Binding of Isaac: Fun Synergy and Item Guide

Many of the statistics and descriptions that will be shown here can be found on the Binding of Isaac Wiki. (I can't copy paste links into this description, but if you look up "Binding of Isaac Rebirth Wiki" you'll find it.) However, I will be including synergies and powerful combos you will want, and combos you should never take.

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Jotaro Kujo and Star Platinum (The Forgotten)

The Forgotten is one of the most fun characters to play with, because his functionality is so different from the rest. The Forgotten can take two forms. The Forgotten, his skeletal form, does not shoot tears. Instead, he swings a melee bone club in front of his body. He can charge this attack to throw out a “bonemerang” which will return to him after throwing. The club deals three times his damage, and when thrown, it deals one and a half times his damage. You can press the swap button to change to The Soul, a blue spirit that emerges from The Forgotten’s body. It has flight and spectral tears, but is chained to the Forgotten. Therefore, The Soul can only move a set distance around the Forgotten. The Forgotten does not disappear, and instead lowers his head and becomes lifeless. He cannot take damage in this form, and will block enemy shots. A good strategy is to keep The Forgotten’s body in between you and an enemy so they cannot shoot you.

The Forgotten and The Soul have one health bar. The Forgotten can only obtain Bone hearts, and The Soul can only have Soul and Black Hearts. Each form can have a maximum of 6 hearts, allowing both forms to have the normal total 12 when combined. The Forgotten cannot take Devil Deals, however The Soul can. If a Deal were to kill The Soul, you can quick swap to save your life. However, swapping back to The Soul is reasonably disabled until you can find a Soul Heart to give The Soul any kind of life. 

The Forgotten’s club will grab pickups and open chests. Mimics won’t deal damage if you open them this way. However, you cannot use this to open Stone Chests, Golden Chests, or Eternal Chests. Golden and Eternal Chests will still require a key. If an item can be moved but not picked up, the club will swat it away. You can launch placed bombs this way, or smack Troll bombs away.

As you can see, The Forgotten is very different from the other characters on the roster. He introduces many new functions to the game, and introduces a whole new playstyle. New synergies, new combinations, throw out everything you know because The Forgotten changes it all. Now go unlock this fool, and play one of the most busted runs you’ve ever had! Good luck on your future runs, and may the RNG Gods bless you. But most importantly, have fun! Now Go!

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Deal with the Deity

You may have encountered the odd room that appears when you beat a boss. You walk in, and items are presented, but instead of a cash price, there’s a couple hearts displayed. This is a deal with the Devil. Occasionally, instead of a deal, the miniboss Krampus will be inside the room. He behaves very similarly to The Fallen. He will shoot 3 blood shots, immediately followed by 4. They follow a pattern in which they fan out. He can also shoot 4 brimstone beams in the cardinal directions, and there is a chance they will rotate. After you defeat him, he will either drop Krampus’ head or A Lump Of Coal.

Uriel: If you manage to get an angel room instead of a Devil room, you can bomb the angel statue to fight either Uriel or Gabriel. Uriel will either shoot a spread of 5 blood tears at you, or will shoot a beam of light at you. This beam will either be 2 beams going forward in the diagonal directions, or it will be 1 travelling straight down. Uriel will always drop Key Piece 1.

Gabriel: Gabriel looks the same as Uriel, however he wears a red scarf. Gabriel will either shoot a ring of 12 blood tears around him, or shoot two beams of light diagonally downward. Gabriel also has the ability to summon Angelic Babies during the fight. Finally, Gabriel can shoot 4 light beams in the cardinal directions. Gabriel will always drop Key Piece 2.

I’m sorry this post is so short. I’m kinda running out of things to speak of, even though I could totally just reinstate what this blog was originally supposed to be: a synergy list. However, I haven’t played this game in a good amount of time, and I can’t totally remember the best synergies in the game. Maybe I should crack it out again to resurrect this blog. But for now, may the RNG Gods bless your runs, and may you have the best of luck. But most of all, Have Fun!!

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The Other 4 Deadly Sins

I’m honestly just going to get straight to the point here. Sorry about the lack of introduction.

