Here is the uncomfortable truth about relics: the grind is not the fight, the sorting is. You will pull dozens of purple and gold pieces a week out of the Caverns of Corrosion, and the vast majority are landfill the moment they drop. The players who look "lucky" are not farming more than you. They are throwing away faster, and they are only leveling the handful of relics that were already worth it at level zero. This is how you learn to tell those apart before you waste a scrap of fuel.
Read the piece before you read the stat
Every relic and Planar Ornament rolls one main stat and up to four substats. Two of the six slots are locked, so ignore them when you sort:
- Head is always flat HP.
- Hands are always flat ATK.
The other four are where the decisions live, because their main stat is selectable and that main stat sets the whole ceiling of the piece:
| Slot | Main stats worth farming |
|---|---|
| Body | CRIT Rate, CRIT DMG, ATK%, Healing Bonus (for healers), Effect Hit Rate (for DoT) |
| Feet | SPD first, then ATK% for carries that already have enough Speed |
| Planar Sphere | Elemental DMG% matching your carry, or ATK% |
| Link Rope | ATK%, Energy Regen (for Ultimate-hungry units), Break Effect (for Break units) |
A piece with the wrong main stat cannot be fixed by good substats. A CRIT DMG Body on a Break unit is trash no matter what rolled underneath it. Filter by main stat first, always. If the main stat is wrong for the character you are building, it never reaches the substat conversation.
The four-line rule that saves your fuel
A relic upgrades every three levels to +15, which is five upgrade events. Here is the part the game never spells out: a piece that drops with four substats already visible spends all five upgrades boosting those four lines. A piece that drops with three substats spends its first upgrade adding a random fourth line, then only four upgrades on real value.
That single difference is enormous. Four-line relics have a higher effective stat budget and let you see most of what you are getting up front. So the rule for expensive slots:
If you are going to sink real Trailblaze Power into a piece, strongly prefer one that already shows four substats, and where at least two of those four are stats your character actually wants.
Two useful stats out of four visible lines is the minimum bar for leveling. One useful line and a prayer is a gambler's relic, and the house does not lose.
The substat tier list, by what the character does
There is no universal "best substat," only best for a role. Match the character's job to its shopping list:
Crit damage dealers (most DPS units).
- CRIT Rate / CRIT DMG (the pair, see the ratio below)
- SPD
- ATK%
- Flat ATK (filler, not a reason to keep)
Break and super-break units.
- Break Effect
- SPD
- ATK% (still helps the base multiplier)
- Effect Hit Rate if they apply status
DoT / damage-over-time carries.
- Effect Hit Rate (until you clear the enemy's resistance, then stop)
- ATK%
- SPD
- Flat ATK / DEF% depending on the unit
Supports, buffers, and batteries.
- SPD (this is the whole job, see the speed tuning guide)
- Energy Regen if they are Ultimate-reliant
- Whatever their kit scales off (HP%, DEF%, ATK%)
Sustains (healers and shielders).
- SPD
- The stat they scale off (HP% for most healers, DEF% for defensive shielders)
- Effect RES to resist crowd control
- Flat HP/DEF filler
Notice how often SPD appears near the top. That is not an accident.
Why Speed beats almost every percentage
Speed is the one substat that changes when you act, not just how hard you hit, and turn count compounds over a fight in a way a flat damage percentage never does. A single Speed roll can be the difference between your buffer refreshing before your carry swings or one beat too late, which is the entire premise of the speed tuning breakpoints.
A rough rule of thumb the community uses: one Speed substat roll is worth roughly a small handful of ATK% rolls on any unit that benefits from acting more often, and it is worth everything on a support tuned to a breakpoint. When you see a relic with two or three Speed rolls on it, that piece is a keeper before you even read the rest of the line.
The crit ratio, and the mistake everyone makes
For crit damage dealers, CRIT Rate and CRIT DMG are not interchangeable. They multiply against each other, so lopsided crit is wasted. The target most builds aim for is roughly a 1 to 2 ratio: for every point of CRIT Rate, aim for about two points of CRIT DMG.
In practice, once your Body main stat and Light Cone are accounted for, you usually want to land somewhere around 70 percent CRIT Rate and 140 percent-plus CRIT DMG in combat. Overshooting CRIT Rate past what you reliably need is the most common relic mistake in the game: 90 percent crit rate looks impressive and does almost nothing that 75 percent did not already do, while the CRIT DMG you skipped would have raised every single hit. Balance the two. Do not tunnel one.
If you are not sure which characters even deserve this level of investment yet, sort your roster with the best characters tier guide before you pour fuel into anyone.
A 10-second keep-or-trash checklist
Run every new relic through this before it ever gets leveled:
- Is the main stat right for a character I own and use? No means shred, instantly, regardless of substats.
- Does it show at least two useful substats? One is a maybe only for a slot you are desperate for. Zero is shred.
- Is one of those useful lines Speed, Crit, or Break Effect (for the relevant role)? If yes, level it to +3 and re-check before committing further.
- Do I already have a better piece in that slot? If your equipped relic is strictly better, the new one is fodder.
The discipline that matters: level in stages. Take a promising piece to +3, +6, +9 and re-evaluate at each gate. If two upgrades land on flat DEF and flat HP, you have your answer and you cut your losses instead of throwing good fuel after bad all the way to +15.
Where the relics come from, and how to not run dry
All of this assumes you can afford to gamble. You can farm smarter: Cavern relics come from the Caverns of Corrosion and Planar Ornaments from the Divergent Universe / Simulated Universe world shop, and both cost the same Trailblaze Power you spend on everything else. Spend it on the single relic domain that matches your priority carry rather than spreading thin, and use the Synthesizer to convert junk sets into the set you actually want once you unlock it.
For the full picture on which sets and Light Cones pair with which carries, the relics and Light Cones guide covers the set bonuses this substat advice sits on top of, and the endgame guide shows what these tuned pieces are actually for.
The short version
Filter by main stat first, prefer four-line pieces with two useful substats, treat Speed as the premium roll it is, keep your crit near a 1 to 2 ratio instead of stacking rate, and level in stages so a bad relic never eats more fuel than it deserves. Do that and the Cavern grind stops feeling like a slot machine and starts feeling like a filter you control.
Fresh off a relic overhaul? Grab the current redemption codes for some free Stellar Jade, and if you are rebuilding a budget account, the best free-to-play 4-star teams show how far smart relics carry cheap units.
