What's your favorite Boss Relic? Comment Below!

Runic dome is an absolute run killer. When I have to turn off my music and look up enemy turn intents I’d rather just turn off the game lol

I would take tiny house way more often if it allowed me to choose which card to upgrade. As is it almost always upgrades a strike or defend whenever I get it.

One reason why I would avoid runic dome at all costs, even when my deck is powerful enough to end most fights in just a couple of turns, is that it makes me feel like I'm fighting inanimate objects instead of enemies. The lack of the intent symbols over the enemies head makes the fights way less engaging to me for some reason.

Ok, I finally had the S-tier Tiny House! It was so glorious that I took it over the Runic Pyramid(!). I was Ironclad, on a power/exhaust-heavy run. I had the Membership Card so the 50 gold was actually like 100. I had taken the Apparition event earlier, so the +5 HP was really +10. The random card upgrade rolled onto Disarm, nice. I also had a ? Card (and Singing Bowl), and incredibly the fourth card offered was an upgraded Rupture (my second copy, plus I also already had Brutality at this point). Plus the potion roll awarded me with a Flex Potion for good measure. Best Tiny House I've ever seen.

I never thought about wrist blade much but it actually has a lot of synergies. Eviscerate can benefit, all the 0 cost cards that already exist of course, good synergy with mummy hand, good synergy with madness, and all the synergies mentioned by ballord

Busted crown is fine imo, but only if your deck is basically already pretty strong. If anything, it is a win more relic as opposed to anything that will really help you.

Feels like Sacred Bark is the one you consider for a second before picking something else. Really neat on paper and potentially good with Potion Belt or Alchemize, but... how about that energy relic?

I like the wound-y thingy a bit too much :D For ironclad I often go for the status card build

If Serpent Ring would have been "Every turn draw 2 cars but discard one"... would have been awsome 😔

Alright I admit it, after beating an ascension run starting with snecko eye on defect, it is in fact OP af. I took 2 meteor strikes, an echo form, and a couple holograms so that when I drew a low cost meteor strike I would just cycle it with hologram over and over for tons of energy. Though not infinite, I dispatched the heart with ease, barely taking damage as I was fully blocking most of it. One of my easiest runs in recent memory

Runic Done vs spaghetti best interaction, not being able to control the rerolls means guilt free damage. Might not be objectively good but it feels good.

I tried the astrolabe as a replacement starter relic on the silent. Got a footwork+ Noxious Fumes+ and a storm of steel plus. This is gonna be fun. Thank you! And for your vids too.

I believe you underrate the impact of lotus. Its easily S Lotus is easy to turn into what I call "engine". The way of your deck to draw and play its objectives/"scale" Lotus does that immediately and easily. With cards like rushdown and empty mind. You can easily cycle your calms into draws. If you have a way to mass draw like with scrawl, lotus will translate to much more than 1 energy per turn. As it allows you to play an additional card drawing card which can draw you calm cards I also believe you underrate sozu. Potions are invaluable resources, but the additional energy can help you circumvent alot of the situations you'd otherwise use a potion. If you play around having sozu its insanely good

I really like Dripper or Hammer whenever i have the Shovel or the Peace Pipe, because it gives me other ways to use the campfires.

On Defect, inserter is 100% my favorite relic. I'd place it as an A or possibly S, as long as you don't swap into it, which I agree is a rough start. The Watcher, LOVE both of her options but prefer the violet lotus. On Iron Clad his specific ones literally just suck, with some niche powerful uses. Overall I'll almost never grab his relics. I have enjoyed black blood however, it's just usually not preferable to almost any choice for me. With the Silent? GOD her relics are great. Kite and Wrist Blade more specifically tho her ring of the serpent is a wonderful act 2 boss pick, or it CAN be. Also, I'd totally put frozen core in A, myself. The amount of runs it has just won for me is astounding. Or well, majorly helped. The impact it has is insane if you have any of the given requirements. Without them it's similar to just...having metallicize that gets a little stronger, always active. Not bad, not great. But hell, any buff to your focus and damn it's OP. My favorite boss relic is probably Astrolabe. Swapping into it is a chaotic fun start and Act 1 it's usually a HUGE power boost even at 3 energy. It can still be great at the end of Act 2 but by then I prefer the calling bell, so it's not 100% Astrolabe for me because it does depend on when I'm grabbing it. But overall I definitely pick it up more than any relic

