Download the latest version here.
This is a mod that stays very close to the original game while slightly tweaking it to be more fair for racing.
This has been used in several Balls of Steel weekly tournaments hosted by Diabetech.
- 1.12 - January 16th - Deleted a Basement/Cellar L-shaped Pooter room. Changed some Basement rooms to fix the Pooter soft-lock.
- 1.11 - January 15th - Deleted the Chest narrow double Headless Horseman room. Deleted the Chest narrow Mega Maw room. Deleted the Chest narrow Gurdy Jr. room. Deleted the Chest double Monstro rooms. Deleted the Chest quad Monstro room. Fixed the Cathedral narrow Floating Knight room. Fixed the Womb/Utero 2x2 room with Suckers in the corners. Moved some Adversaries to be closer to the middle of the room. Changed the Polaroid and Cathedral beam graphics to be more obnoxious on the Dark Room mode.
- 1.10 - January 11th, 2016 - Added RatRacing's start room graphic. Changed the text on the character select screen for Judas. Added graphics to help from players accidentally taking the Polaroid or going to the Cathedral on the Dark Room mode.
- 1.9 - January 11th, 2016 - Fixed the Gate boss room with no side entrances. Deleted the narrow Mega Maw room.
- 1.8 - January 10th, 2016 - Made the installation script better; just edit line 4 if you don't have Afterbirth installed in the normal location. Added a separate installation script for Mac/Linux. Deleted the double troll bomb room in the Basement/Cellar. Deleted the narrow Fallen rooms on The Chest / Dark Room. Deleted the Triple Adversary room in the Dark Room. Deleted the narrow Forsaken room on the Dark Room. Deleted the narrow Teratoma rooms on the Dark Room. Fixed a Kamikaze Leech room in the Dark Room. Fixed the High Priestess card room in the Dark Room.
- 1.7 - January 7th, 2016 - Added a helpful installer script and a shortcut to the Afterbirth resources directory. Added Uriel or Gabriel to every Angel Room on seeded mode. Deleted the double Forsaken room in the Chest. Changed the room in the Depths with the two Leapers and two Pokeys to be more reasonable. Fixed the bomb puzzle room in the Depths/Necropolis. Fixed the room in the Caves with the Hive that was spawning too close to the top entrance. Made a Hive room in the Caves symmetrical.
- 1.6 - January 6th, 2016 - Reverted the "room variety" change. Fixed the L-shaped room with the Pooters in the Basement/Cellar.
- 1.5 - January 6th, 2016 - Added a More Options mode. Reverted the "giantbook" animation removal (black heart, Betrayal, and so forth). Changed the Treasure Room with two pedestals and spikes. Reverted the changes to The Haunt room and Mega Fatty room with TNT barrels.
- 1.4 - January 5th, 2016 - Fixed a bug with certain rooms incorrectly being set to 1000 weight.
- 1.3 - January 5th, 2016 - Updated the mod for Afterbirth and added some other goodies. Also moved the documentation from the Medium blog to GitHub. This update took me around 30 hours of research, verification, implementation, and documentation.
- 1.2 - July 13th, 2105 - Added half a soul heart to Judas. Made modifications to some buggy rooms.
- 1.1 - July 1st, 2015 - The initial public release. The first weekly was played on this version.
Double click on the "RUN THIS TO INSTALL" script. It will take care of everything for you. (This script can also be used to uninstall the mod.)
Alternatively, you can manually install the mod by going into the subdirectory that corresponds with the ruleset that you want to play and then copying all of the files to:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\The Binding of Isaac Rebirth\resources\
To go back to an un-modded game, delete everything in the folder except for the "packed" directory.
Run the install_on_mac_or_linux.sh
script from this directory. It should automatically detect your system and your resources
folder location. The script will prompt for confirmation before deleting anything.
Alternatively, you can manually install the mod by going into the subdirectory that corresponds with the ruleset that you want to play and then copying all of the files to the resources
folder.
- The mod is meant to be played with Judas.
- The mod is meant to be played on normal mode.
- The mod is meant to be played with the BLCK CNDL seed ("total curse immunity").
- The mod is meant to be played on a "1001%" save file (which is a save file that has everything in the game unlocked). If don't already have one, you can download one from Speedrun.com.
- The mod is meant to be used to race to defeating Blue Baby at the end of the Chest.
- Judas has been tweaked:
- Judas starts with the D6. (All other characters also start with the D6, except for Eve, Eden, and Keeper, as it isn't possible.)
- Judas starts with half a soul heart in addition to his 1 red heart container (so that he can consistently take a devil deal).
- Judas starts with a bomb instead of 3 coins (so that he can get Treasure Room pedestal items surrounded by rocks).
- The Devil Rooms and Angel Rooms without item pedestals in them have been removed.
