Quick Links

It is safe to say that The Binding of Isaac: Repentance makes some drastic changes to the game, along with a gigantic heap of additions. One of these additions was that of Tainted characters. These function as their own characters in their own right, with their own post-it notes to fill in by beating certain bosses.

RELATED: Best Roguelike Shooters

These characters often resemble their untainted versions in both appearance and mechanics, adding even more randomness and unpredictability. While they take a bit of getting used to, they are typically more useful overall, though they vary quite a bit in abilities.

Updated on June 14, 2023, by Stephen LaGioia: Adding even more alluring, darkly tinged content to the game, The Binding Of Isaac Repentance reminds fans what made the original roguelike so endlessly appealing. The wild thrill-ride never stops, as players are bombarded with an endless slew of random dungeons, items, and creepy foes to slay.

Adding further to the chaos is the ability to play as the marred "Tainted" versions of each character, mixing up the gameplay experience. As the means to unlock these characters — and the details behind them — can be complex, we decided to revisit and flesh out this guide.

About Tainted Characters

Binding of Isaac Tainted Isaac firing knifes in dungeon

Tainted characters are alternate versions of each character, sporting different appearances and traits. They're usually given a new set of items and abilities despite looking similar to their main versions.

Each Tainted character has its own variances and abilities. They'll often have detriments in one area but excel in others.

Tainted Character Name

Traits And Abilities

Heart Containers

Starting Items/Pickups

Isaac

Item pedestals, Shop Items, and Devil Deals cycle through two items.


Limited to only eight items at a time.

Three Heart Containers

One Bomb

Magdalene

Melee-focused, contact with an enemy will have her use a melee attack.


Leaves behind a bloody trail that hurts enemies.


Health depletes, stopping at two red hearts.

Four Heart Containers (two empty)

Yum Heart - restores one full heart

Cain

Bag of Crafting stores and converts item pickups to passive items. This is the only way Tainted Cain can obtain items.

Two Heart Containers

One key, Bag of Crafting

Judas

Dark Arts gives Tainted Judas a bit more speed and makes him invincible for a short period, freezing enemies that touch him until the effect ends. A damaging explosion triggers after the effect is used up.

Two Black Heart Containers

Three coins, Dark Arts

???

Hold pickup allows Tainted ??? to store one poop bomb for later use.


Bomb pickups are replaced by poop pickups. These can drop from fallen enemies.


Carries a maximum of ten (nine in the poop counter and one in Hold pickup).

Two Black Heart Containers

Three Poop Bombs, Hold

Eve

When Sumptorium is active, it depletes Tainted Eve's health, yielding Blood Clot familiars that shoot tears near her, adding extra firepower.


This comes at the cost of half a heart and it can be transformed back into health.

Two Heart Containers

Sumptorium

Samson

Tainted Samson gets increasingly red as he both deals and receives damage. This soon leads to the five-second Berserk! state, which gives him boosts in speed, fire rate, and flat damage.


He can only swing the melee Jawbone weapon in this state.


The timer increases by one second for every enemy killed.

Three Heart Containers

None

Azazel

Equipped with a massive beam shot called Brimstone, which requires charge.


Incapable of flight.


Leads to a shorter-range bloody sneeze attack, which "curses" targets by making them more vulnerable.

Three Black Heart Containers

The Fool (teleport back to starting room of current floor)

Lazarus

Flip swaps states between living and dead Tainted Lazarus, while changing real items to and from "ghostly" items.


Living state brings lower range, while dead state yields a damage boost, though slightly lowered speed and tears.

Three Heart Containers (living), Two Soul Heart Containers (dead)

Flip

Eden

Tainted Eden is given random stats and attributes. This includes Heart Containers, pickups, trinkets, and active/passive items.


Stats and items get re-rolled upon taking damage.

Random

Random

Lost

Dies from any damage taken, but has a small damage multiplier.


Some items will be re-rolled.


Holy Card offsets the lack of defense, protecting Tainted Lost from a single damage source.


Drop rate for Holy Cards increases when playing Tainted Lost.

No Health

One coin, Holy Card, Flight, Spectral Tears

Lilith

C Section passive item replaces tear shots, instead firing an umbilical cord-attached baby that itself does damage, while also firing tears in all directions, auto-aiming at enemies nearby.

One Heart Container, Two Black Heart Containers

None

Keeper

Fires four tears at once.


Slaying an enemy yields a coin that vanishes quickly if not collected.


All items and health are gained through coins.

Two Coin Hearts

One bomb

Apollyon

Abyss (four charges) causes items in the room to be wiped out, converting to locust familiars (one per item), which can be fired off at enemies.


Certain items bring special locust types.

