Ironically, not quite complete yet (but close)
Carnival Party Quest
I. What is it, and where can I find it?
II. What do I do in the PQ?
III. What jobs are best for this PQ?
IV. Mob Summons
V. Skills
VI. Protectors
VII. Rooms 1 and 2
VIII. Rooms 3 and 4
IX. Rooms 5 and 6
X. General Strategies
XI. Coins and Spiegelman’s trades
XII. Coin Farming
XIII. Trading Wins
XIV. Unwritten rules and behavior guide
I. What is it, and where can I find it?
The Monster Carnival Party Quest, or Carnival Party Quest (CPQ for short) is the only current player vs. player event in the Global Version of MapleStory at this time. By clicking on Spiegelman, who resides in Kerning, Orbis, and Ludibrium, you can enter a special map where parties can be arranged to compete against each other.
II. What do I do in the PQ?
The contest consists of killing various monsters from Ludibrium faster than the other party. Each kill gives the player and their team CP, or Carnival Points, which can be used to hinder your opponents. You can do this by summoning monsters, causing negative status effects on them, or by buffing the monsters that your opponents are fighting (More on this later.). If you die, you do not lose experience. Instead, you lose up to 10 unspent CP.
III. What jobs are best for this PQ?
None. Each job has their own value -
Warriors
Slash blast for fast killing of mobs (enemy is less likely to summon as well), tough to kill, good adaptability. Weaknesses include accuracy related problems, lack of a long range attack, enemies with ranged attacks on large maps, and avoidability/weapon cancel towers. Highly funded pages/fighters will see little difference between each other. More funding alters the gap from swords and BW/Axes being near equal to swords having an advantage.
Pages - BW pages have cheap weapons so are often strong, Threaten weakens enemy attack and defense.
Fighters - Rage to raise party attack, Axe fighters can have strong weapons even with low funding.
Spearmen - Hyper Body to raise party HP and MP of the party (great for thieves and mages), longer range than bandits/other warriors. (Lacks Power Guard, so may take more damage from attacks).
Thieves
Fast, difficult to hit, dark sight to take shelter when HP is low, strong attacks vs. single monsters. Weaknesses include the “weak” skill (prevents jumping), low HP, low defense, and the weapon cancel protector.
Bandits - Fast single enemy attacks, can quickly move between spaced out enemies, powerful when Savage Blow is maxed. (Weaker until Savage Blow is maxed, have no long range attacks)
Assassins - Fast and long range attacking, excels when monsters are a long distance away from the player. With high funding, can easily deal out large damage in a short amount of time. One of the best classes for taking out Rombots. (Have no close range attack, face difficulty in large spawns. Must recharge stars when they run out. If they run out of stars mid-pq, and did not place points into Double Stab, they become next to useless).
Archers
Long range attacks, good mobbing skills (available in second job), more HP than thieves, more MP than warriors, best when attacking from the sides. Very good at controlling mobs if points have been placed into Power Knockback. Weak to fast monsters, weapon cancel, a large number of summons, and sealing skills. Without Soul Arrow, archers must purchase new arrows when theirs run out. If they run out of arrows mid-pq, they become next to useless.
Hunters - Can stun mobs of enemies with Arrow Bomb, fast ranged attacks.
Crossbowman - Stronger attacks than hunters, but slower, mob attack works differently but is well suited to CPQ. No stunning abilities.
Mages
Short and long range attacks, require a separate cancel protector (use magic instead of weapon attacks), high damage when matched against elementally weak enemies, can dodge enemies and attacks with teleport. Weak to the “seal” skill, enemies that are resistant to elemental attacks, low survivability when magic guard is not used, extremely vulnerable to stun.
Clerics - Healing can be invaluable when potions don’t seem to be dropping, powerful when Chronos or Master Chronos are summoned by the enemy. Enemy is less likely to summon Master Chronos when a cleric is present in the opposing party. Bless can be great for warrior party members. Can keep stunned party members from dying. Generally weaker than other mages when heal-weak monsters are not present, as most do not place points into Holy Arrow early on, if ever. Have a hard time getting into parties because of this.
Ice/Lightning mages - Can freeze single enemies, have a good area-of-effect mob attack (rumored to be weakened in CPQ to keep the classes balanced, but still strong). Robos are resistant to ice, and cannot be frozen. Rombots are boss-flagged monsters and cannot be frozen either.
Fire/Poison mages - Strong against Rombots and block golems with fire-based attacks. High damage on single enemies. Poison is not overly useful in CPQ, and can only hit 1 target per cast.
Pirates
Moderate to high HP, moderate MP, melee and ranged mob attacks, stunning abilities, moderate evasive abilities, fast moving (with dash). Job division is more noticeable between Gunslingers and Brawlers than in other jobs, so specific strengths and weaknesses will be covered later.
