Tainted Samson

What you start with

The mechanics that actually govern this character.

• The gimmick in plain language: dealing and taking damage fills a hidden rage meter, and when it fills you go Berserk - you lose your tears and swing a jawbone instead, for 5 seconds. Every kill during Berserk adds 1 second to the timer (3 seconds with Birthright).
• Berserk gives +0.40 speed, fire rate x0.5 then +2, and +3 flat damage. The jawbone deals 3x your damage on a swing and 1.5x thrown, and swinging reflects enemy shots. Each kill also grants another +0.40 speed and brief invincibility so exploding enemies cannot hurt you.
• The meter needs 120 damage dealt on Basement I, plus 40 more on each subsequent floor. Taking damage contributes 10% of the current requirement per hit, and familiar damage counts toward it.
• While Berserk you survive at zero hearts and have until the timer expires to find health, so kills that extend the timer are literally life extension. Stats: 3 red hearts, Tears -0.1, range 5. All other jawbone interactions match The Forgotten's bone club.

How to play them

• Berserk is a resource with a clock, so treat it as a route: enter a room, kill as much as possible, and push straight into the next room to keep the timer alive rather than stopping for drops. Ignore room rewards while it runs - hearts at zero health are the one exception.
• Learn to use the swing as a shield. Every swing reflects enemy tears, and at high fire rate you generate a continuous reflective wall between you and a ranged enemy you cannot reach.
• Only throw the jawbone at things you genuinely cannot walk to. The charge is short but it is still time off a 5-second clock.
• Tears up items are exceptional on him, not for his tears but because Berserk already carries a fire rate multiplier and tears translate directly into swing speed.
• Conversely, tear EFFECT items are largely wasted, because Berserk triggers so often that you rarely fire actual tears.
• Range ups extend the swing arc like they do for The Forgotten, which lets you open distant chests and grab items across small gaps.
• Health ups matter more for him than for most tainted characters, because Berserk forces melee range and he takes a lot of contact damage.

Items to hunt for

Strong on this character specifically, not just strong.

• C Section: high sustained damage charges Berserk fast, and while Berserk each swing fires bone-club-wielding fetuses, giving him the ranged option Berserk normally denies him.
• The Inner Eye or Mutant Spider: each swing becomes multiple strikes, and Berserk's tear delay reduction makes their fire rate penalty nearly irrelevant. Kidney Stone does the same job differently, making him flail the jawbone at absurd speed.
• Libra plus Rock Bottom: Libra gives a large all-stats up while Berserk is up, and Rock Bottom stops any of it decaying.
• The Wafer halves incoming damage, which doubles the punishment he can absorb at melee range in later floors; the Sigil of Baphomet trinket is near-permanently active because kills are trivial for him.
• Blood Rights or Razor Blade: spammable for enormous single-room damage, and safe because Berserk lets you sit at zero HP as long as a heart drop appears before the timer expires. Scapular also still grants its soul heart on the lethal hit that triggers or occurs during Berserk.
• Suplex! is a niche gem - used on an enemy right as Berserk ends it deals bonus damage and triggers a Mama Mega! effect. Cain's Other Eye swings the jaw in a random direction during Berserk for extra DPS and side/rear protection.
• On-hit and on-contact payoff items, since he is constantly taking contact damage: Anemic, Dead Bird, E. Coli, Serpent's Kiss, Gimpy, Old Bandage, Celtic Cross, Candy Heart, and Marbles for stacking trinkets.

Traps to refuse

Picks that are neutral or good elsewhere and bad here.

• Taurus: entering Berserk usually also triggers Taurus, which locks you to contact damage only and can waste an entire Berserk. Taurus contact damage does not refill the timer.
• The Ice Cube trinket and Uranus: freezing a killed enemy does not count as a kill for timer purposes, so on 1.7.9 they actively shorten Berserk.
• E. Coli and Flush! as damage sources: turning an enemy into poop is not a kill and does not charge the meter or extend Berserk. Ace cards have the same problem.
• HP downs and early Devil Deals: he needs the health buffer to survive melee range, especially before Womb.
• Speed downs are worse for him than for most characters, since he needs to reach the next enemy inside a 5-second window and to escape chasers when Berserk ends. Mom's Knife is also a quiet downgrade, because that version of the attack does not deflect projectiles.

Cheese and techniques

Verified against 1.7.9 on console — anything patched, PC-only or Repentance+ only is called out rather than listed.

• The Necronomicon can be timed to clear a room, fill the meter, and let you walk into the next room with a fresh full Berserk. For long boss fights with adds, Sharp Straw is generally better unless you have 4.5 Volt, though its 10% max-health damage does not appear to count toward the meter.
• The jawbone collects pickups and opens chests, and opening a Mimic Chest with it deals no damage. Locked Chests still need a key.
• Zero-HP window: while Berserk runs you cannot die from being at zero hearts, so you can deliberately cash in Blood Rights, Razor Blade or a Sacrifice Room mid-Berserk and heal off a kill drop afterwards.
• Familiar damage charges the meter, so a run with Sister Maggy, Incubus (which you have unlocked) or Cube of Meat reaches Berserk noticeably faster with no input from you.
• Do NOT Save and Exit while at 0 HP during Berserk - on 1.7.9 resuming that save kills you instantly even if the effect had not expired. Related: losing Holy Mantle while temporarily The Lost (mirror dimension, Soul of the Lost) and then entering Berserk makes you lose all health and die the moment you stop being The Lost.

Getting the marks

• 7 secrets, not 14. No unlock for Mom's Heart, none for normal Greed Mode, and no Hard-mode-sheet co-op baby.
• His 7: any one of Isaac / ??? / Satan / The Lamb gives the Temporary Tattoo trinket; either Boss Rush OR Hush gives Soul of Samson; Mega Satan gives Crane Game; Ultra Greedier gives XI - Strength?; Delirium gives Berserk! as an item; Mother gives Swallowed M80; The Beast gives Larynx.
• Boss Rush is comfortable for him - 30 bosses back to back means the Berserk timer basically never expires. The 20-minute Depths deadline (25 via Mausoleum or Gehenna) is the only real constraint.
• Downpour II caution: if Berserk is active during the temporary Lost form there, damage is drawn from your real health bar instead of being harmless.