Artifact

Artifacts are unique runes that have special powers unique only to those runes. You will only find one of each in any given game. There are a lot of artifacts in the game but you are likely to find most of them if you kill every enemy in each level. By the time you get to the Archmage you can expect to have about 15 or more artifacts in your inventory. There is no way to guarantee to have a particular artifact in a game unless you die already having it and bring it with you in the next game. Some artifacts can be fairly useless while others can be game-breakingly powerful.

Key:

Runes are listed alphabetically. Name first and icon under "Rune Name".

Type is to be taken with a pinch of salt. Technically all artifacts are listed as having a type of artifact but most of them have some resemblance to one of the other normal types in the game. The type here is listed as a rough guess of what the appropriate type would be if the artifact were a normal rune.

Flux cost is how much the rune itself costs to use in the spell (not the complete cost of the spell which can be very little or a lot depending on how many runes you use).

Power is unused and should be removed at some point in the future as none of the Artifacts have a base power.

Tiles affected is for when the rune is acting as a Range rune and generally has some mass all screen attack or property.

Property is again a rough guess based on the Rune's behaviour when it acts as a Ranged rune. For instance Break acts a lot like the normal ranged rune ix.

Modifiers add some one off bonus power to the rune.

Usually Dropped by needs a lot of work and a lot of hours playing the game. Certain enemies tend to drop certain artifacts. For instance, Steve the Farmer drops Hoard unless you already have it.

As far as is known so far there are 26 artifacts in the game some incredibly useful others incredibly fatal or dangerous to yourself and those around you. It's important to read the game text and figure out what the artifact does to avoid death... or just not bother and see what happens.

Absorb
"You will become more powerful by absorbing every cloud in the spell's area of effect."

This is by far the most powerful and dangerous artifact in the game. Some caution is recommended before you start using it willy nilly and a bit of understanding of how the Property Powerful work is useful information to stop you murdering yourself in the first few minutes. You'll likely want to create two spells to make full use of Absorb. With a ranged spell preferably with many tiles effected (although even one tile with enough time can create the desired effect) equip a cloud rune and place a powerful cloud spell. With the next spell equip the same ranged rune and just add absorb and nothing else. Absorb all the clouds and the Powerful status will be added to you. Powerful adds damage or health to any move you do.

The formula for the power you gain is the power of every cloud in range divided by two. So if you absorb 10 clouds with a power of 1 you will get powerful with a power of 5. The reason this Artifact is game breaking is that the upper limit for the cap on power ends up being about a billion damage which obviously is far more damage then you would ever need for this game let alone any rpg or roguelike. You can rinse and repeat the spell so once you've got the extra power from powerful you can use that to cast a more powerful cloud and absorb it. You can continue to increase the power you get into somewhere in the region of nine hundred million. After that the number will suddenly become a negative number and all damage you do will be reduced to 0. If you're being chased by enemies you can do some damage on them by using the artifact hoard which calculates strangely after most other calculations have taken place. At this point you can continue to increase the duration but you will do 0 on virtually all spells. To get rid of the effect you will have to rest out 200 or more turns (however many it takes) to get rid of the powerful effect.

Important to remember is that Powerful effects every damaging or healing spell apart from hoard and possibly some other exceptions? This means your base attack will be 2+Powerful. If you have a spell deliberately set at 0 damage to get rid of helpless status this will do 0+Powerful and most likely kill you. Anything you cast on yourself will likely do fatal damage (except for a healing spell. Make sure the spell does healing and nothing else!). A spell that does poison will also have a ridiculous amount of poison added. It is recommended not to use any spells that have the potential to hit yourself. Powerful can also creep into certain artifacts which do damage to yourself. Also to remember is that while there may be 400 turns of Powerful it will eventually wear off so keep an eye on it so it doesn't happen when you are surrounded by dragons. Also to bare in mind is that the novelty of killing everything in one shot soon wears off and you may eventually decide that the game is more fun without using this artifact.

Blockade
"Your spell drains power from every visible block, making your spell stronger and damaging the blocks."

Blockade is a ranged spell similar to Merge. You select the target and fire. The damage of the spell is increased by 25% for every block you can see on screen whether you made it or the enemy. The spell you do will also hit every block on screen usually killing them all. You can get really high numbers of damage with only 4 blocks (100%). Will kill most bosses very easily. Overpowered.

