Retcon: rewind time, keep the ammo
Retcon is the only Reclaimer who can undo thirty seconds of bad decisions. She is also the one most likely to waste the rewind.
Set the rewind before you enter a room, not after you are already losing. It restores health, armour and ammo to the moment you pressed it, so the checkpoint is worth more when you are full.
Retcon is the Reclaimer who can undo a mistake. Rewind Time sets a checkpoint in space and state, and returning to it restores the health, armour and ammo you had when you placed it.
She is also the class most likely to waste her own ability, because the checkpoint is only as good as the moment you chose to place it.
Rewind, rage, contingency
| Tool | Effect | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Rewind Time | Return to the marked point with the health, armour and ammo from that moment | 75 second cooldown, 20 second window |
| Rage | Bar fills as you take damage; at full, double damage and faster pickaxe swings | Passive |
| Contingency Plan | If every ally is downed, Retcon revives automatically at full health and armour | Passive |
Values from the official wiki, checked 2026-11-15. Rewind Time does not save you from fatal damage while it is active.
When she earns the slot
You want Retcon when you are the player who pushes one room too far. The rewind is a mechanical fix for overextension: it does not reward aggression, it forgives it.
You also want her when your team keeps wiping to a single burst. Contingency Plan means one member of the team cannot be caught by a full wipe, which is worth more than a damage passive in a random lobby.
Retcon by depth
Depth 1 and 2, Retcon is a comfort pick. The cooldown is long enough that you will not have it for every fight, and the fights are short enough that you may not need it.
Depth 3 is where Rewind earns its place. Molaktula's homing shards punish anyone who stands still, and a rewind after a bad trade gives back the health you spent learning its pattern.
Depth 4, Retcon is playable but not ideal. Balgorath's patterns kill fast enough that a rewind placed before the fight starts is often out of range by the time you need it.
Checkpoint rule
Place the checkpoint before you enter the room, not after you are losing. The rewind restores you to the state you were in when you pressed it, which means a checkpoint placed at half health and no ammo restores a half-health dwarf with no ammo.
The correct pattern is to place it while you are full, take the risky position, and use the rewind as a reset rather than a rescue.
A concrete opener
On the first floor of a run, place Rewind Time at the elevator before you walk into the cave. If the floor goes wrong, you are back at the elevator with full resources, which is exactly where a failed push should leave you.