MapleStory 2 is the upcoming sequel to MapleStory, with an entirely new block art style and a large focus on customization! This is my Comprehensive Guide to MapleStory 2, with information on everything I experienced in the CBT.

If you have any questions, comments, or anything you would like me to add, please comment and I’ll see what I can do!

Table of Contents

 

• Basics
  • Story
  • Character Creation
  • Beauty Street
  • Dynamic Motions
  • NPCs
  • Jobs and Skills
  • User Interface
  • Parties
  • Guilds
• Items
  • Potions
  • Equipment
  • Mounts
• World
  • Maple World
  • Black Market
  • Shadow World
  • Binoculars
  • Treasure Chests
  • Mysterious Hats
  • Elite Monsters
  • Bosses
  • Death
  • Party Quests
  • Trophy System
  • Taxi
• Customization
  • Custom Equipment
  • Housing
  • Riding
  • Designer Market
  • Posters
  • Smart Reporting
• MAVIEW
  • News
  • Estates
  • Maps
  • Encyclopedia
  • Rankings
• Events
• Ending Notes

Basics

 

Story

The story line of MapleStory 2 focuses on the Lapenta, a power that was used to seal away a great evil long ago. Protect the Lapenta in order to keep this evil out of Maple World!

Character Creation

MapleStory 2 has a robust character creation system. You can change your hair, eyes, skin colour, face markings and clothing, with a large colour choice for each! It will be hard to find anyone who looks the same as you.

Currently, you can have 5 characters. And if you haven’t noticed, character names can be 3~12 letters!

User Interface

The UI in MapleStory 2 is a bit different from MapleStory 1. Right off the bat, you’ll see that there’s no giant information bar along the bottom of your screen, there’s still a lot of stuff there but you can still see the world behind it.

• In the top left is the current time and your mesos (these can be moved around)
• In the top right is the minimap, which also allows you to quickly change channels, see everyone that is currently in the same map as you, as well as other special NPCs, shops, and quests (you can choose which of these you want to see).
  • You can change its size by dragging the corner, or even its transparency.
  • If you hold Tab, the minimap will be expanded to show the entire map.
• In the middle is you! You’ll see your character’s name and above yourself, and your guild if you’re in one.
• Below is the main UI of the game.On the left is the chat.
  • It has different colours for different chats (all, party, friends, guild, etc) and you can create chatrooms with specific people as well.
  • There’s also a button for easy access of dynamic motions (see below).
  • You can also change to the Battle tab to remove all messages except things like experience/items gained.

Next to the chat is what you’ll look at the most, it has your hotkeys, as well as your HP, SP, and EP.

In MapleStory 2, there is no such thing as MP, it is replaced with SP which is always at 100 for everyone, it never increases. Many skills will consume this SP but some will regenerate it, so you’ll have to combine skills to fight effectively. EP is used for Action skills, most of which are movement skills. EP heals much faster over time than HP or SP.

On the bottom right is your character, as well as a camera which you can use to take pictures, the ability to change your profile picture, and if you have a house, there will be a house icon which you can use anywhere to return to it instantly.

Beside those are icons for each of the UI windows. At the very bottom of the screen is your EXP. The max level in MapleStory 2’s CBT was level 35.

The first icon is for character information. Here, you can see/change your profile picture (including uploading something from your computer), as well as your class and level, guild, and a message you can share with others.

Below are your equipment (talked about later), as well as your stats (damage, defense, STR, DEX, INT LUK). On the side is a detailed list of all stats (and I mean detailed), you can toggle it on or off. In MapleStory 2, you do not get stats to assign, they are automatically assigned as you level up.

The items window looks like this, at the bottom it lets you drop mesos, auto arrange, or change your item auto loot settings (unlocked through the Trophy system). It is split into three tabs, the first being for equipment.

The second tab is for all building related items such as furniture and decorations.

The last tab is Etc, it’s literally everything else. There’s potions, books, and random monster drops and quest items.

This is the skill window, but I’ll talk about that in a later section.

The quest window is a bit different this time. Instead of being separated by areas, they’re grouped into quest lines. You can see all of the completed quests and your current quest in a quest line. On the right side is the description and completion requirements, and you can open the quest helper (on the right side of the screen) through this window.

Once you fully complete a quest line, it will be moved to the second tab, where you can read about them. There is no available quests tab in MapleStory 2.

The next icon is for the Trophy system, which I love! I’ll talk about this later as well.

MAVIEW is an information site created by Nexon for MapleStory 2, it can be accessed in-game (although it’s a bit slow) or through your web browser. I’ll talk about this later on.

The world map allows you to see all the areas in the game. Areas which you have not visited will be black and white. The world map also shows available/completable quests, taxis, and bosses (and which channels they are currently spawned at).

If you tick the Hot Places button at the top right, it will show you areas where there are a lot of users together.

The messages window allows you to send and receive letters from other users. You can also attach mesos and items. The special messages tab is for letters from GMs (I got some cool items from them).

