TFT Artifacts: Which Artifact Goes on Which Carry

TL;DR: Put an artifact on the unit that already does what the artifact pays for. On-attack artifacts go on fast attackers, max Health artifacts on big melee units, and cast artifacts on frequent casters. The difference is large: Titanic Hydra deals 40 extra damage an attack on a 1,000-Health holder and 120 on a 3,000-Health one. From an anvil, go in with a type of artifact in mind, not a name, because one exact artifact shows up about 13% of the time if all are equally likely. Set 17’s advice doesn’t carry over: Riot retuned the pool for Set 18, and its 17.3 notes say it rotates artifacts in and out by what a set needs.

Worked examples are hypotheticals: sums on Riot’s numbers, not records of real games. Numbers link to the Riot notes that print them. Effects Riot’s notes don’t print come from the game data files, read November 4, 2026, which can lag behind Riot’s notes, so trust the tooltip in your game. Riot’s Set 18 notes print no drop chances, no Riot page ranking artifacts was found, and this page doesn’t rank them either. What artifacts are is on senseos.gg’s Radiant items and Artifacts page.

Can you still get artifacts in Set 18?

Yes. Riot’s 18.1 notes retuned the pool for the set, returned Forbidden Idol and Manazane, and take out Death’s Defiance, Hullcrusher and Sniper’s Focus. Its 18.2 notes say this set has much better users for them.

The same 18.1 notes removed the opening encounter that gave everyone an Artifact Anvil, as 17.2 describes it, so don’t plan on one. These are the sources Riot’s notes name for Set 18. It isn’t a full list, and those notes print no odds for any of them:

Way in	What Riot or the game says
Ornn	A quest turns damage he blocks into Forge Power, and enough of it makes an Artifact Anvil, by the game data files. 18.3 slowed his 3-star and lowered the bar for a second one
Coven cashouts	One 18.2 option includes an Artifact Anvil
Artifactinate Wisp	Named in 18.4. By the game data files, you give up 3 components, counting those built into items, for an Artifact Anvil
Forged in Strength, Living Forge	Both tuned in 18.1
Nesting Anvils	Tuned in 18.5, fixed in 18.6
Shimmerscale Essence	18.3 made it Gambler’s Blade, then Mogul’s Mail

The archived Set 17 artifacts guide is a record of that set. Its calls don’t transfer, because the items themselves changed:

Artifact	What Set 18 changed	Why the old advice fails
Silvermere Dawn	Resists 80 to 30, 30% Omnivamp added (18.1), AD up to 150% (18.2)	It no longer reads as a tank item
Titanic Hydra	Its AD share went from 6% to 2% (18.1)	Max Health now does nearly all the work
Fishbones	+2 Range added, AD/AP 50% to 25% (18.1)	A stat stick with range, at half the AD
Statikk Shiv	6 bounces from 4, less base damage and AP ratio (18.1), more AP (18.3)	Riot says it found few users beyond one champion

How strong is an artifact meant to be?

Above a core item on the right unit, and below a Radiant. Riot stated that goal in 16.1 (December 2025), tying it to preferred users, and 17.3 repeats the placing. Riot hasn’t restated it for Set 18. The phrase “preferred users” is the whole job here: an artifact’s edge comes from its holder. Riot’s own Set 18 notes name holders this way, and those are useful current examples:

• The Collector: 18.3 singles out Draven and Aphelios, and calls it one of the set’s better artifacts.
• Statikk Shiv: 18.3 says Kayle has been its one steady user.
• Master Yi: 18.1 trimmed his defenses partly because an artifact or two made him so strong.
• Veigar: 18.4 expects him to keep working, given a strong start and the right artifacts.

What does each artifact pay for?

Read the card and find the trigger. That tells you the holder. These are Set 18 examples at patch 18.6, with Riot’s number where it prints one and the game data files otherwise:

It pays for	Holder that fits	Set 18 examples
Each attack	Attacks fast and keeps reaching a target	Wit’s End, Flickerblades, Statikk Shiv, Gambler’s Blade
Your max Health	Big melee unit	Titanic Hydra, Hellfire Hatchet
Slow, heavy hits	High base AD, low Attack Speed	Silvermere Dawn
Casting	Casts often	Dawncore, Manazane
Repeated magic hits	Lands magic damage often	Blighting Jewel
Killing blows	Burst damage on a backline carry	Luden’s Tempest, The Collector
Staying alive	A unit that lasts 22 seconds, by 14.9 and the game data files	Talisman of Ascension
Shields	A unit that already gets shields	Forbidden Idol
Armor and Magic Resist	Your main tank	Aegis of Dawn, Aegis of Dusk, Lightshield Crest
Nothing in particular	Any unit that uses the stats	Infinity Force

One more check before you place it: which of your carry’s damage buckets does it fill? An artifact stacking a stat your carry already has adds less than one filling an empty bucket.

