Alien Ruins
The Alien Ruins are vast, underwater caves that the player can encounter in Barotrauma. They are most commonly found embedded into rocks and ice found underwater.
Description
Alien Ruins are made up of long corridors and vast rooms of incredibly thick blocks. These rooms are particularly massive, possibly implying that their creators were larger than humans, with similarly large doors. Notably, these doors cannot be opened by conventional wiring, so attempting to make a submarine out of alien parts (as seen in the gallery) is all but futile. These ruins are often inhabited by a sole Fractal Guardian which can be a notable threat to an unprepared player. As always, a Diving Suit is required and a small Shuttle is recommended to get into an entrance of a ruin.
As well as the following Artifacts, the Alien Ruins can very rarely contain an Ancient Weapon, the strongest handheld weapon in the game.
Artifacts
Artifacts is the term given to a series of relics left behind by extraterrestrials on Europa. They are frequent targets of salvage missions in Quest Mode, and are potential sources of rare raw materials. Both the origin of these artifacts and their purpose is unknown.
Each artifact tends to have dangerous effects on their environment; for lack of understanding, they are impossible to prevent and can only be worked around. It is unknown how much of it comes from their intended function, normal side-effect of their working, or degradation sustained due to a lack of upkeep.
Three sorts of artifacts have currently been recovered from Europa, distinct in appearance, composition and effect: Faraday, Skyholder and Thermal.
Skyholder Artifact
Skyholder Artifact | ||||||||
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Statistics | ||||||||
Ammunition | N/A | |||||||
Crafting | ||||||||
Constructible? | No | |||||||
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The Skyholder Artifact takes on the shape of an Egyptian sarcophagus, with a yellow pattern on it depicting a many-eyed cephalopod raising up two arms.
Skyholder artifacts somehow empty the area they're in of breathable air; for this reason it is recommended to use a Diving Mask or even a Diving Suit when moving them around, and to store them in unfrequented parts of the submarine.
Thermal Artifact
Thermal Artifact | ||||||||
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Statistics | ||||||||
Ammunition | N/A | |||||||
Crafting | ||||||||
Constructible? | No | |||||||
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The Thermal Artifact takes the form of a hand with only four fingers on it. Upon it is a red pattern showing a circle with a horizontal line going through its center, along with vertical lines going from the top of the circle to the aforementioned line.
Thermal artifacts are extremely dangerous as they can constantly generate fires in their surrounding areas. Caution is to be taken so that they don't set installations ablaze, and crew members interacting with it will need to be treated for burns.
Faraday Artifact
Faraday Artifact | ||||||||
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Statistics | ||||||||
Ammunition | N/A | |||||||
Crafting | ||||||||
Constructible? | No | |||||||
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The Faraday Artifact is the only artifact to not have any effect on its surroundings. This makes them the safest known artifacts in Europa.
Mineral Shards
Amongst the alien ruins, the player can find various shards which grant exotic effects, sometimes have an effect that closely resembles the artifact held in that specific ruin.
Oxygenite Shard
Oxygenite Shard | ||||||||
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Statistics | ||||||||
Ammunition | N/A | |||||||
Crafting | ||||||||
Constructible? | No | |||||||
Deconstructible? | No | |||||||
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The Oxygenite shard can be placed into the secondary slots of items. It can act as a fuel source when using a Diving Mask or Diving Suit and provides far more air to a player than an Oxygen Tank. It can also be placed into rooms to full it with air.
If placed inside of a railgun shell, it serves as explosive ammunition. Curiously, it cannot be used as fuel for the Ancient Weapon.
Sulphurite Shard
Sulphurite Shard | ||||||||
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Statistics | ||||||||
Ammunition | N/A | |||||||
Crafting | ||||||||
Constructible? | No | |||||||
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The Sulphurite shard's only purpose appears to be that it can be put into a Deconstructor to get Sulphuric Acid.
Trivia
- Every generated level in Barotrauma contains an artifact somewhere. This implies their creators must have been incredibly prevalent in this section of Europa.
- A Moloch is sometimes found instead of an artifact at the end of salvage missions in the quest "Salvaging an artifact", as they emit the same kind of infrasonic signals. Killing the misleading creature will still be considered a success.