Everything you need to go from your first Basement run to The Beast: how the DLCs stack, the unlock order, items and rooms worth knowing, character notes, and how online co-op in Repentance+ works.
Researched September 2026 — current as of Repentance+ patch 1.9.7.16/1.9.7.17 (crossplay beta). Live games change; check the linked sources if something differs.
| Action | Key |
|---|---|
| Move | W A S D |
| Shoot | Arrow keys |
| Place bomb | E |
| Use active item | Space |
| Use card / pill | Q |
| Drop / swap trinket, pocket item | Hold Ctrl |
| Map | Tab (hold) |
| Restart run | Hold R |
Controller support is built in. Shooting direction is independent of movement — strafing while firing is the core skill of the game.
| Stat | What it does |
|---|---|
| Damage | Tear damage. Multiplicative items (e.g. Polyphemus, Cricket's Head, Sacred Heart) are the big spikes. |
| Tears | Fire rate. Often the most impactful stat early. |
| Range | How far tears travel. |
| Shot Speed | Tear velocity. |
| Speed | Movement speed. |
| Luck | Boosts proc chances on items like Tough Love, Holy Light, and many trinkets. |
Coins, bombs, and keys are the economy. Cards, runes, and pills go in your pocket slot (Q). Trinkets are passive and swappable. Pills are unidentified until used — a bad pill (e.g. health or tears down) can hurt, so pop them when you can afford the risk.
| Room | Icon / sign | What's inside |
|---|---|---|
| Item Room (Treasure) | Crown | One free item (sometimes a choice) |
| Shop | Coin | Items, pickups; upgrades as you donate to the Donation Machine |
| Boss Room | Skull | Floor boss + item |
| Devil / Angel Room | Appears after boss | Paid (devil) or free (angel) items |
| Secret / Super Secret | Hidden | Coins, items |
| Curse Room | Spiked door | Costs health to enter; pickups or items |
| Sacrifice Room | Spikes | Take damage for escalating rewards |
| Arcade | Dice icon | Slot machines, beggars, Blood Donation machine |
| Library | Book icon | Book items (costs a key) |
| Challenge Room | Boss-style door | Wave fight for an item (full health needed) |
| Planetarium | Repentance | Rare planet/star items; more likely if you skip Item Rooms |
| Ultra Secret Room | Repentance | Reached via the Red Key/Cracked Key; high-value items |
The game drip-feeds its chapters and endings. This is the rough order most players follow.
| Step | Target | How / what it unlocks |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mom (Depths / Necropolis) | Opens the Womb and many items; enables item descriptions |
| 2 | Mom's Heart (Womb / Utero) | Repeated kills unlock new content each time |
| 3 | Satan (Sheol) or Isaac (Cathedral) | Reached after Mom's Heart / It Lives! (down = Sheol, up = Cathedral) |
| 4 | The Polaroid / The Negative | Beat Isaac 5 times for The Polaroid; beat Satan 5 times for The Negative. Mom then drops one of them (they're mutually exclusive). |
| 5 | ??? (Chest) and The Lamb (Dark Room) | Carry The Polaroid past Isaac into the Chest, or The Negative past Satan into the Dark Room |
| 6 | Mega Satan | Collect both Key Pieces (from Angel Room statues) to open the big door at the start of the Chest/Dark Room |
| 7 | Hush (Blue Womb) | Unlocked after 10 Mom's Heart kills; the Blue Womb entrance only appears if you kill Mom's Heart / It Lives! within 30 minutes |
| 8 | Delirium (The Void) | After beating Hush, a Void portal can appear after later final bosses. In Repentance+, once The Void is unlocked the portal is guaranteed after The Lamb, ???, and Mega Satan (and after Mother once you've seen that ending). |
| 9 | Alternate path | Beat Hush 3 times ("A Secret Exit") to open the Repentance alt floors: Downpour/Dross, Mines/Ashpit, Mausoleum/Gehenna, then Corpse |
| 10 | Mother (Corpse) | Collect both knife pieces on the alt path — Knife Piece 1 from Downpour/Dross (the mirror, entered as a ghost), Knife Piece 2 from Mines/Ashpit (a button puzzle leading to an escape sequence). Beat Mom in Mausoleum/Gehenna II; a flesh door appears — stab it with the combined knife (a Sharp Key, Cracked Orb, or Soul of Cain also work), beat Mom's Heart inside, and the path continues to Corpse |
| 11 | The Beast (Home) | After you've beaten Mother once, a Strange Door appears in the starting room of Depths II (or Necropolis/Dank Depths). Open it with The Polaroid or The Negative (or a Sharp Key, Cracked Orb, etc.) to reach a special Mausoleum/Gehenna II whose boss room holds Dad's Note, which starts the Ascent back up to Home |
| 12 | Ultra Greed | Separate Greed Mode (and harder Greedier Mode) — wave-based shop runs |
You start with Isaac. Characters unlock through achievements (e.g. Magdalene for having 7 or more red heart containers, Cain for holding 55 coins). Repentance adds tainted versions of every character, unlocked by using the Red Key/Cracked Key on the Home closet with that character after the Home floor is reached.
