The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth (BoI:R) holds many secrets that can mean the difference between winning and losing. This guide aims to strip the game down to a few key tips and points that may make all the difference for those new to BoI:R.

The overall mantra for this guide is Make Everything Count. Only break these rules once you have mastered them.

1. In general, complete the whole level before using bombs or keys. Triage what to use when you see all of your options. Once you gain experience with the game, this point will matter less.
   
   
2. There are two secret rooms on every level. Good Steam guide here. Study the map to deduce where they may be. The contents will often greatly affect your success (i.e. more money/bombs/items). Briefly,
   a. The 'secret room' is touching at least two other rooms (usually three).
   b. The other (‘super secret room’) is only touching one room. Unless there is a great surplus of bombs, don’t search for this one too much.
   i. Neither borders the boss room.
   ii. Both must be fully accessible (i.e. no rocks or gaps can be present on any of the walls bordering the secret room).
   
   
3. Learn what a ‘tinted’ rock looks like. Good Steam guide here. There are many variations. These often contain hearts or keys.
   
   
4. Statistically, curse rooms (rooms with spiked doorframe) are always worth it (excluding Womb), so long as you have adequate health. If you are flying you will only take half-heart damage on the way out. Either way, if you have a Teleportation Pill or The Fool tarot card, you can exit free of further health damage.
   a. With that being said, you should think twice about going in if you don't have a bomb.
   
   
5. When in dire trouble – know you can often bomb your way out of a room mid-fight.
   
   
6. Bombing rocks can create a bridge across a gap. Place the bomb on the opposite side of the rock that you want the bridge to be.
   
   
7. It may be useful to destroy all poop and fire. They often contain coins or hearts. This is more useful early-game when one penny may mean the difference between getting that sweet shop item, and not.
   
   
8. If you have a smartphone, get the free BoI:R app to help quickly identify what items/trinkets/cards do. This is a must for getting good. There are also websites[platinumgod.co.uk]and the Wiki[bindingofisaacrebirth.gamepedia.com]. If you are curious about whether or not to pick up a particular item or how it synergizes with what you have, just look up the item on the Wiki and there is a synergy section.
   
   
9. Devil rooms can quickly make you over-powered (OP). There are various ways to trigger devil rooms. In general I find it easiest to not get hit during the boss fights (beginning on the second floor).
   a. Using the Book of Belial during a bossfight guarantees a devil room. Also having the Goathead.
   b. On the other hand, if you want angel rooms, you should pass on deals with the devil. You can open chests, just don't trade hearts for anything.
   
   
   
10. The square spikes on the floor actually have circular hit boxes, so when they are diagonal, you can run through them without being hurt. Embrace this. Practice whenever you can.
    a. Bombs can be dropped or 'kicked' to get items and chests out of spike covered areas.
    
    
11. Try to eat every pill as quickly as possible. They can easily break a run with Health-Up pills. Also, you don’t want to find out about Hematemesis pills in late game when you have tons of health. The most important tricks with pills are:
    a. Bad Trip pill becomes Full Health when you one heart or less left.
    b. Health Down pill becomes Health Up Isaac has one or fewer red heart containers.
    c. Telepills can sometimes get you an I AM ERROR room, which is valuable, so always try them. They can also get you out of a curse room with half damage (room with spiked doorframe).
    d. Hematemesis will spawn black or eternal hearts if used in a black heart or eternal heart containing super secret room.
    
    
12. Once you find yourself getting better, start holding ‘r’ on a new run until you are in a room with a golden door (item room). Check the item. If it is good, play, if not – keep holding ‘r’. This is a protip that makes all the difference once you are familiar with the mechanics and items.
    
    
13. Holding 'cntrl' or 'right trigger' will cause Isaac to drop his trinket and pill or card item. This is useful when you pick up a bad pill or trinket and don't want to carry it around.
    a. If the first level is Curse of the Labyrinth (XL), then you will actually get two items without needing keys.
    
    
14. With some spare change, arcades can be an easy way to get an extra red heart container. Considering the traditional arcade layout with slot machine, bum-skull-game, and heart donation machine - simply alternate spending money on the slot machine and bum-skull-game which often gives hearts that can replenish donations you make to the heart donation machine. It usually is easy to spend out the heart donation machine which results in one of two items - the IV Bag or Blood Bag (health up).
    
    
15. Regarding your current build stats on the pause menu: many folks will have you believe this part of the game is broken, but I assure you it is not. Why does a damage up item often not result in another hash in the damage stat? This is because stats are not simply whole numbers - in fact many are decimals which will not allow cause another hash to be filled in. For example, damage up +0.1 will only result in another hash filled in if you got ten of that item or pill.
    a. You can find exact values for all items on the Wiki if you are interested.
    b. While the pause menu stats are not ideal, they are still a useful metric of general run success. I really only keep my eye on the damage level (the sword icon).

1. If you already have a particular post-it note icon for a character, don’t keep playing the same character. This is useful because you have to beat It Lives 10 times, and not to mention the Polaroid and Negative runs.
   
   
2. Until you have donated 999 coins to the shop, donate as much as you can every run. Just unlock that baby early so you have all of your options open. Don’t even consider the shop to really be an option until this is done. Good Steam guide advice can be found here.
   a. It is recommended to not donate 1,000 coins, but keep it at 999 as you will get the achievement and also have a huge stash of money to draw from in future runs. Donating that last coin resets the machine back to zero, and gives you a payout for that run only.
   
   
3. Always pick up an item you have never picked up. You may regret it later, because once you touch it in –game, it will be on your item collection sheet which is important for end-game achievements.
   a. When all else fails when you are trying to touch a particular item, spending Eden tokens may result in a build where Eden actually starts with that item. This counts for the collection sheet.
   b. Wicked protip - save Judgement Card and Pandora's Box for angel and devil rooms if you have the D6 to reroll pedestal items (if you have the D6, you will understand this, if not ignore). Spend out the beggar from Judgement Card, and reroll the item to get another free angel room item (or devil room)!!
   
   
4. Getting transformation-associated achievements (such as Guppy), you only need to have touched three Guppy items in the same run, and not necessarily keep them. For example, grab Guppy's head, and put it back to get your original spacebar item (whatever that may be).
   
   
5. When all else fails, employ the alt-f4 method to get all Lost and no-damage achievements. People often frown on this, but some people have limited skills and time, so this may be their only hope. As soon as you die, quickly push escape before the death diary page comes up, and then push alt-f4. Let the game sync with Steam, and then reload. You will start at the begining of the level you were on.

These tips will help novice players elevate their game. Once you master these, you can them begin to improvise and make different decisions. If you have any comments/questions/additions, please comment below. Thank you for reading,

-Ryan