[Guide] Krythan's New Player Guide | Getting Started in MapleLegends

Welcome to MapleLegends! This guide will teach you what I wished I had known in my first 100 hours of the game.

Whether this is your first experience with MapleStory, or your latest private server, I want you to have fun, and make the most out of your time. This guide aims to cover what you need to know, and where to find information, so you can streamline your experience, make friends, level up, and get deeper into the game, faster!

Always remember, there is no “right”, or “wrong” way to play. If you are enjoying your time, you’re playing the game the “right” way.

Table of Contents

1. Getting Started
2. Leveling Up
3. Making Money
4. Finding Friends
5. Becoming Stronger
6. Washing
7. The Meta
8. Advanced

1. Getting Started

Let’s get started. Time to download the game, make an account, and spin up your very first character! In the beginning, I highly recommend just loading into the game, and exploring. For those that want a guide that walks you through the basics of how to play, read Lionheart’s guide Beginner's Guide to Starting Out.

A. Choose a class

The first real choice you’ll need to make in this game is “which class do I want to play?”. MapleLegends has done a great job balancing the classes. Different classes shine in different scenarios, but all classes are viable, and enjoyable to play.

Lirbo ’s All Classes Review breaks down the different classes, their play styles, their strengths & weaknesses. In the Job Guides category of these forums, there are a ton of guides on leveling, and building, each class.

Tip: Make sure to check the date on any advice you read. Especially as you get into more advanced topics, information is often out of date.

If you’re coming from another version, or MapleStory server, check out Kimmy ’s post on the MapleLegends Skill Changes.

B. Vote every day

You can earn NX by voting for MapleLegends on GTOP and TOPG. Log into maplelegends.com, and click Vote for Cash.

Use NX to buy items from the Cash Shop. You can buy items such as cosmetics for your character, inventory upgrades, and items for convenience.

There are a number of items that you’ll want to prioritize buying in the Cash Shop:

2. Leveling Up

A. Kill monsters

The priority of your first 100 hours is leveling up. The most basic way to do this is to kill monsters, aka “training”. Players such as Jaikor and their Comprehensive Training Guide have compiled lists of the most popular training locations.

However, the best recommendations are going to be specific to your class. Many job guides have provided the most popular maps for that class. Examples include Bella's Bella’s Bishop Guide, iPippy ’s Buccaneer Guide, or Blu's Shadower guide.

Tip: Relax. Enjoy your time. At its very core, this game is about chilling and grinding. Don't over-do it. Don't burn out. Getting sick and tired of the grind? Do something different such as hunt for Monster Book cards, hangout and chat in the Free Market, or just take a break.

And don’t forget to drink water.

B. Complete quests

You’ll get a lot of exp from questing. In MapleLegends, all quests reward 3x experience. Especially in the earlier levels, questing is a fast way to level up.

Check out jshyy ’s guide on Good Quests. For a more comprehensive breakdown, read Nicholas’s Exact Guide for 1-35 in under 6 hours, and Nise ’s Quick/Precise Leveling for New Chars! (~ Lvl 35)

C. Run party quests

The most social way to level up is party quests, or PQs for short. Each PQ has a map where players will meet up, and form groups. If you can’t find a group, use a Super Megaphone, or come back later and try again. It can be hit or miss how popular a PQ is at any given time.

There are a few great items you can get for running a certain number of a PQ. The most notable examples are Squishy Shoes (+1 All Stats, KPQ), Broken Glasses (+1 All Stats, LPQ), Ellin Glittering Earrings (+1, or +2 All Stats, EPQ), and Goddess Wristband (+4 INT, +3 Weapon Attack, OPQ). These items are great for their level, however don’t go out of your way just for the item - as you’ll most likely outgrow these items in the future.

To see all the rewards, check out fireelement1’s guide on Party Quests & Rewards.

