Shadow Taint and You: Being Evil Made Easy

5 easy steps to obtain the Evilest Ending, and more fun facts inside! Includes locations, effects, and names.
updated for better readability

Special Thank you to all the commenters who have contributed thus far

Shadow Taint and Its Effects

Similar to the bovine taint from the previous game, you gain Shadow Taint levels by consuming the accursed items you find in shadow holes, rifts, or anywhere else really.
Unlike West of Loathing, however, the counter is seemingly infinite- it'll just keep going up and up as you eat more items. You only need five to get the "evilest ending" where you swallow the world whole in your shadow, but don't let that stop your wicked dreams!
As you level up your shadow taint, you can talk with the freaky shadow creatures you randomly encounter, turning them into friends, and they'll give you an item or exp. You can also remove the weird items found inside if you have the right level of shadow taint! There will also be more shadow orbs and new rifts as well. Finally, you will be able to solve the shadow magic problems in the story with your own, higher level shadow powers.

Note that once you've "opened your eyes" by reaching level 3 of shadow taint, there is no way of going back, and you also now loathe the un-cursing machine. You also lock yourself out of talking to certain NPCs, and hobos will no longer wish to speak to you (except for Obie and the gator hobo, for some weird reason).
Once you get supercharged with the shadow taint*, you are locked out of obtaining the buddy-specific ending achievements, except for Molly who is not putting up with this shadow-throne ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

PS: Shadow Taint is shown on you character sheet below stats

*see the perks section of this guide

Removing Shadow Taint

There is currently no in-game way to lower/remove shadow taint, so for anyone who accidentally raised it too high when they didn't mean to, or changed their mind, here's how to edit your save file to get rid of your shadow taint according to another user:

Originally posted by TheAmazinBlazin:

Closing the game and going to %appdata%/LocalLow/Asymmetric Games, LLC/Shadows Over Loathing, there should be JSON files of all save games. Open the most recent save in notepad, hit ctrl+f, and type "consumables". It should take you to a value called "shadow_fromconsumables", set that to 0. Under that, "shadoweyes" needs to be set to 0 as well... Save the file, and open the game back up, and you should be taint free.

Remember to back up your save file by making a copy elsewhere before doing any save editing, unless you're confident you can undo any game-breaking changes.

Cursed/Shadow Items

If you want to go full in, you can choose to NOT un-curse all of the cursed items, Jessica none the wiser (yes including the fedora, just go back into your room anyways when Jessica stops you).
Doing so, the cursed items keep all their prior effects, and make you feel pretty evil.
Here's what they do:

Name	Description	Location
Fedora	Will let you bypass certain random encounters and skill checks by speaking forbidden words	Story item
Dangerous Pocketwatch	Lowers a target's stats by 13	Story item
Compass	Leads you to shadow item encounters	Story item
Key	Opens any locked object, including the Black House gate	Story item
Sickle	Deals your class stat +13 spooky damage	Story item
Duck Call	Deal spooky damage and cause bleeding, both equal to your mysticality; will also scare the ducks on the McMillicancuddy farm	Throw the Haunted Duck Call in the H*** Hole
Fishing Rod	Deals your muscle +3 spooky damage; will sometimes fish up shadow items	Found on the S.I.T bridge
Librum Umbra Malum Ovilla	Reading will grant you special shadowy perks*	Story item

Here's a list of Shadow food items:

Name	Effect
Wine	+2 to every elemental armor
Beer	+7 physical armor
Mead	+70% meat drops
Milkshake	+1 mysticality and +2 ap
Hot Dog	+1 muscle and +5 to your melee attacks
Pickle	+1 moxie and +5 to your ranged attacks
Salad	+1 mysticality and +5 to your magic attacks
Elixir	+1 muscle and +11 maximum hp
Grease	+1 moxie and +50% item drops

And here's the physical items you can snag from rifts:

Name	Description	Location
Apple	Increase all your stats by 13 once per fight	Cherry orchard, by the Wormfather during the grodeworm sidequest
Briefcase	Grants a forbidden perk increasing your class stat by one; requires shadow taint skill check	S.I.T library
Boots	You now travel around by skating across the shadows	Behind the cracked wall in Gumbuckle mine; note that you will not gain access to the mine if you have 3 or higher shadow taint
Candle	Sets an enemy on fire for your mysticality +7	Basement of the Dauphin House; note that you will not gain access to the Dauphin House if you have 3 or higher shadow taint
Chalice	Grants a perk*	Inside the fishmother lair under the S.I.T bridge
Coin	+100% meat drops	Black-Gold mine/Papascau ranch
Egg	Hatches into a familiar that does spooky damage to all enemies and increases your stats	Barbara's basement; requires that you offer to get birdseed for her. Note that this will replace your original bird familiar.
Hammer	Deals 5 spooky damage to all enemies	By the "important machine" in the S.I.T Hexquarry
Knife	Deals your Moxie +7 bleeding	Goldthwait park, by the jagged rocks; needs high level of shadow taint to be seen
Loop (ring)	Increased shadow creature encounters	Crystaldream junkyard, leftmost path
Mirror	Swaps stats with an ally or opponent once per fight	Boardwalk Vampire bar; requires you to progress the Mob questline
Rat	Familiar which does spooky damage to enemies	Present-day Sandwich basement; cannot be obtained after solving the witch problem, requires you to interact with the basement in the past
Rift Fragment	Can be turned into a necklace at the accessory shop; unlocks gatorman Alphonse as a buddy	Zimmer's House basement
Shorts	+50% item drops	Tentacle House
Skullcap	+13 physical armor	Gilmore House bunker
Syringe	Poisons an enemy for your muscle +7	Cave full of flies at Haim Quarry; can be obtained regardless of what you choose to do with the frogs

