Epic Fetus

**Epic Fetus** is an unlockable passive item.

## Effects

* Isaac's tears are replaced with guided missiles. Pressing the fire buttons spawns a crosshair that can be moved freely, summoning a missile to its position from above 1.5 seconds later.
	+ Missiles deal 20 times Isaac's damage.

## Notes

* Epic Fetus is a special item.
* Epic Fetus overrides most items in the game and has the highest priority of all tear modifiers, over  and .
* Isaac's tear delay determines how quickly a new (set of) missile(s) can be fired after the previous one has landed. Barring very high tear delay, this has little effect on damage rate due to the delay of the missiles themselves.
* Missiles benefit from some bomb modifier items, though at a lesser scale compared to .
* Stacking multiple copies of the item causes a barrage of missiles in quick succession without resetting the crosshair's position, up to sixteen at a time.
* Epic Fetus missiles usually deal a full heart of damage to Isaac.
	+ Self-damage is only half a heart if the missile would deal less than 85 damage. In practice this is not common, as even a small damage stat increase will cause the missiles to go over the critical damage level.

## Synergies

* / / //: Fires a barrage of missiles corresponding with the amount of tears.
* : Missiles explode in a large cross-shaped blast, with each explosion dealing 0.75x times damage. Unlike with regular bombs, getting hit by every separate explosion from Epic Fetus won't decrease the damage for each successive explosion, drastically increasing damage.
* : Every missile explosion leaves a large, lasting pool of red creep.
* /: Each missile has a 50% chance to deal 20 or 40 points more damage, respectively.
* Poison tears: This is guaranteed by , , and , and also has a chance to trigger from ,  or .
	+ Explosions leave behind a cloud of poison gas that will poison enemies in contact with it aside from the main target.
* : Missile explosions shoot ten blood lasers in all directions.
* : Missile explosions have a chance to shoot four Brimstone lasers in the cardinal directions. The chance scales with Isaac's luck.
* : Missile explosions will cloud up the screen, briefly confusing and dealing 10 damage to all enemies in the room.
* : More marks appear orbiting around where you're aiming.
* /: Missile explosions leave behind a fire that damage enemies on contact. Fire Mind's burn effect is overridden.
* The Forgotten: The charge attack is replaced by a missile in the Forgotten's hand and a crosshair that may be moved for an indefinite amount of time. The missile is thrown at the crosshair when all attack buttons are released, with an additional melee swing in the same direction. The melee attack is unaffected.
* : Missile explosions have a small chance of spawning pickups.
* Homing tears: The crosshair slowly slides towards enemies.
* /: Isaac becomes immune to his own airstrikes.
* : Incubus fires a missile alongside Isaac's.
* : Missiles have a poison effect, have a larger blast radius and deal drastically increased damage, as the +40 damage from Ipecac is run through the damage multiplier of Epic Fetus.
	+ Adds flat +2 damage instead of +40. Explosions leave behind a cloud of poison gas that will poison enemies in contact with it aside from the main target.
* /  Tainted Eve: The clots have their own targeting reticles and fire simultaneously with Isaac.
* : Missile explosions shoot a ring of ten knives.
	+ With a second  a second missile will be shot similar to .
* : 2 to 4 additional crosshairs orbit the main crosshair, and missiles are fired onto each crosshair.
* : No effect on Epic Fetus.
* : Every missile explosion leaves a small, lasting pool of creep.
* : Explosions have a chance to be affected by any of the bomb-modifier effects that synergize with Epic Fetus.
* : Increased tear delay, but massively increases the missiles' blast radius and damage, as Polyphemus' damage multiplier is run through the damage multiplier of Epic Fetus.
* : Missile explosions fire ten tears in all directions. The shrapnel's damage is not run through the damage multiplier of Epic Fetus.
	+ The chance for the effect to proc is dependent of Isaac's luck. Chance goes up to 100% at 30 luck.
* : Enemies, pickups and trinkets get drawn towards the crosshair.
* : Both fire normally and the missile explosions shoot ten Technology beams in all directions.
	+ Only Epic Fetus crosshairs are fired, but missile explosions still shoot ten Technology beams in all directions.
	+ : Not recommended. Technology beams explode and may end up catching you off guard.
* : Both fire normally.
	+ Does not reduce missiles' damage, and both fire normally at the cost of a slightly higher delay between each crosshair appearing.
* : Missile explosions shoot ten Technology beams in all directions.

## Interactions

Overridden by Epic Fetus:

* Azazel's default attack
* , Epic Fetus is the only item in the game that can override it
* Homing tears
* Tainted Azazel's default attack

Only stat effects are applied; otherwise overridden by Dr. Fetus:

* , **not recommended** as the damage down multiplier is still applied, massively reducing missile damage

Other interactions:

* : Missile explosions retain the knockback boost, so enemies that survive the blast will be knocked back far.
* /////: No effect.
* : Reduces Isaac's tear delay by 20%. Missiles can't be charged.
* : Stat effects apply and the crosshair gains a homing effect, but missiles do not have a damaging aura.
* : Incubus fires normal tears while the crosshair is being aimed.
* //: Fires only normal tears, not missiles.
* : Adds a chance to spawn four crosshairs in cardinal directions. Isaac controls one and the others will mirror the movement keeping their space.
* : Continuously fires missiles at the marked spot.
	+ If the crosshair is dismissed before the next missile is dropped, it still drops in the crosshair’s last position.
* : **Not recommended.** Damage of missiles is drastically reduced, and unlike normal tears, the fire rate will not significantly increase.
* : Overrides Epic Fetus making it the only item in the game that takes priority over Epic Fetus.
* : Makes two missiles drop in quick succession, and control of the crosshair is rotated 45 degrees clockwise. **Not recommended**, as it makes controlling the crosshair harder. However, mouse control is less affected.
* : Each familiar will fire a missile from a two additional crosshairs. **Not Recommended**, as the twisted pair crosshairs are not synced to Isaac's crosshair and move at a much slower rate, making self damage much more likely as the additional crosshairs will struggle to make distance from Isaac.

## Trivia

* In the original game it was possible to control the crosshair with the mouse. This was removed in Rebirth.
	+ Mouse control can however be re-enabled by editing the `options.ini` file in `C:\Users\<username>\Documents\My Games\Binding of Isaac Afterbirth/Rebirth` and changing the line `MouseControl=0` into `MouseControl=1`. Also useful for .
* The  and Epic Fetus items are based off of Dr. Fetus, the main villain in Super Meat Boy which is a game by Edmund McMillen (the creator of The *Binding of Isaac: Rebirth*).
* In Wrath of the Lamb, Epic Fetus could be found in both the Secret Room and Treasure Room item pools.
	+ Epic Fetus was added to the Secret Room item pool.
* This item is used in Glass Cannon (challenge #11).
* In *Wrath of the Lamb*, this item was originally unlocked by beating a challenge titled, "The Doctor's Revenge!".