Optimal Path to Dead God on a New Save File

• Intro (explanation of guide and philosophy for reaching dead god in the shortest amount of time)
  
• Miscellaneous Unlocks (things you should always prioritize if given the opportunity)
  
• Daily Runs (unlocks that take a long time)
  
• Things to avoid (unlocks that are not great or actively bad)
  
• Runes to unlock first (getting 6 runes unlocked prevents rune shard from spawning)
  
• Challenges to finish asap when unlocked (some of the good challenges unlocked by default)
  
• Early progression/mechanic unlocks (things needed to unlock most other stuff/very useful mechanics to unlock)
  
• Character Unlocks (unlocking most regular characters is first big priority)
  
• Early Completion Marks (strong unlocks that will help you win more runs, after you unlock It Lives but before unlocking Keeper/Lost’s Holy Mantle)
  
• Tainted Character Unlocks (should be done once most regular characters/strong items are unlocked and while defeating The Beast with all regular characters)
  
• Greed(ier) Mode (greed mode can be done whenever, greedier should wait till most strong items/tainted characters are unlocked)
  
• Miscellaneous Unlocks 2 (unlocks that aren’t super important, but should be paid attention to as they are more rare opportunities)
  
• Later Completion Marks (includes Keeper/Lost and all Tainted Characters)
  
• Quality of Life Mods I use (mods with minimal effect on gameplay but still helpful)

TL;DR I have Dead God so you should trust me, read the table of contents and always play on hard mode/greedier mode. Designed for people who have played before.

Hello, welcome to my guide for how to reach Dead God in Isaac from a fresh save file as optimally as possible. I have over 950 hours in Isaac, and have been playing since flash Isaac. I have Dead God, and I also 100% completed the game in Rebirth in around 400 hours, so I feel I have a decent understanding of the game even if I’m not the best player in the world. This guide is designed to help people get to Dead God by unlocking the best items first, and avoiding bad unlocks till later. This guide focuses on the most “optimal” path to dead god with little regard for enjoyment or easiness. As such this guide assumes you’ll be willing to do things like finishing the hardest challenges early and that you’re willing to play a lot of greed mode at once. Therefore, this guide probably won’t be optimal for new players who are learning the game and is more designed for people trying to get Dead God on a 2nd or 3rd save file (I mostly wrote this guide for myself before attempting my 2nd Dead god). This guide will not cover every detail or unlock, but it should cover most of the important unlocks. Feel free to reach out to me if you think I missed something or need to add something to this guide. On reddit you can message me at u/SamiraSimp, on steam it’s shrubs3.

This guide assumes that you will always be playing on Hard mode/Greedier mode when unlocked. With Repentance, Hard mode means that some enemies/bosses have faster movement/shot speed and it’s important to get used to those patterns. Additionally, playing the game on easy mode and then hard mode means you’re playing roughly DOUBLE the amount of runs, which wouldn’t be optimal at all.

I’m mostly repeating the table of contents, but here’s the basic flow. First, you do challenge runs to start with good runes/items as well as your dailies. Once you start playing normally, you’re trying to unlock characters until you get It Lives unlocked along with winning greed mode once with Azazel for basic unlocks. Then you’re mostly focused on getting all the characters and progression mechanics unlocked while getting the strongest early completion marks. Then you focus on unlocking most of the Tainted characters and/or finishing the greed donation machine to get Keeper/make Lost better. After you have everyone unlocked you finish getting the remaining strong unlocks from all the characters. During all of this, you should be checking the challenges section for strong unlocks, as well as miscellaneous unlocks that require more rare opportunities. After that you can come back and finish off Greedier Mode, and then start finishing off the remaining completion marks in pretty much any order outside of things I specifically said to avoid.

• Donation Machine: you should prioritize upgrading your donation machine to get consistently better shops for all your runs.
  
