Tired of wanting to become back your money? This guide will help you beat trash Issac using the most broken character!
Contents
- Unlocking Guide
- Introduction
- Contents
- Early Game
- Mid-Game
- Late-Game
- Switching to Other Characters
- Switching to Non-Tainted Characters
- Useful Synergies
Unlocking Guide
Introduction
This strategy will allow you to become Lilith as Tainted Cain, adopting her love for familiars and using said familiars to form an army of unstoppable anguish, hence Cillith (Lilith + Cain + Kill = Cillith).
Contents
- Early Game: Crafting 3 Freezer Babies, 1 Tractor Beam, and a whole lot of pain.
- Mid-Game: Crafting more familiars, building your army to slay whatever enters your path.
- Late-Game: Do what you need to do basically, a useless section of encouragement.
- Switching to Other Characters: Utilising The Clicker, also telling you how not to break the game and get stuck as Tainted Forgotten.
- Switching to Non-Tainted Characters: using the Ankh will allow you to spawn as Blue Baby and switch to non-tainted characters, for further unlocks!
- Useful Synergies: Some great trinkets and items to aid your army further.
Early Game
Step 1: Start The Run
Okay, first off you need to start your run as Tainted Cain.
Step 2: Conjoined
Okay, this is the hardest part. You are going to need 3 familiars to get the Conjoined Transformation.
The easiest and strongest familiar to craft is the Freezer Baby, costing only:
- 1 red heart, 5 pennies, 2 bombs
Step 3: Tractor Beam
Once you are Conjoined, craft yourself a Tractor Beam:
- 6 pennies, 2 keys
Step 4: BFFs! (Optional)
This is entirely Optional but highly recommended, craft BFFs!:
- 1 soul heart, 2 pennies, 5 bombs OR 2 red hearts, 1 penny, 1 nickel, 2 keys, 2 bombs
Step 5: Birthright (Optional)
Another Optional but highly recommended item is Birthright, as it increases the amount of drops from item pedestals, i.e. more material to craft with!
- 2 red hearts, 2 soul hearts, 3 pennies, 1 bomb OR 3 pennies, 4 bombs, 1 pill
That’s your DPS set up for now! You can steamroll early-game bosses efficiently with the familiars and triple shot you just gained, alongside your supportive frozen friends!
Mid-Game
As you go further into mid-game (i.e. Depths), you’re going to want to build your army further, crafting as many cheap familiars as possible (or more expensive one’s, depending on your luck).
This is where the guide is flexible, you can either build up the army or focus on building up your tear rate, damage or range!
Cheap Familiars
These familiars are the cheapest, easiest to obtain!
- Little Steven – 1 red heart, 1 soul heart, 1 penny, 1 key, 4 bombs
- Brother Bobby – 1 soul heart, 4 pennies, 1 key, 2 bombs
- Robo-Baby – 4 red hearts, 2 pennies, 2 keys
- Rainbow Baby – 7 pennies, 1 nickel
Useful Familiars
These familiars are going to help carry your run, however they are not the cheapest so if you have crafted Birthright, you may be lucky enough to get these!
- Incubus – 1 red heart, 4 soul hearts, 1 black heart, 1 key, 1 rune/soul
- Guardian Angel – 3 red hearts, 1 eternal heart, 1 penny, 2 keys, 1 bomb
- Lil’ Brimstone – 4 soul hearts, 2 pennies, 1 nickel, 1 bomb
- Rotten Baby – 1 soul heart, 1 penny, 3 nickels, 3 bombs
Late-Game
Okay, so you reached end-game, you’re probably vibing in Cathedral / Sheol / Corpse, or you’re moving your way back up to the beast. This is where you can either do the dirty Bait & Switch or go beat the bosses as Tainted Cain.
Pretty much keep going how you are, focus on your build, or just bulk up and let the army of familiars do the work! This is entirely your call now!
Switching to Other Characters
The Bait & Switch
Okay so you are going for unlocks for other characters, you are going to want to craft some things before you go for The Clicker.
Step 1: The Battery
You are firstly going to need The Battery, the reason being is you need two, full charges on The Clicker so you don’t get stuck as Tainted Forgotten.
