Binding of Isaac: Rebirth Wiki
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Mom's Knife is a special 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 can hurt 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 arc, regardless of the actual maximum range stat.
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Notes

  • The knife can be held and fired diagonally. Firing the knife diagonally requires a frame perfect input. However, this can be done easily with a controller's analog stick or with (in Afterbirth † and Repentance)Collectible Analog Stick iconAnalog Stick.
    • (in Repentance) The knife can be fired diagonally without requiring a perfect timing.
  • The knife will not work in challenges with the blindfolded effect.
  • (in Repentance) The knife cannot be used to unlock the door to the Corpse.

Synergies

  • Collectible 20 20 icon20/20 / Conjoined / Collectible The Inner Eye iconThe Inner Eye / Collectible Mutant Spider iconMutant Spider: Isaac holds only one, but shoots multiple knives at their typical spread.
  • Collectible Brimstone iconBrimstone: Firing the knife also shoots a barrage of knives that goes across the screen, with each knife doing 80% of Isaac's damage. 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 Collectible A Lump of Coal iconA Lump of Coal.
  • (except in Rebirth)Collectible Continuum iconContinuum: The knife can now travel through walls and appear out of the opposite wall but will still have the boomerang effect.
  • Collectible Fire Mind iconFire Mind: Still applies burning but no longer explodes.
  • (in Afterbirth † and Repentance)Collectible Flat Stone iconFlat Stone: Knife bounces as it flies away from Isaac, each bounce splash causing Isaac's tear damage.
  • (in Afterbirth † and Repentance) The Forgotten: 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. +4 damage.
  • (in Afterbirth † and Repentance)Collectible Ghost Pepper iconGhost Pepper: The flames can shoot from Isaac while holding the fire button.
  • Guppy transformation: Knife hits will rarely spawn an attack fly.
  • (in Afterbirth † and Repentance)Collectible Haemolacria iconHaemolacria: Haemolacria works at the same time with Mom's Knife, with Haemolacria's fire rate resulting in longer charging.
    • (in Repentance) Mom's Knife overrides Haemolacria.
  • Homing tears: Thrown knives home in on the nearest enemy extremely aggressively. They often stick on the enemy for a while before returning for extra efficiency, but their habit of targeting what's nearest rather than the intended target may also result in extra misses.
  • Collectible Ipecac iconIpecac: Knife turns green and poison monsters that hit it. Removes Ipecac's damage increase.
    • (in Afterbirth †) Also adds +4 damage.
    • (in Repentance) Damage bonus is +2 damage and the knife explodes on contact.
  • Collectible Lost Contact iconLost Contact: The knife will block bullets, even when held (similar to Collectible Trinity Shield iconTrinity Shield but has a smaller blocking area).
  • Collectible The Ludovico Technique iconThe Ludovico Technique: 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.
    • The Ludovico Technique + Lost Contact: Floating knife loses almost all ability to block bullets, with a tiny area around the hilt that can stop shots.
    • The Ludovico Technique + Collectible Loki's Horns iconLoki's Horns: Loses Loki's Horns effect; Isaac controls only one floating knife.
    • The Ludovico Technique +Collectible Brimstone iconBrimstone: Mom's Knife overrides Brimstone leaving only the floating knife.
  • (except in Rebirth) Collectible Monstro's Lung iconMonstro's Lung: Fires a cluster of 3-5 knives at maximum charge, each dealing 2x damage.
  • Collectible Proptosis iconProptosis: The Knife deals double damage regardless of range.
  • Collectible Strange Attractor iconStrange Attractor: Enemies are pulled towards the knife. The effect is minor while not firing and much stronger while the knife is launched.
  • Collectible Tammy's Head iconTammy's Head: Fires 10 knives in a circle around Isaac, dealing massive damage.
  • (except in Rebirth)Collectible Tech X iconTech X: Both fire normally.
    • (in Repentance) Overridden by Mom's Knife.
  • Collectible Unicorn Stump iconUnicorn Stump and other invincibility items: Even though the knife cannot be fired, the knife will deal damage while Isaac is invincible.

