How to Return Ratoo’s Heart in Cult of the Lamb

What is love? Now Ratoo knows!

Let’s be honest, most of the NPCs in Cult of the Lamb are weird. It’s just part of the game’s charm. But the weirdest NPC by far is Ratau’s brother, Ratoo. Sporting a gaping chest wound, he can usually be found fishing while surrounded by disembodied hearts.

We’re usually happy to join his weird room filled with dancing hearts because there’s more free health there than we can even handle. We don’t pay much mind to his mutterings about his own missing heart, the object of his obsessive search. But it turns out that, if you really want to, you can give Ratoo’s heart back to him.

Summon a Demon

To give Ratoo his heart back, you can’t go alone. Your first step is to build the Demonic Summoning Circle in your base. This structure isn’t a base-building necessity typically, but in this case, you’re looking for a particular demon to tag along with you on your dungeon crawl. The summoning structure lets you briefly transform a follower into a helpful demon.

When you come back, they usually turn back into your follower. However, be prepared to lose whoever is unlucky enough to go on this mission with you. While looking at your demon options, you are looking for a follower that you are willing to sacrifice for good that is connected to Hathor. This floating heart will fly away and bring back a red health heart for you while you fight. It’s kind of cute… in a creepy way.

Look for the Heart

Once you have summoned Hathor, you’re ready to go dungeon crawling. There’s just one more tiny thing to consider. Ratoo’s room randomly generates. Just because you have the heart demon doesn’t mean Ratoo will magically appear. In fact, in the Darkwood and Anura, your chances aren’t the best. You will have better luck in Anchordeep and Silk Cradle because they have more rooms in general.

With this latest update, entering the different realms is a little more gut-wrenching. You still need to have a certain number of followers, but now you also need to sacrifice one follower of a specific level to the door. For example, to unlock Anchordeep, you have to have 18 followers and sacrifice one Level 7 follower.

Then it’s mostly about luck. If Ratoo’s room is an option, you will see it on the big room map. Make sure you take the right path and survive long enough to meet the rat and his minions. Ratoo senses his heart immediately if you have Hathor with you. He will then politely ask you if he can please have his heart back. You do get a choice of “okay” or “no,” but why would you say no? Give the poor guy his heart back!

Once reunited, you continue your crawl without Hathor, and you will no longer have access to that follower. You can’t even resurrect them. Sadly, I lost a wife this way. But in the end, it was all worth it to make this weird old man happy, and isn’t that what life’s all about?