The Binding of Isaac is a pretty bleak game, even if it is hours of endless fun. It starts with you scurrying into the basement to escape your abusive, evangelical mother, only to find yourself in dungeons, dark depths, her womb, and hell, because why not?
Meanwhile, we uncover more and more of Isaac’s trauma such as the fact that his cat, Guppy, died at some point before the game started. You’ll probably have noticed the strange relationship to his feline in the death screen where Isaac writes, “I leave all that I own to my cat, Guppy.” Yet, various items point to a grimmer fate for his kitten.
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You can find Guppy’s decapitated head, docked tail, and collar, amongst other, ahem, accessories. Grim. Anyway, we’re going to break down how the Guppy transformation benefits you and how you can actually become Isaac’s dead cat. Yep.
How To Become Guppy
To become Isaac’s dead cat, you need to collect three Guppy-based items.
There is no specific order and you can do this at any time in a run. When you collect the third item, you will automatically become Guppy.
Every Item That Contributes To The Guppy Transformation
There are two usable items that contribute — Guppy’s Head and Guppy’s Paw. Again, pretty grim.
Using their head summons flies while their paw will take away one red heart container, swapping them for three soul hearts (the blue ones).
Aside from that, there are five passive collectibles. You can find Dead Cat, Guppy’s Collar, Guppy’s Hair Ball, Guppy’s Tail, and Guppy’s Eye.
So, aside from an assortment of grueling parts of Guppy’s corpse, you can find their corpse intact. Is that a silver lining? Maybe. It sets your heart containers to one but you get nine lives.
The collar gives you a 50 percent chance to respawn with half a heart, the hairball is a follower that will block shots and swing around, damaging enemies, the tail gives you a one in three chance of room clear rewards becoming chests, and the eye lets you see what is inside containers before you open ’em.
However, the eye is DLC. Still, that’s six base game items that can make you Guppy.
Otherwise, there’s another DLC item called Kid’s Drawing. It’s a trinket that also contributes to your Guppy transformation. You have to keep a hold of it, though, and that’s its only benefit.
| Tip: Once you’ve gone through all nine lives with Dead Cat, it no longer contributes to the Guppy transformation. |
What Does Transforming Into Guppy Unlock?
Firstly, you get two achievements — Guppy’s Hairball and Cat Got Your Tongue.
Achievements can then contribute to unlocking challenges, and you get one for becoming Guppy. Like the achievement, it’s called Cat Got your Tongue.
You start with Guppy’s Hair Ball, Guppy’s Head, and Guppy’s Tail. If you complete this challenge, you unlock the Rune of Algiz. It’s a one-time item akin to pills or cards and it gives you a thirty-second shield.
What Does The Guppy Transformation Do?
If you hit an enemy or one of your familiars does, then there is a 50 percent chance that a blue fly will spawn. Combined with Guppy’s Head, you can amass an army of flies to take on your foes.
Another perk is that you can fly. Like with any other transformation or item that lets you do this, it means you can go over rocks, spikes, or holes in the ground.
If you’re playing as The Lost, however, you will become a skeletal Guppy. Creepy.
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