• The Lost: dying in a sacrifice room while holding Missing Poster (don’t need to die to spikes specifically)
  
• Ace of Clubs: win three runs in a row
  
• Super Tinted Rocks: win five runs in a row with separate characters
  
• The Halo: defeat mom or mom’s heart/it lives with The Bible
  
• Gulp! Pills: complete a Victory Lap
  
• Marbles: use 5 gulp! pills in one run (can be cheesed in greed mode with lazarus)
  
• Huge Growth: increase in size 5 times in a run (strength card, one makes you larger pill) (can be cheesed in greed mode with lazarus)
  
• Counterfeit Penny: you need to play the shell game or hell game 100 times. not that hard to do, but easy to ignore due to the high number of plays needed. it’s a pretty good unlock so worth doing sooner rather than later.
  
• Planetariums: obtain 2 tarot card/zodiac related items in one run
  
• Tech 0: obtain 2 robo-baby/technology items in one run

• Cracked Crown: get a 5-win streak in daily runs (the streak doesn’t have to be consecutive days)
  
• Broken Modem: complete 7 daily runs
  
• Horf! pill: participate in 31 daily runs (bad pill to unlock, but worth getting since it requires a long time period of play. would be optimal to play 30 daily runs then stop)

• Corrupted Data: Defeat Delirium with Tainted Eden (very bad!)
  
• Re-lax/??? pills: Complete Challenge #25: Have a Heart
  
• Rules Card: Complete Challenge #11: Glass Cannon
  
• Suicide King: Complete Challenge #7: Suicide King
  
• Scared Hearts: Reset 7 times in a row
  
• Scissors: Die 100 times
  
• Abel: Defeat The Lamb with Cain
  
• Missing No.: Complete Boss Rush with Lazarus
  
• ???’s Only Friend: Complete Boss Rush with ???
  
• Isaac’s Head: Complete Boss Rush with Isaac
  
• Shade: Defeat Delirium with Judas
  
• Berkano rune: Complete Challenge #20: Purist
  
• TMTRAINER: Defeat The Beast with Tainted Eden
  
• Torn Card: Defeat Mother with Tainted Lazarus
  
• IBS: Defeat Delirium with Tainted ???
  
• The High Priestess?: Defeat Ultra Greedier with Tainted Lilith

• Jera: complete challenge #2 - High Brow (unlocked at start)
  
• Ehwaz: complete challenge #3 - Head Trauma (unlocked at start)
  
• Ansuz: complete challenge #5 - The Tank (have 7 or more heart containers/unlock Magdalene)
  
• Blank Rune/Clear Rune: complete challenge #30 - The Guardian (defeat mom)
  
• Perthro: complete challenge #6 - Solar System (defeat mom’s heart 3 times)
  
• Dagaz: complete challenge #4 - Darkness Falls (defeat mom’s heart 11 times and defeat ??? as Eve)
  
• Algiz: complete challenge #8 - Cat Got Your Tongue (become guppy)

• A Card Against Humanity: complete challenge #12 - When Life Gives You Lemons (unlocked at start)
  
• Burnt Penny: complete challenge #13 - Beans! (unlocked at start)
  
• SMB Super Fan: complete challenge #14 - It’s in the Cards (unlocked at start)
  
• Death’s Touch: complete challenge #17 - Waka Waka (unlocked at start)
  
• Technology .5: complete challenge #18 - The Host (unlocked at start)
  
• Chaos Card: complete challenge #9 - Demo Man (defeat Mom’s Heart 9 times)
  
• Credit Card: complete challenge #10 - Cursed! (unlock Magdalene)
  
• Epic Fetus: complete challenge #19 - The Family Man (get both key pieces from Angels in one run)
  
• Gold Heart: complete challenge #21 - XXXXXXXXL (defeat Mom)
  
• Get out of Jail Free Card: complete challenge #22 - Speed! (defeat Mom)
  
• Gold Bomb: complete challenge #23 - Blue Bomber
  
• Laz Bleeds More: complete challenge #31 - Backasswards (defeat Mega Satan and unlock the Negative)
  
