Tainted Isaac is a character added in The Binding of Isaac: Repentance. He is the alternate version of 
Isaac.
Tainted Isaac can only hold 8 passive items at a time. Tainted Isaac's current 8 passive items are visible in the top-left corner of the screen, with one highlighted by a white square. Upon picking up a 9th passive item, the currently selected item will be dropped on a pedestal in front of Tainted Isaac. The swap key can be pressed to cycle which item is selected.
The Polaroid, 
The Negative, 
Key Piece 1, 
Key Piece 2, 
Knife Piece 1, 
Knife Piece 2, 
Dad's Note, and activated items are exempt from this limit. Dropping items causes their passive buffs to be removed, with the exception of items that only grant effects when picking them up (such as 
Breakfast or 
Pageant Boy). Swallowed trinkets do not count towards the 8 item limit.
Additionally, all re-rollable item pedestals, Shop items, and Devil deals will cycle between two items for the player to choose from. Whichever item is currently visible when the item is picked up will be the one selected. Once an item has been picked up it will no longer cycle between items.
Strategy and Items
- Some passive items can be taken and left behind without their effect being reverted, such as HP upgrades like
Breakfast.
- The stats upgrade of Consolation Prize will not be reverted when left behind.
- The stats shuffle of Experimental Treatment will not be reverted when left behind.
- The stats upgrade of
- Transformations will not be reverted when items contributing to it are left behind.
- Items that would add items directly to Isaac (such as Cambion Conception, Monster Manual, etc) do not take up an inventory slot.
- Book of Virtues is considered a passive item by the game and will take up one of Tainted Isaac's inventory slots.
Useful Items
- Void is extremely powerful with Tainted Isaac. Health ups and items that give one-time effects (such as Booster Pack) can be traded out for a more useful item and then voided for stat upgrades.
- Birthright gives Tainted Isaac four more item slots, without taking up an item slot itself.
- Due to the passive item limit, any items that can give stat upgrades independent of the item (such as Candy Heart or Death's List) are very useful to provide Tainted Isaac with stats he otherwise would not have.
- Marbles and Mom's Box can be used to generate and swallow trinkets for passive bonuses.
- Eden's blessing grants a random item at the start of your next run, even if you are to drop it and not finish your run with it.
Unlockable Items
Trivia
- The achievement for unlocking Tainted Isaac is "The Broken", a possible title for the character.
Bugs
 Bug!
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If a Clicker is used to switch to Tainted Isaac from a character which has more than 8 passives, the game will crash. |
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 Characters
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 The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
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