A bad trip in seven colors. Shoot your way back to reality.
The Binding of Zack is a fast-paced seeded roguelike dungeon crawler. Zack sips a rainbow vial he bought online and falls into a hallucination seven colors deep — RED, BLUE, YELLOW, GREEN, ORANGE, INDIGO, VIOLET. Every floor is a randomly generated maze of rooms: normal rooms full of hallucinations, a locked GIFT room with a free item, a shop, a hidden secret room, and a boss guarding the trapdoor down. Forty-four items every one of which changes how Zack looks AND fights, twelve enemy families, seven bosses, mystery sips, bombs, keys, coins — and a friend: press ENTER mid-run and player two joins as Mac, local co-op on one keyboard or a gamepad. Beat all seven colors and Zack wakes up.
STORY & LORE
Five Stars. You WILL See God.
Zack was having a bad month. His room agreed. Then he found a little vial online — RAINBOW JUICE, five stars, glowing reviews — and he did the thing you should never do, which is drink it. Now the way out is through: seven floors, each a color of the rainbow, each ending in something enormous that doesn't want him to leave.
The Seed Is The Trip
Every run is generated from a six-letter SEED shown on screen. The same seed always builds the same floors — same rooms, same item pools, same layout — so you can re-run a great trip, race a friend on identical ground, or type a seed in from the menu. New run, new seed, new nightmare.
Everything You Take Changes You
There are no invisible stat sticks. Every one of the 44 items redraws Zack on the spot — a skate helmet, 3D glasses, angel wings, a tinfoil hat, cat ears, a rainbow aura, vampire fangs, a whole skateboard — and stacks with everything else. By floor five you're a ridiculous little collage of your own decisions, which is exactly how a good trip report reads.
Mac Has Your Back
Any time mid-run, press ENTER and Mac — Zack's freckled friend in the backwards cap — drops into the trip. He plays on TFGH + IJKL (or a gamepad), shares the party's coins, keys and bombs, and has his own hearts and his own item build. If one of you goes down, the other can carry the run to the next floor and the fallen one wakes back up.
CHARACTERS & ENEMIES
Depressed, hoodie-clad, and armed with an endless supply of tears fired in four directions. Starts with 3 hearts, a key, a bomb and 3 coins. Every item he touches changes his body, his face, and his firepower.
Zack's friend. Backwards cap, freckles, red hoodie, zero hesitation about entering someone else's hallucination. Own hearts and items; shares the party's coins, keys and bombs. Revives at the next floor if he goes down.
A melting rainbow skull that cycles every pattern the previous six bosses taught you: radial bursts, rain volleys, dashes and aimed spreads, faster and angrier below half health. Kill it and Zack wakes up.
HOW IT PLAYS
Twin-Stick On Linear Lines
Move with WASD, fire tears with the arrow keys — four cardinal directions, Isaac-style. Damage, fire rate, shot speed, range, speed and luck are all stats items can push. Space drops a bomb: it breaks rocks, cracks secret walls, and hurts everything including you.
Seeded Floors & Special Rooms
Each floor is a random-walk web of rooms around a start room. Dead ends become the BOSS room (skull door), the GIFT room (★, one free item, needs a key) and the SHOP (¢, needs a key). One extra room hides behind a bombable wall. Doors lock while a room has enemies in it — clear the room to move on.
Items, Sips & The Economy
Item pedestals appear in gift rooms, shops and after every boss. Coins buy from shops (hearts 3¢, keys/bombs 4¢, mystery sips 6¢, items 15¢). Sips are unlabeled vials with random effects — luck tilts the odds good. Keys open the good doors, bombs open the hidden ones. Every 7th floor... doesn't exist; win by floor seven's boss.
The Seven Colors
RED is the tutorial in name only. BLUE cries. YELLOW stings. GREEN splits and spreads. ORANGE has claws. INDIGO is pitch dark — bring a Glow Stick or Night Light, or fight inside a tiny circle of light. VIOLET is the end of the rainbow, where The Comedown waits. Enemies get more health, more speed, and elite ★ variants as you descend.
Death & The Leaderboard
Damage is measured in half-hearts and contact hurts. When everyone is dead the trip ends and your SCORE — kills, items, floors, win bonus — goes to the leaderboard with your seed attached. Beat the game under 20 minutes for the Speed Trip achievement.
Co-op
Press ENTER during any run and Mac joins instantly at Zack's side — or pick CO-OP TRIP from the menu to start together. One keyboard runs both (WASD/arrows vs TFGH/IJKL), or hand Mac a gamepad: left stick moves, right stick fires, A drops bombs.
