Kernel Hearts Mementos and Relics
Coffins, Lost Wishes, and a three-relic cap — the run layer that is not your OS.
Kernel Hearts runs on two wallets that players mix up in the same shop sentence. Chips on MAHOU.OS persist in the lab. Mementos and relics live inside a Heaven and die with the backup. If you treat a coffin drop like a 256KB install, you will invent a build that vanishes the next time you fall. This page is the in-run layer. The OS layer stays in chips and builds. Combat verbs stay in combat. Floor geometry stays in Tower and Heavens.
The capture above is a real demo session: shop, coffins, purification, and the first-hour confusion about what you are actually buying. Use it for the UI, not as a byte table.
Three objects, three jobs
Chips. Permanent. Lab. 256KB cap. Death does not uninstall them. That is the RPG between expeditions.
Mementos. Passives you inherit during a climb. Community catalogs from the demo era list dozens of named lines — Casket of Stars, Teressa’s Envy, Flan’s Gluttony, Laika’s Rancor, Nakshatra’s Lust, and a seven-sins set — many with stacked levels. Treat those names as demo-era labels, not a launch codex. Opening a coffin is the usual door: it starts a purification fight against a swarm of angels. Win, and you inherit a dead magical girl’s leftover power. That is director language, not a fan theory.
Relics. In-run tools and area passives. Demo notes and community tables say you can carry about three per floor (two from Relic Comets, one from a secret is the common split). Some only come from Tofu in Camelot or Nura in the Pink Wink Cupid. Rarity tags exist. Entire rows in old tables are marked unused or removed. Do not print a relic tier list from a spreadsheet that still has strikeouts.
August 17, 2026 demo notes retuned mementos and relics so they scale with player level. A March VOD that calls a relic “broken forever” is talking to a different economy.
Coffins, purification, Lost Wishes
A blue or glowing coffin is not free loot. You pick a fight. The swarm is the tax. Purification Events also let you spend Lost Wishes; community notes say the cost scales with difficulty and player count. In co-op, four people opening every coffin on Folktale Fields is how the curse clock becomes a raid before the domain guardian. Assign who pops the box. Co-op.
Secrets hide extra coffins: flower-gate ruins, stranded catapults, invisible mazes on later slices. The tower map is the geometry page. This page is: open it only if you can win the swarm with the bar you already have.
What the shop is actually selling
Between Heavens you pass Camelot (Tofu sells some relics) and the Pink Wink Cupid (Nura can hand a first-talk relic; her bond ranks cap early in the demo). These are safe floors, not combat maps. Spend, talk, leave. Greed here is dialogue, not lingering packs.
Currency language in demo-era chip tables uses Old World Coins. Treat prices as a screenshot of one build, not launch gospel. The MOS chip — the basic OS — is described as unremovable. You are not stripping the android down to a blank board.
Lost Souls and Sin Events show up in feature lists as extra floor decisions. Log them when you see them. Do not build a religion around a named meter until your client shows it twice.
How to spend without a catalog
- Chips first, after the wipe. Survivability and the button you actually press. See chips and builds.
- One coffin if the bar is still kind. Two if you are overtuned. Zero if the meadow already looks like a raid.
- Relic slots are a budget. Three per floor means the fourth glow is a trap unless you are replacing junk.
- Do not duplicate jobs. If a relic already gives movement, the next coffin should not also be movement unless that is the run joke.
- Shop the death you had. Died to a purification swarm → stop opening boxes. Died to Pixips → you needed a projectile, not another coffin passive. Angels.
Promises are not loot
Director notes: each NPC can give one quest per playthrough. Pick carefully. That is a bond flag, not a relic SKU. Details live with the people in Babel. Skipping every safe-floor conversation to rush a comet is a valid speed habit and a bad launch habit.
What we will not invent
No KB costs. No “best relic for the final god.” No 30-row memento table copied from a community sheet that still marks unused rows. When September 17 prints an official codex, this page should grow names from patch notes. Until then, your coffin UI is the patch notes.
Practice the split once on purpose: finish a Fields clear with zero extra coffins, then one with every box. The run that felt in control is your style. Build chips around that, not around a YouTube thumbnail.
Related
Demo walkthrough for when the shop appears in a session. Getting Started if you have not died once. Updates for the August scaling pass.
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answers before you climb the Tower of Babel.
Do mementos persist after death?
No. Mementos and relics reset with the backup. Chips on MAHOU.OS persist. That split is the genre. Chips and builds.
Should I open every coffin?
Only if the difficulty bar and your kit can take the purification swarm. Greedy boxes are how Folktale Fields becomes a raid before the guardian.
How many relics can I hold?
Demo-era notes say about three per floor. Secrets and safe-floor vendors (Tofu, Nura) are extra sources, not a fourth infinite slot.
Is there an official memento list?
Not a launch codex. Community demo catalogs exist and go stale. Trust the names on your coffin UI.