Every LordNine: Infinite player gets three relics handed to them early — Origin of Destruction, Barrier Protection, and Crystal of Life. The fourth, Magic Storm, isn't even unlockable until you've poured 150 total levels into the first three. And once it's unlocked, every Storm level costs roughly twice the Temporal Pieces (TP) of the equivalent level on any other relic.
The 150-level gate plus the cost curve change the whole conversation around "which relic first." This is the cheat sheet.
The 150-Level Gate (the part the UI doesn't shout about)
Magic Storm is a hard-locked fourth slot. Until your combined level across Origin + Barrier + Crystal hits 150, the Storm slot stays closed. There's no shortcut — you cannot dump TP into Storm directly to skip ahead.
What that means in practice:
- Your first ~150 relic levels are forced into Origin / Barrier / Crystal in some ratio.
- The real "priority" question for new players is how to split those 150 levels across the first three relics, not whether to invest in Storm.
- Magic Storm decisions only become real after the gate.
The gate also means you can plan your unlock timing: every level you pour into one of the first three is one level closer to the Storm slot, regardless of which relic gets it.
The Four Relics at a Glance
- Origin of Destruction — offense relic. Damage and offensive stats. Available from the start.
- Barrier Protection — defensive relic. Defense, mitigation, survivability stats. Available from the start.
- Crystal of Life — sustain relic. HP and recovery scaling. Available from the start.
- Magic Storm — skill-damage relic with scaling MP recovery in battle. Locked until 150 total levels across the other three. Despite the "Magic" in the name, the buff is to skill damage specifically, not just magic damage — any class with a skill-heavy rotation benefits. The MP-recovery-in-battle component scales in chunks (think breakpoints around levels 4 / 14 / 24, with each tier adding noticeable MP regen during combat).
The stat values shown in the relic UI are accurate at every level — the part the game doesn't tell you is what each level costs to get there, or that Storm is gated.
The Cost Asymmetry No One Tells You About
Origin, Barrier, and Crystal share the same XP table. The TP cost to take any of them from, say, level 50 to level 51 is identical across all three.
Magic Storm uses its own table — and it's much steeper. By the late levels, each Storm level costs roughly 2× the TP of the equivalent level on the other three relics. Hitting max level on Storm is comparable to hitting max on two of the other relics combined.
Phase 1 (Pre-Gate): Splitting Your First 150 Levels
While Storm is locked, you're picking ratios across Origin / Barrier / Crystal. The right split depends on your role:
Melee DPS (Sword Master, Frost Knight builds, skill-reliant melee)
Origin-heavy, Crystal/Barrier as needed. Damage relic first because every minute of farming benefits from it, but you still need to push Crystal and Barrier high enough to survive the content you're farming. Don't 150-level Origin alone — spread enough into Crystal to stop dying.
Magic DPS (Trinity, casters)
Origin first, then Crystal, with Barrier topped up. Same logic as melee. The Storm-first impulse doesn't apply here — Storm isn't even available yet. Build your damage spine on Origin while you wait for the gate to open.
Tank / Support (Ancient Protector, healers)
Barrier-heavy, Crystal close behind, Origin tops it off. Defense and sustain first so you can hold the line. Origin still matters at the end so you're not contributing zero damage in DPS checks.
In all three paths, the goal of Phase 1 isn't "max out one relic" — it's clear the 150-level gate while building a balanced stat profile.
Phase 2 (Post-Gate): Where Magic Storm Actually Fits
Once Storm unlocks, the fourth relic enters the conversation — but it doesn't crown itself top priority for everyone.
Magic Storm is strongest for:
- Skill-heavy builds (any class). Storm boosts skill damage specifically, so a melee build with a skill-spam rotation benefits as much as a pure caster. "Magic" in the name is misleading.
- MP-thirsty rotations. The scaling battle MP-recovery breakpoints (~level 4 / 14 / 24 thresholds) make Storm a sustainability relic for anyone whose rotation chronically runs dry.
- Casters generally, since both effects compound for them.
Magic Storm is less critical for:
- Auto-attack-dominant builds. If your damage comes mostly from white-hits with skills as occasional buttons, Storm's skill-damage buff doesn't move the needle.
- Tank/support kits without MP issues. If your healer or tank rotation isn't MP-bottlenecked, you're paying ~2× per level for less impact than another Origin level would buy.
If you fit the "strongest for" list, Storm becomes a real priority slot — not just an afterthought. If you fit the "less critical" list, Storm goes last and stays mostly low-level.
Soft Caps to Plan Around
Most relics show diminishing stat returns past certain breakpoints. The exact thresholds are visible in the in-game UI — when you hover the next level, the stat increase shown is what matters, not the level number itself.
A practical rule:
- Spread first, max later. Push every relic over its first major stat threshold before pumping any single one to the cap.
- Watch the per-level stat increase, not the percentage of the bar. Two adjacent levels can give very different stat upgrades depending on where you are on the curve.
- Reassess at every major content gate. If a piece of gear or a passive ability does what an extra 10 relic levels would have, the gear comes first.
Budgeting Temporal Pieces
The cheapest TP path depends entirely on today's marketplace price of each Temporal Piece chest tier. T1 chests are sometimes the cheapest TP-per-piece; sometimes T4 chests are. There's no universal best chest mix because the market moves daily.
This is exactly the calculation we built Raidium's Relic Upgrade Calculator for. Punch in the relic, your current level, your target level, and it pulls live NextMarket prices to show the cheapest chest mix and total cost in both USDT and PHP.
A concrete example: taking Origin from level 25 to level 60 is a fixed TP requirement, but the cheapest way to get there might be all-T2 today and 70% T3 + 30% T1 tomorrow. Plug it into the calculator instead of guessing.
Dismantling Gear for TP — Yes, Actually Worth It
Rare and Epic gear pieces give a fixed TP value when dismantled, and at the current state of the game dismantling is a real strategy, not just a top-up:
- At high-level farming, epic gear drops constantly. Most endgame players are already wearing legendary equipment, which means every epic that drops is dismantle fuel by default.
- For new players, lock in one good epic set first. Aim for an epic set with three perfect additional stats: defense power, damage received decrease, and either endurance in PvP or potion recovery rate (pick the third based on whether you focus PvP or PvE survivability). Once that set is locked in, dismantle every other epic piece you pull.
- Legendary stays equipped, epics get dismantled. That's the loop most active players settle into.
The earlier guidance "don't grind gear specifically to dismantle" still holds — you don't farm zones for the gear, you farm them for everything else and dismantle the gear that comes along for the ride. But the steady drip of TP from dismantled epics adds up to a meaningful fraction of your relic upgrade budget over time.
Summary
- Magic Storm is gated behind 150 total levels across Origin / Barrier / Crystal. You can't skip the gate.
- Magic Storm boosts SKILL damage, not just magic damage — and adds scaling battle MP-recovery breakpoints.
- Phase 1 is splitting your first 150 levels across the first three based on role, not picking one to max.
- Phase 2 (post-gate) is where Storm enters — strongly for skill-heavy or MP-thirsty builds, weakly for auto-attack-dominant ones.
- Origin / Barrier / Crystal share one cost curve. Storm is roughly 2× more expensive per level at the top.
- Use the live calculator to plan your chest spend — the cheapest path changes with the market.
- Dismantle epics by default at high-level farming; new players, lock in one epic set first.
