Red Redemption

**Red Redemption** is challenge #44. The goal is to defeat Mother. This challenge is unlocked by unlocking  Tainted Jacob.

Level generation in this challenge works very differently than normal. Tainted Jacob begins in a starting room without doors, and other rooms are generated in small clusters that are disconnected from each other and must be located by using the . Each floor generates like a Curse of the Labyrinth floor with one Shop, two Boss Rooms, and two Treasure Rooms, each connected to a group of normal rooms. Defeating either Boss will spawn a trapdoor that leads to the next chapter. Chapter 4, however, will not have special rooms other than the single Boss room where Mother resides. All rooms may be from any floor in the current chapter (for example, in Chapter 1, rooms may be from the Basement, Cellar, Burning Basement, Downpour, or Dross). This applies to both pre-generated rooms and new rooms made using the Red Key.

The  also works differently than normal. It starts in Jacob's consumable slot and can be used any number of times with no recharge. The Red Key can not be used to create a door to the I AM ERROR room.

After using the Red Key 20 times on a single floor, Dark Esau will spawn. The Red Key's charge bar displays how many uses it has left until this happens, rather than the item's actual charge. Another Dark Esau will spawn every 5 additional uses of the Red Key, as long as Jacob is not in his The Lost form. If he is, no more Dark Esaus will spawn.

Sacrifice Rooms will grant Tainted Jacob rewards as usual, but they will not teleport him to the Dark Room.

 and  are not required to finish the challenge, however, Knife Piece 1 can still be encountered in an item room.

## Strategy

* Try to avoid depleting 's charge without covering a lot of ground. Each red room entered will be able to check the adjacent three rooms to see if they are normal rooms, so spacing apart paths of red rooms in straight lines, at least two rooms apart, will grant the most information per use of the key.

* This challenge is like Blackjack, as it's preferable to visit as many rooms as possible, as they give you consumables or even extra items while making sure you don't go over the allotted amount of uses of the Red Key given per floor before Dark Esau spawns.

* Most special rooms have at least one normal room next to them that are free to go into. Mapping abilities will show you the locations of either the special rooms or the clusters of rooms where they can be found, allowing you to minimize aimless wandering and potential Dark Esau encounters.
	+ , , and  are the most useful items for this purpose, allowing an optimal route to be planned on every floor to visit as many rooms as possible to get more items and therefore a greater chance of winning.
	+ is also useful to help find regular rooms, item rooms, shops, and boss rooms.
	+ acts like a weaker version of The Compass for the purposes of this run, as it reveals one boss room, and beating the boss will show the rest of the rooms on the floor.
	+ Many cards can help reveal parts of the map, so items that increase the amount of cards found such as  are useful. Obtaining  or  will identify all rooms for a floor, while , , and  cards will locate a specific important room via teleportation, and  will allow the reuse of these cards. Similar utility could be gained from  to obtain the , but they will be considerably scarcer compared to cards.
	+ It is very risky to take unidentified Pills during this challenge, as getting an Amnesia will make it much harder to find your way around.

* Due to the fact that starting items in this challenge cannot be changed, rerolling your character through the use of the , the , or other means such as a Dice Room is safe to do, unlike using the

* Any means of teleportation works surprisingly well in this challenge: random teleportation will NOT teleport you to any red room, including already opened ones. This will almost guarantee that you will teleport into either special rooms themselves (treasure, shop, boss, etc) or rooms adjacent to them, saving lots of red key charges in the progression.  and  both work, while  is the most efficient while in combination with certain active items that can be infinitely used (like ).

* is a strong item, as it acts as a reliable source for health and Devil Deal items.

* If you are okay with Dark Esau chasing you, you can use it 5 more times before another one spawns, as well as an extra means of damage for the boss of the floor.

* You do not need to fight Mother to finish this challenge, it is enough to fight any boss on the last floor. Using a  card will present a different boss, and the fight will still drop a trophy. It also drops a trophy while having the boss be any available for Chapter 4. It is also possible to enter a trapdoor, created from , a , or found in a Dirty Bedroom, to go to Sheol and fight Satan, where the challenge will end.

* **Do not** transform into other characters during this challenge, as this will remove the Red Key and eventually make you unable to progress through floors.
* Using  is a potential full clear of a floor, but is risky if Jacob has turned into his The Lost form, especially in Caves, where mushroom explosions may kill you on the room instantly.

* is very useful in this challenge because it has a chance to open red rooms after a room is completed, saving Red Key uses.
* If possible, try not to let Dark Esau spawn on the last floor, otherwise you'll have to fight Mother while he annoys you. Since Mother is a bullet hell boss, you'll have a hard time surviving.

* Most types of special rooms can be encountered as red rooms, so if you are willing to explore (considering the risks it implies), you might find very useful stuff such as more Treasure Rooms, Shops, etc.
* If  is used, the Red Key fully recharges, allowing infinite uses without having to worry about Dark Esau.
* The familiar  proves itself to be very useful in this challenge, since making this familiar consume four pickups will make it spawn a portal to a random uncleared room of the main map, saving Red Key charges. These portals still persist at the same spot and will bring you to the same room, therefore also allowing quick travel after exploring the floor. When all main rooms of the floor are cleared, the familiar's next portals will simply throw you back out upon trying to enter them.
	+ Note that the rooms which the portals take you to are determined upon their generation, so it is recommended that you clear every main room you can currently get to before creating the next one to bring you to a different part of the main map, in order to avoid creating unnecessary portals.

## Notes

* Secret rooms of any type will not be generated in this challenge.
* Unlike usual, The Boss Rooms might be connected to more than one non-red room.
* Although you cannot get Angel Rooms or Devil Rooms from bosses, it's still possible to encounter them as red rooms.
* will split all Dark Esaus in two. However, it does not split Dark Esaus that spawned prior to pickup.
* Planetarium can be generated in this challenge.

## Reward

* The Hermit - Complete **Red Redemption (challenge #44)**.

## Trivia

* This challenge's name is a reference to the game *Red Dead Redemption*.