The Lost

What you start with

The mechanics that actually govern this character.

• No health at all; any hit is death. Starts with flight, spectral tears, 1 coin, and the Eternal D6, which he has even before it is unlocked.
• Once 879 coins have been donated to the Greed Donation Machine his Holy Mantle is intrinsic to the character: it cannot be rerolled or removed, does not show in the pause menu, transfers if you become The Lost mid-run via Clicker, and a second Holy Mantle does not stack.
• In Repentance, a broken Holy Mantle grants exactly one second of invincibility regardless of what it blocked, and the old close-and-continue trick to restore the shield inside a Curse Room no longer works.
• Devil deals and Black Market items are free for him, but in Repentance they are presented as a choice: taking one despawns the rest, including in the first room of the Dark Room.

How to play them

• The Eternal D6 is his real starting item. It rerolls every pedestal in the room with a 25% chance to delete each one, which is no loss at all when the item was a health up he cannot use.
• Fly over rocks and pits constantly. Spectral tears mean he can shoot through the exact obstacles he is hiding behind.
• Bedrooms are far more common for him because he has no health, and a clean Bedroom always contains a Crawl Space, which is free items with no combat.
• Play every Slot Machine you find. Three orbitals of any kind absorb nearly all projectiles, and Pretty Fly is the cheapest source.
• He never receives Bad Trip or Health Down pills, so his pill pool is strictly better than everyone else's. Take and use unknown pills freely.
• Free Devil deals still count as deals and permanently close Angel Rooms. Credit Card, Coupon or Mr. ME! make the items free without that penalty, and Diplopia or Crooked Penny clones past the one-item limit.
• Blood Donation Machines, Devil Beggars, IV Bag and Blood Rights kill him outright, and Holy Mantle does not stop them.

Items to hunt for

Strong on this character specifically, not just strong.

• The intrinsic Holy Mantle. If 879 coins have not been donated to the Greed Donation Machine, do that first; it is the single largest difficulty change available to him.
• Dead Cat: nine lives is the largest safety margin in the game for the character with none.
• Gnawed Leaf plus any auto-targeting familiar (Daddy Longlegs, 7 Seals, Lil Haunt, Succubus, Rotten Baby, The Peeper): stand still, become invulnerable, and let the familiar clear the room.
• Lost Contact: destroys enemy shots on tear contact, which is the difference between surviving and not surviving It Lives! and other bullet-hell fights.
• Host Hat, Infamy or Metal Plate: their block chance is applied before Holy Mantle, so they save the shield rather than consume it. Host Hat additionally makes him immune to explosions.
• Perfection: +10 luck, drops after three hitless floors, and he is both the character most likely to earn it and the one most likely to keep it.
• Damocles: it doubles every pedestal and the sword only becomes a threat after non-self damage, which for The Lost means it effectively never falls unless he has been revived.

Traps to refuse

Picks that are neutral or good elsewhere and bad here.

• Blood Donation Machines, Devil Beggars, IV Bag and Blood Rights: instant death regardless of Holy Mantle.
• Sacrifice Rooms: Holy Mantle blocks the spike but pays out nothing, and without the shield the spike simply kills him.
• Dead Sea Scrolls and Breath of Life from the Angel pool are actively dangerous rather than merely useless.
• Habit and every other on-damage item is dead weight, because a hit blocked by Holy Mantle does not count as damage taken.
• Picking up soul, black or eternal hearts casually. They are absorbed for nothing, and a later D20, Dice Shard or 3-pip Dice Room could have rerolled them into something usable.

Cheese and techniques

Verified against 1.7.9 on console — anything patched, PC-only or Repentance+ only is called out rather than listed.

• The Lost walks straight into the Downpour II mirror without needing the white fireplace transformation, which is the fastest and safest Knife Piece 1 route in the game.
• Holy Mantle blocks the Curse Room door in both directions, making Curse Rooms free item rooms for him. Do not take a hit inside, though, or you are trapped without a shield to leave.
• In Greed mode he presses the arena button without taking damage; it costs one coin from the next wave's reward instead. That lets him pace waves one at a time and never face a full stack.
• Perfection is not destroyed by Curse Room doors, Bad Trip pills or White Fire Places, since all of those count as self-damage. For The Lost the Curse Room door still needs a live Holy Mantle.
• Keeper's Bargain, Strawman or A Pound of Flesh converts Devil deals to coin prices, which sidesteps the one-item-per-Devil-room limit entirely.

Getting the marks

• Earning every Hard mode mark with The Lost is what unlocks Godhead. If you already have Godhead, his note is finished and Godhead itself now appears in his Angel Room pool, which makes any future Lost run dramatically easier.
• Boss Rush is his hardest mark by a wide margin: the Gnawed Leaf statue strategy is far too slow to kill Mom inside 20 minutes, Dead Cat revives you outside the Boss Rush room and ruins the attempt, and Holy Mantle only blocks one hit for the entire fight.
• Angel Rooms are his only practical Key Piece source, since he cannot use Sacrifice Rooms at all. Every free Devil deal he takes closes them for the run, so Mega Satan and Devil shopping are mutually exclusive on him.
• Strange Key opens the Blue Womb passage regardless of the 30-minute timer, and Mama Mega! opens both Boss Rush and Blue Womb after their limits, which are the two most useful items he can find for timed marks.