Greed Mode

**Greed mode** is a game mode introduced in *The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth*.

## Gameplay

In Greed mode, each floor has a Curse Room, a Devil Room/Angel Room, a double-wide Shop, and an exit room all connected to a main double-height arena room with a button in the center. A Super Secret Room is also connected to one of the rooms. Up until the penultimate floor, an already unlocked Treasure Room with a silver door frame and a normal locked Treasure Room are also available. The silver Treasure Room always gives items from the Boss pool. The sixth floor (The Shop) does not have any Treasure Rooms but does have the Shop and Curse Rooms. The final seventh floor has no waves and contains only three rooms, the largest of which contains the game mode's final boss.

When playing Greed Mode, a yellow coin () will appear on the HUD, below the consumables.

### Shop

As there are no normal drops in Greed mode, the Shop becomes Isaac's primary source of items and pickups. Shops in Greed mode automatically restock. Shops will always have six items/pickups for sale, sometimes discounted; in order from the left side of the room to the right, these will always be:

* A Key
* A red heart
* A Shop item
* A Boss item
* Two random pickups, trinkets, or items from the Treasure Room pool.

There will also almost always be two Shopkeepers near the center of the room, as sometimes just one special shopkeeper spawns instead.

### Layouts

The following room maps were made using Basement Renovator for cleaner viewing.

There is an overall ~71.42% chance (15/21) that a shop will have a restock box.

### Arena

The 1x2 room in the center of all floors except the final one is the Arena, where most of the game mode’s coins and enemies come from. These rooms always have a button in the center that, when pressed, bars all the doors and starts spawning waves of enemies and coins. While active, the button has a timer underneath it that counts down; when the timer runs out or all enemies in the current wave are killed, the next wave spawns. This continues until wave 8 or 10 is reached, Isaac dies, or Isaac presses the button again. Pressing the button before all the waves have spawned deals half a heart of damage to Isaac (or removes 1 penny from the next wave if playing as  The Lost or  Tainted Lost) and stops the timer that causes waves to spawn automatically. Once the timer stops and all remaining enemies are killed, the doors re-open. The button can then be reactivated to continue progressing through the waves. All waves except the optional “nightmare” wave must be completed for the door to the next floor to open.

For the first 8 waves, the timer will start at a set time and then increase by 1 second for subsequent waves. For Basement and Caves, the clock starts at 6 seconds. For Depths, the clock starts at 5 seconds. For Womb, the clock starts at 4 seconds. For Sheol and **The Shop**, the clock starts back at 6 seconds again. The first boss wave is set at 30 seconds on all floors.

The enemies spawned by each wave are determined by the wave number and current floor. For the initial set of eight waves, the first three waves will use the floor’s “easy” enemy pool, the three waves after that use the floor’s “medium” enemy pool, and the last two waves use the floor’s “hard” enemy pool. For the ending two waves, the first wave uses the floor’s “easy boss” pool, and the second wave uses the floor’s “medium boss” pool. Upon completing the second boss wave of the floor, an optional nightmare boss wave, which uses the floor’s “hard boss” pool, can be started by pushing the button again. Clearing the wave grants access to the floor’s Devil Room/Angel Room. Note that “boss” pools can include multiple (mini)bosses spread out across the room.

 Enemies can spawn as Champions as normal, but will not drop pickups, with the exception of The Hollow's gold champion, which drops coins as normal. Rainbow champions drop consumables too, albeit only appear in Sheol in  Greedier version of the mode.

At the start of each wave (except possibly the last, optional one), Pennies are dropped on the ground, which Isaac can use in the Shop to purchase items and pickups. Waves 1-3, 5, 6, and 8 drop 2 pennies, waves 4 and 7 drop 3 pennies, the first boss wave drops 4 pennies, and the second boss wave drops 5 pennies. The mob waves give a total of 18 coins and the boss waves give a total of 9 coins, for a floor total of 27 coins.

Something to note is that the "deal" wave drops a coin very, very infrequently.

Each new wave counts as a new 'room' for purposes of item charges, familiars dropping items or the like. However, one-room temporary effects, such as , will remain across waves, and items that activate upon entering a new room will not activate when a new wave starts.

