Knights are children with their bodies covered completely in iron, and a mask with two black eyes and a mouth. Their vulnerable brain is the only part not covered in armor.
Behavior
Knights are invincible from the front, and can only be damaged from the back or, occasionally, the side.
Knights generally move about the room erratically, but react to having orthogonal line-of-sight on the player. If the player gets close enough to a Knight on a horizontal or vertical path, the Knight will change direction to move towards the player. The Knight will be set in this new direction until it hits an obstacle or the wall. This means that attracting a Knight's attention, and then quickly moving behind it to shoot can be a viable strategy, especially with a high Speed stat and when done horizontally in rooms with few obstacles. The Knight's line of sight is limited, however, which can allow the player to shoot a Knight vertically across the room without the Knight changing direction if on opposite ends. Care should be used in fighting large numbers of them, especially in the more maze-like room layouts.
Strategy
Knights can be safely dispatched with the use of piercing shots from Cupid's Arrow, Technology, or Brimstone, as these will damage them even from the front. The player can also use Bombs, or if the The Ladder or flight ability (from Lord Of The Pit or Transcendence ) is available, simply hiding safely over a pit and shooting from a distance. Knights will also take damage from walking into Fireplaces or Spikes. Status effect tears, such as The Common Cold can be applied from the front. Using Mom's Knife is a great strategy to swiftly kill Knights.
Champion Variant
Eternal Knights act similarly to their normal versions. However, shooting it in its face will cause the tears to be reflected back. If Eternal Knight takes damage, it will leave creep for a short while.
If Isaac shoots Little Chubby right in an Eternal Knight's face, it will despawn (appears to be killed) and respawn after moving into another room.
This variant was added in the Eternal Edition update but can be found in Hard Mode exclusively.
Notes
- When spawned by bosses such as Mom's Heart or Death, a Knight is completely vulnerable for a brief amount of seconds until it begins moving.
Trivia
- Edmund has stated that Knights are a reference to Darknuts from The Legend of Zelda series, which can also only be harmed the same way by only attacking them from behind.
Bugs
- Using Mom's Pad will sometimes reverse the hit spot on the Knights meaning the player has to fire at the Metal face on the Knight whereas the brain seems to react like it is the Metal face.
| Monsters | ||
|---|---|---|
| Fly variants |  Black Fly •  Attack Fly •  Moter • (:  Eternal Fly)
| |
| Gaper variants |  Gaper •  Frowning Gaper •  Mr. Maw • (:  Gurgle)
| |
| Mulligan variants |  Mulligan •  Mulligoon •  Hive • (:  Mulliboom)
| |
| Horf variants |  Horf •  Maw •  Red Maw • (:  Psychic Maw)
| |
| Vis variants |  Vis • (:  Double Vis •  Chubber)
| |
| Maggot variants |  Maggot •  Charger •  Spitty
| |
| Hopper variants |  Hopper •  Flaming Hopper •  Leaper
| |
| Boil variants |  Boil • (:  Gut •  Sack)
| |
| Clot variants |  Clotty •  Clot •  I. Blob
| |
| Leech variants |  Leech •  Kamikaze Leech • (:  Holy Leech)
| |
| Spider variants | :  Spider •  Big Spider •  Trite
| |
| Pooter variants |  Pooter • (:  Fat Fly)
| |
| Boomfly variants |  Boom Fly •  Red Boom Fly
| |
| Pacer variants |  Pacer •  Gusher
| |
| Sucker variants |  Sucker • (:  Spit)
| |
| Globin variants |  Globin •  Gazing Globin
| |
| Knight variants |  Knight •  Selfless Knight
| |
| Eye variants |  Eye •  Bloodshot Eye
| |
| Host variants |  Host •  Red Host
| |
| Baby variants |  Baby • (:  Angelic Baby)
| |
| Eye variants | Eye • Bloodshot Eye
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| Poky variants |  Poky • (:  Slide)
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| Brain variants |  Brain •  Membrain
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| Gut variants |  Guts • (:  Mama Guts)
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| Dople variants |  Dople •  Evil Twin
| |
| Grimace variants |  Stone Grimace • (:  Vomit Grimace)
| |
| Keeper variants | :  Keeper •  Hanger
| |
| Standalone variants |  Para-Bite •  Fred •  Lump •  Embryo • Peep Eye • (:  Swarmer •  Mask + Heart •  B. Licker)
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