Artifacts are the new gameplay element introduced in Rising Tide expansion. A player is suggested to collect them for powerful rewards.

There are three groups of Artifacts - namely Old Earth Relics, Alien Artifacts and Progenitor Artifacts. They work the same, but different in minor details.

Old Earth Relics are gained from:

• Resource Pods
  
• Derelict Settlements, both land and ocean
  
• Wrecked Colony Landers
  
• Some quests award you with one

Alien Artifacts are gained from:

• Pillaging Alien Nests
  
• Excavating Alien Skeletons, both land and ocean
  
• From something called Sounding Bell, whatever it is

Progenitor Artifacts are found from:

• Progenitor Ruins

Chance to gain an artifact is not constant. Everytime you are eligible to receive an artifact but fail the roll, your chances are temporarily increased, until you find the artifact, after which chance is reset to base.

• Chance to get an Old Earth Relic is 20% base and 10% increment
  
• Chance to get an Alien Artifact is 38% base and 7% increment
  
• Chance to get a Progenitor Artifact is 55% base and 3% increment

Example: you dug out a derelict settlement, your chances for artifact are 20%. You failed. Then you found a Pod, your chances to get an artifact are 20+10 = 30% due to aforementioned failure. Let's say you failed again and found another Pod. Your chances to gain artifact are up to 40%. You were lucky and gained an artifact, so your chances are back to 20%.

Those acquision rates are local to artifact types, so, e.g., failing a roll on Old Earth Relic doesn't increase your chance on Progenitor Artifact.

There are two kinds of rewards you can gain from artifacts:

1. One time resource boost - Food, Production, Energy, Science and Culture.
   
2. If you combine three artifacts you could unlock a unique feature - a building, a wonder or a perk.

The first one is pretty trivial and won't be discussed much. It is the second that is highly prized.

Special rewards:

• Old Earth Relics could provide you with unique building you can't get otherwise
  
• Alien Artifacts could reward you with unit-improving perks
  
• Progenitor Ruins grant you acess to unique wonders
  
• Mixing different types of artifacts unlock generic perks

How it works:

• Combining three artifacts of a single type will result in a type-specific reward.
  
• Combining artifacts of different types will result in either a reward specific for the Artifact used or a mixed one.

IMPORTANT
The reward is not completely random. Each artifact has a preferred reward (see guide sections below). Using an artifact with a given preferred reward is required to get that reward, but at the same time there is no guarantee that a random combo of this artifact with two others will give you a desired reward. If you have an artifact that has a preferred reward you want, but none of the combinations of artifacts in your possession unlocks it, then your best bet to find more artifacts. Sometimes this artifact juggling gets tedious.
Switching the order of artifacts in the combiner and other kinds of reshuffle don't change the reward - for a given trio of artifacts the reward is determined and constant.

One player can only get the same reward once. When combining 3 artifacts while having already acquired their preferred rewards, another eligible reward will be chosen instead. According to wikia, it is even possible to get reward of other category that way, but that's highly unlikely in the normal playthrough.

Multiple players can receive the same reward, but since there are only 24 artifacts of each kind, it is pretty much possible to not get the one you want in a given game.

Artifact wonders are said to be national, so multiple players can build them.

Artifact quality doesn't impact your chances to get a special reward you want, but only an amount of resources you gain from breaking an artifact.

