Relics are the powerful, temporary items you get in the Arcane Labyrinth, Peaks of Time or Voyage of Wonders that can make or break your success easily. With the progression of each realm, you will see the difficulty rise as well and relics will buff your team to keep up with that rising difficulty of enemies.
Now, not every relic is as useful and powerful as others and there are some relics that you always want to go for – this tier list here should help you decide which relics you should choose and also why, including some additional tips which heroes you should have when choosing a specific relic 🙂
Important! With path 1.76 in November 2021, some relics got removed and new ones got added. The list below reflects these changes
Best Relics In AFK Arena
So, I organized this into three section:
- S-Tier is the strongest tier and those relics are the most powerful and the ones you should always choose
- A-Tier are also very strong and as long as there’s no S-Tier relic in the options you should always go for that
- B-Tier are solid relics that are an option and the relics not shown here shouldn’t have any priority whatsoever for you 🙂
- Wrizz-Tier are relics that you should pick when you go after Wrizz in the Hard Mode Stage 3 in the Arcane Lab.
S-Tier (Strongest)
Let’s start with the strongest relics in AFK Arena…
Deathly Embrace is by far my most favorite relic and there’s almost no chance I will not pick this one when offered. It will send every hero that is below 15% health to death, including nasty heroes like Brutus with shield or Wrizz in the Labyrinth. This relic will make you slice through enemy lines like a hot knife through a piece of butter.
Spider Thread Gloves is also extremely effective, not because of the 5 seconds matter. You will gain a huge advantage in energy that you can play in the battle. I found this will give you a huge lead and prevents the enemy team building enough energy for ultimates effectively.
Thunderburst/Blessed Hammer is also a relic that belongs here in the top tier simply because it will deliver constant damage over the course of the whole battle. Unfortunately, there are no fixed stats or multipliers known how the extra damage is calculated but it’s enough to make it a top choice.
The Frozen Star is for me also a no-brainer to take and there’s not much other relics that I would pick over this one. It will save one hero from a deadly strike and heal back up – you know many battles in Lab, PoT or VoW where you need to run over and over again just because one of your heroes will die all the time although your team is strong enough? This relic here will safe this situation and give you a lot better durability.
Pendant of Betrayal for sure also belongs here in the S Tier! It will deal 15% of all the damage one hero gets in the first 10 seconds deal to all other heroes in the enemy team as well. And this works on all heroes so you will deal massive damage on the whole enemy team. Combined with Deathly Embrace (takes down enemies when they have 15% health) and Pendant of Force (greatly reduces enemy health for the first seconds) it will one-shot enemy teams in a few seconds without anything they can do.
Firebringer/Icebringer an incredible combo and rocking like crazy! One alone is already great (lowering enemy defense/attack), but owning both will also make your heroes stronger with every strike! This makes your team incredibly strong.
Moonstone/Sunstone I love this combo and you should pick one in case the other will drop next. This will regenerate your heroes when they have more than 50% health/energy and even double the effect when you have both relics. Bottom line this will make your heroes regenerate health all the time while then generating extra energy all the time as well – you’ll be popping those ultimates.
Dispelling Arrow makes your backline heroes remove all buffs from an enemy when hitting them. Sounds not that great in the beginning but you will find this very handy against several heroes like Brutus’ Last Gasp or when Lucius put a shield on the whole team. Doesn’t work on Wrizz, unfortunately.
Sands of Time provides a huge buff on haste and even though 10 seconds sounds not like much, that is enough to get a huge lead over the other team and start popping your ultimates. A really good pick after all.
Voodoo Doll will randomly target another enemy hero that will recieve a lot more damage. It’s random but it helps a lot and with enough re-runs of a battle it can give you decent other result. Also against Wrizz it’s really useful because there’s only one enemy and double damage is insane,
Vambraces of Accuracy (Epic/Rare) is a great pick, especially for running Hard Mode in the Lab where heroes with high dodge can rip your team apart in seconds, like Thane or Kaz. Especially the rare one is also really strong and worth picking over all other rare relics.
Crit Rating & Crit Damage are very important so every relic that buffs that stat is actually a good pick, except you have the option to one of the above ones. Even if you use heroes that don’t rely that hard on crit, all kinds of attacks will crit so this will boost most because attacks can deal a lot more burst damage.
