A guide to vicloc

A guide to vicloc

Please, read the original guide here (mirror).

What is “vicloc”?



ℹ️ See also: Vicloc rules. ℹ️

“Vicloc” (a.k.a. “viclock”) stands for “Victoria-Island-locked”. Characters playing in this style of MapleStory (who may be called “viclockers” or “Victoria Islanders”) leave Maple Island[1], but upon doing so, never leave Victoria Island (a.k.a. “Vic Island” or simply “Vic”). We define Victoria Island as the union of the following regions of the Maple World:

• The main continent:
  • Lith Harbor
  • Perion
  • Ellinia
  • Henesys
  • Kerning City
  • Nautilus Harbor
  • Sleepywood
• Amoria
• Florina Beach
• The Free Market

Like Maple Islanders (a.k.a. “islanders”), Victoria Islanders are largely isolated from “outlanders” (non-vicloc characters), albeit to a lesser degree. They cannot trade with, nor receive items/mesos from, outlanders. They also cannot use gachapon machines, nor certain Cash Shop items like e.g. Myo Myo. For a full list of the rules of vicloc, please see rules.md.

Because they can never leave Vic Island, viclockers can never advance beyond second job. This reflects an earlier version of MapleStory, wherein the Training Camp, Maple Island, and Victoria Island collectively made up the known Maple World. However, vicloc can be played even in advanced versions of the game, which may have other continents (e.g. Ossyria), pirates, fourth job, etc. For this reason, we consider new canonical additions to Victoria Island — e.g. Nautilus Harbor and Amoria — to be part of Victoria Island for the purpose of vicloc.

Spoiler: Footnotes for “What is ‘vicloc’?”

[1]: For technical reasons, we consider campers (who never leave the Training Camp) and Maple Islanders (who never leave Maple Island) to be special cases of vicloc characters; however, this is not usually what we mean by “vicloc”.

Why vicloc?



Ultimately, the simple answer to this question is: because it’s fun. But it’s worth exploring a little bit about what makes vicloc so special.

When compared to usual MapleStory play in most servers, vicloc settling for less — viz. no third job, no fourth job, and generally lower-level characters — is actually a huge asset. In gameplay styles with these higher-powered characters, the higher jobs and higher levels are wildly different from the earlier parts of the game, and the rest of the game gets warped around them. Thus, the average player’s goal is merely to get to “the endgame” as quickly as possible, ultimately forgetting what makes MapleStory so good to begin with! Along with this comes undesirable modes of gameplay (or lack of gameplay) like washing, leeching, etc., as well as serious balance issues due to the inflated power of almost all truly useful skills in the game.

With vicloc, there is only MapleStory. Victoria Island is a lot bigger than you think, if you care to explore it. And you’ll find that vicloc suffers from fewer issues of game balance, giving you more time to explore the world and do fun stuff with your friends, without having to worry about that stuff.

When compared to Maple Islanding (“islanding” in the usual sense), vicloc is obviously less restrictive, has more content to explore, and more jobs & character builds to try out. Vicloc is a strict superset of Maple Islanding, adding just enough to the game to make it richer, without running into the issues discussed above. Depending on the server/implementation that you’re playing on, viclockers may have access to off-Maple-Island content such as…:

• Classes such as:
  • Warriors (sword(wo)men, fighters, pages, spear(wo)men).
  • Mages (magicians, fire/poison magicians, ice/lightning magicians, clerics).
  • Archers (archers, hunters, crossbow(o)men).
  • Thieves (rogues, assassins, bandits).
  • Pirates (pirates, brawlers, gunslingers).
• Henesys Party Quest (HPQ).
• Kerning Party Quest (KPQ).
• Amoria Party Quest (APQ).
• Sharenian Party Quest (SPQ; a.k.a. Guild Party Quest, GPQ).
• Many quests & questlines!
• Area bosses such as:
  • Mano.
  • Stumpy.
  • Faust.
  • Mushmom.
  • King Clang.
  • Zombie Mushmom.
  • Dyle.
  • Jr. Balrog.
• Countless equipment items to use & to upgrade.
• Jump quests.
• The whole island of Victoria to explore, with all of its flora & fauna!

General guidelines for viclocking

• Victoria Island is your domain. It’s your duty to explore it in all of its niches and obscurities: do the quests that you can find, kill the monsters that you can find, and carve your own path.
• There is always difficulty at the beginning. Vicloc is pretty brutal when first starting out, and you’ll be aching for potion money. However, with some shrewdness and determination, anyone can overcome this financial despair!
• Defences (WDEF and MDEF) actually matter in vicloc. Yes, you heard that right.
• Events are your best friend. Events allow viclockers access to activities, locations, and items that they wouldn’t otherwise have access to.
• Area bosses (Faust, King Clang, Jr. Balrog, etc.) are the source of many wonderful things in vicloc, so keep an eye on them!
• Keep that crap! Crafting and questing are a big deal in vicloc, so most items have a use. If not, be sure to NPC it for the sweet, sweet mesos.
• Have fun!!

A comparison of vicloc classes/jobs


As mentioned above, game balance pans out differently in vicloc than it does in other modes of gameplay, despite there being essentially the same character archetypes. This is, in part, due to the lack of third and fourth jobs in vicloc — second job is the highest job advancement for viclockers. That being said, these differences in game balance generally turn out for the better: for the most part, every class in vicloc has its place, and no class is gratuitously “more powerful” than any other.

With this in mind, let’s take a look at each class individually, and consider how it compares to the others.

Beginners



As you’d expect, permabeginners play similarly to how they do outside of vicloc; naturally, they don’t care that third and fourth job don’t exist. On the other hand, this isn’t quite true: the overall lower-powered nature of vicloc characters in general allows a dedicated permabeginner who hones their craft to remain more relevant than they would in other modes of gameplay.

⚔️ Warriors

From a bird’s-eye view, most warriors (with the exception of some odd ones) tend to play very similarly: their bread-and-butter is the use of Power Strike and Slash Blast in conjunction with melee weapons. In addition, warriors make for very strong support: each of the three warrior second-job classes has its own party support skill (or two such skills, in the case of spear(wo)man). And, last but not least, warriors are also characterised by their extremely high natural durability.

Their ability to easily survive and support the party, combined with their ability to effectively deal multi-target and single-target DPS from first job onwards, makes warriors extremely powerful at all levels of the game.

Fighter



Elevator pitch: “rage pls”

Fighters differentiate themselves from other warriors mainly in two ways: weapon choice (swords and/or axes), and Rage. It’s difficult to understate just how important Rage is in vicloc; without it, physical attackers are generally stuck with either Warrior Potions (+5 WATK), or the much more difficult-to-farm Drake’s Blood (+8 WATK). This means that virtually any party that wishes to optimise their DPS output must have at least one fighter amongst their ranks.

Spoiler: Pros & cons

Pros:

• Rage is by far the most powerful sustainable damage buff in the game.
• Good multi-target and single-target DPS from first job onwards, and comfort in melee combat.
  • Their solid multi-target DPS and comfort in melee combat makes them extremely good at farming crowded maps like FoG.
• Naturally very durable. Fighters are also the most resistant to physical attacks of any class in the game (tied with page), due to Power Guard.
  • Also due to Power Guard, fighters make excellent HP warriors.

Cons:

• Naturally short reach means that they have to constantly stay adjacent to their foe(s).
• Poor mobility.
• Not quite as high potential for single-target or multi-target DPS, when compared to certain other classes.
• Accuracy issues (with the exception of some odd ones, e.g. DEX fighters).

Page


Elevator pitch: All foes cower before the page’s threatening presence.

Pages differentiate themselves from other warriors mainly in two ways: weapon choice (blunt weapons and/or swords), and Threaten. Like the Rage of fighters, Threaten can be used to optimise the party’s DPS output. However, unlike Rage, Threaten is a debuff that lowers the foe’s resistance to physical attacks, and their ability to deal physical damage. This is a double-edged sword: on the one hand, this means that Threaten is only truly useful during boss fights, and usually not so much when training/hunting; on the other hand, this means that Threaten is especially powerful against strong bosses like those found in SPQ, APQ, and The Cursed Sanctuary, and has defensive effects (i.e. it’s not purely offensive).

Spoiler: Pros & cons

Pros:

• Threaten is a powerful party support skill with both offensive and defensive effects, very useful during boss fights.
• Good multi-target and single-target DPS from first job onwards, and comfort in melee combat.
  • Their solid multi-target DPS and comfort in melee combat makes them extremely good at farming crowded maps like FoG.
• Naturally very durable. Pages are also the most resistant to physical attacks of any class in the game (tied with fighter), due to Power Guard.
  • Also due to Power Guard, pages make good HP warriors.

