Relief

Relief is a deckbuilding roguelike set in a world shaped by the aftermath of Journey to the West. As the awakened heir of the Green Bull Demon (Azure Ox), you collect cards and artifacts, build a deck and fight alongside five unique spirits, each with its own cards and combat style.

Five spirits

• Lu Wei: turns troublesome status cards into cards with random special modifiers.
• Cui Beibei: summons feline spirits with varied abilities to help in battle.
• Chechi Rocket Team: lets you switch between the tiger, deer and goat captains during battle to adapt your strategy.
• A.Lian: uses a Tribute card-fusion mechanic. Cards with Blessing gain additional effects when placed at the far left or right of your hand.
• Mrs.Luo: combines three elemental forces to create chain reactions and build strategies.

Shape your deck

The Roc offers a choice midway through each of the first three acts. These powers can redirect your strategy and deck: you can choose reliable boosts or high-risk, high-reward effects. There are 24 Roc's Aid Powers in total. For example, Rebuild removes every card from your deck and gives you that many choices; Glass Cannon reduces your Max HP and Max HP increases to 10% while raising your damage to 250%; and Less is More makes card removal cost 50 less gold and adds one card removal at the Black Market.

Complete the Roc's quests to earn Incense, which you can offer at shrines to give your cards random affixes. There are 12 affixes in total, and they can add effects to ordinary cards or open new build paths for powerful ones. The game also has 14 Blessings, including Combo, which plays all copies of a card in your hand and draw pile, and Overdraw, which plays a card for free but makes you lose 1 Energy at the start of each of the next X turns, where X is the card's cost.

Acts and encounters

The game unfolds across five acts in a repeating 14-day cycle. In town, you can strengthen your build at the Shop, Hot Springs and Shrine; beyond the gates, you explore the unknown. Plan how to spend each day as you progress toward the final boss.

More than 50 random events draw on Chinese folklore and urban legends. Your choices in these encounters shape what happens next.

Cards and artifacts

The game includes over 1,000 cards and 300 artifacts. Character-specific cards, general cards, Black Market options and artifacts combine to create varied builds, so runs can play out differently.