Artifacts and Relics

Artifacts

    Up until now, Artifacts have been relatively vague, but heavily valued items on the site. They’re items that you can obtain through various methods to provide you with an edge in battle. Or, just to be cool and shiny, if that’s what you’re into. While we released the Artifact system in 2016, we never really went in-depth with explaining how it worked, and have realized that it’s time to do so. And, we decided to add a little spice to it while we do!

What Are Artifacts?

    Artifacts are, for lack of a better term, an item that provides you with an extra move. These items are usually made by someone else as a reward for completing an important adventure, so you rarely get to select the true power of your artifact. Artifacts come in three different levels of intensity, each having their own strength and requirement to obtain.

Artifact Levels Are:

    -Minor Artifacts: Also known as Weak Artifacts, Minor Artifacts hold their strength outside of battle. These are the easiest to obtain, and provide the owner with an ability that is the equivalent of a Non-Combat Passive.

    -Major Artifacts: Occasionally called Strong Artifacts, these are where you start to see fighting power in your new toy. The strength of a move provided by this artifact usually equals the power of an attack that has a three-post cooldown. It’s an artifact and not a regular move, however, so it has a drawback: These attacks can only be used once per thread!

    -Legendary Artifacts: You’ve worked hard for the reward, so it better be the best you can get, right? That’s why Legendary Artifacts may as well be treated identically to an additional moveslot. There isn’t much limit to what a Legendary Artifact can do!


    Now that you know a little about artifacts, here are a few examples of them. Just in case you were curious, or need a few ideas of how they work before you try to make some for future adventures:

    -Seafarer’s Compass [Minor Artifact]: An odd compass from an ancient ship. This is a passive relic that allows the user to assign a location or target, via direct contact with the compass (which can be reassigned at any time). The compass’ needle will always point to the assigned location or to the assigned person.

    -Angel Sift [Major Artifact]: A ceramic angel wing, worn like a pin. On use, removes one move’s instance of poison, corruption, or curse. Once per thread.

    -Soul Sunderer [Legendary Artifact]: A fist-sized, jet-black, jagged stalactite. Any attacks that the owner of this artifact executes will pierce any kind of shield or defensive measure used against them. In case the attack in question already had these properties, it’ll deal twice as much damage instead. Cooldown: 3 posts.


    There are quite a few ways to obtain artifacts, so if one doesn’t suit your fancy, surely another can! These can be collected by Site Plots, Subplots, Missions, For Glories and Tournaments. Some of these do have requirements that need to be met prior to their host offering an artifact reward, though! So, I’ve listed those below!

    -For Glories: This is our newest way to gain artifacts. Instead of absorbing data to load a move from your enemy, you can collect an artifact! It still has to hit all requirements in which you would normally get a loaded move, of course. There are some extra restrictions to this, which are that Ultimate level and lower For Glories can only offer Minor Artifacts as their reward, whereas Mega level and higher may offer a Major Artifact instead of a loaded move. Legendary Artifacts are unable to be found in a For Glory, and there is still the risk of a post penalty if you lose your battle.

    -Subplots: These are sometimes called personal plots. Either way, they hold the opportunity to collect artifacts too. These have a bit of a gray-area, as subplots are all run very differently! In most cases, Subplots are eligible to award at least one Major Artifact at the end of its run. If it is particularly difficult or complex, there is the opportunity that they may be able to provide a Legendary Artifact instead! Those who run Subplots will be able to work with the staff to decide what will be the best way to reward their players.

    -Missions: This is one of the most common ways to get an artifact. These follow a pretty basic requirement standard, which is based on the level of the mission itself.

• B-Rank Large Missions may offer a Minor Artifact.
• A-Rank Large Missions may offer Major Artifacts.
• S-Rank Large Missions can offer Legendary Artifacts.

In the rare case that your mission has changed in rank to a higher difficulty through the mission, the host is welcome to DM staff and request an alteration to the artifact that is being rewarded, to suit the difficulty level that the participants actually encountered. We can assess the mission and see if its reward suits.

Introducing Relics.

    Now that we’ve discussed Artifacts, let’s introduce our new addition. Relics. These are quite similar to Artifacts in the sense of obtaining them, and their overall purpose. There are a couple of differences, though! The primary difference being just what style of battle it enhances. While Artifacts give you a new move to your arsenal, Relics boost what you already have.

