2008-08-23, 01:04 AM
(This post was last modified: 2008-09-01, 04:11 PM by TheSmartGuy.)
This was originally posted on Basilmarket, though it has also been posted on Mapletowers.com and Sleepywood.net .
Latest Update (8/23/08): Removed Baby Typhons from 2x Drop Section.
Intro
Need a way to make mesos? Stuck at mediocrity because your bank account isn’t big enough? Sick of that dam friend of yours with the BWG and the Pink Adv. Cape and the 10 dex earrings and blah blah blah….. Well then this is the right guide for you! I, Aznluster11, wrote this guide to help YOU make money in Maplestory. Now, I’m pretty sure some of you will think that you’re so pro and have so much money and don’t need a guide and blah blah blah… if your one of these people, please go away. For the others, read on! ^_^
Gachapon
Gachapon is a vending machine located in several cities in Maplestory. To activate Gachapon, you need to buy Gachapon tickets, available at the Cash Shop for 1000 NX cash each. For each ticket you use, you will receive an item. Some items will be good, and some items…. Will be really bad. Now lets explore the 3 three best gachapon of Maplestory.
Sleepywood
The Sleepywood Gachapon used to be the best Gachapon in Maplestory, but since the release of the Zipangu Gach, it has fallen into hard times. Don’t move your eyes away, though. Sleepywood holds many rare items and consists of a LOT of scrolls, dark and regular. Just watch out for pumpkin pies and power elixirs; chances are this Gach will give away a lot of junk.
NLC
If you are holding 70+ Gacha tickets, NLC may be your best bet. The New Leaf City Gachapon contains a TREMENDOUS amount of crap (more than several Victoria Island Gachapon), but also yields one of the most expensive Gachapon items in the game: the white scroll. The white scroll can easily sell for 150+ mil. But be careful; any less than 70 tickets will probably make you end up with a bunch of worthless NPC items. There ARE several expensive scrolls/equips that can be obtained from here, but those shouldn't be the basis of your hopes.
Zipangu
YES! This is, inarguably, the best gachapon machine in Global Maplestory as of now. Zipangu has the highest dark scroll reward rate of any gachapon, not to mention a huge variety of expensive equips. Unfortunately, the price of dark scrolls has fallen dramatically ever since the release of Zipangu, so your profits may no longer be as high as you hoped. Still, this is a definite must-try for any hopeful Gacher.
For people who want more info: Doomfacer’s Gachapon Guide Doomfacer’s Gachapon Guide
Money Quests
Sick of merchanting? Tired of training? Ran out of money for gach? Then quests are the way for you! Questing can help you relieve stress gained from training/merchanting and is often an easy way to make some cash. But which quests pay enough to be worth doing? Read on….
Quests That Will Pay You Back For Wasting Your Time
The following is a list of great money-making quests that you can do when you’re low on cash. This was compiled COMPLETELY by WinglessOne. I take no credit for any part of this section whatsoever.
Eliminate The Monsters From The Site (Lvl 25)
Sakura and The Teddy Bear (Lvl 30)
Jane and The Wild Boar (Lvl 30)
The Missing Mechancial parts (Lvl 30)
The View Of The Ocean (Lvl 30)
Food-Hunting for Moppie III (Lvl 30)
POLLUTED! <2-Curse Eye> (Level 30)
Terminating the Dark Force (Lvl 31)
A Delivery To A Lost Time (Lvl 33)
Sakura and The Seal (Lvl 35)
Eos Tower Threatened! (Lvl 35)
Rowen the Fairy and The Cursed Dolls (Lvl 35)
Subani's Legacy (Lvl 36)
ReVersal (Lvl 40)
Sakura, The Kitty and the Orange Marble (Lvl 40)
Shumi's Lost Sack of Money (Lvl 40)
Movie Star (BELOW Lvl 40)
Jane The Alchemist (Lvl 40)
To The New World (Lvl 40)
Peace At Eos Tower (Lvl 40)
The History of Zeta Leticulan (Lvl 45)
The Alligators At The Swamp (Lvl 52)
The Outlaw In The Sea (Lvl 55-100)
Preparing For The Revival (Lvl 55)
In Search of The Ancient Book (Lvl 55)
Doll In The Dark (Lvl 55)
Notice From The Excavation Team (Lvl 60)
Scadur's New Fur Coat (Level 60)
Soul In The Dark (Lvl 70)
Operation Eliminate Red-Nosed Pirates (Lvl 70)
Monster Rumor Mill (Lvl 80)
The Committee Challenges (Lvl 85)
Open Sesami (Lvl 85)
An Unknown Love (Lvl 85)
Sabitrama's Life Work (Lvl 85)
Freed From Darkness (Lvl 90)
Muse Is Cooking (Lvl 95)
What Is Merchanting?
Merchanting is the process of buying an item and selling it to someone else for a higher price. People merchant scrolls, equips, event items, or anything else that they can rip people off with. It is the most common way to gain money in Maplestory, and many merchants have made billions of mesos through this simple process.
Buying Items to Sell
One of the best places to buy items for you to sell is the Channel 1 Free Market entrance. It’s filled with people desperate to sell their scrolls and other items because they don’t know of the existence of Basilmarket/don’t have a store. Scrolls are usually the best moneymakers since almost everyone has at least one and most people don’t know about their prices (usually to your advantage). Since weapon scrolls are quite often worth more than armor scrolls, they’re usually the scrolls of choice amongst most merchants. You can also use Basilmarket to buy your items. More on that later.
How to Attract the Seller’s Attention
In most servers, the Channel 1 Free Market is stuffed with dozens of buyers, sellers, and random personal. So just how are you going to get a seller’s attention? If you yell “B>SCROLLS!”, chances are that your message will be blocked by dozens of others. The best way to get other people’s attention is to make your message as long as possible. But how? There’s message limit, right? True. But you can stretch that limit. Along with the message “B>SCROLLS”, you can add 61 @’s. That makes your message much longer, making it much more noticeable. Other common uses of @:
“B>SCROLLS @@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@”
"B>SCROLLS @@@@@@@ @ @@@@@@@ @ @@@@@@@ @ @@@@@@@ @ @@@@@@@ @"
What to Actually Buy
As of now, I have only talked about the process of merchanting scrolls. That’s because scrolls are a very versatile area; but, of course, there’s much more to it than scrolls. Here’s a handy little list of what you can buy, depending on how much money you have available:
-1-2 million mesos- Right now, 10% overall dex scrolls bought from KPQers are very profitable. You can probably purchase them for 200k below FM price in Kerning; a lot of people will sell you several scrolls at a time, too. Buying defense scrolls and 10% weapon scrolls from the FM will also yield decent cash.
-2-5 million mesos- Buying 60% weapon scrolls and 10% non-defense armor scrolls from the FM is good money, since, with some good offering, deals are pretty easy to find. Merchanting dark scrolls is also ok, though some of them may still be too expensive.
-5-15 million mesos- You can afford to merchant most scrolls by now. So don’t hold back on buying that 60% glove atk scroll or that 70% overall dex scroll. Atk WGs are also very profitable right now, though it may take a while to find a seller. The onyx apple is pretty good too; it servers many as a source of easy income. However, I don’t really like the onyx apple because of its fluctuating prices.
-15+ million mesos- By now you can almost afford to merchant anything. There aren’t anymore scrolls that are out of your budget range, so feel free to try selling exotic scrolls like shield atk 60%s. You can even try merchanting scrolled items, though they can be a dangerous market. iTCG and event items may also be worth trying out. Feel free to experiment (carefully)!
The Delicate Art of Offering
Ok, someone’s traded you. Now what? You make him offer. Offering is the process of someone telling you how much he/she wants for an item. The offered price is completely negotiable, so it’s vital that you ask him to offer first. NEVER be the first one to offer. If you do, you won’t be able to know how much the person wants for his/her item. So you won’t be able to negotiate along the terms you want while at the same time with the terms he/she wants.
