MapleStory/Gameplay

After you successfully download and install the game and register an account name, it's time for you to get acquainted with the ins and outs of the world. As you level up as a Beginner you'll always want to look ahead to see how you can optimize your experience.

Gameplay
Like most MMORPGs, gameplay centers on venturing into dungeons and combating monsters in real-time. The players combat monsters and complete quests, in the process acquiring in-game currency, called "mesos" or "meru", experience points (EXP), and various items.

Characters advance in level by gaining a preset amount of EXP for each level. The maximum possible level is level 200. Upon leveling up, players receive Ability Points and Skill Points to distribute among their abilities and skills.

MapleStory's 2D side-scrolling viewpoint more closely resembles a platformer than the typical 3D or top-down view of other games such as Guild Wars or Mu Online. The controls for the game are executed using the computer keyboard and mouse. The keyboard is used for many game functions, and much of it can be re-arranged to suit users' needs. The mouse is mainly used to trigger NPCs (Non Player Characters) and manipulating items.

MapleStory characters exist in "worlds". Each world is split up into "servers". Players are allowed to create up to three different characters in each world. Each world, similar in content between each other in the same version, is split into up to twenty channels, among which characters are allowed to freely switch. Characters and their items cannot be transferred between worlds.

New players
Before you begin, you'll need to choose the sex of all of your characters, Male or Female. Once you have chosen, you cannot switch. This choice is meant to reflect your own gender; don't be surprised if many people do not. Now you must create your character: you'll have the ability to roll for its basic abilities (stats), choose what your character looks like, and name your character.

You will be able to allocate ability points amongst four different stats that affect your character's inherent strengths. Players cannot manually choose where these points will be placed, as the distribution is randomly generated by a dice roll. Even if you have no preference, it is highly recommended that you have an idea of what class you wish to become. These stats will play a great role in your gameplay.
 * Abilities

When customizing your character's appearance, you'll be able to choose from a limited variety of faces, hair styles, hair colors, skin colors, and initial equipment for their character. After the character's creation, the cosmetic aspects of these can be modified only through the quest "Beauty or Beast" or purchase of special coupons from the Cash Shop.
 * Appearance

There are very few naming rules for your character, as long as the name has not already been taken. Remember that MapleStory tends to censor, so anything slightly inappropriate may not be a good idea.
 * Naming

Unlike many other MMORPGs, players in MapleStory cannot choose a character class or job when they create the character. Rather, every character starts with the job Beginner until they meet the requirements to complete the first job advancement.
 * Initial Job

After the character creation process is complete, you can chose to take several beginner quests that serve as a turorial to the game. If you choose not to, you will be sent to Maple Island, a floating island specifically designed to be beginner-friendly.
 * The Adventure Begins

For the means of strategy, it is important to place your points mainly into a certain stat and a certain skill. To choose which stat and skill you should mainly work on improving, you should first decide what class or job you will take on later in the game. The initial skills available to Beginner classes have little effect past the first job.

Dying
When a character's hit points reach zero, the character dies. Death will normally cost a character a percentage of EXP, never to fall below zero percent. Beginners do not lose EXP when they die. Items such as the one-use Safety Charm (available from the Cash Shop) can prevent EXP loss when the character dies. After death, the character transports to the nearest town. Upon returning to the nearest town, characters are revived with fifty HP, as well as the same amount of MP they possessed upon death.

Stats
There are four types of stats (Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Luck) with varying degrees of value depending on character class. Characters generally raise one main stat to increase their damage output, as well as one minor stat to meet the requirements to equip weapons and armor and/or increase the specialties that come with some of the stats. Also sometimes a character will choose to raise their health or mana. These are also raised using Ability Points (AP).

Skills
Every character class has various skills in which to invest Skill Points (SP). A skill becomes increasingly powerful or helpful depending on the amount of SP invested in the skill. Each skill can be mapped to a specific button to simplify activation.

