Hello.

This post falls under the new player guide keyword, and the goal is to write something that players who have just started the game can actually use.

MapleStory has an extremely wide range of information to learn, so while thinking about what would be most useful, I felt that for someone starting the game for the first time, even figuring out what each option in the ESC menu actually does could already feel like a significant burden.

The options shown here were rearranged through a fairly recent UI update, and because this section is essentially where the menus players most need to know were placed, I have briefly summarized what each menu is, what function it serves, and added related notes where there was something worth checking alongside it.

Maple Auction related notes

Because of this system, commonly referred to as a tariff, you cannot purchase items from other worlds between 9:55 AM and 10:05 AM.

[Character] : Character Info

Here, you can check your character’s combat power and various stat values. You can also configure Hyper Stats and Ability from this menu.

• Conversion

Alongside combat power, you will frequently see a metric called "conversion (item conversion/Hexa conversion/boss multiplier)" on almost any MapleStory-related platform, including in-game. This is not an official metric, but because it is used so widely for boss attempts, party recruitment, gearing progress, and many other situations, it effectively functions as a standard you should know. For example, if you search using your class + boss + multiplier, you can easily find videos and posts uploaded by other players under the same conditions, ex) Can Ren do EKal at 130%?

You can check this by entering your nickname on the Converted Main Stat site. This site is also very useful going forward because it provides character-based tools such as efficient gearing order, Hyper Stat and Union block optimization, and Link Skill optimization.

• Custom Background

As shown above, this changes the background of the location where your character is standing. The example shown is a World Archive reward, and these backgrounds are usually given as event rewards themed around the event itself. Once obtained, the list is shared across characters in the same world.

• Custom Illustration

This feature lets you request AI illustrations based on your own character. You can access it from the Custom Illustration tab in Quick Move.

It first appeared as an event beta test and has since become permanent content, with the pricing shown above. Since this is AI illustration, the result you want may not come out in a single attempt. Saved illustrations can be displayed in Character Info and in scenario quests.

[Character] : Character Preset

As the name suggests, this is the preset menu. You can assign the 6 items shown above separately and set them up in different ways. Most players use presets for bosses and training, and you can rename each preset from the settings tab.

Once applied, you can switch between them conveniently using the preset change key in your keybindings.

[Character] : Maple Union

This is an essential system, often referred to as account progression, where you gain important stats by raising multiple characters. Compared with its notoriously harsh early days, it has been eased quite a bit through various events and other updates.

• Maple Union

You gain Union blocks based on character level, and by placing them in your raid formation, you can receive effects such as Boss Damage, Ignore Defense, Critical Rate, EXP Increase, and Normal Monster Damage.

The total levels of up to 42 characters within a world are added together, and your rank increases in 500-level increments. Rank-ups used to require Union Coins, but now they happen immediately as long as the level requirement is met.

For a new player, it is generally best to aim for 6000 first and then 8000 afterward, and if you make good use of Challengers World and other events, you can reach those milestones more easily than you might expect.

• Union Coins and the Union Coin Shop

Once Maple Union is activated, Union Coins accumulate over time and can be claimed through the UI, and you can also obtain them through weekly quests.

These coins are mainly used to buy buff items, and the terms 유힘/유행/유부 refer to Union’s Strength, which increases Attack Power and Magic Attack, Union’s Luck, which increases item drop rate, and Union’s Wealth, which increases Meso gain.

• Union Artifact

This is another source of essential effects. By doing things like daily logins, weekly logins, and weekly boss clears, you can naturally level it up and gain stats that apply across the world. You can also earn extra points by completing certain achievements, but unless you are already well past the early stage, the amount is not large enough to be urgent, so you can handle that based on your situation.

• Union Champion/Champion Raid/Champion’s Blessing

This content becomes available once your total Union level reaches 8000, and by raising secondary characters with sufficient specs, you can gain additional effects that apply to those characters.