Cons:

• Naturally short reach means that they have to constantly stay adjacent to their foe(s).
• Poor mobility.
• Not quite as high potential for single-target or multi-target DPS, when compared to certain other classes.
• Accuracy issues (with the exception of some odd ones, e.g. DEX pages).
• Threaten is not always useful; its usefulness is usually limited to boss fights.

Spear(wo)man


Elevator pitch: Protect your party!

Spear(wo)men differentiate themselves from other warriors mainly in two ways: weapon choice (polearms and/or spears), and Hyper Body/Iron Will. Unlike fighters and pages, the spear(wo)man has not one, but two party support skills, and both are purely defensive. The extreme power of these two skills combined makes the spear(wo)man the ultimate party protector, and can also help the party to save money on potions.

Spoiler: Pros & cons

Pros:

• Hyper Body & Iron Will form the most powerful party-defence arsenal in the game.
• Good multi-target and single-target DPS from first job onwards, and comfort in melee combat.
  • Their solid multi-target DPS and comfort in melee combat makes them extremely good at farming crowded maps like FoG.
• Naturally extremely durable.

Cons:

• Naturally short reach means that they have to constantly stay adjacent to their foe(s), although the have a mild advantage over one-handed weapon users due to the large reach of polearms & spears.
• Poor mobility.
• Not quite as high potential for single-target or multi-target DPS, when compared to certain other classes.
• Accuracy issues (with the exception of some odd ones, e.g. DEX spear(wo)men).
• Hyper Body & Iron Will are susceptible to being dispelled in SPQ and APQ. Furthermore, these skills are largely just meso-saving skills, outside of the realm of boss fights.

Mages
Mages are entirely unique in their ability to deal magical damage, and in their ability to deal elemental damage. They are also naturally mobile due to Teleport, and naturally fairly durable with Magic Guard. However, beyond this, the three mage classes diverge considerably.

Fire/poison magician



Elevator pitch: Huge single-target elemental DPS.

Fire/poison magicians sit alongside thieves as the only classes that lack multi-target attacks entirely. This results in F/P magicians being the red-headed[1] stepchild when it comes to mages. However, F/P magicians can make up for this with their high single-target DPS (higher than any mage), unique ability to poison monsters, unique choice of elements, and mild party utility in the form of Meditation.

Spoiler: Pros & cons

Pros:

• Highest single-target magical DPS in the game.
  • This can come in extra handy with bosses/monsters that can cancel weapon attacks, e.g. in SPQ and APQ.
• Unique ability to poison monsters with Poison Breath, which deals damage over time proportional to the monster’s MAXHP.
• Unique ability to deal fire-typed and poison-typed damage, which makes them extra effective against monsters that are weak to either of these elements.
• Extremely mobile due to Teleport.
• Fairly sturdy due to Magic Guard and Magic Armor.
• Modestly large reach, while retaining the ability to attack normally at melee range.
• Meditation is by far the most powerful sustainable MATK buff in the game.
• No accuracy issues.

Cons:

• No multi-target attacks.
• Although their single-target DPS is very impressive, some physical attackers may be able to outdo them against monsters that are vulnerable to physical attacks.
• Their attack speed is somewhat slower than most other classes.
• Although the poison effect deals damage based on the MAXHP of the monster, most monsters with very high MAXHP are bosses, which are unaffected by the poisoning effect.
• Crippled in the presence of monsters that are resistant and/or immune to fire and/or poison.
• Extremely fragile when dispelled, due to losing Magic Guard.
• Not as large reach as truly “ranged” classes.
• Meditation is only useful as a party buff when one or more clerics and/or magicians are in the party.

Spoiler: Footnotes for “Fire/poison magician”

[1]: Pun intended.

Ice/lightning magician



Elevator pitch: Farm with ease.

Ice/lightning magicians are notable for their ability to use Thunderbolt, perhaps the most versatile and powerful multi-target attack in the game. They also possess the ability to freeze individual monsters with Cold Beam, a unique choice of elements, and mild party utility in the form of Meditation. This results in I/L magicians having a reputation for being the premier farming/grinding/hunting class in vicloc.

Spoiler: Pros & cons

Pros:

• Thunderbolt is perhaps the most versatile and powerful multi-target attack in the game.
• Ability to freeze monsters with Cold Beam.
• Unique ability to deal ice-typed and lightning-typed damage, which makes them extra effective against monsters that are weak to either of these elements.
• Extremely mobile due to Teleport.
• Fairly sturdy due to Magic Guard and Magic Armor.
• Modestly large reach, while retaining the ability to attack normally at melee range.
• Meditation is by far the most powerful sustainable MATK buff in the game.
• No accuracy issues.

Cons:

• Although their multi-target DPS is extremely impressive, their single-target DPS is unremarkable (although still better than e.g. clerics).
• Their attack speed is somewhat slower than most other classes.
• Crippled in the presence of monsters that are resistant and/or immune to ice and/or lightning.
• Extremely fragile when dispelled, due to losing Magic Guard.
• Not as large reach as truly “ranged” classes.
• Meditation is only useful as a party buff when one or more clerics and/or magicians are in the party.

Cleric


Elevator pitch: The ultimate party support & undead-slayer.

Clerics are, naturally, known for their party support abilities. This largely comes in the form of two skills in particular: Heal and Bless. Although clerics generally have trouble keeping up with other mages in terms of DPS output, their very high value to a party, their extra durability, and their still very high effectiveness at gaining EXP, makes them an irreplaceable member of the mage family.

Spoiler: Pros & cons

Pros:

• Heal & Bless make them extremely valuable to the party.
• Very strong ability to farm EXP, via the use of Heal.
• Unique ability to deal heal-typed and holy-typed damage, which makes them extra effective against monsters that are weak to either of these elements (usually, undeads).
• Extremely mobile due to Teleport.
• Very sturdy due to Magic Guard, Magic Armor, and their signature defensive skill: Invincible.
• Modestly large reach, while retaining the ability to attack normally at melee range.
• No accuracy issues.
• Clerics make better STR mages than other varieties of mage.

Cons:

• Although their ability to farm EXP is remarkable, their ability to deal DPS in general (single-target or multi-target) is very poor, made only mildly better by the addition of Holy Arrow.
  • Their single-target attack speed is somewhat slower than most other classes.
• Unable to effectively train on non-undead monsters, and crippled in the presence of monsters that are resistant to holy.
• Extremely fragile when dispelled, due to losing Magic Guard and Invincible.
• Not as large reach as truly “ranged” classes.
• Cannot get Meditation unless there is an F/P or I/L magician in their party.

Archers
Archers are ranged physical attackers, which makes them valued for their single-target DPS. In addition, they are also extremely capable at multi-target DPS, making them very strong at hunting & at levelling up. They also boast the largest reach in the game (ever so slightly more than the assassin), as well as the highest accuracy in the game (with the exception of some odd jobs, e.g. DEX brawlers). To compensate for their extreme combat capabilities, archers are characteristically squishy, lacking any real defences whatsoever. Furthermore, they have nothing to offer their party other than damage. This makes archers very effective at levelling up and doing incredible damage at a large distance, but ultimately reliant on their party in difficult settings.

Hunter



Elevator pitch: Incredible damage, incredible versatility.

Hunters differentiate themselves from crossbow(o)men in two ways: their choice of weapon (bows), and their use of Arrow Bomb. Arrow Bomb is more versatile than its crossbow counterpart (Iron Arrow), because its path can curve to meet its initial target, and because it affects monsters in a radius around the initially struck monster. It also stuns monsters, giving hunters a debuff — something that crossbow(o)men totally lack. However, its damage output suffers considerably when compared to Iron Arrow, and it relies more on hitting as close to six monsters at once as possible.

Spoiler: Pros & cons

Pros:

• Extremely high single-target DPS from first job onwards, and very high multi-target DPS in second job.
• Arrow Bomb is more versatile & easier to use than Iron Arrow.
• Arrow Bomb stuns, unlike Iron Arrow.
• Has Power Knock-Back, allowing them to effectively deal with non-boss monsters that approach them in melee.
• Largest reach in the game (tied with the crossbow(o)man).
• Highest accuracy in the game (tied with the crossbow(o)man, with the exception of some odd jobs, e.g. DEX brawlers).

Cons:

• Extremely squishy, having no defences whatsoever.
• Nothing to offer their party other than damage.
• Arrow Bomb deals out considerably less damage than Iron Arrow.
• Arrow Bomb relies more on hitting as close to six monsters at once as possible, when compared to Iron Arrow.
• Can’t really do much other than Power Knock-Back when too close to their foe(s).
• Cannot attack while in mid-air.
• Very slightly lower single-target DPS in comparison to assassins.

Crossbow(o)man


Elevator pitch: Extreme single-target damage and extreme multi-target damage: why pick only one?

