Artifice Armor is one of the most coveted gear pieces in Destiny 2. Introduced in Season of the Risen, Artifice Armor provides an extra mod socket that allows players to slot in additional mods. This opens up more build crafting potential and allows players to create some incredibly powerful loadouts.
But Artifice Armor doesn’t come easy. It requires completing some of the hardest PvE content in the game. Earning a full set of Artifice Armor takes time, skill, and a lot of patience. In this guide, we’ll break down all the ways you can get Artifice Armor and how to farm for the best rolls.
What is Artifice Armor?
Before we dive into how to get Artifice Armor, let’s quickly go over what exactly it is and why it’s so desirable.
Artifice Armor is a special variant of legendary armor that comes with an extra mod socket. This extra socket allows you to slot in an additional artifact mod.
For example, on a normal piece of legendary armor, you can slot in one artifact mod. But on a piece of Artifice Armor, you can slot in two artifact mods.
This allows for greater build crafting flexibility and synergy. You can combine mods like Volatile Flow and Melee Wellmaker to constantly feed your abilities. Or you can double down on Champion mods like Overload Bow and Unstoppable Hand Cannon for Nightfalls.
The extra socket enables all sorts of powerful loadout combinations that aren’t possible with normal legendary armor. Artifice Armor also rolls with higher overall stats, making it some of the best armor you can get.
Now let’s go over how you can get your hands on this elite armor.
Earn Artifice Armor from Master Dungeons
The easiest way to earn Artifice Armor is by completing Master difficulty dungeons. All three dungeons – Grasp of Avarice, Duality, and Prophecy – have a chance to drop Artifice Armor when completed at Master difficulty.
To unlock the Master difficulty of a dungeon, you first need to complete it on Normal. Afterward, the Master difficulty version will become available.
The Master’s difficulty bumps all enemies up to 1350 power. You’ll want to be around 1345-1355 power to realistically complete Master Dungeons. Equip your best weapons, champion mods, and team up with others. Master dungeons are no joke and require coordination to finish.
Here are the drop chances for Artifice Armor in each Master dungeon:
- Grasp of Avarice – 33% chance
- Duality – 50% chance
- Prophecy – 25% chance
Duality offers the best chances to earn Artifice Armor from Master dungeons. Focus your efforts here if you’re strictly farming for Artifice drops.
Once you earn an Artifice Armor drop, it will randomly roll with stats and elements. Use ghost mods like Discipline Focus or Recovery Focus to influence the stats. Keep grinding Master dungeons to earn different rolls.
Attempt Grandmaster Nightfalls
Grandmaster Nightfalls offers another source for Artifice Armor, but the drop rate is low. You’ll need to really grind GMs to earn a sizable amount.
Here’s what you need to know about farming GMs:
- Requires 1345+ power level
- Locked Loadouts and Extinguish modifiers
- Rotating weekly featured strike
- Chance for Ascendant Shard upon completion
- Approximately a 10% chance for an Artifice Armor drop
Make sure you have a solid team and loadout before attempting Grandmasters. Due to the Extinguish modifier, if your whole team wipes you get sent back to orbit and have to restart.
Equip strong anti-Champion and damage exotic weapons like Arbalest. Bring a mixture of Champion mods like Overload Bow, Unstoppable Pulse Rifle, and Anti-Barrier Auto Rifle.
Take it slow and steady, focusing on Champions and high-priority targets first. Stick together and team-shoot to take down bosses efficiently. With skill, patience, and some luck, you can farm Artifice Armor from Grandmaster Nightfalls.
Complete Master Vow of the Disciple Challenges
The newest raid in Destiny 2, Vow of the Disciple, offers Artifice Armor from Master difficulty. But it requires completing challenge mode encounters to earn the drops.
Here are the requirements for Master Vow of the Disciple:
- Requires 1570 power level
- Contest mode enabled
- Rotating weekly featured challenge
- Chance for Artifice Armor from challenge completion
Make sure your entire fire team is 1570 PL before attempting Master Vow. The Contest modifier will lock your power at 15 levels below each encounter.
Study up on the raid challenges and best strategies for completing them. For example, the Acquisition challenge requires players to dunk specific relics at Acquisition. Checkpoints can make farming challenges easier each week.
Bring a team of Champion mod diversity and maximize damage output with exotics like Gjallarhorn, Sleeper Simulant, or Izanagi’s Burden. Master Vow takes near-flawless execution, so be patient and persistent.
Farm Master GoA Boss Checkpoint
One of the most targeted ways to farm Artifice Armor is blitzing the Master Grasp of Avarice boss checkpoint. Using the wish wall to skip right to the final boss cuts down the time investment significantly.
Here’s a quick guide to farming Master GoA boss:
- Assemble a team of 1350+ power guardians
- Use wish wall to teleport to the final boss
- Defeat Galhran and open chest for Artifice Armor chance
- Wipe and repeat for more drops
Make sure to bring Champion mods and a mixture of solar/arc/void damage for shield breaking. Focus on adding clear and surviving first, then hit the boss with supers and heavy ammo.