D. Buy leech

Leech is paying another player to kill monsters for you. When a party member kills a monster, some exp is shared with the party. This way you’ll get exp, without having to do the work. Because a higher level character is often the one doing the killing, leech can be faster than grinding monsters yourself. This is especially true for levels 65+. Learn more in Krythan's Leech Buying Guide

Saving up money, and buying a few hours of leech between grinding sessions can often be a great way to take a well earned breather from the grind, and can help you push through some of the slower stretches of the game.


3. Making Money

Making money is making progress. Mesos buy you pots, power (through gear) and exp (through leech). If you’re brand new, check out cwong's Jump Start Your MapleLegends Adventure.

A. Price check

The most accurate way to check the value of something is to use an Owl of Minevera in the Free Market.

The easiest way is to use owlrepo.com, a database of items that have historically been on the market. While not 100% accurate, it’s a great tool for referencing scroll prices. The site owlrepo.com doesn’t show how the different stats on an item affect its value. A Red Craven with max attack is going to cost a lot more than one without. A scrolled bathrobe with +20 INT is going to cost a LOT more than one with +15.

How can you determine these prices? Grab a notebook. Use an Owl of Minivera from the Cash Shop, and search for a specific item. For each of the possible stats, write down the cheapest you’ve found that item on the market. The more days you do this, the more accurate it’ll be. Is it perfect? No. But it gives a great place to start when determining how much an item costs:

Spoiler: ”Show me an example

When I was looking to buy a Bathrobe scrolled with INT, here’s what my notes looked like:
10 13m
12 25m
13 28m
14 30m
15 40m
16 60m
17 75m
18 85m
19 110m
20 180m

Pro Tip: On the Discord server, you can search the #free-market for items that were listed in the past. While almost exclusively high value end-game items, it’s a good place to check for some of those big ticket items.

B. Open a store

You’ll be buying and selling things in the Free Market, or FM for short. Once you reach level 16, you’ll be able to make larger transactions, as well as buy a store. Buying a store in the Cash Shop is a one-time purchase, and lets you sell your own items in the market.

Pro Tip: I recommend creating a second account as a “FM Mule”. This account lets you buy as many items from the cash shop as you want, without using the NX that your main character is going to want to use. These means you can buy: Owl of Minerva (owls), and Super Megaphones (smegas). I also recommend purchasing all of the item inventory storage upgrades on this character so it can be your storage for items you are saving or waiting to sell.

C. Collect gacha

In your first 100 hours, Gachapon is going to make up a large portion of the money you make. Gachapon drops from monsters, and can be cashed in for random prizes. Kill monsters, get Gacha. It’s as simple as that. Read more by local legend fartsy in their mini beginner guide to making mesos (with pictures!).

Pro Tip: I recommend using the Gachapon in Ellina when cashing in Gacha, since it has a (small) bonus to the amount of mage scrolls and equipment it gives.

Pro Tip: It’s often more efficient to sell your valuable scrolls, rather than use them. A single scroll of Overall Armor for INT can fetch 12m. For you, that’s either a 30% chance of +5 INT, or 2 hours of leech that you can buy.

D. Farm drops

Kill monsters. Get their stuff. Some monsters drop better stuff than others. It’s sometimes worth going out of your way to try and farm specific monsters for their drops. Popular examples include Drakes (Scroll for Helmet for INT 60%), Miner Zombies (Golden Teeth), Master Chronos (Scroll for Helmet for DEX 60%), Wild Monkey (Banana Peels), White Mama Monkey (Monkey Dolls), Voodoo (Heartstoppers) and more! Check out SwordArt’s Meso Making Guide or Cavern2’s Meso Farming 2021 for popular locations.

Use maplelegends.com/lib to see which monsters drop which items, as well as the possible stats on any given item.

E. Complete quests

There are a ton of quests that have either a guaranteed, or chance to provide a high value item. See Tyron ’s guide on Money making quests for new players. For an abbreviated list, here’s what I believe to be the most profitable quests in the game, where rating is a subjective score of effort to reward ratio.

F. Run APQ

Are you level 40? Are you married? Then you can run APQ, one of the most profitable things a low level player can consistently do. Once every 6 hours you can hunt for keys, and get a ticket to enter. APQ is a great chance to meet higher level players, and collect Onyx Apples… a valuable end-game consumable.

