Frostrail Relics tier list

Spring 2026 notes are the source, not a datamine: players can discover Relics in dungeons and activate them aboard the train for temporary buffs during the pilgrimage. That is the entire public kit. There is no official named Relic list yet. This page ranks jobs Relics must do so you do not treat a backpack trinket as progress.

If you do not know how dungeons fit the loop, read How to Play and Survival first. Relics live mechanically on the train.

The only rules that are real

1. Found below. If your crew never takes an underground exit, you are not in the Relic game. Multiple level exits mean that is allowed.
2. Activated aboard. A Relic in a corpse five metres from the coupler did not “almost” buff you. It failed.
3. Temporary. These are not permanent train modules. Spend them like a grenade you crafted out of archaeology.
4. During the pilgrimage. Buff the stretch of rails in front of you — defense encounter, long roll, known soldier camp — not a calm afternoon of sorting crates.

Letter grades follow the hub: S solves a wipe pattern. C is tourism.

S — Defense-window Relics

Train-defense encounters now sit inside obstacle-clearing. The engine player is in combat whether they wanted a wrench or a rifle. Any Relic that shortens that fight — damage, slow on swarms, a brief armor layer on the consist — is S because it protects the save point the rest of the loot depends on.

You do not need the exact item name to play this rank: do not fire a defense Relic in a quiet cellar. Carry it home, wait until the tracks scream, then press the button.

S — Heat or stamina Relics for the walk home

The walk home is the exam. Blizzard slows and blinds. A temporary heat, speed, or carry-weight buff that only exists for the exfil is how Relics earn their dungeon tax. If FakeFish ships this as a named object, it stays S until they nerf the weather.

Misplay: activating it at the shrine because the HUD felt festive, then walking home at −28 °C with an empty fuse.

A — Combat Relics that match a faction

Revenants (melee, numbers) and corrupted soldiers (ranged, fewer) want different buttons. A swarm-break Relic is A for Revenant maps and B-or-worse for soldier peeking. A marksman or suppression Relic flips that. Read enemies before you argue that “Relics are mid.” You brought the wrong mid.

Pair with the weapon you can still feed. A damage Relic does not print ammo.

B — Crafting or salvage Relics

If a Relic temporarily boosts yield, bench speed, or repair, it is B: excellent on a calm stretch after a rich stop, invisible during a wipe. Activate while the co-op salvage player is already at the workstation, not while the rear guard is screaming.

These will climb to A if Early Access makes upgrade trees long enough that a 10-minute bench buff saves a whole level. They are not there on a tutorial night.

C — Collector Relics

Anything you keep “for the museum carriage” without a trigger plan is C. Storage is a train upgrade you spend salvage on. Relics are not storage. If you already have a Relic and the next room is curiosity, Survival says leave. This list agrees.

Pickup protocol (use in voice chat)

1. Scout calls “Relic,” not “loot.”
2. One person is the carrier. Not four people each “holding it in case.”
3. Rear guard knows they are escorting a button, not a crate of chairs.
4. Engine player calls the activation window: defense encounter, exfil, or bench minute.
5. After the buff ends, say so. Silent expiry is how duos walk into soldiers without the glow they thought they had.

What we will add when names exist

Exact Relic titles, durations, cooldowns, and whether they occupy a train slot versus a one-shot inventory item. None of that is in a public FakeFish table today. When Steam news or an Early Access patch names them, this page gets rows. Until then, if a streamer recites a list of proper nouns you cannot find in a news post, treat it as unverified.

Track those posts on updates and the roadmap. Relics were a 2026 addition; they will not be the last.

If your problem is “we never find Relics,” your problem is dungeon routing and turn-back rules, not this list. If your problem is “we find them and still wipe,” your problem is activation timing and the train.