# Poll: How do you feel about the new Explore Animations? **URL:** \ **Category:** Feature Requests and Game feedback\ **Created:** [July 17, 2026, 3:36am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/poll-how-do-you-feel-about-the-new-explore-animations/89978 "2026-07-17T03:36:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AMT](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/amt/32/56829_2.png) [@AMT](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/AMT)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2026, 3:36am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/poll-how-do-you-feel-about-the-new-explore-animations/89978/1 "2026-07-17T03:36:41Z")
> [@Update 9.3 Patch Notes](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/update-9-3-patch-notes/89946/113): > > **the team said it’s something they will be keeping an eye on.** At the moment, all I can do is track the number of comments we see from it to pass that on In line with the above, and in order to further strengthen the feedback provided to the designers, the question is simple: How do you feel about the new Explore Animations? _Poll ([view on site](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/poll-how-do-you-feel-about-the-new-explore-animations/89978/1))_ 🖖 ---
**Author:** ![kf6dbs](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/kf6dbs/32/98344_2.png) [@kf6dbs](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/kf6dbs)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2026, 5:02am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/poll-how-do-you-feel-about-the-new-explore-animations/89978/2 "2026-07-17T05:02:58Z")
I understand what they were trying to go for, but this slows down Explore battles too much. ---
**Author:** ![DDPGreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@DDPGreen](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/DDPGreen)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2026, 6:56am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/poll-how-do-you-feel-about-the-new-explore-animations/89978/3 "2026-07-17T06:56:33Z")
I’m aware of the psychology behind all the flashy animations and little dopamine hits to keep players engaged. However, having the option to disable them would go a long way toward appeasing players like me who don’t need those things to remain engaged. ---
**Author:** ![Febby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a87d85/32.png) [@Febby](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Febby)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2026, 8:33am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/poll-how-do-you-feel-about-the-new-explore-animations/89978/4 "2026-07-17T08:33:35Z")
I mean slower animations can be fine, but at least: -Give out better rewards (side quests) -Remove genie / daemon (even the merchant is totally avoidable without deeds) -Give at least 4 trophies on 13-16 difficulties ---
**Author:** ![Crow](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/crow/32/44074_2.png) [@Crow](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Crow)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2026, 8:38am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/poll-how-do-you-feel-about-the-new-explore-animations/89978/5 "2026-07-17T08:38:48Z")
They have to go, the path is always the same. ---
**Author:** ![Eika](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/eika/32/103088_2.png) [@Eika](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Eika)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2026, 9:53am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/poll-how-do-you-feel-about-the-new-explore-animations/89978/6 "2026-07-17T09:53:28Z")
I may be in the minority, but the breaks doesn’t bother me, it fits more my chill type of play. But I can understand the frustration players may have when Gnome Events hits. ---
**Author:** ![ZRDD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b5ac83/32.png) [@ZRDD](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/ZRDD)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2026, 2:34pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/poll-how-do-you-feel-about-the-new-explore-animations/89978/7 "2026-07-17T14:34:06Z")
They should add a toggle for players to choose whether to enable animations, instead of forcing every player to sit through a two-second animated cutscene at the start of every match as it stands now. ---
**Author:** ![lora](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecccb3/32.png) [@lora](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/lora)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2026, 6:39am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/poll-how-do-you-feel-about-the-new-explore-animations/89978/8 "2026-07-20T06:39:19Z")
Watch the animation. It’s fun ---
**Author:** ![Seward101](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ab097/32.png) [@Seward101](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Seward101)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2026, 8:03am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/poll-how-do-you-feel-about-the-new-explore-animations/89978/9 "2026-07-20T08:03:02Z")
Its annoying please remove it in time for next vault ---
**Author:** ![GANNICUS1](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/gannicus1/32/70687_2.png) [@GANNICUS1](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/GANNICUS1)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2026, 5:17pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/poll-how-do-you-feel-about-the-new-explore-animations/89978/10 "2026-07-20T17:17:22Z")
we dont need animations to figure out next battle, , we all know speed is essential for gnome events, and the lighting of dots to the new battle in explore is only going slow players down in gnome events as well as gaps. Devs if you need animation go to a casino so you can play a slot machine and watch your money go down the drain. If I where you before making any animation i would concentrate on fixing old bugs that seem to keep reappearing ---
**Author:** ![DDPGreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@DDPGreen](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/DDPGreen)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2026, 8:48pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/poll-how-do-you-feel-about-the-new-explore-animations/89978/11 "2026-08-01T20:48:21Z")
Returning to this topic with receipts after some Gnome-a-Palooza (GaP) testing to better quantify the losses to players: My typical GaP routine is to run the full 15 minutes in one kingdom at Explore level 1 using the Sister Superior, Dust Devil, and 2x Ironhawk team. Prior to the Explore update, my best runs were roughly 74 battles over 15 minutes. After the update – and without using any tricks to cancel the animations between battles – my best run was 66 battles over 15 minutes. So, from my experience, we’re looking at a minimum of a 10% reduction in the number of Explore battles we can complete in a given timeframe. In the 15-minute span of a GaP, that’s 90 seconds spent waiting for dots to move across the screen, which, for me, is a hard pill to swallow. I’ll reiterate that I’m fully aware of and understand the “value” of these things. And I acknowledge that this outcome may be desirable to IP2 and/or 505 games (and any other companies involved). However, I have to express that this change is a net negative to players’ acquisition of resources and, potentially, their continued enjoyment of this game. Somewhat unrelated, but on the topic of animations in general, I’d like to highlight the egregious waste of time that is the Token → Badge → Medal upgrade process. What should take no more than 100ms to change in the database is a frustratingly protracted series of screens that can’t be skipped and happens so frequently in my usual play. ---
