Overview
although other guides on this topic exist, this attempts to describe general information on greed mode
chapter 1: the concept
By now, most folks are familiar with the expansion for the binding of isaac rebirth. A key feature of this was the addition of a new game mode aptly named ‘greed mode’. The focus of greed mode centralizes the use of resources, most important of which is money, to customize your build.
chapter 2: money
Money is critical. Optimizing how to amass money in greed mode is even more important. Trinkets such as swallowed penny, bloody penny, or counterfiet penny all shine in greed mode. With the removal or blood donation machines there arent as many ways to generate coins consistently. Luck is a big factor: finding runes in a devil or secret room can grant a jera rune, which used at the end of the waves before picking up coins late game has a big payout. the item Pay to play is an investment in the long term, as keys arent as common.
chapter 3: tips and tricks
using jera runes before collecting coins is 1 way to overpower greed mode, but its not the only strat. As others have demonstrated the 2 of diamonds card is powerful by itself, if you can find blank card with it, you essentially have everything you need to win. Restocking the store to have a battery for sale gives you infinite uses of 2 of diamonds blank card, but the restock box can explode if used too often. If you have bombs, blowing up shopkeepers is not a bad idea, especially after unlocking special shopkeepers. Getting a steam sale, keypurrs head, or a nickel for a bomb is a good trade. Not sure if this is intentional, but in later levels when pressing a button in the shop that sometimes shows up you can fight greed, killing this greed will still drop coins on its death, I’ve only had this happen once.
chapter 4: things to avoid
As tempting as build rerolling is, the game seems to like giving you garbage in greed mode for trying this. Missingno, d100, d4 seem to be biased towards giving bum friend, bumbo, and other things that while not bad in their own right, are not condusive to greed mode success. Other things that are bad normally, are still bad in greed mode. tech2, strange attractor, magnet, taurus fall into this category.
chapter 5: good strats
With the room charge mechanics per wave, utilizing a spacebar item makes a world of difference. Additionally items whose effects stack with themselves are equally strong. Some examples like box of friends, lusty blood, book of belial are all good in greed modes arena. Other things like serpents kiss and maw of the void win yout he game just by picking them up. Seriously serpents kiss is unbelievably good.
shout-out to Ronald Mcheartattack for this next piece of advice “Make sure you keep adding coins to the greed machine, and absolutely do not add another when you hit 110. If you get 111, your not gonna have a good time. Excluding the lost, make sure every characters unlock has been done before adding another coin.”
conclusion?
Every character can work in greed mode, and its not required to break the game or getting a build to carry you eg midas touch+gnawed leaf. the first floor and ultra greed fight are the most difficult aspects of this game mode, the things in between have a lot of room for things to go right or wrong based on playstyle, personal choice, and how much RNG the game throws your way. As an aside I’ll try to keep this updated as the game inevitably gets patched some more in the future