Relic Vault is a metal detecting app with a clear organizational spine. From the bottom navigation bar you move between five core areas: Home, Detectors, Journal, Collection, and Profile. Each section is clearly labeled and logically grouped, so flipping between logging a new find and checking your detector setup never feels like a detour.
Managing Finds and Equipment
The My Detectors screen lets you add and track your equipment by name and date — a Garrett ACE 150 appears in the demo, listed with a clean entry row and a chevron for deeper detail. Finds are logged with photos from multiple angles, tagged by category (Coin, Other, and condition grades like Good), and stamped with a date. The standout feature on the find detail screen is AI Expertise: tap a golden button and the app delivers AI-powered historical analysis, a value estimate, and care tips for whatever you've just pulled out of the ground. For anyone who's held an old coin and wondered what it actually is, that's a genuinely useful tool.
Profiles, Stats, and Learning
- Your personal profile tracks finds, hunts, and detectors at a glance
- Data can be exported or fully cleared from a dedicated settings panel
- The app includes biographical profiles of real-world detectorists — Terry Herbert, discoverer of the Staffordshire Hoard, appears as a fully fleshed example with a biography, a list of famous finds, and a "Read more" option
- Field Notes inside the profile screen offer short, practical session tips, such as running a noise cancel before every hunt
The Egyptian visual theme is richly executed — golden scarab icon, temple interiors, ankh symbols, Anubis heads, pharaoh masks — but the heavy layering of decorative imagery does create some friction for accessibility. Screen readers may struggle with the ornate multi-layered layouts, and some decorative fonts are harder to parse at smaller sizes. It's a trade-off the app makes consciously in favor of atmosphere.
Design and Atmosphere
The color palette — golden yellow, deep orange, blue, and black — runs consistently across every screen, from feature illustrations to interface chrome. Promotional screens set scrolls and artifacts against Egyptian temple interiors or desert horizons with distant pyramids. It's a cohesive visual identity that makes the act of cataloguing finds feel closer to archaeology than record-keeping. Navigation targets are well-sized, and the hierarchy of information stays logical even when the backgrounds are busy. Users with certain types of color blindness may find the heavy gold-and-orange reliance less distinguishable, which is worth noting given how much the design leans on color to separate elements.