This article is about the playable character. For the boss, see ??? (boss).
???, also known as The Blue Baby, is an unlockable character in The Binding of Isaac. He is unlocked by completing the full game 10 times, after which Isaac will find him locked in a chest during the ending cutscene.
??? is unique in that his health is made entirely of Soul Hearts and cannot be expanded with Heart Containers. This makes Soul Hearts the only source of replenishing health available to ???; standard hearts cannot be picked up and will remain on the ground as if the player is at full health. Items in the Devil Room will always cost three Soul Hearts while playing as ???.
If you beat the boss in The Chest as a different character, but somehow die afterwards (let the chest spawn, and then die) with the Ankh item, you'll respawn as ???. Completing the level will count as beating it as ???, giving you his Chest achievement, but still unlock the character specific item. If you are a different character that dies while they have the Ankh, they will respawn as ???. Besides if you have no "red hearts" if you beat The Chest (by deals with the devils for instance) and only soul hearts, the game consider that you're ??? and the character you choose, so you can unlock ???'s award and the chosen character's award.
Scapular: Gives a Soul Heart to ??? when he has none left, rather than when at a half heart as with other characters.
Whore of Babylon: As ??? is registered with no health by the game, the Whore of Babylon effect is always active on ???.
If you acquire an extra life via a 1UP, ??? will be revived with three Soul Hearts.
Any health increasing items (such as Raw Liver or Lunch) will only give the equivalent Soul Hearts to ??? instead of Heart Containers.
The Wafer: Reduces the cost of any Devil Room item to 1/2 Soul Heart, probably due to a bug where ??? takes damage to pay for items rather than lowering his (nonexistent) health.
Trinkets[]
Liberty Cap: Can get the "Odd Mushroom (Large)" effect which, instead of granting a Heart Container, will instead give ??? a Soul Heart and allow him to keep it. This effect will only work once and will negate the effect of the next health increasing item the player picks up. The Strength tarot card has similar effects.
The Polaroid: ??? will receive the invincibility effect whenever hit instead of the normal requirement of falling to one-half heart.
Cursed Skull: Will teleport you every time you take damage.
When combined with the Scapular, this makes ??? unable to die.
Pickups[]
Full Health pills, Sacred Heart and <3 recover ???'s health to three Soul Hearts when he has below three Soul Hearts.
Health Up pills give one Soul Heart to ??? per consumption.
Bad Trip pills will heal ??? only if he is at half a soul heart (acts as Full Health pill).
As with regular Heart Containers, Eternal Hearts will turn into a Soul Heart when two are collected or a level is completed with one of them. The upside is that they will be used up at the very end, giving ??? a slight advantage in this aspect above other characters. (This is currently bugged, as losing all your Soul Hearts while having an Eternal Heart will still cause you to die.)
Items that have reduced/no effect[]
Items[]
Charm Of The Vampire: Will only heal Heart Containers, rendering it useless.
Yum Heart: Will only heal Heart Containers, rendering it useless.
Little C.H.A.D.: ??? cannot pick up the half hearts Little C.H.A.D. drops, nor can effects like Mitre turn them into Soul Hearts.
Guppy's Paw: ??? cannot obtain Heart Containers, thus rendering the activated effect of the item completely useless.
The paw does however count toward the three items required to transform into Guppy, even though ??? is unable to actively use it.
The Gamekid: Still grants invincibility and damage, but doesn't heal/give Soul Hearts.
Items that would normally heal other characters on picking up would also not heal ???. (e.g. PhD or Blood Bag)
Trinkets[]
Bloody Penny: Can only drop half red hearts, which are useless to ???.
Isaac's Fork: Will only heal Heart Containers, rendering it useless.
Child's Heart: The bulk of the added drops will be normal hearts, though a small percentage will be Soul Hearts.
Judas's Tongue: Doesn't lower the price of Devil Room items as trades offered to ??? is always at three Soul Hearts.
Umbilical Cord: ??? will only receive the familiar if/when he has no health, meaning that this trinket is useless to ???.
The Tick: Still takes 15% health off bosses; however it doesn't heal ???.
