Isaac's Awakening: A Sword to a Knife-fight

[Sack Sleigher]

Let me just say this: Maybe I'm not a GOD at this game, but I've come far enough to say I can play it pretty ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ well. However, this one singular challenge is actually managing to be both HARDER and MORE BORING than the likes of Ultra Hard, Family Man, and SPEED combined.

To put it simply, the gameplay of Spirit Sword (and your worthless Trinity Shield) boils down to this:

Spam the absolute hell out of the basic swing at literally all times, breaking keyboard or controller in the process because of the requirement to maximize DPS (which by the way, this item kills things on base damage so quickly it makes Forgotten look meme-worthy)

The entirety of the run is pretty ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ easy, if not exceedingly boring and possibly frustrating due to the fact a lot of rooms weren't designed for a purely melee character sometimes. I found out the hard way doors eventually just unlock for you if you don't kill stuff in time.

The HARD part though, is the Mother fight. Yes, I got here with a whole inventory of fantastic items and 12 full hearts, ready to go with a surplus of what I thought was enough. Nah, man. The only option is to soak hits while furiously mashing your attack of choice to see if you can out-DPS, because quite honestly the amount of time you have inbetween Mother's attacks are so pathetically slim you'd fight her for 5 hours before getting to second phase. With nothing to really fuel you apart from the boss items, a SINGLE item room, and any devil/angel deals you might come across (which are practically worthless, as all of Spirit Sword's best synergies come from item room pool. After getting Mom's Knife, I said "wow cool, I can throw it!" and proceeded to never throw it throughout the entire rest of the run because it completely wasted DPS.)

This is not to say Mother exclusively should be nerfed; Spirit Sword, in of itself, is way too overpowered for the fact you can mercilessly facetank 95% of bosses and get out of it with having lost at most one or two hearts, your devil deal chance, and any semblance of dignity. While it might be the favorite item of many, I just...I love the idea, but this is actually the singular most boring tear modifier in the entire game, and I would actually rather suffer Cursed Eye than have my run both carried and ruined by this thing.

Oh, and by the way, why DON'T we have a healthbar on the Mother fight? Witness had one. Explain, Edmund. Please explain yourself before I use Transcendence on myself.

[SeaSaw]

I had much fun with this challenge :) But yeah, the sword itself is the runkiller in most cases

[HazoVigi]

As for the healthbars, I guess the intent was for the big final bosses to not have one, like the Beast, Mother and Mega Satan. On the other hand Delirium and Ultra Greedier do have a healthbar so idk.

[dragoon4]

Nah IA is quite easy challenge. Completed it on third try didn't think it was boring. Speed is worst challenge in AB+. Oh yeah and till you try Seeing double or Red redemtion challenge.

[orian34]

The sword is really easy, especially when you consider that the circular attack bounces pack projectiles

[11clock]

I have beaten Mother with the spirit sword twice now. I actually find her easier with the spirit sword. It deals insane damage, and because of Mother’s massive hitbox you can pretty much always attack her. It also makes Mother feel like a boss from Zelda.

[Norton 360 for Gamers]

Ah yes, swords. Nature's knives.

[JellyPuff]

I have to strongly disagree. The Spirit Sword is completely busted and overpowered, vs Mother included. So much so, that i wouldn't be surprised to see it on the "to nerf" list alongside Psy Fly.

Try using the spin-to-win more. Also, you can build a pretty solid foundation with your active item in the early game, to power up for the final fight. (e.g. picking up rocks with bombs stuck in them to open secret rooms)

Edit: i've just taken a closer look at your post (i usually skim over words around hearts) and you claim the challenge is harder than Ultra Hard and the Spirit Sword too strong and too easy. Alright then.