**Author:** ![Vold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e56c9b/32.png) [@Vold](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Vold)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2026, 4:32pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/poll-how-do-you-feel-about-the-new-explore-animations/89978/12 "2026-08-06T16:32:32Z")
There are so many pointless animations in the game now. It slows everything down. ---
**Author:** ![sidbushes](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/sidbushes/32/21081_2.png) [@sidbushes](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/sidbushes)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2026, 3:05am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/poll-how-do-you-feel-about-the-new-explore-animations/89978/13 "2026-08-08T03:05:47Z")
For my part I don’t really care either way about the animations, but the deafening sound when you open Explore (on Xbox, at least) is really obnoxious and needs to go. ---
**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:** [August 12, 2026, 5:09am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/poll-how-do-you-feel-about-the-new-explore-animations/89978/14 "2026-08-12T05:09:09Z")
I added some animations to a post reporting a bug, and got banned for a week for “spam”. Aside from the obvious hypocrisy, we now have an official term for all these stupid, badly made animations plaguing the game. They are spam. And they should be removed. ---
**Author:** ![Starlite](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/starlite/32/43018_2.png) [@Starlite](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Starlite)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 7:48am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/poll-how-do-you-feel-about-the-new-explore-animations/89978/15 "2026-08-12T07:48:42Z")
The OG poster’s poll appears to lack nuance. IMO, the animations _look_ great, but they need to be sped up sufficiently, to match a normal player’s reaction time – probably by a factor of between 1.5 and 2. This would be easy to test. Furthermore, the animation on the right hand side of the screen – where the Explore dialogue box slides off the screen and then back onto the screen – is entirely unnecessary, and a visual distraction. A quick fade effect from the previous text to the new text would be far more sensible. ---
**Author:** ![Starlite](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/starlite/32/43018_2.png) [@Starlite](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Starlite)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 7:53am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/poll-how-do-you-feel-about-the-new-explore-animations/89978/16 "2026-08-12T07:53:24Z")
> [@Vold](#): > > There are so many pointless animations in the game now. It slows everything down. They also destabilise the game and increase its demand for resources. Since this latest update, the game was been momentarily freezing on a regular basis on my PC. That is a terrible sign (no, it’s not my hardware: momentary freezes NEVER occurred prior to this version). On my iPad 6, the increased resource demands have been causing issues for at least the last 3 years, and are progressively getting worse. Unfortunately, Apple’s bizarre memory-management algorithms also make them highly unpredictable, so they’re difficult to report as bugs. ---
**Author:** ![AMT](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/amt/32/56829_2.png) [@AMT](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/AMT)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2026, 1:13am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/poll-how-do-you-feel-about-the-new-explore-animations/89978/17 "2026-10-02T01:13:32Z")
Seeing how adamant they are to keep ensuring the animation overhead is unskippable, can’t help but wonder if the intent to slow players down is partially aimed at compensating for the fact that Astral Spire helps us play faster. Absurd to keep upsetting the player base when the feedback is so clear but.. 🤔🤷🖖 ---
**Author:** ![Darkborne](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/darkborne/32/95796_2.png) [@Darkborne](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Darkborne)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2026, 1:52am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/poll-how-do-you-feel-about-the-new-explore-animations/89978/18 "2026-10-02T01:52:48Z")
Changing Explore to replicate the idea of the early Class Quests with the map was a very, **very** bad idea. It might make the most sense at first, but the time and resources that are lost make Explore less efficient for those that take the game seriously. Maybe they did it so that their outdated servers could keep supporting the game. I have no clue. But now, I cannot tolerate it anymore. And with Vault weekends? Watching those pathing animations is like watching gnomes running away… ---
**Author:** ![Sighton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@Sighton](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Sighton)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2026, 10:14am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/poll-how-do-you-feel-about-the-new-explore-animations/89978/19 "2026-10-02T10:14:44Z")
They add nothing to the game. It’s just seconds of waiting. For a thing to move up a road to next fight, a little bit of code, could make that speed up. It’s a child’s light trick, on a game who’s demographic is, definitely average age 40. Stupid idea . ---
**Author:** ![Trebr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/858c86/32.png) [@Trebr](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Trebr)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2026, 12:45pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/poll-how-do-you-feel-about-the-new-explore-animations/89978/21 "2026-10-02T12:45:32Z")
> [@Starlite](#): > > The OG poster’s poll appears to lack nuance. > > IMO, the animations _look_ great, but they need to be sped up sufficiently, to match a normal player’s reaction time – probably by a factor of between 1.5 and 2. This would be easy to test. I would accept this as a compromise to not being able to turn the animations off. Explore is just not something I want to play after you can’t skip through now. [Next page](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/poll-how-do-you-feel-about-the-new-explore-animations/89978.md?page=2)