Read fehiccup ’s APQ Guide (with pictures!), as well as how to get married in Mirrors ’ Weddings Revamped!

G. Participate in events

MapleLegends run a number of seasonal events. Most notably, the Christmas, Halloween, Summer (Anniversary) events. These events often come with unique quests and challenges that can provide a great way to meet other players, and farm for valuable items. Plus, each event also has a power exclusive item to unlock - they’ll often expire in a few months, but are often very good items, for a moderate amount of effort.

H. And more!

That’s not all. There’s no shortage of items to farm, and services to offer in order to make money. Some of the most common examples include:

• Selling Fame - Making a few level 15 characters than can sell their daily fame at 100k/day
  
• Monster Book Cards - Farming monster book cards for characters that are working on their Monster Book ring. Earn 500k per card dropped.
  
• Merching - Browsing the Free Market to buy low, sell high. Easier said than done.
  
• …and more!

4. Finding Friends

This server has one of the friendliest communities I’ve seen in an online game. Many players are here to bond over a shared, and often nostalgic experience. Don’t be afraid to ask for help, more often than not players are eager to provide guidance.

A. Run PQs

PQs are one of the best ways to meet other players. They bring groups of players together, and keep them together for a long time. Most importantly, you meet players that are around your level range, making it more likely you’ll play together in the future.

B. Join a guild

Find a new player friendly guild! There are many alliances full of new and old players happy to help.

C. Hangout in the FM

Chill in the FM, also known as being a “FM Hoe”. There’s no shortage of players that just sit around, chat, (and gamble).

D. Use smegas

Don’t be afraid to use “Super Megaphones” from the Cash Shop. These allow you to send out a message to all players online. It’s a great way to recruit others. I was hesitant to broadcast messages at first, afraid of looking the fool, but on a low-population server, smegas are a great way to find people for an activity, and broadcast that you are recruiting (R), buying (B), or selling (S) something. Examples:

• "Recruiting players to grind Ghost Ship with me"
• "Kerning PQ, need 2 more"
• "Buying CD leech, any sellers?"

E. Discord

The community in Discord is friendly, especially Nightz, beegoratto , Gurk, fartsy and more that hangout in the #questions channel.

5. Becoming Stronger

A. Gain levels

For your first 100 hours, the best way to get stronger is to gain levels. Prioritize leveling up over most other activities.

B. Upgrade your equip.

There’s no shortage of items to choose from. For a starting point, see Mirrors The Comprehensive Gear Guide. For the most part, focus on your weapon first, and everything else later. Don’t put too much time or energy into low level equipment, as you’ll outgrow most of it rather quickly. It’s only once you get 100+ then you start focusing on items that you’ll have with you for a while.

Pro Tip: Buying leech is often a better use of money than buying equipment. For example, a +17 INT Bathrobe costs 100m. For that same price, you could buy 16 hours of Ulu Estate II leech that could bring you from 90 to level 110.

C. Buy equip. services

There are a few extremely powerful equips that you should consider trying to acquire as soon as you can. High level players will offer looting these items as a "service", such that you can pay for them to kill the boss for you. This allows you to acquire and equip the item long before you would have otherwise been able to defeat the boss. Most of these services come with "free re-loots", meaning if multiple of the items drops during your run, you're allowed to try your luck and subsequent pickups.

• Zakum Helm - Level 50 - Up to +17 in all stats, and 10 slots. Most commonly sold as "AFK Service" for 18m, or "non-AFK Service" for 12m, requiring that you are capable of surviving on your own. Pre-quest required.
• Targa Helm (INT/LUK) - Level 90 - Up to +19 in the primary stat (INT or LUK), up to +17 in secondary stats, and 10 slots. Most commonly sold for 12m. Pre-quest required.
• Scarlion Helm (STR/DEX) - Level 90 - Up to +19 in the primary stat (STR or DEX), up to +17 in secondary stats, and 10 slots. Most commonly sold for 9m. Pre-quest required.
• Mark of Naricain - Level 110 - Up to +6 in all stats, and up to +5 weapon attack, +11 magic attack. Most commonly sold for 16m. No pre-quest.
• Horntail Pendant - Level 120 - Up to +23 in all stats. Most commonly sold as "AFK Service" for 100m, or "non-AFK Service" for 50m, requiring that you are capable of surviving on your own. Pre-quest required.

