MapleStory/Monsters

There are many monsters in the world of MapleStory. The most dangerous monsters live deep in dungeons. Harmless monsters tend to stay by towns. Maple Island is one of the places that has very few monsters and are mostly very weak. Higher level monsters live in Victoria Island, but more dangerous monsters live closer to the center (Dungeon) of the island. Ossyria mainly has high level monsters as well as four major bosses. Note that some monsters float, this means that they cannot be struck by low attacks (such as attacks while ducking).

There is also a complete list of monsters, Event Monsters, and bosses.

Items, leftovers, and Mesos
After killing a monster, Mesos or monster leftovers (ETC. items) may be dropped sometimes. However, the monster may also drop something rare (infrequently of course), such as an equipment, which can be worth a lot. The mesos dropped by a monster is varied, and the range varies with the monster (and is usually, but not always, somewhat proportional to the level of the monster, so you will find that in SOME circumstances monsters of same level drops the same range of mesos), the maximum value usually being 1.5x the minimum value. Monster leftovers have many varying uses. Some are used for quests, exchange quests where large numbers can be turned in to an NPC for experience, or for forging materials, such as Firewood that is used to make Processed Wood. In versions with the Maker skill, 100 monster leftovers can be combined to form a "Monster Crystal", an alchemical reagent used to create items.

Monster Book
Monster Book is, as the name suggests, a book which every player is given that catalogs monsters. When the Monster Book is added to the game, monsters will begin dropping "cards" that contain detailed information on them. Each individual monster's card can be collected up to five times, each time detailing further information about the monster:
 * Availability: JapanMS, ChinaMS, TaiwanMS, ThailandMS and MapleSEA.
 * 1) The monster's slot in the book lights up and it's standing sprite becomes viewable.
 * 2) The monster's HP and MP values will be displayed, as well as some new animations of the monster, such as walking or knockback.
 * 3) The monster's history and level will be added.
 * 4) A near complete drop list is revealed, with certain items (such as Skill books) omitted.
 * 5) Reveal the monster's exact locations across the world, buff the player for 1 hour with Denoted Monster Effect (15% experience boost), and all remaining animations for that monster will be unlocked.

Though cards will continue to drop after the final card is found, picking up more than five will have no effect. In addition to their permanent change to a player's monster book.

Cards in the book are sorted by relative level range. There are tabs on the side of the book which allow one to skip from level range to level range. The tabs on the book's side are color coded, and the colors match those in the background of the cards which appear in that section. A Chief Gray, for example, has a green background on its' card, and the tab under which it appears is also green. The only exception is cards from Boss monsters, as these appear in a different section, called "Special Cards". Certain event monsters also appear as special cards.

Only monsters found on Maple Island, Victoria Island, and Ossyria currently drop cards. In MapleSEA, JapanMS, ChinaMS and TaiwanMS cards drop from Zipangu, Shanghai Wai-Tan, Shaolin Temple, Ximending and Taipei 101 monsters. MapleSEA had just released Singapore and Malaysia cards. All other World Tour areas, such as Floating Market and Masteria, do not have cards in any version. It is expected that when the version which created a town gets the Monster Book, the monsters in that version's World Tour area will begin dropping cards. Monsters in Party Quests do not drop cards, with the exception of bosses: King Slime, Alishar, Poison Golem, Lord Pirate, Papa Pixie, and Frankenroid. For players who are above the level range of the Party Quests, opportunities to "buy" these cards appear from time to time as part of events.

When you receive the fifth card for a monster, you'll acquire the buff called "Denoted Monster Effect" for one hour. This buff gives you a bonus 15% experience whenever you kill that monster. If you go to Lith Harbor while you have this buff, you can complete the Event quest titled "Denoted Monster Effect" by speaking with Tienk. If you choose to do this, you will immediately lose the buff. You can only acquire the Denoted Monster Effect for a given monster once.
 * Denoted Monster Effect