I had a gimmick idea for tarnished Bethany on an old forum that was destroyed back in 2022. So I figured to keep the idea alive I'll put my Idea here.

Tarnished Bethany (The Frail)

Appearance: Similar to the heretic's familiar's that are with him at the start of the fight, except In the hole atop their head is the cross from tainted Bethany's appearance.

Unlock Method: As tainted Bethany, going to the super secret room and using Lemegeton twice without leaving will spawn a purple lost buddy that will act as the lost soul does, but instead of granting you a bonus, instead upon spawning he will take all your red heart charges and turn them into his own health. (1 charge = 1 extra damage taken) then you must escort him to the special Depths 2 door. where if he opens it, an animation will play in which the soul enters Bethany and the flesh around the cross burns away revealing tarnished Bethany and ending the run. As mentioned before your red heart charges now allow the soul to survive longer, if the soul dies then tainted Bethany dies.

Flavour Text:

Truly Broken
All is Charge
Remember what fades...

Starting Item: Grand Grimoire (pocket active)

Starting Health: 3 unfilled bone hearts
Starting Stats:

Speed: 1.00

Fire Rate: 2.50

Damage: 4.00

Range: 7.00

Shot Speed: 1.15

Luck: 0.00

The main gimmick of tarnished Bethany is her use of Soul heart charge in tandem with the red heart charges. Functioning as a combination of both of these abilities. the only hearts that Tar. Bethany can have is unfilled bone hearts. So her health game will be exceedingly weak.

This can be supplemented by her pocket active...

Grand Grimoire:

12 charges

Upon use this will spawn a burning bone wisp with a purple tint. It orbits like any middle ring wisp. with the catch that upon firing it instead copies your tear effects, fire rate and damage. Management of these wisps is crucial to tar Bethany's survival. They have about triple the health of the regular wisp. By pressing the shift button, Bethany can swap her wisps between three modes of support.

1. Assault: The wisps use similar logic to Minisaacs spawned from "Micro cells" strafing and firing upon enemies.

2. Defence: Wisps orbit Bethany. like standard wisps. While in this state they only take half damage from bullets and fire at 50% of Bethany's fire rate.

3. Support/Farming: Wisps are consumed by Bethany and represented by notches on her cross glowing. While in this state the wisps do not exist, rather while in this state. if Bethany does not swap states throughout the room, she will receive pickups based on the number and kind of wisps that she has.

Wisps have different properties depending on the room they are spawned in.

Angel: Wisps have more health, but are stuck in defensive form. These are white

Devil: Wisps deal more damage but are only offensive These are black

Shop: Wisps have a 50% chance of spawning an additional penny, they are stuck in support mode. the node on her cross is gold

Planetarium, wisps orbit enemies in attack mode, they reflect bullets in defence mode, and have a 50% chance of spawning a tarot card in support mode. These are dark blue.

Secret room/super secret room: Wisp has spider style movement in attack mode, it acts as though it were the shield of faith in defence mode, and has a 50% chance to spawn a trinket in support mode. They are grey in colour.

Dice rooms/vaults: Wisps bounce around the room like lil hushy in attack mode, will orbit enemies in defense mode and has a 50% chance to spawn keys in support.

Bedrooms: Wisp moves like any other basic familiar in both attack and defence mode. They have a 50% chance to spawn a pill in support.

I AM ERROR: random of the above affects.

Tarnished Bethany's own health is also supplemented by her wisps. Is he were to ever take lethal damage ALL her wisps will self destruct and grant 1 bone heart for each wisp destroyed.

These wisps are capped at 5 total at any given time. Using the book with the max amount of wisps will grant Bethany an additional bone heart and will only consume 6 charges.