| Character | Style | Beginner rating |
|---|---|---|
| Isaac | Balanced; later starts with The D6 | Great once D6 is unlocked |
| Magdalene | Tanky, slow; Yum Heart | Very easy |
| Cain | Luck, Lucky Foot; one eye | Easy |
| Judas | Glass cannon; Book of Belial | Medium |
| ??? (Blue Baby) | Soul hearts only | Medium |
| Eve | Rage when low on health | Medium |
| Samson | Damage builds up while taking hits | Medium |
| Azazel | Short-range Brimstone, flight | Easy and very strong |
| Lazarus | Revives once | Medium |
| Eden | Random stats and items | Variety |
| The Lost | One hit and you die, flight, spectral | Hard (and unlocks huge items) |
| Lilith, Keeper, Apollyon, The Forgotten, Bethany, Jacob & Esau | Unique mechanics | Medium to hard |
Tip: Azazel and Magdalene are the easiest ways to farm completion marks early. The Lost is the notorious challenge — his completion marks unlock many of the game's best items, like Godhead.
There are over 700 collectibles, so learn patterns rather than lists.
Almost always take: Sacred Heart, Brimstone, Godhead, Polyphemus, Cricket's Head, Magic Mushroom, Mom's Knife, Tech X, Holy Mantle, The D6, Spirit Sword, Cricket's Body, Pentagram, and most damage multipliers.
Be careful with: Soy Milk, Ipecac (can hurt you with some combos), Anemic, Mom's Wig, and anything with a tears-down trade-off if you already have low fire rate. Some items are only bad in specific synergies.
Transformations trigger when you collect three items from a set, e.g. Guppy (infinite flies), Beelzebub (Lord of the Flies), Seraphim, Leviathan, Bookworm, Spun, Conjoined. Repentance+ adds the Necromancer transformation (an empowered Necronomicon usable 10 times per floor without recharging).
Active items charge by clearing rooms. Batteries (and The Battery) add charges. The D6 rerolls pedestal items — use it on weak items and after Devil Deals.
/mute [username] and /unmute [username] in text chat (added April 2026).OPTIONS.INI in Documents\My Games\Binding of Isaac Repentance+. The last line EosCrossplay= sets 0–1 (off), 2 (Steam + Epic public lobbies), or 3 (crossplay + Epic account linking for Epic friends lists and invites).What order should I buy/play the DLCs? All of them stack onto one game. Buy Rebirth plus Afterbirth, Afterbirth+, and Repentance (Repentance+ is free on top). You play them all at once — there's no separate campaign.
How do I unlock the Isaac and Satan fights? Beat Mom's Heart (It Lives! after 11 kills) — afterward you'll get a trapdoor or light beam leading to Sheol (Satan) or Cathedral (Isaac).
How do I get to The Void / Delirium? Beat Hush first. After that, a Void portal can appear in the boss room after later final bosses. In Repentance+ it is guaranteed after The Lamb, ???, and Mega Satan once The Void is unlocked.
How do I reach the Repentance alt path? Defeat Hush three times to unlock "A Secret Exit". Afterwards, a special door can appear in boss rooms leading into the alt chapters (opening it costs a key, bombs, or health depending on the chapter).
What is the true ending? The Beast at Home (Ending 22) is the story ending of Repentance, reached via Dad's Note and the Ascent.
Does online co-op work with Epic players?
Yes, in beta — set EosCrossplay=2 or 3 in OPTIONS.INI (see above).
Is The Binding of Isaac getting more updates? As of the July 2026 Steam post, Edmund said a small update is in the works, possibly by the end of 2026. Console Repentance+ is confirmed without a date.