Hello.

This time, the keyword is prime spots—more specifically, the standout spots you might want to know about in-game.

There are all kinds of places that could be called “sweet spots,” but if we narrow it down to “a place where you gain EXP just by staying still,” that fits the idea quite well. With that in mind, I took a look at the maps in MapleStory commonly known as “AFK maps.” For 뉴비 in particular, there are a few things here that are well worth checking.

[Mind and Body Training Center] : A place no one really goes anymore

Located inside Mu Lung Dojo, the Mind and Body Training Center has quite a long history behind it. You could even call it the original template for the 잠수맵 players know today. Over time, though, more efficient AFK maps were added, while the Training Center itself never really improved. Because of that, it has now become a place with little reason to visit.

In the past, entry tickets were also given out as rewards based on MVP rank, but now they can only be purchased with points earned from Mu Lung Dojo.

Mu Lung Dojo itself has also slipped out of the main content lineup, and even players who still climb it usually spend their points first on items like Spirit Pendant or Mu Gong’s Soul Shard. At this point, there is hardly any reason left to go here.

There was also the Sunday Maple held on October 27, 2019, which is still remembered as a legendary Sunday Maple—but not in a good way. Even now, you can still see how poor the reaction was by looking at the comments on the official event page from back then. Perhaps for that reason, this benefit has never returned even once since.

[I Didn’t Do Anything] : Not running now, but once a regular event

I Didn’t Do Anything was, quite literally, an event where you gained EXP even if you did nothing at all.

Up to the maximum charge time of 24 hours, time would accumulate normally while you were logged in, and even while logged out it would still build at half speed. You could then claim the accumulated EXP whenever you wanted. As a concept, it was fairly appealing, but in terms of efficiency, it was never especially impressive.

With the game’s update direction having changed, this now feels like the kind of event that will not come back. Still, from 2018 to 2023, it showed up fairly regularly—just often enough that players would see it again right as they were starting to forget about it.

At first, it only offered the automatically accumulated EXP shown above. Later on, a few small twists were added, such as gimmicks where collecting star candy in the event map would give cosmetic rewards.

AFK EXP in large event maps : A benefit that returns each major season

It varies from event to event, but major seasonal events—usually the summer and winter ones—sometimes include AFK EXP directly in the event map itself. The most recent example was Echoes of Memory from the winter event Talahart Fantasia.

Of course, there is no real need to remember the exact name of this type of event. It is enough to know that if you see an attendance event with an unfamiliar name like the one above, it is very likely referring to this kind of AFK event.

That said, the efficiency here is not especially good for the time invested. From what I found, even with 3x EXP, going from level 101 to level 200 takes about 4 days and 20 hours. Since modern MapleStory really starts in earnest from level 260 onward, this is not something that would be all that helpful in most situations.

[VIP Sauna] and [MVP Resort] : The main content people mean when they talk about AFK maps now

In MapleStory today, when people talk about an AFK map, they are usually referring to VIP Sauna and MVP Resort. They are grouped together here because their EXP efficiency is identical.

You can conveniently check the detailed EXP gains by level range on this site. To list a few representative level brackets, here is what the 1-hour values look like.

• Level 260 : about 9%

• Level 265 : about 8%

• Level 270 : about 4%

• Level 275 : about 2.3%

• Level 280 : about 0.9%

• Level 285 : about 0.37%

As you can see, the efficiency is on a completely different level from most other 잠수맵. Because of that, many players use them when raising sub-characters, and they are especially helpful in Challengers World, where level-up missions are part of the progression.

As mentioned earlier, both types of content give the same EXP. The difference lies in how you obtain the time you can spend in each map and a few related details, so this is worth checking in advance.

First, VIP Sauna basically lets you charge time with Maple Points. It costs 3,000 Maple Points per hour, and you can recharge up to 48 times per week. If you fill all 48, that comes to 144,000 Maple Points.

You can also get VIP Sauna passes as rewards from various events. Using one adds 30 minutes of sauna time, and these can be obtained steadily just by participating in events as usual.

Even in the attendance event running right now, full attendance allows you to get 1 per week, for a total of 12 during the event period, or 360 minutes altogether. During the previous major event season, it was also possible to get 2 per week through level-range monster attendance. And when there is a showcase like the one above, they sometimes hand out 3 hours’ worth with no conditions at all.

One thing to keep in mind is that, as shown above, this is tied to an event period. You need to use all of your remaining time within the stated event duration. VIP Sauna itself runs continuously, but once one round ends, the next starts fresh the day after the event ends, so saved time does not carry over. Since Thursday, June 18 is also the opening day of the summer Challengers World season, this seems to be a measure to prevent sauna time earned from previous events from being used in the new Challengers World.

There is also an extra reward element here: depending on your cumulative charged time, you can obtain furniture for use in Maple Home. The furniture rewards are listed below.

• Cumulative 30-hour reward : Sleepywood Wooden Washstand

• Cumulative 100-hour reward : Sleepywood Sauna Bathtub

• Cumulative 200-hour reward : Sleepywood Wooden Foot Bath

• Cumulative 500-hour reward : VIP Sauna Cafe

Lastly, MVP Resort time can be obtained each week based on your MVP rank. The weekly amounts by rank are as follows.

• Bronze : 45 minutes

• Silver : 1 hour 30 minutes

• Gold : 3 hours

• Diamond : 6 hours

• Red : 12 hours

• Black : 18 hours

As mentioned, the EXP is the same as in VIP Sauna, but it can be accumulated up to 90 hours. And unlike VIP Sauna, that saved time can also be used in Challengers World, which is why many players start saving it for that purpose as the season gets closer.

Thank you for reading.