guy who doesnt know anything plays a game

what you see:

what i see:

(i had more character progress today but its 3:30am so have this instead of coherency)

 

ok sooooooooo
our boy is lvl 22 so far! a kind stranger who Understood and Appreciated The Bit™ stopped to help me as they passed by me whacking away at mobs. did a few PQs with me (couple rounds of HPQ which i had never done before and KPQ) which helped quite a bit (~2 or 3 levels total?) though i realized i wasn't happy I was gaining levels i did almost nothing to contribute to so i'll prolly have to pass on that going forward (which kills me since i love KPQ so much at least i got some shoes)

they also had pointed me to a few easy quests i had yet to do, did shumi's coin jq for the first time (it was a LOT fairer than i remember jq's being) and burned 10k going to NLC for the first time (the exp was nice but cash is tough for a guy with the mobbing ability of a lvl5 beginner)

got another gun upgrade, not as big of a jump as the first one was HOWEVER....WE BROKE DOUBLE DIGITS BABY!!!!

i can almost start to grind low low level mobs normally! even stuff like slimes and red snails with a bit of defense take 7 or so damage now and are reasonable to kill

despite that, however, still am facing a good "soft" wall in terms of questing expectations. most "reasonable" mobs i need to target currently are ribbon pigs (for the 49302843290 ribbons i need for quests) and green mushrooms, which take ~50 hits to kill on average. though, i suppose they aren't as bad as the pig grind, which took 75 hits each and i killed 80 of those at that damage rate


having a Good Time fighting one of the 100+ green mushrooms i need

the "hard" wall i'm facing is stumps. regular stumps are just fine, but anything over that? dark stumps, axe stumps, god forbid dark axe stumps, all are 1 damage and slap me across the face. their HP ranging from 250 to 550 (which would require exactly that many hits) means all those quests are nearly completely walled off til i can get a bit of leverage damage-wise fearing it might need to wait til 25 or 30 with those respective gun upgrades


here's our stats so far, might have to pivot more strongly into dex for those higher level gun requirements...it starts ramping up super quickly (not that im envisioning im going to be getting super high level with this guy....still not thinking about the possibility of hitting lvl30 and having to choose which job to pursue jfkldajkldf;s)

 

helo again, it's (my) weekend and i live once more!!

i've both done a lot and not that much!

i first went on a horrible adventure with doorman on the quest to make him pretty (and more accurate to his namesake), but unfortunately didnt take many screenshots so woe, text dump be upon ye

Spoiler: the horrid adventure of doorman

traveling on old school servers is so difficult and frustrating as all resources you find only pertain to current MS (read: just use the maple guide/dimensional mirror!!!!!!!), and everyone on the current server just assumes you automatically know how to get from A to B. i never left victoria island as a child i have no clue where the hell anything is or how its all connected

i do think its cute and charming for different areas to have different cosmetic styles and i vastly prefer that to the current system of "you have a total of 10 choices that rotate out like 4 times a year and thats it " i just really wish there was just. a big map for big dumdum idiot babies like me. i have a hard time navigating in general when trying to look up specific maps to farm, like yeah sure i can find a picture of the map on bbb but it doesnt tell me specifically how to get there, where the (possibly hidden?) portal is located on the nextdoor map

anyways

after dragging my feet i finally committed a day to fix up doorman's look. not that i disliked his initial look, it was quite charming in its own right (maybe i'll reiterate it for another character down the line) but he really did not look anywhere close to his namesake and i had to rectify that.

first i made my way to floating market for the curl, which was a simple enough conversation with spinel.
i then had to figure out how to get to Taipei 101 for the Innocent Face. two back-to-back subway rides (with surprise evil slimes i was not warned of????) and I had the look I thought I had wanted, but he just looked.....off. i didnt like him. spent all this time and effort and cash and i didnt like him :'''D

my mistake was that i was kinda just eyeballing the look from the beauty parlor guide but not being able to see it all together as one. i didnt know about maples.im so the only way i could find out was to just see it right then and well...


lets just say it wasnt what i wanted it just makes his forehead/head look so huge and while its one of the few faces that had a smile (which i really wanted for him, i hate how most of the available faces look either bored/vacant or angy) the eyes are just...not it.