Pride: Pride only has two attacks, and both are majorly telegraphed and very easy to interpret and spot. Before doing either attack, he will stand still and shake for a moment, allowing you to move away from him. His first attack is quite difficult to avoid. He spawns 4 troll bombs, quite similarly to the Curse of the Tower item or the Tower tarot card. His troll bombs will not injure him, making him much more difficult than Wrath. In order to avoid this, space yourself and shoot tears at the bombs to move them away from you. His other attack consists of a x-shaped static attack. (Or at least, the wavy lasers he fires look like static.) Again, this move is telegraphed greatly, so just move out of the way when you see him shake. 

Lust: Lust only has one attack: move fast and hit you. High speed will allow you to tackle this battle easily. However, if you don’t have very high speed, you’re going to have to treat this battle like a bullfight. You’re going to have to allow Lust to charge at you, and juke her out at the last second. Alternatively, flight and spectral tears can let you hover over a rock and damage her while staying in a safe location. (If there is a pit in the floor and you have flight, you won’t need spectral tears.)

Greed: Greed is the most boss-like out of the 7 sins. He will walk around the room in lines, and very suddenly shoot three blood tears in a cone formation at Isaac. The formation of the tears is very similar to how a Host would shoot. Occasionally, he will spawn 2 Hoppers. This battle is mainly manageable by treating Greed like a normal monster. Dodge his bullets and dodge the bullets from any Hoppers that he spawns. If you’re hit by any of Greed’s direct attacks, you will lose 2-4 coins, and drop 1-3 pennies on the floor.

Sloth: When you enter Sloth’s room, he is often seen with two Splashers next to him. Sloth behaves similarly to a Gurgle, shooting ipecac shots at Isaac. Occasionally, he will spawn a Charger. These chargers have a different behavior pattern than normal Chargers at first, however. They start off by charging in the direction that Sloth is facing, and after they hit an obstacle, they become normal chargers. Keep moving in this battle, and you shouldn’t take any damage. Don’t allow yourself to get cornered.

I hate them, but I love them. Next time I’m going to cover the Angel and Devil Room mini-bosses. I should be able to cover all three in one post. As of now, however, good luck on your runs. May the RNG Gods bless you. But most importantly, HAVE FUN!!

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The 7 Deadly Sins

I’ve realized that I really enjoy talking about boss patterns, but I was having a hard time deciding on one single boss to speak of. Therefore, I’m going to cover the mini-bosses, the 7 deadly sins.

Envy: This boss is quite easy to tackle, with a simple pattern that is quite manageable. The boss moves diagonally around the room, quite slowly. When it hits a wall, it bounces off of it and continues to travel. (Kinda like the DVD logo when you leave your DVD player idle for too long.) When Envy’s health bar is depleted, he is instead replaced by two smaller Envy heads that have less health but move faster. These heads split also, etc. for four stages. Body envy, large envy, medium envy, small envy. After that, the heads don’t split anymore, they just die. Focus on one envy at a time, so you don’t become overwhelmed by a sheer amount of heads. Envy drops either a troll bomb or a Shoop Da Whoop!

Gluttony: Gluttony wanders around the room, occasionally dipping and shooting eight blood shots in the cardinal and diagonal directions. However, if Isaac is standing vertically or horizontally to Gluttony, Gluttony will shoot a brimstone beam in a manner similar to that of a vis. When Gluttony is killed, they will drop red hearts, <3, or Bucket of Lard.

Wrath: Wrath wanders randomly, but in Isaac’s general direction. He fires live bombs at Isaac, which can also damage him. It can be quite difficult to dodge his bombs, due to the restrictions of the layout of his room. It’s often laid out similarly to that of a bomberman level. When Wrath is defeated, he will drop bombs, or the item Mr. Boom.

This is only half of the 7 Deadly sins (you probably knew this, especially if you can count.) Next week, I’ll cover the other four. They’re all quite easy to defeat, I’d just like to impart some kind of wisdom upon you. Thank you for reading, and good luck on your runs! May the RNG Gods bless you! But most importantly, have fun!

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Hatred Incarnate: The Bloat

Welcome back! Today I’m going to talk a little bit about the actual worst boss in this entire game, the Bloat. Many, MANY people hate this enemy, and in fact, there’s a whole subreddit dedicated to telling stories of runs foiled by the Bloat. Please pardon my language, but if you want to find this subreddit you can find it at r/fuckbloat. Essentially that whole branch of the site is just people ranting and cursing the bloat. However, if you haven’t fought this absolute piece of shhhh, you may not know why these people and I hate this monster so much.

