Tainted ???

*None*

**Tainted ???** is a character added in The Binding of Isaac: Repentance. He is the alternate version of  ???. Tainted ??? is unlocked by reaching Home and using the , , or  to access a special room in one of the walls while playing as ???. He starts with 3 soul hearts, 3 poops, and  in the consumable slot.

While playing as Tainted ???, bomb pickups are replaced by poop pickups, and his bomb counter is replaced by a poop counter which displays the number and effects of his poops. The order in which different types of poop are obtained is predetermined based on the seed. By default, Tainted ??? can carry a maximum of 10 poops: 9 in the poop counter and 1 in Hold.

Using Hold will store his leftmost poop for later use and cycle to the next poop.

Besides replacing bomb pickups, poop pickups also have a chance to drop from fallen enemies and from Tainted ??? by dealing damage. There are small and large variants of poop pickups: small poop pickups give one poop, and large poop pickups give three poops.

## Poop Varieties

Tainted ??? can acquire the following effects from poop pickups. These effects are the same as , but are not used immediately.

### Throwable

All thrown poops deal 15 damage to enemies they hit when thrown (up to 3 times in the case of stone poop).

### Non-Throwable

 Black Poop: the creep also slows enemies and gives Tainted ??? slowing tears.
 Toxic cloud from Stinky poop: the creep poisons enemies and gives Tainted ??? poison tears.
 Flaming Poop: the creep burns enemies and gives Tainted ??? .
 White Poop & its Aura: the creep grants homing and triples Tainted ???'s fire rate and damage

## Notes

* Most items that affect bomb count will spawn blue flies when playing as Tainted ???. For example,  and  will spawn 2 and 10 flies, respectively.
	+ However, Bombs are Key pills seem to give Tainted ??? bombs internally (assuming he had keys before using the pill), as using the pill again will give back the amount of keys that were originally carried. When bombs are obtained this way, they can be given to Bomb Bums, though you will be unable to see how many you currently have, and they cannot be used for anything else.
* Items/effects that reroll pickups (such as , , etc.) will also reroll poop pickups.
	+ will not convert poop pickups into coins.
* Tainted ???'s poops cannot be used to bridge over gaps, unlike the poops from .
* In Co-Op, partners can pick up poop drops if they're alive and still add them to Tainted ???'s reserve.
* In Co-Op, a bomb counter will be displayed if one of the characters is not Tainted ???, despite him not usually being able to see it.
* In Co-Op, Tainted ??? can infinitely use Bomb Bums without taking away bombs from the other player's reserves.
* Tainted ??? is unable to give poop pickups to Bomb Bums in place of bombs.
* Tainted ???'s tears are colored brown; this is purely cosmetic.
* Tainted ???'s special poops have exclusive interactions with .

## Strategy

* As Tainted ??? begins with a low tears stat, it is almost required to rely on poops in the early game. The player should not be scared to use poops, as Tainted ??? will naturally create many poops as he deals damage, especially in boss battles. However, it may be best to save more powerful poops or poop synergies, such as White Poops and brown creep, for more difficult situations such as boss battles.
	+ Tainted ???'s low tears also makes tears up items like  very beneficial.
* More than any other type of poop, it can be beneficial to use Hold on bomb poops for utility purposes, such as finding secret rooms or reaching pickups behind rocks.
	+ Alternatively, flaming poops can be used in conjunction with stinky poops/farts to blow things up without using bombs. The stinky poop/fart can be used next to what the player wants to blow up, then the flaming poop can be thrown at it to create an explosion. This can also be done by throwing stinky poops at a fire or flaming poop, though care must be taken as it is easy to get caught in the ensuing explosion if the player does not move out of the way quickly enough.
* As with most other fires, flaming poops can kill shopkeepers without the need for a Butt Bomb or another stinky poop.
* If playing in Greed Mode, it's best to try to complete all waves in one sitting as exiting the main room will cause all poops and creep to disappear.
* **Almost anything** that resembles a fire can cause toxic clouds created by farts and Stinky Poop to explode. This includes Fire Places, fires shot by enemies (such as Candlers, Fire Worms, and Revenants), and fires created by Tainted ??? (such as with , , and ). Extra caution must be taken to stay away from gas clouds if playing with or around fires.
	+ is a notable exception to this.
	+ Stinky Poops can intentionally be thrown at blue/purple fireplaces to blow them up for the chance to gain Soul Hearts. Be careful not to destroy Angel statues next to them if they’re in an Angel Room if you do not wish to fight the angel.

## Item Interactions

* allows Tainted ??? to hold up to 29 poops in the poop counter.
* does not increase the drop rate of pickups from generated poops.

