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(in Repentance)

Tainted Keeper is a character added in The Binding of Isaac: Repentance. He is the alternate version of Character Keeper iconKeeper. Tainted Keeper is unlocked by reaching HomeHome and using the Collectible Red Key iconRed Key, Cracked KeyCracked Key, or Soul of CainSoul of Cain to access a special room in one of the walls while playing as Keeper.

Tainted Keeper starts with 2 coin hearts and 1 BombBomb. 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 Collectible Mutant Spider iconMutant Spider. Whenever an enemy is defeated, a random coin is dropped that will vanish quickly. Most items encountered when playing as Tainted Keeper must first be paid for with coins, including Deals with the Devil, Angel RoomAngel Room, Boss RoomBoss Room items, and Treasure RoomTreasure Room items.

Strategy and Items[ | ]

  • In the standard game mode, Shops are different and much better for Tainted Keeper. They do not require a KeyKey and generally have increased stock available. At max level, they have eight items/pickups for sale, of which there will always be at least one Shop item, one Boss Room item, and two Treasure Room items. The other four terminals in the shop can be keys, bombs, cards, pills, trinkets (which will be sold for 5 cents), or more Shop/Treasure Room items.
    • This shop can rarely be replaced by a better (or worse) variant: The better variant has 2-6 more shopkeepers, Urns scattered about, two Lucky PennyLucky Pennies, and one more random item/pickup for sale. The worse variant has only one random sale terminal, one ShopkeeperShopkeeper, some PoopPoop, and a FlyFly.
    • These improved shops do not appear in Greed Mode.
    • Due to this, it can be wise to skip Treasure RoomTreasure Rooms for a PlanetariumPlanetarium, as shops will typically make up for the loss in items.
  • Some items do not need to be paid for. These include:
  • Enemies spawned after entering the room (i.e. spawned by another enemy or spawned on later waves in Challenge Rooms) don't have a guaranteed coin drop.
    • Spawned enemies will stop dropping coins after fights go on long enough such as with Boss RushBoss Rush.
  • Champion enemies and Mini-Bosses drop 2 coins on death.
  • Bosses drop several coins.
    • If the boss comprises multiple enemies (e.g. Boss Gurglings ingameGurglings), each of them drops fewer coins.
    • Most degraded bosses drop 3 coins, exceptions such as Boss The Cage ingameThe Cage and Boss Monstro II ingameMonstro II have regular boss coin drops.
    • Coins dropped by bosses stay on the floor longer before disappearing.
  • Boss RushBoss Rush items must still be paid for, and doing so will start the event.
  • Because Tainted Keeper has to pay for all items, taking devil deals is often more powerful than taking Angel items. This is because taking one devil deal item will not despawn the other items, but only one item can be taken from an Angel room. Additionally, because Devil Deal and Angel Deal must both be paid for, the angel items don't have the advantage of being free.
  • NickelSticky Nickels are able to spawn as a result of killing enemies, effectively making them impossible to collect (aside from having an accompanying explosion to break it free after spawning, and being mindful enough to collect it in time), as it would have already disappeared by the time a bomb detonated to pick it up. Collectible Remote Detonator iconRemote Detonator would help, but it could end up in self-damage as the explosion would have to be extremely quick.
    • Coin drops from enemies are generated when a room is first generated. If an enemy that begins in the room drops a nickel, dime, or penny variant, it will drop the same coin if you leave and re-enter the room. This makes items such as Collectible Mercurius iconMercurius, Collectible Ventricle Razor iconVentricle Razor and Door StopDoor Stop much more useful, as they allow the player to easily leave and re-enter the desired room, allowing the player to easily generate money to fuel the run. This will, however, make the enemies start dropping less and less money each time you kill them, eventually not dropping anything.
  • In Co-Op, all players will need to use money to purchase items if Tainted Keeper is in the game, but enemies will also drop money regardless of who killed them.
    • With this in mind, having the Blessed PennyBlessed Penny can earn a huge amount of Soul HeartSoul Hearts for the players who can use them quickly.
    • This can be used to get Devil Deal items without losing health for all players.
  • Tainted Keeper can utilize Sacrifice RoomSacrifice Rooms much more reliably and efficiently than other characters, because monsters reliably generate health. This can be done by leaving regular coin drops on the floor to go pick up, or alternating stepping on the sacrifice spikes with clearing a monster room. The latter is reliable to produce coins but risky because you're always entering an unknown monster room with one health, but can be used with restarts to start a run with one or two angel room items. Keep in mind that Tainted Keeper has to pay for items in Angel Rooms that you may get at the 6th sacrifice, though the item drop you may get at the 7th sacrifice will be free.
  • Having a good speed stat may be very beneficial, in order to pick up coins before they disappear.
  • Golden PennyGolden Pennies are able to spawn as a result of killing enemies. It still despawns like a normal coin unless picked up, in which case, any subsequent spawns will not disappear.
  • Pressing reward plates is more worthwhile as enemies spawned by buttons reward extra coins.
  • After entering Curse Rooms, try to exit the room immediately.
    • If there are enemies in the room, you will not be able to leave, but the dropped coins will ensure you have health to exit safely.
    • If there are no enemies, you'll exit the room while invincibility frames are active and will not lose your second coin heart.
    • It is also recommended to save teleport cards/pills/items for entering curse rooms, so you may safely leave regardless.
  • Favored Items[ | ]

