How much should I explore?

[delfiinit]

Bought the game from the summer sale and it's pretty good. I haven't touched the series in quite a while so Odyssey feels pretty fresh and exciting.

The whole exploration thing is a bit disorienting, however. When and how much should I explore to find all meaningful content (side quests and impact quests)? Will the main story quests take you through most of the locations so that you come across all the side quests?

The unusual level scaling makes it even harder to estimate. For example, I just left Thermopylae to sail towards Andros. I stopped at the Lokris region to synchronize a viewpoint that popped up when I was near it, then I raided a bandit base just for fun and eventually did the quest at the beach. On various guides the area is recommended for level 30-something, but I'm currently at 14 and everything is scaled to my level (with the default scaling). So I have no idea if this is a place I should go check out or if I will somehow end up there later.

[Mujokan]

The level range should be shown on the game map.

You can go anywhere without causing any major spoilers.

First thing I did in the game was ride a horse from Lakonia to Makedonia just to look around. Eventually you will end up going everywhere, the map isn't as big as it seems.

If you see a red skull guy, you can always run away, nothing can really catch you if you just book it.

It can be possible to use tactics to kill high level guys at a low level, e.g. by kiting them into each other, but it's not really worth it. Their gear is too high level to use.

When you get to mid level you can optimize to be able to kill anyone above you.

My NG+ character has now explored every region and gotten every sync location but not done any quests except to get off Kephallonia! The Wolf has been standing around for months.

[delfiinit]

I've also done quite a bit of exploring but it feels a bit laborious, since I'm mostly after the side quests. But the completionist in me is afraid that I'll miss something if I don't check out every town and viewpoint right away. I guess I'll get used to it.

Thanks for your input!

[darkdisciple1313]

Stick to small areas near to your level to start, then start branching out from there. If you try too much too quickly, you will feel like you are doing nothing but chores. It's not meant to be done all in one fell swoop. You can stick to the main quest, with some delving into side quests to keep your levels up, or you can attempt to do everything over a very long time. You will go mad if you try to do it all at once, though.

This is not a game for completionists who wish to stay sane, since there are radiant quests that show up at both the daily and weekly level, as well as tons of armor sets to complete, which means if you actually try to "finish" the game, you'll find you can't any time soon. Short-term goals are best to start, then go from there. I got the 100% completion/platinum trophy (PS4 version), but I'm still not really "done" since I have lots of the game I haven't begun to explore yet (namely the aforementioned armor sets and the game's version of treasure maps that get you not a whole helluva lot for the effort).

I have wisely taken a break from the game for awhile since, thankfully, I haven't started twitching yet. :P

[Perseus son of Zeus]

With an early level under 40 or 35 you might have to complete the main quest first to gain level as much as you could [ to fill the abilities point gain strong god power to use later ] then perhaps you can start to explore and complete the side quest about the cultist to gain a piece of artifact to upgrade your spear and then complete minor side quest along your path , well somehow is hard to across to the area that is above your level but it is a challenging not to be detect by the other Mecrenary who want you dead [ they have a red skull as a marker on their head ] or causing trouble in huntress or bandit camp that are over your level might be danger but it is fun and very challenging sometime i just run away and get back later when they dont pay attention and shoot them with an arrow later . anyway in the future when your level is more than 50 [ the level that can kill medusa ] you will be able to explore every corner of the map , you will feel things get more easy and you will love to replay the main quest again and again to gain more level and skill point abilities that are found in tomb [ ancient steele ]

PS.This tool in the link below might help in the future , is a map show important side to collect the abilities point or valuable things ...etc .

https://mapgenie.io/assassins-creed-odyssey/maps/greece