    Relics come in similar level to Artifacts. Please note that Relics will usually only boost one move, unless they are a Utility-Class Relic.

    -Minor Relics: These are minor modifications to moves. These are often relatively weak abilities, or fairly strong but niche. Unlike Minor Artifacts, Minor Relics are still plenty capable of being utilized in battles. They can provide a slight buff, or even pierce a shield and deal half the intended damage. While small, these items can prove seriously useful to gain the upper hand in a fight!

    -Major Relics: Major Relics are likely what you’ll be seeking the most out of these three levels. They are obviously stronger than their Minor counterpart, but much easier to attain than Legendary Relics. For instance, they can completely pierce a shield and deal the move’s intended damage! Their buff is a bit more notable usually. They might even extend the duration of some effects by an additional post!

    -Legendary Relics: If you want something rare and strong, this is what you’re going for. You want a powerful buff? This is it. These, in comparison to lower levels, would be able to pierce both actives and passives, instead of just a shield! A Legendary Relic lives up to its level, so on the occasion you find one, it’s surely going to be worth the adventure.

Relic Classifications:

    Now, here is a heavy difference between Artifacts and Relics. While Artifacts only have levels, Relics have both levels and classifications. These determine their use in battle, and what you can have equipped at one time! While we’ll go into that last sentence later on, we’ll start off with Relic classes.

 -Defense-Class Relics: These will all be quite self-explanatory based on title. Defense Relics do something to enhance a defense-based active.

    -Offense-Class Relics: The exact opposite of Defense Relics, these empower your offensive moves and make them stronger than before!

    -Utility-Class Relics: Perhaps the only one that might not be obvious by name alone. Their purpose is to intensify the effects of passive abilities.

Examples Of Relics.

    -Utility Relics:
    Utility Relics make a passive bit better than what it once was. While they are not solely limited to these, here is an example of how they stack onto a normal passive. (Please note, you can use just about any stat in replacement of attack when creating a Relic.)

• Normal Passive: +30% attack buff.
  
  
• With A Minor Relic: +40% attack buff.
• With A Major Relic: +50% attack buff.
• With A Legendary Relic: +60% attack buff.

    -Offense Relic, Minor: This Relic may allow a single-target attack to target one additional enemy.

    -Defense Relic, Legendary: This Relic is able to enhance a single shield move, making it capable of being activated without taking up the user’s action for that turn.

How To Get Them.

    Relics are a bit harder to obtain than Artifacts, but overall they have similar methods. Relics tend to be slightly more powerful than their Artifact counterparts, so a Minor Relics equal the difficulty level of a Major Artifact, and Legendary Relics are a new difficulty of their very own! Relics can be obtained by Site Plots, Subplots, Missions, and Tournaments.

    Because they hold a slightly stronger worth, below are the requirements for each mission to offer a Relic.

• A-Rank Large Missions may offer Minor Relics.
  
• S-Rank Large Missions can offer Major Relics.

    You may notice that we aren’t giving any specific ranking for Legendary Relics. Due to the strength they can be at, they are only given on very complex adventures. If you feel that your Subplot may be considered complicated enough to reward such a mighty item, you are welcome to reach out to the staff to see if it can be granted.

How Many Can I Have?

    You may have a total of up to three relics and a combination of up to six artifacts plus relics per account. That means if you have twins, they will have to deal with sharing the three Artifact/Relic slots!

Can I Mix-And-Match Artifacts And Relics?

    You may have a combination of Artifacts and Relics in your inventory, if that’s your preference! There are some important things to note about them that may sway how you choose to collect them, however.

    With Artifacts, you may only have one equipped at a single time. It will take one post to remove and equip a new Artifact, so keep this in mind!

    As for Relics, you may have a total of three equipped at a time. Yes, you read that right. But, they cannot overlap classifications. That means to have a full loadout of Relics, you will need one Offense, Defense, and Utility Relic.

    To keep things balanced, Artifacts and Relics do not work in harmony. This means you cannot equip one of your Artifacts and two of your Relics at the same time! In order to switch between Artifacts and Relics, it will take a post’s action per Relic that you are equipping or unequipping, in order to swap to the other type. If you try to use them in tandem, they’ll just short out and leave you with a handful of junk until you properly sort the mess out, and nobody really wants that!


    And with that, I believe we’ve covered all the necessary bases on Relics and Artifacts! Now, go off on some adventures and start collecting them!