Warframe relics: refinement, drop chances and when radiant pays off
Relics are where prime parts come from, and most questions about them come down to one: open it as it is, or refine it first. This is how to work that out yourself, plus which relics pay the most right now.
Prices in this guide are as of September 12, 2026. They are recalculated twice a day, but the market moves faster, so check the current price on warframe.market before you trade.
What is inside a relic
There are five kinds of relic, named after Orokin eras: Lith, Meso, Neo, Axi, and separately Requiem. The era decides which Void Fissures can open it, not how valuable it is. An expensive part can sit in a Lith as easily as in an Axi.
Lith
Meso
Neo
Axi
RequiemEvery relic holds exactly six rewards: three bronze, two silver and one gold. You open it in a Void Fissure mission by collecting 10 Reactant and finishing the mission, and you get one of the six. Which one is luck. How far that luck leans towards gold is what refinement changes.
The game has 773 relics right now, and 728 of them are vaulted: they no longer drop from missions and can only be bought from players or from Varzia. There is a separate guide to the vault.
Refinement and the odds
A relic has four refinement levels. Each one lowers the bronze chance and raises silver and gold. You pay in Void Traces: 25 for Exceptional, 50 for Flawless, 100 for Radiant. A relic that is already refined only costs the difference, so Flawless to Radiant is 50 more.
| Refinement | Traces | Bronze | Silver | Gold |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intact | 0 | 76% | 22% | 2% |
| Exceptional | 25 | 70% | 26% | 4% |
| Flawless | 50 | 60% | 34% | 6% |
| Radiant | 100 | 50% | 40% | 10% |
The thing to take from this table is that Radiant makes gold five times as likely, from 2% to 10%. Silver nearly doubles. Bronze drops but does not go away: even at Radiant, half of your cracks are bronze.
How to work out what a relic is worth
A relic's value is the average platinum per crack. Take the price of each of the six rewards, multiply by its chance, add them up. At Intact that is 25.33% for each bronze, 11% for each silver and 2% for the gold.
An average promises nothing about a single crack. A relic worth 8p can give you a 2p bronze ten times in a row and then a 60p gold once. What the average does do is compare relics fairly.
The most valuable relic that currently drops is Meso N11: 6.8p per crack at Intact and 8.3p at Radiant.
When radiant pays off
Radiant costs 100 traces, and traces run out. The way to think about it: the difference between the Radiant value and the Intact value is what those 100 traces buy you. A relic worth 4p Intact and 5p Radiant is not worth refining. A relic whose gold sells for 80p gains a lot, and refining is justified.
- Refine when the gold reward is expensive and the silvers are not worthless. Almost all of Radiant's gain is in the gold.
- Don't when the gold is cheap or easy to buy. Crack it Intact and buy what you are missing.
- Think twice when you need one specific bronze part. Radiant cuts each bronze from 25.33% to 16.67%, so it works against you.
If you need a bronze part, crack the relic Intact. Refinement moves chance out of bronze and into silver and gold.
Radshares: why four people open the same relic
In a squad you see everyone's reward after the mission and can take any of them, not only your own. A squad where everyone cracks the same relic at Radiant is called a radshare: each player gets four shots at the gold instead of one.
The numbers back it up. The chance that at least one of four Radiant relics shows the gold is about 34%: one minus 0.9 to the fourth power. For four Intact relics it is under 8%. That gap is the whole reason radshares exist.
A radshare only works if everyone opens the same relic. Four different Radiant relics are four separate lotteries, not a shared one.
Which relics to open now
Relics that currently drop, by average platinum per Radiant crack:
| Relic | Intact | Radiant | Best place it drops |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meso N11 | 6.8p | 8.3p | Caches, rotation B, 9.7% |
| Axi V10 | 6.6p | 8.2p | Caches, rotation B, 9.1% |
| Lith C7 | 5.5p | 7.2p | Caches, rotation B, 9.7% |
| Neo V9 | 5.2p | 7.1p | Caches, rotation B, 6.5% |
| Axi S8 | 4.8p | 6.2p | Caches, rotation B, 9.1% |
| Axi A21 | 4.8p | 5.6p | Disruption, rotation B, 14.3% |
| Axi P10 | 3.4p | 5.6p | Disruption, rotation B, 14.3% |
| Neo C8 | 3.5p | 4.6p | Survival, rotation B, 14.3% |
The full list, including vaulted relics, is on the relic value page, along with which reward inside each one is worth the most.
How Orikon helps with relics
On the reward screen the app reads all four reward names and shows their warframe.market price. You get a few seconds to choose, which is no time for mental arithmetic.
The Relics tab lists every relic in your inventory with its Intact and Radiant value, so the refine-or-not decision happens before the mission.
Common questions
Is it better to open relics intact or radiant?
It depends on what is inside. Radiant raises the gold chance from 2% to 10%, so it pays when the gold reward is expensive. If you need a bronze part, Intact is better.
How many Void Traces does radiant cost?
100 from Intact. A relic already at Exceptional or Flawless only costs the difference: 75 or 50.
What is a radshare?
A squad of four where everyone opens the same relic at Radiant. Anyone can take any of the four rewards, so the chance of seeing the gold is about 34% instead of 10% alone.
Can I take another player's relic reward?
Yes. After a squad mission everyone's rewards are shown and you pick any one. The other players keep theirs.
Why doesn't the relic I need drop?
Most likely it is vaulted. Vaulted relics are bought from players or from Varzia for Aya.
Prices as of September 12, 2026. Numbers computed at site build.
