The Family Man

   

Blindfolded

Challenge Number
19

Starting Items
BFFS!
Brother Bobby
Dad's Key
Rotten Baby
Sister Maggy

Available Rooms
: no          : yes

Goal

Unlocks
Epic Fetus

Unlock Method

Pick up both Key Pieces from the Angels in one run

The Family Man is Challenge #19. This challenge prevents the firing of tears. Isaac must instead rely on familiars to do damage. The goal is to defeat Isaac. Isaac starts with Brother Bobby, Sister Maggy, Dad's Key, BFFS! and Rotten Baby.

Isaac also starts with the Conjoined transformation due to the familiars the player starts with, making the challenge more difficult. This is because the Conjoined transformation decreases your damage, which the blue flies from Rotten Baby rely on.

Difficulty

The slow fire rate of the familiars makes this challenge difficult, especially in The Womb and Cathedral. The familiars can also be hard to aim, as they linger behind Isaac.

Both Brother Bobby and Sister Maggy have been buffed, making this challenge markedly easier: Brother Bobby now has a higher fire rate; while Sister Maggy has an increased damage of 6 (with BFFS! a respectable 12)

Strategy

• Dad's Key allows the player to enter secret rooms and shops without using bombs or keys. Saving and obtaining extra pickups via Dad's Key can be leveraged for items from Beggars and Arcade machines to offset the challenge's lack of treasure rooms.
  • Also, Dad's Key can be used to exit the Boss Rush without having to fight any bosses, granting a free item if the Boss Rush is reached in time.
• Gaining flight will allow Isaac to stay safely out of range while the familiars deal damage.
• Damage from blue flies scales with Isaac's damage, allowing more damage into the late game. Several items can help achieve this.
  • The Guppy transformation enables familiar's attacks to generate Blue Flies.
  • Rotten Baby's Blue Flies can seek enemies at range.
  • Hive Mind doubles all Blue Fly damage.
  • Polyphemus or Ipecac will also greatly increase the damage of Blue Flies.
• Sacrificial Dagger is extremely useful, because with BFFS! it deals 30 damage per tick, making it extremely useful against bosses. However, this does not apply to Spear of Destiny.
  • Getting this combined with invincibility such as Rune of Algiz will allow a guaranteed kill on bosses.
• Additional damage-dealing familiars can be leveraged against enemies.
  • Lil Brimstone is particularly useful for its significant damage, unlimited range, and attacks that pierce obstacles and enemies.
  • ???'s Only Friend can also deal high damage and can be controlled to attack enemies anywhere in the room.
  • Bob's Brain can be tricky to use effectively but offers a tremendous boost to damage.
• Damage-dealing active items, such as The Candle, Red Candle, or The Boomerang also offer a reliable amount of damage, and are all obtainable from the Shop.
• Defensive orbitals block projectiles and some can be used to deal damage. Using Slot Machines is a relatively reliable method to get 2-3 defensive flies.
• Re-rolling Isaac's Items with a Dice Room, the D4, the D100, or Missing No. is not recommended as it can leave Isaac without means of dealing damage.
• Most of Lilith's unlockable items will make the challenge easier:
  • Incubus enables Isaac to fire as Lilith does, and also benefits from the Conjoined transformation.
  • Box of Friends doubles familiars, and therefore allows Isaac to double his tear output.
  • Cambion Conception and Immaculate Conception are reliable methods of generating new familiars.
  • Succubus can deal high amounts of damage and help clear rooms.
• Baby-Bender gives all familiar's tears homing ability.
• Both Pause and Camo Undies, when combined with Rotten Baby allows Issac to snipe enemies from safety.

Reward

• 

  Epic Fetus - Complete The Family Man (challenge #19).

• 

  Glass Cannon - Beat The Family Man (challenge #19) and defeat Lokii.