Guild Wars 2

So I’m stuck at the lucky 175/178 for the human explorer achievement and I would appreciate any tips hints or tricks. I’ve already gotten the Chantry of Secrets so no worries there. Also all of the zones that count for it are 100%.

Krytan Explorer and similar count for “[Map Area] Discovered”, and has nothing to do with POIs, Skill Points, Hearts and Vistas. So even if you have “100% Complete” on a map, doesn’t mean you have discovered all the “unmarked” areas. My instinct says that you missed some caves here and there.

Adding on to Ojimaru’s post, check all the jumping puzzle areas, as many (but not all) will trigger a map discovery, and add a count to the achievements. There are also sometimes small areas hidden in corners, or as said, caves, that have no jumping puzzles and no PoI/Vista/etc map completion element.

Do these unmarked areas count towards total world exploration, or do you get the reward for just 100% on all related maps?

Mungrul.9358:

Do these unmarked areas count towards total world exploration, or do you get the reward for just 100% on all related maps?

Two things.

100% map completion involves getting all of the Points of Interest, Vistas, Skill Points, Hearts, and Waypoints on all six town areas, all of the PvE maps, the four WvW maps (the Borderlands all count as separate), and the PoI in the entrance of the Order of Whispers instance (Deadend Cave waypoint in Bloodtide Coast).

Those will give you a star beside your name, and two Gifts of Exploration.

The achievement works off of the parts of the map you opened up, which is most likely just a sum of the achievements like Maguuma Explorer, Kryta Explorer, and the like. Those you must fill out by opening up areas without some 100% completion element, such as a corner of a map, some jumping puzzles, and obscure caves.

Walking into Shaman’s Rookery (jumping puzzle in the Norn starter area Wayfarer’s Foothills), for instance, which has no 100% completion element, will open a new part of the map and add one to your Shiverpeaks Explorer achievement. This presumably will also help your “Been There Done That” achievement as well.

What I do not know, as mentioned earlier and elsewhere, is if unlocking areas in dungeons count for the Been There Done That achievement.

Thanks Sarisa, that helps to clarify things for me making me realise that I should only need to finish off Eternal Battlegrounds and I’ll be done.
Hopefully I’ll be done tonight
It also makes me wonder if there’s a further reward for 100%ing everything in the Explorer pane…

I’m also stuck at 175. I did the every area listed in the wiki, including every jumping puzzle. I was at 175 before doing CM and it didn’t change, so I don’t think that dungeons count.

Just to report, I did indeed finish this last night. Map completion includes all PvE areas and all WvWvW areas, but does NOT include SPVP, Heart of the Mists or dungeons. It also does not necessarily include those areas you wander into that say “You have discovered xyz”, as I still have only 98% map completed on the login screen and several areas left undiscovered in the Explorer section of the Achievements panel.

So, to clarify, you need all Waypoints, POIs, heart quests and skillpoints in all PvE areas, the 3 WvWvW Borderlands maps (even though all 3 are essentially identical) and Eternal Battlegrounds. This is all.

Do not worry if your exploration bars are not complete. These are not accurate indicators of progress towards the reward.

Jumping puzzles are NOT required to get the reward.

A massive tip for getting things in WvWvW areas is to utilise the currently free server transfers if things you want to get to are currently in enemy territory.