Haggling and Offering
A person trades you, shows you an item, and gives you a price (an offer). You don’t like the price, so you try to lower it. This process is called haggling. Haggling is extremely useful to merchants and can be easily combined with offering. But how should you haggle? Here are several popular methods:
Method 1
Method 1 is by far my favorite method, as it is the one in which the seller is least likely to cancel the trade. This method attempts to convince the seller to lower the price of his/her item as much as possible. However, most sellers are reluctant to decrease their price too much, so Method 1 only works when the seller is already offering a low price.
*person trades you*
Person: Hi, I’ll sell you this scroll *puts up a scroll worth 600- 700k*
You: Offer please
Person: Ummm… 600k?
Ok, the person is offering a relatively cheap price. Do you accept? No; he’ll think he’s offering too low. Make him go lower (be careful not use numbers)
You: Can you go a bit lower?
Person: 500k then
It’s pretty low now. Time for you to make your final offer!
You: 450k
Person: Ok, 450k it is.
FM price: 700k
Seller price: 450k
Profit: 250k
Method 2
This method is by far the most commonly used one. However, I don’t like this method because, when it’s applied, there’s an uncomfortably high chance that the seller will cancel the trade. On the plus side, if the seller goes with the flow of Method 2, his price will probably be slightly lower than the price you would’ve gotten from Method 1.
*person trades you*
Person: Hi, I’ll sell you this scroll *puts up scroll worth 600-700k*
You: Offer please
Person: Ummm… 600k?
The person is offering a relatively cheap price. But don’t accept yet; you want a lower price than that! Tell him the price you want. Remember to be polite though; if you’re too brash he’ll cancel the trade.
You: That’s a bit too much… how about 300k?
Person: 500k
Ok, he/she’s lowered his price. Give him/her some compromise and raise your price a bit (make sure you don’t raise your price higher than how much he decreased his price).
You: 400k.
Person: 450k
Heshe’s offering a pretty low price. But stand firm with your offer; if a seller’s gone this far, he probably won’t cancel now.
You: 400k.
Person: Sigh… ok, 400k.
FM price: 700k
Seller price: 400k
Profit: 300k
Method 3 (alternative to Method 2)
Method 3 is basically Method 2, except the fact that your offer first. This method is not recommended and should ONLY be used if the seller refuses to offer.
*person trades you*
Person: Hi, I’ll sell you this scroll *puts up scroll worth 600-700k*
You: Offer please.
Person: You offer.
Ok, this person is refusing to offer. But keep trying; he may not be completely firm with his decision.
You: Sorry, I don’t offer.
Person: I don’t like offering. I never know if the price is right.
You: Just tell me how much you want for your scroll…
Person: Look, either you offer or no deal.
Well, he/she’s definitely firm with his decision. You may as well offer; what’s the worst that could happen? Before you do, make sure you put something like “Um…” or “I dunno…” to insist that you don’t know prices and that it’s not your fault if the seller doesn’t like the price.
You: I dunno…. 300k?
Person: 600k.
He/she’s asking for a lot more than you offered. Give yourself some breathing space and increase your offer by a bit.
You: 400k
Person: 500k.
The seller has lowered his price. But stand with your offer; he/she probably won’t cancel the trade.
You: 400k.
Person: 450k.
He/she’s giving in; close the deal by increasing your price about halfway to his/her wanted price.
You: 425k.
Person: Ok…
FM price: 700k
Seller price: 425k
Profit: 275k
The Price List
When haggling, it’s always good to know how much the scroll you’re arguing about is actually worth. That’s why most merchants keep a list of prices handy when they’re buying items. Having a list’s really, really helpful (especially when you’re buying scrolls), since most people can’t remember the price of every item in existence. The list can be written on anything from line paper to a word document (not recommended, though). It should be based on Basilmarket’s prices, since Basilmarket influences the economy A LOT. Remember, you want to buy you items fro 200-300k for 20-30% less than the prices on the list.
Selling Your Crap
Okay, you now have a bunch of scrolls and etc. items jamming up your inventory. How are you going to sell all this stuff? Well, I highly recommended you buy a Regular Store Permit from the Cash Shop (1800 NX). If you do not have Nexon Cash, you can always use Basilmarket. For more info on using Basilmarket, skip to the next section. Anyway, now that you’ve bought your store permit, you’ve got to figure out how to use it. But how?
Is a Store For Me?
Stores are best when kept open for 12+ hours; if your computer cannot handle being turned on that long, do NOT buy a store. It is also a bad idea to buy a store if you get disconnected frequently, as it will seriously screw up your selling ability. Lastly, make sure your mom/siblings don’t get pissed at you having MS turned on all day. If they do, minimize Maplestory (Alt+Tab) whenever your store is up to spare yourself quite a few annoying arguments.
Finding a Spot For Your Store
Stores can only be opened in a Free Market room. Opening your store in the Channel 1 Free Market is recommended, though Channel 2 and 3 will work. To open your store, you need to find an empty gap in the FM room about 3-4 inches wide. Try to find a spot in a low-number FM room. The lower the better. Don’t open your store in a too high-number room; here in Broa, I prefer to have my store in at Room 10 AT LEAST.
Setting Up Your Store
To open up your store, open your inventory and click on the cash shop section. Your store should appear there (unless you haven’t bought it yet (lawlz)). Double click on it; a window will appear with a blank space on it. In the blank space, type your desired store name. Do it quickly; if you take too long, someone may take your spot. Once you have entered your store name, a larger window will pop up. There will be blank gaps on the window. Drag the items you want to sell from your inventory into those gaps. Every time you do so, a window will come up with three blanks on it: # of Items to Sell, Price of Item(s), # of Items in Package. Enter the information into the blanks (“# of Items in Package” is optional) and hit enter. Here’s an example-
________________________________________________________________________
# of Items to Sell: 100
Price of Item(s): 50000
# of Items in Package: 100
How Much Should I Sell My Crap For?
For price guidance, I highly suggest you use Basilmarket. Do NOT use the price check section; it is highly inaccurate. It’s best to check the auction section for the average price people in your world are selling the item you are holding. Since Basilmarket if often known for its cheap prices, it probably won’t hurt for you to raise the price 200-300k or so. For expensive items, raise the price 20-30%.
Basilmarket: More Than Just a Bunch of Idiots
I’m all very sure you know what Basilmarket is. If you don’t, I can’t see why you’re even reading this guide. The site isn’t just a forum stuffed with noobs. If you’ve already forgot, there’s this thing called auctions. C’mon, you can find it! Yep, up there in the top left! Closer… just a little closer…. Yeah! But enough with sarcasm. Basilmarket auctions can be used for buying AND selling and is a huge help to merchants.
Buying From Basil
I don’t highly recommend buying items to merchant from Basil, but you can do it if you want to. Sure, you can make 200-300k from merchanting Basil items, but you often have to wait 3+ days for the Basiler you were trading with to show up. However, in the beginning, using the auctions to start up your fortunes is often a pretty good idea.
Selling From Basil
This is the biggie. Is your inventory stuck with scrolls you bought? Can’t get Mom to get you NX for a store? Then Basil is for you! Basilmarket consists relatively high scroll/etc. prices (compared to the FM entrance), so there are plenty of opportunities for you to make cash. Sure, you have to wait a few days for that dam trader to show up, but it’ll probably take just as long in a store. Of course, prices aren’t as high as they are in stores, but, with lots of patience, you can still become a billionaire this way.
Buying From the Maple Trading System
The highly controversial Maple Trading System was introduced to GMS on March 2008. Called the MTS, this option allows players to sell real in-game items for NX cash. Items can be sold both auction style, like Basilmarket, or with the auto-buy choice, which is similar to selling stuff with a store permit.
How Much NX For How Many Mesos?
