Guide to Artifacts

Howard Phillips, Expert Xenoarchaeologist says: "The Nanotrasen Xenoarchaeology team welcomes you, aspiring scientist or over-qualified curator. Before you begin studying artifacts, and hopefully not harassing the crew with them, it's important to remember you're interacting with what is most likely an explosive device made thousands, or millions, of years ago. Here you can learn how to avoid personal annihilation when interacting with them."

The Xenoarchaeology Lab. Artifacts tend to show up here.

Artifacts

Artifacts are powerful and mysterious items, they are responsible for many phenomena including transforming people into corgis, or spontaneously creating missing persons cases.

Science can research with these items to gain various rewards, including both research and discovery points.

Anatomy

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Defining an artifact starts with its material. An artifact's material defines what 'rules' it follows in terms of what kind of traits it can have, and how many traits it can have.

material Type	Info
Bluespace	Bluespace artifacts are generally considered the safest type, as most of their traits and synergies are benevolent.
Plasma	Plasma artifacts are the easiest to weaponize, often containing dangerous traits that synergize together in an offensive manner.
Uranium	Uranium artifacts are even more dangerous than plasma artifacts, having access to most traits with no overarching patterns or pre-determined synergies. Uranium artifacts also start with a malfunction, and gain another later. (See below)
Bananium	Bananium artifacts are wild cards, they have no rules or restrictions regarding trait types.

The next aspect is an artifact's traits. Traits define an artifact's behaviour and characteristics, these traits fall into 1 of 4 categories, of which are-

Trait Type	Info
Activators	These define how an artifact 'activates'. Every artifact will have 1 of these.
Minors	These can define an artifact's physical characteristics, special secondary actions, or artifact function behaviour. Every artifact will have 3 of these.
Majors	These define an artifact's action, what it does. Every artifact will have 1 of these.
Malfunctions	These define what's wrong with an artifact. Most artifacts will not start with these, instead gaining 1 through repeated use without stabilization.

Traits

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Trait List (mouse over the sleuth entries for a brief explanation)

