Editor's Note: This entry contains spoilers for The Binding of Isaac: Repentance; read at your own caution.

About

Keeper is a secret fan-favorite playable character in the roguelike video game The Binding Of Isaac added to the game via the 2015 Afterbirth DLC. Keeper appears as a gray, withered version of Isaac with a constantly agape mouth and no eyes. Notably, Keeper is the only character that uses coins for health and is considered very fragile and difficult to use. In April 2021, Keeper was buffed to make it easier to play, and the alternative version of the character "Tainted Keeper" was added.

Origin

On October 30th, 2015, an expansion for the video game The Binding of Isaac (BOI) titled Afterbirth released. The update included a new secret playable character called "Keeper," (shown below) unlocked by paying 1,000 coins to the game's "Greed Machine."

The Keeper starts with a triple-shot and does 4.20 damage. It originally started with two coins as its health, which can be replaced by picking up coins. This was upped to three in the Repentance update. Originally, Keeper bought items using hearts, but this was also changed following the Repentance update.

Spread

Following the character's release, Keeper gained a reputation among BOI fans for being notoriously difficult to play as. This is illustrated in a March 12th, 2019 upload by YouTuber YuB titled, "THE KEEPER = PURE RAGE (binding of Isaac)," garnering over 223,000 views in two years (shown below). The Keeper is a frequent character in Let's Plays for its difficulty.

The character gained a significant fanbase among players over the years, resulting in numerous works of fan art featuring him on sites like DeviantArt^[3] and Tumblr^[4] (examples shown below).

The character also inspired numerous memes referencing it, many of them mentioning its difficulty. For example, on April 7th, 2017, Redditor u/Perfectlocation posted a Simpsons meme to /r/BindingOfIsaac^[5] referencing the difficulty of the character, garnering over 1,800 upvotes in four years (shown below).

On February 18th, 2020, Redditor u/Mroviz posted a meme to /r/BindingOfIsaac^[6] about Keeper titled, "Playing as Keeper be like," about dying as the character, garnering over 1,200 upvotes in a year (shown below, left). On June 5th, u/Dobbylicious posted a meme to /r/BindingOfIsaac^[7] about winning as Keeper, garnering over 1,800 upvotes in 11 months (shown below, right).

Changes To Keeper (Repentance Update)

On March 31st, 2021, The Binding of Isaac's latest expansion Repentance was released, adding new content to the base game. The update also includes a patch that makes a number of changes to the game, including changes to the Keeper character. These include:^[1]

-Keeper can now have up to three heart containers. If the “Keeper now holds a penny” achievement has been unlocked, he will start with three.

-Keeper’s starting speed has been increased to 0.9 (from 0.85).

-Keeper’s starting tear delay has been reduced to 27.4 (from 28).

-Keeper is now unable to lose devil/angel deal chances through taking damage.

-Keeper is now unable to get Health Down pills.

-Devil deals now sell items for money instead of health when playing as Keeper.

-Hematemesis now spawns coins when playing as Keeper.

-Abaddon no longer kills Keeper when picked up, but reduces the amount of coin containers to one.

-Midas’ Touch can now appear when playing as Keeper (previously it could not appear).

-Swallowed Penny now works similarly to Piggy Bank as Keeper, no longer guaranteeing a coin drop with every hit.

-Blood donation machines are no longer guaranteed to pay out as Keeper.

The changes were met with general praise by the community for making the Keeper easier to play while not going overboard with buffs. On March 31st, Redditor u/TheGullibleParrot posted a meme to /r/BindingOfIsaac illustrating how people's opinions shifted on the character quickly after the update, garnering over 480 upvotes in two months (shown below).

Tainted Keeper

Tainted Keeper^[2] was introduced in the Repentance update as an alternate version of Keeper. Tainted Keeper looks like Keeper but with a "$" symbol on its head and coins for eyes (shown below). The character plays similarly to the original Keeper, with two "heart coins" instead of three. Every time Tainted Keeper kills an enemy they drop a random coin, which disappears after a short while. When playing as Tainted Keeper, the player is encouraged to collect as many coins as possible, as most items in a Tainted Keeper playthrough cost coins and the shops hold better items.

To unlock Tainted Keeper, the player must reach Home with a Cracked Key or a Red Key while playing as Keeper to access a specific wall.

Tainted Keeper quickly became a fan-favorite character. Memes about the character reflect the greediness needed when playing as it (example shown below, posted to /r/BindingOfIsaac^[8] by u/DankFlabulous on May 7th, 2021).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References