High-scoring with Anna (Build #231)

This is a walkthrough to achieving pretty high leaderboard scores (9k to 15k) in Renowned Explorers build with Anna as a party leader. There is also some advice for achieving similar scores with Charles as a leader.

Strategy Basics

Anna is a defensive scientist explorer with a very powerful leader perk - for every research paper she writes, she can enhance all future study tokens her party finds by one of three effects (+0-1 research, +2-3 gold or +2-3 status). By the time you enter Shangri-la on a typical run following this walkthrough, your should finish between 18 and 22 research papers, making each study token worth almost 20 renown.

To achieve a high score, you'll also want to maximize the number of study tokens you get throughout the game. There are a number of treasures, research papers, and entourage members that greatly help with this, and they will be detailed below. Depending on how well these line up for you, you should look to get 120-170 study tokens in Shangri-la.

Generally, the priority throughout the game is research early, status in the midgame, and gold lategame, but as long as you focus your resources on improving and collecting study tokens, you should see a good result.

Here's a screenshot of my personal best on Classic/Adventure


and Classic/Impossible

Party

There are a variety of party compositions that score well with Anna - in fact pretty much any composition should reach 7k-8k pretty comfortably with her, as long as you finish Shangri-la and research at least 3 trees. For the scope of this walkthrough, I'll focus this guide on the party I settled on after trying several.

Emilia

(Level 3 Training (Academic - +2 Study tokens in Berlin). Emilia helps maximize the amount of Study tokens you can generate from your insight. You can begin spending insight as soon as you finish the second expedition at a return rate of 7 study, 1 campaign, 1 collect per insight.

Earl

(Level 2/4 Training (Survivalist Navigation and Spotting). The Scouting paper Leaps and Bounds gives you 1 supply whenever a level 4 Survivalist succeeds on the adventure wheel. This is very powerful, as it allows you to explore most or all of every expedition, without picking up too many hunger debuffs. You'll want to load as many perks onto Earl as possible via specialists, trinkets and game events as possible, and have him take every spin that's practical.

Note that in order to get Earl to level 4 Survivalist, you will need 2 additional survivalist perks besides navigation and spotting. You can get cooking guaranteed from a Carribean Island event, so you'll have to get the last one from a specialist. So far I haven't had any problems getting the fourth perk from either Stockholm or Constantinople, but if you feels that's too risky, you can run someone like Kiwi instead. There's a pretty severe downside though, she won't get the +2 study from spinning the wheel for the Opportune Epiphany paper.

Starter Island

This is pretty simple - you want to start on Celtic Code. It's the island that gives you the best research oriented treasures, and most research right off the bat to begin filling out the preparation tree. In addition, the adventure wheel spins are easy pickings for your all-scientist party. You can get a decent score with the other two starting islands, but if you are pushing for a personal best, I recommend securing a Celtic Code start.

You'll want to explore every node on the starting island, including the blank node(s) (choose discovery for your bonus). If you don't backtrack, you'll usually pick up 3 or 4 debuffs at worst when you hit the boss node, fewer if you have zero travel cost connections. Any free perks go on Earl. (Usually either Biology or Archaelogy)

You'll always find 2 treasures, one from an event and one from the boss. Pretty much all of the treasures are useful for the Anna strategy, but the ones with long term bonuses will generally yield better results at the end:

Best:

Skull of Cernunnos: This treasure is extremely powerful, and can add several thousand to your high score ceiling by itself. I've gotten it 2 out of 2 times when I defeated the druid encounter in a devious way - make sure you have previously finished the Halloween Gargoyle encounter to unlock the spooky treasures. It's fine if the possession lands on anyone, as you'll either get a good token boost with Emi or Earl, or a nice combat boost with Anna's horrify abilities. After expedition 3 (Memphis), Earl will get occult from the guaranteed event, and the skull will generate plenty of tokens from his rolls.

