Path of Idle Explore guide: treasure islands and Abyssal Scales
Explore is the targeted farm. Five treasure islands each pour out one resource, and you pick which one to enter. Every entry costs one Abyssal Scales, and Abyssal Scales drop from the campaign at a rate that never improves, so scales are the real limit on how much Explore you get to do.
Explore opens after you clear chapter 3, Scorched Wastes.
The five islands
| Island | Pays | Needs Explore level |
|---|---|---|
| Treasure Island, Gold | Gold | 1 |
| Treasure Island, Blood | Blood | 1 |
| Treasure Island, Bone | Bone | 1 |
| Treasure Island, Souls | Souls | 1 |
| Treasure Island, Rune | Rune pouches | 3 |
Every island is 5 enemy groups and grants 10 exploration experience. Alongside its signature resource, each one also drops equipment chests, gold and blood, so no island is a total loss when you needed something else.
The rune island is the one gated behind Explore level 3, and it is the only reliable way to target runes rather than waiting for a pouch to fall out of the campaign.
What the two currencies do
Abyssal Scales transport you to a chosen island. One scale, one entry.
The Gazing Eye locates treasure islands, which is what changes the set of islands on offer. If the board only shows resources you do not need, that is what the eye is for.
Both come from the same campaign drop rule, from chapter 3 onward, at a base 0.12% to 0.18% per roll. Inside that roll the split is weighted: roughly 77% Abyssal Scales, 23% Gazing Eye. The rate is identical in chapter 3 and chapter 20, so there is no chapter that farms scales faster. The farming guide has the full per chapter table.
Explore level rises on its own
Every island cleared grants 10 exploration experience, and the level goes up when you have enough. The enemy level of every island is fixed by your Explore level.
| Explore level | Enemy level | Experience to next |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 14 | 100 |
| 5 | 26 | 210 |
| 10 | 49 | 380 |
| 15 | 74 | 610 |
| 20 | 99 | none, this is the cap |
Explore starts at enemy level 14 even though it unlocks at the end of chapter 3, where campaign enemies are around level 14 as well. Enemy group power on every island is 80, against 60 on a regular campaign level and 50 on a campaign boss. Explore is harder per group than the campaign you unlocked it from.
Reaching level 20 costs 7,800 exploration experience in total, which is 780 island clears, which is 780 Abyssal Scales. That number explains why scales feel scarce: the mode is designed as a long drip, not a burst.
The practical consequence is that Explore gets harder the more you use it. If you are farming islands aggressively at a point where your team is barely keeping up, you are raising the enemy level of every future entry. There is no reason to rush the level; the resource payout is what you came for.
Where Explore fits
Use Explore when one specific resource is blocking you rather than as a general farm. Bone gates every town upgrade, blood gates the Temple, gold gates everything cheap and constant, and souls are how a benched hero catches up. The resource economy guide covers which of them actually stops you at each stage.
Keep your campaign team on the campaign and send a second team to islands when a slot is free. The islands are 5 groups against a campaign level’s 8, so a team that clears campaign levels comfortably will usually handle an island at the same enemy level.
If you cannot beat the current Explore level at all, that is the same diagnosis as any other wall: check the boss wall list, because the numbers behind it are identical.