The Guardian

From The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
(except in Rebirth)

The Guardian is Challenge #30 introduced in The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth. Isaac starts blindfolded, with Collectible Punching Bag icon.pngPunching Bag, Collectible Isaac's Heart icon.pngIsaac's Heart, Collectible Holy Grail icon.pngHoly Grail, and Collectible Spear Of Destiny icon.pngSpear Of Destiny. The goal is to defeat Boss Mom's Heart ingame.pngMom's Heart or Boss It Lives ingame.pngIt Lives. Isaac's Heart will follow the Punching Bag instead of Isaac. Isaac also has a special hairstyle and a reskinned Spear Of Destiny. Both of these are not accessible anywhere else.

Difficulty

The main difficulty of this challenge stems from the fact that Isaac's health is damaged when the Punching Bag is hit for any reason (due to Isaac's Heart), and that the Punching Bag will move of its own unpredictable accord, severely hindering the player's agency in avoiding damage.

Note since it's the Punching Bag who takes damage, and it doesn't have the ability of flight, the Punching Bag is not immune to spikes and creep as Isaac's Heart would be. The lack of Treasure RoomTreasure Rooms and tears only further compounds the difficulty, to the point where certain rooms and bosses, which can be normally completed without taking damage, may now guarantee a substantial amount of unavoidable damage. For example, Red Champion Mom is almost impossible to clear as she will always target Punching Bag.

Playing this challenge in Repentance is somewhat easier yet also somewhat harder due to the changes to Collectible Isaac's Heart icon.pngIsaac's Heart.

