Tarnished Magdalene

Tarnished Magdalene, or TR Magdalene, is a character from the Epiphany mod as the thrid iteration of Magdalene being unlocked by beating chapter 4 with Bleeding Heart as Tainted Magdalene.

Gameplay

Tarnished Magdalene starts with 3 red hearts, an X0.9 tear rate, an X0.75 damage modifier, 0.80 starting speed, and the pocket active item Cardiac Arrest. She also gains a +0.70 speed boost when hit that quickly decays.

Bleeding

When Tarnished Magdalene gets hit or uses Cardiac Arrest, she will bleed. When bleeding, Magdalene leaves a trail of red creep and gain +1.50 range similar to Anemic.

Bleed is represented by the bar below her HP. When the bar runs out, she takes half a heart in bleed damage (prioritizes red hearts).

If Magdalene has no health left, bleed consumes heart containers instead. Heart containers lost to bleed lower its counter by 4.

Uncontainable Love

Picking up hearts at full health will add them to a bonus heart counter. Health lost by bleed will be taken from bonus hearts before health.

If Magdalene maxes out her bonus hearts, she gains an additional heart container. The amount of bonus hearts required to gain more heart containers grows depending on how many heart containers Magdalene has.

Gaining a heart container this way will subtract the number of bonus hearts you had from the bleed counter, usually stopping bleed entirely.

Extra hearts needed for heart container

Heart containers	Hearts required
0-1	5
2	7
3	12
4	17
5	23
6	28
7	34
8	41
9	48
10	55
11	63
12	71

Cardiac Arrest

Using Cardiac Arrest will damage TR Maggy for half a heart and fire a big piercing heart tear, granting a temporary damage boost (quickly decaying in 9 seconds) for each enemy hit: +1 for the first one, +0.50 for the second one, and +0.25 for the third one and beyond.

Enemies hit drop 6 temporary half-red hearts that vanish in 2 seconds. Hitting multiple enemies in a row will drop more hearts, with the number of hearts dropped diminishing as more enemies are hit.

Strategy

Tarnished Magdalene's stats and above all her X0.75 damage multiplier will require making careful use of Cardiac Arrest, which (paired with the bleeding mechanic) will often cause runs to be frenzied and aggressively fast, with the player often trying to gather as many health pickups as possible to make up for the bleed damage. For this reason it's best not to spam Cardiac Arrest at every possible chance to not be overwhelmed by bleeding, but to carefully shoot it against groups of enemies (especially weaker ones like Flies), in order to spawn as many temporary red hearts as possible.

For the same reason, healing items like Yum Heart or anything that increases heart pickup spawns (like Little C.H.A.D.) are very useful to TR Maggy; HP UPs in particular are especially important since they can immediately stop her bleeding. Beggars are a valuable resource too, since they can spawn HP UP items if paid enough pennies.

Favored Items

Mom's Locket: Makes all half red hearts dropped become full red hearts. This allows bonus hearts to be obtained significantly easier, making bleeding less of a threat.
Celtic Cross/Virgo: Creates a shield when using Cardiac Arrest, making it easier for the player to pick up dropped hearts safely.
Candy Heart: Grants small stat boosts whenever red hearts are picked up. This includes hearts produced from Cardiac Arrest.

Unfavorable Items

Eye of Belial: Cardiac Arrest will stop producing health from hitting enemies after passing through the first enemy.
The Negative: When Tarnished Magdalene takes damage to half a heart, all enemies in the room take damage, meaning they will be killed before Cardiac Arrest has the chance to hit them and create hearts.

Synergies

Birthright: Reciprocal love - Hearts spawned by Cardiac Arrest now have less momentum and are easier to catch. half soul hearts can also spawn from hit enemies if Magdalene is low on health.
Since Cardiac Arrest inherits the player's tear modifiers, items like Spoon Bender or Ouija Board also apply to the fired heart.
Since Cardiac Arrest's recoil counts as damage taken, any item activated by taking damage such as Old Bandage can trigger when Cardiac Arrest is used.

Unlocks

True Love - Defeat Isaac, ???, Satan, and The Lamb as Tarnished Magdalene

Converter Beggar - Defeat Mega Satan as Tarnished Magdalene

Essence of Magdalene - Defeat Hush and Boss Rush as Tarnished Magdalene

Queen of Hearts? - Defeat Ultra Greedier as Tarnished Magdalene

Weird Heart - Defeat Delirium as Tarnished Magdalene

Mom's Grief - Defeat Mother as Tarnished Magdalene

Warm Coat - Defeat The Beast as Tarnished Magdalene

Cardiac Arrest - Obtain all Hard Mode Completion Marks as Tarnished Magdalene

Trailer

Trivia

On the official Steam Workshop page for the Epiphany mod, Tarnished Magdalene is referred to as 'Fervency', a possible title for the character.
- Fervency means a warmth or intensity of feeling, likely referring to Tarnished Magdalene's aggressive playstyle and her theme of 'sharing love' with enemies.
In the files for the Epiphany mod, Tarnished Magdalene's hair is named "maggieshideouslyawfulgoldenlocks.png"
- This is a running joke with Magdalene's hair file names. Magdalene's hair is named "maggiesbeautifulgoldenlocks.png", while Tainted Magdalene's is named "maggiesnotsobeautifulgoldenlocks.png".
Tarnished Magdalene seems to have a hole in her chest with an exposed ribcage, implying she ripped out her heart.