Placebo is an activated item added in The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth.
Effects[ | ]
Mimics the effect of Isaac's held pill.- Mimics the effect of Isaac's held pill. Placebo's recharge time changes upon use, depending on the pill Isaac was holding when he used it.
Mimics the effect of Isaac's held 
Mimics the effect of Isaac's held Notes[ | ]
- The item only costs 10 coins when found in a Shop.
- Unknown pills are identified when mimicked.
Recharge time [ | ]
This is a list of the following recharge times the item can have, depending on the consumable it mimicked last:
- 1 Room:
- Bad Gas
- Bombs are Key
- Feels like I'm walking on sunshine!
- Friends Till The End!
- Horf!
- I Found Pills
- Puberty
- Something's Wrong...
- Telepills
- X-Lax
- 2 Rooms:
- Bad Trip
- Infested?
- Infested!
- Percs!
- Pheromones
- Re-Lax
- 3 Rooms:
- Experimental Pill
- Explosive Diarrhea
- I'm Drowsy...
- Lemon Party
- Power Pill!
- 4 Rooms:
- Gulp!
- I can see forever!
- Stat-downs (health, range, speed, tears, luck, shot speed)
- 6 Rooms:
- ???
- Addicted!
- Amnesia
- Hematemesis
- I'm Excited!!!
- One makes you larger
- One makes you small
- Paralysis
- Pretty Fly
- R U A Wizard?
- Retro Vision
- Vurp!
- Stat-ups (health, range, speed, tears, luck, shot speed)
- 12 Rooms:
- 48 Hour Energy
- Balls of Steel
- Full Health
Golden Pills use the recharge time of the pill they mimicked. Recharge time is unaffected by whether or not it was a normal pill or Horse Pill.
Note that because the recharge time is determined after using the pill, Placebo cannot be used as a way to narrow down what type of pill Isaac is holding before he uses it.
Synergies[ | ]
- 48 Hour Energy:
- Can spawn an unlimited number of Lil' Batteries, allowing unlimited use of another activated item or pill.
- One battery is guaranteed to be a Lil' Battery, any additional batteries spawn as Micro Batteries. The item does not recharge upon use.
- Placebo + Car Battery: Both batteries are guaranteed to be Lil' Batteries, any additional batteries spawn as Micro Batteries, once again allowing unlimited usage.
- IX - The Hermit? can be used to "sell" any and all Lil' Batteries and Micro Batteries for 5 Pennies each, effectively allowing for in instant max of coins, provided you have spawned The Hermit? in another room, or have it in your second slot with Polydactyly.
- + Schoolbag + Blank Card: Effectively an extremely complicated method of producing infinite money.
- +
- Balls of Steel + Sharp Plug: The player can gain functional invincibility.
- The Wafer: Allows for Virtually infinite health.
- Book of Virtues: Spawns white wisps on the middle ring. The wisps spawn Pills when destroyed. The effects of the wisps and types of pills they spawn is independent from Placebo's charge time and the most recently used pill. Unlike Blank Card and Clear Rune, enemies killed by these wisps' tears do not have a chance to drop pills.
- Butter!: Because Placebo is dropped upon usage, the recharge time is reset to 4, allowing to use more expensive pills much more frequently.
- Vurp: Allows pills that normally take 12 rooms for Placebo to charge to be used twice as frequently.
Interactions[ | ]
- Starter Deck: All pills are replaced by cards, rendering Placebo useless.
- If used with Bethany or Tainted Bethany, using a pill that has a larger charge requirement than Placebo's current will still consume soul or blood charges equal to the difference (likely a bug).
In-game Footage[ | ]
Trivia[ | ]
- Placebo is a medicine or procedure prescribed for the psychological benefit to the patient rather than for any physiological effect.
- This item is a pill counterpart to Blank Card and Clear Rune.
 Pill Items
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 The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
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