The Binding of Isaac: How to Unlock Tainted Characters (2024)

The Binding of Isaac: Repentanceis amassive expansion toThe Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+thatmakes the gamefeel like a completely new roguelikewith its sheer amount offeatures. There are lots of things to unlock, with many of them connected to defeating certainbosses. However, some are a little more hidden, including what might be Repentance'smost interesting series of unlocks.

Tainted characters are new versions of every singleBinding of Isaaccharacter, with their core abilities reimagined to be more interesting to a fan of modern roguelikes. These incredibly unique characters are somewhat difficult to unlock, requiring players to have already made some significant progress through the game's unlocks. Tainted characters are also more complicated to play due to their advanced mechanics, so playersmust make sure they have a fair amount of experience with the game before playing as them.

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To start, players will need to unlock the alternate path that was one ofRepentance's main additions. The alternate path is basically a new variation to every existing floor in the game. Each alternate path floor includes unique enemies, mechanics, boss fights and even some additional secrets along the way. Unlocking the alternate path involves killing Hush, a boss introduced in the game's first expansion.

Hush is located on the ??? floor, which in turn is unlocked after players defeat the boss Mom's Heart10 times. To gain access to ???, players will need to defeat Mom's Heart/It Lives (the alternate form of Mom's Heart) in under30 minutes.After this, a new exit will appear after thattakesplayers to ??? to fight Hush. Hush is a tricky boss with armor that scales to the player's damage.

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Defeating Hush three times will unlockRepentance's alternate paths, which in turn can be accessed in each floor's boss room. Each alternate floor requires different things to access, such as a key, bombs or even some life. The alternate floors arefar more difficult than the normal floors, presenting a challenge even toexperienced players. Progressing through each of the alternate paths is required to unlock Tainted characters.

The next step is to defeat the final boss of the alternate path, Mother. Mother is incredibly different from the Mom boss that's fought in the game's third chapter and requires a few secret items to fight. A hidden knife piece can be found on the Downpour and Mines alternate floors, with each having unique puzzles associated with acquiring them.

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Players will then need to take the fully-constructed knife to the Corpse, which serves as the alternate version of the Womb. The Corpse can only be accessed by defeating the final boss in the alternate version of the Depths, the Mausoleum. Fighting Mother is easiest if players access the Downpour as soon as possible and stay on the alternate path for the entire playthrough, though it is possible to jump back onto the game's main path for a floor.

Defeating Mother will unlockthe ability to ascend (which involves backtracking through every floor in the game) and reach a new floorcalled Home. Home has two unique bosses, though defeating them is not necessaryfor unlocking Tainted characters. Instead, players will have to use an item called the Red Key to access hidden rooms outside of the floor's normal rooms. The first time that players visit the Home chapter, a chest located in one of the rooms will always give them the Red Key.

Once players have either the Red Key or aCracked Key consumable, they should navigate to the hallway in Home thathas a faint red outline. Using the Red Key here will create a door to a secret closet, where the tainted version of whatever character the player is currently using will appear. Walking up and touching this character will imminently unlock them.Each character has a tainted version that must be unlocked in this way.

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