Gotta Sweep is a giant green angle broom with choppy-edged, dark-colored bristles and a white cap. He has a brown strip (yellow due to the dithering effect) of tape that covers half of the broom, with two stickers (white and red) on the top.
While Gotta Sweep is based on a real-life broom with a cropped-out background, he appears photoshopped with his handle top shortened a little, brightened and contrasted for supposed clarity, and the bristle areas stretched in width resulting in a distorted edit.
Personality
While Gotta Sweep obviously loves his work and isn't afraid to bombastically announce it to the whole school, Gotta Sweep tends to be a troublesome and chaotic neutral character who can help or hinder both the player, other students, and his co-workers. He sweeps, not because it's his job, but because he deeply wants to, and does not care if he helps or bothers others in the process.
As implied in his description in the Principal's Office, Gotta Sweep was hired as a last-minute solution, since the school was going to open in 7 hours and they didn't have any janitors for it.
Gotta Sweep's voice lines are all loud, hammy and distorted, largely due to the voice actor yelling into the microphone.
Artificial intelligence
Main gameplay
Gotta Sweep inside his closet.
At the start of the game after Baldi finishes counting down, Gotta Sweep will spawn in his closet and do nothing for a prolonged period of time. After approximately 120–180 seconds,[1] Gotta Sweep will proclaim "Looks like it's sweepin' time!" and leave his closet, dashing around the halls and sweeping almost anything in his path.
As he sweeps the Schoolhouse or Super Schoolhouse, he will move insanely quickly, a natural speed matched by very few other characters. Gotta Sweep will push characters and even possibly take them along his path if they get in his way, excluding a few choice others such as It's a Bully and Chalkles. Anyone, player or NPC, can be pushed around by Gotta Sweep when he runs into them, taking them wherever Sweep goes until they either get snagged by an obstacle or they manage to get out of his grip. This can either be helpful or harmful, as Gotta Sweep may push the player either away or closer to Baldi and other characters, putting the player into and out of danger whether they like it or not. The player and other characters still have a small amount of movement available to them, so it's possible to escape Gotta Sweep while he's sweeping you, though movement is greatly hindered so it's inconvenient without items.
Gotta Sweep will take about 30 seconds to sweep as much of the school as possible, mainly focusing on sweeping all of the hallways, and occasionally classrooms and faculty rooms. He cannot, however, enter the mystery room. Once the 30 seconds are up, he will go back to his supply closet and once inside, and wait inside for another 2 to 3 minutes before repeating the process and sweeping the school again.
In the farm field trip prior to Baldi's Basics PlusV0.3, if 150–350 seconds have passed, a colossal-sized version of Gotta Sweep, with pencil-like razors for bristles, the "I LIKE CORN" text attached to it, and a short handle, would spawn as he yelled "GOTTA REAP, REAP, REAP!!!". He began to cut down all the corn across his path and would cause a hostile Baldi to spawn after he passed by the player.
In Baldi's Basics Classic, Gotta Sweep can only wander in hallways, faculty rooms, and his closet.
Gotta Sweep inside his closet in Classic.
In Baldi's Basics Birthday Bash, Gotta Sweep has the same appearance in Classic. Additionally, he has bristles covered in red, tan, green, and white confetti. After reaching the last exit door in the cafeteria, he appears in the same place with the original cast for a birthday surprise.
Gotta Sweep appearing with the original cast for a birthday surprise.
In Baldi's Basics Classic Remastered, Gotta Sweep's behavior is similar to Classic/Birthday Bash, but it is easier to escape from him unless Hard ModeFun Setting is enabled.
Gotta Sweep in a faculty room in the Full Game Early Demo.
Just like all NPCs, Gotta Sweep is not in his closet because he will only spawn when Baldi finishes his countdown in Baldi's Basics Plus or the player gets an answer wrong from 1-2 notebooks in Classic/Birthday Bash.
Gotta Sweep may yell "Gotta, sweep sweep sweep!" multiple times in quick succession. mystman12 has said that he did not expect that to happen, but he thinks that it makes the game a lot of fun.[2]
According to mystman12, during his livestream, he mentioned that the reason that Gotta Sweep sounds similar to Joe from his on-hold project Joe's Ultimate Bus Ride was because he felt he could not do any more original voices, so he ultimately decided to use his Joe voice from said game.[3]
The original image used for Gotta Sweep.
Gotta Sweep is actually based on mystman12's broom seen in his Twitter/X post.[4]
Gotta Sweep was supposed to be a human but was made a broom because of the time limit to enter the game into the Meta Game Jam. mystman12 used Colors! 3D to paint an actual janitor with a PilotRedSun-like style as a concept of Gotta Sweep, however, he did not like the art because it looked different than what he expected.[5] Gotta Sweep's early art was later reused for 0th Prize in Birthday Bash.
Gotta Sweep and Baldi are mystman12's favorite characters.[6]
During mystman12's livestream, Gotta Sweep's line, "GOTTA GO FAST, FAST, FAST!", is likely a reference to the theme song of the Sonic X English dub called "Gotta Go Fast".
mystman12 said that Gotta Sweep's greatest life achievement was cleaning the whole cafeteria floor until it was spotless in three minutes and eight seconds, one day after a food fight.[7]
The Libman company is aware that Gotta Sweep's design is one of their brooms.[8]
Baldi's Basics Plus
If any character goes behind Gotta Sweep in his closet while he is inactive, they can actually be slowed or stopped so the player can have time to walk past NPCs.
Gotta Sweep's appearance in the farm field trip prior to V0.3 vaguely resembles a combine harvester.
If Gotta Sweep is pushed by a BSODA, he can slightly clip through the wall in other locations, slowing down characters that pass by him.
