The Relic: First Guardian Beginner Guide

Attacks and skills are free

Light and heavy weapon combos, plus most skills unlocked from the skill tree, cost zero stamina. You can chain a full combo without watching a meter — the only cost is positioning, since a bad combo leaves you open to the next boss attack.

Stamina is a defense-only resource

Dodging and blocking drain stamina. Running out mid-fight against a Brutal boss means you cannot safely react to the next attack — plan dodges around the meter, not attacks.

Magic attacks use their own cooldown

Magic acts like an alternate heavy attack. It does not share the stamina pool; instead it fills a separate meter that needs to recharge after use. Treat it as a cooldown-gated option, not a spammable spell.

Combos need timing, not mashing

Each of the five weapon types runs its own combo string, and pressing the attack button early or late breaks the chain instead of speeding it up. Spend your first fights learning one weapon's rhythm before judging whether it "feels weak" — a mistimed combo loses more damage than a slow weapon ever does.

Once the free-attack rule and the stamina split click, the next question is how you actually get stronger, since neither of those systems levels you up on their own.

Relics come in a handful of flavors

Spend a minute sorting what you pick up rather than equipping the newest drop on reflex. Broadly, Relics fall into stat boosts, survival effects (extra healing, damage reduction, faster block recovery), attack boosts (raw damage, crit, combo extension), cooldown reduction for skills and magic, weapon-specific bonuses, and a smaller set of special effects like inflicting Frostbite or granting brief stealth. Picking one from each bucket beats stacking five copies of the same effect.

Relic slots start small

Early on you can only equip a handful of Relics at once. Extra slots unlock later using Relic Energy plus a rarer Awakening Shard item — prioritize the Relics that fix your current death cause over hoarding every drop.

Alyssa strengthens the Relics you already have

Rather than only chasing new drops, the NPC Alyssa can reinforce a Relic you already own using crafting materials, pushing its effect past what you find in the wild. Treat one or two "main build" Relics as upgrade targets instead of spreading materials across everything in your inventory.

Growth on paper only matters once you actually apply it in a real play session, which is what the next section covers.

One early habit pays off for the whole run

Before you spend Relic Energy on a skill node, glance at what it actually unlocks — some nodes are passive buffs and others add a new attack, and the difference changes how a weapon plays. That five-second check now saves a respec trip to the Maiden later.

Handled well, your first hours end with a working weapon and a few good Relics — which is exactly when the gear system starts to matter.

The Blacksmith is the upgrade path, not a shop

Because gear is unique, the Blacksmith works on what you already own rather than selling you replacements. Upgrades cost coins plus crafting materials picked up while exploring, so a detour to a chest or field event before a big fight often pays for itself directly.

With growth, gear, and the daily checklist covered, the last thing worth locking in is the handful of mistakes that quietly cost new players the most time.