You gain Explore Percentage (E%, explore) by travelling the Retroverse. The more you travel, the more E% you gain. Your E% represents the portion of all areas in the Retroverse you have explored. As the world expands (areas get added) your E% will go down proportionately. As you explore, it will increase. It's a good idea to learn the lay of the land, and you should definitely know your homeworld inside and out before you decide to journey somewhere else.
The added benefit of travelling in this fashion is the experience points gained from travelling. It is highly recommended that newbies simply travel rather than fight when they first begin adventuring.
You do not gain the explore points for a room under these conditions:
* You are in brief mode.
* You are blinded or otherwise unable to see clearly.
* You are attacked immediately upon entering the room.
* Your 'map' shows your exact location and the location of spots of interest.
* You've been there before.
In all of these situations, you are not actually looking at your surroundings and learning new things about them, so you are not truely exploring.
See also:
help exploration, look, peer, exits, map, brief, search, score