The Awakened King is the first expansion to Remnant 2, and brings players to a new area in Losomn to face The One True King. The Participation Medal isn’t found in the DLC area of Remnant 2, though. So, where is it?
Where to get the Participation Medal in Remnant 2
If you want to get the Participation Medal Amulet in Remnant 2, you will need to die to an Apocalypse-difficulty World boss. A lot. Elite enemies don’t count, and it seems side-dungeon mini-bosses don’t count either. The Medal simply appears in your inventory when you respawn after dying to a boss. You don’t need to pick it up, or buy it, or anything like that.
Players are reporting different numbers of deaths to the same boss before getting the Medal, so it’s probably a randomized roll. That said, it seems you must die to a World boss in order to obtain it. Players tried getting the Participation Medal to drop from mini-bosses and non-required boss enemies, but to no avail.
It’s also a bit finnicky with Worlds that were made before the DLC dropped, like several Rings from The Awakened King. We recommend starting a new Apocalypse Adventure roll before committing yourself to a farm for this Amulet.
In addition to getting the Participation Medal, players will now receive three orange slices for repeated deaths on this difficulty. This is in reference to a comment a Gunfire Games team member made about complaints concerning Apocalypse’s absurd damage scaling back when the game released. Apocalypse will still send players to the floor in one hit, but now they’ll at least get some snacks and a medal for their hard work.
You can also get the Amulet in Hardcore Apocalypse mode, funnily enough, as long as you’re in a party. If you have one player sit outside the door to a World Boss and let the other players go in and die, the player outside of the door can sit at a crystal to revive them. This counts as a failed boss attempt, apparently, and the game will roll for the Participation Medal for your whole party. Whether or not this was intentional is up to interpretation.
Is the Participation Medal a good Amulet in Remnant 2?
The Participation Medal is probably the strongest defensive Amulet ever added to Remnant 2. The amusingly named item grants 10 Health, 10 Stamina, 10 percent movement speed, and 10 percent damage reduction, a substantial bump to all the stats you need to staying alive.
Rather than relying on Bulwark stacks, this Amulet introduces defense through raw numbers across the board. This can let you outpace enemies, soak one extra hit, and dodge one extra time. In Apocalypse, these small differences can be life-saving. This is technically the only Amulet that provides raw Damage Reduction without any stipulations, with the Effigy Pendant being the only other option—and that one requires Gray Health to activate.
This makes the Amulet good, but it’s hard to say it’s good enough. Many Amulets in Remnant 2 focus on offense, which tends to be the meta; the new Death-Soaked Idol, for example, provides up to a 25 percent boost to all damage while enemies are afflicted by status effects. In Apocalypse, one of the best ways to clear an encounter is to kill everything before it poses a threat. So, even with major defensive boosts, this Amulet might be a bit too slow.
Even compared to other defensive options, there are arguably better choices. The Whispering Marble, for instance, provides 18 percent damage reduction and nine percent damage by default, offering both defensive and offensive utility. The Full Moon Circlet boosts damage by 20 percent at full Health and provides three percent lifesteal otherwise.
That said, there isn’t a single Amulet that provides as much defense as the Participation Medal. This puts it in a unique position, even if it is niche.
Recommended builds for the Participation Medal
The Participation Medal works well for builds who rely strongly on their Ring slots for power. That is, it’s likely best for Mod Power and Skill builds that are looking for a small defensive boost to all stats.
The Amulet slot could be the most powerful item slot for any Remnant 2 build. Many Amulets provide upward of 20 to 25 percent damage for players, making a defensive pivot very difficult at the best of times. That’s a lot of damage to spend on defense.
But, depending on your character, sometimes you simply need stronger defensive options. For instance, Summoners don’t actually get too much value from the current selection of Amulets, relying almost solely on Soul Anchor to provide 20 percent more damage, and only if you’re summoning during a fight. If your Summoner is doing passable damage and having trouble sustaining Soul Anchor, you can instead rely on rings like Soul Shard and Soul Guard to make your build sturdy, and the Participation Medal to keep the Summoner alive in the meantime. You’ve got a lot of Rings to juggle for that build.
While we don’t recommend it for melee builds, the combination of movement speed, Stamina, and Health can be enticing for those who like brawling with foes. And melee-focused Rings aren’t exactly few and far between for melee contenders, so you can throw a bone to defense for your Wrathbringer build. With Rings like Fae Bruiser and Blood Jewel, it’s sometimes hard to slot in pure defense for jewelry. An all-round useful Amulet like the Participation Medal can change that.
Gun builds work generally work better with other Amulets, but the Participation Medal is still worth c considering as a defensive option if you’re struggling to stay alive in a fight. Plus, a Burden of the Destroyer and Sparkfire Shotgun build might welcome the extra defense needed to get up close and personal safely. Invader builds might also appreciate the extra Stamina and movement speed, as well as the DR and Health needed to tank an extra hit.