Crossbow(o)men differentiate themselves from hunters in two ways: their choice of weapon (crossbows), and their use of Iron Arrow. Iron Arrow deals out considerably more damage than its bow counterpart (Arrow Bomb). It also relies less on hitting as close to six monsters at once as possible. However, it does not stun monsters, and is less versatile than Arrow Bomb, due to always shooting in a straight horizontal path.

Spoiler: Pros & cons

Pros:

• Extremely high single-target DPS from first job onwards, and very high multi-target DPS in second job.
• Iron Arrow deals out considerably more damage than Arrow Bomb.
• Iron Arrow relies less on hitting as close to six monsters at once as possible, when compared to Arrow Bomb.
• Has Power Knock-Back, allowing them to effectively deal with non-boss monsters that approach them in melee.
• Largest reach in the game (tied with the hunter).
• Highest accuracy in the game (tied with the hunter, with the exception of some odd jobs, e.g. DEX brawlers).

Cons:

• Extremely squishy, having no defences whatsoever.
• Nothing to offer their party other than damage.
• Iron Arrow is less versatile & less easy-to-use than Arrow Bomb, due to always shooting in a straight horizontal path.
• Iron Arrow does not stun, unlike Arrow Bomb.
• Can’t really do much other than Power Knock-Back when too close to their foe(s).
• Cannot attack while in mid-air.
• Very slightly lower single-target DPS in comparison to assassins.

Thieves
Like archers, thieves are valued for their single-target DPS. Unlike archers, however, they lack multi-target attacks entirely. What they lack in multi-target DPS, thieves make up for by having extraordinarily high single-target DPS, a more mobile & flexible fighting style, and party utility with the use of Haste. Again like archers, thieves are characteristically squishy, as they have almost no defences other than their naturally high AVOID.

Assassin



Elevator pitch: Portable boss-shredder.

Assassins differentiate themselves from bandits mostly by being truly ranged: they use claws, rather than daggers. With this comes some versatility — especially because assassins are capable of attacking in mid-air — but also a difficulty with fighting in crowded areas, and thus a difficulty with farming & with gaining EXP. Furthermore, the assassin’s damage is considerably less stable than the bandit’s, making it even more difficult to effectively fight non-boss monsters. However, assassins shine when it comes to bosses: they are capable of dishing out perhaps the largest single-target DPS in the game, and their single-target DPS is extremely strong for their entire career.

Spoiler: Pros & cons

Pros:

• Capable of dishing out perhaps the largest single-target DPS in the game. Their single-target DPS is extremely strong for their entire career.
• Haste makes them very mobile, and an asset to their party.
• Truly ranged, and thus capable of fighting from a distance.
• Can attack in mid-air.
• Naturally high AVOID.
• No accuracy issues.
• Benefits abnormally highly from increases in WATK (e.g. Rage).
• Has the ability to use Dark Sight.

Cons:

• No multi-target attacks.
• Can’t really do much when too close to their foe(s).
• Has a hard time gaining EXP, due to the previous two points.
• Extremely squishy, having no defences whatsoever.
• Not quite as long-ranged as archers. Also not quite as accurate.
• Due to their extreme sensitivity to WATK, the DPS of an assassin is difficult to optimise. Truly powerful stars are hard to come by, and scrolling claws is a nightmare. Also crippled more (in comparison to other classes) by lack of good WATK buffs.

Bandit


Elevator pitch: One shot, one kill.

Bandits differentiate themselves from assassins mostly by being melee combatants: they use daggers, rather than claws. Although this loses some versatility in positioning, and puts the bandit uncomfortably close to their foe(s), it makes them considerably better than assassins when it comes to farming & to gaining EXP. Furthermore, the bandit’s damage is much more stable than the assassin’s, allowing them to chose what to farm based on what they can kill in just one (or just two) Savage Blows. In exchange, the bandit’s damage is not quite as impressive as the assassin’s, although it is still very impressive.

Spoiler: Pros & cons

Pros:

• Their single-target DPS is extremely strong for their entire career.
• Haste makes them very mobile, and an asset to their party.
• As melee combatants, they are capable of fighting in crowded areas with ease.
• Abnormally stable damage means that the bandit can chose what to farm based on what they can kill in just one (or just two) Savage Blows.
• Has an easier time gaining EXP when compared to the assassin, due to the previous two points.
• Naturally high AVOID.
• No accuracy issues.
• Benefits abnormally highly from all-stat equipment items.
• Has the ability to use Dark Sight.

Cons:

• No multi-target attacks.
• Not quite as impressive DPS as the assassin.
• Not ranged, and thus has to constantly be adjacent to their foe(s). Haste helps to ameliorate this issue relative to warriors and beginners.
• Extremely squishy, having no defences whatsoever.
• Not quite as accurate as archers.

‍☠️ Pirates
The two main paths of the pirate are quite dissimilar from one another: the brawler takes after the warrior, being a sturdy STR-based melee combatant, whereas the gunslinger takes after the archer, being a squishy DEX-based ranged combatant. But the comparison to warriors & archers is not enough — pirates have a large arsenal of unique abilities that makes them a stunningly unique addition to the vicloc class répertoire.

All pirates benefit from relatively comfortable accuracy (gunslingers much more so than brawlers, but brawlers are still better off than warriors), and from the mobility granted by Dash.

Brawler



Elevator pitch: The most versatile bully in all the land.

Brawlers are, like warriors, sturdy STR-based melee combatants. However, unlike warriors, their weapon of choice is the knuckler; as such, they enjoy a more fluid & versatile method of combat. Brawlers have more attacks at their disposal than any other class in the game, and a skilled brawler is capable of controlling & eliminating monsters in a way that is unmatched by any other class. Furthermore, they benefit from higher accuracy than warriors, better mobility than warriors, a Dark Sight-like skill in the form of Oak Barrel, and the ability to engage in ranged combat (with Double Shot) if need be. On the other hand, brawlers may be sturdier than most, but they are still squishy in comparison to warriors. And the brawler has no true “party support” skills per se.

Spoiler: Pros & cons

Pros:

• Very solid multi-target and single-target DPS from first job onwards, and comfort in melee combat.
  • Their solid multi-target DPS and comfort in melee combat makes them extremely good at farming crowded maps like FoG.
• Highly mobile, due to Dash and Corkscrew Blow.
• Naturally durable.
• Extremely large number of attacks in their arsenal, making their fighting style powerful in its versatility.
  • Has a Rush-like skill in the form of Corkscrew Blow (and, to a lesser extent, Backspin Blow).
  • Has the ability to consistently (i.e. with 100% probability) stun monsters with Backspin Blow and Double Uppercut.
  • Very high attack speed with Flash Fist.
• Higher accuracy than warriors.
• Ability to engage in ranged combat with Double Shot, if need be.
• Has a Dark Sight-like skill in the form of Oak Barrel.

Cons:

• No real party support skills other than the ability to shove and stun monsters (and Oak Barrel, in the case of SPQ).
• Not quite as high potential for single-target or multi-target DPS, when compared to certain other classes.
• Although they are more durable than most, brawlers are still squishy in comparison to warriors.
• Because of their large number of attacks and the intricate mechanics involved, brawlers are perhaps the most difficult class to play competently. More skilled brawlers will be capable of more devastating attacks.
• Although they have more accuracy than warriors, they can still suffer from accuracy issues (with the exception of some odd ones, e.g. DEX brawlers).
• Although they are capable of ranged combat, it is very poor.

Gunslinger


Elevator pitch: Yeet haw!

Gunslingers are, like archers, squishy DEX-based ranged combatants. However, unlike archers, their weapon of choice is the gun. As such, they play somewhat more like assassins: they can attack while in mid-air; they are naturally more mobile, due to Dash, Wings, and Recoil Shot; they are ranged, but slightly less ranged than archers; and their focus is more oriented towards sheer single-target DPS. Gunslingers are not, however, totally single-target — three of the attacks in their ranged arsenal (Invisible Shot, Grenade, and Blank Shot) are multi-target, albeit less powerful damage-wise than the archer’s multi-target attacks. Like pirates in general, one of the main strengths of the gunslinger is versatility: they are arguably the single most mobile class in the game, they have a large variety of attacks at their disposal, and they can attack in mid-air. Furthermore, their focus on single-target DPS makes them competitive with assassins. In exchange, the gunslinger is essentially defenceless, and has no party support skills. This makes them like archers in their reliance on party members in difficult situations.

Spoiler: Pros & cons

Pros:

• Very high single-target DPS, making them competitive with assassins.
• Perhaps the single most mobile class in the game, due to Dash, Wings, and Recoil Shot.
• They are capable of multi-target attacks.
• They have a large variety of attacks in their arsenal, making their fighting style powerful in its versatility.
  • Extremely high (indeed, the highest in the game) attack speed with Double Shot.
  • Invisible Shot is capable of hitting up to three monsters through a wall/barrier.
  • Blank Shot allows them to consistently (i.e. with 100% probability) stun up to three non-boss monsters for four seconds.
  • Grenade allows them to attack from above their foe(s).
• They can attack in mid-air.
• Extremely high accuracy, very similar to archers.

