We've beamed you through the security grid. You should be somewhere near the target, but you'll need to look for it.
—Central

It is almost always important to explore a facility to find the locations of the objective room, the exit room, the guards, and to a lesser extent devices like Corporate Safes, and the guard entrances. Exploring a facility allows the player to make strategic decisions about which rooms to visit in which order, how much loot can be acquired safely before higher alarm levels, and what route to take to the exit once it is time to leave. Information about the guards' patrols can also support tactical decisions about how to navigate an area safely.

Faster exploration also allows the player to hack mainframe devices more efficiently before their firewalls rise, and exploring more of the facility also gives a direct credit reward if MicroSLAM Apparatus is installed.

The main way to explore a facility is to move agents to see as much of it as feasible.

Hacking Security Cameras helps the player to explore, since hacked cameras give vision to the agency. Cameras can normally only be hacked once they are discovered by seeing them, but a camera can often see parts of a room which are not visible to an agent who can see the camera, especially if the agent is peeking from outside of the room where the camera is.

It becomes more efficient to explore a facility by hacking cameras if you can do so without an agent having direct line-of-sight on the camera. Cameras can also be discovered by Internationale's Wireless Emitter augment or a Wireless Scanner, by hacking a Camera Database, or using the program Oracle. Cameras seen when exploring with a hacked drone can also be hacked to give the agency vision over an area for longer than the drone is controlled, allowing the player to determine the patrols in a room, or whether the room is patrol-free.

Most rooms are rectangular and small enough that a camera in the corner sees the whole room. This means that if you see a camera while peeking through a closed door, there is often no need to spend an extra 1 AP for a full peek with the door open.