Esau Jr.

**Esau Jr.** is an unlockable activated item added in *The Binding of Isaac: Repentance*.

## Effects

* When used, swaps between the current character and Esau Jr., who has three Black Hearts, +2 flat damage, and flight.
	+ Despite starting with only black hearts, Esau Jr. is able to gain heart containers if the original character could.
* Coins, Bombs, and Key are shared between the two characters, but everything else (including hearts, items, cards/pills, and trinkets) are not shared and apply only to the character that collects them.
	+ Esau Jr. will have the same base stats, character-specific abilities, and inherent passive starting items (such as  Lilith's blindfold and ) as the original character.
		- The only exception is  Eden/ Tainted Eden, who will have different stats and passive starting items.
* When used for the first time, Esau Jr. immediately gains random items equal to the number of items the original character had.
	+ Each new item will come from the same item pool the respective original item was taken from, similarly to the .
	+ Substitute Trinkets, Cards, Pills, and/or Active items are not given; only passive items are.
	+ Quest items like  are not included when counting the number of items.
	+ Pickups that would normally be generated by the new items will not drop when Esau Jr. is first used.
* If either character dies, they both die, regardless of whether the other character has any remaining health.

## Notes

* Esau Jr. will not keep any passive starting items the original character had, and they won't count towards the number of items Esau Jr. will get.
	+ However, active items in the original character's consumable slot will still be given to Esau Jr in his consumable slot (such as  Tainted Magdalene's  or  Tainted Judas' ).
* If the original character was only able to use certain kinds of hearts for health (such as  ???,  Keeper, or  The Forgotten), Esau Jr. will only be able to use the hearts the original character could.
* Unlike revival items like , , , or , Esau Jr. is still treated as the character he swapped from for the purposes of Post It Notes.
* If a character has an Eternal Heart, then that character must be active when going to a new floor to have the eternal heart turn into a heart container.
* If the original character doesn't fly and you swap to it on some part of the room only reachable by flying (i.e. beyond some water), you won't be able to leave (unless you can swap back to Esau Jr. or teleport by any means), effectively going into a softlock. This situation can be worked around by exiting and continuing the game, as the character appears next to a door.

## Interactions

* Bethany: Esau Jr. will have one heart container, but can still gain heart containers up to the character's normal cap. Soul Hearts will still be used as soul charges instead of health.
* /  /  /  /  /  /  / : The character that has the item must be active going to a new floor for it to have its effect.
	+ In the case of Luna, the character that has the item must also be active going into Secret Rooms for them to spawn beams of light. However, either character can then enter the beam of light to gain tears and soul hearts.
* : Spawns a black wisp when used to turn into Esau Jr. that is otherwise identical to a normal one; turning back into the original character spawns a normal wisp. Each form will retain their own set of wisps.
* : No effect.
* /  / : Will affect the items given to Esau Jr. when used for the first time, but will not affect subsequent uses. Item generation is only affected if the character that has it is currently active.
* : If multiple copies of Esau Jr. are used, starting from the fifth one, instead of activating its regular effect, the item is consumed and spawns a special familiar that behaves like , but deals 7.5 damage per shot with higher fire rate.
	+ Multiple copies of the item can easily be obtained with , as using Esau Jr. while holding this trinket will spawn an additional copy of the item.
* The Forgotten: Esau Jr. will have one empty bone heart and three black hearts if used as The Forgotten, and one additional empty bone heart if used as  The Soul.
* : Using Genesis as Esau Jr. will revert back to the original character.
* Keeper /  Tainted Keeper: Esau Jr. will have two coin heart containers, but only one is filled.
* : The character that holds Lost Soul must be the one to enter a new floor to get its rewards.
* : Activates Esau Jr. before the active character takes damage, redirecting the damage to the inactive character. The item's charge is used in the process.
* : The extra active item will continue to be held by the character that has Schoolbag. However, it cannot gain charges through any means until the character becomes active again.
* Tainted Cain: Each item given to Esau Jr. on the first use is based on the item pool of the last spawned item pedestal before each item is crafted. Esau Jr. starts with a separate bag of crafting that has its own inventory and starts empty. The crafting inventories of both characters are saved. Other abilities are unchanged.
* Tainted Eden: Taking damage will visually turn Esau Jr. back into Tainted Eden, but will maintain Esau Jr.'s flight and flat damage bonus.
* Tainted Jacob: Tainted Jacob and Esau Jr. both become ghosts if any of them get touched by Dark Esau.
* Tainted Magdalene: Esau Jr.'s starting black hearts will quickly drain down to half a heart; he must obtain heart containers while in this form to have any survivability.
* Tainted Lost: Esau Jr. has the same health mechanics as Tainted Lost and cannot gain heart containers. He doesn't start with a .
* : Will be absorbed by Void, but will not transform Isaac into Esau Jr. on subsequent uses, rendering it useless.

## Gallery

* The Esau Jr. familiar created by using 5 duplicates of the item.