Ascent

The Ascent is a special sequence begun by obtaining from the special versions of  II/ II. These floors can be accessed by opening the special door in the starting room of II or its variants. This door appears once the player has defeated Mother at least once. It involves going back up through abbreviated versions of every floor previously seen through beams of light. Much like the challenge, Isaac begins in the boss room of each floor and must find the beam of light, located in the corresponding starting room.

These abbreviated versions contain the same Treasure Rooms and Boss Rooms as they did previously, in almost the same condition.


 * Any Trinkets left behind in these rooms, however, will each be transformed into a.

All the other special rooms do not spawn.


 * Isaac still has a chance to find some red special rooms, except the Ultra Secret Rooms.

Monsters not normally found on the current floor will appear, as well as unique room layouts and new monsters not found anywhere else in the game.

Once you leave II, Isaac will begin taking double damage, as would otherwise occur on entering any variant of  or.

Entering I's light beam will take Isaac to.

Unique Monsters
This table lists all of the unique monsters that only spawn during the ascent. These enemies are based on normal enemies from the individual pre ascent chapters they are seen in, but have a twist to make them bigger and stronger, to challenge players with better stats.

Regular Monsters
When the game makes a small mock floor to take the place of each original floor/chapter you Descended through before the ascent, it populates each new floor mostly with its pre-ascent biome/chapter specific enemies.(ex: boom flies in caves, gurgles in depths) However, the Ascent enemy pools are altered to allow enemies from later floors (Shadies outside of Sheol, Peeping Fatties and Para-Bites outside of the Womb, Cohorts outside of the Corpse)

These are the tables of enemies the game spawns to populate its specific Re-ascent mock chapters.

Dialogue
At various points during the Ascent, arguments between Isaac's parents can be heard, shedding some light on the fractured state of Isaac's family.

Trivia

 * Great Gideon can be seen during the Ascent. However, since he was already defeated on the way down, he will be deactivated.
 * Even if he was encountered in the during the normal descent, he will still appear in the  during the Ascent.
 * What sounds like a reversed version of Genesis Retake Light can be heard playing during the Ascent, and as the ascent progresses, more instruments are added to it based on the floors the player ascends through.
 * adds a crunchy, electric bass line.
 * adds occasional guitar riffs and a unique composition.
 * adds a drum line and metal clanking sounds.
 * adds a standard bass line.
 * adds a fuller guitar line with an echo effect.
 * adds a full percussion line with a standard drum set.