Artifact Guide

Discussion in 'Oracle’s Database (Guides)' started by DeitySupreme, Jul 3, 2021.

  1. DeitySupreme Steadfast Player

    The purpose of this guide is to provide new players with a way to go about upgrading Artifacts without feeling overwhelmed. I understand that this system feels like a pressure to max out Artifacts ASAP. Hopefully this can help some new player out there can get some comfort with the system and find a more efficient path to leveling Artifacts.

    One important thing I hope players understand is that having high Artifacts is in no way a requirement on doing content. They can make things go easier but it is in no way a mandatory item to progress. Do not feel pressured into maxing them out right away. Take your time and do your own research.



    Table of Contents:
    Basic Artifact Information Link
    How to Spend Efficiently Link
    Fishing for Crits Link
    Leveling Without Spending: In Progress
    Nth Metal Farming Link
    Bypassing Breakthrough Experience Limit


    Special Thanks to:
    LT
    Reinheld
    • Like x 10
  2. DeitySupreme Steadfast Player

    Basic Artifact Information

    Artifact rank experience:
    80: 39,920
    120: 167,659
    160: 678,722
    200: 1,678,722


    Nth metal:
    Perfected Nth Metal: 75,000 (marketplace/safe house)
    Reinforced Nth Metal: 12,500 (marketplace/safe house)
    Augmented Nth Metal: 3000 (vault)
    Purified Nth Metal: 500
    Refined Nth Metal: 200
    Processed Nth Metal: 100
    Treated Nth Metal: 50
    Extracted Nth Metal: 20
    Raw Nth Metal: 10

    Types of Nth Metal:
    Account Bound: Killing adds/picking up exo-material
    Non-Tradable: Stabilizer/vault

    Other Nth Metal:
    Sunstones: Kryptonian Time Capsule
    Sin stones: Assassins Time Capsule


    Seals:
    Seal of Completion: Guarantees the breakthrough to succeed. Seal is Consumed.
    Seal of Preservation: If breakthrough fails Catalyst are returned and Seal in consumed instead.
    Unstable Seal of Completion: Regular effect of Seal of Completion but seal will decay. Seal will disappear if not used within 7 days of claiming Seal.


    Catalyst:
    Dionesium (7 source marks)
    Quantum Field Energy (10 source marks)
    Paradox Energy (15 source marks)

    Catalyst Required Per Breakthrough:
    20: 2 Dionesium
    40: 2 Dionesium, 1 Quantum Field Energy
    60: 3 Dionesium, 2 Quantum Field Energy, 1 Paradox Energy

    At this point all ranks gain 1 of each extra to breakthrough

    80: 4 D, 3 QFE, 2 PE
    100: 5 D, 4 QFE, 3 PE
    120: 6 D, 5 QFE, 4 PE
    140: 7 D, 6 QFE, 5 PE
    160: 8 D, 7 QFE, 6 PE
    180: 9 D, 8 QFE, 7 PE
    200: 10 D, 9 QFE, 8 PE

    Total catalyst needed to reach major breakthrough:
    80: 11 Dionesium, 7 Quantum Field Energy, 3 Paradox Energy
    120: 22 Dionesium, 16 Quantum Field Energy, 10 Paradox Energy
    160: 37 Dionesium, 29 Quantum Field Energy, 21 Paradox Energy
    200: 56 Dionesium, 46 Quantum Field Energy, 36 Paradox Energy


    List of events that affect artifacts:

    Double Nth Experience:
    Doubles the value of any and all Nth fed into artifacts for the duration of the event. Artifacts that are fed into other artifacts only give 50% of the total experience the artifact contained. During the event the experience is doubled meaning you will transfer the full amount of experience contained within the fed artifact.

    Bonus Nth:
    For the duration of this event you get a second roll on Nth dropped. Meaning when Nth Metal drops you get a chance for a second roll of Nth to drop. However the second Nth is also randomized. If the first Nth you roll has a worth of 100 the second Nth gained can be 100 but it could also give any of the other drop-able Nth.

    Bonus catalyst:
    For the duration of this event you gain a chance to have a random catalyst drop from on duty instances. This event will normally come with a free Unstable Seal of Completion.

    Bonus Source Marks:
    During this event you will gain double source marks for all instances where they would normally drop.

    Sales:
    Some sales include discounts on nth metal and catalyst. Sales range from 20% off to 50% off.


    Special Notes on Events:
    Bonus Nth, Bonus Source Marks, and Bonus Catalyst are mostly random so there is no real way to estimate when one will come. Double Nth Experience will NORMALLY happen before the release of a new DLC (more accurately before a DLC with new Artifacts). Sales will typically happen around the same time each year (Spring Sale, Summer Sale, Black Friday Sale, Cyber Monday Sale, Etc). However the percentage of the actual discount will vary.
    • Like x 7
  3. DeitySupreme Steadfast Player

    How to Spend Efficiently:

    In order to get a new Artifact from 0 to 200 by spending you will need 22.4 (23) Perfected Nth Metals. Each Perfected Nth has a worth of 1000 daybreak cash/marketplace cash. For simplicity we will just call it DBC. With a membership that cost goes down to 900 DBC.