The community window has four tabs. The first is users which are in the same map as you, you can see their names, level and job, trophy score, message, and homes.

The next tab is for your buddies. You can see the same information as above as well as their current channel and map. The third tab is for buddy requests and the fourth tab is for your blacklist.

Guilds are also in MapleStory 2! In the guild window, you can see the guild name, creation date, members, leader, trophy score, message, and your guild mark. I’ll talk more about this later.

The Designer Market is a place where users can buy and sell their customized equipment! It’s very easy to put up a design for others. I’ll talk about this later as well.

The last icon is for the menu, you can change channels, change your settings, change characters, or exit the game.

There are 3 main zoom-in views of the game, which you can change at any time by using your scroll wheel.

Dynamic Motions

Like MapleStory, characters have a ton of emotions they can show! You can activate them by putting them on a hotkey, by double clicking them in the window, or by typing /command in the chat.

From the beginning, you’ll have 12 of them, which is already more than MapleStory, but there are a ton more which you can buy from shops! One shop is even in the Guild Lounge.

Beauty Street

Beauty Street is an area in Tria where you can customize your character further. Here, you can change your hair and eyes (there’s so many more options than at creation), and you can choose custom colours from a colour wheel!

My favourite feature here though is the ability to change the colours of your equipment! For all of your non-Skin items (I’ll explain this a little bit later but think of them as Cash equipment), you can customize them! Love your hat’s stats but hate that it doesn’t match your outfit? This solves your problem~

Currently, in CBT, Beauty Street is free but when the game actually comes out, it will use something called Maple Coupons. I think this place is most likely going to be similar to the Cash Shop (notice the remixed music haha), but I bet they’ll give opportunities to get Coupons for non-paying players as well.

NPCs

In MapleStory 2, this is what it looks like when you talk to an NPC. Some of the more important NPCs have illustrations but every single one has voice overs! You use the ESC/Space buttons to go through the dialogue.

The one thing I found super annoying was that if you go through the dialogue too fast (i.e. spam Space), it will cancel the dialogue and you’ll have to start over from the beginning.

Skill System

The way that skills work in MapleStory 2 are that you only have access to 2 of them at level 10. Then, as you level up, more will become available to you! Skills are separated into three categories:

• Active: attacking skills which use up SP and buff skills
• Passive: skills with passive bonuses
• Action: movement skills which use up EP

SP in this case stands for Stamina, and like I said above, all characters (no matter your job or level) have 100 SP. This is used for your active skills, and will replenish slowly over time (all jobs have an attacking skill which doesn’t use up SP and replenishes SP when used).

EP is the white bar underneath your HP and SP, and it regenerates much faster than HP and SP. It is used for all movement-type skills such as dashes, teleports, and other things like flying.

In contrast to MapleStory 1, you will not get SP upon level up to put into skills. Rather, you need to use Crystals to upgrade them!

As the skill level increases, the number and types of Crystals will increase. As skill levels increase, their damage, range or SP restored might increase, and for skills which use up SP, their SP consumption will decrease.

Crystals can be found by fighting bosses or through golden chests found in maps. In CBT, you could buy the most basic type of Crystal from shops for 1500 mesos each.

There are a bunch of Action skills which you can unlock through gameplay or skill books. This balloon one is unlocked when you hit level 20 I think.

At the library in Tria, there are two skill books available to buy: Quick Swim which allows you to move quickly through the water and Heaven’s Guardian which allows you to fly by holding on to a pig (I think it’s faster than the balloons).

Jobs

KNIGHT

The Royal Guard, under the leadership of the Prime Minister Cal, protect Tria Palace and the area around it and act as guardians to the royal family. They are known for their incredible loyalty, chivalrous spirit, and excellent swordsmanship. The Royal Guard’s cardinal rule is to protect Ereb, it is of utmost importance to keep her safe from those who threaten her.

The Royal Guard’s elite Knights are strong warriors who defend their allies with a Long Sword and Shield. Their shields and armour, made with the latest technology, is a collaboration between Tria and Perion. They are smelted by a skillful artisan from Tria using the finest minerals found in the nearby lava region. They are not only famous for their durability but also for their beautiful design.

Weapon: Long Sword (right hand), Shield (left hand)
Attributes: Physical, Holy
Stats: STR, weapon attack, defense
Difficulty: 3/5