Interactions

  • Collectible Anti-Gravity iconAnti-Gravity: Only tear delay down applies.
  • (in Afterbirth † and Repentance)Collectible Apple! iconApple! / (in Afterbirth † and Repentance)Collectible Euthanasia iconEuthanasia / Collectible Tough Love iconTough Love: No chance of higher damage or instant kills.
  • Collectible Chocolate Milk iconChocolate Milk: Doesn't increase damage, but reduces Isaac's tear delay by 20%.
  • (in Afterbirth † and Repentance)Collectible Compound Fracture iconCompound Fracture / Collectible Cricket's Body iconCricket's Body / Collectible The Parasite iconThe Parasite: Only stat effects, if any, apply without splitting.
  • Collectible Cursed Eye iconCursed Eye: Overridden by Mom's Knife.
  • Collectible Dr. Fetus iconDr. Fetus: Overridden by Mom's Knife.
    • (except in Rebirth) Both the knife and the bombs fire normally.
    • (in Repentance) Overridden by Mom's Knife.
  • Collectible Epic Fetus iconEpic Fetus: Overridden by Epic Fetus.
    • (except in Rebirth) Each explosion shoots 10 knives in a circle from the point of impact.
  • (except in Rebirth)Collectible Explosivo iconExplosivo: Overridden by Mom's Knife.
  • (in Afterbirth † and Repentance)Collectible Eye of Belial iconEye of Belial: Overridden by Mom's Knife.
  • (except in Rebirth)Collectible Holy Light iconHoly Light: Overridden by Mom's Knife.
    • (in Afterbirth † and Repentance) Holy Light can trigger on both held and thrown knives.
    • (in Repentance) Holy Light triggers only when the knife is thrown.
  • (in Afterbirth † and Repentance)Collectible Jacob's Ladder iconJacob's Ladder: Overridden by Mom's Knife.
    • (in Repentance)The knife will sometimes generate sparks when hitting an enemy.
  • (in Afterbirth † and Repentance)Collectible Lachryphagy iconLachryphagy: Overridden by Mom's Knife.
  • (in Afterbirth † and Repentance)Collectible Little Horn iconLittle Horn: Overridden by Mom's Knife.
  • Collectible A Lump of Coal iconA Lump of Coal: No effect on the knife regardless of range.
  • (except in Rebirth)Collectible Marked iconMarked: Only tears up and range up apply.
    • (in Repentance) The knife fires in the direction of the crosshair, charging automatically, with charging time proportionate to the distance of the crosshair from Isaac.
  • Collectible Monstro's Lung iconMonstro's Lung: Overridden by Mom's Knife.
    • (except in Rebirth) Firing a knife causes several other knives to shoot out at random directions.
  • Collectible My Reflection iconMy Reflection: No effect.
  • Collectible Mysterious Liquid iconMysterious Liquid: Overridden by Mom's Knife.
    • (in Afterbirth † and Repentance) The Knife leaves creep trails while fired.
  • (in Afterbirth † and Repentance)Collectible Pop! iconPop!: Overridden by Mom's Knife.
  • Collectible Rubber Cement iconRubber Cement: Overridden by Mom's Knife.
  • Collectible Technology iconTechnology: Overridden by Mom's Knife.
    • (in Afterbirth †) Both the knife and the laser fire normally.
    • (in Repentance) Overridden by Mom's Knife.
  • Collectible Tiny Planet iconTiny Planet: Knives go 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.
  • (in Afterbirth † and Repentance)Collectible Trisagion iconTrisagion: Overridden by Mom's Knife.
  • (in Repentance)Collectible Eye of the Occult iconEye of the Occult: Stat increases/decreases apply, otherwise overridden by Mom's Knife.

In-game Footage

Trivia

  • (except in Rebirth) This item is used in I RULE! (challenge #26).
  • In the original Binding of Isaac, buying the item from the Devil Room cost 1 Red Heart container instead of 2.
  • The description of the item is a possible reference to the sniper's dialogue in Team Fortress 2.

Gallery

Seeds

PC (in Afterbirth † and Repentance) Normal and hard modes only WMB8 QEK8 (Treasure Room adjacent to spawn)

PC (in Afterbirth † and Repentance) 6PG9 7RK3 (Treasure Room up and to the right one room from spawn)

PC (except in Rebirth) DVNV YV9Y (Treasure Room adjacent to spawn)

PC JW43 H8EK (Treasure Room adjacent to spawn)

PC 1M9E Y1G1 (Treasure Room adjacent to spawn)

PC P8SE A9JW (Treasure Room adjacent to spawn)

PS4 S63T 434W (Treasure Room adjacent to spawn)

Switch Greedier mode only JZCL 97JE (First Golden Treasure Room)

3DS Hard mode only Z3SL DS3W (First floor Treasure Room)

Bugs

Bug Bug! The Blindfolded condition also applies to the knives fired by Tammy's Head, and prevents it from working.
Bug Bug! Using Mom's Knife and Marked with Haemolacria will cause it to only fire towards the center of room, using the fire buttons will barely move the Marked icon; while Mom's Knife will be unusable and locked to the right.


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