Magic Skin

Magic Skin is an activated item added in The Binding of Isaac: Repentance.

Effects[]

Spawns an item from the current room's item pool.
Consumes one of Isaac's heart containers, one bone heart, or two soul hearts, replaced by a broken heart container which can never be filled, permanently reducing his maximum possible health.
- The priority order of hearts that will be consumed is: one heart container, one bone heart, and two soul hearts.
After using Magic Skin, if Isaac is not currently holding it, Magic Skin has a chance to replace any item that spawns in the future.
- The more times Magic Skin is used, the higher chance it will respawn.
- Each new Magic Skin is fully recharged.
If Isaac gets 12 or more broken heart containers by using Magic Skin, this item will disappear and future items won't be replaced.

Notes[]

The Lost and Tainted Lost will be able to use the item once, after which it disappears.
- An extra item cannot be spawned when used with Car Battery.
Tainted Jacob in his Lost form will be able to use the item up to 12 times, after which it disappears. He does not gain broken hearts.
- Unseen health of Lost form will be filled with broken hearts, meaning Heartbreak may not work.
? Card does not count toward Magic Skin's use limit. This is especially useful when playing as any of the 3 above characters.
Keeper and Tainted Keeper gain a broken coin container, reducing their effective health by 1.
- Keeper can use it up to 3 times, and Tainted Keeper can use it up to 2 times before Magic Skin disappears. But if they have Deep Pockets and Greed's Gullet, or Mother's Kiss, they can use it more than 2~3 times.
  - Although they can have 13 or more coin hearts in some environment, they still die when they have 12 broken coin heart containers.
Using Magic Skin after touching the white fire in Downpour II/ Dross II will still add broken hearts for when the character is revived.
Tainted Lazarus is able to find Magic Skin while Dead Tainted Lazarus is carrying it, and vice versa.
If either The Forgotten or The Soul has 6 broken hearts by using Magic Skin, this item will disappear and they will instantly die.
Heartbreak or VI - The Lovers? will add broken hearts, lessening maximum use of Magic Skin.
Isaac dies instantly if he has 12 broken hearts.
- If Isaac has extra lives, he will be revived, but picking up any new items kills Isaac instantly.
Dying and reviving using any item does not repair the heart containers.
Broken heart containers can be removed by donating to a Confessional.

Synergies[]

Car Battery: Spawns 2 items and adds 2 broken hearts (removing 2 heart containers or 4 soul hearts) with each use. Two broken hearts are added regardless of Isaac's remaining health. If Isaac already has 11 broken hearts and uses Magic Skin, it will only be used once.
Damocles: Spawns 2 items on every use instead of 1.
Dream Catcher: If Magic Skin has replaced the item in the Treasure Room, it will be shown in the dream sequence.
Esau Jr.: Since Esau Jr.'s health is separate from Isaac's, one character can use Magic Skin at no cost to the other. Future items will still be replaced when playing as the character that hasn't used Magic Skin.
Schoolbag: Isaac can keep Magic Skin in the inactive slot to prevent its respawning while still being able to use another active item.
Spindown Dice: Using Spindown Dice on Magic Skin 6 times turns it into R Key.
- Spindown Dice + Schoolbag: Allows Isaac to keep Spindown Dice between runs, allowing a theoretically infinite run with enough luck.

Interactions[]

Book of Virtues: Spawns pink wisps on the middle ring. Wisps' tears poison enemies.

Genesis: Removes all broken hearts as well as items. Magic Skin can still replace items in the Genesis room.
Glowing Hour Glass: Recovers a broken heart when used after using Magic Skin, does not recover soul hearts overwritten by broken hearts, this can kill Isaac. Reentering the room and using Magic Skin will spawn the same item.
Lemegeton: Magic Skin can be spawned by Lemegeton if it has been used in the current run. As long as Isaac has this flame, Magic Skin will not respawn/replace items.
Metronome: Getting Magic Skin from Metronome has a chance to instantly apply the item replacement and spawn Magic Skin as an item pedestal.
NO!: Does not prevent Magic Skin from replacing items, despite it being an active item.
TMTRAINER: Prevents Magic Skin from replacing items, since future Magic Skins will be glitched.
Void: Absorbing Magic Skin does not prevent future items from being replaced, including items spawned by the absorbed Magic Skin. Additional Magic Skins can be absorbed, allowing multiple items to be spawned per use at the cost of adding more broken hearts.
Revival Items
- 1up!, Guppy's Collar, Inner Child, Soul of Lazarus: If Isaac has 12 broken hearts and dies, he will be revived with a half soul heart.
  - The only hearts Isaac can pick up while in this state are eternal hearts and gold hearts. Going to the next floor while having an eternal heart will remove the temporary soul heart, killing Isaac.
- Dead Cat: If Isaac has 12 broken hearts and dies, he will be revived with one full heart. If the heart is a red heart container, it can be filled after taking a half heart of damage.
- Ankh, Broken Ankh: If Isaac has 12 broken hearts and dies, he will be revived as ???, with 3 full soul hearts, but cannot be refilled.
- Lazarus, Lazarus' Rags: If Isaac has 12 broken hearts and dies, he will be revived as Lazarus Risen, but without a red heart. If he goes to next room, or goes to next floor, he will instantly die.
- Missing Poster: No matter how many broken hearts Isaac had, he will be revived as The Lost, and taking items will not kill him.

In-game Footage[]

Trivia[]

The item is a reference to the book by French novelist Honoré de Balzac called La Peau de chagrin. In the story, the main character finds a talisman made of donkey skin that grants wishes, but each wish causes the talisman to become smaller, as well as his lifetime. The main character attempts to get rid of the skin, but it always finds a way to return to him.
This also may be a reference to the goatskin Jacob uses to trick his father Isaac into thinking he was Esau, thus giving him his blessing along with the divine right God had promised Abraham (Isaac's father), which included inheriting the promised land and having his bloodline bring forth the Messiah.

Seeds[]

PC 9LWB BQRD (Curse Room adjacent to spawn)

Bugs[]

Bug!	Judas' Shadow will instantly kill Isaac after revival if he has 12 broken hearts.

Bug!	1up! will instantly kill Dark Judas, Tainted Judas, ???, Tainted ???, Tainted Forgotten, Tainted Bethany after revival if they have 12 broken hearts.

Bug!	While playing The Forgotten, after having 6 broken hearts to one of them and revival, if they take an item with the other form that does not have 6 broken hearts, it will prevent switching and possibly softlock the game.