depicted as a spirit, while Keeper has two and is depicted as a corpse, supposing he paid to bring his body back across the river Styx.
• Like his non-tainted counterpart, Tainted Keeper's starting health is listed as "II" on the character selection screen, despite having no red hearts. This is unique among such characters, whose health is usually listed as "-I" or "?".
• Through his abilities and appearance, Tainted Keeper is the equivalent of Super Greed as Keeper is to Greed.
• The achievement for unlocking Tainted Keeper is "The Miser", a possible title for the character.
• A miser is someone who obsessively hoards money and refuses to spend it, the former of which fits Tainted Keeper's penny-pinching playstyle.
• Defeating Ultra Greedier as Tainted Keeper unlocks XII - The Hanged Man?, most elements associated with Greed in Isaac are shown to be hung or having nooses.
• When reversed, The hanged man represents selfishness and stubbornness, this can be read as Tainted Keeper treating all item rooms as shops and his attributes being "upgrades" from Store Key, Wooden Nickel, and triple shot, but deepening his disadvantages like lower health ceiling, lower tear rate cap, and applying Keeper's bargain to all item pedestals. Keeper Unlocks Tainted Keeper Unlocks Characters Rebirth Afterbirth Afterbirth † Repentance Tainted The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
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