Partawesome tower defense, partsatisfying deckbuilder, and partaddictive roguelike,Monster Train 2is a game rich with deep systems to learn, manage, and bend to your will.
One aspect of the game that players will learn about early on are artifacts, acquired items that add powerful perks and boosts to your run. You’ll earn one artifact at the start of a run automatically, then will have the opportunity to find and purchase more throughout the rest.
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More often than not, you’ll have a choice of a few artifacts to select from, so it’s important to know and understand which ones you may want to prioritize, as you still learn all the basics of the game.
I’ve managed to collect a nice chunk of Monster Train 2’s artifacts, so I’m willing to share with you the 10 that I think will serve you best in the early phases of the game. Let’s take a look.
If you’ve playedSlay The Spire, you’ll know just how incredibly helpful relics can be in that game. Relics are the same as artifacts in Monster Train 2. You’re going to want as many as possible.
10Large Mystery Box
Full Of Surprises
The Large Mystery Box is an artifact that you can only acquire from a random Celestial Alcove event along your route. These alcoves will pull up a Dungeons and Dragons-style instance and give you some kind of choice to make that usually results in a nice perk, but sometimes at the expense of a curse or debuff.
This specific event will give you the choice of a Small Gift Box, a Jack In The Box, or the Large Mystery Box. In this case, there’s no catch. You’re able to simply pick whichever option you like best, but the Large Mystery Box is my favorite.
This artifact adds a random card to your hand every single turn. The best part is that it doesn’t even have to be a card you already own. This gives you some awesome options throughout a run, but the randomness does ultimately decide whether the artifact is actually useful. Still, it’s fun and can have awesome results.
9Crown Of The Eternal
We Are The Champions
Crown Of The Eternalfullyheals your deck’s Champion after every combat turn. No, this doesn’treviveyour Champion if it was totally wiped out, but it will absolutely greatly lower the odds of this ever even happening.
The Champions are some of the most powerful units available in the early game, with Fel from the Banished clan being my personal favorite. She’s an absolutemenacewith the right build, and this artifact helping to ensure she stays alive to continually deal out punishment is awesome.
Truth be told, my Champions don’t die too often if I’m playing a low-level, early game run. Still, the peace of mind offered here is great. Certain cards and abilities scale with remaining unit HP too, so the more of your Champion’s health you can save, the better all around.
8Pyrestone Housing
Ultimate Units
If you come across a Merchant of Steel on your train’s route, you’re able to purchase up to two upgrades for each unit card in your deck (aside from your Champion). These include things like extra HP, bonus attack, multistrike to deal double damage, and more.
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Pyrestone Housing allows you to purchase an additional third upgrade for every single unit you own. This can lead to some trulyinsanelyOP characters you’ll have at your disposal.
Personally, I’d grab this artifact, drop three upgrades onto a Steadfast Crusader unit, duplicate this card as many times as you may, and watch your profits soar high as a crow.
7Fhyra’s Inferno
Dragon’s Dogma
Fhyra’s Inferno is only actually useful if you’re adding a surplus of dragon units from the Pyreborne clan into your deck. This will absolutely be worth the extra effort to expertly craft your cards into a wyvern-focused group, however.
With this artifact, every single, solitary attack from your dragon units will attach a hefty +5 Pyregel to the enemy. Pyregel is a stackable status effect that follows enemies room to room, resulting in an instant amount of damage matching their Pyregel total at the start of each turn.
Basically, it works like Poison or Burn in other deckbuilders you may be familiar with, so you’ll know immediately just how awesome builds focused on this mechanic can end up being. If you happen to have three dragons on the first floor of your train and own this artifact, adding +15 Pyregel total in one turn to your enemies is pretty insane.
6Martyr’s Signet
Frontline Workers
If you find yourself losing too many units battle after battle, then Martyr’s Signet is for you. With this artifact, every unit you have in the front combat position on each floor willpermanentlygain 6 total HP aftereveryfight.
I tend to keep my Champions and other highly skilled options up front, so this +6 HP boost to these units after every round can come in incredibly handy.
