The Time Keeper

“It's in this room that the Time K... No, it was in this room that... No, in this room the Time Keeper will... Hold on, where were we when?„

The Time Keeper is the first tier 2 boss in the game. She is encountered in the Clock Room.

Damage on a single hit is soft-capped at 15% of Time Keeper's maximum health.

Moveset[edit]

First phase[edit]

In 1+ BSC, the Time Keeper goes straight to the second phase.

Sword slash

Description: The Time Keeper performs a quick slash with her sword.
Can be blocked, parried, and dodge rolled.

Shuriken

Description: The Time Keeper throws one to three shurikens towards the player.
Can be blocked, parried, and dodge rolled.
- Parrying the shuriken sends a projectile back.

Hook and slash

Description: The Time Keeper throws a hook and if it connects, draws the player towards her, rooting them in place. This is then followed by a powerful melee attack if the hook was connected.
The hook can be blocked, parried, and dodge rolled.
The melee attack can only be blocked or parried as the hook roots the player.

Teleport

Description: The Time Keeper teleports a short distance away from the player (often used before shurikens, hook or dash).

Shuriken shield

Description: After reaching around 70% health, the Time Keeper conjures a shield of spinning shurikens and pushes the player outward, after which the second phase begins. The shurikens shoot outwards after a few seconds.
Can be blocked, parried, and dodge rolled.
- Parrying the shuriken sends a projectile back.
When on 1+ BSC she can use this attack as a normal attack, often performed after use of Teleport.
- When used as a normal attack she doesn't cross her swords, the charge is shorter and movement isn't restricted while charging the attack.

Second phase[edit]

Retains all of her attacks from the previous phase, some attacks are enhanced in this phase.

Two-hit slash combo

Description: The Time Keeper performs a two-hit combo with her sword. With each slash, she moves forward and can change direction in between each slash.
Each slash can be blocked, parried, and dodge rolled.

Shuriken combo

Description: The Time Keeper now throws three to five shurikens in quick succession.
Can be blocked, parried, and dodge rolled.
- Parrying the shuriken sends a projectile back.
When trying to jump over the shuriken, the Time Keeper will track your movement and adjust the throw of the next shurikens to hit the player.

Lightspeed

Description: The Time Keeper performs a dash attack through the entire room.
Can be blocked, parried, and dodge rolled.
- Can be jumped over.

Shuriken shield

Description: After reaching around 50% health, the Time Keeper teleports away and says "Let's finish this" in a cutscene, before conjuring another circle of shurikens and entering the third phase. The shurikens shoot outwards after a few seconds.
Can be blocked, parried, and dodge rolled.
- Parrying the shuriken sends a projectile back.
When far enough the attack can be avoided by jumping between two shurikens.

Third phase[edit]

Retains all of her attacks from the previous phase, some attacks are enhanced in this phase.

Sword rain

Description: Swords fall on the player's location and randomly around the room.
Can be blocked and dodge rolled.

Three-hit slash combo

Description: The Time Keeper now performs a three-hit combo with her sword. With each slash, she moves forward and can change direction in between each slash.
Can be blocked, parried, and dodge rolled.

Shuriken combo +

Description: The Time Keeper now throws five to seven shurikens in quick succession.
Can be blocked, parried, and dodge rolled.
- Parrying the shuriken sends a projectile back.
When trying to jump over the shuriken the Time Keeper will track your movement and adjust the throw of the next shurikens to hit the player.

Lightspeed +

Description: The Time Keeper performs a combo of three dash attacks through the entire room.
Can be blocked, parried, and dodge rolled.
- Can be jumped over.

Strategy[edit]

Vulnerabilities[edit]

Since there are short pauses between her basic attack combos, it is a good idea to stay just in range to bait her attacks, then move/roll away, then roll back in after she finishes the combo for a few hits.
The Sword Rain damage can be reduced by using Masochist.
Skills and weapons that can freeze or root the Time Keeper are very effective in restraining her and opening her up to melee attacks.

Primary attacks[edit]

Slash combo

Each slash can be blocked with a shield or rolled through but parrying is the best option as it doesn't require any movement and can inflict effects from shields.

Shuriken combo

Each individual shuriken can be parried and send back for lots of damage.
- When trying to jump over the shuriken the Time Keeper will track your movement and adjust her throws to hit you so it is not a foolproof strategy.
  - It is possible to dodge a five-shuriken combo by double jumping and rolling, but the timing is precise.
A turret can be used to block the shurikens.

Hook and slash

The initial hook can be blocked and parried, this will end the combo.
The hook can be jumped over but only after it has already been thrown as the Time Keeper will track your movement if you jump before it is thrown.
- When hooked and rooted, the root ends just before the slash attack so you can still block or parry the slash.

