Stellaris – How to Get Relics

Relics are a minor feature in terms of interaction, but when it comes to impact, relics are out of this world. This is why you should learn how to get relics and know what powers they can provide your empire.

Getting hold of a powerful relic can shoot your empire’s power level through the roof. Depending on which one you find, you can get free resources, free ships, research boosts, happier pops, and plenty of end-game score.

Recommended Read: How to Get Living Steel in Stellaris

This guide will teach you about everything you need to know about relics, from how to find them and how their powerful triumph effects work. 

Relics come from a wide variety of sources in Stellaris, specifically, defeating powerful foes, finding them at archaeological dig sites, defeating an end-game crisis, locating the precursor home worlds, and through in-game quests.

Table of Contents

• How to get Relics in Stellaris
• How to use Relics

How to get Relics in Stellaris

The question everyone wants to know as soon as they find out how powerful relics are is how to get them all.

The bad news is, you won’t be able to get them all, and you can’t even choose the ones you get either.

If you are lucky you might get the one you want, but if you are desperate for the Ether Drake Trophy, and there is no Ether Drake in the galaxy, then you can’t get one. 

There is some good news too. While there is a power spectrum with relics, none of them are bad by any stretch of the imagination. 

A word of warning, some of the content of this guide, could be considered as a spoiler. If that bothers you, there are plenty of other great guides here on Gamer Empire that are spoiler-free.

All the ways to get relics in the game and what relics come from that source are as follows.

• Defeating an end-game crisis. If your empire is the one to defeat the crisis, you will receive some of the strongest relics the game has to offer. The problem is that the game is over, and these omega-level relics are like bringing a tank to a knife fight now. All the relics and linked crises are:
  • Extradimensional Warlock – Extradimensional invaders
  • Prethoryn Brood-Queen – Capture Prethoryn queen
  • Isolated Contingency Core – The Contingency
  • Khans Throne – The Great Khan part two
• Archaeological Relics. If you are lucky enough to stumble upon one of the rarer dig sites, you have the opportunity to get yourself a relic. After finding the dig sites, you will want to send your best scientist to do the work. This will ensure you have the best chance of success. The relics and the name of each dig quest are below:
  • The Omnicodex – Ruined World
  • Miniature Galaxy – Abandoned Ecumenopolis 
  • Head of Zarqlan – Ancient Tomb
  • The Defragmentor – Planetary Machinery
  • Blade of the Huntress – Fossilized Remains
  • Crystal of Odryskia – Debris Belt 
• Defeating a Guardian. Guardians are very powerful foes. By defeating one, you may be able to obtain their specific relic. Not all guardians provide a relic. a list of the relics and their guardian are:
  • Scales of the Worm – The Worm
  • Maw of the Toxic Entity – Toxic Entity
  • Ether Drake Trophy – Ether Drake
  • The Rubricator – Shard
• Completing Quests. Some quests you find in the game can reward you with a relic. These quests are rare, multistaged, and often involve besting a powerful enemy. The names of the quests and the relic they came with are:
  • The Galatron – Reliquary Reward
  • Vacuum Flower – The Kaleidoscope
  • The Surveyor – Beating the Home Base Ore Grinder
  • The Key – Scion of Vagros
• Precursor Empire Relics. These relics can take a long time to find and will involve a lengthy search across the galaxy. After discovering a precursor home system, you can unlock one of the following relics:
  • Javorian Pox Sample – Irassian Concordat
  • Vultaum Reality Perforator – Vultaum Star Assembly
  • Cybrex War Forge – Cybrex
  • The Last Baol – Baol
  • Yuht Cryo Core – Yhut Empire
  • Psionic Archive – Zroni

How to use Relics

So you found yourself one of the relics, and now you want to know what it does. The relics menu is quite hard to locate, in all honesty.

It’s tucked away in a tab at the bottom of the traditions menu. You can open that by clicking the unity icon at the top of the screen. 

After opening the relics section, the game will show you all of your relics, and highlighting them will explain their twofold benefits.

First is the passive effect. This bonus is permanent and free. Your empire will always enjoy this bonus at no cost.

The other benefit is the triumph effect. This will cost some resources to trigger, which resources will depend on the relic. The triumph will provide a powerful bonus to your empire. Triumph effects are then unavailable for ten in-game years.

Selecting one relics triumph effect will also prevent you from activating any other relics, so choose wisely. You do not lose your passive bonuses while a triumph effect is active.

Some of these triumph effects may as well be a cheat code for the game. There is a lot of fun to be had mixing relics and finding out what broken combos you can create. That is best discovered on your own, though. 

One final point. Almost all relics require some form of DLC. If you are unsure, the Stellaris Wiki is the best place to go to check which DLC you require a specific relic. 

This is everything you need to know about how to get relics in Stellaris.

If you have any questions or suggestions for this guide, please let us know in the comments section below. As always, have fun getting those relics in Stellaris.