* is an exception and will activate each time the button is pressed to start a wave.

## Floors

Greed mode has seven total floors, five of which are based on floors found in the main game. These floors are Basement, Caves, Depths, Womb, Sheol, a unique floor called **The Shop**, and the final boss floor. Each floor will spawn enemies and bosses native to that floor in the main game, except for The Shop, which has no counterpart outside of Greed mode. Instead, The Shop spawns mostly Greed enemies, but can also spawn enemies from any floor. The Shop is the only normal floor which does not contain Treasure Rooms.

 Greed mode floors can appear as their variants with unique waves including Burning Basement, Cellar, Flooded Caves, Catacombs, Dank Depths, Necropolis, Utero, and Scarred Womb.

## Ultra Greed

The Ultra Greed floor contains only three rooms: An empty starting room, a Mini-Boss Room in which multiple Greeds, Super Greed, Wrath or Monstro will spawn, and the final Boss Room containing Ultra Greed.

After Ultra Greed has been defeated, turning him into a golden statue, a Final Boss Chest to end the level and the Greed Donation Machine will spawn. Isaac is given the chance to donate his remaining money to the Greed Machine, which will unlock several rewards including the  Keeper character.

## Greedier Mode

Greedier mode is a harder version of Greed mode. When playing Greedier mode, a small, red stained coin () will appear on the HUD, below the consumables.

You must  Donate 500 Coins to the Greed Donation Machine to unlock it.

Greedier mode changes gameplay in the following ways:

* An additional “hard” wave is added to the initial set of 8 waves, bringing it up to 9.
* The time the clock starts at is shorter (with the exception for Basement and Caves' mob waves).
	+ For Basement, the clock starts at 8 seconds. For Caves, the clock starts at 6 seconds. For Depths, the clock starts at 4 seconds. For Womb, the clock starts at 3 seconds. For Sheol and **The Shop**, the clock starts at 2 seconds. The first boss wave is set at 14 seconds on all floors.
* Coin drops per wave are modified to give fewer coins overall.
	+ Waves 1-3, 5, 6, and 8 drop 1 penny.
	+ Waves 4, 7, and 9 drop 2 pennies. (total 12 coins from mob waves)
	+ The first boss wave drops 4 pennies.
	+ The second boss wave drops 6 pennies. (total 10 coins from boss waves, or 22 for the floor)
	+ The nightmare boss wave very rarely drops a coin.
* Basic enemies have a chance to be champions. They will not drop pickups, unlike the regular game.
* The final boss gains a second phase.
* The Greed Donation Machine's chance to jam is greatly reduced, making it much easier to fill out.

Greedier mode unlockables were separate from Greed mode unlockables; however, as of Booster Pack #5, completing Greedier Mode with a character will also unlock the corresponding Greed mode unlockable.

Despite being a "hard" version of Greed, most hard mode rules from the vanilla gamemode don't apply.

## Unlockable Achievements

### Greed Mode

* Lil' Chest - Defeat Ultra Greed as  Isaac.

* Censer - Defeat Ultra Greed as  Magdalene.

* Evil Eye - Defeat Ultra Greed as  Cain.

* My Shadow - Defeat Ultra Greed as  Judas.

* Cracked Dice - Defeat Ultra Greed as  ???.

* Black Feather - Defeat Ultra Greed as  Eve.

* Lusty Blood - Defeat Ultra Greed as  Samson.

* Lilith - Defeat Ultra Greed as  Azazel.

* Key Bum - Defeat Ultra Greed as  Lazarus.

* GB Bug - Defeat Ultra Greed as  Eden.

* Zodiac - Defeat Ultra Greed as  The Lost.

* Box of Friends - Defeat Ultra Greed as  Lilith.

* Rib of Greed - Defeat Ultra Greed as  Keeper.

* Brown Nugget - Defeat Ultra Greed as  Apollyon.

* Finger Bone - Defeat Ultra Greed as  The Forgotten.

* Soul Locket - Defeat Ultra Greed as  Bethany.

* Inner Child - Defeat Ultra Greed as  Jacob and Esau.

###  Greedier Mode

Completing Greedier Mode with a character will unlock the corresponding Greed Mode unlockable if it hasn't been unlocked.