• Cross Swing [required level: 10]
  • Level 1: Deals 25% damage 2 times on up to 5 enemies. If you hit an enemy successfully, heal 5 SP.
• Tornado Slash [required level: 10]
  • Level 1: Consumes 20 SP and swings your long sword around you, hitting up to 8 enemies for 65% damage 2 times. Enemies hit are pulled towards you slightly.
• Throwing Shield [required level: 12]
  • Level 1: Consumes 10 SP and throws a shield at an enemy within 9m, dealing 75% damage and decreasing their defense by 15% for 10 seconds. After hitting an enemy, the shield will bounce to other enemies up to 2 times.
• Charge [required level: 14]
  • Level 1: Consumes 2 EP and rushes forward 3m. Up to 5 enemies within 2m will be hit, dealing 55% damage. After using the skill, there is a 20% chance to increase your shield’s defense by 15% for 3 seconds.
• Shield Wall [required level: 15]
  • Level 1: For 10 seconds, increase your shield’s strength in 9 blocks around you. While in this area, you and your party members will take 50% reduced physical damage.
• Holy Strike [required level: 17]
  • Level 1: Consumes 40 SP and infuses your sword with a holy aura, hitting up to 8 enemies 6m in front of you, dealing 280% damage. Enemies hit will have a 20% chance to be immobilized for 2 seconds.
• Piercing Blade [required level: 20]
  • Level 1: Consumes 10 SP and hits 5 enemies around you with your shield for 60% damage with a 30% chance to stunning them for 1.5 seconds. Pressing the key again will consume 5 SP and stabs your long sword forward 3m for an additional 180% damage.
• Trumpet of March [required level: 23]
  • Level 1: Blow a horn for you and up to 5 party members within 3m, increasing your STR and attack speed by 30% for 10 seconds. Cooldown: 180 seconds.

WIZARD

Since ancient times, Ellinia’s fairies have stayed deep in the woods, creating their own world away from humans. But suddenly, the world was thrown into severe chaos and in need of their power. They opened their door slightly, and began to carefully accept adventurers who were interested in their ancient knowledge.

Humans who have acquired knowledge with the help of the fairies are referred to as Wizards. They throw themselves in their studies due to their desire to learn everything about the world. However, some get so wrapped up in it that they disregard everything and everyone else in the world.

Weapon: Staff
Attributes: Fire, Ice, Lightning
Stats: INT, magic attack, attack speed
Difficulty: 1/5

•  Magic Claw [required level: 10]
  • Level 1: Hit up to 3 enemies 8m in front of you with the power of magic for 20% damage 2 times. If you hit an enemy successfully, heal 5 SP.
• Chain Lightning [required level: 10]
  • Level 1: Consumes 12 SP. Hit up to 8 enemies 7.5m in front of you with the power of lightning, dealing 70% damage. Holding down the skill key will continue the attack.
• Frost Nova [required level: 12]
  • Level 1: Consumes 10 SP. Create a cold frost, hitting up to 8 enemies 8m in front of you for 75% ice damage and lowering their movement speed by 50% for 3 seconds.
• Teleport [required level: 14]
  • Level 1: Consumes 2 EP to teleport 3m forward.
• Energy Wave [required level: 15]
  • Level 1: Consumes 40 SP. Create a magic explosion, hitting up to 8 enemies 4.5m around you for 100% damage while pushing them back 1.5m. If an enemy is affected by Frost Nova’s freeze effect, they will take 150% extra damage.
• Fire Tornado [required level: 17]
  • Level 1: Consumes 40 SP. Create a fire tornado which moves forward 7.5m. Any enemies in its patch will be hit with 180% damage and will be burned, dealing 10% damage every second for 10 seconds.
• Thunder Whip [required level: 20]
  • Level 1: Create a whip made of lightning, hitting up to 5 enemies within 7m and dealing 55% damage 2 times with an 80% chance to electrocute them for 2 seconds.
• Flame Burst [required level: 22]
  • Level 1: Consumes 7 SP. Create a flame that explodes, hitting one enemy within 9m, dealing 70% damage. This skill will hit critically and if an enemy is affected by Fire Tornado’s damage over time, they will take 50% extra damage.

PRIEST

The Priest shares the teachings of God and was sent to the palace privately to help give emotional stability to others. With a divine aura, the Priest calms them and brightens their lives while staying at their sides.

Holding their Scepter infused with holy power and blessed scriptures given to them by God, in order to help bring the world salvation, many walk the path of the Priest. However, it is not easy as only those that are gifted with patience and unshakable serenity, as well as intelligence and quick judgement can meet the qualifications.

Weapon: Scepter (right hand), Spell Book (left hand)
Attributes: Holy, Fire
Stats: magic attack, maximum HP, critical chance
Difficulty: 4/5

•  Heaven’s Light [required level: 10]
  • Level 1: Hit up to 3 enemies 8m in front of you with holy light, dealing 40% damage. If you successfully hit an enemy, heal 3 SP. After attacking, enemies will take 15% increased holy damage for 5 seconds.
• Holy Explosion [required level: 10]
  • Level 1: Consumes 20 SP. Use your holy aura to create an explosion, hitting up to 8 enemies within 3m, dealing 100% damage. Enemies within 2m who were hit by Heaven’s Light will take an extra 80% damage.
• Holy Cross [required level: 12]
  • Level 1: Summon a holy cross for 5 seconds. Every second, up to 8 enemies within 3m of the cross will take 20% damage and be pushed back 1m.
• Shield of Archon [required level: 14]
  • Level 1: For 60 seconds, protect yourself with holy power, decreasing damage taken by 15%. Enemies around you will take 10% damage.
• Heal [required level: 15]
  • Level 1: Consumes 15 SP. Heal 150% of your magic attack as HP for you and 3 other party members.
• Angel Ray [required level: 17]
  • Level 1: Consumes 40 SP. Create a ray of holy energy, hitting enemies 12m in front of you for 300% damage. Allies within 1.5m of the ray will be healed for 100% of your magic attack.
• Strong Faith [required level: 18]
  • Level 1: When your SP higher than 50%, you will deal 10% increased damage to monsters.
• Sanctuary [required level: 23]
  • Level 1: Create a holy area (5 blocks parallel and perpendicular to your current block) for 10 seconds. Every second, enemies standing on the area will take 45% damage while allies standing on it will be healed for 75% of your magic attack.

