Great Gideon

Great Gideon is a boss added in The Binding of Isaac: Repentance that can appear in Mines and Ashpit.

Behavior[]

Great Gideon is always fought in a vertical double-size room and additionally has no health. Instead, Isaac must battle 6 waves of monsters to beat him, similar to Greed Mode waves. He uses the following attacks during these waves:

Creates a vacuum that affects the whole room, pulling in Isaac and all monsters and monster projectiles. It also pulls in additional rock projectiles.
Spits 5 projectiles in a cone shape towards Isaac. The center projectile is larger and splits into 8 projectiles in a radial burst when it lands or hits something.
Charges up then spits large flame projectiles down the center of the arena that can occasionally leave small fires behind.
- Some enemies caught in this attack are turned into their flaming versions: Rock Spider into Coal Spider, Clotty into Grilled Clotty and Gyro into Grilled Gyro.
After the beginning of the 4th wave, Great Gideon charges up and releases a rock wave down the center of the room, breaking parts of the floor and leaving gaps.
- There is always at least 1 gap between the trail of holes created by this attack as to not completely trap Isaac on either end of the room.
Gideon does not spawn the next enemy wave during the middle of any of his attacks and only progresses a wave once he has finished.

After Isaac defeats all 6 waves of monsters, Great Gideon will deactivate, similar to a regular Grimace.

Monsters[]

Mines Waves[]

Entity	ID	Description
Clotty	15.0	Randomly wanders around the room, firing 4 blood shots in the cardinal directions.
Dragon Fly	25.3.0	Flies around the room diagonally, dealing contact damage. Upon death, creates four lines of fire in the cardinal directions.
Dragon Fly X	25.3.1	Flies around the room diagonally, dealing contact damage. Upon death, creates four lines of fire in the ordinal directions.
Sucker	61.0	Flies slowly towards Isaac, exploding into 4 shots in the cardinal directions upon death.
Ink	61.2	Flies slowly towards Isaac. Fires four tar shots in the ordinal directions and leaves a puddle of slowing Black Creep upon death.
Gurgle	87.0	Walks towards Isaac, firing Ipecac shots at him. Can turn into a Splasher upon death.
Walking Gut	88.1	Does not shrink or regenerate. Walks around aimlessly and fires Ipecac shots in random directions.
Soy Creep	240.1	Slowly crawls along walls to try to line up with Isaac and shoots a stream of shots seemingly affected by Soy Milk.
Rock Spider	818.0	Slowly crawls around the room. If it sees Isaac, it crawls at him, trying to deal contact damage. Turns into a Spider upon death. Turns into a Coal Spider if it touches fire.
Coal Spider	818.2	Quickly crawls around the room. If it sees Isaac, it crawls at him, trying to deal contact damage. Turns into a hot coal upon death that blocks shots and deals contact damage, but can be destroyed.
Fly Bomb	819.0	Flies toward Isaac, circling around him as it does. Turn into a tiny bomb upon death.
Danny	820.0	Walks toward Isaac and spits chaotic bursts of rocks at him, some of which may be Rock Spiders.
Coal Boy	820.1	Walks toward Isaac and spits hot coals at him, some of which may be Coal Spiders.
Blaster	821.0	Slowly wanders around and occasionally shoots Fly Bombs at Isaac.
Bouncer	822.0	Wanders around the room, avoiding Isaac. If Isaac stays close to one for long enough, it inflates and starts chasing him, gaining a chance to deflect shots and causing it to explode into lingering blood shots on death.
Quakey	823.0	Walks slowly toward Isaac, occasionally attempting to jump on Isaac, shooting out 8 rock shots when it hits the ground and causing rocks to fall from the ceiling.
Gyro	824.0	Rolls around like a wheel. Charges at Isaac when he is in line of sight, bouncing off of walls and obstacles as it does.
Fire Worm	825.0	Pops out of the ground in random locations and fires one flame at Isaac.
Hardy	826.0	Dashes toward Isaac and deals contact damage creating rock projectiles when it hits a wall/obstacle. It spawns more rock projectiles the more times it crashes into obstacles, dying after doing so a third time.
Faceless	827.0	Wanders around the room, rarely firing a radial burst of six shots. Chases Isaac and fires shots more frequently after taking damage.

