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 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 Missions
Template:DisplayMissiontype
Rewards
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
| 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 C11 |
11.06% |
| Intensify |
7.69% | Lith G10 |
11.06% | ||
| Parry |
7.69% | Lith G9 |
11.06% | ||
| Serration |
7.69% | Lith P8 |
11.06% | ||
| Steel Fiber |
7.69% | Lith R5 |
11.06% | ||
| Lith A6 |
7.69% | Lith T10 |
11.06% | ||
| Lith C11 |
7.69% | Arrow Mutation |
3.76% | ||
| Lith G10 |
7.69% | Cleanse Grineer |
3.76% | ||
| Lith G9 |
7.69% | Pistol Ammo Mutation |
3.76% | ||
| Lith P8 |
7.69% | Rifle Ammo Mutation |
3.76% | ||
| Lith R5 |
7.69% | Shotgun Ammo Mutation |
3.76% | ||
| Lith T10 |
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 A11 |
11.06% |
| Endo x100 |
50% | Fast Deflection |
7.14% | Neo F3 |
11.06% |
| Hornet Strike |
7.14% | Neo K6 |
11.06% | ||
| Provoked |
7.14% | Neo K7 |
11.06% | ||
| Serration |
7.14% | Neo S18 |
11.06% | ||
| Steel Fiber |
7.14% | Neo W1 |
11.06% | ||
| Vital Sense |
7.14% | Neo Z10 |
11.06% | ||
 Meso A5 |
7.14% | Arrow Mutation |
3.76% | ||
| Meso B9 |
7.14% | Cleanse Corpus |
3.76% | ||
| Meso G6 |
7.14% | Pistol Ammo Mutation |
3.76% | ||
| Meso H5 |
7.14% | Rifle Ammo Mutation |
3.76% | ||
| Meso H6 |
7.14% | Shotgun Ammo Mutation |
3.76% | ||
| Meso M4 |
7.14% | Sniper Ammo Mutation |
3.76% | ||
| Meso W3 |
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 A17 |
11.06% |
| Endo x400 |
25% | Hell's Chamber |
6.67% | Axi A18 |
11.06% |
| Hornet Strike |
6.67% | Axi B7 |
11.06% | ||
| Serration |
6.67% | Axi D5 |
11.06% | ||
| Split Chamber |
6.67% | Axi G11 |
11.06% | ||
| Stabilizer |
6.67% | Axi L6 |
11.06% | ||
| Steel Fiber |
6.67% | Axi P6 |
11.06% | ||
| Stretch |
6.67% | Arrow Mutation |
3.76% | ||
| Neo A11 |
6.67% | Cleanse Infested |
3.76% | ||
| Neo F3 |
6.67% | Pistol Ammo Mutation |
3.76% | ||
| Neo K6 |
6.67% | Rifle Ammo Mutation |
3.76% | ||
| Neo K7 |
6.67% | Shotgun Ammo Mutation |
3.76% | ||
| Neo S18 |
6.67% | Sniper Ammo Mutation |
3.76% | ||
| Neo W1 |
6.67% | ||||
| Neo Z10 |
6.67% | ||||
Drop tables outdated? Readers can update Module:DropTables/data and cross reference with official drop tables on https://www.warframe.com/droptables.
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 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. Template:DisplayMissiontype
Notes
- 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.
- 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.
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.
- 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.
Media
Patch History
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.