RANGER

Rangers are a part of the vigilante group called the Green Hoods, founded by the legendary archer Hastur. The Fifth Captain Oscar monitors Henesys and the surrounding area. Tria and Henesys are geologically close, and there is seemingly a relationship between the royal family and the Green Hoods. There is a rumour that they are related to the royal family and carry out unofficial activities in secret, but it has not been confirmed.

The cool and precise Rangers show an innocent look when dealing with animals, and they are always accompanied by their eagle friends.

Weapon: Bow
Attributes: Physical, Fire, Ice
Stats: DEX, weapon attack, critical chance
Difficulty: 2/5

•  Strafe [required level: 10]
  • Level 1: Shoot arrows at one enemy 9m in front of you, dealing 25% damage 3 times. If you hit an enemy successfully, heal 3 SP.
• Multi Shot [required level: 10]
  • Level 1: Consumes 20 SP. Shoot arrows at up to 8 enemies 7m in front of you, dealing 120% damage. Enemies hit will be knocked back 0.5m.
• Ice Arrow [required level: 12]
  • Level 1: Consumes 15 SP. Shoot an ice arrow 10.5m in front of you, dealing 80% damage 3 times. Enemies hit will have their movement speed decreased by 50% for 3 seconds.
• Evasion Shot [required level: 15]
  • Level 1: Consumes 1 EP. Jump backwards 3m and shoot arrows forward, hitting up to 5 enemies for 10% damage 3 times.
• Rapid Shot [required level: 17]
  • Level 1: Consumes 12 SP. Shoot a fire arrow, hitting enemies 9m in front of you for 50% damage. Holding down the skill key will continue the attack. Enemies hit will be burned and take 20% damage every second for 3 seconds.
• Golden Eagle [required level: 20]
  • Level 1: Summon a golden eagle for 60 seconds. The eagle will wait for a command and while it is summoned, your DEX will be increased by 15%.
• Eagle Strike [required level: 20]
  • Level 1: The golden eagle will soar 12m in front of you, hitting up to 8 enemies for 300% damage. Enemies hit will be stunned for 2 seconds. The golden eagle must be summoned to use this skill.
• Sharp Eyes [required level: 23]
  • Level 1: Consumes 50 SP. Increase the critical rate of you and up to 5 allies within 3m by 5% for 180 seconds.

ASSASSIN

Although some people know about the Assassins, very little is known about their existence itself. However, it is obvious that after the world fell into chaos and the Dark Wind’s leader Wynn Steelton had died that immoral and inhumane events that were not a problem previously have been increasing steadily.

Recently, rumours were spread about the Dark Wind, which was led by Wynn Steelton, that they had secretly trained Assassins for immoral actions in the name of ‘justice’, and many people who were mourning for Wynn Steelton were shocked.

Weapon: Pair of Stars
Attributes: Physical, Fire, Ice
Stats: LUK, weapon attack, attack speed
Difficulty: 3/5

• Lucky Seven [required level: 10]
  •  Level 1: Throw both hands’ stars at enemies 7m in front of you, dealing 35% damage each. The stars will then bounce to another enemy. If you successfully hit an enemy, heal 4 SP.
• Circle of Stars [required level: 10]
  • Level 1: Consumes 20 SP. Throw a circle of stars, 4.5m around you, dealing 45% damage to enemies hit. This skill will use both of your left hand’s stars and right hand’s.
• Boomerang Star [required level: 12]
  • Level 1: Consumes 15 SP. Throw your right hand’s star forward 7.5m. The star will travel forward then return after a short period of time, dealing 70% damage 2 times to any enemies in its path.
• Dodge [required level: 14]
  • Level 1: Consumes 2 EP. Quickly move 3m in one direction.
• Clone: Shadow Web [required level: 15]
  • Level 1: Consumes 10 SP. Summon a shadow clone at your current location and move backwards 3m. After 1 second, the clone will explode, dealing 10% damage on up to 5 enemies around it. Enemies hit will take 5% damage every second for 5 seconds and their movement speed will be decreased by 55%.
• Star Burst [required level: 15]
  • Level 1: Consumes 40 SP. Throw your left hand’s stars once then your right hand’s stars forward 9m, dealing 180% damage each on up to 8 enemies. Enemies with a Death Mark will take 80% additional damage and the Mark will disappear.
• Fatal Attack [required level: 23]
  • Level 1: Find your enemies’ weak spots, your attacks will critically strike for the next 4 seconds.
• Dark Sight [required level: 25]
  • Level 1: Conceal yourself in the shadows for 30 seconds. While hiding, your movement speed will be decreased by 40% and every 0.3 seconds you will heal 1 SP. Hitting an enemy will instantly remove the Dark Sight effect.

