Tainted Forgotten

Tainted Forgotten is a character added in The Binding of Isaac: Repentance. He is the alternate version of. Tainted Forgotten is unlocked by reaching and using either the  or the  to access a special room in the left hallway while playing as The Forgotten.


 * The character is split into two parts, both existing at the same time. Tainted Soul resembles and is directly controlled, but cannot attack in any form except through the skeletal Tainted Forgotten. Tainted Soul cannot obtain red heart containers; it can only obtain soul, black, or bone hearts.
 * Tainted Forgotten is completely invulnerable, immobile, and does not have a health bar. Colliding with Tainted Forgotten will cause Tainted Soul to hold it over its head, and pressing any of the fire buttons will throw the skeletal body in a given direction.
 * Tainted Forgotten performs a bone swing attack while thrown for 3x damage, and deals an additional 5 points from body impact. While on the ground, Tainted Forgotten can continue swinging the bone or charge up for a bone throw attack in a similar manner to the standard Forgotten.
 * Tainted Forgotten can be thrown with 360 degrees of movement using an analog stick or mouse controls.
 * Enemies almost always target Tainted Soul alone, but Tainted Forgotten's body can also be used to block enemy projectiles and movement.

Both Tainted Forgotten and Tainted Soul can pick up items and consumables, unlock doors and chests, and pay for items (both in shops and devil deals). However, Tainted Forgotten will only do this if it is thrown into the object it is interacting with. Tainted Forgotten is automatically held by Tainted Soul upon entering a room. Bombs placed and consumables and trinkets dropped will spawn on the location of Tainted Forgotten only. Tainted Forgotten can be thrown through doors to enter adjacent rooms, and being invulnerable, curse room doors can be passed through safely.

Many items prioritize the position of Tainted Forgotten over that of Tainted Soul. For example, familiars and orbitals will follow Tainted Forgotten, thus not granting any protection to Tainted Soul.

Changes to the speed stat are only half as effective.

Strategy and Items

 * Invincibility effects like, , or show the effect on Tainted Forgotten, despite Tainted Soul being immune to damage as well.
 * All contact damage attacks such as and  are tripled in strength for throwing Tainted Forgotten. The damage is added on top of the normal 5 points its body impact does.
 * Conversely, Tainted Soul cannot deal any contact damage at all.
 * This makes very good, as the petrifying effect can be activated without cost and it can do up to 69.9 damage, or 609.9 with.
 * is very good for generating health, as you are constantly throwing Tainted Forgotten and dealing contact poison.
 * is a direct downgrade on Tainted Forgotten, as the large size down only affects the skeleton and not Tainted Soul. This makes its hitbox smaller and also harder to pick up.
 * is quite good for Tainted Forgotten, as the impact from being thrown will often send the just frozen enemies sliding off to hit a wall or more enemies. This can lead to very fast room clears if enemies are clustered together.
 * can be used to control Tainted Forgotten from a distance with the dash, allowing the bones to reposition and attack every so often without putting the Soul in danger.
 * Area of effect damage such as and  apply their effect to Tainted Forgotten, making them incredibly powerful for large crowds and stationary bosses.
 * Care should be taken when fighting enemies spawned in devil rooms with devil deals, because throwing the Tainted Forgotten into a devil deal will purchase it, with potentially fatal results.
 * Resurrecting from items such as and  will cause the player to instantly die upon resurrection. However,  does not cause this to happen.
 * does not deactivate when the Tainted Soul moves, regardless of whether or not the Tainted Forgotten is held. This makes it an extremely powerful item for Tainted Forgotten in general, and even more so when combined with a damage source that does not require the pressing of a fire button.
 * This is likely unintentional. A probable cause is that Gnawed Leaf, like many other items, is looking at the hitbox of the Tainted Forgotten instead of the Tainted Soul.
 * is an excellent option for Tainted Forgotten, offering a semi-frequent instant kill on weaker enemies Tainted Forgotten is thrown into.
 * is a good damage source in exchange for shot speed, since this stat is useless for Tainted Forgotten.
 * The explosion happens on Tainted Forgotten, not Tainted Soul, allowing unlimited use with no downsides as long as you keep your distance.
 * Some pills don't work because they apply their effects to Tainted Forgotten. Paralysis is one example.
 * can be used only when Tainted Soul is holding Tainted Forgotten or when Tainted Forgotten is just thrown. Doing so will make a trail of holy light beams behind Tainted Forgotten as it moves instead of executing the usual charge attack. This makes it possible to deal much more damage with one charge, as the player can move the Tainted Forgotten on top of an enemy to make every light beam land on them.
 * will only teleport Tainted Forgotten, which can be used to more accurately reposition Tainted Forgotten without putting Tainted Soul in a difficult position.
 * Portals created by can be used both while Tainted Soul is holding Tainted Forgotten, which will warp them both, and when Tainted Forgotten is thrown in the portal by itself, which will warp only the bone pile and can be very effective for repositioning, especially during boss fights.
 * Using while throwing Tainted Forgotten will drastically increase its launch distance.
 * Throwing Tainted Forgotten into a door will cause the player to enter that room. This can be done to avoid taking damage when exiting Curse Rooms.
 * When placing a bomb, the bomb will always appear at the current position of Tainted Forgotten, not Tainted Soul.
 * The Ipecac shot when using the Horf! pill will shoot out of Tainted Forgotten, not Tainted Soul.
 * Be careful of Mom's Hands, because they can grab Tainted Forgotten. This will deal no damage, but will still cause teleportation back to the starting room.
 * Tainted Soul can open Mimic Chests without taking damage.
 * Tainted Soul can activate the stop button in Greed Mode without penalty.
 * Tainted Forgotten's body can also be used to activate the button.
 * Tainted Soul can pass through the mirror in Downpour II without touching the white fire.
 * If Tainted Forgotten is thrown into the white fire, it transforms into the Lost and can die after taking damage twice.
 * Tainted Soul has an extended invincibility period that allows it to donate a full heart to Blood Donation Machines and Devil Beggars for the price of a half.
 * Items that inflict Fear like and  should be avoided, because enemies will flee from the Tainted Forgotten instead of the Tainted Soul, making it harder to hit enemies.
 * Charmed enemies may pursue Tainted Forgotten instead of other enemies, which can be ideal for bringing and keeping them within range of its melee attack.
 * Tear effects from items such as and  can activate both on the body throws and on the melee attack.
 * Using a Cracked Key or will open the door closest to Tainted Forgotten and not Tainted Soul.


