Tainted Lilith

**Tainted Lilith** is a character added in The Binding of Isaac: Repentance. She is the alternate version of  Lilith. Tainted Lilith is unlocked by reaching Home and using the , , or  to access a special room in one of the walls while playing as Lilith.

She starts with one red heart container and 2 black hearts. Like normal Lilith, she can't fire tears. Instead of tears, Tainted Lilith launches a demonic baby attached via umbilical cord out of her stomach that behaves much like the  item that can be recalled after attacking, dealing 3x damage to enemies it hits. The baby also fires tears that deal 1x damage while the fire button is held, and moves in the direction of the fire buttons; it does not deal contact damage when firing tears. The baby shoots in all directions even without items like  and automatically aims at nearby enemies. It returns to Tainted Lilith once the fire button is released. Despite its appearance, the Baby cannot pick up items, but it can be used to launch or push items towards Tainted Lilith.

## Strategy and Items

* Tainted Lilith's special attack method is not an item and cannot be rerolled.
* Because of the special attack, Tainted Lilith starts with many perks that other characters would heavily benefit from: the launched baby has high starting damage, piercing, and the ability to attack through obstacles. However, this comes at the cost of Tainted Lilith's tears being much harder to use since it is tied to her baby, and the baby's umbilical cord gives its launching attack limited range.
* Tainted Lilith's launched baby is enough to one/two-shot most starting enemies, while the tears it fires are comparatively hard to control. It is usually best to use the baby as a makeshift melee weapon for clearing rooms unless Tainted Lilith can find some useful tear modifiers.
* When launched, the Baby deals 3x damage and is capable of pushing enemies and bosses away on contact, making it handy to simply hit enemies with the Baby rather than its tears. As such, a high tear rate does wonders for Tainted Lilith, as this also increases how quickly the Baby can be launched from her. However, an overly high tear rate could be detrimental, as spamming the special attack causes the Baby to return before it can hit any enemy.
* If the situation calls for it, the baby's tears can be used to safely attack at a distance as an extension of Tainted Lilith. However, this does not usually have use apart from very large rooms since the baby goes through obstacles.
* The hitbox of her special attack persists between rooms, meaning that launching the Baby right before entering a room can potentially hit an enemy there.
* For early floors, prioritize getting speed upgrades over other stats. While the baby gives Tainted Lilith strong attacking power, it has to be relaunched each time, and her problematic base speed allows chasing enemies to easily overwhelm her. Look to get items that increase speed and avoid those that lower it further.
* During later floors, prioritize tear upgrades or range over other stats. At that point, using tears becomes a priority, since some bosses like Delirium are able to teleport constantly, making it hard to use the baby's launch attack on them. Tainted Lilith usually has to resort to her baby's tears to deal consistent damage to these bosses.
* The baby cannot collect pickups, but it can knock them around. This ability can be used to dislodge pickups that would normally require you to walk over spikes to get.
* In Repentance Co-Op if she dies her familiar acts as normal but still suffers the same penalties as other characters in this form.
* Unlike other characters, 's damage is not reduced by 25% while playing as Tainted Lilith.  Lilith shares this trait.

### Good Items

* : The fetus' tears become homing tears.
* : Increases the damage of the fetus' tears, but the launch attack is unaffected.
* : While tears fired from the fetus affect Dead Eye, the whip attack does not. Provided your tear rate isn't too high, you can get the maximum bonus with its tears, then only use the whip attack from then on. Quickly press-and-release the fire button to ensure the fetus doesn't fire an unwanted tear.
* : Tears fired from the fetus behave as expected from Eye Of The Occult, but the damage and tear rate increase from the item still apply to the initial launch.
* : Normally with guillotine, tears originate from the rotating head which can be difficult to aim accurately with, but with Tainted Lilith the fetus still fires from Lilith's body with the increased damage, negating the general downside from this item with other characters.
* : In addition to shielded tears, the fetus is able to destroy projectiles, making it an incredible defensive option.
* : The baby holds and auto-fires Mom's Knife towards enemies, though the baby no longer automatically returns into Tainted Lilith's stomach. The piercing of the knife allows it to deal damage multiple times per second, which, coupled with the knife's high base damage, make it an extremely powerful offensive option.
* : The whip attack gains full benefit of the 3x damage multiplier with no downside. The fetus' tears behave as expected, which means they could deal much more damage at middle-long range.
* : Holding down the fire button will automatically charge then shoot Tech X shots towards enemies. How fast it's charged is dependent on how far the baby is from an enemy.
* : The fetus's shots instantly hit the nearest enemy, regardless of range.
	+ + Spectral Tears: The fetus's shots are no longer able to miss as long as at least one enemy is in the room.
* : When the baby is launched, any enemies it kills in its trajectory will freeze and any frozen enemies the baby is launched into slide similarly to when kicked by Isaac.