D. Scroll your equip.

This is a topic in itself, so we’ll just scratch the surface here.

For the most part, in your first 100 hours, you’re better off selling your high value scrolls, and buying discounted items. Want to know if a scroll is valuable? See estimates on owlrepo.com.

Thanks to higher level players, there are a lot of discounted “byproducts” on the market. These are items that were made in the process of scrolling, that didn’t end up being part of the end result. You can often find poorly scrolled gear for very cheap.

Be careful when scrolling items that aren’t tradeable. Most scrolled items you can sell once you find something better. However, any scrolls put into an untradable item is a sunk cost. For the most part, the only untradeable items that you’ll be scrolling are the Zakum, Ravana, and Targa/Scar helmets which are likely your end-game equip.

E. Upgrade your monster book

Upgrade your Monster Book Ring by collecting the cards that many of the mobs across the Maple world will drop. For every 5 cards you get 1 set, for every 30 sets you get to upgrade your ring to the next tier. Each tier gives an additional +1 to All Stats, and a bonus to HP and MP. Read more about the Monster Book in Nimbus’s Card Hunting Guide:

F. Use attack potions

Don’t forget to use the consumables that boost your attack. Compared to gear, they’re often a quick and easy way to get some extra points of damage in. Here are the most popular weapon attack consumables in the game, thanks to PlaceHolder ….

Pro Tip: Save yourself some travel time, and buy your specialty potions in the FM. There are many shops in the FM that are dedicated to selling popular potions, the most common examples being: Ciders, Wizard Elixirs, All Cures, and more!

Pro Tip: Visit Miki in New Leaf City (NLC). This NPC sells some of the best HP and MP pots in the game.

6. Washing

Welcome to the most controversial topic in this community. Don't let the conversation be stressful. This community LOVES it's washing.

Play the game, learn, have fun, and don’t worry about washing or “end-game viability”. In the far future, by the time you get to the point of wanting more HP than the HP Challenges give, you'll be in a better place to make that perfect attacker.

I guarantee you that someone will comment in this thread about how washing is required. At this point in time, just make sure you have an extra account or two that you're voting on, and and put it in the back of your mind that at a later point in time, once you have the knowledge, funding and vote cash (NX), you can make your perfect atttacker should you get deep into end-game.

A. What is washing?

What is washing? Creating a character with more max HP or MP by using AP Resets from the Cash Shop. Washing takes careful planning, time, effort, and funding, but most importantly, it takes a ton of NX (vote cash) to do properly.

Washing is not required to play and enjoy the game.

As of 2024, the HP Challenges system is currently being developed. 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.

How does it work? The core concept is that through the use of Ability Points (AP) and AP Resets, you can get more HP at the cost of MP. When you level up, you gain bonus MP based on your INT, thus allowing you to create characters with additional MP that can be converted into additional HP.

While “Washing” is a blanket term, there are actually three main methods of “Washing”. Different classes use different combinations of these methods.

1. Fresh HP Washing is putting AP into HP, then AP Resetting -MP +STAT. Most commonly used by Warriors and Buccaneers.
2. MP Washing is putting AP into MP, then AP Resetting -MP +STAT. Most commonly used by Mages, Archers, Corsairs, and Thieves.
3. Stale HP Washing is AP Resetting MP to HP. Most commonly used by Archers, Corsairs, and Thieves.
4. ...and more.

B. Why do washing?

There are many end-game bosses that can inflict more damage than a character has HP. The most popular way to survive is to utilize the washing mechanics to create a character with more HP. The most common bosses that people wash for include Horntail (~9.9k+), and Pink Bean (~19.2k+). Read more in Nise Major Bosses & HP Required and Selquin’s Important HP thresholds.

