Orboros

Orboros is an orb-type relic that appears as a circular, tail-eating serpent design and functions thematically around recursion and self-inflicted damage. It deals damage when discarded and has mechanics that interact with Echo and Persist, making it a tool for builds that exploit repeated activations and discard effects.

Orboros was introduced in the game's beta and was added to the demo in version 0.6.18. Its throwback visual references the ouroboros, the ancient symbol of a serpent eating its own tail that represents cycles of life, death, and rebirth; the orb’s appearance and cyclical effects reflect that motif.

Across development, Orboros has received several balance and behavior changes. Early updates established its discard self-damage interaction; in v0.7.27 it was changed to deal 4 self-damage when discarded, and v0.7.34 adjusted interactions so Buckler no longer prevents that self-damage. Subsequent patches increased its damage in v0.7.56. In v0.8.17 the discard self-damage was made to work with Puppet and Intentional Oboe. By v0.9.22 its baseline stats were set to base power 1, critical 2, and Echo 40, and upgrading the orb began increasing both Echo and Persist (an undocumented change recorded in that version).

Practical notes and interactions:

• The orb’s discard-triggered self-damage makes it synergize with cards and relics that benefit from taking damage or that can use discard as a positive trigger. Plan to use it with effects that read or trigger on self-damage.
• Because Buckler does not block its self-damage, defensive relics that normally block small self-harm are ineffective against Orboros’ discard penalty.
• It interacts with Puppet and Intentional Oboe: discard self-damage is recognized by those mechanics, allowing combos that multiply value from discards.
• Upgrading Orboros increases its Echo and Persist, improving its longevity and the number of times its effects can be reused in a run; prioritize upgrades when building around repeat activations.
• The orb’s modest base power and crit values make it more valuable in decks that leverage Echo/Persist recurrence or extract value from taking damage, rather than as a raw damage-dealer on its own.

Name localization: the orb is rendered in Russian sources as "Шароборос".