The Beast

Boss Portrait
Base HP	10000
Base HP	10000
Stage HP	0
Stage HP	0
Ingame Appearance
Entity ID	951.0
Found In	Boss
Dropped Items	Boss

The Beast is a Boss encountered in Home after defeating Dogma, and the final boss of Ending 22 and The Binding of Isaac as a whole. It is a gargantuan demonic creature heavily based on the first Beast described in the Book of Revelation .

Introduction cutscene

Isaac is laying on the ground of the black-and-white room where Dogma has just been fought. He opens his eyes and looks in front of him. From a pool of TV static (similar to the creep Dogma produces in its first phase) a giant cross rises, towering over Isaac, and falls on him as the screen cuts to black.

Isaac is then shown again, with static pouring out of his eyes and spilling on the ground as if it was his tears. The room's walls are seen collapsing, revealing the outside to be a hellish cavern filled with oceans of lava. The static tears begin to gather and flow back into Isaac's eyes, as if time was flowing in reverse. Angelic wings then grow out of Isaac's back as he twitches in place, and sudden TV-like flickers briefly depict him as ???, The Forgotten and The Lost before he disappears from the floor in another flicker. Isaac then flies up and stares at the hellscape in front of him, but the ground beneath him begins to shake, making him look to his side. Further away, The Beast is rising from the lava, moments before the battle begins.

Behavior

At the start of the fight, the Beast will be inactive and will watch from the background. Flying around the Beast are four Ultra Harbingers which will attack Isaac one at a time in the order of Famine, Pestilence, War and Death. Once they've all been defeated, the Beast will let out a roar, submerge into the lava, then reemerge on the right side of the screen.

During its first phase, the Beast will use the same sequence of attacks indefinitely.

• The Beast charges towards Isaac, moving the screen backwards while harmful and destructible stalagmites and stalactites generate behind Isaac.

• At the end of the charge, the Beast begins to inhale large rings of fire which have one small gap that Isaac can fit through.

• After inhaling 8 rings of fire, the Beast stops and fires a colossal brimstone-like beam that covers the bottom and middle portions of the screen.

The Beast enters its second phase at approximately 50% health and loses its inhaling attack, but gains two new ones. Additionally, during the charging portion, some stalactites will be cracked and fall when Isaac passes underneath. At the end of a charge, the Beast will use one of two attacks:

• Opening its mouth and firing three radial half bursts of slower-moving fire, then firing six radial half bursts of fast-moving projectiles.

• Roaring and spawning 4 Souls of the Beast which target Isaac and charge at him before dissipating.

After using either of these attacks, the Beast will submerge into the lake and continually fire large projectiles upwards from the lava in random locations. Afterwards, the Beast reemerges on the other side of the screen, releasing an arc burst of large projectiles in front of it.

The Beast enters its third phase at approximately 33% health. The Beast is forced to submerge into the lava and reappear on the other side of the screen, then charging towards Isaac indefinitely while more stalagmites and stalactites spawn behind him. Cracked stalactites do not appear during this phase.

Once the Beast's health reaches approximately 2000, its horns and body will crack and it will begin to struggle - once reaching roughly 500 health, it'll crack even more, and then, once it is defeated, a large light ray will come from above and strike it down causing Ending 22 to appear.

Damage Scaling

Damage scaling is an unclear mechanic introduced by Nicalis in The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth to provide a more challenging experience to the players, enabling some enemies to retaliate against high damage attacks by deploying an "armor" of a sort to greatly reduce the amount of damage taken. Further details and an in-depth explanation may be found here.

Notes

• Chaos Card doesn't work on the Beast.
• Plan C works and will kill The Beast before dying, triggering Ending 22.
• cannot be used to escape the fight, instead, Isaac will be teleported to a random spot on the screen. This holds true for other methods of teleportation as well such as Cursed Eye
• Ipecac and Haemolacria travel in an arc, similar to Ultra Pestilence's shots, and are extremely hard to aim. Not recommended for this fight. If Isaac has high range when firing left or right, the projectiles go up and off-screen.
• Various familiars such as Cube of Meat or Leech are almost completely useless against the Ultra Harbingers, as the familiars stay stuck in the lava on the bottom of the arena. However, they are able to damage War if his pattern takes him close enough to the bottom of the screen, and the Beast as it is half-submerged in lava.
• Any item that gives an effect for the room such as Box of Friends or The Book of Belial will work for the entire fight, starting with Ultra Famine.
• Broken Watch can affect this fight.
• Gnawed Leaf works as normal in this fight - as long as Isaac stays still and has a familiar, he will eventually kill The Beast with enough patience.
• Homing Trisagion will stay on screen indefinitely during this fight.
• Flat Stone makes tears travel straight down as there is no ground they can skip on.
• Defeating each Ultra Harbinger will grant Isaac's active item 2 charges, similar to Boss Rush.
• All items that grant extra lives will revive Isaac on the spot rather than returning him to the previous room.
  • Accordingly, Dead Cat is incredibly useful in the fight, due to the large amount of lives it provides Isaac. This can be mixed with Guppy's Paw to effectively triple the amount of hearts each life gives.
• The Soul is capable of dragging The Forgotten with him as he moves. This means The Soul can move anywhere on the screen, but at a much slower rate.
• Isaac is granted Dogma at the start of the fight, granting flight, a Holy Mantle shield, an increase in speed & damage, and healing him up to 6 hearts with red and soul hearts.

