Strawman

**Strawman** is an unlockable passive item added in *The Binding of Isaac: Repentance*.

## Effects

* Spawns  Keeper as an extra character alongside Isaac, who is controlled exactly like  Esau.
	+ Keeper will have his base stats, except speed, and use coins as health.
	+ He will not receive any of his starting items, such as  or .
* When Keeper dies, he spawns 5 blue spiders and Strawman is removed from Isaac's inventory.
* Grants 1 Bomb upon pickup.

## Notes

* Keeper's health is displayed at all times above his head.
	+ If Curse of the Unknown is in effect, his health bar will be hidden the same way as Isaac's.
	+ Keeper will start with 2 coin hearts or 3 if the  Keeper now holds... A Penny! achievement is unlocked.
* Keeper is able to pick up items independently from Isaac. He has his own inventory.
	+ This inventory is not displayed on the HUD.
	+ When Keeper dies, the items he obtained are permanently removed.
		- This includes quest items like , potentially leaving you unable to progress.
* Keeper is not able to pick up any active items, trinkets, or consumables.
* Keeper cannot pick up any type of hearts, except for Gold Hearts.
	+ Eternal Hearts can also be picked up, but to no effect, effectively wasting them.
* Keeper's speed syncs with Isaac's, as with  Jacob and Esau.
* Devil Room items will cost money instead of health as long as Keeper is alive.
* When placing a bomb, Keeper will place another at no cost.
* Keeper can be used to play Sacrifice Rooms at the cost of coins instead of hearts.
* Boss Challenge Rooms will be closed unless Keeper is also at 1 coin heart.
* Keeper is not able to walk through doors or into Crawl Space, although he is able to enter the beam of light that takes Isaac to the next floor after the Mom's Heart / It Lives fight, the one spawned by , as well as entering the big chest after defeating bosses in later stages.
* Respawn items work as normal for Keeper. (see Interactions)
* If Keeper plays a Blood Donation Machine, it will pay out with 0-1 coins.
* Keeper unlocks cannot be earned using Strawman.
* Similar to  Jacob and Esau, it is possible to take both items between item choice pedestals with careful positioning.
* Even though Keeper is considered a second character, the run ends if Isaac dies.
* Technically, Strawman is marked as a familiar item in the game's files, although most familiar-modifying items, such as  don't have any effect on Keeper.
* Unlike Jacob and Esau, invincibility frames are not shared between Keeper and Isaac.
* If collected in a challenge where Isaac is blindfolded, Keeper will be blindfolded too.
* Re-emerging from the part of Mines II where  is hidden will cause Strawman to be regenerated from scratch. This permanently remove all items the summoned Keeper had collected up until that point.
* If Strawman is picked up during the second lap of a Victory Lap, he will become  The Lost alongside Isaac on every subsequent lap.
* If Keeper is hit, this will invalidate the conditions for spawning , regardless of whether or not the main character has been hit.

## Synergies

* : If Keeper is the one picking it up, it will grant him a heart container.
* / : Picking up multiple copies of the item will spawn additional Keepers that each have their own inventory.
* : Beams of electricity flow between Keeper and Isaac.
* : Keeper gains extra coin hearts at every 25 coin interval.
* / : With careful positioning, both item choice pedestals can be taken.
* / : Keeper can take the other photo not chosen by Isaac. Keeper will not directly benefit from holding the Polaroid, but the Negative will give him a damage up. Keeper can use his photo to open A Strange Door, allowing Isaac to keep his. If intending to go to Chest or Dark Room, note that the photo held by Keeper will be lost if he dies.
* : A very beneficial item for both Isaac and Keeper, as it is fairly easy to snowball into infinitely playing the spikes.
* : Because of how Yum Heart works in co-op, when Isaac uses Yum Heart, it will also restore one coin heart for Keeper.
* Tainted Isaac : Items left out by Tainted Isaac can be picked up by Keeper.

## Interactions

* /  /  /  /  /  /  / : Useless on Keeper, unless  is held.
* /  / : Keeper will respawn as the respective character.
	+ + : Strawman ??? will get twice as much HP from health upgrades.
	+ + : Strawman Dark Judas can use the  acquired via Birthright as normal and the item recharges as normal.  stacks like usual.
	+ + : If Birthright was obtained prior to respawn, does nothing. If picked up after, grants its temporary damage.
		- Keeper: While playing as Keeper, if Strawman respawns via any of the aforementioned items, health no longer converts to flies.
* /  / : Strawman does not count as a familiar for the purpose of these items.
* / : If Keeper is the one who picked it up, it will only buff orbital speed for him.
* / : If Keeper is the one who picked it up, it will only buff his familiars/flies and spiders and none of Isaac's.
* : Keeper can keep placing bombs for health after Isaac has run out.
* : The book can be picked up by Keeper and used as normal, making it **the only active item** he can use.
	+ + : The book does not get rerolled.
* : Keeper's health sets to 1 coin. Upon Keeper's death he revives with 1 coin in the same room.
* : If Keeper picks up Eden's Blessing, the extra item will be awarded to Isaac at the start of the next run whether Keeper survives or not.
* : Switching once and back will clear any items Keeper may have had.
* / : Identifies pills, but doesn't convert them.
* : Will not grant item choices for any of Keeper's collected items.
* : Isaac's tears can feed Keeper's for great damage. If Isaac, however, has Lachryphagy, Keeper's tears still interact with them, although sometimes it feeds them, other times it absorbs them, without the splitting effect.
* : A ladder will spawn across gaps for the Keeper, however he cannot use it, only Isaac.
* : The effect will only happen once, as Keeper cannot recharge them.
* Tainted Cain: Items will not turn into pickups if Keeper takes them.
* Tainted Lazarus/ Dead Tainted Lazarus: Upon flipping, Keeper gets regenerated from scratch, meaning his health gets restored to full and all items he picked up will be permanently removed.

## Trivia

* A "straw man" (sometimes written as strawman) is a form of argument and an informal fallacy of having the impression of refuting an argument, whereas the real subject of the argument was not addressed or refuted, but instead replaced with a false one. One who engages in this fallacy is said to be "attacking a straw man".
* Strawman, alongside , is one of two items which cannot be rerolled into by ; in Strawman's case, this is because the next item by ID number is , which cannot be rerolled by any means.