Ashpit Waves[]

Entity	ID	Description
Carrion Princess	23.3	Slowly moves around the room, charging at Isaac when he lines up diagonally with it. Can only be damaged by hitting its tail.
Dragon Fly	25.3.0	Flies around the room diagonally, dealing contact damage. Upon death, creates four lines of fire in the cardinal directions.
Dragon Fly X	25.3.1	Flies around the room diagonally, dealing contact damage. Upon death, creates four lines of fire in the ordinal directions.
Bone Fly	25.4	Flies around the room diagonally, dealing contact damage. Fires bones at Isaac if he lines up with it in the cardinal directions. Fires a radial burst of 3 bones upon death.
Hard Host	27.3	Stationary enemy that is normally invulnerable. Raises its head up when Isaac gets close, revealing a fleshy stem that can be damaged. Shortly after raising its head, it slams its head down and fires a rock wave towards Isaac.
Gurgle	87.0	Walks towards Isaac, firing Ipecac shots at him. Can turn into a Splasher upon death.
Crackle	87.1	Walks toward Isaac, spitting balls of fire that create lines of fire in the cardinal directions on impact.
Bony	227.0	Wanders around the room and throws a bone at Isaac when he is in sight.
Splasher	238.0	Walks aimlessly around the room, firing Ipecac shots in random directions.
Rock Spider	818.0	Slowly crawls around the room. If it sees Isaac, it crawls at him, trying to deal contact damage. Turns into a Spider upon death. Turns into a Coal Spider if it touches fire.
Coal Spider	818.2	Quickly crawls around the room. If it sees Isaac, it crawls at him, trying to deal contact damage. Turns into a hot coal upon death that blocks shots and deals contact damage, but can be destroyed.
Fly Bomb	819.0	Flies toward Isaac, circling around him as it does. Turn into a tiny bomb upon death.
Danny	820.0	Walks toward Isaac and spits chaotic bursts of rocks at him, some of which may be Rock Spiders.
Coal Boy	820.1	Walks toward Isaac and spits hot coals at him, some of which may be Coal Spiders.
Blaster	821.0	Slowly wanders around and occasionally shoots Fly Bombs at Isaac.
Hardy	826.0	Dashes toward Isaac and deals contact damage creating rock projectiles when it hits a wall/obstacle. It spawns more rock projectiles the more times it crashes into obstacles, dying after doing so a third time.
Necro	828.0	Stationary enemy that summons unlimited-ranged bones to attack Isaac.
Big Bony	830.0	Walks slowly toward Isaac, and will occasionally fire a bone that bounces around the room for a few moments. The bone can be broken if shot enough.
Migraine	869.0	Crawls around the room erratically, following Isaac and dealing contact damage. Can jump small distances. Releases multiple Troll Bombs upon death.
Flesh Maiden	880.0	Vaguely flies towards Isaac in curved swooping motions.
Pasty	881.1	Pops out of the ground and lunges toward Isaac, dealing contact damage and firing four shots in the ordinal directions.
Dust	882.0	Follows Isaac, and is only visible when close to Isaac. Will begin to speed up when they are visible. Teleports away after taking enough damage.

Gallery[]

Great Gideon in-game
Concept art for Great Gideon. (Referred to as "The Castle")

Notes[]

Great Gideon can be instantly killed with Chaos Card. Doing so reveals a unique 1x2 Crawl Space beneath him, containing two locked chests, two items and a key.
- This can be done at any time, even if he has already been defeated as his deactivated body still remains after returning to the room.
- Great Gideon has a unique animation for being defeated via the Chaos Card.
Completing waves will not charge active items.

Trivia[]

He is the boss version of Stone Grimaces.
Great Gideon's name likely comes from Gideon, an Old Testament prophet and military leader known for winning a decisive battle against an overwhelming Midianite army with only an army of 300 Israelites.
The name Gideon is said to mean “hewer” which is an individual who works in a mine breaking stone.
Great Gideon is one of the only bosses with a unique health bar, aside from Dogma.
The crawl space that opens up when using Chaos Card on Gideon is titled 'Gideon's Grave' in the game's code.
- According to NotYourSagittarius, this is a direct reference to Scott Pilgrim, a series of graphic novels.
If Great Gideon is fought outside of Mines or Ashpit via a IV - The Emperor? card, he has preset waves consisting of Frowning Gapers, Wall Creeps, Round Worms, Gurgles, and Suckers.
Great Gideon is the only boss that can be seen in their boss room during the Ascent, appearing in his deactivated state when ascending to the Mines.
- Since all variant floors are replaced by the original ones in this sequence, if Great Gideon was encountered in the Ashpit during the normal descent, he will still appear in the Mines during the Ascent.

Bugs[]

Bug!	Spawning Great Gideon with the debug console will spawn him with a normal boss healthbar instead of a "waves" mechanic. Attempting to attack him will result in a game crash.

Bug!	Entering the trapdoor left after killing Great Gideon with the Chaos Card during the Ascent will result in a game crash.

Bug!	Entering the boss room with Vanishing Twin will cause the fight to get softlocked on phase 2 due to multiple enemies existing on the map, softlocking the game unless you have a Chaos Card.