The Ludovico Technique

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The Ludovico Technique is a passive item.

Effects

  • Instead of firing tears, Isaac controls one floating tear that hovers over obstacles. This tear deals constant damage when held in place over an enemy.

Notes

  • (except in Repentance and Repentance+) The Ludovico Technique is a special item.
  • Ludovico tear is piercing and spectral by default.
  • Ludovico tear movement speed is determined by the shot speed stat.
  • Ludovico tear hits per second are determined by the tears stat, maxed out at 30 ticks per second.
  • When Boss Death ingame.pngDeath uses his Collectible The Hourglass icon.pngThe Hourglass attack, the tear is slow to respond, but then moves so quickly that it is nearly impossible to use effectively.
  • (except in Repentance and Repentance+) When there are no enemies in a room, the tear slowly floats towards the player.
    • The Collectible Brimstone icon.pngBrimstone ring still follows when the player is outside of it.
  • If multiple Ludovico Techniques are acquired (via (except in Rebirth)Collectible Diplopia icon.pngDiplopia, (except in Rebirth and Afterbirth)Collectible Crooked Penny icon.pngCrooked Penny, (in Repentance and Repentance+)Collectible Bag of Crafting icon.pngBag of Crafting or on a victory lap), then additional smaller tears will orbit the main tear.
    • A maximum of 15 smaller tears can orbit the main tear.
  • The Ludovico tear is larger than normal, but does not gain size from damage as much as normal tears.

