There's tons of new content that's been added to the game. New locations, new hardpoints, new weapons, new devices and more. If you want to discover these and learn about them yourself, don't continue. I've included a bunch of pictures of the new content. You have been warned.
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This list is in (mostly) reverse chronological order, so you can stop reading when you get to stuff you didn’t miss. This list does not include new content being added in Emergence, and is being written before the patch notes for Emergence are released. I suggest first reading about the new Emergence content here or watching this[www.tiktok.com]1 minute tiktok, then reading this guide, then looking at any Emergence balance changes.

I have included descriptions of new content that has been added as well as balance changes. All these changes apply to Artifact Brawl, the new name for the original game mode, but I can’t speak for the new ones. For things that changed multiple times, I have described its current values and placed it on the list based on when it most recently changed.

The game has gotten general optimization tweaks. The biggest one for me personally is the menus run much better. They also fixed the screen tearing bug some people got while piloting. I’m not going to list out all the bug fixes and stuff but if you had performance issues before they might be fixed (no promises).

Matchmaking is much better than it was on launch. As long as there’s enough players, new players (probably) won’t get matched against turbo nerds like myself (usually).

You can now change your loadout while in Lucky Docks from the escape menu.

Destroyed ships are no longer revealed on the map unless you scan the dead ship or had it scanned when it died. This change was made to cut down on 3rd parties.

NPC enemies can now "board" your ship while you complete a Point of Interest. A sound cue will play followed by enemies spawning inside your ship and possibly overloading your reactor. Adopt your own Zygloms!

The event is over, but most of the content is sticking around in some manner


Lots of new cosmetics (including cool fireworks). In general there have been lots of cosmetics added over time.



Spooky Reach: This was the first new area of the Reach, and it’s possible you’ll end up here. It has different aesthetics and obstacles. It contains yellow “Crystals” that can be gathered like fuel/ice and give your ship +1 max HP each. The storm will be “Haunted,” without a storm barrier installed players inside ships will take damage, although it’s less damage than you would take outside a ship.

Note: the rest of this content is not exclusive to the Spooky Reach.



Barrier Turbines: an upgraded turbine that protects you from storms, shock fields, and fires while holding it. Try to hold on to at least one of these if there’s a Cosmic Storm and you don’t have a Charlie. Be very vigilant about where your Storm Barrier is because it *will* get targeted by Ions and Drill Chargers on a barrier turbine.



Racing Booster: a rare version of the booster hardpoint that increases your boost speed by 25% on top of the regular 25% cooldown reduction a normal Booster gives. Very strong.



Vampire Hardpoint: an uncommon hardpoint that will heal your ship over time while you are within 200m of a destroyed ship.

Lava Epics: new hazard that spawns PoIs that are covered by many fire asteroids. They have extra good loot, like an "Epic Loot" PoI, but won't have Golden rarity items.


Scout has been adjusted many times. It currently has 75 health but should be back to its original 80 in Emergence. It lost the afterburner duration passive but now starts the game with a normal Booster hardpoint. Also for Emergence it has a 3 player max, but a “full” crew of 3 will still receive the Small Crew Bonus including one AI gunner (more details on what that is below). The “Scout Meta” has been dead for a while now for a variety of reasons, but the Scout is still currently viable.

Fuel Chunks now provide 3 instead of 2
Ice Chunks now provide 4 instead of 5

While not on enemy ships, Mophs is more visible when using camouflage

Attack Drone radius is 7m (which was its launch value but it was briefly buffed to 10m)

Impact Can (the molotov grenade) deals 60 damage (which was its launch value but it was briefly buffed to 80)

Clamp Jets are now immune to ramming damage

The UI for selecting preferred ship and selecting a game mode has changed. You now choose which game mode you want to play and are then prompted to pick a preferred ship, which includes a “no preference” option.

Few ships: Games of Artifact Brawl can now start with as few as 3 ships, this was done to reduce queue times and improve matchmaking.

AI Gunners: New addition to the Small Crew Bonus, a team of 3 gets one “Robo-Gunner” who will man a turret and automatically shoot enemy ships that come within 300m. A team of 1 or 2 gets two instead. They’re pretty good with Cannons like Thermics and Plasma Beams (which they won’t try to use until about 120m).

Legion ship modifier: An AI controlled ship roams the Reach. Modifier is always present if there are less than 5 ships, with a Legion ship replacing each missing human crewed ship. These function like the ships in the vs. AI modes. Pretty easy to kill, but they do put out a lot of damage themselves. They’re mostly dangerous when they’re nearby while you’re fighting a human crew. They provide a large volume of low-tier loot, turbines, and a Ship Core. All Legion ships will converge on a ship that has the Artifact. If you get very close to one, they will “board” you by spawning a couple Legion NPCs on your ship.

Spec Ops Scatter Cannon: a rare version of the Scatter Cannon that deals 6 damage instead of 5, has high knockback, and has a .5 second shorter reload time. Don’t sleep on these, they are really good.



Kinetic Shield Generator: This snuck in a lot earlier but is now officially part of the game. It’s a rare version of the Shield Device hardpoint. It provides +20% shields, and gives 50% damage reduction from mines, bomb traps and bomb cannons. Nice to have.



Quantum Probe Sensor: a rare version of a Probe Sensor hardpoint that puts the artifact on your map on top of the normal buffs. One is guaranteed in the default Relic loot room (info on the Relic in Sept 2 section).

Defense Drone: Rare hardpoint that shoots down enemy ship torpedoes. Extremely strong hardpoint. The drone deploys like a single, huge mine. 30 second cooldown, 60 second duration. It can shoot down a lot of projectiles, destroy them by shooting with personal weapons, ideally a Beam Rifle.