Two Heart Containers

Abyss

Forgotten

Tainted Forgotten and Soul co-exist and are tied to one another. Soul cannot fire tears or deal damage in most ways, while Forgotten cannot move on their own.


Acts as a familiar that can be tossed at enemies, which deals significant damage.

Invulnerable (Forgotten), Three Soul Heart Containers (Soul)

None

Bethany

Lemegeton spawns an orbiting Wisp, yields a random passive item.


Red Hearts can't fill health, but are used as "Blood Charges" to power her active item usage if not charged.

Three Soul Hearts

Six Blood Charges, Lemegeton

Jacob

Anima Sola freezes the nearest target in range for five seconds.


Chased throughout an entire run by Dark Esau, who kills Tainted Jacob upon contact.


Converts to a variant of Tainted Lost when touched by Dark Esau.


Anima Sola also affects Dark Esau if on screen.


Returns to living state upon reaching next floor.

Three Heart Containers

Anima Sola

Tainted versions of all characters can be unlocked by using them during a run and taking the steps below, making a total of 17 Tainted varieties.

RELATED: The Binding Of Isaac: How To Drop Trinkets

How To Unlock Tainted Characters

The Binding of Isaac Repentance Tainted Characters

The method for unlocking Tainted characters will require a bit of skill and/or luck, depending on which character you are trying to unlock. It involves making your way to the Home floor; something that can only be accomplished once have you defeated Mother for the first time and earned the Strange Door achievement.

Binding Of Isaac The Mother Drawing

Mother is the final boss of the Corpse 2 floor, which can only be visited by opening the flesh door at the end of the Mausoleum with an assembled Knife familiar. This intense showdown is The Binding of Isaac's equivalent of an "end game".

Binding of Isaac Strange Door near winged cross enemy

After having beaten Mother once, there will be the Strange Door that appears in the starting room of Depths 2, Necropolis 2, and Dank Depths 2. The Strange Door in this room can only be opened with The Polaroid or The Negative, which are obtained after beating Mom.

You cannot leave the Mom boss fight room through conventional means once you have entered it, so you'll first need a means of teleporting. Luckily, there are solutions to this:

Teleport!, Telepills, or Cursed Eye when taking damage allows you to get out of the room once you've picked up one of the unlocking items.

The best option is to find a skull with a cross on the same floor, which we'll cover below.

Binding of Isaac skull bone weapon up close

On Depths 2, Necropolis 2, or Dank Depths 2, explore the area until you discover a skull with a small cross on its forehead. Blow up the skull, and collect the Fool Tarot Card.

This skull and the card will show up for every run.

Now, after fighting Mom and defeating her, Take The Polaroid or The Negative, then return to the starting room using The Fool, heading back to the Strange Door.

Taking Dad's Note in The Binding of Isaac Repentance

The Strange Door will lead to another floor, either Mausoleum or Gehenna 2. The boss room on this floor will contain a single item pedestal upon which is Dad's Note. Taking this will initiate what's known as the Ascent sequence, where you'll make your way back through the floors you've already visited but in reverse — starting at the boss room and ending with the starting room.

Various unique and more powerful variants of enemies will appear here.

Eventually after clearing Basement 1, you'll end up at Home. This is the final chapter of the game and contains the game's true final bosses. You will make your way from Isaac's room to Mom's room, which contains a treasure chest.

Finding the Red Key in The Binding of Isaac Repentance.

Opening the treasure chest for the first time will always reward you with a Red Key. Picking this up will unlock the Red Key for use in other runs, picked up as other useful items would be. This item is the key to unlocking Tainted characters. Though you can also opt for a Cracked Key or Soul of Cain, which can be found in future runs.

If you have the Little Baggy item, the skull will instead drop a Telepills, since Little Baggy replaces all cards with pills.

Binding of Isaac Tainted Isaac discovery dark small room

With one of these Keys, head to the corridor below Mom's room. You should see a faint, red, glowing outline of a door on the left-hand side. Use the Red Key here and you'll unlock a secret cupboard. Inside, you'll find the Tainted version of your current character. Touch them to unlock them.

As long as you touch the Tainted character and get the unlock notification, that character is unlocked for future runs. You do not need to beat the final boss of the game to keep them unlocked.

You will have to do this process with every character to unlock their Tainted versions. However, on future runs, the chest in Mom's room may not contain a Red Key.

  • You can also unlock the secret cupboard with a Cracked Key, an item that gets placed in the same slot as cards and pills.
    • To obtain this key, you must drop a trinket inside a Treasure Room or a Boss Room on your descent. When you pick up Dad's Note and start making your Ascent, the trinket you left behind will have turned into a Cracked Key. Be sure to remember where you left the trinket.

NEXT: Roguelikes With The Most Boss Fights