Artifact

Artifacts usually refers to the items in Heretic and Hexen that may be picked up and used at a later time for various effects. In Heretic, up to 16 artifacts of each type may be carried, while in Hexen the limit is 25.

In Heretic, the player may only keep one artifact of each type when moving to the next level. This means that attempting to stockpile artifacts for later levels will result in them being wasted, so it is more useful to spend surplus artifacts within each level. In addition, the Wings of Wrath artifact cannot be transported between levels at all in Heretic, nor can it be transferred between hubs in Hexen.

The sphere powerups in Doom are also occasionally referred to as artifacts, but this is less common.


 * Tip: If you need to use an artifact in a critical situation and you don't have it selected, you can hit pause and sort through your inventory to find it while the action is frozen.