If you want to find a specific item, word or phrase, use the Control+F function!
You'll be able to find everything!

This is a comprehensive guide to the Binding of Isaac. This guide will not differentiate or specify between the vanilla game and Wrath of the Lamb add-on. This guide will contain information about everything in the game. Ranging from base knowledge to item descriptions.
If you see any kind of mistake, be it information, sentence structure or grammar, please leave a comment below. It'll be fixed as soon as I can!
This guide contains information based heavily on my own experience and knowledge, with some data taken from the Binding of Isaac wiki. See credits for more information on that.

Note
If an image doesn't load, it's Steam's fault for being Steam. I can't really help that, sorry!

Movement
You can use WASD to move in any of the standard four directions.

Firing
You can use the Arrow keys to fire in any of the same, four directions.
You can also use the mouse, clicking in any general direction from where your character is, will result in them firing in that direction.

Item usage
Bombs: You can place a bomb by pressing E or Shift.
Spacebar items: These are activated with spacebar, obviously.
Extras: Not shown in the picture, Tarot and/or Playing cards, and pills, are used with Q.

You will need a program called JoyToKey.
Have a look in this thread for more information on setting up your controller, after getting that program.

Here's a quick overview of what to find in this guide.

• Environments
  Different environmental hazards, such as rocks and fires, will be explained here.
  
  
• Pickups
  The different consumable items, and chests, will be explained here. Includes a list of tarot cards and trinkets.
  
  
• Characters
  A quick overview of the different characters, namely, their differences.
  
  
• Rules
  The rules of different floors, rooms, how the map works and what curses do.
  
  
• Rooms
  A detailed explanation on the different rooms, starting with the Arcade Room and what gambling is. After that, in order, the Self-Sacrifice and Curse Room, the Treasure Room, Library and Shop, the Secret and Super Secret Room, the Challenge and Boss Challenge Room, the I am Error Room, and the Devil and Angel Room.
  
  
• Item Pools
  A very brief explanation on Item Pools.
  
  
• Items
  A list of every item in the game, accompanied by a small picture. Every item is listed in their respective pool, and alphabetized.
  
  
• Bestiary (Common enemies)
  A look at the different common enemies in the game. Enemies that fit together, such as the different flies, are grouped together, and every enemy is accompanied by a picture.
  
  
• Bestiary - (Super) Minibosses
  A look at the minibosses and their super versions, in alphabetical order, accompanied by a picture.
  
  
• Bestiary - Bosses
  An alphabetical list of every boss in the game, where to find them and how they attack. Every boss is accompanied by at least one picture. Some may have pictures of their Champion versions, too.
  
  
• Bestiary - Final Bosses
  A chronological list of every final boss in the game.
  
  
• Secrets
  A picture of all of the 98 Secret Screens in the game, with a quick explanation on what to do, to unlock it.
  
  
• Achievements
  A list of achievements with descriptions.
  
  
• Cheat Engine
  An explanation on how to set-up and use Cheat Engine, which is intended to be used to create your own challenge runs.

The first thing in this guide, except for the controls, will be the common environmental "hazards". Items / objects that you will commonly find on each and every run. They're not that hard to understand.

There are three types of rocks
There are normal (brown), tinted (blue) and unbreakable (black) rocks.
Here's a picture showing a tinted rock (left) with three normal ones, and four unbreakable ones on the right.


A rock functions as an obstacle, unless you have specific items, you yourself or your tears cannot go through or over them. They can be blown up with bombs, and tinted rocks will always yield some kind of treasure when doing so.

This particular tinted rock gave us a key and a bomb. Commonly, tinted rocks are known to give spirit hearts but other drops include keys, bombs and chests. Sometimes several of them combined.

It should be noted that rocks, except for unbreakable ones, in the Womb (and Utero) are always coloured red. This means you cannot tell the difference between standard and tinted ones.

Gaps (and Rocks)
Gaps, or holes, are very much like rocks. They're an obstacle that cannot be traversed without special items. You can however, shoot across them.