Gunslingers - Fast ranged attacks, ranged mob attack, short range stun (up to 3 monsters), Wings + Recoil shot makes for a very quick and effective evasive maneuver (comparable to a shorter flash jump), high accuracy. When they can kb an enemy, it will be unable to get near the gunslinger. Until mastery and invisible shot are a respectable level (late 30s, early 40s), gunslingers will have an extremely difficult time at CPQ. Attack buffing potions used before the PQ and moderately scrolled equips can help to overcome the disadvantage of weak and unstable damage. Recommended that gunslingers have as high a level of summersault kick as possible if they plan to CPQ, as rooms 1-4 can quickly become clustered with enemy mobs that make ranged attacks very difficult. Weak to fast monsters, weapon cancel, mass summons, seal, and weakness (prevents jumpshooting to enable ranged attacks in the middle of a mob). Useless if bullets run out, but high recharge amounts make this a less frequent occurrence than an assassin running out of stars.
Brawlers - Fast melee attacks, mob stunning and massive KB, plenty of time to charge attacks while awaiting mob spawn (esp true for Rombots and the first half of a CPQ, where there are less mobs), extremely high damage, higher accuracy and avoid than warriors. Very useful when paired with ranged classes due to their stunning capability. Weaker and less accurate in early 30s due to focus on MaxHP Increase before attacking skills. Corkscrew’s KB can be harmful to teammates if not used carefully (pushing away from melee jobs or towards ranged).
IV. Mob Summons
Mob summoning is the first tab of abilities that you can choose to spend points on. These are best used against opponents who struggle to stay alive, long range characters in small stages, and people without mob attacks. They range in strength from a simply Ratz to the powerful Master Chronos to even the boss Rombot. The weaker summons use the least CP of any ability.
Strategies -
Anything weaker than a Trojan should probably NOT be summoned, as they will generally help your opponent by giving them more kills (and thus more CP and potions), unless you are coin farming (more on this later).
Trojans - are extremely effective against archers and weaker mages when spawned en mass - they move quickly and are relatively cheap (9 CP each). Combined with speed and power up, they can quickly corner enemy players and prevent them from running away. Not as effective for warriors, brawlers, and I/L mages, who can mob them very quickly, and against thieves, who can use dark sight to catch a break. Best on rooms 1,2,3, and 4.
Robos - should only be used when one of the strongest opponents is an I/L mage. They are immune to freezing and strong against ice, making I/L highly vulnerable to them. They are also faster than rombots, but lack a ranged attack. These work well on any stage, but are more effective against lower level mages.
Master Chronos - have a powerful magic attack that hits at a decent range - this makes them very useful against enemy warriors and thieves. Take note that the magic attack can ignore dark sight, making it difficult for thieves to hide from them. The real strategy with Master Chronos is their ability to knock people off ladders from below - combined with weapon or magic cancelling towers, an opponent who does not know how to take a hit before climbing will continuously get knocked down before they can get to the towers. Strategies using massive summons of Master Chronos work well in any room, although they are more common on stages 3-6, where CP can be earned quickly to set this combo up. Speed up and magic up work well with this summon as well. Avoid summoning these in room 3 or 4 when the opposing team has a cleric or a high level warrior/brawler.
Rombots - are tanks. They have massive HP and defense, strong touch damage, and a powerful slam attack that hits nearby players that are on the ground (making weakness a great skill to use alongside them). Characters with lower HP and little space to fight in and dodge attacks will have difficulty fighting these. Be careful about summoning them against a players with close range mob attacks in rooms 1,2,3, and 4, where other monsters can be killed to provide potions while still hurting the Rombots. Rombots also give large amounts of CP, so do not summon them when they can be easily killed by your opponents (this holds true for any other summon as well, but Rombots will cost you the most in terms of CP and in terms of helping your opponents).
V. Skills
Skills are negative status effects that can be inflicted upon your opponents, anything from poison to stun to even curse. These effects act the same as if they were inflicted by a monster. All except for stun can be removed by picking up an all cure potion. There is also a cancel buffs option that removes any positive effects the opponent has (Hyper Body, Magic Guard, etc). Most skills can also be caused by looting cubes of darkness or stunners.
Poison - inflicts 25 damage to all opponents every second. It is very useful against low HP characters early in the game, before a lot of potions have been dropped. Can be removed by picking up an all cure potion. Limited use late in matches or when the enemy has a cleric on their team. Highly useful when combined with stun.
Weakness - prevents all opponents from jumping. This is good for keeping them from breaking your protectors, from dodging Rombot attacks, and limiting their ability to keep themselves from touching an enemy. Archers and mages are less restricted by this skill than others, because they generally have difficulty jumping while attacking anyway, and gain little benefit from doing so. Can be removed by picking up an all cure potion. Extremely useful against thieves.
Darkness - is the bane of all melee characters, particularly warriors. It drastically limits accuracy, a warrior’s primary weakness, and combined with avoidability-up can be devastating to any team. Can be cured by picking up an all cure potion.
Curse - seems to be very useless as far as hindering your opponents, as all it does is cut exp gain by half. The only use I can imagine for this is to stop a player with a known high percentage of experience from leveling inside the PQ and getting stronger, but obviously this situation would only rarely come about. Don’t waste your CP on this. This can be removed by picking up an all cure, but it is ill advised to waste one if potions are scarce to cure something that doesn’t affect the CPQ.
