What kind of game is Neo Artifacts?

It is a turn-based strategy RPG (SRPG) on an isometric grid. Your team of Artifacters, which are famous artworks and relics brought to life, take turns based on speed, spend Action Points to move across tiles, and gain damage bonuses when their element has the advantage. Dragonest Games launched it globally on March 5, 2026.

What is the rarity system in Neo Artifacts?

The top rarity is Pristine, the equivalent of a 5-star in most gacha games. Below that sits Exquisite (4-star equivalent), and lower units are Nascent. Almost every meta unit you want to chase is a Pristine, and the banners are built around guaranteeing them.

Does Neo Artifacts have a pity system?

Yes. You are guaranteed a Pristine Artifacter within 70 pulls on a banner. On a limited Rate-Up banner, your guaranteed Pristine has a 50 percent chance to be the featured unit, and if you miss it the next guaranteed Pristine is locked to that feature. There is also a Mileage shop where roughly 160 pulls lets you hand-pick a unit.

Neo Artifacts Beginner Guide: Combat, Rarity, Pity and Progression (2026)

This is the one to read first. Everything else on Neo Artifacts makes more sense once you understand how the battles, rarities, and pulls fit together. I cross-checked the numbers below against community tier lists and reroll guides from May and June 2026, so they reflect the live global version rather than the older China build.

What Neo Artifacts actually is

Neo Artifacts is a turn-based strategy RPG from Dragonest Games. The hook is the cast: world famous artworks and historical relics, things like Van Gogh’s Starry Night and the real bronze Sword of Goujian, are personified as fighters called Artifacters. You play a Curator who gathers them to push back an encroaching darkness.

Combat happens on an isometric grid. Each unit takes a turn based on its speed stat, fastest first, and you spend Action Points to move across tiles before attacking. Where you stand matters. Terrain, range, and positioning decide a lot of fights, which is why a Sniper sitting safely at the back behaves very differently from a Guardian planted on the front line.

The six elements

Damage swings hard on element matchups. There are six:

Ignis (fire)
Ventus (wind)
Terra (earth)
Silva (nature)
Lux (light)
Umbra (dark)

When your attacker holds the advantage, you deal extra damage and can trigger bonus effects like stuns or breaks. Lux and Umbra tend to counter each other, and you will want a small spread of elements on any serious team so you are not walled by a single resistant enemy.

Roles and what each one does

Every Artifacter has a job. Building a working team means covering the basics:

Guardian anchors the grid and soaks damage, your tank.
Striker is your melee damage, in close and hitting hard.
Sniper is ranged burst damage from the back row, like Starry Night.
Strategist is support and control: extra turns, buffs, debuffs.
Caster deals ranged elemental or area damage.

A clean starter team is one Guardian up front, two to three damage dealers, and at least one Strategist or healer to keep things alive and control the turn order.

Rarity: Pristine, Exquisite, Nascent

Three tiers. Pristine is the headline rarity, the 5-star equivalent, and it is where nearly every strong unit lives. Exquisite is the 4-star band and includes some genuinely useful early picks. Nascent is the base rarity. When a guide tells you to chase a unit, it is almost always a Pristine.

Currencies and how pulls work

There are two main recruitment currencies:

Recruitment Tickets for the standard banner.
Special Recruitment Tickets for the limited Rate-Up banners.

You earn premium currency and tickets from the story, events, the mailbox, and login rewards. New accounts get a generous opening stack, which is what makes rerolling so easy to do.

The pity system, plainly

This is the part that keeps Neo Artifacts friendly. You are guaranteed a Pristine within 70 pulls on a banner. On a limited Rate-Up banner there is a 50/50: your guaranteed Pristine has a 50 percent chance to be the featured unit, and if you lose that coin flip the next guaranteed Pristine is locked to the feature. Separately, a Mileage style shop lets you trade roughly 160 pulls worth of currency for any character you want, so even a brutal run banks toward a unit you choose.

The beginner New Hire Recruitment banner is even kinder: it gives you three sets of 10 pulls, each set guaranteeing one Pristine, and you pick the best of the three results to keep. That is your safety net for a strong start.

Where to spend your first weeks

Once you have a team, progression runs on a few systems: leveling Artifacters, the relics tied to each one that grant skills and passives, and gear. Pour resources into your main carries first. The global roster is still small, so the gap between top units and filler is large, and spreading materials thin is the most common beginner mistake.

For who to actually build, see the best beginner team, the full tier list, and the reroll guide. Grab any current freebies from the codes page before you start pulling.

Numbers here reflect the global version in mid 2026. Gacha balance and banners rotate, so confirm the live banner and current pity before you commit your opening pulls.