Five hearts protect a build that belongs to one run
The Climb gives you a limited chance to turn a new equipment setup into a successful run. Dungeonbound's official description starts the mode with five hearts and destroys your current build when the last heart is lost. Your rank carries between climbs; the equipment setup does not survive that final loss.
That is the key difference from The Long Haul campaign, where loot, levels, and permanent upgrades are retained after death. Choose The Climb for a self-contained roguelike run, rather than assuming it follows the campaign's equipment-retention rule.
The official Dungeonbound mode descriptions are the basis for those heart and progression rules. The mode also has dated demo changes, so an older video's floor goal may differ from a later build.
How the early relic choices work
The standard Climb description offers one relic choice from three options on each of the first five floors. Relics affect the rules of the run, making those selections part of your build rather than ordinary inventory filler.
Read each offered effect against the equipment you actually have and the direction you want to take. A relic with an impressive description is not automatically the right choice for a board that cannot use its benefits.
The v0.1.51 notes also say that relics for item types you have turned off no longer appear. That is a documented offer restriction, not evidence that every offered relic is equally useful for your current items.
There is an important exception to the usual opening pick: v0.1.51 introduced a penalty for leaving a climb early. Doing so costs the first-floor relic selection in the next climb. Abandoning a run is therefore not always a neutral way to reroll its opening.
Losing hearts and facing rival builds
The Climb combines equipment preparation with encounters against stored player builds. These rivals are asynchronous snapshots of a hero and equipment board somebody previously used, rather than opponents you must wait to match with live.
The store description says you can watch the replay after losing to a rival. Use that information to identify what the opposing board did instead of treating a loss as proof that your hero choice is unusable.
The v0.1.46 Halloween update changed the retried floor after a lost heart: it gives a shrine immediately after the shop. The same update says rivals replace monsters from floor four onward. Those details help explain why different portions of a run can feel different without inventing an enemy schedule beyond the notes.
Co-op has its own resource arrangement. A team of two to four players shares five hearts, while players keep individual heroes, purses, shops, and relics. It is not five separate heart pools per player.
Why older guides mention floor eight
The demo's win condition changed during development. The v0.1.40 notes said a win required beating floor eight rather than merely reaching it; the later v0.1.46 update changed climb victories to floor six.
Those are dated win-condition changes. They do not establish that every separate ranking rule changed to the same floor. Avoid assuming that a floor-six victory statement also proves a new rank-promotion threshold.
When following a run guide, compare its version with the current build and the later notes. The reliable constant in the official mode description is the risk structure: a limited heart supply, relic decisions, and loss of the current build when the final heart goes.
FAQ
How many hearts does The Climb start with?
The official description gives a Climb five hearts. Co-op also uses five hearts, shared by the team.
How many relic options do you choose from?
The standard early-floor selection is one relic from three options on each of the first five floors. The v0.1.51 early-exit penalty can remove the following climb's first-floor pick.
What survives losing the last heart?
The current run's build is destroyed. Rank carries between climbs according to the official description.
Is the win floor six or eight?
The later Halloween v0.1.46 notes changed victories to floor six. Older floor-eight descriptions belong to an earlier win condition and should not be used to infer a current ranking threshold.