Ancient Relics/Guide
Dungeons
While dungeons are unchanged, the Ancient Relics game mode requires players to complete dungeons to increase their Skill levels, which are otherwise locked to a low level.
Dungeons can be completed in any order up to the Air God Dungeon, the following table provides a suggested order of dungeon completion based on the max hit and difficulty of the boss of each dungeon. Included is a link to the guide for that dungeon, as well as the combat level cap the player will have for that dungeon.
The guides are not Ancient Relics exclusive and are only meant to be used as a guideline. The player will likely have to manually eat in every single dungeon (with the exception of Barrier Dungeons). Doing the first Dungeons idle is possible with the right Ancient Relics, however it would require an inordinate amount of time and effort and is thus not recommended.
Note: The recommended order for dungeons does not match the order shown in the game.
Lvl | Dungeon | Guide | Max Hit |
---|---|---|---|
10 | 52 | ||
15 | 106 | ||
20 | 142 | ||
25 | 172 | ||
30 | 204 | ||
35 | 174 | ||
40 | 208 | ||
45 | 240 | ||
50 | 470 | ||
55 | ![]() |
![]() |
240 |
60 | 260 | ||
65 | 520 | ||
70 | 780 | ||
75 | 1014 | ||
80 | 1235 | ||
85 | 1300 | ||
90 | 898 | ||
95 | ![]() |
![]() |
500 |
99 | ![]() |
![]() |
740 |
99 | 800 | ||
99 | ![]() |
![]() |
3090 |
99 | 960 |
Make 100% sure to clear ALL Dungeons and spend ALL skill cap increases before clearing the Impending Darkness Event, this includes the optional
Miolite Caves and
Infernal Stronghold which have
Slayer requirements. If these dungeons are done after the
Impending Darkness Event, skill level caps will bug out.
Skills
All skill levels are initially capped to 10 which means that careful management of resources and equipment will be necessary early on. Fishing and
Cooking are locked until completion of the
Impending Darkness Event, ensuring finding food in more creative ways is similarly important.
Skill XP is capped to the amount required the next level above the cap -1 XP, meaning the player can earn the majority of the experience needed for the next level above the cap and no more. Any experience earned above the cap is deleted. Mastery XP works as normal, there are no limits to earning mastery.
Skill levels for basic combat skills (
) increase by 5 every time a new dungeon is defeated. For all other skills, upon completing a new dungeon the player will be able to increase the level of five skills by 15 levels, each of these five skills is chosen by the player from two available options.
Recommendations for which skills to upgrade here.
Notes:
- Skill choices don't always pop up in the middle of the screen after defeating a dungeon, if this happens the skill upgrade choices will be in green text above the Shop in the lefthand sidebar.
- The skill level increase menu can be canceled by clicking anywhere outside of it, and the choices will be waiting in the lefthand sidebar.
- Holding Enter to eat (on desktop) will cause skill level increases to be picked automatically (it will pick the left/top choice by default). If you don't wish this to happen, ensure that you don't hold Enter for the last few attacks.
- A possible bug may occur where no skill choices or combat cap increases are granted at all after clearing a dungeon. This can be solved by <solution here>
Food
There are 3 good options for Food before Fishing and
Cooking are unlocked (although it is very unlikely you will Fish for Food after unlocking it too):
- 1)
Thieving Level 34 unlocks
Chef. The
Chef only has food as common steals.
- 2) Slayer Resupplies for Food and Prayer Points, while also providing Arrows and Bolts and
Light Runes.
- Slayer Coins can be acquired by completing Slayer tasks
- Casual Township Tasks are a very good source of large amounts of Slayer Coins, they reward 1,000
per
Slayer level, and any % increases from other sources are applied to these rewards.
- 3)
Farming provides large amounts of food passively.
Potatoes are a good option for the very beginning and can help save "good" Food while grinding for Slayer Coins, especially if you have
Auto Eat - Tier I.
