Magician geodude's bishop guide for new players

Intro

This guide contains everything I think you should know about playing a bishop. As it will often be the first or second character a player makes, I'll also include some general tips on how to progress quickly and effectively. See also Getting Started Guide if you are very new.

Table of Contents

1. Why make a bishop?
2. AP build
3. Your goals and hp/mp washing
4. Getting started: Levels 1-35
5. Spamming heal: Levels 35-82
6. Home stretch: Levels 82-120
7. Bishop and beyond (Level 120+)
8. Gear
9. Credits

1. Why make a bishop?

You will do well to make a bishop as a first or second char.

• Bishops are the only class with Holy Symbol, which increases your exp. This makes you loved in parties. Even playing another character, you will often find yourself wanting access to holy symbol, and end up making a holy symbol mule (requires level 81) anyway.
• Bishops have unmatched utility. Mystic door lets you bring a character to where you are from the nearest town - run there once instead of twice or more. Resurrection and Holy Shield are a must in many boss fights.
• Bishops are versatile. They are great for both grinding and bossing.
• Bishops make money! Grinding is always profitable due to monsters dropping gachapon tickets. Bossing does not bring in profit until you have high levels (140-155+) and good gear.
• Bishops are the only class that can effectively provide low level leech, meaning you can use them to help progress future characters.
• The levelling curve from cleric to priest to bishop is fairly easy. You will not need to spend a lot of mesos on potions or gear. You will probably be able to get to level 155 whereas other characters are likely to get stuck somewhere in the 100-130 range.
• Whatever investment you make in your bishop, you will not regret it!

It's also fine to start with a f/p or i/l mage, which are very powerful farmers and leechers (with hs mule) but you will not have holy symbol, utility, or versatility.

I will note there is one downside:

• It's harder for you to solo bosses. E.g. for manon/griffey, ravana, bigfoot and such, you'll want to recruit help. This isn't hard, and in most cases it's optional or a one-off thing you do.

Spoiler: But I want to play an "attacking class!"

Even if you main an attacking class, you will be glad to have a bishop. If you are passionate about starting with a non-mage class, that's fine, but just know that you will likely find late 3rd and early 4th job challenging and unprofitable. Take gunslingers/outlaws/corsairs as an example. I'm going to make the bold claim that it's faster to get a level 150 bishop and level 150 corsair, than a level 150 corsair by itself. That's how impactful having a bishop is.

Spoiler: Generally useful information for new players

Borrowing Krythan's words:

With Holy Symbol, always have at least 1 other person in the party. Even if the second person is just leeching, you'll still get more exp than solo. This is because the exp gained scales with Holy Symbol and party size.

The drop rate for Genesis is nerfed. Likely ~50% penalty. For the most part, this is offset by the fact you're killing way more mobs per second, but it's noticable when doing activities like card farming. I find this change quite balanced, but I know it's a surprise for many new Bishop players.

2. AP Build

There is only one recommended ap build, and that is full int. Never +luk. Luk lets you wear equipment, but:

• The amount of strength you get is related to int + magic attack (called "TMA"), and better equipment does not give you anywhere close to enough TMA to justify the luk spent equipping it.
• There is plenty of gear that does not require luk.
• Weapon defense and magic defense doesn't matter that much, especially late game where everything is hitting 2k+. Early game, the zakum helmet will provide most of your w.def and m.def anyway. As with most MMOs, offense > defense.
• You will get to wear some luk equipment with the free luk you get from your hat (zakum/targa/ravana) and horntail pendant.

If you insist on going luk, well, having a bishop is better than having no bishop, but do note that many luk bishops end up resetting their luk using AP resets.

3. Your goals and hp/mp washing

If you have no clue about washing, Krythan's mage washing guide is a great first read. I am mostly going to agree with him but add some additional insight. Most notably, a common trap is starting to wash too early, running out of nx, and realizing you need to take a break from playing the character. Remember, you made the char so you can play it!

There are two kinds of AP manipulation, a.k.a. washing, that are available to mages. In both cases, you technically do not need to stop levelling up when you run out of nx - you can just hold the ap, at the cost of -1 mp per level up per 10 unassigned ap (minor, until you start holding 30+ AP), and not being at your full strength (can be significant difference in profit/hr if you're close to a breakpoint)

• MP Washing: If you have a lot of int, you can put a point into MP, then use an AP reset to do -MP +INT. This is better than just putting a point into INT, because you get free MP on top. The more int you have the more MP you get from the process. While MP washing, 15.5k nx is consumed per level.
• Stale HP Washing: When MP Washing is complete you will have 30k mp. Any extra MP you generate from levelling up or MP Washing is wasted... unless you convert that MP to HP. Mages can do this at a ratio of -30MP +6HP per AP Reset. It's a slow, painstaking process. While stale hp washing, ~70k nx is consumed per level.

