Two of several collectibles strewn throughout EA’s Dead Space 3 are Artifacts and Blueprints. Find them all can be a real bear, so we have put together this text guide along with some YouTube videos to make finding their locations a lot easier.
There are a total of 40 Dead Space 3 Artifacts found in the majority of the game’s 19 chapters. Finding them all within a particular set: Earthgov, Alien, Unitologist and S.C.A.F., will unlock the Circuit Set for that particular set. In addition, collecting every Artifact in the game will unlock “The Professor” and “Aliens” Achievements on Xbox 360 and Trophies on Playstation 3.
The Dead Space 3 Blueprints only total 7 but are considered the hardest of all collectibles to find. Each blueprint corresponds to a weapon whose parts must be collected.
Please utilize the following Dead Space 3 Artifacts and Blueprints locations guide in text and video form to save some certain headaches from setting in. Additional videos for the latter Artifacts and Blueprints will be added as they become available.
Prologue: Beginnings (1 Artifact)
1. S.C.A.F. Arfifact – As the game begins, hang a left away from the blue guide line until you hit a wall. Follow the wall until you find the Artifact in the snow storm.
Chapter 1: Rude Awakening (2 Artifacts)
2. Unitologist Artifact – This Artifact is located in the Dredger Corporation offices. While in the reddish office, ride the elevator toward exit and enter the first office on the right after exiting the elevator. The Artifact is in the corner of the office.
3. Earthgov Artifact – Keep looking on the left after the highway chase and subsequent crash with the trucks.
Chapter 2: On Your Own (1 Artifact)
4. Earthgov Artifact – Go straight to begin the chapter, down a flight of stairs, and through the first door on the right. Follow this path around a curved hallway until the Artifact is visible on the right.
Chapter 3: On Your Own (1 Artifact)
5. S.C.A.F. Artifact – This Artifact is located up on a stage inside the C.A.G. Briefing Room. You enter the room from the far side so head up the stairs and along the wall to reach the Artifact.
Chapter 4: History’s Ember (6 Artifacts, 1 Blueprint)
1. Shotgun Blueprint – Pay attention to the first bench with weapons that you come across. The Blueprint is near a dead body on the floor near this bench.
6. Earthgov Artifact 1 – Easiest to find this Artifact when exiting the cut-scene that shows writing on the wall. Take an immediate right and find the Artifact in front of a bookcase.
7. Earthgov Artifact 2 – This Artifact requires playing the cooperative C.M.S. Brusilov mission.
8. S.C.A.F. Artifact 1 – When approaching the Roanoke docking bay, be sure to look down until you find an area where the Artifact is floating in space.
9. S.C.A.F. Artifact 2 – Found near the Greely ship where the numbers B1348 are printed on the hull. Follow the debris field near here to a door where the Artifact waits inside.
10. S.C.A.F. Artifact 3 – Another Artifact in the debris, this one near the Brusilov on a piece of debris with 6 printed on it. Find the door on this debris and the Artifact behind the door.
11. Alien Artifact – Found in the C.M.S. Greely mission in the purple room. Head right and follow the wall to find the Artifact.
Video for Artifacts 1-8
Chapter 5: Expect Delays (3 Artifacts)
12. S.C.A.F. Artifact 1 – Pay attention to the elevator and when you exit it on the second floor. Once there, locate the bridge and the Artifact sitting on the pilot’s chair.
13. S.C.A.F. Artifact 2 – Find the ladder in the Cargo Filtration Command room. Climb it and look right to spot and collect the Artifact.
14. S.C.A.F. Artifact 3 – Located in the Conning Tower mission. It’s in the engine room that’s wired to blow, on the right side of the lower level.
Chapter 6: Repair to Ride (1 Artifact)
15. S.C.A.F. Artifact – After being thrown outside upon the barrels being blown up in the gears, head toward the docking bay in the distance, but check around all the debris once you pass the halfway point. The Artifact is hiding behind a piece of debris here.
Chapter 7 (No Artifacts)
Chapter 8: Off the Grid (1 Artifact, 1 Blueprint)
2. Bolas Gun Blueprint – In the RS 10 Radio Tower, fire up the generator, then turn around to easily spot the Blueprint.
16. S.C.A.F. Artifact – Found at the end of the catwalk reached by ladder after the first necromorph encounter.
Chapter 9: Onward (3 Artifacts, 3 Blueprints)
3. Medic Support Handgun Blueprint – After you get the Supply Depot key, look straight ahead and you’ll spot the Blueprint.