You may be wondering how much NX you should pay for how many mesos. Well technically, there is no official conversion rate between NX and mesos, for it is accumulative. The conversion rate of an item that costs very little is better than for one that costs a lot. For example, a 4 mil item can be sold for 2000 NX while a 40 mil item can only be sold for 15000. This is because people are more reluctant to spend a large amount of money on a single item than they are to spend a several small amounts on multiple items.
Why You Should Use This
If you have NX, buying and reselling the items you get from the MTS is extremely profitable. This is because, unlike Gachapon, it is a guaranteed way to get your money’s worth in mesos. And since you can choose what to buy, doing the actual selling will also be easier. This means no more researching and considering which Gacha to use! Just type what you want into the MTS’s search bar and look for a good price. It’s that easy.
But the MTS isn’t just an easy way to turn NX into mesos. Another reason the system is great is because it’s cross-server. That means you can buy scrolls in the MTS for a Scanian price and resell them with a store permit for a Mardian one, where it will obviously be higher. Of course, this also means that small-town servers like Kradia and Mardia will benefit more from this than big ones like Scania and Bera. Still, it’s a big plus.
Party Questing
Party quests are an easy, fun way to gain money, not to mention being an escape from training. But which PQs will pay you for your time?
Kerning PQ (lvl 21-30)
Kerning PQ is a simple, easy party quest. Though much of the prizes are crap, there’s always that lingering chance of receiving an overall dex scroll 10%. I made my first 4 mil doing Kerning PQ. Guide: http://global.hidden-street.net/quests/p..._stall.php
Monster Carnival PQ (lvl 30-50)
Monster Carnival PQ isn’t just a great way to get exp. You can get money from the PQ by collecting Maple Coins, which are occasionally dropped by the monsters in Monster Carnival. Fifty of these coins gives you the ability to forge a Spiegelmann Necklace, which is worth several million mesos in most servers. You can increase your Maple Coin output by coin farming, which is a method in which both parties agree to ONLY summon Teddies. Teddies cost very few points to summon (allowing greater numbers of teddies) and can be killed easily, which means more coins will drop.
Ludibrium PQ(lvl 35-50)
Ludibrium PQ gives a much larger and more expensive variety of prizes than Kerning PQ. You can receive both 10% and 60% scrolls from this party quest, not to mention capes and other items. However, this PQ is really stressful (and difficult) to do. And getting in here is really hard in certain worlds. Guide: http://global.hidden-street.net/quests/p..._stall.php
Amoria PQ(lvl 40+)
Amoria PQ is only available to married Maplers, so if you haven't wasted 30 dollars on a MMORPG marriage, stop reading this. If you ARE married, you can start PQing at lvl 40 (you don't have to go with your spouse). Amoria PQ is meticulously complicated and figuring out the PQ is likely going to fry your brains out. It's probably best if you go with a party of experienced PQers, preferable lvl 80+ so you can kill Geist balrog. Now, the money-making part: The bonus stage of Amoria PQ is filled with expensive goodies that will fill your pockets with cash if you go to the right places. The key item here is the onyx apple (gives +100 wep. atk, +100 mg. atk and some other random junk for 10 minutes). These apples can be sold for 1.5-2.5 million mesos in most worlds. They're not very hard to find, so you can make plenty of money PQing. PQ guide: http://sleepywood.net/forum/showthread.php?t=1377401
Ludibrium Maze PQ(lvl 51-70)
This is one of the simpler PQs; you can finish the entire quest by just following another member. The prizes from the quest aren't amazing great, but since the average PQer finishes in 2-3 minutes, it adds up very quickly. You can make several million mesos by PQing barely one level. Guide: http://www.basilmarket.com/forum/447027/0/..._PQ_Guide.html#
Zakum PQ Part 1 (lvl 50+)
I don't know much about this PQ, but I DO know that you get 5 dead mine scrolls (worth about 1 mil in total at the FM) every time you finish. You can do Zakum PQ 3 times a day (more if you switch the party leader position with another party member), so in the end you're going to get a crapload of money. Best of all, you can finish each PQ in approximately 15-30 minutes. Guide: http://www.basilmarket.com/forum/419047/0/...ll_Stages.html#
Boss Hunting
It’s more interesting than merchanting, costs less than Gacha, and gives more than questing… boss hunting! Bosses drop lots of scrolls and are very fun to find of kill. If you don’t feel like training, go on a hunting trip! If you’re lucky, you’ll get a scroll and sell it in your shop for lots of cash. Bosses that don't suck:
-Mushmom (lvl 40-50+): Mushmom spawns every 45-60 minutes at Someone Else’s House in Henesys. She has an extremely high drop rate of 60% armor scrolls (and the occasional ilbi!) and is the most commonly seeked boss in MapleStory. To find her, you can either camp out at her house or change channels looking for her (highly not recommended if you reside in a crowded server). Mushmom timer: http://stickmania.s5.com/%5BMushmommer%2...201%5D.swf
- Zombie Mushmom (lvl 45-55+) Zombie Mushmom, the stronger version of Mushmom, spawns every 1 hour or so in the Cave of Zombie Mushmom in Ant Tunnel Park. He has a moderate drop rate of 60% weapon scrolls and a slightly higher drop rate of ilbis than Mushmom. Though not as many people hunt ZMM, it is still hard to find an empty channel in most servers. Read article about Mushmom for techniques used to find ZMM.
-Junior Balrog (lvl 70-80+): Junior Balrog, the king of beta, spawns every 4 hours in the Cursed Sanctuary. Jr. Balrog has an ok drop rate of 60% weapon scrolls. Personally, I would just fight ZMM. But if you want a challenge, here it is. Finding Jr. Balrog is tough. One strategy is to look through all the channels, writing down the ones that don’t have him. Come back 4 hours later and kill him. He’s not hunted a lot, so finding an empty channel shouldn’t be a problem.
-Zakum (lvl 110+): Zakum is currently the second strongest monster in MapleGlobal. Though he can only be killed in a party (unless you’re crazy enough to try to solo) and can’t be summoned unless you finish all 3 parts of the Zakum quest, his drops are well worth the trouble. Zakum’s droplist contains well over a dozen high level weapons, not to mention the AMAZING Zakum Helm. Zakum runs take anywhere from 20 minutes-2 hours, depending on the level and number of attackers and if you use Meso Explosion or not. The most common way of getting into a Zakum run is to join a Zakum guild. However, if you do, you only get a small share of the profit. If you’re up for the task, you can make your OWN Zakum guild, which is much more profitable (and much, much harder).
For more info on boss pwning, go here: http://www.basilmarket.com/forum/352672/0/...ing_Guide.html#
Note: Due to new boss releases , this section is now midly outdated.
Maplestory iTCG
Maplestory iTCG is the game everyone buys, but nobody plays. Most of the time, the 4-dollars-a-pack cards are bought for the 1-2 codes found in every set. You can redeem codes in the Cash Shop by clicking on the button that says “code” in the bottom-right corner. Doing so will give you a special iTCG etc. item. If you have a certain combination of at least 3 of these items, you can forge a equip manual/potion by taking the items to John Barricade, the Glitter Man, or Doctor Foxwit in New Leaf City. Most of the stuff you get is pretty much worthless, but if you do things right, you can get a hell lot of bang for your buck. Here are the far and few iTCG items worth making:
-Stormcasters Glove
-Crystal Ilbi
-Facestompers
-Glitter Glove
-Black Hole
-Crystal Leaf Earrings
-Bosshunter Armor (all types)
2x Drop Cards
2x Drop Cards are the counterpart of 2x Exp Cards. They cost the same but double your drop rate instead of your exp. These cards are found in the Cash Shop, work in 2-hour increments, and last 30 days.
How to Actually Make a Profit From This
You may be wondering, “How the hell am I going to make enough money for this ridiculously expensive card to be worth it?” Well, the concept is pretty simple. The moment your card activates, start training somewhere with expensive drops. 2x Drop Cards double the amount of mesos dropped (not so important) and the probability of a specific item being dropped (important). Say it takes you 4 hours of training at Wolf Spiders for you to find an Ilbi. Now if you had a 2x Drop Card, it would only take 2 hours. This means you can get two Ilbis in the same amount of time that it takes to get one. That’s 18 million mesos in profit.
