Changes: Have a Heart

Revision as of 07:35, 10 December 2018

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Have a Heart is Challenge #25. You start off with Charm of the Vampire and 12 heart containers, but only one of them filled. Your goal is to defeat Mom's Heart or It Lives.

Difficulty

Charm of the Vampire is your main way to fill your heart containers (see below for exceptions). All red heart pickups are replaced with pennies (half heart = one penny, full heart = 1+1 free penny). HP up items (e.g.: Breakfast) give red heart containers, but do not fill HP. The Lovers Card spawns coins instead of red hearts. The 2 of Hearts card and Yum Heart have no effect. The Tick will still reduce a boss' health, but will not heal upon entering the boss room. Shops sell coins instead of hearts. Slot Machines, Blood Donation Machines, the Hematemesis pill, and any of the Beggars drop coins instead of hearts. Even a Super Secret Room which usually contains hearts will contain money instead. You also cannot recover health with Pyromaniac, Placenta, or Leech.

Strategy

The biggest difficulty lies in acquiring health. However, with numerous heart containers, there are several strategies to survive the challenge. First is finding a way to fill health.

Obviously, the Full Health pill is a major boon for this challenge.
- The Bad Trip pill can also heal fully, but only when at half a heart.
- If these pills can be found, the Placebo becomes very powerful in this challenge. It can be purchased in shops.
XIX - The Sun card also heals to full health, as well as providing floor plans and a Necronomicon-like effect.
- Combined with a Blank Card, the challenge becomes trivial. This can be purchased from shops.
If you can also get the Habit or Sharp Plug from a shop, Placebo or Blank Card can be practically used at will without any fear of death.
Rainbow poop will also give full health, but it is also very rare.
Likewise, beds still refill your health if you can find them.

Second is getting rid of excess heart containers. Removing even one heart container will make obtaining Deals with the Devil and Angel Rooms much easier, as the open HP spot can hold Soul/Black hearts, providing insurance against red heart damage.

The Devil Room or Black Market deals not only give good items, but also frees up space for soul hearts. This, naturally, comes with the downside of preventing Angel Rooms.
- Abaddon can remove all heart containers to be replaced by six Black Hearts.
The Health Down pill can clear away some of the extra heart containers to allow picking up Soul/Black Hearts. This can couple with Placebo nicely.
Guppy's Paw is one of the more useful items for survival, because it removes hard-to-fill heart containers and replaces them with soul hearts.

A third method involves grinding enemies to fill your health.

Mulligans and their variants, Sacks, and other spawning enemies can provide limitless sources of enemies to fully fill health.
Getting the D7 and repeatedly clearing a room filled with easy-to-kill enemies can help you fill your whole HP bar.
The Shell Game Beggar spawns flies when you lose.

Because hearts turn into coins, shops purchases are easier to make.

Trinkets such as Bloody Penny, Burnt Penny, Flat Penny, and Counterfeit Penny are beneficial, as there is a greater chance of coins dropping when Isaac finishes a room.
Bumbo and Bum Friend also are better with the increase in coin drops.

Some other things to note:

If you manage to get full health, the boss should take priority. Health lost during the battle can be replenished from unexplored rooms.
Avoid using Hematemesis, as it will remove all but one heart without spawning two hearts as usual.
If you die with 1up!, all heart containers will be filled.
Judas' Shadow purges your heart containers and leaves 2 Black Hearts.
Mom's Locket refills half a heart each time a key is used.