Defense

Endless Defense Mission is a game mode in which the player(s) must defend either a Cryopod (all faction tile sets) or a Power Core (some Grineer tile sets) from waves of enemies. The wave will be considered cleared when all the enemies in the wave have been killed.

Every 5 waves the player(s) will receive an option to either leave the mission and receive a random reward (which is shown) or to try their luck against harder enemies for an additional 5 waves. The mission is considered completed whenever the team accepts the offer to claim a reward and exit and only fails if the Cryopod/Powercore is destroyed or the team dies or exits before the current five wave interval ends.

Endless Defense missions are considered some of the best missions for mod farming due to the unlimited amount of enemies and the ability to leave after each 5 rounds. Also, each 5th wave serves as a checkpoint, saving the mods collected so that if, for example, the mission is failed after the 5th wave but before the 10th, the player will retain all of the mods they had picked up during the first 5 waves, but none after.

Endless Defense Missions
There are a total of 31 Endless Defense missions for seven Tile Sets (tile sets) available. Three of them are mostly specific to the Grineer: And the four others are shared between the Corpus and the Infested: The maps A, B, D and E are some sort of circles (enemies come from every direction) while the maps C and F are some sort of half circles (the Orokin is near the limit of the map, where the enemies can't appear), making them often more easy to do. Grineer map G is currently specific to Phobos, and is not playable on any other planet.
 * Grineer Galleon ([[Media:2013-06-08 00007.jpg|A]]: Defend at a raised platform in a galleon's ventilation complex).
 * Asteroid, Cave ([[Media:2013-06-08 00004.jpg|B]]: Defend a cylindrical Orokin Reactor in a dark cave).
 * Sand wrack (G: Defend a cryo pod within a wracked metal area with entrances around you.)
 * Corpus Ship, Cargo Bay ([[Media:2013-06-08 00012.jpg|C]]: Defend a raised platform, with two main avenues of approach and 2 approaches from behind).
 * Corpus Base, Ravine ([[Media:Defense_map_D.jpg|D]]: Defend out in the open, surrounded by caves and cliffs).
 * Corpus Base, Courtyard ([[Media:2013-06-08 00015.jpg|E]]: Defend in a courtyard in a frigid Corpus outpost).
 * Corpus Base, Dam ([[Media:2013-06-08 00019.jpg|F]]: Defend in a frozen dam complex, with enemies storming across two bridges).

The "tier" of a set of 5 waves depends on the level of the enemies within those waves. The tier will change as enemy levels increase. There are a total of three tiers. The tier affect the reward players receive at 5 wave 'checkpoints'.

(*) This shows the tier of waves 5, 10, and 15

Composition
Corpus
 * Waves 1-4 consist of MOAs, Crewmen, Prod Crewmen.
 * Waves 5-9 consist of Shockwave MOAs, Shield Ospreys, Sniper Crewmen, Techs in addition to previous waves.
 * Waves 10+ consist of Railgun MOAs, Fusion MOAs, Mine Ospreys in addition to previous waves.

Infested
 * Waves 1-4 consist of Runners, Leapers, Chargers.
 * Waves 5-9 consist of Ancient Disruptors, Ancient Healers in addition to previous waves.
 * Waves 10+ consist of Toxic Ancients in addition to previous waves.

Grineer
 * Waves 1-4 consist of Grineer Lancers, Grineer Troopers.
 * Waves 5-9 consist of Grineer Heavy Gunners, Grineer Ballistas, Grineer Shield Lancers, Grineer Scorch in addition to previous waves.
 * Waves 10+ consist of Grineer Rollers, Grineer Seekers, Grineer Bombards, Grineer Scorpion in addition to previous waves.

Rewards
The percentages below are an indicator of what you can expect as a wave 5, 10, etc. reward.

Updated with datamined stats as of Update 10.1.0.

Note that rewards from Wave 15 onwards are predictable with high accuracy. There are tools available to predict wave rewards for you: web based predictor (outdated) and AHK script.

Bugs

 * There is a bug where you will click to exit the defense mission, but you will stay in the mission without a HUD, and sometimes not being able to move or chat at all. Dying will not bring back the HUD and you will not be able to revive. The only way to leave the mission is to force close the game using Alt + F4 or through a process manager. (Unknown if this has been fixed. Please remove if it has indeed been fixed.)