The Punished

!!! Content Warning !!!
This mod has recurring themes of trauma and abuse. Do not read further if those themes would make you uncomfortable.

NOTE: The Tarnished Version requires Repentogon (and obviously the Epiphany mod). It also has a Repentance+ exclusive feature, but it’s also made to work without Repentance+ if you can’t/don’t want to run it.

To unlock Tarnished Punished, you must first unlock Tainted Punished and Holy Mantle on The Lost.

The mod now has an Isaac Guru page, check it out!
https://isaacguru.com/mod/thepunished

The Punished is a character that explores Isaac’s trauma, his internalized guilt of perceived "sins", the pain and destruction that guilt can inflict, and the memories that have been forgotten.

Tainted Punished has split open, causing the inner ghosts to affect anyone that gets close enough.

Tarnished Punished is all that remains: an easily distracted soul trapped in a mask that attempts to stitch back what once was. At least there is some beauty in some of those golden stitches.

The Punished is a blindfolded character that relies on explosive ghosts summoned by Purgatory rifts to deal damage. Pretty simple at first glance, the Liberation pocket active offers a ton of complexity due to its dual design – it’s the key to mastering both combat and exploration as The Punished. With enough practice and a bit of luck, you’ll have free curse rooms, free secret rooms, and a relatively easy Perfection.

Tainted Punished uses a mix between purgatory ghosts, monstro’s lung, and the BRAVERY challenge seed. With enough practice you’ll be able to largely carve your own paths outside the confines of your mind’s map.

Tarnished Punished no longer has use for tears – only chained fists. While slightly dangerous, the distracting treats scattered across the map can be incredible tools.

The mirror’s secrets will reveal your reality.

Also you might need the "Pickup IDs" image that is in this steam page.

All 3 versions of the Punished take a more positional approach to combat, trying to entice the player into utilizing in-combat resources for exploration.

It might seem like these are challenge characters at first, but I can assure you it gets quite easy and even more fun once you get the hang of the new combat pattern(s). I’m obviously biased but once The Punished was ready, it quickly became my favorite character. I hope it brings you joy as well.

Finally, all 3 versions of The Punished are designed to be played with one hand, partially to include one-handed players but mainly because I just enjoy laying on my side and playing this.

Much like The Forgotten does with bone hearts, The Punished focuses on cracked keys and Ultra Secret rooms. In the unlocks you’ll mostly find new ways to enter Red Rooms, as well as more reasons to find Ultra Secret Rooms.

The Punished has full support for External Item Descriptions (EID) and Encyclopedia, as well as the appropriate metadata for POG for good items or Specialist for good items. You can track your progress with any mods that allow it, such as Encyclopedia or Achievements for modded characters.

If you’re a youtuber, you can find images to use as thumbnails in the "YouTube Thumbnails" folder inside the mod’s files.

Gonna get a bit more personal here, feel free to skip lol

When I first made this mod I was just a 22yo that spent like 2 months developing this to express myself. Since then I’ve gone through the horrors of capitalism, mandatory military service, and gotten diagnosed with a few things (which are probably immediately apparent to anyone looking at this mod lol). I’ve also spent 3 more years (on and off) developing this update and frankly it was worth it.

While I’m (begrudgingly) a software engineer by trade, usually my game design endeavors are mostly pen & paper books for TTRPGs (mainly DnD). Frankly this whole thing has mainly been an exercise to improve my game development skills.

Now, the real game development begins. I’m super excited to be hitting Kickstarter in a few years with a game design book that I firmly believe will be my magnum opus, and a few years after that I’ll hit steam with a roguelike unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. I’m well aware it sounds like a pipe dream, but I am 100% aiming for GotY with that thing and I can guarantee I’ll give it my best shot.

You will hear about me again.

Until then, unfortunately I have absolutely no plans of making another Isaac mod (maybe Mewgenics?).

I am the sole coder of this mod, but I wouldn’t be able to do any of it without the community documentation on the modding API, Lytebringr’s and CatInsurance’s tutorials on YouTube, the creators of the Epiphany mod, as well as everyone in the Modding of Isaac discord for basically teaching me how to mod (especially dpower12, zamiel and xalum, whose code I directly used).

Above all else though I want to thank the actual contributors to this mod, since I’m no longer its sole creator~ All new music you’ll hear is from the great Soundbin! Additionally, the boss’ sprite was made from the incredible Reixen and GLoDi169!

I’d also like to thank my friends and family for hearing me rave about the design of this thing for basically 3 years now, and to dedicate this update to my dear cat Gourgouris for the wonderful 17 years he spent with me.

Made with love,
by Elias Garoufalias (Aevilok).