Relic Tier List for Soul farming/ NG+ climbing

[FutanariNeko]

Background: I have over 100 hours, currently at NG 35. At this stage of the game the gameplay loop for me consists of; Starting a New Thread, finishing it in one go as fast as possible while minimizing risk and maximizing speed of each run.

As of now, a run through the game killing all estuaries and finishing the game takes a bit less than an hour. Dying is a huge waste of time, staggering through one estuary at the time only to die a short while later because of a bad build multiplies the time per thread five fold.

Achilles' Shield: 10% more weapon and spell damage over 50% hp is okay, for 20 resolve it's almost always worth picking up if it's a one of to stack with drum.

Aite's Sword: I would not pick this up if it cost 0 resolve at 30 resolve it would only be picked if it's the last item in the game and I have resolve to spare. It procs drum even if it's broken so at least there's that.

Amaterasu's Sun: 50 Resolve for a burn that ticks little to no damage, hugely overpriced only pick up with Catalyst. NEVER take the double up of this.

Ambrosia: One of the best relics in the game, I would pick this at 50 resolve cost every time, face tanking big rooms and bosses paired with Rage tincture. Make's Serrated Handle one of the best oaths in the game. THIS ITEM ACTIVATES WHAT IS KNOWN AS SICKO MODE

Ancestral Soul: Comes with the Kin set. Good backup and procs Drum

Antikythera: This can be good, A bit overpriced but can clear rooms like crazy with shockwave or white star.

Arcane Necklace: Good price, God tier on spell builds, if you get 4 all spells are free and you won the game, gratz!

Atropos' Scissors: This item is a guaranteed pickup every run. At max crit chance your base chance of critting is 50% with items and skill crits you can basically crit almost 100% of the time. Cheap as well

Blessing of Strength/Talent/Wisdom: What can I say. They proc drums so changing weapons/spells/talents once is +6% damage.

Body Buffet: Eh, overpriced. Relying on food to heal is not good.

Boxing Bell: Good for scars, heavily weapon dependent, I'll only pick this up if I have the Labrys or the Rapier. kinda expensive.

Catalyst: Auto pick if you have the frying pan or a spell that that applies afllictions. Otherwise I would not pick this if it means having to take Amaterasu or Serqet.

Charon's Trial: It's free and +6% with drum so take?

Clotho's Spindle: When your base chance to crit is 50% this item becomes a lot less valuable, I always skip it but if you don't have crit chance maxxed out it's probably worth it.

Coeus' Shell: Too expensive, also stops retaliate from proccing.

Cornucopia: Complete ass. This item is a trap put in by the devs so they can laugh at you if they see you take it.

Corrupting Reagent: It's not good. Poison sucks, dashing around enemies sucks.

Cosmic Insight: One of the best mana items. Cheap as well, Just take it and spam spells inside enemies.

Demeter's Trial: Really good, loads of health and mana and it's practically free to trigger.

Diogenes' Bargain: This should have been a trait instead of a relic. Just why is this taking up a slot in the relic pool.

Dreamcatcher: YES MORE MANA. Just take it.

Empty Vessel: This item is actually the reason to take non stackable trash relics. It's just good.

Fate's Die. Waste of a slot, at least it's cheap.

Freon's Reward: Ehhhhh it's cheap and is an ok one off for drum

Glowing Ember: Oh hell yes, take as many of these as you can. Cheap and reliable damage? Sign me up.

Gnawed Bone: Worse then you'd hope but better than you'd expect. It only runs off of your base hp but it's cheap and can push your hp beyond the break point. It's like a coeus shell that's easier to recharge.

Grave Bell: "WOW IF I GET 4 OF THESE I WIN!" well no they capped it at 75% would have been fun and actually made this item worth something instead it's expensive trash that just exist to make you angry.

Hector's Helm: If you're sitting around at below half hp to trigger this ask yourself how you got there. It's not good.

Hermes' Boots: It's actually okay, spawns an empty vessel for 20 resolve. Go for it.

Heron's/Raven's Ring: If it's the last item in the run and you don't get one shot by going below 100 resolve this might be worth it but ehhh. It rarely happens is most of the time a waste of a slot.

Hyperion's Ring: 50 resolve. for a revive. Why? In what world would you want to respawn in where you have wasted 50 resolve? This item is life support for the terminally ill; a cruel waste for everyone involved.

Incandescent Telescope: I don't like the weapons that benefits from this. also the damage buff is kinda eh.

Ivy Roots: Would I pick this? No. Is it bad? No it's just so rarely up against items i'd rather not pick or just reroll.

Ivy Seed: This item spawns empty vessel and it procs drum. And that's all it's good for.

Lachesis' Measure. Once you hit the break cap on lifesteal runes and enemies hit you for 50% of your health you'll come to realize just how overpriced this relic is. It's like a good looking EX that 5 years from now you'll realize was lowkey abusive and not that great.