Luckily, rocks and gaps have a useful synergy.
By placing a bomb correctly, as shown in the images below, you can fill up a gap with a rock.


You can fill up any gap as long as a rock is adjacent to it, by placing a bomb to the opposite side of the gap. (See the images above)

Poop, next to rocks, might just be the most common object you'll find in the game.
There are four versions, standard, corned, golden and red poop.

Standard poop
Standard poop is the most common - and by far the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, it's comparable to a rock - You can't walk or shoot through it, but you can destroy it with your projectiles. When doing so, there's a slight chance of a pickup dropping from it.

Corned poop
Corned poop is the second most common and acts the same as its standard counterpart. The only addition is that of an Eternal Fly circling it. This white fly is immune to any attacks but can still damage you. Upon destroying the corned poop, the fly will turn into an Attack Fly and will target you like any other enemy.

Red poop
Very rare, but still more common than golden poop. Red poop is only spawned by one particular boss - the Carrion Queen - and can only be found on one floor in the game, the Chest.
You take one hit of damage upon touching it, and it will regenate itself infinitely until the room is cleared. Red poop does not drop any pickups.

Golden poop
The rarest of 'em all. Golden poop is very durable, and upon destruction will spawn either a trinket (Counterfeit Penny) if it's unlocked, or a bunch of coins.
It should be noted that the game determines the spawning of a golden poop every time you enter a room, and that any corned poop (if left untouched) has a chance to turn into one. This means that, if you'd keep re-entering the same room where a corned poop is present, it might turn into gold after enough tries.

Fire is a lot like poop in this game. It's like a mixture of a standard and red poop. It can drop a pickup when extinguished, it damages on contact, and it doesn't allow you to move through it.
There are only two types of fire, standard (yellow) and red fire.
Red fire behaves the same as its yellow counterpart, except it'll often shoot a slow moving projectile at you, dealing one hit of damage.

Technically there are two types of spikes. Or rather, two pairs of two spikes.
The first pair is the stationary spike:
Pictured left is the common spike, and pictured in the middle is the crooked spike. If you walk over them, you take 1 heart of damage. Non-flying enemies take massive damage from spikes.


The second pair is the moving spike.
Blue ones will quickly slide towards you if you're in their line of sight. Gray ones (pictured above, right) will continuously slide around the room until all other enemies in it, are defeated. Then it'll disappear. If you get hit, you take 1 hit of damage

Seems legit.

It should be noted that moving spikes are considered enemies.

There are 5 different colours of creep. They're all produced by (certain) enemies.
Every colour of creep flickers (see .gif)

Damaging creep
The most important ones are the ones that directly harm you, for one hit of damage. These are the red, yellow and green creep. Red creep is more dangerous than green, because it blends in with blood. Apart from that, all three function the same.


Flickering red, yellow and green creep.

Slowing creep
The other two versions of creep are black and white, and both slow anything on it - Much like cobwebs - down.
White creep is more common, being produced by a few certain enemies while black creep is only produced by one boss.

Here will be the leftover environmental objects that are too small to warrant their own chapter

Cobwebs are fairly simply. They slow down anything above them, be it you, enemies or projectiles. They can be blown up with a bomb, but 100% of the time, this'll be a waste of either a bomb or your time.

TNT (or trinitrotoluene, if you want) barrels may randomly appear during your game. After taking enough damage, they'll explode, dealing the same amount of damage as a standard bomb would, but with a slightly bigger radius.

There are two versions of troll bombs, standard ones and super troll bombs.

Standard troll bombs cannot be pushed around with your tears (like normal bombs can), but you can knock them away by walking into them if you're fast enough. They'll explode a few seconds after being dropped.

Super troll bombs are larger and actively follow you around until they explode.
They both do a full heart of damage.