A-Tier (Very Strong)
Arcane Spellbook is a relic I’d put in general in A-Tier but it depends on your lineup. It is primarily for casters and if you have most damage in your team done by casters (like Belinda, Shemira etc), you even want to put that into the S-Tier!
Book of War is also really helpful to keep your backline heroes alive, especially when facing a lot of teams with AoE damage or heroes like Athalia. In general, I’d think about taking that relic when I see that my backline heroes struggle to stay alive. This relic will make them stay alive
The Silent Hope (Legendary/Epic) is also a relic that I would pick most of the time over any other (no matter what rarity), simply because this extra energy is so useful and makes your heroes ultimate practically drop two times in a row and this can simply rip your enemies apart easily, especially the legendary version is really strong.
*NEW* Shard of Intellect (Legendary/Epic/Rare) has been added in 1.76 Update and will increase damage each time a mage generates 400 energy and this will stack to up to 8% increased damage. Mind that this is for all damage output so running with the right heroes this is savage.
Eagle Strike – The damage output it generates is nice, although most battles don’t last long enough to get multiple strikes in. Especially for Wrizz a very nice option (read below) so a relic that most likely will be your choice when appearing unless you see one of the legendary relics in the S-Tier.
Praetorian Helmet (Legendary/Epic/Rare) is a relic that I will choose a lot over many other defensive relics simply because it lowers the damage received by a fixed percentage. So, no matter what debuffs or else can lower your defense rating, this relic will consistently take off 10/15/25% off, something you normally need more than one relic for.
*NEW* Book of Belevolence (Legendary/Epic/Rare) makes the overall health/energy provided by support heroes more effective so can fit any team and situation well. Not a game-changer but keeps the ball rolling a little better.
Shield of Fortitude (Legendary/Epic/Rare) is also a nice defensive choice but not as powerful as the Praetorian Helmet for the simple reason that you need to win several battles from the point where you collect it to get the full 12/20/40% defensive buff (3-8 battles). So be careful when you get this offered near the end of a Lab run or realm!! Also, defensive debuffs will get more powerful against your team because they also affect the power of this relic.
Ragespike (Legendary/Epic/Rare) is the attacking version of the Shield of Fortitude and almost the same rules apply here, but I’d take it even when fewer fights are left until the boss fight because attacking rating percentage is more valuable than defense. For that reason, I would pick that one especially in earlier stages quite frequently.
Nosferatu’s Fang (Legendary/Epic/Rare) is also a relic worth it with additional 10/15/25% Life Leech. But be aware that this only works when you have already picked up relics that will add Life Leech to heroes or you already have heroes that have Life Leech, otherwise this won’t do anything – a hero without Life Leech won’t get any Life Leech through this relic! But if it can add Life Leech it’s also really strong.
Aegis of Preservation (Legendary/Epic/Rare) can be a real nice choice, especially when you haven’t picked up the Book of War and plan to get the Wrizz in Hard Mode and don’t use Lucius in your team – Wrizz ultimate will also trigger this shield. It’s useful keeping your backline heroes up but if you’re doing well in defense so far you probably can check if there’s another relic from this tier available.
Supporter’s War Flag (Legendary/Epic/Rare) is also a relic that I love to take because it will buff your backline heroes’ crit and attack rating by a nice amount – and this is where you have the heroes that deal the majority of your damage, right? Even the rare version does give a very decent buff for a rare relic.
Insolence (Legendary/Epic/Rare) is a tough decision for me – it’s similar to Spider Web Gloves but I rather tend to put that in the B-Tier than the S-Tier. This might now sound weird as I have the Spider Web Gloves on top of this list and they only put enemy heroes in a web while Insolence will even make them attack their own heroes. The reason is simple – on one hand, when I will find Spider Web Gloves I will take them and this makes this relic useless and on the other hand, this will give enemy heroes the opportunity to still gain energy why Spider Web Gloves give me an energy lead. Also this doesn’t work on Wrizz.
Idol of Hastening is also a nice new relic that will add a ton of haste when there’s no enemy hero on your side. Often times you will fight heroes like Thane or Athalia but still you get a great haste boost that makes your team perform a lot better. Also works great against Wrizz as well.