Completing the evaluation battle gives you an emblem that grants stats. At present, there are 4 slots where Union Champion characters can actually be registered, although the UI shows up to 6. When this system was first released, it was stated that the unlock pace could be adjusted depending on circumstances.

Those characters can then be used in Champion Raid, which resets monthly, to earn points, and those points can be spent on the temporary buff effect called Champion’s Blessing.

[Character] : Professions

• Ardentmill

You can get to Ardentmill through Quick Move, but this UI also lets you go there at any time. When players refer to “ㅁㅂ” or “마빌” in chat while doing EXP buffs, this is the place they mean.

• Traits

These are passive effects that level up naturally as you play, with level 100 as the maximum. They all have different effects, but among them, Insight should be your highest priority because its effect is equivalent to increasing Final Damage. If you use Trait Boost Potions from the event coin shop, 9 are enough to reach level 100. Also, one of the items in the 9,900 Cash Welcome Maple Package, which resets every 6 months, is a potion that raises all Traits to level 100 in a single use, so that is also a good option.

• Herbalism/Mining

At present, this cannot be done in normal field maps and is only available in Ardentmill’s dedicated farm. Juniper Berry Seed Oil is used for Wealth Acquisition Potions, so it is especially expensive.

• Accessory Crafting/Alchemy

Accessory Crafting is popular mainly because of the skill shown above that becomes available upon reaching Meister, while Alchemy is popular because equipment dismantling becomes available starting at level 6. When you dismantle equipment, you can obtain Superior Item Crystals.

Patrick De Blanc, the NPC who occasionally appears after you defeat Root Abyss bosses, can sometimes sell profession coupons at random. If you use one, it always raises the profession by 1 level up to level 10, so there is no need to rush this and you can level it gradually.

[Item] : Equipment

This is simply the equipment window, and you can also use equipment presets here. Sometimes players think an item has disappeared while using presets, but in most cases, you just need to check each preset carefully.

From the lower-left menu here, you can choose whether medals and titles are displayed, which medal and title effects are applied, and which medal and title are shown visually.

[Item] : Cash

Other than being the place where you equip cosmetic items, this is not very different from the equipment window. The same preset cautions apply here as well.

You can toggle various visual effects on and off here to match your preference, and weapon motions can also be configured.

You can also configure the Beauty Room for storing hair and face styles, Android cosmetic equipment, and Damage Skins from here.

You can also adjust various cosmetic-related settings from the Effects tab in Game Settings.

[Item] : Inventory

This is simply your inventory. From here, you can move to menus like the ones shown above, as well as to storage. If you want to organize your inventory more cleanly, bags and similar items help a lot, and for that topic I will link a post I wrote previously link.

The shop becomes available when you equip an Android of a certain grade or higher. The boss rewards tab is where rewards from the world-integrated boss content are applied.

Your current Mesos are shared across all characters in the same world, so the amount is the same no matter which character you log into. Returning players should especially be careful here, since it is easy to spend them thinking a sub character happened to be holding that amount.

[Item] : Storage

This is the storage menu. Sometimes players use the expression “storage fossilizing,” and as shown above, that refers to an item with an expiration period remaining visually preserved in storage after its timer expires while stored there. In that case, pressing the Claim All button removes the fossilized item, so you need to be careful.

[Item] : Enhancement

You can handle every type of enhancement in MapleStory through this UI.

[Item] : Medals

When you obtain medals through quests, events, and similar content, they are stored in this UI.

If a medal you obtained previously is no longer in your inventory, you can reissue it here by paying a small amount of Mesos.

[Item] : Soul Collection

When you obtain Soul Shards from boss monsters, they are stored here rather than in your inventory. The Collection section on the right lets you register completed Souls, but in practice it is not really used. If you want to see the hidden illustrations for each boss that become viewable after completing everything, you can find them with a search online.

• Soul Crafting

If you have 10 Soul Shards, you can craft 1 Soul. Only Souls with the highest-tier “Magnificent” prefix are tradable, while all others are untradeable.