Cons:

• Extremely squishy, as a result of having virtually no defences.
• No real party support skills other than the ability to stun monsters.
• Although they are certainly capable of multi-target attacks, their DPS in this respect is not amazing.
• When within melee range of their foe(s), gunslingers become somewhat crippled, although they still have Grenade and Somersault Kick at their disposal.

Levelling up


Vicloc is similar to some other styles of MapleStory in that EXP mostly comes from three sources: grinding, questing, and party questing. This section covers grinding/training and party questing for the purpose of gaining EXP.

Training areas



This section attempts to give a list of some training areas that are good for farming EXP. Some of these maps are also good for other reasons, but the focus here is on EXP. Not every useful training area is listed here, as there are potentially many such maps that can be useful, depending on your exact situation; you’re encouraged to explore the island of Victoria and find your own maps!

For maps that can be farmed by more or less any fighting style, the “for who” column is empty. The “abbr.” column lists common abbreviations/nicknames for the map name, if any.

Popularity legend:

• ✨ Particularly well-known/popular training spot.
• ✅ Excellent, decently popular, training spot.
• ⚖️ Marginal training spot that can be excellent, depending on the situation.

level range	for who	map	abbr.	primary species	other species	popularity	comments
7–18	□	Mushroom Garden	Shroom Garden	Orange Mushroom, Shroom	Red Snail	✅	Two large platforms with no particularly quick way to go upwards. Usually better with a party of two.
7–20	□	Dungeon, Southern Forest I	Slime Tree	Slime	□	✅	□
10–20	□	Henesys Hunting Ground II	HHGII	Slime, Orange Mushroom	Red Snail, Blue Snail, Stump, Snail, Green Mushroom	✨	Large multi-layered map; best with a party.
12–25	□	Henesys Pig Farm	Pigs	Ribbon Pig, Pig	□	✨	Small map with lots of semi-safe spots.
15–27	□	Line 1 <Area 1>	Bubblings	Bubbling	□	⚖️	Bubblings are fast as hell, and have quite high AVOID (10), WDEF (40), and MDEF (50) for their level.
16–27	□	Caution Falling Down	CFD	Octopus	Blue Mushroom	✅	Ranged and semi-ranged characters can train here with minimal potion usage by attacking from atop the traffic barricades. Although, beware that the Blue Mushrooms do jump.
18–30	□	Ant Tunnel IV	ATIV, AT4	Horny Mushroom	Zombie Mushroom	✅	Similar map layout to Ant Tunnel I, but many more spawns.
20–40	□	The Land of Wild Boar II	Boars	Wild Boar	Axe Stump, Dark Axe Stump, Dark Stump	✨	Navigating from the bottom region to the upper two platforms can be unwieldy.
25–50	non-ranged	The Cave of Evil Eye II	Evil Eyes	Evil Eye	Jr. Boogie	✨	Cramped map with extremely high spawn rates. Bring Eyedrops (and maybe also Tonics) for the Jr. Boogies. The Cave of Evil Eye III is similar.
30–45	non-ranged	Tree Dungeon, Forest Up North IX	Curse Eyes	Curse Eye	□	⚖️	□
30–50	□	The Burnt Land III	tBLIII, tBL3, BLIII, BL3	Fire Boar	Dark Axe Stump	✅	Bottom layer has very high spawn rates, upper region is more sparse.
32–50	□	The Burnt Land V	tBLV, tBL5, BLV, BL5	Fire Boar	Dark Axe Stump, Lupin	✨	Bottom layer has very high spawn rates, upper region is more sparse and difficult to navigate.
33–55	□	Hunting Ground in the Deep Forest II	HGitDFII, HGitDF2	Curse Eye, Horny Mushroom, Lupin	Slime, Snail	⚖️	High-spawn map with lots of platforms; best as a party of 3–6.
35–45	clerics, non-ranged	B2 <Subway Depot>	B2	Jr. Wraith	Jr. Boogie	✨	You must complete the second Kerning City JQ to get to this map, and then you have ≈98 minutes before you get kicked out and have to do the JQ again.
35–45	clerics, any	Line 2 <Area 1>	L2A1	Jr. Wraith	Jr. Necki	✅	Considerably worse than B2 <Subway Depot> for solo grinding, but the huge map is better for parties. Also, you don’t have to complete a JQ to get here.
35–50	□	Purplewood Forest 1	PWF1, PWFI	Indigo Eye, Crystal Boar, Sakura Cellion	□	⚖️	Best as a party of one or two. Only works as a solo grind map if you know the fall-off-the-bottom-of-the-map trick. Also good for farming Lip Lock Keys.
37–55	archers, ranged	Monkey Forest II	Monke Forest	Zombie Lupin	Lupin	✨	Within each half of the map, Arrow Bomb can hit all three platforms simultaneously. Iron Arrow users will need to cycle continuously through all six firing platforms.
37–55	□	Monkey Swamp III	Monke Swamp	Zombie Lupin	Jr. Necki	✅	Often farmed in conjunction with doing Rowen the Fairy and the Cursed Dolls.
40–60	I/Ls, non-ranged	Clang and Lorang	C&L	Clang	Lorang, Tortie	✅	The premier training spot for level 40–60 I/Ls. This is a small map with dense spawns split across five platforms, populated mostly by Clangs and Lorangs — both of which are weak to lightning.
42–55	□	East Rocky Mountain VII	Copper Drakes	Copper Drake	Fire Boar, Dark Axe Stump	✅	Large multi-layered map; best with a party.
42–55	□	Remains <Tomb> I	RTI, RT1	Skeledog	Mummydog	⚖️	Monsters on the top layer can be easily lured to the bottom.
43–58	clerics, non-ranged	B3 <Subway Depot>	B3	Wraith	Jr. Boogie	✨	You must complete the third Kerning City JQ to get to this map, and then you have ≈98 minutes before you get kicked out and have to do the JQ again.
43–58	clerics, any	Line 2 <Area 3>	L2A3	Wraith	□	✅	Considerably worse than B3 <Subway Depot> for solo grinding, but the huge map is better for parties. Also, you don’t have to complete a JQ to get here.
50–200	ranged	Golem’s Castle Ruins	GCR	Stone Golem	Mixed Golem	⚖️	Small map with lots of safe spots.
53–200	□	Camp 1	□	Skeleton Soldier	Officer Skeleton	⚖️	Has a few more spawns than Camp 3, but many more Skeleton Soldiers than Officer Skeletons. Also has a less severe map layout.
53–200	non-ranged	The Tunnel That Lost Light II	TTLLII, TTLL2, tTTLLII, tTTLL2	Cold Eye, Drake	Wild Kargo	⚖️	This map is organised into two pockets, and can only be efficiently farmed as a party — usually a party of two, one for each pocket.
54–200	non-ranged	Wild Cargo’s Area	WCA	Cold Eye, Wild Kargo	□	⚖️	Fairly high-spawn-density map organised into three large platforms. Best as a party of three, although solo is possible by changing channels after clearing.
55–200	□	The forest of Golem	FoG, TfoG	Mixed Golem	Dark Stone Golem, Curse Eye, Lupin	✨	□
56–200	□	Camp 3	□	Officer Skeleton, Skeleton Soldier	□	✅	This map is good particularly because of the teleporter that takes you from the bottom to the top.

In the end (see: “Endgame”), The forest of Golem tends to reign supreme. However, there are other similar endgame-y alternatives like Camp 3, The Tunnel That Lost Light II, etc.

Party quests



Viclockers typically have access to the following four party quests:

• Henesys Party Quest (HPQ).
• Kerning Party Quest (KPQ).
• Amoria Party Quest (APQ).
• Sharenian Party Quest (SPQ; a.k.a. Guild Party Quest, GPQ).

Of these four, only the first three are typically thought of as useful sources of EXP. Ergoth, the main boss of SPQ, does give some EXP. However, Ergoth is so expensive to kill, that by the time you do so, the EXP will likely be modest at best, and criminally small considering the resources & effort expended.

The following table compares the remaining three PQs. “Stage EXP” is the EXP granted by a single complete run of the PQ, from clearing the stages alone (i.e. not counting EXP from killing monsters). “%⧸run (low)” is the percentage of a level that you gain in one run at the lowest possible character level. “%⧸run (high)” is the percentage of a level that you gain in one run at a high character level; for HPQ, a “high” level is considered to be 20, and for APQ, a “high” level is considered to be 80. The EXP values for APQ do not take into account the EXP gained from farming Lip Lock Keys.