The description in the created spell seems to be incorrect. The damage the spell does seem to do a lot more damage to the blocks than it does to the target. For instance with 4 blocks on screen then the damage is the same to the target and all blocks. But if more than 4 blocks are on screen the damage done to the blocks is a lot more.

Blood
"This artifact allows you to pay the flux cost of your spell with health."

Blood gives a lot of bonus' and removes flux from the equation altogether instead taking away the flux that the spell would have cost from your own health. The only downside is that it can quite easily kill you if it gets too powerful. Combining with other artifacts such as remedy is desirable. Blood works exceptionally well with Fluxfeed. See Broken Combinations for more details.

Bravery
"Your spell will become more powerful when you're surrounded by your enemies."

Bravery can be pretty strong but relies on there being enemies on screen. Each enemy you can see when you cast it will give you a +4 Power to the spell. Remember that this will work with any spell including healing spells or spells with a power of 0. Can work dangerously well with Quake.

Break
"Increase greatly the power of your spell by sacrificing some of your own health. This artifact will negate any effect given to the spell except by artifacts."

This spell doubles the damage but with two major draw backs. The first is that you can only cast it on the square right in front of you and the second is that it will deal 25% of the damage dealt back to you.

Click-click
"Only the most click-click armours are worn by warriors. Improve your magic armour by making it more resistant."

If the spell containing this rune generates a shield effect, that shield effect will be increased by 1/3 (or 33%). This increase will not be reflected in the the shield effect entry of the spell's description, but it will be reflected in the shield buff's power entry. The flux cost incurred upon taking damage will not increase with the use of this rune.

Channel
"Gather your unused flux to increase the power of your spell."

Channel will improve the damage of your spell up to 100% or reduce it by the same amount. The damage depends on your flux bar. If you have 0 flux you will do 100% extra damage. If half your flux bar is full then you will only do 50% extra damage. If the flux bar is full you will do normal damage and if you overflux by twice your flux bar you will do 0 damage. This can be incredibly bad news since not only will you be over-fluxed but none of your moves will do any healing or damage. Apart from this this is a very useful and powerful artifact. When severely overfluxed remember to take Channel out of your spells so that you can do damage again.

Cure
"This ancient artifact will make you regenerate every time you cast it, for a short time."

Almost identical to over this artifact adds 2 points of regeneration for two turns every time you use it with no upper-limit. You can abuse this using other regeneration spells. This can be a useful spell for making offensive spells have a healing component or making healing spells extra effective.

Devour
"Destroy a block and drain its life force. This artifact will negate any effect given to the spell except by artifacts."

Devour is a fairly useful artifact that can absorb any block on the field and convert it's hp to healing you. A lot of the blocks cast by enemies tend to be a fair bit stronger than what you are usually able to find and so it can be quite advantageous to have this artifact up your sleave to deal with them. Even better if you use this the block will not counter you in any way. Also useful for when you overflux and get trapped inside a prison of blocks.

Flood
"This artifact makes your spell cost less for every cloud in it's area of effect."

Flood isn't a particularly great rune. The idea behind it is that if there are a lot of clouds around you can get the spell for free or even reduce your flux. In the spell description it reveals that it takes off 5 flux points off for every cloud under the spell. If every tile has a cloud under it then it will take off 65 flux points from the bar (5 x 13 = 65). While that sounds like a lot bare in mind it costs 30 flux to begin with. Because of this it's inadvisable to use the same spell to make the clouds in the first place as you'd be casting it twice in a row and would cost 60 flux and only take off 5.

If you're determined to make Flood useful the following strategies might be good. If you can find enough offensive or defensive runes that reduce flux you could take some or maybe even all of the flux cost off but you will need some good runes to do this. You could then use it as a multi purpose flux reducing and damaging spell as long as you can make the clouds. Theoretically you could also combine this with Blood which would take away the flux cost and take it away from your health and maybe fluxfeed which would then heal you by the same amount.

The nice thing about this spell is that it's a ranged rune with good properties that anyone can get. Classes like Pugilist find it harder to find ranged runes but this one can turn up being an artifact. Spark allows it to shoot through other enemies and materialize where you want it to and the +20% Power is good. The drawback of course is the flux cost. If you're looking for a damaging Ranged Rune you can probably find better during the course of the game. Anything with Doublestrike or a higher power modifier could be more worthwhile.

