Familiar

**Familiars** are small companions, usually generated by passive items, that follow and assist Isaac. Effects of familiars include (but are not limited to) pickup generation, shooting familiars that fire their own tears at enemies, and *orbitals* that act as projectile shields and/or deal contact damage.

Many of these familiars (especially pickup generation and shooting familiars) follow behind Isaac. When Isaac picks up multiple of these following familiars, they form a line behind him from oldest to newest (with closest familiar behind Isaac being the oldest one picked up) rather than constantly overlapping one another on the same spot behind Isaac.

* In addition to being chronologically ordered, certain familiars on the line take priority over others in how close their position is to Isaac. There are 6 priorities:
	+ The 1st priority is taken by , making it always the closest familiar to Isaac.
	+ The 2nd priority is taken by .
	+ The 3rd priority is taken by  and .
	+ The 4th priority is taken by , , , and .
	+ The 5th priority is taken by most shooting familiars and some throwable familiars.
	+ The 6th priority is taken by most pickup generation familiars and "`quest item`" familiars such as .  also takes this priority.

Isaac cannot have more than 64 total familiars at once. This includes blue spiders and flies, familiar items such as ,  Tainted Eve's blood clots, etc. Gaining more than this will result in familiars being destroyed, with blue spiders and flies being destroyed first.

## Temporary Familiars

### Blue Flies

**Blue Flies** are familiars that will orbit around Isaac and rush towards nearby enemies, dealing damage and dying in the process. Blue Flies deal double Isaac's current tear damage.

 Lil Larva | 5.350.86
 Fish Tail | 5.350.94
 Rotten Penny | 5.350.126

 Black Rune | 5.300.41

**Other sources of Blue Flies**

* Red Chest: Has a chance to spawn 3 Blue Flies.
* Dark blue champion: Will create 3 Blue Flies when defeated.
* : Isaac will create Blue Flies whenever his tears or his familiars' tears hit enemies.
* : Isaac's tears have a 50% chance to create Blue Flies whenever they hit enemies.
* : All enemy flies become Blue Flies.
* Friends Till The End! pill: Spawns three Blue Flies.
* As  Keeper or  Tainted Keeper, all heart pickups turn into Blue Flies.
* Rotten Heart: After clearing a room, a maximum of two Blue Flies spawn for each Rotten Heart in Isaac's life bar.
* Corny Poops created by  Tainted ??? or  spawn a blue fly every two seconds, up to a maximum of 3.

### Locusts

Locusts are variants of Blue Flies that are spawned by Locust trinkets and . They behave like regular Blue Flies but have additional special effects. Red Locusts explode on contact with an enemy, dealing an extra 60 damage in the radius (explosions are affected by certain bomb modifiers). Green Locusts poison the enemy. Yellow Locusts slow the enemy. Black Locusts deal quadruple Isaac's damage instead of double. White Locusts are identical to Blue Flies, but are generally spawned in high quantities.

### Blue Spiders

**Blue Spiders** are familiars similar to Blue Flies that crawl erratically and rush towards nearby enemies, dealing damage and dying in the process.

 Blue Spiders deal 2.5 times Isaac's current tear damage.
 Blue Spiders deal twice Isaac's current tear damage.

Unlike Blue Flies, Blue Spiders cannot attack over obstacles such as rocks and pits.

 Compost | 5.100.480
 Everything Jar | 5.100.720

 Apple of Sodom | 5.350.140

 Black Rune | 5.300.41

**Other sources of Blue Spiders**

* Infested? pill: Spawns Blue Spiders equal to the number of enemies in the room.
* Infested! pill: Spawns a Blue Spider under Isaac and every pile of poop in the room.

### Dips

Dips are temporary familiars that are spawned when destroying poops. They move erratically around the room and behave similarly to their hostile counterpart dealing contact damage to enemies and blocking projectiles. There are a variety of Dips with unique effects that correlate to different types of Poops.

**Other sources of Dips**

* Destroying a Charming Poop spawns a few Dip Familiars.