You should always MP Wash because casting genesis costs a lot of MP, and mana bulls heal for 60% of your mp. MP Washing is easy and the NX costs are manageable.

Now the question is whether to stale HP wash. Naturally, a mage will have about 2.5k hp at level 200. If you stale HP wash, you'll end up with a lot more - somewhere around 8k-10k. This is essential for increasing your tankiness on endgame bosses, like horntail and pink bean. Bishops are necessary in those fights. Having NX saved up helps out a lot but is not necessary - you can stale hp wash on a new account with some planning - explained below.

However, it's entirely reasonable not to stale wash if you do not have nx saved up, because bishops are still extremely useful without participating in endgame bossing. When you stale wash and run out of nx, you don't have to stop levelling up, but you'll stop being able to assign AP to int, so the net effect is that your strength is capped when you stale hp wash and run out of nx.

Spoiler: No stale hp wash

Remember, the later you start washing, the more mp you get per AP. Start saving up nx early.

If at level 100 you have 200k nx, start washing. Otherwise, just keep leveling and start washing once you have 200k nx saved up. You should definitely have 200k nx saved up by level 120, otherwise, stop buying cosmetics.

Spoiler: Stale hp washing

Remember, the later you start washing, the more mp you get per AP. Since you are stale hp washing, nx is a huge bottleneck.

Additionally, there are diminishing returns past 7.5k hp, because magic guard splits damage 1:4 among hp and mp. Put another way, your tankiness increases fast up to 7.5k hp, and slowly afterwards.

If you are a new player and intend to stale hp wash, just start mp washing at level 120. Yes, you will have slightly lower "pot efficiency" for a while, but you're choosing the hard route for a reason. You'll start stale hp washing around level 160, which is around where you might be 1-shotting skeles - this is peak leech for a bishop. You will still end up with 8k+ hp and can convert the hp at your leisure, essentially.

If you have a bit of nx saved up (200k) and want ~1000 more hp, you can start mp washing at level 100. You will start stale hp washing around level 150, which means you won't be 1 hitting skeles, but you can 1 hit ulu2, which is decent.

Starting the mp wash at level 70 will give yet another 1000 hp, but causes you to start stale hp washing around level 136. You'll be strong enough to 1 shot vikerolas but not ulu2. I wouldn't recommend this unless you have 500k nx saved up, ideally more, because mp washing from level 70-120 alone will cost almost 800k nx.

Washing early causes you to be weaker in all aspects (lower hp and magic) than a late washer until the late washer is completely done stale hp washing (3-4 years later)! I recommend late washing if you intend to progress to midgame, because you will have infrastructure sooner. Infrastructure gets you mesos, levels, access to content. You will have 8k hp anyway - any more than that has mostly vanity benefits.

4. Getting started: Levels 1-35

Make sure to roll a character with 10 or 11 int. Rest of the stats don't matter and will be ap reset into int. 5 str is nice because it's needed to wear the green paint brush at level 30, so don't reset it until you're done with the paint brush. You might also get the str from red work gloves or squishy shoes.

Start by doing the quests on maple island. Max out 3 snails and nimble feet - 3 snails will be your primary source of damage here. You will be level 10 when you come to victoria island and talk to Olaf.

Spoiler: Unnecessary optimization

If you can afford 4 AP resets (12k nx), put 4 of your AP into HP, and use the AP resets to do -MP +INT. This will result in you getting about 40 hp for 32 mp... by comparison, as a mage, that 32 mp would've become about 6hp, so you just got 34 hp for free. This is a very light version of the beginner mage strategy.

Make sure you have at least 127mp before trying this.

Job advance and do Grendel's training quests for a big boost.

SP Build
Level 8: +1 Energy Bolt
Level 9: +3 MP Recovery
Level 10: +2 MP Recovery, +1 MaxMP Increase
Level 11-12: +3 MaxMP Increase
Level 13: +3 MaxMP Increase (MAX)
Level 14-19: +3 Magic Claw
Level 20: +2 Magic Claw (MAX), +1 Magic Guard
Level 21-26: +3 Magic Guard
Level 27: +1 Magic Guard (MAX), +2 MP Recovery
Level 28-29: +3 MP Recovery
Level 30: +3 MP Recovery (MAX)

I trust that you know how to kill mobs and get to level 30, but here are some tips.

