What Are Genshin Impact Artifacts & How To Use Them

When I first got started in Genshin Impact, I certainly wasn’t prepared for the complexity of its systems. From gameplay to Artifacts, there is plenty to learn – and it can be overwhelming if you are new to the game. Thankfully, we can break it down for you.

There are multiple ways to power up your characters Genshin Impact, and they all interconnect. Knowing the basics will enhance the player’s start and lead to an easier time later on in the game. One of the important ways to buff a character’s stats is through the use of artifacts.

Related: Best Dehya build in Genshin Impact

What are Artifacts in Genshin Impact

Artifacts are objects that boost a character’s stats. They can be found while exploring and completing quests and domains in Genshin Impact. There are five types of artifacts available. Characters can equip one of each. The five types are:

• Flower
• Feather
• Sands
• Goblet
• Circlet

Each artifact will have a Main Stat and Sub-Stats that will correspond to the type of artifact and its rarity. The rarity level is measured by how many stars it has – with 5x stars being the max rarity. The more rare an artifact is, the higher the stats it will provide and the higher the max level it will have.

Main Stats of Artifacts in Genshin Impact

An Artifact’s Main Stats indicate what boost the character will receive. The correlation of Main Stats to artifacts is the following:

Flower and Feather artifacts in Genshin Impact have Flat HP and Flat ATK Main Stat values respectively, and the value of the stat will stay constant. All others will have more variety of possible Main Stats available with the Goblet having the most options. Due to the nature of the Flower and Feather’s stagnate Main Stat, players have the option to be picky about the sub-stats those artifacts have to offer.

Artifacts possessing an elemental bonus will only have that boost for a specific element and not elemental damage in general. In addition, players must keep in mind that all stats are randomized. Players can have two of the same artifact in their inventory, but each artifact can have different stats and values. Players have no control over what artifact’s stats spawn.

Sub Stats of Artifacts in Genshin Impact

Artifacts in Genshin Impact will have 3 to 4 sub-stats in addition to the Main Stat. All types of artifacts can have any one of the sub-stats but they can not be the same as the Main Stat and can’t be a duplicate on the same artifact. Less rare artifacts will start with fewer sub-stats. However, as they are enhanced, artifacts will gain sub-stats until they hit the 4 max. Then every 4 levels, an artifact will have a random sub-stat upgrade.

The type and value of sub-stat a player is looking for will depend on their play style and the characters they are using. The consensus has ranked each sub-stat by basic usefulness with flat-valued HP, ATK, and DEF as the least useful and Critical Damage and Critical Rate being the most useful. The ranking is as follows:

• Flat HP, ATK, and DEF
• HP% and DEF%
• ATK%, Energy Recharge, and Elemental Mastery
• Critical Damage and Critical Rate

However, Genshin Impact players do need to take into account what each character has in terms of talents, constellations, and other abilities to determine what artifacts and stats they equip.

Artifact Sets in Genshin Impact

Each artifact belongs to an artifact set in Genshin Impact. Each set will have four to five pieces and will give set boosts when two or more pieces of the set are equipped. These boosts will occur when either two or four pieces are being used on one character. A player will not get an additional boost when all five pieces are used.

Because there is no additional boost for having all five of a set, players have wiggle room for that fifth piece. This is called an Off-piece. This artifact can be a part of a different set, but will have the more desired stats than the last and possibly unneeded fifth piece of the set. Typically, the goblet artifact becomes the Off-piece because of the variety of Main Stats.

There are problems with artifact sets in Genshin Impact. While having the set boosts will be a great enhancement to gameplay, finding the set pieces with the right stats is a challenge, and finding 5-star versions of the set even more so. The greater the variety of stats, the harder it is to find exactly what you need, making the sands, goblets, and circle artifacts the biggest challenge to pin down.

Farming Artifacts and the Artifact Strongbox in Genshin Impact

Players can go on the hunt for their desired artifacts and stats in Genshin Impact. To do so, players can complete domains and boss fights. Each boss will drop two artifacts of the same set. Additionally, domains will each have their own two pieces of a set and a possible 5-star drop.

Using the Artifact Strongbox will allow players to exchange three 5x star artifacts for a 5x star artifact from a set of their choosing. However, not every set is included. When players are at a high enough Adventure Rank, using the farming and Strongbox combo will increase the chances of finding the right artifacts.

We suggest waiting to farm for artifacts in Genshin Impact until a player is at Adventure Rank 45. This will allow players to get into the higher levels of domains and increase their chances of a 5 star artifact spawn. Additionally, players are unable to craft the Strongbox until AR45.

Players must know when to settle for what they have. They can go on the hunt for the artifacts for hours and still not find that “perfect” one. The randomization of stats for each artifact makes it almost impossible to find exactly what you are looking for. Settling for an artifact that’s good enough will save hours and lead to a more enjoyable experience.

Building a Character with Artifacts in Genshin Impact

The best way to build a character in Genshin Impact is to find build guides for individual characters. However, if experimenting with different artifact combos is more your style, then the best place is a character’s talent descriptions. These breakdowns have details explaining every character’s power. For example, Thoma has shielding abilities which would work best with HP and DEF boosts with an Elemental Recharge.

Creating an Attack Build

Players should find a character whose talents align more with offense skills. From there, finding artifacts with ATK%, Elemental or Physical DMG bonuses, and Crit Rate and Crit DMG stats will be the best options. Players will find that the best artifacts for finding these stats are with Goblets and Circlets at higher levels. Finding artifacts with Elemental Recharge or Elemental Mastery is helpful as well.

Creating a Support Build

When creating a support build, players should find characters that naturally have support-like abilities. Equip artifacts with HP% and Healing bonuses to characters who have shielding abilities which will allow them to take more damage. Additionally, equipping a supporting character with Elemental Recharge and Elemental DMG will make it so their elemental burst is always at the ready. These support builds would also work well with artifacts that help boost the whole team.

Artifacts are a bit complicated when first starting, but with a basic understanding, it becomes much easier to know what to look for. Equipping different artifacts at the start of the game will not hold as much importance as later down the line. Because of this, players should practice equipping optimal artifacts as soon as possible to help with gameplay as Genshin Impact continues to expand its world.