Mechanics

Mechanics are the inner workings of Artifact. The following is a list of mechanics topics. Click on each topic to view more information.

Resources

Mechanic	Introduction
Gold	- Gold is a resource primarily acquired by killing enemy units, used to buy Items from the Shop. A few special cards can also use gold in other ways.
Mana	Mana is the resource that players use to cast non-item cards. Each tower has its own mana pool that can be spent or modified independently from other towers. At the start of each round, each tower's mana pool is replenished and increased by 1.
Cards	Cards are the essential element of Artifact that players use to interact with the game. Cards can take the form of Creeps, Spells, Improvements, and Items. By default, players start with 5 cards and draw 2 more at the start of each round.

Units and Spells

Mechanic	Introduction
Heroes	Hero units are the driving force behind Artifact. Heroes allow players to cast cards of that hero's color, can be upgraded with items or buffs, and will eventually respawn if killed.
Creeps	Creeps are lesser units, unable to equip items and only occasionally possessing an ability. Melee Creeps are the more basic variant, automatically spawning to reinforce lanes.
Spells	Spells carve through swathes of enemies, bestow power, or summon reinforcements.
Improvements	Improvements apply some sort of continuous effect to a lane permanently, unless/until they are destroyed by the opponent. Due to their nature, improvements often have the potential to snowball a lane out of control over time.
Items	Equipment items are bought from the Shop at the cost of gold and generally serve to increase a hero's Attack, Armor, or Health. Some items bestow additional powerful special effects or abilities. Consumable items are single-use only, and allow the player to heal a unit, teleport a hero, or draw an additional card.

Structures

Mechanic	Introduction
Towers	Gatekeepers of the Ancient, Towers act as each lane's health total. Towers start with 40 health. Players win if they destroy two of their opponent's towers.
Ancients	A player's stronghold. The Ancient appears in a lane when that lane's Tower has been destroyed, except with 80 health instead of 40. Destroying the Ancient also wins the game.
Fountains	The invulnerable sanctuary where heroes are sent when they die. Dead heroes must spend the rest of this round and the entire following round in the Fountain before deploying back to battle.

Gameplay

Mechanic	Introduction
Phases	A single round in Artifact is composed of multiple phases such as Deployment, Action, Combat, and Shopping.
Pathing	Unblocked units select a random combat target at the start of the round or when newly spawning in to the battlefield. Units have a 2/4 chance to attack the tower, 1/4 to curve left, and 1/4 to curve right. If there is no unit there when the attack curves, the unit will attack the tower.
Damage Normal Damage Piercing Damage	Most attacks and effects in the game deal Normal Damage, which get reduced by positive armor and amplified by negative armor. Piercing Damage is special in that it ignores positive armor, but still benefits from negative armor.
Stats Attack Armor Health	All heroes and creeps have the three primary stats, though armor is simply unlisted when a unit has zero innate armor. Attack refers to how much damage the unit deals to its target in combat, Armor reduces each incoming damage instance by that amount, and Health refers to a unit's life total -- if it is reduced to 0, the unit dies.
Bounty	Bounty defines how much Gold a player receives for the death of an enemy unit -- by default, this value is 1g for creeps, and 5g for heroes. Bounty is awarded on-death, and does not depend on how a unit dies or which player killed it.

Keywords

Mechanic	Introduction
Condemn	Immediately destroys a target. Gold bounty is still granted to the appropriate player if applicable. Can be avoided by Death Shield.
Cleave	When blocked during combat, also deal X damage to the blocking unit's neighbors.
Damage Immunity	Causes a unit to ignore all damage that it receives. It is still affected by all other effects normally, such as condemn.
Death Shield	If a unit would die, instead remove its Death Shield and have it survive with 1 health. A unit may only have 1 death shield at a time.
Disarm	Prevents a unit from attacking.
Heal	Immediately restore X health.
Lock	Cards cannot be played as long as they are locked. Lock is applied for a duration in rounds. At the end of each round, all locked cards lose 1 Lock.
Modify	Gives a unit a permanent effect.
Neighbors	Allied Neighbors = allies directly adjacent to the unit, on its left and right. Enemy Neighbors = the enemy units occupying the slots diagonally left, directly across, and diagonally right from the unit.
Pulse	Updates the game state before continuing.
Purge	Removes enemy effects from a unit.
Rapid Deployment	When a hero with Rapid Deployment dies, it is immediately ready for deployment, so it can be deployed at the start of the next round.
Regeneration	The unit heals for this amount during the combat phase. Regeneration is applied before checking for death.
Retaliate	When attacked, deal X damage to the attacker(s).
Siege	When blocked during the combat phase, also deal X damage to the tower.
Silence	A silenced unit cannot use its active abilities or active item abilities. A silenced hero cannot be used to play cards of its color.
Stun	A stunned unit is both Silenced and Disarmed.
Summon	Create a unit and immediately place it in a random empty combat position.
Swap	Exchanges the position of two units.
Taunt	When a unit taunts, all of its enemy neighbors change their attacks to that unit.