Spoiler: Quests to do

Quests in MapleLegends give 3x exp, so questing can be a good option.

If you go to new leaf city at level 15, the mayor gives you a quiz that gives a bunch of free xp. This level also allows you to do the "arwen and ellinia" and "Danger G. Mushroom" quests together; they both require you to kill 100 green mushrooms. The quests aboard the nautilus are also pretty easy and quick xp.

At level 21, you can kpq for a chance at the squishy shoes. Again, with buffed xp rates, this is a decent option. Or just keep grinding.

At level 22, you can accept the "Danger H. Mushroom" and "Danger Z. Mushroom" quests which you can do together. Horny Mushrooms and Zombie Mushrooms are pretty good xp regardless and you can consider grinding on these. Other options include genins and sand rats.

These levels will fly by as long as you keep hitting mobs.

At level 20 buy a bathrobe in showa town, this will increase your speed. While you're here, buy a green paintbrush too, that will be your best weapon at level 30. Don't bother buying any other gear, it will simply not be impactful.

At level 30, do your job advancement and also do the Maplestory Basic Knowledge quest, which rewards you with a shoe jump 30% scroll worth 4.5m (July 2024). Reminder to check out the Getting Started Guide to learn how to sell things and figure out what fair prices are.

SP Build
Level 30: +1 Teleport
Level 31-35: +3 Heal

At this point you can head to Ludibrium to grind on brown teddies, keep magic clawing other level ~30 mobs of your choice, or head over to Ariant to do the ariant questline. The quests in Ariant give good exp and it's a less monotonous option.

It's a good time to pay a visit to New Leaf City and stock up on wizard elixirs (20 magic potions) as that extra magic attack will speed up the next phase, which is:

5. Spamming heal: Levels 35-82

Spoiler: SP Build Variations

After maxing heal at level 41 and putting one point in MP Eater, you can go for teleport, invincible, bless, and mp eater in any order. Tailor your skill build based on what you plan to do.

• Teleport is generally useful. Invest in teleport if you're doing a lot of questing or grinding.
• MP Eater can save you some pots while grinding, but each individual level in mp eater after level 1 isn't that impactful. Max MP Eater and Teleport first if you only plan to grind!
• Bless is useful for PQing because you will end up in parties with warriors who miss. Not that useful otherwise, you will probably not even bother casting it.
• Invincible is controversial. I enjoyed having it at GS to make it a bit safer, I was generally multitasking while heal spamming so being able to take more hits is nice. It's also good for PQing.

SP Build
Level 36-39: +3 Heal
Level 40: +3 Heal (MAX)
Level 41: +1 MP Eater, +2 Teleport
Level 42-43: +3 Teleport
Level 44-49: +3 Invincible
Level 50: +2 Invincible (MAX), +1 Bless
Level 51-56: +3 Bless
Level 57: +1 Bless (MAX), +1 Teleport
Level 58-59: +3 Teleport
Level 60: +3 Teleport (MAX)
Level 61-66: +3 MP Eater
Level 67: +1 MP Eater (MAX), +2 Holy Arrow
Level 68-70: +3 Holy Arrow

Once you have heal at an appreciable level, it's time to start mobbing undead enemies. If you followed the gear recommendations, this should be around level 37. You can try to hit jr wraiths in the kerning city subway, or chronos in ludibrium, and once you're a bit stronger you'll want to start mobbing master chronos ASAP since they drop helm dex 60. Then, at level 50, after getting the zakum helmet, you can move to the ghost ship in singapore. GS2 is best, but GS5 is almost as good if GS2 is full, and GS1 is a decent option for lower levels. At the ghost ship, do not turn on magic guard! Since you are healing to do damage, you should stay healthy automatically. You can use Invincible to reduce the damage here if you like. Some people choose to stay here for 30+ levels, it's just such great exp and profit.

There are a few stops worth making along the way, especially the Zakum Helmet, which will increase your damage as well as give 150 w.def and m.def, which is nice to have.