Where to Use Your Card
Face it: 2x Drop Cards don’t work everywhere. They can only be used on monsters with high drop rates of expensive items. This is often an annoyance to lower-level Maplers, as expensive drops from low-level monsters are either nonexistent or ridiculously rare. Because of this, there are only a select few monsters/bosses that are worth using a drop card on (note that bosses must be soloed):
Fake Bosses (no longer available)
This year’s fake boss event is now up and running. But don’t let the word “fake” move you eyes to other moneymaking opportunities. Though fake boss drops are far from spectacular, the lack of fake-boss hunters around means you can make incredibly easy money killing them.
How to Do It
Most fake-bosses are rarely (if ever) killed. So they are usually very easy to find. Fake bosses have much less HP than their real counterparts, weak attacks, extraordinarily good HP:Exp ratios, and drop anywhere from 5-15 cakes when they are killed. To start a hunting trip, go to a fake boss map (see below) on Channel 1 and kill a few monsters there. A fake boss should spawn (unless you went to a map other than the ones I recommend below). Kill it with whatever attacks you have. This should take anywhere from 10-30 seconds. Once you are done, pick up the drops and change to the next channel. Once you have gone through all 20 channels, you should have a crapload of cakes. Go to the nearest NPC shop and sell all of them. Hunting trips will yield anywhere from 200-400k and take about 10-30 minutes. Once you are done, go to the nearest other recommended fake boss map and repeat. Fake bosses will spawn every 30 minutes, so if you have 2-3 of their maps close to you, you’ll be making 500k+ an hour. You can find the location of fake bosses here: http://www.basilmarket.com/forum/544230/0/...oint_List.html#
Investing
In Maplestory, investing is the process of buying a specific item in hopes of its price increasing to a profitable amount. Sometimes investing can be very rewarding. Say you had bought 10 Maple Shields back in April 2008, when they were worth 10 million mesos each. By May 2008, the price of Maple Shields had ballooned to 20 million mesos a shield. So if you had saved the shields as an investment, you would’ve made 100 million mesos, a highly respectable amount for even the best merchants.
However, investing is also extremely risky. Even the most prominent of sellers only have minimal control of the market, so predicting price trends is pretty difficult. Often times, you success will depend on luck. One investment of yours might flop while another might make you your world’s newest billionaire. Usually, the more risks you take, the more money becomes available.
Event Item Investments (Low Risk)
At the end of the 2006 Christmas Event, I bought 100 Red/Green Presents for 1k each (cost: 100k). When the 2007 Christmas Event came along, I discovered O-Pongo on NLC charged exactly 100 Christmas Presents for a Versalmus Cactus, which was worth five million mesos (profit: 4.9 mil). Event item investing is by far the most conservative investing method, as you have to wait a whole year until you can cash in. It’s also the safest method since, if the event is same as last year’s, you’re pretty much guaranteed a profit. Just watch out for nasty changes that Nexon occasionally makes to events (i.e. the time graham crackers were made untradeable). To start an event investment, wait until the end of a big Maplestory event. Then start buying all the event items you can. Since the event has probably been running for over a month, prices will be extremely low. Once you’re done, stash the stuff on a mule and wait for next year. If you don’t quit by then (quitting is the event investment’s greatest risk), you’ll be able to enjoy the glory of quadrupled prices for your items.
iTCG Piece Investing (Moderate Risk)
Every time a new Maplestory iTCG set is released, a new series of pieces are eneded to make the set’s weapons and armors. But sometimes, old pieces are needed along with the new. This causes an increase in the demand for these old pieces, though the supply stays the same. This lack of supply causes severe inflation. For example, when it was discovered that Crystal Ilbis and Facestompers required the Set 1 Taru Totem to be forged, totem prices skyrocketed from 10 to 30 million mesos. So the moment a new iTCG item pops up on the Sleepywood Forging List, gobble up all the old pieces needed for it.
Scroll Investing (High Risk)
People usually invest in scrolls during the Maple Event. This is because, in every Maple Event, a huge amount of previously rare/nonexistent items are released. The vast wave of (non-scrolled) items creates a huge demand for scrolls, particularly 60% and 30% weapon scrolls. For example, Claw for Atk 30% Scrolls rose from 13 to 17 million mesos during the 2008 event. However, scroll investing isn’t limited to the Maple Event. This type of investing is applicable every time a new, powerful, highly-available item is released. So if a new 20 speed overall is being sold in NLC, stock up on overall dex scrolls. A level 70 dexless claw is being sold in Zipangu? Start buying claw attack scrolls. Scroll investments are risky since items aren’t always as hot as predicted, but if things work out they can be very rewarding.
Sakura Cellions
Well, this is the only other thing I could think of. I know there are plenty of nice training spots out there that give plenty of drops and lots and lots of cash, but I’m not familiar with any. Anyways, Sakura Cellions can give you 200k+ an hour once you reach lvl 50+ (all jobs). Unfortunately, due to this fact, cellions are very crowded. In older servers, it may be near impossible to find an empty channel. If you do find one, try to keep it. Whenever someone comes in, use a polite, “Do you mind ccing?”. It’ll work about 80% of the time. And what if he doesn’t listen? KS the hell out of him! >
Conclusion
If you follow this guide, you could be starting your journey to become a MS billionaire. You’ll be able to buy anything you want! And when you do, I’ll come to by and say…. Mesarz pl0x!
FAQ (whatever that stands for)
Q: Why isn't scrolling on here?
A: I have never scrolled; it's too risky for me (my friend lost 70 mil trying to scroll a 11 luck maple shield). Besides, is scrolling really that hard? Drag that stupid scroll onto the equip! Durh!
Q: Does that offering scenario you posted actually ever happen?
A: No matter how skeptical you people are, yes. I got every person I was buying scrolls from yesterday to lower their price by AT LEAST 200k with my method.
Q:Z0mgz0rz liek i hav s0 muhc m0nyz me no n33dzorz d1s gu1de!
A: Thanks for the bump, sucker! >
Credits and Such
I would like to thank…
-Me for creating this guide
-My buddy Evadiation for telling me to get my ass to work
Other Guides of Mine
The Comprehensive Assassin Training Guide
How to Prevent Yourself From Being Scammed
Smartguy's Guide on Guildmaking (screwed up for some reason)
Smartguy's Guide on Making Guides
Smartguy's Comprehensive Bandit Training Guide (NEW!)
Everything a Newbie Needs To Know (NEW!)
Latest Update (8/23/08): Removed Baby Typhons from 2x Drop Section.
Intro
Need a way to make mesos? Stuck at mediocrity because your bank account isn’t big enough? Sick of that dam friend of yours with the BWG and the Pink Adv. Cape and the 10 dex earrings and blah blah blah….. Well then this is the right guide for you! I, Aznluster11, wrote this guide to help YOU make money in Maplestory. Now, I’m pretty sure some of you will think that you’re so pro and have so much money and don’t need a guide and blah blah blah… if your one of these people, please go away. For the others, read on! ^_^
Gachapon
Gachapon is a vending machine located in several cities in Maplestory. To activate Gachapon, you need to buy Gachapon tickets, available at the Cash Shop for 1000 NX cash each. For each ticket you use, you will receive an item. Some items will be good, and some items…. Will be really bad. Now lets explore the 3 three best gachapon of Maplestory.
Sleepywood
The Sleepywood Gachapon used to be the best Gachapon in Maplestory, but since the release of the Zipangu Gach, it has fallen into hard times. Don’t move your eyes away, though. Sleepywood holds many rare items and consists of a LOT of scrolls, dark and regular. Just watch out for pumpkin pies and power elixirs; chances are this Gach will give away a lot of junk.
