Prison Keeper

Prison Keeper
Japanese	プリズンキーパー
Rōmaji	Purizun Kīpā
Type	Emblem Heartless
Game	Kingdom Hearts II
KHII tracks Battle theme - Dance to the Death

Prison Keeper
Kingdom Hearts II
A Heartless called forth in Halloween Town by Maleficent to get revenge on Sora. It held Lock, Shock, and Barrel captive while dealing various elemental attacks.

Location		HP	Strength		Defense	EXP
Halloween Town Episode 1 (pre-1000 Heartless)		1140	24		13	0
Halloween Town Episode 1 (post-1000 Heartless)		1640	37		21	0
Physical	Fire			Blizzard
×1.0	×0.5			×0.5
Thunder	Dark			Neutral
×0.5	×0.5			×0.5
Rewards
Sora: Max HP +5 Donald: Hyper Healing Goofy: Max HP +5 Jack Skellington: Max HP +15
World(s)
Halloween Town

Location		HP	Strength		Defense	EXP
Halloween Town Episode 1 (pre-1000 Heartless)		1140	24		13	0
Halloween Town Episode 1 (post-1000 Heartless)		1640	37		21	0
Physical	Fire			Blizzard
×1.0	×0.5			×0.5
Thunder	Dark			Neutral
×0.5	×0.5			×1.0
Rewards
Sora: Flash Step Donald: Hyper Healing Goofy: Max HP +5 Jack Skellington: Max HP +15
World(s)
Halloween Town

The Prison Keeper is an Emblem Heartless boss found in Halloween Town in Kingdom Hearts II. It can swallow others, namely Lock, Shock, and Barrel, to power up its attacks.

Story

Kingdom Hearts II

After Maleficent resurrects Oogie Boogie, she leaves Lock, Shock, and Barrel behind to deal with Sora and Jack Skellington, and summons the Prison Keeper to assist them. It swallows the children to empower itself, but Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Jack manage to defeat it and release the children. With their usual disloyalty, they immediately reveal Maleficent's intentions to the heroes.

Design

The Prison Keeper is a large, seemingly mechanical Heartless that seems to be made out of metal, and is thus predominantly shades of grey, black, and silver. Its large, egg-shaped head has a jagged, gaping maw and glowing eyes that are triangular spirals. Its face is not one uniform color, and seems to have been broken, as there is a crack between its eyes that appears to have been stitched or stapled back together. It has a long, twisted antenna sprouting out of the top of its head that appears to be wrapped in bandages. Its Heartless emblem is at the base of this antenna. Its long arms are connected to the bottom of its head, are mostly covered by metal "sleeves", and its hands seem to be made of bone. A large, metal cage holding the three children is suspended by a wire that hangs from the bottom of the Prison Keeper. The cage resembles the one that Lock, Shock, and Barrel use to travel Oogie's Manor in The Nightmare Before Christmas and Kingdom Hearts. There is a large, black knob on either side of the Heartless's head that seems to operate a the winch at the Prison Keeper's base.

In Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, the Prison Keeper is brighter-colored, with a copper and gold cage, bright yellow hands, and turquoise arms.

The Prison Keeper's name refers to the cage it holds the three children in, which is reminiscent of a prison cell.

Strategy

The Prison Keeper can imprison victims in its cage and swallow them to use elemental attacks. It uses Lock, Shock, and Barrel to help fight Sora's party. It can shoot large fireballs from its hands and blue lasers from its fingers. It also uses its claws and teeth for physical attacks.

Equip all of Sora's aerial abilities, and maybe the Hero's Crest. Also, equip Reflect to the shortcut menu. Fighting the Prison Keeper is all about maintaining pressure, so repeatedly assault it with air combos and limit attacks. If it tilts its head back approach it and use the "Inside Combo" Reaction Command to stun it. Valor Form is a good idea for this battle: Sora can obtain multiple hits to level it up all while keeping the pressure on the Heartless itself.

After a while it swallows one of the three, and its attacks depend on the child:

• Lock: The Prison Keeper will shoot large fireballs out of its mouth and hands from a distance. These fireballs can be deflected to damage the Heartless. The best way to counter this is to knock them back by using Guard or hitting them back. Reflect, although useful, is not recommended. During this attack, the Prison Keeper's arms will glow red.
• Shock: The Prison Keeper will spin its arms around, rising up and then falling down while spinning around the arena, firing lasers. Its arms glow a dark yellow. This is easy to avoid, just get close and attack.
• Barrel: The Prison Keeper will use a powerful biting attack on just Sora and slash madly. Its arms glow green. Maintain a distance and use Thunder. The Prison Keeper's arms will be colored green.

When reduced to 40% HP, it will swallow all three kids and use a mixture of attacks: fireballs from its eyes, slash attacks, and it will spin. Try not to go near it and instead use Wisdom Form, and continue attacking until it is defeated. Donald's Limit is also helpful here. If Sora runs out of MP, getting to the top of the Curly Hill may be the best way to start attacking the Heartless with the Keyblade.

Technique		Element	Power	Guard?
Swallow (飲みこみ, Nomikomi)		Physical	x1.0	△
		Swings its cage, then swallows either Lock, Shock, Barrel, or all three at once.
Cage Swing (振りまわし, Furimawashi, lit. "Swing")		Physical	x1.5	△
		Swings purple-glowing cage around.
Claw Attack (ツメ攻撃, Tsume Kōgeki)		Dark	x0.25	△
		Slashes upwards with both claws.
		Used if Barrel has been swallowed. At less than 40% HP, this attack is chosen at random.
Bite (かみつき, Kamitsuki)		Physical	x1.0	O
		Opens its mouth with both hands and bites.
		Used if Barrel has been swallowed. At less than 40% HP, this attack is chosen at random.
Bite Combo (連続かみつき, Renzoku Kamitsuki)		Physical	x1.5 Hit 2: x0.25 Hit 3+: x0.75	O
		Pulls its ear and bites three times in succession.
		Used if Barrel has been swallowed. At less than 40% HP, this attack is chosen at random.
Fireball (ファイアボール, Faia Bōru)		Fire	x1.5	O
		Forms a fireball and throws it.
		Used if Lock has been swallowed. At less than 40% HP, this attack is chosen at random.
Carpet Bomb (じゅうたん爆撃, Jūtan Bakugeki)		Dark	x0.75	△
		Spins sideways and rains down orbs from its fingertips.
		Used if Shock has been swallowed. At less than 40% HP, this attack is chosen at random.
Guard/Block: △ = Can be blocked; O = Can be blocked and interrupted (melee) or deflected back (projectile); X = Cannot be blocked.

Reaction Commands
Reaction Command	Element	Power	Description
Inside Combo (インナーコンボ, Innā Konbo, lit. "Inner Combo")	—	—	Can be used when Lock, Shock, or Barrel are partially consumed with Swallow. Jump into and struggle with the enemy, prevent it from swallowing the imps, and stun it. When it recovers from being stunned, it uses Swallow again; in this case, Inside Combo won't appear.

Video

Prison Keeper – Kingdom Hearts II

Gallery

• 

  Prison Keeper's journal portrait in Kingdom Hearts II.

• 

  Prison Keeper's journal portrait in Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix.

• 

  Prison Keeper's journal portrait in Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX.