Getting the most out of Angel Rooms

Overview

Angel Rooms provide some of the most powerful items in the game. What makes these rooms even more tempting than Devil Rooms is that the items they contain are completely free! If you’re itching to get an over-powered run, or just want to finally get your hands on that Godhead you worked so hard to unlock, this small guide is exactly what you’re looking for.

Introduction

As you might have guessed, this guide is about rerolling the Angel Room with The D6. I’m sure anyone would think it’s the most obvious thing to do but I still wanted to write this guide since there might be some people out there who haven’t thought about doing a run this way, or are looking for a specific Angel Room item like Godhead to complete their collection page and unlock Real Platinum God.

Please note that this guide still applies if you play Afterbirth or Afterbirth+. However, since these updates added loads of new items and room variants, this method might not be as effective as it is in vanilla Rebirth. The item pools are larger in AB/AB+, Angel room might not contain an item pedestal, Angel statues no longer drops key pieces if you’ve already assembled the key, and new cards, pills and runes make it slightly less likely that you get the exact pickup you’re looking for. Then again, updated Curse room funcionality in AB gives you a chance to access Angel room even if you’ve taken Devil deal, and AB+ added some rather useful items like Duality and Eucharist. Still, with smaller items pools and fewer pickups, this guide works best when playing without any of the DLC.

For this method to work, you need to play as Isaac and have The D6 unlocked. I also suggest Normal difficulty, because for me it seems to increase the chance of a Curse Room appearing adjacent to the spawn room (although I don’t know if that’s correct at all. You can play on Hard Mode if you prefer). If you are going to play other characters than Isaac, this guide will still have some useful information about Angel Rooms in general, and at the end of the guide there are some suggestions for items to make use of on non-Isaac runs!

Before I begin, I would like to suggest you keep the following things in mind:

• To make sure you can reroll the Angel Room as many times as possible, try to find the Boss Room as early as possible. At least on later floors you can then clear the rest of the rooms to recharge The D6; you can roam the map freely even after exiting Angel Room because having Goat Head means the door will stay open. Also try not to reroll Treasure Rooms to make sure The D6 is fully charged when you reach Angel Room. You can afford to pass bad items or not go to Treasure Rooms at all, since the items you will pick up in Angel Room will most likely be enough to carry you through the game anyway.
• Try to always keep at least one Key with you so you can enter a Shop to buy Little Battery for an additional reroll with The D6, even if it means not going to Treasure Room.
• 48 Hour Energy pill is your friend since it allows you to reroll couple more times with The D6. Of course, without PHD there’s no way to know what pill it is that you’re eating but there’s also only one way to find out…
• It might not be a bad idea to try and get your hands on Sharp Plug, Habit, The Battery or 9 Volt to give you some additional rerolls per floor.
• If you find Judgement card, keep it (see Step 3.5). Try to save up some coins so you can make the Beggar spawn an additional item inside the Angel Room.
• Do not waste bombs! If you don’t have explosive tears ala Ipecac/Dr.Fetus/Epic Fetus, bombs might be your only way to awaken the Angel Statue. If you go into Angel Room without any bombs, it’s a waste of time. You can also use bombs to milk some money out of Donation Machines if you need to buy a Little Battery or you need more coins to feed your Beggar.
• And remember that even if you can’t reroll into the powerful items that you want on your first or even the second attempt, you can still pick up whichever items you did get, as long as they’re not active items (which would mean having to give up The D6). There are only 24 items in the Angel Room item pool, so if you follow this guide and reroll 1 to 3 items once or twice on each floor, your chances of finding some really powerful items are pretty good, don’t you agree?

Step 1: Find Goat Head in a Curse Room

The first step is to find Goat Head. This item forces Devil or Angel Room to spawn after every boss fight starting from Basement/Cellar II even if you have taken red heart damage. It also makes it so that the door to Devil/Angel Room stays open even if you exit the room or quit the game and continue later.

