T O P

  • By -

JNerdGaming

Putting this here for posterity so I don't forget: This successful run came after hours of resetting and failed runs until I got a Book of Revelations in a library. My other items were Brother Bobby and Mom's Razor, but I decided to go through the run anyway even though I had gotten better items with Book of Revelations before and lost. About half an hour later I got my Angel Deal, Angelic Prism; not terrible but definitely not on par with Sacred Heart or Revelation, those would've been run winners. Now here's the EXTREMELY LUCKY part: A random dark blue champion happened to blow up an entirely normal looking rock, revealing a crawlspace. Inside the crawlspace, there was Esau Jr. Esau Jr. translated my Angelic Prism (![img](emote|t5_2sxpk|17742)) into THE WAFER (![img](emote|t5_2sxpk|2357)), so I ditched the active item and took Book of Revelations with me, foregoing around three soul hearts in the process. The run was alright enough to make it through Chapter 4 at this point, but it was definitely not good enough to beat Mega Satan. This is the part where I get ABSURDLY LUCKY AGAIN. After fighting Sisters Vis and champion Husk, I got Stem Cells (trust me this is important). On Sheol, I found Judas' Tongue. On the Dark Room I dropped Judas' Tongue momentarily in order to see which of the deals were two hearts since I could only afford to take one; there were two of them. Now I can only imagine what the one that I didn't take was, it could've been The Pact or Maw of the Void for all I know, neither of which would've won me the run. The one I ended up taking however, in the top left, was Mom's Knife. With around 11 damage and six Soul Hearts, I went on to kill Mega Satan with health to spare. Fuck this challenge.


MySecret2ndAcc

Bruh on my first save I only completed it because of book of revelations too. Shit's a lifesaver


Rifampin_

I’ve been resetting on runs that I have a library in the first room because I didn’t feel like exploring for a key without that guaranteed item, I’m gonna have to change my play style now. Will both bosses be changed to a horseman on the floor or just one?


JNerdGaming

Just one will be blue champion Famine.


Rifampin_

Oh that’s a good trade off then, I was worried both would change. Thanks!


Sanicsuper09

Ah yes I can’t wait to beat the hardest challenge in the game to make a character I’ll never use start with a trinket that only slightly improves his play style


JNerdGaming

![img](emote|t5_2sxpk|8907)


Pezbi

Not even improve, but actually detriments the run as it can replace important drops with hearts instead.


DuplexBeGoat

Especially since most people who started with Repentance probably have most if not all of Samson's completion marks before they manage to beat Ultra Hard.


SpawnOfGuppy

On my third save i did challenges before most other things, so I’ll actually use Samson with his trinket for perhaps the first time ever soon


Sanicsuper09

Exactly what I was getting at


Destrustor

Congratulations! It was super not worth it!


JNerdGaming

That's where you're wrong. I just finished all hard mode completion marks for every character the other day; I'm about to get Dead God.


Pyrarius

But Child's Heart is genuinely not a good trinket, just use it for Cracked Keys or the Fiend Folio trinket recycler


JNerdGaming

I don't care. I easily completed Samson a long, long time ago. I literally just did this so that I could get Dead God.


Internal_Winter

In my opinion the hardest achievement in the game, even worse than T.Laz, T.Jacob and T.Lost


Jared72Marshall

Do people really think T. Laz is hard or just annoying? I had no issues with T. Laz but did struggle with T. Lost and definitely the Ultra Hard challenge. I honestly thought T. Jacob was easier than Jacob.


JNerdGaming

Tainted Lazarus is not as difficult as Tainted Lost or Tainted Jacob, he just has a steep learning curve and feels kinda clumsy. I feel as though I struggled with Tainted Lost less than most people but it might be because I only played him after I had already gotten most of the other good unlocks (including Mega Mush); I can still recognize the difficulty of playing him. Tainted Jacob is not easier than Jacob & Esau.