[The Vs. Screen for Azazel and The Bloat]

The Bloat is a harder version of the boss Peep. Not only that, he’s also the, how do I put this, deader version. While Peep loses his eyes throughout the fight, the Bloat starts the fight with both eyes detached. Instead of leaving a puddle of yellow creep, Bloat leaves a deadly trail of red creep. He has all of Peep’s attacks, but the most annoying, and most hated, is exclusive to Bloat. He can shoot two Brimstone beams directly in front of him, or directly to the side. This doesn’t seem so bad, however this attack is not telegraphed at all. The Bloat reacts almost instantaneously, and the attack happens almost instantaneously, so it’s very difficult to avoid. Since it hits on his sides and his front, the only real safe space from him is behind him. However, if he warp jumps to you, it may prove impossible to stay behind him for the whole battle. If he does end up against the back wall, try to stay out of the way of his downward facing brimstone blast. Stay near the bottom of the room, in the hopes that he will warp hop to you, allowing you to return to the safe place behind him. Repeat this pattern, and hopefully this hellspawn can be sent back to where he came from.

That’s really all I have for you today. I might cover more bosses next week, it’s really fun to analyze their patterns and how best to beat them. Hopefully the Bloat doesn’t end any of your runs after this, and hopefully you can gain the proper items to easily defeat him. For now, though, I wish you luck on all your runs. May the RNG gods bless you, good luck, and have fun!

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Two Broken Combos

I feel as though recently I’ve been straying from the original meaning of this blog, to give broken combos to people who are starting Isaac. I’ve assembled two separate ones, including a couple variations to cover more situations. (You can combine the variations to become incredibly powerful, and overall this will carry you to the end of the game. 

Infinite Health: Pyromaniac + Kamikaze. Pyromaniac is considered a special item. It will heal red hearts whenever you are hit with explosive damage. It even works if Isaac is the person dealing the explosive damage. This item alone makes the Mom boss fight incredibly easy, as you only have to worry about the weak enemies that Mom spawns. Kamikaze is an active item that will create an explosion around Isaac, dealing explosive damage to him and anybody else caught in the blast. If you also have the item Mr. Mega, your Kamikaze item will deal a lot more damage to nearby enemies. If you have both of these, you can heal at any time by hitting the active item button. Not only that, but it also deals a substantial amount of damage to nearby enemies. This can allow for infinite healing in between rooms, and if you get the chance, you can even heal in an active room. Alternatively, instead of Kamikaze, you could get the item “Curse of the Tower”, which spawns six Troll Bombs around the room whenever you take damage. In an active room, you can use your enemies to damage you, have the bombs drop and kill them, and use the blast from the bombs to heal. I don’t believe Mr. Mega synergizes with the troll bombs from the curse, so it isn’t necessary to break the game. However, other bomb upgrades do work, such as sad bombs, glitter bombs, scatter bombs, and bomber boy. If I’m playing a meme hack run, I like to give myself all of these items and hurt myself to clear a room instantly.

Passive Kill: Gnawed Leaf + Almost any Familiar. Gnawed Leaf is a passive item that turns item to stone after he stands still for one second. If you have orbital familiars or chasing familiars, you’re basically set. Familiars such as Daddy Long Legs and Smart Fly will deal incredible damage to any enemies in the room, allowing for rooms and even bosses to be cleared without even moving. If you somehow manage to gain a combination of three familiars and gnawed leaf, you can clear rooms incredibly quickly. The three familiars that you want include Daddy Long Legs, Smart Fly, and Sacrificial Dagger. If you somehow manage to get the item BFFS! you will most likely not even need to take advantage of Gnawed Leaf. If you also have the active item Dull Razor, you should activate it at the beginning of the room, allowing you to use Smart Fly without taking damage. The only thing that you need if you have all of these items is patience. Even enemies like Mom’s Hand won’t have any effect on you. The only thing that effects you in statue form is Little Horn’s Pitfalls, but in statue form they won’t deal any damage to you. 

As you can see, there are two incredibly good synergies that can absolutely carry you through a run. They both render you practically invincible, with certain things dealing damage to enemies in lieu of tears. Here’s hoping you get these items on a run. That’s all for this week, but I’ll be right back next week to give you more from the basement. I wish you the best of luck, and may the RNG Gods bless you! Most importantly, Have Fun!