I like watcher’s and ironclad’s upgrade relics the most. The other 2 actually come with a meaningful downside and can just be flat out worse, while those two are strictly beneficial

When I first started playing, i jusy kept taking the swap because it forced me to learn to deal with a sub-optimal build. I never took Dome before i got it as a swap, and I surprised myself with how well I knew the enemy patterns and realized i was treating intents as a crutch.

It's nice to know the swap rankings, but you have no control over what you get, so ranking by other criteria (where you're picking a specific relic) is much more useful.

Runic dome is extremely situational but it’s pretty good sometimes like when building a block deck on ironclad

I won my very 1st A20 Defect [non-heart] run with Snecko/Pyramid :D Echo Form, big frost orbs and Charged Batteries helped out a lot

the (Old) Hovering Kite was SOOOO bad, lol. Discard 2 cards every turn, gain +1 energy. It made your hand only 3 cards to play from on turn 2 onwards.

I got snecko eye as a relic exchange in the beginning from Neow on ironclad. Queue rolling through the spire with an exaust deck with a ton of high-cost cards.

Oooh just what I needed

I can't recall ever having won a run when I picked velvet choker. it really does CHOKE your capability and flexibility too much. too much luck involved in trying to build around it, let alone adding it late in a run.

I feel like Runic Dome and Snecko Eye are *SUPER* player dependent. Like, for newer players, they both deserve D tier, because they are nearly guaranteed to sink your run if you're not at least working your way through higher Ascension levels. But for players who are at the point of climbing to higher Ascension levels, they can deserve that S rank, because such players have already developed the baseline skill and knowledge of the game to work around their disadvantages. I'd tend to rate them both low, because players who know enough to use them properly don't need a tier list to tell them what's good and what's not.

The busted crown makes decision making very easy and the merchant more fun. Just speaking on casual play. I've had a couple runs I was happy to get it from our good ole friend Whale.

It's interesting to see how different streamers rank relics. Most relics end up in similar spots, but there are some that people have more varied opinions. Wrist blade, sozu, burning blood, calling bell, runic cube are notorious examples.

Insterter getting C tier hurts, legit one of my favorite relics😭

ngl after 2k hours of slay the spire (200 ish idle hours and about half the play time being either me achievment grinding or playing it in the background of a anime) I still struggle with using potions effectively. I think I still use them not enough but finding that balance is tricky especially in act 1 imo.

The entire video all I can think about is how comfy your chair looks.

ehh . . . I have a difficult time with Pandora's Box if I'm being honest. There's been a handful of times where it's given me only one or no block in my deck and I'm gone within the next two hallway fights.

Lmao that oversized chair made me chuckle

Thanks for the educational video!

I've always avoided pandoras box- probably stupid of me I just always got spooked by its randomness+ im usually a sucker for extra energy. I'll pick it my next few runs see if it helps.

Cool video! As a newbie (on ascension 6), I found your high ranking of pandora's box to be really interesting. I get the reasoning but I always find getting it as a relic trade or before stage 2 to be a mixed blessing, especially as a trade. My fastest losses have usually been from a Pandora's box trade as I'll get 2-3 cards I like, another 2-3 that have potential but little starting synergy, and the rest are junk or too expensive to rely on. I'll often find myself missing the humble, but consistent, 1 cost strikes and defends. I find it more consistent after the first boss, when I at least have some synergies going and some other consistent dmg/block dealers

Runic Dome is excellent if your deck does not care whatsoever what the enemy is doing like a Turtle build for Ironclad or a Frost build for Defect, for example. These decks simply aim to gain as much Block as possible, and they don't give a damn if the enemy is attacking or not. An infinite damage combo decks also don't care about the enemy intents, since they end the fight on turn 1 or turn 2.