4. Pulse Rifle Blueprint – After the first big boss encounter, enter the building ahead and take the first ladder you spot up. The Blueprint is on a table to the left.
5. Heavy Metal Thunder Blueprint – Found in the Supply Depot mission. Use the weapons bench to create a Tungsten Torque Bar to access a locked door on the other side of a bridge. The Blueprint is behind the door.
17. S.C.A.F. Artifact 1 – When you’re in the “loud” corridor filled with screams and banging noises, stay to the left side and you’ll run into the Artifact.
18. S.C.A.F. Artifact 2 – After the first big boss encounter, enter the building ahead and take the first ladder you spot up. In the room above, find the Artifact along the left wall.
19. S.C.A.F. Artifact 3 – Found in the Supply Depot mission. When you encounter the broken lift in the middle of a room, trace the walls and you’ll eventually run into the Artifact.
Video for Artifacts 9-17
Chapter 10: Now We Know (2 Artifacts)
20. S.C.A.F. Artifact – Complete tackling the drill after the Coring Platform, then look behind the box on the right near the dead bodies for the Artifact.
21. Alien Artifact – All you need to do is listen for a guard yelling “you’re in the tunnel” and you will find the Artifact on the right side shortly after that.
Chapter 11 (4 Artifacts, 1 Blueprint)
6. Contact Beam Blueprint – After you enter the Armory, look for the room with three doors. The Blueprint is near some lockers on the edge of this room.
22. Earthgov Artifact – Located in the Archeology cooperative mission.
23. Unitologist Artifact 1 – Look left before entering the Delta Barracks to find the Artifact sitting on the snow.
24. Unitologist Artifact 2 – Found in the Armory mission, in the Armory along the glass.
25. Unitologist Artifact 3 – Also located in the Armory mission, found after receiving the Munitions key behind a S.C.A.F. box on the far end of the room.
Chapter 12 (No Artifacts)
Chapter 13: Reach for the Sky (1 Artifact, 1 Blueprint)
7. HUN-E1 Badget Blueprint – Exit the Survey Office and spot the Blueprint right outside on top of a box.
26. S.C.A.F. Artifact – When you reach a fork in the frozen caves, take the left path and you will easily spot the Artifact ahead.
Chapter 14: Everything Has its Place (7 Artifacts)
27. Earthgov Artifact – Another cooperative mission Artifact, this one in Marker Containment.
28. Unitologist Artifact – Enter the Geology department with the key from Ellie. Take out the Stalkers, then spot the Artifact on the left on the way out.
29. S.C.A.F. Artifact 1 – Still in the Geology department and after you take the lift and fight more Stalkers, check behind the crates on the right for the Artifact.
30. S.C.A.F. Artifact 2 – In the Reaper Barracks mission, enter the room near the work bench in the barracks and look right for the Artifact.
31. S.C.A.F. Artifact 3 – Also located in the Market Containment cooperative mission.
32. Alien Artifact 1 – Located in the lab on a barrel, right in front of some x-rays on the wall in the lab’s corner.
33. Alien Artifact 2 – Found in “The Zoo” room, on a table to the right of a bookcase.
Chapter 15: A Change of Fortune (No Artifacts)
Chapter 16: What Lies Below (No Artifacts)
Chapter 17: A Strange City (4 Artifacts)
34. Unitologist Artifact – To the left of some scaffolding straight across from the detonation of the second group of bombs.
35. Alien Artifact 1 – Just to the left of a block of ice in the beginning of the chapter.
36. Alien Artifact 2 – Found in the Artifact Storage mission, in the third anti-gravity cylinder across from the catwalk.
37. Alien Artifact 3 – Just after turning on the “machine” and shoot across a big space, take the first alien door, hang a left and see the Artifact straight ahead.
Chapter 18: Kill or Be Killed (2 Artifacts)
38. Alien Artifact 1 – There’s a big open room with a red market in the middle of it. Hug the walls and you’ll eventually stumble into the Artifact.
39. Alien Artifact 2 – In the big room with the kinesis discs, head to the left disc and spot the Artifact sitting on some rocks.
Chapter 19: Endings (1 Artifact)
40. Alien Artifact 1 – The final Artifact is found during a chase. Pay attention as you come upon a downward slop with necromorphs attacking. The Artifact is on the left side of the path at the beginning of this slope down.
All Blueprint weapons (long video)
