Luck is not involved in getting or not getting artifact, you are meant to follow visual clues to find where are artifacts spawned. Luck is only involved in artifact condition if dug up with shovel/pick and in what artifacts are on level. And just going out and saying - "hey, dig those specific squares" does not feel like a good game strategy. But I see where you are coming from and we definitely will figure out some ease-in strategy/tutorial section when will be working on full release.
We are a bit sad that people find it slow and hard... It was not our intention, but making it 10 times easier like one of commenters suggest is also not an option, there is no reward without challenge. If you can dig up 10-20 artifacts in perfect condition on your first run then you would just play through each level once and will be more or less done with a game. So it is a balancing act and we would have to zero on it at some point.
P.S., yep, we "made a whole game" :D We put a lot of time and effort in that game. So knowing that there is specific visual clue to tell you where to dig for artifact - please give it another go, it worth it.