I got cracked crown as a boss swap a little while ago and then got offered nothing but 0 cost cards throughout the first act. I think I literally only got 1 card with any cost.

Differences with my own opinions: D: Ectoplasm (It’s probably my least favorite boss relic, especially since it guarantees a thieves fight next floor if you take it going to act 2[sarcasm]. I value card removes very highly.) C: Sacred Bark (This may be due to me valuing potions low, using them too liberally, and/or being stuck with two slots, but I’ve never had a run where I felt like the line between a W/L was severed by bark) Velvet Choker (look, man, I like to play cards. I will note I think this relic is way better if you start with it to build around it, but seeing it on the reward screen usually is unsatisfying for me, especially after act 2.) Fusion Hammer (If I find a way around it, I like it, but other than that, I also value upgrades very highly, and them being turned off makes fires a lot less appealing to me, especially considering how many upgrades can be spent to basically become energy upgrades if I really need to pivot that way.) B: Sozu (Again, maybe I just don’t value potions high enough, but imo you’re taking Sozu because you think your deck is strong enough to win without them, and with it, I feel like it does.) Wrist Blade (hey, get down from S-tier, you’re gonna hurt yourself up there. It’s good if you find shivs, but if you don’t find shivs, I feel like it does next to nothing.) Inserter (I think it’s better than any of the other ones in C tier, and I just like them. I also just liberally take Consume anyways, so that’s part of it.) The way I see it, the tiers can be described like this: “I’ll take this relic…” S - “and win the run with this relic alone.” A - “very happily in most cases.” B - “and not feel bad about it most of the time.” C - “because I had no other choice.” D - “…why, exactly? There’s only two options in this tier, I’m taking the third one.” One note about dome specifically is that only on Watcher, I actually think it’s C-tier, because it means I can no longer end my turn in wrath without risking a reset, which is, for me at least, usually a fine line between winning a fight and losing a fight where the enemy takes a turn off. Also, if you’re for some reason playing prismatic defect, take battery as it now has almost no downside at all. Do note I like your list, I just felt like sharing mine for the sake of discussion.

Interesting Video even if i dont agree at all with you for some relics :)

Most of the relics are extremely situational. The crown for example can be as high as S Tier and as low as D Tier. Sometimes a good deck is already developed within 4-5 card pick ups and 2-3 card removals, which can happen in act 1 already. Picking up a crown then can be S Tier. Other times you are missing key cards in your deck that you need to find quickly, thus making the crown not only bad, but detrimental.

Is it ever possible to get more than 3 boss relics in one run? Boss swap, act 1 boss, act 2 boss... those are the only ways to get them?

Clickbait, he did not put busted crown in S tier.

I’d love to see you do a tier list for each hero. For example, the downside of Collar is brutal on Watcher but on Ironclad I barely notice. The relative value of the energy relics in general differ a lot by hero. Ironclad tends to need energy the most due to his high-cost cards & lack of a good card-based solution to energy like Watcher (calm stance shifting, Deva form) & Defect (plasma). Side note: are you trolling us by putting wrist blade in S tier? The others in S tier make sense but that 1 is so niche. If you’re going to rank them based on how good a relic could be in a deck that’s perfect for it, then Watcher’s Flower & Ironclad’s Mark should be higher, too. My biggest difference of opinion on this list is with Ectoplasm, which I’d put in A. I tend to save my gold from Act1, so I’ll have at least 1 removal if needed. Also, I consider Runic Dome to be totally out of place in the game. It ruins the game for me, bc why put in all the effort then get Time Eater or the spaghetti hallway battle. Tbh I wish Megacrit would give us an option to omit it, or someone would code a mod to do that

what chair (pillow?) is that, and where can i buy one?

Snecko is the exact opposite of Pyramid (inconsistency vs. consistency) I can not understand the appeal of snecko unless you can survive until you get an entire hand around it. Unfortunately it ruins tons of builds immediately.

i know snecko eyes is good, but ive been screwed by it too often to like it. now i pretty much only pick it up if i already have a bunch of high cost cards that are more likely to benefit from the random cost. also i feel like mark of pain is definitely better than C? i often pick up an evolve anyway even if im not playing a status deck, just to counteract enemy status effects and if you get it early you can easily build around it and make a very good status deck.