• Maggy Now Holds a pill: complete challenge #32 - Aprils Fool
  
• Charged Key: complete challenge #33 - Pokey Mans
  
• Samons feels Healthy: complete challenge #34 - Ultra Hard (defeat Mega Satan and unlock the Negative)
  
• NOTE: The Ultra Hard challenge sucks and the reward isn’t that great so you can skip it till later, but it’s technically optimal to do it early/get it out of the way
  
• Sigil of Baphomet: complete challenge #37 - Bloody Mary (unlock Bethany, Blood Bag, It Lives)
  
• Spirit Sword: complete challenge #39 - Isaac’s Awakening
  
• VIII - Justice?: complete challenge #43 - Cantripped (unlock Tainted Cain)

• Lucky Pennies: donate 2 cents to greed mode donation machine (use Azazel to also unlock Lilith)
  
• Store Upgrade 1: donate 20 cents to donation machine
  
• Polaroid: defeat Isaac 5 times (need angel deal at mom’s heart or it lives unlocked to consistently do)
  
• Negative: defeat Satan 5 times (need devil deal at mom’s heart or it lives unlocked to consistently do)
  
• The Void: defeat Hush (beat mom’s heart 10 times, then beat mom’s heart/it lives within 30 minutes)
  
• Missing Poster: defeat The Lamb as Isaac (need negative unlocked)
  
• Corpse: defeat Hush 3 times
  
• Dad’s Note: defeat Mother
  
• Greedier Mode: donate 500 coins to greed donation machine (check greed section first)

• Magdalene: have 7 or more red heart containers at once
  
• Cain: hold 55 coins at once
  
• Eve: don’t pick up any hearts for 2 floors in a row
  
• Samson: complete 2 floors in a row without taking damage
  
• Azazel: make 3 deals with the devil in one run
  
• Lazarus: have more than 4 soul hearts at once
  
• Judas: defeat Satan
  
• Eden: complete chapter 4 (Womb)
  
• Bethany: defeat Mom’s Heart/It Lives on hard mode as Lazarus without dying at all
  
• ???: defeat Mom’s Heart 10 times
  
• The Lost: die in sacrifice room while holding missing poster
  
• Lilith: defeat Ultra Greed as Azazel
  
• Keeper: donate 1000 coins to greed donation machine (check greed mode section first)
  
• Apollyon: defeat Mega Satan
  
• The Forgotten: it’s complicated[bindingofisaacrebirth.wiki.gg], need negative unlocked
  
• Jacob and Esau: defeat Mother (need Corpse unlocked)

• Isaac Starts with D6: defeat Isaac as ???
  
• Mom’s Knife: defeat Satan as Isaac
  
• Missing Poster: defeat Lamb as Isaac
  
• D20: defeat ??? as Isaac
  
• D Infinity: defeat Delirium as Isaac
  
• The Relic: defeat Isaac as Magdalene
  
• Purity: defeat Hush as Magdalene
  
• Eucharist: defeat Delirium as Magdalene
  
• Cain’s Eye: defeat ??? as Cain
  
• Judas’ Shadow: defeat Boss Rush as Judas
  
• Curved Horn: defeat Lamb as Judas
  
• Forget Me Now: defeat Satan as ???
  
• Fate: defeat ??? as ???
  
