Excavation

Excavation

At the start of the mission, objective markers will appear showing the location of Excavators.

Travel to these points, and use Power Cores to activate the Excavators. Defend the Excavator until it can unearth what it was looking for. Up to three excavators can be activated at the same time.

—In-Game Description

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

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 (vice 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

There are a total of 8 Excavation Missions

Planet	Mission Name	Faction	DropTableAlias	Level	Tileset
Earth	Everest	Grineer	Excavation1	1 - 6	Grineer Forest
Venus	Kiliken	Corpus	Excavation1	3 - 8	Corpus Outpost
Earth	Tikal (Dark Sector)	Infested	Excavation1	6 - 16	Grineer Forest
Mars	Augustus	Grineer	Excavation1	9 - 14	Grineer Settlement
Europa	Valefor	Corpus	Excavation2	18 - 23	Corpus Ice Planet
Europa	Cholistan (Dark Sector)	Infested	Excavation3	23 - 33	Corpus Ice Planet
Neptune	Despina	Corpus	Excavation3	27 - 32	Corpus Outpost
Pluto	Hieracon (Dark Sector)	Infested	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 100 Cryotic excavated (not factoring Resource Boosters). This means that players can earn rewards as quickly as they can successfully defend an extractor to completion, or more slowly from partially defended excavators.

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

• Tier 1
• Tier 2
• Tier 3

Rotation A		Rotation B		Rotation C
x2000 Credit Cache	14.29%	Hornet Strike	7.69%	Lith A4	11.06%
x2000 Credit Cache	14.29%	Incendiary Coat	7.69%	Lith G4	11.06%
x2000 Credit Cache	14.29%	Intensify	7.69%	Lith I1	11.06%
x2000 Credit Cache	14.29%	Parry	7.69%	Lith K7	11.06%
x100 Endo	14.29%	Serration	7.69%	Lith N7	11.06%
x100 Endo	14.29%	Steel Fiber	7.69%	Lith N8	11.06%
x100 Endo	14.29%	Lith A4	7.69%	Lith T7	11.06%
		Lith G4	7.69%	Arrow Mutation	3.76%
		Lith I1	7.69%	Cleanse Grineer	3.76%
		Lith K7	7.69%	Pistol Ammo Mutation	3.76%
		Lith N7	7.69%	Rifle Ammo Mutation	3.76%
		Lith N8	7.69%	Shotgun Ammo Mutation	3.76%
		Lith T7	7.69%	Sniper Ammo Mutation	3.76%

Locations:

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

Module:DropTables/data last updated: Wed, 01 Dec 2021 21:21:56 +0000 (UTC) by User:Cephalon Scientia

Rotation A		Rotation B		Rotation C
x2500 Credit Cache	16.67%	Charged Shell	7.14%	Neo N16	11.06%
x2500 Credit Cache	16.67%	Fast Deflection	7.14%	Neo N17	11.06%
x2500 Credit Cache	16.67%	Hornet Strike	7.14%	Neo P2	11.06%
x100 Endo	16.67%	Provoked	7.14%	Neo P3	11.06%
x100 Endo	16.67%	Serration	7.14%	Neo T4	11.06%
x100 Endo	16.67%	Steel Fiber	7.14%	Neo T5	11.06%
		Vital Sense	7.14%	Neo V10	11.06%
		Meso B5	7.14%	Arrow Mutation	3.76%
		Meso B6	7.14%	Cleanse Corpus	3.76%
		Meso C6	7.14%	Pistol Ammo Mutation	3.76%
		Meso P4	7.14%	Rifle Ammo Mutation	3.76%
		Meso P5	7.14%	Shotgun Ammo Mutation	3.76%
		Meso S10	7.14%	Sniper Ammo Mutation	3.76%
		Meso Z4	7.14%

Locations:

• Valefor, Europa

Module:DropTables/data last updated: Wed, 01 Dec 2021 21:21:56 +0000 (UTC) by User:Cephalon Scientia

Rotation A		Rotation B		Rotation C
x3000 Credit Cache	25%	Flow	6.67%	Axi A13	11.06%
x3000 Credit Cache	25%	Hell's Chamber	6.67%	Axi A14	11.06%
x3000 Credit Cache	25%	Hornet Strike	6.67%	Axi C6	11.06%
x400 Endo	25%	Serration	6.67%	Axi G6	11.06%
		Split Chamber	6.67%	Axi I2	11.06%
		Stabilizer	6.67%	Axi M2	11.06%
		Steel Fiber	6.67%	Axi O5	11.06%
		Stretch	6.67%	Arrow Mutation	3.76%
		Neo N16	6.67%	Cleanse Infested	3.76%
		Neo N17	6.67%	Pistol Ammo Mutation	3.76%
		Neo P2	6.67%	Rifle Ammo Mutation	3.76%
		Neo P3	6.67%	Shotgun Ammo Mutation	3.76%
		Neo T4	6.67%	Sniper Ammo Mutation	3.76%
		Neo T5	6.67%
		Neo V10	6.67%

Locations:

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

Module:DropTables/data last updated: Wed, 01 Dec 2021 21:21:56 +0000 (UTC) by User:Cephalon Scientia

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

Main article: Defense Objects

Only static defense objects can be healed or receive damage reduction from other sources in accordance with the tables below. Note that the Eidolon Lure is not static and is 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 and Shield Restoration Sources

Healing source	Normal effect	Effect on all types of static defendable objects (Cryopods, Excavators, etc)
Gara's  Mending Splinters	3 HP per 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 Dash	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  Curative Undertow	Heals 30% hp every 1.5 secs when ally stands on it	Heal for 100 per 1.5 sec
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 health per sec	Same as normal
Garuda's  Blood Altar	Heals by % of missing health/second	No effect
Inaros'  Scarab Swarm	Heals for damage dealt by Swarm Projectile divided by allies in range.	Same as normal
Nidus'  Ravenous	Heal allies standing on it for 20 HP per second	Same as normal
Wisp's  Reservoirs (Vitality mote)	Increase max hp by 300 and heal for 30 HP per second	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 per Second 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 per 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

Damage Reduction Sources

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 Immolates Damage reduction applies to allies	Capped at 45% Damage Reduction
Baruuk's  Desolate Hands	80% 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

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.
• Lost Excavator health can also be restored by using Protective Dash 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.
  • 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.
• 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.

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

Scanner, no longer exists as of Update 16

Excavator

Patch History

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.