Relic Renaissance! – A Bad North Guide to Relics

“This will revolutionise warfare!! Artillery in our pike blocks? Genius!!!” ~someone about to explode their own shield units, probably
This guide will cover all the Relics, and how good each one is on each troop type, including Militia

About me

Hey everyone! I make guides for Wildermyth and write...things? And now Bad North! I may eventually share some of my (original) fictional works when I get the time and inclination!

I have played Bad North for years, since way back when the enemy still had red shieldy bois and you could get away without using archers, and I play on Very Hard, allowing level restarts (because I already did my many no restarts runs, and don’t feel the need for stresso) and at minimum attempt to visit every island and protect every house. Even at this difficulty, there’s a fair few ways to go about assembling your armies, and I’ve probably missed something. If you do things differently to me and it works for you, that’s awesome! Please let me know how you do it!

This means you can be sure that my guides will work on all difficulty settings. It doesn’t mean I believe in a handful of hyper-specific builds as the only way to play – I said it in the last paragraph and I’ll say it again; I love to hear what works for others!

I am committed to free, unlimited access to my writing for everyone, forever.

Anyone may freely excerpt, reference, and build on my works, provided they are clearly cited and referenced, and that my works are never used to promote hatred or bigotry of any kind - including but not limited to:

fascism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, polyphobia, bi/panphobia, acephobia

Further, while I may throw my voice behind things from time to time, I will never accept money or control over my works to do so. There will be no adverts here or anywhere else I create

If you enjoy my work and want me to keep making it, here’s a link to my Patreon[www.patreon.com]

Disclaimers/Warning

THIS GUIDE CONTAINS MINOR SPOILERS! If you want to discover the relics for yourself, maybe come back later?

If anyone has feedback, I'd love to hear it! There will always be a few mistakes slip through and it’s nice to catch those

This guide is of short-ish length (2.6k words including intro and titles)

This guide was written for Jotunn edition and finished on 2024-05-17 – I will list any updates it receives here
2024-05-31: fixed an error I made counting the cost of collector + Philosopher’s stone (thanks to Kiwi Kiwi for spotting that), and made small readability edits

Unusual terms

Throughout the guide you’ll see me refer to what the game calls “infantry” as “shields” this is because every unit in the game is a type of infantry and the most important thing about this unit is the shields that allow them to block ranged attacks.

I draw a distinction between melee and a melee. Only archers aren’t melee units, but shields and militia both fight in a melee (intermingled and loose) where pikes are melee units that fight in formation

Ranking system and Overview

There are 8 relics, each with a unique icon design. I will be covering them in alphabetical order and will rank them for each unit type as follows:

S = Super: this is a superlative option, will dramatically buff the unit without downside or risk, competes for the best relic you can have on a unit of this type

G = Good: a solid relic that’s a distinct buff for this unit type. You’ll always be happy to bind this relic to a unit of this type after your run starts

N = Neutral: this relic isn’t detrimental to this unit type, but it doesn’t really help it out either. You’d be just as well off with a relic-less unit of this type

B = Bad: this relic is actively harmful to the way this unit type operates, or at best is extremely situational and risky in its downsides. Binding is not advised

Additionally I will have + & - within the ranks, and I will be handing out one * for the best relic you can bind on each unit type. S+ relics will be contenders for the coveted S*, so if you see your fav not getting the star and it has S+? know it was a close-run thing, in some cases tipped by my own preferences.

And with no more ado, the rankings!

Relic Rankings

Bomb

Base “A powerful explosive that can be thrown by this commander”
8 coins “Gain 1 extra use per island”
14 coins “Increase the power of the explosion”
Total Cost 22
Total Collector Cost 11

Militia G-
Pikes G+
Shields G-
Archers G+

Bomb is a relic you will either love or hate. I, personally, hate it. If I wasn’t trying to be objective here, I’d bring back the T ranking from my traits guide. Because my ability to time the bomb is atrocious. For me it normally does nothing and occasionally murders one of my units in explosive blood.

Why is it like this? Well, the travel time through the air is quite long compared to a shield unit’s Plunge or a Warhammer’s attack. This means you cannot activate the ability in slow-time after a boat makes its final push onto an island. No, you have to activate it before. Naturally this makes it even harder against non-stationary targets who are on the island already.

So for ease of use it gets a “possible, but good luck”.

