Tarnished Samson

Tarnished Samson, or TR Samson, is a character from the Epiphany mod, included as the third iteration of Samson. He is unlocked by completing 3 Challenge rooms as Tainted Samson while holding Delilah's Razor, then entering the special trapdoor, surviving the 8 waves of Philistines, and freeing Tarnished Samson from his prison.

Blood brings haste
Immortal rage

Gameplay

Tarnished Samson starts with the item Killer Instinct in his pocket active slot.

Tarnished Samson's base attacks consists of a flurry of fast short-range punches hitting directly in a small cone in front of him; a charge bar increases while punching and, when full, allows TR Sam to unleash a powerful slam attack hitting every enemy around, plus making two boulders drop from the ceiling. The boulders can be picked up and thrown at enemies, and they will inherit the player's damage and tear effects.

Slaughter Bar

Dealing damage to enemies increases Tarnished Samson's Slaughter Bar, up to a maximum of five tiers, with every tier granting TR Sam a boost in tears and movement speed; the bar decays while not dealing damage, although extremely slowly in rooms without enemies. The amount of damage needed to reach a new tier increases with every floor.
Taking damage contributes to boosting the Slaughter Bar too, adding a multiplier to the amount of damage added to the Slaughter Bar. The multiplier starts at 1×, incrementing by .2 every time TR Sam takes damage, up to a maximum of 2×.

Immortal Rage

Tarnished Samson will not die if he takes fatal damage while at least at Tier 1 of Slaughter Bar; instead, he will enter a frenzied state where he will be invulnerable to any damage and gain a big Tear and Speed stats boost, as well as increasing the radius of the slam attack, while the Slaughter Bar will start decreasing and, when it reaches 0, TR Sam will die. To avoid death, TR Sam must deal enough damage in Immortal Rage mode (more or less equal to filling 5 levels of the Slaughter Bar) and avoid getting hit as much as possible (since while no damage will be recieved, it will increase the damage required to fill the Slaughter Bar); in that case, he will return to normal state with half a red heart of health and an empty Slaughter Bar.
During Immortal Rage, collecting hearts will not heal Tarnished Samson: instead they will contribute to fill the Slaughter bar, the amount depending on how rare the heart is; the amount of hearts needed to fill the bar increases with every floor, as well by getting hit by enemies during Immortal Rage.
Immortal Rage's duration depends on the slaughter bar's level the moment it is activated, with more levels extending more it's total duration. Each consecutive activation of Immortal Rage shortens the duration of the next one; resets on each floor.

Killer Instinct

Tarnished Samson's pocket item, Killer Instinct, allows him to quickly dash in the direction he's currently attacking, being fully invincible during the animation. The dash deals damage and knockback, as well as granting additional invincibility frames if it connects successfully. If an enemy is pushed against a wall or obstacle, it will take additional damage.
If TR Sam uses Killer Instinct while holding a boulder above his head, he will smash himself with it and enter the Immortal Rage status with increased duration in exchange for half of his current health, prioritizing red hearts. It follows the same "dealing enough damage to avoid death" rule, but keeping his remaining health in case of successful survival. If Samson smashes his head again with a boulder during Immortal Rage, he will cancel it prematurely without additional health cost and keep one level of the Slaughter Bar.
Killer Instinct's behavior can be changed from the Mod Config Menu, allowing it to trigger a dash in the direction TR Sam is moving rather than the one he's attacking.

Strategy

Tarnished Samson's strong melee attacks and limited ranged options encourage a reckless and very aggressive playstyle, ramming against enemies to kill them as fast as possible; Killer Instinct will especially come in handy either as a fight opener or an evasive move thanks to its invincibility frames. Keeping the flow will be useful, especially to maintain a high Slaughter bar tier to increase TR Sam's DPS and make it easier to kill enemies, which will consequently make the bar much easier to fill.
Since melee combat can come with the risk of being particularly exposed to enemy attacks, Immortal Rage is a very important tool for TR Sam's survivability: the player should be careful about their own health to avoid activating it in situations without enemies available for carnage. On the other hand, it can come in handy if TR Sam is surrounded or is fighting strong enemies like bosses, giving him a huge DPS boost and enough enemies to stay alive. In this situation, it could also be a good idea to manually activate Immortal Rage thanks to Killer Instinct's secondary effect.

