Hustle Castle – Artifacts

Artifacts in Hustle Castle can be a bit tricky. There aren’t that many different kinds of Artifacts, but there are many variables that can determine how effective they will be in your squad.

NOTE: Every artifact is helpful if used correctly. How much benefit you get from a given artifact will depend very much on the composition of your squad.

Artifacts can (currently ) only be acquired by purchasing from the Arena Store. They can be equipped onto any dweller, but they only benefit fighters.  Artifacts don’t directly add to either the attack or defensive power of your squad. Instead, they give unique benefits that complement your squad’s abilities, and might give you the slight edge needed to defeat your opponent(s).

Artifact attributes

Every Artifact has the following attributes.

Name and Icon

The Name and Icon of an Artifact are arbitrary. They have no bearing on what that Artifact does. You may have a Celestial Key that summons a healer, but your opponent may also have a Celestial Key that allows her fighter to teleport. Don’t get tricked.

Here are the current Artifact names:

  • Book of Prophecy
  • Celestial Key
  • Eternity Crystal
  • Lucky Horseshoe
  • Orb of Oblivion
  • Rune of Authority
  • Scroll of Insight
  • Shoulder Guard of Fortitude
  • Sprout of Anger
  • Vial of Life

Required fighter level

Just as with Weapons and Armor, Artifacts have a required fighter level to equip them. However, whereas the level on other equipment is a minimum requirement, Artifacts have a level range with both a minimum and a maximum. Your fighter can only equip an artifact if her level is within the specified range.

For some artifacts, the required fighter level affects how powerful the artifact is. An example of this is the Summon Sniper Artifact. Higher-level versions of Summon Sniper are, in general, more powerful than lower-level versions.

Here are the level ranges available for Artifacts:

  • 20 – 35
  • 35 – 45
  • 45 – 60
  • 60 – 75
  • 75 – 90
  • 90 – 100

NOTE: You can train your fighter beyond the maximum level of an Artifact that he has equipped. If this happens, then the Artifact stays equipped, but stops working. If you remove the artifact from the fighter, then you won’t be able to re-equip it.

This fighter has trained beyond the level range of his Artifact.

Rarity

While most fighter equipment comes in one of 5 Rarity levels (from Common to Legendary) Artifacts only come in one of 3 Rarity levels: Rare, Epic, or Legendary. There are no Common or Uncommon Artifacts.

For early Artifacts, up to level 45, only Rare is an option. Epic Artifacts are available starting at level 45, and Legendary is available starting at level 60.

Activation time

The activation time explains what battle conditions will trigger the Artifact to activate its effect(s). There are a variety of activation times:

  • Once in a while
  • When an enemy is resurrected **
  • Once in a while when an enemy is resurrected
  • When an ally is resurrected **
  • Once in a while when an ally is resurrected
  • When an enemy dies **
  • Once in a while when an enemy dies
  • When an ally dies **
  • Once in a while when an ally dies
  • Upon dying **
  • Once in a while after an enemy minion is summoned

** – Denotes activation times for Artifacts that will only activate once per battle.

TIP: Pay attention to the activation time of your Artifacts. It wouldn’t be helpful to equip an Artifact that activates “once in a while when an ally is resurrected” if you don’t have any resurrect wands in your squad.

TIP: In general, an artifact that specifies an activation time of “once in a while” will activate more frequently than any other artifacts. An activation time of “once in a while after an enemy minion is summoned” is generally the least useful.

Activation name

The activation name is a short description of the effect(s) of the Artifact, when activated. Here is a list of current activation names:

  • Abyssal Summoning
  • Backstab
  • Blood lust
  • Cleansing
  • Explosion Hazard
  • Spell Caster
  • Summon Healer
  • Summon Sniper
  • Time Distortion

Activation effect

The activation effect is a longer description of the effect(s) of the Artifact, when activated. The magnitude and duration of activation effects can vary based on the fighter level and / or based on the rarity of the artifact.

