Owlboy Items List: Relics, Coins, Shell and the Hex
What Owlboy's key items do: Bucanary Coins, Owl Relics and the Great Relics, the Shell, the Book of Noctae, the Anti-Hex and Golden Disks.
What items are there in Owlboy and what are they for?
Owlboy has a handful of collectibles and story items that matter across a playthrough: Buccanary Coins (which earn prizes at Buccanary's shop), Relics and the Great Relics (machinery for the Hex and later the Anti-Hex), the Shell (a cannon Boguin's gift), the three-volume Book of Noctae (lore of the Ancient Owls), and the Golden Disks (a three-part collectible). Below is what each one does and how it is obtained.
What are Buccanary Coins used for?
Buccanary Coins are collectible coins, and collecting enough of them earns Trinkets from Buccanary. Buccanary hid the coins around, and if you collect enough she gives you Trinkets in exchange at the Legendary Adventure Emporium. Claiming prizes does not subtract from the number of Buccanary Coins you possess, so your total keeps counting toward the next reward.
- Coins can be found by flying through Coupon Rings, pulling up items from the ground, destroying some types of obstacles, and finding chests.
- Chest types differ: chests found in the ground simply need to be pulled up and out, while chests sitting on top of the ground have buttons that need to be pressed and released by Otus or one of his party members.
- Red chests can be found generally in the overworld, in secret rooms hidden behind walls, or after completing a challenging optional room; blue chests can sometimes be found after clearing a room of all enemies.
- A chest full of Buccanary Coins is the reward at the end of the Barb gauntlet.
The exact coin totals required for each Trinket are not listed in the patch notes or official store page, so treat any specific thresholds you see elsewhere as unconfirmed.
What are Owl Relics and the Great Relics?
The Relics are made by the ancient owls and contain extraordinary power, and their role changes over the story. The Relics were initially used to power the Hex Machine and were later re-purposed to be used for the Anti-Hex. The Great Relics, that were used to create the Hex, were reforged.
- The Hex was meant to upend the laws of the universe, but it was a disaster: the Hex failed, and the world would never be the same.
- A new, greater Hex would send the new world crashing downwards and bring the world under the Owls' control again.
- The Anti-Hex was created by the remaining owls after the failure of the Hex Machine and was intended to bring the floating islands back down from the sky to the planet's surface.
- Solus nearly completed the Anti-Hex himself but was interrupted by Otus and party, and subsequently Molstrom. He then gave Otus the relics, and Otus completed the Anti-Hex and successfully brought the islands back down.
Gameplay details of how individual relics are found, and how many there are in total, are not spelled out on the official store page. The Anniversary Update announcement covers additions like Super Dash and auto-aim rather than item locations.
How does the Shell item work?
The Shell is a gift from one of the cannon Boguins, and it is used by taking it to a specific spot in Tropos. One Boguin will also give Otus a shell that supposedly lets you hear the voices of the departed. Bring the shell you get from one of the cannon Boguins to the mysterious patch of dirt in Tropos.
What happens after that point is not described in official documentation, and the community wiki does not spell out the outcome beyond the delivery itself.
What is the Book of Noctae?
The Book of Noctae is a three-volume history of the Ancient Owls, and it was not written by Noctae. The Book of Noctae wasn't written by Noctae, but by someone else, and consists of three volumes. It describes the rise and fall of the Ancient Owl civilization.
The official store page lists achievement names only in part and does not describe the Book volumes, so any tie between the book and an achievement is not documented in official materials.
What do the Anti-Hex and Golden Disks do?
The Anti-Hex is the device built to lower the floating islands back to the planet's surface, and it is completed with the Relics Solus hands to Otus. The Golden Disks are a smaller collection task: there are three Golden Disks to collect, per the community achievement notes.
The official materials do not document what completing the Golden Disk set unlocks, so that part remains officially unconfirmed. For the broader pitch, the developer's own Owlboy site describes the game as a love letter to pixel art for a new audience and an open-world exploration game with a unique mix of flight and platforming, where Otus's friends can be recruited as gunners — the systems that most of these items feed into.
Related guides
Related Guides
Owlboy Achievement Guide: All 12 Steam Achievements
How to earn Owlboy's 12 Steam achievements, including Trinket Master, Flight of the Boguin, Music Master and the Treasure Seeker milestones.
Owlboy Buccanary Coins Guide: Uses and Locations
Find out how Buccanary Coins work in Owlboy, where to find them, and what you can buy with them in the Buccanary Shop.
Owlboy Relics Guide: Finding and Using Ancient Relics
Learn about the Relics in Owlboy, including the Great Relics and the Owl Relic, their locations, and their purpose in the game.
Owlboy Owl Temple Coins: How to Collect Them
Where Owlboy's Owl Temple coins and treasure hunting fit: the Owl Temple, the Buccanary Shop, Coupon Rings and the Treasure Seeker achievements.