Ancient Relics
Performing an action in any skill has a small chance of discovering an Ancient Relic. Whilst it is possible to get all of the Ancient Relics without completing dungeons, it is not recommended. Achieving Skill Level 20 and 99 in any skill awards one of the Ancient Relics for that skill. Five skills will have a level cap of 25 after completing the first dungeon, so these relics can be obtained quite early. All Relics in a skill can be earned before Skill Level 20 with enough time (or luck), the bonus relics at 20 and 99 are just to aid in finding them all.
Ancient Relics can be obtained through any action regardless of XP earned, Thieving Success rate, or Combat hit chance.
Barbarian Fishing actions that grant
Strength experience only rolls for Fishing Relics, not Strength.
Firemaking Relics similarly cannot be found while training
Woodcutting with modifiers that provide Firemaking XP for Woodcutting actions.
Ancient Relic drop rates are affected only by specific relics that provide increased chance to find Relics, but Relics can be found more often by decreasing the interval at which actions are performed.
Lesser Relics
Each action in non-combat skills has a chance to award a Lesser Relics, which can be equipped to give bonuses to that skill and to Combat. Lesser Relics provide helpful bonuses for the early game, such as the Mining Lesser Relic that grants a gem for each
Mining action, which is a great way to accelerate
and progression in the earliest stages of the game.
Lesser Relics have a 1/1,000 chance of dropping for every skilling action performed. They always drop in stacks of 300, and one lesser relic will be consumed for every action. They function similarly to all other consumables, they stack indefinitely and don't need to be fully consumed before acquiring new ones.
Skill Cap Recommendations
After each Dungeon is defeated, 5 Skill Cap increases (6 after Throne of the Herald dungeons) will be awarded. The following is a recommended priority of skills in descending order. These recommendations are focused on progressing quickly and efficiently, to beat the games final boss(es) as quickly as possible.
Base Game
Choose the highest priority skill listed up to the Until Level listed. Skills with the same priority can be chosen by whichever is lower level, or whatever other criteria is desired.
Priority Number | Skill | Until level | Reason |
---|---|---|---|
1 | 99 | Slayer progression gives access to dungeons: You can get locked in your progression if you don't get enough unlocks in Not getting the last skill cap increase to Level 99 before you move on to Don't worry if you can't use the levels now, just click it. | |
2 | 85 | The best way to clear the Dungeons up to | |
3 | 99 | Summoning levels are crucial for ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Additionally, | |
4 | 85 | The Master Relic in this skill is VERY powerful, start by mastering all the combat-related Constellations, save the pure skilling ones until after you defeat | |
4 | 99 | All of your future level ups are gated behind beating Dungeons, so any source of largely free ![]() Note that | |
5 | 70 | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() We stop at | |
6 | 55 | Note: You probably won't have the money for agility obstacles immediately after That said, our biggest priorities are You should expect to be swapping around After Agility 6, it is too slow to level Agility without | |
7 | 40 | Best source of ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | |
7 | 40 | To turn your ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | |
8 | 90 | There are several good rewards from ![]() ![]() ![]() The other goal of | |
8 | 90 | ![]() ![]() ![]() Other worthwhile items to pick up from Note: it's very difficult to take advantage of Archaeology levels if the absolute level is above that of your | |
9 | 70 | Good source of passive generating low healing Food. Which is very useful when Auto-Eating. It's also the most efficient way to progress in |
It is discouraged to pick any unlocks for Township until the point farming Casual Township Tasks for Slayer Coins becomes irrelevant. Keeping
Township at Skill Level 10 will keep the reroll cost at 0
.
Any skills not mentioned on this table or levels above those that are listed do not really matter, and can be chosen at will. Keep in mind the free Skill Level 20 Relics can be fun to pick up.
Throne of the Herald
Skill cap increases for the Throne of the Herald Expansion are pretty simple. You gain 3 levels in all combat related skills (including
Slayer) in Throne of the Herald.
- The top priority is to get at least 2
Runecrafting unlocks for
Archaic Rune which will be needed for
Throne of the Herald.
