Excavation is an endless Mission type introduced in Update 14.5 (2014-08-28) for the Operation Cryotic Front event, and formally introduced as a standard mission type in Update 14.10 (2014-10-08). 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.
Mechanics[]
A Power Cell
Players will first need to travel to dig sites whose positions are located on the minimap by the Lotus every 60 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 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, Kuva Lich Controlled Territory Missions and Sorties will only allow extraction after 500 units of Cryotic have been extracted; Void Fissure and Kuva Siphon/Flood missions unlock extraction after 200 units of Cryotic have been unearthed; and Mine of Karishh (Grendel Systems Locator) requires 800 units of Cryotic before extraction is made available.
Similar to Survival missions, the rewards for every successful excavation stack, and players can claim all artifacts that have been recovered upon extraction. Also, up to three 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.
Arbitration Mechanics[]
Arbitration Excavation missions, in addition to using Arbitrations reward tables and rotations, differ from standard Excavation missions as follows:
- Excavators work more slowly, requiring 180 seconds (versus 100 seconds) to complete a dig, but retain the same power requirements (1 Power Cell per 20% progress) and Cryotic reward (1 Cryotic per 1% progress).
- Mission rewards are granted for every 2 completed digs, rather than for every completed dig.
Locations[]
| Planet | Mission Name | Faction | Credit Reward | Addtional Credit Reward | Wiki's DropTableAlias | Level | Tileset |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Earth | Everest | Grineer | 1,000 | 0 | Excavation1 |
1 - 6 | Grineer Forest |
| Venus | Kiliken | Corpus | 1,200 | 0 | Excavation1 |
3 - 8 | Corpus Outpost |
| Earth | Tikal (Dark Sector) | Infested | 1,500 | 12,000 | Excavation1 |
6 - 16 | Grineer Forest |
| Mars | Augustus | Grineer | 1,800 | 0 | Excavation1 |
9 - 14 | Grineer Settlement |
| Europa | Valefor | Corpus | 2,700 | 0 | Excavation2 |
18 - 23 | Corpus Ice Planet |
| Europa | Cholistan (Dark Sector) | Infested | 3,200 | 16,000 | Excavation3 |
23 - 33 | Corpus Ice Planet |
| Europa | Mines of Karishh | Corpus | 3,400 | 0 | |
25 - 30 | Corpus Ice Planet |
| Neptune | Despina | Corpus | 3,600 | 0 | Excavation3 |
27 - 32 | Corpus Outpost |
| Pluto | Hieracon (Dark Sector) | Infested | 4,400 | 20,000 | Excavation3 |
35 - 45 | Corpus Outpost |
Rewards[]
For Excavation missions that use the tier rewards table (i.e. excluding Arbitrations and other special mission types), players will earn one reward for every completed dig.
For Void Fissures, relics will be cracked open after every 200 Cryotic excavated.
Reward tiers are based on the starting level for enemies within the mission:
- Tier 1: Starting level 1 - 10
- Tier 2: Starting level 11 - 20
- Tier 3: Starting level 21+
Excavation missions uses the standard AABC drop rotation for rewards, with the first and second excavations dropping a A-rotation reward, the third excavation dropping a B-rotation reward, and the fourth excavation dropping a C-rotation reward, which then repeats indefinitely.
- Rotation A: 1st, 2nd; 5th, 6th; 9th, 10th; etc.
- Rotation B: 3rd; 7th; 11th; etc.
- Rotation C: 4th; 8th; 12th; etc.
The rewards for Tier 2 and 3 Excavations are identical to the rewards for Tier 2 and 3 Survival missions. As successful excavations can take as little as 100 seconds, Excavation missions are significantly more efficient.
Excavation missions also have one of the highest enemy densities of the standard mission types, which lends itself to more quickly acquiring resources, affinity, and mods relative to the planet and type of enemies.
As an example of a possible reward sequence for successfully defending and powering four excavators on Everest, Earth: 1500 credits, 80 Endo, a Lith Relic, and finally an Arrow Mutation mod, in that order.
