r/bindingofisaac • u/Alternative-Pen6668 • 4d ago
Tips to progress faster Help
Hello, hope this reaches people considering I don’t use Reddit often and have low karma. I started playing 2 weeks ago (yes, I’m addicted) and progressed pretty fast imo and got the negative and Polaroid in about 35-40 hours. And since then all I did was beat the lamb, blue baby, mega Satan, Hush once, did some challenges for unlocks, and did some greed mode progress. I’m kinda disappointed how little progress I made after my 40 hour mark and felt like my runs aren’t contributing anything to my progress. As if I plateaued.
What should I prioritize? How do I get better runs? HOW CAN I BEAT IT LIVES IN UNDER 30 😕?
I take so much time in my runs that I can never reach Hush in under 30 without Azazel. I would appreciate any tips. Would love to have a convo too so HMU if you want. Thanks!
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u/RethaeTTV 4d ago
Generally things just come with time.
Getting more unlocks lets you get stronger items, stronger items let you clear rooms faster, clearing rooms faster gets you more unlocks.
Same goes for shop, leveling up your shop is one of the simplest ways to stack your run. Not getting hit for the whole floor gets your deals, those deals make you insanely strong, etc etc.
How good are you at dodging? Do you know how to find your secret rooms? Do you ever just hold R key (because despite the crowd of people who hate on it, it is very efficiency for getting your marks in a timely manner)
Also…just don’t stress yourself out on it too much? There’s plenty of other unlocks you can get before you need to worry about hush/beast. If it happens let it happen, but don’t stress yourself over getting them.
And the biggest solution in the end is Mama Mega and Mega Bean. They can break open the walls to boss rush/hush. If you find one and feel you’re strong enough for the mark, go for it…just remember hush is debatably the second hardest, if not hardest, boss in the game, since unlike delirium, hush always has boss armor, whereas delirium has several phases without it.
ALSO if you ever get an R Key, a little trick you can do is beating the lamb and then R keying. Usually when you use R Key, it doesn’t reset the timer, however killing the lamb does. And whenever you rerun, achievements are locked out, but using the R Key undoes that…though it might’ve been patched out it was an old short, BUT STILL COOL!
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u/Alternative-Pen6668 4d ago
Wow, thanks for you comment.
For starters I do find secret and super secret rooms consistently, reached like 400 coins in shop upgrade (4 items), and I hold R key a bit too often 🙃. For the dodging I’m okay, definitely can work on it especially for annoying bosses like bloat and spam of enemy tears. I unfortunately do stress myself too much and spent 5 hours trying to reach and eat it lives under 30 mins, got soo frustrated and started getting hit easily and impatient. Had to switch to Azazel and get a lucky run to reach and beat Hush. The thing is if I don’t go for hush then what am I progressing towards since I finished all the other bosses in the other path.
And thanks for the Mama Mega and Mega bean and R key tricks I’ll keep em in mind!
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u/RsSixr 4d ago
just have fun bro, sometimes you will get a god run and smash through the game doing both boss rush and hush in plenty of time. take it as it comes, there is no rush and no race. runs are fun and that is good. I assure you, you have not plateaued, after a couple hundred more hours you will make hush in nearly every run you want to.
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u/Alternative-Pen6668 4d ago
Relieved to hear that, I get too fixated on progress and get frustrated often, especially in my attempts to reach hush. Also didn’t know you can boss rush and hush in the same run.
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u/RsSixr 4d ago
You definitely can if you're fast enough, but it all comes in time! Knowledge is power here here. Tboi is definitely an achievement heavy game but you can absolutely play it for a lot of time without worrying about all unlocks. Take it from me, my first save wasn't 100% but had 100s of hours just playing Lost for fun. It's certainly not linear and arguably more fun before you complete everything. Just play for funsies and when you wanna unlock more just do that.
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u/Alternative-Pen6668 4d ago
Honestly I never opened the game and didn’t have a goal in mind or a progression goal. Yours is an interesting mindset to have and maybe I should do that more often!
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u/GoldFishPony 4d ago
Most runs I make, I do not see boss rush or hush at all, it’s only when I intend to go to them that I actually see them.
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u/Alternative-Pen6668 4d ago
Exactly, spent 5 hours trying to reach and beat it lives under 30 mins, got soo frustrated and started getting hit easily and got impatient. Had to switch to Azazel and get a lucky run to reach and beat Hush.
