so you can believe me I actually did this

1 - Runemaster is easy mode
2 - strong perk
2.5 - middle ground between balanced and strong
3 - balanced perk/perk with no major advantages and no drawbacks
3.5 - perk with no useful advantage and NO drawback (considered worse than Adventurer who at least has an apple and two bombs)/perk with some advantages and major drawback(s);
4 - perk with major drawback(s)
4.5 - perk with no useful advantage and major drawback(s); all perks with slow melee attack; Cleric sucks
5 - Dashy Joe has no HP

1: Runemaster
2: Slasher, Twofold
2.5: Brimstone, Reaper
3: Archer, Dual Wield, Explosive, Juggernaut, Protection, Sorcerer, Springy, Swordsman, Trader
3.5: Adventurer, Elementalist, Sticky Pete, Traditionalist
4: Vampire
4.5: Cleric, Heavy Hitter, Nimrod, Vortex
5: Dashy Joe

Adventurer
finished: 2023-09-30
difficulty: 3.5/5

• as basic as it can get
  
• this really took a lot of effort (it was the last remaining perk)
  
• a lot of runs with denied altars
  
• winning build: Crowbill Scythe (3 upgrades, +3 HP per kill and +30% ranged speed), Tripleshot, Magician's Ring and Spectral Ring; no healing item, just some food; intense final battle but mainly because of the shakes; I did it

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Archer
finished: 2023-09-19
difficulty: 3/5

• hurt by low melee damage in early game but the ranged dps bonus more than makes up for it in late game/during final boss fight
  
• very intense final battle with multiple double summons; Shadow Ball OP

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Twofold
finished: 2023-09-13
difficulty: 2/5

• double ranged damage at reduced fire rate (160% dps) is very strong
  
• starting without a melee weapon is not a big issue
  
• much more difficult than Runemaster though

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Sorcerer
finished: 2023-09-14
difficulty: 3/5

• the reduced melee damage is noticeable
  
• most standard magic items at least partially suck
  
• Tripleshot benefits greatly from the additional magic damage
  
• tough final battle, only won because of OP Super Shadow Ball

Sticky Pete (a.k.a. Picky Steve)
finished: 2023-09-29
relative difficulty: 3.5/5

• two Sticky Bombs are a very minor bonus
  
• turning regular bombs into sticky ones isn't very useful
  
• practically equivalent to Adventurer
  
• if you hit a bat with a Sticky Bomb it carries it around before exploding :)
  
• Re-Up blessing, Barrier blessing + Boost Rune, Tripleshot, Super Crystal Sword and Shadow Ball; good run; final boss almost hitless

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Juggernaut
finished: 2023-09-25
relative difficulty: 3/5

• shi✝✝y ranged, strong melee and a lot of HP
  
• one of the stronger perks but early ranged sucks so much that I consider 3/5 an adequate rating
  
• pretty stressful run ended with an easy/easier final fight; confident victory (thanks again, Shadow Ball!)

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Elementalist
finished: 2023-09-21
relative difficulty: 3.5/5

• not many ways to reliably do fire/poison damage
  
• need a ring and/or some blessings to function properly (fire/poison ring)
  
• fire/poison sword/bow does its respective DoT only 15% of the time, even the upgraded version
  
• EDIT: apparently, the upgraded bows should apply elemental damage on each hit (did not check this myself)
  
• enemies need to die quickly, no time to wait for DoT
  
• even with a Corruption Ring (100% poison on first hit) the damage is nothing to write home about
  
• highly situational; pretty shi✝✝y even; the Adventurer is probably better
  
• no healing item for the final boss but Barrier blessing and some food; still a pretty intense battle

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Cleric
finished: 2023-09-28
relative difficulty: 4.5/5

• 60 max HP is very low
  
• reduced HP gain from food is very bad
  
• Cleric Ball is a shi✝✝y active item - long cooldown, no scaling and takes up the item slot
  
• Cleric sucks
  
• Are you a cleric or something?
  
