if there is anything I missed, something you disagree with, combos I don't have on here (I'm sure there's quite a few), or anything else you'd like me to cover let me know in the comments :)

Comment heros include: Austell, GreenBit

Big thanks to Xgpmcnp for letting me use his content. He did an amazing job at summing that up and if you haven't read his guide you should click this here

Formatting, visuals & general quality control done by Blixtmen.

To unlock Artificer you'll need to go through a Blue Portal which appears randomly or when using 1 Lunar Coin at a Newt Altar, after finishing the teleporter event.
Inside the Lunar Shop Arti can be freed by spending 10 additional Lunar Coins.
She will only become unlocked for the player that paid.

This is a topic that is so important to the survivor that I'm going to go over it before the abilities. Cooldown management is exactly what it sounds like. It is managing your cooldowns so that you always have the right tool available.

1.) Say you blow all your cooldowns to destroy a single golem and a few lemurians. Yeah you killed them but now you have nothing for what's to come.

2.) A MUL-T just started a double mountain challenge and is met with a Blazing Stone Titan. The first thing he does is ram straight into it. He now does not have his mobility tool to dodge the death laser

Is when you choose to use your cooldowns considering the times on your other skills.

1.) Say you have a skill with a 4 second cooldown and a skill with a 6 second cooldown. If we use the 6 second first then stagger the use of the 4 second by 3-4 seconds, we know that we will be able to use the 6 second relatively soon. Staggering your cooldowns saves our tools so that we always have something available. This isn’t always required but it is a good practice.

2.) A mercenary is fighting a wandering vagrant. He knows that EMP will one shot him and that he is not in a position to run. So while using his ultimate every chance he can will clear the fight faster, he chooses to save it because that is risking the chances of death because the skill is not available when he needs it.

First off this isn't a PvP game. The AI isn't going to see you use an ability and jump down your throat for doing so Secondly, RoR does an amazing job at downplaying poor management with items like Wax Quail and by making their items heavily favor basic attacks that have no cooldown. As long as you can M1 you have a powerful option available. However this second thing Artificer just does not have making this skill significantly more important to master.

• Does not immediately stop your fall, it just slows it down to a set minimum. You need to make sure to hover early if you want to break your fall
  
• You can toggle sprint while hovering
  
• It can take time to change direction, though your directional control is much greater while hovering rather than free falling.
  
• Through use of jump pads, jumping off high places, Ion Surge, Strides of Heresy, Hopoo Feathers, Headstompers, Eccentric Vase, or Milky Chrysalis you can stay in the air for a very long time (if not indefinitely) allowing you to travel a lot of distance.

Being constantly in the air is a great way to avoid damage. If you see a range attack coming your way you can let go of the hover for a brief second to quickly descend and dodge the attack. Airtime is a resource in the early game if you have Flamethrower. However, with flight being your best defensive tool, Lesser Wisps are your greatest threat.

• Unlocked via the Artificer: Massacre Challenge. (As Artificer, perform a multikill of 20 enemies.)

Let me put this skill in perspective. Commando's Phase Round does 220% as does MUL-T's Blaster Canister, Huntress' Laser Glaive does 250%, and engineer mine's 300% with a super restrictive range. Fire bolt is a spammable, fast firing, secondary. NOT a primary attack. Once you stop thinking about it as a usual M1 things start to click! Something to keep in mind is that it has a slow travel time. This means you have to lead your targets, rather predict where they are going to be, in order to hit. The best use of Fire Bolt is to finish off (or weaken) enemies who weren't killed (or you know won't die to) your other skills.

Do you hold on to hot potatos? No. You don't hold on to Fire Bolts either. You should ALWAYS have at least one bolt on cooldown. There is no reason to be holding on to 4 bolts at any given time. This is because you will be recharging them crazy fast and holding on to them is actually losing damage. It is your only resource that rapidly replenishes so generous usage is recommended. The real issue is when you choose to use all of them at once. Then you have a pretty lengthy time to get them all back. So weaving Bolts between spells is ideal.