- Charge animations with transformations now work.
- All cutscenes have been removed.
- Some useless animations have been removed:
- the fetal position animation at the beginning of every floor
- the jumping in the hole to the next floor animation
- the beam of light animation when going to the Cathedral
- the chest entering animation when going to The Chest or beating the game
- Boss death animations that are longer than 1 frame are set to 1 frame (except for Krampus, Uriel, and Gabriel).
- Many rooms with unavoidable damage or bugs have been fixed.
- All characters start with More Options in addition to their other items.
- All characters start with The Compass in addition to their other items.
- Angel statues are replaced with either Uriel or Gabriel. Key Piece 1 has been placed in each Angel Room.
- Pandora's Box is removed from all item pools.
- 4 golden chests will now spawn at the beginning of the Dark Room (instead of red chests).
- We Need To Go Deeper! is removed from all item pools.
- A huge thanks to Chronometrics for making and continuing to support Basement Renovator.
- Thanks to all of the racers who have given me feedback, including Hyphen-ated, Cyber_1, Ou_J, HauntedQuest, and Dea1h.
The changes in this mod are not set in stone. You can discuss the mod with me by contacting me on Twitch or in the #isaac SpeedRunsLive IRC channel.
The technical details of the mod are listed here for those who truly care to know all of the specifics.
- No-item Devil Rooms have been changed to have 1 item. This affects balance in a non-trivial way. Without getting into too much detail, the pros outweigh the cons; a no-item devil deal is disproportionately punishing to a player who has played flawlessly for the entire floor. Furthermore, the overall power increase of a Devil Room becomes more consistent.
- Devil Rooms have been slightly tweaked to have exits on all sides. Otherwise, expected item pedestal amount would change depending on the entrance location.
The changed rooms are as follows:
- #5 (red chest chests)
- #11 (2 items and 2 Nulls)
- #13 (1 item and Mom's Hand)
- #14 (2 black hearts and 1 Imp)
- #15 (1 item, narrow)
Angel Rooms are buffed in a similar manner that Devil Rooms are (for the same reasons). This also has the added benefit of bringing Angel Rooms closer in power to Devil Rooms, making them a viable alternative.
The deleted rooms are as follows:
- #7 (1 eternal heart and 4 soul hearts)
- #4 (2 eternal hearts)
- #3 (3 soul hearts)
When holding down the tear fire button and entering a room with a Dople or Evil Twin, the player is hit with an unavoidable tear. This bug is fixed by changing all the spawn points of the enemies to be near the corner of the room. Once the room is loaded, the enemy will snap back to where they are supposed to be, but the initial buggy tear will not be in line with the player.
The changed rooms are as follows:
- Womb: #56-#62, #114-#118, #259-#261, #289, #301, #598, #605, #624, #646, #661
- Utero: #56-#62, #114-#117, #259-#261, #289, #301, #598, #605, #624, #646, #661
- Sheol: #19-#24, #42, #56-#57, #61, #166, #181, #188, #196
- Dark Room: #272
Some rooms have Monstros, Gurdy Jr.'s, or Cages that spawn near an entrance. If the double champion version spawns, the player will be touched while the room is loading and automatically take damage. This bug is fixed by moving the enemies closer to the center of the room.
The changed rooms are as follows:
- Sheol: #212 (Cage)
- Chest: #43, #69 (Monstro)
- Chest: #14, #56 (Gurdy Jr.)
- Chest: #34 (Cage)
- The Dark Room: #14, #34 (Cage / Monstro)
If one Forsaken does a Brimstone attack in a clockwise direction and the other Forsaken does a Brimstone attack in a counter-clockwise direction, it is impossible to dodge.
The deleted room is as follows:
- Chest: #296
Some rooms have exploding enemies that spawn near an entrance. If the player has a sufficient number of unused blue flies, the flies will kill the enemy while the room is loading and the player will automatically take damage. This bug is fixed by moving the enemy closer to the center of the room.
The changed rooms are as follows:
- Basement: #129, #130, #359 (Mulligan)
- Cellar: #129, #130 (Mulligoon)
- Cellar: #359 (Mulligan)
- Caves: #46, #50, #440, #518 (Boom Fly)
- Caves: #141 (Clotty)
- Caves: #553 (Hive)
- Caves: #548 (Drowned Hive)
- Catacombs: #46, #440, #518 (Boom Fly)
- Catacombs: #548 (Drowned Hive)
- Depths: #11 (Boom Fly)
- Womb: #333 (Fistula)
- Womb: #410 (Sucker)
- Utero #333 (Fistula)
- Utero #410 (Sucker)
- Cathedral: #30 (Kamikaze Leech)
- Cathedral: #272 (Floating Knight)
- Sheol: #30 (Kamikaze Leech)
- Chest: #53, #72, #84 (Fistula)
- Dark Room: #238, #272 (Kamikaze Leech)
One Treasure Room has TNT barrels that spawn near the entrance. Upon loading the room, there is a small chance that they will explode. If this occurs, the player will take unavoidable damage. Additionally, a basement/cellar room has TNT barrels that will immediately explode if the player is holding Mom's Knife. These rooms have been fixed by replacing or removing the barrels in question.
