Unlocking Super Meat Boy & Super Bandage Girl

Note: Any strategy referring to also works for, and the other way around, unless otherwise specified.

With Repentance
Repentance introduced Battery Bums. Using them with one allows one to easily get the required 3 activations of 's  to obtain the achievement.

With Afterbirth †
Afterbirth † introduced the item. Each time this item is used, a is created (at the cost of one red heart container), meaning that if this item is used 4 times you can get the achievement. This does not apply to the.

With Afterbirth
The achievement for creating a Super Meat Boy is much easier with Afterbirth, thanks to the, which conveniently starts with.

General Strategy
Start as and do not discard the. Play until you find a or.

Then, find a way to use the Box 3 times without leaving the room. There are multiple ways to accomplish this:
 * Find a room with two Batteries or use a 48 hour energy pill.
 * Find a . Then, find a Battery and use the rune to create a second battery. With a fully charged Box of Friends, a single use of the Rune is all you need.
 * Do the Boss Rush. Each wave will give 2 charges, easily nabbing you the achievement.
 * Use the and/or the  to fully charge the box two more times with enough health.
 * Get and double-charge the box. Then find a way to charge the box one more time (a battery, Habit, Sharp Plug, etc.).
 * Get the then either find a Battery, charge the Box with the Habit or Sharp Plug, or get a double-charge with The Battery.
 * Get then buy 2 Batteries from the Shop.
 * Find a shop with a Restock Box, then donate to the box/ bomb the box to re-roll all items while picking up and using all batteries.
 * Restock boxes no longer spawns in Shops.

Greed Mode is another easy way to accomplish this, since every wave generates a charge, and a Cube of Meat can be found for sale in the rerollable shops. A Ball of Bandages, however, is unlikely to be found in Greed Mode as it does not appear in any Greed Mode Item Pools.
 * Also, Greed Mode is the only way to get a restock box in the shop without Judgement?.

is very useful, as it will allow you to pick two or  instead of one when finding it, also preventing Conquest or The Headless Horseman from ruining your chances of getting a Super Meat Boy/Super Bandage Girl with. .

Without Afterbirth
Without Afterbirth, the achievement for creating a Super Meat Boy and Super Bandage Girl is significantly more difficult to obtain without performing a specific strategy.

The Book of Revelations Strategy
The most straightforward method to unlock the Meat Boy is restarting the game until obtaining the on the first level, which can be found in either a Treasure Room or Library. Using it on the current level will increase the chance of one Horseman to appear, based on the current chapter:


 * 1) Famine in first or second level of chapter 1.
 * 2) Pestilence in first or second level of chapter 2.
 * 3) War in first level of chapter 3. (Second level boss is always Mom).
 * 4) Death in first level of chapter 4. (Second level boss is always Mom's Heart or It Lives if unlocked).

The Blank Card Strategy
This method no longer works in Repentance.

This method involves using the item and the  to create lots of batteries.


 * 1) Start as  for ease of fighting to later floors and collecting enough money to buy, or Isaac with  unlocked.
 * 2) Get the  and the.
 * 3) Optionally also get the  and the.
 * 4) Find a battery pickup on the ground.
 * 5) Copy the battery using Blank Card until there are three, at which point Blank Card can produce any number of batteries. You can theoretically do this with 2 batteries, if you use Blank Card while picking up the battery, as it has a chance to be doubled.
 * 6) Find a golden chest with an item inside it, since any copy of a chest containing an item will also contain an item; however you can not open it since it can't be copied by Jera after opened.
 * 7) Get the  using the  and/or the, or simply by using Blank Card to copy golden chests again and again.
 * 8) Optionally, you could get the Monster Manual using the.
 * 9) Use the Monster Manual over and over with the batteries created by the Blank Card. This will eventually create 4 Cubes of Meat/Balls of Bandages.

The Sharp Plug / Pyromaniac Strategy
This method can take up to an hour of in-game time, but compared to the method, should take significantly fewer runs and thus save a lot of time overall. This method can unlock both Super Meat Boy and Super Bandage Girl in the same run.


