Atlas of Discovery FAQ

Congratulations on your purchase of the Atlas of Discovery Expansion. If you have questions about this expansion then you are in the right place. Also, why not check out the general FAQs?

Here are other platforms to find more Melvor information and community:

Cartography

Q: When should I start Cartography?

A: The Atlas of Discovery Expansion is intended to be started alongside the base game and many of the discoveries you uncover along the way will benefit your progression towards both the expansion and the base game. The Throne of the Herald Expansion, on the other hand, is very much a late game expansion, although having both will overall benefit your experience in many unexpected ways.

If you have nearly completed the base game before starting this expansion, then some of the early challenges may seem slightly easier. If you start everything together, then some of the unique bonuses and secrets you discover will give you advantages that help progress the game quicker.

Q: Where in the Map of Melvor should I visit first?

A: The Map of Melvor contains plenty of secrets to be discovered along the way, and some tiles contain bonuses that can help unlock more of the lore behind Melvor. Remember that Melvor Idle is very much about the journey rather than the destination, so take your time and soak in the lore of Melvor.

If you are looking to explore Melvor at your own pace (which is highly recommended) then go ahead and follow your instinct. There really is no wrong way to play Melvor Idle!

However, if you are just looking to level up the skill more quickly then check out Cartography/Training for some clues (and perhaps spoilers) on how to train this skill.

Whichever path you take, you will want to unlock everything that you can find.

Q: How does Surveying work?

A: Before you can access any hex (beyond the starting tile) you must first survey it. Most Hexes will require 108 actions before they are surveyed. Some tiles contain Points of Interest (POI) and are marked with a or a icon (if you are seeing a icon then this could be either). These Points of Interest will require up to 864 actions to survey before they can be fully Discovered.

You will not be able to Discover any hex unless you have completed this initial survey. Similarly, you will not be able to survey tile that are hidden behind the unsurveyed Hex tiles. The exception to this is when you are using Auto Survey.

Q: What does the Auto Survey button do?

A: Auto survey is a feature that allows you to survey the entire map while idling. To use it, you must first choose a tile within your survey range (at the start this will be at most one Hex from your current position). After starting Auto Survey the tile you clicked will start to be surveyed, and a queue of up to 9 tiles will be automatically added. The new tiles will form an anti-clockwise pattern spreading out from your starting point, and may extend into regions that are beyond your normal survey limit.

You can stop auto-surveying at any time by either clicking on the "Stop" button, or by performing any other skill (apart from township or farming). However, to restart auto-surveying you must first click on an unsurveyed tile that is within your survey region. It is therefore not recommended that you stop auto-survey once it is running unless you intend to restart it in a new position, or are willing to travel to a new hex.

Auto Survey will attempt to survey all of the map tiles, but certain tiles may not be revealed unless other requirements are met. It is therefore not recommended that you use auto-survey until you have uncovered a good portion of the map manually. Also, if you are playing in game modes such as Ancient Relic Mode then it is strongly advised that you only use auto-survey when you are sufficiently levelled with XP multipliers.

Q: Why do some tiles not let me survey them?

A: Each tile has a minimum skill level needed to survey them, and so some tiles will not be available to you until your skill in Cartography has been sufficiently levelled up. Furthermore, some tiles are only available after a condition has been met.

If you look around and keep exploring you will discover the secrets for unlocking all of Melvor's map.

If you are in a hurry, then check out the Cartography Guide for how to unlock all of the hidden tiles.

Q: Why does the travel route not always select the quickest path?

A: Each tile has a (hidden) cost and the game algorithm has been designed to select the lowest possible cost, however, this is not always the shortest and most direct route. The travel costs can be expensive, especially early on or if travelling longer distances, but as time progresses you should start to unlock bonuses that help reduce the cost of travel.

More exotic locations (typically those with a higher Survey XP cost) will cost more to travel to/from, and certain obstacles such as water or forest can increase the cost of travel. Overall, however, if you are finding the travel costs to be too high then perhaps consider unlocking other skills first.

Q: What does the '?' at the top of the screen mean?

A: When you finish surveying a Point-of-interest (POI) tile, a modal dialog will appear asking if you would like to Travel to the site of interest, or View it later. If you choose View Later, the button will be added to the top of your screen allowing you to discover the missed POIs at a later time.

The Undiscovered Point of Interest dialog

When you click on Travel Now, you will be instantly transported to the POI. If you have multiple POIs then you will be taken to one, which may not necessarily be the POI that you have just surveyed.

Q: What do ports do exactly?

