A Beginner's Guide to MapleStory

It used to be that it was very easy to ruin your character simply by not knowing what you were doing when you rolled it up because stats needed to be set very specifically, and there was nothing warning you of this or guiding you. Maplestory has made major changes that have removed this problem. All you need to worry about in character creation is choosing a class, a name, and finding appearance options you like.

As you level up, stat points are automatically set until you reach level 11 or choose your first job (level 8 for mages, level 10 for everyone else). At that point everything set before is reset into the proper stats for your chosen path. From there on you can choose to set your stats yourself or let the game assign them for you in the recommended stats. They've gone a long way to make it much easier to stat your character than it was when I began.

MapleStory has excellent tutorials and beginners areas, as well, so you really won't need a walkthrough here.

Just be sure to do the early tutorial quests, as they give you free beginners equipment, and one gives you a recovery chair that you absolutely don't want to miss. (If you did miss this quest, you can buy a recovery chair from the Armor merchant in Lith Harbor. The Lith Harbor recovery chair isn't quite as strong.) Chairs increase your health and magic point recovery when you're resting.

Don't waste your mesos buying anything on the tutorial island, everything you need the quests will give you. If you do all the quests you should be ready to go take your job when you leave the Island.

As you complete your first quests and explore the world, save your squishy liquid from the green slimes if you want to take your chances with a random hairstyle from a quest in Amoria (a town you can access through an npc in Henesys). You'll need 25 squishy liquid. It's an optional quest available at level 13, and is a way to possibly get a premium cash shop hairstyle for free. Whether or not you'll like it is another matter, and you only get one chance. Leveling is so fast that it's not too difficult to level just to the point to get that hairstyle, take the gamble, and, if you hate it, delete the character to restart. Some find it worth it, though it's less critical now that they've given us more and better hair style options on the character creation screen.

There are other hair styles, colors, eyes, and skin tones available only through specialty shops in Maplestory, which require a cash shop item to use. Cool if you really get into the game and want a more unique look than those available to everyone at character creation, but not something most of us worry about right away other than to wonder why many players we encounter look so different than what we saw when we rolled our character. Different options and styles are available in different towns. If you want to see all the hair styles available and where to get them, check out: MapleStory Female Hair Styles and MapleStory Male Hair Styles.

If you're new to games with a cash shop, don't worry. There's no way to accidentally spend real money while playing the game. I explain cash shops in-depth on What Are Free To Play MMORPGs? if you're unfamiliar with them and would like to know more.

A Magician can evolve into a specialized elemental magician or a cleric. The heal spell of the cleric is a powerful attack against undead and ghost enemies, as well as serving its normal function. If you choose a magician's path you will find your trainer in Ellinia, in a building in the center of town.

Strategy Wiki's MapleStory Magician Guide

A Bowman can specialize in bow or crossbow. Crossbow is slower but packs more punch, so it pretty much evens out. If you choose the bowman's path you will find your trainer in a house in Henesys, at the far right of the Park.

Strategy Wiki's MapleStory Bowman Guide

A Warrior can use sword, mace, axe, pole arm or spear. The three main types of warrior are Fighter, Page, or Spearman. Spearman use either spear or pole arm, Pages use sword or mace, and Fighters use sword or axe. Your trainer is in a building in the lower right part of Perion.

Strategy Wiki's MapleStory Warrior Guide

A Thief can specialize in throwing stars, as an assassin, or daggers, as a bandit. Assassins are powerful but expensive to play. Your throwing stars cost to recharge, and, as a popular class, the best dropped gear is inflated in price. Mostly, which is "better" depends on whether you want to be more of a ninja type or a bandit type. You will find your trainer in Kerning City, underneath the jazz lounge.

Strategy Wiki's MapleStory Thief Guide

A Pirate can follow a gunslinger path or brawler path. You will find your trainer in the control room of the Nautilus.

Strategy Wiki MapleStory Pirate Guide

Note for the ranged classes: The potion shops sell bullets, stars, and arrows.

Dual Blade is a dual-wielding thief class. They use daggers in one hand and their class specialty, kataras, in the other. They begin on the tutorial island, have four job advancements, and reach their level cap at level 200, like other explorers. However, they go through six job stages.

If you choose the Dual Blade, your hideout is Secret Flower Garden, found at Kerning City.

MapleStory Dual Blade Guide
Thief Skill Guide - including Dual Blade Skills

The Resistance jobs are the latest release in the current storyline involving the battle with the Dark Mage and his minions. Like all other classes save the Cygnus Knights, their level cap is 200.

Wild Hunter is a crossbow-wielding archer who rides a jaguar.

Wild Hunter Builds
Wild Hunter Skills

Battle Mage, as you'd guess from the name, is a magician with powerful aura buffs.

Battle Mage Builds
Battle Mage Skills

Mechanic is similar to a pirate with steampunk-style abilities, like using lasers and playing with robotics.

Mechanic Builds
Mechanic Skills

Resistance HeadQuarters is accessed through a tunnel just to the right of Belle the Officer in Edelstein. Inside HQ, you will find the trainers for the Resistance jobs and the quest starter for Wild Hunters to get their jaguar mount.

Unlike other classes, the Resistance fighters are not being given recovery chairs (that boost health and magic point recovery while resting) during tutorial missions. However, around level 18 a quest from Surl in Edelstein gives them one as a reward, so don't miss that.

I'm training my Wild Hunter today and I noticed a lot of people are getting stuck on this, so here's a quick little note to tell you what the quest doesn't.

To find your Capture skill, go to your beginner skill window there under Resistance Skills and scroll down. When you took the Wild Hunter path two new skills were added below your other starting skills. That's where capture is hiding.

Choose a jaguar, hit it a couple of times to knock it down to half health or below, and use the capture skill. When it works you'll see a big net on the screen capturing your chosen jaguar. Then just use your jaguar rider skill to mount up and you're all set.

In truth, the way to legitimately get rich in any MMO is pretty much the same:

* Pick up all your drops.
* Pick up abandoned drops.
* Sell anything not worth much to the npc vendors.
* Sell anything anyone would want (better than average gear, transferable quest items, crafting materials, etc) in your own player shop.
* Buy your own gear at deal prices from player shops.

Unfortunately, in MapleStory you do need to spend real world money to get a license to set up your own shop. I, and many others, have made fortunes at it, though. Another option is to use an out-of-game auction site like basilmarket and meet the other player in-game for the exchange.

However, with the recent updates that have massively increased drop rates and thus decreased the need to spend mesos on potions and gear, it's easier than ever for a smart player to make and save money in MS, even without shopkeeping.