PQ	party size	level	stage EXP	EXP⧸run	%⧸run (low)	%⧸run (high)
HPQ	3–6	10–200	3 200	≈4 600	≈268.07%	≈22.75%
KPQ	3–6	21–30	6 000	≈14 900	≈61.06%	≈15.57%
APQ	6–6	40–200	72 000	≈73 000	≈24.81%	≈2.08%

As you can see, APQ is only a good source of EXP on its own prior to probably about level ≈60, although it allows characters of any level 40 and above. Note that APQ cannot be spammed like HPQ and KPQ can; typically, you can only do up to two APQs per day (although three is technically possible).

Items



As you’d expect, the set of items that exist in vicloc is significantly limited when compared to unrestricted styles of gameplay. For this reason, we have reference documents that catalogue every item that is vicloc-available. So please, do make use of them!:

• Vicloc-available equipment items
• Vicloc-available scrolls
• Vicloc-available potions/food
• Vicloc-available ammunition
• Vicloc-available ETC items

Besides giving lists of items that are available, there are some things that we can say in general about items in vicloc.

Equipment



ℹ️ See also: Vicloc-available equipment. ℹ️

• Don’t be afraid to add the stats (STR, DEX, INT, LUK) that you need to put on equipment appropriate for your class & level, including:
  • Hats.
  • Weapons.
  • Shields.
  • Overalls, tops, & bottoms.
  • Gloves.
  • Shoes.
  All of these equipment categories are important, so don’t expect to be able to neglect your secondary stats (e.g. DEX for assassins), unless you have something special in mind! You will need the stats sooner or later.
• Overalls tend to reign supreme over top–bottom combos due to scroll availability. This basically means two things:
  • The gender of your character can actually matter. This is a bit unfortunate, but is simply a result of the availability of overalls, which tend to be gendered. The following overalls are both gendered, and uniquely powerful — that is, there is no opposite-gender nor ungendered replacement that is of equal or greater power:
    • Blue Battle Road [M]; level 80 warrior.
    • Green Enigma [F]; level 78 mage.[1]
    • Dark/Brown Requierre [F]; level 68 mage.[2]
    • Green Pris [M]; level 80 archer.
    • Blue/Purple Avenger [F]; level 35 thief.[3]
  • Do the sauna robe questline (Mr. Wetbottom’s Secret Book)! Sauna robes are the only overalls in vicloc that lack class requirements, and the only overalls that lack stat requirements. This makes them important for odd-jobbed viclockers, and important for some non-odd viclockers, e.g. male thieves.
• As mentioned in “General guidelines for viclocking”, defences (WDEF and MDEF) do matter in vicloc. It may sometimes benefit you to pay closer attention to the WDEF and MDEF values of the gear that you choose to use. In the case of WDEF, you may wish to consult “Nise’s Formula Compilation” to make sure that you are at least meeting (if not exceeding) your PDD. For warriors, meeting or exceeding PDD is exceptionally difficult at higher levels; however, for warriors this is mostly a matter of meso loss, as they naturally have very high MAXHP anyways.
• Consider making and/or wearing HP gear. For example, a Ribboned Pig Headband (which can be obtained from Mrs. Ming Ming’s Second Worry) is a great start to an HP hat. There’s no such thing as “washing” in vicloc, so HP gear (and more generally, defensive gear) can be situationally crucial for the squishier classes.
• Crafting your own equipment is common in vicloc. NPCs like Chrishrama, Mr. Smith, Vicious, etc. can craft useful equipment items if provided with the right materials.

Spoiler: Footnotes for “Equipment”

[1]: This overall is higher level than any other mage overall, and has higher combined stats, but is LUK-focused (2 INT, 6 LUK). Male mages who want to maximise the TMA on their overall would be better served by e.g. a Dark Anakamoon (level 58; 5 INT, 1 LUK), and female mages would be better served in this case by e.g. a Dark Requierre (level 68; 5 INT, 2 LUK).

[2]: This overall is lower level and has lower combined stats than the Green Enigma, but has higher TMA.

[3]: These two overalls are in fact the only thief overalls in all of vicloc.

Scrolling



ℹ️ See also: Vicloc-available scrolls. ℹ️

Scrolling in vicloc can be simultaneously more and less cruel than scrolling in more usual styles of gameplay. On the one hand, 100% scrolls can be very powerful scrolls in vicloc, and are commonly used; this can make scrolling less cruel in the sense that you can’t be truly disappointed by the outcome. On the other hand, it’s much more common in vicloc (when compared to outland) for using 10% scrolls to be a reasonable course of action, in the (usually futile…) hope of passing them on some slot — perhaps any slot. We affectionately refer to failing a 10% on the first slot of an item as “booming” the item, even though the item is obviously not actually destroyed. This relationship with 10% scrolls can be cruel, and is the result of basically two things:

• Dark scrolls do not exist in vicloc (with the slight exception of 30% cape scrolls from APQ).
• Scrolls are just generally more sparse, so it may be the case that you must pass a 10% scroll in order to grant a certain stat to a certain kind of equipment item at all.

With these things in mind (and remembering that plenty of 60% scrolls also exist in vicloc), here are some general tips for scrolling:

• Don’t be afraid to use 100%s, if you can afford it. Unless the item that you’re scrolling is endgame equipment for you, or you can’t get the stat that you want with 100%s, there’s typically no harm (and no shame) in using 100%s on some or all of the equipment item’s slots.
• As mentioned in “Equipment”:
  
• Hats are especially useful to scroll for MAXHP/defences, as they typically offer little else from scrolling (unless you’re a mage). The other option is trying to land 10%s for DEX (+3 DEX per pass) or for DEF (+1 WACC per pass; useful for warriors).
• Earrings should typically be left clean (unscrolled) unless you’re a mage; earrings are typically for defence only. If you’re extremely greedy, you can scroll for INT in an attempt to scrape up a few extra MDEF.
• Capes can be scrolled for any of the four main stats (STR, DEX, INT, LUK). In the presence of APQ, endgame capes are typically level 50 capes from the APQ bonus stage (Amos’s Royal Cape and Amos’s Spirit Cape) because of how dispensable they are, making them easy targets for greedy scrolling. Also in the presence of APQ, 30% scrolls for capes for all four main stats exist. That being said, ORCs and Icarus Capes ((1), (2), (3)) make excellent targets for scrolling as well, due to their level advantage (25 and 42 respectively), and the juicy stats that they have when clean.
• As mentioned in “Equipment”, overalls are usually the way to go for scrolling (instead of top–bottom combos). Overalls can be scrolled for DEX, INT, LUK, and DEF, whereas tops can only be scrolled for DEF, and bottoms are similar, with the exception of 10%s for bottomwear for DEX.
• Shields are generally scrolled defensively (HP/DEF), as you’d expect. That being said, there is one other kind of shield scroll, which is only available from Faust: 60% for STR. Scrolling shields like this is mostly unsustainable, but landing one or two on a shield is pretty nice.
• Gloves are left clean if you’re a mage (with the exception of some odd mages like STR mages). For everyone else, they can be scrolled for WATK or for DEX/WACC. Scrolling for DEX is actually a strong choice for some builds, like warriors and certain odd jobs; one can keep a DEX glove for when it’s needed and a WATK one for everything else. Scrolling for WATK can be difficult, as these kinds of scrolls can be difficult to come by. Completing Jane the Alchemist will randomly award you either a 10% or 60% GFA (gloves for attack). In the presence of APQ, the bonus stage of APQ is a great source of GFA 60%s. Note that Mixed Golems do drop GFA 60%s, so FoG addicts will come across GFA 60%s every once in a while. Because GFA 10%s do exist, making a ≥11 WATK glove is possible, but incredibly difficult.
• Those who want to scroll their shoes for main stats will be using 60% and 10% JUMP scrolls for the DEX that they confer. However, other choices can be strong (or situationally strong), as well: SPEED shoes are useful for farming more efficiently and for getting around (mounts do not exist in vicloc), and AVOID is useful for builds that already have naturally high AVOID and/or need the WACC that the 60%s and 10%s confer.

