Greed’s Gamble

Greed’s… well, greed, knows no bounds: he is determined to rob Isaac of every cent he owns – and he’s not far off succeeding! Can you guide your characters to kill monsters, gain cents, and tip the scales back in your favor? Or will you be left penniless by the merciless Greed like so many before you…

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Jump To:
Setup
Game Modes
FAQ
Challenge Cards
Credits

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Setup

Card(s) Needed

Goal

The challenge is won when Avaricious Greed dies.

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Setup

1. Choose a difficulty level for the challenge:
   Normal
   Hard
   Ultra Hard
2. With the exception that players start with one combined ¢ pool rather than each having separate ¢ pools like normal. For 2 characters this combined ¢ pool will start with 6¢.
3. Place Avaricious Greed face up to one side of the monster slots in a final boss slot.
   (feel free to use your regular Greed card as a stand-in to represent this!)
4. Set aside the monster cards Keeper Head, Holy Keeper Head, and Cursed Keeper Head. These cards start outside the game in this challenge.
5. The character that will take the first turn starts with Golden Razor Blade. Golden Razor Blade gains Eternal for this challenge.

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Global Modifiers

In the Red
Each time a player loses a number of ¢ that is more than the number of ¢ they have, the timer ticks down by 1.

Like Moth to Flame
Each time a player loses or pays any number of ¢, put that many counters on the Greed’s Gamble challenge card. Then, if there are 10+ counters, remove 10 counters from it and put a random Keeper Head from outside the game in a minion slot not being attacked, if able.

Compound Interest
If a player would lose any number of ¢, they instead lose that much +x¢, where x is equal to the number of minions in play.

Compound Interest
If a player would lose or pay any number of ¢, they instead lose or pay that much +x¢, where x is equal to the number of minions in play.

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Other Rules

For this challenge, players share a ¢ pool.

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New Keywords

For this challenge, there is one new keyword. When a card or ability uses this term, it is as if the below was written out in full:

Keeper Head:

Card with “Keeper Head” in its name.

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Reminder

Remember that the specific rules and global modifiers for this challenge are used in addition to the general challenge rules that apply to all challenges. The general challenge rules can be downloaded separately from maestromedia.com.

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Game Modes

Normal

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Hard

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Ultra Hard

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Competitive Variant

Avaricious Greed does not start with any counters on it in the competitive variant. Instead, each player puts 24 counters on their character at the start of the game. While the active player has any number of counters on them, Avaricious Greed can’t be attacked or die. Each time a player gains a soul, they remove 10 counters from their character. Each time a player takes damage, they lose 4¢. Keeper Heads are summoned every 20 counters in the competitive variant, rather than every 10.

Rather than the timer ticking down each time a player would lose more ¢ than they have, that player instead puts 4 counters on their character.

Golden Razor Blade is placed in the middle of the table. It gains Eternal, and is considered to be controlled by the active player, and only the active player, each turn.

The challenge is won by the active player when Avaricious Greed dies.

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FAQ

What’s the difference between losing and paying ¢?
To lose ¢, you move the specified number of ¢ from your ¢ pool into the game’s ¢ pool. If you don’t have the specified number of ¢, you just lose as many ¢ as possible (and in this challenge the timer will tick down!). To pay ¢, you move the specified number of ¢ from your ¢ pool to the specified ¢ pool. If no ¢ pool is specified, as is normally the case, the ¢ are moved to the game’s ¢ pool. The key distinction between the two is that if you don’t have enough ¢ to pay, you can’t pay

Is purchasing from the shop affected by any of the global modifiers or final boss abilities?
Yes! When you make a purchase from the shop, you pay the cost of what you are purchasing (by default 10¢). This means purchasing will interact with any ability that refers to ¢ being paid (but not with any that only refer to losing ¢). This means:

		Making a purchase will lead to counters being put on the challenge card through the global modifier Like Moth to Flame.
		The cost of making a purchase will increase through the global modifier Compound Interest on Hard or Ultra Hard difficulty.
		If playing on Ultra Hard difficulty, any ¢ paid to purchase an item will result in counters being put on Avaricious Greed.

How do abilities that interact with a player gaining ¢ work with the shared ¢ pool?
Each player/character still gains ¢ individually, they just go to a shared ¢ pool afterward. This means that any abilities that interact with a playing gaining ¢ work no different from normal. For example, take the first ability of the item Bum-bo! – ‘If you would gain any number of ¢, this levels up by that much instead.’ Any ¢ that would be gained by the character that controls Bum-bo! would instead level up the item, whereas any ¢ gained by any other characters would be unaffected and go to the ¢ pool.

Avaricious Greed has gained counters during my attack against it – what do I do now?
The crucial thing here is that attacks can‘t be declared on Avaricious Greed whilst it has counters on it. Any ongoing attacks against Avaricious Greed would not be canceled if it gains counters during an attack (for example if a player misses against it, takes damage, and loses ¢). If this happens, the attacking player would need to deal damage to Avaricious Greed enough times to get it back to 0 counters before they could actually damage it again. If Avaricious Greed would take damage while it has counters on it during an attack, the damage is prevented, and 4 counters are removed from it – just the same as if Avaricious Greed takes damage outside of an attack.

Can I have a summary of what actually happens when I take damage/lose ¢/pay ¢?
Normal:
Whenever you take damage, you will lose 4¢, plus 1¢ for each Keeper Head in a minion slot. Avaricious Greed will gain counters equal to however many ¢ you lose.
Whenever you lose ¢, you lose that much plus 1¢ for each Keeper Head in a minion slot as above. You put counters on the Greed’s Gamble challenge card equal to the number you lose. If there are now 10 or more counters on the challenge card, you put a Keeper Head from outside the game in a minion slot, if you can.
Whenever you pay ¢, you put counters on the Greed’s Gamble challenge card equal to the amount paid, which may result in a Keeper Head being put in a minion slot.

Hard (Differences from Normal):
Whenever you lose ¢, for any reason (not only taking damage, which does still cause you to lose ¢), you put that many counters on Avaricious Greed.
Whenever you pay ¢, you now also have to pay that much plus 1¢ for each Keeper Head in a minion slot. If you don’t have that many ¢, you can’t pay

Ultra Hard (Differences from Hard):
Whenever you pay ¢, you now also put that many counters on Avaricious Greed.

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Challenge Cards

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Credits

Creator of Four Souls	Edmund McMillen
Challenge Design	Charlie Gill
Challenge Art	orisghost
Producer	Dustin Wessel
Editor	egghorse
Rules Advisor	Sevenut
Official TTS Table	Jeremy Silliman, maths
Playtesting TTS Table	Troy Thompson

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Information on this page is transcribed from the official PDF file with minor edits to grammar for clarity.