Type	Name	Description	Weight	Conductivity	Inclusion
activator	Edible	Edible: The artifact seems to be made of an edible material. This material seems to be triggered by being consumed.	16	0
activator	Edible (delta)	Edible (delta): The artifact seems to be made of an edible material. This material seems to be triggered by being consumed.	16	8
activator	Observational	Observational: The artifact seems to be made of a light-sensitive material. This material seems to be triggered by observational interaction.	16	0
activator	Flammable	Flammable: The artifact seems to be made of a flammable material. This material seems to be triggered by heat interaction.	8	0
activator	Cell	Cell: The artifact seems to be made of a capacitive material. This material seems to be triggered by eletric currents, such as cells.	8	32
activator	Greedy	Greedy: The artifact seems to be made of a collective material. This material seems to be triggered by inserting coins.	32	0
activator	Greedy (delta)	Greedy (delta): The artifact seems to be made of a collective material. This material seems to be triggered by inserting credit holochips.	32	8
activator	Pitched	Pitched: The artifact seems to be made of an aerodynamic material. This material seems to be triggered by motion, such as being thrown.	-8	0
activator	Signal	Signal: The artifact seems to be made of a radio sensitive material. This material seems to be triggered by radio pulses.	8	0
activator	Sturdy	Sturdy: The artifact seems to be made of a sturdy material. This material seems to be triggered by physical interaction.	16	0
activator	Hungry	Hungry: The artifact seems to be made of a semi-living, hungry, material. This material seems to be triggered by feeding interactions.	32	0
activator	Hungry (delta)	Hungry (delta): The artifact seems to be made of a semi-living, hungry, material. This material seems to be triggered by feeding interactions.	32	8
activator	Timed	Timed: The artifact seems to be made of a harmonizing material. This material seems to activate on a timer, which can be enabled or disabled.	32	0
activator	Weighted	Weighted: The artifact seems to be made of a weighted material. This material seems to be triggered by motion, such as being picked up.	32	0
major	Bestialized	Bestialized: The artifact contains transforming components. Triggering these components transforms the target into an animal.	15	12
major	Bestialized (sigma)	Bestialized: The artifact contains transforming components. Triggering these components transforms the target into an animal.	15	3
major	Bestialized (delta)	Bestialized: The artifact contains transforming components. Triggering these components transforms the target into an animal.	15	6
major	Hypodermic	Hypodermic: The artifact seems to contain chemical components. Triggering these components will inject the target with a chemical.	30	0
major	Hypodermic (delta)	Hypodermic (delta): The artifact seems to contain chemical components. Triggering these components will inject the target with a chemical.	30	3
major	Marking	Marking: The artifact seems to contain colorizing components. Triggering these components will color the target.	3	0
major	Marking (delta)	Marking (delta): The artifact seems to contain colorizing components. Triggering these components will color the target.	3	3
major	Combusting	Combusting: The artifact seems to contain combusting components. Triggering these components will ignite the target.	12	24
major	Displaced	Displaced: The artifact seems to contain displacing components. Triggering these components will displace the target.	15	15
major	Enthusing	Enthusing: The artifact seems to contain emoting components. Triggering these components will cause the target to emote.	3	0
major	EMP	EMP: The artifact seems to contain electromagnetic pulsing components. Triggering these components will create an EMP.	9	36
major	Exchanging	Exchanging: The artifact seems to contain exchanging components. Triggering these components will exchange the damage of the last two targets.	12	9
major	Exchanging (delta)	Exchanging (delta): The artifact seems to contain exchanging components. Triggering these components will exchange the damage of the last two targets.	12	3
major	Flashing	Flashing: The artifact seems to contain flashing components. Triggering these components will create a blinding flash.	18	18
major	Forcing	Forcing: The artifact seems to contain impulsing components. Triggering these components will impulse, push or pull, the target.	21	27
major	Forcing (delta)	Forcing: The artifact seems to contain impulsing components. Triggering these components will impulse, push or pull, the target.	21	3
major	Obstructing	Obstructing: The artifact seems to contain obstructing components. Triggering these components will cause the artifact to build walls around itself.	33	0
major	Freezing	Freezing: The artifact seems to contain freezing components. Triggering these components will freeze the target.	24	12
major	Porous	Porous: The artifact seems to contain porous components. Triggering these components will cause the artifact to exchange one gas with another.	15	0
major	Flourishing	Flourishing: The artifact seems to contain flourishing components. Triggering these components will age up plant targets.	6	6
major	Flourishing (delta)	Flourishing (delta): The artifact seems to contain flourishing components. Triggering these components will age down plant targets.	6	3
major	Hollow	Hollow: The artifact seems to contain hollow components. Triggering these components will capture the target.	-15	0
major	Illuminating	Illuminating: The artifact seems to contain illuminating components. Triggering these components will cause the artifact to illuminate.	18	0
major	Illuminating (delta)	Illuminating (delta): The artifact seems to contain de-illuminating components. Triggering these components will cause the artifact to de-illuminate.	18	3
major	Echoing	Echoing: The artifact seems to contain echoing components. Triggering these components will cause the artifact to make a noise.	3	0
major	Barreled	Barreled: The artifact seems to contain projectile components. Triggering these components will produce a 'safe' projectile.	21	0
major	Barreled (delta)	Barreled (delta): The artifact seems to contain projectile components. Triggering these components will produce an unsafe projectile.	21	3
