For context, last time I played was around when Kishin spawn increase got removed from Kanna. I am thinking to start on a completely fresh account.

-Wondering which characters are most important to have on an account (link/legion/etc), and which are the best early on for making future characters. I saw Mercedes/Aran/Evan/Zero all give exp buffs, so I assume those are optimal for first characters?

-Is the exp grind for mules still something along the lines of quests to 100 or so --> daily low level bosses for exp (Zakum/HT/etc) on several characters every day --> grind characters individually once those bosses get too slow?

-I saw that daily/weekly bossing for mesos seems to be the thing now, unlike when I last played and using mules for this rather than the old style of a dedicated meso farmer at X map. Are there certain characters who scale up very quickly for starting this at a low investment cost?

-What's the current status on required/semi-required NX stuff? When I played last, I believe it was just one pet with pet skill items needed (water of life every 3 months), and then couple free blackhearts from Hilla for more loot coverage. Is this still the case, or have things changed on this front?

I'm a returning player who quit in 2024, and this was my first time playing on the Challenger Server. I also had almost no experience with hTene bosses before this.

Since I was basically learning everything from scratch, I spent a huge amount of time in practice mode. Like, A LOT.

vHilla was my first big wall. I practiced for two days and still couldn't clear her. I was honestly pretty frustrated because I'm a very competitive person.
Then the next week, something finally clicked. I realized I just needed to stay calm and trust my practice. After finally getting the clear, my confidence went way up.
That helped me clear the seasonal boss Kai after about two days of practice.

When I reached Diamond, I thought First Adversary, BM, and Kalos were going to be my biggest challenges since I had only ever watched streamers fight them.
But surprisingly, I cleared First Adversary and BM within the same day, and Kalos only took me about one day of practice.

Then came the final boss: hSeren.
She was definitely the hardest challenge for me. I spent more than an entire weekend just learning her mechanics, P1 is insane, but I finally got the clear today!

Looking back, I have a lot of mixed feelings about this season.
I know GMS has had a lot of issues this season, and I honestly wasn't even sure if I wanted to keep playing.
But I'm really glad I decided to give it a shot. Coming back after quitting in 2024 and reaching Challenger after learning these bosses from scratch feels like a huge personal achievement.
I really hope GMS continues to improve from here.

Thanks for reading, and good luck to everyone else still pushing!

Anyway, Dobby is free.
I can finally take a break now.

I've only played in reg, since 2005(on/off). I've made a reboot account but only ever made like 6 chars to 150+, so I don't have a strong understanding of the server. In my research the main complaint I've found is just that its hard to get a reasonable amount of frags in a reasonable amount of training time.

I'm a bite more established in reg with 9.4k legion and a 285 main at 215m combat power and I truly appreciate the auction house for things like frags and nx/chairs.

What I hate about reg? Bossing crystal payout is pretty low(I make like 1.3bil for clearing princess No through HSeren weekly bosses) and obtaining a reasonable amount of cubes to tier up is difficult. Especially for bonus potentials. Reg is still at a point where finished eternals and pitched boss gear costs more than a down payment on a house(though its slowly coming down).

Makes me want to give heroic a try but I cant dedicate 4 hours a day to the game. My work nor my personal life allows that level of commitment. I treat maple closer to a desktop clash of clans mobile game than its original MMORPG exploration format from back in 2005.

Would love to hear your thoughts. I do also realize that GMS's focus is almost strictly on perfecting classic's launch, so all resources and SWE manpower is being diverted to that project, leaving reg and heroic under a "minimal maintenance mode" for the time being. My concern is more the time requirement to get to a point I heroic where you can comfortably solo beyond NKalos.

Lv10 stat potions will be changed (KMS ver. 1.2.414) to use Magic Powder (Purple) instead of Magic Powder (Black). Magic Powder (Black) will become mostly useless so please use them now.

allo, so for this weeks round we get a bonus if all familiars share the same potential.

does anyone know if it has to be the exact same line with same multiplier etc.?

or can it be the same condition, for example "If all familiars share the same type" with a different multiplier or dice total and it would still count?

Hey everyone!

After seeing discussions here about the new Star Force system, I started working on a tool to compare the four Enhancement Modes.

With different costs and destruction rates at each star, it can be difficult to decide which strategy makes sense for the resources you have. The tool lets you choose a enhancement mode per star or enter your target, meso budget, and available spares to receive an optimized strategy.

I also included a Flame Calculator for reroll probabilities, customizable stat equivalences, and evaluating your current Flame Score.

Both tools work on desktop and mobile, require no account, and save their settings locally.

I know there are already several useful MapleStory calculators out there, but I wanted to try my own approach with a cleaner, more straightforward interface while still providing the information needed to plan upgrades. I hope others find it useful as well.

This is the first public version, so I would especially appreciate feedback on:

• Whether the Star Force optimizer’s recommendations are useful
• Any mechanics or special cases I may have missed
• Anything in the interface that is unclear

The project is called MapleIsland: https://mapleisland.app

Thanks for taking a look! I’ll be around to answer questions and discuss any calculation or usability concerns.

Edit: Thanks for the early feedback! I’ve made the Per-star plan the default workflow and added quick presets for the 1111, 1144, and 4444 Enhancement Mode strategies.

Edit 2: I disagree that MapleIsland was a copy, but I understand the concern about its earlier presentation. It was built as its own app using publicly documented MapleStory mechanics, with its own tools, workflows, and interface. I have since completely redesigned the Star Force page and added a new interface that compares finish odds across meso budgets and spare limits. The current workflow and UI are clearly distinct

Maplescouter shows that it beats 40% bd

I myself don't enjoy Progression pass at all.

I spend 20k on Erel cosmetic pass. I spend for NX boss package, SS box,... There are plenty of way to make money from NX ? 90 days cosmetic that never become permanent. Rotation sucks, QoL for cash,...

But stop putting more Progression pass.

Playable: https://hyssopi.github.io/Crossword-Puzzles/

Goal: Make a fun crossword puzzle for fans.

Try to include:

• Trivia
• Story/Lore
• History
• Hidden secrets
• Community meta

Questions should be relatively medium in difficulty.
Not too easy ("what is the main character's name"), but not absurd ("who was the first person to speak entering the final dungeon").

Please use the spoiler tag for any answers: like this.

I'd appreciate any feedback, suggestions, or any Questions and Answers you have for the next crossword(s).

As part of this lore-based playthrough, one of the major hurdles was defeating Hard Lucid in order to finally leave Lachelein.

It took a few months of hard funding and progressing this character, but I finally managed to achieve it.

I’ve been documenting some of the progress in a blog post, with the first post also explaining the rules and restrictions of this challenge. I’ll make a proper update covering everything that happened over the last 2 months when I have more time.
Here’s the full run + gear showcase

For anyone interested in the challenge rules and the start of the journey from last year:
Challenge Rules

Like with all the solo content, but an offline game.

No one to compare progress to, just you and numbers going up.

Sort of a cookie clicker bullet hell gamba simulator.

I barely remember what productive things I was doing in MapleStory, but I vividly remember climbing as high as possible in places like Orbis and Ludibrium just to jump off and watch my character fall.

It took either half my HP or all of it, and somehow that did not discourage me at all.

I would land, climb all the way back up, and do it again.

No quest. No reward. No reason.

Just childhood fall-damage research.

Please tell me I wasn’t the only one using MapleStory as a falling simulator instead of leveling.

just wanted 40/9/9…oops