Relics: How Relic Items, Leveling, and Research Work
Relics adds dozens of wearable trinket items, each with its own active or passive ability, a leveling system, and randomized stats. This guide explains how the system works before you start collecting them.
What relics are
Every relic is a unique item with thoughtful mechanics that can be used alone or combined with other relics for synergy. The mod is built to scale: its balance adjusts to the modpack it sits in, so relics feel appropriate whether your world runs on vanilla numbers or on values in the thousands.
Leveling and random stats
Relics are not static. Each has abilities you can improve, and its stats are randomized, so two copies of the same relic can differ. The mod exposes several actions for tuning a relic:
- Level up — raises an ability's level, improving its attributes.
- Reroll — randomly rerolls an ability's attributes, for better or worse values.
- Reset — returns an ability to its minimum level and refunds the spent upgrade points.
Researching abilities
Relic abilities are revealed through a research minigame: you explore an icon hidden under fog, match its star pattern, and connect the stars into a constellation, watching for particle hints at the star positions even through the fog. Researching an ability is how you learn and unlock what a relic can fully do.
Getting started
Relics are found through exploration rather than crafted, so treat looting as your progression. Once you have one, research its ability, then level or reroll it to suit your build — and look for relics whose abilities combine well together.
Almost nothing here is crafted
Relics carries 26 pages across 25 items and a single block, and its entire recipe list on 1.21.1 is two crafting recipes, one smelting, one smoking and one campfire recipe. On 1.20.1 there are no recipes at all — every category is empty.
That is the defining fact of the mod. Relics are found, not made. If you are looking for a recipe to build one, there isn't one.
Where they come from instead
With no crafting path, the mod's items come from world generation and loot. The practical consequence is that progression here is exploration rather than production — a relic you do not find cannot be substituted for.
The version difference
The 1.21.1 build (0.12.8) has the five recipes above; the 1.20.1 build (0.8.0.13) has none. Both distribute relics as loot, so the difference affects only the handful of craftable extras on the newer line.
What to do first
Explore structures your pack provides rather than looking for a relic workbench. Since the mod is 25 items and one block, the entire collection is small enough to track — knowing what exists tells you what you are still missing.