Lightspeed

The attack is telegraphed by a glowing yellow line across the arena.
The attack can be blocked, parried, and dodge rolled.
- Parrying the attack will stop the Time Keeper's movement.
- It will also end the combo in the third phase.

Teleport

The teleport is always followed by a long-range attack like Hook and Slash, Shuriken Combo, Lightspeed and Shuriken Shield
- All these attacks have similar counters so the teleport is a good warning to make you prepare for them.

Shuriken shield

The attack charge up is pretty long.
- Even though this attack summons lots of shurikens, you are only in danger of getting hit by only one or two of the shuriken.
  - Best strategy is to just stand still and counter the one shuriken coming in your direction.

Weapons/Skills[edit]

She is susceptible to all status effects, like freezing, slowing and rooting. However, using them repeatedly will shorten their duration.
- The Wolf Trap, Frost Blast or any ice-related weapon/skill can be used to inflict these status effects.
A viable strategy is to hit her with a powerful weapon like the Cursed Sword or the Heavy Crossbow when she is incapacitated.
- Even slow weapons like the Broadsword, the Nutcracker, and the Giantkiller will have enough time to land their swings.
Phaser along with the Assassin's Dagger is a good way to cause massive damage to the Time Keeper.
- The Vorpan can likewise tackle her heads-on, but without a shield, it can be very risky.
Most of her attacks can be parried, so this is a valid strategy (Link to a Shield build strategy).
- The Ice Shield and the Cudgel are good examples, as they leave controlling status effects upon a successful parry.
- The Rampart gives the player a force field if a melee attack was parried, which can be useful against her melee combos.
- Punishment can be very effective, as it can deal very high damage very quickly, due to the Time Keeper's fast sequence of attacks.
The Cleaver can be used to drain her health at a decent rate, but the wide area of the Clock Room may reduce its effectiveness.
The War Javelin can be used to easily keep up with the Time Keeper's repeated teleporting. Due to a glitch, it's possible to teleport out of her Hook and Slash attack if the javelin isn't in the player's inventory, creating a window for a massive punish, even larger than just dodging the attack.

Lore[edit]

Information about the Time Keeper can be found in a few lore rooms, mostly located in the Clock Tower.

A letter left by the Time Keeper indicates that she is repeating the same day over and over as if time was rewinding every day^[1]. Evident by her entries of executed infected civilians and monsters because they're all classified as "Day 1". It is also implied that her task makes her increasingly exhausted, as the number of executions decreases each day.

The following information contains spoilers regarding the true ending of the game. Discretion is advised.

After beating the game on 5 BSC for the first time entering the starting area, a portal will spawn and pull the player into the Clock Room. There, the Time Keeper will berate the Beheaded for his recent actions sarcastically,

"You!"
"Are you proud of yourself?"
"The Malaise is still flowing through the Island..."
"I'll have to mess with the loop again."
"This will not end well..."

Shortly after, the Time Keeper kicks the Beheaded, but this unintentionally knocks him into a portal spawned at random, causing her to exclaim:

"Oi! No! Are you serious?"

As the game fades to the regular loading screen and the clock handles rapidly spin backward. After, the once dead Tutorial Knight somehow respawns back at the Prisoners' Quarters with glitched sprites, due to the Time Keeper messing with the loop again.

Trivia[edit]

The Time Keeper was first added in the Brutal update.
Before the Baguette Update, the Time Keeper was named 'The Assassin', referring to the style of her attacks involving throwing Shurikens and using swords.
The enemy derived from her is the Automaton, who imitates her phase 3 dash attack.
According to the transition loading screens added in the Baguette Update also, it appears that she requested the King of the island to build the Clock Tower, for unknown reasons.
For the second and third phases to activate, it is necessary that the Time Keeper teleports away from the player first. Because of this, if the player manages to deal massive damage in a short amount of time, it is actually possible to end the fight before she enters the second and/or third phase.
- The same can be said for Conjunctivius because she cannot attack while stunned by a Wolf Trap, and being the first boss, her stun duration is not reduced at all.
Sometimes she can freeze in her dashing animation when defeated while doing that attack.
She is the first female boss in the entire game.
Since the Pimp my Run Update, the Time Keeper will jump one last time to the center of the map after having her health depleted, pester on her repeated defeat, implying that she remembers all the other times the player has fought her, and then claim that "It won't end well...", only to escape via a portal.
- She and the Giant are the only bosses that cannot be truly defeated in this sense. The Giant heals as he sinks into lava while The Time Keeper teleports away after being defeated.
- This also refers to how she does not have perfect manipulation over time.