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[Lectorog]

Spoiler: Hey boy, do you like cards? (click to show/hide)

Large Marge is where every level has Curse of the Labyrinth, correct?
Also, the Holy Grail is a very common item in stores. I've encountered it fairly early in every run so far. Makes the game easier, having the ability to fly, and the HP boost doesn't hurt either.

[LASD]

Please god, no more Ipecac.

This, million times this.

Also, either I've lost my touch or the game got way harder. I'm pretty happy I got the no damage-things done already.

[nenjin]

The game definitely got harder.

And I'm kind of disappointed by the frequency of the Holy Grail, Lost Dove and Prayer Card. I've beaten Mom several times with those items and you see them practically every game. Add Sacred Heart on top of it and you might as well skip the rest of the loot, you're a bonafide angelic badass at that point. Which is fine. Just not EVERY GAME.

[LASD]

The game definitely got harder.

And I'm kind of disappointed by the frequency of the Holy Grail, Lost Dove and Prayer Card. I've beaten Mom several times with those items and you see them practically every game. Add Sacred Heart on top of it and you might as well skip the rest of the loot, you're a bonafide angelic badass at that point. Which is fine. Just not EVERY GAME.

Well, earlier it was Brimstone + Book of Revelations. Though those turned up only like every other game. So at least there's 2 builds like that now. Hopefully it gets patched somehow anyway.

[Catastrophic lolcats]

And it's this sort of shit that makes me prefer Cain.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Four god-damn health down pills from the same slot.

Cain can't get bad pills

[LASD]

Maggie run done, got some nice huge teeth spat out on the way too:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Catastrophic lolcats]

Teeth are fun. If you get the Mutant Spider and Tough Love unlock together you have a chance of spitting multiple teeth!

Been playing this again. Was doing the Infection Challenge which also means no treasure rooms spawn. In those challenges I usually get my fire-power from curse rooms, devil rooms and shops. I had a bucket load of coins. I ran into greed in the shops not just once but twice, leaving no darn items to buy.
Got up to Depths II which as you all know is the last shop, god damn mother fucking Super Greed. With no real fire power and nothing to spend my coins on I was crushed in a terrible shaped room filled with Masks and those green-goo-launcher-walkers.

Isaac, Cain, Sampson (have to still kill Satan though), Eve and four challenges (Purist was easier than I thought) are now done. I really don't want to go through the game with Judas, Maggy and Curse of the Night challenge though. D:

EDIT: IPECAC is just terrible, total crap. It will make flies your worse nightmare.

[Lectorog]

room filled with Masks

Those things are the worst. My new least favorite enemy. Unless you have the right items, they're just annoyingly difficult. I haven't been killed by them yet, but they've been responsible for several deaths (due to health loss).

IPECAC is just terrible, total crap. It will make flies your worse nightmare.

It's like Dr. Fetus, but taking away some of its powers and doubling its downsides. Worse, it's frequent.

[nenjin]

Yeah, not a fan of the total tear conversion items. Anything with indirect fire or an explosion radius means you're fucked when something gets in close range.

The Mask of Infamy boss is actually kind of nasty too. I found homing shots actually made it harder to kill him.

[Rez]

I've developed a great hatred for this game.  I had a few good runs, good item pick-ups, and now I get nothing but total trash.  Played 4 or 5 games where I saw 1 devil door between them.  Played 3 or 4 games where I got activated items in my item room on multiple consecutive floors(teleporter no less).  I'm convinced that Cain is anti-luck for me at this point.

[Catastrophic lolcats]

The main problem with Binding of Isaac is pretty much the item balance.

Stupidly strong items like the Scared Heart, PrayerCard, Brimstone etc.
The decent passive items which you generally prefer over almost any "active" item unless they're the over-powered ones.
The pointless items, like the Poop, Bean etc
The crippling items like IPECAC, My Reflection, etc

Some of the items could be easily rebalanced as well. IPECAC only needs the "Chocolate Milk" mechanic so you can charge how far the projectile will fly. The Bean should recharge without the need to enter a new room (it's pretty decent if you can get close enough), the poop just needs to be removed, nothing is saving that.

As for the nature of the over-powered items you could take a page out of the aRPG genre and have item percentage influenced by the basement level. The "lesser items" having a much greater chance of dropping in the first few floors.
For example, The Prayer Card item has dropped in every single game I've played. In god rooms, curse rooms, beggers and shops. It's insane how common that item is. It's also fairly insane how good the item is.

Now couple all the things I've said about item balance with the new enemies added in the DLC. To be perfectly honest the vast majority of the enemies are just cheap. There was some rooms where I entered and due to the lay-out of the room and the amount of enemies with cheap moves I took damage as soon as I entered with no way of dodging it, not good mechanics. Combat with the new enemies feels like: "get wings or good luck trying, pal".

I love the game but at this point it's extremely item based which means the game is almost competely random. The game has become both extremely frustrating (with the wrong items) and laughably easy with the right ones.
Now if you compare it to the orginal Binding of Isaac release which still had it's problems, it was still much easier to go through the game with the crappier items.

And finally I sugguest to any new player who wants to play Binding of Isaac. DO NOT buy the DLC untill you have a few "true" wins under your belt and all the characters unlocked. I would shudder to think about starting The Binding of Isaac for the first time and meeting Widow.

[LASD]

And finally I sugguest to any new player who wants to play Binding of Isaac. DO NOT buy the DLC untill you have a few "true" wins under your belt and all the characters unlocked. I would shudder to think about starting The Binding of Isaac for the first time and meeting Widow.

I would probably suggest this as well, I tried fresh on a different computer and either the first or second item was IPECAC and the second boss was indeed Widow.

Also, now that I've gotten used to spiders and whatnot, the game actually feels easier. I already beat the "other end" with ??, Eve and Maggie, almost back to back (I did 3 resets in the Basement with all characters put together). The other end branch is just so much easier than Sheol.

[Rez]

Yea, running into a horseman on basement 2 is just a big f u if you haven't gotten good drops.

[nenjin]

Yeah I pity the foo who picks up BoI for the first time after Wrath of the Lamb. Compared to pre-DLC, it was much easier to get a winning combo together.

It feels like after the last patch that several things have been adjusted down. I did a run down to Mom 1 and found exactly 3 keys the whole game. I think I skipped two open treasure rooms too because of $3 Bill, Laser Eye and Teleporter. On the one hand, offering you less than ideal items does force you to actually play the game instead of cheese it. On the other, when your choice is your starting tears and Ipecac....and you're on the 4th floor, you do feel like you're getting screwed just slightly.

[Lectorog]

Does anyone else here sometimes just not get treasure rooms? It usually happens on the first couple of floors. Sometimes there's no treasure room on a floor. This happens outside of challenges.