A Pound of Flesh

Item Icon
Pickup Quote	"Blood money"
Entity ID	5.100.672
Character Appearance
Item Pool	Devil Beggar Devil Room
Quality	1
Item Tags
Collection Grid	(page 6, column 20, row 3)
Unlock Method	Defeat The Beast as Cain

A Pound of Flesh is an unlockable passive item added in The Binding of Isaac: Repentance.

Effects

• Devil Deals and Black Market items can now be paid with Coins.
  • Anything that generates Devil Deals (such as Satanic Bible or the special chests in Dark Room) will also create items that cost coins.
• Items in Shops now cost health.
• Consumables in shops have no cost, but are surrounded with spikes and can't be pushed out with an explosion.

Notes

• Buying shop items for health does not prevent Angel Rooms from appearing.
• Taking a health consumable surrounded by spikes at a single heart or less will still result in Isaac's death.
• Immunity to spikes or invulnerability of any kind (eg. via The Gamekid) does not prevent damage when taking consumables in shops.
• Shop consumables cannot be taken during invincibility frames, e.g. from taking another consumable.
  • The Lost can take the consumables, without losing his Holy Mantle
  • When transformed into The Lost in Downpour/Dross II with the White Fire Place, shop consumables can be taken for free even without Holy Mantle.
• The item is not available to Keeper and Tainted Keeper normally. If acquired through Spindown Dice, Death Certificate or such, it has no effect.

Synergies

• Binge Eater: All shops become free stat-ups if the food item is chosen.
• Restock: The price never increases, staying at one red heart container/three soul hearts for each item, and one full heart of damage for pickups.
  • However, Restock's coin cost increase mechanic is still present, and if Pound of Flesh is lost, the items will have their equivalent coin cost displayed.
  • With Binge Eater, this can result in infinite stat gains.
  • If a Heart is on sale, Isaac can trigger items that activate upon taking damage indefinitely.
  • If a Lil' Battery is on sale, Isaac can buy items indefinitely with certain active items such as Blank Card with XI - Strength or Book of Revelations with Car Battery.
  • When transformed into a ghost in Downpour II or as Tainted Jacob, or playing as The Lost, Isaac can buy items indefinitely.
• Maggy's Bow: Buying a Red Heart will out-heal the damage taken from the spikes if Isaac can survive it.
• The Wafer / Cancer / Percs!: The spikes only deal half a heart damage, allowing Isaac to gain health from buying hearts.
  • With Restock, any character except Bethany can buy items indefinitely if a Soul Heart is on sale.

Interactions

• Chaos: Items in Devil Rooms that would otherwise cost two heart containers will only cost one if found in Shops.
• Flat File: No effect. Spikes generated surrounding consumables will not be removed.
• Holy Mantle / Holy Card / Wooden Cross / Blanket / Dogma: Unless Isaac is The Lost, the spikes around consumables will simply break the shield without letting him take them.
• Isaac's Heart: Consumables can no longer be picked up in shops.
• Judas' Tongue: Ensures that items in the Member Card secret shop only cost one heart container, but Devil Deal prices are not reduced, and other shop items already only cost one heart container.
• Keeper's Box: Items and pickups generated outside Devil Rooms will cost health, but items generated inside Devil Rooms will cost coins.
• Keeper's Sack: Because shop items no longer cost coins, stat bonuses are no longer gained from buying shop items, but they are gained from Devil Deals.
• The Lost: Only one item can be picked up from each shop; any other items will vanish. Consumables can be taken for free.
  • However, multiple items can be bought from Devil Deals.
  • Items will not disappear when taking any consumable.
  • With Restock, the Lost can buy items indefinitely.
• Member Card: Items in the secret shop can cost two heart containers.
• Redemption: Doesn't change the conditions to lose or keep the cross even when spending health in shops.
• The Stairway: Affects Angel Shops the same way it does regular shops.
• Steam Sale: Devil Deals will have their price reduced. Shop items will cost the same amount of health.
• Store Credit: Store Credit becomes a useless trinket, as neither Devil Deals nor shop items will become free.

In-game footage

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Trivia

• The name of this item is a reference to Shakespeare’s play The Merchant of Venice, where the Jewish moneylender Shylock asks the bankrupt Antonio for 'a pound of flesh' in payment for his debt.
• The name of this item matches the description of the Potato Peeler, which also references the play.
• This is the only item with the nokeeper item tag.

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