Items

Items in SMITE are objects and artifacts that provide special benefits and/or abilities to a god beyond their basic capabilities.

Description
Items allow gods to increase their statistics and empower their attack and defense. They are only available for purchase at the item store inside the fountains area on each base. Items cost Gold to purchase and upgrade, and they can be sold back for 66% of the original cost. In the case of accidental purchases, players can also Undo all recently bought items as long as they haven't left their fountain or activated the item's effect.

Any items grayed out and unselectable are those that are disabled for the player's god or for that particular game mode (for example, certain melee exclusive items being unavailable for ranged gods). There are also some items that can only be purchased after reaching a specific god level, these items will display a padlock on top of the item's icon.

Items are arranged into three main categories: Consumable items, Relics, and Passive items.

Consumable items
Consumables are one-time use items that are removed on activation. Gods can only carry two different consumables at a time, but can usually buy multiple of the one consumable up to it maximum cap. Wards and Sentry Wards are an exception to this as players can only carry two wards and one sentry ward at any time. Some consumables won't be available for purchase until after reaching a certain level.

Chalices are special early game consumables that allow players to invest an initially large amount of gold for items that behave like a stack of Potions or Wards. Unlike regular consumables, once all chalice charges are consumed, the item isn't removed but becomes temporarily unusable. Stacks are automatically refilled when re-entering a friendly fountain. The drawback is that selling the chalices yields no gold in return (however, if the player hasn't left their fountain or consumed any charges, the purchase can safely be undone).

Relics
Relics are a type of activable items that grant useful extra abilities. Once used they will go onto cooldown before they can be used again. All players start with an empty Relic slot and a Vision Shard relic. Players can fill the empty slot with any relic for free, and at level 12 the Vision Shard relic can also be replaced with any other relic for no cost. Relics can be upgraded with 500 gold, increasing their potency or giving them additional effects. These upgraded effects are shown on the relic's description in yellow. Upgraded relics will inherit any remaining cooldown from the original one. If one changes their mind or selects the wrong relic, it can still be sold back and switched as long as the player hasn't left the fountain or used it, as doing either will lock the relic in for the rest of the match.

Passive items
Passive items are the most prevalent in the game. Each one provides bonuses to one or more statistics. Each god can only hold up to six different Passive items. While most Passive items can be acquired by anyone, there are a number of items that are restricted to gods with a certain type of power (Physical or Magical); these are mostly the ones that provide Power, Lifesteal or Penetration bonuses of a specific power type.

Passive items are classified in different categories based on what stats they provide: Offensive, Defensive and Utility.
 * Offensive items provide boosts to stats related to attack and damage output (Physical & Magical Power, Attack Speed, Critical Strike Chance, etc.).
 * Defensive items provide bonuses to stats related to defense and self-preservation (Physical & Magical Protection, Health and HP5).
 * Utility items provide boosts for miscellaneous stats (Cooldown Reduction, MP5, Movement Speed, etc.) or provide supportive and team beneficial bonuses (like Aura effects).

Passive items come in what is referred to as Item Trees, begining with weak but cheap Tier I items which have branching upgrades, giving access to one or more Tier II items which then also branch out into powerful Tier III items. Beyond strong stat boosts, Tier III items usually provide unique Passive effects, like auras or "on ability use" effects, and more. There are also some Tier II items referred to as "bridge" items, which are cost efficient and grant useful passive effects. Players can usually carry more than one item from the same item tree, but they can't acquire two of the exact same item or a lower-tier item if all of its upgrades were already obtained or are unavailable. There are some item trees, such as the Boots/Shoes and the Mask trees that limit players to only one item in that tree.

Starter items
Starter items are a special type of passive item that provide bonuses and unique passive effects for specific roles that are most useful on the early stages of a match but gradually become less impactful as time goes by. These items can then be upgraded at level 20 to gain new strong effects (support oriented starters can be upgraded at level 17). Once a starter item is selected, all other starter items will become unavailable.

Starter items are categorized by role, and associated with a color:
 * Carry Starters (Orange): Items aimed for the duo/long lane, it includes Death's Toll, Gilded Arrow and Leather Cowl and their upgrades.
 * Solo Starters (Red): Items aimed for the solo/short lane, it includes Warrior's Axe, Bluestone Pendant, Warding Sigil and their upgrades.
 * Mid Starters (Blue): Items aimed for the middle lane, it includes Vampiric Shroud, Sands of Time, Conduit Gem and their upgrades.
 * Jungle Starters (Yellow): Items aimed for junglers, it includes Bumba's Dagger, Eye of the Jungle, Manikin Scepter and their upgrades.
 * Support Starters (Green): Items aimed for the duo/long lane, it includes Sentinel's Gift, Benevolence, War Flag and their upgrades.
 * Neutral Starters (Purple): Items aimed at no role in particular, it includes Tainted Steel and its upgrades.