Baldi

"Welcome to Baldi's Basics in Education and Learning! That's me!"

- Baldi

Baldi is the main character of the Baldi's Basics series. He is the head professor of the Schoolhouse and the Super Schoolhouse, giving the player math problems to solve in the You Can Think Pad, Baldi's Math Machine, or the camping field trip before they can collect notebooks or obtain items. As the whole game is not what it first seems, a twist reveals a more sinister side to Baldi's personality when the player makes their first mistake.

Description
Baldi is a poorly-modeled CGI character with an appearance of a seemingly bald human figure with long, skinny fingers, pale-tan skin, red lips, and what seems to be a copper strand of hair on his head. He wears a long-sleeved green shirt, blue jeans, and light brown shoes and has a blue elbow on his left arm in Plus, while in Classic, it is gray, possibly due to texturing mistakes. Even though he has no visible ears, the description of his poster mentions that Baldi has an excellent sense of hearing.

Strangely enough, Baldi's facial expression while chasing the player, while heavily compressed and distorted, is neutral and not one of anger, most likely due to dithering.

Personality
At first, Baldi acts friendly towards the player, encouraging them and egging them on by giving them a Quarter. However, he gets frustrated upon them getting a math problem wrong, showing a more menacing side to his personality. He slaps his ruler in his hand repeatedly as if it was some sort of compulsive habit, and slowly but surely chases the player, getting faster the angrier he gets. After collecting all the required notebooks, he gives the player a chance to escape the school, albeit in a limited time span, and Baldi laughs at their escape efforts.

Main Gameplay
At the beginning of the floor, Baldi happily greets and welcomes the player to his Super Schoolhouse in a friendly manner. Baldi's greeting is changed depending on the floor:
 * Baldi's Basics Plus
 * Floor 1 and Endless Mode: "Oh, hi! Let's play hide and seek!"
 * Floor 2: "You're good! Let's keep playing!"
 * Floor 3: "What fun! Goo-"

After the player moves at least two chunks away from the starting elevator area, Baldi will cover his eyes and count down from 10, like in a game of hide and seek. Once the countdown is over, he will hold a ruler on his hand and start chasing the player. Strangely, he will also get angry. However, in Explorer Mode, Baldi will just disappear and will not chase or harm the player.

Baldi is the main threat in the school, as he is the one and only character that can cause a game over. Unlike other characters, Baldi's movement is a bit different, appearing to teleport a short distance each time he slaps his ruler. He also has a unique way of finding the player: if they make a sound, he will instantly head for the source of the sound, unless the sound has a lower noise value than the previous sound. A Baldi's head (also known as Baldicator) appears at the bottom right of the screen when he hears the sound to express whether he will be coming to the location where the sound was made or is still trying to find the source of the sound with a higher noise value than the new one.

Besides this, there are also a few characters who are capable of attracting Baldi's attention:
 * Arts and Crafters - When he teleports the player, Baldi will head to the location where the player is teleported.
 * Principal of the Thing - If the Principal teleports the player to detention, Baldi will head to the center of the Principal's office.
 * Chalkles - When the player spends over 15 seconds in a classroom where he spawned, Baldi will head to the chunk with Chalkles' chalkboard on it.
 * Mrs. Pomp - When the player opens a door in any room or enters her classroom after the timer runs out, Baldi will head to the center of that classroom.

There are multiple ways to throw off Baldi:
 * Alarm Clock - After it rings, he will head to the location where it is placed, unless Baldi's Math Machine or Mrs. Pomp overwrote the Alarm Clock's sound.
 * WD-NoSquee - Makes doors and blue lockers silent.
 * Baldi's Least Favorite Tape - Creates buzz-like statics via the tape player.
 * Pay Phone - Inputting a Quarter in it will make the phone emit a buzz-like static noise.

If the player is not seen or heard by Baldi for two hallway turns, he will start wandering in random directions until he notices the player again. However, when Baldi passes a window and the player sees Baldi through the window, he will not head for the room behind the window, because he has no eyesight through windows, like Principal of the Thing and Gotta Sweep, as mentioned in the "Windows" poster.

Every time the player collects a notebook or answers the math problem on Baldi's Math Machine incorrectly after Baldi becomes hostile, Baldi's slap intervals become shorter and shorter, thus making him move quicker and quicker.

