Explosions scale with elemental damage, and nothing else matters. Our tier list puts Artificer in A tier: Explosion scaling from a starting weapon that already explodes. Needs explosion size, then wins.

The stat line

• +175% Explosion Damage
• +4% Explosion Size for every 1 Elemental Damage you have
• +100% Damage with Tool weapons
• -100% Damage
• Armor modifications are reduced by 50%

Unlock: Kill 15 Enemies with a single explosion. Winning a run unlocks Explosive Shells.

How the run plays

Explosion damage +175% and explosion size +4% per elemental point make the Artificer a one-stat character: every point of Elemental Damage is both damage and radius. Tool weapons get +100% damage, which points at Wrench, Screwdriver and Chainsaw as the rack. Armor modifications are reduced, so survival comes from Max HP and range, not from armour.

Weapons

Artificer fits the Tool or Explosive classes best. Start with Plank, Screwdriver, Wrench, Shredder and hold six weapons of one class for the set bonus; the weapons list shows everything in the Tool class with per-tier damage.

What to buy, what to skip

Elemental Damage items before anything else, then Max HP. Explosive-tag items are gold here.

The shop favours Explosive (Item Tag) items for Artificer, so expect to see these often.

The mistake that ends runs

Buying Damage %: the character has -100% Damage, so percentage items do almost nothing.

Co-op partners

• Loud — Denser waves let explosions chain from corpse to corpse.

Open any pair in the team builder to see the full game plan.

Builds

No build guide yet. Plan one in the build planner.