If you want to use all 4 bolts in one sitting here are things to keep in mind:

• It means you lose your reliable damage for 2-3 seconds.
  
• It is effective against bosses and dramatically increases how fast you can clear them, however it leaves you vulnerable to the adds.
  
• It can be a good option for removing high priority targets, especially in multiplayer.
  
• It is safer if you have Charged Nano Bomb available. (Flamethrower isn't safe)

Bolts are a decent way to deal with air so it is important to save it to deal with them (though not groups of wisps in the case of Flame Bolt). You can one (sometimes two) shot wisps and it takes all 4 (sometimes 5!) for greater wisps. If you are in multiplayer it may be best to just ignore small amounts of air and leave it to your teammates (unless you are really confident with you accuracy)

At level 1 it does 5 ticks of 3 damage and that damage goes up by 1 per level.

Because this does not proc items (unconfirmed), Flame Bolts is the better option for early game damage. It can guarantee kill a Lesser Wisp and will net overall higher single target damage. Since flying enemies are Arti's mortal enemies this can allow you to stay alive a lot longer if you intend to have an extreme air time.

When against groups of ground units, it is better to hit the center of as many units as possible allowing you to hit around 2-3 enemies at once. This is also good to keep in consideration when going against swarms of aerial enemies. Try hitting the flying enemy that is at the center of a ball so you can clear multiple enemies (likely Lesser Wisps) at once.

The fact that you can hit multiple targets at the cost of single target damage makes it so you have an easier time hitting ground enemies if you play crazy high in the air, additionally it makes you scale a tad better due to the fact you can proc some items multiple times on a single attack.

Do you like nukes? Cuz I like nukes. And this... this is a nuke.

It takes 3 seconds to fully charge and launch (before attack speed). When it makes impact with the world or an enemy it explodes. Enemies on the outside of the explosion take half damage. This is your best option to remove multiple targets, but it can also be crazy strong against big tanky one's too.

It deals 1/5th the damage (of what you have it charged to) to nearby targets as it travels (so 240% when fully charged) with a hit rate of 3-4 times a second. While it CAN zap a single target multiple times, it prefers to select different targets if possible.

If you are throwing Nano-Bomb into a bunch of soft enemies and know it will kill them, there is no reason to charge the attack. The sooner you release the bomb, the sooner you start it's cooldown. This becomes even more so when you have a Backup Magazine. Also clutch stuns can save the day.

This is worth it for two reasons:
1.) Throwing it into a wave of wisps will kill all of them. It's hilarious.
2.) If you have lots of squishy enemies, it can be better to hit the ground between them so you hit all of them instead of directly hitting one.

Nano-Bomb does not travel in a straight line. It slowly falls so when aiming it make sure you keep this in mind and aim higher than you want it to go. It gets harder the further you want it to travel.

• Unlocked via the Artificer: Chunked! Challenge. (As Artificer, fully defeat the teleporter boss in a one-second burst of damage.)

Deals very high damage once fully charged and due to the freeze it can kill very quickly, especially when paired with a crowbar. Even if it doesn't get the kill a few bolts can finish the job thereafter. In order to hit multiple targets you have to line the attack up to travel through multiple enemies making your positioning very important.

With freeze killing enemies at 30%, tapping this ability can be all the damage you need to kill enemies. The sooner you release the attack, the sooner it goes on cooldown. The damage you need to kill with a quick tap changes depending on your build so you have to gauge it yourself, but always do the minimum charge needed to get the kill.

While charging you actually regenerate 1-3 Flame Bolts making it a great pick after you've bursted them all.
After you start charging you can hit sprint to sprint while charging, this is a great way to dodge and still rack up some damage.
Like with any stun or freeze, Charged Nano-Bomb/Spear can stop enemies mid attack and can make imps way easier to kill. This makes Nano-Bomb/Spear more of your utility skill than Snapfreeze. Since you have no other defensive ability, sometimes the best use of this skill is to stun rather than kill.

Both are equally effective in boss clear. It comes down to how you want to deal with normal enemies.