The changed room is as follows:
- Treasure Room: #13
- Basement: #748
- Cellar: #748
Certain enemies spawn near a door. If they spawn as the white fly champion version, the player will be touched while the room is loading and automatically take damage. This bug is fixed by moving them closer to the center of the room.
The changed rooms are as follows:
- Cellar: #236 (Sack)
- Womb: #182, #471, #508, #733 (Gurglings)
- Utero: #182, #471, #733 (Gurglings)
- Chest: #35, #87, #301 (Gurglings)
If a player enters from the bottom door of the 2x1 Depths / Necropolis room with the single Begotten, they will automatically take damage. It seems clear that Edmund intended for there to only be a top door in room, so the room has been changed in that manner to fix this bug.
The changed rooms is as follows:
- Depths: #316
- Necropolis - #316
- If a player with flying and base movement speed gets close to 4 Gaping Maws paired together, it becomes impossible to escape. This was fixed in Womb #424 by adding two Broken Gaping Maws, but the developers forgot to also make the change to Utero #424. I've fixed it for them.
- In both of these rooms, there is no consistent strategy to avoid damage when entering from the bottom-left-hand door. Two pots have been placed to alleviate this.
The changed rooms are as follows:
- Womb: #424
- Utero: #424
While not technically unavoidable, the random nature of the boss movement combined with off-screen Brimstone attacks makes for a very unfair room.
The deleted room is as follows:
- Dark Room: #78
If two Adversaries get close to a wall, the Brimstone attack can be unavoidable. This is mitigated by moving the Adversaries closer to the middle of the room.
The changed rooms are as follows:
- Chest: #41
- Dark Room: #7, #50
While not technically unavoidable, many narrow rooms have near-impossible attack patterns, especially on Dr. Fetus builds.
The deleted rooms are as follows:
- Angel Room: #9
- Boss: #2305 (Krampus)
- Boss: #2306 (Krampus)
- Boss: #4036 (War)
- Boss: #5035 (Mega Maw)
- Boss: #5043 (The Gate)
- Cathedral: #286 (Uriel)
- Cathedral: #291 (Gabriel)
- Chest: #258 (The Haunt)
- Chest: #262 (Headless Horseman Head x2)
- Chest: #269 (Mega Maw)
- Chest: #264, #273 (Monstro x2)
- Chest: #275 (The Fallen)
- Chest: #283 (Gurdy Jr.)
- Chest: #309 (Monstro x4)
- Dark Room: #255, #274 (Teratoma)
- Dark Room: #256, #275 (The Fallen)
- Dark Room: #263 (The Forsaken)
While not technically unavoidable, the TNT barrels make the fight very RNG-based. They have been removed to make the room more fair.
The changed room is as follows:
- #2065
It is not possible for Devil Room doors to spawn on boss rooms that only have one entrance. For this reason, several rooms were adjusted to allow for at least two entrances.
The changed rooms are as follows:
- #2065 (Fistula)
- #5026 (Dingle)
- #5145 (Gurglings)
- #5035 (Mega Maw)
- #5044 (The Gate)
When entering from the top or bottom door of the boss room with the already-split Blastocyst, the player is not given enough time to reasonably dodge the first attack. Two rocks are placed to alleviate this.
The changed room is as follows:
- #2042
When entering from the top or bottom door of the Monstro II boss room with the four Suckers, the player is not given enough time to reasonably dodge the Sucker tear. The Suckers are slightly moved to alleviate this.
The changed room is as follows:
- #1067
In some rooms, Carrion Queen spawns very close to an entrance. This is fixed by moving her slightly closer to the center of the room.
The changed rooms are as follows:
- #3270
- #3272
- #3273
On Pin, Frail, and Scolex fights, there is an invisible hitbox during the beginning of the fight. On some rooms, this is near the entrance. This is fixed by moving the spawn to the center of the room.
The changed rooms are as follows:
- #3370 (Pin)
- #3371 (Pin)
- #3372 (Pin)
- #3374 (Pin)
- #3376 (Pin)
- #3388 (Frail)
- #1070 (Scolex)
- #1071 (Scolex)
- #1073 (Scolex)
- #1074 (Scolex)
If the player is out of bombs and a Devil Room spawns on the top of the Loki or Loki II room filled with rocks, they will not be able to access it. If the Devil Room spawns on the bottom, the player will be forced to take the boss item in order to see the deal. This is also the case for the Death room filled with pits. This bug is fixed by moving/deleting the rocks/pits respectively.
