If you want a top-tier build, you’re going to want to farm Artifice Armor in Destiny 2. Though not as much as it used to be, it’s still the most valuable non-Exotic choice in the game. The big benefit is the extra mod slot that can provide an additional — and most importantly free — +3 to any stat. It might not sound like much, but it can come in clutch to reach that desired 100 stat value. And having four or five of them active is up to +15 to a single stat.
How to Farm Artifice Armor in Destiny 2
Here’s how to farm Artifice Armor in Destiny 2:
- Play Master-difficulty Dungeons.
- Focus on Nightmare of Ghalran in the Duality Dungeon.
- Nightmare of Caiatl is another option.
- Bad options include Ghosts of the Deep, Spire of the Watcher, and Grasp of Avarice.
Artifice Armor is a unique drop from Master-difficulty Dungeons. It’s found nowhere else in the game. You can’t get it from Raids, Trials of Osiris, or even Grandmaster Nightfalls. It’s Dungeons or bust. And if an encounter has a loot reward, you have a chance at a piece. Every encounter save the final boss of a Dungeon rewards specific armor slots, but the boss can drop the full set, so where you farm Artifice Armor will depend on what you need.
Farming Artifice Armor in Destiny 2 is all about efficiency. Which encounter can you do quickly, consistently, and doesn’t immediately bore you to tears? You can transmog any Legendary gear, so the look of the armor doesn’t matter much, and there are no more elemental affinities, so all you need to worry about is the slot.
Best Way to Farm Artifice Armor: Nightmare of Ghalran in the Duality Dungeon
The best Artifice Armor farm is Nightmare of Ghalran, with Caiatl coming a close second. I’ve chosen Ghalran for the following reasons:
- If you somehow lose the checkpoint, it’s much faster and easier to get back to that encounter than it is to get to Caiatl.
- Ghalran’s fight is also easier, with lower enemy density and a much less involved method of reaching DPS. Depending on your team, it might be easier to one-phase Caiatl, but Ghalran isn’t much more of a challenge.
If you need a refresher, here’s how to complete the Duality Dungeon. Remember that the only time you can farm Artifice Armor from Duality is when it’s the featured Dungeon that week, so while you can get a Pinnacle from it for your first completion, every encounter drops loot for every victory.
Artifice Armor Farms to Avoid
- Sadly, Bungie patched the cheese for the Ghosts of the Deep Dungeon, but that was easily a 20-minute affair, and you can kill Ghalran or Caiatl five or six times in that time, making Ghosts of the Deep a poor farm, anyway.
- Spire of the Watcher‘s bosses have too much health, and their DPS requirements are too lengthy to qualify here.
- Grasp of Avarice also takes too long to reach the first reward chest, and the boss is a little too involved to be worth farming for armor. The shotgun you get from the Ogre is pretty good, though.
That’s how to farm Artifice Armor in Destiny 2. The Duality Master-difficulty Dungeon is your go-to choice. And while community opinion is contentious on the Dungeon itself, there’s no denying what you get is worth the occasional frustration. For more content on Bungie’s live service smash hit, check out our guides on fishing, how to farm Exotics (updated for 2023), and how to use Checkpoint Bot to get other gear easily. Our D2 guides hub has much more.
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