Genshin Impact Artifacts Guide
Learn how artifacts work, which stats matter, when to farm them, how to test pieces, when to use the strongbox, and when a build is good enough to stop farming.
Artifacts 101: Everything You Need to Know | Genshin Impact
A clear beginner-friendly breakdown of artifact slots, set bonuses, main stats, substats, leveling, strongbox, and newer artifact systems.
Watch on YouTubeAR45+
Best point to start serious artifact farming
5 slots
Flower, Feather, Sands, Goblet, Circlet
4-piece + 1
One strong off-piece can complete a build
Stats first
Do not force bad set pieces
Your first goal is functional, not perfect.
Artifacts are powerful, but they are also RNG-heavy. Get the right main stats, use good off-pieces, complete important support sets, and move on once the character works.
Basics
What Artifacts Are
Artifacts are equipment pieces that add stats and set bonuses to a character. Every character can equip five artifacts.
Flower
Always flat HP
Easier to judge
Because the main stat is fixed, flowers are mostly judged by substats and set value.
Feather
Always flat ATK
Easier to judge
Like flowers, feathers are easier to farm because the main stat never changes.
Sands
ATK%, HP%, DEF%, ER, or EM
Medium
Sands usually depends on the character's scaling, Energy Recharge needs, or reaction role.
Goblet
Elemental bonus, physical bonus, EM, HP%, ATK%, DEF%
Hardest
Goblets are often the off-piece because the correct damage bonus or EM main stat can be rare.
Circlet
Crit, healing bonus, EM, HP%, ATK%, or DEF%
Hard
DPS characters often want Crit Rate or Crit Damage, but supports may prefer other stats.
Stats explained
Common Artifact Stats
A good artifact depends on the character. HP can be useless on one character and perfect on another.
ATK%
Common damage stat
Good for characters whose talents scale mainly with attack, but it can lose value when you already have many attack buffs.
HP%
HP scaling, healing, shields
Excellent on characters whose damage, healing, or shields scale with max HP.
DEF%
DEF scaling characters
Bad on most damage dealers, but very important for characters whose kit scales with defense.
Energy Recharge
Burst consistency
A character with enough ER feels much smoother. Missing bursts can hurt more than losing a few damage substats.
Elemental Mastery
Reaction damage
Important for many reaction teams, especially characters triggering transformative or amplifying reactions.
Crit Rate / Crit Damage
DPS consistency and damage
Great for many damage dealers. A rough 1:2 Crit Rate to Crit Damage ratio is a useful starting target.
Set bonuses
2-Piece, 4-Piece, and Off-Pieces
Artifact sets usually have a 2-piece and 4-piece bonus. If you equip four pieces from the same set, the fifth slot can be any strong off-piece from another set.
Core rule
Main Stats First
Before chasing perfect substats, get the correct main stats. A correct main stat with weak substats is often stronger than a wrong main stat with great substats.
Progression
When to Start Farming Artifacts
You can equip artifacts early, but serious resin farming usually starts at AR45.
Before AR30
Early Game
Use what the game gives you.
- Do not spend much resin on artifact domains.
- Equip useful artifacts from chests, bosses, quests, and rewards.
- Level only a few temporary pieces if fights feel too hard.
- Focus resin on character, weapon, and talent progression.
AR30-44
Learning Phase
Experiment, but do not hard farm.
- Start learning main stats, set bonuses, and substats.
- Use 3-star and 4-star artifacts when they have the right stats.
- Save Fragile Resin for later.
- Do not chase perfect artifacts yet.
AR45+
Real Farming Starts
Artifact domains become worth serious resin.
- Farm the highest artifact domain level.
- Start building 5-star artifact sets.
- Use the strongbox to recycle bad 5-star pieces.
- Get correct main stats before chasing perfect substats.
Endgame
Optimization
Improve only where it matters.
- Improve your highest-impact damage dealers first.
- Meet Energy Recharge needs before chasing more crit.
- Strongbox older sets or niche sets instead of wasting resin.
- Move on once a character is good enough.
Farming philosophy
Stats Over Sets
Set bonuses are important, but they are not always worth forcing with bad artifacts.
Main stats first
A correct main stat with weak substats is often better than a wrong main stat with great substats.
Stats over sets
Do not force a 4-piece set if the pieces are terrible. A strong 2-piece/2-piece build can be better.
Use your off-piece
A 4-piece set only needs four matching artifacts. Your fifth piece can be your best artifact from any set.
Supports have different goals
A support may only need the right 4-piece set, enough Energy Recharge, and the stat their kit scales with.
4-piece sets
Best when the set effect is powerful enough to justify farming four matching pieces. Great for support sets and some best-in-slot DPS sets.
2-piece / 2-piece
Often easier to build and can be close to a 4-piece set when your substats are better.
Rainbow builds
A temporary mixed build can be useful when you need correct main stats before set bonuses.
