Artifact

Artifacts are rare objects and curiosities collected by Guardians. Unlike armor, class items, shaders, and Ghost shells, artifacts do not alter the player's appearance in any way when equipped. Instead, their primary benefit lies in their ability to further boost the player's Intellect, Discipline, and Strength values. They also provide an additional method for the player to generate Orbs of Light; specific perks may generate an extra Orb if the player kills an enemy using elemental damage, or kills an enemy using a grenade. Artifacts related to the Iron Lords were added by Rise of Iron, and feature additional, exclusive perks.

List of Destiny artifacts

All classes

Hunter

Rare

Legendary

Titan

Rare

Legendary

Warlock

Rare

Legendary

List of Destiny 2 artifacts

In Destiny 2, artifacts are earned either via the season pass free track or via a free quest, and any artifact can be used by any class unlike in Destiny. They provide the player with a Power bonus that increases as the player levels up the artifact by earning experience points. Aside from the Power bonus, the artifact gains 1 artifact point when it levels up.

These artifact points can be used to unlock mods for weapons and armor. It takes 1 artifact point to unlock 1 mod. Each seasonal artifact has a different set of mods that can be unlocked. The seasonal artifact disappears along with the mods and Power bonus when the current season ends, though the artifact and associated lore can be viewed later in the Collections menu.

Before the release of Lightfall and the launch of Season of Defiance, players would pay an amount of Glimmer to reset their artifact points, which can be done an infinitely at an increased cost each time. Mods from the artifact applied to gear no longer work if the artifact is reset and the mod is not unlocked again. With the release of The Witch Queen, players were able to unlock all 25 mods present on the artifact. With Lightfall, this was reverted back to a standard 12 unlockable mods, albeit the mods were now passive and didn’t not require any slotting into armor pieces. Resetting the artifact now also is free because of this.