Drop Tables[]
| A | B | C | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 x2000 Credit Cache |
57.14% |  Hornet Strike |
7.69% |  Lith A6 |
11.06% |
 Endo x100 |
42.86% | Incendiary Coat |
7.69% | Lith G13 |
11.06% |
| Intensify |
7.69% | Lith M9 |
11.06% | ||
| Parry |
7.69% | Lith N16 |
11.06% | ||
| Serration |
7.69% | Lith P9 |
11.06% | ||
| Steel Fiber |
7.69% | Lith W4 |
11.06% | ||
| Lith A6 |
7.69% | Lith X1 |
11.06% | ||
| Lith G13 |
7.69% | Arrow Mutation |
3.76% | ||
| Lith M9 |
7.69% | Cleanse Grineer |
3.76% | ||
| Lith N16 |
7.69% | Pistol Ammo Mutation |
3.76% | ||
| Lith P9 |
7.69% | Rifle Ammo Mutation |
3.76% | ||
| Lith W4 |
7.69% | Shotgun Ammo Mutation |
3.76% | ||
| Lith X1 |
7.69% | Sniper Ammo Mutation |
3.76% | ||
Drop tables outdated? Readers can update Module:DropTables/data and cross reference with official drop tables on https://www.warframe.com/droptables.
| A | B | C | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| x2500 Credit Cache |
50% | Charged Shell |
7.14% |  Neo A13 |
11.06% |
| Endo x100 |
50% | Fast Deflection |
7.14% | Neo G8 |
11.06% |
| Hornet Strike |
7.14% | Neo L4 |
11.06% | ||
| Provoked |
7.14% | Neo P7 |
11.06% | ||
| Serration |
7.14% | Neo Q1 |
11.06% | ||
| Steel Fiber |
7.14% | Neo W2 |
11.06% | ||
| Vital Sense |
7.14% | Neo Z11 |
11.06% | ||
 Meso A7 |
7.14% | Arrow Mutation |
3.76% | ||
| Meso E6 |
7.14% | Cleanse Corpus |
3.76% | ||
| Meso F5 |
7.14% | Pistol Ammo Mutation |
3.76% | ||
| Meso G8 |
7.14% | Rifle Ammo Mutation |
3.76% | ||
| Meso N17 |
7.14% | Shotgun Ammo Mutation |
3.76% | ||
| Meso T7 |
7.14% | Sniper Ammo Mutation |
3.76% | ||
| Meso V10 |
7.14% | ||||
Drop tables outdated? Readers can update Module:DropTables/data and cross reference with official drop tables on https://www.warframe.com/droptables.
| A | B | C | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| x3000 Credit Cache |
75% | Flow |
6.67% |  Axi A19 |
11.06% |
| Endo x400 |
25% | Hell's Chamber |
6.67% | Axi G14 |
11.06% |
| Hornet Strike |
6.67% | Axi H8 |
11.06% | ||
| Serration |
6.67% | Axi O6 |
11.06% | ||
| Split Chamber |
6.67% | Axi S16 |
11.06% | ||
| Stabilizer |
6.67% | Axi S17 |
11.06% | ||
| Steel Fiber |
6.67% | Axi T12 |
11.06% | ||
| Stretch |
6.67% | Arrow Mutation |
3.76% | ||
| Neo A13 |
6.67% | Cleanse Infested |
3.76% | ||
| Neo G8 |
6.67% | Pistol Ammo Mutation |
3.76% | ||
| Neo L4 |
6.67% | Rifle Ammo Mutation |
3.76% | ||
| Neo P7 |
6.67% | Shotgun Ammo Mutation |
3.76% | ||
| Neo Q1 |
6.67% | Sniper Ammo Mutation |
3.76% | ||
| Neo W2 |
6.67% | ||||
| Neo Z11 |
6.67% | ||||
Drop tables outdated? Readers can update Module:DropTables/data and cross reference with official drop tables on https://www.warframe.com/droptables.
Dark Sector Excavation[]
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.
Healing Interactions With Excavators[]
Only static defense objects can be healed or receive damage reduction from other sources in accordance with the tables below. Mirror Defense defense objects are exempted from effects that heal, give shields, or give health. They can receive damage reduction effects as outlined in the table below.
