We already knew that Digimon World 3 uses a step counter like most JRPGs do. So during my last stream Syd mapped out said step counter with cheat engine and found out that sometimes the "encounter rate" (the amount the step counter goes down with one single step) actually can change on the same map. this only changes our movement in the run on two maps. Central Park and Wind Prairy.

Central Park: on the grass the step counter goes down by 6, while on the road it goes down by only 3 Wind Prairy: same like above but you don't have a road made of stone but a sandy path with -3 here. again -6 for the grass.

So we can actually make the step counter go less down by getting as much of the road / sandy path as possible when moving through those maps. It's rather minor, however I tested it and for example on Seiryu City -> Wind Prairy -> Kicking Forest I was able to safe like 100 step points with aiming for the sandy path istead of just going through the grass what would be the fastest geometrically. Keep in mind that 100 steps can already mean an whole encounter if you get a low roll on the step count. So this could add up to a few encounters maybe during the whole run I think. Nothing major but we should have it in our mind when moving through those maps.

I also noticed some other differences on other maps which however don't affect our movement:

protocol forest: the rate is -6 outside of the forest with the maze, however is only -3 inside the forest jungle grave: the rate is only -4 on the light sand before zanbamon, however -6 on the dark sand behind zanbamon

so yeah. the general encounter rate seems to be -6, however just for information purposes the encounter rates for the exceptions are the following ones: (the higher the negative number the more encounters you get statistically)

Asuka sewers: -9 Datamon screen: 0 (it just seems you can't get encounters where a boss fight is standing. for example you can't get encounters in front of MasterTyrannomon either - after you climbed up the ladder) jungle shrine: -18 catacomb: -9 (no encounters before the bug maze exit - after you climbed down the ladder) bug maze: -9 dum dum factory: -4 ; however the duct rooms: -9 and the hi-andromon screen and the sewers: -6 again Freeze Mountain: -4 however Snow Mountain onwards: -6 again Ice Dungeon: -18 Fire Dungeon: -9 Dark Dungeon: -4

Seabed's seem to have -6, however some special ones like the seabed before datamon or before the Suzaku underground cave have -9.

Circuit Boards all seem to have -3 but I did not test all. I guess for going to Bai Hu City for example, routes with only Circuit Boards should trigger less encounters then routes which include the Seabed.

I guess that's it. Oh, one more thing. You can't get encounters on map exists either. (when an arrow floats above Junior's head.) So don't try to force encounter while running into an exit. However running into a wall (which is no exit) triggers encounters, so that works. This also means that you shouldn't run into walls while moving across the map normally because you pretty much spend step counts then just on running against the wall and trigger encounters faster this way.

I think that covers everything. This might clear up some confusion during runs on whether one had bad luck with the step counter or if the encounter rate just is extremely high on that location, like on jungle shrine for example.