The Binding of Isaac: A Journey into the Pits of Some Scary Dark Places

[Halos]

Ah, a double post TOTP, perfect.

[tiiamat]

I remember seeing people post their scores in here on like death/mom kill ratio.
Anyway

Is the DLC worth getting?

[temporalPeregrine]

Yes, but only get it after you've defeated everything or the game becomes too easy for you.

[tiiamat]

To be fair I don't think this game will ever be too easy, just give me better runs.
So I might just get it because I want it.

[Jacquerel]

The DLC honestly makes the start of the game easier
And it only makes the end of the game "harder" if you count adding more content as making it harder which I'm not sure I do

[temporalPeregrine]

You can't bomb doors in the last new level, which makes it 900% harder than Sheol, so yes it makes the end of the game harder.

[Bandages]

I had no problem blowing up doors in the cathedral o_e

[Jacquerel]

What I meant was that it doesn't make the existing content harder, all the hard content is added on to the end, and thus it doesn't really matter what time you buy the DLC because you will encounter it at the same time anyway.
That time being after you've already beaten everything the un-DLCed game has to offer.

The new "hard" areas are all at the end of the game, whereas the new and powerful items can be discovered on most floors.

[RedMage]

I feel the dlc makes the beginning of the game harder because spiders. The rest of the game is made easier because of the larger pool of good items, up until Cathedral.
You can bomb cathedral doors just fine, idk about the Chest though.

[Bandages]

Wait Wait Wait

What's "THE CHEST"???

[Jacquerel]

The Chest is the Final Final level

You unlock it by

show spoiler

hide spoiler

Opening the big chest at the end of the Cathedral while holding the Polaroid.
You unlock the Polaroid by beating the Cathedral as every character (you'll see it slowly assemble on the title screen).

There are barely any basic enemies in The Chest, almost every room is multiples of a boss or mini-boss.

[Bandages]

Weird, I had the polaroid and guppy's tail already unlocked, even though I haven't done The Thing

i've only beaten the Cathedral with Isaac and Cain and Judas

[Jacquerel]

I know the unlocks were a bit messed up on release (I've got items I shouldn't too) but that's the first time I heard of someone getting the Polaroid early

Saves you the pain of using some of the less forgiving characters I suppose

[temporalPeregrine]

Yeah, you can't blow up doors in The Chest. And the average room has 2 horsemen and one greed.

[Weldar]

Have you actually seen the polaroid drop or did you just see the achivement/secret popups. My secret popups have been broken since wrath of the lamb (even old ones I didn't have yet like Dark Boy and Mamma's Boy that I since did and got the achivements for didn't come up) but the achievements have been a little weird for me. The first character I beat the Chest with Cain first and got the ???'s soul achievement, but the Cain's Eye trinket started dropping as expected next run not ???'s soul. Isaac and Maggie worked normally but Judas gave me the Cain's Eye achievement (But once again it unlocked the proper trinket).

And yeah I'd agree that the DLC makes the early game harder. The Cellar and Catacombs are definitely less forgiving than the Basement and Caves, the later floors are around the same in difficulty what with the overall stronger items to balance. It feels to me like the DLC was overall designed more for the people who'd played and exhausted the existing game rather than brand new players, it's not an impossible experience for them or anything but I'd definitely recommend putting in a few hours and at least beating Mom's heart a few times before starting with it. Even if it never gets easy for you at least get a little more comfortable with the game before diving into Wrath of the Lamb.

[Bandages]

yeah, just got ANOTHER polaroid drop tonight, still haven't done any of the challenges or beaten the Cath with all da peeps

[Karhs12]

I just discovered that having technology 2 makes thrown active items like Bob's Head totally useless.
As in, you'll just hold it over your head and won't be able to throw it.
Woop de doo.

[weirdguy]

due to how various mechanics differ from each other, technology 2 will generally not mesh with any kind of "special" attacks that charge up or are otherwise not tear missile based

[Didero]

Any tips on how to beat Sheol? The four "Defeat Sheol with..." achievements are among the last I need from the base game, and I'd like to complete those before activating my inventory copy of "Wrath of the Lamb".
Or would beating him be easier with the expansion?
I also need three of the four "No damage" achievements, would that get easier or harder with the expansion?

[weirdguy]

depends on how well you deal with spiders

they're very patient and only charge straight at you when you enter their field of vision...and otherwise never move

the other danger being all of the new big green glob enemies, which will fire some variation of what is effectively a bomb that explodes on contact

expansion is definitely more dangerous, but it's better to get used to it now, rather than later

(side note: I effin hate undead monstro and greed heads)

[Didero]

But there's all kinds of new items too though, right?
Do they help in off-setting that added danger?

[Karhs12]

But there's all kinds of new items too though, right?
Do they help in off-setting that added danger?

Some of them, namely the Epic Fetus (and possibly Ipecac if you are some sort of aiming god maybe?) actually make the game far easier.
Epic Fetus is like the Fetus in a Jar, only instead of throwing bombs, every shot is a Doctor's Remote missile. So yeah. Also there's super secret rooms now, which can show up basically anywhere, and they become really easy to find when you have infinite splosions, and they can hold all sorts of things.

[Jacquerel]

greed heads are awful, I don't know why but that split shot confuses me to no end

[Varkarrus]

secret: stand absolutely still.

[Bandages]

Finally encountered IPECAC and thought "let's see what these weenies were complaining about"

Now I am a weenie, too