Passive items

Passive items, aka Talismans, drop at a reasonable rate from blue boss chests, monster champions, bosses, mini-bosses, and the blue Chests in the treasury starting around floor 50 - as well as their blueprints for their creation with crystals at the fortress.

Unlike most items in the inventory or in the game in general, the effects of passive items do not stack - having one of each item is the same as having more than one (except for the cross of life…) They cannot be equipped - simply having them in your inventory will “equip” them and their effects will be present. The effects of the soul eater and soul mirror do not stack, so using the more powerful soul eater is advised - if both happen to be in the inventory only the more powerful soul eater will be used. Unlike most items in your inventory that are not equipped, passive items will not be automatically sold to the merchant when you return to the fortress via the mentor in the camp - instead, they stay in your inventory until you die (at which point they disappear, along with the rest of your inventory); or until you place them in a chest.

You must have entered the fortress with no passive items in your inventory (including the bottomless bag) in order to buy more, or have sold your passive items in the fortress. You may only purchase up to a single copy of each item in your inventory while in the fortress - so if you want to carry more than one, you need to store them in the chest or with backup heroes. This is typically done for mass storage with backup heroes, and for carrying multiple crosses of life with your main hero in the endgame.

This is encountered commonly with the cross of life, when it will often be advantageous to have more than one. To do this, you will store all your passive items in the chest (and optionally pick them up with another hero…), then purchase a cross if life with your now-empty hero, drop it off in the chest of life, and repeat. You may choose to use one or more backup heroes to hoard large number of crosses, so they can drop them off in the chests quickly, when you use them up and need more.

It is possible to force Crosses of Life to stack for storage. (Note: This method has only been tested on the Android mobile Version 1.35.3). To do so, you must have multiple Crosses of Life in your inventory; visit the Merchant to sell and buy them back, one at a time. Each one you buy back will stack up to your current stack limit. This stack will not display the stack subscript of other stacking items such as potions, but will be visible at the top of the screen where the item description will state "Cross of Life (x2)". The stack may then be transferred to the Personal Chest, the stack will then display the correct stack subscript and trigger the stack-move slider when removed. Removing them from the container will un-stack them into your inventory and you will have to visit the Merchant to stack them again. This method is invaluable for saving inventory space in your Personal Chest.

For a maxed hero, using the obsidian tower borderlands at level 1 with an old ma to repeatedly quickly access the camp may be convenient when purchasing crosses of life.

You need the blueprint before being allowed to buy a passive item at the fortress - otherwise you must find them as drops in the dungeons. Some of the blueprints may be rather rare, with upwards of 1000 play hours being possible to find them all.

The treasury (rune of greed) often drops passive items and their blueprints, as do blue boss chests. The cross of life drops from the king of bones on occasion.

ITEM DESCRIPTION

Lucky coin - 50 crystals, increases amount of gold collected by 25 percent

Stone of the depths - 60 crystals, auto-collects all gold without having to walk up to it

Bottomless Bag - 50 crystals, increases inventory space by 5 slots

Soul vessel - 50 crystals, increases received experience by 25 percent \*\*DOES NOT STACK WITH SOUL EATER

Soul eater - 100 crystals, increases received experience by 40 percent \*\*DOES NOT STACK WITH SOUL VESSEL

Cross of life - 150 crystals each, single use automatic and instant resurrection upon death, continuing in the same spot without interruption and without any loss in equipment. Think of these as an old school “extra life” in an action game. Hero has full health and mana on resurrection. Multiple crosses may be carried simultaneously, for extra protection - see above for method. Hero will instantly do 10 times damage in an explosion upon death - which can be good for clearing swarms of monsters that may be attacking him (I.e. in the crypt).