• At level 40, do the quest "Sakura, the kitty, and the orange marble" for another shoe jump 30 scroll (+4.5m)
  
• At level 40, upgrade your weapon to a yellow umbrella if you'd like. These are close to free and can be scrolled using 1h sword m.att.
• [Optional] At level 40, you can also do the Lost! questline in NLC, which is a bit more tedious, but does reward a gfa 70% (6.5m at time of writing)
• [Optional] At level 45, do the Ellin Forest questline to get a very nice ring! The quests also give very good exp and can boost you most of the way to level 50. You might need help getting the lazy buffy marbles at the end. If you choose not to do this now, come back at level 70 after putting a point in shining ray.
• [Optional] At level 50, you can do the "cleaning up the streets" quest in NLC for a nocturnal staff, which you can sell for up to 7m. If you don't need the money, you can put this off for later.
• At level 50, get a Zakum Helmet. Head to El Nath and talk to the 3rd job instructor there to get permission, then head into the dead mine to do the prequest. You will need to do a jump quest and buy 30 zombie's gold teeth from the FM (about 100-150k ea, you should easily have 4m saved up). Then you'll want to pay for regular service meaning you eat food to stay alive. Check the MapleLegends discord to get a great price, but in general don't pay more than 5-7m for this. Be patient! Buy 500 cherry pies from Miki in NLC and keep your hp above 650. The hp from the ellin forest ring helps here but is not strictly necessary. If you get hit with a 1/1 attack eat two cherry pies to recover your mp to full.
• [Optional] At level 50/65, you could consider buying a cheap Purple Adventurer Cape or Purple Gaia Cape and dropping some int 60% scrolls on it. This is optional, only do this if you have extra funds to spend. We want to have 20m going into level 82. Do not buy any other gear or scroll your zak helm.
• [Optional] Between levels 55-70, Muirhat in the Nautilus gives a bunch of easy "kill 100" quests that give 300k-500k exp each. This is a nice exp boost! You'll need to do the quest with the note in the trash can first - see the good quest list

Spoiler: Why you should not scroll your zak helm

Even if you have a perfect 17 int zak helm, the best way to proceed is to use 70% scrolls, and you can't afford to risk destroying the helmet. Helm int 60s are expensive and that money will be better used on leech - note that every level we gain 5 int, compared to 2 int for a successful 60% landing. Also, you will end up NPCing your zak helm sooner than you think, and it will not retain any value at that point since it is untradeable.

When you are level 135 and can do zak runs, you will get helmets for free and can take your time scrolling.

Spoiler: PQing

There are a few PQs available in your level range: LPQ (35-50), EPQ (45-55), and OPQ (51-70). PQs are worse than grinding in both profit and exp. When grinding, you get drops and gachapon tickets, which give a lot of junk but can also make you rich - on average, a gachapon ticket is worth over 1m. When pqing, at best you get okay exp. However, there's nothing wrong with spending some time pqing to have some fun. EPQ and OPQ in the 5x levels in particular are pretty good exp and it's not too hard to find parties for them. OPQ's glove reward takes 20 completions and starts with 4 int, which is a nice boost.

I would skip PPQ because it's very hard to find parties. The profit is even worse than the above pqs, and the exp is again mediocre.

At level 70, do your 3rd job advancement. Congrats on becoming a Priest! Pick up a cheap Elemental Wand 1, 2, 3, or 4 at this point and scroll it with 70s/60s.

SP Build
Level 70: +1 Shining Ray
Level 71: +3 Dispel
Level 72-80: +3 Holy Symbol
Level 81: +3 Holy Symbol (MAX)
Level 82: +3 Shining Ray

At this point I would keep grinding at GS2. If you have a decent level of Holy Symbol and some friends, you can consider grinding at CDs in a party, but otherwise just stick it through at GS2. This will be a tough stretch but the profit is excellent, and pot burn is non-existent. The light is at the end of the tunnel, because we have been saving money and will plan to leech levels 82-90.

6. Home Stretch: Levels 82-120

I recommend buying leech from Levels 82-90. Why? Well, you're probably sick and tired of gs2 by now. And at level 90 you can go to galloperas in Malaysia which provide excellent exp and is a fairly pleasant grind. However, we want to have both Shining Ray and Holy Symbol before going there. The solution is to leech! Level 82-90 will cost about 20m - see Krythan’s Leech Buying Guide. Believe me, this will be the best chunk of change you spend (well, the zak helm comes close)

We pick level 82 because that's when you can leech at vikerolas, which costs 1 meso for 2 exp. Before vikerolas, the leech options are much worse - wolf spiders are 1 meso for 1.1 exp. After vikerolas, the leech options get better, but not that much better.

SP Build
Level 83-90: +3 Shining Ray (28). We can stop here because you get max range at this level, and levels 29 and 30 are just +1 spell power (103 to 104 to 105)
Levels 91+: Get 20 Mystic Door and 20 elemental resistance. Then get 20 dispel, 30 Shining Ray, 15 dragon, and 16 doom in any order; you won't need any of these during 3rd job grinding.

