# \[Investigating\] Explore map locking during animations

**URL:** <https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/investigating-explore-map-locking-during-animations/90247>\
**Category:** Bug Reports\
**Created:** [September 30, 2026, 9:51pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/investigating-explore-map-locking-during-animations/90247 "2026-09-30T21:51:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Zuul-Emo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/67e7ee/32.png) [@Zuul-Emo](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Zuul-Emo)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2026, 9:51pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/investigating-explore-map-locking-during-animations/90247/1 "2026-09-30T21:51:31Z")

</div>

**Platform:**  
PS5  
**Video or screenshots:**

[![](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/uploads/gemsofwar/original/3X/5/8/589d923a387f59670f00e9a986ce51982fcc5027.jpeg "Gems of War 20260930132732") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z65w_DrpExs)

**What you were expecting to happen, and what actually happened:**  
I expected the annoying animation spam to play out. Instead, the game freezes sometimes, and the animation spam won’t play.  
Luckily, I was able to exit out to the world map, even though the game normally won’t let us do that, since the last update (meaning that other people getting this bug might get soft-locked, where they can’t exit because the animation isn’t finished and can’t do anything because the animation isn’t playing)

**Steps to make it happen again**  
Unclear. Play explore. Possibly tied to offers like the merchant, because I managed to capture this video after buying from a merchant, but I haven’t found another merchant to try and test this.

**How often does this happen? When did it begin happening?**  
Super unclear.  
Began after the latest update made explore worse by making spammy animations unskippable.