Over the past several months, The Binding of Isaac developer Edmund McMillen has been inserting the number "34" into various tweets, and it even appeared in a Repentance teaser trailer from January. This has led to a great deal of discussion about what the significance of "34" might be, and indeed the mystery has now been solved. To put things simply, this number refers to the total number of playable characters in the new DLC, and full details can be found in what follows

To begin, it is worth taking a moment to clarify the nature of these 34 characters, as some readers may be confused about where that number comes from. Essentially, there are 17 standard characters in The Binding of Isaac: Repentance, which players can unlock in a variety of different ways, and each of these characters has a variant, or "B-Side." The second half of that statement is what is likely to come as a surprise to fans, and indeed it doubles the count to 34.

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With that established, some players will certainly want to know how to unlock all of these character variants, and the process is detailed below. Before fans read on, though, they should know that it is not possible to describe how to earn the B-Side characters without some heavy spoilers. As such, players that are still exploring this new The Binding of Isaac DLC may want to return to this guide at a later date.

For those players that are ready to learn the method for unlocking character variants, it centers around reaching Home, the final floor in the DLC. This is a multi-part process that requires fans to assemble the Knife, clear Corpse 2, and unlock the Strange Door in Depths 2, and players that need a full walkthrough can find one in this The Binding of Isaac: Repentance true ending guide.

When a player makes it to Home for the very first time, they will be guaranteed to receive the Red Key in The Binding of Isaac: Repentance from the chest in Mom's room. With this key in hand, players should exit the room and inspect the walls in the hallway to unlock a hidden door on the left side. The precise position of this door can be seen in the video that is above, and players will earn their first variant by coming into contact with the character that is past the door.

That said, fans will not receive a Red Key on subsequent trips to Home, and they will thus need to use a different approach to unlock the rest of the B-Side characters. Specifically, fans need to drop a trinket in a boss or item room before they enter the Strange Door in Depths 2. When that has been done, players should go through the Strange Door and then follow the standard steps for reaching Home, with one big caveat.

That caveat is that players must stop by the room where they dropped the trinket while they make their way back to the Basement. When they locate that room, roguelike fans will discover that the trinket that they put down has been transformed into a Cracked Key, which can be used to unlock the door in the wall in Home. Notably, this Cracked Key can only be used once, and players should make sure not to expend it before they get to the final floor.

The Binding of Isaac is available on PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

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