Achievement Tips

## Common Achievement Guides

Consult the specific character's page for tips on unlocking a specific character, as well as tips on playing that character. Each completion mark's page has additional tips for the specific encounter.

For completing or unlocking a challenge, refer to the challenge's specific page.

Tips for filling the Donation Machine and Greed Donation Machine are on those pages.

Most other achievements involve doing a basic task repeatedly or having a lucky combination of items, and will be gained with natural play.

## Super Meat Boy & Super Bandage Girl

*See Unlocking Super Meat Boy & Super Bandage Girl.*

## Lachryphagy

Lachryphagy is unlocked by obtaining 10 Tears Up Items/Pills in one run. In normal gameplay this can be extremely rare, and is most often earned accidentally by obtaining this many items by chance. The following are some strategies for obtaining the achievement:

* Each item collected counts towards the Achievement. Dropping a tears up an item will not count against the total. Progress towards the achievement is only tied to items and pills, and is not directly tied to the actual tears stat. As such, reaching the tear cap or collecting Tears Down pills or items will not count against the achievement.
* Lazarus starts with a pill, so restarting repeatedly until they have a Tears Up pill ensures that the pill type will be available during the run. From there, prioritizing ,  and  will allow them to generate more of these pills. This can be much easier to do in Greed mode, as you can often reroll the shop items until you find these, as well as repeatedly buy pills until another Tears Up one appears.
* Tainted Cain can craft items that count towards the achievement.
* Obtaining a large number of items, then repeatedly rerolling them such as by using  can allow Isaac to get more Tears Up items. Losing a Tears Up item this way will not count against the achievement.
* A Golden Pill can be used if Tears Up is not a part of the current run's Pill pool, where when used repeatedly can grant many Tears Up bonuses, but this is very luck-based.
* Many Tears Up items come from the Item Room and Boss Room pools.  and  can be found in the Devil Deal and Curse Room Pools, whilst  can only be found in the Angel Pool, and  is the only item in the Secret Room Pool that counts towards the achievement. This means collecting as many boss room drops as possible is preferred, but in general going after all item pools is a good idea. The odds of getting tears up items from boss drops can be increased by using  successfully, and  on specific floors.

Only items internally tagged tearsup, as well as any Tears Up pills, will count towards unlocking Lachryphagy. This includes the following items.

Note that no active items count towards unlocking Lachryphagy.

The following items do not count towards unlocking Lachryphagy, despite increasing tears:

## Obscure Challenge Achievements

These achievements involve performing a specific task without prompting.

 5 Nights at Mom's
Get a 5-win streak, using a different character for each win.  3-win streak, using a different character for each win.
Win Streaks count all types of ending including Greed mode.
Intentionally beating Isaac (Boss) or Satan without the item to continue to chapter 6 counts as a win.
Beating Mom's Heart (before unlocking It Lives) counts as a win. If enough characters have been unlocked, consider going for this achievement early on in a new save file.
Resetting the run in any way will break the streak. An exception to this is if the player exits their current run and starts a challenge, then starts a normal run again. As challenges aren't part of the win streaks, but still replace the currently saved run, this allows to start a new run without the last, now deleted run, counting as a loss. This may be used to select another character or reset for better Items.

 ZIP!
Defeat The Lamb in under 20 minutes.
The Dark Room can be quickly reached by hitting the Sacrifice Room spikes 12 times. Consider using  Azazel for quickly clearing floors, Isaac with  for maximizing chances of a winning item combination, or  Magdalene for a large source of hearts to sacrifice.

