Hello adventurers, this is game designer Douglas “Asterdahl” Miller here to talk to you about artifact weapons.

Underdark will see the introduction of a number of new artifact weapons. In addition many of you will soon have access to the new stronghold artifact weapons introduced in Strongholds. One understandable concern has accompanied the addition of new artifact weapons: transferring invested refinement points into new artifact weapons. We’ve been listening and I’d like to talk today about one big change we are making to improve that experience.

Some of you are already aware that you can refine an upgraded artifact weapon into a new artifact weapon to carry over a large chunk of your progress. You may also be aware that the best time to do so is during a double refinement event. In fact, the difference is so high that most people ONLY do so during that time, and we don’t want players to feel like the only option is to wait around for an event before you can use your new weapon at full power.

Starting with Underdark, any artifact weapon that has been upgraded to rank 15 or above will always refine into another piece of artifact equipment at double the rate, whether an event is running or not. This means that refining an artifact weapon into artifact equipment will not be affected by double refinement events. Now there’s no need to wait, you can transfer the maximum amount of your investment at any time!

A new contact, the “Artifact Enthusiast,” has been added to the Moonstone Mask. She can answer questions regarding this special refining rule, but the short explanation again is: artifact weapons rank 15 and above, including all existing artifact weapons, will have a new tag, “Always Double Refinement.” When this tag is present, that item will always refine into artifact equipment at double the rate and will not be affected by the double refinement event.

For more details on new artifact weapons and other rewards coming in Underdark, keep your eyes on this space. As always, thank you for reading, and be sure to ask any questions you have about the changes over on the forums.

Douglas Miller

Game Designer

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