Orange Mushroom's Blog

Last night, the 2024 MapleStory summer showcase took place, where they detailed the things that will be added in the Milestone update over the next few months as well as talked a little bit about other content up until November of this year!

The in-game map you could go to was also pretty nice as it gave experience passively as you were inside (I got 2% in total at level 286!) and there were various quiz events that each rewarded 5 VIP Boosters and 5 Sol Erda Fragments if you got the answer right.

After the showcase, the test server went up with the first iteration of the (spoilers) Aran and Eunwol remaster. The next test patch is going to be on the 13th so they will probably make more changes and add the corresponding events in that one. I wanted to get this one out as soon as possible so expect another post for KMST in a day or two!

Introduction

• The showcase was hosted by the usual MC Seong Seung-heon and Director Changseop.
• They decided on the word Milestone for the update name because it suited the purpose of the showcase that they prepared, even though it felt a little stiff and business-y. To repay users who enjoyed the game even during the harder times, they formatted this showcase differently than previous ones to match this concept.
• In previous showcases, they only talked about the 3 months of the update being showcased, but this time, they will talk about the 6 month road map for updates from June to November. It’s definitely a burden to tell people what is planned in advance for a live service game that changes every moment, but they wanted to reward players by showing them what the development team is working on in a concrete way.
• The things they mention today aren’t all of the updates until November. Of course, there are certain things that can’t be mentioned, things that are still having their details or timing or worked out, or things that may change in the meantime.

Flowers Blooming in the Moonlight – Aran & Eunwol Remaster

• Aran and Eunwol share a certain eastern-style concept which they tied together with the event name, where the flower represents Aran and the moonlight represents Eunwol.
• This is a significant update similar to previous remasters where players can experience multiple improvements that were needed for the classes all at once. They have learned from the Angelic Buster remaster and will continue to do these in the future.
• Starting with the related events, there will be a Hyper Burning and Tera Blink exclusively for an Aran or Eunwol character (separate from the usual Hyper Burning for the summer update).
• The Flowers Blooming in the Moonlight Scroll event gives rewards to newly created Aran and Eunwol characters.
  • Level 100 title
  • 3x Experience Coupons
  • Selective 3 Event Rings Voucher
  • Event Ring Only Meister Cubes
  • Unique Emblem Box
  • Time-Limited Root Abyss Box
  • Spiegella’s Golden Strawberry Farm Entry Ticket
  • Core Gemstones/Experience Core Gemstones/Selective Arcane Symbol Vouchers
  • Choice between Absolabs Weapon or Dominator Pendant
  • Level 230 title (same stats as the Yeti x Pink Bean title, stats are permanent)
• The Flowers Blooming in the Moonlight Scroll event also gives rewards to all Aran and Eunwol characters.
  • Aran/Eunwol Damage Skin (Unit)
  • Ice Flower/Fox Moon Riding
  • Aran/Eunwol Insignia
  • Petite Maha/Petite Lang Pets
  • Aran Nametag/Chat Bubble Ring
  • Eunwol Nametag/Chat Bubble Ring
  • Lilin’s House Chair
  • Fox Tree Chair
  • Rien Custom Background
  • Pointy Ear Fox Village Custom Background
• They wanted to add new types of rewards similar to the merchandise they prepared for the Angelic Buster remaster. This time, they made Aran and Eunwol Storybooks, which feature both new stories as well as concept art. It’s been a long time since they last released an artbook so they thought it would be fun to do so and tie it in to an in-game event. They’re going to give away a lot and then put it in the Maple Store afterwards for anyone who didn’t get one and wants to buy them.
• In Burning World, there will be a Secret Record Ranking event where newly created Aran and Eunwol characters can compete to get the highest Punch King score.
  • 1st Place: 10m Maple Points
  • 2nd~4th Place: 3m Maple Points
  • 5th~10th Place: 1m Maple Points