Save this checkpoint on each character for easy weekly Artifice Armor rolls. With a solid team, you can farm about 5 boss completions per hour.
Master Ketchcrash & Expedition Farming
Season of Plunder introduced two new matchmade activities: Ketchcrash and Expeditions. At Master difficulty, these have a small chance to drop bonus Opulent Keys. These keys can be focused at the H.E.L.M. to earn Artifice Armor.
Here are the steps for farming Artifice Armor this way:
- Complete Master Ketchcrash and Expeditions
- Earn Opulent Umbral Energy and Opulent Keys from activity completions
- Focus Opulent Keys into Deepsight chests at the Crown of Sorrow
- Open Deepsight chests for a chance at Artifice gear
The drop rate for Opulent Keys is low, so be prepared to grind quite a bit. Completing weekly mission challenges can award extra Opulent Keys to help increase your chances.
Bring your best add clear loadout and communicate with teammates. Stick to cover in the final boss arena and take out snipers/Chieftains first.
Farm Legendary Shards & Buy From Xûr
An easy but slow way to amass Artifice Armor is by buying pieces from Xûr each week. Xûr has a random chance to sell Artifice armor in his inventory. Wait for weeks when he sells Artifice pieces you need and buy them.
This requires having a large supply of Legendary Shards to spend on his inventory. Here are some tips for farming Legendary Shards:
- Dismantle unused legendaries – awards 3-6 shards
- Complete weekly vendor challenges
- Cash in Prime Engrams and dismantle gear
- Choose shard rewards from season passes
- Trade materials to Spider daily
- Complete Nightfalls on 100k difficulty
Visit Xûr each Friday to reset and check his armor inventory. If he sells any Artifice pieces you need, buy them immediately. Slowly over time, you can build up a set from his inventory this way.
Farm World Drops & Umbral Engrams
There is a very small chance for Artifice Armor to drop from any Legendary World engram. Things like public events, lost sectors, playlist activities, and patrols all have a chance. However, the drop rate is extremely low.
You can slightly increase your odds by focusing on Legendary World drop engrams. Things like Prime Engrams, Legendary Engrams, and Umbral Engrams can be focused on world drops.
Use the following focusing methods:
- Prime Engrams – Decrypt at Rahool
- Legendary Engrams – Decode at Cryptarch
- Umbral Engrams – Worldly Weapons focus
Expand your drop chances ever so slightly by decoding engrams across multiple characters. Hop between your Warlock, Titan, and Hunter to roll more chances at Artifice armor drops.
But overall, world drops are not an efficient way to farm. Use this only as a bonus chance while doing other activities in the game.
Artifice Armor Stats & Perks
Now that you know all the main methods for earning Artifice Armor, let’s discuss how to identify strong rolls. The main things to look for are high overall stats and enhanced perks:
Total Stat Rolls
- 60+ totals – Decent, but look for improvements
- 65-67 totals – Very good roll worth keeping
- 68-70 totals – Excellent piece, masterwork ASAP
Prioritize Artifice armor with spikes in the stats your build needs. For example, focus high Recov/Int on Warlocks. Discipline and Strength for Grenadier Titan build. etc.
Enhanced Perks
- Enhanced Recovery – Faster regeneration delay
- Enhanced Dexterity – Greatly improves ready/stow speed
- Enhanced Ashes to Assets – Super energy boost
- Enhanced Bomber – Larger grenade energy gains
- Enhanced Perpetuation – Big class ability regen boost
Enhanced perks provide stronger bonuses than normal versions. Especially coveted are Enhanced Recovery, Dexterity, Ashes to Assets, Bomber, and Perpetuation.
Element Affinities
- Arc – Grenadier and melee builds
- Solar – Support and healing
- Void – Invisibility, over shields, damage resist
- Stasis – Crowd control and abilities uptime
Aim for at least one Artifice armor piece of each element type. This provides the most flexibility for seasonal mod builds.
With the right stat rolls and enhanced perks, Artifice Armor can significantly amplify your builds. Keep grinding and focus your efforts until you assemble a perfect set.
Best Hunter Artifice Armor Builds
Let’s look at some strong Hunter builds made possible with Artifice Armor. The extra mod slot opens up extreme synergy for Hunters.
Infinite Invisibility Build
- Exotic – Graviton Forfeit
- Aspects – Vanishing Step, Stylish Executioner
- Fragments – Obscurity, Persistence, Dilation
- Mods – 2x Utility Kickstart, Echo of Persistence, Echo of Domineering
This build constantly produces invisibility to keep you hidden indefinitely. The key is combining 2x Utility Kickstart with Graviton Forfeit to massively reduce your smoke bomb cooldown.
You can chain invisibility smoke bombs back to back and avoid all damage. Along with Flawless Executioner x3 for enhanced radar and aim assist when vanishing.
