Mastering Elden Ring Nightreign's Relic System: A Deep Dive into Customization

The gaming community has been absolutely buzzing about Elden Ring Nightreign's innovative progression system since its release earlier this year. While the base game already offered challenging gameplay, Nightreign takes it to a whole new level with its permanent progression mechanics centered around the relic system. This system is a game-changer, folks, allowing players to customize starting abilities, passives, and stat boosts in ways that can completely transform the gameplay experience.

The Relic System: RNG Meets Strategy

"The relic system in Nightreign is both a blessing and a curse," remarked veteran player Marcus during a recent tournament stream. "You've got hundreds of potential relic effects, but the randomization means you're often playing the long game to perfect your build."

He's not wrong. While expeditions reward players with relics, these typically come with randomized effects that might leave you feeling like you've drawn the short straw. It's a classic case of 'you win some, you lose some' - sometimes you'll hit the jackpot with perfect synergies for your build, other times you'll be stuck with effects better suited to completely different playstyles.

What makes this system particularly interesting is how it forces players to adapt. Rather than sticking rigidly to a pre-planned build, successful Nightreign players learn to roll with the punches and make the most of whatever relics RNGesus bestows upon them. It's giving major 'when life gives you lemons' energy!

Unique Relics: The Crown Jewels

The real MVPs of the relic system are the approximately 40 unique relics that grant set static effects. Unlike their randomized counterparts, these bad boys provide consistent, reliable bonuses that can form the cornerstone of a powerful build.

"Getting your hands on a unique relic feels like striking gold," says Emma, a competitive Elden Ring player. "Especially after the frustration of dealing with random effects that don't complement your playstyle."

These unique relics can be obtained through three primary methods:

• 🏆 Defeating Nightlords (one-time rewards)

• 📜 Completing Remembrances

• 💰 Purchasing from the Small Jar Bazaar

Each Nightlord relic is awarded upon defeating its associated boss for the first time. These special relics feature unique icons depicting the boss and include a colored dot indicating the relic color - a crucial detail for planning your loadout.

Remembrance Relics: Character-Specific Treasures

The Remembrance relics represent another layer of complexity in Nightreign's progression system. These special relics are tied to the game's Remembrance quests and often have character-specific bonuses.

What's particularly interesting about these relics is the strategic decision-making they encourage. While you can generally equip them on any character, many come with character-specific ability enhancement bonuses that only activate under certain conditions. This creates an interesting tension between using a powerful relic for its base effects versus optimizing for character-specific bonuses.

"I've seen players completely rethink their approach to the game after getting a particularly powerful Remembrance relic," notes community guide creator Jordan. "Sometimes it's worth building an entire character around one of these relics rather than trying to force it into an existing build."

Like the Nightlord relics, each Remembrance relic has a unique icon and is color-coded to indicate which Vessel slot it works with. The colored dot on the bottom right of the icon is your visual cue for compatibility.

The Small Jar Bazaar: Shopping for Power

For those who prefer a more direct approach to acquiring relics, the Small Jar Bazaar offers a welcome alternative to the RNG grind. This merchant sells dozens of unique relics for Murk, the game's special currency.

The Small Jar's inventory isn't static, however. As you complete more expeditions, you'll unlock additional relics for purchase. This creates a nice feedback loop where your progression through the game directly expands your options for further customization.

"The Small Jar Bazaar is a total game-changer for players who know exactly what they want," explains veteran player Kai. "Instead of praying to the RNG gods, you can just save up your Murk and buy exactly what you need. It's the difference between playing the lottery and making a planned purchase."

To access the relic selection, players need to scroll all the way to the bottom of the Small Jar's shop menu. It's not immediately obvious, which seems like a deliberate design choice to reward curious players who explore all options.

Strategic Considerations for Relic Selection

When building your loadout in Nightreign, several factors should influence your relic choices:

1. Color Compatibility: Ensure your chosen relics match the available Vessel slot colors

2. Build Synergy: Look for effects that complement your playstyle and weapon choices

3. Character Specificity: Consider whether character-specific bonuses are worth pursuing

4. Expedition Goals: Different relics may be more valuable for specific expedition types

The meta has been evolving rapidly since Nightreign's release, with certain relic combinations emerging as particularly powerful. However, the beauty of the system is that there's rarely a single 'correct' answer - the best relics for you depend heavily on your personal playstyle and preferences.

The Future of Relics

As we move through 2025, the community is eagerly anticipating how FromSoftware might expand the relic system in future updates. Will we see new unique relics added to challenge the current meta? Could there be seasonal relics tied to special events? The possibilities are endless.

In the meantime, players continue to experiment, discover new synergies, and push the boundaries of what's possible with the current selection of relics. It's this depth and flexibility that keeps Nightreign feeling fresh even months after release.

The relic system represents everything that makes Elden Ring Nightreign special - deep customization, strategic decision-making, and that classic FromSoftware balance of challenge and reward. But the question remains: in a system with so many possibilities, is it better to chase the perfect randomized relics or to rely on the consistency of unique ones? What's your take on the ultimate relic strategy?