Other than that pick Prayer whenever offered when the alternative is not your first 2
Runecrafting unlocks to make combat more efficient.
Astrology Level 116 unlock is a good 4th option as
Ashtar adds a lot of combat value.
Other skill options are mostly irrelevant as they are not required for progression, nor do they benefit the player's combat journey in outstanding ways. Most non-combat skills should also be low enough level that increases to their level cap will not provide anything at all for some time.
Getting locked due to no Slayer Cap Increases
There is currently a very small chance of being "locked" from progression by not getting enough Slayer Skill Level increases before completing the
Impending Darkness Event.
This solution should only be used in the following cases:
Slayer Level is at Level 70 or below and
Infernal Stronghold and
Impending Darkness Event are the only 2 Dungeons left.
Slayer Level is at Level 90 or below and
Impending Darkness Event is the only dungeon left.
Please note that clearing all the Barrier Dungeons up to and including Underwater City is required.
What to do if you're Locked |
---|
This will require the use of the Console.
Players can use the dev.Console mod to execute these commands within the Steam, Epic, Android, and iOS versions of Melvor Idle. On Web, Steam, and Epic, the console can be opened with F12. If using Steam or Epic, you must enable the dev console first before being able to open it. Once the Console is opened you can use the following code to raise the game.slayer.setLevelCap(75) or game.slayer.setLevelCap(95) as appropriate. |
Starting Tips
- Township Tasks: Check out the easier
Township tasks as often these will give useful rewards such as food,
or
which can be a big boost early on. Use a
Bronze Dagger to kill 100
Plant. This will complete the township task and reward you with 2,000
Potatoes.
- Cartography: Starting
Cartography will give you
50.
- Surveying the
Farmer's Market at (13, 16) which is close to your starting position for
500.
- Surveying (and staying on) the
The Academia Arcanum at (8, 15) gives +5% magic maximum hit, +10% accuracy rating, +10% magic evasion. It can cost a little to get there, however it can be worth getting it to clear at least the first few dungeons with magic.
- Surveying the
- Slayer Tasks: Selecting a new slayer task is free, and so for every task keep re-rolling until you get a low level monster. You will need to stick to
Plant,
Chicken and
Cow. Use potatoes while training combat, and save high healing food items such as
Shrimp for the
Chicken Coop dungeon.
- Runecrafting: Ancient Relics uses the hardcore Combat Triangle. This means magic is powerful against melee monsters.
Runecrafting will let you unlock more damaging spells. Mine plenty of
Rune Essence to create runes and obtain staves such as the
Staff of Earth including the highest magic gear you can obtain. You can train
Level 10 on the
Cow.
- Township Just like a standard playthrough it is advised to go for
Aeris Worship at the start.
- Mining: The
Mining Lesser Relic provides a guaranteed gem. This makes mining ore a good source of
early on. Sell
Jewel of Rhaelyx to obtain 1,000,000
and unlock
Auto Eat - Tier I early, as this will give a considerable advantage.
- Melee: Train melee to 10 XP and unlock the
Golbin Thief. Use
Mining and
Smithing to create
50. Make at least one
Golbin Thief so that you can receive more marks.
- Chicken Coop The
Chicken Coop can be defeated once you have maxed out your magic, hitpoints and prayer XP. You should wear your strongest magic gear possible, and a good supply of runes. Use Earth Strike magic, and Thick Skin as your prayer for a small advantage. Use
Shrimp to maintain your health.
Once you have defeated Chicken Coop, you will unlock level 15 in combat, and the skills you have selected in the choices that popped up.
Magic is the suggested attack style up to
Volcanic Cave or
Air God Dungeon as long as you get enough
Runecrafting cap unlocks.
If youRunecrafting cap increases are not offered it is suggested you switch to Melee after
Spider Forest.
Either way forVolcanic Cave and beyond it is recommended take inspiration from These Dungeon Guides. You'll most likely have to manual eat at almost every dungeon as most of the suggested Setups and Stats don't work for Ancient Relics.
