How to unlock more floors?

[Q alt]

I've beat the game twice on normal now, but I've been watching a lot of Northernlion as of late as he has two extra floors? One where he's in heaven I believe? And then there's another where he goes into a big chest and that's another floor? Do I need to beat the game on hard in order to access those floors?

[Chizzler]

After Killing Mom Once, you unlock "The Womb". Once you then beat Mom's Heart 10 times, you'll unlock access to the Cathedral and Sheol, as well as the Polaroid and Dark Photo Items (Which Mom will drop when defeated)
These grant access to the Chest and Dark Room repectively. There is no requirment to beat the game on hard mode to access these areas.

[Q alt]

Originally posted by Chizzler:

After Killing Mom Once, you unlock "The Womb". Once you then beat Mom's Heart 10 times, you'll unlock access to the Cathedral and Sheol, as well as the Polaroid and Dark Photo Items (Which Mom will drop when defeated)
These grant access to the Chest and Dark Room repectively. There is no requirment to beat the game on hard mode to access these areas.

Would you recommend I continue grinding out normal wins as it's probably the easiest way to unlock more of the game and I'm still new?

[april6e]

Originally posted by Otter:

Originally posted by Chizzler:

After Killing Mom Once, you unlock "The Womb". Once you then beat Mom's Heart 10 times, you'll unlock access to the Cathedral and Sheol, as well as the Polaroid and Dark Photo Items (Which Mom will drop when defeated)
These grant access to the Chest and Dark Room repectively. There is no requirment to beat the game on hard mode to access these areas.

Would you recommend I continue grinding out normal wins as it's probably the easiest way to unlock more of the game and I'm still new?

Yes, just play on the default difficulty as whoever you wish and have fun learning the game as you work towards unlocking more content.

If you want to get to the new content right away and don't care about the experience, Azazel is a very powerful character that will allow you to have the easiest time beating the base content (make three devil deals in one run to unlock him. You increase your chances of getting devil rooms by beating floors without taking red heart damage). Or you can constantly restart runs (by holding the R key) until you start with an item room next to you with a good item in it.

[Chizzler]

I'd have to agree with april6e. Hard mode does unlock some things you can't otherwise get, but with 1 exception, they're all co-op based (new familiars for your friend). I won't spoil what that 1 exception is for you, but I will say it's a challenge you'll not be ready to undertake for a while (and it requires access to both The Chest and Dark room to aquire anyway)

The system works well. You've got an acheivable victory goal in killing mom's heart and by the time you unlock the final chapters, you'll be less reliant on getting lucky with the items you find and will be ready for the challenges ahead.

By now you should have unlocked a couple more characters to play as. Like Isaac, they have item unlocks for reaching certain milestones with those characters, so you can be working on those at the same time as working through your remaining Mom's Heart Kills.

Overall, just keep playing the game in whatever way brings you the most enjoyment. You've got so much still to discover that you don't need to be so focused on reaching the ending.

[Mahasamatman]

Originally posted by april6e:

Originally posted by Otter:

Would you recommend I continue grinding out normal wins as it's probably the easiest way to unlock more of the game and I'm still new?

Yes, just play on the default difficulty as whoever you wish and have fun learning the game as you work towards unlocking more content.

If you want to get to the new content right away and don't care about the experience, Azazel is a very powerful character that will allow you to have the easiest time beating the base content (make three devil deals in one run to unlock him. You increase your chances of getting devil rooms by beating floors without taking red heart damage). Or you can constantly restart runs (by holding the R key) until you start with an item room next to you with a good item in it.

"Whoever you want"
Aka Isaac