A Grimace looks like a circular rock or stone with an expresionless face carved in.
There are two versions, gray ones that shoot normal, red tears and green ones that shoot Ipecac shots (Which are green, arcing bombs). The green bombs can be used effectively to kill enemies in the room, but do a full heart of damage against you. The Grimaces look identical except for the colour.

A stone with a padlock in it. By paying a key you can get rid of it, allowing you to move onwards. This will always be optional, you will never need to get rid of one to progress.


From left to right, in the top row we can see cobwebs, TNT and a Troll bomb.
In the bottom row there's a Super Troll bomb, a Grimace (gray) and a lock.

Pickups - or consumables - are commonly found items that you'll need on each floor.
There's heart, bomb, key, pills, cards and trinkets.
After clearing a room, there's a reasonable chance of a pickup - or a chest - to drop in the middle.
Chests can also be found normally in rooms, and they'll often contain a few pickups each time.

Heart Containers

The Life Bar. Three heart containers are present, of which two are filled. Spirit hearts would show up behind the last heart container and Eternal hearts between them.

There was intended to be room for only 20 hearts in total, this is not the case however, as you can continue to collect more. They'll simply be "off the screen", so you won't see them.
There's currently a maximum amount of 12 heart containers. After that, you can only increase your health by picking up Spirit hearts.

Types of hearts
There are three types of hearts in the game, as pictured.

From left to right, a normal red heart, a Spirit heart and an Eternal heart.

Red hearts can only be picked up to refill your empty heart containers. They can appear as either a full heart, or a half-heart. Spirit hearts only exist as full hearts, and act as armour. If you take damage, that doesn't actively prioritize red hearts, blue ones are the first to go. They cannot be refilled and don't count as heart containers.

Eternal hearts are the rarest ones. They exist only as half-hearts, and will function as a red heart in priority, but a blue heart as usefulness when picked up. If you happen to find a second half, they'll combine and form one new heart container.
If you take one half down with you to the next floor, it will also change into a heart container.

Very common and used for a lot, there are 3 different version of coins.
Pennies, nickels and dimes. They're worth 1, 5 and 10 pennies, respectively.
Pennies are very common, nickels are rare and dimes even rarer

Coins can be either used in shops to purchase items or pickups, or to be gambled.


From left to right: A penny, a nickel and a dime.

Probably the most important pickup besides hearts, keys are used to open locked Shops, Treasure Rooms or Libraries, or golden chests.

There are three versions of keys, one of which is not a pickup but rather an item that grants you 99 keys in total. That's the silver Skeleton Key.

The two other keys are the common, silver key. And the pretty rare golden (skeleton) key. The latter will grant you infinite keys for the duration of the floor.


A normal key and a golden (skeleton) key. A silver skeleton key is identical, except for the colour.

Another common item you'll find while you play, bombs can be used to deal significant damage to enemies and bosses alike. They can also be used to destroy environmental hazards such as rocks, cobwebs or fires. Or to blow up things such as slot machines and fortune tellers.

Commonly a bomb drops as a single bomb, but a "1+1 free" double-bomb drop is not rare.

A normal, single bomb pickup in the Womb, surrounded by some rocks.

Troll bombs and super troll bombs are explained above, as I consider them to be hazards.

There are two types of cards, playing cards and tarot cards. Both can have either one of 5, or one of 21 different effect which is revealed on pick up.

Playing cards
Also known as Suit cards. There are 5 versions.



A playing card before being picked up, and after being revealed.


A tarot card before being picked up, and after being revealed.

Tarot cards
A little harder to figure out, these effects will require you to have a guide open to know what they do - Until you know them from memory.

There are 17 pill effects, 16 of which are in the game currently.
At the start of every run, only 6 effects are chosen to appear at all during the game.
These 6 will not change unless you pick up either the Luck Foot ot PHD, both of which will turn any negative pill into a positive. (Luck Down -> Luck Up)

Pill appearance
The colour and angle of a pill are completely random.
Upon picking up a pill, without owning the PHD, it will display "???". After using it, you'll learn its effect, which will then be displayed instead of the question marks, would you find it again.