Gotta Sweep can immediately spawn in his closet even if the player is standing right on his spawning spot. The same goes for Dr. Reflex.
Prior to V0.3.5, there was a grammatical error in his description in the Principal's office. (open instead of opens)
Baldi's Basics Classic/Birthday Bash
Gotta Sweep was a bit louder than his voicelines from Baldi's Basics Plus.
Baldi's Basics Classic
Gotta Sweep's gender is stated to be male in a quote in the tape recorder in the earliest version.
However, it is confirmed that Gotta Sweep has a gender according to the V0.1.2 update log of Baldi's Basics Plus. Though, there is no in-game description about his gender like Chalkles.
Before V1.4, Gotta Sweep's sprite was slightly different, with his bristles colored green and lighter-gray. Despite his redesign for the said update, his profile image in the Principal's office was left unchanged before V1.4.1.
The Libman Precision Angle Broom, used for the original sprite for Gotta Sweep.
When asked about Gotta Sweep's redesigned sprite, mystman12 replied that it was tweaked in order to avoid considering Gotta Sweep a carbon copy of the Libman Precision Angle Broom,[9] hence the colors do not match the real-life broom's bristles.
An unrecorded playtesting session by NintendoNaut exists, in which Gotta Sweep swept the majority of the characters, leading to NintendoNaut getting cornered by almost every character at once.[10]
Glitches
Baldi's Basics Plus
Gotta Sweep's spawning spot in the Grapple Challenge in V0.3.3.
In the Grapple Challenge in V0.3.3, Gotta Sweep spawned in a hallway far away from his closet.
Prior to V0.4, Gotta Sweep often stopped in place and did not return to his closet.
Baldi's Basics Classic/Birthday Bash
If both 1st Prize and Gotta Sweep push the player at the same time, Gotta Sweep will get stuck inside 1st Prize. The only known way to fix this glitch is to exit the game or get caught by Baldi.
Gotta Sweep's hitbox is so large that he can sweep the player even if there is a thin wall in between them. This can most easily be seen in the back of the Principal's office.
Gotta Sweep can occasionally get stuck in corners if he is sweeping other characters.
Gotta Sweep was a bit louder than his voicelines from Baldi's Basics Plus.
Baldi's Basics Full Game Early Demo
In V1.0, reaching the third elevator while swept by Gotta Sweep would drastically slow the player down, making them vulnerable to Baldi. It happened because Gotta Sweep gave the player the slowdown effect while sweeping, but even after Gotta Sweep disappeared, the effect wasn't gone.[11]
Plays when Gotta Sweep leaves his closet. WARNING: LOUD!
Gotta, sweep sweep sweep!
Plays when the player touches Gotta Sweep, or when Gotta Sweep pushes any character (except for It's a Bully and Chalkles). WARNING: LOUD!
Baldi's Basics Classic/Birthday Bash
Quote
Transcript
Description
Looks like it's sweepin' time!
Plays when Gotta Sweep leaves his closet. WARNING: LOUD!
Gotta, sweep sweep sweep!
Plays when the player touches Gotta Sweep, or when Gotta Sweep pushes any character (except for It's a Bully). WARNING: LOUD!
Baldi's Basics Birthday Bash
Quote
Transcript
Description
Surprise!
Plays when the player reaches the exit door in the cafeteria after collecting 7 notebooks in Baldi's Basics Birthday Bash. WARNING: LOUD!
Baldi's Basics Classic Remastered
Quote
Caption
Description
Surprise!
Plays when the player reaches the exit door in the cafeteria after collecting 7 notebooks in Party Style. WARNING: LOUD!
Quote
Quote
Caption
Description
GOTTA REAP, REAP, REAP!!! (unused caption)
Played when Gotta Sweep spawned in the farm field trip prior to V0.3. WARNING: LOUD!
Sound
Sound
Caption
Description
N/A
Gotta Sweep's motor loop as the "Reaper" when reaping the corns in the farm field trip prior to V0.3. WARNING: LOUD!
BUZZ
Played when the corn was reaped prior to V0.3. The color of the caption was green instead of dark green because Baldi uses the same sound when catching the player. WARNING: LOUD!
↑"Man, the first time I-I heard Gotta Sweep goin', cause I had no idea what it was gonna sound like that I-I-I-I lost it, eh-makin' this game was so much fun, just like, lots of stuff I wasn't expecting to happen, but I just... loved the moment it happened." - Livestream archive 42:00-42:16
↑"When I was making Gotta Sweep, I was just like I can't do any more voices, so I'll just do the Joe voice." - Livestream archive 15:03-15:10
↑"When time is running out and you have no idea what art style to make the janitor. "I'll just make it a broom." #MetaGameJam" - mystman12. March 30, 2018. Twitter/X
↑"Gotta Sweep could have ended up being a very different character if I hadn't been so low on time! Before just going with the broom, I tried painting an actual janitor in Colors! 3D. I was trying to go for a PilotRedSun sort of style, but I ended up not liking what I came up with." - mystman12. March 30, 2019. Twitter/X
↑"I didn't want it to be a carbon copy of the Libman Precision Angle Broom, so I tweaked Gotta Sweep a bit." - mystman12. November 20, 2018. Twitter/X
↑"My brother was playing it earlier, and, he... it was the craziest thing, like, I've ever seen Gotta Sweep do. I'm pretty sure he had, like, every single character at once. And like, sadly I wasn't able to record it, but... it was incredible." - mystman12, Livestream archive 8:48-9:01
↑"All the NPCs except Baldi disappear when you reach the third exit, and I realized that if Gotta Sweep despawned while you were being swept it wouldn't get rid of the slowdown effect. I thought I had fixed this issue, but I guess not." - Basically Games' comment on Report bugs here! post
