Increases the chance for Tinted Rocks to appear on a floor, and all Tinted Rocks now have randomized appearances from other alternate floors of the current chapter.
When destroyed, these Tinted Rocks will have the following additional rewards:
Isaac gains a fading +6 flat damage buff that lasts for roughly one minute, decaying at a rate of -0.10 per second.
50% chance to remove a Broken Heart from Isaac's Health bar, if he has any.
Drops a Half Red Heart alongside the rest of its contents.
Upon entering a new floor, adds a Broken Heart to Isaac's Health bar.
Notes
The temporary damage gained from Tinted Rocks can stack with multiple destroyed.
The chance for Fist Full of Ash to create additional Tinted Rocks in a room on a given floor is approximately a 1/5 chance per room, with a maximum of 4 additional Tinted Rocks generated per floor.
Tinted Rocks will blow up in a shower of gore and spill bloody projectiles when destroyed. The projectiles are player tears and will not harm Isaac, however, and deal 2× Isaac's damage to enemies if they happen to land.
If this item is obtained in a room that has Tinted Rocks, destroying them will not grant additional rewards unless the room is exited and re-entered.
Magic Skin / Heartbreak / Heartache: Fist Full of Ash's ability to remove Broken Hearts by destroying Tinted Rocks makes it pair naturally with other item effects that add Broken Hearts.
Keeper / Tainted Keeper: Fist Full of Ash will not grant these characters Broken Hearts when entering a new floor.
Fist Full of Ash is a reference to the game Perfect Vermin by ItsTheTalia. The item's effect mirrors the objective of the game, which is to destroy household objects that hide bloody flesh on the inside. Isaac's appearance with the item is in reference to the news broadcaster's appearance later into the game.
It is also directly based on the item of the same name in the game Brutal Orchestra, which also references Perfect Vermin.
Prior to The Spitshine Update, the item's flavor text was originally read as "Less than human", and the item's name was misspelled as "Fistful of Ash".
This old flavor text is based on the item's quote in the game Brutal Orchestra.