Hearts

This article is about the pickup. For other uses, see Heart (Disambiguation).

Hearts are the standard HP for most characters and can be found in several varieties. Isaac cannot have more Red Hearts than Red Heart containers, but certain Heart pickups can circumvent that limit.

Heart	ID	Worth	Additional Info	Unlock Method	Probability
Red Heart	5.10.1		Heals with Maggy's Bow. Humbleing Bundle and Equality! can replace this with a Double Heart.		39.98%
Half Red Heart	5.10.2		Heals with Maggy's Bow.		39.99%
Soul Heart	5.10.3		Soul Hearts are blue hearts that are added to the end of the health bar. Soul Hearts are not permanent; once lost, they cannot be replenished, although new ones may be picked up. Soul Hearts will be depleted before Red Hearts in most cases. However, donating to a Blood Donation Machine or a Devil Beggar will deplete Red Hearts first as long as Isaac has more than half a Red Heart (a full heart in Womb and beyond). Blood Donation Machines and Devil Beggars will now deplete Isaac's last half or full Red Heart before depleting Soul Hearts.		6.73%
Eternal Heart	5.10.4		When held until the next floor, Eternal Hearts will grant Isaac a Red Heart container. They will also give a Red Heart container if two are collected on the same floor. Characters that cannot gain Red Heart containers will instead be given a Soul Heart ( Black Heart in the case of Dark Judas and Tainted Judas). Eternal Hearts are placed in the second half of the last Red Heart container or Bone Heart, even when it is full (the Eternal Heart will overlap with the Red Heart in this case). If Isaac has no Red Heart containers or Bone Hearts, they are placed in the second half of his first Soul Heart or Black Heart.		1.80%
Double Heart	5.10.5		Doesn't appear naturally. Can only be found by using certain items or encountering certain rooms. Has a ~4.21% spawn rate in Normal Mode and ~1.69% in Hard Mode. Heals with Maggy's Bow.		4.21%
Black Heart	5.10.6		When depleted, invokes The Necronomicon effect, dealing 40 damage to every vulnerable enemy in the room. If Isaac holds A Missing Page, or has the Missing Page 2, the damage dealt will be doubled to 80. If Isaac obtains both, the damage will be tripled to 120. Acts like a Soul Heart otherwise.		0.50%
Gold Heart	5.10.7		Gold Hearts do not actually add more health, instead forming an outline around the last heart in Isaac's health bar. When that heart is depleted, the Gold Heart will break and 3-8 Coins will be dropped around Isaac. Gold Hearts flash when depleted and will temporarily turn enemies golden like Midas' Touch.	Complete XXXXXXXXL (challenge #21)	0.63%
Half Soul Heart	5.10.8		Can replace regular Soul Heart drops. Like whole Soul Hearts, they can be used to refill a half Black Heart.	Reset 7 times in a row Switch PS4 Get a minus 10-win streak Defeat Mom's Heart 5 times	2.24%
Scared Heart	5.10.9		Identical to the standard Red Heart, but pulses faster. It will run away as Isaac, Dark Bum, or Super Bum moves towards it. Heals with Maggy's Bow. Humbleing Bundle and Equality! will not double this.	Reset 7 times in a row Switch PS4 Get a minus 10-win streak	0.87%
Blended Heart	5.10.10	//	Fills up a full Red Heart container, but will act as a Soul Heart when no containers are free. If Isaac is only missing half a Red Heart, it will fill that half, and give him half a Soul Heart as well. Dark Bum and The Jar will not collect this. Heals or with Maggy's Bow.		0.87%
Bone Heart	5.10.11		Takes three hits to deplete and can be refilled with Red Hearts ( and Rotten Hearts), but disappears permanently upon depleting. Cannot be filled as ???, Tainted ???, Dark Judas, Tainted Judas, Tainted Forgotten, or Tainted Bethany and only protects against one hit as these characters.	It's complicated	0.47%
Rotten Heart	5.10.12		Rotten Hearts fill up one whole heart container, or the rightmost Red Heart if all of Isaac's heart containers are full, but can only take a half heart of damage each before being depleted (so, for example, two Rotten Hearts will be depleted if a full heart of damage is taken). Each Rotten Heart in Isaac's life bar spawns two Blue Flies upon clearing a room.	Enter Corpse for the first time	1.71%

Notes[ | ]

More details on these pickups and how they work can be found here.