Aran Remaster

• The flower that blooms amid trials, Aran!
• Aran is a charming warrior character that has various clear concepts that work together such as polearms, ice, rage, and an eastern/oriental style. In this remaster, they tried to preserve these concepts while enhancing the parts that were lacking.
• For Beyonder, they strengthened the identity of an oriental warrior by changing the animals to the Four Symbols (tortoise, dragon, bird, tiger).
• Aran’s core system is Adrenaline. The first thing they focused on was making entering and maintaining Adrenaline through Combos more fun and allowing them to have quicker and more reactive combat.
• They have added a new Hyper Awakening system that can be entered every 3 minutes, which allows you to use the new Hyper Boost End skill. There’s also another Boost End skill for 5th job so with Hunter’s Targeting, there’s now a total of 3 Boost End skills.
• The Combo system has also been improved, so that they are gradually expanded from 1st job onwards and you now stack Combos automatically over time.
• A new skill called Frozen Ground has been added to help with hunting while not in Adrenaline mode, and Install Maha has been changed into an install skill as well.
• Blizzard Tempest’s bind feature has been moved to a separate skill, and the Origin skill now instantly puts you in Hyper Awakening mode.

Eunwol Remaster

• The moon hidden behind the clouds of history, Eunwol!
• Eunwol’s concept is a cool combination of mystical and oriental fantasy with spirits and foxes. Their goal was to bring a little more of that colourfulness to both the visuals and performance.
• For Eunwol, he talked about major skill changes rather than overall concepts like he did for Aran.
• First of all, Spirit Frenzy has been changed into an install skill used for hunting. This is a big change as Spirit Frenzy was the main damage skill for Eunwol and even had its own Mastery Core. Its damage has been moved to other skills together with visual and numerical changes.
• Fox Spirits is now a core skill, they thought it would go well with Eunwol’s existing combat since it activates automatically on every hit. Spirit Frenzy VI has been changed into Fox Spirits VI. The creation rate has been increased and they have added more synergy with other skills that create more Fox Spirits.
• The 5th job skill Spiritgate has been changed into a more reliable burst skill and its debuff has been improved.
• Smashing Multipunch (the “ora ora” skill) has received most of the damage that used to be in Spirit Frenzy. The effects, performance, and visuals have been enhanced.
• For Spirit Flow, this skill’s main purpose was to boost Spirit Frenzy, so the skill itself was a bit lacking. It was also boring as it just reused other skills’ effects. With this remaster, the skill’s performance has been enhanced so that it deals a lot of damage instantly then deals more damage as you attack (it also changes the background and BGM now).
• The Origin skill has also been improved to be a short burst skill rather than the extended duration it used to have.

Milestone Improvements

• The Maple Scheduler will allow you to check daily and weekly game content easily. You can choose which content you want to see and you can check your progress, accept, and complete quests in a single UI. It is planned to replace the gold lightbulb icon.
• There will be a Growth Path Reorganization for Level 200 and Below. MapleStory really starts at level 200 nowadays so they want a clear and easy path that players can follow to reach it. After level 30, there will be a main quest line that players can complete which will let you reach level 200 without having to grind while also giving you the core story elements required to understand things like the commanders, the Black Mage, and the Transcendents’ story which becomes important starting from Arcane River.
• The Maple Guide’s Teleport Feature can now be used without conditions. You won’t have to defeat a certain number of monsters to teleport to specific maps anymore. After you finish the area’s story quests, all of them will become available to use instantly.

• Shortcut Presets have been added to Character Presets.
• The Foggy Forest Training Centre Only Buff System has been added, just like the Practice Mode buffs.
• Buff Display Settings have been added.
  • Buffs will be automatically sorted/minimized into four categories: My Job Skills, Other Job Skills, Common Skills, and Items.
  • You can hide specific categories if you want.
  • You can also set Buff Favourites to see the ones you want.

• The Quick Character Change feature has been added that lets you switch characters without having to go back to the Character Select screen.
• The Boss Cutscene Skip feature has been added. They really liked the improved cutscenes they added for Suu, but they knew the more effort they put into them, the longer they would become, and that would be really inconvenient for players watching them every week. You can now skip the cutscenes (as long as it isn’t your first time fighting the boss).
• They have made a few V Matrix improvements.
  • The base number of slots has been increased from 7 to 12 (maximum number of slots increased from 25 to 30).
  • You can now select which 3 skills you want to boost when you craft an Enhancement Core.