Lamech's Whetstone: If you have a magic build, then maybe this could be worth it? Speeds up bossfights and spawns Empty vessel.

Lily of the Valley: +12% damage with drum and the reason you should do the Plateau boss last.

Lotus Petal: I love it. More mana and magic damage is always welcome in all builds.

Lotus Stem: I tried thinking of situations I would be willing to spend 40 resolve for this and could think of one situation. Pacifist run.

Marble Statue: Actually kind of a sick item, cheap and makes Rapier even better. Breaks annoying curses and floors. Almost always a pick up.

Obelisk: This is hard to quantify. I don't like it. but it has no downsides and is cheap so they usually make their way into my builds.

Pandora's Trial: Hell yeah more resolve. Kinda become obsolete when you have 350 base resolve.

Rage Tincture: Upgrades Sicko mode into Rip and Tear mode. Take as many as they'll let you have.

Red Sand Hourglass: Resets on taking damage which makes it so much worse. I'll never take it. This item benefits from slowing down your playstyle.

Serquet's Stinger: Well it's better than the sun. but 50 resolve? I'll only take it if I have a pandora.

Skeleton Key: The price you pay if you refuse to get good.

Soul Tether: Hell yeah, now this is pod racing. Insta clears rooms and doesn't reset on damage taken? Take these always.

Steel-Toed Boots: Why are you spin kicking? What is wrong with you? Spawns Empty vessel tho so might sneak it's way in.

The Future Successor's Bargain: Would be good if you could pick this up after the final boss. as it stands this item is trash. Could pick it up if your Kin soul is still available and you can beat the final bosses without the insurance.

The Heavy Stone Bargain: If you're doing a Labrys Beyblade build then sure? Maybe? There are more damaging builds out there for sure and this item is for the most just annoying. But hey, more Empty vessels.

The Icarus' Wings Bargain: Fun for the beyblade build but that's about it. As an actual item, no way José.

The Serrated Handle's Bargain: Dangerous but if you know your damage breakpoints this is the speed runners dream.

Vanguard's Banner: So expensive, and So bad. Why only mid-sized projectiles?

Voltaic Circlet: Good one off item, never worry about curses again.

War Drum: They've nerfed the drum over and over again. That will still never stop us. Take the drum and Donkey Kong Jungle Beat your way to victory at paces never thought imaginable. This item makes Useless items less useless. Useless items should be thanking the drum every night before they go to bed and every morning when they wake up. Always take these.

Weighted Anklet: How do you follow up after the drum? Well this item is okay, allows you to kill wisps and slugs with one kick.

Weird Mushrooms: Hell yeah, with retaliate you can suicide bomb big rooms and chainreact clear it to get your HP back. Also; Vessel!

Zealot's Ring: It's okay, makes shockwave even better.

TL;DR Take the drum pill - Ambrosia + Rage tincture is a free win - Weird Mushroom isn't just a funny nickname for your penis, it's also good at winning you the game.

[Zols]

This will sadly get buried due to how active this forum is, might wanna just copy/paste this into a guide and toss it there dude.

[Zols]

and for bumping sake, what magic spell and eqp set do you recommend to clear rooms with for those of us still learn/in the early stages of the game?

[Grijm]

Good guide, thanks for sharing

[Stanis23]

Yeah Ambrosia + Rage is probably one of the most broken combo you can get, even more so when you can stack them up. Since invul window becomes so long and the damage is so high you can just yolo all the boss.

I don't really like relics that resets and breaks on getting hit for obvious reasons, granted they would be good for hardcore player who can do no hit runs, but still.

Amaterasu and Stinger definitely feels overpriced aside from applying status for Catalyst.

[<:)]

Making me wildly reconsider how i build around relics.

[Omegatherion]

Excuse me, but Raven's Ring is busted. Just stack up on relics and get ready for those sweet 50k damage super crits.
With all those apple trees that i usually find i end up with 15k+ HP even when i go all the way down to 50 resolve. The only reason to skip this in late game is when you still haven't gotten gud and you have to tank hits instead of just dodging them.

[FutanariNeko]

Originally posted by Zols:

and for bumping sake, what magic spell and eqp set do you recommend to clear rooms with for those of us still learn/in the early stages of the game?

Shockwave is top tier, glacial and fungal is shared second place. For relics, the overcharge one and lotus pedals are the best ones, drum also works but you should pick that regardless.

As for Equipment, until you have +9 Equipment unlocked It's hard to recommend anything other than Kin set that outshines the stats of anything else at that point with a Leather trinket for +50 free resolve. Once you have everything unlocked at +9 I'm rolling a Scholar +100 (Wep, Cape), Kin + 100 (Armor, Helm) and Leviathan +100 (Trinket) for a Mage build.

