Tainted Jacob

Character image

Health

Stats

Damage

Tears

3.5 (*1.00)

3.00

Shot Speed

Range

1

6.5

Speed

Luck

1.0

0

Starting Items

Pickups

Items

None

Unlock Method

Use (etc.) to open the hidden closet in

Home as

Jacob and Esau

Tainted Jacob is a character added in The Binding of Isaac: Repentance. He is the alternate version of Jacob and Esau. Tainted Jacob is unlocked by reaching Home and using either the Red Key or the Cracked Key to access a special room in one of the walls while playing as Jacob & Esau.

Tainted Jacob spawns with 3 red heart containers and Anima Sola in his consumable slot. Anima Sola freezes the nearest enemy for 5 seconds. However, he is pursued through the entire game by Dark Esau, who will try to charge into and kill Tainted Jacob. Anima Sola always affects Dark Esau if he is on screen.

If Dark Esau touches Tainted Jacob or if Dark Esau dies, Tainted Jacob "dies" and becomes functionally identical to The Lost, with the special properties of flight, spectral tears, and a lack of health. Dark Esau's touch effect cannot be avoided even while shielded, invulnerable, or otherwise immune to damage (such as with Holy Mantle or Gnawed Leaf). Once Tainted Jacob is in Lost form, Dark Esau's attacks affect him normally, respecting shield and invulnerability effects if he has them and killing him if he doesn’t. The flames Dark Esau generates upon spawning on a floor will simply damage Tainted Jacob rather than putting him in this state, and the death explosion from Dark Esau does not kill Tainted Jacob if he was already in his Lost state.

It should be noted that unlike the true Lost, Tainted Jacob does not have an intrinsic Holy Mantle in this form, and unless he has picked it up prior in the run, any damage taken will instantly kill him. He can, however, take devil deals for free just like the Lost. His health bar is disabled entirely during this time, meaning the effects of any items that modify his health in any way (such as health up/down pills or soul hearts) will be ignored. Hematemesis will still drain your red hearts while Tainted Jacob is in his lost form.

Upon reaching a new floor, Tainted Jacob will return to his living state.

Dark Esau

Dark Esau is a hostile mini-boss version of the character Esau.

Dark Esau spawns 20 to 40 seconds after Tainted Jacob goes to a new floor, emerging from a crack in the ground and creating rings of flame around him upon spawning. Dark Esau continuously pursues Tainted Jacob by floating towards him, speeding up if he is far behind. After getting close enough to Tainted Jacob he charges in the cardinal/ordinal direction closest to Tainted Jacob leaving behind a trail of flames that can burn enemies. Dark Esau comes to a complete stop right before reaching Tainted Jacob and maintains a distance between the two; he can only break this distance by charging at him or if Tainted Jacob walks backwards into him.

Dark Esau cannot be damaged by enemies or most environmental hazards except for spiked rocks, red poops and TNTs, but he can be damaged by Tainted Jacob and any active bombs and even be killed. Upon death, he creates a room-wide explosion similar to Mama Mega! that instantly "kills" Tainted Jacob, turning him into a ghostly The Lost state. This does not affect Tainted Jacob if he’s already in a ghost state. This explosion only applies to the room Tainted Jacob is in, but this is not necessarily the room Dark Esau dies in; If Tainted Jacob goes to a new room before his death animation finishes, the explosion will trigger in the room Tainted Jacob moves to. After Dark Esau has died, he does not appear again for the rest of the floor.

Dark Esau's health increases each time Tainted Jacob progresses down a floor. His base health is calculated with the following formula: (250 + 20 x stage). For example:

During Error: The given stage ("The Basement") does not exist. Floor 1, Dark Esau has (250 + 20 x 1) = 270 HP.
During Error: The given stage ("The Caves") does not exist. Floor 1, Dark Esau will have (250 + 20 x 3) = 310 HP.
By Error: The given stage ("The Womb") does not exist. Floor 2, Dark Esau will have (250 + 20 x 8) = 410 HP.

