The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth

I haven't reached Mom's Heart yet... The previous fight was one of the plagues, I think it was.

Have I broked the game?

Erm... How did you reach Isaac? Curious.

Two levels of the Womb, and then into the Cathedral I think. I had quite a lot of attempts yesterday, so my memory is a little hazy. Loads of minibosses in the Cathedral, and little to no heart drops.

Ah, you would have fought Mom's Heart then - it's the boss of Womb II.

I deffo haven't beaten Mom's Heart. I've just YouTubed the fight.

Ah, I wonder how you made it to the Cathedral then... did you have any sort of level skipping item? Or did you find an Angel room on Womb II somehow?

Ah yes! I hit a warp in a curse room(?) I think they're curse rooms. Those red rooms with all the circular panels in the rug where something weird happens every time you hit one.

*Googles it*

They're not called curse rooms.

Ohhh, no, those are dice rooms! They're meant to be notches in a die. The more notches, the more things are randomised.

Ah right! In that case, I stepped into a dice room with an arseload of notches. Bumped into quite a few of those.

Do you fight Isaac even if you're playing as Isaac?

Yep. The "story" is incredibly open to interpretation, although one fan theory was highly praised by Edmund McMillen. I'll link you once you're further through.

I was hoping to get a bit further with it last night, but I was a zombie by the time I'd sat down. I'm only a few rooms away from Mom once again. I can reach Mom quite consistently now; I've found it's best to play this game in short spells.

Yippee! I beat Mom's Heart!

Absolutely trounced it because I had Laser Tears.

Superb! Laser Tears are a solid solid item. Keep trucking on - there's more to see...

I've had a string of crappy luck ever since then. I seem to have real difficulty getting, say, Isaac to power up sufficiently to be able to stand a fighting chance. So I've been sticking to Azazel for the time being. And I failed an Eden run.

Eden's very hit-or-miss. You either start with a really great pair of items or a shitty pair that you can't really recover from. He's interesting, at least. My favourite character is Judas - so much attack power from the offset and his starting item is so strong against bosses.

I'm gonna have to give Judas a go tonight, I think. I've somehow managed to overlook him up to now.

At least Judas has one heart to start with. My biggest beef with Azazel is the concern that you're not going to be dealt a HP increasing item at some point.

Your concerns about HP amuse me greatly, for reasons I won't spoil.

Actually, I'll say this - there's a character that you straight up will not unlock without looking it up. I'll let you know about it once I reckon you've progressed far enough through the game. I had to look it up - its unlock method is so so so esoteric and hidden that there's no shame in doing so.

Is your amusement something to do with a no-damage achievement I've possibly read about somewhere?

So just like the rest of the game then: unlocking said character is random, just about.

Ah, no, but those no-damage on certain floors achievements aren't as difficult as you'd think! Eventually, your skills will be decent enough that when you end up with a game-breaking item set you'll be murdering everything.

More or less, although it wasn't actually random. The creators did have the unlock method available in the game, it's just incredibly complex to find out how to unlock it. That'll have to wait though!

Oh right. I've got some of those no-damage achievements already. For some reason though I got it into my head there was one for no damage in a run at all. Which would be insane.

And although I'm still dying a lot, I am finding I'm zipping through floors very efficiently now...

Just absolutely destroyed Satan with Isaac. And I made it all the way to Sheol, with 12/12 hearts (so I now finally have Magdalene). I wound up with the bendy purple laser that fills the whole screen.

I now have Judas...

I love this stage of the game when you're really starting to kick ass.

Still a lot more to do...

As predicted, I've had a series of diabolically poor runs since then.

Losing all your excellent powerups/stat boosts for a new run can take the wind out of your sails somewhat. *sniff*

What's your favourite item you've had so far Stu? And what's been your most OP run yet?

That one yesterday was easily my most OP run: ten hearts + two soul hearts, three offensive familiars, bendy laser of death, high speed, and two shield-like flies circulating me. Oh, and I had an item that revealed every secret room on every floor, so I kept finding red rooms filled with hearts.

Favourite item so far is the bendy laser thing, but I also like the skyward foot that follows you round and crushes enemies. And understated things like the friendly spiders that snipe distant enemies. I found that I could sit back and watch other things do the work sometimes, almost.

Favourite power-up: The card that takes five rooms to charge, but awards you with an Eternal Heart when requested.

Favourite trinket: the flat penny that gives a 50/50 chance of summoning a key upon collecting any coin. Dead useful!