Maple Story

Maple Story is a free, anime/fantasy, 2D side-scrolling MMORPG developed by the Korean company Wizet. Maple Story has been released in Japan, Korea and China, and is currently in a beta stage of development for the world at large, though the official release has been opened to beta testers. There is also a new additional server called MapleSEA for South East Asians to play. It is almost identical to MapleGlobal and also is still in beta phase of development. In the game, the player defends the "Maple World" from monsters and can chat with other players.

Gameplay

Character advancement comes through gaining experience points, levelling up, and collecting items and pieces of wieldable/wearable equipment. The player combats monsters, acquiring money (in a currency called mesos) and various items as well as completing quests.

The Beta version of Maple Story on its Global server takes place in a world called Tespia, and the "preview" of the official release version takes place in world called Scania. Meanwhile, the world in the South East Asian server is called Aquila.

The action begins on Maple Island, a floating island designed for new players. Once the player gains enough mesos, they can buy a ticket to sail to Victoria Island via the boat located in the town of Southperry. At level 8 your character can become a magician. And at level 10, the player can choose between three other character classes or jobs as well. These classes are: the Bowman, the Thief, and the Warrior. Keep in mind that the player can only choose one class.

You arrive at Victoria island in a place called Lith Harbour, which is ideal for beginners (Characters without jobs). After vacating Lith Harbour, a player may explore the whole island, which includes such areas as: Perion (Warrior's Mountain), Kerning City (Thief's City), Henesys (Bowman's Town) and Ellinia (Magician's Forest). Also, in the center of the island, there is a place called the Dungeon. As a player advances in the game, the character will eventually become mature enough to enter the Dungeon and reveal its mysteries.

There are four types of stats, which will decide which Job your character will choose. The following displays the full list of attributes and various Jobs' requirements of stats:

Str: Strength – This attribute increases the maximum power of melee attacks.

Dex: Dexterity – This attribute increases the accuracy of all attacks.

Int: Intelligence – This attribute increases the maximum power of magic attacks.

Luk: Luck – This attribute increases avoidability of your character.

Skills

There are also different skills available for your character to use. These skills differ across the different job types. These skills range from those that help you to hit more damage, to hit mobs to those that allows you to increase your different attributes. The full list can be found in the official Maple Story website at http://www.mapleglobal.com .

Tips

Bowmen should only train Dex and Str. Max in this order.

 Amazon's Eye
 Double Shot
 Critical Shot
 Arrow Blow

Magicians should only train Int and Luk.

LUK should be 3+ your level, remaining points go into INT
First SP point should go into Energy Bolt.
Max, Max MP Increase. This is important to getting the most MP
Max Magic Claw to lvl 10, then save SP to either 6 or 10.
Magic Guard, this is important for mages while challenges tougher enemies and training.

Clerics

Max Heal first, it'll allow you to train on Jr. Wraiths or Zombie Lupins
Max Either Holy Arrow or Invincible Disregard Bless, it is a useless skill to learn
Max MP Eater and teleport as you see fit.

Ice/Light Mage

Cold Beam: Horned shrooms until your Ice is strong enough 

to kill Fireboars with 2 hits 100% of the time

Lightning: Kill stuff at Henesys Hunting Grounds 1 until your lightning is level 30, 

then go to Florina beach if you can afford the potions

Max other skills as you see fit

Fire/Poison Mage

Max Fire Arrow, Meditation, Slow, Poison Breath, rest into Teleport.

Thieves should only train Luk and Dex.

Aspiring Bandits: DEX 2x your level, rest into Luk,unless you plan to use STR daggers, 

then only put points in STR to use the weapon.

  Learn Max Double Stab, Disorder, Nimble Body, and Dark Sight. In that order
Aspiring Assassins: DEX 2x your level, rest into Dex.
  Max Keen Eyes, Lucky Seve, Nimble Body, and Dark Sight in that order

Assassin

 Max "Javelin Mastery" first for it raises the minimum damage you inflict on 

enemies and the amount of stars you old for your sets

 Max "Critical Throw" for it gives a chance to do double the damage
 Max "Drain" allows you to recovery HP from damaged inflicted to creatures
 Max Haste last then distribute the rest as you see fit

Bandit

 Max "Dagger Mastery" to level 19 It increases minimum damaged inflicted and accersy
 Max "Savage Blow" for it allows you to attack up to six times for the cost of MP
 Max "Haste"
 Distribute remaining SP as you see fit.

Warriors should only train Str and Dex.

 DEX should be twice your level
 Max "Improving Max HP Increase"
 Max "Improving HP Recovery" as you see fit
 Max Power Strike
 Max Slash Blast

Fighter

 Max Either Sword or Axe Mastery, depending on which type of weapon you desire most.
It increases Min damage and accuracy
 Max "Fury" but don't use around magicians.
 Max "Final Attack" for the type of weapon you use (Sword or Axe), it allows a chance for 

an extra attack along with your normal one.

