Athame

Athame is an unlockable passive item added in The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth.

Effect

 * When Isaac takes damage, a black ring briefly appears around him, dealing tear damage at a rapid rate to everything touching it.
 * When an enemy is killed with the black ring, there is a 15% chance for it to drop a Black Heart.
 * Athame no longer has a chance to spawn black hearts upon killing enemies with the black ring.
 * Black Hearts will drop as soon as the enemy is killed. (In other words, the heart will drop at the beginning of the death animation rather than at the end of the death animation.)

Synergies

 * Homing tears: The black ring becomes homing, curving around to hit enemies.
 * : Massively increases damage and poisons enemies.
 * Causes the ring to explode upon contact with walls or obstacles. The explosions can damage the player, causing the ring to appear again, damage the player, and cause a loop of damage.
 * : The ring is much larger and deals 1.5x damage.
 * The ring deals normal damage.
 * The ring is now normal size.

Interactions

 * : Getting hit when the Holy Mantle shield is active prevents Athame from triggering its effect.
 * : The ring damage is halved.
 * The ring deals normal damage.

Trivia

 * An Athame is a ceremonial blade, generally with a black handle. It is the main ritual implement or magical tool among several used in the religion of Wicca, and is also used in various other neopagan witchcraft traditions. The athame stands as one of the four elemental tools in Wicca; traditionally standing for fire.
 * A black-handled knife called an athame appears in certain versions of the Key of Solomon, a grimoire originating in the Middle Ages.

Seeds
BEB6 CTEC (Curse room next to spawn teleports to Devil Room)