This guide will provide you with basic information about how artifacts work in Genshin Impact.
Genshin Impact has been a popular action RPG game for almost a year and a half now. The storyline, quests, and the combat system are pretty unique in-game. Besides weapons and elements, Genshin Impact’s Artifact system makes up the core of your character’s combat abilities. Artifacts are accessories equipped to characters to gain bonus stats.
This is a guide to how Artifacts work in Genshin Impact.
Read More: Genshin Impact Beginner’s Guide 2022
How Artifacts Work in Genshin Impact
Artifacts can either make or break your character’s performance in Genshin Impact, so it’s essential to understand how they work and what they do in-game. In Genshin Impact, each character has five different slots for artifacts. They are listed below-
| Artifact Type | Main Stats |
|---|---|
| Flower of Life | Flat HP |
| Plume of Death | Flat ATK |
| Sands of Eon | ATK%, DEF%, HP%, Elemental Mastery, Energy Recharge |
| Goblet of Eonothem | ATK%, DEF%, HP%, Elemental Mastery, Elemental DMG Bonus |
| Circlet of Logos | ATK%, DEF%, HP%, Elemental Mastery, Energy Recharge, CRIT Rate, CRIT DMG, or Healing Bonus |
Flower of Life increases HP as the main stat.
Plume of Death increases ATK as the main stat.
Sands of Eon randomly increase ATK%, DEF%, HP%, Energy Recharge, or Elemental Mastery as the main stat.
Goblet of Eonothem randomly increases Elemental DMG Bonus, ATK%, DEF%, HP%, or Elemental Mastery as the main stat.
Circlet of Logos randomly increases CRIT Rate, CRIT DMG, ATK%, DEF%, HP%, Healing Bonus, or Elemental Mastery as the main stat.
Main Stats
Flowers and Plumes always have a flat HP and Attack main stat. Sands, Goblet, and Circlet’s main stat will be random depending on the artifact drops.
Sub Stats
Sub stats add another layer of RNG to your artifacts. The number of sub-stats and the stat enchantments depends on the rarity of the artifact. Besides elemental DMG bonus, sub-stats can be anything depending on the enchantments and rarity of the artifact.
Artifact Set Bonus
Each artifact set will grant a unique bonus to your character if you have two or more artifacts of the same set equipped. Artifacts grant these unique bonuses if you slot two artifacts of a particular set. But if you slot four artifacts of the same set, you will gain another bonus. So artifact sets can grant you two types of set bonuses, 2-piece or 4-piece set bonuses.
If equipped correctly, you can use two artifacts of different sets to get two unique bonuses for your character.
Read More: Top 10 Best Supports in Genshin Impact
Upgrade Level and Substats
Artifacts can be leveled up in Genshin Impact. The only way to level up an artifact is by sacrificing other artifacts. The more artifacts you collect, the more you’ll be able to upgrade your existing artifacts. Upgrade levels, as well as the number of sub-stats, depend on the rarity of the artifact. The higher rarity artifacts will grant you more sub-stats and upgrade levels.
| Rarity | Base Number of Sub Stats | Max Upgrade Level |
| ★ | 0 | +4 |
| ★★ | 0-1 | +4 |
| ★★★ | 1-2 | +12 |
| ★★★★ | 2-3 | +16 |
| ★★★★★ | 3-4 | +20 |
What Artifact Sets Should You Use In Early Game
Farming for artifacts is a very tiring and time-consuming activity in Genshin Impact and a frustrating one. That being said, players should not farm artifacts early on in the game. The artifacts you get from exploring the world or defeating bosses are good enough to equip on your characters early.
Artifacts such as Resolution of Sojourner, the Instructor, and the Berserker set gives you ATK%, Elemental Mastery, and CRIT DMG or Rate%. These are pretty good artifact sets for early game builds.
Below, we provided a list of 3 and 4-star artifacts that you can get early in the game for your characters.
Should You Farm Artifacts Early Game?
No, you should not. We don’t recommend farming for artifacts separately in the early game because of low rarity artifact drops.
Once you hit Adventure Rank 40, the domains will drop legendary artifacts. But do not farm for artifacts until you reach Adventure Rank 45. Because at AR45, 5-star artifact drop rates are 100%, with a 10% chance of a double legendary drop.
So we recommend farming for artifacts after you reach Adventure Rank 45.
Keep an eye on GameRiv because we will release a detailed artifacts guide for every type of character in-game in a future guide!
Read More: Genshin Impact Redeem Codes March 2022: Free Primogems, Mora, Exp Books & More
