Damsel

Verified against the spelunky.ai port v0.1.10 on 28 October 2026.

The player carries a Damsel like any heavy item, and she can be thrown, sold, hurt and killed like one. The game counts every Damsel saved, and the end-of-game statistics count those bought, saved and killed, and as "grabbed" each one the first time she's knocked off her feet ^[2]. In a Kissing Parlor the Shopkeeper sells her kisses, and her; on Kali's altar she is a sacrifice worth 8 favor.

Left alone, a Damsel stands still and counts down 200 steps (6.67 seconds), then cries out, a "HELP!" bubble rising over her head, and starts counting again ^{[3] [4]}. She doesn't move on her own until something knocks her over.

Thrown, or falling faster than 2 pixels a step, she lies stunned where she lands. Once she's on the ground she counts down her stun, 120 steps (4 seconds) after a throw, then gets up and runs, at 1.5 pixels per step (45 per second), turning back at walls but running off ledges ^{[5] [6] [7]}. Caught in a web, she counts down as on the ground.

Cracking the Whip at her doesn't hurt her: she cries out and hops ^[8]. The hop's fall is fast enough to count as a throw, though, so she lies down stunned where she lands, for whatever her cry-for-help countdown had left rather than a throw's 120 steps, and is counted as "grabbed" ^{[9] [10] [11] [12]}. In the clip the player whips a Damsel, who hops and lies stunned without losing a hit point; he picks her up and throws her, and she lies stunned for 120 steps before she gets up and runs.

In water she sinks slowly, at a third of her usual gravity ^[13].

The player picks a Damsel up with down and the action key, as any item, and carries her held in front of him; she's heavy, so a throw sends her at half a light item's speed ^{[14] [15]}. Touching a level's exit with her in his hands, or pressing up there, takes her through the door: she walks in, and the game counts a save ^{[16] [17]}. A dead Damsel carried to the door is dropped there instead ^[18]. A Damsel running free who runs into an exit rescues herself ^[19].

In the screen between levels the saved Damsel stands beside the player and kisses him, a heart rising from them, and she is in the level's loot ^{[20] [21]}. Leaving that screen adds 1 heart, even when the player skips it ^[22]. In the clip, the player carries a Damsel to the exit; between levels she kisses him, and level 2 starts with 5 hearts.

A Kissing Parlor's Damsel is for sale, beside its Shopkeeper ^[23]. A kiss costs $10,000 on level 2, and $5,000 more for each level after ($75,000 on level 15): with the money, the pay key beside her buys one, and the player gains a heart ("NOW AIN'T SHE SWEET!") ^{[24] [25]}. The Damsel herself sells for three times that: carried and paid for, she's the player's to rescue ("YOU MUST BE IN LOVE!") ^{[26] [27]}. Carried out unpaid, she's stolen, as any ware. A thief or a killer of Shopkeepers gets no kiss.

Hurting her angers the Shopkeeper ("HEY, ONLY I CAN DO THAT!"): a crack of the whip, a thrown item, or her death ^{[28] [29] [30]}.

A Damsel has 4 hit points ^[1]. Most hits take some, throw her and stun her; one that leaves her with none kills her when she lands ^[31].

A stunned or dead Damsel lying still on one of Kali's altars for 20 steps is sacrificed: she bursts into flame, Kali accepts her ("KALI ACCEPTS YOUR SACRIFICE!") and the player's favor rises by 8 (a dead Shopkeeper's gives 6); at a favor of −8 or lower, Kali devours her for nothing ^[46]. The favor can earn a gift, as in the clip, where the player throws a Damsel down on an altar and Kali gives a Compass ^[47].

The high scores room keeps the most Damsels saved in one game. A best of 4 earns a bronze trophy, 6 a silver and 8 a gold one, and with the gold a door appears beside it ^[48]. Going through it switches the player to the Damsel, with 4 hearts, 4 bombs and 4 ropes, and back again ^[49]. The playable Damsel moves and fights as the Spelunker does, with her own sprites. The Tunnel Man's door needs 8 saves too (playing as him).

• When the player is the Damsel, the character to rescue is the Spelunker: the same object, drawn with his sprites, and the messages say "him" ("I'LL LET YOU HAVE HIM FOR $...", "NOW AIN'T HE SWEET!") ^{[61] [62]}.
• Her sacrifice has a branch for a stunned Damsel worth half as much again, 12, but she's never in the stunned state it tests for, so it never runs ^{[63] [10]}.
• A Damsel killed by lava or spikes counts in the end-of-game statistics, but not in the screen between levels' kills or the game's kill total, where one crushed, or one whose wounds kill her as she lands, counts in all three ^{[64] [44] [10]}. In a staged scene, one thrown onto spikes adds to the statistics' count and to neither of the others ^[65].
• A comment explains why her death checks for a sale itself: "if damsel dies offscreen sometimes it won't trigger shopkeeper" ^[30].