Why do you use the artifacts you do?

[Conga Lyne]

So, let's have a discussion, why do you regularly use the artifacts that you use ingame right now?

Personally, I use Vengeance, Sacrifice, Evolution and Command most commonly.

Vengeance, because I think it's really cool to have a clone of yourself with all of your items appear every 10 minutes to hunt you down; I always have a fun fight with them when they appear~
Sometimes they slow you, freeze you in place, stun you and 1 hit kill you but I think it keeps things fun and interesting every 10 minutes, grabbing a really OP item then seeing them appear~

Sacrifice, because I don't like looking for chests, RoR2 is great fun and I would like for an option for enemies to drop chests instead of just raw items perhaps so you don't get to splurge endlessly but I don't like looking for chests.
I play RoR2 because I love to shoot stuff, get stronger and shoot stronger stuff, not to play hide and go seek with a box and then run across the entire map to reach it.

Evolution, because I love the extra challenge and seeing how enemies react to items they're given, also helps make the vengeance fight more interesting~
Brings the RNG back in to the run in a way that I like, I never know what advantages or sometimes blatent kill switches on me the enemy might spawn with on the next level~

Command, because I don't like RNG, some people are really in to it but when I play the game I usually have a specific build idea in mind I want to build towards, rather than "I just want to be generally OP against everything".
I also don't like getting 3 rusty keys to start my game off in place of actual items; also potted desk plant sucks.
It's certainly the strongest artifact in the game since you get to filter out all of the garbage items, so i'd be fine if items were half as common with it in a future update, but I like being able to build my own build.

So, how about you?

[AlabasterSXS]

Command is totally boring and I and a lot of players get kill while locked into a blurry item selections. Sacrifice is more of a nerf earlygame, becasue you're not guaranteed 4-6 items first stage.

If I see these artifacts activated during the countdown to start in a lobby, I will wait until there's 5 seconds left and activate evolution, dissonance, the one that randomizes equipment, and maybe one more that will add SOME RNG in there.

The point is, being able to solo kill everything around you at stage 3 and on should be a rare scenario that you RNG'd.

[Flori281]

I personally am cool with command and cool without it but enabling it isn't really my choice

but OP and I run very similar command loadouts, but I also like to throw dissonance in there for some enemy/boss RNG

i feel part of the appeal of this game is getting into dicey or hopeless situations and still squeaking out a victory. I understand command because people hate losing, but losing is part of the fun of risk of rain-and every other roguelike/roguelite. Plus command means the team has to work together and I like that aspect

other times if i can get a lobby with just command i throw in a glass since with wisps existing it is enough of a buff/debuff

[Lunacy]

I'm not into sacrifice it feels slow at times and feels like it gets boring when the only objective is kill things then find teleporter. Killing things to save money for chests is more interesting.

I use command a lot because it gives an easier casual feeling, don't have to worry about RNG and I usually have a build in mind.

in RoR1 i'd use Glass a lot, it was very easy to just use command to get a guardian shield then snowball with a few infusions. But in ror2 it's a lot harder to snowball, especially with lock-on enemies that 1shot you if they so much as graze you.
Also if you think about it, 2 glass shards = 75% reduction for 400% damage, 3 is 87.5% for 800% damage, vs artifact of glass is 90% health for 500%

[Tome]

I'm a fan of simply using Frailty and Vengeance in my runs, nothing terribly game-changing.

I use Frailty because I like the threat of fall damage being lethal adding on to all the other things you need to worry about in a typical run, and the fact that you need to be more careful when jumping off of cliffs.

I add Vengeance into my runs because I really like the idea of a clone of yourself coming to hunt you down--after all, what better way to test your skills than having to fight yourself with all the power-ups you've collected?