The Do's And Don'ts Of Excavation

[TheArchAngel]

This is mainly to give players the basic know-how for Excavation missions (a.k.a Cryotic Front event)
I felt like this was needed since some players tend to go in blind and start screwing things over, and while I suspect said players may not read the forums, hopefully this will enlighten those who do. Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Zones/Tilesets : There are 3 locations for this event, the first being in Earth where it's advised you reach up to 500 and then extract. After that the next location (Phobos) will be unlocked, do the 1000 point mark there and finally Europa will unlock and there you can finish up the event requirement. The reason being Earth only drops 100 per excavation, Phobos drops 200 per excavation whereas Europa drops 300 per excavation.

Energy/ Power Cells: These are dropped from special units in every excavation mission, these are the bread and butter of your scanner and your excavators. Without them your scanner won't have power to locate excavation sites while your excavator won't be able to... well, excavate. Each cell restores 20% of power and 1% of power decreases every 1 second, meaning 1 energy cell equates to 20 seconds worth. The UI will show energy levels on the left side of your screen. Note that you have to physically pick them up and carry them back to the scanner/excavator. Similar to deception missions, you'll only have your secondary/melee while carrying and can only carry one at a time.

Scanner : it's the first objective you have to do, find the scanner. However, the scanner does NOT need to be defended, enemies do not attack the scanner and the only thing you need to do is supply it with energy cells to locate sites for excavation. You don't have to continuously feed it power cells, unless you want more excavation sites listed. The UI on your left hand side shows it's power levels and time left until a new excavation site is located.

Excavators : THIS is the objective you have to defend, same with the scanner, you need to supply it with energy. However, enemies attack the excavators. I have seen some players run to the excavator, activate it and run to the other side of the map and start up another one. For the UI, once you reach a zone and activate it, it will pop up on the left side on your screen with power levels, HP bar and time till it's finished excavating. Each excavator will be marked with alphabets (i.e A, B, C) and will be shown on your mini-map as well, so do keep an eye on it if you have multiple ones active so as to bring energy cells where needed. Also don't stand in the center of the glowing circle... "hey guys what's that whistling noi- CRUNCH" - weirdee, 2014
 

Heat generators : This is only in Europa, in the new ice planet tileset. I have seen players destroying them and in under no circumstances whatsoever should you destroy them. Why? The heat generators provide heat(duh) and when you destroy said heat generator, your shields will slowly take damage and subsequently your health. They take a good amount of damage before being destroyed, so there's rarely a need to defend them since enemies do not attack them and usually only stray bullets hit them.
 

Pro tip #1 : For the event, it's easier to hit the 1k point mark in Phobos and then the 3k point mark in Europa rather than powering through Earth or Phobos. Since it drops 300 cryotics per excavation as opposed to the 100 / 200 respectively.

 

Pro tip #2 : For farming Cryotics, currently cryotics is obtainable only by playing the excavation missions, take note that you get half the amount of the total cryotics you and your team excavate. (i.e team excavates 1000 cryotics, you will receive 500 when you extract)

 

Pro tip #3 : it is possible to run more than one excavator, the problem will be defending them. Teamwork and management is key to running multiple at once. In my experience, I ran with a team of 4 with my friends and there will be always at least 2 players at every one excavator, sometimes up to 3/4 at a time.

Pro tip #4 : Managing energy levels, you don't need to continuously supply energy cells to the excavators, 1% of energy is lost every second. Let's say Excavator A has 60 seconds to go till it's finished, all you need is 60 seconds worth of energy cells, so basically you only need to place 3 energy cells to Excavator A.

 

TL:DR
Don't need to power through Earth : reach the first 500 in earth, extract and Phobos will be unlocked, there it drops 200 per successful excavation, reach the 1000 mark there, lastly Europa will be unlocked with 300 drop per successful excavation.

 

In Summary :-

Earth (100) - do 5 successful excavations [500 mark reached] unlocks Phobos

Phobos (200) - do 5 again [1000 mark reached] unlocks Europa

Europa (300) - this time it's 10 [3000 mark reached]

Scanner:
Do -
1) Supply it with energy
2) Needed to locate excavation sites
Don't - 
1) Defend it

Excavators:
Do -
1) Supply it with energy ( no need to continuously supply it, just enough that the energy level is equal to or above the time needed)
2) Defend it (it's the main reason you even went into the mission)
Don't -
1) Leave it alone after activating it

Heat Generators(Only in Europa):
Do - 
1) Leave it the **** alone
Don't -
2) Destroy it, EVER.

Edit : For clarity and mistakes
Edit 2 : Added pro tips and zone/tileset

Edited August 30, 2014 by TheArchAngel

[Naftal]

The excavators won't recharge shields after they've lost all their shields. You can fill their shields by using a power cell, so depending on situation it may be useful to give more power to excavators than they need to complete it without getting fired at.

 

I mostly play as solo so replenishing 500 shields for one power core is very useful to get that full 150 cryotic (300 points in europa) per excavator.

Edited August 31, 2014 by Naftal