After level 90, head to galloperas and start grinding! With shining ray having buffed range in this server, you can hit both the top and the bottom mobs simultaneously. If you don't feel like grinding and have mesos, buy some leech. Levels 90-100 you'd go to ulu2 (1:2.2), levels 100-105 ulu3 (1:2.5), and levels 105+ petri (1:3.2) (skeles is an alternative at 108+). As you can see, it's better to wait until 105 to spend your leech money, since each meso will be worth more exp the longer you can hold out.

You should do a mix of leeching and grinding until level 120. You want to get level 120 as fast as possible so you can start casting genesis - this will greatly speed up your levelling and open up many new possibilities. Check out the profitable quest list - doing the level 70-85 quests should net you at least 20m and possibly upwards of 50m.

Spoiler: Grinding locations

Galloperas are your bread and butter, but you can also consider going to himes (dreamy ghosts) with a DK or Chief Bandit partner. These hit hard so you will burn a lot more pots.

If a F/P mage is looking for a last hitter, you can also consider helping them out and yourself while you're at it. Killing poisoned mobs at 1hp with holy symbol can net upwards of 25m xp/hr for you (but they get 50m/hr). You might need to be very high level (110+) to have enough accuracy for Forest of Towers.

Deep Ludi also has some high level holy weak mobs, but it's not as good as the above options. If you have friends doing boss runs who don't have holy symbol, you can tag along for bigfoot at lv 105 and ravana at level 115. Your friend will get more xp so it's a win-win, and you can just sit there and collect the free xp.

Sometimes you may also get lucky and find a f/p or i/l grinding out ulu2, who will give you free leech in exchange for holy symbol!

Spoiler: Card hunting break

Many people get a bit burnt out at this phase. A common way to take a break is to hunt for monster cards and upgrade your monster book ring. This gives a sense of progression while being low intensity and providing a decent stream of gachapon tickets. Mix things up and remember that 4th job is just over the horizon!

7. Bishop and beyond (Level 120+)

Go ahead and do your job advancement. Congrats! You've made it! Well, sort of... still need to do HTPQ to get genesis, so do that to. As of writing, there are some nice people in the MapleLegends discord that will help you get Life Roots for genesis for free! Wow, such nice people in the community.

To recap, this is what we are wearing:

• Elemental wand (level 70)
  
• Zakum Helmet
• Purple Adventurer Cape/Purple Gaia Cape
• Clean bathrobe

And, if you've followed the spirit of this guide, you're probably close to broke because you rushed to level 120 and spent as much as possible on leech. That's okay! You don't need mesos. You can one hit CDs with genesis straight away in rags. You also should not be buying leech for this character ever again, since exp will come to you easily - you might even get too much of it.

Spoiler: MP and Genesis management

Things you should know about genesis:

• It costs a lot of MP
• MP cost increases up to level 20
• MP cost decreases level 20-30, but is still high
• Gen30 skillbook is not cheap - ~50m as of writing this guide

Additionally, life as a bishop is all about breakpoints. When can you consistently one shot or two shot the current or next mob? Since potions are so expensive, there's no point in increasing potion costs if it won't bring you to the next break point. For this reason, a lot of people like to keep genesis at level 1 until they know they need more points in it. See Ainz's TMA sheet (slightly inaccurate, but it's very close)

The SP build is now more fluid, but here is what I'd recommend.

• Always start with a point in Genesis.
• Try to get a point in Resurrection since it will come in handy. You'll need to do another quest for this.
• Put 10 points in maple warrior. Try to buy mw20 (book if looking to gamble, or service if you can't stand the pain of failing mw20) and get mw20. This will not only make you a lot stronger by increasing your int, but also make it easier to sell leech.
• Take it slow and keep an eye out for the next 1 hit/2 hit target. In the beginning, grinding on CDs is a great way to train and get some profit. You can keep an eye out for people looking to buy low level leech as well.
• At level 130, after upgrading your elemental wand 1-4 to an elemental wand 5-8, you should be able to 2 hit skeles with mw20 and genesis 10. It's okay to have extra sp laying around, there's no need to spend it if there's not an immediate need. 2 hit skele will be your bread and butter for levelling up - you should be levelling FAST if you want to.
• At the same time that you can 2 hit skeles, you also unlock 1 hit wolf spiders, another low level leech option.
• At level 135, you can run zak and try to pick up an angel ray skillbook. Put one point into angel ray so you have an okay single target skill.
• After 2 hit skele, you can look toward 1 hitting vikerolas, then ulu2, then skeles. This is when you'll typically go from genesis 10 to genesis 30 directly, so save up the SP and mesos for the jump.