Woved Spire will give a nice healing every 10 seconds. If you have a team running Lucius and Nemora you don’t need it, but if you don’t use a healer you will get a nice frequent healing every 10 seconds for 40% that can help a lot.
Rope of Calamity when all your heroes used their ultimate enemy will be dealt damage and stunned. This is a relic that can be strong but only later in the lab when you will gain enough of extra energy and start going into battles with full energy bars to make sure that the ultimates will pop. Strong but inconsistent is the best description in my opinion.
Hunter’s Grasp is for me also a great relic simply to the fact that you will get 25% damage boost (not attack!) and this is great in the beginning of the battle to gain some advantage. It’s variable so I don’t want to put this is the S-Tier but it’s a close decision.
Idol of Savagery is not only a new relic, but it’s also quite strong if you use a team with good healing as it will give you a strong bonus on attack rating through the whole battle for every hero that enters the battle with 95+ % health.
Hellspawn Head is a new relic that I also like, especially when you use tanks that use life leech, like Brutus or you have Athalia in your team or the enemy team has Nara that pulls some hero to her side. In rare tier I’d pick this one up with the 10% bonus, for epic or legendary tier I’m not that sure and would check the other options.
B-Tier (Strong)
War Horn is a relic many would rank higher because it will start snowballing you through the battles with each fallen enemy hero improving the stats of your heroes. It can be useful but I think consistent stats are better, it does nothing against Wrizz plus the fact that a weaker enemy team doesn’t require your team to get stronger doesn’t make this a A-Tier or S-Tier relic for me and rather a relic I pick when there’s nothing better on the table.
Carnal Grip (Epic/Rare) is nice to have with some healing each time one of your heroes slay an enemy, but normalyl you want to have a healer like Rowan or Nemora in your team so this healing won’t change much with a solud support line in your team. Not useless but neither strong.
*NEW* The Elegant Focus raises your attack rating by 30% each time you use Dura’s Tears – and for those of use playing the Hard Floor 3 in the Arcane Lab we know that sometimes you will need that Dura’s Tear because one setup gets you trapped and this bonus comes in handy. Otherwise I wouldn’t choose it actually.
Wrizz (Lab Hard Mode Floor 3)
Here you will find relics that you need to take if you want to do the Arcane Labyrinth’s 3rd Floor in Hard Mode and get Wrizz down.
Some of the relics here are already mentioned above, but some are specifically only if you plan to go for Wrizz in Hard Mode in the Arcane Lab (by the way, you can get the latest Lab Path here)
- Unmounted Heart – the massive damage and stun comes within the first 25 seconds and normally battles are either won or lost by that point. Against Wrizz it’s extremely useful after all so if you plan to visit Wrizz, pick it up.
- Book of War is a great alternative to use when you didn’t get Firebringer and will help to keep the AoE damage from Wrizz against your backline heroes under control – unless you have Lucius as tank, then you don’t need it after all.
- Death’s Bite (Kaz) will make Wrizz a lot easier to beat, even when your Kaz is not ascended far. The reason is that the poison stack will be applied all the time and starts to deal such a massive load after a certain time that Wrizz will go down fast.
- Poisonous Embrace is an alternative if Icebringer does not show up to be picked. It’s also random so you might need various retries to get the random stacks to appear. If you get Icebringer or Death’s Bite you don’t need to pick it
- Hero’s Hope gives some nice raw stats boosting in Hard Mode an as this is the place where we find Wrizz you should take it.
- Aegis of Preservation works against Wrizz as well and is a nice way to automatically get a chield when he uses his ultimate AoE damage. Unless you have Lucius, then you probably don’t need it or can get something stronger.
- Statue of Retribution is also a relic you can use against Wrizz but you will sacrifice team members and very likely need Dura’s Tear afterwards. I Only pick it if I have not been getting many alternatives of the other relics shown here on the list
All Other Relics…
…well, sorry to say, but all the other ones are really not worth picking and would be only an option if you have no other option to pick so I don’t see any use to list them here 😉
Just look at the list aboev and take the ones there and you’ll be fine 🙂
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