Baldi's movement can also be slowed down if he is hit by Beans' bubble gum, giving the player more time to get away from him.

If Baldi catches the player, he will shift the player's view straight to his face and he will make a very loud, startling, glitch-like noise. The map de-loads around him and the player as the jump-scare scene plays out. The player will then be sent back to the elevator or the title screen, depending on the number of lives remaining.

There are several items to use against Baldi for the player's survival:
 * BSODA - Pushes Baldi away, especially useful when he is very close to the player.
 * Dangerous Teleporter - Used to teleport to a random area to get away from the close-approaching Baldi. It works even during the final part of each level, but it may also lead to a more dangerous situation like teleporting right next to Baldi.
 * Portal Poster - Convenient for getting to another room or hallway quickly. However, Baldi can see and follow the player through the portal.
 * An Apple for Baldi - Giving this item to Baldi as a one-time shield.

As part of one of the random events, Baldi's ruler breaks, which means the player cannot hear him coming for a short period of time, but he cannot make a game over while his ruler is broken.

When the player completes all the floors in Hide-and-Seek, they will meet Baldi in his office. Baldi will then dance and sing a song. After that, the song will get super accelerated. The game will pseudo-corrupt into a distorted and randomly-colored screen.


 * Baldi's Basics Classic

Before obtaining the first notebook in one of the beginning classrooms, the player needs to solve three math problems using the You Can Think Pad. During this time, Baldi gives instructions and reads out the questions. If all three questions are answered correctly, Baldi will give the player a Quarter. To get the second notebook, the player will have to answer three more math problems, but after solving the second problem, the third question is corrupted and impossible to solve. Numbers in Baldi's dialogue are censored with static noises.

When the player gets their first problem wrong in the You Can Think Pad, Baldi's face will become distorted, making him appear to be frowning intensely, and his eyebrows will furrow. He either says "Comic Sans MS" or "Comic Sans MS". If the player gets all 3 questions wrong, it will display "Comic Sans MS" instead. After the player fails a question, Baldi disappears on the bottom left-hand corner of the You Can Think Pad for the rest of the notebooks. Once the player exits the You Can Think Pad after getting their first problem wrong, Baldi begins to chase the player through the Schoolhouse, signaling his movement and location by slapping a ruler on his hand.

Baldi puts 3 math problems in every notebook the player must answer correctly. If the player gets an answer wrong, Baldi's slap interval becomes shorter and shorter, thus making him move faster and faster. Every notebook (except the first one) will always end with an unsolvable problem, making Baldi's slap intervals shorter per notebook collected. It is worthy to note that Baldi will stop moving while the player is using the You Can Think Pad.

Once the player has six notebooks, Baldi will be moving at the same speed as the player's walking speed, so the only way to outrun him is by running. However, once the player collects the 7th notebook, Baldi moves so fast that he can catch them even if they are sprinting. The only way to get away from him then is by using a BSODA or getting pushed by 1st Prize or Gotta Sweep, but note that they can push the player directly to Baldi.

Field Trips
Baldi will appear in all field trips. Baldi will tell the player how the field trip works. If the player loses a star by failing the objective, Baldi will be disappointed and say "Ohhhh...". Prior to Baldi's Basics Plus V0.3, he does not guide the player and will chase them if they fully failed the objective.
 * In the camping field trip, Baldi will appear wearing a camping hat and a backpack. The player needs to place the campfires in the right positions of where groups of firewood will land in, based on the math questions and answers. If the player places at least one campfire in the wrong position, Baldi will get disappointed and bend his body down.
 * Prior to Baldi's Basics Plus V0.3, the player's task is to collect logs and use them to refuel the campfire. If the player fails to keep the fire going until the timer runs out, an angry Baldi will spawn in the burnt-out logs, and begin to chase them. He will move very fast and become almost impossible to escape, with nothing being able to slow him down as the forest lacks any useful items.
 * In the farm field trip, Baldi is seen wearing a farming uniform. He is only seen when guiding the player. However, he will still make the disappointing sound when the player inserts the incorrect animal to the barn, or when the timer runs out when there is at least one required animal.
 * Prior to Baldi's Basics Plus V0.3, Baldi will only spawn to chase the player if they failed to reach the flag pole after the timer runs out.

