Yi Sun-Shin and the Spear Ship

Yi Sun-Shin’s unique artifact is one of those upgrades that quietly flips a march from “hard to kill” to “why won’t this team die?”. Base YSS is already a frontline tank with Guard of Devotion, a team-wide 6-second 30% damage taken reduction window. But with the artifact equipped, that same window also boosts healing received by 30%, which is exactly what sustain cores want — you mitigate the spike and then slurp the HP right back while the enemy alts cycle.

In practice, that means your defensive swing turns into a full reset if your heals land inside YSS’s uptime.

So the artifact isn’t about making YSS hit harder; it’s about turning his ult into a bigger sustain moment for the whole squad. That’s why you see him stapled into modern Earth/Himiko builds with Theodora or Fu Fei — the mitigation buys time, and the +healing pushes those bars up fast enough to shrug off much of the enemy’s damage pressure. If you’re building around layered damage reduction (DR effects like Earth dragon, Oaken, Resist, etc.), this artifact is the glue that lets the comp outlast opponents instead of trading blows.

• Read more about YSS here.
• And more about top meta YSS builds here.

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What does the Artifact do then?

Yi Sun-Shin’s ultimate ability Guard of Devotion gives you a buff which reduces damage taken by all allied immortals by 30% for 6s.

Through his Unique Artifact we can get another layer of defensive on top of the already very powerful damage reducion, because we will gain his Unique Artifact effect which adds +30% healing received to all allies under Guard of Devotion (same 6s).

Main stat priority (frontline tank): When it comes to optimizing this artifact, the primary attribute you should aim for is: Physical Defense (Preferably as a Percentage): This enhances YSS’ ability to absorb physical attacks, crucial for his role as a frontline shield.

Secondary attributes that are beneficial include: Resilience: Adds an extra layer of survivability and can be good especially in season 1 and 2 where you can resiliance stack (and use Malice) to counter critical damage far better than in Conquest where crit-rates scale beyond resiliance being very useful.

TL;DR: Physical Defense % as the top main attribute is the safest and most consistent pick — he’s frontline and eats a ton of physical poke/auto damage.

Bonus roll preference:

• If you’re lucky enough to land Physical Defense % and a bonus: Guard > Growth in most lobbies. The extra physical defense you get from Guard generally outperforms Growth.
• Edge case: if your shard is stacked with mage‑solo‑carry teams (e.g., Himiko, Fu Fei, Bjorn, YSS type mirrors where the big hits are magic‑weighted), Growth can catch up a bit — but marginal.

Crafting reality check: the unique effect unlock is the main power spike. If you’re tight on coins, get one copy to turn on the healing buff first; perfecting sub rolls can come later.

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How to obtain

Yi Sun-Shin is a ‘GP-Immortal’ also sometimes referred to as a ‘seasonal immortal’, in essence that refers to him being available through the Golden Path season pass. This is also the main method I recommend to obtain and farm his artifact. As a ‘seasonal immortal’ his artifact is NOT part of the regular elemental selection chests.

You can however obtain his artifact in the Golden Path shop and the Mysterious Pearl shop (daily store).

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Obtaining via Golden Path Shop

In the Golden Path, you get a max of 1 in stock per season, 600 coins. If you’re gem‑rich you can keep buying every season to star it up; if not, buy one to unlock the effect ASAP — that single unlock is huge.

Obtaining via Daily Pearl Shop

The Mysterious Pearl Shop has 1 in stock per day, but at a price of 240 Pearls. If you have been banking a lot of pearls prior to the recent update where the unique artifacts from GP immortals was released into Pearl Shop, you may want to use a few here. Or if you are looking for that one crucial unlock this can be good value.

The price however is quite steep and it will be a long grind to obtain the 15 artifacts you need to max one unique artifact (bonus maxing in forge) using Pearls alone. The daily max you can gain through the daily bundles is 20 Pearls.

Conclusion

YSS’s artifact isn’t flashy, but it’s a win-condition for sustain comps. You’re taking his already solid 6-second, 30% teamwide DR and layering +30% healing received on top—so your “don’t die” window turns into a mini-reset if heals land inside it.

Build it like a real frontline, best crafted attribute stats are: Physical Defense % most consistent main stat. For bonuses, Guard > Growth in most battles; the extra phys-def soaks auto attacks and physical damage. Strickly mage-battles: if your Battlegroup or main rivals are relying on solo-carry-mage setups, then Growth can provide a bit more value than Guard.

Acquisition-wise, the power spike is the first unlock. Grab one copy from Golden Path (600 coins, 1 per season) or the Mysterious Pearl Shop (240 pearls, 1/day) to turn the effect on, then min-max rolls later when your wallet/pearls recover.

Bottom line: if your plan is to outlast and/or relies on healing sustain, YSS’s artifact is basically mandatory to unlock and nice to upgrade if possible—turn on the healing buff first, then worry about perfect stats after.

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Published: 03-10-2025

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