Mom's Knife

**Mom's Knife** is an unlockable passive item.

## Effects

* Isaac's tears are replaced by a knife that pierces enemies and can travel through obstacles. Holding down the fire button increases its range and power.
* The knife deals damage 20 times per second upon contact with enemies while Isaac is holding it.
* The knife deals 2x Isaac's damage while held and 6x damage at the furthest possible point of its throw distance, regardless of the actual maximum range stat.
* Damage dealt by the knife depends on its charge state. The knife deals 2x Isaac's damage when held and 6x damage at about 1/3 of full charge. The knife damage quickly drops to 2x Isaac's damage when returning regardless of charge state. Further charging only increases its maximum range.
* This item belongs to the  set. Collecting three items from this set will transform Isaac into his mother.

## Notes

* Mom's Knife is a special item.
* The knife can be held and fired diagonally with frame perfect input. This can be done easily with a controller's analog stick or with .
* The knife can be held and fired diagonally as if Isaac was holding .
	+ The knife can be fired in any direction if using mouse controls (enabled in options.ini).
* The knife will not work in challenges with the blindfolded effect.

## Synergies

* /   /  / : Isaac holds only one, but shoots multiple knives at their typical spread.
* / : The knife deals increased damage sometimes based on luck.
* / : Shooting the knife also shoots a barrage of knives that goes across the screen, with each knife doing 80% ( 2x) of Isaac's damage; the extra knives do not return. The longer the charge, the more knives are added. This effect does not work with  Azazel's default mini brimstone. The brimstone-knives do not benefit from .
* : The knife creates bone shards while in contact with an enemy.
* : Fetuses hold small knives that spin around them slowly, causing extra damage.
* / : Each additional copy of the item will grant an extra knife that fires slightly diagonally from the original one, up to a maximum of 16. Picking up more than 16 knives won't fire more knives but will still modify the angle at which they're shot.
* : Each explosion shoots 10 knives in a circle from the point of impact.
* / : The knife can sometimes instant kill enemies or deal extra damage to bosses.
* : Will occasionally release 1-3 extra knives when shooting Mom's knife.
* : Still applies burning but no longer explodes.
* : Knife bounces as it flies away from Isaac, each bounce splash causing Isaac's tear damage.
* : The benefits of fruit cake still occur but are short lived due to the high damage of Mom's knife.
* The Forgotten: +4 damage. The knife will attach to The Forgotten's bone club, forming a scythe. Increases the size of both the melee swing and the bone throw, and allows a single melee swing to deal damage to an enemy twice instead of just once.
* : The flames can shoot from Isaac while holding the fire button.
	+ The flames only shoot when fire button is released.
* : Knife hits will rarely spawn a blue fly.
	+ Knife hits will frequently spawn a blue fly.
* : Holy Light can trigger on both held and thrown knives.
* : Knife turns green and poison monsters that hit it. Removes Ipecac's damage increase.
	+ Adds a flat +4 damage instead of Ipecac's +40. Knife turns green and poison monsters that hit it.
	+ Adds a flat +2 damage and the knife explodes on contact, once per throw. Will not explode while held without throwing and while coming back to the Player after being thrown. Knife turns green and poison monsters that hit it.
		- **Ipecac** + : Not recommended. Isaac will always take explosion damage when throwing the knife.
* Invulnerability: Even though the knife cannot be fired, the knife will deal damage while Isaac is invincible.
* : The knife will sometimes generate sparks when hitting an enemy.
* : Works but very rarely.
* : The knife will block bullets, even when held (similar to  but has a smaller blocking area).
* : Isaac controls a floating knife that does 2x Isaac's damage. Tears stat is ignored and damage is dealt at a rate equivalent of 5 tear delay.
	+ **The Ludovico Technique** + **any multi-shot item**: Isaac controls a floating knife surrounded by additional rotating knives.
		- Losing The Ludovico Technique will leave the additional knives, which are no longer controlled and appear in the same spot in every room.
	+ **The Ludovico Technique** + : Floating knife loses almost all ability to block bullets, with a tiny area around the hilt that can stop shots.
	+ **The Ludovico Technique** + : Loses Loki's Horns effect; Isaac controls only one floating knife.
	+ **The Ludovico Technique** + : Mom's Knife overrides Brimstone leaving only the floating knife.
* : The knife fires in the direction of the crosshair, charging automatically, with charging time proportionate to the distance of the crosshair from Isaac.
* : Another knife is permanently behind Isaac, able to deal contact damage. The fire chance is still affected by luck as usual.
* : Firing a knife causes several other knives to shoot out in random directions.
* : The knife leaves creep trails while fired.
* : The knife fires two knives in perpendicular directions from the first point of contact with an enemy. Additional knives can also fire more knives themselves.
	+ **The Parasite** + : Lasers will also split with the knives.
* : The Knife deals double damage regardless of range.
	+ The Knife deals triple damage regardless of range.
* : Allows the spirit sword to be thrown during charged attacks.
* : Enemies are pulled towards the knife. The effect is minor while not firing and much stronger while the knife is launched.
* Tainted Lilith: Her familiar will carry the knife. When firing once, Gello will not return back to Lilith, instead hanging around stationary. She can drag him around the room and the knife will still deal damage. Pressing any fire button again will whip out Gello, just as normal.
* Both the knife and the laser fire normally.
	+ There is a connecting laser between Isaac and the knife, similar to  The Forgotten's club throw.
* : Both fire normally.
	+ The knife is fired with a Tech X ring around it, similarly to  The Forgotten's club throw.
* : Isaac holds two knives. Knives are shot diagonally.

## Interactions

Overridden by Mom's Knife:

* Azazel's default attack
* + Both the knife and the bombs fire normally.
* , only changes knife color
* , only changes knife color
* Tainted Azazel's default attack

Only stat effects are applied; otherwise overridden by Mom's Knife:

Other interactions:

* : Doesn't increase damage, but reduces Isaac's tear delay by 20%.
* : Overridden by Epic Fetus.
* : The knife is fired from the body, not from the head.
* : Both apply normally; the tears down negatively affects Mom's Knife's charge time.
* : No effect for orbiting tears.
* : Fires 10 knives in a circle around Isaac, doesn't add Tammy's Head's flat damage bonus.
* : The knife goes in a spiral around Isaac; the longer the knife is charged, the bigger the spiral.  Not recommended, as this makes Mom's Knife almost impossible to aim.
	+ Launched knife will orbit Isaac incredibly fast with a much larger hitbox, dealing consistent damage and covering every side of Isaac.
	+ Items that fire knives out in a straight line, like  or , will cause the knives to circle around Isaac once, then shoot out in the intended direction in a straight line.
* : The knife will snap to whichever direction Isaac is firing in after it's thrown. However, it can no longer be fired diagonally.

## Trivia

* This item is used in  I RULE! (challenge #26).
* In the original *The Binding of Isaac*, buying the item from the Devil Room cost 1 Red Heart container instead of 2.
* In the original *The Binding of Isaac*, this item gave Isaac the appearance of his mother in her dress.
* The description of the item is a possible reference to one of the Sniper's dialogue when performing the Huntsman taunt in *Team Fortress 2*.

## Gallery

* A comparison between  The Forgotten's bone attack with and without Mom's Knife.