 It's the Key
Defeat The Lamb without taking hearts, coins, and bombs through an entire run.
This challenge is only concerned with picking up hearts, coins, and bombs off the ground. Items that directly increase your inventory such as  will not break the run.
Be very careful around items that spawn pickups onto the ground, and chests.
An alternative source of explosions such as  is valuable in a run where bombs are rare.
 Magdalene is the only character with a certain source of healing, and is recommended for attempting this run with minimal difficulty. This can also be played as a slightly more challenging normal run for  The Lost for more experienced players.
  Tainted Cain is also a good choice, since his  can be used to grab pickups without any downside. The challenge will only be lost if Cain himself grabs any hearts, coins, or bombs. The special seed G0NES00N can also be entered prior to beginning the run. It will not disable achievements, and has the effect of making pickups disappear after a certain time, avoiding situations where a pickup is blocking the only way forward.

## No Damage Achievements

No Damage achievements are some of the most difficult achievements in the game. There are five of these achievements included in Rebirth, with 4 new achievements with similar objectives added in Afterbirth † with Booster Pack 5. The achievements are as follows:

 Beat chapter 2 without taking damage.
 Beat chapter 3 without taking damage.
 Beat chapter 4 without taking damage.
 Beat chapter 6 without taking damage.

Note that there is no achievement for completing Sheol or the Cathedral this way.

### What Doesn't Count as Taking Damage

* Using any item that causes self damage (, ,  or )
* Using health on a Blood Donation Machine or a Devil Beggar
* Taking a deal with the Devil
* Using a Health Down pill
* Resetting damage with
* Getting hit while having  active

### What Counts as Taking Damage

* Getting hit by:
	+ Bombs
	+ Enemies
	+ Enemy projectiles
	+ Spikes (except Sacrifice Room spikes)
	+ Other hazards
* Stepping on Curse Room spikes
* Using a Bad Trip pill

### Items

The lists below contain a large majority of items that are valuable and can help a lot in getting these achievements (Most are unlocked by default)

#### Good Items

* blocks one hit per room, and it doesn't count as damage for these achievements
* can rewind time allowing you to exit a room in an emergency
* can block damage occasionally making it good for saving you
	+ works similar to this but it does not negate damage, instead granting you a soul heart
* can be extremely useful in boss fights with hard to dodge attacks like  Hush and  Delirium
* has exteremely high damage, infinite piercing, infinite range and synergizes well with almost all items
* Any item that increases damage (even temporarily), such as
* Any item that provides flight as it is extremely valuable
	+ , to a lesser extent
* Any item that provides spectral tears
* Items that provide invincibility, such as the  or
* kills Mom and Mom's Heart/ It Lives instantly when used during those boss fights.
* grants immunity to all explosions.
* Orbitals that can block enemy shots
	+ being one of the most powerful orbitals as it moves to and blocks projectiles unlock normal orbitals
* can clear annoying rooms instantly
* Most Cards and Runes can be extremely useful in traversing the map quickly
	+ Most useful of which being  teleports you to the secret room
	+ and  both teleport you to the shop/treasure room without spending keys
	+ and  both reveal the entire map (Excluding Super Secret Rooms)
	+ teleports you to the boss room, allowing you to effectively skip the floor by gaining access to the trapdoor
* removes all spikes including curse room door spikes, removing the damage penalty upon entering them
* All playing cards are extremely useful granting a variety of very useful effects
	+ doubles your coins (If you dont have any you are given 2 coins)
	+ doubles your keys (If you dont have any you are given 2 keys)
	+ doubles your bombs (If you dont have any you are given 2 bombs)
	+ can teleport you to an angel or devil deal even if you have 0% chance for one to spawn
* can duplicate all items on screen including pickups, along with a really simple acquisition method
* can be good if you dont have a lot of health or need damage
* can reroll a useless item into a better item (like the ones mentioned above).
* grants a 100% damage multiplier and is found in Treasure Room (Item Pool),  gives homing shots alongside this but is rare and found in Angel Room (Item Pool)
	+ works the same way but with a severe fire rate penalty
* can grant a 5x fire rate multiplier at the cost of a 0.2x damage multiplier
	+ This can be especially useful if used with items like , ,
* Is relatively common and can kill almost all bosses up until Mom in one use
* Charge items like  and  can be extremely useful in charging items with high charge time like
* grants a 10x damage multiplier and effectively can be used as infinte bombs, working similarly to
* Can create trapdoors allowing you to repeatedly skip floors
	+ A more effective use of this item is using it while standing on a tile with a cosmetic (Ex. Something with grass or a note on it) will spawn a crawl space, granting you an item, pickups or more rarely spawning a Black Market
* and  both increase all stats
* and  both grant flight, a 0.5 speed up, and a powerful dash attack
* creates a map wide blast, destroying everything on the floor, opening all secret rooms and dealing 200 damage to all enemies
* spawns an item from the item pool of the current room your standing in (Ex. if you are standing in a Devil Room it will spawn an item from the Devil Room (Item Pool))
* can frequently spawn Cards and Runes and soul hearts
* Items like ,  and  are major DPS ups as they grant extra shots, effectively multiplying your damage by how many extra shots are granted, which synergizes well with things like
* shows you the location of both Secret Rooms
* makes all of your pills have positive effects
* and  both split your tears upon landing, adding an area of effect
	+ This works extremely well with  as it will chain the electricity even more