Raid DPS Build
- Exotic – Star-Eater Scales
- Aspects – Deadfall, Marksman Dodge
- Fragments – Torches, Ashes, Combustion
- Mods – Focusing Strike, stacks on stacks, Lucent Finisher, Font of Might, Radiant Light
Maximize your super damage against raid bosses with this setup. Use Marksman Dodge near enemies to go invisible and gain Truesight to maintain SES 4x Feast of Light.
Font of Might, High-Energy Fire, Radiant Light, and Lucent Finisher fuel a constant 30% damage buff. You can easily hit over 1 million total damage with a Blade Barrage.
Flux Grenade Spam
- Exotic – Shinobu’s Vow
- Aspects – Touch of Flame, On Your Mark
- Fragments – Torches, Searing, Empyrean
- Mods – Bomber x2, Well of Ordnance, Elemental Charge, Heavy Handed Spam Skip Grenades endlessly, and shutdown groups of adds. Shinobu’s Vow helps regen grenade energy. Bomber x2 and Well of Ordnance keep your grenade recharging crazy fast.
With Elemental Charge and Heavy Handed, you’ll get half your grenade back each time you pick up a Well of Light. Have fun raining down grenade destruction!
Best Titan Artifice Armor Builds
Next up, here are some of the most potent Titan builds with Artifice Armor added in:
Endless Sunspots
- Exotic – Loreley Splendor Helm
- Aspects – Sol Invictus, Roaring Flames
- Fragments – Ember of Benevolence, Char, and Singeing
- Mods – Well of Life, Melee Wellmaker, Font of Might, Elemental Ordnance
Gain constant healing, damage buffs, and the ability to regen from chaining Sunspots together. Standing in a Sunspot grants Restoration x2 amplifies damage by 25%, and drops a Solar well.
Melee Wellmaker creates another well to further buff damage and feed into more ability energy. Keep the cycle going and you’ll be an unkillable Sunspot machine.
One-Two Punch Wrecker
- Exotic – Wormgod Caress or Synthoceps
- Aspects – Knockout, Trample
- Fragments – Magnitude, Shards
- Mods – Melee Wellmaker, Well of Life, Heavy Handed, Mediation
This devastating build revolves around one-two-punch shotguns for insane melee damage. Knockout provides bonus melee lunge and damage on shield break.
Melee Wellmaker spawns healing wells to keep you in the fight. Heavy-handed returns half melee energy on well pick-up. Magnitude allows multiple combo detonators for big damage.
Thundercrash Destruction
- Exotic – Cuirass of the Falling Star
- Aspects – Knockout, Juggernaut
- Fragments – Shards, Magnitude, Striking Light
- Mods – Impact Induction, Heavy Handed, Outreach, Striking Light
Maximize Thundercrash damage against bosses and majors with the iconic falling star chest piece. Sprint and Juggernaut get your super back insanely fast.
Impact Induction feeds ability energy from grenades and melee hits. Heavy Handed returns 50% melee on well pick-up. Bring the Thunder with this setup!
Best Warlock Artifice Armor Builds
Lastly, here are some powerful Warlock builds powered by Artifice Armor:
Chaos Reach Destroyer
- Exotic – Geomag Stabilizers
- Aspects – Arc Soul, Electrostatic Mind
- Fragments – Spark, Beams, Ions
- Mods – Outreach, Impact Induction, Bomber x2, Perpetuation
Constant ability energy enables nearly 100% uptime on amplified Chaos Reach damage. With Geomags you can melt bosses in seconds from a safe distance.
Perpetuation gives major rift energy on grenade damage. Bomber x2 drastically reduces grenade cooldowns. Impact Induction feeds energy from all abilities. Supercharged galore!
Volatile Flow Explosion
- Exotic – Contraverse Hold
- Aspects – Chaos Accelerant, Feed the Void
- Fragments – Expulsion, Provision, Reaction
- Mods – 2x Bomber, Well of Tenacity, Volatile Flow, Seeking Wells
This build sends volatile explosions chaining across the battlefield. Charge your vortex grenade to overcharge it and spread Volatile rounds from Volatile Flow.
Controversy reduces grenade cooldown while Feed the Void regens it on kills. Bomber x2 and Wells of Tenacity keep your health and grenade uptime at max. Detonate everything!
Benevolent Healer
- Exotic – Boots of the Assembler
- Aspects – Divine Protection, Lumina Rift
- Fragments – Durance, Exchange, Nourishment
- Mods – 2x Distribution, Outreach, Explosive Wellmaker, Well of Tenacity
Support and heal your team with empowering rifts and healing orbs. Lumina Rift applies Noble Rounds to allies standing in the rift. Boots of the Assembler extend the rift and burst to heal on Noble Rounds hits.
Explosive Wellmaker and 2x Distribution feed constant wells to recharge your abilities and noble rounds. Time your heals and empowerment to counter enemy attacks.
Closing Thoughts on Artifice Armor
The grind for Artifice Armor may seem long, but the payoff is well worth the effort. Unlock enhanced mods and utilize the extra slot to push powerful new builds to their full potential.
Remember to be patient, play carefully during Master content, and leverage checkpoints when you can. Equip seasonal anti-Champion mods, bring a diverse fire team, and balance damage/survivability.