Difference between revisions of "Exploring"

Revision as of 13:29, 3 March 2007

Exploring

In the city you will find a link to Explore the City. All that it takes to explore the city is a trolley from beating the kid at the Walmart and a city map that can be purchased cheaply.

Each reset you are are allowed 200 turns to explore the city. For the purposes of exploring the city, a turn is one movement in any of the 8 available directions. Your hobo always starts off in the middle of the exploration area. The coordinates of this space are (50,50). From here you must choose what direction to move in.

Each time that you move into a new space, you will be shown what you find there. The options for what you can find are cash, cans, food, or nothing. The exploration area is 100 spaces by 100 spaces. This means that there are 10,000 spaces to explore, but you only have 200 moves to use. While what you find in a given space may seem random, there actually is a way in which you can improve your chances of finding useful items.

The seemingly randomness of finding items while exploring can be explained very easily. There is a set number of food spaces, can spaces, and cash spaces within the 100 by 100 area. Whenever a hobo comes across one of these item spaces and collects the item there, the item in question disappears from that space and reappears in some other random space in the area. This is why you can come across a food item when your trolley is full, empty your trolley, and come back to the same space to pick up what was there.

Knowing this about the way that the items appear, you can see that the best spots for finding a high percentage of items are the spots that are infrequently traveled. Since everyone starts from the same spot, the chance that another hobo has passed the spot recently decreases as you move farther away from the starting space. You will find more items farther away from the location (50,50). This is why it is very inefficient to leave and then re-enter the exploration area.

Also, since the chance of finding an item is not completely random, it is also a good idea to never go over the same space twice. While there is a chance that since the last time that you were there, a new item has appeared, this chance is very small.

It seems that most hobos randomly wander around the exploration area. While this may work, you are just as likely to find items if you have a pattern that you follow. Try and find a pattern that seems to work for you. If you do find an exploration pattern that works well, try not to give it out to anyone, because as soon as more hobos start using it, it will become decreasingly effective.

Cans

Cans are one of two things that are unique to exploring along with rats. Both food and cash can be found and are used in other parts of the game. This just means that the exploration area is another way to earn money or feed your hobo. You need a trolley to collect cans and food, but not money. Your hobo can explore and collect money even before you have procured a trolley.

Cans can be sold for money at the Can Depo. Initially, the cans that you collect may not seem like they are worth much. In the early levels this is true, but if you are diligent about collecting cans and saving them until you absolutely have to sell them, they can be a very nice bonus. Since the price that you can sell your cans at the can depot increases with both your hobo's level and intelligence, the cans that you collect early on in the game are worth many times more later in the game. The only hard part is staying in the routine of collecting cans and only selling them when you must.

There is no limit to the number of cans that you can have at any one time. Also, you can keep your cans for as long as needed without them ever getting too old and "expiring."

You may find 1 to 3 cans at a time.

Cash

The cash that you find can easily pay for a full set of KFC meals early in the game. That is even if you do not find any KFC meals while exploring. This is why you should always go exploring before you buy your meals. Your hobo can find either $10, $20, $30, or $40 at a time.

Food

There is a wide variety of food that can be found while exploring. When your hobo finds food, he or she immediately puts it into the trolley that is being pushed along. This is assuming that there is room in the trolley. Your trolley can only hold 10 items of food at a time. When your trolley is full, you will see a warning about not having enough room to store the new item of food that you found. When this happens, the typical response is to click on your Living Area and empty out whatever food you do not want. Don't do this. When you click away from exploring, you lose your place. As stated earlier, this is very inefficient. Instead, click on the link to your living area and open it in either a new tab or new window. This way you can do the needed rearranging of your food and then come back to the tab/window that you are exploring with. You can then continue on from where you left off.

It is best to only keep the KFC meals that you find. This is because all that you should ever eat is KFC meals whether they were purchased or found.

The complete list of food items that can be found here. There is more to be found in the city than there is to be purchased at Walmart.

Rats

Rats are randomly found while exploring, there is no secret to finding them. Unlike with food, they are not in a fixed place and if you back up to try to catch one again, it will be gone. Catching a rat is random chance, but you need a slot open in your rat cage.