Seal - completely prevents your opponents from using any abilities. For mages, this is hell, as all of their magic is cast from abilities. Other classes can still do some damage while this is in effect, but would be better advised to wait it out or grab an all cure. Extremely useful against dexless assassins (who won’t get the insane Lucky7 formula and will be doing relatively normal damage), all mages, and archers who rely on power knock back to keep enemies away from them. Prevents pirates from stunning, gunslingers from using recoil shot or wings, and brawlers from using corkscrew to KB).
Slow - is the only skill that cannot be caused by a cube of darkness/stunner. It drastically reduces the speed of all of your opponents. I don’t believe it can be removed by looting an all cure or by casting haste over it, so it is a great way to mess with your opponents. It works well when fast enemies are summoned, or with protectors in rooms 3 and 4, where the protectors are reachable only via short ladders that are difficult to jump to.
Stun - is awesome. A player who is stunned cannot do anything - they cannot move, attack, or even pick up items. In Canival PQ, where the only way to heal is to pick up an item, this can be deadly, especially to low HP characters, but even to warriors if it gets them in a tight spot. Stun is both offensive and defensive - it stops your opponent from attacking and has a good chance of killing them and making them lose some CP at the same time. In the mean-time you have hopefully killed enough monsters to use stun again and repeat the cycle. A well-timed stun or two can make for some great combos with other abilities (poison works well). Stun cannot be cured by anything except time, but only affects one opponent per cast. Never hang from a ladder when you are trying to catch a break, always sit on a platform - if stun hits you while you are on a ladder, you WILL fall all the way down, more than likely into a mob of monsters.
Cancel buff - well…it cancels buffs. It removes Rage, Hyper Body, Magic Guard, and any other positive status effect that was created by a skill (not to be confused with CPQ skills). Cannot cancel item buffs. This is a good skill to use against mage-heavy and thief-heavy opponents, as it can cancel any buffs that help them to stay alive (magic guard, dark sight, haste). It does not block buffs though, so an opponent that noticed that their buff is gone can simply re-cast it. Only hits one opponent, so it can be tough to use strategically.
VI. Protectors
Protectors are towers with either a red or blue gem on the top (the color represents the team that summoned it) that make the monsters summoned by that team stronger. They range from simple attack buffs to avoidability and even reducing all physical or magical attack damage to 1. These can be very expensive, and should be used carefully. Often summoning one will prompt the opponents to summon one in return, so be prepared for harsh retaliation. Many players will request a match with no protectors, but I advise against these, as a losing opponent will often go against their word at the last minute in an attempt to take the lead. They are part of the game, like it or not, so just play to the best of your abilities unless you are playing with good friends and want to take it easy.
Power UP and Magic UP - improve the attacking abilities of the monsters that your opponents must fight. Power UP is generally more useful, as all monsters can do touch damage, but Magic UP can be a nice choice when the enemy is fighting a lot of Master Chronos. These protectors have moderate costs, but are not recommended to be used on their own. These work well when combined with Speed and/or Accuracy UP.
Guard UP and Shield UP - improve the defensive abilities of monsters. Very useful against weaker opponents. Guard UP is generally more useful, as Shield UP only has an effect when magic attacks are used (and only mages can use magic). Can be useful on their own, but won’t dramatically affect most opponents.
Accuracy UP and Avoid UP - Accuracy UP improves the chance that a monster will be able to hit an opponent. Avoidability UP improves the chances that it will dodge an opponent’s attack. The first is good for enemy thieves, who often cause monsters to miss. The second is better for warriors, but effective for all opponents, who will have great difficulty hitting a monster (110 accuracy is required to 100% hit an enemy that has this buff active). Accuracy UP is generally best when used along with an Attack UP of some kind. Avoidability UP can work fine on its own.
Speed UP - makes monsters faster. When used with already fast monsters like Trojans, they become impossible to run from. This can make climbing ladders difficult, but not impossible, and can help monsters with ranged attacks move into attacking position quickly. On its own, it can actually help enemies with strong mobbing attacks though, so be careful when and how you use this.
Weapon Cancel and Magic Cancel - are the strongest buffs available to your monsters. These make weapon and magic damage, respectively, do 1 damage per hit. Break these towers as soon as possible if the opponents summon them on you. These do not need to be in a combo to be effective, but other protectors can hide them, making it take a long time for opponents to destroy them, so do your best to summon them amidst an Avoidability UP or a Speed UP at least. Be wary of accidentally summoning the wrong Cancel (this happens quite frequently), as they are quite expensive, and the wrong one may not impact the enemy team at all (ie, Magic Cancel on a team of all warriors does nothing).
VII. Rooms I and II (Rooms are classified in pairs because there are no differences between each grouping)
Rooms I/II are the most recommended for low to mid 30s or less experienced players. The mobs consist of teddies and block golems and are widely scattered across the bottom of the map. There are several platforms reachable by ladders where protectors will spawn which can provide safety to a player with low HP until a teammate can aid them. Ranged jobs should be wary of being cornered by mobs, while melee should always be moving to locate new enemies. Jumping is not necessary to reach the ladders. Master Chronos can knock players off the ladders with their magic attack, so it may be necessary to take a hit before attempting to climb (good timing is essential) if one is attacking you. Pretty much balanced jobwise.