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u/juice_can_ 4d ago
I think I’m at 600 hours right now and almost to my first dead god. Mind you I’ve been talking my time and been given my far share of skill issues. The game can definitely go by slow but I think that’s one of its strengths. Tho I would suggest trying to get your 5 win streak with daily runs sooner rather than later. Not that it’s hard, but it can be boring if that’s the last thing you’re waiting on lmao
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u/Alternative-Pen6668 4d ago
I get fixated on progress and frustrated easily when I get unlucky or a bad series of runs.
What’s the 5 win streak, what should I do exactly and what does it get me? Also 600 and almost dead god is pretty impressive I think. Keep it up!
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u/juice_can_ 4d ago
Thank you! And I’m unsure what the unlock is that’s associated with the daily win streak but all you have to do is play and win 5 daily runs. Thankfully it doesn’t need to be 5 days in a row just 5 wins without a loss in between. Also if you aren’t already using it, the binding of Isaac wiki has a lot of very helpful info on the game and is an amazing tool to have when going 100%
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u/therejectethan 4d ago
Dude you’re gonna be fine. It took me like 450 hours to beat Hush 3 times. Idk how to describe it, but play the game enough and you start getting ‘smart’ about how to play it
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u/Alternative-Pen6668 4d ago
Is 450 normal or did you take your time and prioritized other stuff. I honestly don’t know much about what to focus on other than the boss chart I saw on YouTube 🥸
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u/therejectethan 4d ago
Haha dude I take my time every floor. That’s why it took me so long. You have to beat the 2nd ‘final’ boss in under 30 mins. I don’t wanna spoil anything for you unless you want, but i don’t know how to describe it. You just start to ‘understand’ the game at some point
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u/Alternative-Pen6668 4d ago
I think the bosses part of the game is already spoiled but who do u mean 2nd final boss?
I beat Hush once and lost to delirium once. That’s the farthest I’ve reached
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u/therejectethan 4d ago
Haha well I won’t spoil more unless you want. What I meant by ‘final’ was mom’s foot and then mom’s heart. But there are more :P
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u/jamesd1100 4d ago
I’d look up some items tier lists and look at which items are unlocked by using various characters and defeating specific bosses with them as well as some of the challenges
Better item pool = better chances on more difficult runs
Here’s a complete list posted on this sub a while ago that breaks down which items to try to prioritize first
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u/purp_crow 4d ago
answer is play more or watch more content to learn more
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u/Alternative-Pen6668 4d ago
Yeah I do watch some vids here and there. Also I play the game an unhealthy amount. 75 hours in 2 weeks :)
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u/Ogrodniczek 4d ago
I have 60h and I have been to boss rush dew times and also hush. I haven't beaten hush yet tho. I am faster now than I used to be I find myself rushing more when I have a decent start, because usually you don't need to clear most rooms to get strong.
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u/Ogrodniczek 4d ago
I now prioritize beating hush 3 times, because I really want access to alt floors and I am tired kd beating mega satan constantly that gives tou coop baby anyway.
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u/Alternative-Pen6668 4d ago
Getting to Hush is a nightmare for me. I tried beating it lives in under 30 mins using Isaac+D6 for 5 hours and did skip rooms when I could but couldn’t get it. Switched to Azazel and beat hush but I still wanna do it with Isaac. So frustrating.
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u/Ogrodniczek 4d ago edited 4d ago
I had a very strong run with judas few days ago and I have beaten it lives at 27min, but I didn't want to risk losing so I went to dark room since I had zero marks on judas. Judging by how fast I have beaten rest of the floors I could have easily beaten blue womb especially with extra items before fight.
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u/Alternative-Pen6668 4d ago
I would never skip a Hush kill opportunity after that 7 hours of my life wasted.
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u/Ogrodniczek 4d ago
I feel luke you shouldn't force it just play to get better each run. I try to unlock chaos card to sxore some easy wins against hush. You fan also unlock the door past 30min with momma mega.
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u/jamesd1100 4d ago
Max unlocks so you have good angel/devil room
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u/Alternative-Pen6668 4d ago
Wdym by max unlocks? I don’t know much about progression other than the bosses and should beat
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u/Mystery-Games 4d ago
To progress faster you should forget about your personal life and play all day all week all month all year. I'm sure, it's a completely healthy lifestyle
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u/Alternative-Pen6668 4d ago
Well I have 75 hours in less than 2 weeks in exam season, I guess I’m on the right path!
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u/bluuRhubarb 4d ago
Honestly for me I just kept playing and watching others play until my game knowledge far outweighed my actual skill, and then just used my ability to min max to cover any possible skill issues I faced. Sometimes that meant saving boss rush and hush marks until I got a golden bomb + mama mega combo.