• Worn artifacts provide only 75% of normal resource reward
  
• Battered artifacts provide 100% of normal resource reward
  
• Pristine artifacts provide 200% of normal resource reward

Name: Butiller Co. Family Drone

Resources: 80% and 20%

Preferred Reward:
Drone Command


Name: Clean Air Generator

Resources: 100%

Preferred Reward:
Drone Command


Name: Collapsing Family Library

Resources: 80% and 20%

Preferred Reward:
Xenomass Bath House


Name: Drone Hive Mind

Resources: 80% and 20%

Preferred Reward:
Drone Command


Name: High-Mass Friction Welder

Resources: 100%

Preferred Reward:
Warp Spire


Name: Hull Repair Suit

Resources: 100%

Preferred Reward:
Frontier Stadium


Name: Impossible Drive

Resources: 100%

Preferred Reward:
Pan-Spectral Observatory


Name: Isotopic Decay Three

Resources: 100%

Preferred Reward:
Old Voice Archives


Name: Jowler Ball Field Set

Resources: 100%

Preferred Reward:
Frontier Stadium


Name: MedalMark Media Cube

Resources: 100%

Preferred Reward:
Old Voice Archives


Name: Near-Lightspeed Accelerator

Resources: 100%

Preferred Reward:
Warp Spire


Name: Personal Meditation Helmet

Resources: 80% and 20%

Preferred Reward:
Old Voice Archives


Name: Phantom Medical Remote Operating Theatre

Resources: 20% and 80%

Preferred Reward:
Xenomass Bath House


Name: Plasma Turbine Engine

Resources: 80% and 20%

Preferred Reward:
Pan-Spectral Observatory


Name: Polypeptor Organic Antifreeze

Resources: 100%

Preferred Reward:
Warp Spire


Name: Population Estimation Computer

Resources: 80% and 20%

Preferred Reward:
Xenomass Bath House


Name: Interactive Family Tree

Resources: 80% and 20%

Preferred Reward:
Frontier Stadium


Name: Senior Caffeine

Resources: 80% and 20%

Preferred Reward:
Drone Command


Name: Silver-Pont Navigational Gyroscope

Resources: 100%

Preferred Reward:
Pan-Spectral Observatory


Name: Speech Compression Computer

Resources: 80% and 20%

Preferred Reward:
Xenomass Bath House


Name: Strings of Cremona

Resources: 100%

Preferred Reward:
Old Voice Archives


Name: Suspended Animation Chamber

Resources: 80% and 20%

Preferred Reward:
Warp Spire


Name: Thoughtful Chess Set

Resources: 100%

Preferred Reward:
Frontier Stadium


Name: Volumetric Component Printer

Resources: 80% and 20%

Preferred Reward:
Pan-Spectral Observatory

Name: Acidic Crystals

Resources: 100%

Preferred Reward:
Vapor Shield


Name: Breeze Weed

Resources: 100%

Preferred Reward:
Sky Chitin


Name: Carbon Hail

Resources: 80% and 20%

Preferred Reward:
Sky Chitin


Name: Carnivorous Hive Eels

Resources: 80% and 20%

Preferred Reward:
Tidal Navigation


Name: Cloud Coral

Resources: 80% and 20%

Preferred Reward:
Sky Chitin


Name: Cocoon Flies

Resources: 80% and 20%

Preferred Reward:
Projected Chassis Construction


Name: Crystal Shrimp Adult

Resources: 100%

Preferred Reward:
Tidal Navigation


Name: Crystal Shrimp Pupa

Resources: 100%

Preferred Reward:
Projected Chassis Construction


Name: Electric Brain Moss

Resources: 80% and 20%

Preferred Reward:
Projected Chassis Construction


Name: Flexible Keratin Tusk

Resources: 80% and 20%

Preferred Reward:
Vapor Shield


Name: Floating Canopy Worms

Resources: 80% and 20%

Preferred Reward:
Projected Chassis Construction


Name: Giant Pheromone Sack

Resources: 100%

Preferred Reward:
Zygotic Engineering


Name: Carbon Hail

Resources: 80% and 20%

Preferred Reward:
Tidal Navigation


Name: Jelly-Stalk Ring

Resources: 100%

Preferred Reward:
Vapor Shield


Name: Lattus Ore

Resources: 100%

Preferred Reward:
Sky Chitin


Name: Macroelectrons

Resources: 80% and 20%

Preferred Reward:
Sky Chitin


Name: Mobius Horn