Great:

Will o' the Wisp: Gives an extra 2 study from Emilia, paired with the Monkey Wrench, or 3 with Binoculars. During expeditions you can equip the lantern on Earl for an extra perk. Great renown/insight as well.

Baryonyx Claw: Good renown/insight, and you'll be aiming to finish most of your encounters devious for the Cruel Coercion bonus anyways.

Celtic Cross: +2 research per study token is a big bonus, both immediately and over the long term. It's about the same EV as 4 scientist helpers or 4 Anna research bonuses.

Sun Stone: 2 insight is nice, and you'll eventually want Quick Thinker on Earl anyways for the leaps and bounds bonus.

Good:

Sea Sapphire: +1 study when you enter a nature challenge is a nice boost, you'll see plenty of those in the expeditions we're following.

Celtic Horned Helmet: Encounter tokens are also handy, since we'll be exploring a lot. Pairs well with the Baryonyx Claw.

Stegosaurus Skull: It's a bit awkward to get 2 naturalist on Earl, since you'll generally prioritize survivalist and archaeologist specialists, but it's a bit easier if you get the free Biology perk from the starter island.

Mediocre:

Ammonite Fossil: 8 Study is a nice boost that might let you get an extra research paper before the second expedition.

Celtic Leaf: The Ammonite Fossil is preferable, but the extra 4 campaign might get you an extra helper or specialist for the second expedition.

Druid Quartz: Collect this early in the game is not very useful, as the only thing you really need to buy for expedition 2 is the machete, and you can easily reach 150 gold just from your encounter tokens.

Research, Entourage, Items, Insight

After Starting Island

After finishing your starting island, you'll want to fill out as much of preparation as possible. Generally I prefer going for Opener -> Insightful Expedition -> Tools of the Trade -> Opening Doors -> Field Rations -> Explorer's Toolkit. You can also sub in the Chronicles opener for a nice research boost (4-6 research from encounters), though note that openers don't give you the Anna token bonus.

The best specialist you can get at this point is Igor for 100 (1 study token for devious encounter). Lady Valduva and Shark, Super Suer as decent, as well. Save 30 status to unlock the second level of shop, so you can buy a machete. With the remaining status, you should either buy students, or "peek" at your level 2 and 3 specialists.

I would suggest spending gold on the machete, just because there are two upcoming adventure wheel rolls that are easier with athlete (Cave of Torrents, and climbing a tree).

I would recommend saving your insight, as they become much more valuable after finishing the second expedition (Emilia level 3, and Zealous Lecturing Research)

Rest of the Game

After Every Expedition, I usually use the world map in the following sequence:

Research:
Sciences Starter -> Scientific Mind -> Zealous Lecturing-> Finish Preparation Tree -> Opportune Learning -> Opportune Epiphany -> Scouting Opener -> Lone Wolf -> Leaps and Bounds -> Spill the Beans -> Cruel Coercion -> Chronicle Opener -> Tales to Tell -> Fame and Fortune -> Finish Sciences -> Finish Chronicles -> Whatever is useful



Note that numbers 5 through 14 are pretty flexible, and you can do them in whatever order fits your situation the best.

Entourage: The priority is to unlock Constantinople Tier 2, and hopefully there will be a specialist that boosts study tokens (Rami or Amon). Next, look for the specialists that give important perks (You want survivalist 4 for Earl, and Archaelogist 3 (including trowel & broom, but not including occult, which you'll aim to pick up in memphis). You can find these in Stockhold 2&4, and Constantinople 1, 3&4. Also, if you can complete "sets" of lvl 2 or 5 study token adventure wheel bonuses, or fill out treasure study token bonuses, those are also a priority. After that, spend money on hiring student helpers.

Job: After at least getting academic training on Emilia, researching zealous lecturing and finishing out preparation, and hiring some students, you're reading to spend insight in Berlin. Keep an eye out on the research icon on the top left while you are spending tokens. If it starts flashing, you can research another tech and add some more Anna bonus to future study tokens.

