Excavation

Excavation is an Endless Mission type introduced in Update 14.5 for the Operation Cryotic Front event, and formally introduced as a standard mission type in Update 14.10. This game mode tasks players with searching and then extracting various artifacts buried deep within a planet's surface. This mission is the primary source of Cryotic.

Excavation game modes appear as outdoor Tilesets on Venus, Earth, Mars, Europa, Neptune, and Pluto, including available Dark Sector nodes.

MechanicsEdit

Players will first need to locate dig sites whose positions are located on the minimap by the Lotus every 30 seconds, with a maximum of 4 potential dig sites being available. Dig sites will not spawn near a freshly-excavated area, necessitating constant relocation as the mission progresses. Once players walk within 20 meters of a dig site, an Excavator will drop in on the location and start digging. An Excavator has 500 Shields and 2500 Health and requires 100 seconds to accomplish its task, and must be protected from enemy fire during the duration of its operation in order to receive additional rewards. However, each Excavator only has 20 seconds worth of energy when deployed, thus players will have to locate Power Cells which are carried by designated Power Carriers. Killing a Power Carrier will drop a Power Cell, and each cell adds 20 seconds worth of energy to the Extractor and restores its Shields. Holding a Power Cell will limit the player to their Secondary weapon or Melee weapon, identical to a Mobile Defense datamass, and is automatically consumed once the player walks within 5 meters of the Excavator. Extractors will only accept Power Cells if it lacks the necessary amount of energy to complete the task or if its shields are depleted.

Regardless if the Excavator is successfully defended or not, all players will receive Cryotic for every second the Excavator was active (thus awarding 100 Cryotic for a successfully-defended Excavator). Additionally, if the Excavator survives to complete its digging, all players will receive a random reward. Once at least one Excavator is defended, the mission's extraction point will be revealed, allowing players to complete the mission if they choose to. However, Alert Missions (Including Syndicate Alerts and Nightmare Alerts), Invasions and Sorties will only allow extraction after 500 units of Cryotic have been extracted.

Similar to Survival missions, the rewards for every successful excavation stack, and players can claim all artifacts that have been recovered upon extraction. Also, multiple Excavators can be active at once if desired, limited only by the squad's ability to defend them. While survival works by a reward every 5 minutes, Excavation is per extractor. With the ability to run multiple extractors simultaneously, and taking far less than 5 minutes each, Excavation missions lead to more frequent, and usually more numerous rewards.

Excavation MissionsEdit

RewardsEdit

Besides the bonus amounts of materials, experience, and mods from the increase in enemies compared to normal missions, certain rewards can be awarded at the end of the mission if the mission is a success. Mission rewards will vary depending on the level of the mission's enemies (the starting level; this tier does not scale during a mission as higher level enemies spawn) and also depends on the amount of time spent.

• Enemy level tier (in average):
  • Tier 1: Level 1 - 10
  • Tier 2: Level 11 - 20
  • Tier 3: Level 21+
  • Note: While most missions obey these enemy level tiers, there are a few exceptions, such as Valefor. Refer to the table above for a more accurate list of mission enemy level tiers.
• Drop Rotation (the rewards rotation starts again after every 4th successful extraction):
  • Rotation A: 1st, 2nd; 5th, 6th; 9th, 10th; etc.
  • Rotation B: 3rd; 7th; 11th; etc.
  • Rotation C: 4th; 8th; 12th; etc.
• The easy way to remember the Rotations is AABC with each successful excavation moving onto the next letter
• Rewards stack the longer you play.
• The Rewards for Tier 2 and 3 Excavations are identical to the rewards for Tier 2 and 3 Survival missions

Rotation A		Rotation B		Rotation C
500 Credit Cache	14.29%	Hornet Strike	8.33%	Lith A3 Relic	12.91%
1000 Credit Cache	14.29%	Incendiary Coat	8.33%	Lith B6 Relic	12.91%
1500 Credit Cache	14.29%	Intensify	8.33%	Lith C4 Relic	12.91%
2000 Credit Cache	14.29%	Parry	8.33%	Lith K2 Relic	12.91%
15 Endo	14.29%	Serration	8.33%	Lith M4 Relic	12.91%
50 Endo	14.29%	Steel Fiber	8.33%	Lith P2 Relic	12.91%
80 Endo	14.29%	Lith A3 Relic	8.33%	Arrow Mutation	3.76%
		Lith B6 Relic	8.33%	Cleanse Grineer	3.76%
		Lith C4 Relic	8.33%	Pistol Ammo Mutation	3.76%
		Lith K2 Relic	8.33%	Rifle Ammo Mutation	3.76%
		Lith M4 Relic	8.33%	Shotgun Ammo Mutation	3.76%
		Lith P2 Relic	8.33%	Sniper Ammo Mutation	3.76%

Locations:

• Augustus, Mars
• Everest, Earth
• Kiliken, Venus
• Tikal, Earth

Up to date as of Update 25.0

Rotation A		Rotation B		Rotation C
1500 Credit Cache	16.67%	Charged Shell	7.14%	Neo C1 Relic	15.49%
2000 Credit Cache	16.67%	Fast Deflection	7.14%	Neo M2 Relic	15.49%
2500 Credit Cache	16.67%	Hornet Strike	7.14%	Neo N10 Relic	15.49%
15 Endo	16.67%	Provoked	7.14%	Neo S11 Relic	15.49%
50 Endo	16.67%	Serration	7.14%	Neo Z2 Relic	15.49%
80 Endo	16.67%	Steel Fiber	7.14%	Arrow Mutation	3.76%
		Vital Sense	7.14%	Cleanse Corpus	3.76%
		Meso D3 Relic	7.14%	Pistol Ammo Mutation	3.76%
		Meso E2 Relic	7.14%	Rifle Ammo Mutation	3.76%
		Meso M3 Relic	7.14%	Shotgun Ammo Mutation	3.76%
		Meso R1 Relic	7.14%	Sniper Ammo Mutation	3.76%
		Meso T1 Relic	7.14%
		Meso T3 Relic	7.14%
		Meso Z3 Relic	7.14%

