So I finally got to future era map. Here to report my findings.
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I stopped at the quest "Shiek Over" had one of the areas scouted for the quest, but not the other (Salfah), I am still in PME in the research tree.
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I read here that Salfah was one of the areas to not scout in order to do the skip so I thought it was a good enough place to stop.
After I got to the future era map and got the first sector I started scouting Salfah:
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I wasn't keeping track of the quests I got after that because I was fully expecting to not be able to skip King of the desert (sorry), but there were a few madman quests if I am remembering correctly. Eventually I noticed I got to a quest that me TE goods, and upon checking the wiki it was a TE quest aka "Money Trail"! The quest prior to this gave me 2 combat drones (which I forgot were TE troops) so I believe it was "The drug lord".
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I believe this means I have successfully skipped the desert king. So looks like completing the PME story line by completing Squad tactics and Special Operations is fine.
Edit: Yup, I just got Danbas war quest which is a future era quest after finishing Money Trail.
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EDIT2: I just read the updated guide again! Had no idea I had to skip TE sectors. But I had scouted everything but didn't take these 3 by total luck, though not exactly the same as you had in your guide:
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EDI 3: oof just noticed about negotiating instead of fighting in FE map rip 3 hovers. I had a question, I am at Danbas war with 7 techs from previous eras left. How far will this take me? 3 used in FE story, 4 in AF and then I'm blocked?