The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth

[Mew seeker]

The Habit isn't nearly as broken as it was in the past (it only seems to charge up one bar per hit instead of three), but it's still worth grabbing.

While the Habit is not as powerful, the way it works now make its synergy with items that only need one charge like Tammy's Head better.

Actually I saw someone play a challenge mode that went past the heart into the cathedral :V

My guess is that all the initial challenges go up to Mom. As you clear (and maybe unluck?) stuff, more of them will appear.

EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL

TAMMY'S HEAD OP, PLEASE NERF!

Anyone saw the Dark Bum item?

Spoiler:

It's like Bum Friend but instead the Dark Bum will grab hearts and trade them for Soul Heart.
A top tier item IMHO and and a must for Azazel.

[Bio]

Dark Bum

Spoiler:

also only drops the soul hearts when it is near you, so it can trade red hearts in unreachable areas and effectively ferry them to you

[Raikaria]

A must for Azaz? He can get HP Ups.

Blue Baby is where it's at.

[Garlyle]

He's a must for absolutely everyone, really. 

Spoiler:

Right now it doesn't seem to be chance based - it seems that every full heart worth of HP he collects becomes a spirit heart.

  It's ridiculous and borderline game breaking because it effectively means

Spoiler:

there's only spirit heart drops

.

[Suikama]

rofl one of the special seeds is KAPPA :V

[LaserTurtle]

Eve isn't as bad now! Whore of Babylon activates at 1 full heart instead of 1 half heart.

I'm wondering, does the Polaroid activate at 1 full heart too, now that we know this is the case? Well, I mean when a hit brings you down to 1 red heart, not just a red half heart.

Spoiler:

Also, just for fun, I want to know what all the horoscope signs do. So far I've seen:
Aquarius: tear trail
Virgo: Random protective shield on hit
Libra (my sign! sucks to be a useless item...): Balances stats
Scorpio: Poison tears

[Third Eye Lem]

Hmm, while we're on the subject of broken item combos...I just went full Guppy in a Normal Isaac run, I also collected

Spoiler:

Guppy's Collar

and The Ankh earlier and killed Mom's Heart. What makes this run interesting was that I was pretty much at one heart when I reached the Heart, but when I died...I came back to life. I dunno if Guppy has a 9 Lives effect too, but I kept coming back each time I died so...Go me.

I also started unlocking Runes after completing a few of the challenges, does anyone have an idea of what these do?

[Yookie]

Guppy's

Spoiler:

Collar seems to randomly resurrect you. I've had it bring me back to life twice once and another time not do anything at all. It also seems to resurrect you with 1/2 heart but doesn't take away your containers.

about the Zodiac signs:

Spoiler:

Aries: You can run into enemies to damage them. It's kinda like Unicorn Horn without the invincibility.
Taurus: takes away some of your movement speed but while "in combat" you ramp up speed for some time and then gain the Unicorn Horn effect. Don't know if it can happen more than once per room.
Gemini: Gives you a Gemini-familiar. Acts like a chain chomp.
Cancer: Gives you 3 Soul Hearts?
Leo: Slows you down but you can destroy objects by walking over them.
Sagittarius: Piercing Tears, Tears up
Capricorn = Halo
Pisces: Increases knockback on tears, maybe other effects ?

Since Shot Speed and Luck are now actual stats that are shown among the others, are they also affected by items that increase all stats? It never really looks like it from the pause screen but Luck especially increases really slowly so it's not all that clear.

[Shizumarashi Mayuzumi]

One more I've gotten out of the zodiac signs:

Spoiler:

Aquarius: you trail holy water

Also I ran into a weird room behind double locks that seemed to reshuffle all my items? I know I left with a Technology (not sure which one) and Spoon Bender I didn't have before that and lost a bunch of other passives (I was basically swimming in drops from a ton of doublers lol :V).

[Garlyle]

With regards to the zodiac signs,

Spoiler:

Are people sure Libra actually balances stats?  I forgot to check my stats the one time I saw it; but I did notice it actually gave me 6 of each consumable.