• The 6th job advancement quests have been reorganized.
  • The quest path has been improved.
  • The total experience required to charge the Arcane Stones has been decreased by 85%, from 450b exp to 70b exp.
  • You can now finish the job advancement within an hour.
• The Genesis Weapon quest convenience has been improved.
  • In the beginning, only a very small number of players could complete these quests, but now, many more players experience it so they wanted to improve the convenience.
  • They have added a special UI to make it easier to check your progress and see previous and future quests.
  • They have also changed it so that you do no longer need to loot a Black Mage Remnant, simply clearing Black Mage and defeating the Genesis Egg every month is enough.
• Spell Trace Fever Time has been expanded from every Sunday to every Friday/Saturday/Sunday.
• The Pet & Android Transparency feature has been added. You can set your own transparency to up to 50% and set other characters’ transparency to up to 100%.
• There will be a macOS MapleStory beta test, starting in June. There’s lots of people that use Macbooks like college students, but they can’t play MapleStory with them so they want to bring the game to that platform.
• The Additional Potential Reset system which uses mesos will be added in June. We previously said that we would try to restore players trust in us by changing the potential reset system to mesos. However, we were not fully prepared for the in-game economy changes so for Additional Potential, we postponed it until now. In this time, we have added things like the Epic Dungeon’s bonus rewards and Maple Coins, and Illusion Rings. Honestly it’s still kind of a question mark if that’s enough, but they believe that keeping their promise is the most important thing so they will proceed with this change. The prices may be different than they originally released because of the difference in enhancement difficulty, item values, and meso demand/supply, but the other parts will remain the same (i.e. using mesos, allowing you to choose before/after).

New Boss: Limbo

• Limbo is one of Gerald Darmoor’s Apostles. He can wield the power of the Specters. Previously, he was a story boss, but now he will appear as an end-game boss.
• Limbo is a boss in Carcion, and can be challenged by players level 285 or higher.
• It will have two difficulties: Normal and Hard. This will allow a greater number of players to enjoy it upon release.
• Some people might think this is a bit fast to release a new boss right after Suu, but over the last year, players have been getting stronger very quickly through 6th job, and the goal was to add fun content for strong characters.
• Also, since all potential reset systems will have been changed to mesos, it’s now more important to update the game’s economic cycle and goals. They are aiming to expand the end-game content at a faster tempo than before.

• Limbo drops two main rewards.
  • First, he provides all three remaining parts of the Ethernal set (shoes/gloves/cape). These items were first released with Kalos in 2022, and now, two and a half years later, the entire level 250 set will be available.
  • The set effect is a bit different than what was shown before.
    • 6-set: 40 attack/magic attack, 15% boss damage.
    • 7-set: 2500 HP/MP, 50 all stats, 40 attack/magic attack, 15% boss damage.
    • 8-set: 40 attack/magic attack, 15% boss damage.
  • The second reward is the Whisper of the Source, a level 250 ring. This item is part of the new Brilliant Boss Accessory set, which will be the the successor to the Pitched Boss Accessory set.
  • It’s been about 7 years since the Pitched Boss Accessory set was first introduced, and now, some of the items are used by a lot of players, even included in general equipment sets. As players get stronger faster and faster as they move through Grandis, there is a certain need to scale up the content and items like this will help with that.
  • This new Brilliant Boss Accessory set will be introduced one-by-one, and it will start with items that can be used with the existing Pitched Boss set or take the spot of items that can be replaced relatively easier.

• Together with this, there will be an Exceptional Enhancement reorganization.
  • The current Exceptional Enhancement Parts will become more generic Exceptional Hammer items that can be used on both the Pitched Boss set and the future Brilliant Boss set.
  • You will also be able to extract already used Exceptional Enhancement Parts (for a meso fee) to reuse them on other equipment.
  • Brilliant Boss Accessory items can have up to 3 Exceptional Enhancements used on them (compared to 1 for Pitched Boss set).

Hexa Stat II

• The second Hexa Stat core will become available in July.
• There are no functional changes compared to the first core, but it will cost more to unlock.
• To unlock the second Hexa Stat core, you must be level 265 or higher and your first Hexa Stat core must be level 20.
• This will serve as an additional way to spec up for the new boss as well as help stimulate the economy.