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Oof, Am I Actually Going To Do Mega Satan Lore?

I have seen absolutely NOTHING about Mega Satan when it comes to lore. I looked it up and researched and it seems the community is more interested in complaining about Delirium’s gameplay than trying to figure out how Mega Satan fits into the lore. I’ve seen one (1) suggestion as to how Mega Satan fits into a run, but not the lore. Reddit user u/Handsome_Claptrap states that Satan uses Devil deals to ensure that Isaac cannot reach him. If you take a devil deal item, the Angel room will not appear to give you the chance to get the key pieces. Although without the Angel rooms you can still kill Satan, his true form is still safe if you succumb to the temptation of power. You may think the price of a devil deal is your hearts, but the true price is losing the chance to end Mega Satan.

[Oh wow I can’t make that bigger sorry}

So now that Mega Satan is out of the way, let’s talk about the Void! Yay, something that people actually talk about! The Void is the true final floor of the game. Every room is different, resembling a different floor from a different chapter. The Void is the only floor that has multiple boss rooms. Not mini-boss rooms, just bosses. The reason for this is because the final boss becomes more powerful the more bosses you encounter in your run. Delirium, the final boss, has an amazing ability. It will transform into other bosses that you encounter during the run, and teleport around the room, rapidly transforming into bosses. When you die, you unlock the Final Ending, which sheds light on many questions about the game. Isaac’s father leaves, and his mother is in shambles. Isaac blames himself for it, and considers himself to be a devil for making his father leave. He realizes that God was right when He told his mother to kill Isaac, and since it was foiled last time, he needs to do it himself. So he locks himself in his toy chest. He suffocates, dies, and rots in the chest. His mother believes he is lost, she puts up posters for him. However, after a period of time, she decides to look into the chest to see him, his skeleton on the bottom of the chest. The ending flicks out to the lost poster falling off the post. We see Isaac wandering a desolate wasteland, either purgatory or limbo. Reddit user u/zooksman believes it’s Purgatory, and God sends Isaac there to be tormented by demons until his sins are paid off. I think that description is quite interesting. Isaac is dead. He’s killed himself, rid the world of the horrible demon that is Isaac. And Isaac’s story is over.

Thanks for reading my absolutely horrible posts, I hate the way that I phrase this. I currently feel illiterate. However, we’re okay. That’s all for this week, and honestly? I don’t know what I’m going to do for my next post. However, I wish you all luck on your runs, and may the RNG gods bless you with good items. Have Fun!

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Lore! Sheol Edition

In Hebrew, Sheol is translated as place of the dead. Edmund Mcmillen loves keeping attention to detail, and in fact the stage Sheol consists of many references to previous explanations of how hell and Satan functions. If you didn’t know, the final boss in Sheol is Satan himself.

[All except for the title card would be present in-game.]

When fighting Satan, the boss room looks very similar to that of a Devil Deal Room. This could imply that every time you took a Devil Deal, you were being transported directly to Sheol to interact with the Devil. Now, I read something recently about Devil Deals. It stated  that the Devil Deals are a way Satan protects himself from Isaac. He offers Isaac power, at a very high price, but in doing so makes it impossible for Isaac to gain an Angel Deal. Angel Deals are one of the only ways to unlock the Door to Mega Satan. I know I said in the previous post that I didn’t want to talk about Mega Satan, but my head was really hurting then and I just wanted to stop typing. In fact, I may go back and edit the Cathedral post to make more sense. I don’t know if I will add pictures, but I will definitely attempt to make it more understandable. Satan is hard to put a finger on when it comes to what he represents. I’ve read reports that he represents a fight against evil, he represents that people aren’t evil at birth. He represents the ideas that a person makes their own choices, and in this case the choice acted upon is to defeat evil. After you defeat Satan 5 times, you are allowed to enter the Dark Room. The final boss of the Dark Room is the Lamb. It may seem confusing as to why Isaac would fight the Devil, and then immediately fight the Lamb. If you don’t understand why it’s confusing, Jesus is often called by the nickname “The Lamb.” However, the Lamb presented in this game is brutally violent and evil.

[Screen presented right before The Lamb fight.]

