Surviving each run in Risk of Rains Returns can be a bit difficult if you are not familiar with certain unlockable items and modifiers such as Artifacts. These powerful modifiers will make your roguelike campaign much more interesting and hassle-free at times. There are 14 artifacts that players can get their hands on, each providing unique effects that last throughout their run in the game.
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However, you will find the Artifacts equally difficult to come across in Risk of Rain Returns. Considering that you will need to unlock them just once to use them in any of your future runs, knowing where to find them will help you save some time for yourself. So if you are looking to add up some unique effects and want to know the locations of all these powerful items, then here is a guide you should check out further.
All Risk of Rain Returns Artifacts Location and Effects
Here is a list of all the Risk of Rain Returns Artifacts and their locations:
Artifact of Cognation
- Effect: Enemies create a temporary clone on death.
- Location: The Artifact of Cognation is located inside a hidden room in the Desolate Forest. You will be able to access the hidden room on the east side in one of the variants of the map. Inside, you will need to defeat a Golem which will drop the Artifact of Cognation in the game.
Artifact of Command
- Effect: Items are no longer random
- Location: The Artifact of Command is located in the Hive Cluster Stage. You will find the artifact on a platform on the top right side of the map. Players can access it using the disappearing vines that they will come across once they are near the artifact.
Artifact of Distortion
- Effect: Lock a random skill every minute, But skills have decreased cooldowns
- Location: Players will come across Artifact of Distortion in the Damp Cavern stage in Risk of Rain Returns. It is located on a platform and will be particularly tricky to obtain. We would suggest that you increase your sprint and jump abilities to get the artifact.
Artifact of Dissonance
- Effect: Monsters can appear outside their usual environments
- Location: The Artifact of Dissonance is shattered into 4 shards and you will need to collect them all to get it. Here are where the four shards are located in the game:
- The first shard is in the bottom left corner of the Sunken Tombs.
- The second shard is located on the top row in the Hive Cluster.
- Players will come across the third shard in the top left corner of the Ancient Valley map.
- The last shard is located in Magma Barracks.
Artifact of Enigma
- Effect: Spawn with a random equipment that changes every time it’s activated
- Location: The artifact can be unlocked in one of the variants of Sunken Tomb in the game. Head towards the bottom right corner of the map and you will find it in one of the pits.
Artifact of Glass
- Effect: Deal 500% damage, but have 10% health.
- Location: Artifact of Glass in Risk of Rain Returns can be unlocked in the Ancient Valley. Players will find the artifacts inside a cave accessible through hidden walls on the left side. Inside the cave, you will need to hit 5 switches to make the artifact appear. We suggest that you choose a survivor with great agility in the game.
Artifact of Honor
- Effect: Enemies always spawn as elites.
- Location: The artifact can be found in one of the variants of Desolate Forest. You will come across it on the left side of the map. Here you will come across a waterfall and you will need to have greater mobility to access the cave.
Artifact of Kin
- Effect: Only one enemy type spawns per stage.
- Location: The Artifact of Kin is located in one of the variants of the Dried Lake map. You will have to head towards the right corner of the map where you will come across a breakable wall. Inside, you will need to hit 3 switches quickly to make the artifact appear.
Artifact of Sacrifice
- Effect: Chests no longer spawn; monsters now drop items on death.
- Location: The Artifact of Sacrifice is located in the top left corner of the Magma Barracks in Risk of Rain Returns. You will need to hit three switches in the top left corner to make the artifact appear in the game.
Artifact of Spirit
- Effect: Characters run faster at lower health.
- Location: Artifact of Spirit can be found in the Temple of the Elders map in the game. You will need to head below the ground and to the right corner of the map. Players will need to jump across different platforms to access the artifact.
Artifact of Spite
- Effect: Enemies explode on death.
- Location: You will come across the artifact in the lower left corner of the Sky Meadow map. First, look for a hole in the ground and crack it to access the area under it. Once you jump across all the platforms from there, you will find the Artifact of Spite at the end of it.
Artifact of Tempus
- Effect: Items are worth multiple stacks. All items are temporary.
- Location: The Artifact of Tempus is available for players to collect from the center of the Temple of the Elders. However, you will need to collect it under 16 minutes in your run or it will disappear in the game.
Artifact of Prestige
- Effect: At least one Shrine of the Mountain spawns every stage. Shrine of the Mountain effects are permanent.
- Location: You will have to get a gold rank on at least 15 Providence Trials
Artifact of Origin
- Effect: Imps invade the map every 10 minutes.
- Location: Players will have to defeat Providence with the artifacts from the original game. There are nine original artifacts and here is a list of all of them:
- Honor
- Kin
- Distortion
- Spite
- Glass
- Enigma
- Sacrifice
- Command
- Spirit
That’s everything covered in this guide. For more interesting guides like these, check out our dedicated Video Game Guides section, right here on Gamer Tweak.