This is important because friendly fire is on for the bomb, and it will outright kill a lot of units, especially low tier ones, as well as knocking the survivors on their asses and making them easy targets for any enemies that are still standing. If you have any militia or shields nearby, make sure there’s a full tile between them and the target area or they’re liable to rush in just as the bomb lands

However, if your timing is good, it’s safe to say you will feel like the bomb because it is pretty powerful. In that case it might even be as much as an S tier for you, though the limited charges and sometimes awkward sightlines hold it back a little


Militia & Shields:
Best avoided really, but it can give them a ranged attack, and if you position as if to Plunge with shields you should be safe from the blast, so it’s ok.

Pikes:
Gives them another way to bop things beyond the reach of their pikes, so it’s pretty solid, especially if some enemies are ignoring the unit or bunching up for an overwhelming attack

Archers:
You’ll almost always be well positioned, as Bomb positioning is basically the same as where archers should be anyway, but they already have a ranged attack so you’re amplifying the unit more than giving it a new tool

Trivia: One of the 4 original relics, this has been aggravating me as long as I’ve been playing the game

Holy Grail

“Use this item to bring one fallen Commander back to life”
All N+
It does what it says on the tin. Doesn’t bind, doesn’t care about bound items, only good if you’ve lost a commander.
I don’t rate it too highly because I’d rather have something that helped the commander survive in the first place, but it’s not exactly bad.

Trivia: Unique among relics, it’s possible to have 2 Holy Grails in the same campaign/at the same time, likely because it’s a single use item. This can only happen if you start with one and pick one up later, but I wouldn’t exactly recommend that.

Jabena

“Allows a Commander to be deployed twice per turn”
Militia N+
Pikes S*
Shields G-
Archers N+

Jabena is a little strange as an item – it doesn’t hep you directly in combat, it’s an economy relic. No upgrade cost, and it allows you to deploy a unit 2/turn. This means that the stronger a unit is, the better Jabena is, which is why it’s S* on pikes, which don’t really need a relic to be good, but only N+ on militia and archers, which are weak without upgrades and/or specific relics (you also don’t normally need many archers). It should be ok on shields, since you always need a lot of them, but pikes can reliably solo certain early islands, and you often only need 1 per island whereas shields are often wanted at 2 per island or 1 with the right setup (often a strong trait plus War Horn).

Mines

Base “Can be placed on the ground, triggering a powerful explosion when enemies come near”
8 coins “Gain 1 extra use per island”
14 coins “Gain 1 extra use per island and provides a more powerful explosion”
Total Cost 22
Total Collector Cost 11

Militia S
Pikes G
Shields S+
Archers G+

Mines are a pretty solid item. It’s a shame they explode too early if a ship lands on their tile, but there’s no need to time them and unless an island is completely devoid of chokepoints they’re fairly intuitive to place. And even then you start with 2 so you can get them covering a wider area. Shields are best with them since they can place them even when under ranged attack, and archers can use them to stave off incoming melee units, as well as often positioning on the shore, but it’s really hard to go wrong with them unless you stand a unit on them… don’t do that.

Philosopher’s Stone

Base “Generates additional Gold from the islands you defend”
8 coins “Increases Coins received per island by 1”
14 coins “Increases Coins received per island by 1”
Total Cost 14
Total Collector Cost 8

Militia G-
Pikes G+
Shields G
Archers G-

Another economy trait, but this time it’s a little weaker over all, since it really wants early upgrades and costs you 14 gold – 2 t1 skill upgrades or slightly more than a t2 unit upgrade or slightly more than 2 t1 unit upgrades – all things that are vital early on. If you have collector the first upgrade will likely pay for itself by the 2nd island (it costs 3 and the only way to not upgrade on the 1st island would be an island with 1 solitary 1 coin house, which is pretty rare) the next upgrade is likely competing with your first unit specialisation though, at 5 coins, and it’ll be 3 deployments before the economy breaks even (12 coins gained for 10 spent).

Honestly I think it’s overpriced given how easy it is to get all the upgrades you need by the time you need them anyway, and it’s extremely rough that collector halves the cost rounded up. You only save 6 coins compared to 11 on most upgradeable relics and they usually do stuff rather than slowly refund your coins. If it was 4 then 8 at base and thus actually halving the cost with collector it’d probably be very solid.
That said you can just.. not upgrade it. It still gives you a coin every deployment which counts for something

Ring of Command

Base “Increases maximum squad size to 12”
16 coins “Increases maximum squad size to 16”
Total Cost 16
Total Collector Cost 8

Militia S*
Pikes S
Shields B-/G+
Archers S*

More soldiers = greater concentration of force. It’s basically a total win with one caveat – it increases the time it takes to replenish in a house because that time ticks once for every soldier. A unit with a fully upgraded RoC will take almost twice as long to replenish as any other unit, so plan to never replenish with such a unit. I need to verify that this feels bad on shields, but generally my conclusion is that you put it on archers: they benefit the most from it, since accuracy by volume is a huge win, compared to pikes which are just fine without it.

