I've enjoyed the Epiphany mod for a while, and recently picked it up on this computer. I've long been a fan of Lazarus and, don't kill me for this, Tainted Laz, so I've been very excited for the release of Tarnished Laz. While I imagine the team already has a plan for the character, I thought I'd still share my idea for unlocking him:

UNLOCK METHOD:

1. Begin a run as Tainted Lazarus

2. Use flip on the first treasure room pedestal, but do not pick either variation of the item up.

3. Defeat the first floor boss, then return to the treasure room. A scrap of "dad's last will" will have replaced the treasure room item. Picking it up will make the screen darken, and the player will be forcibly swapped to Alive Tainted Lazarus if they weren't already in that state. Their pocket item, flip, will be replaced by "dad's last will (1/6)", and the player will thus be stuck as Alive Tainted Lazarus for the remainder of the challenge.

4. The challenge begins: Continue down as normal (alt path will not be an option). Every treasure room item will be replaced by another scrap of dad's last will, forcing the player to make do with boss room items. The final scrap will be located in the treasure room of depths II, and picking it up will complete dad's last will.

5. Instead of progressing to the Mom fight, the player must return to the strange door in the depths II starting room, using their new pocket active, dads last will, on the strange door, just like how one would open the door with the polaroid or negative.

6. After unlocking the strange door with dads last will, the player must take the trapdoor ordinarily leading to the ascent Mausoleum. However, the player will instead be spawned in "The Tomb", a cave-like floor with a stone casket in the middle of the starting room with the lid off to the side. There will be secret-room like entrances to further rooms to the player's North and South, which will be be blocked off by rubble and cannot be opened until the next step is taken. Additionally, the player will have curse of the mist, curse of the lost, and curse of darkness applied to them. However, they will also receive Sol, highlighting the Tomb's boss room on their map.

7. Touching the casket will trigger the next stage of the challenge. Isaac's dad's voice will be heard, saying something alone the lines of "Isaac, I'm home" and a rumble will be heard. The door to the South will open, and invincible dead Isaacs (from the Mother fight) will walk out of it and begin to chase the player. The door to the North will open a second later, providing an avenue of escape. The player must then navigate the floor, searching for the boss room highlighted by Sol, while avoiding the dead Isaacs (which will persist between rooms, continuing to chase the player). A true chase scene.

8. Reaching the adjacent room to the Tomb's boss room will reveal a hole in the rocks, similar to the entrance to bosh rush, with golden light streaming from it. Walking into it will take the player to Isaac's room from the home floor.

9. Once the player is in Isaac's room, the dead Isaacs will have vanished, and Sol and curse of darkness will be removed as well (though curse of the lost and curse of the mist will persist). The player will again hear dad calling Isaac, from behind a door to the North of the room. Going through this door will reveal Isaac's dad hanging from a rope, triggering the unlock cutscene. Alive Tainted Lazarus will look at dads corpse for a moment and then begin to cry. The cuts on his hands will begin dripping blood, forming a pool on the floor. His skin will become pale, and his eyes will become white (essentially turning him into Dead Tainted Laz). He will then begin crying blood, curling up into a ball on the floor while the blood continues to pool around him, soaking his body. The screen will fade to black, and Tarnished Lazarus will be unlocked.


POTENTIAL LORE CONNECTIONS:

While "The Tomb" is largely inspired by Lazarus's resurrection in the Bible, the other lore connotations of the unlock method would be something along the lines of:

Normal Lazarus' extra life is Isaac clinging to the belief that his Dad is going to come back and save him from Mom, hardening his resolve to stay alive a little longer.

Tainted Lazarus' swapping between his living and dead self represent Isaac questioning his belief that Dad is alive, going back and forth between hope and dread.

Tarnished Lazarus represents Isaac's realization that his Dad is dead, and that his hopes of dad coming back for him were futile.


Anyways, thanks for coming to my TED talk.