so i shoved a hat and glasses on him to make him presentable and went off on another adventure, first to find maples.im and actually take the time to see exactly what i wanted and made sure it looked good before jumping through all these hoops. after a little bit of cooking i found a look that was probably as close as i was going to get with the available options and set off to adventure part 2

~~~adventure part 2~~~​

first on my quest was to find the Glamor Look, located in either Night Market or Mount Song. while using the one (non-comprehensive) location guide on ML forums, it appears the road to the night market is several maps deep with mobs extremely out of my level range, so i had to opt for mount song instead. however...the prompt for spinel does not say it goes to mount song. the choices are shanghai or the temple. lets just say i accidentally wandered shanghai for like 20+ minutes getting to the end of the map only to find mount song was not accessible there

once i found mount song it was simple......sort of. at this point of my multiple hour journey (which i feel i must mention i was doing at approximately 4 in the morning) my brain was melting, and for some completely unforseen reason that no one could have seen coming combing through the 43290483290 identical looking icons in the cash shop i purchased a hair coupon for mount song. so now i just have that lurking in my cash shop inventory. maybe i can make a side character on that account who can use it....

that sucks, but at least it wont happen again!!

now that his face is pretty, time for the last ingredient: the Boy Band Cut, exclusively from the Ariant EXP coupon (this is how i learned that there are some hairstyles exclusive to the EXP coupon, which makes sense and gives it more value than just "worse coupon you cant choose things with" :'D). this is where i really struggled with getting to it, as i could not for the life of me find any resources on how to get to Ariant. all new resources just tell me to use the nonexistent mirror, the only resource i can find here tells me i could fast travel there...with a quest i had already outleveled. groovy

after more research in ancient forums i finally, FINALLY!!! found that its just two orbis flights. thats it! it was as simple as that and there was no way for me to know because no one writes this down for dummies like me
i also got to experience the magic of the orbis flight troll in 2025! even though i KNEW about the barlog troll, i KNEW about it know it ive always known it was a thing, i didnt know it was for that flight specifically :'''D my brain always thought it was on a flight from maple island to victoria island in an older version of maple that had been removed??? or maybe in the 4932038290 years since i was a child i hallucinated that, who knows
anyway, my very first death on doorman and this server was due to the barlog troll. 10/10 would maple again

after all that i finally, FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!! was able to get my hair after 3 or 4 EXP coupons. huzzah! and thats it! thats it, right?

well, i also needed to change the hair color to orange, which i thought would be nice and simple. very carefully bought the correct coupon, gave it to the guy and.....where's orange? why isnt orange showing up????

the last piece of knowledge i received that day was that not all locations offer the same hair color choices. ariant does not offer orange.



thus ended that particular day of adventuring. it was 5:30 in the morning at that point, i was tired and defeated. i put my second unusable coupon back into my cash shop, forever in loving memory of this educational day and passed out for a horrible night's sleep.

~~~adventure part 3~~~​

dont worry, this will be a lot shorter!

while i was already in ariant, i decided eh, what the heck, i'm already here and within the level range. i did the ariant quests (for the first time!) and generally had a nice time. i think some of the mob designs here are cute, i might draw some of them later, especially these silly little guys.


i eventually hit a level wall with the ariant quests (but i got up to 35!!) and decided to go home and finally finalize my look. a short trip to henesys later and FINALLY!!!!!


he's not perfect, still needs some sort of hat (though most options i see are not great for what i'm looking for...closest is the bon-bon pony hat but its a dono item) but im much happier with this look.

it only took more than twice the cash it should have been and hours and hours longer than if i didnt have to do extensive research just to get around basic areas but its done and i learned a whole lot!! (and at least i didnt have to waste like 15-20 real life dollars for the experience jkdljknlfdvsj;lk)

now on to the REAL main character here!!!!!!!! (though honestly not much to share)

we finally took out the 100 green mushrooms after a few hours of jumpwhacking in this diddly dang tree


after that quest and a tiny bit more mob grinding we hit level 24!!


after that quest, found myself yet again at some walls. >stumps are still a no-go, and bubblings are the same story (and dont even get knockback!!!!), so despite having lots of green caps at my disposal i can't mcfreaking use them :'D evil eyes are out of the question, which kind of left only one clear path to follow quest-wise at the current moment: blue mushrooms.

unfortunately, it is not enough that i whack the mushrooms, i need their caps specifically. 60 of them. and even less fortunately, i could not seem to find a map with a significant portion of them that has safe spaces for me to not get overrun by them. i have been spending most my time on The Forest East of Henesys, either jump whipping or focusing the blue shrooms that are exclusively on the platform above. while this is relatively safe, its frustrating as the map is so huge and oftentimes the blue shrooms will not spawn unless many of the other mobs are killed. granted, this isn't the worst, as now i'm just mob grinding at the same time i'm questing.


having a fun time at my favorite platform!!!

