The Relic: First Guardian Guide#

The Relic: First Guardian is a dark-fantasy action role-playing game built on a soulslike framework, developed by the Korean studio Project Cloud Games and published by Perp Games. It launched on July 31, 2026 for PC (Steam) and PlayStation 5.

Some earlier pages on this site used an informal translation of the title; the game has no official Chinese name, so this guide sticks to the official English title throughout. This section is written around mechanics and criteria rather than raw numbers: the game has been patched heavily since launch and values shift often, so when it comes to specific numbers, what is in the game right now is what counts.

What This Guide Covers#

The Chinese section is organized into twenty sub-guides, and they layer in a deliberate order. The opening layer covers the four things to know before starting and the route for your first hours, the four pillars of the system design — stamina, spell cooldowns, stagger, and relic energy — plus the defense-first control logic and how its parry windows work.

The gear layer covers the five weapon specializations and their upgrade routes, the “only one in the world” rule for armor and how to play around it, the effect types and trade-offs of more than seventy relics, the twelve skill trees and the skills that mount onto weapons, how to assemble builds around a specialization and a relic set, and where upgrade materials come from, including blacksmith forging.

The threat and progression layers cover how to read the mechanics of the Brutal bosses and the roster revealed so far, enemy categories, ambush packs, and move-reading, the chapter skeleton and the progression order across the three regions, sealstones, fragment shrines, and rare chests, and how the achievement list is structured. A reference layer rounds it out: ten judgment calls that decide survival, a practical FAQ on platforms, price, and multiplayer, the lore of the Great Relic, the Void, and the origin of the Brutals, how to read the dark folk-art visual style, and the post-launch patch record.

Game Overview#

How This Differs From Typical Soulslikes#

This section is the premise for reading the rest of the guide. The game carries the soulslike label, but several of its core choices run against type, and misjudging them will ruin the experience.

1. Attacks Are Free; Stamina Is Defense-Only#

This is the first thing to accept. Your regular attacks cost no stamina, so “can I keep attacking” and “how much stamina is left” are two independent questions. Stamina is compressed into a pure defensive resource: blocking costs it, dodging costs it, parrying costs it — swinging does not.

The practical meaning is that attacking needs no resources; retreating does. You can open with your full combo from the first second, but if your stamina hits bottom just as an enemy unleashes a big attack, there is no second chance. Most deaths in this game are not from failing to deal damage — they come from spending stamina on a block at the wrong moment.

2. No Levels, So No Grinding Your Way Out#

There is no experience bar and no stat panel. When a boss stops you, going back to farm smaller enemies will not make you stronger. Only four things change the outcome:

1. Swap weapon specialization, or change the skill configuration on the weapon in hand;
2. Swap a set of relics, tilting your damage types and rhythm toward the opponent’s weaknesses;
3. Raise the level of your current weapon at the blacksmith;
4. Learn to parry and put the opponent into stagger.

The first three are preparation; the fourth is execution. The game closes off the “go level up” escape hatch familiar from the genre and forces you to attribute every failure to your build or your play.

3. Every Piece of Gear Exists Exactly Once#

No random affixes, no upgraded versions of the same model. The sword you pick up is the only such sword, and it carries its own history. The weight of the equipment system therefore falls not on farming but on trade-offs — you cannot “just farm a better one”; you can only decide whether to invest limited upgrade materials into the one you hold.

The same rule explains the game’s high narrative density: equipment is itself a vehicle for storytelling, and collecting gear means piecing together the past of a region.

4. Bosses Are the Narrative#

The official term for bosses is Brutals, and each one is a self-contained folk tragedy. Most of them are people who became monsters through hunger or a curse, and most have forgotten their original names. Defeating one is not a “kill” — it is revealing its story and letting the soul rest.

Combat here is not a gate in front of the story; the combat is the story. That is also why the game dares to build toward a boss count with an upper limit of eighty.

Suggested Reading Order#

For a first playthrough, read in this order:

1. Start with beginner basics and burn the “attacks are free” logic into muscle memory;
2. Then read systems, to understand the four independent circuits of stamina, spell cooldowns, stagger, and relic energy;
3. When a boss stalls you, read the move-reading entry in the boss guide before rushing to change your configuration;
4. When damage falls short, turn to relics and skills, adjusting toward the opponent’s weaknesses;
5. Short on time? Read tips — those ten judgment calls were distilled from failure.

If you do not plan to follow a full walkthrough, the beginner and tips pages alone cover the essentials; consult the rest as needed.

A Note on Numbers#

Patches since launch have been dense — weapon skill speeds, material drop amounts, and the effects of certain affixes have all been changed. This guide therefore deliberately does not provide fixed damage numbers, drop rates, or “tested” tier lists: any hard-coded figure becomes misinformation after the next patch, while mechanical criteria do not expire. Wherever specific values matter, the text flags that the current in-game patch is the final word.

Sources#

Content in this guide was cross-checked against public sources: official announcements and store pages from Project Cloud Games and Perp Games, official gameplay footage and the numbered “Brutals” reveal series, pre-launch media hands-on reports, and post-launch patch notes. Where system details shown in pre-release demos differ from the shipped game, the text marks them as demo-stage information.

Related Games#

• Elden Ring — the modern soulslike benchmark for reading boss patterns and building around weaknesses
• Sekiro — deflection-first combat where defensive timing decides everything, close to this game’s parry economy
• Bloodborne — dark folk-gothic horror wrapped around aggressive soulslike combat
• Lies of P — a soulslike built on a finite set of fixed weapons rather than endless stat drops
• Wuchang: Fallen Feathers — a soulslike where progression flows from skills and gear instead of character levels

Related Rankings#

Best Soulslikes · Best Soulslikes of 2026 H2 · Hardest Bosses

Full Guides#

In-depth sub-guides — beginner basics, system breakdowns, controls, weapons, armor, relics, skills, builds, items, boss strategies, enemy compendium, full walkthrough, hidden content, achievements, tips, FAQ, lore, art gallery, and version updates — are available in Chinese on NTGame’s The Relic: First Guardian section.