Main Event: One Page in Memory

• The summer event, One Page in Memory, is based on the stories of the Black Mage Commanders’ pasts. After the event ends, they will be compiled and put into the Dimensional Library.
• The main attendance check, the Forgotten Book of Festivals, has been made even easier. The Basic Research is 5 times a week and simply requires you to log on while the In-Depth Research is 1 time a week and requires you to defeat monsters within your level range.
• Typhoon Growth Potions, Maximum Growth Potions, and Transcendent Growth Potions can now be used on Burning characters.
• Although Cubes have been removed, White Additional Cubes and Black Cubes will still be included in the event rewards.

• There will be three shops for this event:
  • The Festival Record shop (normal coin shop) that has items like Maximum Growth Potions, Karma Special Heart Scrolls, Karma Additional Epic Potential Scrolls, Spiegella’s Golden Tomato Farm Entry Ticket.
  • The Secret Record shop that replaces the boss coin shop. Instead of getting coins for beating weekly bosses, you get coins based on a Punch King event (up to 2000 points per week). They changed it because many people were buying/selling boss leech service and it wasn’t working as intended. Now, you will get coins based on your character’s growth level. The Punch King is a little different than usual to allow for lower spec players to still get a good amount of points.
  • The Advanced Secret Record shop is a new shop tailored towards end-game players (those who can get more than 2000 points in the Punch King). It has only three items:
    • Karma Abyss Rebirth Flame: Similar to a Black Flame but it can only roll T5~T7.
    • Sol Erda
    • Mu Gong Soul Shard
• There are also other events as usual.
  • Aswan Shaman’s Blessing: temp stats.
  • Spirit’s Memory: weekly minigame, can get all rewards just by participating once a week.
  • Von Leon’s Swordsmanship: hunting skill.
  • Gold Richie’s Secret Safe: New rewards have been added such as Mr. Pickall’s Master Key (can select 1 reward from any Diamond Safe), Star Galaxy Action Damage Skin (Unit), and the Selective Level 5 Special Skill Ring Voucher.
• The Star Force Stage will return with a few changes.
  • Meso cost to enter has been removed.
  • You can now donate mesos to the person Star Forcing on the stage.
  • Improved the feature to share results with the audience.

• The Event List UI has been reorganized.
• Hyper Burning and Tera Blink will run from June 20 to August 16. The summer event will end after 2 months, after which the autumn event will run for 2 months. This Hyper Burning will span over all four months.
• A new event called Item Burning will be added that adds support equipment that grows with your Hyper Burning character. The Challenger Equipment will grow as you defeat various boss monsters and give all players the chance to enjoy having items with a higher spec than usual.

All Job Illustration Packages

• New sets of illustration outfits will be released, including the Chief Cygnus Knights, Empress Cygnus, and Tactician Nineheart. This will include a time-limited title that gives % normal monster damage and bonus experience.
• New sets of illustration outfits for the Heroes will be released. This will include a time-limited title that gives % boss damage and defense ignore.

Maple Partners

• This is an Open API developer support system.
• If you make a website using the Open API, you can request to join this program where you will receive support and a feedback channel to the MapleStory team to make better usage of the API.

Cafe MapleStory

• Cafe MapleStory will open in Jeju Island on July 23.
• There will be cute food items and exclusive goods.

Epic Dungeon: Angler Company

• A new Epic Dungeon featuring Senya Angler will be released in August. You will learn about the backstory of the Angler Company and play as Senya.
• Compared to the previous Epic Dungeon, they want to present new situations and make it more fun to play with more variety. It’s not harder but it will require some more thought so you can clear it faster as you get better.
• This Epic Dungeon will only be available for characters level 270 or higher. You can only do one of the two Epic Dungeons per week (either High Mountain or Angler Company).
• Together with this new Epic Dungeon, the existing Epic Dungeon system will be improved (including High Mountain).
• These improvements will be made right away in June, which will expand the options for the rewards. You can now choose between getting bonus experience and Sol Erda, bonus experience only, or bonus Sol Erda only.