Here are some suggestions on where to go next:
- Discovering the
Wet Forest at (9, 16) will reward 60
Oxilyme Seeds, 60
Mantalyme Seeds and 60
Lemontyle Seeds which can help you get started in
Farming and
Herblore.
The Runed Battlefield at (7, 15) provides 1,000
Mind Rune, 1,000
Chaos Rune and 1,000
Death Rune which will give added boosts to
Magic for the early bosses.
- The
Holy Isles at (17, 17) will reward 100
Medium Urn and if buried will give you a big
Prayer advantage.
- The
Castle of Kings at (21, 16) gives you
Knight's Cape and
(G) Mithril Platebody which is a great way to get some early damage reduction (DR). However, you will need
Level 20 to equip these items.
- Discovering
The Eye-Conic Cave at (10, 18) unlocks the
Eye-conic Cave combat area which grants access to
Blind Ghost which drops
Lesser Summoning Amulet which is extremely powerful and remains Best in Slot until you get 100% special weapons (damage wise), the only real alternative to this amulet is
Fury of the Elemental Zodiacs which provides Damage Reduction and some offensive stats, which only gets better with 100% special weapons or when you need Damage Reduction over damage.
Defeating this enemy should be rather easy with a simpleBarrier Gem equiped.
- Discovering
Mucky Cave at (22, 18) unlocks the
Mucky Cave combat area which provides
Barrier Dust and
Barrier Sapping Gloves. Defeating
Vampiric Bat should also be rather simple with a
Barrier Gem.
- Discovering
Shrouded Horizon at (4, 26) provides 50,000
which can be used to purchase 10 slayer re-supplies. There is a relatively direct path available from the starting position that can be done with 10 cartography, but will cost up to 500,000
in travel.
- Discovering
The Shadow Lurkers at (8, 14) provides
500 and
500 which can be used to upgrade armour before getting the ability to mine and smith these materials.
Continue defeating dungeons to increase your skill caps and along the way you will discover new and powerful ancient relics. Good luck!
Dungeon Walkthrough
This section gives a walkthrough on how to defeat the early dungeons without relying too much on player skill and/or luck. In your playthrough, you should use the ancient relics and skills that you unlock. It is possible that your route will deviate quickly from this path. This guide does not rely on any particular skills or relics being obtained and so should work for most playthroughs, but will necessarily be optimum for your relics and skills.
For the walkthrough, it is assumed that you have levelled all of the combat stats to the maximum after every dungeon. And that all combat training is done using Slayer Tasks to give . You will need a supply of
, and it is assumed that you are either mining ore to obtain jewels, or thieving and selling items. When equipped, the
Mining Lesser Relic will give a guaranteed jewel for every ore which is a good way to make early
.
In your playthrough, it is recommended that you level every skill to 20, as soon as it becomes available, as this will give a guaranteed Ancient Relic. Ancient relics often give benefits outside of the skill itself, so so not overlook the benefits these and the lesser relics. Leveling township and farming as you go along is recommended as these passive skills will pay dividends in time.
Chicken Coop: Level 10
Start mining Rune Essence until you reach level 10. Equip the
Mining Lesser Relic if it becomes available. With
Runecrafting make roughly equal numbers of air runes, mind runes and earth runes. After that, craft enough runes to create the following magic gear;
Start Cartography to unlock
50, but save this for the dungeon. Survey and discover
Farmer's Market in (13, 16) to obtain
500 which will be your main combat training food supply. Next, survey and discover
The Restless Sanctum at (13, 14) to get
1000 which can be buried for
.
Level up all of your combat skills to level 10 on Plant and
Cow using low-level slayer tasks. When you obtain
Golbin Thief craft
50 to allow more marks to be discovered.
For the dungeon battle, equip Earth Strike and equip
25 and
Thick Skin. Time your
Shrimp eats carefully when battling
Mumma Chicken so that you get the most hits in.
You should now unlock Level 15, and will be given a random selection of skill boosts.