Challenges
In each challenge, Baldi will not greet the player. Instead, he will try to catch them once they walk out of the elevator.
 * In the Speedy Challenge, Baldi, along with the player, will move extremely fast.
 * In the Stealthy Challenge, Baldi only stays in the Principal's office, so if the player gets into detention, they will almost instantly get caught by Baldi. Baldi's base speed is also much faster than in the main mode.
 * In the Grapple Challenge, Baldi's speed has been roughly doubled to counter the speed of the Grappling Hook.

Other Appearances

 * Baldi's Basics Classic marks Baldi's first debut, with a role similar to his appearance in Baldi's Basics Plus. Getting caught by Baldi will directly send the player back to the main menu. In the alternate ending where the player meets, Baldi will be seen inside his office stretched out.
 * In Baldi's Basics Birthday Bash, Baldi remains the same like in Classic, but wears a party hat (which jumps each time when slapping his ruler in his hostile state) for the celebration of Baldi's Basics Classic ' s 1st anniversary. As soon as the player reaches the last exit door in the cafeteria, Baldi and the rest of characters will appear to shout a surprise for the player. Baldi then encourages the player to blow out the birthday cake's candle, which grants the player access to the glitched school.
 * In Baldi's Basics Classic Remastered, Baldi has the same appearances in other games, except that his voice lines are going to be remastered and he will be more pixelated in the You Can Think Pad.
 * In Baldi's Basics - Field Trip demo: Camping, Baldi will first appear standing next to "his" bus. Later at the forest, before he "leaves" to set up the bear traps, Baldi tells the player to gather logs for the fire. Getting caught by Baldi in this demo results in a game over.
 * In Baldi's Basics Full Game Early Demo, once the player has found the 8 notebooks and triggered 3 of the exit elevators, Baldi will gradually go faster and faster until he goes so fast that he is impossible to run away from, which means that the player has to hurry to reach the final elevator. He can still cause a game over despite his ruler being broken.
 * Baldi's Basics Kickstarter Exclusive Demo is the first game where the Baldicator is featured.
 * In Baldi's Basics - Challenges Demo, Baldi appears in all three challenges: Speedy, Stealthy, and Grapple Challenges.

Slap Interval
Baldi has a certain "slap interval" when he chases the player. The slap intervals differ between the games and the floors in Baldi's Basics Plus.

Baldi's longest slap interval is one smack every 3 seconds, and the intervals get shorter for every notebook the player collects and every wrong answer from Baldi's Math Machine. In Classic/Birthday Bash, if Baldi is going faster than his minimum speed, he will cool down to his maximum slap interval, which is dependent on the number of notebooks collected or the number of wrong answers. Prior to V1.3 in Baldi's Basics Classic, Baldi would not slow down after getting additional answers wrong. In Baldi's Basics Full Game Early Demo and Kickstarter Exclusive Demo, notebooks collected before Baldi chases the player do not affect Baldi's slap interval. However, in Baldi's Basics Plus, Baldi will have the shortest slap interval after the maximum amount of notebooks are collected and Baldi's slap interval will decrease by a short amount as time goes by.

Main

 * Baldi's Basics Plus
 * Note: Italicized values cannot usually be reached in Hide-and-Seek. The only exceptions to this are some map seeds, a wrong answer from Baldi's Math Machine, and when the player stays in the same floor they are in for Baldi’s slap interval to decrease and reach that value.


 * Classic/Birthday Bash


 * Full Game Early Demo

Field Trips

 * General
 * Note: Baldi chases the player in field trips only prior to Baldi's Basics Plus V0.3.


 * Field Trip demo: Camping

Challenges
Speedy Challenge= Since Baldi's Basics Plus V0.3, Baldi has a constant slap interval of 0.22 seconds in the Speedy Challenge.