    • Collectible Birthright iconBirthright strongly attracts coins dropped by defeating enemies to Tainted Keeper, doesn't affect other coins.
    • Collectible Blood Rights iconBlood Rights effectively allows for free damage as long as you can get to a dropped coin (this, however, will result in less coins collected overall, since pennies dropped from faraway enemies will be impossible to reach before they disappear).
    • Collectible The Boomerang iconThe Boomerang/Collectible Jaw Bone iconJaw Bone allow for Tainted Keeper to retrieve dropped coins that are otherwise inaccessible, such as ones over a pit or a gap.
    • Collectible Brittle Bones iconBrittle Bones: Picking this item up will give a one-time +0.5 tears up ( +0.4 fire rate) and 24 Blue Flies without removing any health. This bonus is retained even if the item is later lost or rerolled.
    • Most Penny Trinkets are powerful from the sheer amount of coins Tainted Keeper is able to earn.
      • Burnt PennyBurnt Penny and Flat PennyFlat Penny allow Tainted Keeper to obtain large amounts of keys and bombs.
        • Burnt Penny in particular is especially powerful; in a room with enough enemies, it is possible to gain infinite money and bombs by killing most enemies in the room, then bombing your way out of the room to reset it.
      • Charged PennyCharged Penny allows for quickly charging active items, and can serve as a pseudo-Collectible Jumper Cables iconJumper Cables.
      • Counterfeit PennyCounterfeit Penny can give an additional coin for each one you pick up, helping you gather money much more quickly and allowing you to afford more items.
      • Cursed PennyCursed Penny allows Tainted Keeper to farm infinite money. Killing an enemy drops a coin, which will teleport him to a different room and reset the current one.
      • Rotten PennyRotten Penny allows Tainted Keeper to amass a large amount of blue flies.
        • Bloody PennyBloody Penny and Blessed PennyBlessed Penny act as somewhat weaker versions of the Rotten Penny, due to Tainted Keeper replacing all heart drops with flies.
    • Collectible Coupon iconCoupon works on any purchasable item.
    • Collectible D7 iconD7 Because coin drops are determined by the seed, the D7 can be used to reset a room with a valuable coin to get it twice. Can additionally be used in ShopShops and Secret RoomSecret Rooms to refight GreedGreed and Super GreedSuper Greed, allowing for large coin generation.
    • Collectible Deep Pockets iconDeep Pockets guarantees 1-3 coins when clearing rooms if they would otherwise have no drops, and increases max number of coins to 999.
    • Devil's CrownDevil's Crown's downside is heavily mitigated, as you would have had to pay for the item regardless of if it is a devil deal. That said, deals that would normally be 2 hearts still cost 30 cents, and buying the devil items will still lock you out of getting Angel Rooms.
    • Door StopDoor Stop effectively allows for infinite money with enough patience. Tainted Keeper can leave 1 monster alive in a room, leave, and re-enter to collect even more coins from killing enemies. The chance of them dropping another coin lessens and lessens, so it could be uneffective.
    • Collectible Fruit Cake iconFruit Cake can have a consistently positive effect overall, as you gain the Collectible Eye of Greed iconEye of Greed, and Collectible Head of the Keeper iconHead of the Keeper chance of effects to your tears, as well as the overall other tear modifiers, on top of beginning with the 4 tears per shot, instead of 3, further increasing the chances of multiple effects, allowing you to have a much higher chance of generating coins.
    • Collectible Golden Razor iconGolden Razor is very useful for end-game bosses since Tainted Keeper usually has a large stock of coins with few places to spend them.
    • Collectible Greed's Gullet iconGreed's Gullet works very well to address Tainted Keeper's low health, able to grant up to 4 additional coin hearts, and up to 12 additional containers if you also have Collectible Deep Pockets iconDeep Pockets. Keep in mind that you do have to buy most of your things, and that lowering your coins below each threshold will also remove a coin heart.
    • Collectible Humbleing Bundle iconHumbleing Bundle has a chance to double the coins dropped from killing enemies.
    • Collectible Isaac's Heart iconIsaac's Heart makes Tainted Keeper's body invulnerable and grants contact damage, making it much easier to collect coins. It also makes strong synergy with Collectible Midas' Touch iconMidas' Touch.
    • Collectible Keeper's Sack iconKeeper's Sack gives stat upgrades with every purchase, which is available much more often with Tainted Keeper than with other characters.
    • Collectible Magic Fingers iconMagic Fingers can be used to kill every enemy in the room, and is sustainable with the coins they drop. The item is especially useful with high damage, or on later floors that do not have shops to spend money in.
    • Collectible Magneto iconMagneto automatically draws in dropped coins. Broken MagnetBroken Magnet and Super MagnetSuper Magnet are also good substitutes.
    • Collectible Member Card iconMember Card/Collectible The Stairway iconThe Stairway add additional shops for Tainted Keeper to purchase items and pickups in.
    • Collectible Missing Page 2 iconMissing Page 2 essentially activates every time Tainted Keeper takes damage.
    • Collectible Money = Power iconMoney = Power and Collectible Midas' Touch iconMidas' Touch can combine with the large number of coin drops in general to increase Tainted Keeper's damage steadily, even more so with Collectible Deep Pockets iconDeep Pockets.
    • Collectible Portable Slot iconPortable Slot can be used to generate coins to heal Tainted Keeper during extended fights
    • Silver DollarSilver Dollar, Holy CrownHoly Crown and Wicked CrownWicked Crown grant access to extra shops after Boss Mom ingameMom, which is extra valuable with Tainted Keeper's stronger shops.
    • Collectible Steam Sale iconSteam Sale reduces prices of all items, even outside the shop.
    • Collectible Sack Head iconSack Head: The pennies dropped from killing enemies have a chance to be sacks instead. The sacks do not flash and disappear. However, this might also mean that killing an enemy won't give you a coin when you really need one.
    • Collectible Virgo iconVirgo and Collectible Celtic Cross iconCeltic Cross has a chance of allowing Tainted Keeper to safely regain lost health and collect coins after getting hit; this is very good for killing large groups of enemies.
    • Collectible Voodoo Head iconVoodoo Head adds a penny to all Curse Rooms, letting Tainted Keeper regain lost health and safely exit the room.
    • Collectible Fanny Pack iconFanny Pack can be used to break the game in a room with many enemies by taking damage and killing enemies to heal back the lost health. Fanny Pack may provide bombs when you take damage, allowing you to continuously bomb out of the room and re-enter.
    • Mother's KissMother's Kiss will allow Tainted Keeper to have 3 Coin hearts, which is the only method other than Greed's Gullet to harbor more than 2 Coin hearts. If the trinket is dropped, the extra Coin heart will disappear. Gulping it will add a permanent Coin Heart.
      • Like Character Keeper iconKeeper, Tainted Keeper can technically have unlimited coin hearts by swallowing many copies of Mother's KissMother's Kiss.
    • Sigil of BaphometSigil of Baphomet can be used to let Tainted Keeper grab coins without risk of taking contact damage after killing an enemy.