Here are the full-text descriptions for each activation name (with the variable parts in <> brackets):

Abyssal Summoning

Deals <magnitude> damage to and stuns all enemies for <duration> sec. Summons a minion next to the enemy (health <magnitude (range)>, damage <magnitude>). <Activates 1 time per battle.>

Backstab

Teleports behind enemy units for <duration> seconds.

Blood Lust

Casts the blood lust on a fighter, decreasing their health by <magnitude>% and increasing damage caused by <magnitude>%.

Cleansing

Removes all effects from a random fighter on the battlefield.

Explosion Hazard

Deals <magnitude> damage to and stuns all fighters on the battlefield for <duration> sec.

Spell Caster

The damage the fighter does is reduced by <magnitude>%, but their ability cooldown is reduced by <magnitude>%. Lasts for <duration> sec.

Summon Healer

Summons a minion with a healing ability to the battlefield. Heals <magnitude> per second. Lasts for <duration> sec.

Summon Sniper

Summons a ranged unit to the battlefield that attacks the most distant targets. Deals <magnitude> damage per second. Lasts for <duration> sec.

Time Distortion

Slows the next ability cooldown in all enemies by <magnitude>%. Speeds up the next ability cooldown in all allies by <magnitude>%.

Uniqueness

An Artifact can be labeled as Unique. If this label is present, then only one of that type of Artifact can be used by a given squad in a battle. If two copies of the same Unique artifact are equipped by the same squad, then only one of them will work. The other will be impotent.

There is only one aspect of a Unique Artifact that is used to determine if it is the same as another Unique Artifact: activation name. This is a confusing subject, and many players misunderstand it. Here are some examples that will hopefully clear things up a bit:

These are two different Artifacts. They can be used together

On first glance, these two artifacts look the same. They aren’t, though. The left artifact is a Summon Healer Artifact. The right one is a Time Distortion Artifact. Even though they are both marked as Unique, they can both be used together by the same squad in the same battle because they have different activation names.

These Artifacts are the same. They cannot be used together.

These two artifacts might look very different, but they both have the same activation name: Summon Healer. Since they are labeled as Unique, and they have the same activation name, only one of them can be used by the same squad in the same battle.

These Artifacts are the same, but they can be used together.

These two artifacts have the same activation name: Backstab. They are not labeled as Unique, though, and so they can both be used by the same squad in the same battle.

NOTE: If two or more of the same Unique Artifact are equipped by the same squad in the same battle, then whichever one happens to be activated first will be the one that is effective for the rest of the battle. For example if one artifact is activated “Once in a while when an enemy is resurrected” and the other is “Once in a while when an ally dies” then which one is effective depends on whether an enemy is resurrected first or an ally dies first.

Artifact details

NOTE: Some of the values below are described as being random. That means that you can occasionally find two copies of the same artifact, with the same rarity and fighter level, that have very different stats.

Abyssal Summoning

Abyssal Summoning does damage to all enemies, stuns all enemies, and summons a tank-like minion. It is first available to level 60 fighters, and can only be obtained in Epic and Legendary Rarities.

Abyssal Summoning is a Unique Artifact. It has the following variables:

Damage to all enemies

When activated, the Artifact immediately deals a certain amount of damage to all enemies.

The magnitude of this damage is somewhat random, but increases based on both rarity and fighter level.

Stun duration

When activated, the Artifact immediately stuns all enemies for a certain period of time.

The duration of the stun depends solely on the rarity of the artifact. For Epic Artifacts, it is always 0.5 seconds. For Legendary, it is always 0.8 seconds.

Minion health

The minion summoned by this artifact is semi-permanent. It doesn’t disappear after a certain duration. Instead, it has a specified amount of health, and only disappears after it has been killed by the enemy. It can’t be healed or resurrected. The health is specified as a range, and changes slightly, within this range, from one summoning to another.

The magnitude of this health is somewhat random, but increases based on both rarity and fighter level.

Minion damage

This is the amount of damage per second that the minion does to enemy fighters.

The magnitude of this damage is somewhat random, but increases based on both rarity and fighter level.