Unless an item effect specifically states it, a Red Heart always has the chance to be replaced by a Soul, Black, or Eternal Heart.
If Heart pickups are created by item, card, or pill effects in certain Super Secret Room layouts, they will be forced to spawn as a specific heart type (e. g. all hearts will be Black Hearts). There are layouts corresponding to Red, Soul, Black, Eternal and Rotten Hearts.
If Isaac's health bar is filled with Soul Hearts, picking up a Black Heart will replace the topmost Soul Heart.
- If Isaac's health bar is filled up to 11 1/2 (Soul/Black) Hearts with the last one being half a Black Heart, picking up a Black Heart will fill that one and convert a full Soul Heart to a Black Heart (therefore adding half a Black Heart and converting a Soul Heart).
- Collecting a Soul Heart with half a Black Heart left will complete the Black Heart, and add half a Soul Heart. The reverse is also true.
Eternal Hearts take half a heart of damage without counting as a hit for Devil Room / Angel Room purposes.
Taking Red Heart damage in a Bone Heart Container does not lower the chance of the Angel Room or Devil Room appearing. Breaking an empty Bone Heart will not either.
- The Forgotten is the only exception, as breaking a Bone Heart while playing as him will affect the chance.
Bone Hearts cannot be broken if filled with at least a Half Red Heart, even if a full heart of damage is taken. This can be abused to repeatedly pay a half-red heart to step on a spike in a Sacrifice Room, for example.
Rotten Hearts are only donated to the Blood Donation Machine after all Red Hearts are depleted.
If Rotten Hearts have not been unlocked yet, any room layouts containing them (including the Corpse themed Super Secret Room) will instead contain Half Red Hearts.
Losing Rotten Hearts does not lower the chance of the Angel Room or Devil Room appearing.
Bag of Crafting will treat double hearts as two heart pickups. Blended Hearts will be treated as a Soul Heart and a Red Heart.
The probabilities in the table refer to the kind of heart that is generated by the game when a heart is spawned with a subtype of 0 (i.e. a random heart).

Trivia[ | ]

There are unused graphics for Half Soul Hearts and Half Black Hearts that are never seen in-game.
- Half Soul Hearts were eventually added to the game as an unlockable.
Booster Pack #5 made Scared Hearts beat faster, making them slightly easier to spot. This was from this Steam Workshop mod by piber20.
Gold Hearts' appearance was changed in Booster Pack #5.
Most items that grant Black Hearts upon being picked up say "evil up" in their description.
Immortal Hearts were a heart type present in the original Antibirth mod, but were not added to Repentance.
Blended hearts were a feature in the Community remix mod for the original The Binding of Isaac.

Unlockable Achievements[ | ]

Magdalene - Have 7 or more Red Heart Containers at one time.

Eve - Don't pick up any Hearts for 2 floors in a row.

Lazarus - Have 4 or more Soul Hearts at one time.

Cursed! - Have 7 or more Red Heart Containers at one time.

It's the Key - Defeat The Lamb without taking Hearts, Coins, or Bombs through the entire run. Letting certain familiars (e.g. Bum Friend, Dark Bum, Bumbo or Lil Portal) or bosses (e.g. Bumbino) pick up the consumables fails this condition as well..

Living on the edge - Complete a Chapter (floors I and II) after Basement, start-to-finish, with only half a Heart total (can use The Lost).

Gallery[ | ]

Concepts drawn for Rebirth, including Black Hearts.

Bugs[ | ]

Bug!

Gold Hearts actually simply compare Isaac's current heart count to what he had on the previous frame, leading to two bugs. Firstly, it's possible for a Gold Heart to burst when health other than the rightmost heart is lost, such as using up Red Hearts with a Blood Donation Machine.

Secondly, the "previous frame hearts" value is updated incorrectly; a Gold Heart bursts immediately upon pickup if Isaac had and lost a Gold Heart earlier, and his current heart count is lower than after losing the previous one.

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth