Risk of Rain 2 recently released an artifact system that allows players to modify their runs in unique ways. Making enemies drop items, making enemies double her size, making all enemies elite, etc. are possible examples.
Players can unlock these artifacts by entering hidden codes in Sky Meadow Zones scattered throughout the game. Most of the time, some kind of trade-off is involved to prevent the game from being objectively easier, but not always. Some of the artifacts are more focused on making the game more engaging, while others make high-end execution much easier to achieve. Here, we’ve ranked all of Risk of Rain 2’s artifacts by their impact on difficulty. Artifacts that are more beneficial to the player will appear higher in the list.
Update May 24, 2023 by Amanda Hurich: Risk of Rain 2 is just as fun as ever, but using artifacts while running makes it twice as fun. Artifacts not only make some runs easier, but combining them can lead to a hell of a challenge if you’re so inclined. Polished this article to further emphasize artifact descriptions in this ranking.
16 Artifact of Weakness
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Artifact of Weakness |
Fall damage is doubled and deadly. |
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Artifact of Frailty is much scarier than you think. If you accidentally jump out of the map, your health will effectively drop to zero. If you take damage before falling off the map, you die and your run ends. Unless you’re playing Loader, this artifact is a game changer and forces you to stick to the ground. This is not for the faint of heart.
15 artifact of death
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artifact of death |
When one player dies, everyone dies. |
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This is self-explanatory. When playing solo, death artifacts do nothing. If someone dies but still has Dio’s best friend, the run continues at the expense of the item.
14 Artifact of Cacophony
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Artifact of Cacophony |
Monsters can appear outside the normal environment. |
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Risk of Rain has a wide variety of enemies 2However, many players agree that the first loop of the run is rather boring due to the lack of items and the variety of enemies.
Artifact of Dissonance fixes the latter, allowing any kind of enemy to spawn in any biome. You can now fight imps in the first zone, hermit crabs in the second zone, or brass contraptions at the start. Overall, activating this makes the game much more difficult, but Masters of Risk of Rain 2 who can maximize their character’s abilities will find this artifact a breath of fresh air.
13 artifact of evolution
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artifact of evolution |
Monsters acquire items between stages. |
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Is the game still too easy for you? Consider activating evolution artifacts for a really crazy run. This artifact gives items to monsters after each stage.
Just like your character, monsters can also get buffs from items to make their attacks more deadly. They can get almost any item in the game, and their equipment strength is 3-4 times stronger than his in your equipment. The result is a chaotic run with Wisps spawning stickybombs and bosses firing his AtG missiles. Only use this if you really want a chaotic run, as activating this will not drop items on death.
Monsters acquire items in each stage and perform this order repeatedly until the run ends.
Common -> Common -> Uncommon -> Uncommon -> Legendary -> Repeat
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artifact of transformation |
Players always spawn as random survivors. |
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Metamorphose spawns you as a random survivor in each stage. You can start a level as a commando, become a loader in the second stage, huntless in the third, and so on. Luckily, all items are preserved when you switch characters. Skills at your disposal are tied to the survivor you are playing at the moment.
The proficiency required to successfully perform Metamorphosis is fairly high. Certain strategies don’t work here, like layering the Engineer with buzzing fungi. It definitely makes the game harder, but it’s also very diverse and requires each survivor’s skill set to be mastered.
11 spiteful artifact
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spiteful artifact |
Enemies drop multiple explosive bombs upon death. |
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Eliminating large groups of enemies comes with the risk of death. Every enemy that dies drops at least one bomb that he detonates after ricocheting three times. Certain enemies can drop multiple bombs, which detonate when killing hordes of enemies. This makes the game itself objectively difficult, requiring frequent position changes. However, combine this with Artifact of Chaos for a hilarious run.
Ten Enigma Artifact
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Enigma Artifact |
Spawns with random equipment that changes each time it is launched. |
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All gear can be obtained from Artifacts of Enigma, except Milky Chrysalis, Crowdfunder, and Statue of Sorrow. Lunar items such as Spinal Tonic can be obtained through this Artifact. While this is a pretty fun way to mix up the game, this artifact discrepancy makes the game slightly harder than usual.
9 Artifact of Chaos
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Artifact of Chaos |
Friendly fire works equally well on both survivors and monsters. |
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When playing Risk of Rain 2 alone, Artifact of Chaos isn’t a bad idea. This artifact allows friendly fire for both you and your enemies.
