How to more consistently win as Tainted Lost

I'm going to keep this guide short and simple, any complex interactions I'll leave for a more detailed guide.

Tainted Lost starts with a Holy Card, a hidden .5 soul heart, an inability to gain extra health, flight, spectral tears, a 1.3x damage multiplier, a built-in card re-roll mechanic, an item ban list, and a built-in item re-roll list.

Keep in mind that DESPITE Holy Card being an unlockable, you will STILL start with one if you don't have it unlocked, and you'll STILL be able to spawn them in. I'm not sure if the odds are lower due to natural Holy Cards being unable to spawn, but you could beat Delirium as The Lost to be safe.

The Holy Card will protect you against the next hit you take, essentially functioning as a "Holy Mantle" of sorts. You cannot stack this effect. I'll assume you know what Holy Mantle does if you've already unlocked Tainted Lost.

Spectral Tears & Flight are also self-explanatory. But strategies utilizing them I'll go over later on.

The damage multiplier is also quite nice.

Now onto the more complex mechanics:

Card Re-rolling: Every card that spawns in has a 10% chance of being re-rolled into a Holy Card. It's worth noting that duplicating cards will not trigger this re-roll, but any other form of spawning them in will do.

Item Ban List: Every item in the game either has the "offensive" tag, or it doesn't. Items without that tag CANNOT spawn or appear in the run. Spindown Dice will still be able to roll into those items. Death Certificate can be used to get those items, and Soul of Lilith can still spawn in banned items. Harbinger bossfights will still spawn their item even if it's "Disallowed" (same with other guaranteed item spawns). Blood Donation Machines can still spawn Blood Bag.

The wiki says this ban list does not kick in during co-op, but I've not played T-lost in Co-op before so I wouldn't know.

Item Re-rolling: Everytime an item spawns, the game checks if it's a quality 2 item or lower. If so, there's a 20% chance the game will re-roll said item. Worth noting that pre-determined item spawns (such as Blood Bag) are unaffected. The new item could be lower or equal quality, and will not be re-rolled again.

You have spectral and flight. You should be hiding inside walls 99.99% of the time. Enemies that deal contact damage literally cannot get you, and enemies that fire tears/projectiles (that aren't explosive/spectral) cannot hit you through walls.

Make sure you're moving in a clockwise/anti-clockwise circle if you are fighting this guy:
Your base speed stat should be good enough, but if you have a speed down, try to tighten the circle to account for it.




Make sure you're on the left/right of this guy as long as you can be. His lasers cannot hit you, and his tears are easy to dodge.







Make sure you're perpendicular to this guy at all times:
If he's about to do the + Lasers, it will be incredibly easy to tell. However the X lasers have a very similar animation to his tear firing attack, and being diagonal to him could be fatal.




Speaking of the Angels, you'll NEED to fight them Asap for the keys, because if you're unlucky enough you could end up getting just 2 angel deals the entire run, and there's even a chance you get only 1 due to bad RNG. Having a key piece improves your odds. I don't care how weak your run is, you can last forever against either of these guys if you lock in.

Make sure you blow up Demon Beggars if they're in a central part of a room. (and you have a good bomb supply), this will also make Angels more likely than devils.


If you have an extra Holy Card on any given floor and no way to pick it up alongside your current one(s), use your Holy Card shield to check out the curse room. If you are pressured for time due to Boss Rush/Hush mark, then don't worry about this too much.

The above also applies if you find a Chariot/Invincibility pill. But also keep in mind you can abuse them to play Blood Donos/Demon Beggars. Just be careful if you're playing with the Speed-up machines mod.. a good rule of thumb is that you'll only have time for 3-4 donations at best, 4 if you start almost immediately, 3 otherwise.

If a random teleportation effect teleports you inside the curse room, try looking for an adjacent secret room to preserve shield.

Keep your distance from Red Campfires and Purple Campfires. Remember: they will only fire once per room, but this will reset if you leave and re-enter the room.


This guy sucks, f#$% this guy.
The rotation strategy applies here, but you need a high speed stat to pull it off, as his Tech laser is more precise and accurate than Mom's Eye.

Try to one-shot him before he fires, if at all possible.





This guy also sucks, he can rot in the deepest abyss.
That said, he at least telegraphs his brimstone attack for a grand total of .2 seconds to give you time to react.
If you suspect he will Brimstone, make sure you're moving fast as the beam will follow your movement as much as possible.
Worth noting that he only fires his Brimstone laser if you're perpendicular to him (up/down/left/right), If you have a homing affect, do your best to be diagonal to his position.


Try to hold onto your Holy Card on the first floor. In case you find a Blank Card in the shop. This is pretty typical advice, but DO NOT enter the shop if you have 1 coin and no bombs. If there's a blank card in there that you cannot afford, it won't spawn again.

Speaking of Blank Card, the shop is your best friend IN GENERAL, and you should be saving your coins for holy cards and item spawns.

Also make sure you use your holy card on the first floor if the room you're in is too sketchy.

Avoid building a synergy that involves spamming a lot of tears if you're going up against Delirium, as he has a chance to teleport in response to being hit, and this will happen more often if there's more tears being spammed at him. High dmg multiplier is best (And more effective for T Lost who already starts with x1.3). Obviously you have no control over your run for the most part, unless you do, then don't mess this up.

Remember: Missing Poster is basically a 1up for T.Lost.

Finally, bring a Red Key/Cracked Key to Home if you're doing Beast route. Since you already have the Tainted variant of the character unlocked, Inner Child is guaranteed to spawn inside the hidden closet (Despite being banned), but only if you've already beaten Ultra Greed as J&E.

Remember, you should ALREADY be playing as if you do not have an active Holy Card, so if you lose your current one, don't get tilted, stay locked in and play normally.

If your items suck for the run, just keep playing, the offensive item bans remove almost every garbage item in the game (with few exceptions), so you'll eventually roll good and improve the run.

Keep your cool, and try not to think about how this prick ended your previous run:








Also, good luck with Ultra Greedier, the AoE explosions and lack of explosion immunity items in the Offensive item pool can cause this fight to be significantly harder than the other bosses (even Delirium), i recommend practicing hit-less greedier runs as other characters before doing it as The Lost. You'll beat him eventually, just practice.

Most of the time, your T-Lost runs will succeed because of a broken item synergy, but don't get too complacent if you're easily room clearing.

Also, despite what most people will tell you, Ipecac is actually a hard carry for T-Lost. The spectral tears means it will only land if it hits an enemy, which means you have significantly more control over Ipecac than most other characters. T-Lost is a glass cannon, and Ipecac is basically filling up the cannon with rocks. Just don't take Continuum or some other item that lets Ipecac have another chance to hit you.

Don't get too over-eager when you see a Tinted Rock, they will drop soul hearts most of the time, a pickup entirely useless to you unless you have Alabaster Box.

And if you're feeling weak, make sure you're using your bombs when need be, it's scary, but you need to practice using bombs during fights if you're uncomfortable by it.

Good luck!