How much of a grind is this game?

Let's not beat around the bush here: classic Maplestory is one of the most grindy games of all time.

Progression is gated behind tens of hours of grinding. Quests are mainly available at the beginning of the game and completely tapers off endgame, and most of the quests are of the "Collect 20 Bear Asses" variety. "High-level" or "Endgame Bossing" is, for majority of classes, the task of keeping your character standing in front of the boss and holding down one to maximum three buttons for 30 minutes-1.5 hours. The most efficient way to earn money is to make a mage class that hits the whole map with one button and sell leech service. Oh and to get that mage going you'd want to grind an additional 2-3 characters up as various "mules" which give party buffs that make your life easier/more efficient. Certain ranged classes are so fragile that a bug exploit known as "HP washing" is necessary for them to be functional endgame which involves months of voting for NX to get their HP up to par.

That said, you can certainly make your life more interesting. I personally see this game as more of a social platform since every time I play, I manage to find a guild that eventually translates to real life friends for me. We login every night and join the guild discord voice chat and it's almost nonstop laughing while playing this chillax game at the same time. Some people make questing their full time job. Or merching to earn money (though you have to either have tons of funding or 200IQ and 200% dedication to start this).

Also, worth noting that the exp rate in this server is doubled and quest exp is tripled, which makes early levels a breeze. A player who knows what he's doing can get to 50 in probably 12 hours. Beyond that, it really depends how efficient you can play. I'd say with 2-3 hours of casual but efficient playing every day, reaching 4th job (level 120) in a month should be possible.

Not gonna lie, it sounds like you're really adverse to grindy repetitive games, so at a glance I'd say it might not be for you. But hey no harm giving it a go and if you find the first 20-30 levels super mindless, then you can move on.

 

There are usually several kinds of mules that people make, I don't know the exact levels but maybe someone else can speak up for me:
- Holy Symbol mule (lv 7X Priest - increases EXP gained when in party play)
- Meso Up mule (lv 8X Hermit - increases currency drop for all party members)
- Speed Infusion mule (lv 12X Buccaneer - increases attack speed for all party members)

There's a few others but those are popular ones off the top of my head. That being said I am a fairly casual (?) player with only a Bishop and a Shadower, and I do not have other mules. To make money I just play the game, get lucky with gacha, or do some boss runs with friends and it tends to work out. So you don't have to necessarily sell leech or make mules - there are other ways to make money too!

There are a ton of super friendly guilds on the server, feel free to check out our guild section on this forum to take a look. For me personally, ML is definitely more of a social game with fun things to do (PQing, bossing, hanging out) with friends than just grinding. ^^

 

Personally, at higher levels it’s mostly social. Bossing is fun because you’re on the VC with them so you don’t really mind the grind. You kill a lot of bosses together and then you’re suddenly level 180. But 100-155 was a nightmare grind for me.

 

Just wanted to add to the mule situation, Have a read of Liran's thread here: https://forum.maplelegends.com/inde...egends-efficiently-and-become-a-madman.32119/ . It'll give you the strongest indication on how to play as efficiently as possible - yes this would be considered an extreme but to be frank i started off casually as well thinking i'll just reach 4th job to accomplish a younger me's goal (since the highest i ever reached was 50 back in gms) and now i find myself pushing 15x thinking alright! let's get to 200! lol.

at any rate, voting for nx on second accounts is free and only takes up ~5 extra minutes of your time to do it - push comes to shove you can always use that second account for smegaphones/FM Owls.

 

I think most people stick around largely because of the social aspect here. It's pretty cool that almost everyone who rediscovers maple is like 20-30 years old, and plenty of people play this game just to chat. I'm not sure there are any communities quite like this. This server is also hella established with a large active player base, and a committed staff that works hard as hell - there are constant balance changes and like 6-7 big server events per year.

If you want to progress into different things like 4th job and bossing and the like, hell yeah it's a grind. But you can progress at your own pace all the way, and like anything else it's as enjoyable as the people you find to spend your time with. You can play this game 100% as a solo player or play with friends the entire way through. I'd say there's plenty to do no matter what you choose. Hope you enjoy man

 

it’s ok if you dont have time. this game is best played casual.

late game players here go through same mental abuse from doing the same thing everyday and become toxic.

 

Tl;dr all the comments so far but
I really hate grinding and yet I'm still addicted.
I may not be the most efficient player, in fact I took my sweet-ass time, and didn't make mules or a mage.
I'm not even always social about it either, and I have no few quests to show for my solo play time. Though, those times where I did have a social aspects are probably what keeps me around.

I've just had fun exploring the game, and any mechanic or aspect of it that exists. PQ's, quests, some grinding yeah but no pressure about it. I did a bunch of merching and got the funds to even join the leech game for a while when I reached a stalling point. Merching itself is fun sometimes too.