NLC
If you are holding 70+ Gacha tickets, NLC may be your best bet. The New Leaf City Gachapon contains a TREMENDOUS amount of crap (more than several Victoria Island Gachapon), but also yields one of the most expensive Gachapon items in the game: the white scroll. The white scroll can easily sell for 150+ mil. But be careful; any less than 70 tickets will probably make you end up with a bunch of worthless NPC items. There ARE several expensive scrolls/equips that can be obtained from here, but those shouldn't be the basis of your hopes.
Zipangu
YES! This is, inarguably, the best gachapon machine in Global Maplestory as of now. Zipangu has the highest dark scroll reward rate of any gachapon, not to mention a huge variety of expensive equips. Unfortunately, the price of dark scrolls has fallen dramatically ever since the release of Zipangu, so your profits may no longer be as high as you hoped. Still, this is a definite must-try for any hopeful Gacher.
For people who want more info: Doomfacer’s Gachapon Guide Doomfacer’s Gachapon Guide
Money Quests
Sick of merchanting? Tired of training? Ran out of money for gach? Then quests are the way for you! Questing can help you relieve stress gained from training/merchanting and is often an easy way to make some cash. But which quests pay enough to be worth doing? Read on….
Quests That Will Pay You Back For Wasting Your Time
The following is a list of great money-making quests that you can do when you’re low on cash. This was compiled COMPLETELY by WinglessOne. I take no credit for any part of this section whatsoever.
Eliminate The Monsters From The Site (Lvl 25)
Sakura and The Teddy Bear (Lvl 30)
Jane and The Wild Boar (Lvl 30)
The Missing Mechancial parts (Lvl 30)
The View Of The Ocean (Lvl 30)
Food-Hunting for Moppie III (Lvl 30)
POLLUTED! <2-Curse Eye> (Level 30)
Terminating the Dark Force (Lvl 31)
A Delivery To A Lost Time (Lvl 33)
Sakura and The Seal (Lvl 35)
Eos Tower Threatened! (Lvl 35)
Rowen the Fairy and The Cursed Dolls (Lvl 35)
Subani's Legacy (Lvl 36)
ReVersal (Lvl 40)
Sakura, The Kitty and the Orange Marble (Lvl 40)
Shumi's Lost Sack of Money (Lvl 40)
Movie Star (BELOW Lvl 40)
Jane The Alchemist (Lvl 40)
To The New World (Lvl 40)
Peace At Eos Tower (Lvl 40)
The History of Zeta Leticulan (Lvl 45)
The Alligators At The Swamp (Lvl 52)
The Outlaw In The Sea (Lvl 55-100)
Preparing For The Revival (Lvl 55)
In Search of The Ancient Book (Lvl 55)
Doll In The Dark (Lvl 55)
Notice From The Excavation Team (Lvl 60)
Scadur's New Fur Coat (Level 60)
Soul In The Dark (Lvl 70)
Operation Eliminate Red-Nosed Pirates (Lvl 70)
Monster Rumor Mill (Lvl 80)
The Committee Challenges (Lvl 85)
Open Sesami (Lvl 85)
An Unknown Love (Lvl 85)
Sabitrama's Life Work (Lvl 85)
Freed From Darkness (Lvl 90)
Muse Is Cooking (Lvl 95)
What Is Merchanting?
Merchanting is the process of buying an item and selling it to someone else for a higher price. People merchant scrolls, equips, event items, or anything else that they can rip people off with. It is the most common way to gain money in Maplestory, and many merchants have made billions of mesos through this simple process.
Buying Items to Sell
One of the best places to buy items for you to sell is the Channel 1 Free Market entrance. It’s filled with people desperate to sell their scrolls and other items because they don’t know of the existence of Basilmarket/don’t have a store. Scrolls are usually the best moneymakers since almost everyone has at least one and most people don’t know about their prices (usually to your advantage). Since weapon scrolls are quite often worth more than armor scrolls, they’re usually the scrolls of choice amongst most merchants. You can also use Basilmarket to buy your items. More on that later.
How to Attract the Seller’s Attention
In most servers, the Channel 1 Free Market is stuffed with dozens of buyers, sellers, and random personal. So just how are you going to get a seller’s attention? If you yell “B>SCROLLS!”, chances are that your message will be blocked by dozens of others. The best way to get other people’s attention is to make your message as long as possible. But how? There’s message limit, right? True. But you can stretch that limit. Along with the message “B>SCROLLS”, you can add 61 @’s. That makes your message much longer, making it much more noticeable. Other common uses of @:
“B>SCROLLS @@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@”
"B>SCROLLS @@@@@@@ @ @@@@@@@ @ @@@@@@@ @ @@@@@@@ @ @@@@@@@ @"
What to Actually Buy
As of now, I have only talked about the process of merchanting scrolls. That’s because scrolls are a very versatile area; but, of course, there’s much more to it than scrolls. Here’s a handy little list of what you can buy, depending on how much money you have available:
-1-2 million mesos- Right now, 10% overall dex scrolls bought from KPQers are very profitable. You can probably purchase them for 200k below FM price in Kerning; a lot of people will sell you several scrolls at a time, too. Buying defense scrolls and 10% weapon scrolls from the FM will also yield decent cash.
-2-5 million mesos- Buying 60% weapon scrolls and 10% non-defense armor scrolls from the FM is good money, since, with some good offering, deals are pretty easy to find. Merchanting dark scrolls is also ok, though some of them may still be too expensive.
-5-15 million mesos- You can afford to merchant most scrolls by now. So don’t hold back on buying that 60% glove atk scroll or that 70% overall dex scroll. Atk WGs are also very profitable right now, though it may take a while to find a seller. The onyx apple is pretty good too; it servers many as a source of easy income. However, I don’t really like the onyx apple because of its fluctuating prices.
-15+ million mesos- By now you can almost afford to merchant anything. There aren’t anymore scrolls that are out of your budget range, so feel free to try selling exotic scrolls like shield atk 60%s. You can even try merchanting scrolled items, though they can be a dangerous market. iTCG and event items may also be worth trying out. Feel free to experiment (carefully)!
The Delicate Art of Offering
Ok, someone’s traded you. Now what? You make him offer. Offering is the process of someone telling you how much he/she wants for an item. The offered price is completely negotiable, so it’s vital that you ask him to offer first. NEVER be the first one to offer. If you do, you won’t be able to know how much the person wants for his/her item. So you won’t be able to negotiate along the terms you want while at the same time with the terms he/she wants.
Haggling and Offering
A person trades you, shows you an item, and gives you a price (an offer). You don’t like the price, so you try to lower it. This process is called haggling. Haggling is extremely useful to merchants and can be easily combined with offering. But how should you haggle? Here are several popular methods:
Method 1
Method 1 is by far my favorite method, as it is the one in which the seller is least likely to cancel the trade. This method attempts to convince the seller to lower the price of his/her item as much as possible. However, most sellers are reluctant to decrease their price too much, so Method 1 only works when the seller is already offering a low price.
*person trades you*
Person: Hi, I’ll sell you this scroll *puts up a scroll worth 600- 700k*
You: Offer please
Person: Ummm… 600k?
Ok, the person is offering a relatively cheap price. Do you accept? No; he’ll think he’s offering too low. Make him go lower (be careful not use numbers)
You: Can you go a bit lower?
Person: 500k then
It’s pretty low now. Time for you to make your final offer!
You: 450k
Person: Ok, 450k it is.
FM price: 700k
Seller price: 450k
Profit: 250k
Method 2
This method is by far the most commonly used one. However, I don’t like this method because, when it’s applied, there’s an uncomfortably high chance that the seller will cancel the trade. On the plus side, if the seller goes with the flow of Method 2, his price will probably be slightly lower than the price you would’ve gotten from Method 1.
*person trades you*
Person: Hi, I’ll sell you this scroll *puts up scroll worth 600-700k*
You: Offer please
Person: Ummm… 600k?