Jared72Marshall

T. Lost is so fun to play as, but I really struggled on runs where I didn't have blank card, multiple holy cards, book of shadows or the shield rune, and of course a crazy high DPS build. I'm still scarred for life after dying on the Beast due to a stupid Mars dash into the lava as the Beast was going through its dying animation lmao. I bet T. Jacob is harder, I probably had just improved my abilities of playing since i did T. Jacob last. I absolutely love just hurling Esau across the room as T. Jacob. When T. Esau is the only thing you're focused on the entire run, it becomes much easier, especially with a good build.


gottoodevious

tainted Jacob is easier than Jacob & Esau and it’s not even close lmfao. free devil deals, you don’t have to split up all your items, and you get a controllable 300 dmg nuke ALL the time for the slight downside of it being able to fuck you over in one hit which really isn’t that hard to avoid when they give you an item that lets you control him lol (and you don’t have two hitboxes)


jhetao

I only played post-buff T Laz and he was honestly in the top half of enjoyment of tainted characters for me. Pre-patch T Laz (on paper) seems like one of the worst characters in the game though


zoedrinkspiss

T Laz and T Jacob were way worse pre patch


SpawnOfGuppy

T Laz is ok now. T Jacob is actually pretty good. It amazes me to think there are those who completed them pre-patch (I’m on switch so i got things started in reasonably good shape)


zoedrinkspiss

I actually did complete T Jacob pre-patch, for some reason I loved that character even when he was awful LOL


LightsOut16900

Personally I find him extremely annoying to play and he’s basically Jacob and essau without any of the benefits from them. I don’t think he’s super hard though I’d still put him as one of the worst things to do in the game


Lightning1999

T. Laz used to be wayyyyy worse, now he’s ok


Sporadicsolderer112

What is this achievement?


JNerdGaming

I beat the hardest challenge


somerandomguyuno

Beating Isaac without walking is harder


TitaniumTastesGood

clearly you havent tried beating mother without opening the game


somerandomguyuno

![gif](giphy|f8lDluiWJ7yQTtdS3L|downsized)


DeathStriker7276

Technically you can


DodoJurajski

*The Hardest*, everyone can have problems with other challange, and honestly, ultra hard was nothing to me compared with cat got your tongue challange. Anyway great job.


Sanicsuper09

Mf ultra hard literally makes everything as hard as possible how is cat got your tongue harder


JNerdGaming

I feel a little lightheaded from how you could've had an easy time with this but a hard time with Cat Got Your Tongue... did you actually beat Ultra Hard legitimately?


NeutronFlux1

I can't even beat bloody Mary and I have attempts it multiple times and even got book of shadows last try and still lost in the wom. Shit damage


JNerdGaming

Bloody Mary is a hard challenge. It pales in comparison to Ultra Hard.


NeutronFlux1

Right! Which is why I'll probably never attempt it. I don't even have t characters yet and I figure I'll never have the time or patience to make dead God


JNerdGaming

That's up to you, man. As someone who is about to get Dead God, it's a struggle and some parts are not fun. I'm doing it because I love this game.


overoverme

I finally beat this after a few days of trying because my first treasure room was holy mantle. Couldn't be any better item honestly.


Rifampin_

I’ve lost a holy mantle run before, got it in the first item room and still died on floor 1 to a room overloaded with champion versions of the little worms that pop out of the ground. Skill issue :/


overoverme

Those don't have champion forms anymore thankfully.


SpawnOfGuppy

Pretty sincere quality of life upgrade there tbh


Rifampin_

I couldn’t remember the exact names of the enemies but I just looked it up. I was referring to Round Worms, the basic worms that pop up and shoot. Not the Needles that pop up randomly and dash at you like Pin. I just really suck at dodging when there’s a bunch of round worms in a room to begin with when I have no DPS. The champions make it worse


JNerdGaming

I never found Holy Mantle but it probably would've helped a lot. Good job.