As previously mentioned above, since so many skills and abilities also scale with total unit health, there are many additional benefits to giving your units as much HP as possible, aside from simply being more likely to keep them alive.
5Sparkflint Catalyst
Burn, Baby, Burn
Something that’s incredibly important in Monster Train 2 is synergizing as many things as possible. This synergy can not only be found between units themselves, but also with spells, equipment, upgrades, and—you guessed it—artifacts.
Sparkflint Catalyst is a great example of this idea. This artifact adds another +6 Pyregel counter to any enemy that’s being hit with Pyregel for the first time.
Combine this one with an artifact like Fhyra’s Inferno if you happen to find both in one run, and you’ll really be cooking. Leverage its value even further by building a deck that’s focused on Pyregel dealers, and nothing will be able to stand in your way.
4Artificial Pyrestone
Boosters Deployed
Something else to wrap your head around early in Monster Train 2 is floor capacity. From the start of a run, each floor of the train only has 5 capacity spaces. This total can be increased after boss fights, resulting in 9 total floor capacity points by the end of your run if you decide to focus on this upgrade option.
A higher capacity means more units can be sent into the train during the deployment phase. However, if you don’t have enough ember (energy) to send out a surplus of cards, then your extra capacity space isn’t being properly utilized anyway.
Artificial Pyrestone gives you 3 extra ember to spend during the deployment phase to get as many units into the action as soon as possible. If you’re upgrading your floor capacity and can also snag this artifact, your side of the train is going to quickly be jam-packed with a massive army that’s sure to send shivers down your enemies' spines.
3Shaleshell
You Get An Armor Boost, And YOU Get An Armor Boost
I’m a Monster Train 2 player that absolutelyspamsunit abilities. From Fel’s Savior to the Steadfast Crusader’s Slam, I see no point in being stingy with using these cooldown timer powers as often as possible.
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For me, that’s why Shaleshell is so freaking good. This artifact gives every unit in your squad +3 Armor whenever you trigger a cooldown ability.
The result of this artifact is an army of insanely defense-heavy units that can hold up under even the most diabolical of enemy attackers and bosses. This is partially a tower defense game, so it’snevera bad idea to focus on artifacts like this that do such a good job in boosting your team’s Armor and/or HP.
2Captain’s Halo
The Value Of Valor
You’re surely quickly learning that Valor is possiblythemost important buff in all of Monster Train 2. Not only does Valor boost a unit’s attack by 1 each time it’s applied, but it also adds Armor to the unit at the end of a turn equal to the built-up stack of Valor points.
Basically, add Valor to a unit, do more damage, block more damage, and start earning some victories. Captain’s Halo adds +2 Valor to any of your frontline units after each round. If you have some powerhouse units up front, they’re going to quickly become OP during every battle with this artifact.
If I’m doing a run with Fel as my Champion, Ialwaysplace her at the front of my top floor as a last line of defense that can deal extreme damage. Captain’s Halo ensures she’s as strong as possible by the time any enemies start sneaking up to the third floor.
1Split Anvil
Deal Me In
Every artifact we’ve talked about so far can be used to great levels of success, but all pale in comparison during the early game to the Split Anvil. If you have the option to pick this one up and pass it up, you simply don’t deserve to win your run.
Every spell card in your hand has a number in its top-left corner which designates how much ember it costs to use that card. You start a run with 3 ember to be spent each turn, and you have to very carefully manage that meager total between placing units in the train and using your cards to benefit the squad as much as possible.
Split Anvil makes it so thateveryheld spell in your hand costs zero ember once you play another card during the same turn with a higher ember cost. This can be a little hard to wrap your mind around at first, so let me give you an example.
Say you’re holding one Cleave card, which costs two ember to play. You’re also holding four Firestarter cards, which cost one ember to play. With Split Anvil, once you play Cleave, all four of your Firestarters become absolutely free. This leads to the possibility of many turns getting absolutely out of control if you play a high ember cost card and are also holding an excess of cards that are now free to use.
Good luck to your enemies. I almost feel bad.Almost.
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