A: Some hexes that you survey will show a icon to indicate that they are a friendly port. Ports allow free travel when two or more have been discovered. The Travel path will try to select the lowest cost path, which will often include jumps between these ports you have discovered.

Q: How do the passive benefits work?

A: Some Points of Interest will have a icon on them, and these hexes will give location specific bonuses. If you select the hex and click Show Details you can see exactly what benefits or perks this Hex provides. To get these benefits you must first travel to the hex and while you remain there your subsequent actions will gain those passive buffs.

Q: Are there any risks in exploring?

A: The vast majority of Melvor is a peaceful land, so you should feel safe exploring unknown territory. There might be some hexes with negative buffs, but the vast majority of the secrets will be positive. That said, there are certain tiles that you should be wary of. For example, some Hex tiles will give you temporary buffs that expire after a limited number of travels. These buffs can often be stacked for greater effect, and so it is a good idea to delay discovering POI tiles until you are in a position to navigate the lands more freely.

Without giving away too many spoilers, lighthouses often lead to a temporary bonus which can be stacked. Conversely, dig sites and ports offer permanent benefits, and so are great to discover early. The temporary bonuses are only activated when you travel to the hex and do not get automatically applied after you finish surveying. You can learn more about Points of Interest in the main

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Cartography section.

Archaeology FAQs

Q: How do I unlock maps and dig sites?

A: To progress

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Archaeology, you must first start to explore the map in

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Cartography. When you explore this map you will unlock Dig sites, and when you discover these POIs you will gain one map that unlocks a dig site. Some dig sites and points-of-interest will also need you to be a certain skill-level before they will allow you to excavate. For example, you can easily increase your

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Archaeology XP by excavating the Dig sites that can be found close to your starting position in

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Cartography. Hopefully this will be enough to to get you started on your journey.

As you progress, there will be opportunities to gain up to four Extra Archaeology Map Slot (upgrade). Each new slot that you open allows you to add another map, but at a lower tier than the starting map. These extra slots allow you to idle this skill for longer periods which will become necessary as you progress in this skill.

Q: Help! My map is exhausted!

A: You first map in a new Dig sites is always free and has the "excellent" tier, but like all maps, it is limited to a fixed number of excavation actions. When these are exhausted your dig site will no longer let you excavate that site, however, if you navigate to

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Cartography you should see a button called "Create Dig Site Maps". Clicking on this will open a dialog that allows you to create new maps or upgrade/refine existing maps. The upgrades will need paper and the refinements will need an increasing amount of .

Your next map will be a poor quality unless you choose to upgrade it, which is highly recommended. When you upgrade a map it will increase in Tier until the maximum, which is "Perfect". It is highly recommended that you upgrade maps because the higher tiers give you more excavate actions, and will also increase your chances of finding rare and legendary items.

If your previous map had refinements, then these will also be lost when your map becomes exhausted. Furthermore, you can also upgrade your free map from Excellent to Perfect tier which gives even more benefits.

Q: Where do I find paper for upgrading maps?

A: Paper is relatively easy to come by. You can get it by:

Using the "Create Paper" tab in the "Create Dig Site Maps" dialog in
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Cartography (you will need trees to make paper)
Try to get paper as a bonus by unlocking certain locations in
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Cartography
Completing certain township tasks will unlock large bundles of Paper

In general, if you explore the

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Cartography skill then it is likely that you will find paper easy to come by.

Q: Is there a way to speed up Excavating?

A: Yes. The default time per action is 4 seconds per action, however, there are various shop purchases and hidden unlocks for getting this time down. See here for the full list of

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Archaeology unlocks.

Each time you perform an excavate action, the available actions will decrease

Q: What do the Artefact Values mean?

A: Good question! In general lower is better, and you can decrease this number by upgrading or refining maps, or by using a higher tier tool. The chance of success can be calculated using this Equation.

Q: Is there a best choice for map refinements?

A: Not really, however in general being able to get a minimum of 2 items is quite a useful add on as it is beneficial to donate all items (including rare or legendary) the first time that you discover them. Similarly, focussing on one outcome (such as improving large finds) is better than trying to refine the map for all eventualities.

Maps have a limited lifetime and you will gradually use up all of you when exploring

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Archaeology. It is normally best to choose map refinements that benefit you in the near term. For example, early on you might want to consider the benefits of levelling up your archaeology tools with a shop-purchase, or maybe collecting rare items such as the Old Spyglass. But later in the game, you might be interested in collecting 'generic' items so that you can increase your pool of Museum Tokens.