Archer [Guide] Krythan's Archer Washing Guide | Washing Your Bowmaster or Marksman

How to wash your SE Mule to 30,000 HP.

Intro

Washing an archer follows the same process as washing a Night Lord. You can read about this topic depth in Krythan's Night Lord | Guide to Thirty Thousand Hit Points. This post will be an abbreviated version.

This character requires preparation and resources to make. Before beginning this process, it's recommended to have at least 1,000,000 NX on this character's account. I also recommend having at least 100 million mesos for equipment and buying leech, as well as a higher level character (bishop recommended) for self-leech and helping with quests.

1. What is Washing?

Washing is the process of using AP Resets from the NX Cash Shop to create more HP and/or MP. If you're not familiar with the concept, or deciding whether or not to wash, I recommend reading section "6. Washing" in the Getting Started guide. If this is your first character, I recommend looking into the HP Challenges, as they are a viable alternative to washing.

As an archer, there are three types of washing that you need to be familiar with:

• MP Washing - Fresh AP to MP, then AP Reset from MP to INT, DEX, or STR
• HP Washing - Fresh AP to HP, then AP Reset from MP to INT, DEX, or STR
  
• Stale HP Washing - AP Reset Stale HP from MP to HP.

2. What's different?

The process and formulas for washing an archer are generally the same as Washing a Night Lord. What's different in washing an archer vs. thief?

A. Archers use different stats.

Archers use DEX (primary), and STR (secondary) instead of a Night Lord's LUK (primary), and DEX (secondary)

B. Bowmasters benefit more from higher MP.

Ideally, aim for 5k~7k MP or more on a Bowmaster. While you can get away with lower, Bowmasters benefit much more from additional MP than other classes do.

You can accomplish this by increasing your Base INT target, and/or increasing your target level:

Class	Base INT	Target Level
Night Lord	400	145
Marksman	400	145
Bowmaster	450	145

Disclaimer: Each wash is going to be different. Some players will choose to aim for higher target level, account for more/less in equip(s), or raise/lower their Base INT target, these general guidelines provide a place to start.

Read More: "Q: Why do Bowmasters need more MP?" below.

3. Step by Step

You may reach your goals sooner or later than the listed levels. The levels listed here represent a baseline, your results may vary.

Levels 1-6

• Start with 10 INT
• Put Fresh AP into INT

Levels 6-10

• Put Fresh AP into DEX, until you have 25 DEX
• Then, put Fresh AP into INT

Note: You need 25 DEX to do your job advancement

Levels 11-40 - Pump INT

• Put Fresh AP into INT until you have 200 Base INT

Levels 40-80 - MP Washing - Part I

• Once you have 200 Base INT, start MP Washing.
• Put Fresh AP into MP, then use an AP Reset to -MP +INT.
• Repeat this process until you have reach your Base INT target.

For Marksmen, I recommend 400 base INT.
For Bowmasters, I recommend 450 Base INT.

Levels 80~150 - MP Washing - Part II

• Once you have reached your Base INT target, continue MP Washing:
• Put Fresh AP into MP, then use an AP Reset to -MP +DEX.
• Repeat this process until you have enough MP.

For Marksmen, you'll be able to reach your MP goals sooner level ~145.
For Bowmasters, you should consider aiming for a higher level ~155+ to create additional MP.

This process MUST be complete before you reset your Base INT.

What about STR? You may also want to put 10-30 points into STR. This will make it easier for you to reach the stat requirements for your weapons and equip(s). As you upgrade, and scroll your equips to have more STR, you'll be able to convert these points from STR to DEX.

Level ~150 - Reset Base INT

Ensure that you have created enough MP to reach your Target HP and Target MP goals. Double check, and triple check it! Make sure, make 1,000% sure you have enough MP to reach your goals, because once this step is done, there's no going back!

• Once you have reached your MP goals, reset your Base INT:
• Use AP Resets to reset your Base INT into DEX.

This process must be completed only after you have finished MP Washing.

Levels ~150+ - HP Washing

Once you have reset your Base INT, start HP Washing. Most of your HP Washing will be done with Stale HP Washing, but you can include Fresh HP Washing if you have the AP and NX.

• Do you have NX and Fresh AP? Do Fresh HP Washing: Put Fresh AP into HP, then use an AP Reset to -MP +DEX.
• Do you have NX but no Fresh AP? Do Stale HP Washing: Use AP Resets to -MP +HP
• Don't have NX, and have Fresh AP? You can either save your Fresh AP for when you do have the NX, or put those points straight into DEX.
• Don’t have NX, and don't have Fresh AP? Keep leveling, vote daily until you do.

Then, simple repeat these steps until you have Thirty Thousand Hit Points.

