Hello.

The theme of this post is trending items—a look at items that became popular in games.

This time, I have gathered some of the looks associated with Adele, whose popularity in MapleStory became a trend lasting about 1 year as several factors came together.

Adele, once one of the most popular characters

Adele is a Flora warrior class released on January 16, 2020. Her character design was well received, and for some time after her release, she was regarded as a good choice for newcomers. As a result, an enormous number of players chose Adele during that period.

Part of her popularity came from the wide reach of Cleave, her main 4th job skill. Hunting maps did not have instanced fields as they do now, so the many Adeles who would jump and cast Cleave for no particular reason while passing through reportedly left other players with a poor impression of the class.

Some players may have done this deliberately, but many newcomers likely did not know the unwritten rules of hunting maps. These players often wore only outfits received from events rather than customizing their appearance, and that look became a meme in its own right for a while. The best-known example is “츄델,” wearing the Chu Chu Island combat outfit shown in the image, though there were several other variations, as we will see below.

For this post, I looked into each of these Adele looks. It was interesting to see how the outfits marked the passage of time over roughly the first 1 year after her release.

The most iconic look: 츄델

Before we get to the Cash items, a defining feature of these Adele looks is the visible face accessory, eye accessory, and earrings from the boss accessories awarded through the <Hyper Burning> event. That accessory on the forehead, in particular, is commonly called a pimple.

These are the familiar Condensed Power Crystal, Aquatic Letter Eye Accessory, and Dea Sidus Earring. A transparent accessory set or other cosmetic items would cost at least some Reward Points or mesos, so it is understandable that these purchases fell lower on a newcomer's list of priorities.

The recent Ren event improved on this by including a transparent equipment set box among its initial rewards. With Ren far surpassing Adele in both popularity and sheer numbers, I think the change came at a good time.

The Chu Chu Island outfit set was originally distributed as compensation alongside an apology, then later as a Wongstaurant event reward. Unlike other cosmetic items, it was a so-called combat outfit with temporary stats, and claiming it required no additional steps. I think that combination helped it become the defining look.

츄델 went on to gain widespread recognition and a following of its own. After the All-Star Choice Coupons were released, many players used the corresponding Adele hair and face coupons to recreate the look. I still have it saved on a mannequin myself. There is also plenty of fan art to be found, so it is worth a search if you are interested.

Black Set and Chaos Root Abyss Set Adele

These versions of Adele did not even bother with cosmetic items, simply wearing the Black Set and Root Abyss Set given out as Burning rewards, respectively.

The mask worn by the Black Set Adele in the image above is a reward for clearing the Riena Strait theme dungeon. Tera Blink did not exist at the time, so it seems players needed to clear theme dungeons to level up.

Grand Master Outfit Adele

The Grand Master outfit was a reward from <Adele Deployment Support>, the event celebrating Adele's release.

Claiming it required reaching level 200, the final stage of the Step Up event. As an outfit in its own right, I think it turned out quite nicely.

Mouse Adele

Adele's release year, 2020, was the Year of the White Rat, and 2 events offered mouse outfits as rewards: the Lunar New Year event and the Valentine's Day event.

The NPC in charge had quite a striking appearance, but the outfit itself was cute...

Candy Cloud Adele

The Candy Cloud Set is an outfit associated with the <AWAKE> update.

The update arrived in June 2020. Given that Adele had been released in January of that year, this is a reminder that she was still a

popular class at that point.

The outfit later became available in the coin shop, but its initial distribution was a little unusual. Before the update, coupon codes were revealed one at a time, with each code granting 1 piece of the outfit. Since there were no additional requirements, I imagine that helped the set become so widespread.

Sage Training Outfit Adele

The Sage Training Outfit Set was another cosmetic set available through the <AWAKE> event.

These items were given out early in the event, and were reportedly especially common among players who had missed the pre-update event mentioned above. The pandas featured prominently in the update wore the same outfit.

However, between the event's difficulty and the pandas' poor reputation for various reasons, the outfit was ultimately remembered more for its notoriety than anything else.

Rudolph Adele

Finally, this set was a Christmas event reward from <NEO>, the winter season update for 2020.

That means Adeles were everywhere from the summer update right through the winter update—a rather remarkable thought in hindsight.

The set could be claimed through a Christmas quiz event. Since the event required little time, that likely helped make the outfit a common choice.

Thank you for reading.