Overview
Artifacts impact different attributes for your Units and Sector. Fight enemies, capture and control Warp Gates, Pits, Marauder Bays or ISS to acquire new Artifacts. Build an Artifact Facility to store and use the Artifacts you find. Construct the Industrial Syndicate to locate and capture different Artifact sites throughout the Map.You can sell Artifacts that you don't want to use for Resources. Go to the Artifact Facility, select an Artifact you would like to sell, and click the "Sell" button. Note that you cannot sell a temporary Artifact that has been activated.
Effects
Artifacts can do several different things. Some offer Offensive bonuses, while others improve the Defensive attributes of various units. Other Artifacts mainly improve the Industrial performance characteristics for your entire Sector (resource production, Defense bonuses, etc.).To use an Artifact, place it into any open Activation slot on the Activation Board at your Artifact Facility. You have 6 Activation Slots in total, and can use no more than two Artifacts of the same category simultaneously. For example: 2 Offensive artifacts, 2 Defensive, 2 Industrial.
Power
Depending on Artifacts' power there are Basic, Compound and Legendary Artifacts. Basic Artifacts possess little but stable effect. Compound Artifacts have both strong positive and negative effects. Legendary Artifacts are extremely rare and powerful and are the hardest to find in the Wasteland.Quality
Depending on the strength and characteristics of a given Artifact, it can be classified as either Serial, Special, Elite or Unique - in order of potency. Each of these categories include more commonly found items and a few highly sought after rare items. These have stronger positive attributes, but at the same time are much harder to find.Artifacts as a Prize of War
Fighting with other Sectors, Deposits, or Artifact Sites is one way to acquire new Artifacts. Your Combat Advisor will brief you following each Battle. If there is a blue highlight exclamation point next to the report instead of the normal red one, it means you have claimed a new Artifact!Open the report and read the description of your prize in the top window. You have a chance to claim and Artifact regardless of the outcome of an engagement. Remember: In order to keep your new Artifact you must go to your Artifact Facility and either use it immediately, or move in to your Repository or it will disappear in 48 hours - you can go there directly from the Combat Advisor's report.
Artifacts at Sites
Warp Gates, Marauder Bays, Pits, and ISS are all sites where you can find Artifacts on the Map. They essentially function like a normal Deposit. Capture one of them and control it for at least 1 hour to begin trying to salvage Artifacts. After the first hour, you can try to detect an Artifact by clicking the 'Search' button.The longer you occupy an Artifact Site, the higher your chances of successfully detecting an Artifact for each attempt. You are allowed one detecting attempt per hour. Once you've successfully detected an Artifact, you will receive a report from your Trade Advisor. Remember: In order to keep your new Artifact you must go to your Artifact Facility and either use it immediately, or move in to your Repository or it will disappear in 48 hours - you can go there directly from the Trade Advisor's report.