As someone fairly new to the game, I noticed it was difficult to plan in advance when it comes to World Map decisions and which Challenges my Crew would excel at.

For example, say you're running a Crew with high Attack capabilities and very few Speakers. This crew is also focusing on Collect over Study and Campaign. When you get the choice after the 2nd Expedition between New Orleans (Equipment Shop) and Constantinople (Entourage Hall) it would make sense to pick New Orleans since you're focusing on collecting a lot of Gold, right? What you couldn't have known is that the Equipment Shop in New Orleans only sells Books, so it's almost useless for your high Attack Crew.

To avoid situations like these, here is a list of exactly what comes from each shop that you decide to open on the world map. I've also included a list of the different types of Challenges and what perks they require (along with a list of Crew Members that are capable of acquiring these perks when they level up) as this will help you pick your Crew. Lastly, I will list the Expeditions in the game along with the information the game gives you when you pick them, as this will also help you figure out what Perks you'll need to cover if you're focusing on one type of token.

While there are a couple of guides that cover specific sections of this guide in slightly more detail, This one will contain everything relating to the decisions you make on the World Map, and is mainly intended to be an all-in-one reference guide.

Following is a list of the 4 different kinds of challenges, their Perk requirements, and a list of Characters that are Natural* learners of one or more of those Perks

*A Natural learner is a character that gains those perks through levelling.


Wits Challenge - Tactician, Beguiler, or Quick Thinker.
Bia - Tactician and Quick Thinker
Agatha - Tactician
Victor - Tactician
Wang - Tactician
Phailin - Beguiler
Pedrinho - Beguiler
Yvonne - Beguiler
Maria - Beguiler
Harry - Beguiler
Dolores - Quick Thinker
Kwame - Quick Thinker
Hatice - Quick Thinker
Hojo - Quick Thinker

Nature Challenge - Athlete, Naturalist, or Survivalist.
Ivan - Athlete and Naturalist
Hojo - Athlete
Molly - Athlete
Dolores - Athlete
Jan-Piet - Athlete
Emilia - Naturalist
Anna - Naturalist
Hildegard - Naturalist
Earl - Survivalist
Kiwi - Survivalist
Pedrinho - Survivalist
Charles - Survivalist

Cultural Challenge - Diplomat or Archaeologist.
Suh - Diplomat and Archaeologist
Victor - Diplomat
Charles - Diplomat
Hildegard - Diplomat
Kwame - Diplomat
Emilia - Archaeologist
Agatha - Archaeologist
Kiwi - Archaeologist
Jan-Piet - Archaeologist
Maria - Archaeologist

Technique Challenge - Engineer or Rogue.
Phillipe - Engineer and Rogue
Wang - Engineer
Anna - Engineer
Earl - Engineer
Hatice - Engineer
Phailin - Engineer
Harry - Rogue
Molly - Rogue
Yvonne - Rogue

After certain expeditions you'll be presented with a choice between two regions, and either choice will unlock something to spend your stuff in on the World Map. Here's a list of the shops that these choices unlock.

Basic Weapons and Armour with no interesting effects, however this is the only shop in the game that sells Armour at all.

Trinkets

Level One - 100G
Compass - Resist Enrage Damage, Survivalist - Navigation
Monkey Wrench - Resist Terrify Damage, Engineer - Advanced Tools
Machete - 10% more Terrify Power, Athlete - Stamina
Translation Guide - 10% more Excite Power, Diplomat - Languages

Level Two - 150G
War Drums - Resist Terrify Damage, Start every encounter Confident
Lucky Charm - Resist Sadden Damage, Start every encounter Excited

Level Three - 200G
Grappling Hook - Quick Thinker - Nimble and Escape Artist
Towel and Broom - Adjacent opponents gain -10 Speech Defence, Archaeologist - Excavation
Incredible Rose - Beguiler - Seduction and Beautiful Smile
Tactician's Notes - Adjacent Allies gain +15% Attack, Tactician - Formations

Level Four - 250G
Coach Whistle - Resist Enrage Damage, Tactician - Offense, Survivalist - Hunting
Chemistry Set - Resist Impress Damage, Naturalist - Chemistry, Engineer - Combustion


Equipment shop dedicated to Books, ones that increase the effectiveness of attacks that cause certain moods. For example, the Book of Rage when equipped on a character will increase the damage of their Enrage or Try to Enrage abilities by 20% of that character's speech.

Trinkets

Level One
Battery - 150G - +5 Speech Defence, Naturalist - Electromagnetics
Monocle - 150G - +2 Speech Power, +3 Speech when Devious, Diplomat - Customs
Cooking Pot - 100G - Survivalist - Cooking, Tactician - Weapons, Athlete - Stamina (Must be above 5 Supplies for these perks to be active)

Level Two
Spyglass - 200G - 20 Hit Chance, Rogue - Bluffing
Pickaxe - 200G - Naturalist - Geology, Athlete - Tenacious
Poker Set - 200G - Diplomat - Negotiations, Rogue - Bluffing

Level Three
Saw - 300G - 15 Grit, Quick Thinker - Reflexes
Banjo - 400G - Beguiler - Astonishing, 3 Grit for every level of Beguiler
Sheriff Badge - 400G - Tactician - Offence & Military History, 1 Attack and 2 Speech Defence for every level of Tactician


Only sells trinkets.

