A Blood Altar upgrade is only valuable if it changes the part of a relic your build actually uses. Compare effect, duration, cooldown, cost, and scaling before committing. Some enhanced relics gain a clear breakpoint; others keep the same visible text or still have an unverified improvement. Spend the altar on a measured change, not on the hope that every enhanced label means the same thing.
Evidence window: the principal relic catalogue is the readable English Steam Community guide “All relics and their improved versions (EA),” posted June 27 and updated July 5, 2026. It belongs to AppID 3069050 and was the only substantive Steam guide in the game’s two-item guide list; the other item only links to the community wiki. Developer news available in this capture ends on June 25 with version 1.0.15442. The community author explicitly marks missing values, uncertain behavior, and several upgrades with no visible difference. This article preserves those gaps and treats every number as an Early Access snapshot to check against the current card.
Read every altar result in five columns
Do not compare only the damage line. Write the original and enhanced versions as five values:
- Effect: what the cast creates, applies, summons, or consumes.
- Magnitude: damage, healing, fatigue, crit, movement, or buff strength.
- Duration: the time in which the relic controls the fight.
- Cooldown and Stamina: how often it can be used and whether the cast competes with dodging.
- Scaling and drawback: the stat that makes it grow and any health, resistance, attribute, or friendly-fire cost.
Patch 1.0.15357 fixed the Relic UI so cooldown modifiers such as Mirras Many Arms display the actual value. That means a screenshot from an older build can be wrong even when its base relic text was once accurate. Compare the value currently shown after all modifiers, then decide whether the altar changed a useful bottleneck.
Prioritize upgrades that create an obvious breakpoint
The strongest upgrade candidates are not automatically the highest damage numbers. They are the changes that halve a wait, add enough duration to finish a rescue, remove a resource bottleneck, or improve the exact scaling your build has already funded.
| Relic | Captured original to enhanced change | When that change pays |
|---|---|---|
| Firecrackers | Cooldown falls from 50 seconds to 25; the cast still costs no Stamina | On-hit and crowd builds that can exploit twice as many cones |
| Bundle of Eyes | Area fatigue rises from 500 to 750 | Heavy punish setups that need a stagger rather than more chip damage |
| A Dreamer’s Veil | The 75% slow lasts 8 seconds instead of 6 | Emergency control, repositioning, or a co-op rescue that needs a longer quiet window |
| Magnolian Effigy | Nearby allies receive 30% more damage instead of 20% | Boss groups that can remain inside the placed area |
| Manifest Anima | Attack speed moves from 20% to 25%, while energy reduction improves from 25% to 35%; the 15% resistance penalty remains | Fast basic-attack plans that can survive the unchanged defensive cost |
| Unrestrained | Each temporarily lost Dexterity point contributes 8% damage rather than 5% | Strength-first or hybrid weapons that do not lose their main scale during the cast |
| Growth | The Blood requirement for one attribute level drops from 100 to 83 | Late-run surplus after Nectar, shops, and rerolls are already funded |
| Quicksand | Strength scaling rises from 0.8 to 1.0 | A funded Strength build that can keep the enemy inside the repeated ground hits |
| Serpent Ring | The homing spark rises from 15 Lightning damage to 23 | A lightning direction using the relic often enough for base damage to matter |
| Way of the Feline | The short crit bonus increases from 20% to 25% | A burst window that needs base crit chance rather than another relative multiplier |
Those are decision aids, not a tier list. Firecrackers gains an enormous availability improvement, but it is still the wrong altar choice if terrain makes the cone unreliable and another relic carries the boss. Quicksand gains better Strength value, but a mobile enemy can leave the zone. The measured upgrade is only one side of the decision; the run must be able to use it.
Check whether the drawback stayed unchanged
Several upgrades improve the upside without removing the reason the relic is dangerous. Those are high-value only when the build already controls the drawback.
| Relic | Improvement | Cost that still needs a plan |
|---|---|---|
| Figurine: Way of the Berserker | Attack speed increases from 15% to 20%, and Physical damage from 25% to 32% | The 15% Physical Resistance reduction remains for the 20-second effect |
| Figurine: Way of the Sphere | Lifesteal rises from 20% to 25% | Physical attack power is still reduced by 10%, so low damage also lowers the healing produced |
| Dream Catcher | All-type damage per second rises from 24 to 36 | The void can hurt its user and is disruptive in co-op |
| Shriveled Nightmare | The self-centered fire blast moves from 100 to 150 | The explosion still affects the caster and nearby characters |
| Staggering Physique | Missing-health fatigue output becomes stronger while the health sacrifice rises | The enhanced cast removes 67% of health temporarily rather than 50% |
| Pinch of Orange Dust | Stone-form energy drain falls from 50 to 30 per second | The channel still consumes the same resource needed for the next movement decision |
Use a safe-room test before taking a drawback relic into the boss. Cast it once, watch the real Stamina or health movement, and confirm whether the negative state is temporary, recoverable, or lethal under one incoming hit. If the test leaves no exit, the enhanced number did not fix the build.
Upgrade co-op relics only when the team can occupy their window
Support value depends on positioning and attention, not just a bigger tooltip.
- A Golden Rose: the pass-through debuff moves from 15% to 20% increased damage taken, while the dash remains free of Stamina cost. Upgrade it for repeated team burst; skip it when the relic is used only as emergency movement.
- Box of Pollen: the captured formula’s base heal rises modestly while Faith scaling and the long cooldown remain central. It needs real Faith investment and allies who stay in range.
- Aeonic Flower: the author observed better Faith scaling on the enhanced channel but recorded no safe numeric delta. Test the live heal before assigning one player a dedicated role.
- Summon Helper: duration extends from 20 seconds to 30. That is meaningful when the summon survives and occupies pressure; it is wasted if terrain or a boss deletes the helper immediately.
- Magnolian Effigy: the 10-point team-damage increase matters only while attackers remain inside the placed zone. Announce the cast instead of dropping it where the boss is about to leave.
Delay upgrades whose change is invisible or incomplete
The captured guide leaves several enhanced states unresolved. Treat that as a test queue, not an invitation to invent hidden power:
- Figurine: Way of the Vanguard: the author did not obtain an enhanced copy and recorded the upgraded values as unknown.
- Cower and Dune Shroud: no visible difference was observed. Patch 1.0.15357 did fix Dune Shroud’s buff classification, but that is not proof of an altar improvement.
- Green Powder and Plague Spreader: no reliable enhanced delta was visible; faster behavior was only speculation for the latter.
- Strengthen Soul: the displayed text was unchanged. Its value also depends on preserving Blood that may be needed for Nectar or purchases.
- Summon Firstborn: the normal duration is documented, but the enhanced card was incomplete and observations about rare drops were not proven as a stable rule.
- Holy Hand: the community interpretation of repeated hits was not backed by a clearly different displayed description.
To test one of these, isolate a single variable. Record the base card, enhance it, repeat the same target and conditions, then compare duration, cooldown, hits, damage, and resource cost. Do not use a run with different attributes or blessings as evidence of the altar effect.
Use a four-answer altar rule
At the altar, finish these sentences before choosing:
- My run wins rooms or bosses with this relic action.
- The enhanced card changes this measurable value.
- I can trigger the new value without losing this required escape or resource.
- If the card is unchanged, I will test this one behavior rather than assume a hidden buff.
If any answer is empty, keep the altar for a relic with a documented breakpoint. Serpent’s Gaze is still being balanced, and the official roadmap promises more weapons, blessings, and upgrades. A reproducible choice will survive that churn better than a permanent ranking built from one patch.