Activates 1 time

Abyssal Summoning comes in 2 flavors: single-use and multiple-use. If the Artifact specifies that it “activates 1 time per battle” then the numbers for damage to all enemies, minion health, and minion damage will all be significantly higher than if it can be used multiple times per battle.

Single-use and multiple-use Abyssal Summoning

Backstab

Backstab “teleports” the fighter that has the Artifact equipped. The fighter will always be teleported to the rear-most line of the enemy squad. If the enemy has any Archers, then your fighter will go there. If not, then she will attack the enemy’s mages.

NOTE: If your enemy also has a Backstab Artifact, and if your enemy’s fighter teleports first, then your fighter will teleport to attack your enemy’s teleported fighter.

When the effect expires, your fighter will return to where they were before the Artifact was activated. Your fighter will also return if he is killed. He will never be resurrected in his teleported location.

Backstab is first available to level 60 fighters, and can only be obtained in Epic and Legendary Rarities. It is not a Unique Artifact. It has the following variables:

Teleport duration

This is the length of time that the fighter is in his teleported location. There are only two possible values for this. For Epic Artifacts, it is 4 seconds. For Legendary artifacts, it is 6 seconds.

NOTE: Your fighter will pause briefly, for about 1 second, immediately after teleporting, so the effective attack durations of the two artifact variations are about 3 and 5 seconds.

TIP: Backstab works best with high DPS fighters because the fighter will only be teleported for short periods of time. The effect is most potent if you can kill at least one of your enemy’s mages while teleported. This can often be more effective when used in conjunction with Abyssal Summoning.

Blood Lust

Blood Lust decreases the health of one of your fighters by a certain percentage, making her much more susceptible to attack. But during this time, her DPS will be significantly increased by a certain percentage.

NOTE: The fighter’s health will always be reduced by a percentage of his health remaining at the time the Artifact activates. This means that your fighter will lose the most health when his health bar is full. If his health bar is almost empty, then he will lose very little health.

Blood Lust is first available to level 20 fighters, and can only be obtained as a Rare Artifact up to level 60. After level 60, it comes in only Epic and Legendary Rarities. It is not a Unique Artifact. It has the following variables:

Health decrease percentage

There are only two possible values for this, and it varies based on the Artifact’s Rarity. For Rare and Epic Artifacts, health is reduced by 75%. For Legendary Artifacts, health is only reduced by 65%.

Damage increase percentage

There are, again, only two possible values for this, and it varies based on the Artifact’s Rarity. For Rare and Epic Artifacts, DPS is increased by 90%. For Legendary Artifacts, DPS is increased by 125%.

TIP: Blood Lust works best on archers. Since they are in the back of the squad, they are less likely to be attacked, and they also tend to have high DPS to begin with, so you will get a pretty hefty boost from this Artifact.

Cleansing

Cleansing removes all effects from a random fighter on the battlefield every time it fires. It’s not completely clear what this means. Does it only affect enemies, or does it affect allies as well? Does it only remove affects that are detrimental to your squad?

If you take the activation effect text at its word, then it can affect any fighter, enemy or ally, and it removes all effects, whether beneficial or detrimental. For example, if one of your fighters is stunned (which is bad) and is under the effect of a Blood Lust artifact (which is good) then Cleansing would remove both the stunned and Blood Lust effects.

Because of this uncertainty, and the very random behavior of the Artifact, few players purchase it.

Cleansing is first available to level 60 fighters, and is always an Epic Artifact. It is not a Unique Artifact.

There is no variation to this one. All Cleansing Artifacts are the same, other than level requirements.

Explosion Hazard

Explosion Hazard effects all fighters alike, both enemies and allies. It damages all fighters, and it stuns all fighters. The damage can only be beneficial when your fighters have more health than your opponent’s fighters. The stun can help your mages to recharge their magic effect, but it also helps your opponent’s mages. So it’s only helpful when your cooldown time is shorter, or when you know that your mages’ magic effects are better than your opponent’s.

TIP: Because of the dubious benefit of Explosion Hazard, few players (intentionally) purchase it.