• Bomb hits a much larger area making it better against swarms while Spear can nuke Golems, Parents, Elder Lemurians, etc.
  
• Bomb's arc can make it awkward to use while Spear travels in a straight line making it's usage much more simple.
  
• Bomb is a much better defensive ability. While freeze lasts longer than stun, the AoE on bomb allows you to stop the attacks/movement of more enemies.

Creates 12 pillars of ice for 7 seconds that do 100% damage each. Enemies hit by it, or frozen by it, will die at 30% health. You can hold the third skill button to show the aiming rectangle; it'll only cast when you let go, and there'll be no delay, so you can use this for more precision. This ability has 3 main uses

The most obvious use is killing big guys early. If you see they are around 30% health drop this under their feet and that saves a lot of time and damage. As long as the enemy is frozen you can execute them making missing that critical point a little more forgiving.

If you put this under a boss' feet, you will often pop 5-8 pillars causing a significant amount of damage. The only downside is that makes it so you can't use it for tankier adds. and this thing has a LONG cooldown.

If you ever find yourself surrounded and need a breather, Snapfreeze can freeze up to 12 enemies. If you have Nano-Bomb or Flamethrower, they can be thrown in there to finish off the majority of the enemies due to the freeze.

Xgpmcnp let me use his guide for this one so here's a snippet from his guide that does an amazing job at summarizing each survivor, "The game says it deals 1700% damage in front of you, but the truth is, it deals twice that damage! You may be wondering how, well lets break it down, shall we?
At level 1, the attack does 11 damage a tick. That's 92% damage, done 10 times a second. The attack goes for 3 seconds, adding up to 330 damage.
But wait, it also deals fire damage! In my testing, it usually adds up to around 87 damage. 330+87=417, which is about 3475% damage. This is all assuming you hit only one target, because it also pierces! So you can deal almost 3500% damage to multiple targets if all your possible ticks of damage land."

• Flamethrower feels like it has more range than it does. It really is a mid-range ability compared to Fire Bolt and Nano-Bomb that have no limits making it bad against air
  
• Sprinting will cancel the skill
  
• You cannot use other skills while casting Flamethrower and trying to use other skills will not cancel Flamethrower
  
• It has the same cooldown as Nano-Bomb giving it a lot of the same cooldown management applications. This deviates when you get a Backup Magazine, but it's still good to note.
  
• The damage above only happens if every tick hits a single target. So if you wave it around, it'll spread it out better and clear waves better, but you lose damage.
  
• It's duration being 3 seconds gives it great usage a few seconds after Nano-Bomb

Flamethrower, while being your strongest skill, can net you to take a lot of damage. This is because you cannot sprint during it. It is best to use flamethrower using ENV Suit's hover and when you know sprinting is not going to be vital (it'll make it so you can get off every tick too.) Examples are when imps are not nearby (unless you are using it to clear them), the boss has just popped their big death attack, when you aren't surrounded by air that need a good Nano-Bombing, and when there are not a million laser pointers on you from golems. If you use Flamethrower outside of these times, do NOT be stuck on using it for the full duration. End it with a sprint to get out of harms way as is needed.

• Unlocked via the Artificer: Orbital Bombardment Challenge. (As Artificer, kill 15 enemies before touching the ground.)

Heeeelloooooo safety. This is a get out of jail free card. With a big blast that stuns you can kill lots of squishy enemies and briefly disable the rest while launching you into the air for you hover to buy you that lovely air time.

This thing can allow infinite air time when used with your hover. This creates a completely unique style of play. Keep in mind the games director will spawn more flying enemies and golems to contest you so it is not perfect safety, you are merely choosing how you want to play and what set of obstacles you want to face. If you are using it like this it can be worthwhile to rapidly decend and use it on top of bosses or tankier flying enemies (like Brass Contraptions or Vultures) so you still get the 800% damage it deals.

