Order Automatica Indulgences and Curses

Indulgences are the run-long power-ups you pick at the start of a stretch. Curses are the run-long taxes the ritual slaps on you later. Launch includes 24 Indulgences and 9 Curses. Neither is a unit. Both rewrite every preparation until the rank ends.

This page ranks the ones public footage has named, then tells you how to pick without reading all 24 cards in a panic.

S-tier Indulgences

Extra Essence when you sell or discard a unit — Turns cycling into a living. You will Distill and Discard more; that is the point. Pair with Disposable and C-tier portraits.

Extra Essence when a unit levels up — Pig’s best friend. If you already have Pig or a merge-heavy board, this Indulgence is the run. If you never merge, it is a blank card.

Start of preparation: give a random item to a unit with an empty slot (Bubbling Cauldron style) — Prints relics. Requires an empty slot on someone who can wear junk. Fights with Poison plans that need a reserved slot.

A-tier Indulgences

Column or grid-wide stat auras — Quiet, always on, no extra clicks. Take these when your board is already a shape and you do not want more moving parts.

Sell-for-bonus-per-level — Developer commentary used this as the “easy to understand” pick. It is still a clean Initiate choice.

On-kill or on-win Essence drips — Slow, honest money. Worse than Pig-on-level-up if you merge, better if your lane is a single giant tank that never levels.

B-tier Indulgences

Random battle-start effects — Swingy. Fun in Initiate, scary in Adept when the random target is your cell-1 tank.

Summon-on-timer gifts — Extra bodies are good until they occupy the empty tiles Hermit needed. Read the board before you take a summon Indulgence.

Curses that change the ranking

Curses are not draft picks, but they decide which Indulgence is still legal.

• Broken Coin — Draw Again costs more. Any Indulgence that assumed four rerolls per shop just died. Build with the current row. See shop, Distill, and merge.
• Cursed Stone / Heavy Stone — Occupies a random empty cell each preparation. Summon lanes lose a spawn tile. Tanks must be placed around a hole. Adjacent engines (Madame, Imp) may lose a neighbor.
• Rotten Egg on level-up — You still want Pig, but you must Distill the egg or leave a slot open. Level-up Indulgences remain good; they just got a janitor job.
• Shield-plus-tax packages — Some Curses give a real bonus (shield on level-up) plus a junk item. Take the bonus, clean the slot.

Full survival habits live in candles and Curses. This page only cares about how those taxes interact with the gift you picked on minute one.

How to pick in five seconds

1. Look at the board you already have, not the board you wish the shop would give you.
2. If you have Pig or two copies of anything, take level-up money.
3. If you cycle units, take sell money.
4. If you have empty item slots and no Poison plan, take the cauldron.
5. If a Curse already taxes rerolls, take a quiet aura and stop fishing.

Never take an Indulgence that needs empty tiles when a stone Curse is already in play. Never take a random-item gift when you are holding Poison for Madame.

Related systems

Cell effects (18 of them, 9 good and 9 bad) are the tile-sized cousin of Indulgences. You buy them during a single preparation; they do not usually last the rank. Positive cell effects should land on the unit whose trigger they copy. Negative ones should be treated like a tiny Curse for one fight. The grid and positioning guide covers where to stand on those tiles.

For which portraits deserve the persistent money, use the unit tier list. For which relics the cauldron should be stuffing, use the item tier list. For a finished plan, skip to synergy builds.