    PS has the option to buy 15,000 for $99.99. However you will need 20,700 DBC to buy the needed Nth to level it up to 200. Since I don’t know if the other platforms have this bundle we will assume you would need to spend $200 to gain the Nth needed to max 1 artifact.

    Now let’s assume you had $200 to spare on DCUO and knew that you for sure wanted to use that $200 on Artifacts. But you also want to get the most for your money. You could wait for a Sale to happen where the Nth has a peak of 50% off. Instead of buying 22 (23 if you haven’t been saving Nth yourself) you can now buy 44 Perfected Nth. Now you have enough Nth to level 2 artifacts to 200.

    But there is more. You were smart enough to wait for a sale to buy Nth. You can now also wait for a Double Nth Exp Event. All Nth metal fed during this time is doubled. So those 44 Perfected Nth you bought now has the value of 88 Perfected Nth. You can now level up 4 Artifacts to 200.

    So using $200 you can either level 1 Artifact to 200 or you can level 4 Artifacts to 200.
    • Like x 8
  4. DeitySupreme Steadfast Player

    Fishing For Crits:

    Crit Chance for Nth Metal: About 25%
    Crit Bonus Experience: 25%

    I have fed Nth metal into an Artifact 1 at a time until I got to 100. With a small sample size 26 out of the 100 crit giving me bonus Experience towards the Artifact. The second time I did this 29 out of 100 crit. And the third time I did this only 19 crit. While luck does play a big role 25% is a common variable used in other aspects of the game This can be seen in crit chance for attacks and heals as well as other areas. 25% is also the multiplier for nth experience when it crits. This can be seen by feeding the 100 exp nth into an artifact and seeing it crit. When it crits you will be able to see the extra 25 experience that was received.



    Now, how can you use this information to your advantage? Assuming you took the time to prepare and have all the Catalyst/Seals you will need during the Double Nth Metal Experience Event. If you prepared ahead of time you can calculate how much Nth to feed into an Artifact in the hopes for the 25% chance to crit.


    An Artifact requires 1,678,722 in order to hit 200. That is 11 (plus a little extra nth you saved up) Perfect Nth Metals while under the Double Experience Event. Each Perfected Nth has a worth of 75,000 experience or 150,000 during the Event. If you feed all 11 that will be 1,650,000. If it crits you will have 2,062,500 experience sitting in your Artifacts. That is 383,778 more than you needed which means you wasted 2 of those Nth Metals.

    Instead feed only 9. The 9 Perfected Nth has the value of 1,350,000. If this crits it has a value of 1,678,500. If it does not crit that you feed the last 2 more. 1 Nth has a value of 150,000 or 187,500 which will give you a total of 1,537,500. This means that you will have to feed the other Perfected Nth regardless. But by Fishing for the initial crit with the 9 Nth you can save 2 Perfected Nth to use elsewhere.
    • Like x 6
  5. DeitySupreme Steadfast Player

    Leveling Without Spending:

    This section is currently being rewritten with changes made with episode 41. My apologies for the inconvenience. Will have this updated ASAP.
    • Like x 3
  6. DeitySupreme Steadfast Player

    Nth Metal Farming:

    Above I mentioned how to level Artifacts using tools available to you with only doing Dailies. That still did not include Nth that would come while also doing raids and open world bounties. However that still requires you to have a Membership active. But that aside there is another way to get Nth. Well not really another way. Just a different way of doing the same thing. Let me explain.

    Nth Metal Farming is not really a thing you can push through and grind out. Nth metal drops are actually not randomly dropped from enemies killed like it says in the description. Nth metal actually has an internal cooldown that is shared across all your toons. While on cooldown you will not receive any Nth metal (not including vault and stabilizer).

    Nth metal has a cooldown that depends on what you are doing. It will either be about 8 minutes or about 3 minutes. Doing any activities will put you into the longer cooldown. This includes killing enemies (being in combat), but collecting/gathering also has the longer cooldown. If you are actively doing actions like getting collections or getting exo-material you will have the increased cooldown of 8 minutes. If you want to have the reduced timer than you can’t perform any actions.

    This means that if you want to farm for Nth you have to… in the words of the wise king Bumi.. do nothing. Neutral Jing. Go somewhere with low level adds like in front of any of the 3 starting safe houses. Kill an add by itself and get your Nth. Get away and wait for 3 minutes then kill another add. Repeat until you are done or fall asleep.

