Icarus: Payday Extraction guide — The Fabricator and Exotic Extractor

After you’re done with the Waterfall Expedition in Icarus, you’ll unlock Payday Extraction. It’s one of the most time-consuming missions in the game since you’re expected to craft Tier 4 items. Here’s our Icarus guide to help you with Payday Extraction, the Fabricator, the Radar, Exotic Extractor, and Electronics.

Note: For more information, check out our Icarus guides and features hub.

Icarus: Payday Extraction guide – Crafting the Fabricator, Electronics, Radar, Extractor to farm more Exotics

The Payday Extraction mission in Icarus rewards 400 gold currency upon completion. Likewise, by default, it has a timer that lasts a week, and with good reason. It’ll take you a lot of hours just to farm the necessary materials before you can mine an underground Exotic deposit. Of course, if you’re playing with a group, then you won’t encounter too many issues (i.e., you can split up and have each player cover certain areas of the map). Sadly, it’s not tailor-fit for solo players, as the grind is quite atrocious.

Mining in caverns and open areas

The Fabricator is a Tier 4 blueprint in Icarus, which means you need to reach level 30 before you can unlock it. But, the materials will give you a headache. As such, we advise you to look for various caves in the region (just watch out for Cave Worms and the Pneumonia illness).

Examples within the vicinity include I10, J10, K14, L10, and M12. You’ll definitely need loads of iron, copper, aluminum, and, most especially, gold. As for silica ores, these are found in open areas.

Note: RNG plays a factor in whether cave openings are visible or not. If they aren’t, then you can use a pickaxe to destroy the odd-looking walls and reveal a passageway.

Everything you need for the Fabricator, Electronics, Radar, and Extractor in Icarus

Yes, you should still acquire some items that can help with survivability and combat, as well as any tech tree blueprints that are necessary. As for the list below, we’ll just focus on the resources and items that are needed for the Fabricator, Radar, and Extractor in Icarus.

Electronics (Tier 3/Machining Bench)

• 1x Refined Gold – Requires 2x Gold Ore and any type of Furnace.
• 3x Copper Ingot – Requires 2x Copper Ore and any type of Furnace.
• 2x Organic Resin – Requires 1x Wood and 1x Oxite; crafted using a Mortar and Pestle.
• 2x Epoxy – Requires 4x Crushed Bone or 2x Sulfur and 4x Tree Sap; crafted using a Mortar and Pestle.
• A lot of Electronics are needed for the remaining crafting blueprints.

Fabricator (Tier 4/Machining Bench)

• 60x Electronics – Discussed above.
• 8x Steel Ingot – Requires 1x Steel Bloom; crafted using a Concrete Furnace or Electric Furnace.
• 30x Steel Screw – Use the Machining Bench to turn 1x Steel Ingot into 100x Steel Screw.
• 40x Aluminum Ingot – Requires 1x Aluminum Ore; crafted using a Concrete Furnace or Electric Furnace.
• 30x Concrete Mix – Requires 8x Stone, 4x Silica, and 1x Tree Sap; crafted using a Cement Mixer.
  • Tree Sap – Requires 4x Stick; crafted using a Mortar and Pestle.
  • Cement Mixer – Requires 50x Wood, 40x Stone, 20x Iron Ingot, 8x Rope, and 8x Iron Nail; crafted using a Machinist Bench.
• 8x Carbon Fiber – Requires 1x Carbon Paste.
  • Carbon Paste – Requires 1x Silica, 1x Aluminum Ingot, 4x Organic Resin, and 2x Epoxy; crafted using a Mortar and Pestle.