Good video. Surprised philosophers stone was only B tier.

Busted Crown is definitely A tier when picked late, it's just free energy at that point, but it obviously depends on the run

I think this is accurate. But as an Ironclad lover, I think Mark of pain is worth more. Curses are fuel for Ironclad

Today I beat the heart in A20 for the first time as silent thanks to pandora's box boss swap

Just lost a Watcher run to Snecko. Plenty of 2 cost cards, teo 3 cost, one 4 cost, so I thought "alright, if not now, then never". Turns out it randomizes cost of even 0 cost generated draws like insight, reach heaven etc, killing me after 3 atrocious luck fights back to back. Never it is, I guess.

I know its just because I suck (and yes I've had a couple A20 wins), but I've literally never had a Pandora's Box that didn't almost instantly get me killed. Last one for example, double juggernaut, double barricade, Clash......literally 0 block cards

I thought this would be a video about Neow's 4th option to trade your starting relic for a boss relic ... and then rank the boss relics by tier accordingly.

I hate rolling for boss relic at the start, it's always given me crown and I have to reset (crown is pretty much the one thing I'll reset on, even Sozu lets me build around and make a more consistent deck)

I've been playing StS for a little over a year and I've read the effect of frozen core wrong this whole time. I thought it would only trigger if *all* of your orb slots were empty and I was like "why the fuck would anyone ever take this??"

I just beat the heart with Defect for the first time starting with nuclear battery building into melee, was only A3 but steamrolled the whole way. Super fun!

I honestly find the fusion hammer much less useful than the coffee dripper, there are overall less opportunities for upgrades than healing with the most abundant sources of upgrading coming from act 1, by then you wont have your build even fully defined yet. I only see myself taking the hammer in situations where i have a bottled apotheosis, if im past act 2 with no need for upgrades or i have a minimalist deck.

Doesn't the Silent's upgrade only cost one card; not two? It still applies turn 1, so instead of two extra cards, you draw one. Which means you break even on turn 2 and come out ahead turn 3.

Funnily enough, I just had a run where I utilized the relics that gave curses.

you clearly need to make at least 2 tables. one for relics as boss swaps, and one where you get the relic later. maybe even a table where you rate relics that are dependent on other relics to really be good.

"Hovering Kite is a no downside energy relic..." The downside is the opportunity cost of the relic you aren't taking instead, which is especially true if you can't utilize it.

I avoid snecko eye at all cost, it ruins my runs. I like cursed bell - 3 relics. Busted crown is good relic, especially when you have built your deck. And of course, everything else depends on achievement you want to get. I've got all achievements after 600+ hours of playing :) For me, the hardest one was to beat the game under 20 min

Philo Stone is a pretty bad end of Act 1 relics for one reason: Byrds. Also, if Calling Bell gives you Du-Vu Doll, it’s like having a bonus Vajra. I have had this happen.

Mark of Pain is A/S tier when paired with fire breathing

My favorite boss relic is astrolabe. That's over all. With silent it's wrist blade. Defect is inserter.

Watching this I realized that I need a big cozy chair

I’ve completed A15 with all characters and have beaten the heart with three characters and I JUST realized how awesome Snecko Eye is. I used to avoid it because I thought the confusion made things too unpredictable, but that’s actually the benefit of the card. You can run into some insane combos. I don’t even play without enemy intents. That’s way too much work. Also, great video. I made my way here from Reddit. Enjoying your stuff.

Coffee Dripper is the only one I'd wildly disagree with. Maybe I'm just bad at the game, but I consider the ability to Rest, particularly in the third act, to be essential.

