Relic Altar

The relic altar is an unofficial name for a room added in the Supply Crate Update. It has also been referred to as the “mysterious altar”. It has its own icon on the mini-map.

The room spawns on any floor both in the main game and in Othermine. It acts as relic storage across runs. It is empty when it is discovered for the first time in a player's save file. When the Peasant puts a relic on it, it will stay there for future runs. The placed relic is not affected by items like Transmutagen or Dirk's Hammer and does not appear in relic rooms or shops, except for the Hot Cross Bun.

You can put combined relics on altars but the relics that make the combined relic will be removed from the relic pool.

Altar Behavior

If the Peasant picks up the relic, they must replace it with another relic. It can be the same relic they picked up from the altar. The altar interacts differently with certain relics:

Special Behaviour

• Mune appears in subsequent runs instead if Masa is placed down. However in subsequent runs after Mune is removed from the altar placing Masa on the altar will remain as Masa.
• Nullification disables two relics, however these relics can be re-enabled with the relic altar by placing and removing the relics that were disabled on the altar.

Positive Behaviour

• The altar has a unique behavior which allows it to reset relics with counters by placing then removing the following relics:
  • Lockpick will be reset to 0 doors unlocked.
  • Dirk's Hammer allows for infinite transmutes on the floor with the relic.
  • Doll restores back up to 2–4 charges regardless of how many it had before being placed down.
  • Tent can be placed on the altar used, then taken off and used again on the next floor.
• If the player stores Karmic Scale on the altar they can get a full heal from the altar by picking it up and replacing it.
• Storing Petrified Rock on the altar allows the player to use it for a single floor every run, rather than the entire run from where its found for the rare run that its found.

Cannot be placed on the altar

The relics that cannot be placed on the altar include:

• Siegfried's Aegis
• Pilfer Credit Card Silver
• Pilfer Credit Card Gold
• Pilfer Credit Card Black Edition
• Box of Holding

Major Negative Behavior

If placed on the altar during a run these relics will reset counts that have been built up over the course of the run.

• Kurtz' Stache will reset its curse count when placed on the altar.
• Capture Sphere: Bomb damage will reset.
• Golden Idol will only give  10,000 from the altar on the run it's placed.
• Suneater will reset damage gained from used blessings.
• Mushroom resets loses HP.
• Birthing Pod resets.

Minor Negative Behavior

These relics will not have their intended pickup behavior but it's not a major issue as the permanent buffs still apply.

• Miner's Flask will not drop a potion on picking up from the altar.
• Emperor's Crown doesn't give a blessing when picked up from the altar.
• Pauldron when picked up off the altar will have an empty armor slot.
• Gauntlets when picked up off the altar will have an empty armor slot.
• Greaves when picked up off the altar will have an empty armor slot.
• Breastplate when picked up off the altar will have an empty armor slot.
• Shield of Quills when picked up off the altar will have two empty armor slots, but will still provide the damage buff.
• Doom Blade doesn't give the curses on pickup from the shop, which is a default damage boost.

Neutral Behavior

If placed on the altar these relics might lose a temporary buff, but it can be gained back quickly.

• Soul Guard resets but doesn't give the max HP lost back.
• Lunchbox will reset to 0 food if it is added to the altar with food in it.
• Wet Blanket resets to 0, but is easy enough to refill.
• Gold Frenzy loses temporary damage.
• Intensifier loses temporary damage.

Not Affected

These are relics that would be normally expected to be affected by being placed on the altar but are not.

• Ursa Major: Temporary buff will not disappear when placed on the altar.
• Canis Major: Temporary buff will not disappear when placed on the altar
• Sagitta: Temporary buff will not disappear when placed on the altar.
• Circinus: Temporary buff will not disappear when placed on the altar.
• War Paint: Temporary buff will not disappear when placed on the altar.
• Battle Standard: Temporary buff will not disappear when placed on the altar.

History

Changelog
Version	Additions and Changes
0.5.0	Added Relic Altar.
0.6.1	Closed an exploit related to the Eidolon, Breastplate, and Relic Altar.
1.0.0	Fixed an issue that would allow you to place the debuff granted by Branding Bombs onto the Relic Altar. Armor items such as Breastplate will no longer refill your armor pips if you juggle them on the Relic Altar.
1.2.0	Black Credit Card is no longer allowed on the relic altar.