Tainted ???

Tainted ??? is a character added in The Binding of Isaac: Repentance. He is the alternate version of. Tainted ??? is unlocked by reaching and using either  or  to access a special room in one of the walls while playing as ???. He starts with 3 soul hearts, 3 poops, and in the consumable slot.

While playing as Tainted ???, bomb pickups are replaced by poop pickups, and his bomb counter is replaced by a poop counter which displays the number and effects of his poops. The order in which different types of poop are obtained is predetermined based on the seed. By default, Tainted ??? can carry a maximum of 10 poops: 9 in the poop counter and 1 in Hold.

Using Hold will store his leftmost poop for later use and cycle to the next poop.

Besides replacing bomb pickups, poop pickups also have a chance to drop from fallen enemies and by Tainted ??? by dealing damage. There are small and large variants of poop pickups: small poop pickups give one poop, and large poop pickups give three poops.

Poop Varieties
Tainted ??? can acquire the following effects from poop pickups. These effects are the same as, but are not used immediately.

Throwable
All thrown poops deal 15 damage to enemies they hit when thrown (up to 3 times in the case of stone poop).

Strategy

 * As Tainted ??? begins with a low tears stat, it is almost required to rely on poops in the early game. The player should not be scared to use poops as Tainted ??? will naturally create many poops as he deals damage, especially in boss battles. However, it may be best to save more powerful poops or poop synergies, such as White Poops and brown creep, for more difficult situations such as boss battles.
 * Tainted ???'s low tears also makes tears up items like very beneficial.
 * More than any other type of poop, it can be beneficial to use Hold on bomb poops for utility purposes, such as finding secret rooms or reaching pickups behind rocks.
 * Alternatively, flaming poops can be used in conjunction with stinky poops/farts to blow things up without using bombs. The stinky poop/fart can be used next to what the player wants to blow up, then the flaming poop can be thrown at it to create an explosion. This can also be done by throwing stinky poops at a fire or flaming poop, though care must be taken as it is easy to get caught in the ensuing explosion if the player does not move out of the way quickly enough.
 * As with most other fires, flaming poops can kill shopkeepers without the need for a Butt Bomb or another stinky poop.
 * If playing in Greed Mode, it's best to try to complete all waves in one sitting as exiting the main room will cause all poops and creep to disappear.
 * Almost anything that resembles a fire can cause toxic clouds created by farts and Stinky Poop to explode. This includes Fireplaces, fires shot by enemies (such as Candlers, Fire Worms, and Revenants), and fires created by Tainted ??? (such as with, , and ). Extra caution must be taken to stay away from gas clouds if playing with or around fires.
 * is a notable exception to this.
 * Stinky Poops can intentionally be thrown at blue/purple fireplaces to blow them up for the chance to gain soul hearts. Be careful not to destroy Angel statues next to them if they’re in an Angel Room and you do not wish to fight the angel.


 * With or, the explosion might be very hard to avoid if your current poop is farting, since farting guarantees to spawn fire. The only surefire way to not harm yourself using a fart is to move in one direction constantly while farting.
 * will harm special poops whenever it's pointed at them, forcing the player to take special care to not look or turn to the poop to avoid weakening them accidentally.

Item Interactions

 * Allows Tainted ??? to pick up the poop and put it in a different spot (e.g. putting white poop in favorable spot to fight a boss.)
 * If Tainted ??? desroys the 3 new poops, they can get the unique dip familiars which are the Stone Dip, Stinky Dip, and the Flaming Dip.

effect
Allows Tainted ??? to hold up to 29 poops in the poop counter.

Trivia

 * After death, the bowels of the deceased will loosen, causing them to defecate themselves. This is probably why Tainted ??? has a heavy focus on poop.
 * Additionally, with the amount of poop in the general area of the face, and the fact that ??? is the corpse of Isaac, this heavily implies that Isaac ate his own poop whilst suffocating inside of the chest.
 * When Tainted ??? has an item that makes him fire red/blood tears, his normally brown poo tears become black. This is likely because that's the color of feces that's mixed with blood from internal bleeding.
 * The achievement for unlocking Tainted ??? is "The Soiled", a possible title for the character.
 * Soiled means dirty, which likely references how dirty Tainted ??? looks due to being covered in poop.
 * Charming Poop, Tainted ???'s Mega Satan unlock, is the only poop type in the game that requires unlocking.