Rock Bottom

Rock Bottom is a passive item added in The Binding of Isaac: Repentance.

Effects[]

Upon pickup and from then onwards, locks attributes to their highest values reached.
- This applies to everything that alters Isaac's attributes, including temporary buffs from activated items and pickups. This also makes him immune to any stat downgrades.

Notes[]

Health downs do not count as stat downgrades for Rock Bottom.
Isaac's stats are still calculated normally behind the scenes, only their effective values are locked to their highest point. This means picking up an item such as Soy Milk with a severe damage penalty will make it difficult to reach a higher damage stat.
- For example, using The Book of Belial to gain +2 damage will stay in effect indefinitely, but while it's not currently activated, Isaac must earn more than +2 damage from other items to see a difference.
- To best utilize Rock Bottom, the player should gain as much of a single stat as they can in a single room. For example, if a player finds a Strength card and a Devil card, using them in the same room will provide a larger permanent damage boost then if they were used in separate rooms.
- If the player finds an item that lowers a stat, such as Soy Milk, it may be beneficial to not take the item immediately. Instead, it's best to explore the floor for any potential damage ups, then take the stat-lowering item.
If Rock Bottom is removed, Isaac's stats will no longer be locked, and return to match his current items/effects.

Synergies[]

Refer to the articles on Damage, Tears, Range, Shot Speed, Speed, and Luck for lists of items granting otherwise temporary boosts.

20/20 / The Inner Eye / Mutant Spider: Multiple tears will be shot without the items' respective stat downgrades. The damage and tear multipliers will still affect future stat ups.
Azazel's Stump: Isaac will keep Azazel’s base stats after transforming back. This includes 1.25 base speed, +0.5 tears per second, and a 1.5x damage multiplier. The tear delay multiplier will not be given, including while Isaac is Azazel.
Berserk! +3 flat damage and +0.4 speed last indefinitely. Will also give a tears up if (½ tears fired per second + 2), unless Isaac’s tears fired per second is already 4 or higher.
Binge Eater: Speed down from picking up food items no longer applies, and all temporary stat boosts are permanent.
Brimstone / Chocolate Milk / Monstro's Lung: Charged shot can be fired at Isaac’s normal fire rate.
VII - The Chariot?: Permanently gives Isaac a gigantic tears up.
Clicker: will keep stat bonuses from items removed, and will retain the best stats of all characters that are cycled through.
D8 / Cracked Dice: Only the highest multipliers received from the D8 will be applied to Isaac. With repeated use, a 1.5-2x stat multiplier can be applied to Isaac’s speed, tears, range, and damage.
Neptunus: Permanently gives Isaac its massive tear rate with no charge.
The Forgotten / The Soul: Allows transfer of stat-ups between the two. For example, collecting Ipecac as The Forgotten doesn't give him the +40 damage boost, but it does give it to The Soul. Switching to the Soul, then switching back to the Forgotten prevents him from losing the +40 damage.
Ipecac: Gives Isaac a massive damage up without the tears down.
- Ipecac + Brimstone / Tech X: If Ipecac is taken before Brimstone / Tech X, its full damage up is applied to the beam/ring properly, but if the order of the items is reversed, Ipecac will only give +2 damage.
Jacob and Esau / Tainted Lazarus: Only the character that has Rock Bottom will be immune to stat downgrades.
Jupiter: The +0.5 speed boost becomes permanent, turning Jupiter into a +0.2 speed up. Farts made while moving still must be charged by standing still.
Kidney Stone: Permanently gives Isaac a x6 fire rate multiplier after firing a kidney stone. Accuracy penalty from firing kidney stones is unaffected.
Libra: Stat balancing applies after Rock Bottom.
Soy Milk: Gives Isaac the full tears up while keeping his previous damage; however, Soy Milk's damage divider still applies to any future damage increases.
Purity: Allows for all stat boosts given by Purity to be effectively active at the same time.
Dataminer: Can be used to underflow Isaac's tear rate to 120 tears per second with no downside.

In-game Footage[]

Trivia[]

This item is likely a reference to the stone that Jacob slept on when he dreamt of a ladder to heaven; upon awakening, he covers the stone in oil and dedicates it to the area where he had the vision, which he names Bethel. It's name is also a reference to the expression "Hitting rock bottom", which means being emotionally overwhelmed.
The main cosmetic difference when holding this item is that Isaac faces upward slightly and stops visually crying, which may be a play on the term "things are looking up".
Contrary to popular belief, Rock Bottom does not set Isaac's stats to the starting values. This was confirmed by Kilburn in the Binding of Isaac Discord server, when he stated that it doesn't do that and has never done that, even in the original release of Antibirth.