The Battery is cheap so don’t stress:
- 3 red hearts, 1 soul heart, 4 pennies OR 4 pennies, 1 nickel, 1 key, 2 bombs
Step 2: Battery Pack (Optional)
Okay, now you have 2 charges, it’s time to get some batteries spawning, you can do this by crafting the Battery Pack:
- 6 red hearts, 2 pennies OR 4 red hearts, 3 pennies, 2 keys
Step 3: The Clicker
Here’s how you switch to another character, although you will lose 1 item per transformation, so maybe craft a bunch of Breakfast or other trash items so you can keep the good stuff!
The Clicker is crafted cheaply and easily, and using the batteries you can get to your desired character easily!
The Clicker:
- 3 red hearts, 1 penny, 2 keys, 1 bomb, 1 pill OR 2 red hearts, 2 pennies, 2 nickel;s, 1 key, 1 bomb
It’s useful to note that using the clicker can actually be really helpful, for example Tainted Lazarus will not switch to his Dead form, meaning you do not have to deal with that BS!
All in all, EZ win!
Switching to Non-Tainted Characters
You can use Ankh to switch to the non-tainted characters, as The Clicker only works with tainted characters. This is simply done by dying and spawning as Blue Baby and then using The Clicker!
Step 1: Crafting the Ankh
This item is your key to becoming other characters, getting those easy Jacob and Esau or Lost unlocks, should you need them!
To craft the Ankh in the cheapest way possible, you’ll need:
- 6 pennies, 1 bomb, 1 card OR 1 red heart, 2 keys, 4 bombs, 1 card
Step 2: Battery Pack (Optional)
Crafting the Battery Pack will allow you to spawn 2 small batteries and a normal one, meaning you’ll have plenty of charges if you get a character you don’t want!
To craft, simply collect:
- 6 red hearts, 2 pennies OR 4 red hearts, 3 pennies, 2 keys
Step 3: The Clicker
If you use The Clicker, you will lose 1 passive per use so craft some trash you don’t mind losing!
The Clicker is crafted cheapest with:
- 3 red hearts, 1 penny, 2 keys, 1 bomb, 1 pill OR 2 red hearts, 2 pennies, 2 nickel;s, 1 key, 1 bomb
Step 4: Becoming Blue Baby
This is the easy part, assuring you have enough batteries, simply use spikes or a curse room (anything really) to die and respawn as Blue Baby!
Step 5: Switching
Simply use the active item (The Clicker) as many times as you need or your battery collection will allow!
Useful Synergies
Here’s a few useful pick-ups for your journey!
- Baby Bender Trinket – Familiars get homing shots.
- Friendship Neckless Trinket – Familiars circle you.
- Box of Friends – Duplicates all familiars for the room (Cannot use with clicker) -2 red hearts, 1 soul heart, 1 penny, 1 key, 2 bombs, 1 card.
- Extension Cord Trinket – Electricity connects all familiars.
- Forgotten Lullaby Trinket – Buffs all familiar tear rate.
Related posts:
- The Binding of Isaac: Repentance – How to Complete the Final Ending (Spoilers)
- The Binding of Isaac: Repentance – How to Get to The Alternative Womb and Get The New Character
- The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth – Restore Afterbirth+ Save after Importing Rebirth
- The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth – All Seeds
FAQs
What is the strategy of tainted Cain? ›
Strategy. As Tainted Cain has "No Destiny", he must create his own with the Bag of Crafting. While it is tempting to place pickups like coins and health into the Bag of Crafting as soon as they are encountered, this will likely only lead to the creation of lower quality items.
How do you unlock tainted Cain Isaac? ›Cain is a character unlocked by obtaining 55 or more coins at once in a run.
How do you break as Tainted Cain? ›Easy way to break the game is to create Alabaster box with 1 soul heart and 7 pennies. It is created fully charged and spawns 2-3 soul hearts and two angel pedestals full of consumables.
How do you craft items as Tainted Cain? ›Holding down the Use Pill/Card button will craft the item and place it directly in Tainted Cain's inventory. Crafting an activated item while already holding one will turn the old one into pickups like collecting it would.
Does death certificate work with Tainted Cain? ›Tainted Cain: Unlike his modified pedestal behavior in the rest of the run, Tainted Cain can pick up an item like normal in this area, effectively allowing him to craft any specific item for the cost of 8 bone hearts (the guaranteed recipe for Death Certificate in the Bag of Crafting).