Unlockable Achievements

• 

  Options? - Defeat The Beast as Isaac.

• 

  Candy Heart - Defeat The Beast as Magdalene.

• 

  A Pound of Flesh - Defeat The Beast as Cain.

• 

  Redemption - Defeat The Beast as Judas.

• 

  Montezuma's Revenge - Defeat The Beast as ???.

• 

  Cracked Orb - Defeat The Beast as Eve.

• 

  Empty Heart - Defeat The Beast as Samson.

• 

  Lil Abaddon - Defeat The Beast as Azazel.

• 

  Astral Projection - Defeat The Beast as Lazarus.

• 

  Everything Jar - Defeat The Beast as Eden.

• 

  Hungry Soul - Defeat The Beast as The Lost.

• 

  C Section - Defeat The Beast as Lilith.

• 

  Keeper's Box - Defeat The Beast as Keeper.

• 

  Worm Friend - Defeat The Beast as Apollyon.

• 

  Spirit Shackles - Defeat The Beast as The Forgotten.

• 

  Jar of Wisps - Defeat The Beast as Bethany.

• 

  Friend Finder - Defeat The Beast as Jacob and Esau.

• 

  Glitched Crown - Defeat The Beast as Tainted Isaac.

• 

  Belly Jelly - Defeat The Beast as Tainted Magdalene.

• 

  Blue Key - Defeat The Beast as Tainted Cain.

• 

  Sanguine Bond - Defeat The Beast as Tainted Judas.

• 

  The Swarm - Defeat The Beast as Tainted ???.

• 

  Heartbreak - Defeat The Beast as Tainted Eve.

• 

  Larynx - Defeat The Beast as Tainted Samson.

• 

  Azazel's Rage - Defeat The Beast as Tainted Azazel.

• 

  Salvation - Defeat The Beast as Tainted Lazarus.

• 

  TMTRAINER - Defeat The Beast as Tainted Eden.

• 

  Sacred Orb - Defeat The Beast as Tainted Lost.

• 

  Twisted Pair - Defeat The Beast as Tainted Lilith.

• 

  Strawman - Defeat The Beast as Tainted Keeper.

• 

  Echo Chamber - Defeat The Beast as Tainted Apollyon.

• 

  Isaac's Tomb - Defeat The Beast as Tainted Forgotten.

• 

  Vengeful Spirit - Defeat The Beast as Tainted Bethany.

• 

  Esau Jr. - Defeat The Beast as Tainted Jacob.

Trivia

• At the end of the fight, Isaac's father refers to The Beast as The Mother of Harlots.
• The Beast wears a tattered version of Mom's dress, suggesting that it represents what Isaac truly sees his mother as.
• When using the "I'm Drowsy" pill during the battle with ultra harbingers, there is one extra slow sign in the position of where the Beast will be, indicating that the Beast is actually "hidden" below the lava before the four ultra harbingers are defeated.
• The Beast's theme is called "Revelations 13:1", referencing the section in the Book of Revelation describing the first Beast.
  • A voice reads parts of this passage during the cutscene prior to The Beast's fight.

• Revelations 13:1 is the longest track in the entire Rebirth OST, sitting at 7 minutes and 53 seconds. This makes sense, as the theme is highly dynamic, changing depending on where the player is in the fight.
  • During the part of the theme that plays during the fights against The Beast proper, Latin chanting can be heard in the background sometimes. The chanting is "mori bestia, cum nostra lucis", which translates to "die, Beast, to our light".

• Revelations also says that the Lord is who defeats the Beast, which may be who is responsible for the beam of light at the end.
• Having enemies be turned into poop with E. Coli or by using other means to do so affects the game's parallax scrolling, as the poop will remain on the screen regardless of whether or not the screen is scrolling.
• In the fight's background, each of the four Harbingers can be seen doing a small animation before they fly into the foreground. Ultra Famine chuckles, Ultra Pestilence raises his fists in the air, Ultra War becomes enraged, and Ultra Death facepalms before brandishing his scythe.
  • They can also be seen doing a small animation whenever Isaac takes a hit. Ultra Pestilence waves his arms and grins, Ultra War raises his arms and then "slams" them down, and Ultra Death laughs.
• According to the game files, the Beast's boss fight takes place in Hell itself.
  • Despite being in a standard fire-and-brimstone depiction of Hell, Isaac's last will still retains Home's "some cold place" location line, rather than changing to something more accurate.
• The Beast is the only boss in the game to have a cutscene before its fight instead of a Versus screen.

Bugs

Bug!	Using Delirious during the battle will cause the background to become entirely black. The game attempts to change the background of the Beast fight to a normal floor background, which cannot be displayed properly due to all other backgrounds lacking many unique properties that only the Beast's special background has.

Bug!	If the player has Knockout Drops, a sufficiently high amount of luck and an item that fires multiple tears at once (such as Monstro's Lung), they will be capable of knocking the Ultra Harbingers far off the screen during The Beast's fight. This also occurs if the player has Strange Attractor and enough sources of tears being fired.

Bug!	Blood Rights can still damage The Beast even when she is in the background, and can erroneously initiate her third phase before all of the Ultra Harbingers are defeated. The Beast remains intangible during this phase, but can still deal contact damage to Isaac.

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
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