Artifacts are passive items in Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor that change how your dwarf fights, moves, mines or survives during a dive, which is the game's name for one full run. Each one gives you a bonus, and many come with a drawback you have to weigh. They come in two rarities, Rare and Epic.
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How Artifacts Work in Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor
Each artifact is a passive effect that stays active for the rest of the dive. Most raise a stat, like damage, movement speed, max health or critical hit chance. Others only work under a certain condition, such as standing still or taking a hit. Many also build up in stacks, so the effect grows each time it triggers. The trade-off is what makes choosing tricky. Ammo Rig, for example, boosts fire rate by 50% but slows your movement by 15%, so you have to ask whether the speed loss is worth it for how you play.
Rare and Epic artifacts play differently. Rare artifacts usually give you a straight boost with no real drawback, so they fit into most builds without much fuss. Epic artifacts hit harder, and about half of them ask you to give something up, such as max health, mining speed or movement. Some artifacts also work well together, so it helps to think about what you already have before taking the next one.
How to Get Artifacts From Supply Pods
Artifacts come from Supply Pods that land during a dive. When you reach one, you get three artifacts to choose from, and they are only drawn from the ones you have already unlocked. You take one, and it stays with you for the rest of the dive.
How to Unlock More Artifacts
Four artifacts are ready from the start: Clipboard of Grudges, Red Sugar Cube, Vita-miner Pills and XP Scanner. The rest stay locked until you complete the milestone attached to each one. The goals vary a lot. Some ask for a feat in a single dive, like dodging 100 times or reaching level 50. Others count your total over time, like dealing 250,000 fire damage.
Unlocking more is worth the effort because Supply Pods only ever draw from the artifacts you have unlocked. Each new unlock adds to that pool, so the choices you see become more varied over time. A bigger pool also gives you more ways to build a run that suits how you play.
How Nitra and Gold Tie Into Artifacts
Nitra is a resource you collect during a dive by mining its veins, and you spend it on weapon upgrades between stages. The Nitra Scanner and Gold Scanner give plain rock a small chance to drop extra Nitra or Gold while you mine.
That makes carried resources a real choice. Every Nitra you spend on an upgrade is one you are not holding for artifacts like Nitragenic Powder and Pickled Nitra, which get stronger the more Nitra you carry. Gold-Tipped Bullets works the same way with Gold. If you build around those artifacts, save some of the resource instead of spending all of it.
Which Artifacts Are Worth Picking
No single artifact fits every build, but a few stand out. Energy Bars adds 1% damage for each level you gain and costs 3 max health per level, so it grows stronger the longer your dive runs, though the health loss adds up too. Pickled Nitra adds 2% damage for every Nitra you hold and takes away 0.5% movement speed for each one, so it suits a run where you save Nitra. 5 Leaf Clover is a strong early pick, since its 15 Luck helps you land better upgrades and each reroll adds 20 more Luck for 5 seconds.
Pay2Win Console is a dependable damage pick if you reroll often, since every reroll adds 2.5% damage, up to 100 rerolls. Diver's Manual is the easy Rare choice, adding 10% damage and reload speed, plus 5% critical hit chance and 15% critical hit damage, with no drawback.
If you run a status or elemental build, Chemist Kit and the fire or cold Shield Belts boost that kind of damage, but they do little for other builds. Weapon Box is more of a gamble, since it adds an extra level 6 weapon with a random overclock that can be a big help or a dud. Squint-EE5 gives a large jump in critical hit chance and damage, but it cuts your damage by 30%, so it only fits builds that land a lot of crits.
FAQ
Which Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor artifacts are easiest to unlock?
The easiest goals are the ones you will hit during normal play. Diver's Manual unlocks after you die three times, and the Company-issued Magnet needs you to collect 25 magnets. Gold Scanner and Nitra Scanner ask for 250 Gold and 250 Nitra, which are small totals next to the bigger goals.
Which artifacts are the hardest to unlock?
Pay2Win Console has the largest Gold goal, since it needs you to spend 20,000 Gold. Chemist Kit asks for 2,500,000 status effect damage in a single dive, Popup Tripod wants 15,000 kills made while standing still, and Weapon Box needs 10 total Mastery Points. Treat these as long-term goals that will take many dives.
Can you use more than one artifact in a single run?
Yes. A full dive can stack several artifacts into one build, so it is worth thinking about how they work together. The MoCap and Salty Pretzel, for example, both get stronger as your health drops, so taking both rewards you for fighting at low health.