• had Super Crimson Blade, Crowbill Ring, Might and Judgement blessings (besides usual stuff); still a tough run, used two Hand blessings in Fungal Caverns

Dashy Joe
finished: 2023-09-28
relative difficulty: 5/5

• 50 max HP and no healing, pain
  
• Ruby Wand does help with bosses but not much with level clear; bosses are rarely a problem though
  
• this is indeed the most difficult perk
  
• super tough game, fought tooth and nail; only 95 max HP for final boss; blue shadow bow & sword, Shadow Ball and Ankh; didn't even need the Ankh; intense battle though, I was super shaky

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Springy
finished: 2023-09-27
relative difficulty: 3/5

• fantastic mobility
  
• no combat bonus though
  
• probably the most intense final battle so far - several double summons in a row; good thing I brought a Shadow Ball and some food

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Slasher
finished: 2023-09-21
relative difficulty: 2/5

• melee projectiles are very strong for level clear
  
• very intense final battle with multiple double summons, saved again by the Shadow Ball

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Trader
finished: 2023-06
relative difficulty: 3/5

• one free upgrade is pretty helpful if there's something decent in the first shop: Tripleshot, Shadow Ball, Shadow Orb and Crimson Blade would be the obvious choices; Crossfire Bow, Crystal Sword, Dragon Sword, Dark Feather, Emerald Pendant, Boost Band, Demonic Prayer Beads, Shadow Star and Shadow Pendant are all also viable
  
• otherwise it's just kind of nice; I consider it de facto two free bows (Shadow Bow > Super Shadow Bow)
  
• sacrificing an item to lower shrine price by 10% is worse than selling it in a shop; might help you get a high value item (Shadow Ball) but this is highly situational

Traditionalist
finished: 2023-09-27
relative difficulty: 3.5/5

• bonus damage is very nice but can't fully offset the inability to use magic items (no healing)
  
• Occulent blessing is top priority
  
• take Shadow Ball anyway (if available), Occulent blessing is a guaranteed drop from Worm Skull

very satisfying run - got two great builds going on:
1. Super Crystal Sword + Tripleshot + Magician's Ring
2. Super Shadow Sword + Ultra Shadow Bow + fully upgraded Crowbill Ring with +10 ranged damage/+10% ranged speed

• damage stronk but no healing at all
  
• entered Shrouded Land with one shield and ~95 hit points
  
• got hit twice, entered the final boss room with ~78 hit points
  
• managed to prevail thanks to skill and obscene damage of the shadow set
  
• felt good man

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Explosive
finished: 2023-09-26
relative difficulty: 3/5

• explosive resistance is nice against jumpers
  
• three bombs can be sold for extra money
  
• explosive damage bonus is hard to utilize
  
• achieved crazy damage via Might & Arcane blessings...deleting everything in Fungal Caverns sure felt nice
  
• standard final boss fight, Shadow Ball <3

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Heavy Hitter
finished: 2023-09-29
relative difficulty: 4.5/5

• unexpectedly, Heavy Shi✝✝er is not suited for melee combat - slow attack start, it's very easy to get hit
  
• dps is most probably lower than that of the usual 3-hit combo
  
• Crown Ring is an obvious choice
  
• pretty standard stuff: Super Shadow Sword, Ultra Shadow Bow, Shadow Ball; also built a Super Dark Feather but did not use it much; didn't get any offensive rings besides The Odd Ring which I used for the final fight only; routine fight with several double summons but nothing to get me out of the comfort zone; hit points did not drop under ~70% the whole fight

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Vampire
finished: 2023-06
relative difficulty: 4/5

• one of my favorites
  
• low max HP (60) is bad
  
• the damage is obscene but make few mistakes and the run is over
  
• Judgement (+ max HP per kill) blessing is practically a necessity
  
• super fast, super fun

Reaper
finished: 2023-09-19
relative difficulty: 2.5/5

• one of my favorites
  
• rushing through levels and harvesting enemies feels great; so great actually, that playing any standard perk (not Vampire) after Reaper seems like a slow boring slog with no damage
  