the closer i get to 25 (73% atm!), the more i think it'll actually be doable to get to 30, which means i could in theory make the terrifying choice to job advance. the more i think on it and look into it, the more i'm considering going the brawler route. i'd get more HP + oak barrel, in theory i'd eventually get energy charge (??) and speed infusion, but those are more in concept rather than actual realistic goals to hit gunslinger would really only get me wings which, while super useful for mobility, i really think the HP is needed. i already have pretty good mobility with dash, what i need is to be able to tank more hits while im trying to pin mobs (especially the unwieldy fast ones like these blueshrooms)

but more immediately in terms of power, 25 means my next gun upgrade!!

mmmm, 5 whole more wATT. if this can breech the stump barrier i'll be so happy. if not, might have to start looking into scrolling for the first time in my life nothing super intense but at least enough to give me some leverage

lastly and probably leastly, i have an islander now!


just for a different type of brain off whacking when i need a break from the joys of pistolwhipping. i keep missing my dash but its fun being reminded what actual damage feels like everyone once in a while, haha. looking forward to what horrible random cosmetic experiences he'll be subjected to

his most notable achievement is discovering a bug while i was just trying to find a cool weapon for him good for him!

anyways uhhhhhh gosh thats enough yapping for me now. guess ill have to get back to actually playing the game again

 

doodle of baba (+ sam) before bed

 

hey howdy hey its a workday but that wont stop me from yappin!

first up, piswhipper is 25 levels old! good for him!!

which means hes got another gun upgrade! yippee! except....it didn't quite breach the >stump barrier as needed. so...we have reached desperate times. meaning baby's first scrolling adventure


just slapped it with a couple 60% gun att scrolls. theyre fairly cheap and i think a good investment since i'm gunna be holding these lower level guns a lot longer than sane gun holders :''D

and LOOK AT THIS DAMAGE!!!! HOOWEE MAMA

it has....kind of broken the >stump barrier as now i hit from 1-5 on axe stumps. not perfect but definitely workable!!! bubblings are still out of the question but we dont talk about those

also we aren't going to talk about how the hours i spent painstakingly farming blue mushrooms got me a reward of like 6% exp.....

anyways uhhhh aint no way piswhipper's the first one i have to reach 1mil

guess i've just gotten really good gacha luck with him??? though it sure helped when scroll shopping haha

anyways........................................

sorry to everyone (not actually sorry ) but a new man has been invented!! please give a warm welcome to clunch


obviously, clunch clunches (claw punches)
he's clunched his way to lv 18 so far!!

what i have discovered so far about claw punching is that its pistol whipping but like, just, better. straight up
it does more damage off the bat (not that much more, but when you're dealing with single digit numbers any amount is significant), and has a much longer horizontal range making it a lot safer to engage with enemies and less like you're trying to time hitting a baseball flying at you at 49043289023 mph (stares at blueshrooms)

but what truly shines is the utility you're handed. disorder is HUGE. like i cant emphasize how much of a gamechanger it is when you're stuck with a stupid thwacky attacky. weapon def is the biggest roadblock you run up against and its a painful uphill crawl, especially just starting out. disorder just, deletes that (not totally of course, it only goes to -20, but thats still HUGE leverage, like it just hands you the equivalent of free wATT). i can kill slime! red snail! octopus!!! green mushroom!!!! at such low levels, much lower than piswhipper was able to do more than 1 to each!

not only does it lower defense, it lowers mob's attack as well which is also HUGE when you're tanking hits trying to lure and pin. but wait, there's even more!!! it ALSO de-aggros the mob in question, which is SO GOOD when you can only feasibly do 1-on-1 engagements. the despair of accidentally poking the next guy over is gone (or at least, you have an option of dealing with it now lol)

you also get dark sight for emergencies which is super pog (and saved me from the blueshroom pit of doom once or twice)

like look i am aware that these are skills are generally useful and aren't like this hidden invention i've discovered (though do note ive never made nor played a rogue before and am not familiar with their skillset) but like...they're still so good, especially directly compared to a playstyle that did not have anything like that

even the small things like being able to use the crouch punch for a faster attack rate (not usable with pistol whippers as you dont use your gun with it, but clunchers use their claw!!) and your assigned job training mob to kill (stumps which have no defense instead of pigs which do have defense), just all around it's much more approachable and has been a smoother time

the most "annoying" thing so far is having to travel to get claw upgrades. had to take the fun rides to ludi and back for my lvl 20 weapon i got in advance. idk why kerning doesnt just have all the low level ones....im still using the beginner claw i was handed; haven't felt the need to upgrade immediately (and also clunch aint got much cash so being a bit conservative)


at least he's a good sport about the wait!

anyways uhhh. its 30 minutes past my old man bedtime so you're spared from my ramblings for now good night

 

less important update: baba is level 22
more important update: hair



i will be responsible and sleep instead of draw him. i will be responsible and sleep instead of draw him. i will be responsible and sleep

 

literally dusted off my tablet for these haha
clunch is such a cutie