The chance of getting a Magnificent Soul is 1%, and during the 5x event on Sunday Maple, that becomes 5%, so players usually save their shards and craft them once that event is announced.

• Soul Enchanter and Magnificent Souls

Using a Soul Enchanter on a weapon creates a slot that can hold a Soul. Soul Enchanters can now be purchased conveniently from NPC shops.

Each Soul has its own options, but the ones that are actually used are the Souls with the Magnificent prefix. When you equip a Magnificent Soul on a weapon, one of the random options shown above is applied, and the most commonly used result is 3% Attack Power/Magic Attack. Since the result is random, targeting Attack/Magic can take quite a while if your luck is poor, but prices tend to drop on Sunday, so that is usually the best time to aim for it.

These options are identical across bosses from Bloody Queen and above up to Yupiter and below based on boss difficulty. Only the appearance changes, so even if you use a Magnificent Bloody Queen, there is no numerical disadvantage at all.

Some rewards, such as Genesis Pass, also give fixed 3% Attack Power/Magic Attack Souls.

[Skill] : Skill/V Matrix/HEXA Matrix/Sol Erda

Event skills are placed under 0th Job, and you can check skills from each job advancement tab separately.

The V Matrix becomes relevant after 5th Job advancement at level 200, and its currency is Core Gemstone-type items. A recent update changed it to a point-based system.

The HEXA Matrix becomes relevant after 6th Job advancement at level 260, and its currency is Sol Erda and Sol Erda Fragments.

Since skill-related information varies greatly from class to class, you should look up detailed resources specifically for the class you chose.

If you register a skill to the notification button in the Skill menu, you will get a notice on the right side of the screen when that skill’s cooldown finishes.

You can also configure various skill-related settings in the UI tab of Game Settings. Among these, enabling buff sorting will arrange the buffs shown in the upper-right corner of the screen by category.

If you register skills to the buff favorites feature, an additional movable UI appears as shown above.

[Skill] : Battle Analysis

This feature lets you check combat records for your current map and each skill’s share of your damage. The record stops when you change maps.

[Skill] : Link Skill

These are unique skills tied to each class, and once unlocked, they can be applied to multiple characters. Presets are available here as well. Because the stats they provide are extremely strong, they are essential. You can equip up to 12, and these are also usually split into training and boss setups.

If you work on these alongside Maple Union, you will obtain them naturally. Since Link Skill level 1 is reached at 70, level 2 at 120, and level 3 at 285, players naturally aim for level 2 first.

[Skill] : Sequence

You can also access this from the Skill UI. It is divided into skills and buffs, and once you register entries, using it will activate the registered sequence almost instantly, so this is one of the most essential convenience functions in the game.

In the Buff Sequence window, you can also purchase items, but note that instant purchases for Bungeoppang, Mashur, and Super Power Buff use Maple Points.

[Adventure] : Scheduler

You can check all daily, weekly, and monthly quests from this UI, and because it also supports bulk acceptance, completion, and movement to the relevant content, it is a very convenient menu that you will end up using often.

[Adventure] : Quest/Quest Notifier

This is where you can check various types of quests.

At present, region quests below level 200 are not especially meaningful unless there is an event running, unless you are leveling below 200, or unless you are doing them for achievement purposes. However, because repeated updates have reorganized both the progression flow and the story, they are still worth trying once if you are curious.

For level 200+ quests in Arcane River and Grandis, everything can currently be skipped except Geardlock, which is the highest-level region at present.

You can also use this UI when accepting class-specific quests such as Hero’s Echo, and for Root Abyss-related quests, the Chaos Vellum/Pierre/Von Bon/Bloody Queen Killer quests are definitely worth clearing at least once. Since they can currently be claimed after only 1 clear, they are an easy source of strong medals.

If you obtain all 4 medals, you can claim the permanent title shown above, which is useful when you do not have another title available.

Events do occasionally give permanent titles with options like the ones shown above, but if you do not have one of those, you can use King of Root Abyss on sub characters and similar cases.

Also, once you complete the Collector quests, you will be able to purchase those buff potions permanently.