VIII. Rooms III and IV
Rooms III/IV are THE best maps for warriors and brawlers. Bandits will do alright here as well. Ranged classes will have a difficult time as mobs are summoned in by the opposing team. Mages will do fine if they can take the constant damage (be on the lookout for seal or cancel buff though). This map is small horizontally, and the mobs will only spawn on the bottom (barring recent bugs that cause Trojans to be spawned (for both your team and your opponents) on one of the upper platforms). There are several platforms accessible by ladders and jumping where protectors will spawn (can be difficult to reach if the enemy has summoned Master Chronos). Never summon mobs when a warrior or brawler is present in the opposing team on this map, never summon Master Chronos if a cleric is present. If the enemy is all ranged jobs, mass summoning Block Golems, Rombots, or Master Chronos will either stop or drastically slow their killing as they become surrounded by the mobs (Speed UP works very well in combination). Master Chronos in combination with Weapon Cancel and Weakness can take an extremely long time to overcome if an all cure potion is not available and will severely restrict the actions of warriors and brawlers.
IX. Rooms V and VI
Rooms V and VI are more suited to ranged classes - the bottom level spawns 3 Rombots for each team with several robos spawning (1-2 per platform) on the upper platforms. There are several small platforms with suspended ladders that allow ranged characters to snipe (invisible shot will not hit the top platforms, but will hit directly underneath the small ones. Other ranged skills behave as normal), with the provision that they have to jump down to grab potions. Master Chronos cannot hit these platforms unless the attack is launched prior to a character standing on one (at which point they will be knocked off). A Rombot, however, can (as always, well-timed jumps can avoid damage). Recommended to either have a warrior or strong ranged character attacking the rombots on their own - a warrior will have more survivability and use less potions, and can mob them if they are close together (easier for a spearman with combination of longer range and more health/mana), while a ranged character can quickly take them out 1 by 1 while staying out of range. Warriors should try to find platforms with multiple robos to make use of their mobbing abilities if not killing Rombots.
X. General Strategies
Master Chronos + Weapon/Magic Cancel+Speed UP (Ladder Sniping) - One of the most common and dangerous strategies if not quickly stopped. The combination of Master Chronos and Speed UP makes climbing ladders/ropes difficult, as their magic attack tracks you and can hit you even if you move outside of their respective attack range. This can make breaking protectors pretty damn difficult, giving the opposing team more time to gather points to repeat this or to use a new strategy. Master Chronos can be pretty dangerous if the enemy is low on potions as well.
Stun Wave - Each possible player using the Stun skill every 3 seconds. This will cripple at least a handful of the opposing players (more effective against smaller teams), stopping them from killing, looting potions, and doing much of anything. Combined with something like the above strategy, a winning team can effectively stall the losing team from gaining any further points (EXTREMELY useful when your team can keep enough CP flowing to continue the Stun Wave for more than 1 full minute. Longest I've seen it go on was appx 1:32), with players having to fight through the stun to break the protectors, only to get stunned again a few seconds later. Equally useful when trying to steal the lead from the opposing team. Stun Waves make for good finishers and last ditch efforts as well.
Darkness + Avoid UP (Ultimate Darkness) Screws. Warriors. Up. That's right, SWU. Not only is darkness the most crippling thing you can do to a low accuracy class, it is exacerbated by Avoid UP. Even archers and thieves will have some trouble hitting with darkness, and Avoid UP makes this a real threat to archers/thieves as well. Early in the game, when there are few potions/all cures, especially on lower level parties, this is an easily continued (read: low CP cost) and self-reinforcing strategy. The longer it goes on, the less a team can do against Darkness (even less potions to use). Breaking the Avoid UP helps, but also distracts a player from killing.
XI. Coins and Spiegelman's trades
Occasionally, something may drop that isn't a potion or status cube in CPQ - these shiny gold treasures are coins, and are used to purchase various rewards from Spiegelman. Smaller amounts of around 7-10 can get you a level 35 weapon, medium amounts a level 40 weapon, and larger amounts a level 50 weapon. You can also give him (50? It's been a while) coins to purchase a Spiegelman Pendant, which gives 1 to DEX/STR/LUK/INT as well as minor amounts of weapon and magic defense (on average - some stats may vary, but it will always at least give 1/1/1/1), and special marbles that can be used on it to add 30 HP/MP at a 60% success rate.
(Note - any errors I'll correct when I can go talk to Spiegelman and get exact figures. I also realize I am spelling his name wrong - I'll correct this as well).
Will add in what can be bought for how many coins.
XII. Coin Farming
Coin farming is a unique form of the PQ - instead of competing, each team will spawn as many monsters of the other team's preference in order to have more monsters to kill and thus have a higher chance of coins dropping. Common choices include Brown Teddies (small, fast, and easy to kill), Chronos (same as before, but Clerics can mob them), and Rombots (there is a belief that they have a higher chance of dropping coins). Usually the Speed Up protector is also spawned to help gather mobs faster. This can also be really good exp for mob-oriented classes. 2x Drop can be used to help collect coins more quickly. A 2-man Coin Farm will usually alternate looting of coins, or sometimes people will bring low level characters on the grounds that they not loot coins, but can still leech exp. This results generally in more coins for the attacker than a 2-man attacking/split.
