Berserk!

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(in Repentance and Repentance+)

Berserk! is an unlockable activated item added in The Binding of Isaac: Repentance.

Effects

  • Upon use, puts Isaac in a berserk state for 5 seconds, during which the following effects apply:
    • +0.4 speed.
    • +3 flat damage .
    • Tears are replaced by a jaw bone melee weapon that is similar to Character The Forgotten icon.pngThe Forgotten's bone club.
      • The jaw bone deals 3× Isaac's damage when swung and 1.5× Isaac's damage per tick when thrown (3× Isaac's damage per second).
      • The swung jaw bone reflects enemy shots.
        • Reflected projectiles deal 6 damage if they would've hurt Isaac for half a heart, and 7 for a full heart.
      • The thrown jaw bone charges very quickly compared to the Forgotten's bone club, but as berserk only lasts five seconds, it uses a noticeable amount of the effect's limited duration to charge and throw the jaw bone.
    • While Berserking, Isaac's fire rate is halved then increased by 2. This will be a tears upgrade unless Isaac's tears is 4 or above.
      • If playing as The Forgotten, the ×0.5 fire rate modifier isn't applied, as he already has it.
    • Killing an enemy while "Berserking" increases Berserk's current duration by 1 second.
    • Killing an enemy grants very brief invincibility, preventing damage from exploding enemies.
    • Every enemy killed will also grant +0.4 speed until the effect ends.
    • Isaac is unable to die while Berserk is active. He can be reduced to 0 hearts, but will not die until the effect ends.
      • This does not apply to insta-kill effects (such as Collectible Damocles icon.pngDamocles and Collectible Plan C icon.pngPlan C) - they will kill Isaac even if Berserk is active.
  • This item charges when Isaac deals damage to enemies rather than by clearing rooms or picking up batteries. It requires a base total of 120 damage, and increases by 40 for every next floor.

Notes

  • The jaw bone has all the same synergies that The Forgotten's bone club does.
    • Collectible Mom's Knife icon.pngMom's Knife: While the synergy between Mom's Knife and the Berserk state is identical to The Forgotten's melee attack, it is worth noting that the attack no longer deflects enemy shots.

Synergies

  • Collectible Book of Virtues icon.pngBook of Virtues: Spawns a pale wisp on the middle ring. The wisp has extra HP and does not shoot.
  • Collectible C Section icon.pngC Section: Replaces club throw with two swings in quick succession which fire a fetus. All fetuses fired will hold bone clubs, similar to the interaction with Character The Forgotten icon.pngThe Forgotten.
  • Collectible Suplex! icon.pngSuplex!: When used near the end of the Berserk state (any time after the second bell ring), Suplex receives a unique visual effect, and will deal massive damage to the target, while setting off a Collectible Mama Mega! icon.pngMama Mega! style explosion, destroying all obstacles in the current room and blowing open all doors. The target being Suplexed, as well as nearby enemies, will receive 300 base damage that scales with Isaac's size. All other enemies receive 200 flat damage.
  • Character The Lost icon.pngThe Lost / Character Tainted Lost icon.pngTainted Lost: This can allow either variant of The Lost to survive being damaged if it happens while Berserk is active. Despite having no visible health bar, their health is normally set to half a Soul Heart.pngSoul Heart If they take damage while Berserk is active, they will not die if they are able to pick up a soul heart or half soul heart before the effect ends. Black Heart.pngBlack Hearts do not count for this.
  • Collectible The Ludovico Technique icon.pngThe Ludovico Technique: While under the Berserk state, you lose control of the Ludovico Technique tear, which can now be deflected by the jaw bone swing, bouncing off nearby walls and dealing damage to enemies.

Interactions

  • Collectible 4.5 Volt icon.png4.5 Volt / Collectible 9 Volt icon.png9 Volt / Collectible Jumper Cables icon.pngJumper Cables: No effect.
  • Ace Cards: Turning enemies into pickups doesn’t count as damaging or killing them for the sake of charging this item or extending its duration.
  • Collectible Car Battery icon.pngCar Battery: Duration is only extended if no enemies are killed during the first half, thus only providing a benefit against bosses that can't spawn enemies.
  • Collectible E. Coli icon.pngE. Coli / Collectible Flush! icon.pngFlush!: Turning enemies into poop doesn’t count as damaging or killing them for the sake of charging this item or extending its duration.
  • Freeze Effects: Killing enemies by freezing them will not extend the timer, which can make it difficult to maintain the duration.
  • Collectible Libra icon.pngLibra: Because of Berserk giving you +0.4 speed with every kill, Libra will instead steadily increases the damage, tears, and range stats with seemingly no limit, allowing massively high DPS, but targets are much more difficult to hit due to the range of the swing gradually extending outwards more and more with each kill.
  • Collectible Sharp Plug icon.pngSharp Plug: Isaac will take damage without gaining any charges.

In-game footage

Trivia

  • This item is the active item equivalent of Character Tainted Samson icon.pngTainted Samson's passive ability, with the only differences being that the player can choose to activate this, and this doesn't charge upon taking damage.
  • The item's name, description, and effects are likely a reference to the Berserk power-up from the Doom franchise, which forces the player to use powered-up melee attacks in some games.
    • The phrase 'rip and tear' is frequently used throughout the Doom franchise, and was first used in the 1996 Doom comic after protagonist Doomguy picked up the Berserk power-up.
    • In addition, Isaac's inability to die during the effect could be a reference to the common joke of Doomguy being "literally too angry to die", as well as his indestructible nature in the later series lore.
    • This item may also be a reference to the character Chicken from Nuclear Throne who, unlike other characters in the game, wields a katana and, upon losing all HP, instead of immediately dying, her head gets cut off and she can restore health in a short amount of time to stay alive before dying for good.
    • This item may also be a reference to the "Rage Beyond Death" ability with similar effects that Barbarians can gain in 5th edition of Dungeons & Dragons, as the original Isaac characters were modeled after character classes from the game.
  • The jawbone Isaac uses is a Donkey's jawbone, which is a reference to a passage from the Book of Judges in which Samson kills one thousand Philistines using only the jawbone of a donkey.
    • It may also be a reference to the item Donkey's Jawbone from Antibirth that didn't make the cut for Repentance.
    • This event is also referred to by the pickup message for the Soul of SamsonSoul of Samson — "Slay a thousand".
  • This item's special synergy with Collectible Suplex! icon.pngSuplex! was inspired by a bug in Repentance's initial release where any enemy (including final bosses like Boss Hush ingame.pngHush and Boss Delirium ingame.pngDelirium) that Suplex! was used on as Berserk!'s timer was ending would be instantly killed.