An Apple A Day

An Apple A Day is a relic that permanently increases the player's maximum health. It appears as a collectible relic in runs and functions like other flat max-health sources: when picked up, the player's HP cap grows by a fixed small amount and the player is immediately healed by that same amount (so the increase is not an empty buffer).

The relic's effect is expressed in-game as a fixed increase: "Increases your max health by {[MAX_HEALTH_SMALL_AMOUNT]}" (localized as 最大HP+{[MAX_HEALTH_SMALL_AMOUNT]} / 최대 체력을 {[MAX_HEALTH_SMALL_AMOUNT]} 증가시킵니다. / 增加 {[MAX_HEALTH_SMALL_AMOUNT]} 点血量上限). Because the gain is added to current HP, it also increases subsequent post-battle and other healing amounts that scale with max health.

An Apple A Day interacts predictably with other max-health sources and key events. When combined with the Wall Chicken, the two relics can raise the player's max health to around 140 (noting this value is quoted before certain Cruciball modifiers). The relic is especially useful after taking the Infernal Ingot from the Crave Power event, because max health gained after that event is not halved, making each additional flat HP gain more valuable in late-game survivability.

Practical notes and tactics:

• The relic provides straight survivability without conditional triggers; it is reliably useful on any run that benefits from a larger HP pool.
• Since the relic heals you by the amount added to max HP, picking it up can immediately restore lost HP and synergize with healing thresholds for other effects.
• Max health increases also raise the magnitude of post-battle healing. On early Cruciballs the healed amount per max-health increment is higher (roughly +3 HP per increment before Cruciball 7); from Cruciball 7 onward that per-increment benefit is reduced (roughly +2 HP), and remains lower at later Cruciballs.
• Combine An Apple A Day with other flat HP relics (for example Wall Chicken) when aiming for a high raw HP build rather than one relying on shields or damage mitigation.

The relic name references the proverb "an apple a day keeps the doctor away."