Yay, nearly complete!
Carnival Party Quest
I. What is it, and where can I find it?
II. What do I do in the PQ?
III. What jobs are best for this PQ?
IV. Mob Summons
V. Skills
VI. Protectors
VII. Rooms 1 and 2
VIII. Rooms 3 and 4
IX. Rooms 5 and 6
X. General Strategies
XI. Coins and Spiegelman’s trades
XII. Coin Farming
XIII. Trading Wins
XIV. Unwritten rules and behavior guide
I. What is it, and where can I find it?
The Monster Carnival Party Quest, or Carnival Party Quest (CPQ for short) is the only current player vs. player event in the Global Version of MapleStory at this time. By clicking on Spiegelman, who resides in Kerning, Orbis, and Ludibrium, you can enter a special map where parties can be arranged to compete against each other.
II. What do I do in the PQ?
The contest consists of killing various monsters from Ludibrium faster than the other party. Each kill gives the player and their team CP, or Carnival Points, which can be used to hinder your opponents. You can do this by summoning monsters, causing negative status effects on them, or by buffing the monsters that your opponents are fighting (More on this later.). If you die, you do not lose experience. Instead, you lose up to 10 unspent CP.
III. What jobs are best for this PQ?
None. Each job has their own value -
Warriors
Slash blast for fast killing of mobs (enemy is less likely to summon as well), tough to kill, good adaptability. Weaknesses include accuracy related problems, lack of a long range attack, enemies with ranged attacks on large maps, and avoidability/weapon cancel towers. Highly funded pages/fighters will see little difference between each other. More funding alters the gap from swords and BW/Axes being near equal to swords having an advantage.
Pages - BW pages have cheap weapons so are often strong, Threaten weakens enemy attack and defense.
Fighters - Rage to raise party attack, Axe fighters can have strong weapons even with low funding.
Spearmen - Hyper Body to raise party HP and MP of the party (great for thieves and mages), longer range than bandits/other warriors. (Lacks Power Guard, so may take more damage from attacks).
Thieves
Fast, difficult to hit, dark sight to take shelter when HP is low, strong attacks vs. single monsters. Weaknesses include the “weak” skill (prevents jumping), low HP, low defense, and the weapon cancel protector.
Bandits - Fast single enemy attacks, can quickly move between spaced out enemies, powerful when Savage Blow is maxed. (Weaker until Savage Blow is maxed, have no long range attacks)
Assassins - Fast and long range attacking, excels when monsters are a long distance away from the player. With high funding, can easily deal out large damage in a short amount of time. One of the best classes for taking out Rombots. (Have no close range attack, face difficulty in large spawns. Must recharge stars when they run out. If they run out of stars mid-pq, and did not place points into Double Stab, they become next to useless).
Archers
Long range attacks, good mobbing skills (available in second job), more HP than thieves, more MP than warriors, best when attacking from the sides. Very good at controlling mobs if points have been placed into Power Knockback. Weak to fast monsters, weapon cancel, a large number of summons, and sealing skills. Without Soul Arrow, archers must purchase new arrows when theirs run out. If they run out of arrows mid-pq, they become next to useless.
Hunters - Can stun mobs of enemies with Arrow Bomb, fast ranged attacks.
Crossbowman - Stronger attacks than hunters, but slower, mob attack works differently but is well suited to CPQ. No stunning abilities.
Mages
Short and long range attacks, require a separate cancel protector (use magic instead of weapon attacks), high damage when matched against elementally weak enemies, can dodge enemies and attacks with teleport. Weak to the “seal” skill, enemies that are resistant to elemental attacks, low survivability when magic guard is not used, extremely vulnerable to stun.
Clerics - Healing can be invaluable when potions don’t seem to be dropping, powerful when Chronos or Master Chronos are summoned by the enemy. Enemy is less likely to summon Master Chronos when a cleric is present in the opposing party. Bless can be great for warrior party members. Can keep stunned party members from dying. Generally weaker than other mages when heal-weak monsters are not present, as most do not place points into Holy Arrow early on, if ever. Have a hard time getting into parties because of this.
Ice/Lightning mages - Can freeze single enemies, have a good area-of-effect mob attack (rumored to be weakened in CPQ to keep the classes balanced, but still strong). Robos are resistant to ice, and cannot be frozen. Rombots are boss-flagged monsters and cannot be frozen either.
Fire/Poison mages - Strong against Rombots and block golems with fire-based attacks. High damage on single enemies. Poison is not overly useful in CPQ, and can only hit 1 target per cast.
Pirates
Moderate to high HP, moderate MP, melee and ranged mob attacks, stunning abilities, moderate evasive abilities, fast moving (with dash). Job division is more noticeable between Gunslingers and Brawlers than in other jobs, so specific strengths and weaknesses will be covered later.
