Tarnished Keeper

Tarnished Keeper is a character from the Epiphany mod, included as the third iteration of Keeper. He is unlocked by opening the vault that appears after defeating Ultra Greedier with Tainted Keeper using K.A.E.K..

Gameplay

Tarnished Keeper starts with an innate pentashot effect, 6 coins, 1 bomb, and the item Turnover in his pocket active slot.

Health mechanics

Unlike every other character's, Tarnished Keeper's health bar is made by a unique full golden heart and a big coin for every 20 coins the player has. Those icons are just purely aesthetic and must not be confused with the usual golden and coin hearts: Tarnished Keeper's coin amount serves as health. If Tarnished Keeper gets hit at 0 coins, he dies. If he gets hit while holding 20 coins or less, the amount of coins are reduced to zero. If he gets hit while having over 20 coins, he will lose 20 coins, scattering half of them around him, which will disappear shortly after.

Most forms of self-damage will make Tarnished Keeper lose 5 coins, except for entering a curse room, which costs 10 coins, and will not drop coins on the floor.
Any health upgrade effects will give Tarnished Keeper a Coin Mantle instead: it works just like Holy Mantle and similar effects, stacks with them and has lower priority.
Broken hearts obtained are replaced with special broken coins: for each broken coin, Tarnished Keeper's coin cap is lowered by 10.
Just like for the other Keeper variants, every spawned heart pickup will turn into blue flies instead.
Similarly, devil deals are sold with coins at the price of 15c for each heart they would normally cost.

Curse of Midas

Every defeated enemy will spawn quickly vanishing coins (1 for normal enemies, 2 for champion enemies, and 5 for bosses), which will quickly vanish. Enemies attacking Tarnished Keeper, on the other hand, will turn into Midas statues, temporarily freezing them and making them spawn additional coins on death. Similarly, beggars touched by Tarnished Keeper will turn into gold statues and spawn coins if bombed, for a maximum of two bombs.

Tarnished Keeper is unable to pick up any sort of item, pickup, or resource of any kind: when touched, they will turn into a variable amount of coins, depending on the item's overall quality. This does not apply to items bought from shops of any sort, forcing him to gather as much money as he can and rely on shops or his pocket item Turnover to purchase everything he needs.

Some resources are not affected by the Curse of Midas:

Perfection trinket
A Quarter and A Dollar
Quest items such as The Polaroid
Pick-ups spawned from buying an item, such as keys from Latch Key
Anything spawned by blowing up golden beggar statues
Items from the Death Certificate floor
Manually dropped pick-ups

Turnover

Turnover allows Tarnished Keeper to open up a shop in the room it's used in or to upgrade an already existing shop, allowing him to purchase the resources he needs. Opening up a shop or upgrading it requires an amount of pennies depending on the room, and upgrading it will add additional things for sale, up to a maximum of three upgrades (with some exceptions). Rooms with specific item pools like Boss Rooms or Treasure Rooms will sell pedestal items right from the first opening.

Turnover shops have a chance to spawn beggars and machines and will always spawn a shopkeeper, which will be upgraded alongside the shop and drop money if bombed.

Coin conversion rate

Pickup/Item	Coins
Bomb	3
Key	3
Micro Battery	4
Lil Battery	7
Pill	5
Tarot Card	5
Rune	5
Trinket	5
Sack	5
Key Ring	7
Bomb bundle	7

Pickup/Item	Coins
Horse Pill	10
Mega Battery	10
Golden Battery	15
Golden Bomb	10
Golden Key	10
Giga Bomb	20
Quality 0 item	10
Quality 1 item	11
Quality 2 item	13
Quality 3 item	19
Quality 4 item	33

Notes

Hearts can still be found and purchased in Shops, including those made via Turnover, but they will only turn into blue flies as usual.

Strategy

Due to its inability to pick up almost anything and the need to rely on shopping, Tarnished Keeper requires the player to muster as much money as they can, carefully planning their investments to not find themselves broke against a boss or similar tough battles. For example, a player with 30 pennies might decide to invest 25 of them in a Treasure Room item via Turnover (10 for opening + 15 for the item), or to save them in order to be able to take an extra hit from the enemy.

Getting damaged is very detrimental and can lose the player much of their savings, as getting hit with 1 coin doesn't have any different effect from getting hit with 15. Because of this, the coins picked up from combat are enough to sustain the player, meaning that room clear rewards can be saved for when a shop is already set up.

Opening shops in any normal room is generally not worth it unless the player really needs a key or a bomb (which will cost a minimum of 11 pennies - 6 for opening + 5 for the pickup), while it's recommended to focus on the rooms able to spawn items from the start. Secret rooms won't spawn items until the shop has been upgraded several times, requiring a sizeable investment to get even a single item, but it's generally worth a try given the strong items the Secret room pool can provide.