When playing as Isaac, hold R until you spawn in a room adjaced to a Curse Room. Enter the Curse Room. If the room doesn’t contain a Red Chest or an item, hold R to restart. Open any Red Chests and reroll all the items inside with The D6. If you still don’t see Goat Head, hold R again to restart. Repeat until you manage to find a Curse Room with Goat Head or any item that you can successfully reroll. When you do find Goat Head, proceed to Step 2.

Step 2: Finding Angel Rooms

As you might have noticed while playing the game, Devil Rooms seem to be more common than Angel Rooms. However, you can turn that around simply by not entering Devil Rooms. That’s right, just don’t go there! Or if you do, under any circumstances do not make any deals with the Devil. Opening Red Chests and picking up Black Hearts inside Devil Room do not affect Angel Room chance, but if you pay for Devil or Black Market deals with health you will be stuck with Devil Rooms for the rest of the run. Naturally, it goes without saying that if Red Chest in your first Curse Room teleports you into Devil Room that has Goat Head, you should pass on those items too.

Note that taking Devil Room items only affect your chances of finding Angel Room if you have paid for the items with your health. What this means is that you can use Store Credit trinket or Credit Card in Devil Room to safely pick up whatever items you want.

Note that this method might not guarantee Angel Room to appear on every single floor but passing Devil Room on a floor makes Angel Room much more likely to appear on the next floor. Also, I haven’t found Devil or Angel Room in Basement/Cellar I even with Goat Head, so you can expect to start finding Angel Rooms from Caves/Catacombs I onwards, assuming you did skip the Devil Room in Basement/Cellar II.

So, since you’re holding Goat Head which forces Devil/Angel Room after every boss fight, your chances of finding Angel Room are already pretty high. However, you can manipulate the odds further in your favour by holding Rosary Bead trinket, which further increases the chance of Angel Room spawning instead of Devil Room! I had a very successful run with Goat Head + Rosary Bead where every room was Angel Room after skipping Devil Room in Basement II, and finding Rosary Bead in Caves I.

Faith and Evil stats do not seem to affect the chances of Devil or Angel Room appearing, so don’t bother with other trinkets like Bible Tract or Maggy’s Faith.

Step 3: Rerolling items in Angel Room

Ok, so Angel Room spawned. Great, now go inside! If there’s an item from the Angel Room pool inside, be careful not to pick it up just yet. After you have beated either The Chest or Dark Room for the first time, the Angel Statue can be bombed to start Angel boss fight. Although the boss fight isn’t that challenging, let’s hope you managed to pick up some health and damage upgrades on your way!

There are two types of Angel bosses with slightly different attacks and patterns but I won’t go into detail about them because they shouldn’t give you too much trouble. After you’ve beaten the Angel it spawns a Key Piece 1 or 2 depending which one you fought against. Although Key Pieces do not technically belong to the Angel Room item pool, they do turn into Angel Room items when rerolled, which means by defeating the Angel you have doubled your chances of getting a good item!

If neither of the items are not what you’re looking for, you should head out to see if you can recharge The D6 by beating additional rooms. Or you can go to a Shop and see if it contains Little Battery. It is safe to exit the Angel Room if you need to since Goat Head forces the door to stay open until you proceed to the next floor.

In case the Angel Room contains Soul Hearts or Eternal Hearts instead of an item, you can still awaken the statue an reroll the Key Piece. At least it’s one item less in the item pool when you repeat this step on the next floor! And remember that you can awaken the Angel Statue on every floor and spawn a Key Piece, even in the Angel Room in Womb/Utero II that appears after beating Mom’s Heart/It Lives, which normally only contains a passage to Cathedral. Not true in Afterbirth/Afterbirth+.

Step 3.5 (optional): Spawn more items!

To maximise the benefit you will get from visiting Angel Rooms, you should keep your eyes open for items that will let you spawn more items. This way you’ll be much more likely to come across a good item since you’ll be rerolling more at once! These tricks should work in Devil and Secret Rooms as well, in case you ever want to try to get a specific item from those item pools.