### Bad Items

* : Without  or another familiar that can fire Lilith's exact tears, the crosshair disappears whenever  retracts into the body, and the crosshair aims poorly, trying to seek enemies while also moving in the direction of the firing keys.
* : Doesn't work.
* : The baby will fire diagonal tears to either side of the enemy it is aiming at, making it miss frequently.
* : Lilith's Gello will lose the ability to both fire and move in all directions, making maneuverability harder, and a large gap will be created in between her and her Gello where it will not be firing, making her vulnerable to damage.

### Interactions

* : Familiars that normally follow Tainted Lilith will instead act like and stack on top of her  familiar, disappearing inside of her while she's not firing and swinging out when she attacks. The melee attack gains a flat +3 damage bonus per familiar (regardless of damage multipliers) and if those familiars can shoot, they do so along with the Gello familiar. The Gello familiar gains the properties of , causing attached familiars to automatically aim and shoot at enemies. Familiars like  or  still function, but they are bound to the Gello familiar rather than their normal means of movement.
* Does not copy the fetus.
* : The baby automatically charges and shoot laser towards enemies.
* : Automatically charges and shoots Chocolate Milk shots towards enemies. The baby fires higher damage shots if farther from the enemy and lower damage shots if closer to the enemy.
* : The fetus gains the charge effect, but the teleport effect when damaged while charging does not happen.
* : Gello controls the crosshair, making it go into a straight line, miss the target and hit the wall. Retracting the baby before the missile falls will cancel the missile strike.
* : Does not improve the fire rate of the fetus.
* : Lowers Lilith's tear rate and doesn't triple her familiar. However, her familiar will shoot a triple shot.
* : Greatly increases the launch damage of the baby. If the fire button is pressed *very* briefly, the baby can be launched without also firing an Ipecac tear, allowing the player to attack with high damage, with no risk of hurting themselves from the explosion.
* : Tears are fired from Lilith every 15th launch attack.
* : Spawns a Ludovico tear when Lilith launches the baby. The tear disappears when the baby returns to Lilith's belly. The tear works as normal using arrow keys, but is impossible to control precisely with mouse and not at all with the analog stick.
* : The baby will not return to Lilith's stomach, and will try to follow where the Mark is. The baby will return when Marked is deactivated with the Drop button.
* : Like Brimstone, the baby charges up, and when released, shoots Monstro's Lung shots. Greatly increases delay between being able to launch the baby.
* : The baby wields a sword that can be swung multiple times before returning to Lilith. If the fire button is held, the sword will deal damage once before disappearing until the baby is sent out again. The spin attack functions normally, but will immediately return the baby. The sword swing being able to collect pick-ups means Lilith will be able to collect pick-ups and open chests from very far away.
* : Stye-affected tears have a chance to fire from the baby, unaffected by luck.
* : Tears align in the beam as normal, and tears fired by the baby will not divert from its path.

## Unlockable Items

* The Twins - Defeat Isaac, ???, Satan, and The Lamb as  **Tainted Lilith**.

* The High Priestess - Defeat Ultra Greedier as  **Tainted Lilith**.

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

* Fool's Gold - Defeat Mega Satan as  **Tainted Lilith**.

* Gello - Defeat Delirium as  **Tainted Lilith**.

* Adoption Papers - Defeat Mother as  **Tainted Lilith**.

* Twisted Pair - Defeat The Beast as  **Tainted Lilith**.

## Trivia

* The achievement for unlocking Tainted Lilith is "The Harlot", a possible title for the character.
	+ A "harlot" is a prostitute, or a woman who has many casual sexual encounters or relationships. This is in reference to Lilith's promiscuous tendencies to have intercourse with demons in the underworld outside the garden of Eden.
* Written in a Middle-Age satirical book of tales titled the *Alphabet of Sirach*, we find information that Lilith was Adam's first wife: the evil counterpart to  Eve. Whilst Eve promised to be forever subservient to Adam following God's demand, Lilith refused. In particular, the tale mentioned tells us that Lilith would often escape the garden of Eden in order to have intercourse with demons in the underworld — in particular, with the Devil himself. A good theory suggests that the game refers to the results of Lilith's promiscuous life in the underworld due to her appearance, according to this satirical tale.
* In Rabbinic Literature and other non-satirical tales, we find information that Lilith was, more specifically, a generic demon that brought curses upon the newborn. This is another viable theory, given Tainted Lilith's appearance in-game.
* The character select screen description for Tainted Lilith, "Fetal Fury", is possibly a reference to fighting game series *Fatal Fury*.
* Defeating Greedier mode as Tainted Lilith unlocks , associated with passion, strong emotions, and individual opinions, these all fit Lilith's character when she rejected God's plan in the garden of Eden to lead a promiscuous life in the underworld.
* Tainted Lilith's starting health is listed as "I" on the character selection screen, despite starting with one red heart and two black hearts.
* Tainted Lilith's body strongly resembles a Vis when Guillotine is equipped.

## Gallery

* Tainted Lilith's transition screen portrait.
* Tainted Lilith's locked character icon, depicting a closet doorway so full it's about to burst.