The Ludovico Technique

5.100.329

Treasure Room Treasure Room

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The Ludovico Technique is a special 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

• 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.
• When Death uses his The Hourglass attack, the tear is slow to respond but then moves so quickly that it is nearly impossible to use effectively.
• When there are no enemies in a room, the tear slowly floats towards the player.
• If multiple Ludovico Techniques are acquired (via Diplopia, Crooked Penny 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.

Synergies

• 20/20/ The Inner Eye/ Mutant Spider: Smaller tears orbits the main tear.
• Brimstone: Tear takes the shape of a very large laser ring. 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 + Incubus: Incubus' Brimstone laser is not affected by Ludovico Technique.
  • Brimstone + A Lump of Coal: The ring increases in diameter, but not the damage, the farther away it gets from Isaac.
  • Brimstone + Spoon Bender: The ring reaches out to attack enemies near it, reforming into a ring when no enemies are present.
  • Brimstone + Technology: The ring is visually identical to a normal Brimstone ring, but the 1.5x damage multiplier applies.
• Azazel: The same effect as with Brimstone, but the damage is halved.
  • Azazel + Brimstone: Full damage of the laser ring is regained.
• Bookworm: Causes an additional smaller tear to constantly appear and disappear, teleporting from Isaac's location to the main Ludovico tear in a glitchy manner.
• Compound Fracture: Shoots out smaller tears when attacking an enemy. Scattered tears are spectral and piercing.
• Dead 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.
• Dr. Fetus: The bomb can be controlled.
• Fate's Reward: The familiar gains spectral and piercing tears.
• Flat Stone: The tear starts bouncing at a rate somewhat below Isaac's fire rate, each bounce dealing splash damage.
  • Flat Stone + Ipecac: 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.
• The 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 + Multidimensional Baby: The second tear acts exactly like the first and can also be hit to propel it.
• Godhead: 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.
• Guppy transformation: A large number of flies is rapidly deployed whilst controlling the Ludovico tear.
• Incubus: Isaac gains a controlled tear while also being able to shoot normally with Incubus. Incubus's tears gain piercing and spectral properties.
• Loki's Horns: The Ludovico tear will sometimes shoot 4 smaller tears in each direction.
• Lost Contact: Tear will block enemy tears without disappearing.
• A Lump of Coal: The tear becomes larger the further away it is from Isaac, increasing in damage.
• Mom's Eye: The Ludovico tear will sometimes shoot a smaller tear in a random direction.
• Mom's Wig: The item causes spiders to spawn rapidly when moving the tear.
• Monstro's Lung: Tear turns red and does more damage.
  • 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.
• The Parasite: Shoots out smaller tears when attacking an enemy. Scattered tears are spectral and piercing.
• Pause: The tear deals damage, even if the enemies are stopped. Moving the tear unpauses the enemies.
• Strange 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.
• Technology: The tear becomes a large laser ring, which visually looks like a shot fired by Tech 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.
• Tech.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.
• Tear Detonator: The tear explodes into six smaller tears, then reappears next to the player.

Interactions

• ???'s Only Friend/ Robo-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.
• Anti-Gravity: Only tear delay down applies.
• Blood Clot/ Chemical Peel: The tear steadily cycles between red and "normal," dealing more damage when red.
• Chocolate Milk: The tear can't be charged, but reduces Isaac's tear delay by 20%.
• The Common Cold: The tear pulses green, poisoning enemies.
• Cricket's Body: Only tear delay down applies.
• Cursed Eye: Overridden by The Ludovico Technique.
• Epic Fetus: Overrides The Ludovico Technique.
• Explosivo: 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.
  • The tear will grow very quickly when stuck to an enemy and pop without dealing damage, instead of the normal Explosivo delay and explosion.
• Fire Mind: Tears retain the ability to ignite enemies and explode. Tears respawn at Isaac's location after exploding.
  • Tears do not explode on contact with an enemy.
• Ghost Pepper/ Red Candle: Fires created from Ghost Pepper will destroy the tear and cause it to respawn on Isaac.
• Ipecac: Overridden by The Ludovico Technique. (No damage increase or explosion.)
  • +4 damage bonus, no explosion.
• Mom'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.
  • Mom's Knife + Flat Stone: Flat Stone is overridden completely.
  • Mom's Knife + Monstro's Lung: Monstro's Lung is overridden completely.
• Multidimensional Baby: No effect.
  • An additional Ludovico tear is spawned 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.
• Notched Axe: The Ludovico tear cannot be moved while Notched Axe is held up.
• Proptosis: The closer the tear floats to Isaac, the larger it is. The farther away, the smaller.
• Pupula Duplex: Decreases the tear size by taking the form of a Pupula Duplex tear; however, it travels faster.
• Sinus Infection / Nose Goblin: The tear can occasionally stick to an enemy. If the enemy does not die quickly, the tear pops and a new one spawns.
• Tech X: Overrides The Ludovico Technique.
• Technology 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.
  • Technology 2 + Analog Stick: Laser is fired directly at the tear while it is being moved, instead of being limited to cardinal directions.
• Technology Zero: No effect without additional items. Extra tears orbiting the main one or familiar tears will generate arcs to the controlled tear.
• Tiny Planet: Tear orbits around Isaac, however, the orbit can be grown or shrunken, sped up or slowed down by using the firing keys.
• Tractor Beam: Only tears and shot speed bonuses apply.
• Trinity Shield: The controls of the tear and the shield overlap, making it impossible to consistently control both.
• The Wiz: A smaller Ludovico tear will spawn 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).

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.

Gallery

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  Concept art for The Ludovico Technique.

Seeds

 PC  KPRZ M83V (First floor treasure room)

 PC  ZYS1 ONMS (Treasure room adjacent to spawn)

 PC  VLZW 7CJ8 (Treasure room adjacent to spawn)

 PC  MX26 V47J (treasure room adjacent to spawn) (both modes)

 PC  KYSL MRKZ (treasure room adjacent to spawn)

 PS4  S11S E632 (First floor treasure room)

 Vita  0H0T MKNS (First floor treasure room)

 3DS  DQBE T9RH (First floor treasure room)

 3DS  GEYN TXS7 (First floor treasure room)

 3DS  KK92 7DTD (First floor treasure room)

 Switch  191Z NVJA (Treasure room adjacent to spawn)

 Switch  PNWHFSMH (First treasure room)

Bugs

Bug! Mom's Knife + Technology: Creates an uncontrollable laser ring centered on Isaac. The knife becomes stuck under Isaac and cannot be fired.