??? (Floor)

This article is about the chapter. For other uses, see ??? (Disambiguation).

???, referred to as Blue Womb or Dead Womb in the OST, is a chapter added in The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth. It is unlocked by defeating Mom's Heart for the 10th time.

It is accessed by defeating Mom's Heart or It Lives within 30 minutes. Leaving and re-entering the Boss Room after the timer has reached 30 minutes will make the entrance to ??? disappear.
If the player is fast enough, both Boss Rush and ??? can be completed in a single run.

It contains the following:

Four Locked Chests in the main room.
- Unlike the ones in the Chest, these are just regular golden chests and don't guarantee an item drop.
Two locked Treasure Rooms, both of them offering two choices of items as if More Options was active.
A Shop that always contains 6 goods for sale, even if Shop Upgrade Lvl. 4 has not been unlocked.
A 2x2 boss room that contains Hush.
- The door leading to the boss room might blend in with the northern wall but will slide away upon approaching it.

It is advised to only enter ??? with very powerful items and/or a set of good dodging skills because Hush ranks amongst the most difficult bosses of the entire game.

After Hush is defeated, one of two things will happen:

If this is the first time Hush has been defeated, a giant golden chest will appear in the middle of the room. Jumping into it ends the run and gives ending 17.
If Hush has been defeated before, a trapdoor and a beam of light leading to Sheol or the Cathedral will appear.
- If Hush has been defeated before but Sheol and the Cathedral have not been unlocked, the giant golden chest will appear instead.
- Additionally, an exit will spawn in the corner of the room, containing a portal leading to The Void.

Boss

Hush

Notes

This floor cannot be skipped with We Need To Go Deeper! or Rune of Ehwaz; neither will work.
- The floor can be skipped if a Black Market or I AM ERROR room is found, or a trapdoor is created with D12. This will always take the player to Sheol.
- Genesis will skip the floor, and always take the player to Cathedral.
??? has its own Devil Room/Angel Room which can be reached via a Red Chest or a Joker.
??? doesn't have Secret Rooms, a Super Secret Room, or an Ultra Secret Room.
Using Mama Mega!, Mega Bean or holding Strange Key will open the entrance even if the time limit has expired.
- When Suplex! is used while a Berserk! effect is ending, Isaac lands with an explosion similar to Mama Mega!. This explosion can open the entrance after the time limit has expired.
Rocks contained in ??? have a significantly increased chance of spawning a Crawl Space when destroyed.
Red Key creates exclusive room layouts that contain the following enemies:

Entity	ID	Description
Blue Conjoined Fatty	257.1	Slowly walks towards Isaac and occasionally farts out a homing Ipecac shot at Isaac.
Hush Fly	296.0	Gathers with other Hush Flies to form certain patterns. If spawned by Hush, can chase Isaac or orbit Hush. Deals contact damage.
Blue Gaper	297.0	Walks towards Isaac, dealing contact damage.
Blue Boil	298.0	Stationary enemy that decreases in size when hit, but regenerates to its full size until fully destroyed. Fires 1-3 blood shots towards Isaac when fully swollen.

Despite red rooms being able to be created, no Ultra Secret Rooms appear, even when using XVIII - The Moon?.

Trivia

The displayed name of the chapter is ???, but the chapter is referred to as Blue Womb by the achievement, using the same logic as the character ???.
The character ??? and the chapter ??? have the same unlock requirements.
??? is unique as the only chapter that can be optionally done between mandatory chapters.
- It is mandatory, however, to complete this chapter to unlock The Void.
- It is also mandatory to complete three times to unlock Downpour, as well as the rest of the alternative chapters.
??? is the smallest chapter, only containing 6 normally accessible rooms.
- Home ties with ??? in terms of having 6 normally accessible rooms.
In Isaac's last will, ??? is referred to as "some barren place".
- This may be a reference to the fact that infertile women were historically referred to as "barren".
???'s icon on the progress bar is actually a recolor of the Womb's.
- Similarly, the trapdoor leading to ??? is a recolor of the trapdoor leading to the first and second floor of Chapter 4.
There is an unused version of ???, which uses the textures for the Basement and has the filter seen in The Ascent, with the song for The Void. The sound played after defeating Hush normally is replaced by a sound that plays after defeating an alt-path boss. It can be accessed by typing stage 9c in the Debug Console. The void portal in this version of ??? is replaced by a cobweb.

Gallery

Concept for ??? on the lower left side by Edmund McMillen.

Music

The stage's music is called Mater Prope or Nativitate.^[1]
- These names are in Latin and could be translated to "Almost Mother" and "With Birth" / "Due to Birth" / "At the Time of Birth" respectively.
- Nativitate has a combat layer which can only be heard in rooms with enemies. Since enemies do not spawn on ??? normally, the only way to hear the combat layer is to encounter enemies in I AM ERROR rooms, Crawl Spaces, rooms created by Blue Key, or Red Rooms. Spawning enemies via Reward Plates, however, will not change the music to the combat layer.
The tracks that play during the battle against Hush are called Ascension (the ??? boss fight music; played during Hush's first phase, which is similar to the ??? boss) and Morituros (during the second phase).

Trivia

The 30-minute limit of reaching Blue Womb could signify how long it took Isaac to suffocate, hence the floor's theming and Hush's presence.

Bugs

Bug!	Attempting to open the door leading to Hush's room while holding a Golden Key will cause Isaac to walk through the door without opening it, immediately beginning the Hush fight.