Solar System

From The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Solar System is challenge #6. Character Isaac icon.pngIsaac starts with Collectible Distant Admiration icon.pngDistant Admiration, Collectible Forever alone icon.pngForever alone, Collectible Halo of Flies icon.pngHalo of Flies, and Collectible Transcendence icon.pngTranscendence. Isaac will also be blindfolded. The goal is to defeat Boss Mom's Heart ingame.pngMom's Heart or Boss It Lives ingame.pngIt Lives. This challenge is available after unlocking Transcendence.

Difficulty

  • As Isaac is blindfolded, Isaac cannot use tears, and must rely entirely on Distant Admiration, Forever Alone, and bombs to deal damage.

Strategy

  • Because Isaac starts with 3 Fly items, he will also begin the challenge as BeelzebubBeelzebub. This allows Isaac to amass a large number of friendly flies on the Basement floors.
  • The orbiting attack flies can be quite powerful, especially Distant Admiration when used properly. This will require optimization of Isaac's movement to maneuver into position to deal damage, as the flies are constantly moving, and avoid damage simultaneously.
    • (in Afterbirth † and Repentance)Duct TapeDuct Tape can fix the position of the flies around Isaac, somewhat alleviating this.
  • Enemies that explode on death should only be targeted with Forever Alone, as destroying them with Distant Admiration will result in Isaac getting caught in their explosions.
  • Collectible Guppy's Head icon.pngGuppy's Head provides consistent per-room damage output that scales with your damage stat, and can appear in Curse Rooms.
  • Shops can carry Collectible BFFS! icon.pngBFFS! and Collectible Hive Mind icon.pngHive Mind, the former of which affects the damage of the orbiting attack flies and the latter of which affects the damage of the blue flies spawned from Beelzebub as well as the size of the orbiting attack flies.
  • Collectible Broken Watch icon.pngBroken Watch and Collectible Stop Watch icon.pngStop Watch are good items to buy since they slow enemies down, although caution should be exercised with Broken Watch.
    • Collectible Broken Watch icon.pngBroken Watch's speeding up effect can be cancelled by exiting the run and continuing.
  • Obtaining Collectible Gnawed Leaf icon.pngGnawed Leaf makes the challenge trivial as Isaac's orbiting flies still deal damage while Isaac is invulnerable. Obtaining it is highly unlikely, since there are no Treasure RoomTreasure Rooms present.
  • Obtaining Collectible Ball of Bandages icon.pngBall of Bandages or Collectible Cube of Meat icon.pngCube of Meat grants a full circle of projectile-blocking orbitals around Isaac.
    • Collecting two Cubes of Meat grants a tear-firing familiar that is not affected by the blindfold.
    • Obtaining Collectible Book of Revelations icon.pngBook of Revelations makes The Harbingers easier to find, allowing Cube of Meat and Ball of Bandages to be amassed more easily.
  • (in Rebirth) It is not advised to reshuffle Isaac's items. As this will not remove Isaac's Blindfolded status, it is possible to reroll items in such a way that Isaac's orbitals are rerolled into useless items, thus making the run impossible to complete.
  • Obtaining the Rune of AlgizRune of Algiz, Chaos CardChaos Card, A Card Against HumanityA Card Against Humanity, or Collectible The Bible icon.pngThe Bible can make killing Boss Mom ingame.pngMom and Boss Mom's Heart ingame.pngMom's Heart/ Boss It Lives ingame.pngIt Lives much easier.
  • Devil RoomDevil Room deals such as Collectible Brimstone icon.pngBrimstone, (except in Rebirth)Collectible Maw Of The Void icon.pngMaw Of The Void, and Collectible Mom's Knife icon.pngMom's Knife will be ineffective due to Isaac's blindfold.
    • (in Repentance)Collectible Maw Of The Void icon.pngMaw Of The Void now functions despite the Blindfolded status, making this a very valuable item for the challenge.
  • (in Rebirth)Collectible The Boomerang icon.pngThe Boomerang is a useful purchase from the shop as it has a chance to freeze enemies, allowing Isaac to safely use the attack flies against them for the duration of the freeze.
  • Transcendence and other flight items are useless in this challenge as the BeelzebubBeelzebub transformation grants flight by default.
  • Obtaining Collectible Bob's Brain icon.pngBob's Brain can be handy for defeating bosses, due to its damage and poison effect. It can also be used to break poop or golden poop to gain health, coins, or bombs.
  • (in Afterbirth † and Repentance)Extension CordExtension Cord electrifies the orbiting flies, dealing extra damage and allowing Isaac to destroy Fire Place.pngFire Places and Poop.pngPoops.
  • (except in Rebirth)Collectible Black Powder icon.pngBlack Powder helps damage non-flying enemies and bosses.
    • (in Repentance) Black Powder is now effective on all enemies and bosses, making it a reliable source of damage without the precision required to deal damage using Isaac's orbiting flies, provided there is room to draw closed shapes.
  • (except in Rebirth)Collectible Incubus icon.pngIncubus acts as a replacement for Isaac's tears, thus indirectly removing Isaac's Blindfolded status.
  • (in Repentance)Collectible Revelation icon.pngRevelation can charge and fire regardless of the Blindfolded status, providing Isaac with an easy way to deal damage.
  • (in Afterbirth † and Repentance)Collectible Pause icon.pngPause can be used to great effect as it can stop (except in Repentance) permanently / (in Repentance) for 30 seconds the movement of all enemies in every other room. Pairing this with items that help with recharging activated items, mainly Collectible 9 Volt icon.png9 Volt, can guarantee victory.
  • It is heavily advised not to use (in Afterbirth † and Repentance)Collectible Sacrificial Altar icon.pngSacrificial Altar, as it removes both of Isaac's damaging orbital familiars. If no alternative source of damage has been obtained by then, or rewarded by Sacrificial Altar itself, the run will be rendered impossible.
  • (in Repentance)Collectible Abyss icon.pngAbyss can be used on items, that solely gives stats like tears, range or shot speed, which have no use for this challenge, to create a locust familiar, that attacks normally.

Unlockable achievements

Trivia

  • The challenge is a reference to the real-world Solar System; Isaac represents the Sun and his flies represent planets.