major	Destabilizing	Destabilizing: The artifact seems to contain destabilizing components. Triggering these components will cause the artifact transport the target to another realm.	36	36
major	Electrified	Electrified: The artifact seems to contain electrifying components. Triggering these components will shock the target.	3	27
major	Dissipating	Dissipating: The artifact seems to contain dissipating components. Triggering these components will cause the artifact to create a cloud of smoke.	6	0
major	Dissipating (delta)	Dissipating (delta): The artifact seems to contain dissipating components. Triggering these components will cause the artifact to create a cloud of smoke containing a random chemical.	6	12
major	Dissipating (omega)	Dissipating (omega): The artifact seems to contain dissipating components. Triggering these components will cause the artifact to create a body of foam containing a random chemical.	6	21
major	Dissipating (sigma)	Dissipating: The artifact seems to contain dissipating components. Triggering these components will cause the artifact to create a body of foam.	6	3
major	Temporal	Temporal: The artifact seems to contain temporal components. Triggering these components will create a temporal rift.	24	0
malfunction	P.E.R.	Parallel Entity Retrieval: A strange malfunction causes the Artifact to open a gateway to another plane that summons a random entity.	7	0
malfunction	P.E.R. (delta)	Parallel Entity Retrieval (delta): A strange malfunction causes the Artifact to open a gateway to another plane that summons a random entity.	7	7
malfunction	M.B.C.	Mirrored Bluespace Collapse: The Artifact produces an arguably maleviolent clone of target.	7	0
malfunction	E.E.E.	Expansive Explosive Emmission: A strange malfunction that causes the Artifact to explode.	7	0
malfunction	M.H.I.	Mass Hallucinatory Injection: The Artifact causes the target to hallucinate.	7	0
malfunction	M.A.C.	Mass Area Combustion: A strange malfunction that causes the Artifact to violently combust.	7	0
malfunction	I.O.E	Immediate Organ Extraction: A strange malfunction causes the Artifact to extract the target's appendix.	7	0
malfunction	I.O.E (delta)	Immediate Organ Extraction (delta): A strange malfunction causes the Artifact to extract the target's tongue.	7	14
malfunction	R.P.E.	Rapid Particle Emmision: A strange malfunction that causes the Artifact to irradiate itself and its targets.	7	0
malfunction	B.A.D.	Bluespace Axis Desync: A strange malfunction causes the Artifact to remove articles from the target.	7	0
malfunction	C.D.E.	Cerebral Dysfunction Emergence: A strange malfunction causes the Artifact to cause traumas to emerge in the target.	7	0
malfunction	S.S.E.	Spontaneous Stomach Evacuationc: A strange malfunction causes the Artifact to make the target vomit.	7	0
minor	Aerodynamic	Aerodynamic: The artifact's design seems to incorporate aerodynamicded elements. This will allow the artifact to be thrown further.	-5	0
minor	Anchor	Anchor: The artifact's design seems to incorporate anchoring elements. This will cause the artifact to anchor when triggered, it can also be unanchored with typical tools.	10	0
minor	Aura	Aura: The artifact's design seems to incorporate aura elements. This will cause the artifact to target things nearby.	15	5
minor	Bleeding	Bleeding: The artifact's design seems to incorporate bleeding elements. This will cause the artifact to bleed when triggered.	15	0
minor	Capacitive	Capacitive: The artifact's design seems to incorporate a capacitive elements. This will cause the artifact to have more uses.	15	30
minor	Charged	Charged: The artifact's design seems to incorporate looping elements. This will cause the artifact to produce more powerful effects.	10	15
minor	Cooling	Cooling: The artifact's design seems to incorporate cooling elements. This will cause the artifact to cooldown faster.	15	0
minor	Delicate	Delicate: The artifact's design seems to delicate cooling elements. This will cause the artifact to potentially break.	-5	0
minor	Dense	Dense: The artifact's design seems to incorporate dense elements. This will cause the artifact to be much heavier than usual.	30	0
minor	Haunted	Haunted: The artifact's design seems to incorporate incorporeal elements. This will cause the artifact to move unexpectedly.	5	35
minor	Haunted (delta)	Haunted (delta): The artifact's design seems to incorporate incorporeal elements. This will cause the artifact to move unexpectedly, when not observed.	5	5
minor	Impulsing	Impulsing: The artifact's design seems to incorporate impulsing elements. This will cause the artifact to have a impulsing away from its current position, when triggered.	15	10
minor	Magnetic	Magnetic: The artifact's design seems to incorporate magnetic elements. This will cause the artifact to attract metalic objects when triggered.	30	0
minor	Magnetic (delta)	Magnetic (delta): The artifact's design seems to incorporate magnetic elements. This will cause the artifact to repulse metalic objects when triggered.	30	10
minor	Ringed	Ringed: The artifact's design seems to incorporate ringed elements. This will allow the artifact to be worn, and catch information from the wearer.	5	0
minor	Ringed (delta)	Ringed (delta): The artifact's design seems to incorporate ringed elements. This will allow the artifact to be worn, and catch information from the wearer.	5	15
minor	Scoped	Scoped: The artifact's design seems to incorporate scoped elements. This will cause the artifact to have a larger target range.	10	15
minor	Sentient	Sentient: The artifact's design seems to incorporate sentient elements. This will cause the artifact to have a mind of its own.	30	0
minor	Sharp	Sharp: The artifact's design seems to incorporate sharp elements. This will cause the artifact to pbe sharper than usual.	5	0
minor	Shielded	Shielded: The artifact's design seems to incorporate shielded elements. This will allow the artifact to be used like a shield.	15	0
minor	Signaller	Signaller: The artifact's design seems to incorporate signalling elements. This will cause the artifact to send a signal when activated.	5	15
minor	Slippery	Slippery: The artifact's design seems to incorporate slippery elements. This will cause the artifact to be slippery.	5	5
minor	Sticky	Sticky: The artifact's design seems to incorporate sticky elements. This will cause the artifact to briefly become sticky, when triggered.	10	15

