Cryotic farming guide
Earth — Everest (Excavation)
Every completed excavator pays a flat 100 Cryotic regardless of mission level, so this low-level Grineer Excavation earns as much per dig as any endgame node while staying safe from the very start of the star chart; a Resource Booster silently doubles the payout (the in-mission counter still shows 100). Tikal, Earth’s Dark Sector Excavation, is an Infested alternative.
Boosters help: Resource Boosters and Smeeta Charm double the mission payout — drop-chance boosters do nothing here.
Pluto — Hieracon (Dark Sector Excavation)
The classic endgame spot: Cryotic is still 100 per dig, but the Dark Sector +35% resource drop chance boosts everything else the Infested drop, and reward rotations here also pay out Neo/Axi relics and Endo — a Cryotic, relic and Endo farm in one. Bring Frost, Gara or Limbo to keep excavators alive.
Boosters help: Resource Boosters and Smeeta Charm double the mission payout — drop-chance boosters only affect the side loot, not Cryotic.
Excavation Void Fissures (rotating nodes)
The Cryotic ceiling, out-earning even Hieracon: in an endless Excavation fissure every 200 Cryotic (2 digs) cracks a relic, and each cracked relic grants a stacking in-mission booster — the Resource Booster tier multiplies the Cryotic payout itself, climbing from 1.25x to a 2x cap, and it stacks with your account Resource Booster and Smeeta Charm. Prime parts and bonus relics come along for free.
Boosters help: the fissure’s stacking in-mission Resource Booster multiplies with your account booster and Smeeta Charm — drop-chance boosters do nothing for Cryotic.
How Cryotic works
Cryotic only comes from Excavation missions: every completed excavator pays a flat 100 Cryotic (1 per 1% of dig progress, so partial digs still count), and the amount never scales with mission level — a dig on Earth pays the same as one on Steel Path. A dig takes 100 seconds and burns four power cells (20 seconds each), carried by specific enemies you kill near the site.
Because it’s a mission payout rather than an enemy drop, only some boosters touch it: a Resource Booster doubles Cryotic (silently — the in-mission counter still shows 100) and a Smeeta Kavat’s Charm proc doubles it too, but Resource Drop Chance Boosters and blessings do nothing for it.
Early game
Everest on Earth (Excavation) is the easiest farm and pays exactly as much per dig as anything endgame. Keep one or two excavators running solo, feed them power cells, and extract whenever you’re done. Tikal, Earth’s Dark Sector Excavation, is a low-level Infested alternative with bonus credits.
Late game
Hieracon on Pluto (Dark Sector Excavation) is the classic answer: Cryotic is still 100 per dig, but the Dark Sector’s +35% resource drop chance boosts everything else the Infested drop, and reward rotations pay out Neo/Axi relics and Endo on top. Bring Frost, Gara or Limbo to keep excavators alive, and a Khora with Pilfering Strangledome if you want more power cells dropped.
The real ceiling, though, is an endless Excavation Void Fissure: every 200 Cryotic (two digs) cracks a relic, and each cracked relic grants a stacking in-mission booster. The Resource Booster tier multiplies the Cryotic payout itself — climbing from 1.25x to a 2x cap the longer you stay — and it stacks with your account Resource Booster and Smeeta Charm, so long runs earn 300+ Cryotic per dig while banking prime parts and bonus relics for free. Keep a single dig site active in fissures: Void Tear spawns are boosted when only one excavator runs, keeping Reactant flowing.