Assassin’s Creed Odyssey: Should I Choose Guided or Exploration Mode?

Guide by Aaron Potter Contributor

Additional contributions by Joel Franey

Published on Sept. 22, 2023

When you first kick off a play through of Assassin's Creed Odyssey, you'll have the option of choosing between Exploration or Guided mode, both of which offer plenty of intriguing gameplay changes. In this guide we'll explain the differences between the two, so you know the answer to whether you should choose Guided or Exploration mode.

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Should I Choose Guided or Exploration Mode in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey?
How to Change Between Guided and Exploration Mode

Should I Choose Guided or Exploration Mode in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey?

At the very start of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, you’ll be asked to choose between Exploration mode or Guided mode. Ubisoft announced these two modes well before the game originally released, and revealed that while Guided mode was much more in keeping with the open world experience of last year’s Assassin’s Creed Origins, Exploration mode would be something entirely new.

Exploration mode encourages the players to find their targets with context clues and manually hunt for them from there. | *Ubisoft*

Guided mode basically functions as normal: map markers are scattered around Ancient Greece, and after you’ve spoken to an NPC that’s involved with a quest, you’ll always have a destination marker for the next location in the quest. But with Exploration mode, all this changes, as you’re instead without any map markers at all on your map until you’ve discovered a location, and you won’t always get a pointer on your map telling you where to go when you’re done speaking with someone.

Guided mode plays like most normal games, placing icons on the map for you to follow. | *Ubisoft*

If you're cutting through Assassin's Creed Odyssey, we've got everything you'd ever need at our Walkthrough here. Whether it's combat, stealth or finding the best items, we can provide.

Basically, whereas Guided mode helps you along in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Exploration mode leaves you unprompted to your own devices. You’ll have to pay careful attention to what NPCs are saying in Exploration mode, as for example, if they tell you that you need to head to a bandit camp near the southern end of Kephallonia in order to save a character, you’re going to have to scour the southern region of the island in order to uncover the actual bandit camp.

Exploration mode requires you to ask characters about your target to gain clues on their whereabouts. | *Ubisoft*

Based on this information, you’ll have to decide which mode suits you best when you start out Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. If you want an experience that’s more akin to Assassin’s Creed Origins, then you’ll want to go with Guided mode, but if you want to be left entirely on your own in Ancient Greece with barely any help or pointers, then you’d be better off going with Exploration mode.

How to Change Between Guided and Exploration Mode

Fortunately, if you don't like the choice you made, you can change it in the menu at any time by following these steps:

Pause and go into the main menu.
Select Options.
Go to the Gameplay section.
There you'll see the option to switch between Guided and Exploration mode.

Why not explore some of the other AC: Odyssey content we've got at USG? Mike's review of the game can be found here, or check out what we have to say on the game in this episode of Axe of the Blood God.