Risk Of Rain Returns offers even more artefacts from its precursors, and each one can alter your experience drastically until you feel as if you’re playing an entirely different game. Every artefact in-game is unique and offers you something the others don’t, and this makes them vary in their practicality and added challenges. I will attempt here to rank, from good to best, the top 10 artefacts available to discover in the hidden away nooks of Petrichor V and where to find them. Happy hunting, survivor.
“Secret tunnel~”
10) Tempus
“Strike a pose”
Tempus makes it so all items are temporary and worth multiple stacks.
This, particularly difficult to find, artefact offers stacks of temporary items when otherwise you would collect a single normal one. This doesn’t provide much benefit outside of the fact that you are granted multiple items but the fleeting nature of said items makes it close to redundant.
Tempus is great for:
- When you also use the artefact Sacrifice. The rate at which enemies can be defeated in the early stages, makes this artefact much more useful due to the drop rate and progression speed, making the temporary item effect less detrimental.
- Adept players. Having a time limit on any item is a curse to all, however, gaining stacks in place of this makes this a juggling act of time management and skill.
- A more entertaining experience. Yes; this artefact adds stress to the already taxing Risk of Rain experience, but knowing you can proceed while acknowledging its difficulty? That’s fun.
- Tempus can be found in the Temple of Elders stage but only before 16 minutes on the timer. It is located inside the middle tower, behind a hole in the back wall.
9) Origin
“We all start somewhere”
The artefact of Origin causes Imps to invade the map every 10 minutes.
If there’s a way to remind yourself of the time, this is it. Providing the interesting luxury of assaulting you with a small army of Imps. This may be a negative effect for some but if used properly, this onslaught can be a gift. If you’ve collected the 56 Leaf Clover in this run the Imps provide a huge opportunity to gain more useful items, even more if Sacrifice is active.
Origin is great for:
- A multiplayer challenge. When playing with others you might find that the teleporter event isn’t as much of a stimulating challenge as you’d hoped, this artefact changes that for better or worse.
- Resource farming. The large number of Imps invading the map provides a large amount of both gold and experience, both necessary for survival.
- Item gain. The more 56 Leaf Clovers you've collected the more likely you are to receive items from the elite Imps that you defeat during this event.
The artefact of Origin is acquired by defeating Providence with the following artefacts: Honor, Kin, Distortion, Spite, Glass, Enigma, Sacrifice, Command, and Spirit.
8) Enigma
“Not so enigmatic now”
The Artefact of Enigma makes all players spawn with a random equipment item that changes every time it's activated.
For those particularly indecisive survivors, Enigma offers an original playthrough each time it’s selected. Its random effect makes it an interesting choice, as the player, you need to adapt to it rather than the traditional method of your build ever-changing to fit within your playstyle. There is no real way of working around its transitional nature, but it does have a feature that when equipment barrels are bought, they become a Small Enigma which reduces the cooldown until the next equipment is ready to use.
Enigma is great for:
- New and exciting ways to play. The unique equipment item provided after each use allows for different techniques and metas to be discovered while playing.
- Thinking on your feet. Obviously, you can’t plan around a random effect, so this artefact requires a level of improvisation to be used to win.
- Testing equipment you may not have used before. As you play you may fall into habits where you typically use one or two equipment items and don’t experiment with new ones. Enigma forces you to change and go outside your comfort zone.
The Artefact of Enigma can be found in the Sunken Tomb at the bottom right of the map where there will be a drop to a hidden cove.
7) Glass
“He don’t bite”
The Artefact of Glass increases all damage done to the Survivor to 500% but decreases their health.
Bringing a whole new meaning to being a glass cannon, this dangerous artefact allows for a huge jump in damage - adding up to 500% more, but makes you extremely fragile in return, limiting base health to 10%. Adding more risk to your rain. A way around this nuisance may be the use of items that apply bonus health or shields, as flat health bonuses are also reduced, it’s best to default to items like the Guardian’s Heart, Tough Times, Topaz Brooch or Locked Jewel. The Infusion’s benefits are still worthwhile to some extent but that is still based on how many enemies you can defeat with the applied debuffs.
Glass is great for:
- Dispatching enemies quickly. With such a huge increase in damage, this artefact allows for base enemies to be beaten extremely quickly.
- Forcing you to focus on defence and mobility. Survivability is paramount to this artefact, as all health increases have been stunted, it’s best to focus on staying alive by any means necessary.
- Losing the fear of dying. Contrary to the last point, many players hang on to the need to survive in roguelikes, while this is a justified fear, you can always restart and adapt your tactics.
The Artefact of Glass can only be found in Ancient Valley, on the left side of the map, after hitting 5 buttons on the walls of a cave accessible by hidden walls or ropes.
6) Honour
“It’s a long way down”
Enemies always spawn as elites.
A straightforward yet extremely difficult game mode in the earlier stages. Spawning all enemies as elites has its difficulties but it does grant the player some great opportunities when they can reliably defeat the enemy. If the player found a 56 Leaf Clover items will PROC at an incredibly high rate, even more consistently than when you have the artefact of Origin activated.
Honour is great for:
- Item generation. Only after collecting the 56 Leaf Clover, does every single enemy have a chance to drop a new item.
- Testing survivor’s builds. Experimentation leads to new builds and ways to play; however, you’ll need to progress against the strongest variations of enemies to win, this game mode allows you to do that.
- Spiking the difficulty. For an added challenge, this artefact pits you against the strongest enemies you can face.
On the Desolate Forest stage, you can climb through a tunnel underneath a waterfall on the left side of the stage.
5) Kin
“Snug”
The artefact of Kin will select an enemy at the beginning of each stage and all enemies for the duration of the stage will be of that same type.
