Two Damsels for one heart

Verified against the spelunky.ai port v0.1.12 on 28 October 2026.

A Damsel saved gives the player a heart, and the game counts each one saved. But the heart doesn't come from the save: it comes from the kissing Damsel on the screen between levels, and that screen makes one, however many were saved. A level of the game never has two Damsels to save, so it only shows in a custom level.

On a custom level, the player carries two Damsels onto the exit, one after the other, and goes through. The screen between levels shows both in his loot, but only one kisses him, and only one heart rises ^[1].

Each Damsel saved adds 1 to global.xdamsels, whether she's carried through the exit, carried onto it, which takes her in and leaves the player on the level, or walks in by herself ^{[2] [3]}. Beside the count for one carried through, a commented-out line is where each once gave a heart:

        else if (holdItem.type == "Damsel")
        {
            if (holdItem.hp > 0)
            {
                // global.plife += 1;
                if (isRealLevel()) global.damselsSavedTotal += 1;
                global.damsels += 1;
                global.xdamsels += 1;

The screen between levels shows a Damsel in the loot for each, counting xdamsels down ^[4], but its create event makes one kissing Damsel for any number above 0:

if (global.xdamsels > 0)
{
    instance_create(176+8, 176+8, oDamselKiss);
}

The heart is hers: leaving the screen, her room end adds it, global.plife += 1 ^[5]. So two Damsels, or ten, give one ^[6].

A level of the game has one Damsel at most. The free one, in a nook, is made only while oGame.damsel is false ^[7], which a Kissing Parlor sets as the rooms are made, before the treasure, and a level has one shop at most; the Temple's Sacrifice Pit sets it first, and the Temple then picks a Parlor only while it's false ^[6]. So it takes a custom level: put two of the level editor's Damsels (D) in it ^[8], carry both onto the exit, and go through. The replay of the clip's staged scene, a custom level, carries one Damsel onto the exit, then the other: damsels goes to 2. The screen between levels shows both in the loot, makes one kissing Damsel and one heart, and the player's hearts go from 4 to 5 ^[9].

The spelunky.ai port reproduces it exactly: it's in docs/quirks.md's list of the 1.1 source's bugs ^[6], and the oracle's fingerprint of the replay pins the count, the kissing Damsel and the hearts. No option turns it off.