Gunslingers - Fast ranged attacks, ranged mob attack, short range stun (up to 3 monsters), Wings + Recoil shot makes for a very quick and effective evasive maneuver (comparable to a shorter flash jump), high accuracy. When they can kb an enemy, it will be unable to get near the gunslinger. Until mastery and invisible shot are a respectable level (late 30s, early 40s), gunslingers will have an extremely difficult time at CPQ. Attack buffing potions used before the PQ and moderately scrolled equips can help to overcome the disadvantage of weak and unstable damage. Recommended that gunslingers have as high a level of summersault kick as possible if they plan to CPQ, as rooms 1-4 can quickly become clustered with enemy mobs that make ranged attacks very difficult. Weak to fast monsters, weapon cancel, mass summons, seal, and weakness (prevents jumpshooting to enable ranged attacks in the middle of a mob). Useless if bullets run out, but high recharge amounts make this a less frequent occurrence than an assassin running out of stars.
Brawlers - Fast melee attacks, mob stunning and massive KB, plenty of time to charge attacks while awaiting mob spawn (esp true for Rombots and the first half of a CPQ, where there are less mobs), extremely high damage, higher accuracy and avoid than warriors. Very useful when paired with ranged classes due to their stunning capability. Weaker and less accurate in early 30s due to focus on MaxHP Increase before attacking skills. Corkscrew’s KB can be harmful to teammates if not used carefully (pushing away from melee jobs or towards ranged).
IV. Mob Summons
Mob summoning is the first tab of abilities that you can choose to spend points on. These are best used against opponents who struggle to stay alive, long range characters in small stages, and people without mob attacks. They range in strength from a simply Ratz to the powerful Master Chronos to even the boss Rombot. The weaker summons use the least CP of any ability.
Strategies -
Anything weaker than a Trojan should probably NOT be summoned, as they will generally help your opponent by giving them more kills (and thus more CP and potions), unless you are coin farming (more on this later).
Trojans - are extremely effective against archers and weaker mages when spawned en mass - they move quickly and are relatively cheap (9 CP each). Combined with speed and power up, they can quickly corner enemy players and prevent them from running away. Not as effective for warriors, brawlers, and I/L mages, who can mob them very quickly, and against thieves, who can use dark sight to catch a break. Best on rooms 1,2,3, and 4.
Robos - should only be used when one of the strongest opponents is an I/L mage. They are immune to freezing and strong against ice, making I/L highly vulnerable to them. They are also faster than rombots, but lack a ranged attack. These work well on any stage, but are more effective against lower level mages.
Master Chronos - have a powerful magic attack that hits at a decent range - this makes them very useful against enemy warriors and thieves. Take note that the magic attack can ignore dark sight, making it difficult for thieves to hide from them. The real strategy with Master Chronos is their ability to knock people off ladders from below - combined with weapon or magic cancelling towers, an opponent who does not know how to take a hit before climbing will continuously get knocked down before they can get to the towers. Strategies using massive summons of Master Chronos work well in any room, although they are more common on stages 3-6, where CP can be earned quickly to set this combo up. Speed up and magic up work well with this summon as well. Avoid summoning these in room 3 or 4 when the opposing team has a cleric or a high level warrior/brawler.
Rombots - are tanks. They have massive HP and defense, strong touch damage, and a powerful slam attack that hits nearby players that are on the ground (making weakness a great skill to use alongside them). Characters with lower HP and little space to fight in and dodge attacks will have difficulty fighting these. Be careful about summoning them against a players with close range mob attacks in rooms 1,2,3, and 4, where other monsters can be killed to provide potions while still hurting the Rombots. Rombots also give large amounts of CP, so do not summon them when they can be easily killed by your opponents (this holds true for any other summon as well, but Rombots will cost you the most in terms of CP and in terms of helping your opponents).
V. Skills
Skills are negative status effects that can be inflicted upon your opponents, anything from poison to stun to even curse. These effects act the same as if they were inflicted by a monster. All except for stun can be removed by picking up an all cure potion. There is also a cancel buffs option that removes any positive effects the opponent has (Hyper Body, Magic Guard, etc). Most skills can also be caused by looting cubes of darkness or stunners.
Poison - inflicts 25 damage to all opponents every second. It is very useful against low HP characters early in the game, before a lot of potions have been dropped. Can be removed by picking up an all cure potion. Limited use late in matches or when the enemy has a cleric on their team. Highly useful when combined with stun.
Weakness - prevents all opponents from jumping. This is good for keeping them from breaking your protectors, from dodging Rombot attacks, and limiting their ability to keep themselves from touching an enemy. Archers and mages are less restricted by this skill than others, because they generally have difficulty jumping while attacking anyway, and gain little benefit from doing so. Can be removed by picking up an all cure potion. Extremely useful against thieves.
Darkness - is the bane of all melee characters, particularly warriors. It drastically limits accuracy, a warrior’s primary weakness, and combined with avoidability-up can be devastating to any team. Can be cured by picking up an all cure potion.
Curse - seems to be very useless as far as hindering your opponents, as all it does is cut exp gain by half. The only use I can imagine for this is to stop a player with a known high percentage of experience from leveling inside the PQ and getting stronger, but obviously this situation would only rarely come about. Don’t waste your CP on this. This can be removed by picking up an all cure, but it is ill advised to waste one if potions are scarce to cure something that doesn’t affect the CPQ.
