The Bastard

Tainted Fiend, also known as The Bastard, is a tainted character added in Fiend Folio: Reheated. He is the alternative version of Fiend made up of oozing black goo, being able to divide himself into various tiny clones to conquer his foes.

He can be unlocked by opening the hidden closet in Home (using Red Key, Cracked Key, or Soul of Cain on the left corridor) while playing as Fiend.

He starts with 2 Black Hearts and Malice in his pocket slot.

Abilities & Traits

Malice

Tainted Fiend's main gimmick lies in his starting item, Malice — a 1-charge Active Item with a recharge time of 5 seconds.

Fireball

Using Malice once will transform Tainted Fiend into an invulnerable black fireball that lunges forwards, dealing 15 damage to every enemy hit while also leaving a trail of black creep. The fireball will stop and dissipate upon hitting an obstacle or wall.

The fireball lunges forward in the direction Tainted Fiend is shooting towards. If he's not shooting, then it launches in the direction he's moving towards.
- The movement keys can influence the direction of fireball slightly, and can strafe left and right while moving forwards.
Enemies killed by the fireball have a 20% chance of dropping Half Black Hearts.
While Tainted Fiend is normally invulnerable while in this fireball form, touching things that would normally hurt Tainted Fiend may still trigger certain "on hit" effects (such as losing the shield granted by Holy Mantle).
- (NOTE: This is a result of a bug.)

Minions

After hitting an obstacle while in the fireball form, Tainted Fiend will break down into several tiny copies of himself known as his Malice Minions.

Malice Minions are all controlled by the player's inputs and all fire tears independently, have smaller hitboxes than Tainted Fiend similar to Pluto, and share most of Tainted Fiend's stats and effects of Items he has collected during the run. However, while in this split form, Tainted Fiend and his minions gain a stronger Damage down multiplier (about 0.515x instead of 0.80x).

A Malice Minion is spawned for every full or half-full Black Heart Tainted Fiend has in his Health bar, with a minimum of 2 Malice Minions.
Malice Minions will die from a single hit of damage, and causes Tainted Fiend to lose the respective amount of Health said damage would've dealt. After taking damage, each minion will gain invincibility frames, but the time of invulnerability is much shorter than normal.
- In split form, Tainted fiend cannot die due to Heart loss; when at half a Heart with 2 Malice Minions, taking damage will only kill 1. Consequently, however, if every Malice Minion dies then Tainted Fiend will die regardless of if he had any Health remaining.

Reusing Malice while in this split state will cause all Malice Minions to turn into a puddle and start moving towards a player-controlled crosshair. When all puddles combine back together, Tainted Fiend will reform back to his regular size.

While reforming, Tainted Fiend and his Malice Minions are invulnerable.
The puddles created while reforming will gain speed until they inevitably reach the crosshair, meaning it can't be used to stay safe from harm for very long.

Health

Regarding his Health, Tainted Fiend works somewhat like the character Dark Judas or ???, but with greater restrictions.

Tainted Fiend can only gain Black Hearts. He cannot gain Red Heart containers, nor pick up Soul Hearts, Bone Hearts, or Immoral Hearts.
- Items that grant Red Heart containers or Soul Hearts will give him Black Hearts instead.
All Heart pickups have a high chance of being replaced with Black Hearts, while Soul Hearts and Eternal Hearts are always converted into Black Hearts.
- This chance is affected by Tainted Fiend's Luck stat — At 13 Luck, the chance for an Black Heart to spawn becomes capped at about ~60%,
- Blended Hearts will be converted into Blended Black Hearts instead.
Tainted Fiend can only have up to 6 Black Hearts in his Health bar. Any more will not be picked up.
In split form, Tainted Fiend can not gain any more Malice Minions by collecting Health (unless they reform and break down again).

Notes

While not in his split form, Tainted Fiend constantly emits short-lived slowing black Creep.
Right after switching forms from using Malice, Tainted Fiend will gain invulnerability frames for a brief amount of time.
- Additionally, Malice can be used to enter Cursed Room doors without taking damage, both when charging and reforming.
When placing a Bomb in split form, all of Tainted Fiend's Malice Minions will place tiny Bombs that all explode at the same time.
The movement of Malice Minions in split form don't all directly match the player's; only one Minion is controlled, while all other Minions will follow them closely.
While in split form, Tainted Fiend can pick up Spicy Keys without taking damage. (This might be a bug.)
Tainted Fiend has a hidden increased chance for random Coin pickups to become Cursed Pennies, being at 5% by default.

Birthright

"Malicious Healing + Individuality Up"

Tainted Fiend's Birthright strongly increases the chance for Malice to drop a Half Black Heart on enemy death. Moreover, in split form, the Malice Minions spawn with various hats that grant a different amount of Damage, Tear rate, Luck, and Tear size to the wearer.

Unlock Condition

Icon	Name	Unlock
	The Bastard	Use Red Key to open the hidden closet in Home as Fiend.

Unlockable Achievements

Icon	Name	Unlock Method
	Chunk of Tar	Defeat Isaac, ???, Satan, and The Lamb as The Bastard.
	+3 Fireballs?	Defeat Ultra Greedier as The Bastard.
	Soul of Fiend	Defeat Boss Rush and Hush as The Bastard.
	Golden Slot Machine	Defeat Mega Satan as The Bastard. Unlocking this also allows Dazzling Slot to appear in runs.
	Malice	Defeat Delirium as The Bastard.
	Hatred	Defeat Mother as The Bastard.
	Modern Ouroboros	Defeat The Beast as The Bastard.

Trivia

According to the lore of Maria's iconic Imp Gang, "The Bastard" is either Fiend after being corrupted by the Basement causing his body to devolve into sludge, or a completely separate imp that is a clone of Fiend named Steve.
Tainted Fiend, just like regular Fiend, also flips the bird instead of giving a thumbs up.
Many hats provided by Tainted Fiend's Birthright effect are references to other media. These are:
- A cap similar to Super Mario's (with an F instead of the M)
- A helmet with an antennae, similar to Captain Olimar's spacesuit from Pikmin
- A pair of goggles similar to those of Despicable Me's Minions
- A Ghastly Gibus, which is a Team Fortress 2 hat
- A suspicious visor similar to those of Crewmates from Among Us

Audio

Various sounds of Tainted Fiend getting hurt.

Sound of Tainted Fiend dying.

Gallery

For more images, see the gallery here: The Bastard/Gallery

Tainted Fiend's portrait in both the transition cutscenes and the boss VS screen.
Tainted Fiend's icon in the menus.
Tainted Fiend's icon prior to being unlocked.
Tainted Fiend's icon in the coop selection menu.
Tainted Fiend's "thumbs up".
Tainted Fiend in split form.
Tainted Fiend's Minion counter when in split form (appears below his Healthbar).
Split Tainted Fiend Minion with flight.
Split Tainted Fiend's "thumbs up".
All the hats that can be provided by Birthright.
The ghost of Tainted Fiend (which is the same as Fiend).
The ghost of a Tainted Fiend Minion.
Tainted Fiend's start room tutorial.