The Ludovico Technique

Item Icon
Pickup Quote	"Controlled Tears"
Entity ID	5.100.329
Character Appearance
Tear Appearance
Item Pool	Treasure Room Treasure Room
Collection Grid	(page 4, column 4, row 3) (page 3, column 4, row 5) (page 3, column 5, row 5)

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 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.

Synergies

• 20/20: One smaller tear orbits the main tear.
• 8 Inch Nails: The tear becomes a nail, increases in size, damage, and provides minor knockback in the direction the tear moves.
• Apple! / Euthanasia / Tough Love: The tear can gain the damage multiplier from each of the items, using the appropriate appearance when it happens. Euthanasia retains its instant kill ability against non-boss enemies.
• Blood Clot: The tear steadily cycles between red and "normal," dealing more damage when red.
• Brimstone: Tear takes the shape of a very large laser ring. Shot speed is ignored. The Tears stat is ignored and damage is dealt very rapidly at a rate equivalent to 2 tear delay. This ring will always be present and doesn't need charging up like normal Brimstone would.
  • Brimstone + A Lump of Coal: The ring increases in diameter, but not 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.
  • Brimstone + Wiggle Worm: The ring takes the shape of a star.
• Azazel: Same effect as with Brimstone, but damage is halved.
  • Azazel + Brimstone: Full damage of the laser ring is regained.
• Chemical Peel: Tear will alternate between "normal" and red, dealing more damage when red.
• Chocolate Milk: No damage increase, but results in -1 tear delay.
• The Common Cold: The tear pulses green, poisoning enemies.
• 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.
• Death's Touch: The tear becomes a scythe (vanity), but increases in size and damage
• Dr. Fetus: The bomb can be controlled until it explodes.
• Fate's Reward: The familiar gains spectral and piercing tears, but otherwise fires normally.
• 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 spawns on top of the player.
  • 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.
• 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.
• The Inner Eye: Two smaller tears orbit the main tear.
• 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 Contacts: Tear randomly alternates colors, which randomly petrifies enemies.
• Mom's Perfume: Tear gains a chance to give the fear effect.
• 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.
• Mutant Spider: Three smaller tears orbit the main tear.
• My Reflection: The tear moves much faster.
• Number One: The tear deals damage to enemies much faster, with the range penalty having no effect.
• 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.
• Pulse Worm: The tear pulsates in midair, expanding and contracting. This works with normal tears as well as Brimstone.
• Spoon Bender: Tear will slightly gravitate towards enemies near it
• 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 damage is dealt very rapidly at a rate equivalent to 2 tear delay.
  • Technology + Dr. Fetus: You have a ring of technology around you and you fire bombs normally.
• 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: Overridden by The Ludovico Technique.
• Cricket's Body: Overridden by The Ludovico Technique.
• Cursed Eye: No effect.
• 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.
  • Overridden completely by The Ludovico Technique, other than tear appearance.
• Ghost Pepper: Fires created from Ghost Pepper will destroy the tear and cause it to respawn on Isaac.
• Homing Tears: The tear slowly homes toward the nearest enemy. Once locked in an enemy moving the tear somewhere else becomes harder.
• Hook Worm: Tear moves in a zig-zag pattern while controlled.
• Invulnerability: Tear cannot be moved while in effect, but will still do damage.
• Ipecac: Overridden by The Ludovico Technique. (No damage increase or explosion.)
  • +4 damage bonus, no explosion.
• Loki's Horns: The Ludovico tear will sometimes shoot 4 smaller tears in each direction, depending on luck and tear rate.
• Mom's Eye: The Ludovico tear will sometimes shoot a smaller tear in a random direction, depending on luck and tear rate.
• 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 damage is dealt at a rate equivalent to 5 tear delay.
  • Mom's Knife + Flat Stone: Flat Stone is overridden completely.
  • Mom's Knife + Godhead: Replaces the Ludovico tear with Mom's Knife but removes the Godhead aura.
  • Mom's Knife + Technology: Creates an uncontrollable laser ring centered on Isaac. The knife becomes stuck under Isaac and cannot be fired.
  • 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.
• Red Candle: The tear disappears upon contact with a flame created by the candle and reappears near Isaac, slightly shrinking the flame.
• Ring Worm: The tear spins rapidly in small circles.
• Sinus Infection: The tear can occasionally stick to an enemy. If the enemy does not die quickly, the tear pops and a new one spawns.
• 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.
  • Tech.5 + Analog Stick: Laser is fired directly at the tear while it is being moved, instead of being limited to cardinal directions.
• 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. 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: The tear controls strangely. It orbits Isaac slowly when not controlled, and when controlled, the tear's movement is distorted. Additionally, the tear's range becomes limited to Tiny Planet's orbit distance.
• Tractor Beam: The Ludovico Technique overrides the beam's effect.
• 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 spawned and revolves round the main one. Also, the Ludovico tear now moves in a very unusual way, 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)

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