Fluxfeed
"Every time you cast this spell, you will be healed as much as its flux cost."

Extremely useful at countering damage spells and works wonders with Blood. Does what it says healing you the same number of health points as flux points spent. Works well with Quake. Bare in mind that if the damage becomes enough to one shot you you will still die as any time you enter 0hp the game considers it gameover. This is a really good artifact and works well with almost any spell and even better it has no flux cost.

Greed
"Increase the power of any spell by reaching beyond your capability, spending more flux than it normall would."

Greed multiplies the damage by an extra 100% however it also doubles the flux cost of the spell. When working out whether to use Greed or not have a look at the flux also to bare in mind is that you have to have some damage to be doubled in the first place. Greed doesn't offer any damage by itself and if the spell doesn't do much damage before adding it won't do much more after.

Hoard
"This ancient artifact resonates with other runes, your spell will become stronger by each rune that composes it."

Hoard will add on more power to the spell depending on how many runes are in the spell. It counts every rune (including itself) in the spell and adds 2 power for each one. However hoard is a bit special in the calculations and won't display the damage until you hit something with the spell. It also does different damage with % modifers on other runes depending on where it is placed in the spell. Hoard is easily overlooked but it's actually a very powerful spell and at +16 modifier with a 8 rune spell it's unusual to find anything better even at late game.

More research needed.

Merge
"Add the power of any cloud located under the affected creature to this spell."

Merge can be quite powerful but even without Clouds it is very useful for characters who have a hard time finding any ranged spells. Merge adds the power of the cloud under a creature to the power of the spell you cast. So the stronger the cloud is the stronger the damage you will deal. Particularly useful for Alchemist.

Over
"This ancient artifact will make you stronger and your spells more powerful every time you cast it, but for a short time."

This artifact adds 2 power status every time you use it in a spell. However unlike using a normal rune with Power this one has no cap but it only lasts for 2 turns. Can stack really high if used with a low flux spell. This artifact is also game breakingly open for abuse when used with another power spell you can transfer the power over. With the flux reducing artifacts you can also continue to increase power indefinitely into black hole smashing numbers.

Quake
"Your spell will damage every visible creature, including yourself. This artifact will negate any effect given to the spell except by artifacts."

This spell is extremely powerful even with the -70% but can be quite dangerous due to the self damage. It does basically the full power of the spell in damage to yourself and double that to all other seen enemeies. As a little bit of eye candy it also reduces all ajacent floor tiles to dirt. It's that powerful it leaves a crator. Quake loses any status effects due to the overwhelm ability but raw power as well as modifiers will still increase the power quite dramatically. Fluxfeed can reduce or nullify the ammount of hp lost each time you cast this. Also the dodge status will completely avoid the effect of Quake however there's no way to do this in one turn so you would need to cast dodge first then cast Quake.

Set up correctly Quake is a great way to breeze through most of the levels. Be wary of helpless and powerful status which can increase the power of your spell and also the damage you take.

Rage
"Increases the power of any spell by allowing rage flow through you, taking some damage in the process."

This artifact will increase your damage by 100% but deal 33% (1/3) of the damage back to you.

Remedy
"Whenever you cast this spell, a healing cloud will engulf you."

This spell will create a healing cloud underneath you which will heal you for 50% of the spells power. Is good with artifacts that damage you like Break and Quake. However bare in mind that if you have to retreat off the cloud the cloud will heal any enemies that walk through it.

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Retribution
"Your spell becomes more powerful depending on how damaged you are."

Retribution will add up to 100% damage to your spells if you have 0 health. If your health is full then the bonus damage will be 0%. This rune is very useful against powerful enemies as it allows you to kill them faster as you get hurt. You can also use it in healing spells to improve their effectiveness in dangerous situations. Extremely powerful with a low pool of health as your lifebar will easily decrease.

If you are careful enough, you can purposely stay at around half of your lifebar, granting the spells with this rune around +50% power everytime and allowing you to easily kill foes for a low flux cost. Note that this strategy requires you to attack from afar to avoid enemy attacks and not die. Combined with Blood, this rune is excellent and allows you to create powerful offensive spells.

