For some Destiny 2 players, the grind never stops. Despite the addition of Guardian Ranks, exotic armor and weapons, and the many challenges players can face in Grandmaster Nightfalls and Raids, there’s always more that Guardians crave to become more powerful in Destiny 2.
One of the most sought-after endgame goals of Destiny 2 players is Artifice armor, which is often regarded as the best armor in the game for its potential of high-stat legendary armor, as well as a free +3 stat mod that the player can choose.
Artifice armor farms have been around for a while, but some methods are harder than others. With this method, players will be venturing into the Master mode of Spire of the Watcher and farming the first encounter. In essence, it’s a relay race without the need for other players, boss fights, or ad control.
How To Start Spire Of The Watcher
For the best artifice armor farm in Destiny 2 to work, players will first need to acquire Spire of the Watcher. This dungeon is found on Savathun’s Throne World but can only be accessed by players of The Witch Queen Deluxe Edition. Alternatively, players can purchase the Dungeon Key from the in-game content store Eververse, which will require Silver, a digital currency that requires real-life money.
The Dungeon Key comes with The Spire of the Watcher, which is a dungeon in Destiny 2 that will remain active each week. Spire of the Watcher will enter the weekly rotation pool with the other dungeons in Destiny 2's Season 21.
Players will have more than enough time to farm Spire of the Watcher, but players should make sure that they are entering the dungeon on Master Mode, as this is the only way to get Artifice armor. It's best to look for the weekly modifiers and prepare for the fight ahead. It’s also worth noting that the loot pool is not locked per character, so players can farm the same encounter on any character without waiting for a weekly reset to go again.
How To Get Artifice Armor And What It Does
Artifice Armor will drop as a reward for completing an encounter within a Master Dungeon. Players cannot find Artifice Armor within the secret chests, only in the chests that are made available after completing an encounter. For this farming method, it’s advised to just run the first encounter of Spire of the Watcher on repeat.
The reason players looking to enhance their endgame loot will want to farm for Artifice Armor is because of its advantages. It acts as normal legendary armor for the most part, with the stats in Mobility, Resilience, Recovery, Discipline, Intellect, and Strength being entirely RNG based. However, Artifice Armor has something normal Legendary and Exotic armor does not.
Artifice Armor contains a bonus mod socket that will allow players to equip a +3 stat to their character, as well as the +5 or +10 that they can equip from their first mod slot. In total, this boasts an extra +13 total to each armor piece, or, if the armor is Masterworked, that’s a whopping +23. Players just need to hope they have good RNG to make it work.
What Artifice Armor Drops
Players will be farming the first encounter of Spire of the Watcher. After completing each encounter, they will be given some Glimmer, Enhancement Prisms, 2 Defiant engrams, as well as their great prize, a legendary engram that will decrypt once picked up, which could be one of 6 pieces of gear.
The first encounter chest can drop the Long Arm legendary scout rifle, the Seventh Seraph Carbine legendary auto rifle, the Terminus Horizon legendary machine gun, or Tex Mechanica Custom head, arm, or leg pieces. Players will only want to farm for the armor pieces, as there is no reward for getting a weapon in Master mode.
Sadly, players that are looking for Artifice Armor for the chest or mark will have to farm the second encounter or the third and final encounter, as the first encounter for Spire of the Watcher will only drop three pieces of armor. Even then, the RNG makes it so that they might receive a legendary gun instead.
Starting The Dungeon
To get the checkpoint that players will want to farm, they will first need to start from the beginning of the dungeon. It’s not a hard encounter, but there are a few things players will want to be careful of. Firstly, the Minotaur enemies. The Minotaur Vex are Champions, so players need to bring the seasonal weapons that will stun them, for players need to kill the Minotaur Champions to get the Arctrician buff that allows them to progress the opening encounter.
With the Arctrician buff active, players need to activate the four Nodes that have their circuit to follow. The Nodes stay in the same spot for every run, so players will be able to learn the running route quickly. The starting node will always be one with an arrow next to it. Simply shoot it and follow the yellow wire to the next one, repeat until the player is at the closing Node which is the four bundled in the middle.
To make the starting encounter easier, players should avoid the fire of Cyclops' enemies, which will respawn atop the hills. The Vex Goblins can be overwhelming, but it’s best to ignore them or have someone on ad-clear. As for the Nodes, to avoid Suplicants spawning, it’s best to only activate the closing Nodes once all four circuits are ready to be completed. After, the first step is done.
The Jumping Puzzle
After the opening encounter, players will drop down into the Seraph compound on Mars and begin a jumping puzzle. This jumping puzzle can be frustrating on Master mode, as there are plenty of Harpies, Hydras, and Vex Hobgoblins to shoot at players that are simply trying to ruin and jump to their next platform.
It’s a simple enough jumping puzzle, where players are just going to want to follow forward, jumping from each platform to get to the elevator at the end in which they will just continue climbing upward to find the encounter that they will be farming for the Artifice Armor.
Checkpoint Farming
The encounter that players are farming is called Ascend the Spire. Players will know they have reached the checkpoint when they encounter the white circle on the floor, indicating that they can place a Rally Banner. From here, it’s best to jump off the tower to die, wiping the Fireteam so that players can guarantee that they have the checkpoint.
For players to save time, they will want to farm this encounter with a friend or a stranger from an LFG or clan. It wouldn’t be too hard to find someone to farm this encounter with, but a Fireteam is a must if players want to guarantee an easy journey. Not only so that there is someone else to help with the ads and the Nodes, but so that the checkpoint is guaranteed.
To keep getting the checkpoint per run, players will want to swap characters to the class that they want the Artifice Armor on. If players have a Titan, Warlock, and Hunter, and want the armor for their Titan, then they can switch out while their Fireteam waits in the encounter, thus ensuring that one player always has the Master checkpoint saved on another character that is not interested in getting the encounter completed.
Ascend The Spire
To begin the encounter, players will want to climb upwards and go right. From here, they will find a Champion Minotaur. In killing this Minotaur, they will once again receive the Arctrician buff if they run into the electric pool at the defeated Vex Minotaur’s feet. With this buff, it’s time to connect the Nodes in the correct order.
Players will start from where the Minotaur was defeated, with one Node going left and the other right. The tower climb has three floors, and to speed things up, it’s best if the Fireteam splits up. One player goes left, the other right, whilst the third remains as a backup or an ad-clear.
After completing the Node circuit, players will enter a gravity lift that will send them to the next floor. If they are quick enough, they will keep their Arctrician buff, as shooting a Node will give them +5 seconds to their timer. For the next two phases, players will want to repeat the route of going left and right, completing their Node circuits to activate the gravity lift.
It’s not entirely challenging. There may be a large amount of Vex Goblins and vicious Minotaurs, but with the right damage resistance mods and Resilience stats, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem for players to run the route like experts, ensuring they complete the third and final room to which a chest will spawn.
From the checkpoint to the chest, Ascend the Spire should take no more than 4 minutes with a competent Fireteam. Of course, mistakes happen, a player may die or lose their buff, but there is no time limit to completing the encounter, however, with a strong Fireteam that knows what to do, players can farm their Artifice Armor pieces until they have the near perfect Stat rolls for each piece.
Destiny 2 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.