This pill might be speed down now, and health up in the next run.

Pill effects

Trinkets are holdable items that have slight effects, but can change your play drastically. Most of them give you a chance to get something, such as the Bloody, Burnt or Counterfeit Penny, which give you a 50% to receive either a heart, bomb or coin pickup whenever you collect a coin,
Others increase your stats, such as the Goat Hoof or Curved Horn, which raise your speed and damage, respectively.

Here's a list of trinkets, their effect, and how to unlock them.

Just like actual pickups, chest have a chance of spawning after clearing a room. They can, of course, be found randomly in any room as well.

There are three types of chests. Regular, Golden and Red chests.

Regular Chest
A regular chest can contain one to three of the following pickups: - hearts, bombs, keys and coins. It can also contain either a single card, trinket, pill or another type of chest completely.

Golden Chest
These chests require a key to be opened. They have the chance to spawn up to 5 pickups, excluding coins. (There can be more coins than 5, or more coins + up to 5 other pickups).
There's also a chance it can contain a specific item, like the ones found in Treasure Rooms.

Red Chests
A less common chest, this one is primarily found in Curse Rooms.
A red chest can either pay out with something objectively great - any of the Guppy Items (including Dead Cat) or an instant teleport to the Devil or Angel Room.
Furthermore, it can contain up to two spirit hearts, three (friendly) attack flies or two pills as good pay-outs.
Bad pay-outs include two enemy spiders or two (or one super) troll bombs.











From left to right, a regular, golden and red chest.

Overview
Here's a quick overview of the characters and their statistical differences. The symbols are as follows: (Starting) health, damage, range, tears (fire rate) and movement speed.


Furthermore, every character has the base shot speed of 100%, except Samson who has 131%

Character's Starting Items

• Isaac starts with the Dice, once unlocked,
  
• Cain starts with the Luck(y) Foot,
  
• Judas starts with the Book of Belial,
  
• Maggy starts with the Yum Heart,
  
• Eve starts with the Dead Bird and Wh♥re of Babylon,
  
• Samson starts with Blood(y) Lust, and
  
• ??? starts with the Poop

Character's Unlock Requirements

• Isaac is unlocked immediatly, but to unlock the Dice you need to complete the Womb with ???,
  
• Cain is unlocked by collecting 55 pennies in one run,
  
• Judas is unlocked by completing the Womb once,
  
• Maggy is unlocked by collecting 7 or more heart containers in one run,
  
• Eve is unlocked by making two Deals with the Devil in one run,
  
• Samson is unlocked by beating Mom after skipping two Treasure Rooms, and
  
• ??? is unlocked by after beating the Womb for the 10th time.

This section will list the different possible floors and rooms that can appear, and what rules they have.

Floors
You will progress through one floor at a time. Every chapter consists of two floors, and every floor has multiple rooms.

The alternate version of a floor is considered to be harder than the standard version.




Rooms
Certain rooms have prerequisites to be filled, in order for them to appear.
*If it says, "See below", check out the individual room segments later on in this guide.

Chance of a Curse
There are a few curses possible in the game. You will be notified of them as you start the floor.
The chance of a curse happening is 1,25%, normally.
This chance is replaced depending on a few things.

• If you are on the Womb / Utero, the chance becomes 3,33%.
  
• If you have the Everything is Terrible! Achievement, the chance becomes 10%.
  
• If you have defeaten Isaac at least once, the chance becomes 20%.

Here's a list of possible curses:

Curse of Darkness
Will disable your map completely. Items such as the Treasure Map or Compass have no effect here.

Curse of the Labyrinth
This means you're on an XL Floor.
An XL floor is part I and II of that floor, combined. That means it'll also have two Boss Rooms and two Treasure Rooms, but also twice the amount of normal rooms.
An XL floor will continue to have only one Shop and Library / Curse Room / Self-Sacrfice Room / Challenge Room / Boss Challenge Room / Arcade, if appliable at all. (See "Rooms")

Curse of the Lost
The current floor becomes one "size" bigger.
Example: The Caves would become just as big as the Depths.

