Planetarium

The Planetarium is an unlockable room type added in The Binding of Isaac: Repentance. Planetariums are similar to
Treasure Rooms, in that they both require keys to enter, but always contain special astronomy-themed items that are only available through Planetariums. Their chance for appearing increases with each Treasure Room skipped. They are unlocked by acquiring three different astrology-related items in a single run.
Generation Chance
Planetariums can only appear in chapters 1, 2, and 3 (Including their alternative floors).
Telescope Lens allows Planetariums to generate in
Womb and
Corpse.
- However, Planetariums can appear in the additional
Mausoleum II /
Gehenna II level that is accessed through
A Strange Door.
The base chance for a Planetarium to generate is 1%. This chance can be modified in various ways:
Condition | Chance |
---|---|
Descending a floor[1] | +20% |
Entering a ![]() |
-20% |
Having ![]() |
+24% |
Having ![]() |
+15% +100% if a ![]() |
Having ![]() |
+15% |
Having ![]() |
+6.9% |
Entering a Planetarium | Set to 1% chance and cannot be increased Set to 10% with ![]() |
In other words, every Treasure Room skipped will add 20% to the generation chance. However, if additional Treasure Rooms are entered, such as those created by
Forget Me Now or
Red Key, then the 20% penalty for entering a Treasure Room will be taken without receiving the 20% bonus for descending a floor.
- The combined percentage from descending floors and entering Treasure Rooms will never go below 0%.
- Entering Treasure Rooms in the Mirrored World of
Downpour II /
Dross II will not affect the generation chance.
Notes
- The
Crystal Ball and
Deck of Cards will not count towards the unlock if they are left behind after picking them up, they must be actively held. Holding both of them with
Schoolbag doesn't count either.
- If Isaac loses passive items (ie: using the
D4) they will not count towards the unlock. In other words, Isaac must have 3 items simultaneously.
- Planetarium items can be found before Planetariums have been unlocked in-game. To do so, use any method that ignores item pools (
Chaos,
Eden, etc.).
- If attempting to find a Planetarium to obtain one of its items, very careful consideration should be taken before picking up
Rosary, as this will add
The Bible to the Planetarium's item pool. Given the pool's small size, you will have a high chance to find it instead of a normal Planetarium item.
- A simple way to unlock Planetariums is to acquire a
D20 in Greed Mode and re-roll the coins to keep buying store items (this requires a battery to recharge the
D20). The item pool includes
Magic 8 Ball and all Treasure Room items (which include most of the pertinent items); therefore, it can easily be unlocked.
- Acquiring the astrology-related items from the
Bag of Crafting will not guarantee the Planetarium achievement.
- However, acquiring the regular Zodiac items via
Bag of Crafting will grant the achievement.
- However, acquiring the regular Zodiac items via
- If a Planetarium has been generated,
XVII - The Stars will prioritize teleporting Isaac into it over the Treasure Room.
- A rare Planetarium layout with two items exists. Only one can be taken.
- If a Planetarium appears on
Downpour II, even if the door has been unlocked, the planetarium in the Mirrored World will be locked and will contain nothing.
- Planetariums will not be available on challenges that prevent Treasure Rooms from spawning.
- During Pica Run (challenge #41), a Planetarium will contain only a trinket.
- If Isaac uses
Glowing Hourglass to exit a Planetarium upon first entering one, the Planetarium does not count as entered, and Planetarium chance is preserved for later floors, allowing Isaac to effectively reroll his Planetarium until a desired item is found.
- Doing a Victory Lap does not reset the entered Treasure Room count, making it very difficult to have a high chance for Planetarium generation.
- Using
R Key resets the entered Treasure Room count.
- If the Planetarium layout selected was a closet-sized room, and there are no valid locations for it to spawn, then the Planetarium will not generate.