Undead Graveyard: Level 15
Level up all of your combat skills to level 15. If you have any skills that are 20 (or higher) then level these up to give you more Ancient Relics.
If needed, mine more Rune Essence and craft the slightly stronger magic equipment as shown in the table below. If
Runecrafting was not upgraded then stick to the Earth Wizard Gear:
Slot | Item |
---|---|
![]() | ![]() |
![]() | ![]() |
![]() | ![]() |
![]() | ![]() |
![]() | ![]() |
Survey and discover Old Village to unlock
Archaeology. Navigate a path that follows the lowest cost tiles (and avoids any other POIs) until you reach the
The Friendly Fisherman at (6, 27), which rewards
50. Next, survey and discover
Shrouded Horizon at (4, 26) to get 50,000
. Purchase
5 from the Shop to complete the township task that gives you
1000. Obtain the
Occultist and then craft as many
Occultist as you can.
Using your remaining , purchase as many Basic Resupply as you can afford to give you
Lobster. You should now have more than enough food to complete the dungeon.
For the dungeon battle, equip Manta Ray or
Lobster,
Fire Strike,
Soul Split I and
Blinding I spells. Use
Occultist and
Thick Skin to increase your chances of success.
Spider Forest: Level 20
Level up all of the combat skills to unlock all of the Ancient Relics. Do the same for any new skills that you have obtained (only level them to 20 for the Ancient Relics.
If you didn't get Runecrafting cap increases it is recommended you visit (7, 15)
The Runed Battlefield for some limited 1,000
Chaos Rune and 1,000
Death Rune to be able to cast Bolt Spells.
Using the Mining Lesser Relic mine your best ore available to obtain
Jewel of Rhaelyx which you can sell. When you have 1,000,000
available, purchase
Auto Eat - Tier I to make combat slightly easier. It is especially important that you spend the time to train your prayer and hitpoints.
Equip Occultist summon. During the battle with
Spider King you will need to time your eats carefully to avoid being killed and it may take more than one attempt.
The optimal way to Manual Eat is to wait with eating your food until you have preformed your attack and before the monster attacks again. This will take some practice but it is suggested you learn how to do this effectively at this stage of the game, as you will be needing to Manual Eat for the majority of your playthrough.
This is the last Dungeon where you can brute force your way through with Magic without getting Runecrafting Skill caps. It is recommended you swap over to Melee if after
Spider Forest your
Runecrafting is still capped at Level 10. You can clear all the way to
Water God Dungeon with Melee if you don't get enough
Runecrafting unlocks, this will however take more time and effort so switching back to
Magic when you do get these unlocks is highly suggested.
Use the following Setup for the next Dungeon if you are still capped at Level 10 Runecrafting.
Slot | Item | DR% |
---|---|---|
![]() | ![]() | 3% |
![]() | ![]() | 3% |
![]() | ![]() | 3% |
![]() | ![]() | 3% |
![]() | ![]() | 0% |
![]() | ![]() | 0% |
![]() | ![]() | 3% |
Total | 15% |
Obtain the Silver Ruby Necklace from
Mummy or
Crafting, if available.
To get the Mithril gear, kill Mithril Knight until you have a full set of Mithril Armour. Complete the
Township Normal Task #1 to get your upgraded
(G) Mithril Platebody and
(G) Mithril Shield. Then go back to killing
Mithril Knight to complete the set again.
You can upgrade the Armour pieces with Silver Bar to upgrade them to (S) and then
Gold Bar to upgrade them to (G), after doing this the Items will get their Damage Reduction stats. This however shouldn't be needed for the upcoming Dungeon
Frozen Cove.
Silver Bar and
Gold Bar can be obtained through
Mining and
Smithing if you have those Skill caps at 40, if you don't the only other viable alternative is
Statue.