* D1 - Defeat Ultra Greedier as  Isaac.

* Glyph of Balance - Defeat Ultra Greedier as  Magdalene.

* Sack of Sacks - Defeat Ultra Greedier as  Cain.

* Eye of Belial - Defeat Ultra Greedier as  Judas.

* Meconium - Defeat Ultra Greedier as  ???.

* Crow Heart - Defeat Ultra Greedier as  Eve.

* Stem Cell - Defeat Ultra Greedier as  Samson.

* Bat Wing - Defeat Ultra Greedier as  Azazel.

* Plan C - Defeat Ultra Greedier as  Lazarus.

* Metronome - Defeat Ultra Greedier as  Eden.

* Dad's Lost Coin - Defeat Ultra Greedier as  The Lost.

* Duality - Defeat Ultra Greedier as  Lilith.

* Eye of Greed - Defeat Ultra Greedier as  Keeper.

* Black Rune - Defeat Ultra Greedier as  Apollyon.

* Dad's Ring - Defeat Ultra Greedier as  The Forgotten.

* Vade Retro - Defeat Ultra Greedier as  Bethany.

* Genesis - Defeat Ultra Greedier as  Jacob and Esau.

* The Fool - Defeat Ultra Greedier as  Tainted Lost.

* The Magician - Defeat Ultra Greedier as  Tainted Judas.

* The High Priestess - Defeat Ultra Greedier as  Tainted Lilith.

* The Empress - Defeat Ultra Greedier as  Tainted Eve.

* The Emperor - Defeat Ultra Greedier as  Tainted ???.

* The Hierophant - Defeat Ultra Greedier as  Tainted Bethany.

* The Lovers - Defeat Ultra Greedier as  Tainted Magdalene.

* Wheel of Fortune - Defeat Ultra Greedier as  Tainted Cain.

* Strength - Defeat Ultra Greedier as  Tainted Samson.

* The Hanged Man - Defeat Ultra Greedier as  Tainted Keeper.

* Death - Defeat Ultra Greedier as  Tainted Forgotten.

* The Devil - Defeat Ultra Greedier as  Tainted Azazel.

* The Tower - Defeat Ultra Greedier as  Tainted Apollyon.

* The Stars - Defeat Ultra Greedier as  Tainted Isaac.

* The Sun and the Moon - Defeat Ultra Greedier as  Tainted Jacob.

* Judgement - Defeat Ultra Greedier as  Tainted Lazarus.

* The World - Defeat Ultra Greedier as  Tainted Eden.

### Greed Machine

* Lucky Pennies - Donate 2 Coins to the Greed Donation Machine.

* Special Hanging Shopkeepers - Donate 14 Coins to the Greed Donation Machine.

* Wooden Nickel - Donate 33 Coins to the Greed Donation Machine.

* Cain holds Paperclip - Donate 68 Coins to the Greed Donation Machine.

* Everything is Terrible 2!!! - Donate 111 Coins to the Greed Donation Machine.

* Special Shopkeepers - Donate 234 Coins to the Greed Donation Machine.

* Eve now holds Razor Blade - Donate 439 Coins to the Greed Donation Machine.

* Greedier! - Donate 500 Coins to the Greed Donation Machine.

* Store Key - Donate 666 Coins to the Greed Donation Machine.

* Lost holds Holy Mantle - Donate 879 Coins to the Greed Donation Machine.

* Generosity - Donate 999 Coins to the Greed Donation Machine.

* Keeper - Donate 1000 Coins to the Greed Donation Machine.