#### Neutral Items

* 's concussive tears cause enemies to move around unpredictably.
* and  can be used as an alternative to bombs to break Tinted Rocks (though they mostly drop Soul Hearts) and possibly find a Crawl Space or Black Market but should be used with great care, as stepping on a Bomb Rock or a bad Mushroom will damage the player and disqualify the achievement.
	+ Thunder Thighs is also a speed down and a useless health up.
* 's explosions can damage you if you are too close.
* usually drops useless Soul Hearts, but occasionally spawns Blue Spiders or Spiders instead.
* can hurt you.
* Teleporting items.
	+ Teleporting into the I AM ERROR room can cause the player to miss out on a boss item, or even the achievement itself if it is the floor that they would have got it on.
* generally won't help, as the player would be trying not to take any damage in the first place. However, it can be used in conjunction with self-damaging items, even in Womb/Utero and beyond.

#### Bad Items

* Any items that only give health are useless.
	+ gives 2 Red Heart containers and heals half a Red Heart but is also a speed down.
* can cause unpredictable enemy movement, especially with enemies like Dips and Boom Flies.
* Explosive items such as  should be used with extreme care.

### Characters

#### Isaac

* Isaac is very advisable once  is unlocked; an active item which can be extremely useful to reroll bad items into better items that makes the runs easier.
* If you have not unlocked , Isaac is less advisable than  ???, who has slightly better base stats as Isaac.

#### Magdalene

* Magdalene is not a very good choice since she starts with 4 health and the . She also has a low base speed, which makes it hard to avoid enemies that run into you.
* Upon completion of the  Aprils fool challenge, Magdalene starts each run holding a Speed Up pill, allowing her speed to be set to 1.0 from the beginning of the run, allowing for easier dodging.
	+ She now starts off with a Full Health Pill instead, which forces her to keep her low base speed until a Speed Up Item or pill is found.

#### Judas

* Judas is a very advisable character, since he starts with a higher damage multiplier than most characters, and . Being able to deal more damage means less time dealing with enemies and bosses, and clearing rooms faster. His low health is not a drawback in this case, as long as the player is skilled enough to avoid damage.

#### Samson

* Samson is less advisable than Isaac, as  only increases his damage whenever he takes damage. This leads to a dilemma; Samson must either avoid damage for a higher Devil Room or Angel Room chance, or take damage to take advantage of .

#### Azazel

* Azazel is extremely advisable, as he starts with flight and a short-ranged version of . Azazel's flight allows Azazel to have increased mobility and hide behind obstacles, which helps counteract his lack of range with  on early floors. Azazel's short-ranged  deals significantly more damage than any other character; allowing Azazel to quickly get through early floors.