Dead Sensors: Game changing Reach Hazard. All other hazards are hidden, e.g. you won’t know if there’s a Cosmic Storm until you find one. The Reach is much darker and foggier, visibility is greatly impaired. There is no kill-feed, so you won’t know when other ships are fighting, and you won’t know when other ships get destroyed. The “ships remaining” indicator will read “X/X” for the entire game. The Artifact is still revealed as normal when touched, and stays visible on the map once touched or scanned, but you won’t know what type of Artifact it is until you see it.

All ship windows now have 1000 health, that means it takes 2 drill charges to break one, or 13 Ion punches (RIP). This includes the Helm window which was given 1000 health in a previous patch. Since repair time is based on how much damage something takes, windows repair 2.5x faster to compensate.

Physically ramming ships deals less damage, and the ramming ship no longer deals extra damage to the ramee.

Laser Ram has been nerfed many times. It now deals less damage and when it is first installed or repaired after breaking it takes 10 seconds to activate. It’s still dangerous, but a lot easier to deal with.

Shock Field deals about 50% less damage, has a duration of 8 seconds (was 10) and a cooldown of 40 (was 30). It does not stop you from teleporting home (there was a period of time where it did). Shock Field still does its job, but don’t forget about Barrier Turbines (and Charlie) being immune to them.

AIM-e homing got buffed in this patch, but it’s still a trash weapon.

Painter (the minigun) deals 16 damage now (it was 20 on launch)

Sidelong piercing edges deal 25 -> 20 damage

Surefire (the rapid fire pistol) has a clip size of 15 (it was 12)

Foam Can initial damage 30 -> 40, damage over time 10 -> 15

Starlances (the piercing snipers you can find in the reach) pierce ships much more reliably now. Pro-tip: you can shoot enemy ships and prospectors from inside your own ship now.

Weapon Artifact: An Artifact that’s essentially a hand-held, short range laser ram. It does not provide any healing buffs for your ship. It has 30 ammo, a 10m range, and deals insane damage. 1 clip will deal 30 damage to a ship, it one shots prospectors and melts NPCs. Use it to speedrun the Monolith (or any PoI really). This thing is dangerous, if you have one on your ship make sure no sneaky Mophses grab it and start shredding your ship and crew. If you’re worried about that, you can waste its ammo before dropping it, it takes about 5 seconds to reload.



Turbo Clamp Jet: An uncommon Clamp Jet. It accelerates twice as fast but lasts half as long. They’re great for mid combat positioning.



Ancient Tractor Beam: A rare Tractor Beam. It’s got twice the ammo of a normal tractor beam and right click will push instead of pull. Very strong.

There’s a “Hard” vs. AI mode now. It’s still pretty easy for experienced players though and mostly exists to help new players learn how to play Artifact Brawl. Both vs. AI modes now give experience and progress towards daily and weekly missions.

Weekly missions grant 200 credits for the in-game cosmetic store.

The Obelisk: New Large PoI that can spawn instead of the Monolith and bears many similarities to it. It is more likely to contain the Artifact and can’t be started without touching it first. It has 2 remote entrances with portals. It is guaranteed to contain 1 Golden/Legendary item (currently still just Entropy Cannon or Mega Core). The interior is much smaller than the Monolith with a vertical layout. It has 3 floors that spawn waves of AI enemies to kill, with the loot room at the top opening when it’s completed. The loot room has doors that are exposed to the Reach that also open upon completion, so be wary of thieves (or embrace your inner Mophs and steal stuff yourself).



The Relic: an item that can spawn in PoI loot rooms. When interacted with, it opens a portal to a distant loot room that can contain all manner of goodies. The default loot table has lots of uncommon cannons, Fire Barriers, Probe Sensors, 1 Quantum Probe Sensor, and 1 Rare hardpoint (currently I think it can only be a Laser Ram or Mine Layer). There are also “special” loot tables, like one that’s all Sal Bomb Traps or a bunch of Ancient Tractor beams. Get in quick to grab the best loot before someone else does, and be wary of players from other crews portaling in while you browse the selection.


Sammo has 130 health now (had 120 on launch) and his wallhacks have a 40m range which covers pretty much the whole ship.

Venture’s regen passive is much stronger now, he begins healing in 3 seconds (was 4) and heals to full in 1 second (was 3)

Sonic Boom (the “shotgun”) clip size is now 4 (was 6) and has more damage falloff after 4m

The Healing Artifact lost its 20 healing for 2 ice passive but now heals for 2 hp per 3 seconds (was 1 per 3 seconds)

Mine Layer and Laser Ram drop rates were reduced, with the addition of many more Rare quality hardpoints you’ll see a lot less of these in games.

Mine Layer got nerfed many times. It currently deals 8 damage (was 12), Mines won’t detonate before arming, even if they’re shot or bump into something. The arming time was increased to 8 seconds from 5. I’d say Mine Layer is still alright and you shouldn’t fly into minefields, but it’s no longer the insta-killing menace it was on launch.

Bomb Cannon projectile velocity is now 200 m/s (for reference most other cannons are 100 m/s). It’s a lot harder to shoot down incoming bombs now, especially from Privateers.

Macro Cannon damage is 5-10 from 4-8.

Drill Charge deals 50% damage to AI enemies.

There were more changes than that in this patch, but I’ve already talked about the other things that got changed.

And that’s “it!” You’re all caught up.

Very Serious Legal Disclaimer: all “opinions” expressed above are my own and are therefore not up for debate and can be considered entirely factual.

If you have any questions, ask away in the comments and I'll answer them. Also let me know if there's anything I missed and I'll add it to the guide. Thanks for reading!