GALLERY
THE SEVEN FLOORS
In Zack's order, not the rainbow's. Each boss guards the trapdoor down.
| # | Floor | Boss | Boss HP | Twist |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | THE RED | BLOODSHOT | 90 | A giant eye that ricochets and bursts |
| II | THE BLUE | THE WEEPER | 130 | Cries targeted rain from the ceiling |
| III | THE YELLOW | QUEEN BEEZO | 170 | Charge sweeps, summons flies |
| IV | THE GREEN | GUTTERMOUTH | 210 | Hops leave damaging creep pools |
| V | THE ORANGE | MARMALADE | 250 | Spiral bullet rotor + pounces |
| VI | THE INDIGO | NIGHT TERROR | 290 | Teleports; the whole floor is dark |
| VII | THE VIOLET | THE COMEDOWN | 380 | Cycles every pattern in the game |
ENEMY FAMILIES
Every family appears re-tinted and stronger on later floors; ★ elites have ~1.8× health.
| Enemy | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Gloop | Slowly chases you |
| Fly | Drifts, then darts at your face |
| Spitter | Walks slowly, spits aimed shots |
| Charger | Dashes the moment you line up with it |
| Hopper | Leaps at you in bursts |
| Turret | Immobile; fires 4-way (8-way on late floors) |
| Ghost | Floats through rocks, can't be blocked |
| Spider | Erratic zig-zag skitters |
| Tank | Slow, armored, takes a beating |
| Imp | Teleports near you, fires on arrival |
| Splitter | Big gloop — splits into two on death |
| Orbiter | Circles a fixed point; shoots on late floors |
ITEM HIGHLIGHTS
44 items total — all of them change Zack's sprite. A taste:
| Item | Effect | The Look |
|---|---|---|
| 3D Glasses | Triple shot (damage down) | Red/blue paper glasses |
| Quad Squad | QUAD SHOT in a cross | Four pupils |
| Fridge Magnet | Homing tears | Magnet on head |
| Laser Pointer | Piercing shots | Red glowing eyes |
| Angel Wings | Flight over pits | Wings |
| Moldy Pizza | +2 hearts, poison tears | Green-tinted Zack |
| Ouija Board | Spectral tears pass rocks | Pale ghost tint |
| Broken Mirror | Also shoot backwards | Cracked reflection |
| Rubber Duck | Familiar that blocks shots | An orbiting duck |
| Toy Drone | Familiar that shoots with you | An orbiting drone |
| Vampire Teeth | Kills sometimes heal | Fangs |
| Tinfoil Hat | Luck up, sometimes deflects hits | You know the one |
| Rainbow Vial II | Everything up a little | Rainbow aura |
| Cursed Handheld | Huge damage, −1 heart | Sickly green glow + red eyes |
PICKUPS & PRICES
| Thing | Does | Shop Price |
|---|---|---|
| Heart | Heals one heart | 3¢ |
| Coin | Money | — |
| Key | Opens GIFT ★ and SHOP ¢ doors | 4¢ |
| Bomb | Breaks rocks, secret walls, and bosses | 4¢ |
| Mystery Sip | Random effect — luck helps | 6¢ |
| Item pedestal | One of the 44 | 15¢ |
ACHIEVEMENTS
Registered with the site — every achievement pays a flat 25 🎟 the first time you earn it.
| Achievement | How | TIX |
|---|---|---|
| 🔴 Saw Red | Beat BLOODSHOT and clear THE RED | 25 |
| 🌈 True Colors | Reach THE VIOLET | 25 |
| ☀️ Wake Up, Zack | Beat THE COMEDOWN — win the game | 25 |
| ⚡ Speed Trip | Win in under 20 minutes | 25 |
| 🎒 Hallucination Hoarder | Hold 8+ items in one run | 25 |
| 🤝 Trip Sitter | Win a co-op run with Mac | 25 |
| 👻 Untouchable | Clear a whole floor without damage | 25 |
| 🛒 Window Shopper | Buy 3 shop things in one run | 25 |
| ☆ Glass Cannon | Kill a boss at half a heart | 25 |
| ☆ Déjà Vu | Die on THE RED | 25 |
VERSION HISTORY
- Initial catalogued version: 7 seeded floors (RED→VIOLET), Isaac-style room-graph generation with gift/shop/secret/boss rooms, 44 sprite-changing items, 12 enemy families, 7 bosses, mystery sips, bombs/keys/coins economy.
- Local co-op: Mac joins mid-run with ENTER (second keyboard layout or gamepad); shared party resources, per-player builds, next-floor revives.
- Seed display + seed entry for repeatable runs; score leaderboard with seed attached; 10 site-registered achievements.
- Awaiting Johnny's hand-tuning pass — balance, item pools and boss patterns will evolve in later versions.