Cryotic is a special resource in Warframe. It won’t drop from enemies, and it doesn’t show up in many loot tables. Cryotic is tied to a specific mission type in the form of Excavation, and this is the best way to get it. The Excavation mission is all about protecting Excavators that are digging for Cryotic. It is an endless mission, with rotations that last five minutes. At the end of each five-minute rotation, you will get a reward of Cryotic and a random drop from the rotation loot table.
How To Farm Cryotic
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To farm Cryotic, you need to play Excavation missions and protect the Excavator until it has completed its task. You will see a marker on the screen showing you where the Excavator is. Once you get within range, it will activate, and you will need to defend it from enemies. The Excavator has a shield value, and a health value, and takes 100 seconds to finish digging. The shields will recharge, but the Extractor’s health will not. When it begins, the Excavator will not be fully charged. You need to kill enemies that carry energy modules and bring them to the Excavator. This will charge the Excavator with another 20 seconds worth of charge. It will take four energy modules to fully charge the device.
If the Excavator finishes a cycle, you will get 100 Cryotic. If it is destroyed, you will get an amount equal to the number of seconds the Excavator was digging for. It is possible to have multiple Excavators active at once, which is normally how veteran players will run the mission. Once the first rotation is finished, you can choose to extract, or just stay for more rotations. Your rewards will simply stack until you extract.
You can find Excavation missions at the following locations:
- Everest on Earth
- Kiliken on Venus
- Augustus on Mars
- Valefor on Europa
- Despina on Neptune
Because Cryotic does not drop from enemies, it cannot be affected by abilities like Desecrate or Pilfering Swarm. It can be affected by Smeeta’s Charm or the double resource booster. The best Warframes to use are similar to other defense-style missions. Gara and Frost will excel at this mission type, due to their ability to place strong shields. Each of them can easily defend an Extractor on their own.