Sacrifice
"An ancient ritual allows you to reduce your current flux to half, though it will also cost half of your health. This artifact will negate any effect given to the spell except by artifacts."

Sacrifice is the best flux reducing artifacts in the game. It will cut your flux in half as well as your hp. This means it can't kill you unless you have 1 hp left. If you have 10 hp left and 1000 flux if will take away 5 hp and 500 flux. However the same can be said for the other way around where if you have 10 flux and 1000 health it will take 5 flux and 500 health. Sacrifice is the safest way to reduce flux although Sublimation can be more customized and if you know what you are doing can be better.

Smashu
"A simple yet effective Artifact, it allows you to increase the power of your spell at no flux cost."

Smashu does what it says and adds 8 power to any spell. However the 8 power comes from a Modifer and modifiers can only be used once per spell so loading more than one Smashu onto a spell won't have any extra effect. This is a really good Artifact for the early levels.

Snipe
"This ancient artifact will make your spell stronger depending on how far away you are from your target"

It does more damage depending on how far away you are from the target. It adds on 20% damage for every horizontal or vertical tile covered (including the first one right next to you) and roughly 25% damage for every diagonal tile covered. More info needed as the damage doesn't come out exactly correct on diagonals.

Soulburn
"A very dangerous artifact, it will allow you to regain all of your health but burn yourself to death over time. This artifact will negate any effect given to the spell except by artifacts."

Soulburn is an incredibly unuseful artifact. It will fully heal you and then do 16.6% (1/6) of your max health every turn for 12 turns as burn damage. So basically it heals you for 100% of your health then does 200% damage to you over 12 turns. Don't cast ever unless you have a good plan as to how you're going to survive the next 12 turns. Soulburn is useful if you don't have any other method of getting enough health quick enough. You can nullify it by casting a much lower level burn spell on yourself or by having enough regeneration either through the spell or healing clouds. You might want to avoid having it on your spell bar incase you press it by accident.

Also worth noting is that burn damage triggers before most other healing in turns. The only thing known to trigger before burn so far is regeneration spells. If you're about to die from Soulburn casting a standard healing spell or cloud spell won't work. See Death.

Split
"This artifacts allows you to pay half of the flux cost of your spell with health."

Split is a kind of half hearted version of Blood. It takes off half of the flux cost of the spell and damages you with it. It's bonus' are not as high as Blood but also are not as dangerous.

Interesting to note is that the effects of Blood and Split will stack together and you will instead reduce your flux by 50% of the spell but take 150% damage of the cost of the spell in hp.

Sublimation
"Reduce your flux by twice the power of your spell, but damage yourself in the process. This artifact will negate any effect given to the spell except by artifacts."

Sublimation is a customizable flux reducing spell. Whatever runes you add to this spell the flux cost will always be 0 however power will be added to the rune and will be taken off your health. At the same time twice the power will be taken from your flux. While a great rune it does have the potential to catch you out and kill you. Remember that Power effects will increase how much flux it takes away and how much health it takes off. Also the artifact Hoard doesn't present how much damage you will do until you hit something with it. % modifers can also increase your damage. Just be aware of your hp and what status' etc you have before casting. If you are draining a lot of your health also take in mind how many enemies will attack you on the next turn. Helpless status will also double the damage you take - some enemies do cast this on you as well as flux.

Swell
"Imbue every cloud in your field of vision with more power"

This makes every cloud you can see more powerful by 25% of your spells power. Swell similar to quake will hit every cloud you can see.

Vamk
"Whenever you damage a creature you will be healed depending on how much damage was dealt. This artifact will negate any effect given to the spell except by artifacts."

In the spell description it reveals that it heals you for two thirds of the damage you do to an enemy. This spell is extremely powerful but can only be cast in front of you. It doesn't increase the power as much as Break will but at the same time it doesn't hurt you either and instead heals you. This spell is a really powerful boss killer and most of the time when you use it providing you do enough damage you will easily negate whatever damage is being done to you. Bare in mind that unlike artifacts like Remedy or Fluxfeed or even homemade non artifact spells you actually have to hit something with Vamk in order to get the healing effect. You can of course combine it with those artifacts mentioned above if you have them for guarantied/extra healing.