Shrines pay out for risk
A shrine sits on the stage and waits for a payment. You pay in gold or health, and it answers with loot, a fight, or nothing.
Shrines are optional. Skipping one is often correct, and feeding every shrine you see is a common early mistake.
Shrine of Chance
The Shrine of Chance takes gold and rolls for a drop. A success gives an item. A failure gives a puff of smoke and no refund.
The cost rises with each use on the same shrine. Use it a couple of times early, then walk away before the price outgrows the odds.
Shrine of Blood
The Shrine of Blood takes health instead of gold and rolls for an item. It is cheap for a full-health survivor and dangerous for a hurt one.
Pay with health only when you have health to spare. A shrine that drops you low right before the teleporter is a trap.
Shrine of the Mountain
The Shrine of the Mountain adds an extra boss to the teleporter fight. Beat it and the stage pays out extra items.
Take this shrine only if your build is ahead of the clock. It raises the difficulty of the one fight that already decides the stage.
Shrine of Combat
The Shrine of Combat summons a fight and pays in gold when you clear it. It is a way to trade time and risk for currency.
Clear it only when you need gold and your health is healthy. A combat shrine near the teleporter can eat the time you needed.
When to walk away
Price the shrine against your clock. If the payment slows you too much for too little, leave it. A skipped shrine costs nothing.
See how this fits the wider loop in stage routing.