Dark Esau is able to damage enemies as well as Tainted Jacob in the following ways:

He creates 12 rings of 8 flames when he spawns, each dealing 6 damage to enemies they hit, dealing anywhere between 6-576 damage depending on how close they are to him.
He deals 30 contact damage per tick to enemies and pushes them (60 damage per second).
He deals an extra 10 damage per tick to enemies and inflicts Burning on them when leaving a flame trail while charging at Tainted Jacob (300 damage per second).
Finally, the explosion he creates when he dies deals 200 initial damage plus an additional five ticks of 25 damage to all enemies in the room, for a total of 325 damage.

Dark Esau's position at all times is determined by his position relative to the general layout of the floor meaning he persists in the same location even when Tainted Jacob moves through rooms but however cannot be left completely behind and is carried along as the screen moves.

Anima Sola can restrict Dark Esau's movement for 5 seconds, and always targets him if he's alive. When released, Dark Esau always charges at Tainted Jacob immediately- charging directly at him rather than along the cardinal/ordinal directions.

Unlockable Items

RC Remote - Defeat Isaac, ???, Satan, and The Lamb as Tainted Jacob.

The Sun and the Moon - Defeat Ultra Greedier as Tainted Jacob.

Soul of Jacob and Esau - Defeat Hush and Boss Rush as Tainted Jacob.

Golden Trinket - Defeat Mega Satan as Tainted Jacob.

Anima Sola - Defeat Delirium as Tainted Jacob.

Found Soul - Defeat Mother as Tainted Jacob.

Esau Jr. - Defeat The Beast as Tainted Jacob.

Item & Strategy Notes

If you consume a paralysis pill Dark Esau will not charge at Jacob.
Considering the damage Dark Esau can deal to enemies and the fact that Anima Sola can be canceled early by using it a second time, Dark Esau can become a powerful but very dangerous weapon to use against enemies by positioning Tainted Jacob in ways that manipulate him into charging into enemies.
While Dark Esau's health is extremely high and goes up with each floor, his health increase is usually not significant enough to help him survive when the player has obtained multiple damage upgrades. Players should be wary of accidentally killing Dark Esau during endgame fights such as Mega Satan, as this will essentially force the player to fight the boss as The Lost without a Holy Mantle.
The explosion Dark Esau makes when he dies can open the doors to Boss Rush and Template:Stage, much like Mama Mega can.
Effects that damage all enemies in the room (such as Black Hearts or The Necronomicon) cannot damage Dark Esau. Sharp Straw still damages Dark Esau.
Blue Flies and Blue Spiders won't target Dark Esau, but they will still damage him if they run into him.
In Co-Op mode, the flames Dark Esau creates upon spawning can damage other players, but he otherwise ignores them completely.
- If multiple players are playing Tainted Jacob, then any Tainted Jacob who touches any Dark Esau will still be turned into a ghost or die. Tainted Jacob players will only be able to use Anima Sola on their own Dark Esau, and if one of the Tainted Jacobs is completely killed both Dark Esau's will begin to target the one that is still living.
- When Tainted Jacob completely dies and is turned into a small ghost baby as a Co-Op partner, if no other Tainted Jacob players are in the match then Dark Esau will still follow the ghost of Tainted Jacob, allowing them to still use him as a high damage weapon to help their teammates.
In Co-Op mode, if Tainted Jacob was turned into his ghostly form by Dark Esau, then dying and being revived upon completion of the boss will have him revive as his ghostly form.
- If Tainted Jacob is dead at the start of a floor, Dark Esau will still spawn but will target one of the living players instead. Unless they are also playing Tainted Jacob, he will never hurt them outside his spawning animation.
Dark Esau is considered a boss.
- Like every other "boss", Dark Esau can be spawned with debug commands. However, if playing as someone other than Tainted Jacob, the player will be immune to his attacks.
  - Jacob, even in his normal non-tainted form, is an exception. When touched by Dark Esau, he will take damage, but will not turn into a ghost. Esau, like most characters, is still immune to Dark Esau.
When the console command "restart 39" is loaded, the player will be spawned as a ghostly version of Tainted Jacob. The only differences is that Dark Esau never seems to spawn and that this version of Tainted Jacob has the health of The Lost.
When Dark Esau charges while in fear, he charges away from Tainted Jacob.
Dark Esau cannot damage friendly enemies.
While in his Lost form, Tainted Jacob can take devil deals in the same way as The Lost.
- As such, just as with the lost the Satanic Bible is a very good pickup as it essentially swaps out boss room items for Devil room items.
Even in his Lost form, Tainted Jacob can gain broken hearts from effects such as VI - The Lovers?, Heartbreak and Magic Skin, but they are not shared between forms. Additionally, unlike the true Lost, Magic Skin can be used up to 12 times by Tainted Jacob instead of once.
The Eraser removes Dark Esau from the rest of the run so long as the killing blow is done by the Eraser; this causes subsequent spawns to be replaced with a puff of smoke. This requires Dark Esau to have less than 15 HP; if he has too much health, the Eraser will simply do 15 damage. Eraser will also fail if it is thrown during Dark Esau's death animation.
The Error: The given collectible ("Glowing Hour Glass") does not exist. is very useful. Using it will return Jacob to his regular form in the previous room, if he was turned into the lost.
The Black Hole pulls every enemy in the room and Dark Esau into one place, forcing Dark Esau to deal contact damage to all of them.
The stationary flies produced by Brown Nugget will target Dark Esau and deal damage to him, making this a risky item to use.
The invincibility and stunning effect of Dark Arts fully work on Dark Esau even if he charges at the player, allowing Tainted Jacob to phase through him avoiding becoming the lost or preventing fatal damage in a pinch.
9 Volt will reduce the charge time of Anima Sola by half, giving the player much better control of Dark Esau, or the ability to chain down enemies and bosses much more often if Dark Esau has already been killed.
In Greed Mode, the Anima Sola will always be charged at the beginning of a new wave. This can be taken advantage of by binding Dark Esau before a new wave begins and then letting him charge into a freshly spawned enemy group or a priority enemy like a champion. Since releasing Dark Esau manually does not consume the item charge, the item will still be available to restrict him again immediately afterwards.
Switching between Jacob and Esau Jr.. will cause Dark Esau to despawn. He will reappear after 30 seconds as either character, but switching will always reset the timer.