New Area: Talaheart

• The new area, Talaheart, will be for characters level 290 or higher and will be added in September.
• They believe they need to prepare to add new content faster so they are adding new regions in addition to new bosses.
• The story is the Adversary heading to southern Grandis after completing their mission in Grandis. They seek the legendary city of Talaheart, where it is rumoured that the ancient gods slept. New characters, enemies, and the Grandis resistance group Primacy will appear.
• Talaheart gives the new Grand Authentic Symbol. You can level it up by doing dailies like normal, to get more Authentic Force, but unlike existing Authentic Symbols, it doesn’t give main stats. Instead, it gives additional experience acquisition (up to 50% at level 11) and additional meso and drop rate (up to 15% at level 11).
• The autumn event will be a 2 month event in August/September, and will be similar in structure to the summer event.

Asmos Canyon

• The new content, Asmos Canyon, will be released in October. This is a new type of combat content in Masteria related to the Demons.
• You can learn about the past and history of the Demons by exploring the traces of the research they did and how it led to their destruction.
• It’s hard to give details on what the content is as it will change based on MapleStory’s economic situation. But two things he confirmed are:
  • You can acquire mesos or enhancement items equivalent to mesos based on your characters’ growth level and your understanding of the content. It will not be like the Epic Dungeons, and it will be different based on your growth level.
  • They want to provide a new type of fun with combat on a slightly larger scale with new types of gameplay.

MapleStory x IP Collaborations

• Previous IP collaborations did not affect gameplay but this time, they wanted to put more effort to make them more fun. They want to collaborate with IPs that feel like they would fit in MapleStory.
• In October, there will be a MapleStory x Dave the Diver collaboration.
• In November, there will be a MapleStory x Demon Slayer collaboration. They’re working hard on bringing the popular characters’ outfits into MapleStory.

Roadmap

• June 8:
  • 1st Test World
• June 13:
  • 2nd Test World
• June 20:
  • Aran & Eunwol Remaster
  • Aran & Eunwol Growth Event
  • Additional Potential Reset System
  • Milestone Improvements (6th Job Advancement Required Experience Reduction, Maple Scheduler, Growth Path Reorganization, Spell Trace Fever Time Friday/Saturday/Sunday)
  • One Page in History event
  • Aran & Eunwol Hyper Burning
  • Hyper Burning
  • Burning World
  • Item Burning
• July 18:
  • Hexa Stat II
  • New Boss Limbo
  • All Ethernal Pieces
  • Whisper of the Source
  • Milestone Improvements (Buff Display Settings)
• August 13:
  • Epic Dungeon: Angler Company
  • Talaheart Story Event
• September 12:
  • New Area Talaheart
  • Grand Authentic Symbol
• October:
  • Asmos Canyon
  • MapleStory x Dave the Diver
• November:
  • MapleStory x Demon Slayer

• The information revealed in this showcase is not everything that will be added.
• There are no plans to add new 6th job skills for the second half of this year. There are a few reasons for this.
  • They currently need to add new content that players can enjoy as they become stronger, rather than adding more ways to become stronger.
  • They do think they need to urgently add the remaining Mastery Cores, but instead of adding them quickly with no thought, they want to spend more time to make them more valuable.
  • They’re still working on them, but they think there are other more important things that are taking priority.
  • They know players were very much looking forward to it, and they’re sad to say that the next one won’t be anytime soon. He apologized but said that they decided that other things were more necessary to be added first.

• Milestone Gift Box (can be claimed until June 19 at 11:59 PM):
  • Mike’s Gift Box
    • Festival Record Box
    • MILESTONE Medal
    • Milestone Action Damage Skin (Unit)
  • Maximum Growth Potion
  • Tera Burning Booster
  • Selective Symbol Voucher
  • 5 Experience Core Gemstones
  • Selective Mannequin/Slot Expansion Coupon
  • Cotton Candy Pink Bean (30 Days) Box
  • Character Slot Expansion Coupon
  • 10 Selective Slot Expansion Coupon Vouchers
  • 10 VIP Boosters
  • Mitra’s 3x Experience Coupon Box
  • Selective Sol Erda/Fragment Voucher