Now, if you think too much in the present, it may be hard to realize why The Lamb is evil in this game. However, if you think backwards in the lore a little bit, you remember that all of this happens in Isaac’s imagination. Now, why would Isaac think that Jesus is an evil entity? The Game Theorists, a group on Youtube made a theory (but that’s JUST A THEORY) a long time ago about the lore of Isaac. In fact, many of the things that they predict in their Isaac video turn out to be true; and quite obviously true. But in this video, they mention that The Lamb is evil because Isaac believes God told his mother to kill him. And a deity that would order a woman to kill her child must be evil

Thank you for reading my blog. I know the quality of my posts has been dropping recently, and it’s because I’ve become absolutely swamped with work. However, a couple large projects have finally been lifted off of my shoulders and I have a lot more time to put some actual effort into these posts. (Please don’t roast me if they’re still bad.) As of now, good luck on all your runs, and may the RNG gods bless you!

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Even! More! Lore!

We just covered Hush, and because of the incredible amount of lore in this game, we aren’t even close to being done. After you defeat It Lives, (or Hush, if you get the opportunity,) you are presented a choice. You can either jump down another trapdoor and enter Sheol, or you can enter a beam of light to go to the Cathedral. After the Cathedral, you go to the Chest, which, up until Afterbirth plus, was the final chapter. The final boss of the Cathedral is Isaac, which personally I believe is symbolic of Isaac killing the form of himself that was holy. The form of himself that belongs in a Cathedral. After you kill Isaac, you get an ending where Isaac closes a book, (probably the Bible,) looks into a mirror, and sees himself become a demon. It’s obvious that at this point, Isaac starts to see himself as a demon. His gaze shifts over to his toy chest, and the ending, uhhh, ends. Now, at this point, we know that Isaac has died in the toy chest. We’ve seen Eden, the reincarnated version of Isaac emerge from it, and we’ve seen Isaac confront his suffocated body, ??? in the chest. In fact, after you beat the Cathedral five times, you are allowed access to the Chest. And the final boss there is ???. I don’t quite know how ??? can fit in as a boss. In fact, my head is starting to hurt right now, and I believe that if I think about it too much I might end up with a full scale headache. In fact, I think it would be a lot more healthy for me to just stop typing right now, and therefore that is exactly what I’m gonna do! Right now! In the next post I’ll talk about Sheol and the Dark Room, but I absolutely REFUSE to talk about Mega Satan! I don’t want to subject myself to that right now because I don’t have an opinion on Mega Satan at the moment. But as for now, I bid you adieu. May the RNG gods bless your runs, and good luck!

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Binding of Isaac Lore: Continued

Last week, I left you with a bit of a cliffhanger. I mentioned that unlocking Blue Baby gave access to the optional 4.5th chapter. It consists of one floor, which is modeled similarly to the Womb, however it is all completely blue. In future runs, the only way to gain access to this floor is by reaching and defeating Mom’s Heart within 30 minutes of starting the game. The floor consists of two treasure rooms, a shop, a main room with four golden chests, and a wall that can be opened, leading to the boss room.

[The main room in ???. Below the screen is the shop, through a locked door, and above the screen is a wall that moves to provide access to the Hush fight.]

The floor is officially called ???, but is often called the Blue Womb, and if you die here, Isaac’s Will describes it as “Some barren place”. It contains one of the most difficult bosses in the game, Hush. Now, I won’t go into detail on the specifics of the Hush fight, I’ll probably cover that in my next post. However, Hush is extremely powerful and should only be fought if you have lots of health, proficient dodging skills, excellent crowd control, and perhaps even some damage negaters.

Now, it has been argued over what exactly Hush is. The best argument that I have seen absolutely blew my mind the first time I read it, and made a very good deal of sense, especially when considering the rest of the lore. You can read this argument here. If you don’t want to read through the whole thing, essentially what it says is Hush is Isaac’s mental manifestation of his potential little sister, Maggy. In fact, Sister Maggy is a passive item, a familiar that follows you and shoots tears alongside you. GryphonLord, the person who made the above argument, says that Isaac was born via c-section, causing Mom’s uterus to become scarred. When Maggy was in the womb, Mom had a case of Placenta previa, which basically means the placenta covers where the baby should come out of. In some cases, the baby can become pushed up against the placenta, effectively suffocating the baby and causing it to die inside of the mother. This could represent why the floor is called Blue Womb, and why it appears as though Hush is pushing up through the floor. Gryphon goes on to explain that the fight itself is Maggy attempting to be born, and Isaac is trying to push her back so this can all be sorted out and she can be born normally. He’s trying to calm her. He’s telling her, “hush.” The first form of the fight could be referring to Isaac, as it’s very similar to the ??? fight in the Chest. (Yes, I’ll cover that soon.) Gryphon states, “ He's on the other side of the placenta, which means he was born.”  Isaac could also be wishing that he was not born, so Mom’s womb wouldn’t be scarred and Maggy could be born safely.

