Victory Lap inThe Binding of Isaacis one of the most intriguing and chaotic mechanics available to players who have completed a successful run. It offers a unique twist to the game’s roguelike formula by allowing players to restart their journey while retaining most of their items. This mode brings a mix of power fantasy, rising difficulty, and a chance to push your build to extreme levels. However, it comes with trade-offs that make it challenging and unpredictable. Understanding how Victory Laps work and when to use them is key to mastering this feature and unlocking deeper layers of gameplay strategy.
What Is a Victory Lap?
Definition and Overview
A Victory Lap is a special game mode inThe Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+and later expansions that allows the player to restart the game after defeating the final boss in a standard run typically Delirium or The Lamb. Instead of ending the game and seeing the final cutscene, players can choose to loop the run and start from the beginning with most of their items and stats intact.
How to Trigger a Victory Lap
To access a Victory Lap, you must defeat The Lamb and touch the chest at the end of the Dark Room. After doing so, the game will give you the option to perform a Victory Lap. You can do this up to five times per session, with diminishing rewards and increased difficulty each time.
What Carries Over in a Victory Lap?
Items and Stats
Most passive and active items carry over into the new lap, meaning your character retains the majority of the power they’ve built up throughout the previous run. This makes your build stronger with each consecutive lap, especially if you’ve collected synergistic or game-breaking combinations.
What You Lose
However, some elements are lost to balance the mechanic:
- Keys, bombs, and coinsreset to base values
- All trinketsare removed
- Cards, pills, and runesare removed
- Some items(like quest items or overpowered ones) may be removed or nerfed
- Unlocksdo not occur during Victory Laps
Red Chest Mechanics
During Victory Laps, Devil Deal rooms turn into Red Chest rooms, which contain more random items or pickups rather than direct devil deals. This adds more randomness to the game and makes powerful devil item stacking harder to repeat across laps.
Benefits of Doing a Victory Lap
Stronger Builds
Victory Laps give you the chance to snowball your build into something outrageous. Stacking multiple damage and tear rate upgrades can turn Isaac into a screen-clearing machine. With the right combination of items, every room becomes a short-lived obstacle.
Practice and Challenge
Doing a Victory Lap is also a great way to improve your skill. Enemies become more difficult, and more chaos means you need to stay alert. It’s a perfect mix of learning, experimentation, and fun chaos for players who’ve already beaten the game many times.
High Replay Value
If you’re looking to get more out of a single run, Victory Laps massively increase the gameplay time. A run that would normally end in about 40-60 minutes can stretch into a multi-hour challenge. For players who enjoy long, evolving runs, this feature is gold.
Drawbacks of Victory Laps
Difficulty Scaling
Each Victory Lap increases the game’s difficulty. Enemies get tougher and more numerous. Your damage and health may not scale at the same rate, especially if you miss essential items in the next lap. By the third lap, even the most powerful builds can struggle.
Achievement and Unlock Limitations
Victory Laps do not count toward character unlocks or achievements. This means that while fun, they’re not suitable for players who are still working toward 100% completion. It’s purely a mode for fun and challenge not progression.
Softlock Potential
With multiple overlapping item effects and transformations, it’s possible to create builds that crash the game, cause softlocks, or make it nearly impossible to complete rooms. These situations, while rare, can ruin a long Victory Lap if not carefully managed.
Tips for Surviving Multiple Victory Laps
Build for Survivability
Look for items that provide consistent healing, soul hearts, or revival effects. Items likeThe Relic,Seraphim Transformation,Infamy, orHoly Mantlecan help you survive longer as the difficulty increases.
Prioritize Synergy
Focus on synergistic builds that compound power with each new item. Examples include homing tears with high fire rate, Brimstone with Ludovico Technique, or combining Spoon Bender with multi-shot effects. Each lap gives more chances to push synergies to absurd levels.
Keep Movement Speed Up
Enemies become faster and more aggressive in later laps, so prioritize items that boost your speed and dodging ability. Low mobility builds often crumble by the second or third lap, especially in tight boss fights or bullet-hell scenarios.
Avoid Glitch-Prone Combinations
While it’s tempting to create broken builds, be cautious with items known to cause visual glitches or frame drops. Items likeMy Reflection,Technology 2, orFire Mindcan sometimes overload the engine when combined with multiple tear modifiers.
Victory Lap vs. Greed Mode
Which Is Better for Long-Term Play?
Victory Laps and Greed Mode offer different flavors of replayability. Greed Mode is more structured and reward-based, ideal for unlock progress. Victory Laps, on the other hand, offer an unrestrained power fantasy experience with wild builds and endless mayhem.
When to Choose a Victory Lap
If you’ve already unlocked most items and want to experiment with combos or test your endurance, Victory Laps are the perfect outlet. They’re especially enjoyable for veterans who love chaos and don’t mind forfeiting unlocks for pure fun.
Fun Victory Lap Challenges
1. No Treasure Rooms
Skip all treasure rooms after the first lap to test your luck with devil deals, red chests, and random drops. This forces creative play and highlights how essential some items truly are.
2. One Heart Run
Try to keep your health to just one red heart and survive as long as possible. This adds a survival-horror element and heightens the stakes.
3. Passive Items Only
Drop or avoid all active items during your laps. This lets you focus on finding high-impact passives and developing sustainable builds based solely on stats and tear effects.
The Victory Lap mechanic inThe Binding of Isaacis a brilliant way to extend gameplay beyond a single run, offering both fun and challenge for players looking to push their builds to the limit. It’s not meant for those seeking progress or unlocks, but it provides an engaging sandbox for chaos lovers. Whether you’re stacking Brimstone with 20 damage multipliers or turning every room into a fireworks display of tears, Victory Laps are where the game lets you go all-out. With the right build, smart decisions, and a bit of luck, a single run can turn into an unforgettable journey of escalating madness.