 * -|Stealthy Challenge=
 * -|Grapple Challenge=

Trivia

 * General
 * Baldi strange terror from the deep.jpg makes a guest appearance as one of the enemies in the Indie horror game Strange Terror From The Deep, with mystman12 providing the voice dialogue for him.
 * Baldi's "Thanks for playing! Come back soon!" quote is later reused for the first time in the Full Game Early Demo.
 * spr_backpack.png makes a cameo in Night of the Consumers as a plush in the left pocket of the backpack in the beginning.
 * The audio for Baldi smacking his ruler was made by mystman12 slapping his hand with a plastic ruler even though Baldi uses a wooden one in the game.
 * mystman12 voiced Baldi and It's a Bully in the "Baldi gets bullied" video by Xploshi.
 * Despite Principal of the Thing being the official principal, Baldi refers to the school as "his" Schoolhouse. It is possible that he owns the schoolhouse with the Principal of the Thing managing it.
 * mystman12's first drawings of Baldi were from a set of comics he made named Baldimore.
 * Baldi has a son and a wife in mystman12's old comics, but mystman12 has said that he does not know which facts about Baldi are still canon.
 * He called this comic as Baldimore because he was bald, his name was Baldi, he always wanted more food and he lived in Baltimore. The name of this comic was based on the ideas in his childhood.
 * mystman12 said that he might make it canon for Baldi's last name to be Baldimore after making his Mii for him.
 * In the Bad Ball microgame made by mystman12, Baldi wears a blue shirt instead of a green one. He noticed this after recording the video.
 * Baldi is about 29 years old.
 * Baldi's birthday is on June 3.
 * mystman12 originally intended for Baldi to teach more subjects than just math, but due to time constraints in the Meta Game Jam, and also to make it more fair to international players, he ultimately decided to use only one subject for the original version.
 * It is possible that more subjects may be added in Baldi's Basics Plus.
 * It is possible Baldi liking apples is inspired by the stereotype of teachers loving apples.
 * Baldi's voice was inspired by the character Waluigi from the Super Mario franchise.
 * Baldi is possibly named after the 1995 strategy game Baldies.
 * The overall image of Baldi giving thumbs up when the game is downloaded over one hundred-thousand times is a reference to Sonic Schoolhouse ' s image screen when beating the level with all 10/10 correct answers.
 * Spoken by mystman12 during his livestream, some lines have references to other media:
 * The line where Baldi says "FUS RO DAH!" is a reference to one of the dragon shouts from the game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
 * Another Baldi's line "Hadouken!" is a direct reference to the 1987 video game: Street Fighter in which the character Ryu will shout the same phrase when using one of his special moves.
 * Baldi's "Open Salami!" line is one of the Mario's voices from the game Super Mario Sunshine.
 * Baldi's waving animation was actually a mistake, but it was used in the game due to its creepier appearance.
 * Plush sets.png variant of Baldi with the camping suit was planned to have a plush and an action figure. But they, along with the Arts and Crafters beanie plush have yet to be released.
 * mystman12 created some Baldi fireworks designs in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
 * Gotta Sweep and Baldi are mystman12's favorite characters.
 * mystman12 Miiverse archive.jpgan12 at first said that Baldi's first internet appearance was in his deleted "BaldiComic" Twitter. However, this was disproven as he was going to his Miiverse archive and found out that Baldi's first internet appearance was actually in his Game & Wario Miiverse sketch post.
 * Despite Baldi has excessive hunger that he ate a lot of food, he has a thin body. It could possibly mean that Baldi has difficulty gaining weight.
 * Vanilla is his favorite ice cream flavor. He especially likes the ice cream from the little cup.
 * mystman12 says that Baldi would open a pizza place, but all the pizza boxes are empty since Baldi has eaten all the pizza.


