Exploration

This page is awaiting large-scale edits by the community to meet quality and format standards. The information on this page may be outdated. Join the #wiki-general channel on the Dominion Discord server to participate.

Exploration
Info
Cost
Type	Project
Set	Renaissance
Illustrator(s)	Marcel-André Casasola Merkle
Project text
At the end of your Buy phase, if you didn't gain any cards during it, +1 Coffers and +1 Villager.

Exploration is a Project from Renaissance. It rewards you with +1 Coffers and +1 Villager for ending your Buy phase without gaining any cards during it.

FAQ

Unofficial FAQ (2022)

• This only cares if you gained a card in your Buy phase; it does not care if you gained cards at other times, and it does not care if you bought an Event or Project during your Buy phase unless you gained a card by doing so.
• For example if all you buy on your turn is Exploration, you will get +1 Coffers and +1 Villager that turn.

Other rules clarifications

Exploration got errata in 2022 to check whether cards were gained by you in your Buy phase, rather than just whether you bought them.

• If you take multiple Buy phases (with Villa or Cavalry), Exploration will check each of them to see if any cards were gained in it.

Deprecated official FAQ (2021)

This only cares if you bought a card in your Buy phase; it does not care if you gained cards other ways, or if you bought an Event (from Adventures and Empires) or Project. For example if all you buy on your turn is Exploration, you will get +1 Coffers and +1 Villager that turn.

Deprecated rules clarifications (2019 2021)

Unlike Hermit, Exploration only checks if you bought any cards in the current Buy phase, and not over the whole turn. So if you buy a card from the Black Market in your Action phase and then buy nothing in your Buy phase, you'll get the tokens from Exploration, but you can't get a Madman. If you have multiple Buy phases in a single turn (due to Villa or Cavalry), Exploration will trigger at the end of each of those Buy phases you take. Cards bought in a previous Buy phase are not counted.

Strategy

Overview

Exploration is most useful on turns when you would not buy cards anyway, such as:

• When buying Events or other Projects
• Turns when you trash most of your hand, such as with Chapel or Steward, and cannot afford anything
• The turn you play Tactician
• Devil's Workshop gains better cards when buys are skipped.
• Turns that dud
• After an opponent played one or more Swamp Hags
• Paying off Debt

Sometimes it can be worth sacrificing your buys to save up Coffers tokens to spike an important early purchase, such as Inheritance, or to save the Villager for the following turn to prevent a collision. Exploration can also be a nice addition to a big money strategy.

Synergies/Combos

• Events, especially Mission
• Black Market
• Tactician
• Heavy trashing
• Big money
• Debt cards

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		At the end of your Buy phase, if you didn't buy any cards, +1 Coffers and +1 Villager.	Renaissance	November 2018
		At the end of your Buy phase, if you didn't buy any cards during it, +1 Coffers and +1 Villager.	Renaissance (2021 printing)
		At the end of your Buy phase, if you didn't gain any cards during it, +1 Coffers and +1 Villager.		June 29, 2022

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Chinese	探索 (pron. tànsuǒ)
French	Exploration			À la fin de votre phase Achat, si vous n'avez pas acheté de carte, +1 Coffres et +1 Villageois.
	Exploration			À la fin de votre phase Achat, si vous n'avez pas reçu de carte pendant celle-ci, +1 Coffres et +1 Villageois.
German	Erkundung			Am Ende deiner Kaufphase: wenn du keine Karte gekauft hast: +1 Taler und +1 Dorfbewohner.	(2019)
	Erkundung			Am Ende deiner Kaufphase, wenn du in ihr keine Karte gekauft hast, +1 Taler und +1 Dorfbewohner.
	Erkundung			Am Ende deiner Kaufphase, wenn du in ihr keine Karte genommen hast, +1 Taler und +1 Dorfbewohner.
Japanese	探査 (pron. tansa)			あなたの購入フェイズの終了時、この購入フェイズで何もカードを購入していない場合、+1 コイントークン、+1 村人トークン。
Russian	Эксплорация (pron. eksploratsiya)
Spanish	Exploración			Al final de tu fase de Compra, si no has comprado ninguna carta, +1 Arcas y +1 Aldeano.

Trivia

The card from the 2018 printing credits the illustration to Eric J. Carter, though it is actually by Marcel-André Casasola Merkle.

Official card art.

Secret History

At first this gave +2 Coffers. Ben demonstrated that it was too strong with a bot.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Secret History of Dominion: Renaissance

Relevant outtakes

- Each turn you don't buy anything, +3 Cards in next hand. A direction to consider more; hey in the end there's Exploration.

- If <= 3 cards in play at start of Clean-up, +3 Cards in next hand. I liked it until it turned out to be strong with just money.

- At end of Buy phase, if spent <= , +1 Coffers. I guess, helped contribute to Exploration happening? Exploration and City Gate were the last two.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Secret History of Dominion: Renaissance