5 Health as an exchange currency
Health in general is also a way to obtain something money or even items, if you’re willing to risk losing life in these cases.
| Special Case 7: Blood donation machine |
| Upon touching the blood donation machine, Isaac wil suffer 1/2 or 1 heart of damage, depending on the floor depth (see Special case 1) and will spawn 1 to 3 coins. Every donation also has a chance of exploding the machine, at which point it will spawn either the Blood Bag or the IV Bag items |
| Special Case 8: Devil beggars |
| Upon touching the Devil beggar, Isaac will suffer 1/2 or 1 heart of damage, depending on the floor depth. Every donation has a chance of spawning useful pickups13 or an item from the Devil Room |
| Special Case 9: Guppy’s Tail |
| Upon use, Guppy’s Tail will take away one heart container and give Isaac three Soul hearts. Has no effect if you have no red hearts |
| Special Case 10: Potato peeler |
| Upon use, it will remove one heart container and Isaac wil gain both a damage bonus and one copy of the item Cube of Meat. Has no effect if you have no red hearts |
Although not exactly the same as the deals with the Devil, these cases are a way to not only obtain money and pickups, but also a safe way to get your health down to 1 or less red hearts. Why this is important will be covered in a later section.
It’s also worth noting that having multiple Cubes of Meat is an interesting tradeoff:
- Having one will give Isaac a literal cube of meat that orbits Isaac, blocks enemy bullets and makes contact damage.
- Having two is the same, but the Cube now occasionally shoots a bullet in the same direction as Isaac
- Having three or four will detach the cube and will transform it into a Super Meat Boy-like being that chases down enemies on its own and deals contact damage.
- Having more copies starts the cycle again (but you retain all previously gained Cubes)
| Special Case 11: Blood Rights |
| Upon use, Blood Rights will deal one full heart of damage to Isaac and 40 unblockable damage to every enemy in the room. |
4: Health as a Risk/Reward mechanism ←
Health in The Binding of Isaac →
6: Health as a marker of ‘run health’
Either cards, pills or trinkets↩︎