Systems / 8 min read
Artifact Sets Guide: Boxes and Cores
SpiritVale Info describes artifacts as four coordinated pieces in dedicated slots: Relic, Gem, Scroll, and Rune. Pieces with the same set name complete a set regardless of which of those four piece types they are. On top of that base system, the official notes now document an advanced tier — 32 advanced artifacts across eight sets, a box that produces them, and a core that refinement and Grimoire crafting both consume. This guide covers the published acquisition chain end to end.
The base system: four slots, one set name
The community overview describes artifacts as four coordinated pieces in dedicated slots — Relic, Gem, Scroll and Rune — with the set completing only when all four slots hold the same named set. It also documents the labels you will see on a tooltip: Per Piece, Full Set, Per Refine and Random Rolls. That vocabulary is worth learning before reading anything official, because the patch notes use the same idea without restating the mechanics: when 0.31.0 says an artifact set gives +1 Bond Targets, it is describing a full-set effect, and when it says a value is per refine, it is describing the fourth label. Separating set identity from random rolls matters for a different reason: refinement improves the listed per-refine benefit but does not change the set name or the piece type, so a badly rolled piece does not become a good one by being refined.
Advanced artifacts arrived in 0.32.0
The 0.32.0 update introduced the Advanced Artifact Box and states three things about it. Its contents are a random artifact out of 32, drawn from eight sets. Its drop source is A-rank and S-rank maps, at a 0.1% rate. It can also be obtained for 25 Umbral Fragments. The 0.32.1 update then states that advanced boxes were added to Starfall, which is worth reading alongside the 0.33.0 tier table below, because Starfall is listed there as a C-tier map. Taken together, the two entries are a reminder that source and rank are separate facts: a box can be available in a map whose rank determines the other rates around it.
Masterwork Cores gate both refinement and Grimoires
Two official entries describe what a Masterwork Core does. 0.32.0 states that dismantling an advanced artifact yields one, and that advanced refinement requires a Masterwork Core alongside the existing materials and consumes it on success. The same update states that Advanced Grimoires are crafted at class masters using the matching artifact set, 25 Masterwork Cores and one corrupted core, and are account bound; 0.33.0 then reduced the Grimoire crafting cost from 25 Masterwork Cores to 20. The consequence is that one item type sits underneath two different progression paths, and both consume it. If you are planning both an advanced refinement and a Grimoire, the cores are competing for the same stock, and the notes give no priority between them.
Given a box rate, what a set actually costs
Because the published box rate is 0.1% from A-rank and S-rank maps, the honest way to describe the cost of a specific advanced artifact is in clears rather than in time. The notes do not publish a pity system, a per-set weighting, or a guaranteed source, so any statement that a named artifact takes a particular number of runs is not something the developer has stated. What can be said from the published figures is the shape of the route: ranked maps produce boxes, boxes produce advanced artifacts, dismantling produces cores, and cores are consumed by refinement and by Grimoire crafting. Each step is documented; the conversion between them is not, which is why a specific drop claim should carry a date and a source rather than a promise.
Where the materials around a set come from
The 0.33.0 notes publish the tiered rates that sit around artifact progression. Boxes of Mastery drop from level 100 maps at 0.3% on S-tier maps including Dark Fortress and Dark Manor, 0.25% on A-tier (Night Garden, Warcamp, Forge, Nexus), 0.2% on Abyss, and 0.15% on C-tier maps such as Maw, Sunken and Starfall. Essence drop rates were multiplied by tier in the same patch — x3 on S, x2.5 on A, x2 on B and x1.5 on C — with worked examples including Dark Fortress and Dark Manor moving from 0.1% to 0.3%, Abyss from 0.075% to 0.15%, Goblin Cave from 0.03% to 0.045%, and Sunny Meadows unchanged at 0.01%. Boxes of Mastery and Advanced Artifact Boxes are different items with different sources, and the notes publish them in different sections; do not merge the two rate tables.
Named sets the notes have touched
Most artifact sets are described in the client rather than in a patch note, but a few have been named directly. 0.31.0 states that Oathbound Artifact Set gives +1 Bond Targets, and that the Soulbinders Armor Set gives +2 Bond Targets, in the same update that introduced the Bond Targets stat. The same patch lists the Echo Set (Atk) per-refine bonuses as chest +1 Atk with -1% melee and ranged damage received, legs +1% neutral resist and feet +1% def pierce, with a full-set bonus of +10% atk; the Echo Set (Matk) mirrors it with Matk, magic damage received, non-neutral resist and mdef pierce. The 0.33.0 notes describe an artifact set for Gunslinger as giving -20% attack delay with shotguns. Each of those is a versioned official statement about one named set, not a ranking between sets.
Refinement is a separate system from set choice
The refinement guide on this site covers the material routing — Vulkanite for weapons, Gravion for armor and Lunaris for artifacts according to the community documentation — and the coin cost that scales with refinement level. Two interactions are worth repeating here because they are specific to artifacts. First, advanced refinement uses a Masterwork Core in place of a routine material, consumed on success, so the cost of the next step is not simply the next coin tier. Second, 0.34.0 states that Perfect gear crafts now carry over Refines and Cards, which changes what a craft decision preserves. Neither entry is a reason to refine on impulse; both are reasons to record the level you reached, the materials you actually spent and the patch you were on.
A review routine for a set plan
Write the set name, the slot layout, the intended activity and the patch beside every artifact plan you keep. Then check four published surfaces whenever a new note lands: the Advanced Artifact Box entry for its drop maps and rate, the Masterwork Core entries for what refinement and Grimoire crafting consume, the tier table for the maps you farm, and any named set the note mentions directly. Anything outside those four surfaces is client-side information that a patch note cannot confirm, and the correct place to check it is the item tooltip in the version you are actually running.
Frequently asked questions
How many advanced artifacts are there in SpiritVale?
The 0.32.0 notes state that an Advanced Artifact Box gives a random artifact out of 32, across eight sets.
Where do Advanced Artifact Boxes drop?
0.32.0 states a 0.1% drop rate from A-rank and S-rank maps, and also lists 25 Umbral Fragments as an alternative. 0.32.1 then added advanced boxes to Starfall.
What is a Masterwork Core used for?
The 0.32.0 notes state that dismantling an advanced artifact yields a Masterwork Core, that advanced refinement consumes one alongside existing materials on success, and that Advanced Grimoires are crafted with Masterwork Cores at class masters.
Can you farm a specific artifact set on demand?
Not from anything the developer has published. The notes give one box rate and describe the box as random, and they publish no per-set weighting or guaranteed source, so a specific-set claim needs its own dated source.