Talk: Bob's Brain

Various Similar Opinions

Fuck, I hate this item. Done more harm to me than to my enemies. Fuck it! Avoid at all costs!

I'll let you off the hook since you were nice enough to vent off in the talk section here. How about rephrasing what you wrote into are good tip for the page? It's not entirely a bad item, but it's certainly the new IPECAC. --Dooomspeaker (talk) 13:49, 23 November 2014 (UTC)

Yeah that's one of the items i hate the most: most of the time it comes back when i don't expect it and i just end up blowing myself up. And even when it's my "only weapon" like in some challenges where you can't shoot, it piss me off everytime. "Bob's Brain: try it , hate it , throw it in the closest trash and set it on fire!" ~Xonort

This is also my least favourite item. Worse even than Cursed Eye. Here's why it's useless:

1. Usually it blows up in your face, taking precious hearts.
2. It moves so slowly that any enemy far away enough to safely fire the bomb at will usually move out of the way. After missing the brain will then fly back to you, forcing you to break off any attack in order to flee to safe distance.

   2a. What turns this from an annoyance into a full-on rage-inducing fuck-you is that the brain moves at the pace of a snail when you want it to hit an enemy, then flies back considerably faster like it can't wait to ruin your attack.

3. It doesn't even do that much damage. In fact I would say that any damage the brain manages to do to a boss is cancelled out by the amount of damage you're unable to deal out while you're trying not to blow yourself up.

In short, it is crap, and I believe the wiki page shouldn't just warn about the possibility of damaging yourself, it should actively tell players not to pick it up. --77.102.114.99 11:23, 3 January 2015 (UTC)

If, and only if, it interacts with bomb effects, it may be considered useful (It'd be so good with Sad Bombs...). It's a double edged sword with no handle, but definitely not as sharp as a sword as Ipecac.

Bob's brain + Mr. Mega? I'm not sure if it did anything.

Ipecac is a double-edged sword. Bob's Brain is a single-edged sword. It's a magic single-edged sword that no matter how you hold it, the blade always points at your throat. I've never seen it synergise with bomb-enhancing items like Sad Bombs, and although I could easily be wrong, my feeling is that I've played Isaac long enough that I'd've noticed if it did.

I note this item is so awful that the wiki page has been semi-protected to prevent us telling people how awful it is. [/tinfoil] --77.102.114.99 00:14, 8 January 2015 (UTC)

You didn't play long enough then. And yes, pages to entries the people like to bitch about are protected so we don't get random idiots that try to vent off by vandalizing wikis.

--Dooomspeaker (talk) 01:32, 8 January 2015 (UTC)

I have had problems with Bob's Brain before and I have also had many runs where I had used it successfully, and so I just assumed that I needed time to learn how to use it. Earlier today I was playing the Family Man challenge (start with 3 familiars and no tears) and found a Bob's Brain, so I picked it up expecting it to help immensely as it had previously. However, the item proved fickle and ultimately lead to my demise, taking the majority of my health and pushing me out of a room made difficult only by the fact that I had this temperamental explosive in my face. I noticed during the doomed run that it followed at the end of the line of the familiars, and had a very ambiguous area for triggering its attack, as compared to when it is the only familiar, as then it seems that it will only trigger when Isaac touches it. When it does trigger it teleports to Isaac, adding another layer of ambiguity. It's an odd effect, which I suspect that the developers may not have fully considered. TL;DR: I suspect that how temperamental it is depends on how many familiars you have. Can any readers here confirm this? --Krickit (talk) 06:47, 20 June 2015 (UTC)

The brain is pretty amazing if you get pyromaniac. And it slightly turns into a beast with pyro + sad bombs. But if you don't have pyro, avoid like the plague. It will kill off your character like one.

Inyourface456 (talk) 22:48, 3 November 2015 (UTC)

Just to note, it says that bomb modifiers affect Bob's Brain, however this does apply for Bomber Boy --66.212.219.87 07:20, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

Insights on the Item

Okay, after completing the BRAINS! challenge, I've learned a lot about how Bob's Brain works as an item. I've seen people comment that Isaac has to be standing on the brain for it to fire, but this is not true. The brain will fire from wherever it is as long as it's not in cooldown. However, because the cooldown is not telegraphed, it's very easy to consider the brain temperamental or unresponsive.

1. Upon entering a room, Bob's Brain will be on a cooldown of a few seconds. During this time, the brain will not fire.
2. If you have multiple brains in your follower line, the next one will not fire until the previous one has hit an obstacle and started to return, or exploded from touching an enemy.
3. Once Bob's Brain respawns in the follower line after exploding, there is still a short cooldown before it can be fired again. This seems to be slightly longer than the cooldown time upon entering a room.
4. I'm not sure if Tears or other stats affect this cooldown, but I don't believe it does.

--47.157.3.198 05:31, 1 June 2019 (UTC)

That's a lot of information, thanks! Let's go down the list. As far as I can tell, the page accurately notes how to fire Bob's Brain, with no mention of having to stand on it. The cooldown when entering a room is not only mentioned, but somewhat expanded on. Same thing for the fact that only one brain can be fired at a time. The cooldown once it reappears is new, so I'll test that out and add it to the page if true, so thanks for that! As for tears affecting the cooldown, I'll test that too. Overall, even though some of the info was already on the page, we always appreciate this kind of info dump. You never know what kind of info would need updating or replacing. --JokerPixel (talk) 15:55, 1 June 2019 (UTC)

Update: I can confirm that there isn't much of a notable cooldown once the Brain respawns, and that Tears have no effect on the item's cooldown or fire rate. --JokerPixel (talk) 16:21, 1 June 2019 (UTC)