The Artifact


 * This article is about the item found in Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil. For the items found in Heretic and Hexen, see Artifact.

The Artifact is the equivalent of the Soul Cube from Doom 3. It is a demonic heart-shaped device that was initially designed to aid the forces of Hell, but is used by the marine. At the end of the game, the marine uses the Artifact to destroy the Maledict. The Artifact itself is destroyed in the process.

The Artifact uses human souls as opposed to demon ones, When used near human corpses, it charges up by absorbing souls (they'll be seen as a red glow on a corpse) and destroying the bodies. The Artifact will absorb souls automatically when needed so long as it is being held over the corpse; it will not absorb a soul if it is already fully charged.

The Artifact itself has no attack capability, but is more strategic than the Soul Cube. It has the ability to give the player a period in which he manipulates time, gains super strength (similar to a Berserk pack), and becomes temporarily invulnerable. These abilities become available each time the player defeats one of the three Hell Hunters, respectively.

A human heart-shaped object with a large curved handle, you will gain this at the start of the game but it will be useless until you defeat the Helltime Hunter, at which point the Artifact will absorb its Helltime abilities. Defeating the Berserk Hunter and Invulnerability Hunter allows the Artifact to absorb their abilities as well.
 * Helltime allows the player to move very fast, represented by time appearing to slow down to the point that enemies can not react to your movements.
 * Berserk strengthens all weapons, including punches that can kill a Hell Knight or a Bruiser in one punch.
 * Invulnerability is literally that.

All powers possessed by the Artifact are activated simultaneously when invoked, meaning someone with a charged Artifact later in the game has the potential to become a lightning fast, invulnerable death machine that can rip apart a Hell Knight with his bare hands.

When spawned, it appears as a black box. That is because id never made a world model for it.

In the game's coding, there are actually 4 artifacts: the dormant one you get in the beginning (weapon_bloodstone_passive), and the three Hell power ones (weapon_bloodstone_active#, where # is either 1, 2, or 3). On the Nightmare difficulty, the Artifact will already be fully powered, but it will still be unusable until you defeat the Helltime hunter. Also, the artifact will no longer absorb the powers of the other Hell Hunters, instead after killing one, the Artifact will become fully charged.
 * Clip Size: 3 Souls
 * Reloading: Instant, once the effects wear off
 * Ammo: Human Souls (Note: If a human corpse does not have a red glow to it, it's probably not completely dead; it may actually be a Zombie.)

As an aside, the Doom 3 Berserk artifact could be considered an allusion to the Artifact, as its powers are very similar to the ones given by a fully-powered Artifact. However, the Berserk artifact gives you a bloodshot red view and screams can be heard in the background while it's active, while the Artifact doesn't have either of these effects on use.