Favored Items

Magneto turns all coins magnetic, allowing Tarnished Keeper to acquire them more easily before they disappear. The same situation applies for Tarnished Keeper's dropped coins when he takes damage.
Keeper's Box can create items and pick-ups for sale without using money, making it a good supplement (or a free alternative) to Turnover.
Pay to Play makes all locked doors and chests be unlocked with coins instead of keys, which can almost completely remove the need to purchase them and thus save a lot of time and money in the long run.
Coupon can make one item in any shop free, including Turnover shops, allowing Tarnished Keeper to save a lot of money.
Keeper's Sack gives bonus stats each time the player buys an item and, since Turnover's shops are included too, the player can get a great and reliable stat boost for the entire run.
If Tarnished Keeper purchases an active item while already having one, Flip can allow him to receive whatever item is behind it for free.
Sack Head gives all coin drops a chance to be replaced by Grab Bags, which (since Grab Bags dissolve into coins when touched) allows for an exponential boost in money gained.
Humbling Bundle may turn all the pennies the player can find into double pennies, this also turn the other pickups into their double variant, resulting in even more money.
An Ace of Spades or Ace of Clubs card can transform all coins spawned via pickups and items into keys and bombs, respectively, which can significantly increase the amount of money Tarnished Keeper would get from them otherwise.
- This can also be done with the coins Tarnished Keeper drops when taking damage in order to quickly regain the money he lost.

Situational Items

Nuh Uh! will prevent coins and keys from showing up naturally on Chapter 4 and onwards, making him find less coins than average. Since it replaces them with other pickups, though, that could turn out in a net gain of money.
Thirty Pieces of Silver would grant Tarnished Keeper a damage bonus if he has less than 30 coins, but given the frequency and amount he finds them and the lack of valid Turnover room options in the later floors, the character will have more than 30 coins (and consequently its damage lowered) more often than not. Although, the item grants free money on room clear. This means it can help Keeper gain more items quickly.
While Guppy's Tail can create more chests, leading to more pick-ups and therefore more coins, it also increases the chance of not getting any room clear rewards at all, possibly lowering the amount of coins Tarnished Keeper can find.
- The same can be said for Contract From Below, though it does have slightly less of a risk in exchange for a lesser reward.

Unfavored Items

Damocles cannot duplicate items made by Turnover, and the items it can duplicate can only turn into coins, limiting its benefits.
Like with the other Keepers, Dark Bum is completely useless, as dropped hearts would get replaced by friendly flies.
- Similarly, The Jar is a waste of an active slot, as it cannot hold onto hearts due to them being impossible to spawn.
While Void can grant Tarnished Keeper a stat boost, voiding pedestal items will not create any coins at all. The same is true for Abyss.

Synergies

Birthright: Reinvest - A special golden restock machine is added to every maximum level Turnover shop. It costs 5 coins per use, but the reroll is guaranteed.
Cancer: After getting hit in a room, each subsequent hits will drop only half of the coins.
Deep Pockets: Every 100 coins, Tarnished Keeper's HUD will show a dollar icon and, if hit while having more than 100 coins, he will lose 60% of his coins.
HP UP items will give Tarnished Keeper a unique golden Holy Mantle effect, called Coin Mantle. It can stack with different types of mantles.
Greed's Gullet: Every 25 coins, Tarnished Keeper will gain a Coin Mantle effect.
Sumptorium: Spawns a golden clot familiar for a price of 10 cents.
There's Options: Halves Turnover's price for the boss rooms.
More Options: Halves Turnover's price for the treasure rooms
The Wafer: Halves the amount of coins lost when hit.
20/20: Removes Tarnished Keeper's fire rate penalty and makes them smaller. Still reduces damage to 80%.
Burnt Penny: Chance of dropping a bomb is reduced to 1%.
Flat Penny: Chance of dropping a key is reduced to 1%.
Store Credit: Allows for Turnover to be used for free, once.

Unlocks

Stock Fluctuation - Defeat Isaac, ???, Satan, and The Lamb as Tarnished Keeper
Golden Items - Defeat Mega Satan as Tarnished Keeper
Essence of the Keeper - Defeat Hush and Boss Rush as Tarnished Keeper
Debit Card - Defeat Ultra Greedier as Tarnished Keeper
Bad Company - Defeat Delirium as Tarnished Keeper
Lucky Cat - Defeat Mother as Tarnished Keeper
Golden Cobweb - Defeat The Beast as Tarnished Keeper
Turnover - Obtain all Hard Mode Completion Marks as Tarnished Keeper

Gallery

Teaser image from the ARG
Scrapped design of TR Keeper, made by Turca
Old version of TR Keeper, before being remade by ScooperMan
The menu portrait for TR Keeper used before Aladar overhauled the menu, made by meojo
TR Keeper's character sheet
Tarnished Keeper's unlock portrait

Trivia

On the Steam Workshop page for the Epiphany mod, Tarnished Keeper is referred to as 'Avarice', a possible title for the character.
- Avarice means immense greed or wealth, obviously referring to the heavy money theme of the Keeper.
The mechanic of coins scattering everywhere on hit and quickly disappearing, and being killed when hit with no coins left, is a reference to the popular Sonic the Hedgehog videogame series, in which the protagonist Sonic loses all of his rings if hit, and dies if hit with no rings left.
Tarnished Keeper's reveal paralleled the release of Keeper, being announced through an ARG.
- This video by Rack Jet summarizes the event pretty well.
Similarly to Tainted Keeper being the equivalent of Super Greed, this character is the equivalent of Ultra Greed's second phase.

See Also: Tarnished Keeper/ARG

Tarnished Characters