Potions/food



ℹ️ See also: Vicloc-available potions/food. ℹ️

The availability of potions and food — which may be used for HP recovery, MP recovery, buffs, curing debuffs, or some combination of the foregoing — is, as you’d expect, considerably different in vicloc than it is in other modes of gameplay. Here are some tips relating to these consumables:

• When using consumables to recover HP and/or MP, consider exactly how many points of HP (or MP, as the case may be) that you’re recovering per meso that you spend, and consider whether or not you can do better. The master list of vicloc-available potions/food includes these ratios already calculated for NPC-purchasable HP/MP consumables.
  • Complete Jane the Alchemist to get access to better prices on White Potions, Unagis, Pure Waters, and Watermelons.
  • The Ellinia Department Store (tended by Len the Fairy) sells MP potions (e.g. Mana Elixirs) at a discount, when compared to other department stores.
  • Hot Dog Supremes are also of note here, as they recover 500 HP each, for just 530 mesos each (≈0.943 HP⧸meso). These can be purchased from the 24 Hr Mobile Store at Ant Tunnel Park.
• Power Elixirs are precious items that can be very useful for viclockers who are fighting foes that nearly one-shot them. They are difficult to come by (the A Spell That Seals Up a Critical Danger questline is a good source of them, but is very difficult and can only be completed once per PC), so take good care of them. Elixirs can be similarly useful — one can bind them to pet autopot and then manually pot once after every hit — or they can be used as efficient HP or MP recovery by warriors or mages, respectively.
• The buff potions that are sold at essentially every department store (e.g. the Henesys Department Store) are all useful:
  • Dexterity Potions are the largest AVOID buff outside of Bless/Focus (ignoring Victoria’s Amorian Baskets, if applicable).
  • Speed Potions are the largest SPEED buff outside of Haste/Dash (again ignoring Victoria’s Amorian Baskets, if applicable).
  • Magic Potions are very useful for magicians and clerics. Wizard Potions and Saps of Ancient Tree are also available, but are more difficult to come by, as they are not sold by any NPCs.
  • Warrior Potions are the standard WATK buff for most characters, in the absence of Rage. Drake’s Bloods are also available, but must be gradually farmed from Drakes.
  • Sniper Potions are the largest WACC buff outside of Bless (again ignoring Victoria’s Amorian Baskets, if applicable).
• Department stores typically sell curatives, which can be used to cure debuffs. The most important are Eyedrops (cures darkness, the debuff that causes physical attacks to miss) and Holy Waters (cures curse and seal, the debuffs that cause EXP gain to be halved and cause one to be unable to use active skills, respectively). Tonics can be used to cure weakness (the debuff that causes one to be unable to jump), and Antidotes can be used to cure poison (the debuff that deals damage over time), but these debuffs are less fatal, as you can still attack and use skills normally while afflicted by them. That being said, Tonics can be highly useful if you have to deal with Jr. Boogies (e.g. at Evil Eyes) and cannot always one-shot them.
  
  In general, these curatives are not used very often in vicloc, but are extremely useful when they are applicable, as ACPs do not exist.
• Drake’s Meats are, believe it or not, a moderately useful buff food in vicloc. They provide WDEF to classes that don’t have their own WDEF buff(s): archers, thieves, pirates, and beginners.

Other items



ℹ️ See also: Vicloc-available ammunitions, Particularly notable vicloc-available ETC items. ℹ️

This section covers some general tips about other kinds of items, including ammunition, set-up items, and ETC items.

• Don’t hesitate to hoard stuff. You’re going to want some more inventory space, because a surprising number of items in vicloc have some use for quests, crafting, etc.
• Some items that would ordinarily be useful are simply useless in vicloc. For example:
  • Power Crystal Ores.
  • Dark Crystal Ores.
  • Blaze Capsules.
  • ⋮
  Such items may be transferred offland, or in some cases, sold to NPCs in exchange for mesos. Or you can keep them just to look at them.
• Tree Branches — and particularly, Firewoods — may be crafted into Processed Woods to save inventory space. It’s still a good idea to keep at least some of the Tree Branches & Firewoods around, as you cannot craft the Processed Woods back into unprocessed wood items.
• Archers will almost always be using Soul Arrow, but in cases where it really matters, it may be useful to ask Vicious to craft some bronze arrows/quarrels.
• Keep those Omok Tables, omok pieces, and Monster Cards around so that you can make some Omok and Match Cards sets!

Making money



As mentioned in “General guidelines for viclocking”, there is always difficulty at the beginning. Surviving and maintaining enough mesos to buy essential and near-essential items can be surprisingly difficult when you first start your vicloc journey. Of course, this is part of the fun, but you’ll surely be looking for ways to make some cash. Here are a few tips:

• Avoid places where you find that you take considerable damage. Incoming damage is lost mesos, and a penny saved is a penny earned.
  • If you find a grinding spot where you take little or no damage, get a high KPM (kills per minute), and are mostly or exclusively killing monsters that drop worthwhile equipment items, then you probably have a good meso farm going. For example, melee users who are in roughly the 25–45 level range will typically find The Cave of Evil Eye II to meet these criteria.
• Loot all of that garbage. All of the loose mesos, random ETCs, and so on. Every meso counts. Pet autoloot helps here.
• As mentioned in “Potions/food”, you’ll want to pay attention to exactly how much HP/MP you’re recovering per meso spent on HP/MP consumables, and think about whether or not you can do better. A penny saved is a penny earned.
• As mentioned before, WDEF and MDEF matter, and that firmly applies to making mesos. Increasing your WDEF (and in some cases, MDEF) can drastically reduce the mesos that you spend on healing. A penny saved is a penny earned.
• Certain quests can be good sources of mesos, and/or good ways to save mesos. See “Notable quests” below.
• Avoid using taxis if you can’t afford to bleed the mesos. In some cases, simply walking to your destination can suffice, but more commonly, you’ll want to keep at least one of each kind of return scroll (including, but not limited to, nearest town scrolls and Sleepywood return scrolls), and use those. As you gain more mesos, you will be able to afford holding more return scrolls per inventory slot. A penny saved is a penny earned.
• Slaying certain area bosses (Stumpy, Dyle, etc.) can be a good source of mesos.
• Events often offer subtle (or not so subtle) ways to save or make mesos, including “throwaway” freebies that can actually be quite beneficial for viclockers.

Monster Book Ring


⚠️ NOTE: This section assumes that your implementation has the Monster Book, and that its implementation is the same as MapleLegends’s. ⚠️

ℹ️ See also: Vicloc-available cards. ℹ️

Because Lith Harbor is a part of Victoria Island, the Monster Book quests are available to viclockers. However, only so many cards are actually available, so it’s not possible to attain the highest tier (tier 10). Instead, the highest tier for viclockers is tier 2, due to the fact that there are 69 monster card sets available in all of vicloc. This means that you can leave up to nine card sets uncompleted, and still attain the highest tier of Monster Book Ring. However, some of these sets are very difficult, such as Ergoth and Tauromacis.

You can find the master list of monster cards & where to hunt them here. The only “missable” set is King Slime, because you cannot enter KPQ once you are level ≥31.

Working towards a tier 2 ring is highly recommended for any serious viclocker, as the +2 allstat is very powerful, and the +100 MAXHP is vital for many of the squishier jobs.

Notable quests



Quests are a vitally important part of the vicloc experience. Ultimately, I recommend doing all or almost all quests. Occasionally, a quest really is a pain in the ass, and/or a waste of resources, for no damn reason. But otherwise, you may as well do ’em, right? That being said, it’s worth taking a look at which quests can be particularly worthwhile for EXP and/or for mesos/items.

EXP rewards are listed as base EXP; that is, EXP before multipliers are taken into account.

For EXP

quest	level	EXP	other rewards
[first-job training quests]	8–10	2 685	White Potions (80), Orange Potions (30), Blue Potions (160), Red Potions (30), nearest town scrolls (10)
DANGER! <1-G. Mushroom> (Part I)	15	2 500	White Potions (50)
Help Me Find My Glasses	15	1 700	Nautilus return scrolls (10)
Protect the Nautilus’ Emergency Food Supply	15	1 300	□
DANGER! <2-H. Mushroom> (Part 1)	20	3 000	White Potions (100)
Planting Trees	20	5 000	Red Potions (30)
Find Fresh Milk	20	3 600	□
Legend of the Snail	20	7 610	mesos (30 000), fame (3)
POLLUTED! <1-Evil Eye> (Part 1)	21	6 000	Mana Elixirs (100)
DANGER! <3-Z. Mushroom> (Part 1)	22	3 500	Mana Elixirs (50)
Camila’s Gem	23	5 500	Pig Illustrated, Cakes (30)
Mystery of Niora Hospital	25	7 300	ORC
Shawn the Excavator’s Request	25	3 500	□
Strange Dish 1	25	8 000	Hamburgers (40)
Lazy Little Calico	25	6 000	□
Mr. Wetbottom’s Secret Book	30	18 800	Red Sauna Robe[2] OR Blue Sauna Robe[3], mesos (10 000)
Rowen the Fairy and the Cursed Dolls	35	[1]⁠[4]81 000	GFD60 OR GFD10, level 40 class⁠-⁠appropriate hat, Gold Ores (5), random metal ores (7), random jewel ores (10), Diamond Ores (5), Garnet Ores (10), fame (9)
Strange Dish 2	35	24 000	Unagis (50)
The Old Tree	35	43 550	fame (5)
Strange Dish 3	40	36 000	Ice Cream Pops (50)
The Forest of Evil	50	112 800	fame (8)
Defeat King Clang!/A Brave Warrior to Defeat King Clang Appears!	55	135 100	fame (10)
Eliminate the Stone Golems[6]	55	[1]TODO	□
Eliminate the Dark Stone Golems[6]	58	TODO	□
Eliminate the Mixed Golems[6]	59	TODO	□
Eliminate the Skeletons[6]	63	TODO	□
The Monster and the Evil Scheme[5]	65	180 000	fame (12)
Eliminate the Drakes[6]	68	TODO	□
Eliminate the Tauromacis[6]	70	TODO	Melting Cheeses (50)

