ToonNik’s rendering of Chibi Mirrin approves of this patch.

So this patch adds in a new mechanic and subsystem that’s been nothing but an idea for… a really long time at this point. Talking with the CoC2 team and writers just reminded me that I should really get on making it a reality…. Thus, please make a warm welcome for the addition of “Taint.”

0.7.153 Changelog:

  • Follower Shekka can now Buy, Sell, Fix Emitters, and buy Tarkus junk once more.
  • Follower Shekka now has a new item in her inventory. Enjoy!
  • With the addition of Taint, the libido-reducing “Chill Pill” item has been made active in the game again. It is available from Dr. Lash and a number of vending machines.
  • A new hidden statistic has been added to the game: “Taint.”
    • Taint is gained by using illegal, unsafe drugs/chemicals or being transformed by eating alien foods.
    • Taint is functionally a minimum libido score.
    • Going 72 hours without a taint-increasing event causes your taint to drop by 1 point.
    • If you hit 100 Taint, you gain the “Corrupted” perk, doubling your maximum libido and forever locking your taint at 100. This will never be curable.
    • Alerts for crossing thresholds of Taint have been added.
    • A Codex entry has been added for Taint in the medical section.
    • The introduction now makes mention of Taint in the passage about your immune booster system.
    • Most illegal drugs and alien-food-based transformation items now have warnings in their tooltips about taint.
    • [To-Do] Adding taint gains from PoE A events, Badger’s Transformation scene, and maybe some of the gloryholes or whoring, if appropriate.
    • [To-Do] Adjust Penny’s talks to mention her transformation giving her a high amount of taint (and thus explaining her very, very high libido).
    • [To-Do] Overlay indicators for minimum libido and lust onto their respective bars. This one probably won’t happen till after ship code gets done.

Why does genetic damage result in nymphomania instead of horrible cancer (at least in the short term…)? Because the Trials in Tainted Space universe is wayyy better than the real one.