Note that Eidolon Lures are not static and are exempt from the rules in the table below.
Healing over time only takes effect when the defense object's natural health regeneration is active; taking damage from enemies briefly disables both the natural regeneration and external regeneration effects for a few seconds.
| Healing source | Normal effect | Effect on all types of static defendable objects (Cryopods, Excavators, etc) |
|---|---|---|
 Gara's Mending Splinters |
15 HP/sec for each active splinter | Same as normal |
 Hildryn's  Haven |
500 Max Shields 80% faster Shield recharge |
Same as normal |
 Protea's  Grenade Fan |
500 Shield restore on attach 50 Shield restore per second |
Same as normal |
 Trinity's  Blessing |
Up to 100% HP and Shield restore | Heal for 500 over 5 seconds, can’t stack |
Trinity's  Well of Life |
100 HP/sec + 1% life steal | 100 HP/sec, no life steal |
 Equinox's  Mend & Maim (Mend) |
25 Shields for each enemy killed Burst heal based on how much damage was dealt |
Shields per enemy killed and heal for 500 over 5 seconds, can’t stack |
 Vazarin's  Protective Sling |
5 seconds invulnerability 60% Heal over 5 seconds |
No invulnerability Heal for 500 over 5 seconds, can’t stack |
 Khora's  Venari |
Heal for 50 HP/sec | Same as normal |
 Hydroid's Rousing Plunder |
Heals allies for 50 HP | Heal for up to 500 over 5 seconds |
 Harrow's  Penance |
Heals allies for a % of damage dealt | Heals are capped up to 50 per second. |
 Oberon's  Renewal |
125 burst heal 50 HP/sec |
Same as normal |
 Garuda's  Blood Altar |
Heals by % of missing health/second | No effect |
 Nidus'  Ravenous |
Heal allies standing on it for 20 HP/sec | Same as normal |
 Wisp's  Reservoirs (Vitality mote) |
Increase max hp by 300 and heal for 30 HP/sec | Same as normal |
 Volt's Capacitance |
Grants shields based on 3% of damage dealt | Capped at 250 shields, no overshields |
 Titania's passive |
4 HP/sec for 20 Seconds | Same as normal |
 Sancti Magistar |
Heals for damage dealt in an AoE | Heal for up to 500 over 5 seconds, can’t stack with other players. Going from a burst to Heal over Time. |
| Ancient Healer Specter | Heal for 100 HP every 20 seconds | Same as normal |
| Rejuvenation |
Heal 3 HP/sec | Same as normal |
 Arcane Pulse |
60% chance to heal for 150 HP when picking up a health orb with a 15 sec cooldown | Same as normal |
 Citrine's passive |
5 - 25 HP/sec while in Affinity range | Same as normal (based on player testing) |
 Jade's  Light's Judgment |
Heal 8% HP/sec | Heal 75 HP/sec |
| Damage Reduction Sources | Normal effect | Effect on all types of static Defendable objects (Cryopods, Excavators, etc) |
|---|---|---|
| Trinity's Blessing |
50% Damage Reduction | Capped at 50% Damage Reduction |
 Mirage's Total Eclipse |
Grants 75% Damage Reduction to allies | Capped at 50% Damage Reduction |
Titania's  Tribute (Thorns buff) |
50% damage redirected to enemies | No effect |
Gara's  Splinter Storm |
70% Damage Reduction | Capped at 50% Damage Reduction |
 Ember's Immolated Radiance |
50% of Immolate's Damage Reduction applies to allies | Capped at 45% Damage Reduction |
 Baruuk's  Desolate Hands |
90% Damage Reduction | Capped at 50% Damage Reduction |
| Harrow's Warding Thurible |
40% Damage Reduction | Capped at 50% Damage Reduction |
 Nezha's  Warding Halo |
Absorbs 90% of damage | Capped at 50% Damage Reduction |
Citrine's  Preserving Shell |
25 - 90% Damage Reduction | No effect (based on player testing) |
Source: https://forums.warframe.com/topic/1189247-warframe-revised-railjack-revisited-part-1-update-274/
Notes[]
- On their own 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. - Gara can use her Splinter Storm to give up to 50% damage reduction to any excavator and is also able to reset the timer of the ability with Mass Vitrify.
