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Franklin Teek and Skal Nethus in The Plane of Knowledge offer quests related to hot zones.

The concept of Hot Zones was first introduced on June 13, 2006, and involves a number of zones in the world being marked "hot" for a period of time. The Hot Zone status entails the following:

• The experience gain for killing monsters in the zone is increased, by how much precisely is unknown.
• Monsters have a random chance of dropping a zone-specific augmentation and/or item appropriate for the zone's level.
• NPCs in Plane of Knowledge offer quests related to the zones that reward platinum, experience and/or items.

The rewards and quests have so far remained in the game even after the Hot Zone set has expired.

As of June 19, 2013.

Take note that the level quoted for the hot zone is not necessarily the level at which you can gain efficient experience in the zone, nor that the zone is appropriate for everyone. Neither should you assume that the zone is the best for its level; many other options exist, and many other factors determine whether a zone is good to level in.

Augmentation quest: Udumbara, the flower of legend from Skal Nethus in Plane of Knowledge, near the zoneline to the Guild Lobby, rewards Udumbara.

Franklin Teek in Plane of Knowledge, near the zoneline to the Guild Lobby, offers a quest for each hot zone that each reward experience, platinum and Defiant gear. For example, say level 50 to him and you get the quest A Simple Task - Level 50. These quests are well worth doing.

View the list of previous hot zones on ZAM.

In a "producer's letter" on January 14, 2001, and implemented with the January 17, 2001 patch, the concept of the Zone Experience Multiplier, also called ZEM, was introduced. The paragraph in the letter read:

Zone Experience

The first and perhaps easiest to explain change that we are making to the experience system is the modification of what we call the "Zone Experience Multiplier", or 'ZEM'. Currently, every creature in game of a given level yields a fixed amount of "Base Experience" (experience before it is allocated to group members). That base experience is then multiplied by the ZEM which is set to a value in correlation with the risk in a particular zone compared with the reward; at least, that is the goal.

Recently we evaluated many underutilized dungeons and considered reasons why they might be underutilized. Some people suggested that proximity of bind locations plays a part, and as such we are considering adding more binding locations to the game. We of course will not allow everyone to bind on the doorstep of a dungeon, but these changes should hopefully reduce the potential run for a melee class. While additional binding locations probably will not be in the next patch, we did want to discuss our thoughts on the matter.

Another suggestion, one that probably has the most merit, is that some dungeons are too risky given everything concerned. The natural conclusion is that we should increase the reward in order to offset the added risk. Our contention is that most people would rather be grouping and fighting their way through a dungeon because it's more fun, but feel "forced" to sit outdoors and camp zero-risk single spawns because it is safer and thus more efficient. While that statement might be true in an ideal world, it usually results in crowding in these popular outdoor zones (for example, Lake of Ill Omen or Oasis). The crowding in these zones really results in less efficient progress than one could make in a dungeon given a good group, but is still SAFE, at least ensuring that one will not have to tolerate "going backwards".

We can increase the reward of a particular dungeon in two fashions: We can either put in good loot, or we can change the ZEM. The problem with increasing the quality or quantity of loot is that if the loot is good enough, it's more likely to draw people far above the desired level range for the dungeon, making it some place that appropriately leveled folk choose to avoid. The second problem with the ever-increasing quality of loot is inflation: as good loot becomes more widely available, its value and the prestige value from owning it declines.

In this case, we decided that the most appropriate action for several underutilized dungeons would be to increase the ZEM; that is, increase the amount of experience that everyone gets when adventuring in the zone.

As of the next patch, you will receive additional experience (per kill) in the following zones:

Droga increased by 12%
Nurga increased by 12%
Solusek's Eye (SolA) increased by 13%
Najena increased by 13%
Befallen increased by 13%
Paw increased by 13%
Permafrost increased by 13%
Kaesora increased by 18%
Qeynos Catacombs increased by 20%
Runnyeye increased by 20%
Kerra Ridge increased by 20%
The Hole increased by 25%

In short, the developers wanted to spread out the playerbase and increase the rewards from venturing into dangerous areas. With the Ruins of Kunark expansion, it had become very popular to level in relatively easy outdoor zones, leaving many dungeons deserted.

The ZEM concept was expanded as the years passed. While never officially released, the most commonly quote multipliers are listed here, last updated early 2004. Two numbers usually float around; one is the bonus experience in percent, another is a number that runs off a base index of 75, meaning that 75 is no bonus and 150 is +100% bonus.

It is unknown (or untested) whether the multipliers have changed since then, and how it works in newer zones. Thus, the numbers should be taken with a grain of salt.