#### ??? (or Blue Baby)

* ??? has slightly better stats than Isaac, making him an advisable character to play.
* ??? has some advantages over other characters when picking up certain items, since he cannot gain Red Heart containers. For example,  is permanently active for ??? once picked up.

#### Lazarus

* Lazarus is not advisable, as he has low range and starts with a random pill; this makes him slightly worse than non- Isaac.
* If Lazarus dies, he resurrects as Lazarus Risen - starting with increased stats and the effect of , which negates his low range. However, Lazarus cannot get the current chapter's achievement if he takes damage to kill himself.
* After beating the  Backasswards challenge, Lazarus now begins with , making his stats roughly equal to Isaac's.

#### Eden

* Eden is inadvisable due to their randomness and the fact that Mom's Heart/It Lives need to be killed several times to play as Eden for several runs; if Eden starts with a poor set of items, then the player will have to waste another Eden Token.

#### The Lost

* The Lost has no health (although internally he has half a Soul Heart), which can be used to encourage the player to get these achievements, as he can't take damage without dying. He also has flight and can take any Devil deals for free (with the downside of only getting one devil deal). However, strategies such as using Blood Donation Machines won't work with him unless he has extra lives.
* The Lost begins with  after donating 879 coins to the Greed Donation Machine, allowing him to take one hit on rooms without dying.

####  Lilith

* Lilith is not recommended for these achievements, as she relies on  to deal damage, and is Blindfolded, which can leave her open to damage if the player isn't careful.

####  Keeper

* Keeper is not recommended for these achievements, as he is the slowest character in the game (tied with  Magdalene), and has a tear delay of 28, the slowest fire rate besides  Azazel. The combination of these two factors will have Keeper open to attack much of the time, which is made worse by his slow speed, making it harder to dodge.

####  Apollyon

* Apollyon is recommended for these achievements, as he starts with average stats and , an item which absorbs other items. Void gives stat increases to Apollyon when passive items are absorbed, and uses the effects of any absorbed active items every time Void is used.

### Strategies

* If possible, maximize the number of times you get to use .
* Use bombs to escape rooms that you don't think you can handle.
* Do not risk going over spikes, if you don't have flight.
* A very easy way to achieve the Dark Boy/Mama's Boy is to obtain  while holding . This can be used to skip the final floor of the Depths/Womb entirely.
	+ This is even more effective if the floor is affected by Curse of the Labyrinth.
	+ Picking up  and holding the  and  in combination with the  is also a viable strategy, although  has a small chance of spawning a door to a Crawl Space instead.
* Note that you gain the achievement after you defeat the second boss of a chapter, not after you go down to the next floor. This means, after getting the related achievement, you can go visit the rest of the floor (including the curse room if you have enough health) and obtain pickups that could help you get the later achievements.

## Force Quit and File Manipulation

As a last resort, force quitting the game may help net achievements that remain elusive due to lack of skills and/or luck. A save game is generated whenever one exits a game to the menu or at the start of a new level. If one wishes to go back to the last save game, force quit the game (Force Quit on OS X, End Task on Windows, home button and then close the app on consoles) and then restart the game. The continue option will light up and then your last save game will be restored. Aside from helping with Achievements, this is useful if you want to reverse negative pill effects, exploit coin donation, find the quickest way through the level after doing a "test run", etc...

* The method is also capable of reversing a player's death. After death, the game will erase the save game. However, if you pause the game right after you are killed and before the next menu pops up, you may then force quit and restore your last save game in the run. This was the only way less skilled players were able to finish the game with The Lost.

* Of course, this method when abused does take away the charm and fun from the game, not to mention significantly extending the real-time it takes to get through a run. A half-hour game may easily extend to several hours if one tries to Force Quit repeatedly.

 In Afterbirth, the Force Quit method has been partially patched. It still works as in Rebirth except after a player's death. If you attempt to Force Quit after death, the continue option is not selectable, and you have to start a new game.

