Last week, Valve released Artifact Beta 2.0, which followed a closed beta of almost two months. The game is considered a reboot of the first Artifact, which despite the hype was considered by many as a disappointment. Within two months of the release of the original Artifact, it experienced a player decline of around 95%. Criticism was mainly focused on what appeared to be a high learning curve along with an annoying monetization model.
The rebooted version now removes the need to buy cards while making all the three lanes visible. It also now has a single-player campaign. Yesterday the Artifact team introduced some new changes to the game.
One change is Campaign Mission 5, which is named Quickly by the Old Road. The mission has been rebalanced with the two heroes in the deck of the players changed with a few new spells added.
For the Hero changes, these are:
- Nyx Assassin
- Added first stab (or impale)
- Legion Commander
- Stats changed from 4/1/4 to 5/1/4.
- Moment of Courage only applies when she attacks.
- Heal increased from 2 to 3.
- Sand King
- Burrowstrike movement uppred from 4 to 5.
- Underlord
- Dark Rift no longer tries to move more heroes to its target lane than will fit there.
For Creep of Spells, players can look forward to these updates:
- Animated Armor
- Now puts a *locked* Artificer's Mail into your hand when it dies.
- Assassin's Apprentice
- Now has Quickstrike all the time, not just for one battle.
- Assassin's Shadow
- Now has Quickstrike all the time, not just for one battle.
- Corrosive Mist
- Mana cost increased from 5 to 6.
- Courier
- Now reduces the mana cost of items instead of refunding it.
- Lashvine Creeper
- Now grabs the closest enemy, rather than a random enemy.
- Mist of Avernus
- Mana cost lowered form 4 to 3
- Path of the Bold
- Starts with 0 charges.
- Path of the Cunning
- Starts with 0 charges.
- Ravenous Mass
- Now moves to adjacent enemies of your choice and devours them, rather than just devouring them and staying place.
- Temple of War
- Card inspect shows the basic items.
There are also changes made to items which are:
- Blade of the Vigil
- Attack is now lowered from +2 to +0.
- Cleave increased from +3 to +4.
- Claszureme Hourglass
- No longer interacts with forced card draw, it only locks extra cards drawn by sources the opponent controls.
- No more interaction with Imperia or an opponent's Howling Mind.
- Cloak of Endless Carnage
- Now only draws one card per turn.
- Golden Ticket
- Card drawn is now limited to your shop level or below.