Going into Angel Room with Judgement card in your pocket will make you much more likely to succeed in rerolling a great item such as Godhead or Sacred Heart. That’s because every item that are rerolled in Angel Room will be drawn from the Angel Room item pool, even if the Beggar spawns, to give you an example, Rotten Meat (Boss item pool) or The Compass (Shop item pool). If you reroll them with The D6, they will turn into Angel Room items.

So, with the random Angel Room item, Key Piece and an item spawned by the Beggar you now have tripled your chance of getting whatever powerful item you might be after with each reroll.

Of course, getting a Judgement card requires some luck, but it’s not something you absolutely need. To find Tarot cards, open any chests you find and blow up skulls in The Depths/Necropolis. You can also try feeding coins to Beggars, Slot Machines, or even get Deck of Cards (but keep in mind you need coins to throw at the Beggar you will spawn in the Angel Room) if you find one in a Treasure Room or a Shop. Just make sure you don’t forget to switch back to The D6.

I haven’t had a chance to try it personally but I don’t see why an item drop from Slot Machine or Blood Donation Machine wouldn’t work just as well. However, getting Blood/IV Bag or Dollar is anything but guaranteed so you might just be wasting your time, coins and health playing with those in the Angel Room. But if you think you have enough health or coins, by all means go for it!

If you happen to come across Pandora’s Box on certain floors, you can use it to spawn an additional item (or items) inside Angel Room. Pandora’s Box is uncloked by beating Dark Room with Lazarus, and it can be found in Curse Rooms and Shops, so you should try to enter those every once in a while. Since it takes up the activated item slot you can not bring it with you to the next floor unless you want to lose The D6 (that is, if you’re playing as Isaac), so if you find Pandora’s Box in a Shop on for example Basement I just skip it.

Since Pandora’s Box is an activated item you will need to head back to the Shop/Curse Room you left The D6 after you’ve spawned the items. I suggest fighting the Angel boss first because then you have less item pedestals to worry about during the fight. It would be a shame if you accidentally picked up an item you were supposed to reroll.

The floors on which you should keep your eyes open for Pandora’s Box are:

• Caves/Catacombs I – Spawns 1 Boss Room item
• Caves/Catacombs II – Spawns 1 Boss Room item and 2 Soul Hearts
• Womb/Utero I – Spawns 2 Boss Room items
• Womb/Utero II – Spawns The Bible

As you might already know, the only way to get Pandora’s Box in Womb/Utero is to find one in a Curse Room. That means picking one up and then coming back to retrieve The D6 would cost you a total of four full hearts (unless you’ve picked up The Wafer somewhere along the way). That’s not a problem if you can heal yourself back up easily but if you’re low on health, you might want to reconsider. It could pay off in Womb II, though, because then you could still get two items to reroll if you also awaken the Angel boss.

Step 4: Enjoy your run!

I think that’s about all you need to know to make this work. While this method does require some amount of luck, it is by far more reliable a way to get Angel Room items than just going forward completely unprepared.

For this last part I’ve included a screenshot of a run which ended up being a pretty successful Chest victory with such Angel Room items as Godhead, The Soul, The Body, Dead Dove and The Halo. Unfortunately I don’t remember what seed it was, but I had to do many rerolls to get those items, so playing that seed might not be worth your time anyway. Go and find your own!

Good luck, and have fun!

Useful items for non-Isaac runs

While in essence the only things you need are Goat Head and some way to reroll items with, there are other ways to exploit Angel Rooms in case you want to have a legitimate run without restarting twenty times in a row in order to get the right items. For this section I’ve made a list of useful items that you might want to pick up if you’re going for Angel Room run. For some of these items to be really useful or useful at all it reguires some serious RNG magic but I believe it’s good to be aware of all your options nevertheless.

Rerolls all items. Basically a one-time D6 that takes the card slot. Good if you don’t have The D6. If you want to reroll items in Angel Rooms and you don’t have The D6 you absolutely need to have this. Otherwise spawning items in Angel Room is wasted effort (and if you’re thinking about using Dice Room, you will be disappointed to hear that 4-pip Dice Room does not reroll items in Angel or Devil Room). If you’re super lucky and also come across Rune of Jera, you can duplicate your Perhro rune for an additional reroll. Rune of Perhro is unlocked by completing Solar System challenge, and Jera by completing challenge High Brow. You can find Runes by destroying Skulls.

