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 Corpse, and should understand that the main difficulty of the run lies in completing the necessary advanced areas (Downpour, Mines, Mausoleum) without the benefit of Treasure Rooms on every floor. Instead, you are given some unusual equipment to help you along: the Spirit Sword, the Trinity Shield, and Mom's Bracelet.

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 Spaces.

Acquiring the Broken Remote grants you infinite teleports as long as you keep Mom's Bracelet. 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 Knife Piece 1 to be available, there is one such room in Downpour/Dross II.
Entering Downpour, Mines, and Mausoleum will not require keys, bombs, or hearts as in normal runs: you can enter them for free.
Exploring the reflection as The Lost 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 Holy Mantle 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 ,alternate damage sources, or a synergy that makes it easier, expect some major health loss. (Running off the edge and spamming the attack button can quickly be used to defeat the third phase, taking minimal damage as the shield can be used to prevent almost all tears from hitting Isaac.)
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 Book of Shadows, which can be acquired from a Library, is helpful during the Mother boss fight.
Spawning a Crawl Space that leads to the I AM ERROR room will take you to Hush's floor. Defeating Hush will grant the trophy as well. This can be done using a Rune of Ehwaz.
Obtaining size-ups (i.e. One Makes You Larger, XI - Strength, Mega Mush, etc.) will also increase the size/hitbox of the sword, allowing for Isaac to hit enemies from farther away.
Finding Chaos can make this challenge significantly easier, as Chaos gives way to items that provide useful synergies, such as Technology.

Reward[ | ]

Spirit Sword - Complete Isaac's Awakening (challenge #39).

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 Psy Fly.

Bugs[ | ]

Bug!	If you enter boss rush with a respawn with the Knife Pieces already used on the door to Mom's Heart, if you then die in Boss Rush, you will be teleported to the Mom fight with no knife and with the door sealed.

Bug!

If you teleport into the I AM ERROR room, after using the trapdoor, you will be put back on the regular completion path.

If this happens after Mines / Ashpit II, you will be unable to continue on the alt path. Upon entering Womb / Utero / Scarred Womb I, no trapdoor will spawn after defeating the boss of the floor, soft locking the player unless another error room is accessed. After defeating the It Lives boss, a trophy will spawn allowing the challenge to be completed.