Locations:

• Valefor, Europa

Up to date as of Update 25.0

Rotation A		Rotation B		Rotation C
2000 Credit Cache	25%	Flow	6.67%	Axi A4 Relic	11.06%
2500 Credit Cache	25%	Hell's Chamber	6.67%	Axi H4 Relic	11.06%
3000 Credit Cache	25%	Hornet Strike	6.67%	Axi K5 Relic	11.06%
400 Endo	25%	Serration	6.67%	Axi L2 Relic	11.06%
		Split Chamber	6.67%	Axi L3 Relic	11.06%
		Stabilizer	6.67%	Axi R2 Relic	11.06%
		Steel Fiber	6.67%	Axi T2 Relic	11.06%
		Stretch	6.67%	Arrow Mutation	3.76%
		Neo A2 Relic	6.67%	Cleanse Infested	3.76%
		Neo C1 Relic	6.67%	Pistol Ammo Mutation	3.76%
		Neo G1 Relic	6.67%	Rifle Ammo Mutation	3.76%
		Neo M2 Relic	6.67%	Shotgun Ammo Mutation	3.76%
		Neo N10 Relic	6.67%	Sniper Ammo Mutation	3.76%
		Neo S11 Relic	6.67%
		Neo Z2 Relic	6.67%

Locations:

• Cholistan, Europa
• Despina, Neptune
• Hieracon, Pluto

Up to date as of Update 25.0

Excavation rewards follow a similar logic to Survival missions and draw from the same pools of possible rewards, with each excavator successfully deployed counting as a 5-minute interval. This makes Excavation missions ideal to farm Relics, since its reward rotation is quicker than a Survival rotation.

As an example of a possible reward sequence, successfully deploying four excavators in Everest, Earth, could result in players receiving a batch of 1500 credits, 80 Endo, a Lith S3 Relic, and finally an Arrow Mutation mod, in that order.

Dark Sector ExcavationEdit

These Excavation missions have a higher level range than the planet they're found on, but yield greater Affinity and Credits due to the inherent bonuses of Dark Sectors.

NotesEdit

• Excavators cannot regenerate health, but can replenish their shields. An Excavator's shields can also be replenished by delivering a Power Cell to it or using Warframe powers like Mag's Shield Polarize.
• Excavators have 2500 Health and 500 Shields, regardless of mission level. This makes a strong defense an absolute must against higher level enemies.
• Lost Excavator health can be restored by using a Warframe equipped with the Rejuvenation Aura.
• Lost Excavator health can also be restored by using Protective Dash in the Vazarin Focus tree. This will also succeed in making the Excavator invulnerable for a short time, allowing it to regenerate shields and health from Protective Dash undisturbed.
• Power cells can be more easily picked up by keeping your Use control (default X ) held down while running over one (or standing under one as it falls to the ground). As with datamasses, they can be dropped by switching to your primary weapon.
• Excavation is the one of the few missions from which Cryotic can be reliably acquired.
  • While Cryotic is also a cache reward in Bounty, Hive and Uranus Sabotage missions, gathering this resource in those missions is not nearly as efficient as in Excavation.
• 4 Power Cells are enough to complete one excavation.
• During a Void Fissure on an Excavation mission, fissures will appear and spawn enemies even when an excavator is not powered, or has not been placed. Squads with players who are low on Reactant may wish to temporarily halt excavator progress until they have enough to open their relic. 

BugsEdit

• Sometimes when a host migration occurs, Power Carriers will stop spawning and the ones that were already spawned in the area will not drop a power cell when killed. However, any Power Cells left on the ground before the migration occurs will remain.
• The excavator's hitbox is larger than the size of the excavator itself. This can be seen if the player attempts to shoot an enemy near the excavator as the shots will not hit the enemy because the excavators' hitbox is in front of them.
• Despite being a machine, the Excavator has flesh-type health.
• Attempting to pick up an energy cell immediately after climbing up will cause a player to fall out of the map.
• After approaching an excavation zone the excavator may not spawn. This can always be fixed by eliminating existing enemies in the map.
• Picking up a powercell while equipped with a dual-wield secondary weapon will force single-wield animations, even after dropping the powercell. This causes both weapons to clip since single-wield animations have both hands together, among other graphical problems. No effect on gameplay.
• Occasionally the dig site's location will not be marked on the mini-map, causing the dig site to not activate.
• Any players who join after the mission has started (even if an extractor has not been started) will not receive any reward (besides cryotic) for a full extractor.
• Power Carriers may stop spawning making it impossible to proceed. Allowing enemies to destroy one of your Extractors should fix this and trigger Power Carriers to appear again.

MediaEdit

• Scanner. No longer exists as of Update 16.
• Excavator.

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Patch HistoryEdit

See alsoEdit

• Operation Cryotic Front, which introduced this mission type.