## Tips

* Flight will not prevent damage from the spiked stop button unless the player is  The Lost,  Tainted Lost, or  Tainted Forgotten.
	+ However, a Penny is deducted from the next round of rewards if the button is pressed as  The Lost or  Tainted Lost. It is possible to negate this by triggering the button and surviving until all waves have spawned before quitting out. When you reload the save, all of the coins will be on the ground. Pressing the button again will start the waves from wave 1. You can now press the button to cancel waves with no loss of coins.
* Items with effects that only persist in the room are especially useful in Greed mode. Complete all waves in one go to maximize their efficiency. Examples of such items include , , , , , and .
* Being teleported by the Curse of the Maze can open the exit door without needing to complete the floor, allowing large portions of a run to be skipped.
* Only a half heart of damage is taken in floors beyond chapter 3, a feature unique to Greed mode.
	+ This makes items such as  substantially less useful, since there is a limited number of enemies that could cause more than a half heart of damage. However, they can still be used for the Ultra Greed boss fight, since all of his attacks deal a full heart of damage.
* Killing all the enemies before the timer resets doesn't increase the number of coins produced.
* It as advised destroying polyps | mushrooms, all sorts of fireplaces / skulls and even some of the more ordinary obstacles sometimes, before or during fights to prevent potential unavoidable damage.
* It is also often a good idea to get rid of pickups on the ground if possible, as they could be handicapping your ability to aim | dodge in a relatively cramped arena.
* Due to the fact that the mode lacks a presence of rocks, finding crawlspaces is way easier.
* Using keys or bombs | buying them for 5 cents to open golden / stone chests is almost always worth it since it can give items for 5 cents, give you back spent resources twofold or even grant you .
* Trying to stay somewhere in the middle of the room is pretty smart as it allows you to see pretty much everything in the arena from the bird's eye view, as well as avoiding potential instant damage. Same goes for firing your tears 24/7, sometimes just not attacking [especially as a new wave is about to start] is the play as it allows you to not accidentally injure yourself by immediately killing a bomb champion and else.
* "The Shop" penultimate chapter tends to spawn a lot of shopkeeper entities throughout the waves, which can be blown up for extra cash.
* The dead shop keepers have a very low chance of dropping  |  and other useful outcomes when bombed.
* Sometimes spending the acquired pennies may be wiser on the next floor. Certain collectible items, hearts or keys may be on sale a depth below, which saves money compared to refilling them when not yet necessary.
* Any form of homing is tremendous in this gamemode as its' effect covers a relatively large part of the arena.
* "Ace of" cards are very helpful to use on spawning enemies — be it to heal up or gain resources.
* There are methods of achieving infinite coins/items. Although difficult to coordinate, and sometimes heavily reliant on luck, these methods can practically guarantee a successful run. These strategies can be combined with  to allow stronger items to be obtained more easily.
	+ Method #1: Requires a  card, the , a Shop selling Lil' Batteries, and enough coins to buy one. This allows infinite coin count doubling with no drawback.
	+ Method #2: Requires a , the , a Shop selling Lil' Batteries, and enough coins to buy one. Similar to the first method, but instead of doubling Isaac's currently held coins, this method allows for infinite duplication of Pennies dropped during waves.
		- Since  no longer copies the ability of the runes, this method no longer works with , so instead you need  in place of , a Shop selling Lil' Batteries, and enough coins to buy two, as Clear Rune requires 12 charges to copy effect of .
	+ Method #3: Use  or the  on a . This will allow Isaac to take as many items as desired for free.
		- This method is no longer infinite, as stacking multiple  uses a new algorithm.
	+ Method #4: Requires  and a discounted red heart (2c). Use the curse door by entering and exiting right after losing only half a red heart and spawning a coin. By repeating the process long enough you can get infinite coins,  being able to spawn 5c and 10c coins and being guaranteed 1c per half red heart. If  is held, this method can be performed without a discounted red heart as the number of coins spawned by  will be doubled.
* The  can be used in tandem with Lil' Batteries to re-roll all Pennies dropped during combat, some of which will become Grab Bags or chests. The process can then be repeated indefinitely.
	+ As the D20 re-rolls all opened chests into pickups, chests should not be opened unless the D20 is fully charged.
	+ Using the D20 in conjunction with the  will destroy all pickups in the room; as such, the D20 should not be picked up while playing as  Bethany.
* In Greedier mode, upon defeating Ultra Greedier, all poops, whether destroyed, damaged or intact, will be converted into Golden Poops.
	+ As a result,  can be used to guarantee a large source of coins for the Greed Donation Machine.
		- Poops spawned inside of the Ultra Greedier fight are turned into yellow colored poops, and drop normal brown poop pickups.
* Common display resolutions, such as 1920x1080 with aspect ratio 16:9, will show only part of the arena in fullscreen mode. Switching to windowed mode and then resizing the window makes it possible to keep an eye on the entire arena while playing.