Can Tainted Cain pick up birthright? ›Tainted Cain's Birthright is a crying face, because he is unable to pick it up! However the item will have its default look in the Bag of Crafting UI.
What does birthright do for Tainted Cain? ›| Character | Effect |
|---|---|
| Tainted Cain | Doubles the amount of pickups that spawn from collectable items. |
| Tainted Judas | Doubles the duration of Dark Arts. |
| Tainted ??? | The maximum amount of poops that can be carried at once is increased to 29. |
| Tainted Eve | Red Heart Clots spawn temporary heart pickups after dying. |
The Bag of Crafting is an item in The Binding of Isaac: Repentance, which Tainted Cain starts with. It can be used to store 8 consumables in, such as hearts, coins, keys and bombs etc. When the bag has 8 items you can hold down the activate button for 2 seconds to craft yourself a brand new item!
What items are good for Tainted Cain? ›Pickups like special hearts, better coins, golden pickups, lucky pennies and charged keys will near guarantee you quality 2 items like Fruit Cake, Tech 2 and syringes. Keep filling the bag with more of this and you'll get better and better items.
Can you craft rock bottom with Tainted Cain? ›Without Bone Hearts, Tainted Cain cannot craft any secret room exclusive items, like Transcendence or Rock Bottom.
What is the best way to unlock Cain? ›
The easiest way to unlock Cain is to use the Slot Machine until it explodes and provides A Dollar, which will instantly unlock him upon pick-up. The 2 Of Diamonds Suit Card is also useful, since it doubles the player's current Coins. Another strategy is to use the Blood Donation Machine while playing as Maggy.
Where do you unlock tainted characters with cracked keys? ›Inner Child in the closet where the Tainted character would normally be found, as long as Inner Child is unlocked, otherwise there will be a shopkeeper. If found before the Ascent, the Cracked Key can serve as a secret room finder, as secret room entrances do not have red door outlines.
How do you use tainted Lazarus? ›Upon defeating the boss, Tainted Lazarus will Flip automatically, allowing the duplication of Devil or Angel Items, followed by flipping and taking the same item on the other form.
What is the sacred orb Bag of Crafting? ›Bag of Crafting: Sacred Orb prevents crafting quality 1 and 0 items, typically resulting in them being replaced by quality 2 items. Death Certificate: Death Certificate's item generation ignores Sacred Orb's changes to item availability. Dice Bag: The one-time-use dice given by this trinket are not affected.
What is the easiest character to unlock in the binding of Isaac? ›Lazarus stands as one of the easiest characters to unlock, although it may take a bit of doing. Players need to have 4 Soul Hearts or Black Hearts at once. Soul Hearts aren't that hard to come by, but players will need to be careful about how much damage they take, as Soul Hearts are always lost first.
Can you unlock tainted characters on normal difficulty? ›You can do it on normal, but just like the normal characters there is an unlock (just a multiplayer baby I think) for getting all their hard mode completion marks. There is also an unlock (an actual item) for getting *every* hard mode completion mark.
Can you unlock tainted characters on a seeded run? ›No. Seeds, challenges or daily runs disable achievements.
Is it OK to fold a death certificate? ›A common question about death certificates is whether you can fold these documents. If you're mailing a death certificate, can you fold it to fit it into a smaller envelope? In short, yes.
Can tainted Judas have red hearts? ›The damage boost scales and lasts longer depending on the number of enemies killed and projectiles destroyed. Black Hearts instead. If he picks up a Bone Heart, he will be unable to fill it with red health.
Are death certificates always accurate? ›Accurate means reporting the correct conditions as causes of death. Cause-of-death information is not perfect, but it is veryuseful. Current estimates are that about 20-30% of death certificates have issues with completeness.
What does Cain's eye trinket do? ›
Effects. The Compass for the duration of the floor. The chance increases based on the Luck stat, and maxes out at 100% at 3 Luck.
Can you drop items as tainted Isaac? ›Tainted Isaac can carry from floor to floor until he rolls a useful combination of items, and then can choose to drop it so that it doesn't reroll his items on future floors.