• Eve’s Mascara: defeat Boss Rush as Eve
  
• Athame: defeat Hush as Eve
  
• Blood Penny: defeat ??? as Samson
  
• The Nail: defeat Boss Rush as Azazel
  
• Daemon’s Tail: defeat Satan as Azazel
  
• Satanic Bible: defeat Isaac as Azazel
  
• Abbadon: defeat ??? as Azazel
  
• Maw of the Void: defeat Hush as Azazel
  
• Pandora’s Box: defeat Lamb as Lazarus
  
• Store Credit: defeat ??? as Lazarus
  
• Empty Vessel: defeat Hush as Lazarus
  
• Compound Fracture: defeat Delirium as Lazarus
  
• Book of Secrets: defeat Satan as Eden
  
• Blank Card: defeat Isaac as Eden
  
• Eden’s Blessing: defeat Hush as Eden
  
• Eden’s Soul: defeat Delirium as Eden
  
• ‘M: defeat Mother as Eden
  
• Succubus: defeat Lamb as Lilith
  
• Incubus: defeat Hush as Lilith
  
• Euthanasia: defeat Delirium as Lilith
  
• C Section: defeat Beast as Lilith
  
• Smelter: defeat It Lives as Apollyon (go for Dark Room path next but the unlocks aren’t that great)
  
• Void: defeat Delirium as Apollyon
  
• Divorce Papers: defeat Boss rush as Forgotten
  
• Brittle Bones: defeat Lamb as Forgotten
  
• Book of Virtues: defeat Isaac as Bethany
  
• Blessed Penny: defeat ??? as Bethany
  
• Urn of Souls: defeat Satan as Bethany
  
• Star of Bethlehem: defeat Delirium as Bethany
  
• Revelation: defeat Mother as Bethany
  
• Rock Bottom: defeat Boss Rush as Jacob
  
• The Stairway: defeat Isaac as Jacob
  
• Birthright: defeat ??? as Jacob
  
• Damocles: defeat Lamb as Jacob
  
• Suplex: defeat Delirium as Jacob

All the tainted characters are unlocked the same way, by using a cracked key/red key in the left hallway of the Home floor with the respective regular character. These unlocks should be done while the regular character is attempting to fight The Beast. The order doesn’t really matter, as all the regular characters have quite good unlocks for beating The Beast. The one exception is The Lost, imo you shouldn’t play The Lost until you donate enough money to the Greed Donation Machine so that The Lost starts with Holy Mantle.

I recommend starting to unlock tainted characters after you have a good amount of the early completion marks done, as the alt path becomes noticeably harder compared to the normal path after Downpour.

My strategy for greed mode is to play it just a little bit to donate to the machine for lucky pennies (2 cents) and hanging shopkeepers (14 cents). Do this with Azazel to get Lillith. After that there’s not any huge upgrades from the donation machine until much later so imo it’s worth waiting till you have strong completion marks done to do more greed mode, but I’ll list them out and you can decide. However, once you reach 500 coins you should definitely make sure to swap to greedier mode.

• Wooden Nickel: 33 cents
  
• Cain holds Paperclip: 68 cents
  
• Everything is Terrible 2!!!: 111 cents (try not to end a greed run at like 112 cents, but it doesn’t make a big difference)
  
• Special Shopkeepers: 234 cents
  
• Eve now holds Razor Blade: 439 cents
  
• Greedier: 500 cents
  
• Store Key: 666 cents
  
• Lost holds Holy Mantle: 879
  
• Keeper: 1000 cents

Once you have most of the characters and their strong completion marks it’s worth playing greed mode until you unlock greedier mode. There’s 11 characters below, if you donate 45 cents with each you can unlock greedier mode. The only bad unlock is beating Ultra Greed as Judas (My Shadow is a terrible devil item), besides him there’s no really bad unlocks outside of these so just pick whoever you are strongest with to unlock greedier mode if these don’t get you there.

• Lilith: defeat Ultra Greed as Azazel
  
• Censer: beat Ultra Greed with Magdalene
  
• Lusty Blood: beat Ultra Greed with Samson
  
• Soul Locket: beat Ultra Greed with Bethany
  
• Inner Child: beat Ultra Greed with Jacob and Esau
  
• Evil Eye: beat Ultra Greed with Cain
  
• Lil Chest: beat Ultra Greed with Isaac
  
• GB Bug: beat Ultra Greed as Eden
  
• Key Bum: beat Ultra Greed as Lazarus
  
• Brown Nugget: beat Ultra Greed as Apollyon
  
• Box of Friends: beat UItra Greed as Lillith (the unlock isn’t that strong, but Lillith is so good in greed mode it’s easy to unlock greedier with her

When you unlock Greedier Mode: Always play greedier mode, as there is a significantly lower chance of jamming the donation machine. Once you unlock keeper and have all these unlocks, I would hold off on finishing greedier mode until you get the 2nd set of strong completion marks from Keeper/Lost/Tainted Characters, as the other unlocks aren’t that good.