Tiny house is hot garbage to me honestly, as a boss relic. No downside is nice but it’s lack of any real benefit is too much of a downside. If the upgrade was targeted, it gave more money, or gave more max health I think it would be a competitive choice but I only take it if the others are useless or risk killing the run entirely

Philosopher stone I think is the only relic That I like to get as both swap and end of act 2 but not end of act 1. The bird fight, book of stabbing and gremlin leader just get wayyy too much value out of it so I'm rarely comfortable picking it for act 2, but if I get it as a swap I can plan around it a bit better Also sozu at D rank sounds plain wrong tbh. Like yeah potions are good but the downside is basically nonexistent. Early on an energy relic is good enough that it makes potion not really needed. And having an energy relic with no concrete downside for your deckbuilding means you're much more likely to get an unstoppable deck later on. It's on par with coffee dripper in that it makes it's own downside obsolete by making it so you don't need the thing it takes away from you if you take it. Though I feel like you're ranking this heavily focusing on the relic swap which is really weird considering that it's 1) not mandatory 2) you got no control over it. So it's a very narrow use case for boss relics and one where tier info isn't super useful.

I’d love to see Jorbs react to a D tier Sozu lol!

I actually really like runic dome because I'm really good at remembering attacks but I'm so sad when I have it and have to face time eater

The eye makes it so difficult to plan a strategy...

the problem with this tier-list is that tiers are hardly applicable because all the relics are so situational

Fun fact about calling bell, the 3 relics you get upfront are the same 3 relics you will be rewarded with in the run in your next 3 elite fights and or chest rooms were you not to take it. Its kind of cheaty but you can use it as intel by picking it after the boss fight to see what the upcoming rewards on the next floor will be, then save scum out and pick a different relic if you want but with the insight on what you can expect to build around coming up. Again its a little cheaty but of all the ways you can save scum around in the game that one seems kind of mild imo

Hi, What "S" stands for ? I can easily understand A, B, C... but "S" ? Thank you

A little cheat with runic dome, I always try to get spot weakness with it.

The paradox is Silent gets the least out of the Sneko Eye, Silent doesn't get as much out of Runic Pyramid, but Silent can tolerate an accidental Pyramid + Sneko. Ironclad can discard and if you're putting wounds in or you have a curse, then Ironclad is better but for the most part Silent has so much discard it can get the Sneko high-costs to recycle extremely easily.

I really don't see how Electoplasm made it past the D ranking, especially as you cannot get it in act 2. If you start with it, you can basically say goodbye to your run on the spot, and it's also really bad to get in act 1. Being able to buy stuff is just too important.

Pretty cool to see how this changes with playstyle, from what i've seen and heard from your other videos is that you tend to use a way bigger deck, with way more block than I do. Because of this a lot of the list is pretty flipped for me

Imagine boss swapping into panda's into no damage :x

that chair is huge

If Tiny house was twice as effective would you ever take it?

Pandora Box of course!

nice video but the text is too small for mobile, so for a newbie i get lost on what u talking about

Runic dome is terriboe because enemies DON'T have consistent attack patterns. Tbere are too many enemies which randomly pick between several actions on a turn and there's too much energy wasted guessing that the extra one doesn't matter

PSA - TLDW: “it depends”

The first (and so far only) winning run I had with Defect was based around Fusion Battery, one Recursion to put it in front, then as many Loops as I could find to get So. Much. Energy.

Can someone tell me what a heart run is?

sacred bark: If you got a source of artifact, the flex/speed pots are permanent, +10 str/dex is decent+

From S to D. I did *not* hear the letter S being said, lul.

Note to self never take snecko eye and runic pyramid. You’re gonna have a bad time.

sacred bark two tiers higher than inserter? cursed key only c tier? idk chief, seems kinda whack to me

i feel you were way too harsh on the busted crown.. its rly amazing to take after act 2 when u already have the cards you need or even missing a few cause you can just visit shops to get the last cards you need and you might even get them from the single card reward.. so i feel busted crown should be atleast a C tier or even B

Idk what my favorite relic is but my least favorite is Runic Dome

Call me crazy, but I really, *really* don't like snecko eye. It just seems to way more often fuck me over than not, but thats always my luck with games. The more luck based it is, the worse I will, inevitably, do with it.

how is the red stone a or above it just gives enemies 1 more damage

You gotta tell me what kind of chair that is.

Snecko eye has let me down more often than not. I don't take it