Tarnished Keeper/ARG
The ARG
Tarnished Keeper was revealed through an ARG on the Discord server on June 3rd, 2022. The ARG started with a reveal of the new title screen in #very-important-announcements, with a small hint in the image to look at #meet-the-mods. On the same day, OpenSauce and dpower posted messages in that channel with a few letters italicized. OpenSauce's message included a gif that used imgur to send it, and members found that if the italicized letters were plugged into the end of an imgur link, it lead to an image of a shopkeeper.
The title screen that started the ARG, with the hint to #meet-the-mods on the middle right side of the screen.
OpenSauce's message, with the imgur link and 0, v, b, and B italicized
dpower's introduction, with the italicized letters A, X, and s
The teaser image contains many hints about Tarnished Keeper's mechanics, along with an unlock.[1] Among these is a QR code leading to an image of Tarnished Keeper. The image was confirmed that it does not reveal an unlock method for the character.[2]
The QR code image
The QR code image with the exposure increased
A version of the teaser without the light rays
A compiled image of all the hints from the teaser image
Speculation and Theories
Before the official release, various theories about what the hints in the image could have meant were developed by the fans:
- Treasure rooms still exist but instead serve a different purpose, possibly containing money.[3]
- The gold bar may refer to something found in the treasure rooms, as they are often talked about in conjunction with each other.[4]
- The chocolate coin is an unlock.
- This message by Sockblouse speaks to the contrary, thought it may just be a red herring.[5]
- A similar penny variant known as
Tasty Penny would be added in Wave 4 alongside Tarnished Keeper, though is unlocked by beating Pool! instead of being one of his unlocks.
- The grayed out heart on the shopkeeper's body may refer to him not having hearts, as the coin count already is responsible.