Radar (Tier 4/Fabricator)

• 10x Electronics – Discussed above.
• 12x Steel Ingot
• 8x Steel Screw
• 2x Glass – Requires 1x Silica; crafted using a Concrete Furnace or Electric Furnace.
• 12x Composite – Requires 1x Composite Paste; crafted using an Electric Furnace. The Composite Paste blueprint is in the Tier 4 panel connected to the Material Processor.
  • Electric Furnace – Requires 60x Electronics, 30x Steel Ingot, 8x Steel Screw, 4x Glass, and 80x Concrete Mix. The Electric Furnace is crafted using the Fabricator. However, you have to unlock the Biofuel Generator as well since it needs power. This is discussed in detail in our Avalanche Expedition guide.
  • Composite Paste – Requires 2x Iron Ore, 1x Silica, 1x Organic Resin, and 1x Gold Ore; crafted using a Material Processor.
  • Material Processor – Requires 80x Electronics, 30x Aluminum Ingot, 12x Steel Screw, 8x Titanium Ingot, and 8x Carbon Fiber.

Extractor (Tier 4/Fabricator)

• 5x Electronics – Discussed above.
• 20x Iron Ingot – Requires 2x Iron Ore and any type of Furnace.

Note 1: If you’re soloing, do not, under any circumstances, craft both the Radar and Extractor at the same time (I’ll explain more below).

Note 2: Make sure you carry lots of wood and sticks as well. We’re going to need even more Tree Sap for Biofuel (I’ll also add details in a while).

Using the Radar and Extractor to find the Exotic deposit

Ideally, you’ll want your initial shelter/base of operations in the temperate/forest biome. This is where you’ll make the Fabricator and Radar (again, don’t build the Extractor yet). Anyway, let’s say you already crafted the Radar. Plop it down and activate it so it can begin scanning. A progress bar will appear on its small screen (seen in the image above). Once that’s done, open your map and you’ll see a circular outline with a yellow segment.

The yellow segment denotes the general direction of the Exotic deposit in the Payday Extraction mission in Icarus. The correct location is between J11 and J12 (seen in the image below). Put the Fabricator, Radar, and other fixtures in your inventory and travel there.

Once you reach that sector, deploy the Radar and do a scan. It will reveal an icon on the map, and you’ll see a strange marking on the ground. You can then build another mini-shelter nearby and deploy the Fabricator inside. This is when you should craft the Extractor so you can place it on the marked area.

Note: The reason why we don’t want to build both the Radar and Extractor at the same time is because they can only occupy the backpack (“G”) slot. If you crafted both while you’re further away from the correct location, then you’ll have to bring the Radar and scan there. Then, you’ll need to run back to pick up the Extractor. It’s quite a hassle.

Getting more Biofuel

But, we’re not done yet, we need to obtain Fuel, too. This is discussed further in our Fuel and Grenades guide. Here’s the gist in any case:

• Biofuel Can – You’ll want two or three of these.
• Biofuel Composter – This can be placed outside a shelter. Add the Biofuel Can, as well as hundreds of Tree Sap and a ton of wood or sticks, in the device’s slots. It can take several minutes for each Biofuel Can to get filled up.

Once a container is full, pick it up and open the Extractor’s interface. Place the Biofuel Can in the bottom slot and watch as stacks of Exotic ores get mined automatically. After getting around 197 Exotic ores, the Payday Extraction mission objective will get completed.

Note: You’re going to need five to six Biofuel Cans that are filled up to mine the entire deposit. You can always re-add the used containers in the Biofuel Composter.

Completing the Payday Extraction mission in Icarus

The Extractor should have around 197 Exotic ores. Go ahead and place them in your inventory. If you’re over-encumbered, throw away all the items you don’t need (i.e., crafting materials). Just bring a couple of weapons, as well as some cooked food, and run all the way back to the drop pod.

Sadly, the drop pod only has five slots (enough for 100 Exotic ores). However, you can click and drag the remaining stacks to your hotkeys. Once you escape the Payday Extraction mission in Icarus with all these Exotics (i.e., those in the dropship and those that are in your hotkeys), the currency amount will appear on your Workshop screen.

Note: Although the Payday Extraction mission in Icarus nets you almost 200 Exotic currency, it’s better to farm the Deep Vein Extraction mission. You won’t need to craft any Tier 4 item there, and you can simply rely on basic equipment.

Icarus is available via Steam. For more information, check out our guides and features hub.