The Family Man

The Family Man is challenge #19. Isaac starts with Brother Bobby, Sister Maggy, Rotten Baby, BFFS!, and Dad's Key. However, he is also blindfolded and must instead rely on familiars to do damage. The goal is to defeat Isaac.

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 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.
- Guppy spawns a fly whenever a familiar's tear hits an enemy, providing a continuous supply of extra damage.
  - The chance of a fly spawning has been changed from 100% to 50%. Despite this, however, flies are still plentiful.
- 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.
- 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.
Spear Of Destiny can provide an easy-to-use alternative for dealing damage, but does not benefit from BFFS!
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 Isaac to snipe enemies from safety.
Potato Peeler will convert health into a Cube of Meat that benefit from BFFS! and the damage upgrade increase the damage of flies.
- Book of Revelations will do the same in a slower rate by guaranteeing the Harbingers to spawn at the cost of leaving Dad's Key behind if you don't have Schoolbag.