Bamboo Gaming · Updated
Repentance damage guide
Enemy hits, health payments, and item purchases can spend health differently. Womb also raises many ordinary hits from half a heart to a full heart.
A shield is a separate layer
Holy Mantle can absorb an eligible hit. A consumed shield does not refill a container or pay a Devil Deal price.
Read Holy Mantle's exact effectDamage source matters
Normally spends the rightmost eligible health first. Soul and Black Hearts can protect red filling; a Bone Heart must lose its filling before its shell breaks.
Check what is exposed at the right end of the health bar, then account for any item that changes damage order.
Sources such as Blood Donation Machines and IV Bag normally spend red filling first, including filling inside Bone Hearts. Other health can be spent after red filling runs out.
A Soul Heart does not make every payment spend Soul health first. Read the machine's cost and stop before a lethal payment.
A displayed heart price removes the required containers or health. This is a purchase rule, rather than an ordinary enemy hit.
A shield is not a replacement for the displayed cost. Keeper, Lost and other special characters have their own deal rules.
Crow Heart makes ordinary damage prioritize red health. That can remove the red-heart protection you expected from Soul Hearts and can affect deal chances. Check the trinket before relying on the normal order.
Early chapters
This is the common baseline through the first three chapters. Champions, explosions and special hazards can already have different damage.
Womb and later
From the fourth chapter onward, the floor rule raises ordinary half-heart damage. The source, character and reduction effects still determine the final result.
The Wafer reduces many hits, rather than adding health. Its exceptions include Keeper's whole Coin Heart damage, and giant-champion hits are not reduced to the ordinary half-heart result. Read the item rules.
Worked examples
These use ordinary red-health characters with no modifying items. The game's original HUD symbols show the before and after states.
Before
After
Picking up one full Red Heart fills the empty container. It does not create a fourth container.
Before
After
For an ordinary one-heart hit in Womb, the rightmost Soul Heart is spent. The red containers are still full. This example assumes no special damage-order effect.
Before
After
An ordinary early-floor Blood Donation Machine payment uses half a red heart first. The Soul Heart does not have to be spent. Later-floor costs and character rules can change this.
Protection is not healing
Its ordinary item effect absorbs one eligible hit per room. Once the shield breaks, further hits can cost health. Replenishment differs from a consumed Holy Card.
Holy Mantle effectIt grants a protective hit that persists between rooms until used. Entering another room does not automatically grant another card shield.
Holy Card effectSome hits and effects give a short protected interval. Its duration varies, so repeated contact, a new hazard, or an expired effect can still be fatal.
Recognize the status cuesThe Lost and Tainted Lost do not gain ordinary health from heart pickups. Tainted Jacob's ghost can still refill its faded bar, but that bar does not absorb a hit. Check the character helper before relying on a full-looking display.
Qualifying red-heart damage can reduce the chance of a Devil or Angel doorway on the floor. Losing Soul or Black Hearts to an ordinary hit avoids that red-heart penalty, while still counting as damage for other run goals.
Check the complete spike-payment sequence, angel fights, health exceptions and Dark Room travel before spending more health.
Sacrifice Room rewards and step reference →Repentance rules, reviewed October 6, 2026. Repentance+ and mods can differ. References: health and damage order, The Wafer, and Holy Mantle.