* Having extra lives used to allow the Force Quit method to work after death. There was no need to immediately pause the game after a death in this case. Force quitting after the extra life starts would still restore the last save game. This has since also been patched.

Alternatively on OS X and Windows, one may disable cloud saving and copy / restore certain save files after quitting the game. This is capable of reversing a player death and allow less skilled players to finish The Lost and  Keeper runs. However, this is risky and careless copy and pasting may result in permanently lost in-game achievements and secrets. One does not need to force quit either and may close the app normally. BACK UP YOUR SAVE FILES before attempting the following.

* Go to The Binding of Isaac Afterbirth folder. Find options.ini and open in a text editor. Change the SteamCloud value from 1 to 0. Save the change to options.ini.
* When SteamCloud is disabled, the local save file will not reflect your latest cloud save file. The game will look like you're starting from scratch. You can use your last local copy of the cloud save file as the new local save file. The cloud save has format *[YearMonthDate]*.ab\_persistentgamedata*[Slot#]*.dat. Rename this file (and overwrite) to persistentgamedata[*Slot#]*.dat. For example, if using slot 1, rename 20160331.ab\_persistentgamedata1.dat (and overwrite) to persistentgamedata1.dat. Now your local save file will reflect your last cloud save file.
* Play the game and reach a point where you want to save. Pause and exit to the menu to generate a save file (alternatively, starting a new level will generate one). Look in the Binding of Isaac Afterbirth folder for 2 specific files with the following formats: gamestate[Slot#].dat and persistentgamedata[*Slot#]*.dat. Copy these files to another folder on your hard drive. For example, if using slot 1, copy gamestate1.dat and persistentgamedata1.dat to another folder.
* Since you are using this method and are going to screw up, you may exit the app normally after your character dies instead of force quitting. You'll notice that gamestate[Slot#].dat has disappeared from the Isaac folder. Restore the gamestate[Slot#].dat and (overwrite) persistentgamedata[*Slot#]*.dat files from your other folder.
* Restart the app. You'll notice that the continue option is now available. You may resume your failed run.
* In-game and Steam achievements will still unlock with this method.
* Once you are done manipulating files and want to go back to Steam cloud saving, go back to options.ini in the Isaac folder and change SteamCloud value back to 1.
* However, once you do this, your cloud save is the old one. To update your cloud save with your current local save, copy the persistentgamedata[*Slot#]*.dat file from the Isaac folder to the remote folder. Rename (and overwrite) to ab\_persistentgamedata*[Slot#]*.dat. For example, if using slot 1, copy persistentgamedata1.dat from the Isaac folder and rename/overwrite to ab\_persistentgamedata1.dat in the Remote folder.

This can also work on the 3DS by pausing just as you die and pressing the home button, then closing The Binding of Isaac. Reopening the game and hitting continue will respawn you on the floor you died on. This will reset your progress for that floor. This can be repeated as much as needed; however, there is a bug. If used on the first floor, and the character that dies spawned with any active items - such as Isaac's D6, The Lost's D4, or Judas' Book of Belial - the items will be removed. This can be fixed simply by quitting and continuing whilst still alive.

PS4 If you are playing while using an active PlayStation Plus membership (even with the Essential tier) you can upload your system save file (as long as automatic upload for the game is disabled) to the cloud. This means, even if you make a mistake during a run while trying to unlock an achievement, you can download the uploaded save file to overwrite your system save file. This will allow you to resume an optimal run from that specific point you uploaded the save file, granting you the freedom to keep replaying until you achieve your desired result. This is incredibly useful for Challenges, such as ULTRA HARD, where certain drops may require multiple resets to acquire again. This also allows you to manipulate certain items like Crooked Penny, allowing for powerful safe runs. The Crooked Penny can be used outside of a room safely, to avoid the failure outcome, then recharged to duplicate the items. (When a run is backed up like this, the Crooked Penny's outcome will always be the same, rolling a new outcome after it's used.)