The person is offering a relatively cheap price. But don’t accept yet; you want a lower price than that! Tell him the price you want. Remember to be polite though; if you’re too brash he’ll cancel the trade.
You: That’s a bit too much… how about 300k?
Person: 500k
Ok, he/she’s lowered his price. Give him/her some compromise and raise your price a bit (make sure you don’t raise your price higher than how much he decreased his price).
You: 400k.
Person: 450k
Heshe’s offering a pretty low price. But stand firm with your offer; if a seller’s gone this far, he probably won’t cancel now.
You: 400k.
Person: Sigh… ok, 400k.
FM price: 700k
Seller price: 400k
Profit: 300k
Method 3 (alternative to Method 2)
Method 3 is basically Method 2, except the fact that your offer first. This method is not recommended and should ONLY be used if the seller refuses to offer.
*person trades you*
Person: Hi, I’ll sell you this scroll *puts up scroll worth 600-700k*
You: Offer please.
Person: You offer.
Ok, this person is refusing to offer. But keep trying; he may not be completely firm with his decision.
You: Sorry, I don’t offer.
Person: I don’t like offering. I never know if the price is right.
You: Just tell me how much you want for your scroll…
Person: Look, either you offer or no deal.
Well, he/she’s definitely firm with his decision. You may as well offer; what’s the worst that could happen? Before you do, make sure you put something like “Um…” or “I dunno…” to insist that you don’t know prices and that it’s not your fault if the seller doesn’t like the price.
You: I dunno…. 300k?
Person: 600k.
He/she’s asking for a lot more than you offered. Give yourself some breathing space and increase your offer by a bit.
You: 400k
Person: 500k.
The seller has lowered his price. But stand with your offer; he/she probably won’t cancel the trade.
You: 400k.
Person: 450k.
He/she’s giving in; close the deal by increasing your price about halfway to his/her wanted price.
You: 425k.
Person: Ok…
FM price: 700k
Seller price: 425k
Profit: 275k
The Price List
When haggling, it’s always good to know how much the scroll you’re arguing about is actually worth. That’s why most merchants keep a list of prices handy when they’re buying items. Having a list’s really, really helpful (especially when you’re buying scrolls), since most people can’t remember the price of every item in existence. The list can be written on anything from line paper to a word document (not recommended, though). It should be based on Basilmarket’s prices, since Basilmarket influences the economy A LOT. Remember, you want to buy you items fro 200-300k for 20-30% less than the prices on the list.
Selling Your Crap
Okay, you now have a bunch of scrolls and etc. items jamming up your inventory. How are you going to sell all this stuff? Well, I highly recommended you buy a Regular Store Permit from the Cash Shop (1800 NX). If you do not have Nexon Cash, you can always use Basilmarket. For more info on using Basilmarket, skip to the next section. Anyway, now that you’ve bought your store permit, you’ve got to figure out how to use it. But how?
Is a Store For Me?
Stores are best when kept open for 12+ hours; if your computer cannot handle being turned on that long, do NOT buy a store. It is also a bad idea to buy a store if you get disconnected frequently, as it will seriously screw up your selling ability. Lastly, make sure your mom/siblings don’t get pissed at you having MS turned on all day. If they do, minimize Maplestory (Alt+Tab) whenever your store is up to spare yourself quite a few annoying arguments.
Finding a Spot For Your Store
Stores can only be opened in a Free Market room. Opening your store in the Channel 1 Free Market is recommended, though Channel 2 and 3 will work. To open your store, you need to find an empty gap in the FM room about 3-4 inches wide. Try to find a spot in a low-number FM room. The lower the better. Don’t open your store in a too high-number room; here in Broa, I prefer to have my store in at Room 10 AT LEAST.
Setting Up Your Store
To open up your store, open your inventory and click on the cash shop section. Your store should appear there (unless you haven’t bought it yet (lawlz)). Double click on it; a window will appear with a blank space on it. In the blank space, type your desired store name. Do it quickly; if you take too long, someone may take your spot. Once you have entered your store name, a larger window will pop up. There will be blank gaps on the window. Drag the items you want to sell from your inventory into those gaps. Every time you do so, a window will come up with three blanks on it: # of Items to Sell, Price of Item(s), # of Items in Package. Enter the information into the blanks (“# of Items in Package” is optional) and hit enter. Here’s an example-
________________________________________________________________________
# of Items to Sell: 100
Price of Item(s): 50000
# of Items in Package: 100
How Much Should I Sell My Crap For?
For price guidance, I highly suggest you use Basilmarket. Do NOT use the price check section; it is highly inaccurate. It’s best to check the auction section for the average price people in your world are selling the item you are holding. Since Basilmarket if often known for its cheap prices, it probably won’t hurt for you to raise the price 200-300k or so. For expensive items, raise the price 20-30%.
Basilmarket: More Than Just a Bunch of Idiots
I’m all very sure you know what Basilmarket is. If you don’t, I can’t see why you’re even reading this guide. The site isn’t just a forum stuffed with noobs. If you’ve already forgot, there’s this thing called auctions. C’mon, you can find it! Yep, up there in the top left! Closer… just a little closer…. Yeah! But enough with sarcasm. Basilmarket auctions can be used for buying AND selling and is a huge help to merchants.
Buying From Basil
I don’t highly recommend buying items to merchant from Basil, but you can do it if you want to. Sure, you can make 200-300k from merchanting Basil items, but you often have to wait 3+ days for the Basiler you were trading with to show up. However, in the beginning, using the auctions to start up your fortunes is often a pretty good idea.
Selling From Basil
This is the biggie. Is your inventory stuck with scrolls you bought? Can’t get Mom to get you NX for a store? Then Basil is for you! Basilmarket consists relatively high scroll/etc. prices (compared to the FM entrance), so there are plenty of opportunities for you to make cash. Sure, you have to wait a few days for that dam trader to show up, but it’ll probably take just as long in a store. Of course, prices aren’t as high as they are in stores, but, with lots of patience, you can still become a billionaire this way.
Buying From the Maple Trading System
The highly controversial Maple Trading System was introduced to GMS on March 2008. Called the MTS, this option allows players to sell real in-game items for NX cash. Items can be sold both auction style, like Basilmarket, or with the auto-buy choice, which is similar to selling stuff with a store permit.
How Much NX For How Many Mesos?
You may be wondering how much NX you should pay for how many mesos. Well technically, there is no official conversion rate between NX and mesos, for it is accumulative. The conversion rate of an item that costs very little is better than for one that costs a lot. For example, a 4 mil item can be sold for 2000 NX while a 40 mil item can only be sold for 15000. This is because people are more reluctant to spend a large amount of money on a single item than they are to spend a several small amounts on multiple items.
Why You Should Use This
If you have NX, buying and reselling the items you get from the MTS is extremely profitable. This is because, unlike Gachapon, it is a guaranteed way to get your money’s worth in mesos. And since you can choose what to buy, doing the actual selling will also be easier. This means no more researching and considering which Gacha to use! Just type what you want into the MTS’s search bar and look for a good price. It’s that easy.
But the MTS isn’t just an easy way to turn NX into mesos. Another reason the system is great is because it’s cross-server. That means you can buy scrolls in the MTS for a Scanian price and resell them with a store permit for a Mardian one, where it will obviously be higher. Of course, this also means that small-town servers like Kradia and Mardia will benefit more from this than big ones like Scania and Bera. Still, it’s a big plus.
Party Questing
Party quests are an easy, fun way to gain money, not to mention being an escape from training. But which PQs will pay you for your time?