This means that multiplayer matches will test everyone’s patience and become almost unplayable in later stages, but this is a great choice for solo players. Enemies can be used as bait to shoot each other, or they can be used as pseudo cover to change how you move during engagements. Elite enemies that set nearby targets on fire or generate area freeze blasts also affect enemies, making the early game more interesting. Be careful with your items and companions as they can easily kill you if you are not careful. Engineer turrets and friendly AI will not intentionally attack you, but will take damage if in line of fire.
8 Kin Artifact
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relic of gold |
There is only one type of monster per stage. |
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Only one type of monster will spawn per zone when this modifier is enabled. For example, if the game selects his regular Wisps, only his regular Wisps will spawn in the rest of the zone.
This modifier ignores enemy variants, so don’t expect a Greater Wisp to spawn if a Lesser Wisp is selected. Still, this could result in some compelling runs where the player only fights his Bettle Guard or Brass Contraptions. On average, running is a lot harder, but that makes it all the more appealing.
7 Artifact of Vengeance
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Artifact of Vengeance |
A relentless doppelganger invades every ten minutes. |
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Another modifier that makes the game harder is the Artifact of Vengeance, which spawns a doppelganger every 10 minutes and attacks relentlessly.
This doppelganger uses your skills, equipment and items. If you use the Gesture of the Drowned to activate your equipment every 0.5 seconds, your doppelganger will do the same. This creates intense matches against yourself and makes all other zones more interesting. If you find Monsoon running too easy, use this artifact to modify it. When you defeat your doppelganger, you can randomly obtain the item that the doppelganger had. Also note that doppelgangers count as bosses, so armor-piercing bullets and similar items work against bosses.
6 soul artifact
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soul artifact |
Wisps appear from defeated monsters. |
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Whenever an enemy dies, a Spiritual Wisp is deployed in its place. Has the same health and behavior as the Lesser Wisp, but does not drop gold or his XP when killed. Also, it will not drop items if Artifact of Sacrifice is active.
Five Artifact of Honor
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Artifact of Honor |
Enemies can only spawn as elite. |
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Enemies will only spawn as Elites while Artifact of Honor is active. Elite enemies have special modifiers that make them much tougher than regular monsters. Elite enemies do not drop increased gold or XP like normal, although they are more difficult to defeat.
Since most elite enemies have more than double the health of regular mobs, this makes starting the game significantly more difficult. Advantages are many items such as Wake of Vultures and Old Guillotine that give great buffs against elite enemies. Acquiring great items, this modifier will ultimately benefit your running. However, in the early stages, this artifact makes the game significantly more difficult.
Four Artifact of Sacrifice
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Artifact of Sacrifice |
Monsters drop items on death, but chests no longer spawn. |
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This is where the artifact shines brightest. Artifact of Sacrifice completely changes the way you play. While active, enemies have a chance to drop items on death. Instead, no chests will spawn.
Few items spawn at the start of the run, but quickly increase as the difficulty increases and the number of enemies increases. Elite enemies are also much more likely to drop items. So this Artifact synergizes well with Artifact of Honor. You can spend more money on shrines and drones than before, as items drop from enemies instead of chests.
Artifact of Swarms halves the drop chance of Artifact of Sacrifice.
3 glass artifact
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glass artifact |
Allies deal 500% damage but have 10% health. |
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Shaped Glass is one of Risk of Rain 2’s most powerful items, halving health in exchange for double damage. If you don’t want to buy this item every time you run it, consider running Artifact of Glass instead.
While active, deal 500% more damage, but retain 10% of your total health. This artifact also disables one-shot protection. This means that a single attack from him that depletes his total health will instantly kill him instead of reducing him to 1 HP. It makes the game much harder in the early stages of the game, but the trade-off is a much faster game due to the massive increase in damage. Slow startup is less of an issue while this artifact is active.
2 crowd artifact
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Herd Artifact |
The number of monster spawns is doubled, but the maximum health of monsters is halved. |
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Probably the most fun modifier in Risk of Rain 2, Artifact of Swarms doubles the number of enemy spawns and cuts the health pool of all monsters, including bosses, in half.
This modifier makes proc-based items more powerful as more enemies spawn in each area. Unfortunately, the sacrificial artifact halves the drop chance provided by this artifact. Despite its negatives, the Artifact of Swarms makes the chain effect stronger and makes the early stages more interesting.
1 Command Artifact
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Command Artifact |
Please select an item. |
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Almost every artifact in Risk of Rain 2 makes the game difficult in some way. The only downside to Artifact of Command is deciding what to use.
Items you interact with now prompt you what you want instead of giving random drops. In other words, if a common item drops, you can choose an item of common rarity, if a rarity item drops, you can choose rare, and so on. It’s easier than ever to experiment with builds and virtually eliminates reliance on RNGs, allowing less skilled and newer players to reach higher than normal waves.