If you are like many players, you have no doubt stumbled upon an artifact in Rift and had no idea what to do with it or what it is used for. In this Rift Artifacts guide, I will be going over what artifacts are, what to do with them, and where to find more of them.
Hopefully you will find this short guide useful. Don’t forget to read our other Rift guides, submit your own or add your thoughts in the discussion below.
Contents:
What are artifacts in Rift
Artifacts in Rift are rare items found throughout the world which you can use to complete “collections”. These items are found all over the world, both as objects you can loot of the ground in the most unusual locations and additionally as drops off of enemies.
Artifacts in Rift are like a mini-game of sorts. Players can travel all around the world to find them and it is a nice surprise when you bump into these while questing. Think of these as incentive to explore the world and to keep your eyes open when questing.
What are artifacts used for
When you collect an Artifact, you can “apply” it to a collection. Simply right click it and one (or more) collections will open up to which you can apply the item.
Once the item has been used on the collection, it will disappear. Each artifact can only be used once on a collection. Most collections require 6 Rift artifacts to complete.
However, there are some “rare” collections in the game (there seems to be one for each zone). This basically pulls 1-2 artifacts from each collection which can be completed in that zone and compiles them into a big, master collection (much larger than the standard 6 pieces).
Any artifact which belongs to the rare collection can be used twice (once on the master collection, and once on the artifact’s normal collection).
Once you complete a collection, you can turn these in for a reward in Sanctum (Guardians) or Meridian (Defiants). Once you enter town for the first time, you actually get a quest which introduces you to artifacts and directs you to the artifact collector for your faction.
I do not have a list of rewards in this Rift artifacts guide as the rewards seem to be a bit random. You get a bag which contains a few random items, a few gold, and a lucky coin.
Sometimes, the random item can be something really good (I have seen people get BoE epics out of these before!) so collections are indeed worth turning in. The lucky coin is a special currency which can be used to purchase cool rewards.
Save your coins as the best rewards cost a lot of lucky coins! There is a 110% speed mount which requires 100 lucky coins. I believe most players will be wanting this at some point!
Where To Find Artifacts
Many players are looking for the specific locations of all the artifacts in Rift. Unfortunately, I do not have a complete list of all of the artifact locations as all of the artifacts have simply not been found yet as there are literally hundreds (if not thousands) in-game.
However, there are a few locations where you can be practically guaranteed to find artifacts:
- From Rift invaders. Each element has its own collection, and this collection is tiered. For example, level 10 Fire plane invaders in Silverwood drop different artifacts from level 20 Fire plane invaders in Gloamwood.
- Along the roads, especially at the foot of trees and behind logs. Keep your eyes peeled when walking down the road; there is a surprising number of artifacts along the road in Rift. You usually have to pan your camera to look behind rocks and logs; they are usually hidden in some way. I have found about a dozen this way in Silverwood and Gloamwood alone.
- Near any “boss” quest mobs. Any time you fight a single monster for a quest, especially one at the end of the cave or at the top of a tower, there is a very good chance you will find an artifact nearby. Check behind all the rocks at the end of every cave in the game and you are likely to find one.
- Near static quest objectives. Artifacts always seem to be nearby certain quest objectives which do not move locations after being used. For example, I found 2 artifacts atop the towers at the Aelfwar fort while doing the quest which involved looting the tablets at the top of each tower.
After reading this Rift Artifact guide, you should have a pretty good idea of what Artifacts are, what they are used for, and how to find more.
Keep in mind that you can buy and sell artifacts by trading with other players, so you actually do not have to find all the artifacts yourself! By applying the tips above, you should get enough artifacts to trade with other players to complete all your collections!