Note: To Stale Wash, you must have at least one point of AP sitting in either HP or MP. If you find yourself unable to remove a point of MP with an AP Reset, this is likely the culprit.

4. FAQ

Q: How do I know when I have enough MP?

At some point, around level ~140-155 you’ll want to reset your Base INT so that your character can reach their full potential of damage. This is the “point of no return”, because once you reset your Base INT, you won't be able to do any more MP Washes, so we need to make sure we have created enough MP to afford the remaining HP Washes.

The trick to this is being able to answer the question: "Do we have enough MP to reach our goals?"

The best approach is to add/subtract all future sources of MP and HP. And then play around with the numbers until you can determine if you need to keep leveling, and MP Washing, to create enough MP.

Spoiler: Show me an example

Take your current MP
Add MP from future level ups w/ Base INT
Add MP from future level ups w/o Base INT
Add MP from future MP Washes
Subtract MP from future Stale HP washes
Subtract MP from future HP washes
Add MP from upgraded MP equip(s)
Add MP from future equip(s) upgrades
= Projected MP

Take your current HP
Add HP from future level ups
Add HP from future Stale HP washes
Add HP from future HP washes
Add HP from future equip(s) upgrades
= Projected HP

Note: You may also want to ensure that you don't have any AP sitting in HP/MP when you do these calculations. The easiest way to check this is the $bloodwashes command in Discord.

Q: Why do Bowmasters need more MP?

TL;DR: Bowmasters benefit from larger MP pools.

Because the Hurricane skill is weird. The Bowmaster's main attack skill Hurricane works differently that the main attack skill of other classes.

Spoiler: What's weird about Bowmaster's Hurricane skill?

Hurricane burns through MP. Due to the high rate-of-fire, Hurricane uses a fair amount of MP. This is partly mitigated by the Concentrate skill, but a larger MP pool is going to help reduce MP post usage.

Hurricane is held down to attack. Hurricane is only active when you're holding down the button. Unlike other skills that will fire with a single button press, Hurricane requires the button to be held down. (This is why Bowmasters require a second machine to dual-attack.)

Hurricane can't be put on a macro. Unlike other attackers, you can't put your main attack on a 3x macro. While you can use this on other characters to tab/click between multi-attackers, that doesn't work for Bowmasters.

Hurricane doesn't AFK check. Finally some good news! Other attackers must move at least once every 100 skill uses, else their moves stale out and stop working. Hurricane will keep firing as long as you have MP. This is enjoyable in bosses like Rav, or Krex second-eye, where you don't get bounced around, and can just hold down the button until the boss is dead.

Now here's where it gets weird...

Hurricane can only auto-pot once per button-hold-down. Let's say you use up all your MP when you're holding down Hurricane. Your auto-pot on MP will kick in, and restore your MP pool. However, it will only do it once. Auto-pot on MP won't kick in until you release the Hurricane button OR take damage. This means that a larger MP pool lets you continuously attack for much longer.

Hurricane causes more auto-pot failures. The game has some janky-ness related to two actions firing at once. One of the most common cases of auto-pot failure is when two actions try and subtract from HP/MP at the same time. For example: taking damage, and subtracting MP via skill on the same frame.

Because of the higher rate of fire with the Hurricane skill, Bowmasters experience a much higher rate of auto-pot failure, simply because there's a higher chance two actions will try and trigger at the same time.

To compensate, Bowmasters will put HP+MP pots on their MP auto-pot. For example: Elixirs, Ginsing, Ginger Ales, etc. This works because MP auto-pot will always take precedent over the HP auto-pot, so in the case of getting hit with a boss's 1/1, even if HP auto-fails, the MP auto will recover HP.

This helps to mitigate the chance of fatal auto-pot failures, but does increase the cost of their MP pot usage.

Yet another reason why a larger MP pool is beneficial to reduce the usage of these more expensive pots.

Disclaimer: This is my understanding. Actual technical details may differ.

Q: How do I level a character with no DEX?

Most of our leveling journey will be a combination of self-leech, and buying leech. You may choose to do quests and party quests as well, albeit leech is often faster.

Read more: Krythan’s Leech Buying Guide

Q: How do I do the job advancements?

Your 2nd and 3rd Job Advancements require combat challenges in order to progress. These can be difficult due to your primary stat being so low.

Read More: How do I complete the job advancements, if I have no damage?

Q: What about the HP Challenges?

As of March 2025, the MapleLegends team is continuing to work on implementing an alternative to HP Washing.

"These challenges will introduce a viable alternative to washing, especially useful for those who are on their first character, and don’t have / want to, spend the time, effort, and NX to wash. They will allow characters to complete specific quests to gain additional HP, allowing any character to participate in almost every boss in the game." - Getting Started

The challenges system is the recommended path if this is your first character. However, it's possible to reach a much, much higher HP with washing as seen above.

