Pfhor

Yeah, I really feel like some of the mirror upgrades are huge game changers. The combination of "get 3 health when passing through a door", "get 3 death defies", and "start with +50 max HP" means you should almost never die in Tartarus or Asphodel anymore.

It's a bummer that you have to divert so many early game keys to unlocking the new weapons, because if you just put enough keys into the mirror to reach that "start with +50 max HP" perk, it's such an enormous boost to your early game survival.

As part of this line of thinking, I'd probably recommend that early players take any Poseidon and Chaos boons that give extra darkness and gems, because your first 10-20 runs you just need to farm a lot of upgrades so that you have enough support to actually reach the later parts of the game.

13th run. Did it with fists, had all charges of Death Defiance on the final boss and had a lot of health upgrades (275 or 300hp I think).

@pfhor: As far as I know you have to have escaped the first time and, shortly thereafter, the Administrative Chamber will be made available to you via the Contractors for 2 Diamonds. Sorry for the late reply!

Is there any reason to continue playing the game once you escape?

I think my first successful attempt was number 22-ish. I have 3 clears so far with 30-35 attempts; two with Heart Seekers Bow and one with Twin Fists.

Since then, Theseus and the Minotaur get me occasionally and one time, uh spoilers(?), I died the first time I fought Charon, but got him the second time. Most of the time, I'm making it up to the Temple.

I got out at 20.

This poll has a pet peeve of mine, which is overlapping numbers, so someone like me has 2 entries that apply.

It should be "1-10, 11-20, 21-30" etc...

Darn you @pfhor. Darn you to heck!