I would be very grateful if you could please shed some light on exploration xp because it's been a real source of frustration for a few characters now. It really doesn't make sense to me.

I go to areas of my level (area is, say, 20-30 and I'm 25), and I get nothing. I go to such areas both with and without aggro mobs. I get nothing. I go to areas above my level and get nothing (lots of observation xp sometimes, but zero exploration xp).

A couple examples, I went to the ruins of the deep, fought lots of old mobs (fled away), went all around, and got nothing. Same for the vast majority of places I've gone with characters in the teens and 20s.

Could you please, pretty pretty pretty please, give some guidance on what I'm doing wrong? What the parameters are??? A really big thank you!

Not all areas have Exploration XP or as much as other areas do. This often boils down to their age, with areas that have existed since before the feature went in often not having been retrofitted. It's as simple as that.

Thank you for explaining that. Could I trouble you please for a bit more, in response to what people below say or what I suggested? Discretely:

Does level of area matter? If so, how?

Does level of pc matter? If so, how?

As to those, the most important is really is there some way you can screw yourself by going too young or too old, when it comes to exploration xp, such as going at level 33 when area is listed as 35-51, or too old, such as going at 33 and area is listed as 15-30?

These are really the things that worry me, please. Thank you again.

I feel like you need to look in the rooms to get credit and having brief mode off makes that automatic.

Room description items have minor concequences on observation points. I just stopped looking at them, and noticed almost no difference.

With exploration there are certain key rooms in each area that you need to enter to get the exploration XP. You could visit an area and not get anything if you missed the correct room. I think often times the rooms are places of significance (i.e. big mob rooms) in the area or hidden rooms. Running through the common parts of the area usually won't help.

There are also level requirements for certain exploration points. I believe that some only count if you hit them prior to reaching a certain level while others don't count until you have reached a certain level and maybe some have a combination of both. A good basic rule to follow is it is best to be in PK range and stay away from the big time areas until after about 35 (I could be wrong on this level threshold).

It's a challenge to learn the points, there is no doubt, because you can only discuss with your guild master every so often. Much of it comes with experience and educated guessing.

It's best to take good notes and be thorough when you go through an area. Also pay attention to when you do receive explore exp and were not expecting it. Try to think back to where you went during that log in for the first time.

One thing I did to learn more about the process was I took a lowbie between levels 15-20 and went through a handful of lower level areas. I timed myself in each area and went through the area as thoroughly as possible while doing it as efficiently as possible. I then took note of which areas I got explore xp from and how much. Doing this will take you some time, trial and error and evaluation because you aren't always able to discuss guildmaster after every area. It will start to give you an idea where to go and where to avoid.

What I learned from it was pretty helpful. I found that there were a ton of areas I could go to get explore exp that I did not know about before. Even if it's only 200-300 points it adds up - especially if the area doesn't take a lot of time to go through. It is certainly not as difficult as people make it out to be. The exercise itself took a ton of time but it has paid dividends for me with future characters as I now have a solid list of areas that give xp and how much time it takes to go through them. I can choose an efficient way to gather a significant amount of explore xp.

Pretend there are no edges and no edge points. Get your 2 must have edges for heroing and don't look back.

With my current I have a ton of edge points and can't think of the three or four I want. So I run with tons of edge points and no edges.

P.S. I blame Umiron.

Aim for the special places in those areas, not the areas themselves. It's specific (hard to get to, hidden, boss monster) rooms that give exploration exp.