Seal - completely prevents your opponents from using any abilities. For mages, this is hell, as all of their magic is cast from abilities. Other classes can still do some damage while this is in effect, but would be better advised to wait it out or grab an all cure. Extremely useful against dexless assassins (who won’t get the insane Lucky7 formula and will be doing relatively normal damage), all mages, and archers who rely on power knock back to keep enemies away from them. Prevents pirates from stunning, gunslingers from using recoil shot or wings, and brawlers from using corkscrew to KB).
Slow - is the only skill that cannot be caused by a cube of darkness/stunner. It drastically reduces the speed of all of your opponents. I don’t believe it can be removed by looting an all cure or by casting haste over it, so it is a great way to mess with your opponents. It works well when fast enemies are summoned, or with protectors in rooms 3 and 4, where the protectors are reachable only via short ladders that are difficult to jump to.
Stun - is awesome. A player who is stunned cannot do anything - they cannot move, attack, or even pick up items. In Canival PQ, where the only way to heal is to pick up an item, this can be deadly, especially to low HP characters, but even to warriors if it gets them in a tight spot. Stun is both offensive and defensive - it stops your opponent from attacking and has a good chance of killing them and making them lose some CP at the same time. In the mean-time you have hopefully killed enough monsters to use stun again and repeat the cycle. A well-timed stun or two can make for some great combos with other abilities (poison works well). Stun cannot be cured by anything except time, but only affects one opponent per cast. Never hang from a ladder when you are trying to catch a break, always sit on a platform - if stun hits you while you are on a ladder, you WILL fall all the way down, more than likely into a mob of monsters.
Cancel buff - well…it cancels buffs. It removes Rage, Hyper Body, Magic Guard, and any other positive status effect that was created by a skill (not to be confused with CPQ skills). Cannot cancel item buffs. This is a good skill to use against mage-heavy and thief-heavy opponents, as it can cancel any buffs that help them to stay alive (magic guard, dark sight, haste). It does not block buffs though, so an opponent that noticed that their buff is gone can simply re-cast it. Only hits one opponent, so it can be tough to use strategically.
VI. Protectors
Protectors are towers with either a red or blue gem on the top (the color represents the team that summoned it) that make the monsters summoned by that team stronger. They range from simple attack buffs to avoidability and even reducing all physical or magical attack damage to 1. These can be very expensive, and should be used carefully. Often summoning one will prompt the opponents to summon one in return, so be prepared for harsh retaliation. Many players will request a match with no protectors, but I advise against these, as a losing opponent will often go against their word at the last minute in an attempt to take the lead. They are part of the game, like it or not, so just play to the best of your abilities unless you are playing with good friends and want to take it easy.
Power UP and Magic UP - improve the attacking abilities of the monsters that your opponents must fight. Power UP is generally more useful, as all monsters can do touch damage, but Magic UP can be a nice choice when the enemy is fighting a lot of Master Chronos. These protectors have moderate costs, but are not recommended to be used on their own. These work well when combined with Speed and/or Accuracy UP.
Guard UP and Shield UP - improve the defensive abilities of monsters. Very useful against weaker opponents. Guard UP is generally more useful, as Shield UP only has an effect when magic attacks are used (and only mages can use magic). Can be useful on their own, but won’t dramatically affect most opponents.
Accuracy UP and Avoid UP - Accuracy UP improves the chance that a monster will be able to hit an opponent. Avoidability UP improves the chances that it will dodge an opponent’s attack. The first is good for enemy thieves, who often cause monsters to miss. The second is better for warriors, but effective for all opponents, who will have great difficulty hitting a monster (110 accuracy is required to 100% hit an enemy that has this buff active). Accuracy UP is generally best when used along with an Attack UP of some kind. Avoidability UP can work fine on its own.
Speed UP - makes monsters faster. When used with already fast monsters like Trojans, they become impossible to run from. This can make climbing ladders difficult, but not impossible, and can help monsters with ranged attacks move into attacking position quickly. On its own, it can actually help enemies with strong mobbing attacks though, so be careful when and how you use this.
Weapon Cancel and Magic Cancel - are the strongest buffs available to your monsters. These make weapon and magic damage, respectively, do 1 damage per hit. Break these towers as soon as possible if the opponents summon them on you. These do not need to be in a combo to be effective, but other protectors can hide them, making it take a long time for opponents to destroy them, so do your best to summon them amidst an Avoidability UP or a Speed UP at least. Be wary of accidentally summoning the wrong Cancel (this happens quite frequently), as they are quite expensive, and the wrong one may not impact the enemy team at all (ie, Magic Cancel on a team of all warriors does nothing).
VII. Rooms I and II (Rooms are classified in pairs because there are no differences between each grouping)
Rooms I/II are the most recommended for low to mid 30s or less experienced players. The mobs consist of teddies and block golems and are widely scattered across the bottom of the map. There are several platforms reachable by ladders where protectors will spawn which can provide safety to a player with low HP until a teammate can aid them. Ranged jobs should be wary of being cornered by mobs, while melee should always be moving to locate new enemies. Jumping is not necessary to reach the ladders. Master Chronos can knock players off the ladders with their magic attack, so it may be necessary to take a hit before attempting to climb (good timing is essential) if one is attacking you. Pretty much balanced jobwise.
