Artifacts: the forty text logs that carry Dead Space 3's backstory
EarthGov, Unitologist, S.C.A.F. and Alien
Artifacts are the forty collectible text logs of Dead Space 3, split across four factions and scattered from the New Horizons Lunar Colony to Tau Volantis. Collecting all of them awards the Flight Suit.
Artifacts are a type of text log scattered throughout the New Horizons Lunar Colony, the USM Eudora, the SCAF Flotilla and the surface of Tau Volantis in Dead Space 3. They carry no gameplay weight of their own. Their job is the background: what happened on Tau Volantis two centuries before Isaac arrived, and what the people who went there thought they were doing.
What are Artifacts?#
They are text logs, collected the way audio and video logs are, and they exist to expand upon the lore and provide general background on events that unfolded prior to and during the game's story. Four factions leave them behind, which is most of what makes them worth reading in sequence rather than in the order they are found.
The S.C.A.F. set is the largest at eighteen, fitting for a game that spends its second half walking through what the Sovereign Colonies Armed Forces left frozen on Tau Volantis. EarthGov and Unitologist Artifacts number six apiece. The Alien Artifacts, ten of them, are the ones that matter most to the wider story.
Where do you find them?#
Every location in the game holds some, and the distribution runs roughly with the plot: the colony and the Eudora early, the flotilla in the middle, Tau Volantis at the end. The flotilla covers the CMS Roanoke, the CMS Greely and the CMS Terra Nova.
The S.C.A.F. Artifacts start in the prologue and reappear in chapters 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 13 and 14, with chapter 9 holding three and chapter 14 holding five. EarthGov Artifacts turn up in chapters 1, 2, 4, 11 and 14. Unitologist Artifacts appear in chapters 1, 11, 14 and 17, with three of them in chapter 11 alone. The Alien Artifacts start in chapter 4, skip to chapter 10, then cluster hard at the end across chapters 14, 17, 18 and 19.
What you get for the set#
Collecting all forty counts toward "The Professor" achievement, and it awards the Flight Suit as well. Each type carries its own icon in the inventory, so a partial collection is easy to audit against the four faction lists.
Frequently asked questions
- What are Artifacts in Dead Space 3?
- Artifacts are a type of text log scattered through the game. They exist to expand the lore and give background on events that unfolded before and during the story, rather than to affect gameplay directly.
- How many Artifacts are there in Dead Space 3?
- Forty in total, in four types: eighteen S.C.A.F. Artifacts, six EarthGov, six Unitologist and ten Alien.
- What do you get for collecting all the Artifacts?
- Two things. Acquiring all of them counts toward "The Professor" achievement, and completing the set awards the Flight Suit.
- Where are Artifacts found?
- Across the New Horizons Lunar Colony, the USM Eudora, the SCAF Flotilla made up of the CMS Roanoke, the CMS Greely and the CMS Terra Nova, and the surface of Tau Volantis.
- Which chapters hold the most Artifacts?
- Chapter 14 is the densest, holding five S.C.A.F. Artifacts, one EarthGov, one Unitologist and two Alien. Chapters 9, 11 and 17 each hold three within a single category.
Sources
- WikiArtifacts, Dead Space Wiki entry
Spotted a factual error or a primary source we missed? Email a correction. Every flagged claim gets reviewed.
Followed from this entry
CMS Greely
The CMS Greely was a Sovereign Colonies Armed Forces research vessel abandoned in the flotilla over Tau Volantis after Scenario Five. Its scientists used the ship to study frozen Alien tissue and, in their final hours, to broadcast a coded order to hide Rosetta from the purge.
CMS Roanoke
The CMS Roanoke was a Sovereign Colonies orbital command platform that served as the flagship of the Galactic Expedition to Tau Volantis. Left adrift in a mine-saturated flotilla after Scenario Five, it was the first wreck Isaac Clarke and John Carver boarded on reaching the frozen world.
CMS Terra Nova
The CMS Terra Nova was a Sovereign Colonies mass driver left derelict among the fleet orbiting Tau Volantis after the S.C.A.F. expedition of 2311. Two centuries later it became a waypoint for Isaac Clarke and the home of a Unitologist cult that worshipped the Brethren Moons.
EarthGov
EarthGov was the centralized regime that replaced the Sovereign Colonies after the Secession War, ruling humanity from an Earth-centric core. Its decision to revive the Marker program and harvest the artifacts' energy spread the Necromorph threat across the colonies.
New Horizons Lunar Colony
New Horizons was humanity's first off-world colony, founded on Earth's moon in 2045, fallen by the 26th century into a decaying EarthGov slum that hid a Red Marker test lab and was consumed by a Necromorph outbreak in 2514.
Sovereign Colonies
The Sovereign Colonies was the global government that united Earth and its early off-world settlements, custodian of the Black Marker and architect of the secret Red Marker program. Its discovery of the Brethren Moons led it to purge all Marker knowledge under Scenario Five.
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