Kerning PQ (lvl 21-30)
Kerning PQ is a simple, easy party quest. Though much of the prizes are crap, there’s always that lingering chance of receiving an overall dex scroll 10%. I made my first 4 mil doing Kerning PQ. Guide: http://global.hidden-street.net/quests/p..._stall.php
Monster Carnival PQ (lvl 30-50)
Monster Carnival PQ isn’t just a great way to get exp. You can get money from the PQ by collecting Maple Coins, which are occasionally dropped by the monsters in Monster Carnival. Fifty of these coins gives you the ability to forge a Spiegelmann Necklace, which is worth several million mesos in most servers. You can increase your Maple Coin output by coin farming, which is a method in which both parties agree to ONLY summon Teddies. Teddies cost very few points to summon (allowing greater numbers of teddies) and can be killed easily, which means more coins will drop.
Ludibrium PQ(lvl 35-50)
Ludibrium PQ gives a much larger and more expensive variety of prizes than Kerning PQ. You can receive both 10% and 60% scrolls from this party quest, not to mention capes and other items. However, this PQ is really stressful (and difficult) to do. And getting in here is really hard in certain worlds. Guide: http://global.hidden-street.net/quests/p..._stall.php
Amoria PQ(lvl 40+)
Amoria PQ is only available to married Maplers, so if you haven't wasted 30 dollars on a MMORPG marriage, stop reading this. If you ARE married, you can start PQing at lvl 40 (you don't have to go with your spouse). Amoria PQ is meticulously complicated and figuring out the PQ is likely going to fry your brains out. It's probably best if you go with a party of experienced PQers, preferable lvl 80+ so you can kill Geist balrog. Now, the money-making part: The bonus stage of Amoria PQ is filled with expensive goodies that will fill your pockets with cash if you go to the right places. The key item here is the onyx apple (gives +100 wep. atk, +100 mg. atk and some other random junk for 10 minutes). These apples can be sold for 1.5-2.5 million mesos in most worlds. They're not very hard to find, so you can make plenty of money PQing. PQ guide: http://sleepywood.net/forum/showthread.php?t=1377401
Ludibrium Maze PQ(lvl 51-70)
This is one of the simpler PQs; you can finish the entire quest by just following another member. The prizes from the quest aren't amazing great, but since the average PQer finishes in 2-3 minutes, it adds up very quickly. You can make several million mesos by PQing barely one level. Guide: http://www.basilmarket.com/forum/447027/0/..._PQ_Guide.html#
Zakum PQ Part 1 (lvl 50+)
I don't know much about this PQ, but I DO know that you get 5 dead mine scrolls (worth about 1 mil in total at the FM) every time you finish. You can do Zakum PQ 3 times a day (more if you switch the party leader position with another party member), so in the end you're going to get a crapload of money. Best of all, you can finish each PQ in approximately 15-30 minutes. Guide: http://www.basilmarket.com/forum/419047/0/...ll_Stages.html#
Boss Hunting
It’s more interesting than merchanting, costs less than Gacha, and gives more than questing… boss hunting! Bosses drop lots of scrolls and are very fun to find of kill. If you don’t feel like training, go on a hunting trip! If you’re lucky, you’ll get a scroll and sell it in your shop for lots of cash.
Bosses that don't suck:-Mushmom (lvl 40-50+): Mushmom spawns every 45-60 minutes at Someone Else’s House in Henesys. She has an extremely high drop rate of 60% armor scrolls (and the occasional ilbi!) and is the most commonly seeked boss in MapleStory. To find her, you can either camp out at her house or change channels looking for her (highly not recommended if you reside in a crowded server). Mushmom timer: http://stickmania.s5.com/%5BMushmommer%2...201%5D.swf
- Zombie Mushmom (lvl 45-55+) Zombie Mushmom, the stronger version of Mushmom, spawns every 1 hour or so in the Cave of Zombie Mushmom in Ant Tunnel Park. He has a moderate drop rate of 60% weapon scrolls and a slightly higher drop rate of ilbis than Mushmom. Though not as many people hunt ZMM, it is still hard to find an empty channel in most servers. Read article about Mushmom for techniques used to find ZMM.
-Junior Balrog (lvl 70-80+): Junior Balrog, the king of beta, spawns every 4 hours in the Cursed Sanctuary. Jr. Balrog has an ok drop rate of 60% weapon scrolls. Personally, I would just fight ZMM. But if you want a challenge, here it is. Finding Jr. Balrog is tough. One strategy is to look through all the channels, writing down the ones that don’t have him. Come back 4 hours later and kill him. He’s not hunted a lot, so finding an empty channel shouldn’t be a problem.
-Zakum (lvl 110+): Zakum is currently the second strongest monster in MapleGlobal. Though he can only be killed in a party (unless you’re crazy enough to try to solo) and can’t be summoned unless you finish all 3 parts of the Zakum quest, his drops are well worth the trouble. Zakum’s droplist contains well over a dozen high level weapons, not to mention the AMAZING Zakum Helm. Zakum runs take anywhere from 20 minutes-2 hours, depending on the level and number of attackers and if you use Meso Explosion or not. The most common way of getting into a Zakum run is to join a Zakum guild. However, if you do, you only get a small share of the profit. If you’re up for the task, you can make your OWN Zakum guild, which is much more profitable (and much, much harder).
For more info on boss pwning, go here: http://www.basilmarket.com/forum/352672/0/...ing_Guide.html#
Note: Due to new boss releases , this section is now midly outdated.
Maplestory iTCG
Maplestory iTCG is the game everyone buys, but nobody plays. Most of the time, the 4-dollars-a-pack cards are bought for the 1-2 codes found in every set. You can redeem codes in the Cash Shop by clicking on the button that says “code” in the bottom-right corner. Doing so will give you a special iTCG etc. item. If you have a certain combination of at least 3 of these items, you can forge a equip manual/potion by taking the items to John Barricade, the Glitter Man, or Doctor Foxwit in New Leaf City. Most of the stuff you get is pretty much worthless, but if you do things right, you can get a hell lot of bang for your buck. Here are the far and few iTCG items worth making:
-Stormcasters Glove
-Crystal Ilbi
-Facestompers
-Glitter Glove
-Black Hole
-Crystal Leaf Earrings
-Bosshunter Armor (all types)
2x Drop Cards
2x Drop Cards are the counterpart of 2x Exp Cards. They cost the same but double your drop rate instead of your exp. These cards are found in the Cash Shop, work in 2-hour increments, and last 30 days.
How to Actually Make a Profit From This
You may be wondering, “How the hell am I going to make enough money for this ridiculously expensive card to be worth it?” Well, the concept is pretty simple. The moment your card activates, start training somewhere with expensive drops. 2x Drop Cards double the amount of mesos dropped (not so important) and the probability of a specific item being dropped (important). Say it takes you 4 hours of training at Wolf Spiders for you to find an Ilbi. Now if you had a 2x Drop Card, it would only take 2 hours. This means you can get two Ilbis in the same amount of time that it takes to get one. That’s 18 million mesos in profit.
Where to Use Your Card
Face it: 2x Drop Cards don’t work everywhere. They can only be used on monsters with high drop rates of expensive items. This is often an annoyance to lower-level Maplers, as expensive drops from low-level monsters are either nonexistent or ridiculously rare. Because of this, there are only a select few monsters/bosses that are worth using a drop card on (note that bosses must be soloed):
- -Wolf Spiders (Level 8X+)- Wolf Spiders have the best drop rate of Ilbis and Blue Screamers of any non-boss monster in Maplestory. It’s pretty good exp, too. What more could you ask for?
- -Puff Daddy (Level 13X+) (no longer available)- The best place to hunt for Puff Daddy, our Maple event boss, is in Ludi. Here, a screw-up in the system has caused the big cake to re-spawn (in a different channel) every time it’s killed. Puff Daddy takes about 20-30 minutes for a 4th jobber to solo and has a guaranteed drop of at least one Maple Weapon. Since most Maple Weapons are worth at least a few million mesos, a couple of hours hunting with a 2x Drop Card can prove very profitable.
- -Mushmom (Level 4X+)- Mushmom drops a large variety of 60% armor scrolls and the occasional Ilbi. The place is very crowded, but people still go here because even a low-level Mapler can kill MM.
