Donation Machine

The Donation Machine is a type of machine that appears in almost every Shop as well as rarely spawning through Black Markets, Reward Plates, Arcades, and Vaults.

Upon touching the Donation Machine, Isaac will donate a coin, causing the displayed coin total to increase by one. Similar to the Greed Donation Machine, the number of coins donated will persist between runs. Donating money will upgrade the Shop, the Library, and unlock new items.

It will take the player many runs of continuous donations to unlock everything, as the player will have to donate a total of 999 coins to max the machine out.

Mechanics[ | ]

On average, a Donation Machine will accept 20 coins before jamming on every run. Each coin has a 5% chance to jam the machine. Once the machine is jammed, no more coins can be donated to it until a new run is started.
- A Donation Machine will now accept 30 coins on average before jamming on every run. First coin has a 0.15% chance to jam the machine, increasing by 0.15% with each coin donated this run.
Bombing the Donation Machine in any way will cause it to drop 1-5 pennies / 6-14 pennies.
- The dropped pennies will be deducted from the total; however, the deduction will always be 1 more than the total number of pennies dropped.
  - Because of this, donating dropped pennies back into the Donation Machine generally results in a net decrease in the machine's total.
  - Humbleing Bundle causes pennies to instead spawn as double pennies, allowing you to circumvent the above.
- The Donation Machine will drop coins even when the Donation Machine is jammed.
- The Donation Machine can be bombed until the coin counter displays zero. At this point, no more coins will drop.
- Bombing a Donation Machine will destroy it, and no more Donation Machines will appear for the rest of the run; the coins it drops will be deducted from the donation total at the start of the next run.
A total of 999 coins can be donated to the Donation Machine.
- If Isaac attempts to donate a 1000th coin, the Donation Machine will explode, resetting its total to 0 and dropping roughly 12 dimes.
Donations have a 2% chance to increase Isaac's luck by 1.
- Donating ten coins to a Donation Machine will increase the odds of an Angel Room appearing instead of a devil room if you have not taken a devil deal. This will not increase the chance to earn a room, it will instead sway the chance of the earned room to be an angel room.
Donation Machines cannot appear while achievements are disabled.
Jammed donation machines cannot be blown up.

Donation chances[ | ]

Below is a table of the expected probabilities that donating any amount of coins will jam the Donation Machine, assuming that every donation has an independent 5% chance to cause a jam.


Coins donated	Total jam chance	Notes
0	0%	The total jam chance is considered the probability of a jam at donating $n$ amount of coins.
1	5%	It is possible for the machine to jam after donating a single coin.
2	9.75%
3	14.26%
4	18.55%
5	22.62%	The amount of coins a Nickel gives you
10	40.12%	The amount of coins a Dime gives you
13	48.67%	Average low
14	51.23%	Average high
25	72.26%	The amount of coins A Quarter gives you
50	92.31%
99	99.38%	The maximum amount of coins Isaac can normally carry.
148	99.95%	The amount of coins that can be donated at once with 99 coins and proper usage of a 2 of Diamonds card
$n$	$1 - 0.95^n$	To calculate the odds of the machine not jamming after $n$ donations, use the formula $0.95^n$ . This graph can also be used to calculate any probabilities.

Below is a table of the expected probabilities that donating any amount of coins will jam the Donation Machine.


Coins donated	Total Chance	Jam chance on donation	Notes
0	0%	0%	The total jam chance is considered the probability of a jam at donating $n$ amount of coins.
1	0.15%	0.15%	It is possible for the machine to jam after donating a single coin.
2	0.6%	0.3%
3	1.34%	0.45%
4	2.38%	0.6%
5	3.69%	0.75%	The amount of coins a Nickel gives you
10	14.02%	1.5%	The amount of coins a Dime gives you
20	45.62%	3%
21	48.93%	3.15%	Average low
22	52.2%	3.3%	Average high
25	61.53%	3.75%	The amount of coins A Quarter gives you
50	97.97%	7.5%
99	~99.99%	14.85%	The maximum amount of coins Isaac can carry without Deep Pockets
148	~100%	22.2%	The amount of coins that can be donated at once with 99 coins and proper usage of a 2 of Diamonds card
667	~100%	100.1%	The Maximum amount of coins possible to donate in a run.

Donation Rewards[ | ]

Blue Map - Donate 10 Coins to the Donation Machine.

Store Upgrade lv.1 - Donate 20 Coins to the Donation Machine.

There's Options - Donate 50 Coins to the Donation Machine.

Store Upgrade lv.2 - Donate 100 Coins to the Donation Machine.

Black Candle - Donate 150 Coins to the Donation Machine.

Store Upgrade lv.3 - Donate 200 Coins to the Donation Machine.

Red Candle - Donate 400 Coins to the Donation Machine.

Store Upgrade lv.4 - Donate 600 Coins to the Donation Machine.

Blue Candle - Donate 900 coins to the Donation Machine.

Stop Watch - Donate 999 Coins to the Donation Machine.

