You probably just barely survived your first successful escape, but now it's time to make things more difficult! Your next milestone is going to be your tenth successful escape, as that technically completes the story. Now whenever you go to start a run, you will be shown a list of conditions you can enable that make your playthrough more difficult. Escaping successfully for the first time unlocks access to the Pact of Punishment. Specifically, the one you get from Cerberus boosts your health significantly early on, and this can really help during your first runs. These will also help you on your playthroughs. Don't forget to use Nectar to unlock Keepsakes from the various characters. Focus on unlocking more talents with Keys, and leveling them up with Darkness. These Mirror talents are persistent benefits, so all of the Darkness you collect can be spent here to make you stronger for each subsequent run. Darkness is especially important in the beginning because it is the currency used to rank up talents in the Mirror in your bedroom between runs. You will be getting experience with the different types of enemies and their attack patterns, learning what to expect from different rooms and bosses, and getting more experience with using weapon(s). Thankfully, even if you die, no run is a waste. This won't be easy, so expect to die a lot before you succeed for the first time.

As strange as it may sound, your first step is going to be clearing your first run.

Hades orpheus diamond