 Max "Power Guard" It retaliates damage back to your enemy

Page

 Replace "Threaten" for fury

Spearman:

 Do the same with your pole arms/spears with Mastery skills
 Max Both Hyper Body and Iron Wall
 Max Final Attack for your weapons

Mage Training Guide:

Roll a 4 STR/4 DEX for your starting stats. If you are impatient, a 5/4, 4/5 or 5/5 is okay too. Train just enough LUK to wear your equipment, which is usually 3 above your level, and put the rest of your ability points to INT. This allows you to hit more damage.

Mages often need team-mates to work effectively, especially at lower levels when they are lacking in MP (and are able to cast many spells before running out). It is advised they carry a lot of MP potions until they reach level 18, at which point they can use the spell called Magic Claw (a relatively strong spell).

LEVELS 1–8 (Maple Island): Snails. ONLY green. There is nothing much to do on Maple Island, and it is best to stay in the first hunting grounds, where there are only Green Snails. Red and Blue Snails will take too much time. Don't use potions; if you die you will not lose experience yet. At level 8, proceed to Grendel the Really Old (Formerly known as Hines) in Ellinia to become a Magician. To get to Ellinia easily take a taxi from Lith Harbor to Ellinia.

LEVELS 8–10: Henesys Hunting Ground I (And other maps with mostly Snails in them). Do not touch the Orange/Green Mushrooms as you will incur massive damage for your HP.

LEVELS 10–16: Slime Tree near Ellinia (Green Slime)/The Tree That Grew I (Green Slime)/Henesys Hunting Ground I (Orange Mushroom). Green Slimes give 10 EXP, Orange Mushrooms give 15 EXP but are a bit harder to kill.

LEVELS 17–20: Pigs or Ribbon Pigs (15 and 20 EXP), both of these can be found two maps east of Henesys and on the Pig Beach.

LEVELS 18–30: Kill the Blue Horned Mushrooms/Green Mushrooms inside the trees near Ellinia. (For magicians, it is not hard as a magician with level 20 magic claw can easily kill a Horned Mushroom in one hit.) At level 25, try to do the Party Quest in Kerning city. If you are not playing at night, you might have hard time to get in because of script kiddies using "autoclick" bots to get in to the PQ. Mages are in most demand for the PQ quest, because of their high damage at level 21–30.

LEVEL 30: At level 30 go to Ellinia and talk to Grendel the Really Old again to make your second job advancement. After that you are told to go to Magician Job Instructor who is at the top of the third map north from Ellinia. He will teleport you to a special map where you have to collect thirty Dark Marbles from the monsters there. Once you're done, talk to the Magician Job Instructor again and go back to Grendel. Now you have to choose from three different types of second job magician.

Ice/Lightning Wizards get single-target spell Cold Beam that does a lot of damage to a single enemy and multi-target spell Thunderbolt that hits six enemies, but does less damage per hit. If you choose Ice first you will be pretty much leveling on fire based enemies only and will start huge amounts of money from valuable drops. If you choose Lightning you will have a slow start but after level 35 you will start leveling much faster than Ice Wizards but you will also burn a lot of money on potions.

Fire/Poison Wizards get single-target spells Fire Arrow and Poison Brace. Fire Arrow is most powerful of the second job spells. Poison Brace is weaker but has a chance of poisoning an enemy it hits.

Clerics get Heal, a spell that heals you and up to six party members and damages undead enemies and Holy Arrow, a single-target spell that isn't as strong as Wizards' magic attacks. First you should master Heal and train on monsters that you can kill with Magic Claw until it is strong enough to kill Zombie Mushrooms or Zombie Lupins. Do not bother buying HP potions, you won't be needing them with Heal. If you want to train on Dark Stone Golems on later levels, max Holy Arrow after Heal for the elemental advantage damage boost.

LEVELS 30–35: Begin to explore the Sleepywood Dungeon. The Zombie Mushrooms and Horned Mushrooms should be quite easy. Clerics at level 35 can attempt to heal the zombie mushrooms which will hit for about 100–150 damage.

LEVELS 35–45: Ice Wizards should train on Fire Boars around Perion, Lightning mages on Green Mushrooms wherever they spawn in large mobs, Fire Wizards should train on anything that they can kill with one or two hits. Clerics can move to Zombie Lupins when their Heal is maximized.

LEVELS 45+: Venture very deep within the dungeons (Caves of Evil Eye, Drake Hunting Ground, etc.) Lightning mages should train in Florina Beach (Lorang is weak vs. lightning) Fire mages on Curse Eyes and Cold Eyes, Cleric on Zombie Lupins and ice mages on Fire Boars, Copper Drakes or Drakes. For the more adventurous player over level 55, try taking on the higher level Tauromacis/Taurospear, and if you are level 60+, the Jr. Barlog (Level 80), the strongest monster on Victoria Island.

