Beggar

Beggars are a group of randomly occurring NPCs in the game. There are a total of 8 types of beggars, each requesting different donations. Isaac can donate pennies, keys, hearts, or bombs by simply walking into them. With each donation, the beggar has a chance to drop various pickups and trinkets. Sometimes, the beggar will drop an item and disappear. The rate of drops isn't influenced by luck.

Beggars can be destroyed by bombs, causing them to drop a few pickups. If destroyed in Chest or Dark Room they will drop an item, with the exception of the Shell Game who still drops pickups.

Normal Beggars, Devil Beggars, Key Masters, Bomb Bums, and Battery Bums can be spawned using XX - Judgement.

Beggar

Beggars ask for coins. Each coin donated has a chance to have him drop a random pickup, card, or a pedestal item. After spawning a pedestal item, the Beggar will disappear and can no longer be donated to.

When spawning a pedestal item, beggars have:

• a 50% chance to spawn one of the following hard-coded items:
  • Lunch
  • Dinner
  • Dessert
  • Breakfast
  • Rotten Meat
• a 50% chance to spawn an item from the Beggar item pool.

The hard-coded items can be spawned if encountered or even collected before during the run.

Notes

• Bombing a normal Beggar increases the chance for the Angel/Devil Room to open for the floor by 35%, and donating to a normal Beggar until it spawns an item increases the chance to get an Angel Room for the floor.

Devil Beggar

Devil Beggars ask for hearts. Each heart donated has a chance to have him drop a card, pill, trinket, or an item from the Devil Beggar item pool. After spawning a pedestal item, the beggar will disappear and can no longer be donated to.

Notes

• Bombing a Devil Beggar increases the chance to get an Angel Room for the floor and donating to a Devil Beggar until it spawns an item decreases the chance to get an Angel Room for the floor.
• Similar to a Blood Donation Machine, Devil Beggars will take Eternal Hearts first, then Red Hearts. If Isaac only has half a Red Heart remaining, he will then take Black Hearts and Soul Hearts. It is possible to die in this manner.
  • Devil Beggars ignore eternal hearts when taking hearts.
  • The devil Beggar will take the last Half Red Heart before Blacks Hearts and Soul Hearts.
• Until The Womb/Utero floors, the donation will only be 1/2 a heart. Once Isaac reaches chapter 4, it will be a whole heart. This can be mitigated by The Wafer, Cancer or Percs, which cuts it back down to 1/2 heart.
• The donations activate damage effects, such as Celtic Cross.
• Activating Devil Beggars while using an item that grants invincibility, such as the Book of Shadows or Rune of Algiz, will not lower Isaac's health, but will still cause the beggar to spawn items. Holy Mantle is ignored, though, so The Lost will be killed instantly.
  • It is possible to exploit the invincibility frames after taking damage to donate twice for the price of one donation. Blind Rage doubles the invincibility frames, thus allowing to activate the Devil Beggar even more times in that period.
  • Bone Hearts will not be broken by donating to a Devil Beggar, and can drain multiple Bone Hearts without breaking them.
• Devil Beggars always drop Spiders when killed by a bomb.
• On hard mode Devil Beggar pays out after 6 health donations. On other modes Devil Beggar will pay out randomly between donations 1-7 with increasing odds and a guaranteed payout after 8 donations. After paying out, the Devil Beggar donations reset to 2-3 donations (+1 if Isaac has Lucky Foot).

Key Master

Key Masters are rare and ask for keys. Each key donated has a chance to have him drop a random chest, an item from the Key Master item pool, or the Paper Clip. After spawning a pedestal item or the Paper Clip, the Key Master will disappear and can no longer be donated to.

Notes

• If found inside the Secret Room on Dark Room or Chest, the chest payouts will contain items.
• Possessing a Golden Key will not affect the Key Master in any way.

Bomb Bum

Bomb Bums are rare and ask for bombs. Each bomb donated has a chance to have him drop 1-2 Bombs or an item from the Bomb Bum item pool. After spawning a pedestal item, the bomb bum will disappear and can no longer be donated to.

Bomb Bums are much more common, and give 1-3 coins or a random heart pickup instead of bombs. He still will rarely pay out with a pedestal item from his respective item pool, at which point you cannot donate to him.

Notes

• It is possible that the Bomb Bum will spawn a Troll Bomb underneath itself.
• Possessing a Golden Bomb will not affect the Bomb Bum in any way.
• Bomb Bums are not only immune to bombs, but they will respond to an attempt to destroy them by spawning several troll bombs like XVI - The Tower.
  • Bomb Bum can still be destroyed by certain types of explosions:
    • The exploding damage from the death of Dark Esau
    • The shockwave from Mama Mega!
  • Having Safety Scissors allows the player to acquire infinite bombs by bombing the beggar repeatedly.