I generally like to unlock Constantinople->New Orleans->Rio De Janeiro. New Orleans is nice for better books and the Saw item, and Rio is nice for the 3/6 bonus specialists.

Islands 2-5

I recommend the path Caribbean Island -> Memphis Desert -> Emerging Island -> Shangri-la. These maps tend to give a lot of study tokens, have study related treasures, and have adventure wheel challenges that a science team can handle easily. Mali is a reasonable alternative to Emerging Island as well - you'll want to make sure and buy incredible rose/translation guide/lute so you'll have a better shot at the diplomatic rolls.

Make sure you have a machete before starting Carribean Island, the athlete perk is useful for both the jungle canopy and cave of torrents treasure events. During encounters, you should equip it on Anna for a boost to her terrify ability.

You should aim to leave Carribean Island with Roche's Treasure, The Amazing Titan, and 2-4 other treasures.

Make sure you have Archaelogist 3 (not including occult) on Earl before entering Memphis. You'll want to have 300 gold saved up in case you run into the Pottery of Thutmose treasure.

You should aim to leave Memphis with Sekhmet Mask, Thoth Statue, and 1-3 other treasures.

Keep an eye on your supply level when doing the Emerged island. At this point Earl should be strong enough, perk-wise, that you can have a good chance of getting the Shrunken Head from the Voodoo hut event.

You should aim to leave Emerged Island with Roche's Captain Hat (finish encounter friendly), Clear Crystal, and 1 of the other treasures.

You should aim to finish Shangri-la with 2 or 3 keys, either the Yeti Photos or the Dharmachakra, and the Emperor Statue.

Encounters

In addition to being strong in terms of generating tokens, Anna/Emilia/Earl is a formidable fighting party. You should be able to finish every encounter on Classic without losing any resolve, with the exception of perhaps the Titan Ape encounter. Things get a little trickier on Impossible, especially in the first island, but most of the time you should make it through. 2x experimentation and 2x strike of fear are very powerful tools, and Emilia's tranquility is a powerful group heal. Amnesia Shot is generally useless, but situationally can be handy.

This guide doesn't really focus on encounter advice, but just remember to manipulate the mood, focus fire, use chokepoints, read opponent tendencies, etc.

Addendum: Charles

Charles has a similar captain perk as Anna for campaign tokens, but is somewhat weaker (due to the lower limit of times it can be activated.) Nonetheless, you can score pretty high with him - This is my personal best on Adventure/Impossible.



The spear of Freyja is a reasonable alternative to researching Leaps and Bounds, and you can stack perks on Yvonne. I recommend going Viking Landing->Mali->Highlands->Transylvania->Shangri-La. You can get the Spear from the Battles of Old Encounter by having a tactician on your team, or by small chance from the Turf House encounter.

[Explorer]

This guide helped me in 2025, even with so many new things in the game

[MreeBiPolar]

Looks like next to nothing refenced in this quide remained unchanged, from skills to treasures.

[zzzwlagga]

Hm. I think they rearranged the skill trees. Pictures(/strategy) seems outdated.

[SET]

As of the 10th of December update all references to research in this guide are obsolete, because they have completely redone the research trees.

[Trinity]

This is an excellent guide. Might need updating with the nerf to Anna, but she's still a very strong captain.

[Captain Trek]

My God, Anna is utterly broken! o.o

It had previously seemed to me like the final boss was virtually impossible, as was getting the 5.5k gold standard of renown. Well? Both he and the leaderboard went down like chumps to this build, even though I didn't even run it particularly well and a crash-reload glitch prevented me from going to the shop in New Orleans! Ended the game with 7.6k renown, which is more than enough to unlock the relevant achievements, so I'm more than happy with that.

Thankyou SO much for this guide. You've done some really amazing work cracking the system here.

[Ressy]

With Anna as captain, do you think Yvonne and Kiwi are a good addition? I'm super stubborn with this group lol.