Relics are the heart of the roguelite layer in Soulbound: Online. They are earned during a dungeon run, and each one warps your abilities, weapons, or stats. Stacking relics together is what produces the game's signature "100+ combinations" pitch, and the best builds are usually emergent rather than planned.
How Relics Work
As you progress through a run, you are offered relics to add to your build. Each choice branches your character in a new direction, layering onto the abilities you brought in. Because the build is assembled fresh each run, experimenting is the point: a relic you ignored last time can define your next run.
Early Access Relic Overhaul
For the Steam Early Access build the studio rebuilt the relic system in response to demo feedback. The earlier setup, where relics were a Phase I to VIII ladder that only nudged a single stat up one step at a time, was scrapped. In its place are more than 150 brand-new relics spread across every dungeon ability, each one distinct rather than a flat bonus. The design goal is role-based play: relics push you toward tank, damage, crowd-control, glass-cannon, elemental, or full-support directions, and they stack into builds that reach across both your abilities and your allies.
A few of the new relics the studio has shown:
Relic | Ability or Role | Effect |
|---|---|---|
Wormhole Singularity | Blackhole Bomb | Opens a black hole that pulls enemies into a vortex, then reopens on another target and chains again. |
Eternal Winter | Ice Cube | Turns a freeze into a frozen domain that locks every enemy inside it; paired with the Frozen Bastion relic, each freeze also shields allies. |
Micro Explosions | Machine Gun | Adds incendiary rounds to rapid fire for fast crowd-control on clustered enemies. |
Frostguard | Tank | Freezes the room and converts the freeze into stacking shields for the party. |
Crit Snowball | Damage | Raises critical hit chance and refunds cooldowns, which leads to still more crits. |
Field Commander | Support | Heals and shields allies while making suppressed enemies take more damage. |
Synergy Examples
Combo | Result |
|---|---|
Chain-lightning relic on Pyrosphere | The mage ability arcs between enemies, melting packs |
Life-steal relic on a berserker's hammer | Area damage also heals your party, turning offense into sustain |
These are the synergies the studio has demonstrated. They show the general design goal: relics should change how an ability behaves, not just add a flat bonus. Finer details from the earlier browser version, such as relic rarities and categories, are not confirmed for the Steam build and are left out here until shown.
Builds Reset Each Run
Relic builds belong to the run you make them in. Your lasting power comes from your gear, life skills, and base progression in the overworld, while relics are the in-run engine that makes each dungeon dive feel different.
Relic Types
Relics come in three forms. Passive relics raise raw stats or enhance your upgraded abilities; only four passives can be active at once, so picking the right ones matters. Weapon relics modify your equipped weapon. Ability relics appear only after an ability is unlocked during the run, so an early relic offer is usually one weapon relic and two passives.
Relic Tiers
Relics use a rarity scale, shown by color: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, and Legendary. The relic options you are offered are shaped by your equipped weapon and its upgrade level, your equipped abilities and their tier, and the relics you have already taken. With everything fully upgraded, a run can stack a large pool of weapon, ability, and passive relics before options start repeating.
Core Build Roles
Although the game is classless, builds tend to settle into four roles, with hybrids in between:
Role | Focus |
|---|---|
DPS | Stack Heavy Hit Chance and Critical Strike to clear enemies fast. |
Healer | Lean on Buff Power and healing abilities to sustain the party. |
Tank | Build Health, Defense, and Crit to soak damage for the group. |
Dodge | Stack Dodge to avoid hits while still dealing damage. |
Your relic build lasts only for the run that made it. Lasting power comes from gear, life skills, and base progression, while relics and Yoku are the in-run engine.
Relic types, tiers, and the passive cap come from the live browser build and may be tuned during Early Access.