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[Lectorog]

Try using the "flashachievements.exe" file in your Binding of Isaac steam folder. I didn't unlock the candle achievement and after using that it did.

That worked - thanks! Though I still don't have the candle. :\

While playing with a handicap of,"No picking up items from treasure rooms, stores, arcades, libraries, or those thorn-door rooms."

As Cain.

Cain is a good base character - possibly the most powerful, even without the listed rooms.

[Orangebottle]

Cain is a good base character - possibly the most powerful, even without the listed rooms.

It really depends on how you play.

Any character becomes incredibly weak when you remove those particular rooms from play. Especially Cain, with his low health, and his one item focused on drops. His range is also pitiful, so you can't just sit there and snipe Horfs, Boils, Red Hosts, etc. like I did when I initially played Isaac.

I personally think Eve is a strong character, because she ties Cain for speed and health, while she has very powerful starter items. Like her dead bird, which auto-attacks enemies after she takes damage. And the Whore of Babylon, which increases her attack strength when she's low on health.

[Lectorog]

I have trouble coping with Eve's lack of damage. I like to bombard enemies, moving with them, so I prefer characters built around damage, then fire rate, then speed, then range.
My general Eve strategy is to play normally until I find soul hearts, then drop myself to half a heart and grab the soul hearts. I've only completed the game with her once.
Low health usually isn't a problem for me. I've gotten good at dodging enemies (mainly due to the no-damage achievement work). Playing without taking any damage is tough, but it's easy enough for me to get on with two heart containers.

[Rez]

I don't think I'd consider playing cain without arcade abuse.  It wouldn't be fun at all, since you'll just end up playing a damage dodging game in which you probably won't be able to get demon items at all or have absurd amounts of bombs and keys.  You play cain without that and you throw away his single biggest advantage: you can still get drops that are bad for you, even if they aren't technically bad.

[Lectorog]

I don't think I'd consider playing cain without arcade abuse.  It wouldn't be fun at all, since you'll just end up playing a damage dodging game in which you probably won't be able to get demon items at all or have absurd amounts of bombs and keys.  You play cain without that and you throw away his single biggest advantage: you can still get drops that are bad for you, even if they aren't technically bad.

I just won a game with Cain without encountering any arcades. I think he's a strong character, even without the arcade abuse. Average to above-average starting stats and the Lucky Foot. The only downside is his initial two hearts.

[Catastrophic lolcats]

Cain is the boss. You can eat pills to your heart content and you don't have to worry about it. A speed down on Maggy or even the other characters is pretty much a death setence, even more so now there's those stupid blue spikes. He also starts with a key which is great for the early levels (even more so if an XL floor pops up), the rate of key drop seems to be reduced heavily in the expansion.
Arcade abuse is a strength of Cain but I've gotten to the point where I avoid doing it. It just drags out the game too long and it isn't all that interesting.

Cain and Isaac (after the D6) are my favourite characters. The rest are just filler to me.
Eve's reward for damage thing can get hard to manage in the womb+ stages and since devil rooms have a higher chance of spawning if you take no damage I don't really bother with it. The dead bird is annoying for me, always pulling bombs back towards me. 

Maggy is too slow at the start to be all that great. Her best bet is with devil deals, but even then she's not very impressive. The yum heart is quite decent, over powered as hell if you get The Habit.

Judas is the glass cannon but his 1 hit point really hurts him at the start. He also starts with an active item which you generally get rid of for one of the better ones like Prayer Card or Book of Rev.

Samson is a joke. We don't need to discuss how terrible he is. 

is challenge mode. I wouldn't mind playing him more if half the items in the game worked for him >_>

[Lectorog]

Samson is challenge mode. is just fun; I don't find it harder than any other character, for some reason. And the Book of Belial is a pretty good item - I kept it through the entire game, last I played with him.
EDIT: I suppose is made obsolete by Guppy's Paw. There's no guarantee of ever getting that item, though.

Fistula has either been partially fixed or partially rebroken. It can now float over pits, but not rocks. I'm don't what the developers are intending with it anymore.

Also, I haven't seen the Prayer Card at all since the last patch, and I've played probably a dozen full games' worth. I'm not sure if that's an improvement over its previous insane frequency. Same goes for the Holy Grail in shops, but that appears in alt-devil room frequently.

[LASD]

I personally think Eve is a strong character, because she ties Cain for speed and health, while she has very powerful starter items. Like her dead bird, which auto-attacks enemies after she takes damage. And the Whore of Babylon, which increases her attack strength when she's low on health.

Also, Guppy's Paw breaks Eve even more than the other characters. I think that's how I won with her.

I had a way harder time beating the game with Judas and Samson than I did with Eve and ??. I think it's because you have so little health to play with in the early game with the glass cannons.

[Lectorog]

Also, Guppy's Paw breaks Eve even more than the other characters.

Playing Eve, I figured out Guppy's Paw breaks a lot of things. Give up all of your health, and health items don't do anything. However, the Liberty Cap is rather useful.

EDIT: Ipecac + Technology 2. Do it.

[Fanofgaming]

I don't really mind Maggy too much; I find she's one of the strongest characters. Certainly the tankiest.

I just had a really good run with her. On the first floor, I got Bloody Lust, used a Joker card to get to a Devil room, spent one heart each to get Technology 1 and Lucky Foot (I don't know why they were there). First boss dropped Meat. The run kept going very well; ended up getting my total heart count to 7 and got Technology 2 (stacks very well with Technology 1). Also got Cancer, doubling my fire rate. The only thing that would have made it better would have been The Mulligan. Well, I ended up beating Satan pretty easily with that build despite having relatively low damage.

[nenjin]

the rate of key drop seems to be reduced heavily in the expansion.

Ok, so it's not just me then. I used to have no problem finding at least 2 keys per floor. Now I'm lucky if I get one.

And Isaac all the way. The unadulterated original is best! I only really like playing Cain, Isaac and Maggie. Eve, Judas, Sampson and are just too risky, since I'm not the master of avoiding damage.

[Orangebottle]

Anyone else had entire levels troll you recently?

Like, there's one room on the level with a chest, but it's encased in rock and there are no bombs on the level?

And then you get to the next level and find like six bombs?

EDIT:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Shall I kill myself in the thorn room now, or later?

[nenjin]

All of that is pretty much par for the course for BoI. I don't even sweat the stuff sitting in the middle of a pit anymore, the game doesn't have that kind of power over me like it first did. Too many ways to game the system.

It's 4 treasure rooms back to back of stuff like what you posted that drives me bonkers. That can make the game more challenging than any randomized enemy type or room layout.

[Lectorog]

I think they cut back the number of keys to compensate for the level keys - the gold ones. Those are really rare, though, so it's mostly just making people miss out on treasure rooms, which isn't fun.
Also, I got 9 keys on the first level in the last game I played.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Shall I kill myself in the thorn room now, or later?

When things like that happen I just start over. You can always have at least a decent first level item, because it doesn't take much time to restart.

What are your opinions of the 3 dollar bill?
I don't like it, but I pick it up sometimes because it can be better than skipping. It fully depends on the situation, mostly the tear type I have at the time.

[nenjin]

I pretty much won't take it. The wrong tears in the wrong room can kill you, and can hobble you against bosses. I think some tears also will overwrite your other tear upgrades too, which is just damn annoying. To me it's a catch-22. Early on, it's going to screw with any future upgrades you get. Later on, you've likely already got a setup you like that you're used to. As a desperation choice it works, but when you're in dire straits already in BoI....