# 🏺 Relics
Relics are powerful items that provide percentage-based stat bonuses. Unlike regular equipment which gives flat stats, relics scale multiplicatively with your other gear — making them increasingly valuable as your base stats grow.
## How Relics Work
Relics use **Percentage On Top** stat mode, meaning their bonuses are applied after all other percentage calculations. This makes them a separate multiplier layer rather than being lumped in with regular percentage gear.
## Relic Quality
Every relic has a **quality** value (0–99) that dramatically affects its power:
| Quality | Stat Multiplier |
|---------|----------------|
| 0 (worst) | 1.0x |
| 25 | ~2.6x |
| 50 | ~4.3x |
| 75 | ~5.9x |
| 99 (best) | 7.5x |
Quality scales linearly, so every point of quality matters. A perfect quality relic is **7.5 times** stronger than a quality 0 relic of the same type and level.
> [!tip] Always check relic quality before investing in upgrades. A high-quality relic at low level can outperform a low-quality relic at high level.
## Relic Levels
Relics can be leveled from 0 to 99, divided into **10 stages** (0–9).
### Mid-Stage Levels (1–9 within a stage)
Upgraded with **gold**. The cost increases based on both the level within the stage and the stage number.
### Stage Upgrades (every 10th level)
Upgraded with **duplicate copies** of the same relic. The number of copies needed per stage:
| Stage | Copies Required |
|-------|----------------|
| 1 (level 10) | 2 |
| 2 (level 20) | 2 |
| 3 (level 30) | 3 |
| 4 (level 40) | 3 |
| 5 (level 50) | 4 |
| 6 (level 60) | 5 |
| 7 (level 70) | 5 |
| 8 (level 80) | 6 |
| 9 (level 90) | 6 |
**Total copies needed for max level: 36 relics** (plus the original).
## Stat Modes
Relics can grant different types of stat bonuses encoded in their stat names:
- **Percent**: Applied during the percentage scaling phase
- **Percent On Top**: Applied as a separate multiplier after all other percentages — this is the most common and most powerful relic stat type
This means relics don't compete with your equipment's percentage bonuses; they multiply on top of them.
## Tips
- Quality is king — prioritize high-quality relic drops over low-quality duplicates
- Save duplicate relics for stage upgrades rather than discarding them
- Relics become more impactful as your base stats increase, since they're percentage-based
- Focus on leveling one strong relic rather than spreading resources across many