• The room you are currently in, is white,
  
• Without special items, you can only see rooms adjacent to rooms you've been in, on the map,
  
• These, unexplored and uncleared rooms are dark grey,
  
• The rooms you've cleared are light grey,
  
• The Treasure Map item shows all the rooms - all the squares.
  
• Because they'll be unexplored, the Treasure Map will show them as dark grey.
  
• The Compass item will show all the Room Symbols on the map, but not the squares.
  
• The Secret Room - which is also shown by the Treasure Map - will stay as a black square with a white question mark, regardless of having visited or even cleared it.
  
• The Super Secret Room - which is not shown by the Treasure Map - will also stay as a black square with a white question mark.

In this part of the guide, the rooms will be explained. We'll start of with the Arcade Room as it allows me to nicely explain the gambling aspect, too.

Gambling, what for?
If you ever stumble upon a Slot Machine, Fortune Teller or a Beggar, you can invest your money to gain pickups - Bombs, keys, cards, trinkets or more money!
Stocked up on everything? Worry not. There's always one grand pay-out available at these facilities.

A little bit about the Arcade Room
An Arcade Room can only spawn if you start a floor with 5 pennies or more. Note that this doesn't mean it will spawn, only that there's a chance. On a map, an Arcade Room is shown with a die.


It costs one penny to enter an Arcade.

The following can be found in Arcade Rooms:
Slot Machines, Fortune Tellers, Shell Games and Blood Donation Machines.

Slot Machines and Fortune Tellers

Left, a Slot Machine and right, a Fortune Teller.

Only one of these is present in any given Arcade. If you walk into one of them, you'll lose one coin and play the machine. In case of the Slot Machine, there's a 55% to win nothing. The Fortune Teller has a 60% chance to give nothing, in the form of a fortune.

The Slot Machine can pay-out with either one, or multiple combined pickups; hearts, bombs, keys, coins and pills. The two grand pay-outs include a Pretty Fly - which is an orbital - and the Dollar (which is basically 99 coins). Upon receiving the Dollar, the machine will self-destruct.
The two "bad" pay-outs, aside from nothing, include a harmless, black fly and selfdestruction.

The Fortune Teller, our Slot Machine's more sought-after brother, can give you trinkets, cards, and blue hearts. But only one of each, each time.
The grand pay-out includes the Fortune Teller selfdestructing, and leaving a Crystal Ball in its wake. The bad pay-out is the aforementioned selfdestruction, without a Crystal Ball.

The Blood Donation Machine

A working one and a broken one. The broken one paid out with an IV-bag.

The Blood Donation Machine will always pay out - You touch it and it'll take half a heart away in exchange for one to three coins. It'll always prioritize your red hearts and will only start taking your blue ones if you only have one half of a red heart left.
The grand pay-out of a Blood Bank (Which is what it's also known as), is the Blood Bag. Which is a speed and health upgrade. The "bad" pay-out is an IV-Bag.
The IV-Bag functions like a portable Blood Bank, allowing you to trade in excess hearts for money, anywhere.

It should be noted that, if any Blood Bank gave you an IV-Bag, any other Donation Machine will give you a Blood Bag if it pays out.

The Shell Game

Winning the Shell Game.

Shell Games are a lot like Slot Machines. They can pay out with either multiple hearts, bombs, keys or coins. Upon giving the little feller a coin, he'll promptly shove any of the aforementioned items under a skull and switch them around. Don't be alarmed - It's impossible to follow it with your eyes. Instead, there's always a 33% chance to win.
The grand pay-out of the Shell Game is the Skatole item. Better known as Fly Love or the Poop Helmet. It will turn any flies, save for the ones that explode, friendly: They won't damage you anymore.

