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Backasswards is Challenge #31. You start off with 8-10 random items, and start on the Mega Satan boss fight. Your goal is to play the floors backwards, hence the challenge's namesake. Every floor you ascend, you lose the oldest item you have, and one red heart container.
Difficulty
Starting with random selection of items, and starting on the Mega Satan boss fight makes this challenge very difficult at first. But If you can defeat Mega Satan (as well as Satan, whom you fight on the next floor), the rest of the challenge becomes significantly easier.
Strategy
- Try to get some really powerful few-item synergies. Resetting is safe, since achievements won't work.
- Having Gnawed Leaf and something that can do damage while you're not moving, such as Daddy Long Legs or Smart Fly, can basically guarantee an eventual win. Damaging orbitals are also a big help.
- Pyromaniac and Ipecac can heal you indefinitely, and also deal plentiful damage. Dr. Fetus/Epic Fetus or even Pyro can provide a slower version of the same effect.
- The Wafer is an extremely useful item to reset in this challenge as well.
- Going up a floor will remove one heart container and one passive item. If you have only one red heart container, something as simple as leaving the floor itself will end your run.
- For this reason, be wary of taking devil deals at low health.
- Soul Hearts and Black Hearts are not affected by this, however. Thus, Guppy's Paw is an extremely useful item for this run.
- With resurrection or teleportation items (such as Teleport or Cursed Eye), it's possible to skip boss rooms by dying as being resurrected puts you outside of the room rather than back on the previous floor.
- Despite this, do not get the Dead Cat. If you attempt to move onto the next floor while you only have 1 HP, you'll instantly die instead of progressing, wasting one of your lives in the process.
- Likewise, do not get Ankh. If you resurrect as ???, each time you pass a floor you'll lose either a soul or black heart, increasing the difficulty of the challenge.
- Shops spawn as normal above The Womb.
- 0 - The Fool tarot card and Mom's Hand are both quick ways to get to the starting room.
- Ehwaz and We Need to Go Deeper! generate closed exits to the next floor, so they cannot help Isaac skip the current floor.
- Items to be removed first are the "first" items you picked up. This is the item in the rightmost column, in the lowest row of that column.
- Halo of Flies will take two entire floors to be removed. You'll lose only one fly per floor. Keep this in mind in case you're afraid of losing a good synergy too early.
- Cursed Eye allows difficult boss fights to be skipped by teleporting out.
- It is possible to reach Hush if you beat It Lives in under 30 minutes, though doing so isn't recommended.
Reward
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Bugs
 Bug!
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While entering an exit to the previous floor, if player kills the process (isaac-ng.exe) during the versus screen before a boss fight, re-entering the game will lead Isaac to the starting room of previous floor instead of the boss room. This allows the player to finish the challenge pretty easily without any actual fights. |
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| Bug!
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Sometimes the layout of the rooms makes traversing to the previous floor impossible. There might be a hole where the light is supposed to be and without flying, makes the run impossible to beat. |
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| Bug!
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If you teleport into the I AM ERROR room on the final floor of the challenge, there will be no exit, making the run impossible to beat. |
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| Bug!
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If you get teleported out of the Mega Satan fight and go into the exit of the Dark Room, you will spawn in the exit on all subsequent floors, making the challenge easy to complete. |
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