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.

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

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.

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.
 * Guppy transformation: Isaac will create Blue Flies whenever his tears or his familiars' tears hit enemies.
 * Beelzebub transformation: All enemy flies become Blue Flies.
 * Friends Till The End! pill: Spawns three Blue Flies.
 * As or, 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 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. 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 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.

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. 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 for a full list of wisps.

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.

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

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.


 * 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 Cube of Meat, 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.

Note: Only second stage and  shoot tears. Note: and  shoot even when Isaac is not attacking. Note: Shooting familiars that follow Isaac take priority over other familiars, always appearing before non-combat familiars in line. and have extra priority and will appear at the front, with Incubus taking priority over Lil Brimstone.

Wandering Familiars
Familiars that move around the room sporadically.

Note: The Spider Baby 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.

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