Pickups[]
2 of Hearts: The 2 of Hearts cannot double soul hearts, thus making it useless.
VI The Lovers: ??? cannot use the hearts spawned by this card.
XIX The Sun: Despite its Full Health effect, it won't heal ??? even if he is under three soul hearts.
Unlocking details[]
Due to the way the game counts "completions", players need only beat any of the endgame bosses—It Lives, Mom's Heart, or Satan—a combined total of 10 times to unlock ???. Since it is possible to defeat both Mom's Heart/It Lives and Satan in the same playthrough, ??? can be unlocked before the player has actually completed the game 10 times. However, defeating Satan requires accessing Sheol, which prior to unlocking It Lives requires either We Need To Go Deeper! to be used or for a Devil Room to be accessed after defeating Mom's Heart, neither of which are guaranteed to be available.
Gallery[]
??? as seen on the Boss Battle Screen
??? cameo appearance in the 10th ending.
??? as seen on the Secrets Panel
The screen that appears when Blue Baby is unlocked.
Another part of the thirteenth ending.
Trivia[]
As a 'secret' character, ??? is the only one not to be shown during the character selection until unlocked.
The character's alternate name is revealed on Isaac's Last Will, where it is signed "??? (The Blue Baby)".
This character is a nod to one of Edmund McMillen's Newgrounds submissions. On www.newgrounds.com, McMillen is known as BlueBaby, and he has a series of "dress up" games titled "Dead Baby Dressup".
The "Blue Baby" syndrome is when a baby is born with cyanotic heart diseases, which can turn the baby's skin blue due to oxygen loss. This might be the origin of ???'s/Edmund McMillen's Newgrounds name. This is his homepage.
The item Fate is heavily implied to be ???'s severed head.
??? can be seen during Dyspareunia, the final stage of Edmund McMillen and Florian Himsl's game, C-Word.
??? is the only character in the game whose name is not a biblical reference.
He is also the only unlockable character in-game who isn't Isaac dressing up.
Beating Sheol with ??? will unlock the Forget Me Now which may be reference to ??? being the dead, secret/forgotten character in the Binding of Isaac.
???'s starting item, The Poop, may be a reference to ??? being dead, and how people void their bowels when they die.
In the Wrath of the Lamb expansion, many new bosses featured are posthumous versions of other bosses. They have similar, yet upgraded, attack patterns to their living versions. So naturally it would follow that when Isaac became a boss in the game, ??? would too.
In an inter-level cutscene, Isaac is in a chest and running out of air. This could be the explanation why ??? is possibly Isaac, but dead. In fiction, a person's skin can turn blue due to a severe lack of oxygen. This might explain why ???'s skin is blue and how it is connected to Isaac running out of air in a chest.
If one dies while playing as ???, the music will resume instead of the Today I Died... music.
However, this seems true for any character who's lost all red heart containers (e.g. through Guppy's Paw), and so died by losing their last soul heart.
When fighting one of the Seven Deadly Sins, ???'s name will come up as XXX.
??? is the only character to have a different pose when he appears on the boss fight VS. Screen. Unlike all the other characters, who are curled up into a fetal position and laying on their sides; ??? is laying on his back, facing upwards. The same goes for his boss pose. (as shown in the video below.
Bugs[]
When ??? gets hit, he shines with rainbowed effect,such as My little unicorn (graphic bug)
When ??? gets killed, the game over music will not play. The current music will simply stop for a few seconds and restart.File:The Binding Of Isaac ??? ( End 13 )
Related Achievements[]
"???" - Kill It Lives!. "The D6" - Kill Mom's Heart with ???. "Forget Me Now" - Complete Sheol with ???. "The Rainbow Baby" - Complete the Cathedral with ???. "???s Soul" - Complete The Chest with ???. (Bugged, currently unlocks after completing The Chest with Eve)
"???" - Kill It Lives!.
"The D6" - Kill Mom's Heart with ???.
"Forget Me Now" - Complete Sheol with ???.
"The Rainbow Baby" - Complete the Cathedral with ???.
"???s Soul" - Complete The Chest with ???. (Bugged, currently unlocks after completing The Chest with Eve)