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Ancient Artifacts are some of the rarest and most desirable devices in the game but are shrouded in mystery and misinformation. This guide will take you through the best times and places to look for them and what to do once you've found them.
First of all, when mining you need to find the non-glowing rock variety of "Asteroid" as only those will have what you're after. If you're extremely lucky, inside the asteroid you'll see an “Unidentified Tech # Ancient Artifact” (the level of the asteroid will be the #). Unfortunately these asteroids spawn in every sector and an Unidentified AA can be hiding inside any of them! Once you have the Unidentified AA in your inventory head over to Paren Station in Kailaasa to talk to Ayako Ravenlock and find out just how lucky you are by having her identify your device. There is also a small credit fee for identifying. All AAs are non-manufacturable.
So now that we know how it works, the question is what is the best way to find the Unidentified Ancient Artifacts. There are only two good ways of finding AAs: The AA Rush and The Grind.
How to Find Ancient Artifacts
AA Rush
After a server crash or reset every sector's asteroid fields are completely respawned. You'll have the highest possible chance for finding an AA at this point as all fields are fresh. This being the case many players spend time during the downtime clicking the "Check" button in the launcher to make sure they're among the first in game when the server to comes online again. Once in game the ideal strategy is to go to the densest fields of asteroids to start your search. Below is the path I've found works best.
- Lagarto: west of PAX Decima Gemina is the densest collection of asteroid fields and mining fields in general in the whole game. With so many fields overlapping this is an obvious choice for a start to your search. I always check here first as it is almost guaranteed there will be at least one AA in this area. When I search here I start in the SE corner of the area and move West as I check then go North and fly back to the NE corner. You can find L5-9 asteroids here.
- R4c: is nearby so before I WH out I do a quick stop to look at the small collection of roids found 30KM South of nav Kuiper 8. You can find L8-9 asteroids here.
- Glenn: is the next heavy hitter for fields. Three good places to look are the ring to East of the gate to Carpenter, the clump to the West of the gate to Carpenter, the ring near Asteroid GP-X18, and the clump North of the gate to Saturn. You can find L5-7 asteroids here.
- Valkyrie Twins: has some nice fields at the moon Gunn, West of Path of Fire III, West of Path of Fire VI, and Field of Danger. You can find L7-9 asteroids here.
- Aragoth Prime: at the moon Mughwa is good to check on the way to VG. You can find L5-6 asteroids here.
- Varen's Girdle: has a clump 110KM South of nav Ratatosk Trail 3
- Muspelheim: has a quick spot to check before heading elsewhere over at nav Surti Alpha 4. You can find L4-5 asteroids here.
- Asteroid Belt Beta: can be skipped on the way to Mars but there is a clump in the gravity well. You can find L3-4 asteroids here.
- Mars: a surprisingly dense area is just North of Menace Trial. You can find L5-6 asteroids here.
Other smaller fields:
- Aganju: (L6) West of Path of Atonement 2, South of Gate to Inverness, 20KM East of Nommos Point
- Jupiter: Asteroid JP-R28
- Freya: (L5)navs East of Jotunheim gate
- Jotunheim: (L3-5) at the planet
- Shepard: (L6) Frontier Field Beta, Redemption
- Blackbeard's Wake: (L8-9 rings)92x, 135y & 245x, -120y
- Neptune: (L3-4) South of Neptune Nav 8
The Grind
This one is somewhat self explanatory. Pick a big asteroid field or a series of small ones and mine it out over and over and hope you catch a respawn with an AA in it. I've not used this method very much and have only heard of it working successfully in Lagarto in the fields east of PAX Decima Gamina. The field cleared bonus doesn't matter as an AA can spawn from a partially mined field as easily as from a totally fresh one.
