Artifacts greatly change the way Risk of Run Returns plays. These are essentially modifiers that alter the game's rules significantly, from making enemies explode on death or making all of them spawn as elites.
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The Artifact of Command is particularly interesting — it lets players choose what items they want whenever they get an item. This opens up a ton of buildcrafting potential for Risk of Rain Returns, and it's one artifact that all players should unlock as soon as possible.
Artifact of Command Location
The Artifact of Command is hidden in a variant of the Hive Cluster, one of the two possible maps players can get as their fourth stage of any run. The Hive Cluster variant players are looking for is the one with the flickering goop vines in the upper right corner of the map. There's a chance players might spawn directly next to this location.
It may seem like the vines are flickering in and out of existence, but they're simply becoming invisible for brief periods. This means they can still be grabbed onto like any other climbable object in the game. The vines don't even need to be visible to be interactable. Players can jump and grab onto them at any time.
Jump between the vines to reach the elevated platform to the right. The Artifact of Command is resting on top of the teleporter-like structure.
The Artifact of Command removes much of the RNG when it comes to itemization. Instead of dropping the usual array of gear, popping open a chest with Command active yields a colored chest, which players can use to pick any item of the same rarity as the chest itself. White chests drop only white-tier items, while red ones always contain legendary items.
The only real downside to using the Artifact of Command is that it can feel like cheating at times. Players can easily get 100% critical hit chance with 10x Glassmaker's Lenses or maximum one-shot potential by stacking Crowbars. The game can also be paused to give players time to think about what item they need for their build.
The Artifact of Command is mainly for having fun; use it to experiment with crazy item builds or to easily complete certain achievements. Risk of Rain Returns will feel like a completely different game when this artifact is active, especially when used with other artifacts and custom game rules.
Risk of Rain Returns is available now on PC and Nintendo Switch.