Explosion Hazard is first available to level 60 fighters, and can only be obtained in Epic and Legendary Rarities. It is a Unique Artifact. It has the following variables:

Damage to all enemies

When activated, the Artifact immediately deals a certain amount of damage to all enemies.

The magnitude of this damage is somewhat random, and probably increases based on fighter level. I’m not sure because I haven’t seen enough examples of Explosion Hazard to tell for sure.

Stun duration

When activated, the Artifact immediately stuns all enemies for a certain period of time.

The duration of the stun depends solely on the rarity of the artifact. For Epic Artifacts, it is always 1.5 seconds. For Legendary, it is always 2.5 seconds.

TIP: Explosion Hazard is not recommended for Arena tournaments, where you are scored based on speed. This Artifact is likely to slow you down.

Spell Caster

Spell Caster, as hinted in the name, is only useful for mages. It reduces the mage’s DPS in exchange for also reducing her spell cooldown time. This effect only applies to the mage who has equipped the Artifact.

NOTE: If the mage’s spell is a damage spell, the damage done is not reduced by Spell Caster.

Spell Caster is first available to level 60 fighters, and can only be obtained in Epic and Legendary Rarities. It is not a Unique Artifact. It has the following variables:

Cooldown reduction

There are only two possible values for this, and it varies based on the Artifact’s Rarity. For Epic Artifacts, cooldown time is reduced by 60%. For Legendary Artifacts, cooldown time reduced by 80%.

NOTE: The DPS reduction is always fixed at 90%, and the duration of the effect is always fixed at 5 seconds.

NOTE: It is unknown whether or not this Artifact can affect cooldown times other than those associated with mage wands. For example, there is a cooldown associated with skeleton armor. Is that cooldown reduced by this Artifact?

TIP: Spell Caster works very well with spells that can be cast in rapid succession, such as damage, healing, or stun spells. It is possible (especially with the 80% reduction Artifact) to cast multiple spells within the 5 second period that it is active. It may be less useful for resurrect or insta-kill spells, which are situational.

Summon Healer

Summons a mage-like minion to heal your squad. It is first available to level 20 fighters, and can only be obtained as a Rare Artifact up to level 60. After level 60, it comes in only Epic and Legendary Rarities. Summon Healer is a Unique Artifact. It has the following variables:

Health restored per second

The magnitude of health restored is somewhat random, but increases based on both rarity and fighter level. It also seems to be affected by the length of the minion’s lifetime. The longer the effect, the less health is restored each second.

Minion lifetime

This determines how long the minion will stay. There are two possible values: 6 seconds or 12 seconds. The lifetime of the minion seems to be random. It’s not based on the Artifact’s rarity or its required fighter level.

Summon Sniper

Summons an archer-like minion to attack your enemy. It is first available to level 20 fighters, and can only be obtained as a Rare Artifact up to level 60. After level 60, it comes in only Epic and Legendary Rarities. Summon Sniper is a Unique Artifact. It has the following variables:

Damage per second

The magnitude of damage dealt is somewhat random, but increases based on both rarity and fighter level. It also seems to be affected by the length of the minion’s lifetime. The longer the effect, the less damage is dealt each second.

Minion lifetime

This determines how long the minion will stay. There are two possible values: 6 seconds or 12 seconds. The lifetime of the minion seems to be random. It’s not based on the Artifact’s rarity or its required fighter level.

Time Distortion

This slows down ability cooldown in enemies while simultaneously speeding up cooldown in allies. At first glance, it may seem that this is just another version of the Spell Caster Artifact. There are several differences, though:

  • Time Distortion affects all fighters in the battle. Spell Caster only affects the fighter who has equipped the Artifact.
  • Spell Caster decreases a fighter’s DPS. Time Distortion has no undesirable side-effects.
  • Time Distortion affects a single cooldown cycle for each fighter. Spell Caster has a duration of 5 seconds, and can affect multiple cycles within that 5 second period.

