Hello! PICKER Namaka here.

On November 6, the long-awaited new idle RPG 'Maple Raising' officially launched!

As someone who already loves the MapleStory IP, I was genuinely excited to hear a new game based on it was on the way.

In this post, I’ll be sharing my first-day review and progression guide for the idle RPG mobile game Maple Raising after diving in hard right from launch!

Idle RPG mobile game

Maple Raising First Impressions

Maple Raising is an idle RPG built around Nexon’s MapleStory IP. Its biggest strength is how easily you can grow your character through auto-battle, so it’s easy to enjoy even in the middle of a busy day. At the same time, it also adds some light manual controls, which gives the gameplay a nice extra twist.

What stood out most to me was how well the community features were put together, with players actively interacting all the time. Because of that, it really felt like an idle mobile game that delivers progression, collection, and social fun all at once!

There are currently 8 playable classes: Hero, Dark Knight, Arch Mage (Ice/Lightning), Arch Mage (Fire/Poison), Bowmaster, Marksman, Night Lord, and Shadower. Since there’s no class change feature and the game is still in its early release phase, it’s hard to draw clear tier lines just yet. For now, I’d say the biggest factor when choosing a class is simply your own preference.

In my case, I started out with Bowmaster, but I’m currently raising an Arch Mage (Ice/Lightning) instead. Based on first job advancement, Ice/Lightning feels way more satisfying for mobbing, and the flashy effects make it a lot of fun to watch too! There are some slight performance differences between classes in both hunting and boss fights, though, so keep that in mind. :)

Early on, you’ll work through the tutorial on Maple Island. Along the way, you naturally get familiar with the combat, progression, and equipment systems. Job advancement becomes available from level 5, and as you clear chapter stages, you’ll move through regions like Maple Island → Henesys → Ellinia → Kerning City in order.

When you level up, you can increase stats such as main stat, defense, and max HP. Each category has its own cap, though, so you can’t just pour everything into a single stat forever.

Once all of your stats hit their caps, your 'Maple Rank' goes up, letting you push your power even further. On top of that, you can also improve special stats like attack speed, critical rate, and min/max damage multipliers!

Equipment drops from defeating 'Elite Monsters'! After that, you can use 'Armor Stones' to raise your summon level, which lets you obtain higher-rarity gear. Since the core loop keeps rolling through hunt → dismantle → summon level up → hunt, farming gear felt pretty satisfying!

Skills are divided into active, passive, nth advancement enhancement, and mastery. You can equip up to 6 active skills, and only one [Basic Attack Effect] skill can be slotted at a time. Once you learn mastery, you can also gain bonus effects like Attack +15% and Targets +1. It does take Red Diamonds to learn, though, so I recommend saving a bit before spending!

Weapons can be obtained through weapon summons. In general, the most efficient play is to equip and enhance the highest-rarity weapon you currently own. That said, each weapon also has a 'collection effect', so if you have some extra 'Weapon Enhancement Stones,' it’s worth giving lower-rarity weapons a few upgrades too for the added combat power!

Next up are companions. You can get them through companion summons, and each companion comes with summon effects as well as active and passive skills. Your 'main companion' directly joins you in field combat, while 'sub companions' don’t appear in battle but still apply their 'equipped effects.' What’s especially interesting is that the number of sub companion slots increases based on summon level, so consistently summoning companions as you play seems pretty important!

A hilariously tragic moment...

Community features are also really well done! You can freely chat with other players, and even late at night, the conversations were still surprisingly active. On top of that, you can earn extra rewards by chatting in town or completing quests, which really captures that classic Maple vibe. Best of all, your character keeps hunting even while you’re hanging around in town, so I loved not having to worry about losing EXP!

Beyond that, there’s a wide range of content on offer, including Growth Dungeons where you can earn various currencies, plus World Boss, Party Quests, and the Arena. Thanks to that, it really felt like there’s always something to do!

Maple Raising Progression Guide

01. Server

When you first start the game, a server is assigned automatically. If you want to play with friends, make sure to check your server before you begin.

After launching the game, tap the globe icon in the top-right corner to view the server list.

Higher-numbered servers were created more recently, so they tend to have more new players and are relatively easier to break into the rankings on!

02. Weapon Summon Tickets

If you tap the '?' button in the top-left of the UI and read the guide, you can claim 10 Weapon Summon Tickets as a reward.

They show up in almost every menu, so make sure you grab them!

03. Changing Your Nickname

You can change it after completing Guide 73 in the Ellinia region!

04. Spending

If you’re thinking about spending money, I highly recommend grabbing the time-limited 'Hot Deal' packages whenever they appear!

In particular, Unique equipment items are efficient enough that even top-ranked players keep using them for a long time.

05. Pet Walking Trail

If you meet and talk to NPC Bartos on the Pet Walking Trail, you can receive 100 Time Reduction Tickets as a reward.

I’m not sure whether clearing all of the later courses gives extra rewards too. I passed on the transparent platforms because they felt a bit too stressful for me ㅠ.^

06. Online vs. Offline Hunting Efficiency

Purely in terms of efficiency, keeping the game online 24/7 gives much better EXP gains than offline auto-hunting!

07. Coupons

There is an input box, but at the moment, there are no active coupons you can enter.

That wraps up my idle RPG mobile game Maple Raising review & progression tips guide!

Even if you haven’t really played much of the MapleStory IP before, this still felt like a game you could jump into without much pressure.

If you’ve been looking for a new idle RPG to try, I think this one is well worth checking out for yourself. Thanks for reading :)

That’s it for this post!

PICKER Namaka signing off. Thank you. :)