Okay so HOW does the map work??

[Gergely]

I just started my 5th story campaign of Rain World with yet another Slugcat and of all things the map is slowly becoming the most frustrating. More precisely, how I always seem to lose arbitrary progress.

Here are some examples of the curious behaviour:

• Between playthroughs some regions are reset, either entirely, or I only lose the progress I made with certain slugcats, but not others.
  
• Sometimes there are gaps in the map. Places I have clearly passed through as the slugcat I am currently playing, but are missing.
  
• The map I see in game is different from the map I see under the regions menu.

Now obviously regions that are replaced in a different timeline (such as SL with WF) make sense to not be explored, but those that don't change (such as CC) and those that keep losing partial progress (such as IW) grind my gears.

Besides installing and enabling the DLC after my first playthrough as Survivor, I did not use any mods. I would like a bit more clarity on... well how does the the map work exactly and how does my exploration progress overlap between playthroughs.

[Jevmen]

ok so a bit techy here.
The explored map is literally a black png which begins to become painted white as you explore, then the current map and the black and white picture overlap and show the explored places, this map is shared among all slugcats and only way to reset the file back to full black is by restarting the entiere save file, not just the campaign.
It has some interesting quirks, for example it can sometimes spoiler shelter locations through multiple layers.

Also hunter's map will paint part of your map white, even if you never visited it it will always generate an already explored path which leads from the top of the cave to subterranean with the abandoned scavenger outposts to the current hunter campaign start.

Idk how much downpour may have messed up the system, for example GW in the past and present is the same region with recontextualized rooms so i wouldnt be surprised if the map has some struggle there unlike the other regions which get fully replaced by their counterparts with a brand new map data. SL->LM, DS->UG, SS->RM, SH->CL ...

Also use the actual acronyms rather than the region names because some regions and subregions overlap then, acronyms are unique and cant repeat, i assume with WF you mean LM, but i have no idea what the hell is IW.

[Gergely]

By SL I meant Shoreline, and that should also clarify WF. I didn't consider subregions as for the purposes of the map they don't seem to matter. I myself am puzzled with what I could have meant by IW. I will make sure I am clear from now on.

Looking at the exploration under the Regions menu, most exploration seems to be isolated. There are completely different parts of the map visible for each Slugcat. However in some instances I see some places as explored while having a Slugcat selected who I never went there with.

Monk, Survivor region name spoilers ahead

So here is what prompted me to start this topic.

The Exterior region. Inside the Regions menu, as any slugcat, I can only see the parts of it that I actually visited as that specific slugcat. Except Monk. The game seems to have forgot that I descended The Leg as Monk.

So the map of the exterior seems to be isolated between playthroughs. I don't know why, maybe it changes sufficiently enough between them, haven't really thought about it yet.

5P region. On Survivor's map, I can only see the parts I explored as Survivor. So far so good. However when I look at Monk's map, I can see the parts I explored as Monk AND Survivor. I never visited the massive room in the RTA subregion as Monk, yet it shows on Monk's map. As Monk I explored most of the MC subregion but that is not visible on Survivor's map.

So 5P's maps seem to inherit the progress I made as Survivor, but nothing else?

Except, Monk doesn't inherit everything from the Survivor's map. Monk's Chimney Canopy and Shoreline maps do not include places explored as Survivor.

So what possible explanation could there be for this behaviour?