Gameplay Artifact 2.0 beta introduces Hero Draft mode and new mechanics

Artifact 2.0 closed beta will be out next week. Those who purchased the original before March 30, 2020 will receive a random invite. Currently, Valve only talks about the game on their blog with lots of screenshots.

Today, we get to see the first gameplay of the Artifact 2.0 beta.

The video posted on Valve’s official YouTube channel shows a quick Hero Draft game (this is a new mode for novice gamers), as well as how the matches will play out in this remake.

Hero Draft in Artifact 2.0

Artifact’s new mode is a simplified version of the regular draft. The player only chooses the hero, and the game automatically generates a random deck based on the hero lineup.

Players start by choosing six heroes, choosing them in order: player 1 picks one, player 2 picks two, player 1 plays two, and so on until player 2 picks the last hero. At any given time, the game has four heroes – one of each color – for you to choose from. When the player selects a hero from a certain color, a new hero from that color will appear. Every two picks, the selection process will completely refresh.

When all six heroes are selected, the player chooses to discard one of these cards and choose how the remaining 5 heroes will appear. This is similar to Artifact 1.0: the first three heroes appear in Round 1, the next hero in Round 2, and the fifth hero in Round 3.

Bring the hero into the lane

Before Round 1 begins, we come to the familiar hero split – with some tweaking. Players take turns bringing heroes into lane, and the process is visible to opponents. Round 1 starts the middle-left-right order.

This is a marked improvement compared to before. Artifact 2.0 is no longer confusing and confusing for new players, changing to a flexible counter-play. You can see what’s going on and you can utilize the power of your deck: can kill heroes and control the table, or avoid heroes and focus damage on turrets.

Since you play all three lanes at the same time, instead of taking turns as before, the game becomes simpler (which is also a good point). In odd turns (1,3,5,…), combat takes place from left to right. On even turns (2,4,6,…), the combat takes place from right to left. This avoids the right lane being always seen as the least priority (previously forcing players to focus on the left and middle lanes most of the time).

Win in Artifact 2.0

The win condition in Artifact 2.0 is the same as in the first game: destroy two towers (or one tower twice). Now we have tools to make it easier to hit turrets: when you push turrets to half health or less, you’ll get Blink Scrolls, allowing you to switch hero positions back and forth between lanes.

The gameplay video above is still in its infancy, but the game looks much better than the original. Unfortunately, the video doesn’t show the entire game, including the new initiative system and the “everything costs mana” mechanism.