Interception

An Interception Mission requires players to capture and hold set locations on the map in order to intercept enemy transmissions by reaching 100% control sooner than the enemy faction does. It was introduced in Update 12, though it was limited to Earth until Update 13.5.

The map has 4 communication towers acting as capture locations, labelled A, B, C and D. Players capture each location by standing within each tower's capture radius until the tower switches over to Tenno control. Enemies can capture player-controlled towers by being within the tower's capture radius, or activating a nearby control console, which triggers an alarm the player can hear; if a player kills the enemy activating the console the point will not be captured. Control Points accumulate for a player's side once the number of towers in their possession exceed that of their enemy's.

If the Tenno reach 100 Capture Points, the players will then be tasked with eliminating any remaining enemies, after which players can choose to claim a reward and exit, or continue fighting.

Interception Missions
The majority of Interception maps use the same tiles as Defense missions. The exception is Gaia, Earth, which has its own unique tile specific to Interception.

Interception missions also appear in the Orokin Void via Tower IV Interception keys.

Rewards

 * Capturing a tower gives 300 Affinity, while capturing all towers grants 500 Affinity. These can be doubled by using an Affinity Booster.
 * Each time 100% control is reached the players are offered a chance to either continue or exit and claim a reward similar to Defense missions.
 * As of Update 15 all rewards in Defense and Interception missions stack, and you keep all of them when choosing to extract.
 * Interceptions are the only missions that offer Tower IV Orokin Void Keys as a reward, starting from the 3rd Wave of rewards.
 * Tower IV Exterminate, Capture, Mobile Defense, and Sabotage keys can appear Round 4 or later on ‘Medium’ Interception missions (starting enemy level 10-20).
 * Tower IV Survival, Defense, and Interception keys can appear Round 4 or later on ‘Hard’ Interception missions (starting enemy level 20+).

Archwing Free Space
Archwing Free Space Interception missions mostly follow the same rules as standard ground-based Interception. The only difference between modes is the method of enemy capture; instead of accessing a control console, the capturing enemy unit will emit an orange electric beam connecting them to the communication tower when they get close enough, and both the comm tower and capturing unit will be surrounded by a red spherical field to denote that a capture is in progress. Once connected the capturing unit will continue to neutralize or capture the tower regardless of how far away they move from the tower, meaning that simply knocking away the enemy unit will not suffice to stop their progress - only killing the unit will stop the capture from finishing.

Only one enemy can capture each tower, and if a capturing unit is destroyed another one in the vicinity can quickly take its place.

Trivia

 * New Interception missions were added to other planets in Update 13.5.0. Additionally the update reduced the difficulty of the first round for solo players, though the difficulty will remain the same when playing with 2-4 players.
 * The Archwing Free Space variant was introduced in Update 15.
 * Interception is the only mission that can reward the player with Natural Talent, but it can also be obtained from Transmutation or defeating The Grustrag Three.
 * Like Defense and Survival, a round of Interception has the potential to last indefinitely.

Bugs

 * Sometimes capture percentage indicators disappear. However, it is still possible to capture the locations without seeing the progress.
 * The third wave's reward often repeats itself.
 * A test mod card labeled "Ancient Retribution" may show up as a reward. The card is used by Digital Extremes for testing and does not actually represent a real mod now or in the future. Claiming the card may crash the game or cause general instability afterwards.
 * Enemies in Archwing Interception have a tendency to stick on obstacles near the edges of the map, making certain Interceptions difficult to complete without accidentally forcing an extraction.
 * Similar to "Ancient Retribution" there are rare occasion on archwing interception where the game shows four "NAME" not showing any rewards and it is impossible to extract, and instead the game will start the next wave with the menu interface in the way.