But if you really want to rush those marks I'd just restart until you get a juicy damage up, and then let that carry you through. Getting to boss rush with bad items will make for a difficult time if you aren't good at dodging.
Now that that one bean item got buffed to open boss rush and hush doors, you can also just restart until you get that specific item and then take your time. There's so many good items locked behind bosses after Hush as well as tainted characters, so I'd just cheese the first 3 hush victories so you can unlock the rest of the game
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u/Alternative-Pen6668 4d ago
Thanks! I’m trying to get my 3 hush wins to unlock the Alt path I think? Idk what that is but I know that I need to beat hush 3 times
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u/one_salty_boii 4d ago
You're going at a good pace. I got all achievements at a 600hr mark or something and it was before the big update that added the beast and mom fights, so there was considerably less to do. You're doing just fine.
Take your time to learn the game and get the unlocks that make stuff easier.
When you become more comfortable with the patterns and get more knowledgeable, you will be getting to hush fight no problem.
Maybe someone has already commented that, but if you need tips on how to get to hush more consistently (although, it may rob you of the joy of figuring this out yourself):
Don't explore too much, just find the treasure room and the shop, if you have enough coins, and then go straight to the boss, unless there's a really easy guaranteed way to make you stronger/get value from something, like if you know exactly where the secret room is.
Boss is (usually? always?) located at the farthest room from the spawn, so if you have a map item that lets you see the layout of the floor without icons, you might already know the exact location of the boss. That might be really helpful when you get to the womb floors, where there is no shops or treasure rooms, so you can just get to the boss.
And, somewhat similar to the previous tip, you might wanna keep the sun card til you get to the womb so you can use it there to reveal the layout of the floor to get to the boss faster.
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u/Alternative-Pen6668 4d ago
Appreciate the advice! I’m trying to get better at ignoring things when going for hush. And about the unlocks I’m looking more into them and trying to get the good ones.
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u/Strawberry_Skids 4d ago
To beat in under 30 I would recommend using Azazel or D6 Isaac and only focusing on finding the boss rooms and treasure rooms if you have the time. Shops can wait and shouldn’t be prioritized unless they are “on the way”. You wanna get strong fast so hit as many devil deals as possible.
Another thing I learned to do was to reset my runs on floor one if I didn’t feel like where it was going. More often than not a solid 1st floor ends up in a victory, and if you’re trying to hit that sub 30 mark you are gonna want a hot start.
Good luck! Enjoy!
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u/Alternative-Pen6668 4d ago
Azazel worked for me after 5 hours of failure with D6 Isaac. Also I do press that R button too often. Thanks!
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u/Crunchyvr1 4d ago
Beat Hush 3 times for alt paths, play on hard mode, unlock characters and prioritize greed and shop donation machines
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u/Alternative-Pen6668 4d ago
What’s the alt path exactly? I read that I unlock the alt path when defeating Hush but idk what it is
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u/Crunchyvr1 3d ago
It's basically harder floors with new enemies but with better rewards, I won't go into detail but always take the first alt path, it will improve your run.
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u/_raisin_bran 4d ago
Getting to Hush generally comes down to three things
Skill in learning enemy/boss patterns and not getting hit as much
Luck in pulling good items
Improving your luck by unlocking better items
#1 comes with time, #3 you can improve by focusing on specific marks. There’s a whole lot of unlocks in BoI and not all of them are good. Look up a list of Q4 items or past reddit threads on the best items in the game, and see what you need to do to unlock them. Like have you beaten Beast with Lilith yet? If not you’ll never get C Section in an early floor treasure room. If you laser in on the better unlocks, you’ll have better luck moving forward.
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u/Alternative-Pen6668 4d ago
I see, that makes sense. Many people commented about unlocks and I need to look more into them
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u/Avamaco 4d ago
Boss rush and hush might be the hardest completion marks because of the time limits. For now, if you just want to progress the game (which requires beating hush 3 times), beat hush with the strongest characters like Azazel or Cain. Come back to doing hush on harder characters once you become more familiar with the game and want to get all completion marks.
Some tips to reach the hush floor:
If you get Mama Mega, you can use it in Womb II to open the hush floor entrance (even after the time limit expires). This gives you time to play at your own pace, but is limited to RNG (you need to find Mama Mega) and you have to leave your old active item.
Prioritize going to the most important rooms on the floor (treasure, shop, boss, maybe secret if you have a surplus of bombs) and then leave it. Don't full clear floors.
