Hello.

This time, the theme is gratitude to our teachers, with an invitation to share experiences of receiving or offering help in a game.

Over my years playing MapleStory, many people have helped me in one way or another, and I have had opportunities to help others in return. I especially remember helping newcomers back when party play was possible in The Seed. At the time, so-called Tier 2 runs, which involved clearing only up to the 41st floor to farm ring boxes, were popular, and the 22nd floor was arguably the biggest hurdle along the way. By using practice tickets to work through it together, though, newcomers could soon learn to clear it, leaving us both with a sense of accomplishment.

I no longer have any records of those experiences, so they live on only in my memories. As I wondered what I might share that offered something more concrete to look back on, I remembered my posts about Legion leveling in MapleStory M and decided to revisit them here.

Remembering when leveling in MapleStory M to link with MapleStory on PC took quite some effort

If I remember correctly, I was not playing MapleStory at the time, but I was playing MapleStory M. Hoping to help other players, I wrote these MapleStory M guides for anyone leveling a character to link with MapleStory on PC.

The posts above were written roughly 2 months apart. As I recall, that was because a new class arrived every 2 months, bringing opportunities to take advantage of linking events and support events. Looking back now, those linking rewards feel rather unfamiliar.

Leveling has become easier in many ways over the years, particularly during last winter’s EXPAND update season, when the EXP required after level 200 was reduced so dramatically that events and showcase gifts made it possible to reach even level 250 in about 30 minutes. With that in mind, the time commitment shown in those old posts is quite striking.

Looking back, the process itself also seems to have involved quite a few little details to keep track of.

Players sometimes needed mesos for leveling back then, so I would also send some to those who needed them, as shown here. Judging by the number of comments, more people seem to have asked than I would have expected. Thankfully, that is another step players no longer need to worry about.

Things have become much easier, but……

As I mentioned, leveling has become easier in several ways, and even the related post I wrote just 2 months ago shows that reaching level 120—a reasonable goal outside major event seasons—took only about 10 minutes.

After hearing that an update had changed things in the meantime, I looked into it and found that the skip option during character creation and the rapid growth option had been removed. In their place was a newly added tutorial shared by all new characters.

The update has made leveling to 200 more cumbersome, and I have seen many players express disappointment with the patch. The tutorial explains the main features and content in considerable detail, asking you to click through each step individually, which makes the process much more involved than it was with the rapid growth option available just 2 months ago.

Since the tutorial starts over from the beginning even when you create another character, it seems likely that every character has to go through it. If that is the case, I can understand how frustrating it must be for players seriously working on Legion leveling in MapleStory M.

Reaching level 100 through the tutorial takes about 10 minutes. After defeating Crimson Balrog and reaching level 100, you leave the tutorial town and arrive in a regular town, but with no apparent dedicated dungeon available, party hunting in Star Force Fields seems to be the only way to reach level 120.

Of course, getting from level 100 to 120 is quite quick now, and if you are leveling a character to link with MapleStory on PC, reaching level 120 is already a considerable help, even if you stop there for the time being. That makes it well worth the time invested, even now. Auto-battle continues after you close the game, so you can simply join a party in a hunting area and then exit.

As for leveling to 250, you can wait to see what the upcoming 2026 summer update brings. Once the details are released, we will need to check whether events such as 본 투 V will work the same way as before, along with what the showcase gifts and related events will offer. I hope leveling will be as smooth as it was during the winter season.

Thank you for reading.