Minor Artifact

Minor Artifacts are a special category of named items with particularly powerful enchantments. Minor Artifacts go into a character's normal equipment slots and can have filigrees slotted into it. The first Minor Artifacts were introduced with the Masterminds of Sharn expansion in Update 42.


 * Artifacts have stronger enchantments than regular quest loot, or even raid loot of that level. Artifacts have double the ilevel jump, and will be better than raid items of the same level, which are better than quest items of the same level.


 * Each Minor Artifact can only be equipped into a specific equipment slot.
 * A character may only equip a single Minor Artifact, regardless of slot.

Each Minor Artifact has a different number of maximum Filigree Slots, and the number of total slots cannot be adjusted by consuming a Sentient Spark. All Minor Artifacts available in Update 42, however, have three maximum Filigree Slots.
 * They start with one slot for a single sentient filigree.
 * The same Filigree slotted into your Minor Artifact and Sentient Weapon stack with each other, and both will count towards Set Bonus requirements.
 * (Example: If you placed "Deadly Rain: Dexterity" into both your equipped Minor Artifact and your equipped Sentient Weapon, you would gain +2 Dexterity and you would activate the 2-piece set bonus from Deadly Rain (+5 Ranged Power).
 * Minor Artifacts can be placed into the Sentient Weapon UI, and can consume named items just like a Sentient Weapon to gain XP.
 * Sentient Jewels are not used, you can level the Artifacts directly by feeding them named items.
 * The XP cost for leveling is one half of Sentient Jewels.
 * A Minor Artifact CAN CONSUME itself!!! --> This has been confirmed by GMTrojan (don't ask...)
 * Feeding a Minor Artifact with XP to another Minor Artifact does not transfer the consumed Artifacts XP, you only get the base item amount. (I got bit by this today(1-2-2021) and lost 3K sentient XP)

Sharn artifacts
The following applies to Update 42 Minor Artifacts:
 * The maximum number of filigree slots is three. Sentient sparks cannot be used to increase the number of slots.
 * The Sharn Minor Artifacts are unique items flavored as coming from different parts of Khorvaire (museum artifacts).
 * They drop in raids and as reward for completing the main saga (not the Cogs saga).
 * In saga rewards, there's a 25% chance for an artifact on Elite and 50% on True Elite saga completion.
 * Each end chest in Sharn has a small chance to drop one of the Minor Artifacts available in the Masterminds of Sharn Expansion Pack. This is an independent chance than your chance to find Named Loot, but will still be affected by Ransack penalties. The full list of 10 artifacts is available this way, and mythic & reaper bonuses are possible.
 * The saga will continue to have a chance to drop 3 Artifacts, but it will randomly determine which three are available (this is done via 3 independent rolls, so it may show you more than one of the same Artifact, but it will always show three total).
 * The saga will continue to have a chance to drop 3 Artifacts, but it will randomly determine which three are available (this is done via 3 independent rolls, so it may show you more than one of the same Artifact, but it will always show three total).

The Soul Splitter artifacts
Two artifacts were introduced in Update 43 with similar stats as the Sharn expansion artifacts. They drop randomly in the end chests of all U43 quests.

Epic Voice
introduced in Update 45 is an outlier. It's ML20, BtA, and can only take a single filigree.

The Lost Gatekeepers
The Update 46 minor artifacts behave just like like Sharn artifacts. They drop randomly in the end chests and many/all optional chests of all U46 quests.

The Promise of Fire
A number of new minor artifacts were added in Update 47, two are available from the epic version of the new dungeon.

Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh
Update 50 introduced many additional minor artifacts, including 'perfected' items, which can have up to four filigree slots.