The upgrades to prioritize in levels 120-130:

• MW20
• Horntail necklace service (40m for non-afk as of July 2024) or buy MoN for budget option (12m)
• Put on a 2 int mystic shield and 3 int shoes with the free luk you have
• Save up for an elemental wand 5-8 that you can wear at level 130. This doesn't have to be anything crazy. Shooting for 2 hit skeles with gen 10 is a good goal here.
• Grab some decent gloves and earrings
• Get an int bathrobe or starlight
• Get a raccoon mask with 7 int
• After this, look for incremental upgrades with the least mesos per TMA. Gloves, earrings, shield can all be upgraded. It tends to be less cost-effective to upgrade robe/mask.

8. Gear

Around when you buy mw20, you should also be opportunistically looking for gear.

The general principle here is that it's best to start with an okay piece in every slot, then upgrade incrementally. Having a really good piece in a slot without filling another slot is always a bad use of mesos.

Here is what I believe to be a good baseline set of gear. Have everything on this list first before considering upgrades. Again, mw20 should be bought around this time, likely before you have everything on the list, but definitely before you buy any upgrades.

Non-upgradeable pieces

• HTP (40m)
• 3 int shoes (1m)

Upgradeable pieces

• Zhelm (You could drop a couple 70s if you have a backup helm, but don't bother scrolling any more until much later. This is untradeable and cannot be resold, it is worth nothing if you end up with a mediocre result)
• Wand 166tma (50m, can be any elemental wand 5-8)
• Cape 16tma (40m)
• Overall 15int or 19int (50m)
• Earring 19tma (90m)
• Gloves 12tma (45m)
• Mask 7int (50m)
• Shield 14tma (90m)

Spoiler: Analysis

Every piece in the list costs at most 7m per tma.

MW20 gives 33 int over MW10 at level 130 - that's around 13m per tma if buying service, plus it benefits your leech selling.

Upgrading any piece on the list costs about 20m per tma, and goes up from there. E.g. a 9 int mask costs 90m, so you'd be paying 20m per int.

Spoiler: Self-scrolling

Do not self-scroll a wand or overall - those are very easy to find scrolled, and are cheap because they are byproducts of scrolling for higher stats.

You can consider self-scrolling a cape, gloves, mask, earrings, and shield. Remember to follow the correct strategy, and if turns out a bit worse than you want it, it's still worth keeping around.

• Cape: buy a cape and drop 60s/70s on it.
• Gloves: try to land a glove m.att 10, then go for 70s. If you hit two 70s you can use a 60, then finish with 70 or 60 depending on if that 60 lands. If you have the OPQ glove, you can drop some 70s and 60s on it instead.
• Mask: buy a mask and drop 100s on it. If you have the LPQ glasses, drop some 70s on it. You could end up with 4 int glasses for close to free, which means you can put off buying a mask.
• Earrings: try to land a 10, then land a 30. If the 30 landed right away, sell the earring. If it took two 30s to land one, then finish with 70/60. If you missed two 30s without booming, don't keep using 30s. It's not worth scrolling the EPQ earrings with 60s/70s.
• Shield: land a 30 first, then finish with 70s/60s. It's a bit risky to use 70s, but shield 70s are much cheaper than shield 60s. Feel free to use 60s if the shield is doing very well (e.g. no misses in the first three slots)

Now, around midgame, which is somewhere between 1 hitting ulu2 and 1 hitting skeles, and well after buying the baseline gear plus mw20, you can aim for the following upgrades:

• 174 tma wand
• 19 int crimsonheart cloak
• 25 int starlight
• 24 or 25 tma earrings
• 16 tma gloves
• 9 or 11 int mask
• 20 or 23 tma shield
• Scrolled helmet - once you can easily replace your helmet, I recommend slamming 5x 70s on a 17 int zhelm or 17+ int targa, and finish with 60s. But you can use 70s again if you miss two 60s in a row. On average you should end up with 31 int, but if it happens to be a bit worse, just roll with it. Because we are using 70s, it isn't likely to be much worse - instead of low rolling it will go boom about 60% of the time.

This will cost you around 1.5 bil and get you about 50 tma over the baseline - an equivalent of about 10 levels.

9. Credits

Thanks to Krythan for writing a lot of the referenced guides and for providing this layout!