Useful Builds - Filthy, Rich and Familiarly Religious

PLEASE READ THIS BIT FIRST! ITS IMPORTANT!
Okay, so this build has only really been tested on Isaac and I'll tell you why. Isaac starts with The Dice. The Dice is the main way to try to obtain this build, due to the fact you can pretty much re-roll any collectible you see (apart from Steven, Gish and a few other exceptions) so if you enter a treasure room and you see Chocolate Milk for example. Use the Dice and hopefully, you'll get a much better item. If you're confused as to why Isaac isn't starting with The Dice on your game, then you have to complete The Womb with ??? (Blue Baby) first.

Okay then. So now, you have The Dice for Isaac. Now, you're not likely to get most of the items in this build but that's fine. Experiment with it. Try different combos. The final result could be OP to hell! For this build, I had:

• The Small Rock
  
• The Virus
  
• The Relic
  
• Mom's Coin Purse
  
• Bum Friend
  
• Dead Bird
  
• Cube Of Meat x2
  
• Demon Baby
  
• Brother Bobby
• Little Chad
  
• Rainbow Baby
  
• Guardian Angel
  
• Harlequin Baby
  
• Squeezy
  
• The Mulligan
  
• MEAT!
  
• Guppy's Tail
  
• Box
  
• XRay Vision
  
• Super Bandage
  
• Skeleton Key
  
• Money=Power
  
• Mini Mushroom
  
• Magneto
  
• A Lump Of Coal
  
• Brimstone (Optional)
  
• 9 Volt
  
• Guppy's Head (Optional)
  
• Guppy's Paw (Optional)

So now you know what's in the build, it's time to tell you how this all works.

Firstly, we'll start with the Familiars.
Now these little guys are extremely handy when taking down your enemies with a barrage of projectiles.

Bum Friend - This little guy is mostly available in the shop. What he does is take the coins that are dropped in the rooms and will give items such as keys, bombs, cards and hearts. A nice little friend to get you some items at the start of the game. Be careful of this guy though if you pick up the Money=Power item because you need to stockpile coins to get stronger.

Demon Baby - (Must Complete Sheol with Eve to unlock) This familiar will appear in the treasure room and the devil room. He will fire projectiles as soon as there is an enemy in range, which may require you to get up close to them, however he will adopt whatever effects your bullets have which kind of doubles your firepower.

Brother Bobby - This can be found pretty much anywhere in the game. He shoots spectral tears which is handy because these bullets can travel through rocks, giving you an advantage if you're being shot at whilst hiding behind a rock.

Little C.H.A.D. - If you come up against C.H.A.D. in a boss room then you are bound to get this familiar as it always drops. If not, then he's available in the treasure rooms too. When you have this guy, he will drop half a heart after completing 2 rooms and as you all know, you can never have enough spare hearts lying around. This guy is good for this build because if you get too close, you might lose a heart or two and you'll get it back with this guy.

Rainbow Baby - (Must Complete Cathedral with ??? to unlock) This familiar can only be found in treasure rooms. If you have ever collected the 3 Dollar Bill item then you will know what this familiar does. The effect of your tears will change with every shot, whch differs slightly from the 3 Dollar Bill because that changes every room. Effects can include split shots, slowing tears, freeze tears and blood tears. This is handy as an occasional freeze shot or slowing shot can bide you some time whilst you kill a boss.

Harlequin Baby - Found in the treasure rooms. An unusual looking baby but very helpful. This familiar will shoot tears diagonally every second that Isaac is firing. This is especially useful because if you are focusing on an enemy in front of you, this guy has the sides covered so nothing can get a sneaky attack in. Mix this with the split tears effect of The Parasite and you've got yourself a teary shield.

Guardian Angel - (Must Complete Sheol with Magdalene to unlock) Not so much a fighting familiar like the others, this guy does do a lot for your defense. He is an orbiting familiar like the Cube of Meat or the Pretty Flies and will damage enemies when he touches them. Another little bonus that this angel gives you is that if you have some other orbital familiars, they will orbit you at double the speed. Very handy if you have 3 Pretty Flies, the Cube of Meat, Guardian Angel and Distant Admiration.
Boss Tip - Isaac and ??? will spit out random blue tears. If they hit your orbital familiars, they won't damage you.

The Relic - (Must Complete The Womb with Magdalene to unlock) The Relic is a very helpful familiar to have. This one does not look like a baby though. It can be found in the treasure room and the angel room and what it does is, it gives you a Soul Heart every time you complete four rooms. Quite a handy tool to have really, especially if you get it early on in your run.

Cube of Meat - This is a very easy one to obtain and can vary depending on the amount of cubes you get. On my run I got 2 so my Meat Boy was a floating head and firing blood tears. As you know, 1 cube will result in an orbital cube, 2 cubes will get you a floating head that fires tears, 3 cubes gets you a small Meat Boy that attacks enemies and the 4th is a bigger Meat Boy. Very simple and effective familiar to have.

Well, that's familiars covered. Hopefully you can get a nice little army depending on your play style.

Now that you know your army of familiars and can command them properly, it's time to get geared up and become a powerful little basement dweller. As the title of the build states, this is all about dirty powerups and money. I'll go through them in Alphabetical order.

A Lump of Coal - Quite a common occurence for me. Firstly, you have to defeat Krampus. He's just like The Fallen really except he doesn't split into two. Once you've killed him, you'll get this and you'll run into him a lot more often. He's usually in the Devil Room. Getting this early is good because you tend to stay far away from enemies and that's where this item works well. What this does is, the further the black tears travel, the more damage the shot will deal. If you happen to have rapid fire items, this is a great combo if you stay relatively far away from your enemies.