Resources: 100%

Preferred Reward:
Counter Battery Fire


Name: Noose Vertebrae

Resources: 100%

Preferred Reward:
Zygotic Engineering


Name: Pressurized Magma Sample

Resources: 80% and 20%

Preferred Reward:
Counter Battery Fire


Name: Ross Weed

Resources: 80% and 20%

Preferred Reward:
Zygotic Engineering


Name: Seismic Sounding Fork

Resources: 100%

Preferred Reward:
Counter Battery Fire


Name: Soap Seed

Resources: 100%

Preferred Reward:
Vapor Shield


Name: Tungsten Bubbles

Resources: 100%

Preferred Reward:
Tidal Navigation


Name: Zero-Point Soil

Resources: 80% and 20%

Preferred Reward: Counter Battery Fire

Name: Atomic Tesselator

Resources: 100%

Preferred Reward:
Tesselation Foundry


Name: Auratic Magnet

Resources: 100%

Preferred Reward:
Temporal Calculus


Name: Bright Matter

Resources: 80% and 20%

Preferred Reward:
Relativistic Data Bank


Name: Causal Looking Glass

Resources: 100%

Preferred Reward:
Temporal Calculus


Name: Decoherence Chamber

Resources: 80% and 20%

Preferred Reward:
Quantum Politics


Name: Deviation Fork

Resources: 80% and 20%

Preferred Reward:
Temporal Calculus


Name: Dimension Oven

Resources: 100%

Preferred Reward:
Dimension Folding Complex


Name: Fixed Position Locator

Resources: 80% and 20%

Preferred Reward:
Relativistic Data Bank


Name: Fundamental Object

Resources: 100%

Preferred Reward:
Quantum Politics


Name: Geon Spores

Resources: 80% and 20%

Preferred Reward:
Tesselation Foundry


Name: Jelly Space

Resources: 80% and 20%

Preferred Reward:
Dimension Folding Complex


Name: Models Of Entropy

Resources: 80% and 20%

Preferred Reward:
Temporal Calculus


Name: M-Theory Capsule

Resources: 80% and 20%

Preferred Reward:
Machine Assisted Free Will


Name: Plains of Dimensional Influence

Resources: 100%

Preferred Reward:
Dimension Folding Complex


Name: Single Pass Geometry

Resources: 100%

Preferred Reward:
Tesselation Foundry


Name: Sporadic Listener

Resources: 80% and 20%

Preferred Reward:
Machine Assisted Free Will


Name: String Weaver

Resources: 80% and 20%

Preferred Reward:
Relativistic Data Bank


Name: Superposition

Resources: 100%

Preferred Reward:
Quantum Politics


Name: Superposition Containment Device

Resources: 80% and 20%

Preferred Reward:
Quantum Politics


Name: Temporal Injector

Resources: 80% and 20%

Preferred Reward:
Relativistic Data Bank


Name: Tesselation Vault

Resources: 80% and 20%

Preferred Reward:
Tesselation Foundry


Name: The Folder

Resources: 80% and 20%

Preferred Reward:
Dimension Folding Complex


Name: Void Spectre

Resources: 100%

Preferred Reward:
Machine Assisted Free Will

artifacts reward you with buildings

• Warp Spire: +50% yields from internal trade routes
  
• Drone Command: +2 worked tiles above Population limit
  
• Old Voice Archives: +10% yields while at war
  
• Pan-Spectral Observatory: +100% Production for orbital units and +2 orbital coverage
  
• Frontier Stadium: +10 City Defense and a free promotion for Military Units
  
• Xenomass Bathhouse: +2 Culture and units heal 100% hp after one turn in city

artifacts reward you with unit promotions

• Zygotic Engineering: +100% outpost speed growth
  
• Sky Chitin: +50% Strength and +3 operating range to air units
  
• Counter Battery Fire: siege units lower enemy's Defense by 20% until the end of your turn
  
• Vapor Shield: all units gain +100% Defense when embarked
  
• Projected Chassis Construction: +2 movement points to workers
  
• Tidal Navigation: naval units gain +100% Defense against ranged attacks

artifacts reward you with wonders

• Tesselation Foundry: +30% Production when building military units, in every city.
  