Strategy[ | ]

Causing the Donation Machine to explode at 1000 cents is not recommended, as it does not unlock anything and removes the ability to trade bombs for coins in future runs until the coin total has been rebuilt back up.
It is recommended to deliberately bomb the Donation Machine such that the banked total is less than 999 cents. This will effectively prevent accidental 1000th cent donations.
With the Humbleing Bundle, every cent received from bombing the Donation Machine is doubled; however, the amount deducted from the Donation Machine is mostly less than what is dropped from it. The profit can be used to buy shop items or donate back to the machine until it jams.
- Because the Donation Machine is destroyed upon being bombed, it can no longer be donated to after.
With the Placenta, a Blood Donation Machine or IV Bag, and a lot of patience, enough money can be generated to jam the machine.
The Donation Machine can be quickly filled using Azazel and farming coins on the first few floors. When the machine jams, simply reset and farm some more.
Assuming the player has enough skill, Keeper is excellent for filling the machine. Not only can he clear out rooms faster due to his triple shot and above-average damage, he also starts with Wooden Nickel, Store Key, an extra coin provided that you have the required marks completed, and a bomb that can give you access to out-of-reach coins or possible coins in vases, corpses, and slot machines.
- If the Keeper has Swallowed Penny, this will make surviving easier and grant you unlimited coins.
An even easier method to quickly fill up the machine, though it will take a while to unlock, is to use Tainted Keeper. Almost every enemy drops a coin (which vanishes quickly) when killed. Tainted Keeper has greater damage than normal Keeper, allowing him to quickly 'shotgun' weaker enemies down. Clear out the first floor, picking up as many coins as possible, head to the shop without buying anything, donate as much as possible then restart the run.
- It is reasonably likely though that the player will have already reached 999 coins in their machine by the time Tainted Keeper is unlocked. Even still, this is a good strategy for refilling the machine for the benefit of other characters.
Force Quit Method (cheating). This is an easy way to fill up the machine potentially in one run. This method also has no item prerequisite. The game saves the normal and Greed Donation Machine data separately from your main save file; the machine data is only changed and saved AFTER you leave the room.
- Enter a room with the Donation Machine. Then exit to the start menu normally to save your game.
- Continue the game.
- Donate money until machine jams or you run out of coins.
- Walk out to a different room. Now the game will save the change in coins only.
  - On computer, you will not need to leave the room but will need to suspend the game using an application such as Process Explorer (for Windows)
- Force quit the game
  - Windows: Alt+F4
  - OS X: Force Quit
  - Linux: Ctrl+Alt+Esc (may depend on desktop environment)
  - Consoles: home button and then quit app
  - Nintendo Switch: eject and reinsert the cartridge
- Restart and continue the game. Your save game from the 1st step will be restored. It should look the same as before: the Donation Machine is unjammed, but the starting coin count on the Donation Machine is now higher.
- Donate money. Walk to different room. Force Quit. Repeat.
- Notes: If you accidentally walk by the machine at 999 coins and blow it up by accident, do not leave the room and just Force Quit. The machine will be back at 999.
  - Despite the 5% jam chance noted above, in actuality, the number of coins it takes to jam a machine is set per floor. Let's say it takes 10 coins to jam the machine. If you Force Quit and try again, it will still take 10 coins to jam the machine even with the higher coin count. When you go to the next floor, let's say it now takes 20 coins to jam the machine. Force quitting on the next floor will still take 20 coins to jam the machine next time. The method works best on a Donation Machine that accepts a large number of coins before jamming.
Glowing Hourglass will un-jam the machine and return your coins to you, but the coins you donated will remain in the machine. There are multiple item combinations that allow the player to donate indefinitely:
- Buying the Glowing Hourglass from the Shop and donating any remaining coins (re-purchasing the Glowing Hourglass refills its charges).
- Using the ? Card will return the ? Card, allowing infinite uses of the Glowing Hourglass.
- Purchasing (or otherwise acquiring) a Lil' Battery in the Shop while donating.
- Using the Sharp Plug (or the Habit and two bombs) with more than two hearts.
- If the Shop has a Lil' Battery for sale, you can donate money, use the Glowing Hourglass to leave the room, re-enter, and charge it with the Lil' Battery endlessly.
- Due to exploit potential, the Donation Machine can be very beneficial to fragile characters such as The Lost and Keeper. It may be useful to have a large donation total before starting runs as these characters, since starting a run with an item that grants explosive shots such as Epic Fetus, Ipecac, and Dr. Fetus will allow you to endlessly withdraw coins from the machine until it reaches 0. This can allow game breaking strategies to guarantee success, especially with the Restock and Rune of Jera. Some of these strategies can be used to spawn Dad's Key as well, eliminating the need for tedious Angel Room farming for key pieces, since the item can open Mega Satan's door.
  - As of Booster Pack #5, this no longer works, as the Glowing Hourglass now returns donated coins without the donated amount staying in the machine.

Notes[ | ]

Under rare conditions it is possible to spawn two donation machines in the same room via Reward Plates or via TMTRAINER. If one of these jams donations can still be made to the other non-jammed machines. Bombing the jammed machine will deduct from the current donation total as normal. However, the new value won't be displayed on the donation machine's sprite until either the next interaction with an unjammed machine or the room is left and re-entered. Both of these scenarios will cause the machine to display the correct value. Bombing any of them makes it drop coins, and the other one stays until the room is left and re-entered.

Bugs[ | ]

Bug!	Vita If Isaac donates to the machine, leaves the room, and the game is then restarted using the PS button, the machine will retain its donation and Isaac will have the same amount of coins as he started the current floor with.

Donation Machine Unlocks

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth