Better Lucky than Good

Having finished all the boss rushes, I'm working on beating ??? and the Lamb with all the characters. I'm done both on about half the characters and done one on the rest.

My Eden run to the Lamb was going pretty well for a while. I had picked up a blank card and a credit card and had bought out a couple of devil rooms before deciding to drop the blank card for the nail. I considered keeping the blank card and hoping to find the Sun to go with my Habit but I was running out of floors, only had three red hearts anyway, and I needed something to provide more health, which the nail would do in the form of soul hearts.

But I wasn't playing great and I was getting hit more than once every five rooms, so my health was dwindling over time. I was thinking that I was just going to lose to bad play. I got to the Dark Room with one and a half of my three red hearts and two soul hearts.

Right away I got the room with two Cages, which is probably my worst room in the entire game. I think on average I get hit more in this room than I do fighting any of the end bosses. I managed to make it out alive taking only three hits, leaving me with half a red heart, but also with my nail recharged and a soul heart drop. So I went into the next fight with a half heart and two soul hearts. The next fight was two Adversaries, which is probably my next most-hated room just because depending on their positions there is really nothing you can do to avoid their homing blood laser attack. Anyway, they hit me twice, leaving me back at a hit from dead. This was not looking good. The next room was something easy I don't remember and dropped a Wheel of Fortune card. I had 44 coins so there was a good chance this would at least heal me to full, and maybe supply some hearts to come back to if I could keep things going. Still I wasn't liking my odds.

But when I used the card I got a fortune machine instead of a slot machine. 42 coins later I had spawned 5 soul hearts the crystal ball from the destroyed machine, Cancer (the trinket), and several cards which included the Joker and the Hierophant. The Joker took me to the devil who was selling the Pact for two hearts and the Whore of Babylon for one. You'll recall that I have three heart containers which currently hold half a heart, so trading them away for these is a huge damage increase and a health increase.

I crack a couple more rooms, taking a couple of hits, and find a chest that contains Cancer, the passive item. So now I have 10 soul hearts - one from a nail activation in the middle of all of that - and the nail is charged again. The next room I go into is adjacent to the boss room and contains only some trash enemies that are dispatched easily.

So walk into the Lamb doing as much damage as I'd ever done with damage and tear increase items alone - I think I had +7.5 damage, +2.4 tears - and being able to withstand 20 hits. A nice easy win. I think I only got hit twice.