Parties
Players can kill monsters alone, or they can form a party with up to 5 other characters. One character forms a party as the leader, and invites others to the party. The leader must be at least level 10 or have already completed the first job advancement to create a party. While killing monsters, Mesos and EXP are shared based on damage dealt to the monster as well as each character's relative level; more of each being given to higher-level members. Party members who are significantly weaker than the monsters killed by other members will not receive shares of the EXP unless they have dealt at least 1 point of damage to the monster before it is killed. The EXP and Mesos gained are only shared if the party members are on the same map and channel. Joining a party without helping is known as "leeching" and is generally considered rude.

Guilds
Players can form Guilds with other players. The purpose of a guild is to be able to find and chat with each other more easily, to bond with other players, and make it easier when trying to complete a quest. Members have their guild's name listed under their character name along with the guild's emblem, if applicable.

Guilds can be created at Orbis for a large amount of Mesos. Additional upgrades to the guild such as a guild emblem and expanding the maximum amount of guild members will carry an additional fee. For each expansion, the cost is more.

Guilds have a customizable hierarchy of five ranks. The "Guild Master", who initially created the guild, has complete control over the guild. "Jr. Masters", appointed by the Guild Master, have limited control over the guild. Each guild member's rank, level, and job is displayed in the guild window. A special guild-only quest called "Sharenian" is available. It is much like a party quest, but more difficult.

Monsters
Killing monsters gives a player experience, Mesos, and/or items. Any experience gained is automatically added to the player’s total experience, whereas the Mesos and items are dropped at the location of the monsters' death.

Like human-controlled characters, monsters have defense ratings against attacks. In addition, some monsters have elemental strengths and weaknesses making them more or less susceptible to specific elemental attacks. Nearly all monsters can damage the player simply through contact. Some monsters can use skills similar to the player's.

Quests
Quests are varying tasks that players may perform for NPCs in return for experience and possible rewards. There are many available quests, each with varying prerequisites; most quests may require the player to have attained a certain level or to have completed certain quests. Some quests can be repeated, although the reward(s) and given EXP may be different from those attained during their first completion.

Items
Items can be acquired from monster drops, purchased from other characters or shops, or as rewards for completing a quest. In some versions of the game, items can be obtained through cash with the gachapon system. Players buy gachapon tickets with cash and each of these tickets can be exchanged for a random item. Items can be dropped (where they can be picked up by any other character), sold to any shop for a sum of meso, or sold/traded to other characters. Generally, stronger monsters drop better items. Due to the time required to sell valuable items to other players as well as the quantity of items received, many players create a mule account to store excess items and/or act as a dedicated trading account.

Inventory
There are five different item categories in the game: Equipment (clothes, accessories, and weapons); Use (potions, scrolls and other consumables); Set-up (decorations and special items); Etc. (monster drops, ores, and quest items); and Cash (items bought from the cash shop). In the inventory window, each category has its own section, each of which is only able to contain a limited amount of items. Extra inventory space can be purchased in the Cash Shop or awarded after each job advancement.

Equipment can be upgraded by using item upgrade scrolls which give stat bonuses to equipment. Using a scroll on an item can only be attempted a limited number of times irrespective of the scroll's success or failure. The number of attempts available vary with the item type. Scrolls have a certain percentage of success. Typically, the lower the success percentage, the higher the stat gains provided by the scrolls. Scrolls can only be used when you have equipped the item that you wish to upgrade, but in KoreanMS, MapleSEA, GlobalMS and JapanMS, there is a skill (listed in the beginner skill book) that allows you to scroll an item without the need of equipping it. Called Legendary Spirit, it is only available after an extremely hard quest.

Cash Shop
The Cash Shop is a virtual shop where players can buy items using real money. The items sold in the Cash Shop include clothing items, appearance-changing coupons, pets, and usable items that provide special bonuses, such as a bonus in experience gain. Most Cash Shop items expire after a certain period of time.

Pets, modeled after animals such as monkeys, dogs, cats, bunnies, pandas, and pigs, follow the owner around and can be equipped to pick up spoils dropped by enemies.

The Global Cash Shop markets items for two virtual currencies: Nexon Cash (NX Cash), and "MaplePoints". NX Cash is purchased outside of MapleStory through the MapleStory web site. MaplePoints, however, can be earned through special events.