Thanks to 엘리스 of Insoya for the pictures of the skills above! Please note this data is from the Alpha test, many numbers have been changed.

BERSERKER

Rulers of the battlefield who love to fight. Without fear due to their obsession and madness, Berserkers rampage while wielding their Great Sword and instill fear within their opponents. They charge straight into enemy lines, destroying them with their overwhelming power. When cornered, they bring out an even more amazing strength.

——————

Maple World’s Berserkers are known to be raised in a tribe from Perion. In order to survive the barren and harsh environment, their tribe became stronger and more gifted warriors than others. Those who learnt to swing a sword before they could even walk were given the name Berserker.

When one of the three Lapenta which was protecting the Maple World fell, chaos arose. Perion’s Chief, Heart of Red Wolf, allowed even those not from the tribe, but who had extraordinary fighting spirit and tough strength become a Berserker. However, the physical and mental prowess needed exceed human limits, and very few become true warriors.

NOTE: This class was unavailable during CBT.

HEAVY GUNNER

Carrying their heavy artillery weapons called Cannons, they are outlaws of the battlefield and destroy everything with a casual look on their faces. Even with their natural strength, dexterity, and powerful weapon, they are hard to work with. Their unpredictable and eccentric natures mean never-ending problems with these brats.

——————

The Heavy Gunner is from the ‘Talisker’ area in Kerning City, where they work as hired mercenaries for scientists. Many of them used to be regular, hot-blooded people in Maple World. These scientists provided them superior weapons so they could become stronger but due to their free-spirited nature, the group mentality was weak. Now, many Heavy Gunners are running rampant all over the world, showing off their power.

NOTE: This class was unavailable during CBT.

THIEF

With sleek and crafty movements, their enemies beg for mercy in front of their eyes. Faster than light, they swing their daggers in both hands as their enemies fall to the ground.

——————

Instead of justice and morals, power is what matters in alleyways, which is where the wandering rebel Jonathan Button and his group of followers, Thieves, began. Because of this, some people think its funny to call them “alley misfits who don’t even know the basics of life”.

However, the Thieves do not like this point of view. Although they are outsiders who rejected society, they live freely without others telling them what to do, which some people envy.

NOTE: This class was unavailable during CBT.

Parties

Parties in MapleStory 2 can have a maximum of 10 people! You’ll be able to see your party members’ HP and share experience with them. There is also a Damage Meter which records the total amount of damage from each person.

Guilds

Guilds in MapleStory have more information available to its members. You can see the date it was created, the number of members, the leader (and his information) as well as the Guild Trophy score and the Guild Message.

You can upload any image (that doesn’t break the rules) as your Guild Mark! You can also edit the Guild Message for all members to read, and change the ranks of the guild.

In this guild, the ‘Junior’ rank was custom (because the original was in Korean obviously haha). You’re even able to send a letter to all members of the guild easily through this system.

In Tria, you can enter the Guild Lounge if you are part of a guild. I think this area of the game is instanced, one per guild, because this area is special. First of all, it’s a cool place for you and your guild members to hang out in!

Secondly, the Guild Lounge has special vendors who sell rare items, and the higher your guild’s Trophy Score (combined total Trophy Score of all members) is, more rare items will be available.

Items

 

Potions

There are a large variety of items in the game. First of all, there are things like herbs and potions. Herbs heal less HP, and they work over time but they have no cooldown. Potions heal more HP instantly, but you cannot use them consecutively (they have a cooldown). There are also elixirs which give stats for certain periods of times.

Mounts

Mounts in this game come in the form of items, which you can hotkey to summon. In addition to this Ducky and other animals, you can also get car mounts. Mounts can be collected from trophy rewards, quests, and shops.

Equipment

Equipment in this game has a few categories:

• Hat
• Earrings
• Pendant
• Belt
• Top
• Gloves
• Bottom
• Ring
• Cape
• Shoes
• Weapons

Each item can have different stats, really cool things like increased skill damage, increased elemental damage, resistance to elemental attacks, damage reduction, etc.

You can also talk to Ophelia in the Blacksmith Streets to enchant your equipment using Onyx Fragments. I’m not too sure how this works, but it looks like based on the number of enchantments, the success rate will change.

There are three badge slots as well. I’m not sure what other kinds there are but I had a Transparent Badge that allowed me to choose which of my equipment I wanted to make transparent.

Now, the second tab in the equipment window is for Skin items. Skin items cover up your regular equipment! You can collect these from shops, quests, or monsters. Items designed by you or other players are also Skin items~

World

 

Maple World

MapleStory 2 takes place in Maple World, long before the time of MapleStory. Although in the distant past, it has many of the same cities, including Lith Harbor, Henesys, Ellinia, Perion, and Kerning City. Even the Ant Tunnel returns, nearby Henesys!