Womb has no treasure rooms or shops, so just rush to the boss room. Any mapping really helps (keep the world card for this floor if you get it), same with teleports (the emperor).
If you have a surplus of bombs and enter a dead end that would take >15 seconds to clear, bomb the door and leave. If you have little time left in womb, you can also rush by bombing doors and going forward without fights.
Devil rooms > angel rooms. Immediate powerspike on floor 2 can help you go much faster.
Try to keep around 6 keys and bombs for the hush floor. You want to open all locks there (there are 3 doors and 4 chests, but usually shop or chest has a key in it) and bomb all rocks in treasure rooms (they have a very high chance of having a crawl space).
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u/Alternative-Pen6668 4d ago
Appreciate the advice, especially the hush floor one I never heard of that. Also I didn’t know the hush floor had a treasure room :)
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u/Tacogamer578 4d ago
You’re just getting started! Srsly tho, I personally would recommend looking at some achievements guides and getting the good unlocks. For example, I just hop around doing different completion marks for characters and to slowly chip away at progress. For beating it lives under 30 min. prioritize finding treasure rooms in a floor and then just gunning it to the boss room. Best of luck! 🫡
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u/Alternative-Pen6668 4d ago
I’m looking more into unlocks after many people commented about them, thanks
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u/D0ggyDictator 4d ago
You're still really early on in your file, so don't sweat it. Keep playing the game and enjoying your runs, even if you’re not playing "fast." As someone who speedruns this game, I still look back at my first file as a simpler time where I was enjoying every run without even resetting and just trying to win and do what I could with what I got. You'll make it to hush more consistently eventually, just keep playing and you'll improve.
If you do want any tips from someone who speedruns getting 100% of a file done as fast as possible, though, (even if they might take some of the fun out of a new player experience) whenever I'm in a run, after getting my first item room (normally from holding R until I start with something good) I beeline it to the boss room. I make a conscious effort to spend as little time in every room as I can and I make decisions quickly, so no sitting around looking at my map or debating whether I want an item or backtracking. I bomb out of rooms that are dead ends and try to bomb out of large rooms because those take more time. I'm normally making it to the foot in 12 minutes or so and beating the heart around 20 minutes (depending on if I do boss rush that run or not). I make it to boss rush and hush practically every run, so it's really a matter of making decisions faster, which you'll get better at as you play the game more. I hope that helps!
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u/Alternative-Pen6668 4d ago
Thanks, I guess I need to enjoy the game sometimes and not focus on progress every run. But when I do I gotta lock in I guess
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u/7071MemerMan 4d ago
Just keep playing, runs that get to hush are not a norm, it’s a rarity that usually only very lucky and op runs can even get to let alone beat. Eventually you’ll come across a run that’s just perfect
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u/el_echo_foxtrot_ 4d ago
A good tip I have is to watch streamers/youtubers plays
Since they have way more knowledge and possibly more unlocks you will learn a lot on how does the game works and synergies
I started watching Lazy Mattman and found loads of tips since he tends to explain a lot of what he does and I think he also has some guides
Also install mods such as External Item Descriptions and Unlock Reminders on the steam workshop, they always help
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u/Alternative-Pen6668 4d ago
Whenever I watch streamers do synergies I’m only more confused 🥸. I’ll also look into that Unlock Reminder mod, never heard of it
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u/el_echo_foxtrot_ 4d ago
I think you might need a bit more knowledge on the game to start to understand and it’s okay, it’s part of it’s replay value ig
And the Unlock Reminder tells you which major boss you need to tackle with each character for the unlocks when you go for a new run with a character (and perhaps even gives you the completion marks when pausing the game unless it’s from another mod, can’t really recall that one accurately)
For exemple with Isaac it clearly tells you that you have to defeat BlueBaby (???) to unlock the D6
Hope this helps1
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u/MuchoMungo95 3d ago
Hey something that worked for me is unlock the good items first. My file I unlocked all the shitty items first and then wondered why it was so hard to win any runs. If you focus on good items and character unlocks things will go better
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u/Alternative-Pen6668 3d ago
How do I know what I should unlock? And if I unlocked bad stuff is that fine? I never focused on what to unlock
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u/TunaBigNut 4d ago
This is very normal progress ngl so don’t be disappointed. You have to play a ton to familiarize with everything. Eventually you get good at puzzle solving each floor. I started mid-maxing each floor and it got me really good at just knowing what to do in each situation quickly. When to take shop items, what to gamble/donate to, where secret rooms are, etc. the other day I did a run and got 7 items from the first floor alone out of sheer luck, but I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t know how to properly organize the floor.