Trivia: the second of the original 4 relics, this has been a solid pick forever

War Horn

Base “Calls instant reinforcements from a house”
8 coins “Call 2 extra soldiers per use”
14 coins “Gain 1 extra use per island”
Total Cost 22
Total Collector Cost 11

Militia S+
Pikes G
Shields S*
Archers G

Back in the days before Jotunn edition, I used to think of this as a worse RoC because ultimately it just gives you more troops, but without increasing unit size with them thus up-front fighting ability

However, that’s a bloody silly way to look at it. War Horn has several advantages over RoC:
1) does not increase replenishment time – so you can still use the houses the normal way without a longer risk time
2) the units are summoned at the house itself, meaning you can make use of your commander’s limited invulnerability (i.e. invulnerable while any soldier of their unit is on the field) to save a doomed commander by summoning the extra troops and ordering the unit to move to somewhere safe. The soldiers will dutifully wait there until you can rescue the commander with other units or otherwise get the head honcho outta there
3) At full upgrade you can actually get more soldiers out of the horn than RoC:
War Horn: 5*2=10
RoC: 16-9=7
So why the S* for Shields? Simply put, they live dangerous lives that will involve heavy losses, where they need to be up an about at crucial moments to block arrows. The logistical superiority you get out of War Horn beats the tactical memery of Warhammer on average, but honestly since I favour 1:1:2: (A:P:S) strategies I’d say both.. both is good.
War Horn plays especially nicely with traits that reduce the attrition of the unit, such as Ironskin (damage reduction), Sure-footed (not getting knocked on their asses keeps them safe from a lot of scary nonsense), and Mountain (having one glorious bastard helps keep everyone in the fight as they soak up damage and enemies are knocked down and killed faster – this has the bonus perk of comboing very nicely with the safety trick) all of which are superb on shields.


Trivia: the third of the 4 original relics, I wish I’d seen the potential before only getting one of each relic per run made me try out new things

Warhammer

Base “A heavy hammer used for clearing large groups of foes”
8 coins “Increased power”
14 coins “Increased power”
Total Cost 22
Total Collector Cost 11

Militia S+
Pikes G+
Shields S+
Archers G

Warhammer is the last of the original 4 relics, and it’s no slouch – it can be used to wipe out entire large ships as they land knocking most back into the sea and the rest on their arses, and the timing is pretty easy – in slow time wait for the final fast push onto the shore and click as soon as you see it (unless archers, but they’re a special case because they sometimes pause to loose a volley before disembarking). The knockback does affect your own units but, since it deals no damage, it can’t devastate you the way bomb can.

Any unit can make decent use of this – indeed the energetic trait is likely the biggest decider, since Warhammer has a cooldown but unlimited uses as per other skills. However, Shields make the best use of Wahammer, since archers in boats cannot force them off the shore by mounting casualties.

Trivia: there’s a bug with Warhammer discovered by thatuseruser and shared to the Raw Fury Discord on 2024-04-16, where you can knock replenishing units out of a house and double the number of non-commander soldiers in the unit (does not work on sure-footed units or with 3-Coin houses)

[Eric]

I like the Ring of command especialy with the Trait that makes The number of guys increse

[notafatasian]

There's also quite a few islands that could be soloed by a single pike squad, except that there are multiple chokepoints that will bypass your pikes if you place your pike squad on 1 chokepoint. Mines are really good on pikes for that exact scenario. They can block off escape routes (don't you hate it when vikings run off in the opposite direction to your pikes?) and prevent your pikes from being flanked. Mines deserve an S tier on pikes.

[notafatasian]

Also warhammer does actually do damage, if the hammer hits vikings directly.

[notafatasian]

Mines aren't ideal for archers, as running around placing down mines takes them away from shore shooting at incoming boats. Infantry might also have to stay still to tank archer fire, so I try (usually unsuccessfully because I usually don't have a pike available) to bind mines with pikes because they don't have a role until vikings land. Mines + pikes are also useful for staggered dual-wielder boats, so one mine explosion takes out one boat, and a pike charge wipes out the 2nd.

I still disagree about shields and bombs, but whatever. Just use them at the shore and make sure all squads are 2 tiles away, and friendly fire becomes a nonissue.

Jabena archers deserve at least a "G," especially with a good trait like ironskin, energetic, fleet of foot, popular, or heavy weapons. They need to be T3 to be most useful, but you should fully upgrade archers anyways when they have those ideal traits. Archers are certainly NOT weak without relics.