While playing Risk of Rain you’ll encounter a myriad of enemies you will need to adapt to. Kin simplifies things massively. While activated this artefact displays a singular enemy type you’ll be encountering on the HUD, making even the boss event during the teleporter a horde of this type of enemy. Depending on the enemy Kin summons, this artefact can either be a help or a hindrance, it all depends on luck.
Kin is great for:
- A predictable experience. By only spawning a single enemy, shown on the HUD as if to avoid any surprises, you can be sure that you won't get caught out by any group of varying enemies.
- Adapting playstyles to specific enemies. If you are getting repeatedly caught by your least favourite adversaries, this artefact allows you to find and practice ways to either avoid or confront them.
- Endurance. Kin, unlike most other artefacts, doesn’t make the game much harder but instead allows you to progress with relative ease.
The artefact of Kin can be found on the Dried Lake behind a breakable wall on the right side of the map.
4) Prestige
“Feller of beasts”
The Artifact of Prestige spawns at least 1 Shrine of the Mountain at every Stage. Shrine of the Mountain effects are permanent, and they stack.
For the masochistic players. This artefact offers high risk and follows with high reward, by adding one Shrine of the Mountain effect the bosses summoned increase by the same amount as activated shrines. Although the more bosses are defeated, the more items are dropped afterwards, making the progression slightly easier. Hopefully. The downside to this is that the stacks never disappearing greatly increase the overall difficulty of the teleporter events.
Prestige is great for:
- Item collection. The amount of bosses defeated guarantees an item drop, however, if the boss is a horde of regular enemies, it becomes an exceedingly difficult encounter and only drops items equivalent to how many shrines have been activated.
- Learning bosses’ move sets. Much like Kin, this artefact can be used to learn how to best deal with specific enemies, but it focuses on boss-type encounters.
- Quickened progression. With the sheer number of bosses spawning in the teleporter event and their defeat ensuring an item is dropped, the rate at which you can proceed after collecting said items quickens massively.
To unlock, get a gold rank on at least 15 Providence Trials.
3) Spite
“The things we do for artefacts”
The Artefact of Spite causes all characters, NPC and playable, to send out bouncing projectiles when killed that explode.
Spiteful by name, spiteful by nature. Spite can cause devastating interference when fighting in perilous situations but could also offer resolution due to the explosives released upon death causing indiscriminate damage. So, it's probably best to keep to long-range characters like Commando, Pilot or Sniper, so as not to get caught up in the inevitable chaos.
Spite is great for:
- Crowd control. As the bounding projectiles are released, they bounce a total of three times and consequently explode. When a large group of enemies are spread out just the defeat of one can cause a cascade.
- Long-range attacks. The explosive yield is a sure-fire way to make you keep your distance, it’s best if you use ranged survivors for this artefact.
- Consecutive kills. The bombs do not discriminate when exploding, any entity, friend or foe is likely to be caught in the crossfire.
The Artefact of Spite can be found in the lower left corner of Sky Meadow beneath a breakable floor tile and at the end of a small jumping puzzle.
2) Sacrifice
“INCOMING!”
Chests no longer spawn; monsters now drop items on death.
Sacrifice enables the defeat of enemies to become a much more pragmatic exercise, as before you could leave a stage after the teleporter event, activating this blood-thirsty artefact encourages you to seek out and kill denizens of Petrichor V for your own personal gain. You could even prolong your stay to effectively farm mobs for their precious loot. While this artefact allows the collection of items to come from combat prowess it also completely removes the spawning of chests and Shrines of Chance, making the gold collection, and the item Snake Eyes, pointless. Drones, however, still spawn, but with no other purchasable things on the map, you will have an excess of wealth to spend on them.
Sacrifice is great for:
- Item collection. Much like Prestige, this artefact lets you collect items upon enemy death, making it so you can farm enemies to receive a huge boon to your playthrough.
- Incentive to clear enemies. There are achievements for clearing a stage with no enemies present on the map and also benefits to collecting more items, so there is a positive to making sure you’ve reduced the enemy’s numbers to nothing.
- Offensive item builds. With a focus on attacking enemies to receive items, it’s better to have an item build or survivor skillset that pivots on offensive tactics for maximum rewards.
The Artefact of Sacrifice can be found in Magma Barracks by shooting 3 buttons behind walls throughout the stage.
1) Command
“Challenge? What Challenge?”
Command turns all item drops into an item selection box that has a list of all items of the same rarity that the player can pick from.
At the top spot, is Command. An artefact that lets you simply pick and choose out of all the items you’ve discovered after exploring the planet’s surface. This process takes a minuscule amount of time as you need to select an item from a list while being attacked from all angles, but the benefits far outweigh this. This artefact solely allows you to curate a build that you know will carry you to the final stages and beyond.
Command is great for:
- Supervising a specific build for any selected character. Tired of not one-shot killing your enemies with Sniper? Collect every white as a Crowbar. Huntress dropping to low health every time you’re hit? Take all the Leeching Seeds you can carry. The options are as limitless as the items you’ve unlocked.
- Removing the stress of RNG. Although intrinsic to the genre, randomised items can be a detriment to you depending on your need to win, this artefact completely removes the worry of getting something awful that will decimate your desired build. (Bundle Of Fireworks - looking at you)
- Achievement hunting. Due to the nature of picking and choosing whatever item you want, you can specifically collect items that grant achievements or unlock characters like Chef.
The Artefact of Command can be found in the Hive Cluster by going to the top right of the map where there will be vines, climbing across the vines leads you to the Artefact of Command.
If you enjoyed this article, you may also be interested in:
- [Top 15] Risk of Rain Returns Best Items In The Game (Ranked)
- [Top 10] Risk of Rain Returns Best Builds That Are Powerful
- [Top 10] Risk of Rains Return Best Characters