Mid-End Base Game Tips & Comments
- The Dungeons Order suggests you do the God Dungeons before doing
Trickery Temple and
Cult Grounds, it is entirely possible to do these Dungeons earlier but it is recommended you do them after the God Dungeons to make them a lot easier due to better accuracy for yourself and your Summons
- The Barrier Dungeon guides suggest you farm up (B) Gear around
Cult Grounds to do
Underwater City more effectively, in Ancient Relics you can skip farming up the (B) Gear and we'll just aim for first clears to our Skill cap increases and Dungeon unlocks.
- After clearing
Volcanic Cave it is suggested you farm
Unholy Forest for a
Ring of Malice (m), this ring is Best in Slot for the rest of the game. The only ring that sometimes beats it is
Ring of Power which you get from completing
Impending Darkness Event.
- It is highly suggested that you get a
Engulfing Vortex Longbow just before defeating
Impending Darkness Event.
Engulfing Vortex Longbow has a low drop chance from
Mermaid Archer and quite high
Cartography and
Archaeology requirements (Level 90 both) but it is well worth getting. It remains the best Bow you can get up till the
Level 120
Feather Storm Crossbow.
Water Pulse Staff is also a very strong staff that can't miss. You can get these from the
Merman in
Underwater Ruins. It is definitely not required as the
Throne of the Herald Wands with Archaic Spells are equally powerful / stronger but require much higher
Runecrafting earlier to be used.
- You only need Elite Slayer Gear to defeat
Impending Darkness Event.
- In Ancient Relics you completely skip getting Dragon or Ancient gear,
Air God Dungeon can be cleared in (G) Mithril Equipment if you're patient enough, (G) Rune Equipment is suggested for it. Dragon and Ancient is absolute not needed and generally a huge waste of time to get at this point in the game.
- Once you defeat
Impending Darkness Event it is advised to switch your Worship to
Bane if you don't have Township Ancient Relic 4. If you do have Township Ancient Relic 4 you can keep
Aeris or switch to
Bane, if you want more
Mastery Magnet to go for 100% Completion switch to
Bane.
- Just before or after
Impending Darkness Event is a good time to take an
Astrology break. This may take a while. Your cap should be at
Level 99 at this point, Level 99 gives Mastery bonus and should be done asap. Once you're Level 99 and have the Master Ancient Relic unlocked in
Astrology it is a good idea to max out the combat Constellations (
Iridan,
Terra,
Vale,
Syllia,
Arachi and optional:
Tellus) This is preferably done during a
Nightfall Season.
- If you still have questions after reading through the entire guide, free to to come ask them in the #aod-ancient-relics channel on the Melvor Idle Discord.
Throne of the Herald Tips & Comments
- You can rush / Manual eat every single dungeon up to
Throne of the Herald with just God Gear. It's well worth it for your Skill cap increases & unlocking the Shop bonuses.
- You will need to clear
Lair of the Spider Queen to unlock Combat Skill caps 112. This will grant access to the following 110 items (
Ranged and
Magic)
Bundled Protection Body,
Perfect Sight Legs,
Frost Walker Boots,
Lightning Aura Helmet. These 4 items are highly recommended for every combat style. All that really matters at this point is the Damage Reduction they offer. If you wish you can grind up 110
Ranged and
Magic to make the following Dungeons slightly safer.
Royal Toxins Spear is a very good Melee weapon which you can use up to
Level 120. Manualling this Dungeon shouldn't be too hard, the drop rate on
Royal Toxins Spear is about 2% and well worth going for once you can use it.
- After defeating
Throne of the Herald you can keep your
Bane Worship if you have Township Ancient Relic 4. It provides the most
Mastery Magnet per hour. If you don't have Township Ancient Relic 4 it is advised you switch to
The Herald and get all your combat done with
Solar Eclipse. Once you're done with combat or get Township Ancient Relic 4 in the meantime, switch back to
Bane.
Melvor Idle version v1.3 (Released: 13th June 2024) | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Reference Tables: Items, Equipment, Experience Table, Upgrading Items, Combat Areas, Slayer Areas, Dungeons, Strongholds, The Abyss, Monsters |