    Unfortunately in order to farm Nth you have to not actually farm. So once you are done with your dailies if you have nothing else to do. Pop some music and get some Nth. Doing this will actually get you more Nth than doing dailies since doing dailies require performing actions that go against the internal cooldown of the Nth drops.
    • Like x 9
  7. DeitySupreme Steadfast Player

    Bypassing Breakthrough Experience Limit: (Provided by Reinheld)

    When trying to level Artifacts without spending money you will eventually run into the problem of having extra Nth metal but not being able to feed them into the an Artifact because a Breakthrough is required. Normally this is not an issue, but when trying to feed as much Nth as possible during the Double Nth Experience you can run into this problem.

    When an Artifact is getting close to reaching the breakthrough limit try to feed as much Nth as possible without actually reaching the limit. Be Careful With Crits. At this point you will take a throw away artifact (buy any random artifact for source marks). Get this new Artifact to rank 19, being careful with crits. After the Artifact is at rank 19 fill all Nth slots in with your highest volume Nth. The throw away Artifact will stay at 19 since it will require Catalyst to breakthrough. Leave it at 19. Repeat the process with more throw away Artifacts until you have used up all your Nth. After you have fed all your Nth into throw away Artifacts you can then feed those Artifacts into the actual Artifact you are trying to level up.

    How exactly does it work? Artifacts will keep all experience that it carries even if the experience that it contains bypasses the breakthrough limit. This means that you can have throw away Artifacts that carry extra Nth and then feed those Artifacts into the desired Artifact allowing you to bypass the breakthrough limit extra experience. When feeding one Artifact to another you will only get 50% of the experience that the Artifact contains. This is why you ONLY want to do this during the Double Nth Metal Experience event to transfer 100% of the experience.

    Why do this? As you try to save up for the Double Nth Exp week you will store large amounts of Nth. However there is no guarantee that you will have enough catalyst saved up to breakthrough. The goal during the event should be to use as much of the Nth as possible to take advantage. Doing this will allow you to use as much Nth as possible during the event and would allow you to feed extra Nth into your desired Artifact. From here you will give yourself more time to build catalyst while not worrying about having to wait until the next event to finish.
    • Like x 8
  8. DeitySupreme Steadfast Player

    Reserved:

    Update: Guide is being updated to adjust for changes coming in Episode 41. Will try to get missing section updated ASAP. My apologies for the inconvenience.
    • Like x 2
  9. Jcal Dedicated Player

    I want to thank you BIG time for creating this guide and for sharing the "throw away artifact" trick. That is exactly what I needed and since more Destiny Tokens and Holiday sales are forthcoming, it's a trick that everyone should be taking advantage of RIGHT NOW.

    I just loaded up a bunch of XP on a throw away and it crit for an additional 64k! I put that throw away into the main artifact I'm leveling and I'm good. Now I wait for next month's DTs for the SoCs. :)

    Seriously, thank you so much!
    • Like x 4
  10. DeitySupreme Steadfast Player

    Yes, there are so many ways to take advantage of what’s given to us. From using throw away artifacts, to taking advantage of a shorter cooldown nth drop when out of combat. Even using loyalty points during sales to get a discount from the loyalty vendor. There is a lot of info on what you should be using but not enough on how to get them lol
    • Like x 3
  11. LeagueOfV Dedicated Player

    There is also the daily Nth members get from daily rewards. I think it's 1,000 xp? You can also buy from Dr. Fate vendor.
    • Like x 2
  12. DeitySupreme Steadfast Player

    Yup, haven’t had a chance to add things since update. Have a section that I have to redo because I have to find the minimum nth reward still too
    • Like x 1
  13. catplaysxoxo Loyal Player

    I was about to make a thread about asking someone to make an artifact guide with tips and tricks to it. I feel like knowledgeable players can give advice on how to use said art, it's strengths and weaknesses and just about everything there is to it about said artifact.
  14. Trykz Dedicated Player

    Bumping.
    • Like x 2
  15. Catastroflare Well-Known Player

    Oh man! I definitely could have used this during the double exp week! lol Thanks for taking the time to share this, Deity Supreme!

    Gonna save up all my nth from here to until the next double exp week. Hopefully I'll have enough to get a few to 200 and spending the least amount of RL money. I just took Solar Amp from level 44 to 146 last week and used up nearly an entire inventory's worth of nth I had on a mule and used two destiny tokens for more.

    The grind is real. o.o
    • Like x 1
  16. DeitySupreme Steadfast Player

    Lol, I do need to do a better job of Bumping this thread during these events.
  17. Catastroflare Well-Known Player

    Is there anyway we can get a mod to sticky this?
  18. DeitySupreme Steadfast Player

    Not really sure tbh. Never really looked into that
  19. Catastroflare Well-Known Player

    Dear mods, can this please be stickied? A lot of good guides here need to be honestly.
    • Like x 3
  20. Trykz Dedicated Player

    I’d certainly have more room for me in my sig if they did lmfao
    • Like x 2