Level 70+ : Okay so you want the Third Job Advancement..Well If you want to be a Priest or a Bishop, you must be a Cleric when you were at level 30+ Now these new advancements allow you to use new abilities like Summon Dragon or Magic Door. These advancements are verystrong so think twice before becoming a Thunder/Ice wizard or Fire/Poison wizard....The bestway to train is by going to Florina Beach. You can get there by a ship for 1000 mesos..Happy Mapling ^^

Warrior Training Tip

LEVELS 1–4: Slay green snails ONLY, you're too weak to fight the other creatures on this island so slay snails until you have a strength of around 25.

Quests

In Maple Story users have an option to do quests, but are not required too, but users in the end receive EXP and sometimes rare quest-only items.

Any Level:
Rebuilding Blackbull's House
This quest is pretty simple. You need to collect 50 firewood and 50 tree branches (It may be leaves)to help Blackbull build his house. Blackbull is right above the Taxi in Perion (Warrior's Mountain) and he is the man that looks like a Red Indian. Talk to him, and he will give you the quest. Most tree monsters are around Perion. Be careful in fighting them if you're under level 18 and aren't a mage, because they are often grouped with axe stumps, or even dark axe stumps, which will hurt you at a low level. After gathering the items, talk to Blackbull. You will have a 10% chance to get a Red Triangular Shield (sells for 25k or so) and a 90% chance for a Steel Square Shield (Not a lot, will only sell for 3K if you try to sell it in a shop).
Level 20–30: (Many quests are around this level)
Shumi's Lost Coin:
Shumi's Lost Coin will most definitely irritate you. If this is your first time doing a jumping quest. Jumping quests are where you jump from platform to platform, trying to get to the next stage (and eventually a quest item at the end) while evading traps (which include laser beams, electric wires, throwing stars, special stirges and neckis, throwing stars, phasing beams, energy balls, and other objects) that will deal you one damage and push you forcefully away. In this quest, you will only have to face laser beams, electric wires, and special monsters. You will have to do this multiple times. First, talk to Shumi right next to the Subway in Kerning. She will give you the quest, and tell you to go into B1. Go into the subway and buy a ticket from the bald man at the bottom. He will tell you to pay around 100 meso for it. Pay, and then use it on the Ticket Machine. Once you get in, use either the top or second teleport. Just study everything, and find out a pattern to go through. After you get into B2, you will see LOTS of stirges and LOTS of electrical wires. This may look hard, but it's very simple. Just keep jumping, without taking your hand off the jump button and you will easily reach the top. You will then see a ladder with stirges around it. This is easy. Just climb it; the stirges might score a miss, not knock you off, or simply not touch you. Go into the teleport and you will find yourself with many,many Bubblings. To get into the subway, go to the sign at the bottom. You will teleport to the top. Then, either grab your coin and leave, or train for a limit of 100 minutes on the huge load of bubblings. In return, Shumi will give you 30 scrolls for a random town. The best is to Sleepywood. Lith Harbor scrolls however, can be useless Also, she gives you one fame and 200 xp.

Tips: -jumping into a laser beam can move you right back onto the previous platform, allowing you to jump again and succeed.

-pressing down to lie down will make you immune to the electrical wires.

-not all parts are synchronised. Sometimes waiting is good.

-do NOT change channels because depending where you are, it could reset you to the beginning.

-do not hit the neckis/stirges. They will follow you and you will always miss them anyways.

Common Scams

Some people scam the new players by offering a low price for the items. DO NOT sell your ores for 300 meso each to a player. They are worth several 1000, depending on the variety. Also, there is a scam in which a scammer tells you to drop a valuable item and type /map 100. It will log you out, and the scammer takes the item. Even worse is a scroll scam, as scrolls can and usually are quite valuable. Keylogging is a large problem. It is capable of hacking your other accounts (like email) and taking sensitive information. To counter this, don't download "hacks" or suspicious files, and put your password in a notepad. Then use ctrl-c ctrl-v (copy and paste) to paste it into the password column. <p> Known /map scams are following: /mapclone: Freezes the screen, so that you can not pick up nor drop items. <p>/mapsuperitem: Same effect as /mapclone. <p>/map100: Logs you off, allowing the scammer to take the item. <p> Also, if a player approaches you and tells you to drop an item as a dare, NEVER EVER FOLLOW! They will use a "autoloot" macro to steal the item, or teleport if they are a mage. Never, ever drop any item you fear to lose.

External links

• Official Maple Story global site
• Official Maple Story Korean site
• Official Maple Story South East Asian site (MapleSEA)
• Sleepywood.net fansite
• Hidden Street – Extensive English database.
• Link to download the Japanese version of Maple Story