The following is not found in Arcade Rooms

Beggars and Devil Beggars

Beggars look like the shopkeeper, holding a sign with the symbol of a coin on it. By giving them coins, there's a small chance of them dropping any pickup. Giving them enough money will result in them paying out. Usually, this is a health-upgrade or an item commonly found in Shops or Libraries.

Devil Beggars look like little demons, holding a sign with the symbol of half a red heart. It'd be clear you're paying them with your life. Less prone to paying out, these little dudes can give you trinkets. Their main pay-out, though, include the chance of receiving a Devil or Angel item.



Other methods of gambling include the Self-Sacrifice Room and the Curse Room. Which will be explained in their own section.

The next two ways to gamble, are two complete rooms on their own.

The Self-Sacrifice Room
This room has a standard chance of spawning. In the middle, there's a damaging spike - even if you have the ability to fly. By moving over the spike, you will take one heart of damage, and there'll be a slight chance of a chest - be it normal, golden or red - spawning.
A chest will always spawn if your health is reduced to half a heart via sacrificial means here.


The pay-out isn't really worth it, in my opinion.

The Curse Room
It's not really gambling, but it's a gamble to enter.
The Curse Room inflicts one hit of damage upon entry (and exit) and contains either one or two red chests. It can also contain a free Devil or Angel Room item, although this is very, very rare.


Inside of a Curse Room. That chest contained two spiders. Not a good gamble.

These three rooms, the Treasure Room, Library and Shop, will be your most sought-after places. They're the ones that reliably - with Shop as exception - give you an item.

Treasure Room
The Treasure room, except on either Basement I or Cellar I, is always locked and requires one key to open. Inside, you will find an item from the Treasure Pool (See: Item Pools). Any item you have found in a previous playthrough has a smaller chance of appearing.


The door to a Treasure Room. On the Basement / Cellar I, there's no keyhole.

Shop
In the Shop you may find a number of random pickups to buy. These can include any pickup. There will also, always, be either a passive or active item for sale.
The prices are as follows:

• 3 pennies for a regular, red heart. 2 pennies if it's discounted.
  
• 5 pennies for any other pickup, 3 if it's discounted.
  
• 15 pennies for an active or passive item. 7 if it's discounted.

The first three floors in the game, (Basement I + II, Caves I, Cellar I + II and Catacombs I) will always have a proper shop. Any shop after those floors has a high chance to spawn a miniboss - Greed or Super Greed - instead.


Inside a shop. A red price means it's a discounted item.

Library
A library has a small chance of appearing, only 5%. 25% upon holding any of the active Book items. It'll always contains two (usually different) books, from the Library Pool.


The Shop and the Library both have the same door, it costs a key to enter.

These rooms are always present on any given map, you only need to find them!
In order to find them, you must first understand the map.

Secret Room
This room is located 'between' rooms, and always adjacent to three or two.. It is possible that one, or several of the bordering rooms adjacent to a Secret Room is a special one - like a Shop or Treasure Room.


Do you see how the Secret Room, the ?, is adjacent to three rooms?


Inside, you will usually either find 3, 6 or 9 coins, a slot machine, an item from the Secret Pool or Greed - a miniboss.

In order to enter a Secret, or Super Secret, Room, you must place a bomb near the wall and blow it open.

Super Secret Room
Also known as the Top Secret Room, this room is adjacent to only one, regular, room.
It can contain a multitude of things, each with their own visual style.

• Cathedral-styled: The room will contain one half of an Eternal heart.
  
• Cellar-styled: The room will contain one random trinket.
  
• Library-styled: The room will contain one random Tarot card
  
• Necropolis-styled: The room will contain a Fortune Teller.
  
• Sheol-styled: The room will contain one or two red chests.
  
• Womb-styled: The room will contain 7 to 8 red heart pickups.

Challenge Rooms and Boss Challenge Rooms are very similar. Both have a specific requirement to be fulfilled in order to enter. A Challenge Room will only open if you have full health, whereas a Boss Challenge Room will only allow entry if you're down to one, single heart.

