Explore Mode

Explore Mode is a mini-game located in every Kingdom. The battles are all against troops from that Kingdom.. The rewards include Tokens and an increased chance of getting a rarer Traitstone in comparison to other types of battles.

Overview

To Explore in a Kingdom, that Kingdom must be unlocked and the main quest line must be completed. Class Quests do not need to be completed to start Explore for that Kingdom. After that, Explore can be accessed from the Kingdom's main menu.

Explore Runs

Explore Runs consist of 5-6 Battles and contain the following phases:

1. Difficulty: First choose the difficulty on which to attempt the Explore Run.
2. Explore: You will need to win 4 Explore battles to progress to the Mini-Boss Battle. These battles will not contain any Troops higher than Epic base rarity.
3. Mini-Boss: You will fight against a Mini-Boss (always a Kingdom Legendary), no other troops than the Mini-Boss will be Legendary. Explore Runs will end here unless you have collected 100 Mythstones.  If you lose the Mini-Boss battle, you will only gain half the amount of Mythstones compared to if you had won.
4. Mythic Boss: Winning the Mini-Boss Battle and having 100 Mythstones will allow you to battle against the Mythic Boss. The Mythic Boss will always be a Mythic Kingdom troop (which will be the only Mythic troop on the team). Defeating it will grant the Boss Chest.
5. Boss Chest: If you defeat the Mythic Boss you can open the Boss Chest to earn some Tokens.

Your Explore run will end if one of the following conditions are met:

1. You have fought the Mini-Boss and you have less than 100 Mythstones
2. You have fought the Mythic Boss and lost
3. You have fought the Mythic Boss, won and opened the boss Chest
4. You have retreated a Mini-Boss or Mythic Boss battle
5. You have retreated from or lost a normal Explore Run battle and have chosen to end the Explore Run.

This provides you ways of ending the Explore Run if the difficulty you've chosen is too hard.

Mimics in Explore Runs

You may encounter some mischievous mimics during your Explore run. After defeating a Mythic Boss, there is a chance that the Boss Chest may actually be a Mimic, triggering a new battle. Defeating the Mimic Battle will upgrade the Boss Chest to a Mimic Boss Chest which will multiple the number of tokens received by 2.

When opening a Mimic Boss Chest there is a chance it may be a Hoard Mimic, a new Mythic Troop. Defeating the Hoard Mimic Battle will upgrade the Boss Chest to a Hoard Mimic Boss Chest which will multiply the number of tokens received by 5. The Hoard Mimic Boss Chest also has a very rare chance to drop a copy of the Hoard Mimic Troop. 

Both battles against the Mimic and Hoard Mimic in Explore will be based on the highest difficulty the player has unlocked, rather than the currently set difficulty of the Explore Run. If a player loses the battle against either the Mimic or Hoard Mimic, they will receive the rewards from the last earned Boss Chest.

Explore Bonus

At any time, a number of Kingdoms will be marked for an Explore Bonus. This gives them 20% bonus Mythstones.

Kingdoms with an Explore Bonus are marked with an orange lantern icon and the bonus will be written on the Explore button in the Kingdom's menu.

 

Once you've completed an Explore run in a Kingdom with an Explore bonus, the Bonus will be removed from this Kingdom and moved to a different Kingdom.

Tip: Your Mythstones for all Kingdoms are shared, so Mythstones you earn in 1 Kingdom will be added to your Mythstone tally for all Kingdoms. This allows you to chase the Explore Bonus and earn Mythstones in any Kingdom and then use the Mythstones to fight the Mythic Boss in the Kingdom of your choosing to target a specific Arcane Traitstone.

Earning Traitstones

The Traitstones that can be earned are all Traitstones matching the Arcane Traitstone shown in the image on the Explore button.

For Example, in Broken Spire you can find:

Minor, Major and Runic Earth and Water Traitstones as well as Arcane Shield Traitstones (Blue/Brown) and Celestial Traitstones.

There is an increased chance of earning rarer Traitstones in Explore:

• Runic Traitstones have a x2 chance
• Arcane Traitstones have a x3 chance
• Celestial Traitstones have a x3 chance
• There is an increased chance to find Arcane Traitstones when fighting the Mini-Boss
• There is a guaranteed chance to find an Arcane Traitstone when fighting the Mythic Boss

This article lists where to find specific rare Traitstones. Some can be found in multiple Kingdoms.

Like all games with collectable elements, from Magic The Gathering to Pokemon Go, there is a chance to get lucky when getting new things, and (unfortunately) a chance to get unlucky too. While it might be normal to get, say, 4 in 80 Arcane Traitstones from Explore, sometimes you will get 6, but other times you may get zero.

Explore mode is one of the two best ways to target specific Traitstones, besides the Soulforge. Alternatively, you can accumulate Glory - some Weekly Event Troops may come on offer in the Shop for Glory rewards where you can also obtain Arcane Traitstones.