C. Do I need to wash my first character?

Short answer: No. The HP Challenges are a great alternative.

However, when planning your first character, I would recommend seriously considering washing if you plan to make a Mage or a Warrior. Both classes are very straight forward to wash, and require very little NX and upfront planning when compared to the rest of the classes.

Read more about mage washing in @Krythan’s Mage Washing Guide, or an example of washing in Krythan's Warrior Washing Guide.

For the rest of the classes, I would not recommend washing them if they are your first character. For these characters, washing takes careful planning, time, effort, and funding, but most importantly, it takes a ton of NX (vote cash) to do properly. As such, it’s very difficult to do so on your first character. In this case, the HP Challenges will provide a great alternative to washing.

Here are the classes, ranked from easiest to hardest to wash… as measured by the combined difficulty of planning, leveling, and required NX.

Careful: There are many forum posts that are out of date. Make sure to consult the last updated date, and/or as ask #questions in Discord if in doubt.

To see the math, see @Nise’s HP Washing Formula Compilation

7. The Meta

Enjoying your time? If you’re having a good time, and plan to stick around for a while, here’s how to get a jump start!

A. Create multiple accounts

Create at least 5 different accounts. As long as they have a single level 1 character, you’ll be able to vote on those accounts and accumulate NX. Having accounts with NX on them gives you many options going forward, and the only cost is your time. You don't need to know what you will do with these accounts, just know that the longer you play, the more likely you'll be wanting to have an extra account with NX on it.

B. Create mules

Create characters that can assist and buff your mains. The most popular mules are:

• Free Market Mule - Level 16 character for buying, selling, posting stores, owl-ing, and smegas.
  
• Hyper Body Mule - Level 41 spearman to give the Hyper Body buff for more HP/MP.
  
• Holy Symbol Mule - Level 81 priest to give the Holy Symbol buff for its EXP bonus.

Read more in Oradious Degeneracy: How do I mule? And akashsky's Guide to recommended mules and how to make them.

C. Vote every day

Voting for MapleLegends on GTOP and TOPG rewards you with NX.

If you’re washing, you need all the NX you can get. Vote every day, on every account you have. You can gain up to 7,000 NX per account, per day, thanks to Voting streak Milestone Rewards

There are two sites you can vote on.

• Red Kimmy (GTOP): 5,000 NX per day. Every day you vote, your streak increases by 20, for a maximum of 6,500 NX per day. Each “day” resets at midnight server time (+0 GMT). Streaks do NOT reset if you miss days.
  
• Blue Kimmy (TOPG): 500 NX every 12 hours.

I recommend using PandaOnPanda ’s airplane mode trick, as well as IceMingo ’s voting app.

D. Explore the world

Once you get off Maple Island, find how to get to the different locations with Poofcake’s How to get to…, or see which paths between continents are possible with Chew ’s great MapleLegends map

E. Defeat bosses

Defeat bosses, get exp, collect their loot. The most popular bosses that players will run are listed below. We've also added the minimum level to enter, and minimum HP to survive the boss.

Disclaimer: Actual suggested values may be higher.

For more information, see Nise ’s guide on Major Bosses & HP Required. There’s also a lot of area bosses that spawn around the world. See Midnight’s Bossing Guide for a list.

F. Earn prestigious coins

Prestigious coins, “p coins” or just “coins” are a form of currency that drops from bosses. Bosses will drop “pouches”. Pouches will contain a number of coins. As of February 2024, coins are worth around 3.2m each. These coins are then used to buy Chaos Scroll and White Scrolls for end-game scrolling. Because they are items, they are not taxed when traded, making prestigious coins the preferred currency for buying and selling expensive items.

G. Sell leech

Are you planning to become a Bishop? One of the most consistent forms of income in the game is selling leech service. While not required, it’s very common to see players making their first character as a bishop, or archmage (with a holy symbol mule) to unlock this income stream, and make it easier to level future characters.