• controlling greed for souls is hard; got me killed so many times
  
• no starting bow sucks but at least it's good for learning how to dodge jumpers-exploders
  
• 80 max HP isn't much of an issue
  
• no shadow weapons needed > bad altar spawns are not that problematic
  
• Tripleshot is super strong
  
• synergy with Demonic Prayer Beads is borderline broken; can harvest more bosses than other perks
  
• confident victory with Super Master Bow & Reflex Lance (for summons); no healing item

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Protection
finished: 2023-09-26
relative difficulty: 3/5

• quite balanced
  
• the low ranged damage is bad
  
• not much else to add, it's not a very fun perk
  
• very long final fight, was dealing crap damage; only won because of Shadow Orb and several pieces of Meat

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Dual Wield
finished: 2023-09-24
relative difficulty: 3/5

• balanced perk
  
• two items are nice, reduced ranged speed not so much; doesn't really change the way how you play though
  
• relatively easy final battle, had Crowbill Ring (upgraded 4x), Ring of Devilry, Sapphire Ring and Shadow Amulet; big ranged dps, deleted the eye in three cycles
  
• Shadow Ball <3

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Vortex
finished: 2023-09-26
relative difficulty: 4.5/5

• -10% movement speed sucks early
  
• -20% melee speed is a big disadvantage; you get hit when you don't expect it because your attacks are so slow
  
• 80 max HP is not that bad
  
• a Vortex Bomb every level means a lot of extra money
  
• hate this one
  
• don't even try to upgrade the gun, build a shadow bow like usually
  
• Super Crimson Blade and some strong blessings early (Might, Calamity, Ricochet, Piercing); kept most of found food for the final boss; battle was very intense (several double summons) but I won quite comfortably (50% HP left)

Swordsman
finished: 2023-09-18
relative difficulty: 3/5

• strong melee is very nice, bosses go down much faster
  
• weaker ranged not so much
  
• prioritize getting blue shadow bow even more than usually

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Brimstone
finished: 2023-09-15
relative difficulty: 2.5/5

• one of my favorites
  
• starting sword's damage reduction is good
  
• cursed blessings are strong/very strong
  
• starting with 50/100 HP is not that much of an disadvantage
  
• confident victory

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Nimrod
finished: 2023-09-22
relative difficulty: 4.5/5

• takes more damage, that's very bad
  
• bonus movement speed is a major disadvantage, harder to control
  
• increased poison/explosion damage is practically worthless
  
• Snare Bow is a fun weapon but it's only used for one level
  
• starting item is decent early and sells for a lot of gold (100+)
  
• very intense final battle, double summons are the worst; managed to win thanks to Shadow Orb (not as OP as Shadow Ball)

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Runemaster
finished: 2023-06
relative difficulty: 1/5

• oh boy, the Runemaster!
  
• this is 5 relics easy mode
  
• extra gold: Poison Rune, Teleportation Rune
  
• free max hit points: Demon Rune
  
• free damage: Boost Rune, Surge Rune
  
• free sustain: Bloodlust Rune, Health Rune, Shield Rune

UPDATE@2023-09-29: did another run with the good ol' Runemaster to gauge the difference in difficulty -- compared to the really difficult perks it was basically a power fantasy; built a Mega Shadow Bow, popped a Boost Rune with 9 shields and also kept three Surge Runes for the final fight; was one-shotting the summons and Israphel went down in 1.5 cycles; only got hit once right at the end of the fight


Runemaster is easy mode #1 - runes I got in the first level


Runemaster is easy mode #2 - Mega Shadow Bow & 350 HP


Runemaster is easy mode #3 - the final boss was obliterated in 1.5 cycles

game is VERY rng dependent

wonderful things that happen and usually mean a lost run: (almost) empty shops, no bows in shops, (shadow) altars not accessible, jumpers-exploders camping and destroying altars, trolls eating altars

most of the time the final altar spawns on level 7 and the final shop, which comes after level 7, is full of affordable bows (obvious bias here but it's very annoying when it happens)

hard layouts of Fungal Caverns are not doable without an Ultra Shadow Bow or comparable (Tripleshot + Magician's Ring), at least not without a severe hit point loss