[Yookie]

It definitely does something to your stats.
I picked it up while I had Polyphemus and it pretty much removed the effect but afterwords I was faster, still had more damage than before Poly but no longer the low tear rate.

[LaserTurtle]

Also I ran into a weird room behind double locks that seemed to reshuffle all my items? I know I left with a Technology (not sure which one) and Spoon Bender I didn't have before that and lost a bunch of other passives (I was basically swimming in drops from a ton of doublers lol :V).

That room is really confusing. Sometimes I step on the die decoration, and nothing seems to happen (both times showing a 3-pip die), but one time, my entire item list was shuffled (with a 1-pip die). And this was in the Caves, so I had a LOT of items.

Tiny planet + soy milk is insane.

[Bio]

The die room does different effects depending on what number is showing.

Spoiler:

One and six reshuffle your items, three (I think) reshuffles pickups on the floor, and I haven't encountered the others first hand

Also Trinity Shield trivalises the boss fights

[FlamingRok]

First run of Rebirth, and I had defeated Mom. The thing that I regret the most though was the fact that the run had to stop there. Chocolate Milk, Monstro's Gut, Polyphemus, and one or two damage boosters just kinda breaks everything. Mom didn't stand a chance, it took all of one shot to finish her off.

Well, can't wait to attempt real runs later today. This game is like drugs.

[Raikaria]

Literally died one room from Mom's Heart.

The catch?

Somehow I made it that far without a single damage upgrade until Womb 1 [Cat of 9 Tails].

I Got Number One, followed by a Range Up, followed by ANOTHER Range Up, followed by 3 Dollar Bill, and then Mom's Perfume.

Number 1 with range, a chance to fear and whatever hilarious things 3 Dollar gives me? That was fun. Also I had Butt Bombs. It's like I had a 1,2,3 combo going!

[Mew seeker]

I started to clear some of the challenges.

The first one, Pitch Black was surprisingly hard as you have to

Spoiler:

go to Mom while Curse if Darkness is always on.
Curse of darkness apply a darkness effect, making sometime stuff hard to see.
more importantly, you can't see your HPs, something that messed me up a lot. X D

On top of that, you don't have access to shops. You might not think much of it but it means less upgrades availables and much more trouble to make good use of your money.
Challenge usually ban access to item room instead.
In the end, I had to get carried by

Spoiler:

Little Brimstone

to succeed. ^^;;;

Second ones was High Brow which is basically a challenge with

Spoiler:

Number One and a bunch of poop items and fart bombs

.

Third one is Head Trauma which basically make you a Touhou character.
For extra lolz, I got Cancer somewhere in there.  :V
You start with max tears and range but it's seems you can't raise your attack power in this challenge.
I don't know if it's a limitation of the items you start with or if it's something enforced by the challenge itself.

The Fifth Challenge is

Spoiler:

the Tank

which is unlocked

Spoiler:

by unlocking Maggie.
Said challenge give you an ultra defensive build and the ability to break rock by going through them.
The biggest issue is the lack of speed so get a speed upgrade asap. Otherwise, the challenge is not too hard.

The Sixth Challence is

Spoiler:

Solar System in which you fly and have a bunch of flies that accompagn you.
You can't shoot tears so you have to use flies and bombs to do the job.
On the other hand, all to regular flies you meet are transformed in friendly blue flies.

I wasn't able to beat that challenge yet due to it being quite different from the rest.
Also, this one requires you to beat Mom's Heart. @-@
I think I will come back to this one later. ^^;;;

The Tenth challenge is Cursed! which you need to unlock

Spoiler:

Maggie (and perhaps the Blue Map

as well) to access and for good reason :

Spoiler:

]the whole game is under the effect of Curse of Curse which put spike doors on... well about mostly every door.
To make up for this, you start with full map, Child heart and Yum Heart.
Are you able to make your way to mom in a single piece? : P
Will you choose to skip many treasure room and shops?
Also, while you can find Trinkets and Space Bar items, you might not be willing to trade them away. X D
That being sad, I traded Yum Heart for Guppy Paw which in the end gave me enough life to last that ordeal.
Pro tip : you might want to use some bombs to go through secret room, saving some life in the process.

