Excavation missions are endless missions where players deploy Excavators to dig up Cryotic, a resource hidden beneath the ground, while defending them from waves of enemies.
Each Excavator must be protected from enemy attacks while it completes its digging cycle, requiring players to coordinate and respond quickly to threats around the site.
The challenge comes from managing multiple Excavators at once, keeping them powered and defended, and surviving increasingly tougher enemies as the mission continues.
Excavation Mechanics
Mission Start
Excavation missions begin as soon as the squad loads into the node, and the first dig site is marked on the minimap by the Lotus.
Players travel to the site and deploy the Excavator, which immediately starts digging and must be defended from nearby enemies.
Additional dig sites appear as Excavators complete their cycles or are destroyed, and squads can have up to three active Excavators at once if they defend them properly.
Objectives
Players must travel to objective markers to call down Excavators, which begin digging for Cryotic once deployed.
Squads must defend each Excavator from enemy attacks while collecting Power Cells dropped by Power Carrier enemies and delivering them to the machines to restore shields and energy.
Excavators that reach 100 % completion grant full Cryotic rewards, while those destroyed early give Cryotic based on how much progress they had made…
Excavator Health
Excavators have shields and health that players must defend while they dig for Cryotic, and delivering Power Cells restores shields and energy but does not heal lost health.
Enemy waves continuously target Excavators, requiring squads to eliminate threats quickly while maintaining coverage across all active machines.
If an Excavator is destroyed before finishing its dig, players still receive Cryotic based on the percentage of progress completed, so even partial defense contributes to rewards.
The Shadowgrapher update added brief invulnerability and shield gating, making Excavators more durable and reducing the pressure on squads during extended missions.
Power Cells
Power Cells are dropped by Power Carrier enemies, who visibly carry them on their bodies, and must be picked up and delivered to Excavators to restore shields and maintain digging.
Delivering a Power Cell allows the Excavator to continue digging and ensures players earn full Cryotic rewards from completed cycles.
Carrying a Power Cell limits players to melee or secondary weapons, and swapping to a primary weapon will drop the cell, so movement and positioning must be careful.
Coordinating Power Cell deliveries between multiple Excavators is essential, as letting any machine run out of power halts digging and reduces the total Cryotic earned.
List of Excavation Missions
Mission | Location | Faction | Level | Map Tileset |
Everest | Earth | Grineer | 1 – 6 | Grineer Forest |
| Kiliken | Venus | Corpus | 3 – 8 | Corpus Outpost |
Tikal (Dark Sector) | Earth | Infested | 6 – 16 | Grineer Forest |
| Augustus | Mars | Grineer | 9 – 14 | Grineer Settlement |
Valefor | Europa | Corpus | 18 – 23 | Corpus Ice Planet |
| Cholistan (Dark Sector) | Europa | Infested | 23 – 33 | Corpus Ice Planet |
Mines of Karishh | Europa | Corpus | 25 – 30 | Corpus Ice Planet |
| Despina | Neptune | Corpus | 27 – 32 | Corpus Outpost |
Hieracon (Dark Sector) | Pluto | Infested | 35 – 45 | Corpus Outpost |
Verdict
Excavation missions are a solid way to farm Cryotic and other resources, with different planets and nodes offering slightly different rewards.
The challenge ramps up as more Excavators are deployed and enemies grow tougher, so staying organized and keeping machines powered is key to success.
These missions reward coordination and endurance, making them a reliable choice for squads who want steady resources while staying engaged in action-packed combat.