• Glyph of Balance: defeat Ultra Greedier as Magdalene
  
• Sack of Sacks: defeat Ultra Greedier as Cain
  
• Eye of Belial: defeat Ultra Greedier as Judas
  
• Duality: defeat Ultra Greedier as Lilith
  
• Black Rune: defeat Ultra Greedier as Apollyon
  
• Dad’s Ring: defeat Ultra Greedier as The Forgotten
  
• Dad’s Lost Coin: defeat Ultra Greedier as The Lost
  
• IV - The Emperor?: defeat Ultra Greedier as Tainted ???
  
• V - The Hierophant?: defeat Ultra Greedier as Tainted Bethany
  
• XVII - The Stars?: defeat Ultra Greedier as Tainted Isaac
  
• XVIII - The Moon?: defeat Ultra Greedier as Tainted Jacob
  
• XIX - The Sun?: defeat Ultra Greedier as Tainted Jacob
  
• XX - Judgement?: defeat Ultra Greedier as Tainted Lazarus
  
• XXI - The World?: defeat Ultra Greedier as Tainted Eden

• Ace of Diamonds: defeat the Lamb within 20 minutes
  
• Ace of Spades: defeat the Lamb without picking up a single heart, bomb, or coin for the entire run
  
• Redemption: picking up this item regularly requires you to take a devil deal first, and then use a confessional/sacrifice room until it would give an angel room item, which instead has a high chance to give redemption. It is unlocked when you beat The Beast with Judas.
  
• Plum Flute: this item can be unlocked when you face Baby Plum. You must avoid hurting her for about half a minute in her boss fight, after which she will fly away and leave the plum flute behind.
  
• Charged Penny: you need to donate to battery bums until they pay out with an item 5 times. This is easy to miss since usually it’s not worth it to donate so much to them, but it’s an easy achievement to miss if you’re unaware of it.
  
• Moving Box: use Pandora’s Box in Dark room
  
• Blinding Baby: use blank card while holding XIX - The Sun
  
• Brimstone Bombs: defeat Hornfel in the Mines, then kill him before he escapes

• Crane Game: defeat Mega Satan as Tainted Samson
  
• Strange Key: defeat Lamb/??? as Tainted Eve
  
• Golden Penny: defeat Mega Satan as Tainted Keeper
  
• Golden Trinket: defeat Mega Satan as Tainted Jacob
  
• Confessional: defeat Mega Satan as Tainted Bethany
  
• Keeper holds Wooden Nickel: defeat Isaac as Keeper
  
• Deep Pockets: defeat ??? as Keeper
  
• Keeper’s Sack: defeat Mother as Keeper
  
• The Mind: defeat Satan as Lost
  
• The Soul: defeat Lamb as Lost
  
• Holy Card: defeat Delirium as Lost
  
• Godhead: get all completion marks on Lost on hard mode
  
• Soul of Isaac: defeat Boss Rush/Hush as Tainted Isaac
  
• Spindown Dice: defeat Delirium as Tainted Isaac
  
• Glitched Crown: Defeat Beast as Tainted Isaac
  
• Soul of Cain: defeat Boss Rush/Hush as Tainted Cain
  
• Gold Pill: defeat Mega Satan as Tainted Cain
  
• Black Sack: defeat Mega Satan as Tainted Judas
  
• Number Magnet: defeat Mother as Tainted Judas
  
• Horse Pill: defeat Mega Satan as Tainted Eve
  
• Heartbreak: defeat Beast as Tainted Eve
  
• Soul of Azazel: defeat Boss Rush/Hush as Tainted Azazel
  
• Soul of Lazarus: defeat Boss Rush/Hush as Tainted Lazarus
  
• Wooden Chest: defeat Mega Satan as Tainted Lazarus
  
• Salvation: defeat Beast as Tainted Lazarus
  
• Nuh Uh!: defeat Lamb/??? as Tainted Eden
  
• Soul of Eden: defeat Boss Rush/Hush as Tainted Eden (don’t fight delirium!)
  
