Artifact combos: when to commit or spread

Categories, thresholds, and the cost of committing to a single combo.

• Applies to 1.0
• Checked August 11, 2026

Finish one combo before taking a second far beyond its first threshold. The final threshold usually grants a different type of bonus from the earlier ones, and reaching it requires a focused bag.

What a combo is

Every artifact carries one or more categories, printed on its card. Hold enough artifacts of the same category in your bag at once and that category activates its bonuses. Twenty categories carry artifacts in 1.0. A few artifacts carry two categories at once and count toward both combos, which makes them the cheapest way to keep a second combo alive.

Most combos have thresholds at 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 artifacts. Several do not, and the exceptions matter more than the rule:

• Lake pays at 3, 6 and 9.
• Alchemy activates at 1 and 2, then stops.
• Curse and Negotiation stop at 4.
• Elemental stops at 6.
• Ember, Glacier, Magitech, Storm Cloud and Solar Blade switch a mechanic on at 2 and gain further bonuses at 4, 6, 8 and 10. For the three debuff categories, the threshold at 6 is a large cut to the debuff’s cooldown rather than a stat.

The final threshold of each combo

That table shows only the final threshold. The full combo pages list every numerical threshold across the nineteen categories that have them, with the figures the game prints at each one.

The final bonuses fall into three groups.

Bonuses that change stat. Sturdy gives flat Physical Damage at four thresholds and then converts to Physical Damage Amplification; Precision gives Critical Chance at four thresholds and then Critical Damage. In both cases the final bonus multiplies what the earlier thresholds built. Stopping at 8 leaves that multiplier unavailable.

Bonuses that change how a mechanic behaves. Glacier’s final threshold lowers how many Frostbite stacks it takes to Freeze. That changes the pace of the whole build, not a percentage. Wind Song’s Dash Count +1 is an extra dash, permanently, which is worth more to a lot of players than any damage line on the table. Storm Cloud’s multishot and Solar Blade’s blade count change what those mechanics look like on screen.

Short progressions. Alchemy, Curse, Negotiation and Elemental top out early and cheaply. Their low maximum makes them affordable secondary combos when the matching artifacts already suit the build.

Mystic is the odd one out and has no stat thresholds at all: it doubles artifact level efficiency in a slot the game picks, and it interacts with Tablet Imprinting rather than with a stat sheet.

What the tenth artifact costs

A run starts with 24 bag slots and can reach 42, and every artifact, tablet and potion takes exactly one. Ten artifacts of a single category is a large fraction of a bag that also has to hold the tablets that raise their levels. See how bag capacity works for where those slots come from.

Three combos at their first threshold cost six artifacts and grant three small stat lines. Ten artifacts in one category costs ten and activates every threshold, including the final one. Those six artifacts spread across other categories could instead have finished the main combo.

A second combo at 2 or 4 is cheap and usually correct. The four artifacts that finish Negotiation or the two that switch on a debuff can still be useful. Half-building a third or fourth combo is where the slot cost becomes severe.

The game does not spell out whether earlier threshold bonuses remain active after you pass them or whether each threshold replaces the one below it. Read the figures above as the final threshold’s displayed bonus rather than as a total you can add up, and check the combo panel mid-run for the current effect. The final bonus remains the reason to concentrate artifacts in one category.

When spreading becomes useful

There is exactly one thing in the game that rewards breadth directly: the Ingenuity talent at level 20, which gives Universal Damage Boost +7% for each active combo type. This bonus changes the maths, but it is gated behind twenty levels of one talent. Until you have it, breadth reaches only the first thresholds. Check the talent list before you decide you are building the wide version of a run.

Steering the artifacts you get offered

You cannot pick your rewards, but you can weight them.

The Fruit Skewer is the main tool. Every category has a fruit (Ember has Orange, Precision has Starfruit, Glacier has Iceberry, Sturdy has Peanut, and so on), and the game’s own description is that the chance of related combo items appearing as rewards increases depending on the fruit you choose, and that you can lower the chance of combos you do not want. Pointing the skewer at your chosen combo and away from a category you will never use is the single highest-value thing you can do for consistency.

Two smaller levers: Solera’s Serendipity raises the combo count of one random combo by 1, which occasionally activates the threshold you were one artifact short of; and the Destiny Inscription’s unlock nodes widen the artifact pool permanently, so what shows up in your runs is partly a purchase you made hours ago.

Deciding in the run

A reliable order is:

1. Early floors: take what is strong and note which category keeps appearing. Wait to commit until you know what the tower is offering.
2. By the middle of the run: pick the combo that matches the weapon and costume you are already playing. A Companion combo in a build with no companion is ten slots of nothing, and your costume has usually already pushed you toward an answer.
3. After committing: point the skewer at it, and refuse artifacts that start a fourth category unless they carry two.
4. Late: spend tablets on levelling the artifacts in that combo rather than spreading levels evenly. The tablet placement guide covers how to point them, and the bag planner lets you check that ten artifacts and the tablets that serve them fit at the capacity you expect to have.