VIII. Rooms III and IV
Rooms III/IV are THE best maps for warriors and brawlers. Bandits will do alright here as well. Ranged classes will have a difficult time as mobs are summoned in by the opposing team. Mages will do fine if they can take the constant damage (be on the lookout for seal or cancel buff though). This map is small horizontally, and the mobs will only spawn on the bottom (barring recent bugs that cause Trojans to be spawned (for both your team and your opponents) on one of the upper platforms). There are several platforms accessible by ladders and jumping where protectors will spawn (can be difficult to reach if the enemy has summoned Master Chronos). Never summon mobs when a warrior or brawler is present in the opposing team on this map, never summon Master Chronos if a cleric is present. If the enemy is all ranged jobs, mass summoning Block Golems, Rombots, or Master Chronos will either stop or drastically slow their killing as they become surrounded by the mobs (Speed UP works very well in combination). Master Chronos in combination with Weapon Cancel and Weakness can take an extremely long time to overcome if an all cure potion is not available and will severely restrict the actions of warriors and brawlers.
IX. Rooms V and VI
Rooms V and VI are more suited to ranged classes - the bottom level spawns 3 Rombots for each team with several robos spawning (1-2 per platform) on the upper platforms. There are several small platforms with suspended ladders that allow ranged characters to snipe (invisible shot will not hit the top platforms, but will hit directly underneath the small ones. Other ranged skills behave as normal), with the provision that they have to jump down to grab potions. Master Chronos cannot hit these platforms unless the attack is launched prior to a character standing on one (at which point they will be knocked off). A Rombot, however, can (as always, well-timed jumps can avoid damage). Recommended to either have a warrior or strong ranged character attacking the rombots on their own - a warrior will have more survivability and use less potions, and can mob them if they are close together (easier for a spearman with combination of longer range and more health/mana), while a ranged character can quickly take them out 1 by 1 while staying out of range. Warriors should try to find platforms with multiple robos to make use of their mobbing abilities if not killing Rombots.
X. General Strategies
Master Chronos + Weapon/Magic Cancel+Speed UP (Ladder Sniping) - One of the most common and dangerous strategies if not quickly stopped. The combination of Master Chronos and Speed UP makes climbing ladders/ropes difficult, as their magic attack tracks you and can hit you even if you move outside of their respective attack range. This can make breaking protectors pretty damn difficult, giving the opposing team more time to gather points to repeat this or to use a new strategy. Master Chronos can be pretty dangerous if the enemy is low on potions as well.
Stun Wave - Each possible player using the Stun skill every 3 seconds. This will cripple at least a handful of the opposing players (more effective against smaller teams), stopping them from killing, looting potions, and doing much of anything. Combined with something like the above strategy, a winning team can effectively stall the losing team from gaining any further points (EXTREMELY useful when your team can keep enough CP flowing to continue the Stun Wave for more than 1 full minute. Longest I've seen it go on was appx 1:32), with players having to fight through the stun to break the protectors, only to get stunned again a few seconds later. Equally useful when trying to steal the lead from the opposing team. Stun Waves make for good finishers and last ditch efforts as well.
Darkness + Avoid UP (Ultimate Darkness) Screws. Warriors. Up. That's right, SWU. Not only is darkness the most crippling thing you can do to a low accuracy class, it is exacerbated by Avoid UP. Even archers and thieves will have some trouble hitting with darkness, and Avoid UP makes this a real threat to archers/thieves as well. Early in the game, when there are few potions/all cures, especially on lower level parties, this is an easily continued (read: low CP cost) and self-reinforcing strategy. The longer it goes on, the less a team can do against Darkness (even less potions to use). Breaking the Avoid UP helps, but also distracts a player from killing.
XI. Coins and Spiegelman's trades
Occasionally, something may drop that isn't a potion or status cube in CPQ - these shiny gold treasures are coins, and are used to purchase various rewards from Spiegelman. Smaller amounts of around 7-10 can get you a level 35 weapon, medium amounts a level 40 weapon, and larger amounts a level 50 weapon. You can also give him (50? It's been a while) coins to purchase a Spiegelman Pendant, which gives 1 to DEX/STR/LUK/INT as well as minor amounts of weapon and magic defense (on average - some stats may vary, but it will always at least give 1/1/1/1), and special marbles that can be used on it to add 30 HP/MP at a 60% success rate.
(Note - any errors I'll correct when I can go talk to Spiegelman and get exact figures. I also realize I am spelling his name wrong - I'll correct this as well).
Will add in what can be bought for how many coins.
XII. Coin Farming
Coin farming is a unique form of the PQ - instead of competing, each team will spawn as many monsters of the other team's preference in order to have more monsters to kill and thus have a higher chance of coins dropping. Common choices include Brown Teddies (small, fast, and easy to kill), Chronos (same as before, but Clerics can mob them), and Rombots (there is a belief that they have a higher chance of dropping coins). Usually the Speed Up protector is also spawned to help gather mobs faster. This can also be really good exp for mob-oriented classes. 2x Drop can be used to help collect coins more quickly. A 2-man Coin Farm will usually alternate looting of coins, or sometimes people will bring low level characters on the grounds that they not loot coins, but can still leech exp. This results generally in more coins for the attacker than a 2-man attacking/split.
Yay, nearly complete!