### Helpful Items

* As mentioned above, all items that grant a temporary buff or benefit that expire once Isaac leaves the room are extremely powerful in Greed mode, as these effects can last an entire floor's worth of waves, and some can be stacked.
* : Skips an entire floor & potentially saves the run by giving helpful stuff if you were poor in the first place, including a bunch of coins in its' area potentially.
* : Renders any money-related issues nonexistent and extremely helpful to avoid going bankrupt.
* : Gives you an abundance of money.
* : This item helps massively considering how pretty much the entire dynamic of the mode is trying your best to buy necessary power.
* and : Help you stay afloat with red HP &  is easily agitated with such a large amount of enemies, potentially helping you heal up in its' angriest form.
* or : Could help steal items.
* : Useful as you can spawn multiple turrets lasting through waves.
* helps you get out of trouble scot-free as long as you have other items doing your bidding.
* Beelzebub transformation is very useful as it helps prevent unavoidable damage from off-screen brimstone flight, as well as giving you an army of flies helping you clear waves while you just fly by.
* and  are insanely useful, practically making you unstoppable.
* and : Godsent, granting exclusively good offers from the items most of the time.
* : Incredibly useful, granting a huge damage up for a very long time.
* : As long as you don't leave arena at the start of a floor, you can do the waves to get richer first, before going into Stairway's deal.
* : Gives you a persistent source of help during all the waves.
* and  linger between waves, angry fly just doesn't let go off enemies, making them very helpful.
* : Triggers every 4 waves.
* : cleans up the mess fast as well as preventing hits with high likely-hood.
* : Gives you breathing room while enemies get repurposed, while also making your life easier with weaker versions of them.
* +  Tainted Cain: Purchasing an on-sale item over and over while having Birthright results in almost infinite consumables.
* : Charms every enemy when hit, allowing an entire wave to be cleared at the cost of one hit.
* : Not very helpful outside of removing darkness and blind from items, but when it finally becomes useful it does help a ton.
* , and : Since the mode prevents telefragging for a tiny amount of time even if enemies spawn on top of you - the contact damage trait of that item becomes very useful to instantly kill those that spawn on you with no consequences, however it can turn out badly if said monsters are explosive.
* and  help a lot due to the nature of the game.
* helps a lot to create an army of Meat Boys. Both Meat Boy and Bandage Girl make your life significantly easier to the point clearing waves becomes a walk in the park.
* helps a lot since you can use it every single wave.
* : Spawns bone orbitals or charmed Bonies when there are killed enemies in a room. Making this item especially useful after the first 8 rounds and before the boss rounds.
* : The D20 is a one-item game breaker as long as the Shop has a Lil' Battery available. See the tips section above for more information.
* : Incredibly powerful in Greed Mode, as the dice can now be toggled to mimic the effects of the , , and the , allowing Isaac to quickly gain consumables and reroll items.
* : Dark Arts can be used to press the button without taking any damage, kill many enemies with each activation, and have the item be constantly recharged with each wave.
	+ While playing as  Tainted Judas, each enemy or projectile ran into will grant a damage buff. With the sheer amount of enemies appearing, especially in Greedier, Tainted Judas will gain an immense damage buff and can kill huge swaths of enemies with ease. Additionally, this is even more potent against Ultra Greed, as you can run through the many Greed Gapers summoned to gain even greater damage buff, as the Gapers will be clustered very closely together.
* : Incredibly powerful, as it can be activated multiple times in the same room.
* , and especially are very useful due to the nature of gamemode's gimmick.
* : Can deal room-wide damage every 5 seconds, as well as giving you free bombs to blow up shopkeepers & secret room walls.
* : Filling the room with flames before pushing the button will quickly kill all enemies and bosses.
	+ This method is no longer effective because the flames now extinguish after a set time.
* : Allows Isaac to easily gain a lot more money very quickly, as it can be used once per wave. If the  is also picked up, Isaac can use activate the item once every 15 seconds to gain infinite money as long as there is an enemy left in the room.
* : constantly re-entering the arena helps consistently sustain effect every single floor except the very last one.
* : can be used to get a powerful item like by re-entering the arena.
* ,  and all other penny trinkets are useful due to the nature of Greed Mode. Even  is useful if you're trying to teleport into the exit door of the floor ; Although it is wise to take all money before picking the trinket up, and only using it with 1 coin left.
* : makes clearing the floors a breeze,  is a Godsent due to lack of items in the mode and the  helps dealing with hordes of enemies as well.