Battery Bum

Battery Bums ask for coins. Each coin donated has a chance to give 1 to 3 charges on your active item, these charges can go above the charge cap, being full up to a maximum of two full charges. On top of that Battery Bums have chances to drop a Micro Battery, a Lil Battery, a Watch Battery, a AAA Battery, or a pedestal item.

When spawning a pedestal item, they are chosen from the Battery Bum item pool.

Has a chance to drop random pickups, a pill or a trinket when blown up.

Notes

• Bombing a Battery Bum increases the chance for the Angel/Devil Room to open for the floor by 35%.
• This is the counterpart to the Electrifier in Antibirth.
• When playing as Tainted Forgotten, to charge the held item you have to throw Tainted Forgotten at the Battery Bum. If Tainted Soul touches the Battery Bum, the item won't gain a charge.

Rotten Beggar

Rotten Beggars ask for coins. Every third (rarely fourth) coin donated to him will either have him spawn blue flies, blue spiders, drop a Bone Heart, a Rotten Heart, the Fish Head, Fish Tail, Rotten Penny, or Bob's Bladder trinkets, a pedestal item, or fart. After spawning a pedestal item, the Beggar will disappear and can no longer be donated to.

When spawning a pedestal item, they are chosen from the Rotten Beggar item pool.

Has a chance to drop Rotten Hearts when blown up, as well as spawning small maggots.

Unlocked by: Defeat Mega Satan as Tainted Apollyon. Will be replaced with a Key Master if not unlocked.

Shell Game

The Shell Game beggar can sometimes be found in the Arcade; he also has a very small chance to spawn elsewhere. After giving him a coin by bumping into him, he will lift a skull, revealing a Penny, Bomb, Red Heart, or Key. He will shuffle the skulls around and wait for Isaac to bump into 1 of the 3 shells. In return, he will either spawn 2 of the pickups or an Attack Fly.

Notes

• The shell chosen is irrelevant; possession of a Lucky Foot increases chances of winning.
• Sometimes, the item under the skulls will be the Skatole item. If this item is received, the Shell Game beggar will disappear. This is the only collectible item he can drop.
  • If Skatole has already been acquired, other Shell Game beggars will never give a second Skatole and will remain unless destroyed.
  • If you wish to avoid a Skatole pickup (for example, you want to spend more coins before possibly acquiring Skatole), leave the room - this resets the Shell Game (though your previous coin is lost).
• An Arcade with a Blood Donation Machine and a Shell Game can provide the player with a large amount of resources. Donate the hearts that the beggar drops to the machine and use the coins to keep playing.
• Item payouts are subjected to the same spawning chances as usual. Bombs can be replaced with Troll Bombs or Double Bombs, Red Hearts can be replaced with Half Red Hearts, Soul Hearts, Black Hearts, Eternal Hearts, or Bone Hearts, and Pennies can be replaced with Nickels or Dimes. Under the effects of Humbling Bundle, bombs will be Double Bombs, Red Hearts will be Double Hearts, and Keys will be Key Rings.
• In Repentance, a "shellGame" item pool was added so that the Shell Game can drop other items than just Skatole. However, the item pool is currently unimplemented as of April 2021. The developers have said that they plan on adding it in a future patch.

Hell Game

The Hell Game beggar works the same way as the Shell Game beggar, except half of a heart is required to play. After paying him by bumping into him, he will lift a skull, revealing a Penny, Bomb, Black Heart, Key, or Card. He will then shuffle the skulls around and wait for Isaac to bump into one of them. In return, he will either spawn 2 of the shown pickups or a Spider.

Notes

• The shell chosen is irrelevant; possession of a Lucky Foot increases chances of winning.
• Sometimes, the item under the skull will be one from the Devil Room Item Pool. If it is received, the beggar will disappear.
• Unlike the devil beggar, bombing a Hell Game beggar does not affect the chance for an angel room to appear. Like the devil beggar, however, it will spawn spiders.

Unlocked by: Defeat Mega Satan as Tainted Azazel.

Unlockable Achievements

• 

  Counterfeit Coin - Play the Shell Game 100 times.

• 

  Old Capacitor - Kill 10 Battery Bums.

• 

  Charged Penny - Donate to Battery Bums until they pay out with an item 5 times.