It Lives

It Lives!
Official artwork by Edmund McMillen
Information
Entitiy ID	78.1
Health	950

It Lives! is a more powerful version of Mom's Heart, which he replaces permanently following his unlock after completing the 9th playthrough.

Behavior

Much like the Heart, It Lives spawns numerous enemies, however many of these are bosses.

The enemies spawned by It Lives are, at random:

• Monstro

• A Larry Jr. pair

• The Duke of Flies

• Chub

• 4 Leeches*

• 2 Eyes*

• 2 Freds

• 4 Suckers*

• 4 Knights*

Bosses spawned by It Lives will be spawned in order the first time, with Monstro being first, followed by Larry Jr., the Duke of Flies and finally Chub.

*Any normal enemy may randomly be replaced by one of his counterparts, including Kamikaze leeches, Holy leeches, bloodshot eyes, spits and Selfless Knight variants respectively.

Like in the Mom's Heart fight, getting It Lives to approximately one-third health will cause he to constantly fire red IPECAC-like bombs that leave Red Creep behind. He will spawn different enemies, starting with 4 Suckers. The easiest way to counter this is to simply hug a wall and fire tears at him, as the bombs will rarely hit Isaac directly.

Strategy for defeating It Lives is generally the same as defeating Mom's Heart, though he is advised to focus on dealing damage to It Lives whenever possible as avoiding a single boss such as Chub while fighting It Lives tends to be simpler than keeping up with the constant inflow of enemies and bosses.

Killing him for the first time unlocks the character ???, and the floor Sheol, otherwise accessed from the Devil Room. Accessing the Sheol devil room requires meeting the same criteria that spawns regular devil rooms. Killing it for the second time unlocks the immediate choice of Cathedral or Sheol upon completion, instead of the chest. Thus, you do not need a devil room spawn to get to Sheol on playthroughs 12+. If the Devil Room spawns after killing It Lives for the first time, you get the regular choice of Sheol (in the Room himself) or the Cathedral (when you come back from the Devil Room, the beam of light to the Cathedral will replace the final Chest when you leave the Devil Room), whilst further playthroughs will give you the choices side-by-side.

Champion Variants

Eternal

Eternal It lives acts exactly the same as Eternal Mom's Heart.

Notes

• Just as with Mom and Mom's Heart, It Lives can be instantly killed by using The Bible item.
• Defeating this boss in future runs will no longer produce the golden chest for completing this game, instead requiring you to travel to Sheol or Cathedral to win instead.
• If you have enough speed, running through the beam of light that will take you to the Cathedral and going into a Devil or Angel Room (if one spawns) will not take you to the Cathedral; instead, if you leave the Devil/Angel Room, the beam of light will be gone and you will be forced to go to Sheol.
• It Lives is male.

Trivia

• Edmund has confirmed that It Lives is in fact Isaac in his mother's womb.
• This actually make some sense because It Lives's unlock text is "Your future's past awaits"
  • But at the same time, this is paradoxical because this would mean Isaac killed himself.
• The portrait and name were added in the Wrath of the Lamb expansion. Before this the name was still Mom's Heart and the portrait was the same as Mom's Heart.
• If you listen closely, you can hear Isaac's mom groaning in the background. This is the same for Mom's Heart. The only minor difference is with It Lives, you can also hear faint, kicking. This may refer to a baby 'kicking'.
• Interestingly, the back from It Lives from the loading screen is the exact appearance of Mom's Heart.
• The boss could be represented as literally breaking Mom's Heart. This would explain Mom's Heart eventually becoming It Lives, as Mom worries more and more about Isaac, getting consumed thinking about him all the time & trying to control his life. The fully empty room in Mom's Heart endings shows Isaac's jump into chest from a different angle as well - he feels guilty for disappointing his Mother / He can't handle the worldview she's trying to force on him anymore, leading him to hide in the Chest from all worries. The endings with golden chests also show how when Isaac is alone in his room with lack of motherly love, something tends to always go badly.

Gallery

Isaac encountering It Lives

Videos

Cain vs. It Lives - TBoI 1.4 Petden

It Lives fight in 1.4

Binding of Isaac It Lives under 30 seconds

Related Achievements

It Lives is considered to be a Mom's Heart for the purposes of most achievements.

"The Halo" - Kill Mom or Mom's Heart using The Bible.
"It Lives!" - Complete The Womb 2 nine times.
"The Cross" - Kill Mom's Heart with Maggy.
"The Bag" - Kill Mom's Heart with Cain.
"The Robo-Baby" - Kill Mom's Heart with Judas.
"The Razor Blade" - Kill Mom's Heart with Eve.
"The D6" - Kill Mom's Heart with ???.
"Blood Lust" - Kill Mom's Heart with Samson.