Permanent buffs, especially substantial ones, seem more like the exception than the rule to me. Nuclear Throne has no permanent buffs until you at least clear y

Permanent buffs, especially substantial ones, seem more like the exception than the rule to me. Nuclear Throne has no permanent buffs until you at least clear your first run, and even then it's fairly minor. Enter the Gungeon lets you unlock new guns to show up on future runs -- that kind of thing is very common, but ostensibly they're supposed to be sidegrades -- but I don't remember getting flatly stronger. And while I only played Slay the Spire once, I got a clear on that first try. That said, there are a shitton of roguelikes out there these days, and I've only sunk substantial time into a relative handful, so maybe I'm wrong.