If you've been playing Genshin Impact since launch, then you're almost certainly grinding away for more Adventure Rank experience as we speak. Once you've cleared through a good portion of the main story quests the difficulty can start ramping up, and it gets to the point where you must have the very best equipment possible in order to survive the trials ahead.

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Artifacts are a huge part of that. You might find it easy to mostly ignore Artifacts as you start the game, but before you know it enemies will be doing more damage, and it will demand that you have a better set of Artifacts than ever before. If you still don't know what Artifacts are best for you, just glance at our guide below and you'll know everything you need to about Artifacts in Genshin Impact.

Updated February 3, 2022 by Kyle Gorges: As the world of Genshin Impact has continued to expand and evolve, so too has the game's Artifact system. Farming for exceptional Artifacts constitutes much of the endgame grind for longtime players, and newer players might feel intimidated by the complex mechanics and randomness of Artifacts. This guide has thus been updated to provide more in-depth explanations of Artifacts and give players a general framework for building Artifacts on their characters.

What Are Artifacts?

There are five types of artifacts in total, and they provide boosts to your character's stats. Although Artifacts are a part of your journey in Genshin Impact from the very beginning, they're treated most seriously once you surpass Adventure Rank 45. At this point, enemies will be especially challenging and will start to demand more optimized gear for your characters.

Adventure Rank 45 also allows you to farm Artifact Domains at their highest level (Level 90), from which you are guaranteed at least one five-star Artifact per attempt.

Main Stat Options On Artifacts

As you delve into collecting Artifacts, you will notice that each of your characters can equip five different Artifacts, one of each kind. Each artifact has a Main Stat along with several Substats. The possible Main Stats that can appear on each type of Artifact are as follows:

An artifact's Main Stat will increase every time it is leveled up. It is also important to note that the value of Main Stats will be consistent across all artifacts of that particular rarity. For example, a five-star Flower Artifact will always have a Main Stat of +4,780 HP at Level 20, regardless of what set that Artifact may be a part of.

Even though the values of Main Stats are consistent, you can see that the type of Main Stat an artifact has can vary greatly. Flowers and Feathers always have HP and ATK Main Stats respectively, which is why you can afford to be pickier with their Substats. Goblets have the greatest amount of variance in their Main Stats, which is why the Goblet slot is usually used for the Artifact Off-Piece.

Sub Stat Options On Artifacts

In addition to Main Stats, five-star Artifacts will also start with three or four Substats. Having four Substats to start with is technically better but also much rarer. All Artifacts can draw from the same pool of Substats, which include:

• Flat HP (i.e. +450 HP)
• Flat ATK
• Flat DEF
• HP% (i.e. +4.5% HP)
• ATK%
• DEF%
• Elemental Mastery
• Elemental Recharge
• Crit Rate
• Crit DMG

The Substats that an Artifact can receive are completely random within this pool, but an Artifact will never have a Substat that is the same as its Main Stat. At Level four, an Artifact with only three Substats will gain a fourth. If the Artifact had four Substats to begin with, then one of them will be upgraded randomly. Every four levels after this point (at Levels 8, 12, 16, and 20), one of the Artifact's Substats will randomly be chosen to receive an upgrade.

Not only is difficult to acquire an Artifact with the ideal kinds of Substats, but it is even harder to ensure that the Substats have good values. Whereas Main Stat values are always uniform, Substat values can vary by a small degree. For instance, two Artifacts might both have ATK% Substats, but one might be +4.2% ATK while the other is +5.7% ATK. This discrepancy carries through their upgrades, meaning Substats that start higher will stay higher.

The layers of RNG that you must endure to end up with "perfect" Artifacts can indeed be frustrating. Just remember that having the correct Main Stats across your Artifacts is most important, and from there you can replace your Artifacts with better Substat variants over time.

Artifact Set Bonuses

Equally important as Artifact stats, though, are their set bonuses. Each artifact you earn belongs to a set, and the more pieces of that set you equip to your character, the more powerful the effects granted to you by the set bonus. You can take a look at our list of the ten best artifact sets here.

Even though you could theoretically equip five Artifacts from the same set, set bonuses actually max out at four pieces. For example, the Gladiator's Finale set offers your characters an extra 18% ATK once you've equipped two pieces of the set, but equip four, and it adds a 35% DMG Bonus to Normal Attacks for claymore, sword, or polearm users.

Wait, so if you only need groups of two or four Artifacts for set bonuses, then what about the fifth Artifact on your character? This remaining Artifact does not need to be part of a matching set and is thus referred to as the Off-Piece. The Off-Piece can be situated in any Artifact slot, and it provides a little breathing room for when you might not have an Artifact with the right Main Stat that also matches the set you're using. Typically, a character's Goblet will end up as the Off-Piece, since it is especially hard to find a Goblet with both the desired Main Stat and set type.

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Building Characters With Artifacts

When building a character's Artifacts you'll likely want to consult a character-specific guide to learn which Artifact stats and sets are best on them. However, if that sounds like more effort than you bargained for or if you'd simply like to experiment with different Artifact combinations on your own, then there are a few guidelines you can follow to equip any character with a generally decent build.

Artifacts For A Basic DPS Build

If you plan on using a character as the main damage dealer of your team, then you will likely want to seek out an ATK Sands, an Elemental/Physical DMG Bonus Goblet, and a Crit Rate or Crit DMG Circlet for them (whichever brings them closest to a 1:2 ratio of Crit Rate:Crit DMG).

Ideal Substats to try and acquire for this role are ATK%, Crit Rate, Crit DMG, and potentially Elemental Recharge or Elemental Mastery. Try to look for Artifact sets with bonuses that directly boost your active character's damage in some way.

Artifacts For A Basic Support Build

If you're envisioning a supportive playstyle for your character, then an Elemental Recharge Sands is usually the way to go so that their Elemental Burst is always ready. You might use an Elemental DMG Bonus Goblet and a Crit Rate/DMG Circlet on them if they're a support who adds a lot of off-field damage to your team.

If the character is a healing or shielding support, then an HP Goblet and Healing Bonus Circlet might be better. In terms of Artifact sets, look for set bonuses that might provide Elemental Recharge to the character or other buffs that benefit the entire team.

Although these are loose guidelines meant to be applicable to as many characters as possible, it is true that some characters in Genshin Impact require fairly specific artifacts. A simple way to tell what these characters might want is by looking at their Talent descriptions. If a character has a lot of Talents that scale with their DEF, for example, then giving them a DEF Sands, a DEF Goblet, and a DEF Circlet might be a decent choice.

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