For mesos/items

quest	level	EXP	other rewards
Protect Lucas’s Farm	0	0	WWG OR YWG OR RWG OR Blue Work Gloves OR PWG OR GWG
[first-job training quests]	8–10	2 685	White Potions (80), Orange Potions (30), Blue Potions (160), Red Potions (30), nearest town scrolls (10)
Mrs. Ming Ming’s Second Worry	21	[1]3 000	Ribboned Pig Headband
Dr. Betty’s Research on Plants	22	[1]3 200	Leaf Earrings
Camila’s Gem	23	5 500	Pig Illustrated, Cakes (30)
Mystery of Niora Hospital	25	7 300	ORC
Mr. Wetbottom’s Secret Book	30	18 800	Red Sauna Robe[2] OR Blue Sauna Robe[3], mesos (10 000)
Jane the Alchemist	40	[1]20 400	Access to Jane’s shop, GFA60 OR GFA10
Icarus and the Flying Pill	42	[1]13 200	Icarus Cape (1) OR Icarus Cape (2) OR Icarus Cape (3)
A Spell That Seals Up a Critical Danger	[7]50	57 000	Power Elixirs (50)
The Alligators at the Swamp	52	[1]45 000	choice of 60% cape scroll (STR/DEX/INT/LUK), choice of class⁠-⁠appropriate 10% weapon scroll

Spoiler: Footnotes for “Notable quests”

[1]: Not considering EXP from prerequisite quests.

[2]: If your character is female.

[3]: If your character is male.

[4]: Note that this questline is split up over five quests, which each require 100, 200, 400, 600, and 1 000 Cursed Dolls (which drop exclusively from Zombie Lupins and Faust), respectively, for a total of 2 300 Cursed Dolls to complete the entire questline.

[5]: This questline is started with JM From tha Streetz, and ultimately asks the player to defeat Dyle.

[6]: This quest is started with Muirhat.

[7]: This questline is more or less impossible to fully complete as a level 50 PC.

Marriage



ℹ️ See also: [Guide] Weddings Revamped!. ℹ️

In the presence of Amoria, marriage plays a very special role in vicloc. Marriage confers the following game-mechanical benefits:

• The ability to do APQ.
• A wedding ring.
• Onyx Chests (for the bride & groom, and for each guest).*

*The final item in the above list is asterisked because it only applies to premium weddings.

With this in mind, here are some marriage guidelines:

• Because Onyx Chests are only given out by premium weddings, it’s always worth spending the extra NX for a premium wedding.
  • Onyx Chests can contain valuable items, and even items that are unique to Onyx Chests.
• Weddings can be a lot of fun, and in the case of a premium wedding, every guest gets an Onyx Chest (in addition to the bride & groom each getting theirs). So be sure to invite as many people as you can!
• Be sure that when you craft an engagement ring, you go for either the Star Gem or the Moonstone. Going for one of the other two will mean losing out on 20 MDEF.
• When marrying someone, consider the possibility of doing APQ with them. Doing APQ with your spouse is the only way to do all-couples APQs (APQs in which the party consists of three married couples), which have a special bonus stage associated with them that can get you a 7-slot cape!

Endgame


So you’ve made it this far, and you’re wondering what there is to do in vicloc once you’re All Grown Up™. The good news is that there are plenty of things to do at all levels of vicloc. First, we’ll list a few of the activities that are available to high-level viclockers, and then we’ll focus on just the first one, as it’s the most relevant to this section:

• APQ and SPQ.
• Endgame grinding for EXP usually takes place at FoG, although other maps (e.g. Camp 3) are possible. The sky is the limit when it comes to levelling up in vicloc; farming for EXP can be made quite efficient, but not so efficient that the absolute maximum level of 200 ever becomes an obstacle.
• Gradually honing & refining your gear.
• Whatever else you might desire: farming Drakes, henehoeing, playing Omok, farming events, or even making another viclocker…!

APQ


ℹ️ See also: Amoria Party Quest (APQ). ℹ️

The Amorian Party Quest, a.k.a. APQ, is a love-themed party quest designed to be engaging for characters of all levels 40 and up. APQ offers several benefits, including:

• Doing APQ — and farming for the Lip Lock Keys necessary to enter the PQ — is a decent source of EXP, and even an excellent source of EXP at lower levels.
• APQ’s bonus stage dispenses all kinds of valuable goodies:
  • Onyx Apple.
  • Victoria’s Amorian Basket.
  • Amos’s Royal Cape.
  • Amos’s Spirit Cape.
  • Cecelia’s Earrings.
  • Celestial Earrings.
  • GFA60.
  • Cape for STR 30%.
  • Cape for DEX 30%.
  • Cape for INT 30%.
  • Cape for LUK 30%.
  • Helmet for HP 10%.
  • Gold Plate.
  • Black Crystal.
  • Diamond.
  • Diamond Ore.
  • Power Elixir.
  • Amorian Rice Cookie.
  • Mushroom Miso Ramen.
  • Reindeer Milk.
  • Grape Juice.
  In fact, the first two items on this list are so powerful, that we have a rule (see: “Vicloc rules”) in place to limit their availability! Basically, Onyx Apples and Victoria’s Amorian Baskets can only be used if they originated from an APQ completed by a party made entirely of viclockers. This is designed to incentivise vicloc APQs in preparation for doing additional “endgame stuff” — particularly SPQ, or possibly more APQ!
• An all-couples APQ (an APQ completed by a party of three married couples) has a special bonus stage from which it’s possible to obtain Cecelia Cloaks (1, 2, 3) and The Legendary Elias Capes (1, 2, 3)! These capes have the highest damage potential of any cape in vicloc, due to each one having 7 slots clean.
• It’s fun!!

You can get to the APQ lobby by starting in Amoria and going rightwards (east). One map to the right of PWF2, and you’ll be at Amos’ Training Ground. In order to enter APQ at all, you’ll need to…:

• …Be married. See “Marriage” above.
• …Be level ≥40.
• …Have an Entrance Ticket. To get an Entrance Ticket, you must turn 10 Lip Lock Keys in to Amos the Strong (at his training ground). Lip Lock Keys are ordinary drops from Crystal Boars and Indigo Eyes, so the usual place to farm them is PWF2; note, however, that PWF1 is usually superior[1] when farming as a party of one or two characters.
  
  However, there are some caveats to this process:
  • Making an Entrance Ticket (by turning 10 Lip Lock Keys in to Amos) has a “cooldown” of six hours.
  • Lip Lock Keys are untradeable, so you do have to farm them yourself.
  • Exiting APQ destroys all Lip Lock Keys in your inventory, thus making key-farming in advance (e.g. farming 20 keys at once to prepare for making two Entrance Tickets) impossible.

You can consult “Amoria Party Quest (APQ)” for a guide that walks through the stages of APQ. For our purposes, the first five stages — and the bonus stage(s) — are fun, but play the same in vicloc as they do for outlanders. The sixth stage (Stage 6 — Love Hurts), however, features one of the biggest bad guys in all of vicloc: Geist Balrog (“Grog” for short).

The Geist Balrog comes in three phases (three bodies):

1. Phase 1, which looks like Jr. Balrog.
2. Phase 2, which looks like Crimson Balrog (whatever that is).
3. Phase 3, which looks like an albino version of phase 2, or something like that.

Phases 1 and 2 have significant HP pools (100k and 300k, respectively), but are not as fearsome as phase 3. One exception is that phase 2 is actually five levels higher than phase 3, and has more AVOID (40 > 35). So phase 2 can actually be pretty difficult to hit, particularly if you’re an accuracy-starved job (e.g. a typical warrior). Also note that while phase 3 is immune to holy-typed damage, phases 1 and 2 are actually weak to holy-typed damage. So ask your cleric to stick some Holy Arrows into those first two phases.