Challenge Room
Inside a Challenge Room there'll commonly be either a regular or golden chest. Upon opening these, the door will lock and you will have to fight three waves of enemies.
The lower down you are in the game, the harder these waves are.

It's possible for a Challenge Room to contain an item, too. Although this is rare.


Inside a Challenge Room we find an item! If I pick it up, the fight begins.

Boss Challenge Room
The three major differences between these two rooms, aside from the door's appearance, are:

• Boss Challenge Rooms will always contain an item.
  
• Boss Challenge Rooms will have two (and sometimes three) waves of easier bosses (such as Larry Jr.)
  
• Boss Challenge Rooms are a bit rarer than standard ones.
  
  
  
  Left is an unlocked door to a Challenge Room, and right the locked one to a Boss version.

The I am Error Room is the rarest room in the game. The only way to get there is to teleport using telepills. No other means of teleportation can get you in, and the only way out is to teleport, too.

In the I am Error Room you can find one of the following:

• A random, free, item and 8 random pills.
  
• A random, free, item and 4 unlocked golden chests.
  
• A random, free, item, 13 coins and 3 priced things. These things may be items or pickups.
  
• Two random, free items.
  
• Two priced items and 5 coins.

The room also contains a trapdoor to the next level. Considering you will usually be unable to leave this room without going down it, it's wise to always save telepills until you've done what you want on the current floor. That usually includes collecting the Boss Room / Treasure Room item and other room's loot, if appliable.


The I am Error Room.

Note: If encountered on the Womb II or Utero II, there will still only be a trapdoor to Sheol. This means you cannot access the Cathedral and by extension, the Chest.

Also, this room cannot be encountered in the Cathedral or Sheol, but can be found in the Chest. If you find this room in the Chest and you have no means to teleport out, you will be stuck.

The Devil Room, also referred to as the Deal with the Devil Room or one of the two Deity Rooms (the other one obviously being the Angel Room) is a very important and helpful room.

A Devil Room has a chance of spawning upon defeating the boss, without taking any red heart damage on the current floor. You don't need to clear the entire floor, just not take any damage to your red hearts in the Boss Room and any room before getting there.
Self-inflicted pain, such as Blood Donation Machines, does not count.

Inside the Devil Room you will find either a Deal with the Devil opportunity or a boss - Krampus.

Deals with the Devil are paid with either one or two red heart containers or three Spirit hearts. This means you lose them completely if you take the deal.


The Monster Manual for three Spirit hearts or the Razor Blade for one container? I'll pass.

If you happen to find Krampus in the Devil Room, the door will automatically lock and the fight starts. If you beat him, you will always gain the same reward. A passive item called Coal.

The Angel Room, also referred to as the God Room, Deal with the Angel Room and the other one of the two Deity Rooms, is a bit less common.

It has the exact same requirements - To not take any damage to your red hearts - plus you need to have turned down a Deal with the Devil opportunity before, in the same run.
Angel Rooms will always give you one, free item.


Inside the Angel Room we find the Dead Dove, a very good item.

An Item Pool decides which item is to be found, where.
For instance, you can only find Treasure Room Pool items in Treasure Rooms.

Here's an image containing all the different item pools. Source[lparchive.org]. Click to expand.



Items will only show up once per run, with the exception of a select few, if and only if you've picked them up. This is why you should always pick up spacebar items, regardless of if you want them or not. This will prevent them from reappearing later.

What happens if an Item Pool is empty?
The best way to explain this is the Library. There are only a few books in there. If you happen to have picked them all up before, the Library will have no items in its pool. When that happens, it will draw items from the Treasure Room.

If every single item in the game is depleted (Which shouldn't happen without cheating/hacking or breaking the game) and the game needs to spawn one, it will crash.

The two biggest differences in items are active and passive items.

Active Items
These are items which you hold in the spacebar slot. You have to actively use them in order for them to do anything.