Time Distortion is first available to level 60 fighters, and can only be obtained in Epic and Legendary Rarities. It is a Unique Artifact. It has the following variables:

Cooldown reduction / extension

There are only two possible values for this, and it varies based on the Artifact’s Rarity. For Epic Artifacts, both the reduction of allies’ cooldown time and the extension of enemies’ cooldown time is 30%. For Legendary Artifacts, both values are increased to 45%.

NOTE: There are a lot of details about the workings of Time Distortion that aren’t exactly clear:

  • As with Spell Caster, it is unclear whether this Artifact affects the cooldown times of equipment other than mage wands. For example, does it affect the cooldown time for skeleton armor?
  • Is the Time Distortion effect a percentage of total cooldown time or a percentage of remaining time? For example, suppose a resurrect mage has a cooldown time of 5 seconds, and 2 seconds of that time are remaining at the point that a legendary Time Distortion is activated. 45% of 5 seconds is 2.25, but 45% of 2 is 1.1. So will the mage’s ability fire instantly, or will it fire in 0.9 seconds?
  • How do Time Distortion and Spell Caster interact? Do the effects stack so that a fighter’s cooldown time could be reduced by 80% and then further reduced by another 45%? Or does one Artifact override the other?
  • What happens if both squads activate a Time Distortion Artifact? Do they cancel each other out, or does the first squad to activate have an advantage? For example, if you take a 5 second cooldown and reduce it by 45%, you get 2.75 seconds. If you then extend 2.75 seconds by 45%, you get 3.99 seconds. What happens if both Artifacts are triggered by the same event? In this case, neither one happens first.

Artifact recommendations

As mentioned several times already, what artifacts work best for you will depend heavily on your squad configuration and equipment. However, I will add some general suggestions based on my own experiences.

Most desirable artifacts

Here are the best artifacts to try to get, ordered from most desirable to least desirable.

  • Backstab (for an assassin)
  • Time Distortion
  • Abyssal Summoning
  • Spell Caster (for damage or healing mage)
  • Backstab (for archer or tank)
  • Blood Lust (for archer)
  • Summon Sniper
  • Summon Healer
  • Spell Caster (for resurrect mage)
  • Explosion Hazard
  • Cleansing

Best activation times

Here are the best activation times to look for, ordered from most desirable to least desirable.

  • Once in a while
  • Once in a while when an enemy dies
  • Once in a while when an ally dies
  • Once in a while when an ally is resurrected
  • Once in a while when an enemy is resurrected
  • Once in a while after an enemy minion is summoned

Equipping tips

  • Don’t equip two Unique artifacts with the same activation name
  • If an artifact is likely to fire frequently, then equip it to a fighter that doesn’t do much damage. That fighter will pause for about a second when activating the artifact, and won’t be doing any damage during that time.
  • Equip your most important artifacts to a fighter who is likely to stay alive for a while. Artifacts don’t activate when the fighter is dead.

39 thoughts on “Hustle Castle – Artifacts”

  1. Hi, thanks for these precious information. I have a question about the “activates once per battle” effect of the Abyssal summoning. In PvP and arena of course it activates (if condition occours) only one time per battle. But in clan war? You know that If you defeat a wave you get into next wave and so on…. Can the artifact be activated also in second, third, etc… Wave? Or if it activates in the first wave, it won’t be activated in next waves also if the trigger condition occours?
    I hope you understand my question, if not I’ll try to explay better… Thank you in advance

    1. My experience indicates that Backstab is more helpful in most squad configurations, but as I mentioned in the article, it is very dependent on your own squad configuration.

  2. Hey Dan, I really liked this post, it was very helpful and includes so much info!
    Got a question for clarification – In your post, it seems like you first said that Spell Caster does not affect damage-type wands, but later you said that it does? Also, do you know the cool-down times for healing & ressurecting?

    1. @Brendan-I believe he was saying that the base DPS of the wand is reduced (is affected) while the Once in a While “Spell effect” is not reduced. Thus the splash “spell” or target highest HP/Damage enemy “spell” are at full effect even though the mage will be doing less damage from regular attacks.

  3. For summon sniper and healer, is it better overall to buy the ones that last 6 seconds as opposed to 12? I’m in 4×30 bracket.