On Heavy hitters I go Drowned +100, Kin +100 and Sanguine +100.

It's hard to overstate the Strength of Sanguine 100 with Retaliation Runes and Weird Mushrooms. You'll enter a room, tank a hit, what hit you explodes and chainkills everything else and you get your HP back from the Lifesteal runes.

Originally posted by Zols:

This will sadly get buried due to how active this forum is, might wanna just copy/paste this into a guide and toss it there dude.

Will do eventually, thanks for the tip buddy <3

[FutanariNeko]

Originally posted by Omegatherion:

Excuse me, but Raven's Ring is busted. Just stack up on relics and get ready for those sweet 50k damage super crits.
With all those apple trees that i usually find i end up with 15k+ HP even when i go all the way down to 50 resolve. The only reason to skip this in late game is when you still haven't gotten gud and you have to tank hits instead of just dodging them.

In terms of speed and reliability, just tanking and killing bosses in two seconds is King. The way boss fights go for me is basically: Tank a hit and kill the boss before I can get hit again.

Boring? Yes. Reliable. You betcha. Skillful? Hell no.

If the build allows me to tank the hit and still dish out the damage the rings are worth it but generally speaking where I am right now I can't even get below 100 resolve on most runs even tho I take every offered relic. The biggest problem right now is that trash relics cost 50 while the god tier ones are around 20-30 resolve cost.

[FutanariNeko]

Originally posted by Stanis23:

Yeah Ambrosia + Rage is probably one of the most broken combo you can get, even more so when you can stack them up. Since invul window becomes so long and the damage is so high you can just yolo all the boss.

I don't really like relics that resets and breaks on getting hit for obvious reasons, granted they would be good for hardcore player who can do no hit runs, but still.

Amaterasu and Stinger definitely feels overpriced aside from applying status for Catalyst.

It's exactly as you say. You could absolutely make a no hit build for fun! However, if your goal is grinding souls and higher NG's those builds come with a huge risk as well on top of being slower in terms of room clears and boss fights.

Another problem with Catalyst is that it forces you to "Waste" a pick for Serq/Ama it's basically 20% damage for 2 slots. With drum it's easier to justify it but it also makes Serq/Ama a bad pick UNTIL you have the drum secured.

[Stanis23]

I'm pretty sure it's different layers sometime though.

Like enemies take more 20% damage (Catalyst case I think) and increase +20% damage are different layers, and together would be more effective. Then again I'm new and I can't say for sure about the way they stack it up.

Spell wise I think the highest DPS one is the lightning storm one. Cheap and high damage that also gives vulnerable while also doesn't have animation. It forces super risky playstyle though but with Ambro + Rage you can deliver some mega nukes with it.

[FutanariNeko]

Originally posted by Stanis23:

I'm pretty sure it's different layers sometime though.

Like enemies take more 20% damage (Catalyst case I think) and increase +20% damage are different layers, and together would be more effective. Then again I'm new and I can't say for sure about the way they stack it up.

Spell wise I think the highest DPS one is the lightning storm one. Cheap and high damage that also gives vulnerable while also doesn't have animation. It forces super risky playstyle though but with Ambro + Rage you can deliver some mega nukes with it.

You're right I forgot about Cloud. Cloud is definitely up there, good point.

As for Catalyst I'll try to go a bit more in depth on how I view it. If I am offered catalyst without having Serqet/Ama or Frying pan or Fungal spread I will not take it. Unless I have a way to proc it the item does nothing. So the times I'll take it is if I am already out of rerolls and have the resolve to spare.

As I'll never take Serq/Ama if I have rerolls available the chance of me picking up catalyst is like super low. There are just too many better options I can get rerolling instead of picking it up.

[Zols]

thxs for the info neko, 100% gonna copy/paste this into word for future reference for myself.

[Goblin King]

I agree with most of your ratings, except a few items:

Amaterasu's Sun / Serquet's Stinger: good damage with minimal investment in Intelligence/Focus, and combines amazingly with Catalyst. Burn favors a hit-and-run approach, while Poison is great if you have a fast hitting weapon.

Ambrosia: requires Rage Tincture to be any good, otherwise it's really weak. You should not get hit that often.

Boxing Bell: amazing item if you have a fast weapon, you can get a 60% bonus to damage with 30 stacks plus every hit is a crit after 15+ stacks on top of that.

Coeus' Shell: decent if you have a bad trait that triggers on taking damage

Dreamcatcher: very questionable if you start at 150+ MP

Hermes' Boots: skip this, spikes are not very dangerous

Hyperion's Ring: if you are struggling with a boss, this is functionally equivalent to a +50% to HP, which is not bad at all

Ivy Roots: great for Barbarian/Ballista

The Heavy Stone Bargain: also great for Astromancer