### Good Items

* Items that break obstacles such as, , or  lets Tainted ??? break open tinted rocks, secret rooms, and other obstacles without needing to save a bomb poop.
* turns useless red hearts into friendly spiders.
* can sometimes spawn half soul hearts on the collection of coins, which can occasionally be dropped by thrown poops.
* : Grants generated poops a chance to drop a penny.
* / allows Tainted ??? to ignite gas at will and from a safe distance, making him less reliant on poop bombs and explosive diarrhea.
* become more effective since Tainted ??? could spawn more pickups naturally.
* generates dip familiars from all generated poops. It also generates unique dip familiars if Tainted ??? destroys the 3 new poops: Stone Dip, Stinky Dip, and the Flaming Dip.
* With , poops held above Tainted ???'s head can still damage enemies while invulnerable.
* allows Tainted ??? to pick up an already-placed poop and put it in a different spot (e.g. putting white poop in favorable spot to fight a boss).
* allows for more controlled usage of the Explosive Diarrhea poop, and allows for the player to potentially save themselves from a fart chain explosion.
* is extremely strong with Tainted ???, allowing him to permanently gain the stat increases gained from standing in his Brown Creep and White Poop auras.
* patches up Tainted ???'s low fire rate, as the technology laser fires around 2.5 times a second.

### Bad Items

* With  or , the explosion might be very hard to avoid if your current poop is farting, since farting guarantees to spawn fire. The only surefire way to not harm yourself using a fart is to move in one direction constantly while farting.
* will harm special poops whenever it's pointed at them, forcing the player to take special care to not look or turn to the poop to avoid weakening them accidentally.
* Items that directly add Red Hearts to the health bar, such as , , or full health pills, are useless. However, eternal hearts still act as an extra half a heart and become a full soul heart at the end of the floor, making  viable.
* Blood Donation Machines and Devil Beggars are riskier, as they deplete health that is harder to replenish.
* tends to destroy poops as soon as they are thrown unless the player has careful timing and aim.
* , since it requires Red Hearts to convert, would be a useless item to hold (but should still be picked up and swapped back to get credit towards the Guppy transformation). Guppy's Paw may still be used to activate .
* doesn't lower the price of Soul Heart Devil deals.
* is useless unless paired with , where it becomes very useful.
* wisps may break special poops if not careful.
* can cause the player to accidentally break special poops while trying to fire. This becomes less impactful with items which replace tears, like .
* , while allowing the player to have slightly more control over the directions that the poops are thrown, also often makes it difficult to avoid immediately breaking them. This can be especially harsh when trying to use holy poops, as the firing rate increase will almost guarantee the poop being immediately destroyed.

## Unlockable Items

* Dingle Berry - Defeat Isaac, ???, Satan, and The Lamb as  **Tainted ???**.

* The Emperor - Defeat Ultra Greedier as  **Tainted ???**.

* Soul of ??? - Defeat Hush and Boss Rush as  **Tainted ???**.

* Charming Poop - Defeat Mega Satan as  **Tainted ???**.

* IBS - Defeat Delirium as  **Tainted ???**.

* Ring Cap - Defeat Mother as  **Tainted ???**.

* The Swarm - Defeat The Beast as  **Tainted ???**.

## Gallery

* Tainted ???'s transition screen portrait.
* Tainted ???'s locked character icon, depicting a dirty closet door with poop sticking out of it.

## Trivia

* After death, the bowels of the deceased will loosen, causing them to defecate themselves. This is probably why Tainted ??? has a heavy focus on poop.
	+ When Tainted ??? dies, he will drop all of his stored poop pickups behind him, an in-game depiction of the above.
	+ Additionally, with the amount of poop in the general area of the face, and the fact that ??? is the corpse of Isaac, this heavily implies that Isaac ate his own poop whilst suffocating inside of the chest.
* When Tainted ??? has an item that makes him fire red/blood tears, his normally brown poo tears become black. This is likely because that's the color of feces that's mixed with blood from internal bleeding.
* The achievement for unlocking Tainted ??? is "The Soiled", a possible title for the character.
	+ Soiled means dirty, which likely references how dirty Tainted ??? looks due to being covered in poop.
	+ Soiling oneself is to accidentally release the bowels, leading to one defecating on themself.
* Charming Poop, Tainted ???'s Mega Satan unlock, is the only poop type in the game that requires unlocking.
* Tainted ??? unlocks ; this is a direct reference to  and the official The Binding of Isaac tarot cards set, on which ??? represents The Emperor.
	+ Besides that, some of the reversed card meanings are immaturity and lack of discipline, possibly alluding to Tainted ???'s mechanic of defecating himself while attacking.
	+ This card is mostly associated with confusion and lack of direction, seen through his inherent weakness and randomness, forced to depend on an unreliable reel of random poops and being more prone to self-damage.
* Tainted ???'s starting health is listed as "-I" on the character selection screen.
* Tainted ??? releases a fart when taking bad pills.