Since this is one of the first in the series, I will quickly explain: Devil’s Advocate is where I list the opposite merit of items/combos. Basically the good points for bad items and the downsides/bad situations for good items.

Which brings us to Tech 2

On the stats surface its one of the worst items, worse than anything else in the game. It gives you a x0.65 damage multiplier, which is pretty damning. And you can only shoot regular tears with your left eye, meaning your regular tear delay is effectively doubled.

In return? Isaac fires a permanent laser with his right eye , with unlimited range and piercing like all lasers. The laser deals 20% of Isaac’s damage per tick, and works off the reduced damage from picking up Tech 2. It looks like this:

So its pretty apparent why this is a bad pickup from a stats standpoint. I have maintained before that good stats eliminate the need for fancy synergies, unless they are really good. And Tech 2 is just a silly laser, it effectively does what the Finger does, only that it is easier to control and procs more damage, versus the Finger which doesn’t give any stat down. So why pick it up?

Ipecac

And other high damage-tear delay increase items such as Polyphemus or Eve’s Mascara as well, but Ipecac more than anything else. The damage down still applies, but it pales in comparison to the raw damage up received from Ipecac. As a result your laser becomes your primary source of very high DPS, which also has a high rate of poisoning enemies. A game-winning combo by itself.

Charge based tears

Be it Monstro’s Lung or Cursed Eye or Brimstone, one major downside to these items is that Isaac cannot deal damage while charging up his tears, which can make for dangerous situations when most enemies actively target him. Enter Tech2, which allows for retaining damage on enemies, with infinite range and piercing

Status effects from tears

A lot of items give Isaac’s tears the ability to inflict status effects. Be it freeze from Mom’s Contacts, charm from her Eyeshadow, burn from Fire Mind, slow from Spider bite, etc. These effects are not permanent, but they can proc fairly regularly on non-boss enemies. Since Tech 2 procs extremely regularly, it gives a very high rate of triggering these helpful effects. Fire Mind especially, since the Tech 2 laser wont cause needless explosions

Lost Contact

Having Lost Contact causes tears to block enemy projectiles. Without piercing, this also eliminates Isaac’s own tears. Tech 2 is a good substitute as its unlimited range and piercing allows Isaac to eliminate all enemy tears in the cardinal direction he is facing

Unorthodox firing direction

This refers to items such as Wiz, Tiny Planet, Marked, Ludovico, etc. which cause Isaac to fire in directions different from where he is facing straight. Tech 2 ensures that you have at least one source of damage that will definitely fire in the natural way, which helps in dealing intuitive damage.

Apart from all these, it synergises well with items such as Lump of Coal for damage with range, Pisces for Knockback, Rubber cement for bouncing lasers, etc.

So is this item a good pickup ultimately? I’d say its a better late game pickup when you already have workable damage. And if you have Ipecac, 100%. But early game it can be very crippling, although the piercing can still be helpful.

At the very least your sprite looks like a Terminator