• Dimension Folding Complex: -50% Unhealth from Population in all cities
  
• Machine-Assisted Free Will: -15% Science cost of leaf technologies
  
• Temporal Calculus: all units gain +2 sight range
  
• Quantum Politics: -15% Culture cost of virtues
  
• Relativistic Data Bank: -1 intrigue per turn in all cities

rewards are mostly general perks

• Tesseract Targeting: allow cities to bombard through terrain obstacles
  
• Soul Discerning Training: +25% covert operation speed
  
• Xenoanthropology: artifacts are discovered 20% more often
  
• Slumber-Slaughter Extract: +50% worker build speed
  
• Ground-Penetrating LIDAR: +100% expedition speed
  
• Statecraft: +2 Diplomatic Capital from agreements

Out of Old Earth Relics, Warp Spire and Drone Command are generally considered to be the best ones. Personally, I'm also pretty fond of Frontier Stadium, because of free promotion. Others are pretty generic in comparison.

Out of Progenitor Artifacts:
Machine-Assisted Free Will and Quantum Politics are nerfed legends. Still very, very strong, overshadowing most of wonders unlocked from technology.
Tesselation Foundry and Dimension Folding Complex are borderline overpowered, but because they didn't even stood close to pre-patch MAFW and Quantum Politics, they basically weren't nerfed.
Temporal Calculus and Relativistic Data Bank are pretty generic. They are still technically better than some of the wonders unlocked from technology, but not really amazing. Temporal Calculus is good for end-game gunships and artillery, since their range of 3 will exceed their sight radius of 2. Also helps for exploration, but only if you manage to get it really early. Relativistic Data Bank case is different - it's technically outright overpowered, but the AI would never press you hard with spies (at least I've never seen it happen). Probably decent for multiplayer.

Out of Alien Biology Artifacts, Zygotic Engineering is the most universally good one. Tidal Navigation is good if you focus on naval combat, and Counter Battery Fire is good if you focus on land combat. Other perks are expendable.

Mixed perks have the unversally overpowered Slumber-Slaughter Extract, very good niche perk for spies Soul Discerner Training and other stuff that is somewhat in-between of "so-so" and "good, but small window of opportunity".

Artifact system is essentially a race. There are 71 unique artifacts total, and given how mixing them works, like that each reward only has 4 artifacts on average that has it as preferred one, and that having an artifact with preferred reward you want doesn't actually guarantee you getting it anytime soon, the only obvious approach would be just to try to find as many artifacts as possible.

Ofcourse, you should priotirize the progenitor ruins. Don't waste your explorer's time digging out derelic settlements in the beginning of the game - you will get plenty of Old Earth Relic artifacts from Pods.

Another tricky moment is that you could think that creating a ton of explorers is the best approach. It's not - explorers are not really the best at exploring, because they got only 2 movement points per turn. Explorers are valueable for their expeditions mostly, but any unit could pick a Pod. This is especially true on atlantean worlds - patrol boats are cheap and got 4 movement points. On land maps Combat Rovers could replace explorers somewhat, but will become a strong assault force later in the game.

Choosing coastal scanner on atlantean map would reveal a few Pods at the beginning and generally make exploration easier.

Since Alien rewards are pretty sub-par compared to Progenitor and Old Earth ones, it is generally adviced not to touch aliens at all. Attacking an alien even once would make it harder for your explorers to approach expedition sites, slowing your search down.

+3 expedition modules from Prosperity virtue is a must.

The best artifact mixing strategy is to take one artifact with reward you want and two other you really don't, and see if you get the one you want. If not, replace some of the latter. It's better to stockpile artifacts rather than to waste them too early.

History:

v1.0 - guide released. Current patch - the one that introduced Spoils of War (SoW patch).

Credits:

1) A guide to how artifacts work from Civfanatics[forums.civfanatics.com]
2) Civilization.wikia.com article on Artifacts[civilization.wikia.com]

Data from:

1) Game folder\assets\DLC\expansion1\Gameplay\Lua\Artifacts.lua
2) Game folder\assets\DLC\expansion1\Gameplay\XML\Artifacts\

Disclaimer:
I don't own any of images, Fair Use assumed.