    1. @JamieisMyName If the healing value and level requirement are the same take 12 seconds. While it may not matter for arena, it can matter in prolonged Portal or Clan War fights.

  4. Thanks for the great post. Have you figured out what determines the lvl range on artifacts in the store and masters chest? There are often artifacts available that have levels ranges that are below most of my squad’s lvl. Would hate for that to spawn in the chest!

  5. How or where can you get the artifacts please, got my fighters up to level 70 but not had/ got 1 artefact as yet

    1. @ Macky no difference. The name of the object (vial of life, celestial key, etc) and it’s image (horseshoe, scroll, key, etc) don’t matter

  6. If I have 2 unique artifact with same activation and one of my Ally die who was wearing the artifact will the 2nd artifact activate?

  7. im in the 4×40 pvp bracket, but im getting smoked. most of the time the top 3 players have legendary artifacts level 35-45. how did they get them? i cant find any info

    1. you can get special legendary artifacts in events…. artifacts you saw on top three players were’nt described in post above…

  8. Can u add a section which says what triggers are desirable on specific artifacts? I am now facing the decision whether to buy time distortion with an ally ress trigger and am at a loss…

  9. Is the Chain Lightning artifact no longer available or maybe was event specific in the past? I’ve had it used against me but never seen it available for purchase in arena store and it’s not listed in this post.
    Great post, btw. Lots of good info. Thanks.

  10. Great article, thanks Dan!

    One more question regarding unique artifacts: if you have two artifacts with the same activation name, but only one of them is unique, will that effectively disable the unique one, or will both work?

  11. Hey all, any ideas yet if Bad Doctor affects resurrection? It still seems good for suppressing lanterns, swords and summon healers, but not a lot of folks run “healers” in Arena.

  12. DANBHENTSCHEL, great resource.

    Kevin, I quite like Bad Doctor even though it’s only once in a while when enemy is resurrected. I abandoned a second tele-archer in favor of it, after very little testing, and I play arena a fair bit.

    I bought it on a whim when they increased the healing minions effects because I was finding the teams I had the most trouble fighting were those who summoned a ton of cannon fodder minions which kept me from killing their guys. I still have trouble fighting heavy summoning teams but overall it does a lot more than a second teleporter. I think it was because when both my archers teleported my mages had no defenses against rival teleporters.

  13. I’m almost certain that you are wrong about the unique. I have 2 unique “once in a while” artifacts and they both proc.

  14. Im interested to know what unique means now. Ive seen people with multiple backstabs or healers used in battle, amd ive heard you cant have multiple snipers.

  15. @MrGoodbeard, @Aaron

    I’m sorry to say it like this, I really am, but if you simply read Dan’s excellent article above, both of your questions are answered clearly. Hint: Read the section titled Uniqueness. If you don’t find the answer, read it again, more carefully.

  16. Lol thanks liathano, i read the section you referred to but stopped before i got to the bit that had the answer. Good article though

  17. Hey all, I have come to the conclusion that Backstab is useless as a level 10 player (Throne Room 10). My assassin teleports behind their lines but cannot kill their level 90-100 archers and get to the mages. So, that leaves only one assassin trying to hurt their front lines. Just doesn’t work. So, I took out the backstab artifact and now my two assassins are punching through the front lines and getting to the mages.

    To clarify, I have two assassins, two mages (one heal, one res), and two archers.

    1. Put Backstab on a high DPS Archer with a Bow (faster weapon). Or two Backstabs on two archers….

  18. I have a fighter that has 4 stars but i cant get her pass 70 up to 80. She just walks around the training room. I believe that should be 20 a star and she should be able to just take her rite up to 80? Anyone no’s y?

  19. Do you have any idea about time activation of once in a while artifacts, considering start of the battle and activation moment? The cooldown duration is mentioned but not the first activation.

  20. “I’d like to thank you for the efforts you’ve put in writing this blog. I’m hoping to check out the same high-grade content by you later on as well. In truth, your creative writing abilities has encouraged me to get my own, personal website now ;)”
    ragb43235

Leave a Reply to Stephen Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.