Soul Strip Relic System: 31 Items That Shape Every Run

What Are Relics?

Relics are passive items you collect during a run. Pick one up after an elite fight or a story event, and it stays with you until the run ends. No activation cost, no energy — they just work.

Soul Strip has 31 relics spread across 4 rarity tiers: 10 Common, 12 Rare, 6 Epic, and 3 Legendary. The higher the rarity, the more a relic warps your strategy.

How Relics Trigger

Not all relics work the same way. Each one has a trigger type that determines when it activates:

• Passive — always active. Frost Heart carries over 50% of unused Block every turn. Eternal Grip retains all cards in your hand between turns.
• On Battle Start — fires once when combat begins. Iron Rosary gives 8 Block. Toxic Vial applies 5 Poison. Burning Candle applies 2 Vulnerable.
• On Turn Start — fires every turn. Void Singularity draws 2 extra cards (but deals 2 unblockable damage). Scroll of Rebirth plays a random exhausted card every 2 turns.
• On Card Played — fires per card. Crystal of Duality: attacks grant 3 Block, Block cards deal 3 damage.
• On Card Exhausted — Phoenix Feather gives +1 Energy when a card is exhausted.
• On Damage Taken — Berserker’s Mark: when HP drops below 50%, gain +3 Strength (once per combat).
• On Rest — Sturdy Boots upgrades rest healing from 30% to 50%.
• On Combat End — Soul Fragment gives +3 Gold after every fight.
• On Acquire — one-time effect when you pick the relic up. Pandora’s Box transforms all Common cards into random Rares. Mask of Forgotten removes 3 cards from your deck. Soul Bargain gives +1 max Energy but costs 15 max HP.

The trigger system means the same relic can be great or useless depending on your deck. Phoenix Feather is incredible in an Exhaust deck and does nothing in a Retain build.

Risk/Reward Relics

Three relics have explicit downsides:

Soul Bargain — +1 max Energy (3 → 4). Costs 15 max HP permanently (80 → 65). An extra energy per turn is roughly 30% more actions. But 15 fewer HP means less room for mistakes. Strong players take this almost always. New players die to it.

Cursed Cauldron — Cursed cards deal ×1.5 damage. Costs 3 HP at the start of each combat. Only worth it if your deck runs Cursed cards. Otherwise it’s pure downside.

Void Singularity — +2 cards drawn per turn. Costs 2 unblockable damage per turn. More cards means more options and faster kills. But the clock is ticking — you need to end fights fast or the damage adds up.

These are the most interesting relics in the game because they force a real decision. A pure upside relic is just “take it.” A risk/reward relic is “should I take it given what my deck looks like right now?”

Standout Relics by Build

Shadow (Poison/DOT)

• Toxic Vial (Common): Free 5 Poison at combat start. Shadow’s best Common relic.
• Shadow Mask (Rare): Weakness also applies 1 Vulnerable. Double debuff from a single card.
• Witch’s Cauldron (Rare): Exhausts Status cards in hand and draws replacements. Keeps your hand clean.

Ice (Block/Control)

• Frost Heart (Rare): 50% of unused Block carries over. The defining Ice relic.
• Iron Rosary (Common): +8 Block at combat start. Free breathing room.
• Warding Scroll (Common): Retained cards give +2 Block at end of turn (up to 3 cards). Stacks with Retain cards naturally.

Fire (Damage/Burst)

• Berserker’s Mark (Rare): Below 50% HP, gain +3 Strength. Fire decks that take hits can snowball hard.
• Inferno Core (Epic): Elemental synergies trigger twice at ×1.5. Fire synergy already gives bonus damage — this makes it hit much harder.

Multi-Element

• Elemental Compass (Common): Synergy bonuses ×1.5. Works for any element.
• Void Prism (Rare): First card of each element costs 1 less Energy per combat. Rewards element diversity.

Power-Heavy Decks

• Demon Queen’s Crown (Legendary): 6 active Powers instead of 3. Double the passive effects. Build-defining.
• Mirror of Bonds (Rare): First Power trigger each cycle fires twice.

Exhaust Decks

• Phoenix Feather (Rare): +1 Energy per Exhaust. Exhaust cards effectively become free.
• Scroll of Rebirth (Legendary): Plays a random exhausted card every 2 turns for free. Dead cards come back.

The Design Goal

Relics serve one purpose: make identical decks play differently. Two Shadow decks with the same 15 cards will have completely different runs if one has Toxic Vial + Shadow Mask and the other has Phoenix Feather + Cursed Cauldron.

The relic you pick should change how you draft. Take Phoenix Feather and Exhaust cards become priority picks. Take Frost Heart and Block cards jump in value. The relic doesn’t just buff your deck — it redirects your strategy.

31 relics is enough to make each run feel different without overwhelming the player. Most runs you’ll see 5-8 relic choices and end up taking 3-5 of them.

Try It

The demo includes the full first act with a subset of the relic pool — enough to see how a single relic pickup changes the trajectory of a run.