Synergies

  • Collectible 20 20 icon.png20/20 / Collectible The Inner Eye icon.pngThe Inner Eye / Collectible Mutant Spider icon.pngMutant Spider: Smaller tears orbit the main tear.
  • (except in Rebirth and Afterbirth)Collectible Angelic Prism icon.pngAngelic Prism: While the tear is in contact with the prism, it will fire 4 additional tears in cardinal directions at Isaac's tear rate.
  • Character Azazel icon.pngAzazel: The same effect as with Brimstone, but the damage is halved.
    • Azazel + Collectible Brimstone icon.pngBrimstone: Full damage of the laser ring is regained.
  • (except in Rebirth and Afterbirth)Collectible Backstabber icon.pngBackstabber: Much easier to inflict bleeding and double damage on most enemies.
  • (in Repentance and Repentance+)Collectible Berserk! icon.pngBerserk!: The tear can't be controlled while berserking, but it can be batted around the room until the effect ends.
    • Character Tainted Samson icon.pngTainted Samson: uses a passive form of Berserk! that works the same way.
  • (except in Rebirth and Afterbirth) BookwormBookworm: Causes an additional smaller tear to constantly appear and disappear, teleporting from Isaac's location to the main Ludovico tear in a glitchy manner.
  • Collectible Brimstone icon.pngBrimstone: Tear takes the shape of a very large laser ring. (except in Repentance and Repentance+) The shot speed is ignored. The Tears stat is ignored and the damage is dealt very rapidly at a rate equivalent to 1 tear delay. This ring will always be present and doesn't need charging up like normal Brimstone would.
    • Brimstone + (except in Rebirth)Collectible Incubus icon.pngIncubus: Incubus' Brimstone laser is not affected by Ludovico Technique.
      • (in Repentance and Repentance+) Adds a smaller controllable laser ring in addition to the main one.
    • Brimstone + (in Repentance and Repentance+)Collectible Twisted Pair icon.pngTwisted Pair: Similar effects to Incubus.
    • (in Repentance and Repentance+) Brimstone + Collectible Ipecac icon.pngIpecac: +2 damage, beam explodes when colliding with enemies and obstacles.
    • Brimstone + Collectible A Lump of Coal icon.pngA Lump of Coal: The ring increases in diameter, but not the damage, the farther away it gets from Isaac.
    • Brimstone + Collectible Spoon Bender icon.pngSpoon Bender: The ring reaches out to attack enemies near it, reforming into a ring when no enemies are present.
    • Brimstone + Collectible Technology icon.pngTechnology: The ring is visually identical to a normal Brimstone ring, but the 1.5x damage multiplier applies.
    • Brimstone + Collectible 20 20 icon.png20/20/Collectible The Inner Eye icon.pngThe Inner Eye/Collectible Mutant Spider icon.pngMutant Spider: no effect.
  • (except in Rebirth and Afterbirth)Collectible Compound Fracture icon.pngCompound Fracture: Turns tear into a large bone, which shoots out smaller tears when attacking/touching an enemy. Scattered tears are spectral and piercing.
  • (except in Rebirth)Collectible Dead Eye icon.pngDead Eye: Damage bonus increases until it hits the max of 2x. Since the controllable tear never hits the ground or wall, the bonus cannot be lost.
  • Collectible Dr. Fetus icon.pngDr. Fetus: A bomb is shot out at high speed and can be controlled, another bomb cannot be shot until the previously shot bomb has detonated.
    • (in Repentance and Repentance+) Causes your tears to act like Collectible Epic Fetus icon.pngEpic Fetus and now inherits all synergies Epic Fetus has.
  • (except in Rebirth)Collectible Epiphora icon.pngEpiphora: Moving the tear in one direction for an extended time increases your fire rate.
  • (in Repentance and Repentance+)Collectible Explosivo icon.pngExplosivo/Nose GoblinNose Goblin/Collectible Sinus Infection icon.pngSinus Infection: Every tick of damage the Ludovico tear deals has a chance to stick a separate Explosivo/booger tear onto the enemy allowing Isaac to continue controlling the Ludovico tear.
  • (in Repentance and Repentance+)Collectible Eye of the Occult icon.pngEye of the Occult: While holding a direction key, the Ludovico tear will constantly shoot out controllable tears in random directions. The air time of these tears scales with the range stat.
  • (except in Rebirth)Collectible Fate's Reward icon.pngFate's Reward: The familiar gains spectral and piercing tears.
  • (except in Rebirth and Afterbirth)Collectible Flat Stone icon.pngFlat Stone: The tear starts bouncing at a rate somewhat below Isaac's fire rate, each bounce dealing splash damage.
    • Flat Stone + Collectible Ipecac icon.pngIpecac: Causes a poisonous explosion when it bounces instead of plain splash damage, as per normal Ipecac. The first bounce when entering a room does not explode, allowing moving the tear with less risk of self-damage.
  • (except in Rebirth)Collectible Fruit Cake icon.pngFruit Cake: The tear will cycle through different effects, based on Isaac's tear rate.
    • (in Afterbirth †) If Isaac stays in one room long enough the Ludovico tear will often fill the room with many stationary (except in Rebirth and Afterbirth)Collectible Trisagion icon.pngTrisagion tears that last until Isaac leaves the room. This combination can easily clear most rooms.
  • (except in Rebirth and Afterbirth) Character The Forgotten icon.pngThe Forgotten: The tear follows the Forgotten when in its skeleton form. It can be hit with its melee attack to propel it, making it do more damage. When switching to the Soul, the tear behaves as normal.
