20160527: Exploration 1_Home Cities and Lion's Arch

In Guild Wars 2, exploration is counted not by how much territory your character has walked on (or very, very near to), but on how many point locations have been reached and dealt with, namely

1. POI: Points of Interest, locations that GW2 marks as important. In the home cities, these points are safe to visit. Outside the cities, POI are often in areas that are dominated by fierce enemies. Your character many have to kill 1 or 5 or 20 enemies just to reach the POI.


2. WP: Waypoints, points that one may teleport to (for a fee) once you have reached the point by walking. Teleportation strictly within each individual home city (or Lion's Arch) is free, but travelling to any WP outside those areas costs your account in-game money. The further the teleport, usually, the greater the cost. Also, the higher your character's level, the greater the cost.


3. Views: a view is a location where the auxiliary function (the one actuated by pressing the letter F on your keyboard; has a golden gear by it) will activate with 'View.' Some views are easy to get to: just walk up to them when on the same height in the game surface. To reach other Views often requires climbing, sometimes together with jumping and finding particular routes that work.  After you see 'View' filled in for the value of the 'F' function, you have to press F to get credit.  Doing this invokes a cinematic which shows local activity in a 3D, panoramic style.


4. Tasks (marked by a golden heart): are offered by a local NPC outside the cities.  After performing some work for the NPC (collecting items, killing enemy NPCs, destroying enemy structures, protecting something or another), your character gets in-game money and karma points.  Also, the NPC then becomes a merchant who sells items for karma points.  


5. Heroic Challenges: one speaks to an NPC, or communes with a relic, or fights a veteran NPC or whatever. Your skills will be challenged moderately or significantly. For some of the harsher challenges, wait for another live player or two to help with the fighting.


6. As of 27may2016, there were
   303 Tasks,
   189 Hero Challenges,
   486 Waypoints,
   226 Views, and
   652 POI
   to reach and complete in Tyria, for the entire game, that is.  If my addition is correct, that's 1856 points in Tyria.  


7. To get your exploration percentage to go up by one percent, one needs to reach 18.56 points (that is, 18 or 19, depending on rounding).

For beginners in particular, it's good to start with the home cities so as to gain experience and to have the WP active.

1. Divinity's Reach (Human)
1. DR is in a wheel structure, with a spoke for each of the six Gods.
2. DR has vertical three layers that go through the wheel structure.
3. There's a WP for each God where the spokes meet the perimeter of DR.
4. Offices of the Queen, the high military, bankers, and politicians tend to be toward the centre of the wheel and up.


2. Hoelbrak (Norn, really large humans)
1. Hoelbrak is a sprawling city, with a large central structure, plus buildings for each of the four totem animals (raven, wolf, bear, snow leopard).


3. The Black Citadel (Charr, the cat people)
   12 WP, 5 Views, 17 POI
1. This is one of the ugliest hell holes I have seen in video gaming.
2. The Citadel has three layers.
3. Top: the command offices of the Ash Tribune Quarters, the Command Core (includes Iron Tribune Quarters), and the Blood Tribune Quarters are on this layer.  Access them through instances.  These contain several POI; make sure to root them all out.
4. Middle: has plenty of twists and turns and ins and outs, plus a few instances to visit.
5. Bottom: just a few points to pick up; it's very crowded and oppressive.


4. The Grove (Sylvari, the plant people)
1. The Grove has four layers, with elevators and ramps to get from one layer to another.


5. Rata Sum (Asuri, the rat people):
   9 WP, 5 Views, 19 POI
1. Rata Sum has four layers in the main cube, plus outliers not in the main cube.
2. The outliers have to be reached via gates or instances.
1. Snaff Memorial Lab: 1 POI
2. Rata Sum Port Authority: 2 POI, 1 WP, 1 View
3. Idea Incubation Lab: 1 POI, 1 WP
4. Applied Development Lab: 1 POI


3. Top level: 1 POI
4. Second Level: 1 View, several POI, 3 Waypoints
5. Third Level: 1 View (at the cooking station); several POI and WP.
6. Fourth Level, bottom: 2 Views; several POI and WP.


6. Lion's Arch (hub city; connects home cities and many other locations)
   13 WP, 11 Views, 25 POI
1. Every home city has an Asura gate that connects to Lion's Arch.  One should find this early on and test it out.  That is, go to LA, see what's there, and return home.
2. LA is a full-featured city, with crafting stations, a bank, a Trading centre, a laurel merchant, and Asura gates to the Mists.