Repair & Infusion
Items don't last forever. Every time you take an item into a level it wears down a little, and eventually it stops working until you restore it. How you restore it depends on the kind of item — and both paths are paid for with Escense.
Escense is the currency you spend to keep your gear in fighting shape: repairing ordinary items and infusing relics. You earn it through play and can spend it from your Inventory.
Two kinds of items
How an item wears down — and how you bring it back — splits cleanly in two:
| Standard items | Relics | |
|---|---|---|
| Rarity | Common · Uncommon · Rare · Epic | Special (the NFT relics) |
| Wears down via | Uses | Charges |
| Restore with | Repair | Infusion |
| Cost behavior | Escalates each repair | Flat |
The rest of this page covers each side.
Standard items — Uses, Breaking & Repair
Each standard item carries a number of Uses. Entering a level spends one Use, regardless of how the run goes — even an immediate retreat counts.
When an item runs out of Uses it Breaks:
- A Broken item cannot be taken into a descent until you repair it.
- Breaking also makes the item Ascended — a permanent state that grants +50% Tribute Value when offered, but an Ascended item is offer-only and can no longer be carried into the abyss.
Repairing
Spend Escense to repair a Broken item: its Uses are refilled and it can descend again. Repairing keeps the Ascended bonus — once Ascended, always Ascended.
Repair cost rises a little each time you repair the same item:
Repair cost = base (by rarity) × (number of previous repairs + 1)
| Rarity | Base | 1st repair / 2nd / 3rd … |
|---|---|---|
| Common | 1 | 1, 2, 3, … |
| Uncommon | 1 | 1, 2, 3, … |
| Rare | 2 | 2, 4, 6, … |
| Epic | 3 | 3, 6, 9, … |
So a Rare item costs 2 Escense the first time you repair it, 4 the second time, and so on.
A Broken item is still valuable — its +50% Ascended Tribute makes it a strong offer. Repair it if you want to keep using it; offer it if you'd rather cash in the bonus.
Relics — Charges & Infusion
Relics are the Special-rarity items (the NFTs). Each relic has a powerful Infused form that hits harder than its base version — for example, a relic that grants +2 damage vs Beast might deal +3 damage vs Beast and +1 Max HP while infused.
Relics don't break and don't become Ascended. Instead they run on Charges:
- While a relic has charges it is infused (its stronger form is active).
- Each descent spends one charge.
- At 0 charges the relic goes inert — it still sits in your inventory, it just isn't infused until you charge it again.
Infusing
To charge a relic, Infuse it with Escense. You choose how many charges to buy — 1, 2, or 3 — at a flat 1 Escense per charge:
| Charges bought | Escense cost | Descents infused |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 3 | 3 | 3 |
When the relic empties out, you simply infuse it again at the same flat rate. Re-infusing a relic never costs more than the first time — buy 3 charges for 3 Escense, every time, for as long as you own it.
Relics are always infused, never repaired. There's no escalating cost on relics — that's reserved for standard items. Whether it's the first infusion or the hundredth, the price is just charges × 1 Escense.
Repair vs Infusion at a glance
| Repair | Infusion | |
|---|---|---|
| Applies to | Standard items (Common–Epic) | Relics (Special / NFT) |
| Trigger | Item is Broken (0 Uses) | Relic is uncharged (0 Charges) |
| You choose the amount? | No — refills to full | Yes — buy 1, 2, or 3 charges |
| Cost | Escalates per repair (by rarity) | Flat 1 Escense per charge |
| Side effect | Keeps the permanent Ascended bonus | Activates the relic's stronger Infused form |