Artefacts are powerful items crafted by the ancient tribe of Natars and they grant immense power to whoever owns them.
There are various effects possible, such as reduced consumption of crop or improved speed of troops. The effect depends on the artefact. The strength and scope depends on the artefact's size (small, large or unique).
On regular servers, the artefacts appear in the middle stage of the game and they are initially placed in special Natars villages.
Artefacts will spawn in Natarian villages and will be inactive there until they are captured. The artefacts in Natar villages are always in Treasury level 20, excluding Construction Plans which are stored in a Treasury Level 10.
Normally artefacts are heavily defended, however, the Natarian defence is different on each server and is set up based on the top 100 offence armies of the game world.
*Note* Natar villages cannot get artefact effects - artefacts can only activate in player-owned villages.
To be able to capture an artefact from the Natars or another player, you need to have an empty treasury level 10 (to hold a small artefact) or level 20 (to hold a large or unique artefact). This needs to be ready before the attack lands on the target village.
There are two ways to capture an artefact:
- You can capture them with your hero, the hero can pick up artefacts without limit.
- You can conquer the village that holds the artefact.
To take the artefact you have to send an attack (not a raid) on the village that holds the artefact with the hero in the attacking army, destroy the treasury and win the battle.
*Note* Villages that have an artefact in them, do not vanish from the map even when all their buildings are destroyed. That protection will lift when/if the artefact is moved or captured.
After capture, there is an activation period that must be waited, even if you conquer the artefact or the village holding the artefact from yourself.
- 24 hours on a 1x server
- 16 hours on a 2x server
- 12 hours on a 3x server
- 8 hours on a 5x server
- 4 hours on a 10x server
Once the activation period is over, the artefact does not need to go through this process again even if it was disabled and reactivated due to the limitations (see below).
On Annual Special servers (like Path to Pandora), there are no artefacts, but the regions hold ancient powers with the same effects.
Special Servers - Ancient Powers and Victory Points
Artefact Effects and Limitations