- Lost Excavator health can be restored by using a Warframe equipped with the Rejuvenation Aura.
- Khora can directly heal an Excavator by using Venari's Heal posture while having it in the reticle.
- If Khora has the Pilfering Strangledome equipped in her loadout, killing a Power Carrier trapped inside the Strangledome may result in an additional Power Cell dropping.
- Nekros' Desecrate can also double Power Cell drops, but is less reliable than Pilfering Strangledome.
- Lost Excavator health can also be restored by using Protective Sling in the Vazarin Focus tree. Prior to Update 27.4 (2020-05-01), this previously made the Excavator invulnerable for a short time as well, but now heals flat HP/second.
- 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.
- 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.
- The upper limit on rate of Cryotic and mission reward gains from a non-Arbitration Excavation mission, based solely on dig site spawn rates and excavator dig times, is 120 Cryotic and 1 mission reward per minute (600 Cryotic and 5 mission rewards per 5 minutes).
- For Arbitration Excavation missions, this upper limit is reduced to 100 Cryotic and 0.5 mission rewards per minute (500 Cryotic and 2.5 mission rewards per 5 minutes).
- Despite being a machine, the Excavator has Flesh-type health.
- A one minute failure countdown begins if 15 minutes pass with no active excavator - the only way to end it in mission success is by extracting, as even spawning an excavator does not end the countdown.
Bugs[]
- 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.
- 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 Power Cell while equipped with a dual-wield secondary weapon will force single-wield animations, even after dropping the Power Cell. 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.
Media[]
Patch History[]
Update 36.1 (2024-08-21)
- Changed Excavation waypoints and objective text as follows to better explain mission mechanics:
- Once Extraction becomes available, the Extraction waypoint marker now remains completely visible for the remainder of the mission. “Get to Extraction” is now the Main Objective once players have completed one dig, with “Complete Additional Excavations” listed below it as a Bonus Objective.
- For players who are learning this game mode, this ensures they know when and how they can leave. Experienced players will know to stick around for additional digs, if they wish!
- Also rearranged “Digs Completed” HUD element to be below a new “Excavation” header to make room for the Bonus Objective text.
- Updated mission transmissions to better explain mission mechanics and added additional hint transmissions.
- Once Extraction becomes available, the Extraction waypoint marker now remains completely visible for the remainder of the mission. “Get to Extraction” is now the Main Objective once players have completed one dig, with “Complete Additional Excavations” listed below it as a Bonus Objective.
Update 36.0 (2024-06-18)
- We’ve improved enemy spawn logic in Excavation missions to decrease the wait time between completing Excavators.
- This addresses the player reported issue that it often would take far too long for enemies to spawn when moving from one Excavator to another.
Update 32.3 (2023-02-15)
- Changed some mission types to display information related to your mission success in the end of mission screen. This change applies to the following mission types:
- Excavation
- Previously a small icon would display the amount of Excavators successfully defended for these missions. This icon wasn’t always clear in terms of what it indicated, and it appeared in rewards despite not being one. Adding this information to the top of the end of mission screen should make this more clear.
- Excavation
Update 31.6 (2022-06-09)
- Fixed case of an Excavator not visually touching the ground on Mars.
Hotfix 30.9.2 (2021-11-11)
- Fixed Excavation HUD formatting appearing squished.
Hotfix 30.9.1 (2021-11-11)
- Fixed a script error when playing Excavation in relation to number formatting.
Hotfix 30.7.3 (2021-09-10)
- Excavation missions will now timeout like many other game modes if Excavation progress is not being made. This addresses an exploit within the Steel Path, and Excavation itself for AFK gain.
Hotfix 29.0.8 (2020-09-10)
- Fixed certain Excavation spawns not scaling in level with the rest of the enemies.
