I just got Tainted Judas, any tips? (read description for more context)

[Booty Warrior Johnson Fleece]

I've recently got Tainted Judas yesterday in a run which was a fun, so I wanted to play Tainted judas, but whe n idid his ability was quite confusing. Could I get some tips and information on how to use Tainted judas correctly? Thank you!

[Eprico]

When you use tainted judas' ability, you become invincible for a duration. For the duration, you can walk through enemies and tears. At the end of the duration, you will teleport through all the enemies and tears you walked through, deal damage to them and get a temporary damage up from each one; the more the better.

You can use his ability to wipe out rooms of enemies, dodge enemy attacks and even walk over spikes and into cursed rooms. You can use it aggressively by chasing after enemies and slicing through all of them or you can use it defensively by waiting for an enemy to start their attack and dodging through them. It's up to you.

[Senator Jim Death]

He's one of those characters who doesn't get red hearts, but he has fairly balanced stats otherwise except, I think, fairly short range. He's not like Tainted Eve or Tainted ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ where he's really reliant on his gimmick to do damage, but at the same time his gimmick is easy to use and doesn't cost anything. That's a very good description of how Dark Arts works up there. You can probably see that because you'll be trying to actually run into enemies and bullets, his short range is intended to encourage you to stay close to enemies--basically, you can't just stand off and let Dark Arts recharge but also be hitting enemies with tears. So regardless you're going to be spending a lot of time close to enemies unless you can get his range up and even then you have to be close to enemies to use Dark Arts offensively anyhow.

I tend to use his Dark Arts to negate bullets and get out of tight corners because I prefer a slower play style. Early in a run, though, it's very handy to deal with enemies that are annoying to hit with bullets, who burst into bullets on death, or who like to suddenly charge at you (I mean things like Clotties, Trites, Fat Bats), and it's always useful for guaranteed access to curse rooms without damage. He's about the only character (Tainted Maggie is the other one I can think of) that actually has a mode where he wants to be running into enemies, which actually does take a little practice to get used to, I found. Like so many other things, you kind of just need to practice. Get a feel for how long you stay invincible while Dark Arts is active and for how long it takes to recharge. If you're like me (can't see the icon very well down there in the corner) you'll do a fair lot of running into enemies because your Dark Arts was just a split second away from actually being ready. Since you don't have red health you don't want to do that often, so it's important to have a good feel for how long it takes to recharge.

You're invincible while Dark Arts is active and for a split second after it ends. You can't interact with certain things while it's active, but you can cross spikes with it to get to a button, for instance. You can open a spiked chest by activating Dark Arts, standing on the chest, and just letting it run out--you'll open the chest during your split second invincibility when Dark Arts ends.

Once you get a handle on exactly how Dark Arts works, he's a nice break from the majority of Tainted characters since he doesn't need a lot of fussy micromanagement or decision making to use correctly, his gimmick is consistently useful and can't be negated by simple dodging errors, and he doesn't pay for his gimmick with a larger effective hitbox. If you're bad with timing and dodging, though, he might be tough to get used to, because you can get yourself in trouble by using Dark Arts and having it end when you're standing too close to an enemy or trap to avoid it. I imagine most Isaac players who get far enough in to unlock him, though, are probably pretty good with those basic skills. Health might be a problem early on before you start finding cash and bombs because two black hearts isn't terrible but also isn't great, and he'll probably have trouble trying to get early Devil deals or using Sacrifice rooms, but that's common to no-red-health characters. Overall, however, I'd say he's a pretty easy character to use and to figure out Stupid Issac Tricks for when you know exactly how Dark Arts works, and that post above mine pretty much covers that.