Box - Not really a vital item to have for the build but if you're lucky, you can get a Tears Up pill, a Full Health pill and a good Trinket. I got The Left Hand Trinket on my run, however you need to have beat Ultra Pride to unlock The Left Hand as he drops it. The Left Hand increases the chances of Red Chests and Gold Chests appearing after completing a room. Red Chests usually contain troll bombs, Soul Hearts, Spiders or Guppy items if you are lucky.

Brimstone - This one is completely optional and if you prefer the barrage of bullets then don't bother with this one, however it is handy sometimes because it can hit lots of enemies at once. Quite useful against Mom's Heart/It Lives when it spawns the enemies.

Dead Bird - Always a good item to have. Now, if you're playing as Eve then she starts the game with this. It's good because when you take damage, the bird is released and will attack nearby enemies. Very handy against bosses because the bird will just hover around the boss, damaging it until it is killed. It's like a familiar but it's really an activated item because you have to take damage for it to work.

Guppy's Head/Paw/Tail - A selection of items here. Guppy's Tail increases the chance of Gold Chests and normal chests appearing but decreases the amount of normal pickups that will spawn. Guppy's Head is an activated item and when you use it, 2-4 blue flies will spawn to assist you. Quite a cool item as the recharge rate is very short. Guppy's Paw is a risky item and you should decide whether or not you want to risk using it. When activated, it exchanges one normal heart for 3 Soul Hearts. Now, here's where it gets good. If you are lucky enough to get all 3 of these in one run, you transform into Guppy himself. Yes, you become a Cat!! When you turn into Guppy, it grants you the ability to fly, it gives you The Mulligan and you unlock Guppy's Hairball. Good luck getting them! (The Left Hand works well for this.)

Magneto - This is a must have item if you can get it early enough as the cave levels and the depths have those awkward items across gaps that you can never seem to reach or items that require you to walk through spikes. This eliminates all the hassle and simply makes the items come to you. Simple and effective if you need money for the shops.

MEAT! - You'll more than likely get this after killing a boss. Not essential but it helps. It increases you life by 1 and it doesn't actually increase your tears, it ups your damage. Just to clear that one up for you.

Mini Mushroom - There are a few variants of the mushroom and all of them are pretty good but this is the one I got on my run and it worked out well. This one increases your speed and range by 1 and also shrinks your hitbox so you can dodge attacks easily. The Beggar will often give you this so make sure to give him your money. You won't regret it.

Mom's Coin Purse - Again, you'll get this after a boss fight. It contains 4 random pills. If you have the PHD, that will give all these positive effects and you might get Tears Up, Full Health or even Health Up. Just luck I guess.

Money=Power - Here's what the build is based on. This can really give you a damage boost. Now don't think that 1 coin = 1 damage because it doesn't. What really happens is for every 10 coins you get, you gain +1 damage. If you get A Dollar, then you are sorted as that gives you 99 coins and you have max damage boost. If not, then the trinkets you want to look out for are Lucky Toe and Counterfeit Penny because these will amass coins quickly. The 2 of Diamonds card also doubles your current amount of coins so use that too. Watch out for Greed and Super Greed though as you will lose 1 coin each time they hit you.

Skeleton Key - Always a good thing to have. Simple really. It gives you 99 keys, so you can open every treasure room and shop. It can be found in treasure rooms and challenge rooms.

Squeezy - A common boss reward. It gives you +1 tears and drops two soul hearts. Always a nice powerup to find, although it does make your character look extremely ugly. Quite a horrible side effect.

Super Bandage - This is an item that acts like the Squeezy but instead of a tears increase, it gives you another heart container and two soul hearts. It is however, a rare boss room reward and to unlock it, you have to kill ALL of The Harbingers in one playthrough. Good luck!

The Mulligan - This is an item that will work very well with your familiars and your high attack rate. Basically, it gives the chance to spawn blue attack flies on successful hits. When the blue flies attack, it also gives those hits a chance to spawn more blue flies. Depending on how high your luck is, you can spawn numerous amounts of blue flies. Your familiars hits also have the chance to spawn blue flies so if you have a lot of them, blue flies will constantly spawn making the boss fights a lot more manageable.

The Small Rock - I always seem to get this item at the start. To unlock it, simply destroy 50 rocks wth bombs. You'll find it in the blue rocks with the X on them. This is an awesome power up because it increases your damage by 2 and increases your tears by one. It does decrease your speed by 1 but if you get the mini mushroom, you don't need to worry. In all honesty I've never noticed a drastic drop in speed after collecting it.

The Virus - One of the dirty syringes in the game, filled with poison it is. It gives Isaac the ability to poison enemies for 2.5 seconds when he touches them. You will take damage but it's handy if you accidently touch one when trying to avoid other enemies. It does decrease your speed so that could happen. The small black flies that don't flash can be killed by running into them with The Virus as they don't hurt you when they touch you.

XRay Vision - A MUST HAVE ITEM! If you get this early on, then this completely eliminates the need to blow up walls with bombs to try and find secret rooms because it reveals them for you. This means you can find all the coins, powerups, hearts and mini bosses and reap the rewards.

9 Volt - This is an item that will help you with The Dice method as it charges two bars of your item after using it, meaning you have to complete less rooms before using it again. If your item isn't charged when you buy this item then it will fully charge it for you. Good item :)

Well, that's all the items I used and it made this build very effective. As I said in the beginning of this guide, mess around with some items and mix it up. See what damage bonuses are possible. Maybe try to work Polyphemus and Mutant Spider in there somewhere. 4 GIANT TEARS!

Thank you very much for taking the time to read my guide. I hope this helps. Whether you are a newbie basement dweller or a pro looking to experiment, I think it caters to all.

I look forward to seeing gruesome creations from the Steam Community :D

Jason 'MouseCat' Vickers