Relic Amplifiers hit Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes last week and basically changed the game overnight for endgame players. Why Capital Games chose to go this far with another non-content update so soon after the introduction of Gear 13 is something that only their investors can appreciate, but for the suckers out there like myself, and for those of your reading this months after it is originally published, I am hopeful that this content will help you in your choices for Relic Amplifier upgrades. Note that we are already working on additional content that is more character-specific on the topic of Relics, and more faction summaries like this one will be published throughout the week.
The data used below comes straight from swgoh.gg – one of the best resources you will find anywhere for this game. They only deal with data, while this site is all about interpreting that data to answer questions. As a result we are starting this Best Relic Upgrades section of our site as we break down each faction and specific characters in the game to help you determine where to best use your highly valuable Relic resources.
Which Sith & Sith Empire are Relic Winners?
A look at the specific stats gained from Relic Amplifiers that are taken all the way to Level 7 and we find that Darth Nihilus, Darth Vader and Sith Marauder get the strongest stat increases in Health from a Relic upgrade to Level 7 among the Sith. However Nihilus gets the biggest Health gain at +19,440 which ranks just 26th in the game comparing the Relic Level 7 increases. HK-47, the Sith Empire member who is not a Sith, ranks just ahead of Nihilus with +19,746 Health as a result of a Level 7 Relic. Darth Sion and Darth Malak both gain 9,900 Protection as the only gains in that stat in the Sith or Sith Empire factions. Transitioning to Defense, Bastila Shan (Fallen), Emperor Palpatine and Darth Traya get the biggest defensive gains while not a single Sith or Sith Empire character gains any enhanced Dodge chance from Relics. The final defensive stats, Physical Critical Avoidance and Special Critical Avoidance, have BSF, Emperor Palpatine and Darth Traya as the only Sith or Sith Empire characters with gains as each gets a 13.5% boost in both Crit Avoidance stats.
On the Offensive side, the Sith appears to be big winners, but a deeper dive is needed. Count Dooku leads all characters in SWGoH with a 122.31% increase in Physical Damage with Darth Revan as the third highest Physical Damage increase from a Level 7 Relic, both more than doubling their Physical Damage stats. But since Darth Revan deals Special Damage, this really is not as relevant to DR and feels like a cruel joke (or an oversight) by the developers. BSF, Darth Traya, Emperor Palpatine and Darth Sidious all gets a nice boost of more than 80%, but again Emperor Palpatine and Darth Traya deals Special Damage, not Physical Damage.
Looking at Special Damage, Darth Maul, a dealer of Physical Damage, has the biggest gain in Special Damage(?). Sith Assassin, Savage Opress and Sith Marauder are in the same boat, all three with big Special Damage increases that are borderline wasted (it is not a complete waste as the Mastery upgrade increases all damage output). The top Sith & Sith Empire Physical CC gains are again Darth Revan, Darth Nihilus, BSF, Darth Traya and Emperor Palpatine, all dealers of Special Damage. Darth Maul, Darth Sidious and Sith Assassin all gain 13.5% Special CC, but again, these are dealers of Physical Damage which is making the research for this article demoralizing as the Sith as a whole look to be a losing faction when it comes to damage output gained from these VERY expensive upgrades. The Critical Damage stat gain of 13.5% goes to three Sith in total – Darth Maul, Darth Sidious and Sith Assassin. The good news is that this stat actually benefits these three, and since they all deal Physical Damage and Physical CC is always significantly higher, this is an offensive stat where a Sith actually benefits after two paragraphs of head-scratching stats. Finally, looking at Accuracy, Savage Opress, Sith Marauder, Darth Vader, HK-47, Emperor Palpatine, Darth Traya, Bastila Shan (Fallen), Darth Nihilus and Darth Revan gain the +13.5% Accuracy allocated for select characters when upgrading their Relic Amplifier to Level 7.
The final category of stats listed on swgoh.gg is the Misc category. This consists of Health Steal, Resistance Penetration and Armor Penetration. The Sith and Sith Empire factions already do a lot of stealing of Health in-game and have several gaining 6.75% Health steal including Darth Nihilus, Darth Sion, Sith Trooper and Darth Malak. Darth Nihilus, Sith Marauder, HK-47 and Savage Opress are the Sith/Sith Empire characters with gains in Resistance Penetration. For Armor Penetration, Darth Nihilus gets the game’s biggest increase scoring 10x the Armor Penetration he had at Gear 13 alone, with Darth Vader, Savage Opress, Sith Marauder and HK-47 all getting significant gains as well.
What are the Best Relic Amplifier Upgrades for the Sith & Sith Empire?
A look at the data and understanding of the gameplay of SWGoH shows that these Sith really do not fare well with the addition of Relic Amplifiers and the promotion of those Relics to Level 7:
Count Dooku – Dooku leads all characters in SWGoH with a 122.31% increase in Physical Damage and gets solid Armor and Resistance stat boosts to help his survivability. His Mastery stats are CC, CD and Damage which means he will hit significantly harder if upgraded to Relic Level 7.
Darth Nihilus – Nihilus gets the game’s biggest increase scoring 10 times the Armor Penetration he had at Gear 13 alone which is a nice stat and he gets a nice Resistance Penetration gain as well. The +19,440 Health is very good, and his defensive stat gains are pretty average overall and his Special Damage gain is minimal, so while he might be one of the bigger winners of the Sith, I would not prioritize him over the Top 30 or so characters in the game. Plus, no Relic will make Annihilate hit any harder…
HK-47 – HK-47’s +19,746 Health as a result of a Level 7 Relic is a very nice increase, and he gets a nice boost (71.5% increase) in Physical Damage as well. He gets a 13.5% Accuracy boost and an 18% CC increase which will be a nice increase as well, but unfortunately no CD gains. Overall HK feels like a solid character to take to Relic Level 7, but it also feels like he is punished for being good already.
Honorable Mention? Honestly, the Sith and Sith Empire appear to have been ahead of the game and the devs wanted to use Relics to even the playing field from the look of it. Darth Malak and Darth Sion are already tanks who do very well on defense, and while Relics enhance their survivability the stat gains are not, comparatively speaking, terribly impressive. However, Darth Malak is so important in SWGoH today that his Relic upgrades are a near must as noted in our Darth Malak Relic Review. Another winner from Relics is Sith Marauder. Already a hard-hitter, Sith Marauder gets nearly 18% more CC, more than 2,700 Physical Damage and very strong gains in Resistance and Armor Penetration from an upgrade to Relic Level 7.
Which Sith & Sith Empire should I avoid taking to Relic Level 7?
While this does not necessarily mean that you should NOT take your Sith and Sith Empire characters to Relic Level 7, based on the data and comparison to other Sith stats, I am not planning to take ANY Sith or Sith Empire characters to Relic Amplifier Level 7 anytime soon. I currently have Darth Revan, Darth Malak, BSF, Count Dooku and Emperor Palpatine all at Relic Level 2 and have no plans to upgrade them further or to upgrade other Sith or Sith Empire characters for now.