    Situational Items[ | ]

    • HP Up items (Apart from Collectible Greed's Gullet iconGreed's Gullet and Mother's KissMother's Kiss) don't do anything. Unlike regular Keeper, Tainted Keeper can never have 3 hearts. Only take them if your health has been reduced in any way (such as by taking Collectible Dead Cat iconDead Cat).
    • While Collectible Bum Friend iconBum Friend or Collectible Bumbo iconBumbo would be items normal Keeper would want to stay away from, Tainted Keeper could potentially benefit from these items considering the large amount of coins he is able to produce.
    • Butt PennyButt Penny is useful for pushing away and poisoning enemies, but can cause other coins to be pushed away and time out.
    • Collectible Charm of the Vampire iconCharm of the Vampire: Charm of the Vampire is redundant, as there is already consistent healing from enemy coin drops.
    • Collectible Dataminer iconDataminer can achieve integer underflow easily. This is when the tear rate becomes negative, which then causes tears to shoot up to max 120 tears per second. Tainted Keeper only needs 2 tears down procs to get to -0.01 tears as he begins with a fire-rate just below 1.00.
      • Be advised taking any tears or fire-rate ups after this including with Dataminer will reset the tears to an extremely low rate (e.g. 0.09).
    • Collectible Pageant Boy iconPageant Boy is generally a bad item, as it usually pays out with 7 cents and costs 15. However, if it is on sale, it is almost always worth picking up, as it will always at least pay for itself, and has the opportunity to net a profit if a more valuable coin spawns such as a Nickel or Dime.
    • Collectible 20 20 icon20/20: Decreases damage to 80%, but increases the default tear stat, making it 2.73 without other items and effects. This allows him to double his damage output with tears. Decreases the spread of tears fired, making it easier to hit a single enemy with more tears.
      • As Tainted Keeper can reach 5.0 tear rate cap, this item becomes less effective damage-wise by the time Tainted Keeper gets to 3.75 tear rate without 20/20 and becomes disfavored after that, overally making him output less damage per second with tears.
    • Collectible Champion Belt iconChampion Belt and Purple HeartPurple Heart can be beneficial, as champions drop 2 coins, with drawback of fighting more champions.

