Big Horn

Big Horn is a boss added in The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth † that can appear in all environments of Chapter 2 (Caves, Catacombs, Flooded Caves).

Behavior

Big Horn alternates between attacking with his arms and his head.

Big Horn spawns 2 or 3 small holes; one of his arms has a chance of appearing from each hole. Each arm can perform the following attacks either by itself or in conjunction with another arm:

Throws a Troll Bomb towards Isaac.
Throws 3 Troll Bombs in a spread towards Isaac.
- Every Troll Bomb has a chance of being a Hot Bombs Bomb or a Mega Troll Bomb.
- If the area is Flooded, instead of Hot Bombs, he will send out Sad Bombs.
If Big Horn tosses a bomb into one of the empty holes, Big Horn’s hand appears out of that hole and tosses out the same type of bomb.
Quickly slaps the ground 3 times with an empty hand while traveling towards Isaac.
- This attack can kill any Dark Balls it touches.
If a hole is empty, there is an extremely rare chance to spawn a low-health version of Little Horn.
Holds up a Little Horn in his palm which spits out 3 small homing Dark Balls in quick succession.
- If Big Horn dies while performing this attack, Little Horn hops off the hand and continues the fight, but with low health.

Big Horn's head can perform the following attacks after appearing from a large hole:

Spits out a large Dark Ball beneath him that homes in on Isaac.
Spits out two large Dark Balls beneath him that travel diagonally, bouncing when colliding with walls or Isaac's tears. These do not home.
Occasionally spits out 3 Dark Balls; 1 homing and 2 non-homing.
- The Dark Balls can hit and damage Big Horn, destroying themselves in the process.
After spawning a Dark Ball, there is a very small window where Bombs can be kicked into his mouth. If fed a Bomb, Big Horn is temporarily stunned, and plays a unique animation, during which he takes 20% more damage.
- Additionally, the Bomb also explodes in his mouth, dealing considerable damage.
Big Horn's head occasionally pauses and returns into the hole without attacking.
- This always occurs at the start of the battle.

Gallery

Big Horn in-game.
Big Horn's hand.
Big Horn as one of Delirium's Forms.
Big Horn's appearance before Repentance.
Big Horn as one of Delirium's Forms before Repentance.

Notes

The Hot Bombs ( and Sad Bombs) he throws are not affected by Safety Scissors.
If Isaac touches Big Horn's Hot Bombs in Chapter 4 and beyond, they will still only deal half a heart of damage instead of a full heart.

Trivia

Big Horn appears to be an adult version of Little Horn.
Upon defeat, Big Horn frowns and retreats into his hole. He does not explode into blood upon defeat.
- Big Horn's hands also have a death animation, which only plays if Big Horn is killed while they're on-screen. The hands briefly shake and retreat into the holes.
Big Horn had a teaser on Twitter by Tyrone Rodriguez.
During the versus screen, Big Horn will growl despite the battle not starting yet. Big Horn is one of seven ( 5) bosses that can be heard during the versus screen, the other six ( 4) being The Stain, The Forsaken, Mom, Mom's Heart, It Lives, and Mother.
Big Horn's hand makes an appearance in the effects of the Item Little Horn. His hand appears grabbing and crushing any Monsters and performing the slap attack on Bosses.
- His hand also appeared from a pit to pull down Dark Esau when he was killed, prior to patch V1.7.5.
Big Horn's unique stun animation might be a reference to Nintendo's Punch Out series.
Similar to Little Horn, who was based on the fourth beast's "little horn" from the seventh chapter of the Book of Daniel, it is possible that Big Horn is based on the four-horned goat's little horn from the eighth chapter of the same book, where it mentions that the horn will grow extraordinarily into a great horn and triggers the apocalypse.
Blighted Ovum, Big Horn, Triachnid, Isaac and ??? are the only bosses whose portraits were completely changed in Repentance (beyond simply adding more detail). Of these, only Triachnid, Isaac, and ??? didn't receive new sprites.

Bugs

Bug!	If The Boomerang is thrown to one of Big Horn's hands, the hand will display Big Horn's death animation and play the music after a boss is defeated, but Big Horn will still be alive