[Adventure] : World Map

You can search for NPCs, monsters, and similar entries here, and double-clicking a map will teleport you there.

The default teleport cooldown is 5 minutes, and when the premium effect shown above is active, it becomes 10 seconds. You can obtain this through MVP benefits, events, and similar sources, and it is essential when doing things like Artifact regional missions and World Archive.

[Adventure] : Boss

Since boss entry is usually handled through the Scheduler, players do not use this UI very often for movement.

Party recruitment is also available here, but it is generally more active in open KakaoTalk rooms or on Discord.

[Adventure] : Guide

You can move by selecting hunting maps and regions appropriate for your level, and you can also register hunting maps in Quick Move. If you right-click the square button shown above, the world map for that area opens.

In the Boss Content tab, you can check the official boss tiers and each boss’s drop items.

In the Special Content tab, you can view content like this, but in practical terms, since growth content and Arcane River weekly content can already be entered through the Scheduler, what mainly remains here is Story and Competition.

Story is only something you need to do if you are personally interested, and the same is currently true for Competition. From a new player perspective, none of these four are urgent content. Of course, for The Seed and Ghost Park, that remains realistically true even later as well..

[Adventure] : Monster Collection

Monster Collection is a collection-type system where monsters are registered at a certain probability when defeated. There are no meaningful spec-related rewards, so this is something you can leave for later if it interests you. The rewards are medals and Cube Chairs.

However, whenever you complete a specific row like this, you can send out an expedition. Once you reach 600 monsters, all 5 rows are unlocked, and the higher-value expedition boxes can be claimed once every 24 hours. Since they give Mileage and Trait-related items, having them available is still worthwhile.

If you decide to work on this later, Sunday Maple occasionally runs a 2x Monster Collection registration rate event, so that is usually the best time to do it.

[Adventure] : Maple Achievements

Maple Achievements also have no spec-related rewards at all and are exactly what the name suggests: achievement content. Across hunting, bosses, and other content, there are many achievements ranging from very easy requirements to ones that are close to impossible.

There are rank tiers divided by score like this, but as mentioned, there are no spec-related rewards, so this is something you can try later if it becomes interesting to you.

The Ryude’s Sword furniture shown above is a display item that can be used in Maple Home, which I mention again below. Some achievements reward Maple Home furniture like that.

[Adventure] : World Archive

World Archive is also content unrelated to spec, and compared with Monster Collection, the difference is that it is much lighter. For monsters, 1 kill is enough, and for NPCs, 1 click is enough to collect the record.

Once a record is registered, you can view information on that monster or NPC much like the old Maple Book. Collection rewards include Custom Backgrounds, chairs, Maple Home furniture, and character selection backgrounds.

At present, collection is available through Victoria Island and Arcane River, and Grandis is planned to be added later. This is not something a new player needs to do immediately.

[Community] : Friends/Blacklist/Party

You can currently register up to 200 friends. If someone is added to the blacklist, the effects shown below are applied.

As for parties, they are currently not used at all for training and are mainly used only for bossing.

There is also an Offline/Private Login checkbox here and on the login screen. If you enable it, you will appear offline in the friends window when you log in. However, for guild purposes, you should be careful, because this is treated the same as not having logged in at all, so you may be mistaken for an inactive player and removed. If that happens, logging in offline and then briefly unchecking it will resolve the issue.

[Community] : Guild

Guilds are naturally social content, but in MapleStory, Noblesse Guild Skills (Noble Skills) matter even more. With Guild SP obtained through weekly-reset guild content, you can use guild skills that provide very large stat bonuses.

Underground Culvert, Flag Race, and weekly points all affect this, but outside of Challengers World, Underground Culvert is often the only requirement that practically matters. Each run only takes a few minutes, so make sure to participate every week according to your guild’s rules.

Aside from the Noble Skills above, the passive guild skills are also close to essential, so even if you are not looking for the social side, there are many guilds formed mainly for progression purposes, and I strongly recommend finding one and joining it.

