Isaac's Awakening

Isaac's Awakening is challenge #39. The goal is to defeat Mother. This challenge is unlocked by defeating Mother.

Strategy
Players cannot attempt this challenge until they've completed a run to, and should understand that the main difficulty of the run lies in completing the necessary advanced areas without the benefit of Treasure Rooms on every floor. Instead, you are given some unusual equipment to help you along: the, the , and.

Isaac no longer fires tears. Instead, you can swing your sword for a powerful and very rapid melee attack. Attacking while you have no empty red heart containers will also launch a magical sword in the direction of your swing, allowing you to hit distant enemies (but at a much slower rate of fire than your actual sword attacks). Additionally, you can charge your sword by holding down the attack button, then release it to attack in a circle all around you.

The shield is more straightforward: whichever direction you are attacking is the direction Isaac blocks projectiles from. As for the bracelet, this greatly reduces your need for bombs and lets you toss around rocks, pots, mushrooms, and the like without wasting resources. Throwing an item causes the bracelet to suffer a short cooldown period before it can be used again, but simply dropping the item with L allows you to rapidly clear large areas of rock. While you may eventually want to replace it with something better suited for the final boss fight, it can make a huge difference early on if you find some early tinted rocks or crawl space areas.

Acquiring the Broken Remote grants you infinite teleports as long as you keep. This can be used to find secret rooms, enter curse rooms without taking damage, enter a shop without a key or enter/leave challenge rooms.

Apart from your odd gear, this run is essentially a standard Corpse run. There are a few things to keep in mind, however:


 * Because the run needs a treasure room to exist for to be available, there is one such room in / II.
 * Entering l and  l will not require 1 key and 2 bombs (respectively) as in casual runs: you can enter them for free.
 * Exploring the reflection as is more dangerous than normal on account of your shield. If you are hit and then your shield contacts an enemy or projectile, your invincibility period from  wears off instantly, likely killing you as the same enemy hits you a second time.
 * Rotgut can pose a huge threat to your run, if not end it. His 3rd phase can be difficult / nearly impossible to beat with your current setup, as the Spirit Sword struggles to reach it. Unless you have a familiar or alternate damage sources, expect some major health loss.
 * Unlike all the other bosses you'll encounter, the final battle with Mother will be a long one. Simply rushing in and slashing wildly will not take her down before she kills you. Know how she attacks and how to maneuver so as to dodge them.
 * Using items that provide invincibility, such as, which can be acquired from Libraries, is helpful during the Mother boss fight.

Trivia

 * This challenge's name and starting items are a reference to The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening.
 * The challenge is similar to I RULE! in that regard.
 * In Antibirth, completing this challenge would instead unlock.