V Rising Best Legendary Weapons: All 15 Artifacts & Their Modifications

Legendary Artifact weapons in V Rising are not simply stronger versions of normal weapons. Each one rewrites two of its weapon’s skills with a named modification, and almost every modification is built around a specific spell school keyword. That means the best legendary weapon for you is the one that matches the spells you already cast.

There are 15 Legendary Artifacts. All data below comes from the V Rising Wiki’s Weapons page and each weapon’s own page.

How you get one

Artifacts are crafted at the Ancestral Forge using a Legendary Artifact shard, which has a 15% chance of dropping from Tier 2 Rift Incursions, and can also be obtained by purchasing Epic Ancestral Weapon Shards from the Vampire Merchant. Each weapon also requires a corresponding Sanguine weapon and Onyx Tears — The Gravecaller, for example, needs a Sanguine Sword, its Shard, and 4 Onyx Tears.

Contrast that with the tier below: Rare Ancestral weapons sit at Gear Level 20 / 24 / 27 and their fragments drop from level 53+ V Blood Carriers (25%) or Tier 1 Rift Incursions (50%), or can be bought for 750 Stygian Shards. Epic Ancestral sits at Gear Level 30.

All 15 Artifacts, by weapon type

Slashers are the only weapon type with two Legendary Artifacts — Cloud Dancers and Wings of the Fallen — and they pull in opposite directions, Storm versus Blood. Every other weapon type has exactly one.

What each Artifact actually changes

The Gravecaller (Sword) — Whirlwind’s duration increases by 1s on killing an enemy and hits inflict Condemn, stackable up to 3 times. Each aerial Shockwave strike deals 20% bonus damage and reduces Whirlwind’s cooldown by 0.5s.

Apocalypse (Greatsword) — deals 25% bonus damage to enemies affected by Ignite, and landing spawns an effect dealing 80% damage in a line that inflicts Ignite.

Hand of Winter (Mace) — deals 125% bonus damage to Frozen targets. Its hits inflict Chill instead of incapacitate, and hitting a Chilled enemy Freezes it for 2s. That second line is the whole weapon: it removes your hard crowd control and replaces it with a self-sufficient freeze loop.

Mortira’s Lament (Reaper) — consumes up to 3 allied skeletons, healing for 50% of your spell power and increasing spell and physical power by 10% per skeleton for 8s. Hits inflict Condemn and have a 25% chance to summon a skeleton warrior.

The Thousand Storms (Spear) — launches a lesser storm that periodically shocks a nearby enemy, inflicting Static and dealing up to 25% magic damage. Harpoon now pulls you to the target instead, with cast time reduced by 0.6s and a 0.7s stun on hit.

Cloud Dancers (Slashers) — dash one additional time, but hits deal 30% less damage and each hit inflicts Static; the next hit consumes Static for 50% bonus damage.

Wings of the Fallen (Slashers) — conjures an effect when dashing that heals for 40%, deals 40% damage and inflicts Leech. Hits inflict Vampiric Curse but reduce stun duration by 1s. Vampiric Curse deals 100% damage and leeches 30% health after 3s.

The Wraithblades (Daggers) — inflict Weaken and deal 3% bonus damage per stack of Phantasm, with a 33% chance to gain a Phantasm stack for each returning dagger.

The Siren’s Wail (Crossbow) — fires 2 additional bolts; consuming Marked deals 10% bonus damage and inflicts Weaken, and bolts now fork towards nearby enemies.

The Endbringers (Pistols) — movement speed while channeling increases by 15% and hits inflict Ignite. Landing Explosive Shot allows an immediate recast, and hitting the same target triggers the explosion instantly for 50% additional damage and Ignite.

The Fate Dancers (Twinblade) — the initial hit inflicts Chill and the follow-up Freezes Chilled enemies for 2s, and it deals 50% bonus damage to Chilled or Frozen enemies.

The Red Twins (Axes) — increases Frenzy duration by 1s, and tosses two additional axes in a wider cone with each extra axe dealing 40% damage. All axes inflict Leech but may no longer inflict incapacitate.

The Morning Star (Whip) — hits cause enemies to Burn for damage over time, and it inflicts a 0.25s stun instead of entangle plus a fiery explosion dealing 25% damage that ignites the area.

Oaksong (Longbow) — each hit grants Focus and inflicts Static, and the initial hit inflicts a 0.5s stun if the target already has Static.

Talons of the Lich Beast (Claws) — a 25% chance on hit to summon a skeleton affected by Agony, and consuming Puncture heals for 25% of your spell power.

Choosing one

The pattern across all fifteen is that the Artifact is a force multiplier for a spell school, not a raw stat stick. So pick in this order:

1. Decide your spell school first. The weapon follows. See best spells for what each school’s keyword does.
2. If you run Unholy, you have three options — Gravecaller (Sword), Mortira’s Lament (Reaper) or Talons of the Lich Beast (Claws) — more than any other school.
3. If you run Chaos, Apocalypse (Greatsword), The Morning Star (Whip) or The Endbringers (Pistols).
4. If you run Storm, Cloud Dancers (Slashers), Oaksong (Longbow) or The Thousand Storms (Spear).
5. If you run Frost, Hand of Winter (Mace) or The Fate Dancers (Twinblade) — both of which generate their own Freeze, so they work even without Frost spells slotted.
6. If you run Blood, Wings of the Fallen (Slashers) or The Red Twins (Axes).
7. If you run Illusion, The Wraithblades (Daggers) or The Siren’s Wail (Crossbow).

Two weapons deserve a specific warning. Hand of Winter and The Fate Dancers both trade a hard incapacitate for Chill/Freeze — Hand of Winter inflicts Chill “instead of incapacitate”. If your build relies on a guaranteed stun, that is a real loss. The Red Twins likewise “may no longer inflict incapacitate”.

And one weapon is a genuine build-around rather than an upgrade: Mortira’s Lament consumes your own skeletons for +10% power each, up to 3, which is strong but actively conflicts with any Unholy build that wants those skeletons alive.

For the weapon skills these modify, see best weapon skills. Combat fundamentals are in the combat guide, gearing in the items guide and best items tier list, and crafting stations in the crafting guide.