The changed rooms are as follows:
- #2031 (Loki)
- #3311 (Lokii)
- #4041 (Death)
In the Gurdy room filled with pits, the player is forced to take the boss item in order to exit the floor. This bug is fixed by deleting some pits to allow for more maneuverability.
The changed rooms are as follows:
- #1066 (Gurdy)
The rooms with a bugged Magician / High Priestess card are fixed to be a random card.
The changed rooms are as follows:
- Depths: #286
- Necropolis: #286
- Womb: #687
- Utero: #687
- Dark Room: #291
The narrow red poop room in The Chest unavoidable damage on Dr. Fetus builds. This bug has been fixed by deleting some of the poops to allow for a walkable path.
The changed room is as follows:
- The Chest: #289
One room in the Womb / Utero has two Rage Creeps and four Round Worms in the center. In Afterbirth, the top Rage Creep will hit the player if they stay at the top door. However, this is not unavoidable damage, as it is possible to kill the top Rage Creep before it fires. Alternatively, it is possible to run to the bottom wall before either Rage Creep begins firing. However, the pot in the center of the room messes with the AI of the Round Worms, so the pot has been removed to make traversing this room slightly more consistent.
The changed rooms are as follows:
- Womb: #202
- Utero: #202
For certain rooms with troll bombs, there is no consistent strategy to navigate this room without taking damage.
The removed rooms are as follows:
- Basement: #752, #767
- Cellar: #752, #767
- Depths: #699
- Necropolis: #699
In the 2x2 Depths / Necropolis room with Black Bony x8 and pots, the enemies have been spaced out so that they do not automatically become stuck.
The changed rooms are as follows:
- Depths: #731
- Necropolis: #731
On the room filled with pits in the Caves, at base damage, Maggots are unavoidable if they decide to path towards you. Furthermore, a Dr. Fetus build has no options with which to dodge the first bomb. This is fixed by moving the Maggots slightly towards the center of the room.
The changed room is as follows:
- Caves: #6
On the room with the two Leapers and two Pokeys, certain attack patterns can lead to unavoidable damage. The room has been made slightly more spacious to account for this.
The changed room is as follows:
- Depths: #110
On certain rooms in the Basement/Cellar, some Pooters get stuck in rock, causing a soft lock.
The deleted room is as follows:
- Basement: #811
- Cellar: #811
The changed room is as follows:
- Basement: #135, #391, #534, #747
On the room with the bomb drops at each of the four entrances, the random bomb drops were replaced with a set bomb drop to prevent troll bombs from spawning. Also, several key rocks were changed to pots to prevent them from spawning as spikes in the Dank Depths. Finally, a rock was also removed to prevent a sock-lock if the player enters from the left side.
The changed room is as follows:
- Depths: #41
- Necropolis: #41
The Treasure Room with two pedestals and spikes has been slightly tweaked so that Judas can use a bomb to get the item without spending a soul heart.
The changed room is as follows:
- Treasure Room: #21
Several rooms in the game are completely empty of any objects at all.
The removed rooms are as follows:
- Basement: #39, #315
- Cellar: #39
- Caves: #170
- Depths: #378, #428
- Sheol: #89
- Cathedral: #57, #89
- Chest: #42
-
Rooms with entities out of bounds have been placed in bounds. This doesn't affect gameplay in any way.
-
Caves: #203, #363, #406, #427, #429
-
Catacombs: #363, #406, #427, #429
-
Depths: #430, #455, #463
-
Necropolis: #430, #455
- Caves: #120 - The room was made symmetrical.
- Caves: #416 - The room was made symmetrical.
- Basement #274 - There is a TNT barrel to the left/right of the top/bottom entrances. However, on a knife build, if you are playing correctly, you should be pointing it towards the center of the room upon entering.
- Cellar #766 - This is a room with 3 mega troll bombs, but if you stand completely still, they will not damage you.
- Womb/Utero #147 - This is a room with 3 Nerve Endings next to the entrance. If you have Ipecac, it is possible to use a tear on the wall to safely kill a Nerve Ending. Alternatively, you can safely use a bomb.
- Dark Room #287 - This is a room with 3 mega troll bombs and an Imp. If you stand completely still, the troll bombs will not damage you.
- Chest #39 - This is a room with 2 Mega Maws. Even with the champion version, there is enough time to react to the patterns.
- Mama Gurdy - In Afterbirth, you have more time to dodge the spikes before the hitbox appears.
- Daddy Long Legs - In Afterbirth, the multiple stomp attack no longer damages you before the animation begins.