Hot Potato

**Hot Potato** is challenge #42. The goal is to defeat Satan. This challenge is unlocked by unlocking  Tainted Forgotten.

The player starts as a blindfolded  Tainted Forgotten. The Forgotten explodes roughly every 4 seconds, capable of dealing friendly damage to The Soul.

## Strategy

* When playing on a controller, The Forgotten's throw distance can be altered by tilting the shoot (right) stick at a lower angle. Useful for closer enemies and for better aim.
* While it requires a lot of patience, a viable strategy is to restart until a Mini-Boss Room with Lust is encountered and that it drops . It will dramatically increase the amount of contact damage inflicted when throwing The Forgotten, making it much easier to attack quick or regenerative enemies. As a weaker alternative, obtaining  from a Boss Room will work as well.
* Obtaining  makes this challenge trivial, as contact with The Forgotten will apply poison damage and cause the enemies to drop black hearts on death, effectively giving you infinite health.
	+ will be necessary to use this method, due to the fact that it is impossible to find a Treasure Room in this challenge.
* While it does require some luck, visiting shops in possibility of  and / can grant invincibility in rooms while leading the bomb to enemies.
* It's recommended to visit as many Curse Rooms as possible. Tainted Forgotten can enter and exit them without taking any damage, and they can provide precious soul heart health and powerful items such as  and .
	+ Hence finding or buying  is a good help in this challenge.
* It's also beneficial to bomb any Blue Fire Places or Purple Fire Places the player comes across to gain as much soul heart health as possible.
* The Forgotten will move slightly every time it explodes, unless the character has an item that grants flight. Using  could prove useful for keeping The Forgotten in one spot for a room.
* Picking up  is an instant win, as just holding Tainted Forgotten will provide permanent invincibility and free reign over where explosions occur.
	+ or Crawl Spaces will be necessary to use this method, due to the fact that it is impossible to find a Treasure Room in this challenge.
* Items that provide invincibility (such as ) or invulnerability to explosions (such as  and ) are very powerful in this challenge, especially when combined with orbitals such as . Not only do they nullify self damage, they allow Tainted Soul to safely carry Tainted Forgotten as it is exploding, greatly increasing the player's control over where explosions occur. Take caution if there isn't full invincibility, though, since Tainted Forgotten's explosions can still push Tainted Soul while being carried, which could push them into enemies that survive the explosion.
* Room clearing items such as  and  can be useful for skipping rooms that would otherwise be difficult with Tainted Forgotten's mechanics, such as rooms with lots of fast enemies. In addition,  will trigger every time Tainted Soul takes damage, providing a good room clearing effect for the later stages of the challenge, though this should not be relied on too much due to the health cost.
* The timer for Tainted Forgotten's explosion resets every time a consumable is picked up or an active item is used. This can be used to avoid taking damage in certain situations. Items such as , , , , and  can be used to infinitely reset the explosion timer.
* Since some bomb modifiers affect Tainted Forgotten's explosions, playing the Bomb Bum can be quite powerful. Getting , , , or  can be quite helpful as it will greatly boost the damage inflicted by Tainted Forgotten's explosions.  will be triggered with Tainted Forgotten's explosions, allowing to generate infinite pickups. , though, while boosting the damage, will also make dodging the explosions more difficult.
* It is better to avoid . This item can help a lot if fighting small enemies, but if you encounter the Brownie boss, unless you can one-shot him, you will heal him with butt bombs instead. This can cause a soft lock.
* Visiting all libraries is recommended as a  will grant a lot of soul hearts and ensure that Super Meat Boy / Super Bandage Girl is obtained, which will provide the means to do damage to enemies without using The Forgotten.
* It may be good to skip the Devil Room on the second floor to ensure an Angel Room spawns on future floors due to  Tainted Forgotten being a character that can't get heart containers, making devil deals inconvenient. This will also maximize the chances of finding , an extremely powerful item for this challenge. On the other hand, the Devil Room can occasionally provide black hearts as well as , which is also very powerful in this challenge due to its invincibility.
* can be used to stall the explosions of the forgotten, as the forgotten will not move and will not explode during the jump animation. Gaining flight is not advised, as it will prevent the use of How to Jump, despite regularly being usable by characters with flight.
* Using  will allow The Forgotten to do a melee attack. This also works as it's thrown, functioning similarly to Tainted Forgotten's regular melee attack, but without the charge attack. It also allows you to delay the explosion, as each time you use it, the explosion timer will reset.
* will allow The Forgotten to do a ring attack.
* will give the familiar to The Forgotten, granting you another way to deal damage more easily.
* will allow The Forgotten to use an attack similar to the bone swing.
* stalls the explosion indefinitely by spamming the use button to activate and deactivate. Should Tainted Forgotten also find , then he can generate infinite flames, thus removing the reliance on explosions.
* will pull enemies towards The Forgotten (and not The Soul), making them more likely to be hit with his explosions.
* allows The Forgotten to do a ranged attack.
* allows the player to delay the explosion indefinitely, as The Forgotten will hold its arms up and reset its fuse.
* Because  Tainted Forgotten grants infinite explosion, it is recommended to destroy a maximum of obstacles to find rewards that might help. It's also a guarantee to find all Secret Rooms among other things.
* and  will not allow the player to throw Tainted Forgotten, which in most runs will lead to death.
* and  are extremely helpful in this challenge, as the player will be able to stop  Tainted Forgotten from detonating at any time.
* is extremely helpful due to the ring orbiting The Forgotten and not The Soul. Throwing The Forgotten at enemies petrifies them leading to easy hits with explosions. Player can also lead enemies into the ring. This combined with  can make this challenge trivial, as petrify works on bosses.
* allows The Forgotten to ignore the knockback from explosions making strategically placing the explosions easier.
* a tear follows The Forgotten as a familiar. Picking up  cause this tear bouncing around room.
* will allow you to telefrag enemies killing them instantly without changing the souls position and can also be used to put The Forgotten into specific places to bomb enemies. Activating the item however will reset the explosion timer. You cannot telefrag bosses.
* will give you another way of dealing damage. In this scenario it's better to throw The Forgotten to the other side of the room and to keep enemies between The Forgotten and The Soul.

## Notes

* will not make the explosions quicker.
* Upon death,  Tainted Forgotten will explode like a Giga Bomb, making a hole in the floor.

## Gallery

* Tainted Forgotten's appearance in this challenge.

## Reward

* The Chariot - Complete **Hot Potato (challenge #42)**.