### Wisps

Wisps are temporary orbital familiars that are mostly associated with  Bethany. By default, they orbit Isaac, blocking shots and dealing contact damage. They also fire spectral tears that deal 1.6-2.4 damage. Normal wisps have 2 health. There are many variants of wisps, which can be spawned randomly or through combinations with . See the Book of Virtues#Combinations for a full list of wisps.

 Jar of Wisps | 5.100.685

 Beth's Faith | 5.350.142

### Ghosts

Ghosts are temporary familiars that are summoned by various items. Most ghosts (except those created by ) will automatically attack enemies after being summoned, quickly homing in on nearby enemies. All ghosts attack enemies by exploding, though some also deal contact damage shortly before doing so. Explosions from ghosts do not damage terrain or hurt Isaac. Unlike other temporary familiars, ghosts do not persist across rooms.

 Hungry Soul | 5.100.684
 Purgatory | 5.100.634

## Chasing Familiars

Familiars in this category actively chase enemies, dealing contact damage to them.

 Umbilical Cord | 5.350.33

**Note:** Only third and fourth stage  and  chase enemies.

**Note:**  Only fourth stage  chases enemies.

**Note:**  Only War and Death in  chase enemies.

## Orbital Familiars

Familiars that orbit Isaac, absorbing enemy projectiles and dealing contact damage. Despite their different apparent sizes, most of them have the same effective size with regard of blocking shots or damaging enemies.

 Lemegeton | 5.100.712
 Spin to Win | 5.100.655

Pills / Slot Machine

Notes
* A maximum of three **Pretty Flies** can orbit around Isaac.
	+ It is possible to have more than three orbitals if one has access to co-op mode. If a co-op baby or multiple co-op babies temporarily hold all but two orbitals while Isaac picks up another, and then the co-op baby or co-op babies sign out or die, Isaac will receive their orbitals as well.
* , , and  take up a Pretty Fly slot.
	+ For example, If Isaac has three Pretty Flies and picks up a , the Cube of Meat will replace one of the flies.
	+ Only first and second stage  and  are orbitals. Therefore, upgrading from level 2 to level 3 will free up a Pretty Fly slot.
* Duplicated orbitals, such as  being copied with the  or , will fly directly opposite the original (having three copies will cause them to fly 120 degrees apart, four will fly at 90 degrees and so on).

Trivia
* Pretty Fly is a play on the phrase "pretty fly" as a descriptor.

## Pickup Generation Familiars

Familiars that generate pickups when certain conditions are met.

## Shooting Familiars

Familiars that attack with their own tears or other effects as long as Isaac is attacking or charging a shot.

 Gello | 5.100.728
 Sumptorium | 5.100.713

**Note:** Only second stage  and  shoot tears.

**Note:**  and  shoot even when Isaac is not attacking.

 **Note:** Most shooting familiars that follow Isaac take 5th priority along the familiar line. This is the second to last priority with the last being non-combat familiars. There are some exceptions such as  which has 2nd priority,  and  which have 3rd priority, and  which has 6th priority.

## Wandering Familiars

Familiars that move around the room sporadically.

**Note:**  The  transformation grants a familiar nearly identical to  with the only difference being the lack of ability to see enemy HP bars.

## Bouncing Familiars

Familiars that bounce around the room in a zig-zag pattern, changing directions when hitting a wall.

## Mimicking Familiars

Familiars that copy Isaac's movements after a certain delay.

## Throwable Familiars

Familiars that are thrown by Isaac by shooting and can return to him after awhile.

**Note:**   and  are only throwable when combined.

## Controlled Familiars

Familiars that move in the direction Isaac is shooting.

 Robo-Baby 2.0 | 5.100.267

## Others

Familiars that don't fit into any of the above categories or that produce multiple effects.

 Brown Nugget | 5.100.504
 Sprinkler | 5.100.516

## Unlockable Achievements

* Buddy in a Box - Pick up 5 **familiars** in a single run.

* Rotten Penny - Have 20 Blue Flies at the same time.