 * Baldi's Basics Plus
 * Baldi's render looks a lot cleaner than from the previous games.
 * In Baldi's waving animation, his left arm seems to be broken.
 * In Baldi's description in the Principal's office, "incredible" is misspelled as "increible".
 * This misspelling was fixed in the Baldi Youtooz figure's box set.
 * It is possible to use Baldi's incredible sense of hearing to trick him into moving in the wrong direction. With blue doors or lockers, the player can simply open them, then move away from them in the opposite direction of Baldi. Baldi will move in the direction of the door or locker and then move around randomly.
 * Of course, opening any other door while Baldi is heading for the previous blue door will cause the trick to fail, as he will follow that door sound instead. However, if Baldi is tracking a blue locker, he will ignore all door sounds because the blue locker's noise value is higher than any door's. Crossing Baldi's line of sight in the meantime will cancel the effect as well, and this happens even through locked swinging doors. This makes the trick difficult to pull off sometimes.
 * By hacking the game and going noclip and out of the school, Baldi will always try to pass the wall until the player gets back to the school. In other words, Baldi cannot go through walls.
 * Giving An Apple to Baldi will make him happy, but he still tries to get the player. This could be because he takes the Apple from the player's inventory.
 * For some reason, Baldi's eyes, when he congratulates the player with the right answer on the Math Machine, appear to be smaller than usual on his regular sprite.
 * The new audios appear to be with interference on the microphone.
 * In the name entry screen, the green color of Baldi's shirt looks a little weaker due to the lighting in Anim8or.
 * Tutor Baldi does not have a hitbox, this can be seen if the player sprays a BSODA at him.
 * Baldi with his farmer and camping outfits does not have a hitbox either.
 * Prior to V0.2, Baldi could still end the game even if his ruler is broken.
 * In a future update, there will be more consequences when Baldi catches the player, rather than losing a life. However, it turns out that this feature will not likely be available and the idea of casting a curse was made by a different user.
 * Prior to V0.3, Baldi would do a quick countdown and then chase the player, once they are far away enough from Baldi, if they hide in one of the nearby blue lockers or if they use the Dangerous Teleporter.
 * After V0.3, Baldi can rarely open his right eye, while counting down, but only when the player is not nearby. If the player returns to him, Baldi will quickly close his right eye and continue counting down.
 * The farmer's sprites for Baldi's clothes and hat changed from the sprites before V0.3.2.
 * If the outdoor area is close enough to Baldi, walking up to the bus does not start the chase.
 * If all files are removed from the game assets, Baldi will have an idling sprite with his normal outfit in the outdoor area.
 * In V0.3.3, all of his praising voices are re-recorded and one more praising voice was added. The new voice strangely has a white-colored subtitle, however.
 * Baldi appears to be an inventor, as judging by the descriptions/names, he created/built:
 * The Math Machine
 * The fog machine
 * The Portal Poster
 * Baldi also has the ability to control gravity as the description of the Gravity Chaos event says "Comic Sans MS".


 * Classic/Birthday Bash
 * Many people thought that Baldi says "You failed all seven notebooks!". However, mystman12 himself has confirmed it is "found" and not "failed," and he was completely unaware of the debate prior to being questioned about it.
 * Baldi's screech sound was made when mystman12 imported a non-audio file into Audacity as "Raw Data", but he does not remember what settings he used to get the sound. It is likely an edited Donkey Kong Country image, with a cropped 99 in the bottom right corner.
 * Since Baldi's Basics Classic V1.4, when Baldi catches the player, a speeding black wall appears before displaying a game over image.
 * When Baldi catches the player on Mac versions, the screech seems to echo.
 * But, during the impossible question, it sounds like it does on all other platforms.
 * mystman12 made the sound effect for the "GET OUT WHILE YOU STILL CAN!!!" line by screaming into a cheap microphone as loud as he could.


 * Baldi's Basics Classic
 * Before V1.3, if the player gets 12 or more questions wrong, Baldi would go so fast that his ruler sound effect will glitch, and no matter how far away he is from them, he will immediately know where they are (even if they use Baldi's Least Favorite Tape), and he will catch the player in about 3 to 5 seconds (unless the player gets lucky). This means that it is impossible to escape from him once this happens. As of V1.3, this was fixed and it is now limited to only 1 speed amp per notebook (though if the player gets two or three questions wrong in a notebook, Baldi's speed will temporarily increase beyond one amp before slowing back down to the proper next increment).
 * mystman12 has revealed that at some point during development, Baldi had an unused dialogue file with a "parrot noise" at the end of the line in a reference to Ms. Fowl from the show The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, however it seems that it was not left in the files of any version.
 * On the mobile version, when the player answers all three questions correctly in the first notebook, Baldi will say "You did great! Come here and get your prize! A shiny quarter!", but he does not give instructions on how to use items as mobile devices do not have a mouse and a keyboard.
 * Prior to V1.3, Baldi's beginning speed was slower, and his speed when all 7 notebooks were collected was faster. This makes the game slightly easier, as Baldi's beginning speed does not really matter as much as his final speed.
 * Also, since V1.3, Baldi's speed upon getting all questions wrong in a notebook is faster than normal, but will soon slow back down if the player waits for a while before getting another notebook.
 * Recently, a Lost Bits video of Baldi's Basics Classic by TetraBitGaming revealed a voice clip that would have been used for the spelling subject, actually shown by mystman12 himself.