Arti is two completely different survivors depending one your decision here so it isn't a matter of which one is better or a subtle change in mechanical purpose that fits your playstyle. Flamethrower makes you a high risk high reward meat grinder of death and dismemberment whereas Ion Surge sacrifices all that insane damage for consistency, safety, and the ability to feel like a bomber plane. It ultimately comes down to how you want to play the game.

So what do we do if we want to just throw out AlL tHe SpElLs. Well don't you worry because we have a rotation that makes it so you can... in a loop.

Burn all 4 Fire Bolts->Fully Charge a Nano-Bomb->Flamethrower repeat... sort of. It's not a true loop after the second iteration and depending how long you charge Nano-Bomb can shake it up a little. However, you will have charges of Fire Bolt available in this 1-2 second gap and you can always use Snapfreeze in that gap if you wanna be OCD about it. Doing this allows consistent dps, but doesn't make optimal use of your skills. Pros and cons, I've seen people just stick to this rotation all game and do fine. It's definitely an easier way to play.

The old guide was outdated and had a lot of bad information. I am not going to be covering every item like I did before but am rather only going to talk about items that particularly synergize or behave oddly with the survivor.

Backup Magazine
This is a valuable item that if you are in multiplayer people should honestly give you the first one. However, unless you have an insane amount of attack speed it is only worth building one. The way Backup Mag works on both skills is that while you are charging, the cooldown on other charges pauses. This allows you to buy a second or two between uses which is insanely powerful and provides safety and consistency to your whole kit, but makes more than one redundant.





Soldier's Syringe, Warbanner, War Horn, Predatory Instincts, and Berserker's Pauldron
Increasing attack speed when you have set cooldowns on your attack just sounds plain bad right? Right!? It's not. What it does is increase your burst potential through Fire Bolt/Plasma Bolt, Increases how fast Nano-Bomb charges and reduces the minimum cast delay on Snapfreeze. With enough attack speed you can convert your Bolt into an instant 800% damage. Which is nuts. Even your Charged Nano-Bomb take a few seconds to pump out its 1200%. It also allows for effective burst firing to hit multiple targets. Lastly it reduces the end lag on your Fire Bolt so you can sprint sooner which may keep you alive. However despite all these positives there are the obvious drawbacks. Blowing all shots at once complicates the cooldown management and can potentially leave you dry. Have you ever tried hitting multiple targets with a burst fire weapon? It really isn't easy whether its a game or irl. And lastly it really punishes bad accuracy. With Nano-Bomb this can be a good and bad thing. Sometimes the time to re-position is really nice, reducing the time to charge CAN be detrimental, however if you can instantly adjust and don't need the time, it becomes powerful and enables multiple Backup Magazines. If you as a player feel like you can utilize the positives, go for it. But if you are in multiplayer it may just be better to always pass these items up.

Wax Quail
Useful if you have Flamethrower or don't like using Ion Surge for infinite air time. It provides insanely quick re-positioning and can be used while charging Nano Bomb/Spear giving you the mobility you wish you had.

Primordial Cube
With so many ways to have AoE in your kit, this item is a natural synergy allowing you to cause widespread destruction.

Flamethrower straight up has more synergies than Ion Surge and allows you to scale so much better so the following are all Flamethrower specific.

Strides of Heresy, Hopoo Feathers, H3AD-5T v2, Milky Chrysalis, Volcanic Egg, Eccentric Vase
These all allow you to have greater air time providing improved usage of your hover. Since we aren't taking Ion Surge for safety it is very strongly recommended to have at least one of these since hover is your main defensive tool.




Leech Seed and Harvester's Scythe
Flamethrower procs these two a LOT providing an insane amount of healing. Especially since hover enables the ability to dodge blight, these two items gives Arti very powerful self-sustain.






Stun Grenade and Chronobauble
Stacking Chronobaubles isn't worth it, but a single one helps solve flamethrower's biggest issue: it's severe lack of safety. While you shouldn't be using Flamethrower without hovering, Chronobauble and Stun Grenades lets you do it and can lock down a good amount of space.

Unlock this skin by defeating the game
with Artificer on Monsoon difficulty.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1698209186
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1703268743
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1704243914
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1704249397