### Unhelpful Items

* : Only grants a shield for the two boss fights on the final level. The shield does not activate for the regular boss waves on previous floors.
* : This item does almost nothing in Greed Mode, despite being able to be obtained from the Greed Mode Treasure Room.
	+ Due to its ability to destroy Shopkeepers, Camo Undies can net you some extra pennies or nickels from shops each floor. Its' new effect in Repentance also nets you a risk | reward dynamic as long as you re-enter the arena. You risk by losing money but get rewarded by clearing the waves easier.
* :While it does provide a damage up, it also quadruples the chance for champion enemies to appear, while not being able to profit from any extra pickups dropping from champions.
* : Very few rocks to reroll, however, can be abused to force a hatch to the next floor.
* : You're already guaranteed an Angel or Devil deal each floor, so all this does is ensures that it's an Angel Deal.
* : This item is substantially less useful in Greed Mode, due to the scarcity of chests.
* : This item has no effect in Greed Mode other than counting towards the Guppy Transformation.
* : Only triggers once without leaving the room, however can still be useful to make use of curse rooms for free ; As well as stepping on the spikey button with no consequences.
* : Very few rocks to throw.
* : The explosion will only trigger once per room, making it effectively useless in Greed Mode after the first activation.
* : In Greed Mode, this item effectively becomes . Other map-related items such as  and  are negated completely irrelevant.
* : Using the item in Greed Mode will freeze all enemies but will not pause the timer. New waves of enemies will continue to spawn even while the effect is active.
* : Will show red door outlines, but cannot generate normal red rooms, leaving only special rooms as a rare possibility. The red outlines can be used to find the Secret Room, however.
* : Only Ultra Greed, Champion enemies, spikes, and certain enemies deal 1 heart of damage.
* : Virtually useless, especially considering how pretty much none of the champions drop any pickups.
* doesn't show the outcomes for the boss waves and is bugged in the way that it doesn't show the right items, making it absolutely useless with the exception of half a soul heart on every floor entrance.
* : doesn't drop more money during the waves & is only potentially useful if you manage to find 2 of Diamonds card, which is pretty rare already.

## Gallery

* Concept for Greed mode room layouts and mechanics by Edmund McMillen.
* Edmund McMillen's sketch of the Greed mode layout.
* Sketch of the Greed mode store layout.

## Trivia

* Ultra Greed’s theme, named “Chorus Mortus”, is a remix of the main menu theme.
* During Greedier mode, beating Ultra Greedier with poop in the room turns it into golden *colored* poops, however, it'll drop normal brown poop pickups.
* Greed Mode is the only place in the game where  doesn't drop .
* Despite being possible to make, red rooms will only open if a generated one is a special one, or if you're on the final floor. Red Rooms on the last floor are just empty with no contents inside.
* Lucky pennies never drop during any of the waves.
* Unlike vanilla gamemode, deal precedent only applies after doing the "hellish" wave, even if a deal was already seen via a red chest or Joker teleport.
* is both a blessing and a curse since it helps to always find secret rooms for free and destroy polyps to avoid damage that out of your hands ; however it is bad for  The Lost and  Tainted Lost because you effectively can't hide inside rocks anymore.
* Both  and  are very useful throughout the entire run but harm you severely during the final boss fight by giving Ultra Greed and  Ultra Greedier a consistent way to heal themselves.
* is a double edged sword in the mode as it essentially forces you to choose between buying shop items | saving coins for Greed donation machine or keeping it for empowerment in form of money itself.
* Isaac doesn't have the animation of jumping inside a golden chest in the end, possibly drawing a parallel with the ending in which he gets stucked inside a cave, becoming Greed. Possibly referencing how Isaac was thinking about his Dad all the time during his lifetime, practically getting obsessed with the divorce situation.