    Disfavored Items[ | ]

    • Currently Collectible Damocles iconDamocles does not work with Tainted Keeper, as every item needs to be purchased.
    • Items that decrease Tainted Keeper's size like Collectible Mini Mush iconMini Mush and Collectible Pluto iconPluto should be avoided, as the smaller hitbox makes it harder to collect coins dropped by enemies.
    • Collectible Black Hole iconBlack Hole, Collectible Lodestone iconLodestone, and Collectible Ocular Rift iconOcular Rift can make it difficult for Tainted Keeper to collect coins as they will be pulled or pushed away.
    • Collectible E. Coli iconE. Coli/Collectible Flush! iconFlush!: Enemies that are turned into poop don’t drop coins.
    • Collectible Experimental Treatment iconExperimental Treatment: Risky for Tainted Keeper in two ways; It has a chance to either set his health down to 1 coin heart or cut his starting tear rate in half.
    • Items that deal damage to every enemy in a room, such as Collectible Toxic Shock iconToxic Shock and Collectible Butt Bombs iconButt Bombs, can make it difficult for Tainted Keeper to collect coins as they will spawn rapidly across the entire room as multiple enemies die at once.
    • Collectible Heartbreak iconHeartbreak: Immediately turns the second coin heart into a broken coin heart, and the next hit will kill Tainted Keeper.
    • Collectible Mutant Spider iconMutant Spider: Tainted Keeper will now shoot six tears with x0.42 tears modifier. This reduces his damage output per second by ~36%.
    • Collectible The Inner Eye iconThe Inner Eye: Tainted Keeper will now shoot five tears with x0.51 tears modifier. This reduces his damage output per second by ~38%.
    • III - The Empress?III - The Empress? will not increase health past 2 coins, and will reduce it to 1 at the end of its duration.
    • Collectible Uranus iconUranus: Frozen enemies DO drop coins but multi-stage monsters such as Big Spiders or Dank Squirts will not split into smaller enemies, reducing total coin output. In addition, the collision of frozen enemies may block coin pickup.
    • Collectible The Wafer iconThe Wafer has no effect.
    • Collectible Cancer iconCancer has no effect.
    • Collectible Whore of Babylon iconWhore of Babylon will never trigger, since Tainted Keeper can never have half a coin heart.

    Interactions[ | ]

    • Collectible Meat Cleaver iconMeat Cleaver: Multiplied enemies will not drop coins: Only an amount of coins equal to the original amount of enemies in the room at the start can be dropped.
    • Sack head: Similarly to how the chance for dimes and nickels to appear are determined by the seed, sacks are as well: rerolling the enemies in a room with Collectible D7 iconD7 will result in them dropping sacks again if they had the first time, with the same exact contents inside the sack every time.
    • Hematemesis pill makes Tainted Keeper spawn coins instead.
    • 2 of Hearts2 of Hearts will heal Tainted Keeper.
    • 2 of Diamonds2 of Diamonds will also heal Tainted Keeper, at the cost of 1 coin after doubling your coins.

    Unlockable Items[ | ]

    Notes[ | ]

    • The Shop in ?????? will always be a Lvl. 4 shop

    Trivia[ | ]

    • 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 Character The Lost iconThe 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 GreedSuper Greed as Character Keeper iconKeeper is to GreedGreed.
    • 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 Boss Ultra Greedier ingameUltra Greedier as Tainted Keeper unlocks XII - The Hanged Man?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.

    Gallery[ | ]

    Bug[ | ]

    Bug Bug! Mr. MawMr. Maw and Mr. Red MawMr. Red Maw will not always drop coins upon death.


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