    • The Forgotten + (except in Rebirth)Collectible Multidimensional Baby icon.pngMultidimensional Baby: The second tear acts exactly like the first and can also be hit to propel it.
    • The Forgotten + Multi-shot: Switching back from the Soul to the Forgotten will only remove the main tear, thus creating infinitely persisting tears on the screen. Repeating this process allows suspending arbitrarily high amount of tears.
  • Collectible Godhead icon.pngGodhead: The tear homes towards nearby enemies and gains a large damaging aura. However, the aura cannot damage an enemy that is in contact with the actual tear; barring a high tear rate, it may be better to keep the aura on the enemies instead of the tear.
  • (in Rebirth and Afterbirth) GuppyGuppy: A large number of flies is rapidly deployed whilst controlling the Ludovico tear.
  • (except in Rebirth)Collectible Holy Light icon.pngHoly Light: The Ludovico tear will release holy beams on itself periodically while touching an enemy.
  • (in Afterbirth and Afterbirth †)Collectible Incubus icon.pngIncubus: Isaac gains a controlled tear while also being able to shoot normally with Incubus. Incubus's tears gain piercing and spectral properties.
    • (in Repentance and Repentance+) Incubus creates a second smaller Ludovico Technique tear instead, which can both be controlled by Isaac. The second tear is slightly delayed/ outside of the main tear. This may cause it to not hit enemies sometimes.
    • (in Repentance and Repentance+) Character Lilith icon.pngLilith: Lilith's incubus will fire a smaller Ludovico Technique tear. For each doubled incubus caused by (except in Rebirth)Collectible Box of Friends icon.pngBox of Friends, there will be an additional Ludovico Technique tear that spawns on Lilith's location.
  • (in Afterbirth †)Collectible Lead Pencil icon.pngLead Pencil: The tear blinks red, but the effect is entirely cosmetic.
    • (in Repentance and Repentance+) Tear barrages are launched in cardinal directions, even when not controlling the tear. Proc rate depends on fire rate.
  • (in Repentance and Repentance+)Collectible Lodestone icon.pngLodestone: The single floating tear will flash grey to indicate that the magnetism might apply on hit. Like Strange Attractor, enemies tagged with magnetism will also draw the floating tear towards said enemy.
  • (except in Rebirth)Collectible Loki's Horns icon.pngLoki's Horns: The Ludovico tear will sometimes shoot 4 smaller piercing + spectral tears in each cardinal direction. This chance scales with luck and goes up to 100% at 20 Luck.
  • Collectible Lost Contact icon.pngLost Contact: Tear will block enemy tears without disappearing.
  • Collectible A Lump of Coal icon.pngA Lump of Coal: The tear becomes larger the further away it is from Isaac, increasing in damage.
  • (except in Rebirth)Collectible Mom's Eye icon.pngMom's Eye: The Ludovico tear has a chance on each damage tick to fire a smaller piercing + spectral tear in a random direction. This chance scales with luck and goes up to 100% at 10 Luck.
  • (in Rebirth and Afterbirth) Collectible Mom's Wig icon.pngMom's Wig: The item causes spiders to spawn rapidly when moving the tear.
    • (in Repentance and Repentance+) Causes Spiders to rapidly spawn until the cap of 5 is reached.
  • Collectible Monstro's Lung icon.pngMonstro's Lung: Tear turns red and does more damage.
    • (except in Rebirth) Tear becomes a cluster of variously sized tears spread over a small area. The tears move at the same speed when controlled but constantly move around each other.
  • Collectible My Reflection icon.pngMy Reflection: The shot speed multiplier causes the tear to move significantly faster, allowing it to catch up to any fast-moving enemies.
  • Collectible Mysterious Liquid icon.pngMysterious Liquid: Creep continuously oozes from underneath the tear.
  • Collectible The Parasite icon.pngThe Parasite: Shoots out smaller tears when attacking an enemy. Scattered tears are spectral and piercing.
  • (except in Rebirth and Afterbirth)Collectible Pause icon.pngPause: The tear deals damage, even if the enemies are stopped. Moving the tear unpauses the enemies.
  • Collectible Strange Attractor icon.pngStrange Attractor: Enemies, items and even most bosses will be sucked to the single floating tear, dealing constant damage while keeping Isaac well away from harm, making this combination extremely effective in almost all scenarios.
  • (in Repentance and Repentance+) Character Tainted Azazel icon.pngTainted Azazel: The same effect as Brimstone, dealing full damage (Tainted Azazel's default laser damage is halved unless (in Repentance and Repentance+)Collectible Hemoptysis icon.pngHemoptysis is used first). Tainted Azazel can no longer use Hemoptysis.
  • (except in Rebirth)Collectible Tear Detonator icon.pngTear Detonator: The tear explodes into six smaller tears, then reappears next to the player.
  • Collectible Tech.5 icon.pngTech.5: The tear controls as usual, and Isaac fires the laser towards the tear relative to his position, rather than in the direction the player is moving the tear. The laser becomes spectral.
  • Collectible Technology icon.pngTechnology: The tear becomes a large laser ring, which visually looks like a shot fired by Collectible Tech X icon.pngTech X. Shot speed is ignored. The Tears stat is ignored and the damage is dealt very rapidly at a rate equivalent to 1 tear delay.