The twelth challenge is When Life Give You Lemons. Basically, it's a Lemon Mishap (spelling?) challenge.
That item was buffed compared to the original version of the game so it's not that hard of a challenge, especially since you can spam it.
That being said, I met more flying enemies that I would have like to. X D

Some of the items unlocked by the challenges are

Spoiler:

unes

which are a "Q" item like Tarot cards.
I got to try 2 of those. One apparently

Spoiler:

have the Showel effect and the other seems to double all of the items on the ground.[

Spoiler:

[MatsuriSakuragi]

Just had two really good runs with Magdalene and Eden. Maybe I was lucky, but everything was trivial after a few floors.

Meanwhile I still have the worst time simply playing as Isaac. :v

[FlamingRok]

Currently have four challenges done: Head Trauma, The Tank, Cursed, and Computer Savvy. I found Computer Savvy incredibly enjoyable due to the fact that

Spoiler:

you had to manipulate the lasers to deal the most damage.

I nearly choked at the end, where I had two hearts as my max health, and I went down to half a heart. I barely won (as in Mom was about to crush me when she died).

For Cursed, I had went for the item rooms at first, and any mini-bosses along the way. Also made all the deals with the devil, because you really have the hearts to spare for the most part. Once I got a few good items, the rest of the run really was simple.

The other two aren't notable, though The Tank is possibly one of the slowest playthroughs you're going to have, and the only reason I beat Head Trauma is

Spoiler:

because I managed to find two damage up weapons inside the I AM ERROR room

.

In the normal game, defeated Satan recently. 5:2 ratio (five deaths total, two victories, though one against mom) is occurring, though I doubt I'll be lucky enough to keep it reasonable.

[Third Eye Lem]

Just had two really good runs with Magdalene and Eden. Maybe I was lucky, but everything was trivial after a few floors.

Meanwhile I still have the worst time simply playing as Isaac. :v

Yeah, Maggy's been really lucky for me for some reason, I dunno why. Then again, I can't complain when I have like eight hearts, a Converter and the Spirit of the Night.

A warning to all those who have the PS4 and Vita versions: The File Sync feature is bugged and you're advised to not use it until the update comes out (which should be tomorrow).

[Shizumarashi Mayuzumi]

Even if you can't unlock stuff off seeded runs I should start writing them down for especially hilarious ones. Still worth sharing the love.

Have a seed I got from someone else (only really hilarious with Azazel): ZBNN 3ZYP

OKAY THIS ONE'S ACTUALLY MINE (extra hilarious with Azazel but should be great on anyone): SQH7 MGMM

[MatsuriSakuragi]

Even if you can't unlock stuff off seeded runs I should start writing them down for especially hilarious ones. Still worth sharing the love.

Have a seed I got from someone else (only really hilarious with Azazel): ZBNN 3ZYP

OKAY THIS ONE'S ACTUALLY MINE (extra hilarious with Azazel but should be great on anyone): SQH7 MGMM

OH MY GOD I JUST DID THAT FIRST ONE THERE

That was fantastic ahahahahahah.

Spoiler:

Ludovico Technique'd Brimstone is probably the most broken, OP thing in the entire game. I beat Satan in literally seconds

[CF7]

Oh, man. Finally beat Mom for the first time on my 12th try. I expected hard with this being rogue-like and all, but... Or i just suck at this.

[Mew seeker]

Oh, man. Finally beat Mom for the first time on my 12th try. I expected hard with this being rogue-like and all, but... Or i just suck at this.

Well you know, not everyone start great. I mean, just look at this dude.

Oh, I was wondering, just for fun I was trying to enter random characters as seed but they failed. Is it normal? X D
I wonder if only some strings of text count as seeds or if I need to unlock more items to access them? X D

[Raikaria]

I saw on a stream someone with Monstero's Lung and Parasite and Quad Shot. He had a few other effects too but IDK what they were.

Quad Shot was arguably a downgrade because the fire rate was ungodly slow with it, whereas before it was actually pretty fast.