Support exceptions
Some sets are worth completing quickly because the 4-piece effect helps the entire team.
Character-specific
Which Substats Matter?
A good substat depends on the character using the artifact. Do not judge every piece by crit alone.
- What stat does the character's talent scale with?
- Do they need Energy Recharge to burst every rotation?
- Are they triggering reactions often?
- Are they a main DPS, off-field DPS, healer, shielder, or buffer?
- Does their team already provide ATK, EM, damage bonus, or crit buffs?
Crit Value
Useful, Not Everything
Crit Value is a quick way to judge DPS artifacts:
CV is helpful for many DPS pieces, but a low-CV artifact can still be excellent if it rolls Energy Recharge, Elemental Mastery, HP%, DEF%, or another stat the character actually needs.
Artifact testing
How to Test and Level Artifacts
Artifact EXP gets expensive. Test pieces in stages instead of instantly pushing every artifact to +20.
Check the main stat
If the main stat is wrong for the character, the piece usually needs to be exceptional or temporary.
Look for useful starting substats
Crit, ER, EM, ATK%, HP%, or DEF% can all be valuable depending on the character.
Test to +4 or +8
Reveal the fourth substat on 3-line artifacts and see whether early rolls go into useful stats.
Recheck at +12 or +16
If the piece keeps missing useful stats, stop before spending too much artifact EXP.
Feed failed pieces forward
Leveled artifacts can be used as EXP for better pieces, so temporary upgrades are not completely wasted.
+4 testing tip
A 3-line artifact reveals its fourth substat at +4. If the reveal is bad, you can feed that +4 piece into another artifact to test the next one.
Keep list
Which Artifacts to Keep
4-star warning
Keep Instructor and The Exile
Most 4-star artifacts eventually become fodder, but Instructor and The Exile are useful support sets with no true 5-star equivalent. Lock at least one useful set before feeding everything away.
Instructor
Valuable for team Elemental Mastery support.
The Exile
Useful for Energy Recharge and support utility.
Stop point
When Are Artifacts Good Enough?
A character does not need perfect artifacts to be worth using. Stop farming when the build performs its job and another character would benefit more from your resin.
Farming strategy
Choose Resin-Efficient Domains
Artifact domains contain two sets. Farming is more efficient when both sets are useful to your account.
Best case
Both domain sets are useful for multiple characters you own.
Okay case
One set is excellent and the other has some 2-piece or niche value.
Bad case
You only want one niche set and the other set is dead for your account.
Recycling
Strongbox Strategy
The strongbox turns unwanted 5-star artifacts into new chances from a selected set. It is one of the best ways to make bad drops useful.
Parallel farming
Farm one efficient domain, then strongbox bad 5-stars into a different set you also need.
Avoid bad domains
Use the strongbox for older or niche sets when the matching domain is inefficient for your account.
Hyperfocus a set
Farm and strongbox the same set when you are heavily investing into one character or team.
Late-game upgrades
Once your builds are functional, recycle bad 5-stars into more chances at high-quality upgrades.
Newer systems
Strongbox, Transmuter, and Reshaping
These systems help reduce artifact pain, but none of them remove RNG entirely.
Artifact Strongbox
Recycle bad 5-star artifacts
Use unwanted 5-star artifacts to create a new random artifact from a selected set. Great once your main builds have enough EXP and you can afford to recycle pieces.
Artifact Transmuter
Craft a specific starting piece
Use Sanctifying Elixir to choose a set, slot, main stat, and two substats. It is best for difficult missing pieces, but rolls are still RNG.
Dust of Enlightenment
Reshape a finished piece
Use Dust on fully leveled 5-star artifacts to try improving minor affix rolls. Use it on pieces that are already close to good, not random bad artifacts.
Avoid these
Common Artifact Mistakes
Hard farming before AR45
Before AR45, artifact domains are usually worse resin value than characters, weapons, talents, Mora, and EXP.
Forcing a bad 4-piece set
A set bonus does not save terrible main stats. Use better off-pieces or 2-piece combinations when needed.
Only caring about Crit Value
CV is useful for DPS pieces, but ER, EM, HP%, DEF%, and ATK% can be winning stats on the right character.
Feeding unlocked pieces blindly
Lock promising artifacts before using them as fodder or strongbox material.
Ignoring 4-star support sets
Instructor and The Exile can stay useful because of their support effects.
Never moving on
Perfect artifacts are unrealistic. Build functional characters and improve the whole team.
Useful tools
Artifact Tools and References
These are optional, but they help when you want to compare builds or understand character-specific stat priorities.
Video references
More Artifact Videos
Next guides
Related Genshin Guides
Artifact summary
Farm artifacts seriously at AR45+, prioritize correct main stats, use good off-pieces, avoid forcing bad 4-piece sets, test artifacts in stages, recycle bad 5-stars carefully, and stop once the character performs their role.