Quick and Simple Jacob and Esau Guide

A quick no-nonsense guide for winning runs with good ole' J&E.

Introduction

Jacob and Esau are tough. Every benefit that the characters bring to the table are quite literally doubled down on by problems. Nonetheless, here is what I have learned through getting all of Jacob and Esau's completion marks.

General Strategy

I am sure there are many Jacob and Esau guides out there, and I am not going to claim that this is the best possible strategy, but after playing a lot of Jacob and Esau, this playstyle has yielded good results for me. I am not going to cover the specific mechanics of moving around or dodging with J&E, that's more of something that you just have to figure out. I have found that one of the best things you can do to find success as J&E and make as few mistakes as possible, is to stop yourself before picking up any item or heart drop. Just take a pause and consider the pros and cons of allocating more hearts or items to either of the characters to make sure you are getting as much worth out of your items and drops as possible. This may seem like common sense, but unless you have been playing a lot of J&E you will autopilot and pick up items as Jacob or Esau without even thinking about it, and little mistakes like that will pile up, and the more mistakes you have to manage, your odds of winning the run get slimmer. It's as simple as giving 'Loki's Horns' to the character with higher luck, or giving more hearts to Esau if Jacob has 'The Wafer'. Once you get down item management, the only thing that separates a J&E run from a typical run is the dodging, aside from some item interactions and general tips and tricks, which I have included next. TLDR; With J&E, everything is working against you, I have found success by focusing on what you can control, getting really anal about item/heart management between characters, taking advantage of curse rooms, etc.. Onto Tips and Tricks that I have either seen done, or picked up on my own. If you have a good tip/trick to add to the list, let me know and I will add with credit.

Tips and Tricks

How to Handle Familiars

• Pick up all of your familiars as either Jacob or Esau, so you can get the most out of 'BFFS!' or 'Forgotten Lullaby' by picking them up with the same character.

Free Curse Room Trick

• If you enter a curse room as Jacob, and a full red heart drops, instead of taking the red heart immediately, use Esau (assuming his red heart is full) to push the red heart right outside the door. With the heart set up like this, you can exit using Jacob, then use the damage invincibility frames to re-enter as Jacob, quickly take the heart, and exit again, resulting in a free curse room.

General Bomb Tips

• When breaking a tinted rock with a bomb, have Esau wait by the tinted rock, and move Jacob to a possible secret room location before using the bomb. Before you place the bomb, make sure you know how you are going to move to make sure both characters are safe from the explosion.
  
• Similarly to the tip above, if using a bomb in a room that cannot have secret rooms, instead use the extra bomb to explode jars, machines, beggars, or just a group of rocks (for a shot at a crawlspace).

Switching Trinkets/Cards/Pills Between Characters

• You might not know that you can hold the 'switch' button (default left control) to drop all pills, cards, or trinkets you are holding. This is particularly useful on J&E, as it enables you to switch pickups between characters.

Making the Most of 'Choose One' Item Rooms

• This is fairly well known from what I have seen, but it is possible to take multiple items from item rooms with more than one option by taking both items with Jacob and Esau at the same time. To do this easily, line both characters up with the items, and push them against a wall. Then just walk forward and collect the items. This works in any scenario with multiple items.

[Carni]

This guide seems pretty alright for getting a basic idea of the character, but I think one thing that is missing that would probably be good to mention is that active items only give transformation progress towards the brother that picked it up first,

[Mole]

the items are split into two which could be bad but you get about equal health. For me, whenever I play j&e my biggest issue is health

[lem]

@Mole Thanks for the comment. According to the wiki, when you use clicker and turn into J&E, your items are randomly split between the two. This seems like a bad thing. Am I missing something?

[Mole]

quick tip: get the clicker active item and become j&e

[lem]

@Flytrap sorry not out of the door but rather next to the exit of the room, close enough so you can grab it during the invincibility window.

[Flytrap]

Push the red heart outside? You cant push pickups through doors....

[Brejax]

underrated