Interactions

Overrides The Ludovico Technique:

Overridden by The Ludovico Technique:

Overridden by The Ludovico Technique, other than stat changes:

Other interactions:

  • Collectible Blue Baby's Only Friend icon.png???'s Only Friend / Collectible Robo-Baby 2.0 icon.pngRobo-Baby 2.0: The tear and familiar(s) travel together, as they are controlled in the same way. Because the familiars' travel speeds are not affected by Isaac's shot speed, they only travel in the same spot when Isaac has exactly the amount of shot speed to sync them up.
  • (in Repentance and Repentance+)Collectible Almond Milk icon.pngAlmond Milk: The tear will rapidly teleport in a small area around it, making it difficult to aim.
  • (in Repentance and Repentance+)Collectible Bag of Crafting icon.pngBag of Crafting: Swiping the bag at the Ludovico tear will bat it in the direction of the knockback.
  • (in Repentance and Repentance+)Collectible Bird's Eye icon.pngBird's Eye: Isaac will occasionally shoot a flame towards the Ludovico tear.
  • Collectible Blood Clot icon.pngBlood Clot / Collectible Chemical Peel icon.pngChemical Peel: The tear steadily cycles between red and "normal," dealing more damage when red.
  • (except in Repentance and Repentance+)Collectible Chocolate Milk icon.pngChocolate Milk: The tear can't be charged, but reduces Isaac's tear delay by 20%.
  • Collectible The Common Cold icon.pngThe Common Cold: The tear pulses green, poisoning enemies.
  • (in Rebirth and Afterbirth)Collectible Explosivo icon.pngExplosivo: Not recommended as the tear will alternate between "normal" and black. If it touches an enemy, it will stick to it, grow in size, then explode. The tear can not damage anything or be controlled when stuck to an enemy.
    • (in Afterbirth †) The tear will grow very quickly when stuck to an enemy and pop without dealing damage, instead of the normal Explosivo delay and explosion.
  • (in Rebirth and Afterbirth)Collectible Fire Mind icon.pngFire Mind: Tears retain the ability to ignite enemies and explode. Tears reappear at Isaac's location after exploding.
    • (except in Rebirth and Afterbirth) Tears do not explode on contact with an enemy.
  • (except in Repentance and Repentance+)Collectible Ghost Pepper icon.pngGhost Pepper / Collectible Red Candle icon.pngRed Candle: Created fires will destroy the tear and cause it to reappear at Isaac's location.
    • (in Repentance and Repentance+) Fires generated by both items do not interact with the Ludovico tear. However Ghost Pepper will create fires quickly when the Tear is moved.
  • Collectible Isaac's Tears icon.pngIsaac's Tears:
    • (except in Repentance and Repentance+): The item charges based on the tear's movement.
    • (in Repentance and Repentance+): The item charges even while the tear is not moving, with the speed based on Isaac's tears stat.
  • Homing Tears: The Ludovico tear will slowly move towards an enemy. This can make it harder to control towards a different enemy or for enemies that hide underground.
  • Collectible Mom's Knife icon.pngMom's Knife: The tear becomes a controllable knife that deals double Isaac's damage. Effective shot speed is lowered. Tears stat is ignored and the damage is dealt at a rate equivalent to 4 tear delay.
  • (in Rebirth and Afterbirth)Collectible Multidimensional Baby icon.pngMultidimensional Baby: No effect.
    • (in Afterbirth †) An additional Ludovico tear is created when it passes through Multidimensional Baby, at the start of every room, and persists like the Ludovico tear itself. However, it cannot be controlled; it instead slowly follows Isaac.
      • (in Repentance and Repentance+) The extra tear stays completely still where it appeared.
  • (in Afterbirth †)Nose GoblinNose Goblin/Collectible Sinus Infection icon.pngSinus Infection: Not recommended as the tear can occasionally stick to an enemy. This leaves Isaac defenseless until the enemy dies or a minute has passed causing the tear to pop and a new one to appear.
  • (except in Repentance and Repentance+)Collectible Notched Axe icon.pngNotched Axe: The Ludovico tear cannot be moved while Notched Axe is held up.
    • (in Repentance and Repentance+) The tear can be moved by swings, without any special effect happening to it.
  • Collectible Proptosis icon.pngProptosis: The closer the tear floats to Isaac, the larger it is. The farther away, the smaller.
  • (except in Rebirth)Collectible Pupula Duplex icon.pngPupula Duplex: Decreases the tear size by taking the form of a Pupula Duplex tear; however, it travels faster.
  • (except in Rebirth and Afterbirth)Collectible Sulfuric Acid icon.pngSulfuric Acid: The Ludovico tear occasionally becomes acidic and can destroy objects.
  • (in Repentance and Repentance+) Character Tainted Lilith icon.pngTainted Lilith: Collectible Gello icon.pngGello shoots a smaller Ludovico tear which disappears if he retreats back into Lilith. However, the automatic aiming of Gello interacts with the manual control of Ludovico, making the tear uncontrollable while fighting enemies.
  • (except in Repentance and Repentance+)Collectible Technology 2 icon.pngTechnology 2: The tear controls as usual, and Isaac fires the laser towards the tear relative to his position, rather than in the direction the player is moving the tear. Technology 2's damage penalty still applies. The laser becomes spectral.
    • (in Repentance and Repentance+)Technology 2's tears penalty applies instead of damage.
      • Technology 2 + (except in Rebirth and Afterbirth)Collectible Analog Stick icon.pngAnalog Stick: Laser is fired directly at the tear while it is being moved, instead of being limited to cardinal directions.
  • (except in Rebirth and Afterbirth)Collectible Technology Zero icon.pngTechnology Zero: No effect without additional items. Extra tears orbiting the main one or familiar tears will generate arcs to the controlled tear.
  • (except in Rebirth)Collectible The Wiz icon.pngThe Wiz: A smaller Ludovico tear will appear and revolve around the main one. Also, the Ludovico tear moves diagonally, up is up-right, down is down-left, left is left-up, right is right-down. This can be counteracted by holding the keys or d-pad in its associated path (up-right to make it go up and so forth with the other keys).
  • Collectible Tiny Planet icon.pngTiny Planet: Tear orbits around Isaac, however, the orbit can be grown or shrunken, sped up or slowed down by using the firing keys.
  • Collectible Tough Love icon.pngTough Love / (in Repentance and Repentance+)JawbreakerJawbreaker: Tear occasionally flicks to being a tooth, which deals 3.2x Isaac's tear damage, before immediately returning to being a normal tear. The frequency at which the tear very briefly transforms into a tooth increases with Luck, permanently becoming a tooth at 9 Luck. (in Repentance and Repentance+)JawbreakerJawbreaker does not change the tear appearance.
  • Collectible Trinity Shield icon.pngTrinity Shield: The controls of the tear and the shield overlap, making it impossible to consistently control both.
  • (in Repentance and Repentance+)Collectible Tropicamide icon.pngTropicamide: No size increase effect. Ludovico tear size scales with damage, and not with size multipliers.

