If you are familiar with this type of game, you probably already know that each hero needs a powerful weapon to maximize their potential. In Call of Dragons, these weapons are known as Artifacts. As you progress through the game, your heroes will have the opportunity to equip some of the best Artifacts, each with its own set of stats and abilities.
In this Call of Dragons Artifacts guide, we will take a closer look at how you can obtain, upgrade and equip these magical weapons, and what are the main deciding factors when it comes to selecting one for your hero.
Call of Dragons Artifacts Guide
What Are Artifacts in Call of Dragons?
The Artifacts are basically the weapons that you can equip your best Call of Dragons heroes with, in order to increase their performances and damage power in PvP combats, or against Darklings, Dark Creatures, Behemoths, and other PvE enemies.
Artifacts can also increase your heroes’ non-combat abilities such as Gathering, Legion Load Capacity, or Building Engineering. Each Artifact has as well a powerful active skill that can be used in battle, to collect a lot of resources instantly, or even to weaken an enemy unit or increase the friendly unit stats.
How do Artifacts work?
Once you have equipped your hero with an Artifact, you can use it by tapping on it in the top-right corner, where you will see a small circled button next to your hero’s avatar. The Artifact can be used at any time during a battle or as soon as the cooldown period is over after its first usage (see the image above, with the effect of the Artifact’s skill I used in a Darkling battle).
Each Artifact has its unique skill with effects and powers ranging from dealing area damage to one or multiple enemies at a time to healing allies, or instant collecting resources, among others. Artifact skills have also a cooldown, so you will need to wait a certain amount of time before they can be used again.
How to equip an Artifact
Once you have obtained an Artifact, you can go to your hero’s profile page and tap the glowing empty slot as you see in the above image. After that, pick your Artifact from the left-sided list (see the image below) and hit the Equip button. You can as well repeat this step if you want to increase your Artifact’s Skill or Level.
To change the Artifact of one of your heroes, repeat the same steps I described above, press the “Replace” button, and choose another Artifact from the list. If you rather just want to remove his Artifact and don’t need to equip any other Artifact, after pressing the “Replace” button, the same button will say “Remove”. Tap it, and that Artifact will be removed from the slot (not deleted).
However, if you have already acquired a few Artifacts, I highly recommend equipping them as soon as possible, so you can get their bonuses and speed up your progress in Call of Dragons.
How to get Artifacts
Artifacts can be obtained by using Universal Artifact Keys in the Altar building, the same place you would recruit heroes in Call of Dragons. Presuming you have a few Universal Artifact Keys, tab the Altar building, and after that, press the second button “the one with the “cards” icon.
That will take you to the Artifact Draw page where you will have two options: to use your keys individually or to use them in packs of 10. Personally, I always wait until I get at least 10 or 20 because we get a guaranteed drop of an Epic or Legendary Artifact, a guaranteed Legendary one after 90 draws, and better chances of receiving more than one item. You will also get a free draw a day that you can use as soon as it’s available as it won’t stack with your accumulated keys.
Here are drop chances of the Universal Artifact Compendium (the golden magic book you use your keys on):
- Legendary Artifacts: there are 14 in total so far, with a drop chance of 1.5155%
- Epic Artifacts: there are 16 in total so far, with a drop chance of 11.486%
- Elite Artifacts: there are 7 in total so far, with a drop chance of 23.924%
- Advanced Artifacts: there are only 3 in total, with a drop chance of 63.0745%
How to get Universal Artifact Keys
Universal Artifact Key can be acquired collected from Daily Objectives, completing event missions and challenges, and from Goblin Market, although the items available there are chosen randomly. Another place from where you could get Universal Artifact Key is the Honorary Membership Store. You can buy it with Gold, or Gems, but you will need to reach Membership level 6 first.
Forge of Light – Wish for an Artifact
Forge of Light is a new event in Call of Dragons that allows us to increase our chances of obtaining specific Artifacts. It usually lasts 2 days and during this time you can wish between the 2 presented items that will be available in the Altar building.
To access this page (called Compendium), visit the Artifact Draw (Altar building), and tap the little book icon visible on the right side of your screen. Next, tap the golden book icon on the top-right corner and select one of the two Artifacts.
You can as well access the Compendium section by visiting the Forge of Light event tab and clicking “Go”. You then need to draw Artifacts in this section, using new types of keys, called Forged Artifact Keys. These items can be purchased with Gems (600 Gems for 1 Key), from the Goblin Market, or by purchasing the event’s related bundle.
