Bethany

What you start with

The mechanics that actually govern this character.

• 3 red heart containers, Book of Virtues, and 4 soul charges (shown as 2 soul hearts on the select screen). She cannot use soul or black hearts as health at all; each half heart picked up becomes one soul charge instead.
• Soul charges are spent to fire a partially charged active item, one charge per missing bar. This works with any active she holds, not just Book of Virtues - the charge mechanic is intrinsic to her, the Book is not.
• Book of Virtues turns her first Devil Room into an Angel Room, adds +25% Angel Room chance permanently, and keeps Angel Rooms possible even after taking a Devil Deal. Wisps cap at 26 across three rings (6 inner, 8 middle, 12 outer); a basic wisp has 2 HP and fires spectral tears for 3 damage.
• The Book is not intrinsic: a Dice Room, Butter! or 'M can strip it. If she loses it she keeps the soul charge mechanic. Birthright makes soul-charged activations free 50% of the time.

How to play them

• She sees more Angel Rooms than anyone, but her deal chance is fragile because she has no soul heart buffer to absorb a hit. Play floors for a no-damage clear rather than for speed.
• Bone hearts, rotten hearts and eternal hearts DO protect her deal chance. Any of those is worth more to her than a soul heart, which is only fuel.
• Keep a standing wall of wisps. They block shots and are your real armour; spend spare charges topping the ring back up between rooms rather than banking charges you never use.
• Because she can only ever hold red health, The Negative is the better photo for her unless you are specifically going to ??? - the flat +1 damage always applies while the half-heart Necronomicon trigger is much harder for her to reach safely.
• Devil Deals cost real survivability. Take them only when a Health Up is already in hand or the item ends the run.
• Anything that gives soul or black hearts is a charge battery: Guppy's Paw hands her 6 charges for one container, Abaddon converts all its black hearts to charges (while cutting her to one container), and The Nail, Book of Revelations and Satanic Bible all pay out in charges.

Items to hunt for

Strong on this character specifically, not just strong.

• Unicorn Stump or Book of Shadows: invulnerability covers the wisps too, so you can ram a whole room with the ring and lose nothing. Unicorn Stump's one-room recharge plus soul charges makes her nearly untouchable.
• Brittle Bones: replaces her red containers with six bone hearts, which protect deal chance and give a permanent tears up on each break. Marrow is the cheaper version and spawns hearts to fill the container.
• Glyph of Balance: with more than 5 bombs, more than 5 keys, a trinket, fewer than 6 total heart containers and full health, room clears start producing soul hearts. This is how you stockpile hundreds of charges.
• Void: it spawns no wisp by itself, but while she holds Book of Virtues it spawns the wisp of every active it has absorbed, which is the fastest route to a full 26-wisp ring.
• Yum Heart and Prayer Card: her only usable health is red, and soul charges let her fire either on demand.
• Duality or Eucharist locks in free Angel Rooms on top of the Book's +25%; Alabaster Box can be charged retroactively by soul charges she banked before picking it up.
• Hypercoagulation and Charm of the Vampire both convert her aggression back into red hearts, the only health she can actually use.

Traps to refuse

Picks that are neutral or good elsewhere and bad here.

• Scapular and the Monkey Paw trinket: at half a heart they give her two soul charges instead of a defensive soul heart, which removes their entire point.
• Converter is unusable - she cannot hold soul or black heart containers. Jar of Flies and Magic Fingers also cannot be run on soul charges.
• Book of Revelations and Satanic Bible used at 4 or more soul charges are a net charge loss: the first replaces bosses with a harbinger and costs you Health Up boss drops, the second replaces the boss item with a Devil Deal that eats red health.
• Crown Of Light is nearly dead on her, since she is rarely at full red health and can only buffer with rotten hearts.
• The Apple of Sodom trinket eats red hearts she needs, and Dark Bum plus the Daemon's Tail trinket trade healing health for charges she probably already has.

Cheese and techniques

Verified against 1.7.9 on console — anything patched, PC-only or Repentance+ only is called out rather than listed.

• First-floor Angel Room: while at 100% Angel Room chance she cannot be teleported to a Devil Room by items that would normally do it - she is sent to the Angel Room instead. That works even on Basement I where deal rooms do not spawn naturally, and it does not consume the 100% chance.
• Glyph of Balance farming turns every cleared room into a soul heart, i.e. into two active-item uses. Combined with a high-value active (Mega Blast, Crooked Penny, Eraser) that is roughly one free cast per room.
• Void plus Book of Virtues: absorb several cheap actives from a Library, then every Void use repaints the full wisp ring instantly.
• Tear Detonator costs one charge per press and shreds Greed Mode waves since each wave fully recharges it. The wiki warns that spamming it hard enough can crash the game, so do not machine-gun it on console.
• Vibrant Bulb works off items that are fully charged via soul charges even when the room-charge bar itself is not full.

Getting the marks

• Non-tainted, 14 secrets, all Hard marks unlocks Hope Baby.
• Her unlocks are the whole Repentance holy toolkit, so she snowballs: Mom's Heart gives Wisp Baby, Isaac gives Book of Virtues for everyone else, ??? gives Blessed Penny, Satan gives Urn of Souls, The Lamb gives Alabaster Box, Boss Rush gives Beth's Faith, Hush gives Divine Intervention, Ultra Greed gives Soul Locket, Ultra Greedier gives Vade Retro, Mega Satan gives Glowing Baby, Delirium gives Star of Bethlehem, Mother gives Revelation, The Beast gives Jar of Wisps.
• Mega Satan is easiest on her of any character, because Key Pieces come from Angel Rooms and she is the best Angel Room character in the game. Do that mark on a run where you deliberately fight both angels.