Alien artifacts are items that originated from an alien species. These artifacts may be powerful new technologies, religious relics, weapons, or other worldbuilding elements. The aliens that create these artifacts may be an ancient alien civilization or may be a currently existing alien species. Alien artifacts are often found in secret government warehouses, derelict spacecraft, crashed spacecraft, in black markets, buried, or in other locations.

When designing alien artifacts consider the original purpose of the item. Those that found or recovered it may not know its’ true nature nor how to operate it. It may be extremely powerful, or it may be the alien equivalent of a toilet plunger.