Artifacts are among the most valuable things a raider can carry off the surface of Sophie in SAND: Raiders of Sophie. The game's own framing puts them alongside loot, weapons and ammunition as the reason to venture out at all, and they are described as priceless relics of the world that existed before the disaster. Unlike ordinary loot, several artifacts are not just cargo: they can be deployed during a run as battlefield tools, which makes carrying one a tactical decision as much as a payday.
Activated Artifacts
An artifact that has been deployed is referred to as activated, and an activated artifact becomes a target in its own right. As of the July 2026 rebalance, activated artifacts can be destroyed by direct damage, carry 900 health, and take both infantry and siege damage. Destroying one plays a short visual and audio effect so nearby players can tell it has gone down.
Electromagnetic pulse weapons are the hard counter. An activated artifact struck by an EMP wave is destroyed instantly rather than being whittled down, which gives crews a reliable answer to an artifact deployed against them if they have brought the right tool.
Property | Behaviour |
|---|---|
Health | 900 when activated |
Vulnerable to | Infantry damage, siege damage, EMP wave |
EMP result | Instantly destroyed |
On destruction | Plays a small visual and audio effect |
Named Artifacts
Two artifacts are named directly in the developers' patch notes. Both were retuned in the July 2026 pass, and each behaves differently from the general rules above.
Artifact | Behaviour |
|---|---|
Sphere Shield | A deployable barrier. It was made impenetrable from both sides, so it no longer lets fire through from the deploying player's side either, and its health was raised from 15,000 to 25,000. |
WOK Bomb | An explosive device with a visible detonation timer. It is immune to infantry and siege damage, which sets it apart from other activated artifacts, but it can still be destroyed by an EMP. |
The sphere shield's health pool is far above the 900 that ordinary activated artifacts carry, which makes it a genuine piece of cover rather than something a crew can shoot away quickly. The WOK bomb's reversed damage profile means the usual answer of shooting an artifact down does not work on it, and a player who wants it gone needs an EMP.
Related Equipment
Two other deployables come up alongside artifacts in the same patch notes, though the developers do not group them under the artifact heading. The orbital strike calls fire down from above and now displays its distance when aimed, with a range limit added so a player no longer wastes the strike by firing at targets too far away. Binoculars received the same distance readout in that update.
For where artifacts fit in the wider run, see Gameplay for the scavenge-and-extract loop and Game Modes for the difference in loot tiers between the two expedition types. Artifact tuning is still moving during Early Access, so the figures above reflect the build as of August 2026 rather than final balance.