Prepaid cards, obtained through events or bought from stores, are available in MapleSEA and GlobalMS. In the US, the Nexon prepaid cash cards are currently available in nationwide (US) Target stores. An event has been added, named "Spot On" to introduce the partnership. Completing the quest involves talking to two NPCs who give information about the sale of cash cards. Nexon prepaid cash cards have become available from other additional stores.

Free Market
The Free Market is a place set aside for people who wish to sell their items amongst other players. Miniature shops can be set up in this area in which people can browse their stock. Shop permits, required to set up a shop, are only available through the Cash Shop. There are two types of store permits: a standard store, which requires the presence of the player, and the "Mushroom House Elf", which does not require the presence of the player. One can meet with players located in other towns, provided the town contains a Free Market entrance. However, one cannot use the free market to travel between towns. There are entrances to the Free Market in many of the various towns, but not all.

Unique gameplay features
Although a purely two-dimensional game lacking certain features found in other MMORPGs, MapleStory has features that distinguish it from other online games. For example, by pressing certain keys, a player can have their character temporarily display various emotions viewable by other players; some emotions showcase a confused expression, while another conveys happiness. Additional expressions can be purchased in the Cash Shop.

Fame
Fame is the designation for one of the statistics on a character's character sheet. Fame allows a user's character to do slightly more things, as some items and quests need a certain amount of fame; characters are also ranked online by fame level. Once characters are at the minimum requirement of level 15, they are able to raise or lower the fame of any character once per day. A character cannot raise or lower the same character's fame more than once every thirty days. Some quests may award a player fame points, or even take some away.

NOTE: Fame does NOT affect drops or meso amounts, nor does luck AP.

Marriage
Players may participate in in-game marriages. Weddings occur at one of two special areas, based on the version played. Guests may be invited to the wedding, and the marrying couple will receive wedding rings.

The traditional Chinese marriage system that takes place at Peach Blossom Island is only available in ChinaMS. In order for the couple to enter the ceremony hall, players will need to don Western- or Chinese-style wedding outfits and a special ring purchased from the Cash Shop. After the ceremony, both players will receive a Diamond Ring as proof of the marriage.

Amoria, a marriage system based on western culture, is available in ThailandMS and GlobalMS. It requires the completion of various quests, including receiving an engagement ring and the blessing of the parents (Cathedral weddings require blessings). Unlike other versions, players may attempt to make a variety of rings. Each of these rings carry various bonuses. In Amoria Dungeon, players can fight exclusive monsters. Currently, the monsters found there include the Orange Mushroom, Blue Snail, Slime, and, exclusive to this map, the Sakura Cellion. If you buy a premium wedding ticket from the Cash Shop, you will be able to have a party after the ceremony.

Events
On certain days, the Game Masters(or GMs) host special events in which any player is capable of participating, given their character is at a given map during the event time. All participants receive a trophy, and winners receive a random prize.

Users are notified of an upcoming event by a scrolling box at the top of the game screen. Events are known to bring an influx of players to the event's respective locations, which generally causes massive connection lag.

Special events include Christmas tree events, wedding events, drawing events, and quest events; for example, players might be required to find an item and return it to the event quest NPC or GM.

Occasionally, certain versions of the game hold events that celebrate a certain event in real-life or an event specific to that version, such as a holiday or new server release. During these events, certain aspects of the game are modified in celebration; for example, the experience rate or drop rate may be increased, or special items may be released.

Versions and registration
The Korean version was the first to be created, ergo it has the most features as of yet; other versions are at different stages of development and most are not as advanced in content as Korea's. With this advantage comes the problem of players (mainly from the Global version, but some from others) trying to play KoreaMS. These players are often referred to as 이주자, or "immigrants" by a majority of the Korean MapleStory players. These "immigrants" are the reason why a Korean Social Security Number is required to play. IP blocking is used in some of the other versions of the game, mostly for the same reason. Some attempt to bypass this by using Proxies, which spoof IP addresses to make it seem like a player is playing from a different country - however in Europe MapleStory a GameGuard proxy check has been implemented. This is also because foreign text in the Latin Character-Based Global version causes glitches to occur. This is the same for Koreans in the Chinese version, and so on.

Though some versions share the same world names, they are different and independent of each other. They are defined by their language used, publisher, server location and specialized worlds.