Survival Manual: KNOW YOUR ROOMS!

Overview

this guide will give you detailed information on how to efficiently traverse through any floor, and will give you tips on how to use each type of room to your advantage.

Introduction

hey fellas, after beating and yelling at this game several times, i thought it would be helpful to give you guys some tips! room tips in general. (this is assuming you have the dlc)
this guide was a post made by me awhile ago, but i figure i should post it as a guide so that these tips are here for all of you incase you need help~

so lets jump right in.

poor little isaac is flung into the basement. what to do?!

Treasure rooms

first we’re going to need an advantage!

search for the treasure room ASAP.
treasure rooms have items that will give you an edge. the first treasure room requires no key (unless you have curse of the labrynth activated!), so go ahead and go inside. even if the item isn’t great, get it anyway, its certainly better than nothing. if the item is a SPACE item, use it when you really need to. pay attention to how many rooms you need to clear before you can use your SPACE item again, in most cases, you’ll want to use it on the boss! if you run into another space item, but dont want to use it, don’t worry, it might still serve you well! for example, if you find a book of shadows, dont leave it, instead, use it to your advantage! you can use the invincibillity on curse doors, sacrifice room spikes, blood banks, or even devil beggars without giving up any hearts! afterwards, return the book back to its pedestal, and continue using the item you had before~
don’t forget to put out the fire pits incase they’re hiding goodies.
ALWAYS MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A KEY FOR THE NEXT FLOOR’S TREASURE ROOM!

Shop rooms

you might be tempted to go in the shop, but remember, things cost money! don’t go into the shop on the first floor unless you got lucky and found ALOT of money. try to go in a shop with AT LEAST 15 pennies. we wouldn’t want to waste a key now would we?
the GOOD items in shops cost 15 pennies, but sometimes they’ll be a on sale for 7. WATCH OUT FOR GREED/SUPER GREED! he may spawn in the shop sometimes. its best to keep your distance away from him, his projectiles are kinda fast.
again, put out those fires! they might give you that ONE extra penny you need!

Curse/Sacrifice rooms

curse/sacrifice rooms are up to the player to use, but just for saftey’s sake, use these rooms AFTER you’ve beaten the boss! both of these rooms will take soul hearts before red hearts, so USE YOUR RED HEARTS BEFORE YOU PICK UP ANY SOUL HEARTS AFTERWARDS!

you can tell its a curse door due to the obviouse spikes.
A curse room is generally less demanding, requiring 1 half heart to enter and another half a heart to exit. if you can fly, you wont take damage entering the room, but you’ll still take half a heart of dmg when you exit (this includes going to the secret room connected to a curse room)! if you have an item that grants invincibillity for a short while, you can use that item to pass through a curse door without taking damage when entering or exiting.

the blood splatter marks the sacrifice room on your map.
sacrifice rooms have one set of spikes in the middle, you’ll need to step on them, 4 times on average, for a chest to spawn.
even if you can fly these spikes will STILL hurt you. if you have an item that grants invincibillity, you can use it, and THEN walk on the spikes. you wont take damage and the chest will spawn. Smart and Efficient!

Secret rooms

Secret rooms are a good source of goodies! there are two kinds of secret rooms. the Normal Secret room, and the SUPER Secret room. you will need to bomb a side of a room to find one. this can take a couple of bombs away from you, so decide weather or not you want to use your bombs to find a secret room or if you want to use them to break rocks, to get to a chest, or to fight with ..ect.

the normal secret room is marked with a question mark.

super secrect room is marked with a darker question mark.

be warned though, GREED/SUPER GREED MIGHT SPAWN IN THE NORMAL SECRET ROOM. you can fight him for coins, but if you feel he’s not worth the fight, you can exit the room immediately by going through the wall you just blew up.

DONT FORGET THE FIRE PITS! :]

Challenge rooms

Challenge rooms have goodies inside, but after they’re picked up, you’ll have to fight some enemies. there a two kinds. Enemy challenge rooms, and Boss challenge rooms.

marked on your map by a sowrd.
to enter an enemy challenge room, you must have full HP (red hearts). it is best to enter this room ASAP, because you dont want to get hit by mistake and not be able to enter.

this is the boss challenge room, marked by a bloody sword.
The Boss challenge room however, requires that you have only 1 RED HEART OR LESS TO ENTER (you may still have soul hearts). before entering this room, i suggest killing the boss of the current floor first, and make sure there are hearts to pick up after the fight is done.

Arcade rooms

Marked on the map by a red die.
Arcades are great for those willing to test their luck. but with some street smarts, you won’t need too much luck. the dealer will give you coins bombs hearts and keys if you pick the correct skull. occasionally, he will gamble with the Skatole hat, a hat made of poop, which makes fly-type enemies no longer harm you! if you have enough pennies, try to get the Skatole hat!

a slot machine or a fortune-telling machine will also be in the room, along with a blood bank. if there are excess hearts laying around, you can decide to use them for the blood bank to get a few extra pennies before you go to the next floor. if a blood bank explodes, it might spawn a blood bag (gives you heart containers) or a portable IV, which acts like a blood bank.

Devil/Angel rooms

these rooms are never displayed on the map.

Devil/angel Rooms are rare, but have excelent items inside. you can enter these rooms when you kill the boss of a floor, or by using a Joker playing card.
other items that allow teleportation can also aid you in finding these rare rooms. there are multiple factors that influence your chance to find these rooms (some are confirmed, others are not!). devil room items cost red heart containers, or sometimes cost a few soul hearts.

Angel room items, however, do not cost anything, and are yours for the taking. Angel rooms are harder to find than devil rooms.

KRAMPUS MIGH SPAWN IN THE DEVIL ROOM! his attack patterens may be hard to get used to due to his rare appearances. after he’s defeated, he drops a lump of coal, a useful item!

Other tips

that covers the rooms. now i’ll give you some handy miscellanious tips!

TIP!: Use the portable IV bag twice in quick succession. the first time will still hurt you, but the second will not since you are still flashing. this effectivley doubles what the blood bank can do! (great use with the bloody penny!)

TIP!: eternal hearts are white hearts that, when two are collected, make a new normal heart container. finishing a floor with half an eternal heart will also form a new heart container. make sure eternal heart are the LAST THING TO COLLECT BEFORE LEAVING A FLOOR!

TIP!: ever see a blood bank or a beggar you wanted to get to, but they’re surrounded by spikes and you cant fly? it sounds stupid, but, if the spike tiles are connected ONLY by their corners, YOU CAN WALK PAST THEM WHILE WALKING DIAGONALLY INTO WHERE THEY BARELY TOUCH! this takes practice!

PRESTO!

TIP!: you can curve your shots! take time practicing this. it is a technique worth learning

TIP!: Don’t hold onto too many heart containers! if you’re having trouble killing enemies, trade some heart containers for devil room items! health isn’t the only thing keeping you alive, your abillity to dodge is your best asset!

TIP!: learn to synergize items and trinkets! sometimes a useless trinket early on can be a great trinket later! some items are not worth it during the end of a playthrough!

TIP!: try to use bomb throwing enemies to your advantage by making them blow up an entrance to a secret door!

TIP!: don’t forget about the Blue-tinted rocks. they hold keys, bombs, hearts, and pennies. some times you might recieve “the rock”, a damage boosting upgrade.

(look for the blue tint!)

TIP!: memorize how much it takes to take certain enemies down. sometimes your only means of avoiding damage could mean charging through the enemies while simultaniously shooting them.

End

this ends my guide. i hope all of you got that certain helpful piece of information you were looking for in here. im sure that with this guide, you TOO can become a PLATINUM GOD!

GOOD LUCK! ~