Strategy

  • The player should follow a general priority in which enemies to kill: enemies that run towards the Punching Bag, followed by exploding enemies, followed by enemies with piercing shots (i.e. Enemies that fire Collectible Brimstone icon.pngBrimstone shots), followed by enemies that fire regular shots. Remember that Isaac himself is invincible, allowing him to "body-block" shots flying towards the heart.
  • As the Spear Of Destiny is not affected by any of Isaac's stats other than damage, items such as Collectible Eve's Mascara icon.pngEve's Mascara, Collectible Proptosis icon.pngProptosis, and Collectible Polyphemus icon.pngPolyphemus are straight damage upgrades, while items like Collectible Soy Milk icon.pngSoy Milk and Collectible Odd Mushroom (Thin) icon.pngOdd Mushroom are damage downs.
    • Collectible Ipecac icon.pngIpecac can be extremely powerful because of its massive damage boost and poison effect.
  • It may be better to go for Angel Rooms rather than Devil Rooms in this challenge, since they may offer invaluable items like Collectible The Bible icon.pngThe Bible, Collectible The Wafer icon.pngThe Wafer, and Collectible Breath of Life icon.pngBreath of Life at the cost of no health.
  • Finding or buying The Bible makes the challenge a lot easier, allowing Isaac to instantly kill both Boss Mom ingame.pngMom and Boss Mom's Heart ingame.pngMom's Heart.
  • As the red champion version of Boss Mom ingame.pngMom is nearly impossible to get past normally, a lot of health, Collectible The Wafer icon.pngThe Wafer, or Chaos CardChaos Card are necessary if Isaac doesn't have The Bible (or if it isn't fully recharged).
  • Spend as little time as possible in rooms with spikes, because there's a high chance the Punching Bag will walk into them.
  • Orbitals are extremely useful for this challenge, since most of them deal a good amount of damage on direct contact. Items such as Collectible Sacrificial Dagger icon.pngSacrificial Dagger are the best source of damage at 15 damage per tick. Health is also important to make up for unnecessary damage, as is Speed to rush towards enemies and destroy them before they can attack Isaac's Heart. Also, pick up the Collectible Humbleing Bundle icon.pngHumbleing Bundle for its double Red Hearts.
  • Isaac can use the spear's fear effect to his advantage and force bosses and mini-bosses away from Punching Bag. This is especially effective against bosses that chase Punching Bag, such as Boss Gemini ingame.pngGemini or Lust.pngLust.
  • It is possible to enter Boss RushBoss Rush in this challenge. However, it’s not recommended to complete Boss Rush as it is very difficult without a strong set of items, but if Isaac finds any means to escape (e.g. 0 - The Fool0 - The Fool), trying to beat Mom in under 20 minutes can be beneficial.
  • If the player is not too concerned with time or score and just want the unlock, Collectible Placenta icon.pngPlacenta is a good item to get as well since it can regenerate Isaac's health. A much, much slower way can be done by obtaining Mysterious CandyMysterious Candy, which randomly spawns Poops. Destroying poop can drop Half Red Heart.pngHalf Red Hearts and Soul Heart.pngSoul Hearts.
  • (except in Repentance and Repentance+) Breath of Life can be extremely helpful in completing this challenge. Isaac's Heart will enable the spacebar indefinitely and not take damage while doing so will make Isaac completely immune to damage. He still can be hurt while the charge bar is still depleting after entering the room, but it does make things easier, especially with bosses, and allows him to explore rooms with hazards such as spikes without having to worry that the Punching Bag will wander into them.
    • (in Repentance and Repentance+) Breath of Life now bypasses the invulnerability, making this strategy invalid.
  • It should be noted that Isaac can transform into GuppyGuppy during this challenge even though the visual change that accompanies the transformation is not shown, and he will be able to make flies. The Spear Of Destiny does not generate flies, but familiars and items that generate tears, such as Collectible Tammy's Head icon.pngTammy's Head and Collectible Incubus icon.pngIncubus, will.
  • (except in Repentance and Repentance+) Obtaining Collectible Blood Rights icon.pngBlood Rights wins the challenge as it can be spammed while annihilating everything inside (except Hosts and Cod Worms). But since there are no Treasure Rooms present, it can only be obtained via a lucky Crawl Space or room generation.
    • (in Repentance and Repentance+) Blood Rights now bypasses the invulnerability, making this strategy invalid.
  • Having a second player join in makes the game significantly easier. A co-op baby has its Spear Of Destiny and is not blindfolded so it can shoot tears as normal. The co-op baby doesn't take damage because of Isaac's Heart.
  • (except in Repentance and Repentance+) Obtaining Collectible Athame icon.pngAthame allows Isaac to activate the black brimstone ring without taking damage, which would make cleaning a room a lot easier, and spawn more Black Heart.pngBlack Hearts.
    • (in Repentance and Repentance+) This is no longer possible in Repentance due to Athame’s new effect.
  • Obtaining Collectible The Virus icon.pngThe Virus allows Isaac to inflict poison upon enemies without taking damage and get Black Heart.pngBlack Hearts sometimes after killing enemies.
    • The Virus and other poisoning effects are useful against enemies such as Mobile Host.pngMobile Host, Cod Worm.pngCod Worm, etc, as they can remain invulnerable to the Spear Of Destiny and still deal contact damage to the Punching Bag.
  • Collectible Book of Shadows icon.pngBook of Shadows also makes the challenge significantly easier as it can be activated to prevent Collectible Isaac's Heart icon.pngIsaac's Heart from taking any damage for 10 seconds.
  • Because of Isaac's Heart, he can enter Curse RoomCurse Rooms without taking damage.
  • (except in Repentance and Repentance+) The (except in Rebirth and Afterbirth)Collectible Sacrificial Altar icon.pngSacrificial Altar that can be found in Curse RoomCurse Rooms can be used to sacrifice both Punching Bag and Isaac's Heart, which could make the challenge easier.
    • (in Repentance and Repentance+) The Sacrificial Altar will have no effect and will not be consumed.
  • (except in Rebirth and Afterbirth)Duct TapeDuct Tape also makes the challenge harder, as Isaac's Heart will follow Isaac instead, resulting in two hitboxes.
  • (in Repentance and Repentance+) Even though Isaac is blindfolded, you can still charge up Isaac's Heart. The knockback from the charge shot can be crucial to avoiding damage.
  • (in Repentance and Repentance+)Flat FileFlat File makes this challenge significantly easier by removing all spikes from every room, including entities, rocks, and floors, as long as it's carried.

Gallery

Reward

Trivia

  • The file name for the appearance of Isaac in this challenge is named "nicelilith", and uses Character Lilith icon.pngLilith's Afterbirth sprites but changed to have pale skin, blond hair, no horns, and wings.