• Wild Card: defeat Mega Satan as Tainted Eden (don’t fight delirium!)
  
• Sacred Orb: defeat Beast as Tainted Lost
  
• Soul of Lilith: defeat Boss Rush/Hush as Tainted Lilith
  
• Gello: defeat Delirium as Tainted Lilith
  
• Twisted Pair: defeat Beast as Tainted Lilith
  
• Soul of Keeper: defeat Boss Rush/Hush as Tainted Keeper
  
• Echo Chamber: defeat Beast as Tainted Apollyon
  
• Hollow Heart: defeat Mother as Tainted Forgotten
  
• Isaac’s Tomb: defeat Beast as Tainted Forgotten
  
• Lemegeton: defeat Delirium as Tainted Bethany

Note: You cannot use mods when doing daily runs. Personally, I don’t care what mods you do or don’t use when going for Dead God, it’s a singleplayer game. That being said, I try to only use mods that improve quality of life to not cheapen my experience. The only mod that really buffs you can be classified as a bugfix. The other mods can make you marginally stronger, or significantly depending on options you select, but I don’t use those options. As of a month or so ago, I was able to use all the mods without it crashing or breaking the game. I cannot guarantee that all the mods are still compatible or fully working, check yourself if you're having issues!

• [AB+|Rep(+)] External Item Descriptions - very useful and imo necessary mod that shows item descriptions in game, with detailed descriptions instead of vauge meaningless 1-2 word descriptions. The only time it is “cheating” is when playing Tainted Cain, as it shows you recipes that you shouldn’t have access to and makes the character MUCH easier. I personally don’t use this feature as Tainted Cain as I think it is really overpowered and goes against the spirit of the character. If you feel the same way, I recommend instead using the wiki page for Bag of Crafting to understand how the quality of pickups affects the quality of items you get. But I’m not the Dead God police so do whatever you want.
  
• Range fix for Bones & Sword - without this mod, having high range on The Forgotten or when using a melee weapon means you will miss enemies close to you…which doesn’t make sense at all to me personally. To me, this mod is more of a bugfix than a buff. (might not be updated)
  
• Coming Down! [Rework] - This mod shows icons for certain stomping attacks that are hard to tell. Mostly, I use it to show mom’s hands attacks as I play the game muted often, and you don’t have any indication of them otherwise. A small buff outside of the muted accessibility, but imo not that much of a difference to really be considered cheating (might not be updated)
  
• Silent Dog Tooth - another mod to help when playing without audio. (might not be updated)
  
• Boss Rush Wave Counter [Rep | AB+] - just shows a wave counter during boss rush. (might not be updated)
  
• [REP(+)] Enhanced Boss Bars - purely cosmetic mod
  
• POG for Good Items - purely cosmetic mod. only buffs you if you let it show you good quality items during curse of the blind, which i turn off as I consider it cheating.
  
• Specialist Dance for Good Items - purely cosmetic mod. only buffs you if you let it show you good quality items during curse of the blind, which i turn off as I consider it cheating.
  
• Mod Config Menu Pure - just used to enable settings for the other mods listed

• Most & Least Important Unlocks (Repentance+) by jnub - great guide, but doesn’t cover pathing for Dead God that much
  
• Dead God - Roadmap for 100% completion by Piel - amazing guide and covers a lot of the same information, but I believe my guide has better optimization regarding pathing and is more condensed in the actual sections (regardless, I made this guide for my preferences)