Now, just because it’s the same world, doesn’t mean it’s the same. MapleStory 2’s geography is completely different, and the block style allows for a huge variety of maps! There are even new areas such as Tria, Alikar Prison, the Blacksmith Streets, and Goldus Tower in Kerning City. I couldn’t make a video showing the entire world but once the game comes out, explore it yourself!

Black Market

Near Kerning City, there is a shady area called the Black market! Here, users can talk to the Trader Sheryl to put up their items for sale (non-customized items only). Then, other users who visit the Black Market can see these items for sale and buy them.

This area is the only place where you can sell your items I believe, other than the Designer Market (for customized items).

Shadow World

In Shadow World, huge scary monsters with the power of the shadows exist! These monsters hold special gems and items which cannot be found in Maple World. You can enter Shadow World through cracks in dimension found all across Maple World.

However, Shadow World also has a strange caveat: users can fight each other there! If you’re ready for the challenge, find a crack and start the battle. When you enter Shadow World, your HP will be increased by a lot. This is probably because of the sheer strength of the monsters as well as to make fights with other users longer.

Shadow World can be used as a way to travel through Maple World, as it is much smaller so you can go from portal to portal faster, but the monsters are much bigger and stronger, and you might be slain by other Maplers.

Player vs. Player

MapleStory 2 has a couple of options for player versus player content! First of all is Red Duel. In the Red Duel, you’ll face someone else one-on-one so you can test their skills. Be the last one standing to win!

You’ll continue to fight until you lose, so try to get the biggest winning streak you can! You must be level 30 or higher to access Red Duel.

Next up is the Bloody Tears Mine (hardcore name haha). In the Mine, you’ll have to fight everyone around you, it’s a free for all! You must be level 30 or higher to access Bloody Tears Mine.

You can choose to beat down on your opponents, be fast and race around the battlefield, or even just hide in a corner, but the point of the game is to obtain the highest score!

The last place for PvP is actually Shadow World! Like I said just above, you can fight other users as well as monsters in Shadow World. You can enter Shadow World at any level but the monsters are super strong so you’ll probably wait until like level 35 anyways haha.

Binoculars

One of the things I loved most about MapleStory 2 were these binoculars, you can find them in a lot of maps and if you go up to them, they’ll zoom the screen out and let you see the entire map all at once! It’s just a really cool minor feature and some of the maps look really good.

Here are some screenshots of what it looks like.

Treasure Chests

In many maps, you’ll be able to find treasure chest, which can be opened for prizes! Brown treasure chests only give mesos but gold ones can give rare items like gems required to level up skills. They’re hidden all over, even under water or in other secret areas, so look closely!

Mysterious Hats

Sometimes, while you’re hunting monsters, a Mysterious Hat will appear on the ground. You have 30 seconds to decide if you wish to enter, and if you do, a Bonus Round will begin! Bonus Rounds are just a small mini game in which you can get cool prizes or collect mesos. There’s a lot of different kinds, like:

• Beatbeat Money Tree: climb to the top of a hill and beat down on a tree that drops mesos

• Broken Ludibrium: go around the map, collecting mesos on the ground

• Goomba King’s Treasure: collect a key from a king’s tomb and use it to open a chest for an item

• Rainbow Slime Factory: choose which colour Slimes to feed into a conveyor belt in order to create special elixirs

• Snowy Dreams: an icy maze with prizes along the way, reach the end to spin a wheel for rare items

Elite Monsters

Elite Monsters are very similar to MapleStory’s area bosses, defeating them is usually the final task in a quest line and they spawn in regular monster maps after set intervals of time.

They are actually really strong, if you’re fighting them at the level range you’re supposed to be at, you’ll definitely need to work with other users to take them down! There’s a huge variety of them, you can see them all here. (I’ll talk about MAVIEW later on, but it’s great.)

Bosses

Bosses on the other hand are much, much, much stronger! They are generally a lot bigger than Elite Bosses, have a ton more HP, and do way more damage.

That being said, bosses tend to have more fun mechanics as well, such as Gryphon who you can climb on as he flies around or The Last Bajar, who you can hold on to when he jumps from platform to platform.

Most bosses spawn only at set times of the day, but some bosses (like Zakum and Balrog) have different requirements. Like MapleStory, you’ll need to craft an Eye of Fire in order to enter Zakum’s Altar!

Death

While exploring Maple World, you might find yourself surrounded by powerful monsters, and you might even die! Don’t worry, because MapleStory 2’s death system is a bit different.

Like MapleStory, a tombstone will fall from the sky, but now, other users can break your tombstone in order to revive you! In regular maps, I believe this can be done any number of times but during bosses, there is a limit imposed (as seen through the black, chained tombstone).

When you revive (whether or not it was other users or you pressing ‘ok’), you’ll be respawned in the same map but you’ll see that you have been cursed! For every death, your HP and SP will be limited by a certain percentage (up to 50%). This means it’s more and more likely for you to die again haha.