Every active item, also known as spacebar item, has its own recharge. This is shown with little squares next to the item. These squares are known as ticks.



Using the images above as example. The left one shows our spacebar item, the Dice, is fully charged and ready to be used. The middle image shows it just after usage, the ticks have been depleted and they need to be filled up before we can use the item again.
The third image shows that, after clearing one room, two ticks have recharged. So we'll need to finish three rooms to use the Dice once.

Items may recharge either one, two, three or six ticks per room. One exception is the Candle, which recharges based on time, and not the amount of rooms cleared.

Passive Items
These are fairly simple. These are items you pick up, and they have an automatic effect. Any item that increases any of your statistics, or modifies how or what you shoot is considered a passive item. Or in short, any item you don't use via spacebar, which is not a pickup, is a passive item.

Here's how I will explain certain items.

There'll be an image of the item taken from the Item Pool image earlier in this guide. This is what the item looks like, in game, too. Its name will be shown next to it.
Then the following information will be displayed:.
Line: The sole purpose of this line is to keep every box equal in size. You can disregard it completely.
Type: Either Passive or Active.
Recharge: The amount of rooms that need to be cleared to fully recharge this item again.
Pools: All of the pools this item can be found in.
Effect: What the item does upon activation (if active) or pickup (if passive).
Explanation: An explanation of its effect, in more technical terms. Numbers won't tell you things directly, but are there for comparison's sake. If one item increases damage with 1, and another with 2, you'll see which one is better.
Requirements: Some items are locked, here it'll tell you how to unlock these items.
Category: Categories the item belongs to. Here's a list of categories and what they mean.

• Collectible - An item that gives you pickups.
  
• Defense - An item that helps you defend yourself before or after being hit.
  
• Familiar - A little character or object that follows you around. Characters will shoot with you, while others will simply follow you around with other effects.
  
• Orbital - An object or entity that orbits the player and blocks incoming shots.
  
• Weapon - An active item that is primarily used as a weapon. Usually related to bombs.
  
• Modifiers - An item that changes how you or your shots behave. The following modifiers are possible:
  • Flight - Grants you the ability to fly. You can fly over creep, spikes, rocks, gaps. You cannot fly over enemies.
    
  • Freezing - Freezing shots are shots that have a small chance to freeze an enemy in place, for a limited amount of time.
    
  • Homing - Homing shots curve towards / home in on enemies.
    
  • Piercing - Piercing shots are shots that can pass through multiple enemies.
    
  • Slowing - Slowing shots are shots that have a small chance to slow down enemies for a limited amount of time.
    
  • Spectral - Spectral shots are shots that can pass through solid objects.
• Upgrade - An item that directly upgrades any of your statistics. The following upgrades are possible:
  • Health up / down - Increases or decreases your heart containers, usually by one. If playing as ???, will increase your Spirit hearts by one.
    
  • Range up / down - Increases or decreases the distance your shots will travel before landing.
    
  • Speed up / down - Increases or decreases the speed of which you move.
    
  • Tears up / down - Increases or decreases the fire rate of your projectiles

Every pool's list will be in alphabetical order. If you want to find a specific type of item, you can use the control+F functions to search for it. (For instance, "Tears up" or "Damage".) Otherwise, you can search by name or picture. The word "The" will be disregarded. ("The Sad Onion will be "Sad Onion")

If an item is in multiple pools, it will be listed under each.

12:11 - ­Captain Detlik: You didn't write what an absolute ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, and useless ♥♥♥♥, Bum Friend is!
(After Bum friend spawned a live bomb and ended his ru

Gamekid

How to use Guppy's Hair Ball.

Note: Although the achievement states "any" Mom item, only the Heels, Lipstick, Pad and Bra will count.

Note: Even though it says it's a tears up upgrade, it does not increase your tears fire rate.

The way shots split upon contact, due to the Parasite.

Tears travelling in a sine wave.

(Breakfast, Dinner, Lunch, Dessert)