If you do not receive your desired Artifact after 2 consecutive draws, on the third try, your selected Artifact is a guaranteed drop.
Artifacts Rarity
Artifacts are divided into 4 different rarities: Advanced (green), Elite (blue), Epic (purple), and Legendary (gold). The higher the rarity of an Artifact is, (from lower to higher) the more powerful it will be. Advanced Artifacts are the most basic ones, there are only 3 so far in the game, and none of them offer combat-related bonuses.
The Elite rarity is a bit better in terms of Damage Factor, but still not very powerful as the Epic or Legendary one. The Epic rarity offers a good Damage Factor and effective skills with Artifacts perfect for any type of situation, whether is gathering, building stuff, or engaging in combat.
The Legendary rarity includes the most powerful Artifacts in the game. These items offer the highest Damage Factor, and their active combat skill effects can be devastating. They are also the only ones that offer 2 bonuses, with one for Defense and one for Attack in most cases, which makes them the most effective to protect your City and increase your legions’ power.
However, with such a low drop chance, they are also the hardest to obtain. Personally, I have 13 Artifacts unlocked so far and none of them is Legendary!
How to upgrade them
There are 3 types of upgrades that you can apply to your Artifact, the Artifact’s level, its Star Rating, and its Skill level. Below I will describe in more detail each method:
1. The Artifact’s level
The Artifact level can be increased up to 40. For this, you will need Arcane Dust, a special item that exists on various levels, and can be obtained from events, defeating Dark Creatures and opening Dark Chests. The higher the level of Arcane Dust is, the more EXP points offer.
2. The Star Rating
The Artifact’s Star Rating can be increased up to 4 stars and is directly related to the artifact’s level. The second star can be achieved after increasing the level to 10. The second star is at level 20, the third one is at level 30, and the last one, the fourth star, is at level 40.
But that’s not all. You will also need Essence items (the same as for heroes), which exist in 4 types, related to the Artifact’s rarity: Advanced, Elite, Epic, and Legendary. These essences can be obtained from events, the Alliance gifts, and the Honorary Membership Store. You need Membership level 6 for Epic Essence and level 7 for Legendary Essence.
3. The Skill level
The Artifact’s Skill level can be increased up to 5, using Emblemes. These Emblems can be acquired from the same place we described before, the Altar building. They are basically duplicates of the same Artifact. For example, to upgrade the skill level up to 5, you need the same Artifact collected 5 times.
Steps required for upgrades
To upgrade any of the 3 features I described above, visit the hero’s profile and tap the artifact slot and upgrade the one that is equipped. Otherwise, tap the bag icon (the big chest icon at the bottom), tap any Artifact you have in your bag, and hit the “Details” button on the right side.
From there you can upgrade its level and Star Rating by tapping the little green “+” icon and using Arcane Dust. You can as well increase its Skill level by tapping the “Skills” button and using Emblems.
How to pick the best Artifact for your heroes
When it comes to combat bonuses, the type of unit that the Artifact is suited for is one of the most important factors when deciding which one to use for your heroes. You can find these details right below its level EXP bar. For example, you should not equip a hero that excels at leading Infantry units, with an Artifact that has a Magic ability.
You could, however, equip a hero that excels at leading all unit types (Overall talent) but make sure you have Magic units in your legion if the equipped Artifact has a Magic ability. This way, your Magic units will benefit from the Artifact’s skill.
However, not all Artifacts require a type of unit, only those suited for combat. For instance, the Giant’s Bone Artifact can be equipped by any hero that has the Peakeeper talent, no matter which type of units you pick for your hero’s legion. The same goes for those designed for productivity-related activities such as Gathering or Building Engineering.
Let’s take Kella for example, who is an Elite hero. She has the Gather talent and she’s specialized in gathering Gold and has as well the Support talent.
For her, the right Artifact would be suited for Gathering such as Lucia’s Horn (Legendary Artifact), Ancient Tree Roots (Legendary), Greenfinger Sickle (Epic Artifact), Enchanted Coins (Advanced Artifact), or any Artifact suited for Support such as Heart of Kamasi (Legendary Artifact), Breath of Forest (Legendary) and so on.
Final Words
I hope that after reading this Call of Dragons Artifacts Guide, you have learned all you need to know about these powerful items in Call of Dragons and how to fully increase their potential to boost your team’s performance on the battlefield. Don’t forget to upgrade them constantly and equip the right ones for your legions.