Combat items:

Name	Effect
Rope	Stuns one enemy for a turn
Clarinet	Reduce one enemy's stats by 13
Bomb	Does 13 spooky damage to all enemies

*see the perks section of this guide

Available Perks

There are several available perks and skills, most from the Librum Umbra Mallum Ovilla (whose title is too long to write, honestly), and a few other perks here and there.

Miscellaneous:

Name	Effect	Obtaining
Forbidden perk	Increases your class stat by 1	Read the item in the rift briefcase; requires 5 levels of shadow taint
Shadow-Charged	Changes the ending you take the malevolent entity's throne	Absorb the energy from the umbratanium pillars around Government Valley
Shadowy Waters	+10 maximum hp and +3 hp regeneration	Drink from the shadow chalice; will also give you a fish-head
Haunted	Gives themed dialogue options	Say you're searching for something dark during the prologue

Cursed Book:

Name	Effect
Shadow Chomp	Deals 5 spooky damage and heals you by the damage dealt
Shadow Embrace	Deals 13 spooky damage to an enemy and also yourself; damage done to you can be reduced by you elemental armor
Shadow Vortex	Steal 1 muscle, mysticality, and moxie from each other combatant; includes allies
Occlusion of Shadow	Elemental armor challenges are easier
Suffusion of Shadow	Stat challenges are easier
Collusion of Shadow	You start combat with three shadow creatures on your side
The Shadow's Vision	+1 mysticality and +5 to magical attacks, -10 maximum hp
The Shadow's Vanity	+1 moxie and regular familiars will not aid you in combat; only the shadow rat and bird will aid you
The Shadow's Protection	+1 muscle and +5 physical armor, -1 ap

Fun Facts

• Alphonse will sometimes randomly find shadow items for you.
  
• you can absorb the president
  
• No more candy from the nice hardware store man :,((( (thank you fillanator)
  
• If you put P O O P in the rift guarded by the dean it makes a "special" noise.
  
• Tony Fiasco doesn't like your cursed hat, but he'll pay you anyway.
  
• If you have a level 5 shadow taint, you can absorb your class' rival and take their cool hat during their final encounter! Neat!
  
• When you open your eyes, they're full of the same starry material as all the other evil things. You probably already knew that, but it's still a fun fact.
  
• Most NPCs, especially quest NPCs will not react to your sudden evilness, which is funny.
  
• Interacting with yourself in mirrors after opening your eyes, your reflection will say "perfect, never change" and you'll respond back with garbled shadow speak.
  
• Getting St. Polycarp's blessing while tainted or having the haunted perk will cause you to respond with "it burns a little!"
  
• Approaching the Church of St. Polycarp with a high level of shadow taint will cause you to be struck by lightning.
  
• The Sandwich museum guard is immune to the cursed fedora and all other compulsion. Truly the power of minimum wage is great.
  
• Using shadow items will affect the environment, e.g. more dead trees and an omnipresent black fog.
  
• Using the fedora on the man in the S.I.T archives will cause him to say a string of cursed words back at you.
  
• Having the "agent of chaos" starting perk will allow you to get the good ending despite being a horrific creature of evil (- Grung the Goblin)
  
• As you gain more shadow taint, your dreams will be increasingly haunted by demonic eyes and mouths.
  
• You can kiss one of these mouths!

[Grung The Goblin]

also shadow combat items such as bombs increase haunteness

[Grung The Goblin]

BY SOMETHING
IUNNO

[Grung The Goblin]

WAIT NO
I BELIEVE THAT THE HAUNTENESS MULTIPLIES HOW MUCH TAINT YOU GET

[Felix-sishou]

@Grung The Goblin thank you for this information!

[Grung The Goblin]

also with the perk "agent of chaos" (its one of the starting perks that you get when talking to ethel, its quit hard to find!) you can get the good ending even when you absorb the shadow pylons, among... other things the perk does...

[Grung The Goblin]

Note: the haunted perk increases the amount of haunteness(TM) (more haunteness increases how many trees are dead and how thick fog is) that you get from using shadow items(hat, watch, h ss hole duck call, etc) this is ultimately cosmetic.

Eg. using the shadow key gives you 25 haunteness(TM) with the haunted perk you get 30(maybe more maybe less)

and if it isn't clear, the fog and dead trees aren't a byproduct of having shadow taint, the dead trees and fog are a byproduct of using shadow tainted ITEMS.

[ballin but at what cost]

how to become the worst man/woman/unknowable entity alive guide working 2023 (no hacks) ((no cheats)) (((legal))) ((((maybe))))

[BlueCheeseFactory]

thank you for guiding me to become my worst self ♡

[Ocelotgirl19]

love the guide tho, for the evil monster in all of us~

[Ocelotgirl19]

uh not me during my first play though just sticking my two fingers in every space hole i see and then eating whatever i find, with the scouts honor, what a nice human i am.