Relics

Relics are collectible treasures scattered across the galaxy. You gather them one piece at a time, forge the completed set, and unlock a unique cosmetic — a personal avatar, an alliance badge or flag, or a stunning theme or monument for your conquered systems.

Relics are about identity and prestige, not combat stats. They let you and your alliance stand out across the galaxy.

Find your collection under Inventory → Relics.

How relics work

Every relic follows the same loop:

Collect pieces. Each relic is split into numbered pieces (between 4 and 10, depending on the relic).
Forge. Once you own every piece, forge the relic. Forging consumes one of each piece and unlocks the relic's base cosmetic.
Save on skins. Alternate skins can be bought with Quantum Shards anytime; a forged relic fills the skin's relic slot so it costs less.
Use it. Equip avatar relics on your profile, or donate alliance-type relics to your alliance for shared branding.

You hold at most one forged copy of each relic. Buying a skin or donating to your alliance consumes it, so you can collect the pieces and forge it again. Relics cannot be traded between players.

Collection progress also appears on Leaderboard → Players → Collection → Relics (and the matching Alliance collection sort): loose pieces, forged count, and a rarity-weighted score that does not affect empire total. See Score.

Collecting relic pieces

Relic pieces drop from across the galaxy:

Source	Notes
Nebula Expeditions	The primary source. Higher difficulty and deeper nebula zones drop pieces more often. In Realms 1–3, relic piece finds are weighted ×4 (and monument pieces ×3) compared with Realm 4 baseline.
Pirate raids	Defeating pirates can yield rare relic (and monument) pieces.
Quests & weekly quests	Some quest rewards grant random relic pieces.
Special & weekly events	Event milestones and tiers can reward relic pieces.

Drop rates in Nebula Expeditions

Base chance per run, before zone bonuses and realm find multipliers:

Difficulty	Base relic piece chance
Easy	~0.1%
Medium	~0.3%
Hard	~0.5%
Extreme	~1.0%

Deeper, harder nebula zones apply a multiplier on top (up to ×2.0 on Extreme zones), and certain deep-expedition outcomes can award a guaranteed legendary or mythical piece. Bringing the right specialist ships (such as an Orbital Refinery) further improves your odds of pulling a relic piece.

Early realms: while you are in Realm 1, 2, or 3, expedition relic-piece outcomes are four times as likely (and monument-piece outcomes three times as likely) as the baseline table — so early commanders fill collections faster. Realm 4 uses the baseline rates.

The "last piece" safety net (pity)

Chasing that final, stubborn piece? If you already own every piece of a relic except one, and your oldest piece for that set is at least 14 days old, the next relic-piece drop for that set is steered toward the piece you're missing. This applies to expeditions, quests, and pirate drops.

Forging a relic

When you hold all the pieces, head to Inventory → Relics and forge. Forging:

Requires at least one of every piece in the set.
Consumes one of each piece.
Unlocks the relic's base cosmetic immediately.
Can be done while you do not already hold that relic (alliance relics can be forged again after donating).

Rarity

Relics come in rarity tiers, from most common to rarest:

common → rare → epic → legendary → mythical

Rarity influences:

How rare the relic's pieces are to find.
The Quantum Shard price of its alternate skins.
The realm level required to buy those skins.
The color the relic is shown in throughout the UI.

All relics currently in the catalog are Epic, Legendary, or Mythical.

Relic types & the relic catalog

There are five relic types, grouped by where they're used:

Type	Used for
Avatar	Your personal profile picture.
Alliance Badge	Your alliance's emblem, shown on leaderboards and alliance lists.
Alliance Flag	Your alliance's banner, flown on members' planets.
System Theme	A visual theme applied to a system your alliance controls.
System Monument	A monument that appears in systems your alliance controls.