 * 1) Start as  with  unlocked.
 * 2) Get.
 * 3) Hold R to reset the floor until a Treasure Room is adjacent to the starting room. (Or, if it isn't, pick a door and enter the next room. Continue until you see enemies or find the Treasure Room. If you find enemies, reset.)
 * 4) If the item inside the Treasure Room is not, re-roll it. If it still isn't Pyromaniac, reset.
 * 5) Get  or  from a shop.
 * 6) Make sure that you save enough keys so that you can get into every shop.
 * 7) Use all re-rolls on the shop.
 * 8) If you get, do not get  since it’ll render Sharp Plug useless.
 * 9) Get any bomb producing item/synergy. This includes, , , ,  + / + Burnt Penny, etc.
 * 10) * Use all re-rolls on the treasure room if you haven't found Pyromaniac.
 * 11) * If you have, make sure to leave at least one source of damage on the floor so that you can damage yourself. (ex: a fire, spikes, or a Stone Grimace.
 * 12) * If you find a room with green Ipecac-shooting enemies, you can use it to obtain any number of re-rolls. Enter the room, allow the explosions to heal you and charge to full, then allow the explosions to open the exit.
 * 13) * After this step is complete you will have infinite re-rolls.
 * 14) Get a  from a shop if you got  in step 2. (The plug is much faster at recharging the manual in the next step.)
 * 15) Get a  from a treasure room or library.
 * 16) * If you can spare an item pedestal, and you have the, it is highly recommended to obtain , which will allow you to charge once per 1/2 heart instead of once per 2 hearts, effectively quadrupling your efficiency.
 * 17) * Another way to speed up the progress is to add more item pedestals. If you find a, save it until you're ready to reroll for the , and then use it in the treasure room. If you can make it pay out with an item, you'll be able to reroll two items per charge.
 * 18) Use the manual over and over until you get a Super Meat Boy and/or Super Bandage Girl.

Note that if you find a before finishing the combo, you will have to finish the combo on that floor or reset the game. This is because finding the manual will take it out of the item pool for the remainder of the run. If you find it, you should try to find another activated item in a different room so you can put the Manual down in a safe place and continue rolling with that activated item inside the treasure room.

Sharp Plug / Wafer Strategy

 * 1) Start as  with  unlocked.
 * 2) Get.
 * 3) Hold R to reset the floor until a Treasure Room is adjacent to the starting room.
 * 4) If the item inside the Treasure Room is not, re-roll it. If it still isn't The Wafer, reset.
 * 5)  also works as it provides 's effects after the first instance of damage during a room.
 * 6) Get a  from a shop.
 * 7) Make sure that you save enough keys so that you can get into every shop.
 * 8) Use all re-rolls on the shop.
 * 9) Other useful items here are,.
 * 10) Do not get  or, as they will ruin the sharp plug's ability.
 * 11) Complete the game with  to go to the chest.
 * 12) In the chest, obtain everything else you need.
 * 13) Clear the chest and look for another pedestal on which you can place your health pickup.
 * 14) Roll the first room to get a health pickup like, , or
 * 15) Re-roll the pedestal(s) away from your health pickup for the
 * 16) Use the manual over and over until you get a Super Meat Boy and/or Super Bandage Girl.

D20 strategy

 * 1) Get the.
 * 2) Hold R to reset the floor until a Treasure Room is adjacent to the starting room.
 * 3) Continue playing until you find a 48 Hour Energy or.
 * 4) Obtain the.
 * 5) Leave 48 Hour Energy outside of the shop.
 * 6) Bomb the donation machine 10+ times to get 35+ coins on the ground.
 * 7) Reroll coins with the.
 * 8) Open any chests.
 * 9) Take any 48 Hour Energy pills,, and  outside the shop.
 * 10) Continue until you have a.
 * 11) Obtain the
 * 12) Use the Blank Card, Jera runes, Energy pills, and/or Sharp Plug with heart pickups to fill a Treasure Room or Library with items
 * 13) Use the Blank Card with the Perthro rune and other stuff to get the
 * 14) Use the manual over and over until you get a Super Meat Boy and/or Super Bandage Girl.

Maggy's Bow strategy

 * 1) Get.
 * 2) Hold R to reset the floor until a Treasure Room is adjacent to the starting room.
 * 3) Visit the shops for  and the.
 * 4) Do not get  or, as they will ruin the sharp plug's effect.
 * 5) Bomb donation machines if you need money, or if you have, use a Blood Donation Machine or go to a Sacrifice Room
 * 6) Play until you find the.
 * 7) Use  to fill the room with hearts
 * 8) Swap to the  and with the, keep using until you get a Super Meat Boy and/or Super Bandage Girl.
 * 9) * Use the hearts around to regain the lost health from.