To remove this curse, you’ll have to go back to town and talk to a doctor to remove it.

Party Quests

Of course, MapleStory 2 has party quests! Join together with your friends in order to tackle these quests. In the CBT, only two party quests were available to play. I think they both require 4 people.

The first is the Golden Tower in Kerning City, where you and your party must battle your way down to the basement. Halfway through, you’ll fight some bosses, after which you’ll be rewarded with some chests of prizes (and again after the final bosses).

The second is the Forest of Life in Ellinia, where shadow monsters are attacking in order to try to destroy the Green Lapenta! You and your party must protect the Lapenta while reinforcing the gates and defeating hordes of monsters.

(Thanks to 네오소울 of YouTube for the videos!)

Trophies

The trophy system in MapleStory 2 is like an achievement system, it tracks your progress on a variety of things and you’ll get a shiny trophy as well as a prize for each one you get. It was really fun to try to collect these, I’m sure I’ll spend a lot of time on this in the real game haha.

Your Trophy Score is the number of trophies you have collected.

Trophies are split into two types, the first being Hero Trophies. These are further split into Battle, Adventure, and Life. Each one has many trophies for you to collect, like killing a certain number of monsters (or types of monsters), running a certain distance (which awards you with the Ducky mount!), or looting a certain number of items (which awards you with auto-loot!).

The other types of trophies are Daily Trophies, which as the name indicates, reset daily. They’re simpler tasks which award experience, mesos, and potion items when completed.

Taxi

Throughout your adventure, you’ll find many taxi stops in both towns and regular maps. By walking near them, you’ll ‘activate’ them.

After doing this, you can use any taxi stop to go to any other taxi stop you’ve ‘activated’! It’s the quickest way to travel, the taxi system in this game is honestly SO useful, it’s great.

Customization

 

Custom Equipment

After buying a Custom Equipment item from a vendor, you’ll be able to customize your item, name and wear it or even trade it to other users! There’s a bunch of different equipment types so you can make an entire outfit!

All custom equipment are Skin items, so they’ll go over your regular equipment.

When you want to design it, the in-game UI will allow you to edit the template it gives you (it opens Microsoft Paint by default but you can use any program) or upload an image that it will automatically set up.

If you would like to get a head start on designs, here is all of the templates that I found in the game! Some of the M/F ones might be the same but I wanted to be thorough.

My friend Rom used the custom item system to model his character after a certain Akatsuki member, haha.

Here’s a video by the MapleStory 2 team which shows off how to create your own equipment.

Housing

A new system in MapleStory 2 is housing! You can have your own house or apartment to decorate~ You can even teleport straight to your home from almost any map in Maple World in an instant.

If you have a lot of money, then you’re off to a good start. You can rent land in almost every map in MapleStory 2! The ones designated for housing are white blocks in n x n squares, and the more blocks, the more expensive.

Once you buy the land, it’s yours for the specified contract duration (usually 30 days). You can decorate the blocks you have and create a house on it! Inside, you can design your home fully, there’s no restrictions on what you can do.

You can also buy pre-made houses, these have no area for you to decorate outside your house so they’re like the in-between step of houses and apartments.

If you’re on the poorer side, then apartments are for you! They also have a contract (for 30 days), and are cheaper than regular houses.

However, apartments do not give you the ability to decorate your yard (there is none) and inside your home, only a certain number of blocks are available for you to place furniture.

 

There’s also two types of apartments, one where you can actually enter and see a giant common area for you to interact with other people, and one where it just opens a UI for you to choose a room.

 

There are a ton of furniture items available for you to use to decorate. They’re available to buy in shops around Maple World. In addition, you can buy mannequins to put in your home, which can be used to display outfits! You can even swap outfits with these mannequins on the go, so it’s easy to have multiple outfits which you like to wear.

You can also set up a chest to store items. Another really cool thing is that after defeating bosses, you’ll get Boss Statues! These statues can be set up inside your home and they’ll give you certain stat boosts. For example, both Balrog and Zakum’s ones give 15% increased damage to bosses.

Of course, there’s customization for housing as well! You can create a large variety of buildings (to place on your land), furniture, and decorations! Here is all of the templates that I found in the game.

Riding

In addition to the monster mounts I talked about earlier, you can get cars in MapleStory 2! They’re faster but really, really, really expensive. And like equipment and furniture, you can create custom cars as well!

There’s only one template in the data so I’m not sure if there are other types than just this jeep.

Designer Market

The Designer Market is a place where users can buy or sell their custom items! It’s very easy as you just input a custom items of your own, and it will automatically sell copies of that equipment to other users.

You can sell equipment, building items, or riding items. On the left is where you can try them on and see how they look.

Posters

Sometimes you’ll see posters and billboards around towns. Here, you can upload an image or use one you took in-game to put up for other users to see!

You must pay for 1 hour intervals during which the image you select will be shown. You can see which slots other users have taken and which slots are still available. I believe each channel has its own schedule.

