Artifact guide

Artifacts spawn by every anomaly on the map rolling the dice every unknown time interval. If the RNG says yes, an artifact gets spawned. The chance is extremely low and is boosted greatly for 30 minutes after an emission happens.
During those 30 minutes the game spawns 50% of artifacts, the other 50% spawn over the course of an hour afterwards.
Past 90 minutes after emission artifacts quit spawning entirely.
The amount of artifacts spawned depends on the amount of players currently on the location copy (Server #Number)

The artifacts are split between 4 categories you can see in the Guide in PDA. Every anomaly has a specific pool of artifacts it can spawn. (Which is which you can also check in the PDA Guide)

Any spawned artifact also dicerolls on what quality it will be. White (0-100%), Green (110-120%), Blue (120-130%) and so on. Higher qualities are more rare and expensive by extension.

An artifact with a higher %age will have greater stats.
If the artifact provides +8 Bullet Resistance at 100%, at 110% it would provide +8.8 BR; +9.6 at 120%, +10.4 at 130% and so on

Negative effects don't scale in the same way. Negatives only scale within the % of it's own tier (color).
A 101% artifact will radiate you for the same amount as a 141% one. Same with 109.9% and 129.9% etc


After researching it at the scientist NPC it becomes usable and equipable. (Meaning you can now put it in your container). It also dicerolls on what %age it will be within it's tier.

(Almost) every artifact has positive and negative stats. They don't apply to you while it's in your inventory. An artifact sitting in your inventory does nothing.
All of the artifact's effects, buffs and debuffs get applied only if you equip it in your container/backpack's slots
Your character has a natural outtake of -0.5 Rad, Thermo and Bio; -1.5 Psy; and -1 Frost.

There are containers with Protection.
Protection is a flat %age by which the negative intake from artifacts gets reduced. So if you put an artifact with +1Rad in a container that has 50% prot, you will only intake +0.5 rad from it. The character having -0.5 outtake of rad means you won't be taking rad meter build up from it in this case.
But keep in mind that the number shown in the artifact's description can be rounded up or down. If the artifact's Rad can go beyond flat 1, it may just be +1.0001 displayed as +1; in that case you *will* be intaking rad from it.

Artifacts can be upgraded at the same researcher NPC for energy. When upgrading, the artifact gets slight upgrade to it's positive stats but also and additional bonus stats when reaching +5, +10 an +15, the bonuses are specific for every artifact and you can't roll the same bonus twice. This bonus is 100% guaranteed. You can check what bonuses and artifact has on stalcalc.net

Upgrading the artifact can not change it's %age value and it's rarity. If it's 122% it will stay 122% forever

Though you can use Changing Serum and Reset Essence to unresearch the artifact (It keeps it's +Upgrade) and try your luck getting a better percent in the rarity range (Unresearching a 122% artifact to maybe get 129% or 130%)