Samson

Samson is unlocked when the player defeats two floors in a row without taking any damage. Samson starts with 3 Red Heart containers and. Every time Samson is dealt damage, he receives a damage boost that resets when he goes down a floor.

Samson will start with the Child's Heart trinket after completing the Ultra Hard challenge.

Item Interactions

 * : can gain 4 more damage boosts at the same +0.2 intervals, for a new maximum total of +14.0.

Favorable items

 * Any items that increase health so he can take more damage before dying.
 * Any items that increase Samson's tear stat, such as, ...
 * Any items that generate Blue Flies like or  do so based on Samson's base damage and are good for early game room clearing when Samson's tears are still low.
 * Items relying on contact damage like or  can be beneficial in that you "want" to take damage because of.
 * Health regeneration items like, , and allow health regeneration after taking damage, and thus allow for more damage, both stat-wise and health-wise.
 * and minimize damage taken from Sacrifice Rooms and can be incredibly useful to build a lot of damage and pickups, especially in combination with an excess of hearts.
 * ,, , etc: All of these items will add to Samson's damage increase from getting hurt, although, unlike Bloody Lust, the bonus of these items only last for the duration of a room.
 * 's chance of dropping a heart upon hit can cancel out damage to Samson while also buffing him.
 * can safely provide Samson's damage boost without needing to take damage.
 * increases benefits from taking damage and feasibly adds more survivability from random soul hearts and half-heart drops.
 * and will produce familiars as Samson heals or receives damage, respectively.
 * ,, , , : Activating their effects also give Samson a boost in damage since they damage the player.
 * is extremely useful on Samson, as its damage up effect stacks with, meaning you will start every floor with a significant amount of damage up.

Unfavorable items

 * Anything which lowers health such as can make purposeful self-damage less reliable as a damage booster.
 * Tears down Pills are especially bad due to his low starting Tears stat

Trivia

 * In the Bible, Samson was a supernaturally strong warrior who derived his power from his Nazarite vow, entitling immense strength to Samson if he did not cut his hair.
 * Samson first appeared in the Binding of Isaac: Wrath of the Lamb expansion. That version had only 1 heart container and a soul heart for his starting health, and his Bloody Lust item acted like the item, re-added in Afterbirth, though much weaker.
 * Samson was originally unlocked by skipping two Treasure Room items and killing Mom in one run.