Notable Ancient Artifact Types
Summary of Ancient Artifact Categories
(Showing buffs common to Artifacts within each category)
| Category Nbr | Category | Buff1 & Lvls | Buff2 & Lvls | Buff3 & Lvls | Buff4 & Lvls | Buff5 & Lvls |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Bahtu | See Cloaked (2-9) | Resist Psionic (3,5,6-9) | Equip Engineering (5,6-9) | Deflect Plasma (7-9) | Deflect Chemical (9) |
| 02 | Ehtag | Slow Weapons (7-9) | Weaken EMP (7-9) | Weaken Impact (7-9) | Turbo Missile (7-9) | Boost Missile Range (9) |
| 03 | Gahkur | Turbo Projectiles (5-8) | Increase Manoeuvrability (5-8) | Increase Speed (5-8) | Enhance Projectiles (7-8) | — |
| 04 | Gahte | Turbo Weapons (8-9) | Equip Dmg Ctl: Reactor (8-9) | Recharge Reactor (8-9) | Reduce Ship Sig (8-9) | Enhance Beams (9) |
| 05 | Gahtu | Enhance Weapons (7,9) | Resist Psionic (7,9) | Recharge Shields (7,9) | Hull Dmg Ctl (7,9) | Deflect Explosive (9) |
| 06 | Gahtu Daimyo | Enhance Weapons (5-9) | Recharge Shields (5-9) | Deflect Impact (5-9) | Deflect Chemical (7-9) | Deflect Plasma (9) |
| 07 | Gahyt | Turbo Beams (6,9) | Enhance Beams (6,9) | Equip Dmg Ctl: Weps (6,9) | Equip Dmg Ctl: Reactor (9) | Hull Dmg Ctl (9) |
| 08 | Gamik | Turbo Missiles (4,5,7-9) | Recharge Reactor (4,5,7-9) | Turbo Speed (5,7-9) | Deflect Explosive (7-9) | Enhance MIssiles (9) |
| 09 | Mahtu | See Cloaked (4,5) | Disable Skills (5) | Improved Crt Targtg (5) | — | — |
| 10 | Uhtag | Cripple Weps (8,9) | See Cloaked (8,9) | Scan Boost (8,9) | Imprv Beam Handling (8,9) | Enhance Missiles (9) |
| 11 | Uhtak | Weaken Psionic (8) | Weaken Energy (8) | Improve Befriend (8) | — | — |
| 12 | Yt | Wpn Enrgy Drain (9) | Weaken Plasma (9) | Impv Psi Shield (9) | Deflect Energy (9) | Deflect EMP (9) |
Notable Categories worth looking out for:
Weapon damage enhancement:
- Gahtu - Progen only, L7 & L9, 20% weapon damage (use on party). Some of these have 150% HDC which PW tanks want badly.
- Gahtu Daimyo - PS only, L5-9, 50%-71% Boost weapon damage for 30 seconds (use on anyone)
- Gahte - JE only, L8-9, 20% Turbo (self only)
40% Turbo Weapon Enhancement:
- Gamik - ML Turbo, L4-5 & L7-9
- Ehtag - ML Turbo, L7-9
- Gahkur - PL Turbo, L5-8
- Gahyt - Beam Turbo, L6 & L9
Please Add AA Sites Here!
Have you found an AA? Share what you found and where! (you can type four tildes ~~~~ to sign your find)
- aa Bahtu Ys - L7, Deflect Plasma +30, Equipment Engineering 54%, Resist Psionic +29.5, and See Cloaked. Freya Field 1. 8 Aug 2018.
- aa Gahyt Ry Ne - L6 Turbo beam 40%, Enhance beam 29.5%, Equipment damage control - Weapons 30%, Glenn just inside gate from Saturn on the left. 11 Sep 2020. Glenn, Near Carpenter Gate to the right, 24 dec 2023 (90%)
- aa Ehtag An - L7 TW only Slow weapons 30% activate (on enemy) weaken EMP activate 30.5 weaken impact 30.5 activate turbo missiles 40% equip , Glenn Left from Saturn Gate 28/12/202
- aa Gahtu Daimyo Sa - PS only, L5 boost damage 50% 30seconds recharge shields 201% deflect impact +25, Mars north east of menace trial nav 1/2/2022
- aa Gamik Ry - Turbo (Activated) Increases ship top speed by 67(69)% for 10 seconds when activated. Turbo Missile (Equip) 40.00% when equipped. Recharge Reactor (Equip)+3.6(+3.7) equipped. Energy: 200 (198) Glenn by saturn Gate 14/06/2022
- aa Yt An - L7 JD only Weapon Energy Drain (Activated) Increase Weapon Energy Cost by 30.00% Weaken Plasma -30.0 Plasma Deflect for 210 Improved Psionic Shield Increases Psionic Shield Damage absorption, Deflect Energy +30 . Range: 5k Freya Near Astroid FP-X25 21/06/2022
- aa Gahtu Daimyo An Ne - PS only, L8 boost damage 65% 30seconds recharge shields 600% deflect impact +25 deflect chemical +25, Glory's Orbit Gahaarn's Rock area 19 July 2023
- aa Gahtu An - P only L7 boost damage 20% 120 seconds + 25 Psionic resist 1028 seconds Hull Damage Control 152% Recharge Shields 40% Fenris 20 Dec 2023
- aa Gahtu An - Progen only, L7 105%, enhance weapons 20% - 122sec, Resist Psi +20 1565sec, HDC 152%, Shield Recharge 38.6%, Xipe near Continuum Wrinkle. 24 Jan 2025
- aa Gamik Ys - L7 100%, Turbo (Activated) increase top speed 98% for 10s, Turbo Missile 40%, Deflect Explosive +30, recharge reactor 4.8. Glory's orbit. 24 Jan 2025
- aa Gahkur Ys - L7 120%, Turbo Projectile 40%, Increase Maneuver 54%, increase speed 157, enhance Projectiles 32%. Xipe Asteroid XT-129. 24 Jan 2025
- aa Gahte An Ne - L8 VT near Remote Mine Path 2 or 3. 24 Jan 2025