Use five filters before taking an artifact
- Fit: does it directly support the active engine or a required resource?
- Timing: will it pay back before the current danger or the end of the run?
- Downside: can the train safely absorb lost passengers, slots, speed, hand size, or output?
- Reliability: does it work immediately or require another random piece?
- Opportunity cost: what stronger future option becomes harder to take?
Treat quest artifacts as deadlines
Some artifact effects ask the train to survive, collect, or complete a condition before paying off. Read the condition before accepting the initial penalty and compare its deadline with the current route pressure.
If the train cannot explain how it will finish the condition, the artifact is a liability rather than future power.
Recheck exact numbers after patches
Official announcements show frequent changes to artifact rarity, output, reroll cost, passenger loss, speed, and synergy interactions. This guide therefore focuses on decision structure instead of copying a numerical tier list that may already be stale.