Trinkets

Level One
Lute - 100G - 2 Speech Power, Beguiler - Storytelling
Janissary Bork - 50G - 10 Armour

Level Two
Haggler's Pot - 75G - Quick Thinker - Wits
Turban - 200G - 20 Speech Defence when Mood is Devious vs Friendly. Diplomat - Politics

Level Three
Telescope - 250G - 5 Speech Power, Naturalist - Astronomy
Corsair's Coin - 300G - 5 Attack, 25 Speech Defence when Mood is Aggressive vs Devious, Tactician - Military History


Equipment shop dedicated to Gloves, ones that increase the effectiveness of physical attacks when the target is in a certain mood. For example, the Red Gloves will make your regular attack do 40% more damage when the target is Enraged.

Trinkets

Level One
Fire Piston - 100G - 10 Spirit
Calipers - 100G - Naturalist - Classical Physics

Level Two
Protective Goggles - 150G - 5 Armour, Rogue - Sneaking
Barometer - 200G - 10 Speech when Friendly vs Friendly, Survivalist - Spotting

Level Three
Hammer - 200G - 10 Attack when Aggressive vs Aggressive, Athlete - Smashing
Binoculars - 300G - 1 Movement, Engineer - Piloting and Tinkerer

Since you might get a treasure or a skill in the middle of an expedition that increases the tokens you get when spending Insight in a specific location, and you might not be able to remember which tokens are gained from each location, I figured I'd just list them here for reference too.

Europe (Starting)
London - 2 Collect
Paris - 2 Campaign
Berlin - 2 Study

Africa (Timbuktu)
Zanzibar - 2 Collect, 1 Campaign.
Cape Town - 2 Campaign, 1 Study.
Timbuktu - 2 Study, 1 Collect.

Asia (Beijing)
Bombay - 1 Treasure, 1 Collect.
Kyoto - 1 Secret, 1 Campaign.
China - 1 Discovery, 1 Study.

Note about Asia! Asia is one of the best Insight spending locations, usually gained by choosing Asia in the final World Map decision of the game, right before the last Expedition. However it can be gained earlier than this by going through the Psychology Research Tree, where it is the final Paper. This can let you choose some of the other options such as Sydney with it's very powerful Gloves.

Update - I've discovered that the specialists you get on each playthrough are somewhat randomized. It's unclear to me exactly how this works as I occasionally see the exact same specialists in the exact same place on different playthroughs, though this isn't consistent. For example, in a playthrough I just started at time of writing, the first Level Two specialist for Stockholm's Stortorget is the exact same as when I first wrote this guide, giving Tactician - Defence or Offence, 1 Collect when a level 4 Tactician succeeds on the Adventure Wheel. However, the other two on that tier are completely different.

My theory is that there is a "pool" of similar specialists which the game dips into when randomizing your specialists for each tier of each Hall. Going off of the earlier example, Tier Two of Stockholm's Stortorget will always have 3 specialists that give "Gain the (Perk School) - (Perk x) or (Perk y) perk. +1 (Tier 2 Token) whenever a level 4 (Perk school x) succeeds on the adventure wheel.

There are more than 3 specialists that exist that follow this pattern, and you only get three of them every playthrough. I could try to list all of the specialists I see in each pool over many playthroughs, however this is a bit too much work for me. I believe the full list of specialists would merit a guide in and of itself.

However, this theory is not confirmable. Different pools can be, or are, chosen for tiers on different playthroughs as well. While my guide had Tier 1 of Stockholm's Stortorget's specialists follow the pattern of +1 (Tier 2 Token) for resolving an encounter (Attitude,) on my most recent playthrough they follow a completely different pattern, Gain the (Perk School) (Perk x) or (Perk y) perk. +1 Collect whenever a lvl 4 (Perk School) succeeds on the adventure wheel.

Basically, I don't know. If I play through the game a few more times and notice any sort of pattern that leads me to a new conclusion, I'll change this section. Until then, I'll leave this section empty to avoid giving misinformation.

If you notice such a pattern yourself and figure out any restrictions in the randomizing method the game uses when selecting specialists, feel free to comment on the guide. If I can confirm it, I'll update this section of the guide and give thanks.

Credit to The Original YG.

Link to Wiki's Resource on Research. [renownedexplorers.gamepedia.com]

As you purchase Research Papers, you'll notice that the cost for further Papers will scale. When you're purchasing these bonuses, it may be tempting to "dip" into a tree that you don't plan on finishing to pick up one or two powerful bonuses. The scaling cost of Research punishes this strategy heavily, as later bonuses that you want to purchase will end up costing a lot more, possibly preventing you from finishing a tree to get its completion bonus.

Tree 1: 10/15/25/35/45/60
Tree 2: 70/80/90/100/120/150
Tree 3: 200/250/300/350/400/450
Tree 4: 500/600/700/800/900/1000
Tree 5: 1150/1300/1500/1750/2000/2250
Tree 6: 2500/2750/3000/3250/3500/3750

Most of the 5th tree and all of the 6th tree are unrealistic to be affordable in a game, but I've included them for the sake of completion. By looking at this table you can see that if, for example, you obtained enough research to buy 24 papers, this would be exactly enough to complete 4 trees. However, if you dipped into one of the 2 other trees to pick up a powerful bonus, you would then need another 1150 research to gain a tree's completion bonus.

All this being said, dipping into other trees is a bigger decision than you may realize when you do it in the early game. Here are some things you need to consider.

1. Am I confident that I won't be left short of purchasing a tree's last Paper?
   
2. Is dipping into another tree to gain an early game bonus going to help my game in the long run?
   
3. Is the completion bonus that I might possibly miss out on even worth getting?

Hi guys, its been a long time since I made this guide and I've drifted away from the game since then, but I'm glad it's still helping people. If you have any helpful info on the game, feel free to add it to the comments, and I'll update the guide when I have the time.