Gallery

Tainted Jacob's ghostly version.

Trivia

Dark Esau may be based on a story in the Book of Genesis, in which Esau attempts to kill Jacob after both Jacob and their mother tricked their father Isaac into giving Jacob a blessing intended for Esau, resulting in Jacob fleeing from Esau's wrath.
- This is also further backed up by Tainted Jacob's unlock achievement name, "The Deserter."
Dark Esau acts similarly to the Lord of the Jammed from Enter the Gungeon, an invulnerable enemy which constantly chases and attacks the player once they've acquired enough curse points.
- His behavior is also similar to that of Mother's Shadow.
Big Horn's hand can be seen during Dark Esau's death animation, coming out of a pit and dragging him down.

Bugs

Bug!	If you save and reload after Tainted Jacob has been changed into his lost form, he will not switch back when changing floors, and Dark Esau will no longer spawn.

Bug!	If you reroll your items before Dark Esau spawns (with the help of either the D4, D100, D Infinity or the Dice Room), he will not appear on the current floor.

Bug!	If you exit to the menu during Dark Esau's death animation he will no longer spawn until the next floor and Tainted Jacob will stay in his natural form.

Bug!	In Co-Op, if Tainted Jacob is dead but Dark Esau explodes, then his ghost baby will appear to die and become a floating Isaac head. This is purely cosmetic.

Bug!	Using Clicker as Tainted Jacob while Dark Esau is present will crash the game.

Bug!	If you use the Meat Cleaver on Dark Esau the explosion that makes after you killed him will not turn you into the Lost form.

Bug!	If you defeat Dark Esau and die from his explosion after exiting to an already cleared room, you can use Glowing Hour Glass to change back to his original form without Dark Esau spawning again for the floor.

Bug!	In Co-Op, if Tainted Jacob is revived after the boss' defeat in his ghostly form and is killed by Dark Esau, then his ghost baby on the next floor will have glitched sprites and appear as a disembodied Isaac head. When walking left, Isaac's head will be replaced by a headless body repeating the downwards walk cycle.

Bug!	If Dark Esau is alive when Mega Satan attempts to spawn the Harbingers, Mega Satan will become invulnerable like normal, but the Harbingers will not spawn. The only way to progress is to kill Dark Esau.