Catalog

Relic	Type	Rarity	Pieces
Crimson War Banner	Alliance Flag	Legendary	8
Stellar Emblem	Alliance Flag	Epic	6
Standard of the Void	Alliance Flag	Mythical	10
Ancient Seal of Authority	Alliance Badge	Legendary	5
Quantum Sigil	Alliance Badge	Mythical	7
Nebula Aurora Theme	System Theme	Epic	6
Void Abyss Theme	System Theme	Legendary	8
Celestial Garden Theme	System Theme	Mythical	9
Sentinel Obelisk	System Monument	Legendary	5
Crystalline Monolith	System Monument	Mythical	7
Void Commander Avatar	Avatar	Epic	4
Star-Forged Avatar	Avatar	Legendary	6
Cosmic Ascendant Avatar	Avatar	Mythical	8

Alternate skins

Once a relic is forged, you unlock its base look for free. Each relic also has a family of alternate skins — different colorways and effects on the same relic — that you can buy with Quantum Shards, whether or not you have forged the relic.

Skin prices and the realm level needed to purchase scale with rarity:

Rarity	Quantum Shard price	Required realm
Common	20	1
Rare	30	2
Epic	40	3
Legendary	50	4
Mythical	60	4

Relic slots

Every skin purchase fills one relic slot of its relic:

With a forged relic (or, for alliance purchases, a donated base in alliance stock), the relic fills the slot and is consumed. You pay only the skin price. A spent personal relic also removes its base look until you forge it again.
Without one, you pay the relic slot price of 20 Quantum Shards on top of the skin price, whatever the skin's rarity.

Grinding relics is never required, but every forged relic saves one slot price. Spent relics still count toward your collection score.

Each relic typically has 6–8 alternate skins. For example, the Crimson War Banner offers variants such as Embershroud, Blood Oath, Iron Resolve, Sunset Siege, Scarlet Vanguard, War-Torn, Dragon Scale, and Phoenix Rise.

Avatar relics

Avatar relics personalize your profile picture across the game.

Forge an avatar relic to unlock its base avatar.
Buy alternate skins for it with Quantum Shards (see relic slots).
Owned skins stay usable after the relic is spent.
Equip your chosen avatar from your Profile; it's shown wherever your commander appears.

Avatar relics are personal — they are never donated to an alliance.

Alliance relics

Four relic types are made for your alliance: Alliance Badge, Alliance Flag, System Theme, and System Monument. Instead of equipping these yourself, you donate them to your alliance, where officers put them to use.

Donating

Base relics: donating a base consumes your forged relic and adds one to the alliance's base stock. Each skin the alliance buys (or each extra theme/monument copy) uses one base from stock as its relic slot, saving the slot price. Donating is optional: purchases work without stock.
Alternate skins: you can donate a skin you own; it is transferred from your inventory to the alliance.
Any active alliance member can donate. Members can also buy variants for the alliance directly using Quantum Shards via the Alliance Archive — see Alliance Archive.

How alliances use them

Relic type	How it's used	How many
Alliance Badge	Officers set one active badge for the alliance.	Collect every skin, one active at a time
Alliance Flag	Officers set one active flag, flown on members' planets.	Collect every skin, one active at a time
System Theme	Officers attach a theme to a system the alliance controls.	One theme per system; each copy covers 5 systems
System Monument	Officers attach a monument to a controlled system.	One monument per system; each copy covers 5 systems

System themes and monuments can only be attached to systems where your alliance has a presence (a conquered system or an active member colony).

See the Alliances page → Alliance Relics & Branding and Alliance Archive for the full picture.

Where relics show up (usages)

Inventory → Relics: track piece progress and forge completed relics.
Profile: equip your avatar relic.
Alliance → Relics / Archive: donate, activate branding, browse and buy variants, and manage the wishlist.
Galaxy & system map: active alliance flags appear on members' planets; system themes tint controlled systems; monuments stand in controlled systems.
Leaderboards & alliance lists: your alliance's active badge is displayed next to its name.
Mail & reports: expedition, event, and pirate reports show the relic pieces you've recovered.

FAQ

Do relics give combat or economy bonuses? No. Relics are cosmetic and prestige items. (If you're after deployable stat boosts, you're thinking of Monuments, which are a separate system.)

Can I trade relics or pieces with other players? No. Pieces and relics are bound to you. Alliance relics are donated to the alliance, not traded between players.

Can I un-forge a relic to get my pieces back? No. Forging is permanent.

What are Quantum Shards for? They're the premium currency used to buy alternate relic skins after you've forged the base relic.