I know I previously said these should be rerolled for better items but if you don’t have any way to reroll them, pick them up! They will increase the chance of Angel Room appearing instead of Devil Room which is a major advantage.

Good for non-Isaac runs. Not only does it give a temporary damage upgrade but holding it guarantees that Devil/Angel Room will open after killing a boss. Like with Goat Head, the door will stay open as long as you’re holding the item. Picking up The Book of Belial after killing the boss will not open Angel/Devil Room door on that floor. You will need the Rune of Perhro to be able to reroll the items though, because the door will close if you enter Boss room without The Book of Belial. That means you can’t force the door open with The Book of Belial and then go pick up The D6 from Treasure Room, for example. Still a good item. The Book of Belial was nerfed in AB. Instead of guaranteed Devil Deal, it increases the chance by 12.5%.

An useful damage upgrade, yes, but also increases the chance of finding Devil/Angel Room after killing a boss. Can be found in Curse Room and Devil Rooms and rewarded after a boss fight. Of course if you make a deal with the Devil you will lose your chances of finding Angel Rooms unless you can get it for free with Store Credit or Credit Card. And even though Pentagram does increase your chances for Devil/Angel Rooms, you should always prioritize Goat Head over it.

Using Suicide King kills the player character and spawns a large amount of items and collectibles. However, unless you want to end your run in a spectacular way, you MUST have extra lives. Dead Cat, 1up!, Lazarus’ Rags, Judas’ Shadow, Guppy’s Collar…whatever you might find. Guppy’s Collar is risky because you might not resurrect after all but you’re feeling lucky then why not. Just don’t blame me if that was game over. I haven’t had a chance to try it myself but according to Isaac Wiki the items spawned by Suicide King come from the item pool related to the room the card was used in, making it an excellent item to use in Angel Room. Unlocked by completing Suicide King challenge.

Teleports you to Devil Room or Angel Room. Good way to skip the boss fight if you’re eager to get your mittens on good items but maybe a bit redundant because the whole purpose of this guide was to force Angel Room on every floor anyway. And if you haven’t started getting Angel Rooms by the time you use this, it will take you to Devil Room instead. In any case, it’s a good pickup on any run in my opinion.

Wait…what? Yeah, no joking. It’s a good item and it allows you to reroll items when fully charged. You can find it in a Treasure Room. Because you know, you can still open Angel Rooms the regular way…not taking damage, remember? Unlocked by beating Isaac with Blue Baby.

Since I included The D6 here, might as well have Goat Head here as well. It’s an incerdibly useful item that you should always struggle to get no matter which character you’re playing as. For the purpose of this guide I instructed to look for it in Curse Rooms but it can also be found in Golden Chests.

Bit of an overkill if you ask me but if you have it unlocked and get a chance to pick it up…why not? It’s basically The D6, D20 and D4 combined – rerolls all the items and pickups in the room, and all passive items you have picked up. I’m personally a bit worried about the D4 effect because you might end up with a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ build that completely ruins your run but it might work the other way round as well…you might end up really strong. It’s here mainly because The D6 effect, just thought I should warn you guys to be careful with it. Unlocked by beating Boss Rush with The Lost.

While it is admittedly quite hard to control, it is an immensely useful item. You can use it to destroy rocks to access Chests that might contain Tarot Cards, break Skulls which might drop not only Tarot Cards but Runes as well, and most importantly: you can use it to awaken the Angel Statue. That’s right, no need for bombs! Unlocked by beating Boss Rush with Samson.

If you can’t get your hands on Rosary Bead, it might be a good idea to pick up this trinket instead. Ace of Spades increases the chance of finding Tarot Cards or Playing Cards when opening chests or clearing a room. That means higher chance of coming across Judgement card or any of the other cards listed in this section.