Reviving this thread
like the undead version of
a boss.
If you've played Isaac many times and think you've squeezed enough replay value out of it, today I hope to change your mind. I give you:
Custom Challenges. All of these are tested personally by me and found to be entertaining. Strategy hints in secret tags.
Lord of the Flies - Vanilla Version
Setup: Start with 2x Halo of Flies, Distant Admiration, Forever Alone, Skatole, The Poop! No treasure rooms.
Comments: It's everything Lord of the Flies wasn't. Except fun. Fun they have in common.
Click here to view the secret text
×Sometimes you can hide behind or on top of obstacles (including poop you make) and let your flies take care of things. You may also wish to strafe things with your flies. I like to do something called the worm matador - when things charge at me, I step to the side and let my flies take care of it. Flight is helpful.
Laser Focus
Setup: Start with Technology 1, Technology 2, Magneto. No treasure rooms.
Variant: Add Robo-Baby for MAXIMUM LASER but less focus.
Comments: No real strategy - it's just a decent item combo, like some official challenges. You may wish to go for Satan instead of Isaac, but I've never had a big problem with Isaac. Magneto is included because that way all the wires on Isaac's head are connected and he looks like a cyborg.
99 Problems
Setup: Money = Power, Sack of Pennies, A Dollar! No treasure rooms.
Variant: No Sack of Pennies. Less money mo' problems. That's how that song goes, right?
Comments: Isaac is a baller! The name reflects the amount of cash you start with, as well as the fact that if you spend too much of it your attack power will drop.
Pure Poison, or
Poison Running Through My Veins
Setup: Common Cold, The Virus, Black Bean, Bob's Curse, The Bean. No treasure rooms.
Comments: I wanna love you but I better not touch... Don't undercook your kidney beans, kids.
Click here to view the secret text
×First, Bob's Curse gives you 5 extra bombs as a side effect.
Don't forget that the Bean ignores obstacles - this is sometimes helpful in early rooms wherein you have to release the enemies from behind some poop, as well as once you get flight.
Also remember that you can poison those exposed-brain-invulnerable-from-the-front enemies even by hitting their front or side.
Barf of Damocles, AKA
The Banjooie Special
Setup: Spoon Bender, Ipecac, My Reflection. Yes, you can have treasure rooms. You'll need them. Start as Cain, because you'll need the luck and the key.
Comments: Yes, this is possible. It's probably the most fun I've had in an Isaac run in a while, too - the Chest was
crazy. The name comes from the way this odd item interaction makes the explosive vomit shots hang over the enemy's head and slowly float down (unless they lose the scent and head back for you!) Banjooie stumbled upon this while doing
one of his livestreams (skip to 46:40) and promptly died because he also grabbed Cupid's Arrow. Note that the challenge uses Spoon Bender instead because without already increased speed, the shot slowdown from Sacred Heart makes things near impossible.
Click here to view the secret text
×Hoo boy. Well, a lot of this run comes down to luck with items. You want flight at all costs, but you don't want piercing. The only stat that really matters is speed, so for once you want to avoid the Small Rock and SMB Super Fan!
Flies, cube of meat, sacrificial dagger are all helpful for when you don't want to use Ipecac - see the "worm matador" strategy in the Lord of the Flies. With flight you can hide over obstacles to kill ground enemies. Sometimes I'd just strafe the stupid screaming babies. Guppy's hairball can be useful if you find it, and occasionally you may wish to use a bomb, like on Chub.
You may want a shooting familiar to remove poop and fire for you (you can't), and with chocolate milk the familiar can fire while you charge indefinitely.
You'll be able to get every secret and top secret room, and your bombs will be largely free for combat, so keep that in mind. If you want to blow up something too close to you, you might be able to get the vomit to hit it as it comes back for you.
If you get the battery, you'll probably be able to use an activated item infinitely on any given floor, as soon as you find a room you can idle in.
Interestingly, because the bombs hover for so long, the Lump of Coal from Krampus is surprisingly helpful - watch those shots swell up as big as Isaac, then be amazed at the wallop they pack!
Think Fast, or
No Two Rooms the Same
Setup: 3 Dollar Bill, Liberty Cap trinket, Rainbow Baby, Monster Manuel
[sic]. Treasure rooms present.
Comments: Still trying to think of a good title for what is definitely a fun challenge. Initially I conceived this as a "
randomness challenge"
, but what it actually works out to be is an exercise in quickly adapting to new combat conditions. Even more so than the unaltered game.
Click here to view the secret text
×You'll probably want to ditch the Monster Manuel, fun though it is. Keep in mind it recharges in 4 rooms, which is unusual. Liberty Cap isn't the worst trinket, though, and it should be a while before you find a better one.
Remember that you can go in and out of challenge rooms until you get the shot effect you want (probably freezing). If you can get Dad's Key or something else that will let you escape rooms indefinitely, you can do this for any room in theory - in practice it might be difficult. I haven't tested it.
Also remember that since the 3 Dollar Bill can give Magneto, you can grab pickups (other than trinkets or Q items) from a few tiles away if you go in and out of a room until you get the effect.
Finally, 3 Dollar Bill can give My Reflection, so avoid explosive shot items.
So now that you've read all these crazy ideas,
you're probably wondering how the heck you implement them. Well, you're going to have to cheat. Yes, no two ways about it, you cannot do this in the game without a bit of external help. I use
Cheat Engine with the cheat table attached
here. You can have one item added each time you enter a room - this means you will have to do the first room outside the terms of the challenge. For "
no treasure rooms"
, start a Purist official challenge - you can temporarily give yourself We Need to Go Deeper to get to Sheol, if needed. To give yourself cards, trinkets, or other pickups, you'll need to give yourself the deck of cards and use the "
deck of cards gives x"
series of cheats. You can also guarantee getting any curse or lack thereof that you want, and can force a miniboss room to spawn on every level. Finally, infinite HP and item power cheats can save you time when exploiting the battery.
More custom challenges to come as I invent and try them!
____________________________
DROD has some really great music.
Make your pressure plates 3.0 style!
DROD architecture idea generator
[Last edited by Jatopian at 03-25-2013 04:38 AM]