Great Gideon

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

## Behavior

Great Gideon is always fought in a vertical double-size room and has no health in a traditional sense. Instead, Isaac must battle 6 waves of monsters to beat him, similar to Greed Mode waves. Each wave begins once all enemies from the previous wave have been defeated.

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. Touching Gideon while he is performing this attack damages Isaac.
* 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 Stone Grimace.

## Gallery

* Great Gideon in-game
* Great Gideon summoning a wave.
* Great Gideon about to perform his rock wave attack.
* Great Gideon performing his fire attack.
* Great Gideon performing his vacuum attack.
* Great Gideon deactivated.
* Great Gideon being defeated by Chaos Card.
* Concept art for Great Gideon. (Referred to as "The Castle")

## Notes

* Great Gideon can be instantly killed with . 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.
	+ Defeating Great Gideon in this way plays a unique animation in which the Chaos Card gets lodged in his forehead before he explodes.
* Completing waves will not charge active items.
* will duplicate Great Gideon and increase the number of waves by 2. The waves themselves contain no extra enemies.

## Trivia

* He is the boss version of Stone Grimaces, resembling a giant version with his left eye replaced by 7 holes arranged in a hexagonal pattern, and his left backside appears rougher with several protruding rocks.
* 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 — explaining the large amount of enemies the boss spawns.
* The boss could also be representing and referencing a Bible verse talking about Gideon having a slave, hence the unending waves of enemies he uses at will.
* 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 the Mines or the Ashpit via a  card, he has preset waves consisting of Frowning Gapers, Wall Creeps, Round Worms, Gurgles, and Suckers.