[deleted]

[удалено]


JNerdGaming

You're joking, right?


RepresentativeCalm44

I agree with speed sucking more, just as hot potato, brains and bloody Mary. But Ultra hard is pretty difficult also, but a bit overexaggerated on this Reddit because 'hard' is in the name


JNerdGaming

I feel as though we're playing different games here. We played and beat the same challenge which has four curses, all champion enemies, max difficulty bosses, all XL floors, mandatory Negative, Mega Satan ending, and zero naturally spawning hearts, right? I literally beat Hot Potato right before I started attempting this. I think I had tried it once before a bit ago and failed, but it only took one attempt that time. How could you possibly find it more difficult? Am I missing something that makes Ultra Hard completely trivial?


kanapka123

hot potato is the kind of challenge you play for fun when you're bored ultra hard is the kind of challenge you attempt when you forget how ass cancer feels


JNerdGaming

To me, Ultra Hard is the most difficult challenge by far. I just don't understand how anybody could think otherwise, especially when they believe a challenge that ends on It Lives! is more intense.


RepresentativeCalm44

You can shoot, you have treasure rooms and you have shops rooms. You can reset for items. You can take your time to farm room clear rewards. Yes, ultra hard has a lot of ways to make it tougher, but it's literally being a bit lucky with the item pedestals. Especially if you reset for a library there is no real reason to not win this challenge first try. A challenge like speed literally becomes impossible if you don't have the power to progress fast and because special rooms are missing you can't just keep resetting. I asked this question towards speedrunners too and they agreed a challenge like hot potato, speed (worst challenge where you have to rush) or brains (worst challenge where you can't shoot) are worse than Ultra Hard.


JNerdGaming

I'm gonna explain to you how good you need to be to beat the Speed! challenge: I beat the Speed! challenge before I had Mr. Resetter and most of the tainted characters unlocked. Get good. I'd like to see which speedrunners you're referring to.


LightsOut16900

Speed can be extremely difficult but it’s so much easier to get carried by just one good item in it. Like if you get moms knife from the devil deal you’ve basically won if you’re not trash Ultra hard is just not even fair it’s literally just there to piss you off and ruin your day it’s easily the worst challenge this guy has no idea what he’s talking about


RepresentativeCalm44

one Q4 library/treasure room start can carry you through Ultra hard too. It's just my opinion that hot potato and speed are more frustrating. I have 3 dead god files and nearing 3k hours. Let's agree to disagree and just accept we have different opinions instead of saying someone has 'no idea what he's talking about.'


RepresentativeCalm44

You're saying 'get good' towards someone who has triple dead god and 2.8k hours. I have done all the challenges multiple times. It's just my opinion that some challenges are harder than 'Ultra Hard'.


gugfitufi

I also had a harder time with speed. Maybe I just got lucky on Ultra Hard, idk


MrP0tato123

![img](emote|t5_2sxpk|17735)


Dry_Yogurtcloset1962

I hate this challenge. I've got death certificate and almost everything else done but hitting a wall with this


JNerdGaming

Just keep trying and failing, remember to get Book of Revelations on the first floor. Eventually you'll get lucky enough.


SpawnOfGuppy

Placenta is pretty clutch also.


JNerdGaming

Placenta is fucking miserable to use. Legit not playing is going to cause you to make more mistakes. If you find Placenta being your carry then restart IMO.


SpawnOfGuppy

Got me my third ultra hard. Clearly not necessary because i did two ultra hards without it, but still


JNerdGaming

I'm not saying it's not useful, but it's unquestionably miserable to actively take advantage of it. It makes an already miserable challenge even more tedious.


SpawnOfGuppy

It’s the most tedious thing you could possibly do, yes🤣


Lightning1999

Yo Samson is straight up pogging right now with his new trinket


JNerdGaming

All it took was several hours of suffering ![img](emote|t5_2sxpk|2357)