What do the sums say?

Titanic Hydra: Health is the damage. Riot’s 17.1 notes set its Health ratio at 4%, and the game data files list the same. By those files, each attack adds that much of the holder’s max Health as physical damage, to its target and the enemies next to it, and 18.1 leaves only 2% of AD on top.

Holder’s max Health	Extra damage an attack	At 0.8 attacks a second
1,000	40	32
2,000	80	64
3,000	120	96

That’s before Armor, and per enemy hit. A 3,000-Health melee unit gets three times what a 1,000-Health backliner gets from the same item.

Silvermere Dawn: a slow attacker’s item. Riot’s 14.9 notes and the game data files lock its Attack Speed at 0.5 and have its attacks stun for 0.8 seconds, no later change to either was found, and 18.2 sets its AD at 150%. On a hypothetical unit with 60 base AD, the holder hits for 150 at 0.5 attacks a second, or 75 damage a second:

The unit before	Damage a second before	With Silvermere Dawn	Change
0.6 attacks a second	36	75	Up 108%
0.8 attacks a second	48	75	Up 56%
0.8, plus 60% Attack Speed from items	77	75	Down 2%

So it doubles a slow unit and does nothing for a built attack speed carry, whose items now go to waste. The stun lands on the target 40% of the time (0.8 seconds every 2 seconds), which is worth having on any holder.

Statikk Shiv: it wants a crowd. 18.1 sets 15 base damage, a 35% AP ratio and 6 bounces, and by the game data files it fires every third attack. At 1.5 attacks a second it fires every 2 seconds. Here’s what that’s worth by Ability Power, as magic damage before Magic Resist:

Ability Power	Each bounce	All 6 land, per second	Only 1 lands, per second
100	50	150	25
150	68	203	34

So it needs attack speed and AP on the same unit, and it does six times more against a full board than a lone target. That fits Riot’s 18.3 note that few units use it well.

Wit’s End: it grows with stages and attack speed. 18.2 sets its on-hit magic damage from 25 up to 100 as stages pass, and 18.1 has it heal 25% of magic damage dealt. At the top figure, 1.5 attacks a second is 150 damage a second and 38 healing, before Magic Resist. At 0.8 it’s 80 and 20.

Forbidden Idol: count your shields first. 18.1 converts 40% of a shield’s value to max Health, and 18.2 sets its Health at 500. A 1,000-point shield gives 400 max Health, and the rest stays a shield. A unit with no shield gets only the listed stats, so look for a holder with a shield item or a trait that grants one, such as Vanguard in Set 18.

Which one suits your carry?

Here’s the same idea by carry type, with Set 18 names at patch 18.6. It lists what fits, and it isn’t a ranking.

Your carry	Look at first	Usually skip
Ranged AD attacker	The Collector, Fishbones, Rapid Firecannon, Flickerblades	Titanic Hydra, cast artifacts
Melee AD fighter	Titanic Hydra, Hellfire Hatchet, Silvermere Dawn if it attacks slowly	Range artifacts
AP caster	Dawncore, Blighting Jewel, Manazane, Luden’s Tempest	On-attack artifacts, unless it attacks fast
AP or hybrid attacker	Statikk Shiv, Wit’s End	Silvermere Dawn
Main tank	Aegis of Dawn, Aegis of Dusk, Lightshield Crest, Forbidden Idol with shields	Pure damage artifacts

Not sure who your carry will be? The comps page is a place to look.

How do you pick from an anvil?

Go in with a type, not a name. An Artifact Anvil shows 4 options: 14.9 (April 2024) is the last number Riot printed, and the game data files’ Set 18 text for Portable Forge also says 4. Set 18’s item list in the game data files holds 30 artifacts, but that’s a count of a file, not a pool Riot has printed. No Riot page printing the anvil’s pool was found. The list still holds Hullcrusher, covered below, and Horizon Focus, which Riot pulled mid-set in 17.3. So as a hypothetical, say all 30 can appear with equal chance:

Artifacts that would fit your board	Chance at least one of them shows in 4
1	13%
3	36%
5	54%
10	82%

Holding out for one name misses about 87% of the time. A type is a much better bet. In order:

1. Name your best holder. Use the unit on your board now, or the one you’re sure of next stage.
2. Find its trigger. Attacks, Health, casts or shields.
3. Take the option that matches, even if another looks stronger on a different unit.
4. No match? Take the one whose raw stats suit your best holder, then check the next section.