Read more: Challenges System - HP Wash Alternative

 

Note: Read more about the principles of washing a ranged attacker in Krythan's Night Lord. The process and formulas are the same. This post was created to call out some of the key differences with BM/MM washing.

 

May 23rd, 2025 - We've reduced the recommended Base INT, and Target Level for Bowmasters. After conversations with theclammiest, beegoratto, and other Bowmasters, we've reduced the recommended MP. Originally, we'd suggested Bowmasters aim for ~10k MP (quite a bit more than other classes). Based on feedback that this original amount was more than necessary, we've reduced our recommendation to 5k~7k MP, and reduced the Base INT, and Target Level in the above chart accordingly. While Bowmasters are still able to choose to wash to a higher MP amount, the default suggestion should now be marginally less NX.

• Previous: 500 Base INT, Level 150 Target Level, 30k HP / 10k MP
• Updated: 450 Base INT, Level 145 Target Level, 30k HP / 7k MP

 

Thank you! Updated!

 

I want to make sure that I understand the question. Is this a question about lowering the NX cost? Are you asking what's the lowest Base INT you can do, and still reach 30k HP?

 

Don't worry about "Luck". Any variance in Level Up rolls is essentially normalized, and insignificant across 135+ levels.

You also want to consider "Target Level". The best way to decrease NX cost, is to increase the level that you leech to. To minimize NX cost, some players will leech their character to 155 (Horntail), 175 (Pink Bean), or even higher, to reduce the overall NX cost. But the time and mesos required to do so, isn't a feasible approach for everyone.

If you're willing to reduce your Target MP to below 5k, the lowest Base INT that I would recommend would be ~330 Base INT. Any lower, and you start having to leech to level 150 or higher to compensate. You could even use a lower Base INT, but I wouldn't generally recommend that until you're comfortable running the numbers yourself, and confident in what it would take.

For more tips on reducing overall NX costs, I'd recommend reading this comment.

 

Generally speaking, for anyone looking to make an Bowmaster or Marksman, I would still recommend the original plan at the start of this thread. Making a 30k ranged attacker is a long term commitment, and the quality of life from having additional MP, is going to be worth it. If you're going to spend multiple years investing in this character, I generally don't recommend aiming for Minimum MP just to save a few months of NX. Plus, I'd hate to see someone make a few mistakes, and realize at 150+ that they don't have enough MP to reach 30k HP.

But, I do want to ensure that I answer your original question! Everyone's character is going to be slightly different, so based on provided criteria let's see what your plan looks like...

Based on your messages, these are our objectives:

• Minimize NX usage
• No excess MP, plan to be at Minimum MP
• Minimal INT Equip(s)
• Minimal Base INT
• Exclude Maple Warrior
• Reset Base INT at 140
• Reach 30k by 180
• Include Monster Book Tier 10 Ring
• Account for worst-case scenario on LevelUp rolls.

In the Night Lord washing guide, we've linked a spreadsheet we can use to experiment with different options. The second tab of this spreadsheet offers a version that allows you to account for future HP/MP gains. Using this spreadsheet, we can determine the following:

You should aim for 330 Base INT. Start MP Washing to INT at level 54. Once you reach 330 Base INT, change to MP Washing to DEX. Continue MP Washing until you reach your target level of 140. Double, triple check you have enough MP, Reset Base INT, and Stale HP Wash to 30k HP.

This process will cost us ~7m NX, and we'll end with 30k HP and ~2,750 MP.

Fun fact! MinakamiYuki's estimate of 440 Base INT is also correct! That number will also get you to 30k HP, Minimum MP for about 7m NX. How could these two paths possible cost the same NX? Well, while you do require higher Base INT, the higher Base INT is balanced out by the need to do fewer MP Washes.

Ok, so...

What does this tell us? You're loosing a lot of MP based on the above restrictions, and I don't think it reduces the NX cost by as much as you would like. In the original plan of this thread, it'll cost about 7.5m NX, and you'll end with ~8k MP. Based on your restrictions, it'll cost about 7m NX, and you'll end with under 3k MP.

If the ultimate objective is to reduce NX usage, then increasing the level where you Reset Base INT is often the best way to go (read more).

Does this answer your question?

 

What you're describing is "Fresh HP Washing". Unfortunately, since Archers don't have the MaxHP, they are limited in how much HP they are able to create using this method. Even if you had enough Base INT (600+ INT) that you could afford 5x Fresh HP Washes each level, the maximum HP you'd be able to reach with this method is around ~15k HP. In which case, I'd suggest looking into the HP Challenges as an alternative that can provide a similar amount of HP, with significantly less hassle.

Archers must utilize the combinations of MP Washing, and Stale HP Washing, to reach the higher thresholds of HP.