Angel Rooms are an alternative to Devil Rooms in the Binding of Isaac. In the room, players can get a powerful item for free and even have a chance to battle the Angel inside for additional loot. However, Angel Rooms have more stringent requirements than Devil Rooms, and newer players are less likely to encounter them in the first few runs except by chance.
This article will shed some light on Angel Rooms and give you a better way to plan your Binding of Isaac: Rebirth runs.
Getting Angel Rooms in Binding of Isaac
There are two simple requirements before the Angel Rooms become available in a current run:
- The player encountered a Devil Room on the previous floor.
- The player has not made a Deal with the Devil.
The “Deal with the Devil” is any item purchased in the Devil Room(s) you visited during the run. There are some exceptions to this rule:
- You can use the Credit Card or a Coupon or get the item from Krampus.
- “Repentance” (DLC) items Book of Virtues and Act of Contrition allow you to make Deals with the Devil and encounter Angel Rooms, nullifying the second requirement.
- Getting a blessing from Confessionals (another feature in the “Repentance” DLC) allows you to encounter the Angel Room on the current floor.
- Performing a sacrifice in the Sacrifice Rooms in “Afterbirth+” DLC ignores the second condition for the current floor.
Angel Rooms effectively replace Devil Rooms and can only spawn in place of the Devil Room if the above conditions are met.
Whereas a player would encounter the Devil Room during the run, the game runs several random events to generate an Angel Room instead:
- By default, Angel Rooms have a 50% chance of replacing the Devil Room.
- Holding a Rosary Bead increases that chance by 50%.
- Donating ten coins to the Donation Machine raises the chance by another 50% on the Machine’s floor. You have to donate all the coins at once.
- Each of the two Key Pieces (items you get from defeating Angels in Angel Rooms) provides a 25% increase to spawn an Angel Room.
- Donating to a Beggar or donating or killing a Devil Beggar increases the chance by another 25% (you can only get one of these bonuses).
- In the “Afterbirth+” DLC, the Blessing fortune from Sacrifice Rooms increases the chance by 15, 30, or 65%, depending on the number of sacrifices.
- Holding Eucharist (a unique item) guarantees an Angel Room after the first Devil Room.
- Using a Confessional to get a blessing increases the bonus by 10%, which stacks with more Confessional blessings.
All bonuses towards encountering Angel Rooms are multiplicative.
In the background, the game rolls for each bonus you’ve accrued. It then generates an Angel Room if any of those succeed. The highest chance to get an Angel Room (provided you’ve fulfilled the two basic requirements and have all the bonuses) is roughly 95% or 98% with “Afterbirth+.”
Due to the cumulative nature of bonuses, Angel Rooms become more likely to appear after encountering your first one and defeating the Angel inside it.
If the room happens to have two Angel Statues, you’ll need to destroy one and defeat that Angel, then repeats the process with the second one to get both Key Pieces. Doing so can significantly improve your odds of subsequent Angel Rooms.
Angels or Devils, It’s up to You
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth gives players incredible freedom to carve their runs and hopefully get to the final boss. Devil Rooms are lucrative options since they have more item choices, but Angel Rooms provide free items and can be used to unlock Mega Satan.