Items
Name | ID | Icon | Quote | Description | Quality |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Jupiter | 5.100.594 | ![]() |
You're a gas giant! | +2 red Heart containers, -0.3 speed. Isaac builds speed while standing still, and releases poison gas clouds when he moves afterwards. | |
Luna | 5.100.589 | ![]() |
The moon's blessing shines upon you | Adds an extra ![]() ![]() ![]() |
|
Mars | 5.100.593 | ![]() |
Double tap dash | Dash by double-tapping the movement key, becoming invulnerable and damaging enemies. There's a short cooldown before Isaac can dash again. ![]() |
|
Mercurius | 5.100.590 | ![]() |
Speed up + you feel elusive | +0.4 speed. Doors stay open after entering a room, even in rooms with enemies. | |
Neptunus | 5.100.597 | ![]() |
Open the floodgates | Isaac's mouth fills with tears over time while not firing, up to a cap. Holding the fire button will release all stored tears in rapid succession. | |
Pluto | 5.100.598 | ![]() |
Size down | +0.7 tears. Significantly shrinks Isaac, allowing him to squeeze between objects and makes some enemy shots pass over him. | |
Saturnus | 5.100.595 | ![]() |
Ring of tears | Upon entering a room, a circle of tears orbits Isaac. Enemy tears have a chance to be caught in orbit, turning them friendly. | |
Sol | 5.100.588 | ![]() |
Radiant victory | Reveals the location of the ![]() ![]() |
|
Terra | 5.100.592 | ![]() |
Born to rock | +1 Damage. Replaces tears with rocks that deal variable damage, have increased knockback, and can destroy obstacles. | |
Uranus | 5.100.596 | ![]() |
Ice tears | Isaac shoots ice tears, which slow enemies and freeze monsters they kill. Frozen enemies slide away and explode into ice shards when touched. | |
Venus | 5.100.591 | ![]() |
HP up + you feel pretty | Adds one red Heart container. Heals 1 additional ![]() |
General Strategy
Overall, the Planetarium items are average to above-average. None of them are bad, but none of them are particularly gamebreaking either. So, given that skipping a treasure room doesn't guarantee a Planetarium showing up, it usually isn't worth skipping Treasure Rooms without a good reason to do so unless you're doing speedruns. In speedruns the global strategy is to skip everything to go to the last floor. So in that case, Terra and Mercurius are the best items and overall skipping Treasure rooms is always worth since we can have a build with only Devil or Angel deals.
Given the Ascent path takes Isaac back through previous floors, it is viable to skip item rooms on the way down to improve his chances of the Planetarium spawning and then getting the items from the rooms he skipped on the way back up. However, Planetariums can NOT generate during the Ascent, nor will skipped Planetariums "reappear".
Items such as Glowing Hourglass or
Dream Catcher can be used to check the contents of a Treasure Room without negatively affecting the chances for a Planetarium to spawn.
Statistics
Without Telescope Lens, Planetarium rooms can't be found in chapter 4 and after. Since the chance to find a Planetarium depends on the number of Treasure Rooms skipped, skipping earlier ones allows for a higher cumulative chance of encountering one.
The table below presents the chances if the first Treasure Rooms are skipped. For example, if the first two are passed on, there is an 84% chance to find a Planetarium between Basement I and
Depths I.
Treasure Rooms skipped | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Chapter 1-1 | 1.0% | x | x | x | x | x | x |
Chapter 1-2/1A-1 | 2.0% | 21.8% | x | x | x | x | x |
Chapter 2-1/1A-2 | 3.0% | 38.2% | 53.9% | x | x | x | x |
Chapter 2-2/2A-1 | 3.9% | 51.2% | 72.8% | 82.0% | x | x | x |
Chapter 3-1/2A-2 | 4.9% | 61.4% | 83.9% | 93.0% | 96.6% | x | x |
Chapter 3-2/3A-1 | 5.9% | 69.5% | 90.5% | 97.3% | 99.4% | 100% | x |
Chapter 3A-2 or 4-1 with ![]() |
6.8% | 75.9% | 94.4% | 98.9% | 99.9% | 100% | 100% |
Chapter 4-2 with ![]() |
7.7% | 81.0% | 96.7% | 99.6% | 99.98% | 100% | 100% |
Gallery
Trivia
- Planetariums were introduced in the Antibirth mod, which forms the basis for most of Repentance's content. Their unlock method and generation mechanics remain the same in both versions.
- Their item pool in Antibirth included the Signs of the Zodiac alongside the Planetarium-exclusive items. This is not the case in Repentance.
- The original effects of most of the Planetarium-exclusive items have been unchanged from Antibirth with the item pool now having the introduction of two new items,
Jupiter and
Neptunus, in Repentance.
References
- ↑ Leaving an XL floor will count as descending 2 floors.
![]() ![]() | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Unlocked | ![]() Boss Room |
![]() Mini-Boss Room |
![]() Curse Room |
![]() Sacrifice Room |
![]() ![]() Closet |
![]() ![]() Grave Room |
Locked | ![]() Treasure Room |
![]() Shop |
![]() Library |
![]() ![]() Planetarium |
||
Slotted | ![]() Arcade |
|||||
Barred | ![]() Challenge Room |
![]() Boss Challenge Room |
||||
Double-locked | ![]() Vault |
![]() Dice Room |
||||
Double-boarded | ![]() ![]() Clean/Dirty Bedroom |
|||||
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 |
![]() ![]() |
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