Synergies

Any item that give tears effect on hit will be applied to Tarnished Samson's punches, slam, and boulders, such as Fruit Cake and Playdough Cookie.
Fire Mind: The slam will cause an explosion and leave behind a fire whenever it hits an enemy or a TNT barrel.
Brimstone: Every punch leaves a small Brimstone swirl of short duration in front of Tarnished Samson and the slam will create a Brimstone ring around him.
Ipecac: Every punch that hits an enemy, wall, or obstacle will cause a small explosion and poison nearby enemies without hurting Tarnished Samson himself, while the slam will cause an explosion around Tarnished Samson without hurting him too. The boulders explode on contact, but they can hurt TR Sam.
Chocolate Milk: Punches can be charged; the more it is charged, the bigger and stronger the punch will be.
Dr. Fetus: Punches will toss bombs and boulders leave a bomb on hit.
Epic Fetus: Boulders turn into rockets.
Godhead: Slam leaves behind a damaging aura in its wake. Boulders also gain an aura too.
Trisagion: Punches leave disappearing lasers when swinging. Boulders become lasers.
The Ludovico Technique: Spawns a large tear that can be launched with punches, similar to The Forgotten.
Sinus Infection/Mucormycosis/Explosivo: Punches can leave tears with their respective properties stuck to enemies. Boulders can also stick to enemies occasionally.
Jacob's Ladder: Punches spawn electric tears on hit. Boulders also electrify when thrown.
Haemolacria: Every successful punch and dash hit will burst tears from the enemy.
Mars: When using Killer Instinct, Tarnished Samson will dash nonstop until hitting an obstacle or wall, but it cannot be controlled.
Car Battery: The dash will not be triggered twice, but it will trigger the effects from the dash hit twice.
Holy Light: The slam will spawn beams of light around Tarnished Samson.
Spirit Sword: Punches get wider. While at full health, the slam will shoot Spirit Sword projectiles. While at full health, the dash will shoot Spirit Sword projectiles when hitting an enemy.
Mom's Knife: Punches become larger and stronger. Slamming now fires 8 knives around the player.
C Section: Successful punches might shoot a fetus in front of Tarnished Samson, not affected by luck. The slam will spawn a fetus on each side horizontally.
Technology: Technology: Punching creates a laser ring that quickly vanishes. The dash will shoot 3 lasers in front of Tarnished Samson when hitting an enemy. The slam will shoot 12 lasers around Tarnished Samson. Additional copies of Technology will create an additional laser ring when punching, shoot 3 additional lasers on dash hit, and shot 12 additional lasers on slam.
Technology Zero: Thrown boulders make an electric chain to any stationary boulders on the field.
Monstro's Lung: Tosses rocks instead of boulders
Birthright: Rage drive - Increases the maximum Slaughter bar multiplier to 2,5×, adds an extra bar during Immortal Rage than can be filled by dealing damage, extending it's total duration and keeps part of of the Slaughter's bar multiplier after Immortal Rage ends.

Favored Items

Due to Tarnished Samson's close-range nature, items that activate when nearby enemies can be fantastic for him, like Dad's Ring, 120 Volt, Dead Tooth, and Crimson Bandana.

Unlocks

Savage Chains - Defeat Isaac, ???, Satan, and The Lamb as Tarnished Samson
Pain-O-Matic Machine - Defeat Mega Satan as Tarnished Samson
Essence of Samson - Defeat Hush and Boss Rush as Tarnished Samson
Reverse Card & Inverse Card - Defeat Ultra Greedier as Tarnished Samson
Crimson Bandana - Defeat Delirium as Tarnished Samson
New Ropes - Defeat Mother as Tarnished Samson
Broken Pillar - Defeat The Beast as Tarnished Samson
Killer Instinct - Obtain all Hard Mode Completion Marks as Tarnished Samson

Trailer

Trivia

Some developer comments and Tarnished Samson's character sheet on the workshop page refer to Tarnished Samson as 'Momentum'.
- The title likely refers to Tarnished Samson's hyper-aggressive playstyle of getting up close to enemies and quickly killing them with his blows, as well as the fast-paced fights that usually occur when he goes into Immortal Rage.
Much like Tarnished Keeper, Tarnished Samson's inclusion was initially revealed through an ARG on the Epiphany discord. An overview of the ARG can be found here.
Tarnished Samson's ability to cause parts of the ceiling to fall and to throw them at enemies is a reference to the death of Samson in the Book of Judges, in which he causes the temple of Dagon to collapse with his brute strength, killing him and everyone inside.
- Tarnished Samson's lack of eyes is also a reference to the Book of Judges, and how Samson's eyes were gouged out after he was captured by the Philistines, a detail carried over from Tainted Samson's Berserk form.
- Tarnished Samson's unlock sequence, with Tainted Samson fighting against 8 waves of Philistines, is a reference to the Book of Judges as well, where he killed an army of 1,000 Philistines using a donkey's jawbone.