In-game Footage

Trivia

  • The Ludovico Technique is a reference to Anthony Burgess' novel A Clockwork Orange and Stanley Kubrick's film adaptation, where it was referred to as "Ludovico's Technique." The technique involved headgear which forced the patient's eyelids open (hence "Controlled Tears") while watching violent films under nausea-inducing drugs, conditioning them against violence.
  • It is possible to control the tear with the mouse; just open the options.ini file in C:\Users\USER\Documents\My Games\Binding of Isaac Repentance and change MouseControl=0 to MouseControl=1.
  • The sound of firing a tear with The Ludovico Technique can be heard in the splash screen of a boss room, before it is possible to control your character.

Gallery

Bugs

Bug Bug! (in Afterbirth and Afterbirth †) Mom's Knife + Collectible Technology icon.pngTechnology: Creates an uncontrollable laser ring centered on Isaac. The knife becomes stuck under Isaac and cannot be fired.
Bug Bug! (in Repentance and Repentance+) Inside any Crawl SpaceCrawl Space, including the Boss Rotgut ingame.pngRotgut fight or Boss The Beast ingame.pngThe Beast and Ultra Harbingers fight, the tear generated by Ludovico Technique will disappear and reappear on top of Isaac occasionally.
Bug Bug! (in Repentance and Repentance+) At exactly 30.00 fire rate, the tear can only tick once on an enemy, potentially causing softlock due to lack of dps.
Bug Bug! (in Repentance and Repentance+) If Isaac is holding fire and has Collectible Technology 2 icon.pngTechnology 2 while pulling out Collectible Urn of Souls icon.pngUrn of Souls, another Technology 2 laser is created in the direction being fired that persists until the urn is put away or the room is left.