[Hush after she dies.]

That’s all the lore for today. As you can see, there’s a lot to go into about this storyline. We’re just starting to hit the good parts. Next post, I’ll either talk about strategies to take down Hush, or I’ll continue with the story, leading on to the Cathedral and Sheol. Good luck on your runs, and may the RNG gods bless you.

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Lore

I could go on for HOURS about the amazing, deep, and sometimes scary lore in this game. In my first post, I talked about the starting concept provided by the bootup video. It’s pretty similar to the original biblical story of Binding of Isaac. Y’know, Abraham is told by God to kill his son to prove his love, and Isaac is saved last minute by an angel who tells Abraham to kill a ram instead of Isaac. This parallels quite well with the story of our game, Mom is told to kill Isaac to prove her love, and instead of being spared, Isaac jumps into his basement. However, your first playthrough, after three chapters, (and defeating Mom) you unlock your first ending, which is drawn by Isaac. It speaks cryptically, saying Isaac is cornered, and that last minute, “God intervened, sending an angel down from above to stop his mother’s hand. And just like that, it was over.” Now, in the animation, “the angel” is a Bible on a bookshelf, which falls over and knocks Isaac’s mother unconscious.

[The Save File screen presented after you kill Mom for the first time.]

This is where the story gets weird. After you kill Mom, you unlock a new chapter, the womb. The womb lasts two floors, and the final boss for the womb is “Mom’s Heart”. Nobody seems to know WHY Mom’s Heart is in her womb, but....it is. Don’t question it. So you defeat Mom’s Heart for the first time, and you get your first PROFESSIONALLY ANIMATED CUTSCENE!! Of course, by PRO - I’m sorry, I’ll stop. By professionally animated I really just mean “Actually aesthetically pleasing.” It depicts Isaac in the womb, (alive, present day, not a fetus,) and he’s staring at his toy chest. He climbs inside, and it closes, locking him inside. There are a few signs of struggle, before the movement ceases. Suddenly, it busts open with a holy light, and Isaac rises, glowing eyes and white hair that changes styles every second.

[Eden rising from the chest in the 1st ending]

Eden is unlocked as a new character at this point. (I’ll explain how he functions in a future post, him and the other characters really deserve a whole post for themselves.) Eden is one of the five characters in TBOI that is a dead incarnation of Isaac. After you defeat Mom’s Heart for the first time, no new chapters are unlocked. Instead, you have to go through nine more playthroughs with Mom’s Heart as the final boss. After each run, you unlock a new item: whichever item Isaac pulls out of his toy chest in the ending. On your tenth ending, Isaac opens the chest to see a dead, blue, suffocated child. You unlock ??? as a new character. (Many people refer to ??? as Blue Baby, and I will be referring to him that way in any future utterances.)

[Blue Baby in the 10th ending]

Unlocking Blue Baby allows potential access to the 4.5th chapter. As of right now, though, I’ll leave that for the next post. I’ve guided you through the lore of 4 chapters and 10 endings, and we’re only scratching the surface of what Edmund McMillen gives us. In the next post, we’ll dive a little deeper into Isaac’s “Basement” and Isaac’s lore. But for now, may the RNG Gods bless your runs. Good luck, and have fun!

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Everybody’s Least Favorite Challenge

Today I’d like to mention challenges. Essentially, challenges are runs where Isaac is given certain items, or the game is altered in a certain way, or both. Some challenges are quite easy, like Computer Savvy, as many enemies can be defeated quite easily. However, there is one challenge that enrages almost any Isaac player. It is well-regarded as the worst and most hated challenge in the game, and its name is Aprils Fool.

