How to Farm Artifice Armor in Destiny 2

Image: Bungie via HGG / Brett Moss

Human Made

I've been playing video games pretty much nonstop ever since I got my first 360. I love arena shooters, MMOs, and MOBAs, but I'll pretty much try any kind of game.

Reviewed by Benjamin Barr

If you’re hoping to play the hardest content in Destiny 2 like Grandmaster Strikes and Master Raids, you’re gonna want some Artifice armor. Any high-level Destiny player is likely wearing Artifice armor head-to-toe, and for good reason. In addition to usually dropping with higher than usual stat numbers, it also gives some guaranteed bonuses. In today’s guide, we’re taking a look at Artifice armor in Destiny 2 and how to farm it effectively.

Let’s get started!

What is Artifice Armor?

Artifice armor is the best type of armor in Destiny 2. The only difference between it and standard armor is that Artifice armor has an extra mod slot. This mod slot allows you to equip a mod that gives +3 to any stat you want. That might not sound like much, but there’s literally no downside to it. If you have four pieces of Artifice armor along with your Exotic piece, you’ll get a total of 12 bonus stat points. That can be the difference between 90 and 100 of a stat, so it’s absolutely worthwhile.

It’s also worth noting that Artifice armor used to allow you to equip a bonus mod entirely, but that’s not the case as of Lightfall. No more extra mods, but extra stats instead. You could make an argument for either being better, but just don’t forget how it works nowadays.

Now, this isn’t to say that Artifice armor is completely mandatory. At the end of the day, 12 stat points isn’t make-or-break. It’s very nice to have and can certainly make your life easier, but you can do just as well without it. In many cases, you might actually be better off with one of your non-Artifice pieces. If you have an Artifice piece with overall iffy stats, there’s no reason to use it over a good stat normal piece!

Where to Get Artifice Armor

If you wanna get your hands on some Artifice armor, you’ll have to do some dungeons on Master difficulty. The dungeons that currently have a Master mode are Duality, Spire of the Watcher, Grasp of Avarice, and Ghosts of the Deep. Artifice armor can be obtained in any encounter that drops armor normally, so you can fine-tune your drops that way. For the other dungeons that don’t have Master difficulty, you won’t be able to get Artifice armor from them.

To farm Artifice armor, you’ll have to make sure the dungeon you pick is farmable that week. At any given time, the newest dungeon (Ghosts of the Deep, as of S21) is always farmable. Each time you complete an encounter, you will get loot in the newest dungeon. However, there’s always one other dungeon that is farmable each week. This is called the weekly rotator dungeon, and it rotates on a set schedule from week to week. If you wanna know which is currently farmable, check out our weekly PVE/PVP event tracker! You can still pick up some loot from non-farmable dungeons, but you’ll be limited to the standard 1-loot drop per character, per week.

Top 4 Ways to Farm Artifice Armor in Destiny 2

Here’s a rundown of each available Artifice armor farming method.

Ghosts of the Deep

During Season 21 (and until another dungeon drops later this year), it’s best to get really familiar with Ghosts of the Deep. Unlike other dungeons (excluding whichever one is the weekly rotator), Ghosts of the Deep can be farmed every single week. The only downside is that it is a more difficult final encounter than some of the other ones you could do. When the weekly rotator is Grasp of Avarice or Duality, it might be easier to just do that one.

For Ghosts of the Deep, do a bunch of normal runs before doing the Master version. Since it has so many moving parts, you won’t want any inexperienced players on your team unless you don’t mind carrying them while they learn. This is good advice for any dungeon, but especially the more complicated ones.

With a good grasp on the mechanics and a Well of Radiance on your team, you should be able to farm Artifice armor like crazy in this dungeon. It’s just a shame they patched the Witherhoard glitch where we could kill the boss without starting the encounter.

Spire of the Watcher

Spire is admittedly one of the more annoying final encounters to farm. It’s rare to find a fireteam that can do it quickly without many problems, even more so if you’re using an LFG. The amount of Champions you have to deal with, combined with the boss’ huge health bar makes it a frustrating farming experience.

For the best experience farming Spire, make sure and bring plenty of add-clear and something to take out Champions easily. The Overload Champions are always an annoyance (especially because they spawn constantly), but they can be easily taken out with the right weapons/abilities. It can also be difficult to keep track of which power lines go where, especially when you’re being chased around the room by a horde of Supplicants just waiting to ruin your day. At least the boss fight is really easy (even if it usually takes multiple clears due to the health pool). Just make sure you bring someone with a Well of Radiance, and it shouldn’t be too hard.

Duality

Duality is one of the easier dungeons to farm. The final encounter boss can be pretty reliably one-phased, so you can farm it much quicker than Spire. The actual mechanics and timing of this encounter can be difficult to master, but you can easily do all that in normal mode.

The most important thing to remember when farming Duality is not to forget about the Bellkeepers when you spawn into the damage phase. Bring a Void weapon or Void abilities to quickly pop their shields and blast them with some up close damage. From there, it’s just a mad dash to take out the boss before you run out of time.

If you’re interested in a more comprehensive guide on Duality, check out our article on it here!

Grasp of Avarice

Grasp is, luckily, another of the easy dungeons. The final encounter is basically just a bit of add-clear, followed by a boss that can be pretty easily two-phased. The biggest danger you’ll face in the final encounter of Grasp is dying while depositing Riches. The middle area where you deposit them can be very chaotic, especially if you don’t take out the two yellow-bar enemies that spawn alongside the boss in the start.

For an easy clear, take out all the yellow-bar adds at the start (the Shank and Vandal). They spawn in the back of the middle platform, right by the stairs. Just have everyone in your group stand on top of them in a Well and blast them with everyone you’ve got. At least get the Shank, because it does a ton of damage. The Vandal is more of a problem during the boss phase, so you could just stand in a Well and hope it doesn’t kill you. But if you can take it out too, it’s the best way.

Join the High Ground!

Having a good set of artifice armor is always a great idea in Destiny 2 — hopefully you don’t have as much bad luck with farming as I do. Let us know how it goes for you in the comments, and be sure to subscribe for more guides like this!

Happy gaming!

Destiny 2: How to Farm Artifice Armor and Why You Should

What is Artifice Armor?

Where to Get Artifice Armor