Artifactinate needs a sharper sum. By the game data files you lose 3 components, which is one and a half completed items, for one anvil. Riot’s stated goal puts an artifact above one core item, and no Riot line found puts it at one and a half. So it suits a board with loose components it can’t use, or items that have stopped helping, more than a board using everything it holds.

Should an artifact replace a completed item?

On a holder that fits, usually yes, and take off the weakest of the three. A unit holds 3 items, by the game’s text for Thief’s Gloves, so something has to give once its slots are full.

On a holder that doesn’t fit, compare it as a stat line against what you’d slam. If it wins only on the effect you can’t use, keep the completed item. The slamming guide has the sum for waiting on a better recipe, and the itemization guide covers which core items do which job.

You can move it, but changing it is a gamble. By the game’s text, a Magnetic Remover takes every item off a champion, so a better holder later only costs one Remover. Riot’s 14.23 notes (November 2024) drop one from every PvE round. No later line changing that was found, so check your bag. A Reforger’s result is random, and no Riot line was found saying that an artifact always stays an artifact, so read your tooltip first. The consumables guide covers both.

Two Riot pages conflict on one artifact. The 18.1 notes take Hullcrusher out. The 18.2 notes then show a bug fix for it marked re-enabled, and it’s still in the game data files. If you’re offered it, read its card and judge it like any other.

What changes when Set 19 lands?

Riot’s schedule lists 19.1 for December 1, 2026, and warns that dates can change. The method is what lasts: read the trigger, find the unit, run the sum. The names may not. Riot’s 17.3 notes say it accepts that not every artifact belongs in every set, and 18.1 shows it retuning the rest for a new roster. So rebuild the tables here from the 19.1 notes, and re-check the 4 options on an anvil.

What should you do with your next artifact?

Your spot	The call
Anvil open, and your best holder is clear	Take what matches its trigger
Anvil open, and nothing matches	Take the stats that suit your best holder
On-attack artifact	Your fastest attacker that keeps reaching a target
Max Health artifact	Your biggest melee unit
Cast artifact	Your most frequent caster
Silvermere Dawn	A slow attacker, without attack speed items
Forbidden Idol, and no shields on your board	Treat it as stats only
Full slots on your holder	Replace the weakest item, if the artifact fits it
Artifactinate with every component in use	Skip it, unless your items have stopped helping
A better holder appears later	Move it with a Remover

Sources

All read November 4, 2026. No Riot page on who should hold which artifact was found, so each number links to the Riot page that sets it.

• Riot Games, patch 14.9 notes, published 2024-04-30, for picking 1 of 4 from an Artifact Anvil, Silvermere Dawn’s lock and stun, and Talisman of Ascension’s 22 seconds.
• Riot Games, patch 14.23 notes, published 2024-11-19, for Magnetic Removers from PvE rounds.
• Riot Games, patch 16.1 notes, published 2025-12-02, and patch 17.3 notes, published 2026-05-12, for where artifacts sit in power, their rotation and Horizon Focus.
• Riot Games, patch 17.1 notes, published 2026-04-14, for Titanic Hydra’s Health ratio, and patch 17.2 notes, published 2026-04-28, for what the Artifact Anvil encounter gave.
• Riot Games, patch notes for 18.1 (2026-08-25), 18.2 (2026-09-09), 18.3 (2026-09-22), 18.4 (2026-10-06), 18.5 (2026-10-20) and 18.6 (2026-11-03), for artifact numbers, the ways in, the removed encounter and Riot’s named users.
• Riot Games, Patch Schedule, Teamfight Tactics, for the 19.1 date.
• The game’s data files, read November 4, 2026, in a version not yet updated for 18.6, for the Set 18 artifact list, effects Riot’s notes don’t print, Ornn’s quest, Artifactinate, Portable Forge, Thief’s Gloves’ slots and what the Magnetic Remover does. The chances in the anvil table are this guide’s own arithmetic: 1 minus the ways to show 4 of the rest, over the ways to show 4 of 30.

Update log

• 2026-11-04: First version.