Baldi

"Welcome to Baldi's Basics In Education & Learning! That's me!"

- Baldi's introduction on the title screen.BaldiWelcome.oga

Baldi is the titular main antagonist of Baldi's Basics In Education & Learning and Baldi's Basics: Field Trip. He is a teacher who appears friendly and kind at first but gets angry and violent when the player gets his quiz questions wrong.

He was voiced by the game's creator Micah "Mystman12" McGonigal.

Personality
Baldi originally appears as a supportive and helpful teacher, as he helps to guide the player. He was constantly happy until the player makes a mistake with his math question, even if the question is considered unanswerable. Once the player makes the mistake, Baldi's happy face turns into an angry one. He is later shown to be quite cruel and abusive when he inflicts a penalty on the player as retribution for an incorrect answer.

Despite his manipulative and treacherous nature, he is also shown to be extremely pleasurable when he congratulates the player after the seven books are all collected. Although, Baldi soon threatened them to get out while they can and starts chasing them immediately afterward.

Appearance
Baldi is a tall, slender humanoid with long arms, pale skin, huge black eyes, and red lips. He has a big smile on his face. He wears a long-sleeved green shirt, blue pants, and light brown shoes. Despite being seen as bald, he has one string of brown hair, which is often mistaken for a third eyebrow.

Origin
Before Baldi's Basics In Education & Learning was released, Baldi was actually created many years ago by Mystman12. His sister created her own comic, which gave him the inspiration to create his own comic, which he named Baldimore.

The comic got the name from Baldi being bald, and it is about Baldi always wanting more food. In one scene, Baldi is seen trying to eat the planet Earth.

Role
At the start of the game, Baldi greets the player with a wave and welcomes them to the school. He then lets the player find the first notebook, which he will let them take if they do a quick pop quiz. If the player completes the first quiz without getting any problems wrong, Baldi will reward the player with a shiny Quarter that can be used later in the game to activate the Noise Phone or to obtain a BSoda from a BSoda Machine.

However, after missing a problem on the next quiz (this is inevitable), Baldi will suddenly become very angry. The notebook will be collected, but Baldi will become enraged and attempt to punish the player for getting the problem wrong by chasing them down across the school to beat them with a yardstick and presumably kill them. Getting caught by Baldi restarts the game. The player must traverse the school and avoid Baldi and the other enemies while collecting notebooks. Baldi can hear any door opened, and will come to the source of the noise, though using loud objects such as the alarm clock and tape can distract him, and using WD-NoSquee on doors before opening them will ensure Baldi cannot hear them.

The player must complete a quiz every time they attempt to get a notebook. When they get a problem wrong (this is inevitable again), Baldi will quicken his pace and become harder to avoid. After collecting all seven notebooks, Baldi will congratulate the player, then scream and threaten them to get out while they still can. He becomes extremely fast, and will constantly be near the player. And so, if the player is caught by Arts and Crafters during the pursuit, they will be teleported back to the start with Baldi close by, all but guaranteeing a game over. During this time, the exit will constantly appear and disappear in different areas around the school, making escape difficult.

However, if the player manages to locate the exit, they will escape Baldi and the school and win the game. There is a secret scene for players who failed all seven notebooks, which says go to Baldi's Office for improvement.

Field Trip
Baldi takes the player camping in the woods, and leaves the player to gather sticks for the campfire as he goes set up bear traps. If the fire goes out before time runs out, Baldi spawns at the campfire and almost immediately catches the player.

Birthday Bash
To celebrate the one-year anniversary of his game, Baldi invites the player back to the school. He will still attempt to attack the player after getting a question wrong, but once all seven notebooks are collected, Baldi and the other residents of Here School shout "Surprise!" once the player reaches the cafeteria exit. Baldi tells the player to step on a lift and blow out the candle on a large cake. Once the candle is blown out, the lights dim and everyone is lifted into the air, forcing the the player to a hallway full of glitched rooms.

The glitched rooms contain corrupted files resembling colored Baldis that do not harm the player. One of these rooms is Baldi's Office. The player must count the Baldis based on their color in buttons in one room littered with balloons; should they do it correctly, Baldi shouts "Wow!" before a room opens. Stepping into the room spawns multiple hostile colored Baldis, forcing them to run. Once enough time has passed, a distorted thank you screen appears featuring Baldi and the others.

Public Demo
In the public demo for the full game, Baldi wants to play hide-and-seek with the player, and chases after them once they walk a good distance away. Much like the original version, as the player collects notebooks, Baldi gets much faster, until his speed becomes so fast that it becomes almost impossible to escape without a strategy. In one of the random events, Baldi breaks his ruler, so the player cannot hear him approaching for several seconds. If the player has collected an apple by the time Baldi catches them, he will eat the apple, stopping for ten seconds to eat before continuing chasing the player.

In Music
Baldi appeared in numerous music-videos and songs on the internet. The most notable one is the music-video BALDI'S BASICS: THE MUSICAL, created by Random Encounters, which got released on June 22, 2018. The video presents a real-life portrayal of the whole video game. All the characters from the game appear in the music-video. First one being Baldi. The video as of today has over 95 million views.

In the musical, Baldi was portrayed by Nathan Morse.

There are also other songs which got over millions of views on YouTube such as: Basics in Behavior, created by The Living Tombstone & OR3O; Every Door, by CG5 & Caleb Hyles; Basics in Behavior by Coda; and YOU'RE MINE by DAGames.

Quotes
"Oh hi! Welcome to my schoolhouse!"

- Baldi greeting the player after entering the schoolhouse.

"Congratulations! You've found all seven notebooks! Now all you need to do is... GET OUT WHILE YOU STILL CAN! (laughs horrifically)"

- Baldi's last words to the player.

Trivia

 * Baldi seems to be completely unaware that some of his questions cannot be answered. Whether this is actually the case or not is up to debate, though.
 * Baldi seems to be the only real staff in the school besides Principal of the Thing. He seems to only really know math and seems to have an obsession with it.
 * Baldi's appearance kind of resembles the avatar of the YouTube channel, surreal entertainment, except that SE's avatar has hair.
 * Mystman12's first drawings of Baldi were from a poorly drawn comic he made called "Baldimore". "Baldimore" may be his real name, but this is unconfirmed.
 * Even though Baldi does not own the school, he still refers to the school as his own.
 * Although his description says he has an excellent sense of hearing, Baldi does not have visible ears on his model.
 * It is implied that Baldi may have trouble childhood.
 * While Baldi moves faster for every problem the player gets wrong, he slowly reverts to a normal pacing speed depending on how many notebooks were collected as long as the player avoids him.
 * Prior to version 1.3 of the game, Baldi would remain at a fast speed no matter how long the player avoids him. After 12 or more questions are wrong, Baldi becomes so fast he can catch up to the player in seconds.

Navigation
Baldi