Aprils Fool does not give Isaac any special items from the start, and instead changes how the game functions drastically. This challenge still includes Treasure rooms and Shops, but the way they work is quite different. All items presented on a pedestal are different items than they appear to be, and all pickups give you a different pickup. For example, you may walk into a room and pick up Brimstone, but it gives you Mini Mush. You could also pick up a dime, and instead receive 10 bombs. Additionally, when you use activated items, cards, pills, or runes, they use the ability of a different item, card, etc. respectively. Cards and activated items have a chance to be very dangerous, as they could activate Suicide King or Plan C. The map is also scrambled, and the map will show the incorrect room, while still keeping the map intact. Now, this doesn’t all seem too bad. However, the big whopper is that every single boss has been changed to The Bloat. Now, if you have not come across The Bloat yet, you’re very lucky. Many Isaac players can agree that The Bloat is one of the most annoying and pesky bosses in the game. His most dangerous attacks are not telegraphed, meaning it is very difficult to avoid him. One of the only safe spaces is right behind him, but since he can high jump, it is possible to accidentally back yourself up to a wall, making it very difficult to fight him. He is a boss that is often found later in the game, meaning you have to deal with him way earlier than normal, on the first floor. This challenge’s difficulty mainly comes from potentially getting lost, and the sheer difficulty of the bloat. One of the best ways to complete this challenge is to take advantage of the randomness. You are going to want to rely on coins, hoping they give you golden hearts. You can take damage with the golden hearts to spawn more coins, hopefully giving more golden hearts in return. You could potentially use this trick in a sacrifice room, allowing you to only need to fight one bloat, the one in the dark room. However, there is no surefire way to beat this challenge, as each playthrough is too random. You’re just going to have to try your luck. And therefore, good luck. May your runs be plentiful, and exciting! Have fun!

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Game Breaking Combo

You may have found in-game pickups, either coins, bombs, keys, hearts, or batteries. You may have also found tarot cards, (and if you’ve unlocked them, runes.) The rune combo I’d like to talk about today is the combination of the activated item Blank Card, the rune Jera, and a single battery pickup. Essentially, what Jera does is it doubles all pickups in the room. Since a battery refills your activated item charge, you can gain infinite pickups if you play your cards/ runes right. After you run across a battery, activate your blank card. It will cause there to be two batteries on the floor. Run through four more rooms in order to charge your blank card again, and return to the room with the two batteries in it. Use your blank card again. You should now have four batteries sitting on the floor of the room. This is where the fun begins.

Pick up one of the batteries, refilling your blank card and leaving three batteries on the floor. Activate your blank card, causing three more batteries to appear for a total of 6 batteries. Continue to pick one up and reuse blank card as many times as you like. (Be careful when spawning many, as there are a set amount of slots that batteries can spawn in. They may overlap when they spawn, and when nudged, will spill out in any direction. If enough batteries exist, you may have a hard time walking through the room.) Once you’ve done this, you can find any pickup you may want to clone, and activate your blank card repeatedly, picking up batteries in between uses. Using this strategy, you can gain infinite money, infinite bombs, infinite coins, or even unlimited health. Jera also clones chests, so it can equal infinite items if you make it to the Chest floor. In fact, if you were to look up Blank card Jera online, you will see many Youtube videos of players absolutely breaking the game with a blank card Jera combination. Sadly, the biggest way to break the game takes place in the Chest, the final floor. Therefore, if you do break the game, you don’t get to have much fun with it. However, the short period of fun you have is well worth it, and incredibly fun and satisfying.

That’s all I have for you this week. I wish you only the best synergies and best runs. Good luck, and most importantly, have fun! Go take your next step in Isaac’s beautiful journey.

[isaacsynergiesanditems]

Special Items: The Best Ones

Special items are some of the most powerful items in the game. In fact, if you even see one of the items, you are less likely to see another one in the future. There are only 15 special items, and any of them has the potential to give you a winning run. The 15 items are as follows:

(The crossed out DLC symbol means that the way that the item functions was changed drastically in the Afterbirth DLC)

Although there are 15 special items in total, I’m going to be focusing on Brimstone for today.

Brimstone: Brimstone is an item that totally changes your attack. You no longer shoot tears, instead you spit out a powerful red beam that deals constant damage with unlimited range. However, your tears stat will still alter the charge rate of Brimstone. However, unlike other games, and even other items in thisgame, charging your attack does not raise the attack. Instead, you are not able to release the brimstone beam without fully charging it. So although it deals a major amount of damage, you are fully vulnerable while charging.