 * will cause enemies to be pulled towards Tainted Forgotten. This is very useful, since it makes dealing damage to enemies easier and protects Tainted Soul, pulling them away and blocking more of their shots. This is especially effective during the Beast fight.


 * Despite the fact that wisps surround the 'invulnerable' Tainted Forgotten, they still take damage unless the Tainted Soul is invulnerable.

Item interactions

 * Gives Tainted Soul the item to retrieve Tainted Forgotten immediately.
 * + : Recalling the Forgotten causes it to begin slowly moving towards the Soul for 5 seconds, before rapidly speeding up back to normal speed. The Forgotten can attack freely while moving. The Soul is invincible while the Forgotten is floating. As the cooldown of Recall is 3 seconds, it can be spammed to provide infinite invincibility as long as the Forgotten is not reclaimed by the Soul, almost guaranteeing the victory.
 * The powder trail is drawn by Tainted Forgotten, rendering the item difficult to use.
 * Replaces the bone throw with a short-range brimstone orb.
 * Charging an attack will spawn a bomb underneath Tainted Forgotten. Using a regular attack after that will result in a usual Forgotten interaction, sending said bomb in a chosen direction.
 * After being thrown, Tainted Forgotten can prep a missile to be thrown in an arc to a crosshair controlled with the tear buttons. Unlike how Epic Fetus normally functions, the missile will not be released until the fire buttons are released. Doesn't affect the melee club attack at all.
 * Effectively removes all your items, touching the generated items as Tainted Soul does not grant them to the soul (though it still grants them to the Forgotten).
 * Stat increases are applied, thrown attacks gain homing, but both the melee and thrown attacks do not have the damaging aura.
 * Tainted Forgotten's bone club will cause explosion when hitting enemies.
 * Causes the heart to follow Tainted Forgotten like other familiars; however, Tainted Soul does not become immune to damage like other characters and both he and the heart can take damage simultaneously.
 * Acts solely as a speed boost with no fart effects.
 * Follows Tainted Forgotten instead of floating around the room. Shooting familiars still fire towards enemies automatically.
 * Will fire the Lead pencil shot on the 15th swing of the bone club. Holding down the fire button will cause Tainted Forgotten to both swing and charge the bone club. Swinging, then charging and firing, counts as two swings.
 * Contact damage applies only to Tainted Forgotten, but invincibility is applied to Tainted Soul.
 * Spawns a floating tear that slowly and loosely floats towards the Forgotten. If struck with a melee attack, it will grow in size and be launched outwards, dealing damage if it strikes something, before moving back towards the Forgotten.
 * All projectiles that would be affected by this item will return to where Tainted Forgotten is.
 * Panic button: Active item is used whenever Tainted Forgotten touches an enemy, regardless of damage taken.
 * Perpetually charms enemies close to Tainted Forgotten, which synergizes well with the fact that charmed enemies can home in on it, keeping them charmed and in melee range (and away from Tainted Soul) until killed or distracted by another target.
 * If thrown, Tainted Forgotten's club is surrounded by a ring-shaped laser

Trivia

 * By loading the console command " ", it is possible to play as Tainted Soul without Tainted Forgotten; however, you cannot fire, and without the presence of Tainted Forgotten, the game is only possible to beat this way because of RNG, and Tainted Soul will have the health of The Lost and the game crashes if you die.
 * Tainted Soul bears resemblance to a scrapped character from Antibirth called Edith. The mechanic used by Tainted Forgotten also resembles one planned mechanic Edith was going to have.
 * In fact, in post-launch interviews, one of the lead developers of Repentance, Kilburn, has confirmed that Tainted Forgotten is what the original concept of Edith eventually turned into during the development of Repentance. This was further confirmed by Edmund McMillen.
 * Certain transformations such as Guppy revert the sprite of Tainted Forgotten to appear to be standing upright.
 * Tainted Soul can go through the mirror in Downpour II without needing to turn Tainted Forgotten into.
 * Tainted Soul can go through the entrance to the Mausoleum without losing any health while not holding the Forgotten.
 * The achievement for unlocking Tainted Forgotten is "The Fettered", a possible title for the character.
 * "Fettered" means "bound" or "shackled", which may be linked to how Tainted Forgotten cannot move on his own and only through Tainted Soul.