Notched Axe

Effect

• (Removed in Repentance) Isaac holds the Notched Axe above his head as long as he is in that room, and can break any obstacles he touches, as well as being able to break through walls that lead into Secret Rooms.
• (Added in Repentance) Isaac stops shooting tears and holds the Notched Axe like (The Forgotten) The Forgotten's club, and can break obstacles, blow open doors, and hit enemies for 3x damage by swinging it. The Notched Axe has 64 charges. Hitting rocks or opening doors depletes 1 charge for each obstacle destroyed. Hitting enemies depletes 2 charges. Isaac can toggle back and forth between tears and using the Notched Axe by pressing the Active Item button. Once the Notched Axe runs out of charges, it cannot be used for the rest of the floor.
• (Added in Repentance) The charges on Notched Axe cannot be refilled by means other than going to a new floor. This includes Batteries, Battery Bums, (Added in Repentance) 4.5 Volt, (Added in Afterbirth †) Jumper Cables, etc.

Notes

• (Removed in Repentance) If Isaac takes damage while using the Notched Axe, his current use of the Axe will end.
• (Removed in Repentance) Isaac cannot attack or pick up other items while using the Notched Axe.
• (Removed in Repentance) Activating the item while it is already being used will end the effect. This does not require any charge.
• (Added in Repentance) The Notched Axe may be used to get access to the (Mines) Mines. The door will break open with one swing.
• (Added in Repentance) Notched Axe shares its synergies with (The Forgotten) The Forgotten's bone club. See that page for details.
• (Added in Repentance) Notched Axe, like (The Forgotten) The Forgotten's bone club, may be used to pick up items that are just out of reach over a pit or spikes. This does not require any charge.
• (Added in Repentance) Notched Axe can open secret rooms, and so it can be used on walls to test for secret rooms without using charge.
• (Added in Repentance) Notched Axe cannot free Sticky Nickels.
• (Added in Repentance) Notched Axe can provoke an Angel Statue in Angel Rooms, triggering the boss fight.
• (Removed in Repentance) Obstacles destroyed by the Notched Axe will never fill pits.
• (Added in Repentance) Notched Axe can be used to destroy the Tuff Twins and The Shell bosses instead of using bombs.

Synergies

• (Added in Repentance) Anti-Gravity: Melee attacks will generate a hovering tear in the shape of the swing of the pickaxe.
• (Added in Repentance) The Battery: Causes remaining charge from the previous floor to carry over to the next one.
• (Added in Repentance) (Bethany) Bethany: Breaking Notched Axe and using a Soul Charge to activate it again will allow for a single use before immediately breaking. However, Soul Charges are not consumed in the process, allowing for infinite use of Notched Axe. This also works with (Tainted Bethany) Tainted Bethany's blood charges and is likely unintentional.
• (Added in Repentance) The Book of Belial + Birthright as (Judas) Judas / (Dark Judas) Dark Judas: The axe receives a purplish glow and receives the following upgrades:
  • Increased durability: each use of the axe has a very high chance not to use a charge.
  • Faster usage: the axe can be swung faster.
  • Higher knockback: enemies are knocked back when hit, receiving 8 + 0.2 * floor damage if they collide with a wall, obstacle, or other enemies.
  • Fire effect: the axe will set enemies on fire. The burn damage is equal to Judas' damage.
  • Increased luck: destroying obstacles with the axe has an increased chance to spawn pickups.
    • Destroying Poops will spawn pickups much more frequently. When combined with (Petrified Poop) Petrified Poop, the chance becomes 100% and will often result in multiple pickups from a single poop.
    • Destroying Tinted Rocks will drop more consumables than usual, similarly to Super Special Rocks.
    • Destroying Urns has a higher chance to drop more coins. The coins can be of different variants, such as Dimes, Lucky Pennies, Golden Pennies, etc.
    • Destroying Mushrooms, Skulls and other alternative rock variants has an increased chance to drop their respective rewards.
    • Destroying Fool's Gold rocks will drop significantly more coins.
• (Added in Repentance) Book of Virtues: When used with the Book of Virtues, breaking obstacles has a chance to generate wisps that have different effects based on the "mineral" mined, from most common to least common:
  • Black wisp: Fires black tears that have the effect of A Lump of Coal and deal 2.5 damage.
  • Silver wisp: Fires metallic tears that have the effect of Iron Bar and deal 4 damage.
  • Gold wisp: Fires penny tears that have the effect of turning enemies gold, similar to Midas' Touch and deal 3.5 damage.
  • Red wisp: Fires laser tears similar to the ones fired by Technology and deal 3.5 damage.
  • Blue wisp: Fires diamond tears similar to the ones fired by Crown of Light that deal 7 damage.
• (Added in Repentance)(Broken Padlock) Broken Padlock: Allows the Notched Axe to open locked chests and doors; does not use durability.
• (Added in Repentance) Ipecac: Melee attacks will trigger an explosion when they makes contact with an enemy; unlike with the Forgotten's bone club, Isaac will take damage from these Ipecac explosions.
• (Added in Repentance) Technology: Melee attacks will cause a technology laser ring to appear around Isaac, damaging enemies.

Interactions

• (Added in Repentance) Glowing Hour Glass & Schoolbag: Notched Axe will be fully recharged after going back in time to the previous floor.