To learn more, read Krythan 's Leech Buying Guide

H. Learn the commands

There are a number of commands you can type into the in-game chat:

• @mapowner - Shows the character that “owns” the current map. Used for resolving instances of kill stealing, and map ownership in the case of area bosses. Read more.
• @epm - How much experience are you getting per-minute? Records for 1 minute before showing results. You can also use “@epm 2” to record for 2 minutes, “@epm 3” for 3, etc.
• @dpm - How much damage are you doing per-minute? Records for 1 minute before showing results. You can also use “@dpm 2” to record for 2 minutes, “@dpm 3” for 3, etc.
• @servertime - What time is it in +0 GMT? Used for determining when the next server reset is for purposes of tracking if you can vote, and boss again.
• @ Roll 100 - Rolls a number between 1 and 100. Most commonly used for determining how to split loot that a boss dropped.
• @commands - See the full list of commands.

8. Advanced

Is it getting hot in here? Or is it just me? Ready to take the game to the next level?

There’s no shortage of end-game players that only play their main. However, it’s very popular to run a number of different characters to expedite your goals. To start out, back in 2020 Lirbo wrote a (now famous) post on How to start playing MapleLegends efficiently (and become a madman) where they documented one of the most common practices to optimize for end-game progress.

It’s a lot to take in, but holds up very well with time. I find myself returning to this post every 6 months, and understanding it more each time.

A. Sell services

There’s no shortage of ways to make money. The most popular service to sell is Leech. Shivering breaks down some of the most common services in their post Mesos: Advanced guide to making money quickly. There’s also Oradious’ post on the Meso Making Tier List, albeit the meta has changed slightly since 2020.

B. Meta of the month

There will always be a “latest” meta for farming. In 2024, the latest meta is the “Multi-shad”, where you make a whole bunch of Shadowers for farming. In 2023, we had the “Multi-DK” where, you guessed it, people made multiple Dragon Knights for farming. And throughout the history of MapleLegends, there’s always been the classic “Multi-mage” approach. You get the idea.

While these strategies can often be very profitable, they are risky, as they are subject to patches, and balance changes. It takes a long time for the strategies to pay off on the upfront investment of having to create the accounts, NX, and level the characters - thus the “Meta of the Month” is reserved for the most serious of players.

C. Play the end-end-game

Once all is said and done, there’s only one thing left to do. As Nightz , beegoratto , Gurk , fartsy and many more show us, the true end-game is shit posting on the Discord, trolling on the forums, and AFK-ing in the FM.

Special thanks to megapatches, Callie, Clam, amoeba, Andrew, and everyone else who helped write, review, and share their knowledge.

Good luck, and have fun!

- Krythan

 

Reserved

 

Reserved #2

 

kiwiz is evidence that there's no right or wrong way to play the game! Your story (by nature of your journals) is a testament to getting ahead with ingenuity and determination. Trying out new strategies, experimenting with theories, and finding unique ways to play the game and progress. It's walking evidence that there are so, so many ways that one can choose to play this game!

Each player has their own experience, and their own unique way that that choose to play the game. And that's a thing of beauty.

Even if kiwiz is at the mercy of the RNG gods

 

I think that's a great list! I'll add to that and say, at the start, you don't need to know what #3 "Main" will be. That you can determine at a future point in time!

(Also wouldn't hurt to have a "Second Main" account)

 

Essentially! Most of these strategies are built around finding ways to play multiple characters at once. These often take quite a bit of money, and infrastructure to level up the required characters, plus risky as they are more subject to balance changes - so I generally add the disclaimer that folks should have some pretty extensive experience before exploring these routes.

Though, that's a topic for a post or guide of it's own Well beyond the scope of what we've covered here.

 

February 7th, 2024 - Guide updated, changes include:

• Defeat bosses (updated) to include more information on the most popular bosses.
• Buy equip. service (updated) to include more information on items such as Zakum Helm, Scarga Helms, MoN, and more.