Update 29.0 (2020-08-25)
- Fixed script error after host migration in an Excavation mission that could result in the mission not progressing.
Hotfix 28.3.1 (2020-08-12)
- Fixed script error after Host migration in an Excavation mission that could result in the mission not progressing.
Hotfix 27.5.6.1 (2020-05-27)
- Fixed a script error that could occur when joining an Excavation mission in progress.
Hotfix 27.4.1 (2020-05-01)
- Fixed a script error that could break the Excavation HUD.
Hotfix 27.3.11 (2020-04-09)
- Fixed a script error with Excavator missions.
Update 27.2 (2020-03-05)
- Excavation Health/Shield Scaling Changes
Excavation missions have had the same property since launch: all Excavators have 500 Shield, 2500 Health no matter the mission level. As of our coming PC mainline update, both Health and Shields will scale following the same formula as Mobile Defense Terminals. Shield Regeneration of Excavators will be a percent of health vs. flat value to deal with scaling shields.
Why: This change will bring Excavation in line with existing mission types that have scaling properties after several years of having flat values. True to our initial goal of fixing inconsistencies, we are making these mission objectives scale in a consistent manner to other mission objectives.
Update 25.7 (2019-08-29)
- Excavation used to use the base node for enemy count scaling, now difficulty properly scales alongside current enemy level - meaning that the higher the enemy level, the more simultaneous enemies you’ll have to face!
- Fixed auto-dropping the Excavation Power Cell when picking up Primary Ammo with only a Primary weapon equipped.
- Fixed towards enemies pursuing the cold, dead corpses of players in Excavation missions.
Update 25.0 (2019-05-22)
- Non-Endless Survival/Excavation/etc missions (i.e. Alerts, Sorties, Syndicate dailies, etc) now disable individual extraction as it leads to unnecessary Host migrations
Update 24.4 (2019-03-08)
- Individual Extraction - Non-Wave Endless!
You are now able to extract from Survival, Excavation, and Defection missions independent of your squad.
- Once the 'mission complete' interval is met, players can head to extraction any time they choose (i.e 5 minutes for Survival).
- Any player at extraction triggers a countdown timer.
- If all players leave the extraction zone, the countdown timer is cancelled.
- When the timer is up, the extraction ship arrives and any players in the extraction zone leave.
- Anyone still playing can extract later any time they choose.
Update 22.15 (2018-03-07)
- Excavation UI displays 'Power: FULL' when the Excavator no longer needs more Power Cells to run to completion.
- All Lotus transmissions will appear on the right side of the screen as to not obscure the Excavation UI.
- Added a subtle blue Shield charge FX (similar to Warframe Shield charge FX) to the Excavator when its Shields are recharged by a Power Cell.
Update 22.14 (2018-03-01)
- Excavation Objective UI Changes
In the simplest of terms, UI for Excavation missions has been cleaned up and simplified!
- Endless Excavation missions now display ‘Digs Completed’ instead of ‘Total Cryotic Excavated’. The number of ‘Digs Completed’ is what counts towards the tiered Rewards in the Endless modes, and this change saves you some mental math!
- You can still see the total Cryotic Excavated on the Mission Progress screen.
Hotfix 22.13.4 (2018-02-22)
- Invasion Changes
With the precedent already set from Fissure missions for rewarding per normal endless cycle, Invasions felt strenuous due to their lengthy mission completion requirements. Considering there are other “faster” mission types available to get your reward and get out, it was time to cut back a bit on the way 'endless' variants work within the system. As a result, the following mission completion requirements have been scaled back:
- Excavation from 1000 Cryotic to 500 Cryotic.
Update 16.0 (2015-03-19)
- Excavation Mission Changes
- The Excavation scanner has been removed from the Mission instead giving 3 dig sites at once.
- Dig sites will appear in an order that gives players a reasonable tour through the map starting at the closest dig site.
- Added a small ramp-up to the spawns so that players don't get jumped right away when entering the Mission.
Update 14.5 (2014-08-28)
- Introduced in Operation: Cryotic Front.
See also[]
- Operation Cryotic Front, which introduced this mission type.