Challenge Rooms are special rooms that allow Isaac to fight enemies for extra rewards. They will only spawn on a floor if, upon entering the floor, Isaac's total health is greater than or equal to his number of heart containers. There are two kinds of challenge rooms: Normal Challenge Rooms, which appear on the first floor of a chapter or on XL floors, and Boss Challenge Rooms, which appear on the second floor of a chapter.
Normal Challenge Room
Normal Challenge Rooms can only be entered if Isaac's total health (Red, Black, and Soul Hearts) is greater than or equal to his number of heart containers. Picking up its contents will cause three waves of enemies to spawn. While in chapter 4 (Womb/Utero/Scarred Womb), 3 waves of bosses will be spawned, typically from Chapters 1 or 2.
Each wave cleared will charge Isaac's active item by 1.
Waves
The enemies that spawn depend on the current chapter, and each chapter has two different possible sets of enemies:
Floor | Wave 1 | Wave 2 | Wave 3 |
---|---|---|---|
Basement | 3 Hoppers | 3 Horfs | 2 Clotties |
5 Attack Flies | 5 Pooters | 4 Gapers | |
Cellar | 3 Fatties | 3 Round Worms | 5 Dips |
3 Gapers | 3 Horfs | 3 Fatties | |
Caves | 5 Chargers | 4 Globins | 4 Maws |
5 Spitties | 3 Hives | 3 Hosts | |
Catacombs | 2 Bonies | 2 Tumors | 3 Wall Creeps |
4 Round Worms | 3 Nightcrawlers | 1 Grub | |
Depths | 3 Vis | 4 Leapers | 4 Globins |
4 Babies | 5 Hoppers | 4 Knights | |
Necropolis | 4 Knights | 3 Mom's Hands | 3 Fat Sacks |
4 Bonies | 2 Squirts | 3 Nulls | |
Womb Utero |
3 Larry Jrs | Chub and 3 Chargers | 2 Monstros |
Fistula | Loki | Chub | |
Cathedral Sheol |
3 Larry Jrs | Chub and 3 Chargers | 2 Monstros |
Fistula | Loki | Chub |
Waves (Sorted By Difficulty; Basement, Cellar, and Burning Basement Unused)
Boss Challenge Room
Boss Challenge Rooms can only be entered if Isaac has one or fewer hearts of health. Picking up its contents will cause two waves of bosses to spawn. Starting on Chapter 4, they use the same waves of bosses as Normal Challenge Rooms.
Each wave cleared will charge Isaac's active item by 1.
The Boss Challenge Room door only counts Red Hearts in determining whether Isaac is allowed to enter. Soul Hearts are ignored.
Boss Challenge Rooms require one or fewer hearts total to enter, counting Soul Hearts. Boss Challenge Rooms will always contain an item from the Boss item pool.
The bosses that spawn depend on the current chapter. Alternate floors have two possible sets of bosses that could spawn:
Boss Waves
Floor | Wave 1 | Wave 2 |
---|---|---|
Basement | Monstro | Larry Jr. |
Cellar | Pin | Gurglings |
Dingle | Gemini | |
Caves | Chub | Peep |
Catacombs | Mega Fatty | Mega Maw |
Fistula | The Haunt | |
Depths | Loki | Monstro II |
Necropolis | Mega Maw | The Husk |
Dark One | Loki |
Boss Waves (Sorted By Difficulty)
Layouts
The following room maps were made using Basement Renovator for cleaner viewing; note that both normal and boss challenge rooms use the same layouts.
ID | Weight | Notes | Image preview |
---|---|---|---|
0-2 | 1.0 | This room appears three times in the room pool, making it three times more likely to appear than normal. | |
3-4 | 1.0 | This room appears twice in the room pool, making it twice as likely to appear than normal. | |
5 | 0.5 | The item will be from the Treasure Room pool. | |
6 | 1.0 | ||
7 | 0.75 | ||
8 | 0.5 | ||
9 | 0.5 | ||
10 | 0.5 | ||
11 | 1.0 | ||
12 | 1.0 |
Notes
- Temporary Tattoo will cause an additional chest to spawn after a normal Challenge Room is completed as well as cause an additional item from the Boss item pool to spawn after completing a Boss Challenge Room.
- The waves appear in random orders rather than the orders listed above.
- If Isaac has some way to teleport out of the room, the contents of the Challenge Room can be taken without fighting the enemies.
- If a trigger to start a challenge room is left in the room after teleporting out (such as a chest or active item) or an item is spawned in the room and collected (such as rewards from Beggars or Blood Donation Machines), the challenge room will start over when it is picked up/opened.
- If a Secret Room is next to a Challenge Room, it can be entered by using a bomb in the Secret Room on the wall separating the two rooms. However, the entrance to the Secret Room from the Challenge Room closes itself, meaning Isaac cannot escape through the Secret Room entrance.
- If Isaac bombs into either variation of Challenge Room through a Secret Room and leaves, the bombed entrance will close until and must be bombed open again.
- If Spiders spawn from a Red Chest before or during a wave, the Spiders have to be killed in order for the waves to start/continue.
- If Spiders spawn from a Red Chest after the challenge room is cleared, Isaac can leave the room without fighting them.
- Because of the health requirements, both types of Challenge Room will always be open for The Lost and ???.
- As Boss Challenge Rooms now take soul hearts into account, Soul Heart characters are now also forced to be at one heart before being allowed access.
- Doors to challenge rooms can be opened regardless of health with Dad's Key or Mr. ME!
Bugs
Bug! | If the game crashes or you close it before you finish the challenge room it will crash every time you try to continue that run. |
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Bug! | If Isaac encounters Greed or Super Greed in a Secret Room next to a boss challenge room, the path to the boss challenge room is boarded up from the mini-boss fight. Defeating Greed or Super Greed does not remove the boards, despite the room no longer being active. |
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Rooms | ||||||
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Unlocked | Boss Room |
Mini-Boss Room |
Curse Room |
Sacrifice Room |
Closet |
Grave Room |
Locked | Treasure Room |
Shop |
Library |
Planetarium |
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Slotted | Arcade |
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Barred | Challenge Room |
Boss Challenge Room |
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Double-locked | Vault |
Dice Room |
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Double-boarded | Clean/Dirty Bedroom |
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Hidden | Secret Room |
Super Secret Room |
Crawl Space |
Black Market |
I AM ERROR |
Ultra Secret Room |
Post-boss | Devil Room |
Angel Room |
Boss Rush |
Blue Womb Entrance |
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth |
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