Order Automatica item tier list

Launch Order Automatica includes 19 items. Most player units wear up to two. Items are not “plus stats on whoever is free.” They are extra sentences taped onto a trigger you already built. This list ranks the relics that show up in shops, Distill, and Hold rewards.

S-tier

Poison — Equipping it kills the unit immediately. Useless on a tank you need alive. Broken on an Upon Death unit during preparation, because shop-phase deaths persist. Madame, Hermit, Life Holder, and any spawn-on-death portrait become a pre-fight engine. If you do not have a death payoff, Distill Poison or skip it.

Book of the True Cell — Demo text: the holder must sit in cell 5 and deals damage to a random enemy as the round begins (often 3). It is a placement item. Cell 7 with this book is a misplay, not bad RNG. Pair with grid and positioning.

Taunt setpiece — When an enemy would target an adjacent unit, the attack redirects to the wearer. This is how cell 1 earns its keep. Put it on the actual tank, not on Pig.

A-tier

Column buff books — Before battle, give +1 attack or defense to all allies in this column. Fill the column first. A buff in an empty back column is a B-tier item wearing A-tier art.

Double mushroom — Swaps the wearer’s attack and defense. Turns a 1/7 wall into a 7/1 problem, or the reverse if you need a blocker. Hover the current stats before you swap; a 2/2 mushroom is a coin flip.

On-death spawn items (bone man, extra summons) — These duplicate Hermit. They want empty cells. They also want the wearer to actually die, which may mean a high cell number or a Poison assist.

Disposable — When discarded from the grid, buff a unit. Discard becomes a button with a payoff. Older Manifester loops Distilled around this card. Even without the loop, it is a way to cycle C-tier portraits into stats.

B-tier

Random item fillers — “Fill one empty item slot with a random item.” Good when you have a slot and no plan. Bad when you were saving a slot for Poison. Cauldron-style Indulgences do the same job from the persistent layer.

Green potions and small stat relics — Honest +numbers. Assign them to whoever is already winning, not to a 1/1 you plan to Distill.

Eyeball / oddball shop relics — Usually a niche trigger (vision, random damage, extra Draw). Buy them when the text matches a board you already have. Do not start a new lane for a 2-cost eyeball.

F-tier (taxes, not drafts)

Rotten Egg and other Curse-stuffed items — They occupy a slot and do nothing. Distill if the game allows it, or leave a slot empty so the egg has somewhere to go that is not Poison’s house. These are not in the 19-item draft pool on purpose; they arrive from Curses. See candles and Curses.

Assignment rules that beat the letter grade

1. Match the item trigger to the unit trigger. Death items on death units. Column books on filled columns. Taunt on the portrait that should be punched.
2. Count slots. Two items is the cap for most units. A third gift from an Indulgence will bounce or overwrite depending on the card. Hover.
3. Distill extras. The Distill slot is how B-tier relics become something the current board can wear. Details in shop, Distill, and merge.
4. Never let Book of the True Cell sit off cell 5.

Hold units that gain a random item between battles are an item printer, not a combat unit. Keep them in Hold and move the printed relic onto the grid unit that can use it.

Related pages

Pair this list with the unit tier list so you know who is allowed to wear the S-tier knives. For full boards, use synergy builds. For the economy that buys these relics, stay in the shop guide. Launch-count reminder: 19 items, two slots, preparation is when they fire if the text says “when equipped” or “start of preparation.”