Still, it was a shotgun.

Also I tried some challenges. Almost did Pitch Black but died to Mom. Then I gave Head Trauma a few tries

Spoiler:

I got an Anarchist's Cookbook from Pride. Used it in the next room, and it revealed one of those Zelda Staircases. In a normal room. Considering only Fetus items, IPACAC, and Cookbook would reveal it in those senarioes... Coookbook is usefulish now?

Also in that room was a Loop Worm. This made my Tiny Planet shots just go insane and scatter over about half the screen in 4 smaller, very chaotic, rings.

===

> Plays Cain for the first time in Rebirth
> First item: PHD

IT'S LIKE OLD TIMES.

AND I BEAT MOM'S HEART

MVPs of the run were Cricket's Head [Which I only got because of a Golden Key], and the PHD which gave me a Full Health pill which I literally carried from Caves to the Heart. I honestly didn't get much else except HP ups, and even when I cleared bosses with 0 damage [Such as Monstero on Basement 2] I got no useful deals with the devil.

Picked up an early Guppy's Paw which did nothing except get re-rolled by a 4 Dice Room into Rainbow Baby :V

[LaserTurtle]

Man, one of the worst rebalances is that

Spoiler:

Cain can get bad pills

. I'm used to taking any and all pills immediately.

[Raikaria]

Man, one of the worst rebalances is that

Spoiler:

Cain can get bad pills

. I'm used to taking any and all pills immediately.

That's because Luck Foot actually effects the Luck Stat which does something now. Cain gets more consumables dropping, and gets better payouts on gambleing [Well he did before]. I actually got a 2nd luck up item during my run and it was insane. I was literally swimming in keys, money and bombs.

Although aforementioned run I had which instantly gave me PHD on Cain. That was funny. And my first ever Heart kill.

Speaking of Pills I'm sure Pill mechanics have changed. Pill pools seem FAR larger now and I swear sometimes two pills which look the same have different powers, or a pill will have the same effect on 2 coulors. [I've seen 2 different I've Seen Everythings in one run, and unless Amnesia is the negative form of it, which it might be...]

[LaserTurtle]

Speaking of Pills I'm sure Pill mechanics have changed. Pill pools seem FAR larger now and I swear sometimes two pills which look the same have different powers, or a pill will have the same effect on 2 coulors. [I've seen 2 different I've Seen Everythings in one run, and unless Amnesia is the negative form of it, which it might be...]

There are just a lot more types of pills. One confusing pair is color/white compared to color/speckled.
I've Seen Everything just opens up secret rooms for that floor. Very handy, but it's not exactly comparable to Amnesia's bad effect. I though PhD only identified pills and didn't invert bad effects, anyway.

One pill I found was surprisingly useful was Lemon Party. It covers nearly the entirety of a normal room and it's great for bosses.

[Third Eye Lem]

My turn for an amusing seed, this one I got with Samson: 21T6 MFQS

The first several floors with fine, it seems that Samson's Blood Lust item lasts for the entire floor instead of just one room. I steadily upped my attack and tears (thanks to a lucky PHD), then I got to the Womb...I stepped on the dice panel there and got

Spoiler:

chargeable, flaming, bouncing tears, plus a familiar that fired brimstone lasers. Oh, and both the bomb fly and bob's brain familiars. XD This plus Holy Shield and The Relic made me pretty much unstoppable. The only sad thing is that neither an Angel nor Devil room spawned, so no Satan/Isaac kill for Samson yet. :V

[FlamingRok]

I really wish I actually got the seed I had, because I found out that if you're Azazel and you get Quad Shot, you've won already. No, you don't get four lasers coming from all directions of you. All four lasers are just stacked ontop of each other. The entire run (including the boss rush and Mom's Heart) took under twenty minutes. No deals with the devil were struck, and only two items that power up your strength were gotten. When you stop caring about damage, then you know what it's like to be Azazel.

[Shizumarashi Mayuzumi]

No, you don't get four lasers coming from all directions of you.

That one does exist though;

Spoiler:

Loki's Horns

. Looks fun as hell.