Artifact is finally here, and players can use a beginner's guide to help them get started. The long-anticipated digital card game from developer Valve has appeared poised to shake up the genre in a big way for months now, and so far, Artifact is living up to the billing. Putting aside any issues players might have with the way its economy is structured, the game is certainly a hit in the early going, with plenty of people tuning into streams and downloading the game themselves to give it a shot.
One thing that isn't immediately obvious about Artifact, though, is the learning curve. This isn't just another digital card game, and Valve was not afraid to introduce some serious complexity to the way its TCG variant is played. Artifact quickly breaks down into some extremely complicated board states, and players who are unprepared for three lane gameplay will often find themselves running out of clock on their turns or getting overwhelmed by all the information that needs processing.
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Luckily, that's where we come in. We've compiled a short beginner's guide to Artifact to arm new players with the kinds of tips and tricks that can be lifesavers during early experiences with the game. Read on to find out how to dominate your lane, destroy your enemy's Ancient, and not make any egregious errors that will cost you a game (though, in a title like Artifact, that is bound to happen eventually).
Artifact Guide: Seize the Initiative
Initiative isn't too complex as a mechanic - essentially, there is a coin during gameplay that appears on either side of the board, and the person who has that coin has the first action in a given turn. Artifact is a well-balanced game and there aren't many cards that are complete blowouts, so usually both players will be able to act with their heroes in a given laning phase.
That isn't always true, though, and the further one dives into Artifact the more obvious it becomes that managing initiative is a huge boon. Cards that say they grant initiative are deceptively powerful, often letting players chain together a few spells in a turn that can disable or outright kill an enemy hero - if you had initiative to start, then that's almost like forcing them to skip a turn.
What Artifact doesn't do a great job of explaining is that if a player simply passes their turn without doing anything in a lane, they'll get the initiative coin for the next lane. Sometimes, if none of the cards in your hand will do much in a specific lane, it's better to just pass and use them first in a different lane for maximum effect. That helpfully ties in to our next tip...
Artifact Guide: There Are Three Lanes For a Reason
Artifact is about winning two out of three lanes in a given game (or cheesing the Ancient, which is just as risky in Artifact as it is in DOTA 2). While it's not a bad idea to approach the game as though it is a MOBA, balancing each lane, managing creep for money, and pushing towers when it is most convenient, that's not necessarily the best way to win. Much like in DOTA 2, it can often be correct to abandon a lane that is faltering to reinforce the other two and try to push those instead.
In Artifact, that can honestly happen as early as a few turns into the game. There are some bad match-ups for heroes out there that can make laning against them extremely difficult. Often, it's worth it to concede the match-up in that specific lane and attempt to bolster the remaining two before the opponent realizes what is happening.
Look at it this way: if you have two heroes in one lane and three in the other, and your opponent has one or two stuck in a lane that is already being slowly whittled down, then you have a distinct advantage in the other two lanes. This can certainly backfire, and a wise opponent will look to purchase a Town Scroll quickly to get another hero in one of the lanes you've reinforced, but this is a basic principle of Artifact that isn't obvious when you first begin playing. There are three lanes, but you only need to take two to win. It's simple, but as a strategy, it can lead to some very fascinating decisions that aren't as obvious as the mantra makes it sound.
Page 2 of 2: Shop Wisely, Solo Queue, and More
Artifact Guide: Shop Wisely
The shopping phase in Artifact can easily swing games. A player who chooses the right items ahead of time, uses them in the right moments, and plans for their enemies items will be rewarded with many a victory that looked impossible.
The thing is, shopping in Artifact is just as difficult as the rest of the game once you've got the basics down. As a quick rule, it's often better to focus on items that will armor up or bolster the health of your heroes in the early game, while weapons like Blink Dagger later in the game become more valuable as time goes on. Weapons that simply boost attack are typically wasted because they will be replaced the most easily once players have a bit more gold, whereas armor is important and can help heroes survive longer. Remember: when heroes die they keep their equipment for the next deployment phase, so investing into heroes is just that. Sometimes equipping a hero who is about to die is still right to set up a better lane for them the next time you deploy them.
Also, Town Portal is your friend. It seems like it is a disadvantage to remove a hero from a lane and have to deploy them again next turn when you begin Artifact, but saving a hero, cheating your opponent out of five gold, and getting to assess the battlefield are all extremely valuable.
Artifact Guide: Solo Queue is Your Friend
Playing against bots in a multiplayer card game can seem silly. The point is to utterly decimate an opponent and extract a satisfactory friend request at the end of the match - or at least it has been, in digital card games prior. If Magic: The Gathering is Wizard Poker, then Artifact is kind of like Wizard Chess from Harry Potter in the sense that it is equal parts refined and brutal, and while the brutality is easy to experience on both sides of the spectrum, the refinement takes time.
That's why it's important to practice in solo queue's bots. Hats off to Artifact's development team, because they've created a bot system that is genuinely worth practicing against. The AI might not make all the right plays on Normal difficulty, but they're a shockingly accurate caricature of other fledgling players for sure, and the bots will even teach you a few neat interactions that you can then use yourself.
Artifact is a game of repetition. There's no way players will get significantly better without putting a lot of time in. Using solo queue guarantees you'll be able to get a bunch of fast-paced games in, and lets players practice whatever new strategy they've cooked up before taking it out into the wilds of competitive play.
Artifact Guide: Resource Management is King
Everything in Artifact is a resource. The game is sublimely designed, and the result is that there are no wasted parts. Mana, cards, gold, heroes, creep, items, and more are all resources that factor into every single turn decision. That's before addressing more complex definitions of resources like tower health, minion presence, card advantage, and still other factors.
If that sounds like it is a lot to keep track of, it is. But players who want to get better can do so with one core principle in mind: manage your resources to the best of your ability. Does that mean playing perfectly? Absolutely not. Artifact is the kind of game where the player who makes less mistakes typically wins. It's almost impossible to play flawlessly, especially this early into the game's life cycle.
But that doesn't mean you can't try, and that's the best philosophy to have in Artifact. To start, try keeping track of gold, cards, and hero abilities - manage the as best you can, every game, and see how you grow as a player. Then incorporate something else into that plan, like items. Evaluate how best to utilize each of them on every turn, even if it means you get close to time.
We'll level with you. There's no quick way to get good at Artifact. It's going to be a long grind to the top, and these tips and tricks are only meant to get the climb started. That said, you could do way worse than trying to keep these five basic principles in mind the next time you play Artifact, and they'll help you on your way to becoming laning royalty. Happy card slinging!
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