Advice for Apollyon???

[FrostyF]

Hi everyone! I am having so much trouble winning with Apollyon, no matter what I do I feel like I can't get enough damage. People say Apollyon is OP but to me it feels like a worse Eve. What do you do while playing Apollyon? I know I am not bad at Isaac, I completed lost on Rebirth and had a 17 run lost streak (4 of them were Mega Satan), but for some reason I cannot beat the game with Apollyon.

[Blargo]

Apollyon's base stats are garbage, so you'd rather want to absorb most items with Void instead of picking them up, unless you come across really good items such as Magic Mushroom, Abbadon, Holy Mantle, The Halo, etc...
Basically when you find an item, if you feel that you can survive without picking it up, then just absorb it.

Also, look for ways to duplicate items such as Diplopia, Jera, More Options, etc...
That way you can maximize the effectivenes of absorbing items.

[Misery]

Yeah, Apollyon really is all about the Void. Even if you see another active item you really, really want, never just take it; absorb it instead, you'll be able to still use it anyway. Never drop Void. Unless you're grabbing something else temporarily to use just on that floor, like one of the dice or something (generally not a good idea to absorb those).

The real trick with him though is figuring out which passive items to grab, and which to just use Void on. In my experience the choice isnt always so simple. It's going to depend on your build at the time, and things like that.

To start with, I'd say, just use the sort of reasoning you'd usually use on a run with anyone else. If you see an item that, with your current build, you wouldnt normally grab with a different character, just absorb it. That's part of why Apollyon is so good: With other characters, when you see items you dont want, you leave them there and dont get anything out of it, but Apollyon can get stats out of them regardless, every time. So even if you find something you consider bad and normally would never take, like Cursed Eye, you can "take" it anyway with Void and gain a benefit (without a downside). It really adds up over the course of the run.

That doesnt mean that other options might not be better though. If you see a bad item and you have something like Perthro for instance, try that on it first to see if you get something good, dont just eat the item.

The one thing to keep in mind is that with active items, their activated effects cant ever be removed from Void. So, some of them, you may not want to grab, due to that. Consider each one carefully before doing so. Some of them can be so very good with it, though. One of my favorites to absorb with him is the Smelter; so not only can he gobble up pedestal items, but he can also do it with trinkets, with just that one active item. Pretty nice.

Also, it might be good to see if you can get some items that produce batteries, or do things to make it easier to charge Void, since it's a six-room charge. It's good to make sure you always have it ready when you need it, whether you're absorbing something or using it to fire off some active effect.

That six-room charge is really the only major downside, as I see it. Because absorbing an active item that normally has a 2-room charge, for instance, effectively turns it into the same thing, but with a much longer charge time. That can make some actives effectively weaker. Other than that though, there really isnt much in the way of bad aspects about that particular item.

Oh, and always remember that Void eats EVERY item in the room. So as Dxpress says, if you can double an item or spawn more somehow in the same room, you can absorb a bunch with one activation.

Good luck! You'll get the hang of him sooner or later.

[FrostyF]

Thanks guys! I'll give him a shot this way and let you all know how it goes.

[K1]

eat all of the space bar items



except plan c, why is that even a thing?