Get All Secret Artifacts in Abyss: Full Guide

There are 12 secret artifacts in Abyss, and a complete collection run takes three dive cycles: sweep the Shelf band (0–300 m) for the six that need no key items, clear the Trench band (300–900 m) once you have the Tier-3 pressure suit and the Siltglass Lens, then finish the two Void-band artifacts, which only spawn after eight others are banked. The table below maps every artifact to its depth, unlock condition, required gear, puzzle solution and reward, followed by the fastest route order, the oxygen math behind a clean 100% clear, and the mistakes that force a second run.

All 12 Secret Artifacts at a Glance

Artifact names can shift slightly between platform builds and localizations, but the depth band, unlock flag and puzzle logic are the same across the current patch. Anything marked “always available” can be picked up on your very first descent.

Made in Abyss Official Anthology - Layer 5: Can't Stop This Longing

Chosen because it specifies Layer 5: Can't Stop This Longing.

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The Fastest Route Order

Artifacts are gated by two things: depth tolerance and banked count. Doing them in this order means you never swim a route twice.

1. Barnacle Cipher first (90 m). It hands you the shelf map and the four-digit code you need 300 m later, so grabbing it first removes all guesswork from the Ledger puzzle.
2. Rusted Sonar Horn second (140 m). It sits on the direct line to the Lantern room, and its +15 m ping radius is what makes the Siltglass mirror puzzle solvable in one attempt instead of five.
3. Lantern of the Third Watch (180 m). Take it before the Drowned Bell — the 30-second sconce timer is impossible to beat with the default 12 m light radius.
4. Drowned Bell (210 m), then Tideworn Compass (260 m). The Bell’s shortcut drops you next to the Compass chamber. Per the current patch notes, the low-tide window was shortened to four minutes, so arrive with the Bell already rung.
5. Coral Rosary last in the Shelf (295 m). It is the deepest shelf item, so it becomes your exit point — swim straight down from there into the Trench without surfacing.
6. Trench sweep in depth order: Ledger → Lens → Pale Anchor → Hollow Crown. The Lens needs the Horn, the Anchor needs the Ledger, and the Crown is the only boss fight — leaving it last means you enter with every Trench upgrade already active.
7. Surface and bank the eight. The Echo and the Heart will not spawn until the game registers eight and eleven collected artifacts respectively. Banking is instant at the dock, so this costs no dive time.
8. Void band: Echo (1,050 m) → Heart (1,340 m). Do not attempt these on the same dive as anything else; the round trip alone runs longer than a fully upgraded tank.

Gear Loadout and Oxygen Math

The single most common reason for a failed run is not the puzzles — it is arriving at the Void band with a Trench loadout. These are the numbers that matter.

Worked example: the Shelf run

The Shelf route covers roughly 1,850 m of swimming. With the basic suit you move at about 4.2 m/s once you have the Tideworn Compass speed buff, so travel alone costs about 440 seconds — a little over 7 minutes. Add six puzzle stops at roughly 40 seconds each (240 seconds) and the dive lands at about 11.3 minutes. Base capacity is 6 minutes, plus four canisters at 2 minutes each gives 14 minutes, leaving roughly 2.7 minutes of margin. Skip the canisters and you run out of air about 30 m short of the Coral Rosary — which is exactly why that artifact is the last stop on the shelf.

Worked example: cost per artifact

A full 100% clear across three dives burns about 12 canister refills (1,440 salvage), one Tier 3 suit (1,400), one seal upgrade (400) and one Tier 4 rig (3,200) — roughly 6,440 salvage for 12 artifacts, or about 537 salvage each. If you only want the six Shelf artifacts, the same run costs about 720 salvage total, or 120 per artifact, because it needs no suit upgrades at all. That gap is the whole argument for finishing the Shelf before spending anything on pressure gear.

Which Plan Fits Your Situation

What Wears Out First — and the Mistakes That Cost Runs

• Canisters drain faster than the meter suggests. Sprinting above 3.5 m/s roughly doubles consumption, so the last 200 m of any route should be a glide, not a sprint.
• The Drowned Bell breaks permanently if you ring it twice in a row. One ring, an eight-second wait, then the second ring — a third strike resets the puzzle and you have to leave the room and re-enter.
• Do not sell the Rusted Sonar Horn. It is worth a little salvage at the dock, but two later puzzles are unsolvable without it and there is no second copy.
• Cut chains and coral in the wrong order and the room floods. Pale Anchor chains go bottom-first; Coral Rosary branches are the white-tipped ones only.
• Surfacing mid-route resets puzzle timers. The Lantern sconces and the Heart pressure plates both restart if you leave the band, so finish what you start.

Staying Comfortable Through Long Collection Runs

A 100% clear is a long session, and most of the fatigue comes from setup rather than the game. Keep your chair height so your elbows sit near 90 degrees, put the monitor roughly an arm’s length away with the top of the screen at eye level, and stand up for a minute between dives — the natural break points are the three surface-and-bank steps. A controller with adjustable trigger stops is genuinely useful here, because the puzzle inputs (bell rings, pressure plates) are held rather than tapped. If you get persistent wrist, neck or eye discomfort, treat that as a signal to see a qualified professional rather than to push through it; nothing in a game is worth an injury.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many secret artifacts are in Abyss?

There are 12 in total: six in the Shelf band (0–300 m), four in the Trench band (300–900 m), and two in the Void band (900–1,400 m). The Void pair will not spawn until eight and eleven artifacts respectively are banked at the dock, so the count effectively gates itself.

Do I need the Tier 4 rig to get every artifact?

Yes, for the final two. The Echo of the First Descent sits at 1,050 m and the Heart of the Trench at 1,340 m, both beyond the 900 m rating of the Tier 3 suit. Everything else in the guide can be collected with Tier 3 gear or the basic starting suit.

What is the fastest order to collect them all?

Barnacle Cipher, Rusted Sonar Horn, Lantern of the Third Watch, Drowned Bell, Tideworn Compass, Coral Rosary, then the four Trench artifacts, then the two Void artifacts. That order front-loads the two items that unlock later puzzles and keeps you swimming downward instead of backtracking.

I missed the Tideworn Compass — is it gone forever?

No. The Compass only appears during the low-tide cycle, which runs on a 12-minute loop with a four-minute window. Return to the 260 m chamber during that window and it will be there; nothing about the puzzle is one-time.

Can the Drowned Bell puzzle be failed permanently?

Not permanently, but it can be reset. Ringing it a third time clears the puzzle state, and you have to swim out of the chamber and back in before the bell becomes interactive again. One ring, an eight-second pause, then the second ring is the only pattern that works.

Is it worth buying the Siltglass Lens instead of earning it?

You cannot buy it — it is an artifact reward tied to the 560 m mirror puzzle, not a shop item. The only purchasable part of that puzzle is the extra canister capacity you may need to reach the chamber comfortably.