Research

Tools

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Scale

The Scale is used to measure an artifact's weight. Each artifact trait has a unique weight, all the artifact's traits' weights are added together to determine the final artifact's weight.

Conductor

The Conductor is used to measure an artifact's conductance. Each artifact trait has a unique conductance, all the artifact's traits' conductance are added together to determine the final artifact's conductance.

Stabilizer

The Stabilizer is used to stabilize artifacts. When an artifact is inserted, the stabilizer can be activated to stabilize it. However, if the artifact is labeled incorrectly, or not at all, it will calcify / be destroyed.

Listing Console

The listing console is used to purchase artifacts through cargo.

Anti-Tactile Pinchers

The anti-tactile pinchers are used to safely handle artifacts. They can be toggled on and off.

Labeler

The labeler is used to, safely, label artifacts, what traits they have.

Science Goggles

The science goggles are used to help identify artifact traits.

Acquiring

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Obviously you'll need an artifact first, before you can begin research. Artifacts can be bought through the Research and Development Listing Console with the science budget, which will deliver artifacts through cargo. Otherwise, artifacts can be 'found', or even made. Artifacts can be found on lavaland, inside maintenance, or during exploration missions. Making artifacts is a little bit tricker, and will require some sleuthing from the player to figure out.

Labelling

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Once you have an artifact, you'll need to label it, correctly, for it to have any value whatsoever. This is generally done by sleuthing out what traits the artifact has by examining, weighing, conducting, and generally testing it, which can be done with various items. If you don't want to accidentally activate the bomb artifact while doing this, be sure to wear a pair of anti-tactile pinchers , these will make most interactions safe, but only if they are enabled. Otherwise, activating the artifact, although dangerous, can also help you sleuth out what traits it has.

It's important to be wearing science goggles during this process, as they will generally translate vague hints and effects into exact trait names.

Processing

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Once the artifact is labeled, you have several options on how you'd like to process it.

Stabilizing

Stabilizing an artifact stops it from malfunctioning, and doubles any potential rewards gained from it. This is useful for artifacts you want to distribute across the station, without the risk of blowing a hole in the hull, or just maximizing profits before selling it. Successfully stabilizing an artifact will reward science with a small amount of discovery points.

Exporting

Exporting, selling, an artifact through cargo will not only give cargo a monetary kick back for doing your dirty work, it also awards science with research and discovery points.

Scanning

Scanning artifacts with the Discovery Scanner will also yield discovery points. However, traits can only be discovered once, and will not reward points if they have already been scanned.

Tracking

Once an artifact is stabilized, instead of selling it you can opt to 'track' it instead. Tracked artifacts will generate research and discovery points when activated, and, if enabled, will announce their location of science comms.

Trackers can be acquired by researching the artifact node, and then printing them from a science lathe.

The Work

Products of The Work.

The work is a process players can figure out for themselves in-game, and we encourage them to do so, but for those who can't quite figure it out-

How to perform the work

The work refers to the process of making custom artifacts. This is a somewhat lengthy process that will require lots of mechanical knowledge, from either yourself or others.

1. Stabilization(Optional) - The first step requires you stabilize an artifact. To do this, you must label an artifact perfectly, excluding malfunctions, and run it through the stabilizer.
2. Pearls(Optional) - After an artifact is stabilized, traits will 'open' when the artifact is aligned on certain coordinate grid marks, the unique grid position for each trait is determined by its weight and conductivity. A trait with 3 weight and 3 conductivity will 'open' when the artifact's XY coordinates are both perfectly divisible by 3. When 'open' traits can be removed, in the form of pearls, by using a screwdriver on the artifact. These pearls are then attached to the item you want to turn into an artifact later.
3. Tritium - Items you want to turn into artifacts must be on a tile that has a visible amount of tritium in it.
4. Fusion - To turn items submerged in tritium into artifacts, a nuclear particle must pass over / hit it, and then roll a 1/3 chance. The easiest way to make nuclear particles is fusion.

Misc

Defense

Knowing how to defend yourself against particularly dangerous artifacts is a key step to keeping yourself outside medbay. In terms of avoiding the effects of artifacts, certain techniques and clothing will keep an artifact from being able to target you.

• The tile directly under arua, timed, flammable, etc. artifacts isn't actually targeted, and is the safest place to be in most cases.

• Clothing and armor like syndicate hardsuits and wizard robes have a chance to deflect artifact targeting. Here's a definitely accurate list of which clothings block artifacts, and their chance to do so.

Clothing	Block Chance
Blood-Red Hardsuit	100%
Gem-Encrusted Harsuit	100%
Prototype Hardsuit	100%
Bio Suit	75%
Radiation Suit	100%
Wizard Robe	100%
Fake Wizard Robe	75%