Brimstone Synergies: Brimstone is very powerful, and many items can combine with it to create super powerful synergies. The Common Cold and Dark Matter are two items that allow the beam to greatly increase the chance of applying a status effect to enemies. The Common Cold applies poison, dealing slow damage over time, and Dark Matter applies fear, which causes afflicted enemies to actively run away from you. Normally, it can be quite hard to have that special tear hit an enemy to apply the status effect, but with the constant damage output of the Brimstone beam, it’s a lot more likely for the effect to take, well, effect. Items like 20/20 allow you to shoot two brimstone beams, effectively doubling your damage. The items that give homing tears allow your brimstone beam to bend, hitting enemies that aren’t directly in front of you, allowing you to mow down any enemies in your path. However, although all of these synergies are very powerful, one of the most powerful synergies with Brimstone is Tammy’s head. Every room, you’re allowed to shoot 10 tears in a circle. However, if you have Brimstone, your “tears” is the beam, and moving slightly can wipe an entire room of enemies. Therefore, you can clear entire floors in under a minute. Assume you also have flight, and you don’t even need to stop moving, just constantly go to the next room while activating Tammy’s Head.

Brimstone is very powerful, and if you see it in a run, take it. As long as you play the rest of your cards well, and you don’t act stupid and cocky, you should be able to defeat whatever boss you’ve been stuck on. Many items will combine with Brimstone, making your run very powerful, and hopefully getting you one step closer to Isaac’s final journey. Good luck, and have fun!

[isaacsynergiesanditems]

Introduction

I’m assuming that if you are reading this blog, you probably already understand the story of the Binding of Isaac. Isaac is attacked by his very religious mother who believes God requires a sacrifice, Isaac finds a hidden trapdoor to the basement, and he must fight off monsters out to kill him using his tears. Yeah, it’s a pretty morbid story, but the gameplay is exceptionally difficult, and that’s why I love it.

There are two types of items: Active items and Passive items. Active items have a recharge meter, which recharges one slot every time a room is cleared. The amount of rooms it takes to use the item again depends on the item; some have longer charges and others can even be based off of a short time limit. Most of the time, the recharge meter is based on how powerful the active item is. In fact, some items have no recharge, and can be used as often as needed (sometimes requiring a different price to pay. For example, potato peeler can be used as often as needed, but it takes a heart of health away in exchange for 1 Cube of Meat, a passive item.) Active items can do anything, from spawning item pedestals to temporary stat changes to temporary special abilities to extra mobility to special attacks. There is a pickup, which I’ll talk about later, that can actually instacharge your active item.

[The three items shown above are Mystery gift, a one time use item, How to Jump, an infinite use item, and Delirious, a 12 room recharge item. 12 rooms is the maximum amount.]

Passive items: Passive items are pedestal items that affect the way your character functions constantly. It can raise your statistics, like health, fire rate, or damage, or it could give your tears special functions. It can also affect things such as shops or item and boss rooms, grant you familiars, who shoot separately from you, or even affect the way your familiars function. Essentially, if a function exists in the game, there’s probably a passive item that affects that function. An additional element is added to the game from this: synergies. Certain items work extremely well together, and others can screw you over so bad that you’re forced to die. An additional type of synergy also exists: transformations. Certain passive items (and occasionally active items) belong to a set. If a certain amount of items from a set are obtained, Isaac will gain a powerful transformation, changing his form, and granting many new passive abilities. For example, if you gain three items that relate to Isaac’s dead cat Guppy, you will gain the Guppy transformation, which spawns a blue fly for every tear you hit an enemy with. Transformations can also create powerful synergies; for example, getting Brimstone, a powerful damaging beam that deals constant damage, along with Guppy, you can release an incredible amount of blue flies at a constant rate. The official wiki states that there are 547 items, but there is an item that has ID 552.

[Polyphemus, the passive item that increases your damage immensely, but lowers your fire rate to the minimum.]

Binding of Isaac has many items, and it can be difficult to know and understand what each one does. Before booster pack #5 came out, releasing a new character and many related items, I knew what each item did and could identify it by seeing it on a pedestal. I know need to memorize quite a few more items, in order for me to help you have a winning run.