Overview
I stumbled upon an “accidental” way to perform an ankh skip that relies on some slight RNG
All hope is not lost
I was doing a quick Sunken City run for fun but upon reaching 4-3 I managed to lose my ankh, I decided to still go into the lava trap room and see what I could do, when I managed to find a very fortunately placed secret cave behind one of the tiles!
Demolition
I had plenty of spare bombs so I had the idea to destroy the entire lower area for the lava to flow and settle below the cave
Once the entire floor was destroyed I simply did what you would normally do, move the idol to trigger the trap and ran back to the cave, I sat inside and waited for a bit for the lava to flow to the bottom until I felt it was safe to leave
Success
Once I left the cave all the lava had settled in the space I made with the bombs, so I just climbed up with rope and went into the secret door
Moral of the story: Always check for secret caves behind tiles if you lose your ankh, it could totally save your run!
Here’s me leaving Kingu’s lair after defeating her in the same run