 * Baldi's Basics Birthday Bash
 * "A shiny quarter!" and "Then, when you find something you can use it on, right click on the object with the quarter selected! That's how you use items, you know." quotes were removed because Baldi gives the player a present instead of a Quarter.


 * Baldi's Basics Full Game Early Demo
 * Baldi's opening quote seems to be poking fun at a common trend in recent mobile (Android/iOS) games.
 * The audio of Baldi congratulating the player for collecting all notebooks is reused from Classic and Birthday Bash, with the exception of the "8" quote (used for the You Can Think Pad) replacing "7". It is also more echoed and less loud.
 * When Baldi slaps for the first time after spawning, he jumps a little.

Glitches and Oversights

 * Baldi's Basics Plus
 * Baldi's hand is cut off in the name entry screen because the white screen covers it.
 * Baldi's lip-syncing while holding the clipboard seems to be endless even when he is not talking.
 * Baldimerrygoround.gify, Baldi can pass through the merry-go-round.
 * If Baldi's head were to block one square of space in the farm field trip, then the empty square of space would look like a square of corn, leading the player to believe that the empty space is a dead end.


 * Classic/Birthday Bash
 * When Baldi frowns upon the player incorrectly answering a question for the first time before starting his chase, his lips seem to break on the sides.
 * If the player walks into any corner in the school, Baldi cannot catch them, but they are stuck in place, making the player's only option to walk into Baldi and cause the game to end.
 * However, if the trick is done in a faculty room, the Principal can enter and send the player to detention before Baldi can catch them.
 * If the game is paused right after Baldi catches the player, the game will show the frame they paused on instead of showing Baldi.


 * Baldi's Basics Classic
 * Since V1.3, if the player gets at least one answer wrong but gets the third question correct on the first notebook, Baldi will go at his max speed and his ruler slap sound will be glitched (some platforms will not have the ruler slap glitch, as it will be just a lot of slaps). However, Baldi is not dangerous at this time, because he always teleports behind the swinging doors after the player gets their first question wrong (to give the player space to exit the classroom and run away), and the swinging doors are locked until the player acquires the second notebook.
 * Before V1.3, if the player got 12 or more questions wrong, Baldi will become intensely fast and his ruler sound will glitch (some platforms will not have the ruler slap glitch, as it will be just a lot of slaps).
 * Prior to V1.2.2, sometimes, the BSODA will pass through Baldi and not push him away.
 * In the Google Play and iOS versions, if Baldi catches the player after having all 7 notebooks, his jump-scare sound does not play.


 * Baldi's Basics Birthday Bash
 * In the game, Baldi still says "Just click on it with the left mouse button to pick it up!".


 * Baldi's Basics - Field Trip demo: Camping
 * Baldi will always say "Let's go camping!" every time the player leaves the school, if they are going back in then back out.
 * When Baldi gets angry at the player, the brim of his hiking cap is strangely absent, possibly due to the smaller size of his sprite.


 * Baldi's Basics Full Game Early Demo/Kickstarter Exclusive Demo
 * Baldi will stick close to the player if they spray the BSODA at him when he's eating an Apple. This will give the player an instant game over after Baldi is done eating. This glitch was fixed in Baldi's Basics Plus.


 * Baldi's Basics Kickstarter Exclusive Demo
 * In V1.2, Baldi can somehow phase through BSODA. It is unsure whether this is intentional or a bug.
 * In the field trips prior to V1.1, Baldi's ruler sprite sheets in the camping trip and farm trip switch places.
 * In version 1.2, he says "Full Game Public Demo" instead of "Kickstarter Exclusive Demo" in the title screen.


 * Baldi's Basics - Challenges Demo
 * When Baldi catches the player, the camera positions itself in whatever direction the player was in, leaving his face not to be seen. This glitch also happened before the V0.1.2 update of Baldi's Basics Plus.

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