Minecraft Dungeons: Artifacts guide – The best spells and skills

As mentioned in our tips for beginners, Minecraft Dungeons doesn’t rely on the traditional ARPG schemes of classes or builds. Instead, you’re looking at a combination of your weapons and enchantments, as well as the artifacts that you’ve chosen. Artifacts are, basically, your spells and skills, with some that can turn the tide of battle in your favor. Here’s our guide to help you out.

Note: For more information, check out our Minecraft Dungeons guides and features hub.

Minecraft Dungeons: Artifacts guide

You can have three artifacts selected at any given time and they’ll appear as action slots at the bottom of your Minecraft Dungeons UI. These items are obtained as random drops from mobs, rewards at the end of a level, or from the Wandering Merchant NPC in your town (seen above). Of course, should you choose to gamble your hard-earned emeralds (gold) at the Wandering Merchant, do be reminded that the artifacts are still completely reliant on RNG. You might even get something decent, but the power level is horrendously lower than expected.

Here are some of the artifacts you’ll find as you venture forth in Minecraft Dungeons:

• Fireworks Arrow (projectile) – Fires a single arrow that causes a massive explosion.
• Flaming Quiver (projectile) – Your quiver will be empowered by a limited number of flaming projectiles (seen below).
• Torment Quiver (projectile) – Your quiver will have a limited number of arrows that can slow down enemies and pass through walls.
• Death Cap Mushroom (support) – Greatly increases your attack and movement speed for a short period.
• Iron Hide Amulet (support) -Greatly increases your defense for a short period.
• Boots of Swiftness (support) – Increases your movement speed temporarily.
• Totem of Regeneration (support) – Drops a circular healing area around you and your allies.
• Totem of Shielding (support) – Drops a totem that shields you from damage.
• Ghost Cloak (support) – Enter “Ghost Form” to move past mobs and absorb some damage.
• Love Medallion (support) – Turn up to three hostile mobs into allies for a few seconds before they disappear.
• Gong of Weakening (support) – Weakens enemies around you; reduces their damage and defense.
• Fishing Rod (CC) – Pulls a mob close to you and stuns it.
• Wind Horn (CC) – Pushes enemies away and slows them down.
• Shock Powder (CC) – Stuns enemies around you.
• Light Feather (CC) – You tumble through the air to stun and push enemies back; low cooldown so it can almost be spammed provided that you’re using cooldown-reducing armors.
• Wonderful Wheat (summon) – Summons a llama to help you during a fight.
• Tasty Bone (summon) – Summons a wolf to aid you.
• Golem Kit (summon) – Summons an iron golem to fight your foes.

Additionally, you’ll find artifacts that rely on “soul-gathering.” This refers to the souls of mobs that you’ve defeated while exploring. The more souls you’ve captured, the higher the empowerment received by the artifact. Its power can then be unleashed using the souls that you’ve consumed:

• Corrupted Beacon – Fires a beam of purple light to damage enemies (seen below).
• Harvester – Causes an AoE explosion around you.
• Soul Healer – Heals the most injured ally, including yourself.
• Lightning Rod – Call down a bolt of lightning to damage mobs.

I actually favor Fireworks Arrow and Flaming Quiver artifacts while playing Minecraft Dungeons‘ default and adventure modes. I found that I had to stay far away from enemies (due to the power level difference) and having projectile-based artifacts definitely helped. Plus, if you’re using the scatter bow, these artifacts will also fire multiple projectiles/have a triple shot attack. That just increases your character’s DPS by a significant margin.

As for the soul-based artifacts, I love having Soul Healer around. Because of the lengthy cooldown for your potion, the Soul Healer can save your life whenever you’re in a pinch. It’s like having a second potion with you, and one that can be used over and over again as long as you’ve captured a number of souls.

Minecraft Dungeons is available via the Microsoft Windows Store or Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass for PC. For more information, check out our guides and features hub.