- -Zombie Mushmom (Level 5X+)- Instead of armor scrolls, ZMM drops 60% weapons scrolls and the slightly less occasional Ilbi. She takes longer to spawn than Mushmom and has a lower drop rate, but fewer people hunt her so you can still make a lot of money here.
- -Crimson Balrog (Level 9X+)- Crog has a mediocre drop rate of 10% scrolls, which are rarely profitable. But it also drops Hwabis, the rarest stars in GMS. A single set can easily sell for over 30 million mesos. Crog spawns in pairs 20% of the time on the Orbis Ship Ride. He always spawns within the first 90 seconds of the trip, so if he doesn’t show up, leave and wait for the next ship. Hunting without a 2x Drop Card isn’t recommended since Crog’s Hwabi drop rate is annoyingly low.
- -Fake Bosses (varies)(no longer available)- Fake bosses drop 10-15 cakes every time they’re killed. These cakes can be NPCed for 2-5k each. Now imagine twenty channels of bosses with a 2x Drop Card. That’s awesome. Refer to the “Fake Bosses” section for more information.
- -Sakura Cellions (Level 4X+)- Sakura Cellions drop obscene amounts of mesos and cellion tails, which can be sold for up to 400 mesos each. These kitties are a great way for lower level players to train and make money at the same time. A 2x Drop Card just makes it better.
- Leprechauns (Level 5X+)- Leprechauns are part of Crimsonwood Keep, a new addition to GMS’s New Leaf City. They have a meso drop rate even more obscene than that of Sakura Cellions (600-800 mesos or something). They even drop Japanese Maps (a rare 1-handed sword), Steelies, and other cool stuff. When used with a 2x drop card, you can like 2 million mesos an hour here (assuming you can 1-hit KO Leprechauns). The best map to hunt these monsters is called “Creeping Evil”. (Thanks to Russt for this tip.) Just watch out for the Elder Wraiths that you have to pass to get there.
Fake Bosses (no longer available)
This year’s fake boss event is now up and running. But don’t let the word “fake” move you eyes to other moneymaking opportunities. Though fake boss drops are far from spectacular, the lack of fake-boss hunters around means you can make incredibly easy money killing them.
How to Do It
Most fake-bosses are rarely (if ever) killed. So they are usually very easy to find. Fake bosses have much less HP than their real counterparts, weak attacks, extraordinarily good HP:Exp ratios, and drop anywhere from 5-15 cakes when they are killed. To start a hunting trip, go to a fake boss map (see below) on Channel 1 and kill a few monsters there. A fake boss should spawn (unless you went to a map other than the ones I recommend below). Kill it with whatever attacks you have. This should take anywhere from 10-30 seconds. Once you are done, pick up the drops and change to the next channel. Once you have gone through all 20 channels, you should have a crapload of cakes. Go to the nearest NPC shop and sell all of them. Hunting trips will yield anywhere from 200-400k and take about 10-30 minutes. Once you are done, go to the nearest other recommended fake boss map and repeat. Fake bosses will spawn every 30 minutes, so if you have 2-3 of their maps close to you, you’ll be making 500k+ an hour. You can find the location of fake bosses here: http://www.basilmarket.com/forum/544230/0/...oint_List.html#
Investing
In Maplestory, investing is the process of buying a specific item in hopes of its price increasing to a profitable amount. Sometimes investing can be very rewarding. Say you had bought 10 Maple Shields back in April 2008, when they were worth 10 million mesos each. By May 2008, the price of Maple Shields had ballooned to 20 million mesos a shield. So if you had saved the shields as an investment, you would’ve made 100 million mesos, a highly respectable amount for even the best merchants.
However, investing is also extremely risky. Even the most prominent of sellers only have minimal control of the market, so predicting price trends is pretty difficult. Often times, you success will depend on luck. One investment of yours might flop while another might make you your world’s newest billionaire. Usually, the more risks you take, the more money becomes available.
Event Item Investments (Low Risk)
At the end of the 2006 Christmas Event, I bought 100 Red/Green Presents for 1k each (cost: 100k). When the 2007 Christmas Event came along, I discovered O-Pongo on NLC charged exactly 100 Christmas Presents for a Versalmus Cactus, which was worth five million mesos (profit: 4.9 mil). Event item investing is by far the most conservative investing method, as you have to wait a whole year until you can cash in. It’s also the safest method since, if the event is same as last year’s, you’re pretty much guaranteed a profit. Just watch out for nasty changes that Nexon occasionally makes to events (i.e. the time graham crackers were made untradeable). To start an event investment, wait until the end of a big Maplestory event. Then start buying all the event items you can. Since the event has probably been running for over a month, prices will be extremely low. Once you’re done, stash the stuff on a mule and wait for next year. If you don’t quit by then (quitting is the event investment’s greatest risk), you’ll be able to enjoy the glory of quadrupled prices for your items.
iTCG Piece Investing (Moderate Risk)
Every time a new Maplestory iTCG set is released, a new series of pieces are eneded to make the set’s weapons and armors. But sometimes, old pieces are needed along with the new. This causes an increase in the demand for these old pieces, though the supply stays the same. This lack of supply causes severe inflation. For example, when it was discovered that Crystal Ilbis and Facestompers required the Set 1 Taru Totem to be forged, totem prices skyrocketed from 10 to 30 million mesos. So the moment a new iTCG item pops up on the Sleepywood Forging List, gobble up all the old pieces needed for it.
Scroll Investing (High Risk)
People usually invest in scrolls during the Maple Event. This is because, in every Maple Event, a huge amount of previously rare/nonexistent items are released. The vast wave of (non-scrolled) items creates a huge demand for scrolls, particularly 60% and 30% weapon scrolls. For example, Claw for Atk 30% Scrolls rose from 13 to 17 million mesos during the 2008 event. However, scroll investing isn’t limited to the Maple Event. This type of investing is applicable every time a new, powerful, highly-available item is released. So if a new 20 speed overall is being sold in NLC, stock up on overall dex scrolls. A level 70 dexless claw is being sold in Zipangu? Start buying claw attack scrolls. Scroll investments are risky since items aren’t always as hot as predicted, but if things work out they can be very rewarding.
Sakura Cellions
Well, this is the only other thing I could think of. I know there are plenty of nice training spots out there that give plenty of drops and lots and lots of cash, but I’m not familiar with any. Anyways, Sakura Cellions can give you 200k+ an hour once you reach lvl 50+ (all jobs). Unfortunately, due to this fact, cellions are very crowded. In older servers, it may be near impossible to find an empty channel. If you do find one, try to keep it. Whenever someone comes in, use a polite, “Do you mind ccing?”. It’ll work about 80% of the time. And what if he doesn’t listen? KS the hell out of him! >
Conclusion
If you follow this guide, you could be starting your journey to become a MS billionaire. You’ll be able to buy anything you want! And when you do, I’ll come to by and say…. Mesarz pl0x!
FAQ (whatever that stands for)
Q: Why isn't scrolling on here?
A: I have never scrolled; it's too risky for me (my friend lost 70 mil trying to scroll a 11 luck maple shield). Besides, is scrolling really that hard? Drag that stupid scroll onto the equip! Durh!
Q: Does that offering scenario you posted actually ever happen?
A: No matter how skeptical you people are, yes. I got every person I was buying scrolls from yesterday to lower their price by AT LEAST 200k with my method.
Q:Z0mgz0rz liek i hav s0 muhc m0nyz me no n33dzorz d1s gu1de!
A: Thanks for the bump, sucker! >
Credits and Such
I would like to thank…
-Me for creating this guide
-My buddy Evadiation for telling me to get my ass to work
Other Guides of Mine
The Comprehensive Assassin Training Guide
How to Prevent Yourself From Being Scammed
Smartguy's Guide on Guildmaking (screwed up for some reason)
Smartguy's Guide on Making Guides
Smartguy's Comprehensive Bandit Training Guide (NEW!)
Everything a Newbie Needs To Know (NEW!)
