Best items no one seems to be talking about

So what items have you found to be amazing but you haven't seen anyone talk about? AKA stuff that is obvious like Dark Bum and Brimstone are out, we all know those are stupid good.

My big one right now is Dry Baby. Details on how it works in spoilers below.

He absorbs bullets that hit him, and every so many hits fires off a Necronomicon blast in response. He may also absorb melee damage to help trigger it but I use him by moving so he's between me and bosses like Mom's heart and let him just do free damage spitting out Necronomicon blasts constantly.

There's a lot of items that are sketchy by themselves but incredible/gamebreaking with enough synergies (Tiny Planet, Ludovico Technique) and other items that weren't particularly good before but suddenly become amazing because of those synergies (Homing Tears, Parasite).

Krampus' Head + Battery + 48 hour energy pill can kill the final boss in like 3 seconds.

48 hour energy in a run makes a lot of items way better. d6 + it is... kinda stupid. Hell even just batteries in the shop can go a long way on that front.

Personally I find ludivico okay even without crazy synergies, though its real strength comes from stuff like it + shielding tears or brimstone or tech etc. I had it with piercing shot on my first or second chest clear (I got sagitarius I think in the chest itself) but not sure if that actually does anything other than make your giant tear an awesome looking arrow/triangle.

A lot of the new rune items are straight up insane. You get them from completing the challenges. I don't think I have all of them but the ones I do have are crazy good.

Ansuz - Gives full vision of the entire floor (including location of Secret Rooms)

Perthro - Rerolls any item pedestal in the room with you.

Berkano - spawns 3 friendly flies and spiders

Algiz - gives you full invincibility for the duration of an entire room.

@westernwizard: Dry baby is probably the best familiar in the game for damage potential. He definitely can block melee shots. If you can manage to drag him over one of those walking turrets, when the turret pops up to shoot in will instantly trigger dry baby. He's also really good for the red zombie guys. They all run all over him and trigger the necronomicon effect.

So, Im pretty new to BOL. I played it a little on PC but I couldn't stand the terrible framerate issues so I kinda stopped playing. However, I have really been enjoying this re release but I am curious how everyone tackled the whole item system in the game. See, I like games that don't give you a whole lot of information about itself like Dark Souls or Spelunky. But there are so many freaking items in the game, did most of you look up what they did after you got them or played a bit more to figure it out yourself? I don't wanna cheat my experience by looking everything up but a lot of the passive items don't yield a clear result on what they are doing? It's weird to ask people how to play a game but I am asking you guys how to play this game...

How many runs am I going to have to make before I start remembering what items do what? Cause so far I either get lucky and get a tonne of high stat stuff or I get greedy and buy too many items from satan.

Blank Card is pretty incredible, takes a bit to unlock it though.

@sackmanjones: My strategy was to watch like 400 Northernlion videos before ever playing the game; didn't much care for the original PC version but Rebirth is great.

My only problem with blank card is you need certain drops to make it fully realize its potential. I do want to play with it more though. However you can also screw yourself if you buy a certain shop item and destroy it if you don't know how both items work.

@sackmanjones: There's nothing wrong with looking up what the items do, especially if you didn't play a ton of the original. I disagree with you about passive items not telling you their effects. Compared to the original almost every item tells you what it does (save for the trinkets & cards) even if it is very vague and even in those cases their effects are either very subtle. If you are gonna look something up though you should probably use Platinum God.

@quid_pro_bono: Whaaaat? No way, lil brimstone does pretty much exactly the same damage except he does so when and where you want and from potentially all the way across the room. No need to get dangerously close to enemies for no reason.

I dunno if I agree with QPB on highest damage, but it has more situational power, especially since the trigger hits the entire room. That can add up to a TON of damage in those stupid 2x2 rooms. I've had quite a few hard rooms trivialized by abusing how it works. I just wish I'd get it more often, and see how much easier it makes semi-OP runs.

Gnawed leaf for sure, it's teeeerrible on it's own, but with a familiar setup it's physically impossible to die in any room. I beat the boss rush area with it, Robobaby 2.0, and spawning flies and literally just walked away from the controller.

Big beautiful fly+Mr Mega is a great way to deal a lot of damage when your shots suck. I killed issac with blue baby on my first try with that combo. I had rosary and wafer too but shhhhhhhhhh...

@pyrodactyl: BBF seems like a version of Bob's Brain that isn't horrible.

@blzzzrrttt: I think I actually did mean trinkets (the item that goes in the lower left corner of the screen). I think the other items usually so give you a basic idea of their uses which is nice.

Bob's brain is great with pyromaniac (or whatever that item is called). The item that heals you for one heart every time you are hit by explosion damage.

Now that I think about it pyromaniac (or whatever that item is called) is really, really good. You have to get it early to craft your run around it but it gives almost infinite health, awesome synergy with fetus in a jar and bob's brain.

Pulse Worm and Whip Worm are both really good.

@pyrodactyl: Did not know that existed o.O Would have made my Ipecac Parasite run even more ridiculous.

I don't remember what it was called but i got an item that gave you, "tear control" which just let you control a single tear by moving it around the screen with the right thumb stick. By the time my tear shot had upgraded it made all fights pretty trivial.

@sin4profit: That's the ludivico technique.

@fredchuckdave: Is whip worm the straight one that makes tears launch across the screen? If so that with... ipecac maybe, or if not that then Dr Fetus? was super hard to use. I want it on a normal tears run to try out as I suspect for those it is amazing

@westernwizard: Whip Worm gives you max range and shot speed I believe, works great with any regular tears.