Smart Reporting

Because MapleStory 2 has such a high focus on customization (including clothes and billboards), they knew it might be abused by some users. That’s where the Smart Reporting system comes in. There is a 3 step system:

1. Users can report other users who have broken the rules by pressing right-click -> report.
2. Users who are reported multiple times will be immediately ‘blinded’, so other users will not be affected by them.
3. Further misbehaviour will land those users in prison, where they will not be able to participate in-game content.

The Smart Report system will automatically collect relevant evidence when you report someone, based on the way you report them.

For users who are posting abusive or obscene things in the chat, you can right-click on their name to report them.

Users who abuse the customizable content and wear offensive or inappropriate clothing can be reported by right clicking on their character.

When you see a bad poster or billboard, you can report the user who put it up easily by right clicking on the poster.

Finally, if a user is selling inappropriately designed items on the market, you can report them by pressing the report icon in the top right of the item.

Misbehaving users will be sent to Alikar Prison, an island created for users to reflect on their actions while they cannot play the game. Other users can visit Alikar Prison and laugh at the prisoners haha.

MAVIEW

 

MAVIEW is one of my absolute favourite things about MapleStory 2! It is an online resource for MapleStory 2, which can be accessed both in-game and on any internet browser (on your computer or phone). It has so much information which updates in real-time.

You can check out MAVIEW yourself here. I really suggest going through it, it’s very cool.

News

The first tab is News. It shows official posts from the MapleStory 2 website as well as extra posts by GMs, like the ones that talk about the first time bosses have been defeated in the server!

Estates

The Estates tab allows you to easily look at available land prices all around Maple World and information about each lot.

Maps

The Maps tab is really, really great, you can explore Maple World without having to move an inch. You can look through or search for any map and see all the information about it (including level, NPCs, monsters, estates, what the map looks like).

Encyclopedia

The Encyclopedia tab is my favourite out of all of them. It’s exactly what you think it is, a complete information hub for everything in the game!

It’s split into three: the first being items. Here, you can look through equipment (with a cool advanced search system), building items, and etc. items.

The second part is for monsters. For each monster, you can see its name and level, what it looks like, a description, and which maps it spawns in (which links to the map tab, cool!).

This tab also has a great search system, you can isolate things like Elite monsters or bosses. For these types of monsters, they’ll even show their spawn times (if possible).

The third part is NPCs, which allows you to see their names, appearances, descriptions, and which maps they appear in.

Rankings

The last tab is for Rankings. There’s three different parts to this one as well, the first being for guilds. Here you can see the game’s guild rankings, in terms of Trophy Score!

The second part is for bosses! At the top, you can choose one of the prominent bosses in the game and see who has cleared it. There are three rankings for each boss based on the order of clearing them, the speed of the party’s clears, and the number of times a person has cleared it.

You can see the party members, the date, and clear time for each. Based on these rankings, no one was able to beat Balrog or Zakum in CBT haha.

The third part is for the Designer’s Market. Here you can see who has made the most money from the Designer’s Market, or who has sold the most designs.

Events

 

There are many events in this game for you to participate in. In the CBT, the events were at specific times of the day, and they had two different ones at the same time (so you had to choose which you wanted to play). When an event is about to begin, you can open the World Map and click on the portal in Queenstown to be teleported there instantly!

The event in the video above is called Trap Master, a game of chance where you have to avoid being on a block when it falls. Make it to the end of five rounds and you’ll win!

There is a similar event called Spring Beach, in which you must avoid standing on geysers and last until the end.

One event is called Crazy Runners. This is a platforming race against the clock, reach the end of the track before time is up! But it won’t be easy, there’s a ton of obstacles and other users in your way.

The last event I saw was Ludibrium Escape, which was also a platforming race. This time however, the game takes place in forced 2D perspective, which makes it much more difficult. (Thanks to DulGi Lee for the video!)

Ending Notes

 

All in all, I had a ton of fun playing MapleStory 2. The block-style was a bit weird to me when they first revealed it, but it really grew on me! Being able to climb to the top of Ellinia, see the winding canyons of Perion, and industrial buildings of Kerning City was really cool.

The combat is also much more interactive than MapleStory, since monsters are a lot stronger and you have to use a combination of skills to hunt effectively. For my Ranger, I had to use my Ice Shot to slow them while kiting back with Strafe and Multi Shot.

Bosses were a ton of fun, fighting them with other users while trying to dodge all of their attacks. You definitely cannot stand around in one place and expect to live.

In terms of levelling, I found it to be a good pace. I didn’t actually make it that far (level 14) but I found that just by doing the available quests I would be able to level up once every hour or two. I heard that in higher levels though, that quests are less frequent and it requires a lot more grinding.

What’s next for MapleStory 2? I’m not sure, the MapleStory 2 team has been super vague about it haha. They said they received more than 7,000 reports and comments which they’re going to go through.

I think that the next testing phase will be open beta though, because they have mentioned it while talking about the special items which will be given to CBT participants. Look forward to more news about MapleStory 2~!