AGAIN disclosure this is copypasted raw from my guide I wrote to my future self so apologies for the mess
GENERAL EXPLORE KNOWLEDGE
1. CP is EVERYTHING. It is more important than BE. In descending order is how I would rank how important CP is on an explore wolf: battle, stealth, agility, resolve, wisdom, luck, composure, (dominance), perception. Battle is in charge of damage, stealth is in charge of finding and tracking prey which will be the bulk of the money you make, agility will enable your wolf to dodge attacks, resolve will help your wolf hit more often, wisdom will help you dodge sandpits and help track down prey as well as succeed quite a lot of encounters, luck helps you turn up relics in explore, composure is lesser known to help wolves hit/dodge in explore, and perception is just good to have in general in case. The rest you can decide for yourself. CP enables your wolf to find prey, items, and most importantly be able to SURVIVE LONGER in explore. A longer lifespan in explore will save you a lot of money on healing. Do not feel afraid to invest! Because it all comes back, so long as your wolves are properly equipped for the explore levels they enter.
2. If you have battle order set to "Least XP", wolves who have the highest BE score tend to show up the most in encounters and vice versa with "Most XP", so use this to your advantage. If you’re low on money and don’t have enough to flesh out all your wolves just yet, you can fill the fields of your two-three highest BE wolves. But to ensure a high success rate, you should at least max battle and stealth of all your exploring wolves.
3. The best two terrains to explore for mush are forest (spring and summer), and jungle (all year round), in that order.
Forest is a gamble because if you get a low enemy score you may not be able to make the 2x profit quota (you should be making twice the amount of explore moves you expend), however it is super easy on your wolves’ health, and it takes less time to get through the level due to the enemies being weaker. It also makes slightly more than jungle if you continuously get enemy counts ~50+. During the FMC, if you are lucky in forest during spring and summer this can enable you to shoot up to 10k in the first few hours.
Jungle is more reliable, but very perilous. When you get to the higher levels you should expect to be getting 60+ enemies regularly, which is why jungle will steadily let you reach the 2x quota. However, the enemies and prey have high flee rates, and do an unholy amount of damage for a small payout. If you’re going to explore in here, avoid elephants altogether, and only attack water buffalo if there is just the one (if you’re ballsy maybe even two). Due to the higher enemy count it also takes longer to get through jungle levels.
4. If you can afford it, it is highly recommended to have one explore team, and then a bunch of what I like to call BAR wolves. These wolves have their Battle, Agility, and Resolve maxed and nothing else, which ends up saving you moneys. They function exclusively to take down the tougher enemies so that your precious explore team can continue on, which is extremely helpful when going against volatile enemies like crocodiles who pay you nothing from killing them, and will decimate your team and flee. Two-three teams of BAR wolves would suffice.
5. Make sure to use your restart function! If your enemy count is low, just restart the level. Usually you will get a higher enemy count, but you can also receive a lower enemy count, so use at your own discretion.
6. When hunting for blue jay feathers, you should replay a low level of swamp instead of fighting it out in the highest level. There is a higher chance of encounters in the lower levels, and your wolves will easily be able to tackle any enemies in the way (if you choose to fight them at all). A good strategy to employ would be taking your explore team on a jay feather hunt while they are at low health, since they won’t be damaged and can recover while still exploring, thus maximising time usage.
7. Pup CP training can and will become a great way to save money on CP. Probably one of the best features of explore added to the game, if you take a pup along with you while you explore, you can get it up to 1-2k+ CP if you explore a lot, but at the bare minimum your pup will have maxed battle, stealth, and wisdom if your wolves have good wisdom, which are guess what, the two most important fields an explore wolf should have!
8. Remember to check “Everyone eats” every once in a while! Pack happiness is imperative to recovering your BAR teams. In the same vein, pack affinity is going to be very important as well as it affects happiness. The minimum amount of health a wolf needs to explore is 5HP, so it’s recommended to never let your pack happiness drop below 40%.
9. Efficiency is important for your explore success. Whether that is spending less time going in and out of explore to heal wolves, learning shortcuts, or finding the best floors/terrains to make the most mush, you will save yourself a lot of pain!
10. REMEMBER: all the mush you spend on CP comes back in the end. Whether it’s 2x, 3x, 50x the amount you spent on them, it will all return, as long as you are doing everything right. Remember why you are investing in explore in the first place. It’s not for those who don’t have a lot of time, that’s for sure, but explore is the only revenue avenue of Wolf Play that doesn’t rely on other players and the ups and downs of the market.