I was able to build a Mega Shadow Bow just once in all of my 5 relic runs - it was during the Runemaster difficulty measurement re-run

all of this could easily be fixed by adding a room with a guaranteed altar and shadow altar right after Fungal Caverns (before entering Shrouded Land)

a strong sustain item (Shadow Ball, Super Crimson Sword) is a necessity, at least I can't do it without one most of the time

keep some bombs to open safer passages in levels 7-10

obstacle courses sometimes encountered at the start of a level are borderline unfair; some are not that difficult (and some are very difficult) but they are so rare - I would say less than one in twenty games - that it's not really possible to practice them

(almost) off-screen shots are so cheap -- play with maximal possible resolution

perks with slower/different melee attack are the worst

being able to three-shot Israphel's summons is what I consider the breakpoint for a winning game; two-shotting them means a pretty comfortable final fight (see perk: Traditionalist)

in case this wasn't totally obvious: Shadow Ball is your best friend

Interluder is love, Interluder is life

Shadow Ball <3 is so strong it's not even funny; I have used Shadow Ball in the majority of my successful runs

Tripleshot + Magician's Ring + Crystal Sword is a big damage build which is not difficult to put together (Tripleshot being the rarest item); it's more than enough damage for the final boss

Crowbill Ring is phenomenal if you manage to fully upgrade it; it's still better than most basic rings with even a single upgrade

Aerolite (homing) - saves so much time; you can concentrate on dodging and not on aiming, just shoot in the general direction of the target

Barrier - 5 shields is a lot of effective hit points (up to ~200); it's usually pretty cheap as well

Calamity - destroy crowds quickly ~ spend less time dodging projectiles and search for altars instead

Generosity - free stuff/more gold

Hand - extra life is always Hand-y

Judgement - free max HP, also kept through Shrouded Land

Knight's - get shield after 5 melee kills; level 2 is just bonkers - shield is given after 2 melee kills

Life Drain - 2 HP on melee kill; reliable sustain

Looting - monsters drop items; better than both Riches and Generosity

Master Sword - ranged "melee" is super strong

Might - free stats that are not taken away when entering Shrouded Land

Piercing - practically doubles/triples dps when fighting multiple enemies, which is most of the time

Re-Up - fantastic for level clear; most of the time practically doubles/triples dps as you will be one-shotting most enemies

Repair - almost all hits hurt for more than 12 HP; practically substracts 5 from received damage if the hit does not kill; level 2 is worthless

Riches - more gold, what more needs to be said

Ricochet - safely dispose of dangerous shooters; also doubles dps when shooting vertically/horizontally as the arrow hits again on return

Tesla - great for dealing with flying skulls and jumpers-exploders

Bohlt's - great for level clear; great for getting rid of jumpers-exploders; this one is usually cheap - 34-39 HP

Val'za-za - additional arrow doubles the dps of purple/red shadow bow and adds 67% to dps of the blue shadow bow; easily worth most of your current HP

TETRIS EYE

• has no regular patterns and pisses me off
  
• can sometimes kill you outright when hitting the eye from inside of its hitbox

BIG NOODLE

• sometimes does random return patterns without any telegraph - very hard to dodge
  
• sometimes can hit you with shots/green burst even when hiding inside of its hitbox

MEDUSA/DEMON

• both boring (and pretty safe) fights
  
• long periods of doing chip damage are not very entertaining

SPIDER

• way too easy
  
• safe spots up on the walls

CUBE/LASER SKULL/VOMIT FACE

• challenging and dynamic fights
  
• good bosses

general

• Demonic Prayer Beads/Soul Reaper both give a permanent damage boost when activated after defeating some bosses/used to last hit some bosses; tested on: Demon, Medusa, Laser Skull, Tetris Eye, Spider (Reaper only)

Thanks a lot Taake, I wouldn't be able to do it without your fantastic guide and the stuff I have learned from your videos.

Good luck with your runs!