Phase 3 is where it gets interesting — or, depending on who you ask, annoying:

• Phase 3 has 1.5 million HP, which is more than thrice as much as the first two phases combined.
• Phase 3 is capable of dealing up to 1.5k–1.6k damage per magic attack.
• Phase 3 can dispel your buffs, removing any buffs that aren’t the result of consuming potions/food. This is particularly dangerous for mages, as their Magic Guard will be dispelled by this action.
• Phase 3 is level 95 and has 35 AVOID. This isn’t as powerful as phase 2, but warriors etc. will still want to ensure that they minimise “MISS”ing.
• Phase 3 is immune to poison, holy, fire, and ice, so mages will need to use some combination of…
  • Magic Claw.
  • Thunderbolt.
  • Energy Bolt.
  …If they want to deal damage to phase 3.
• Phase 3 likes to cancel physical attacks (the “weapon cancel” buff), and also likes to cancel magical attacks (the “magic cancel” buff).
• Perhaps worst of all, phase 3 is capable of essentially phasing out of existence and becoming invincible whenever it wants to. There are basically two strategies — which should, ideally, be used at the same time — for coping with this tomfoolery:
  • Making sure that everyone stays as close to the very bottom of the map as possible can help. You usually want Grog to come to you, not the other way around. If you chase Grog, the likely outcome is that Grog simply taunts you by repeatedly going invincible while just out of reach. If you force Grog to come to the bottom of the map to attack you, this gives your entire party much easier access to Grog, which can improve DPM immensely, and also help with the second strategy.
  • Phase 3’s knockback (KB) value is 2k. For those who spread each of their attacks over multiple lines (the extreme case being bandits using Savage Blow), consistently hitting ≥2k damage lines can be a bit tough, but doable in many cases. Even easier is using attacks like the warrior’s Power Strike or the brawler’s Flash Fist — or even the archer’s Arrow Blow — to deal a single big line on each attack. Keeping Grog consistently KB’d helps immensely, as being KB’d is the only thing that truly stops it from going invincible.

Spoiler: Footnotes for “APQ”

[1]: Using PWF1 to its full potential typically requires knowledge of how to fall off of the map. Falling through the floor of the map always respawns you at the bottom-left corner of the map.

SPQ



ℹ️ See also: ✯ HOLLYWOOD Presents: A Comprehensive Guide to Guild Party Quest (GPQ). ℹ️

This is the big one. The Sharenian Party Quest (SPQ) — a.k.a. Guild Party Quest (GPQ) — is the ultimate vicloc challenge. This PQ is guild-only, so if you’re a member of the Victoria guild (or of any other vicloc guild), then SPQ is necessarily a vicloc-only affair. Like APQ, SPQ harbours one of the biggest, baddest bad guys in all of vicloc — indeed, the biggest, baddest guy of all of Victoria Island: Ergoth.

But, before we get to Ergoth (and its lithic minions, which are also very important), we have to talk about getting to Ergoth’s Throne in the first place, and about why you might want to do such a thing.

SPQ was designed with a focus on making a fun and inclusive experience that encourages bonding between guildmates. As a result:

• SPQ can be quite forgiving in some ways. For example, if you die in SPQ, you are not eliminated from the PQ as a result. You can simply press “OK” on the death dialog box to be respawned at the beginning of the PQ. Of course, this does mean that you have to walk all the way back, any time that you die. You will also still lose EXP as normal, unless you use a Safety Charm (or are a beginner). The other notable example is that Ergoth’s Throne can be entered in two distinct ways: entering through the large doors takes you to the battle floor, whereas sneaking through a crack in one of the pillars will take you to a balcony above the battle, where you can watch the fight without fear of death (just don’t touch the spiky stuff).
• SPQ has a few unusual requirements, which will be touched upon later.
• The rewards that SPQ offers can seem mildly underwhelming, if you were expecting such a challenge to give generally better rewards than APQ. Whereas APQ is focused on the candy at the end, SPQ is focused on the journey; the real reward is the friends that we made along the way! That being said, SPQ doesn’t skimp out on rewards:
  • Like APQ, SPQ has a bonus stage, which can award things like:
    • Valuable and/or exotic 60% scrolls.
    • NX.
    • Some decent potions/food, e.g. Power Elixirs.
  • Ergoth grants 150k base EXP, which is enough to give a halfway-decent EXP payout to those who deal damage to it. Note that this is the only source of EXP in SPQ, and that Ergoth is level 115.
  • Another significant source of EXP are the Devil Slimes that spawn within the ”Hat Room“/”Hat JQ“ section (specifically within the Waterway Maze map). These monsters have an incredibly high EXP∶HP ratio — they have the same HP as KPQ Ligators, but give 170 base EXP instead of 120. This is pretty huge, considering that KPQ Ligators already have extremely high EXP∶HP ratio, and considering that Devil Slimes are easier to kill. However, only 20 of these Devil Slimes spawn, and they never respawn, so you can’t exactly train here; it’s just a nifty EXP boost for whoever does the Hat section.

The concrete, bare minimum requirements for entering & completing SPQ are as follows:

• All participants must be members of the same guild.
• All participants must be level ≥10.
• At least six total participants must be present in the PQ at all times.
• At least one participant must have Dark Sight. In MapleLegends, a brawler also works here, as Oak Barrel is just a more powerful version of Dark Sight.
• At least one participant must have Haste or equivalent. Anything that gets you to the same (or better) SPEED & JUMP as Haste — including things like equipment items — is enough to complete the JQs (jump quests) that “require Haste”.
• At least one participant must have level ≥17 Teleport.
• At least one participant must be truly ranged. Usually, this is a gunslinger, an archer, or an assassin.
• At least one participant must be level ≤30, but still level ≥10. This participant must be strong enough to kill Devil Slimes (level 23; 1k HP each).
• Your team must be capable of slaying Ergoth and its minions.

Assuming that you meet the bare minimum requirements listed above, your team should usually be capable — with some not-insignificant effort — of making it past the first stages of SPQ, and reaching Ergoth’s Throne (for a general guide to SPQ, see: “✯ HOLLYWOOD Presents: A Comprehensive Guide to Guild Party Quest (GPQ)”). Although Ergoth and its minions are indeed the big killer here, the stages that come before Ergoth’s Throne are not to be underestimated; not only are these stages often quite difficult on their own, but they will seriously cut into the time that you have remaining to actually fight Ergoth & its minions. SPQ starts with 90 minutes on the clock, and by the time that you get to Ergoth’s Throne (if you even do), this number will have decreased to significantly less than 90.

With all of that said, here are some things that you should know about the fight against Ergoth:

• The fight does not begin immediately upon entering the map. You have to break the crystal sitting in Ergoth’s throne by using basic attacks, which then immediately spawns Ergoth & all four of its statue minions.
• Although Ergoth is one ugly-ass bitch, you don’t want to start attacking Ergoth right away. The statues should be your first priority, as they are actually much more dangeous than Ergoth itself, and also naturally shield Ergoth from ranged attacks due to their positioning. The statues are as follows:
  • Lion Statue A: 1M HP, level 99, 800 WDEF, 850 MDEF.
  • Lion Statue B: 800k HP, level 99, 800 WDEF, 850 MDEF.
  • Knight Statue A: 900k HP, level 100, 950 WDEF, 920 MDEF.
  • Knight Statue B: 900k HP, level 100, 950 WDEF, 920 MDEF.
  As you can see, these are some real tanks. Thankfully, their AVOID values are low (13–14) — presumably as a result of being literal statues — so you shouldn’t have much trouble with “MISS”es. These statues are responsible for making the fight scary:
  • The statues are capable of dispelling. This is particularly problematic, as many of your team members (and possibly also yourself) will be relying on one or more buffs to survive, e.g. Magic Guard or Hyper Body.
  • The statues can 1/1. A 1/1 is an attack that sets your HP and MP values to 1. This can’t actually kill you directly, but obviously it gets pretty damn close.
  • The statues can seal you, so make sure to have plenty of Holy Waters on hand.
• You can expect to take up to ≈4k damage from a single attack during this fight. You’re going to need to muster as much MDEF, HP, Hyper Body, etc. as possible for your squishier team members.
• Once you take out the statues (which have a combined HP of 3.6M), you still have Ergoth to deal with. Ranged attackers will likely already be killing Ergoth before all of the statues are dead, as two of the statues (one lion and one knight) are on Ergoth’s right-hand side, near the wall. It’s largely the responsibility of non-ranged folks (including mages) to take out these two statues, although it’s certainly possible for ranged attackers to sneak through and attack from the far right boundary of the map.
  
  Ergoth itself has 1.7M HP, is level 115(!), has 1.1k(!) WDEF, and has 1.2k(!) MDEF. Its AVOID (18) is modestly higher than that of the statues, but shouldn’t cause huge issues except for warriors and lower-level participants (as level difference factors into the probability of hitting). Ergoth likes to do weapon cancels and to do magic cancels, can still hit for up to ≈4k damage, but thankfully cannot dispel. So you just have to whale on this skeleton thing until it gives you its ruby.
• All monsters involved in this fight are strong against all five elements, so unfortunately, the mages on your team who want to deal damage will be reduced to Magic Claw and/or Energy Bolt.

 

Ah that’s true, the Devil Slimes are worth 170 base EXP a piece, which is pretty impressive considering that KPQ Ligators are an already-impressive 120 base EXP a piece.

This is true outland, but in the context of vicloc, the skillbooks are completely worthless.