Overview
Disclaimer: I only played Afterbirth, so this guide is for that DLC only.I will agree with everyone that practice makes perfect in Isaac, but only up to a point.Tip 0: get the mod that gives you a description of what items do. There was a nice guide around here and the guy suggested that you get this mod only after reaching/ beating Mom’s Heart once. His suggestion makes sense if you wanna be curious about the game and have fun, but keep in mind that the game will be harder since you won’t know what to pickup, and as you unlock more items, it won’t get any better.Tip 1: You can get as good as you like, but if the game gives you a bad combo, then just reset the run. There’s no shame in it and it’s always for the better. Why would you play with severe handicaps? You don’t really get better by playing a handicapped run; you waste time (especially in a game like Isaac which punishes you on every mistake). Remember, this isn’t the real world where if you play a sport with people better than you you get better; this is Isaac, where if you get 2-3 bad items along the way, you might find that you had a great run the first 45 mins, and then you die in the following 20. The progression in Isaac is unfavorable since it unlocks good, average and bad items. An item like Black Candle (1 black heart, immune to curses, which you rarely get and most are manageable) is pointless when compared with getting the angel halo (1 extra heart container and a little bit of all stats).Tip 2: as you start your run, make sure that you have the golden room right next to your starting room. Go in that room and see if your starting item is good or not. If you have a good item (items that give multiple stats, items that change your attack in a positive way – quad shot, technology, etc-, items that give one or more heart containers/ hearts AND some stats), then continue to point 2. If you have a mediocre item (companions since most of them are kinda worthless -except for the mimic, the brimstone guy, Bumbo, and a few more- items that give you one stat but take another, items that change your attack in a way that makes the game harder), then it’s up to you if you continue to point 2. If you have a bad item (the pea/ pee shooter that gives you max attack speed but minimum damage, teleportation remote, any bad activatable items, items that change your attack in a horrible way -the mirror-), then just reset. There is absolutely no point in hitting your knee with a bat and then going to play a soccer game. To those who will say that “any run is possible”, I’ll say “no thank you” since I have better things to do than spend 2x the time on a run just because I decided to make the game harder for myself by playing with bad items. Also don’t worry, the game is SO DAMNED HARD (too much RNG) that you will get better at it no matter what kind of run you have. If your reach point 2, this means that you have to beat the first floor and see what item the boss gives you (apply the above rules). If he gives you something worth playing, or something mediocre and a Devil/ Angel room that is good, then you can continue the run (up until you finish or you get a streak of 2-3 bad items -> should probably reset, but it’s up to you).Tip 3: decide what you wanna get from this game. Are you looking for achievements, finishing the final boss (Mega Satan I think), unlocking all chars and their upgrades, etc. .Tip 4: for unlocking chars: first unlock Magdalene (get 7 heart containers on Isaac), then unlock Azazel (get 3 Devil deals in a run), then unlock the others based on their requirements. These two must be first because you need them for the next tips and because they’re two of the strongest characters.Tip 5: for getting a lot of unlocks, item unlocks, some character unlocks and upgrades, start playing greed mode. Play mainly with Magdalene and beat the final boss a few times. Apply the rules from tip 1. Magda is ideal since she can live through the first few floors easily, giving you the chance of actually finishing the run. After the first 2-3 successful runs, switch to beating greed mode with other chars (but leave beating it with Isaac and Azazel last since these are the hardest ones to do it with).Tip 6: For getting closer to the final boss: I’ve currently beaten Mom’s Heart 4 times and I found that BY FAR my best runs (those that even get me to the womb or even beat it) are those with Azazel, Lilith, and Magda (ordered by how easy it was), always applying tip 1 of course. Azazel is the best because he can fly (easy dodge shots and monsters in most rooms, get some hard to reach items), and he has crazy damage (rooms are a little hard to kill, but you literally melt bosses. For him, the best starting items are those that focus on attack speed up, heart containers, range up (get this a lot if you find it), attack enhancers, very good companions. Lilith is good because her starting minion does decent damage and with good timing, you will always have AT LEAST 2 minions attacking when you’re in the boss room. For her the best starting items are companions (those that shoot tears, not lasers, or brimstones, and the punching bag), heart containers, attack speed, damage, tears up, range, or any combination of the above. Magda is good since she has the survivability to reach deeper floors and some regeneration (you could probably ditch the regeneration id you find something better, but few activatable items are better than it). For her you just apply tip 1 and that’s it.Ending notes: yes, there are other chars, but most of them are useless since their combos are too weird/ hard to play out (again, a voluntary bat to the knee). Of the worst ones, I want to mention Eden, Cain and Isaac (without the dice). Eden is virtually pointless to play. The game is excruciatingly hard to play with the normal RNG, but let Eden step in and you have a whole new dimension of pointless difficulty. I’ve had 15 tokens for him until now and out of those I think only 2-3 were decent and 1 good (the once in which I beat greed mode). The game makes you think he’s some sort of special and OP character by making you collect tokens to play him, but since everything is random when you start out, your chances of getting a good run with him are minimised by the extra randomness as opposed to the other chars. Cain is pointless since he just has some luck and opens chests, yaaay! After doing all of the above, your item pool should be way larger than when you started playing the game as a whole. This means things got harder and harder since most of the items you unlock along the way are mediocre (at best). Due to this fact, Isaac just became the most mediocre character you can play. He starts out with NOTHING and that means that your runs are harder at the begging than other good chars. On the flip side, if you magickally manage to unlock his dice (using the ank revive and killing Mom’s Heart), then he becomes one of the best characters, taking the 3rd spot from Magdalene and almost contending for the 2nd. The ability to turn a decent starting run into a good one (or at least to keep it going) by using the dice is pretty strong.Good luck and happy resetting!