@neocalypso: But lil' brimstone requires you to do stuff. Dry baby is gonna' murder everything regardless of if you're even shooting. Also, the hitbox on dry baby is INSANE. You can just stand against the wall while fighting mom's heart and take no damage while wailing on it.

Any of the new items that lets your crush rocks is great, especially since they added the skulls and mushrooms, and the hidden doors in the ground. I had a run where I got one of those plus the trinket that causes destroyed rocks to drop money.

@dudeglove: Does Leo do anything besides rock breaking? Mind you breaking mushrooms and skulls is great for possible item drops (both pedistals and consumables) but it only REALLY shines IMO when you have something like lucky rock for infinite money basically.

Edit: Exactly icthy that combo is so amazing, wish I'd get it more often :)

@westernwizard: It's possible Leo might be a damage upgrade.

I'm thinking the Chaos Card might be the best single use item in the game since it instantly kills anything you use it on.

I really want to unlock the chaos card and credit card, especially if I could get my hands on them + blank card. MMmmmm 4 room reuseable.

Smart Fly is really good.

Chaos Card is good but mainly for single target bosses and you do have to aim it; so if you're going for the chest it's really amazing but not quite as good on the other route.

@dudeglove: Azazel is ridiculous in general, but also quite boring to play.

I forget what the item was called, but it was the one that made the Daddy Long Legs stomp down and do additional damage. My first two runs on the Vita last night (after deciding to start over after a few on the PS4), I got that item and completely wrecked everything, beating Mom on the first run and her heart on the second (which I had never done ever before, I might add). It's a huge amount of extra damage and it never misses.

Yep, came here to say that. Azazel + Tammy is ammaaaazzing. Boss music usually doesn't even get to start.

As mentioned above, with the right items soy milk turns from garbage into gold.

Widespread destruction

This is a combination of Soy Milk + Ipecac + Crickets body and you can see how everything will explode. Just don't get too close.

Soy milk is such a bad item that it's a very difficult sell on its own though; it's not like the Parasite or what have you where it's perfectly serviceable; so basically you already have to have the good item before you can pick up the bad one.

I love the daddy long legs thingy . Probably my fav item in the game .

The first time I picked up Tiny Planet, I thought it was absolute junk. My range was low and I didn't have any other complementary items. On my most recent run, I first received The Parasite, couple that with a high enough fire rate and maxed range (at least on the pause screen) and finally getting Tiny Planet, I've got balls hovering around me for days. Plus I managed to grab the Holy Grail so I'm just flying over all pits, rocks, spikes, and damaging trails, and I just laugh and dance away.

I'm still bitter about my amazing run gone wrong last night though. I had Polyphemus, The Parasite, Dark Bum, and Technology #2 plus the wonderful compliment of Hook Worm. Cruising through everything, got to the Cathedral, and stumbled into a "6-Dice" room. The new combination of items was much worse, but manageable, except for the chance to teleport every time I took damage. I got Isaac down to a sliver three times before getting teleported out. I cried. Like Isaac.

Yeah if you have a good run going never ever go into the 1 or 6 rooms. If you have a bad run though? My god they can save you so hard. Love the idea of them.

Also having the rune that lets you reroll item pedestals in the room is amazing, on a non-isaac run had 2 and got to reroll a sister maggy into a shovel into something less bad than those two items.

+1 for Daddy's Love or whatever it's called. The stomp damage is pretty great but the fact that it homes makes it much better and consistent damage.

Has anyone gotten Soy Milk with flaming tears? I want to know if you get a crazy number of explosion procs.

Using Azazel and getting Tammy's Head was a lot of fun, I had a bit in the way of damage upgrades as well but one shotting almost every boss is so much fun.

@ichthy: Yes I got that. I hate soy milk but then it got awesome with the flaming tears. I basically only had to not get caught in the explosions and I would complete any room without any damage.

Familiars that focus on a single enemy; Smart Fly, Leech, ???'s Only Friend, and to a lesser extent Daddy Longlegs, can easily destroy late-game bosses without you even having to shoot them. They're game winners if you know how to dodge properly.

Suicide King is pretty great too.

Punching Bag and Celtic Cross are fantastic items for getting the no hit achievements. Just got Mama's Boy with those and the rune that let's you bypass all damage in a room.

Dark Candle might be one of the best items when you're trying to play the game on hard, in which you'll be landed with a curse on just about every floor. Trying to make deals with the devil when you have curse of the blind is awful.

Also worth noting: Anarchist Cookbook and Sad Bombs synergize. Given the right tear effects, it can be as strong as if not stronger than Krampus' Head.

Yep. Most of the curses are pretty shitty...except Labyrinth (I actually enjoy the larger levels, and you get two free doors in the Basement) and Blind (chances are that I'll pick most stuff up anyway). Maze is probably the worst - mainly because it just makes things frustrating instead of adding a layer of challenge or complexity...

@beachthunder: Let's not forget Darkness, the dreaded "turn up the gamma" curse. I mean sure it does nothing effectively but wow is that bad/annoying design.

Pyromaniac is very good if you have a surplus of bombs. I think Mom's and Satan's foot also count as explosions so those end up healing you as well.

Curse of Blindness is HORRIBLE for 1) passives that suck horribly and 2) Deals with the Devil and 3) shops. I have come to love the black candle because of blindness alone (I had a run recently where I had at least 3 blindness curses, knowing my luck one of the shop items I passed on was the candle....)