Loot River

In order to escape Loot River you have to collect 5 keys from certain bosses throughout a run and use them on the Door in the final area instead of going back with Iphis to Sanctuary.


There is set-up to do before this Escaping run, so make sure you have done the following

1. Defeated Gwen in a run or defeated the tutorial boss on your first go to unlock the "Fake King" modifier
2. Defeated The First One boss in Opulent Sanctum to unlock the "Central Tower" modifier
3. Use the "Central Tower" Modifier on a run and after The First City area, selected Glutton's Pit at the elevator in Sanctuary, instead of going to Chapel Of Revenants.
4. Defeated Houndmaster in Glutton Pit to unlock "Deep Pit" modifier

(There is an alternate path through the game using "The Divide" area from the Door in Sunken Village, but I recommend completely avoiding this area. it's probably the longest and hardest area, weirdest boss, and not necessary for completion. Go in there once during a random run to unlock Karla right at its entrance for armour purchasing, but other than that, steer clear.)

Once you have made sure you have done all those things, you need to start a run with "Deep Pit" and "Fake King" turned on. For the others, make sure not to have any area altering modifiers like Underpopulation, Overpopulation, Central Tower or Modest City. If you have one called Cynophobia, use that to make the Houndmaster fight easier as it removes the chasing dogs on the side of the screen which are a pain. This modifier has a chance to drop from the shielded enemies in the Opulent Sanctum, so if you haven't gotten it yet, maybe one run make effort to full clear that area to see if you can get it. The other two I simply did random weapons and One More Potion.

Charms to be on the look out for are obviously heal on parry and chance of potion on parry, as these can make the run a cakewalk. The standard 1/2 vitality/strength/dexterity rings are also great.

When I do this run, I invest 4 potions at the very start, trying to get through Sunken Village on just the 1 potion. And then invested 2/3 the next time. I felt this gave me enough potions for later on.

Okay so we have our modifiers set up, now for where the keys are:

1. Sunken Village - The first key is obtained by killing Gantley the Usurper in the Sunken Village, who now appears because of the Fake King modifier. For me he was right below where the elevator normally spawns. Parrying is really good for this boss fight as you are all alone with him. After killing him, don't go through the doorway on the upper right wall in this boss fight area as it leads to 'The Divide' area, which in my opinion is a harder route than the one we're doing. Simply head to the elevator and move on to 'The First City'
2. The First City - Because we don't have the Modest City modifier on, a side boss spawns here called Many in One. For me the spawn would always be after a merchant, heading straight down, missing an exit to the right which leads to the elevator, just keep going down and it will have its own square platform to fight on with a bunch of the black crawler enemies with it which I always killed first. After killing this boss, head back up and right towards the exit.
3. Chapel of Revenants - Gwen Boss Fight - You probably have a grip on this boss by now. I would always set up a few platform on the left, stand on the bottom right of one of them, bait the hand, then dodge left and attack right into the hand. When the hand is severed at roughly 1/3rd health, move up to the raised area to kill the thrower enemy on the left side, and then simply return back to your platforms and bait the hand again. Once the boss is dead, we now need to make use of the Deep Pit modifier we unlocked, use it to jump down Gwen's pit and it will take us to the next boss area.
4. Glutton's Pit - This is the Houndmaster fight, if you had the Cynophobia modifier unlocked and selected it, the black dogs of death will no longer be chasing you on the left screen. If you don't have it, just be aware of them and keep platforming right if the boss teleports away. For me, sometimes it did, sometimes it didn't.
5. Opulent Sanctum - Final area now fighting The First One. If you feel strong enough, you could head right for the boss fight room if you stumble across it, more often than not for me it was at the top of the first path out of the three paths, but its random. Or explore fully, up to you. Weigh up whether it's worth the possible potion usages on minions throughout the area vs just having them for the boss fight. The Fight itself can be annoying sometimes because of those exploding enemies, they can totally nuke you and end any run. Hopefully you've got a sweeping weapon with good damage to clear them before they explode.
6. The Door - After the Final One fight, head upwards but instead of talking to Iphis, head past her and use all 5 keys on the door for one Final Fight -
   *** Spoiler - click to reveal ***Against Magister Soap. Deny the option that comes up to get right into the fight. He uses a bunch of spells and likes to run away from you on his platform, but most of the time you can simply rush him, get on his platform yourself, and just spam attack him whilst chugging potions in between. I found this fight to be anticlimactic and definitely easier than The Final One. So if you're in a good position health, potion and build wise, you should be golden.

I hope this guide helps to know what is needed for all the keys, I know it could be confusing at first working out the path and modifiers for all keys in a run.

Let me know any changes, recommendations or improvements you suggest for this guide.