Guild Castle was added as more social-oriented content to offset that imbalance, and it does not affect spec. For guild storage, all item withdrawal records are logged.

You can configure whether to receive login notifications for other guild members through this option.

[Community] : Maple Chat

This is a chat room feature that supports up to 6 participants.

[Community] : Notes

This is simply the note inbox, and notes are stored for up to 30 days. You can check it whenever a notification appears on the lightbulb on the left side of the screen.

[Community] : Emoticons

These are the various emoticons you can use in chat. As the description above explains, using them together with : also lets you activate them directly in the chat window.

[Community] : Maple Home

This is decorative content that becomes available from Spiegelmann at level 260. You are given an empty house that you can decorate with Maple Home furniture obtained from events, Maple Achievements, and similar sources. It has no spec-related value at all. It has continued to receive updates since release.

[Event/Mileage] : Event List

This is a UI you will usually check through the star-shaped icon on the left side of the screen rather than through this menu itself, and it lets you see all currently active events at a glance. After several rounds of improvements, it is now much more convenient to use.

[Event/Mileage] : Daily Gift

This is a permanent event where you can check in each day after defeating 300 level-range monsters, and rewards are available up to day 28 each month. Entries marked with a medal icon give extra quantities depending on your MVP rank.

This is useful for existing players as well, but especially for new players because it contains many very helpful items, such as Character Slot Expansion Coupons, so it is best to participate every day if possible. At PC bangs, you can complete 2 days of attendance. In a month like February, missing even 1 day makes full attendance impossible, so keep that in mind.

[Event/Mileage] : MVP

This is a rank that updates weekly based on how much Nexon Cash you have spent over a 13-week period. Starting from Red, it gives very useful benefits such as Quick Pass for daily and weekly content and the maximum number of free daily Monster Park entries.

[Event/Mileage] : Premium PC

This is the monthly Premium PC bang login event, and it can be opened through in the Event Notifier.

The contents change every month, and during the major summer and winter event periods, a PC bang-exclusive gift shop event is also held alongside it.

[Event/Mileage] : Boss Mileage

You can earn Mileage after defeating bosses. It is convenient to register this in the Quick Menu.

• Daily bosses: 30 Mileage

• Weekly bosses below Grandis: 200 Mileage

• Weekly bosses in Grandis and above: 400 Mileage

• Monthly bosses: 1000 Mileage

Mileage accumulation is limited to a daily cap of 10,000 and a monthly cap of 50,000. However, the daily 700 Mileage available through MapleStoryM is counted separately.

Mileage can only be accumulated once per boss per day. For example, if character A defeats Hard Magnus on one day and claims Mileage from it, you can only accumulate Mileage from Hard Magnus again on the following day.

When your Mileage accumulation cap is full, if you do not press confirm in that state, it stays exactly as it is. That means you can wait until the day or month changes, then press confirm and go to the Cash Shop to claim it. Of course, because of the rule explained above, if you do this, you will not be able to gain Mileage from bosses on that same day, so it is better to handle it on the following day.

[Other] : Capture Mode

If you click Capture Mode, the other UI elements are hidden as shown above. Clicking it again returns the screen to its original state.

[Other] : Safe Mode

If you click Protection Mode, a window appears as shown above asking for your secondary password, and until you enter it, you cannot perform any actions. It is mainly used when staying AFK in places such as PC bangs.

[Other] : Maple News/Guide

Maple News refers to the news window that appears when you log into the game. Clicking Guide opens the official guide page written by the staff.

[Other] : Report

You can submit reports through this menu. However, for chat restrictions related to profanity and similar issues, keep in mind that these are often not triggered only by user reports and are also frequently applied automatically.

[Other] : Maple Locker

In special situations such as item recovery or campaign rewards, you can receive items through this menu.

Quick Menu Settings

Among the many menus above, you can register whichever ones you want to the Quick Menu and use them immediately without opening the full game menu UI, so it is a good idea to set this up according to your own preferences.

Thank you for reading.