Dear Maplers,
As we have promised to share more details about the Sky Fortress, we are sharing part 2 of the blog today with more information on Phase 1 of the Skybound Expansion. The MapleStory 2 studio looked into progression as a whole and finalized the structure for the Sky Fortress content yesterday.
Not only that, but the studio has been actively reviewing the overall gear progression data for the past few weeks, and have finally confirmed one addition to the current dungeon. Please understand that sometimes we cannot disclose anything until we review and finalize details. Since dungeon changes can impact the overall speed of gear progression, which can impact the overall lifecycle of the game, the team here and at the dev studio have been pulling data and tracking gear score distribution every week to see the trend. And as of last night, we could confirm that we want to experiment with some things in the December 6th update.
Since everyone is really focused on the Hard Adventure Dungeon structure change, let me get to the dungeon change first.
Hard Adventure Dungeon Change
I wouldn’t call this particular part a change, but more an experiment to test the speed of gear progression in the form of an event. You’ll see this experiment in action from the newly added item in the reward lists of Hard Adventure Dungeons with the tag “EVENT”. Again, this is more of an experiment, but we decided to use the already existing “EVENT” tag for now.
Starting with the December 6th update, all the Hard Adventure Dungeons will be dropping an item called Toad's Toolkit Fragment (final name TBD). You will be getting 10 fragments per dungeon clear, and with 20 fragments, you will be able to create a Toad's Toolkit (final name TBD). This stone can be consumed instead of a copy of gear that you need to use when enchanting Epic gear. This stone essentially works like a wildcard, and can be used for any armor or weapon.
This is identical to getting 30 pieces of gear of your class and type (including weapons) which can be used for enchanting. This item was sold for NX in another region, but we are testing this in the dungeons as a drop to see how the inclusion of this item changes overall progression for the Epic gear.
This will be run as an event until January 10th. Before the event ends, we will evaluate how this change impacted overall progression and will announce the next steps after that.
This item was already in review by the MapleStory 2 dev studio for the past few weeks, and we’ve reached a decision and finalized the plan yesterday.
To summarize:
Newly proposed three-step Hard Adventure Dungeon will stay the same
We respect the MapleStory 2 dev studio’s design direction to get new players started in dungeons by letting players focus on the different parts of gear that they need step-by-step. This allows the community to go through a variety of dungeon contents earlier
This design will create a more structured flow to have players go through each dungeon and choose which dungeon to play based on their gear situation. For example, we are expecting players with high gear scores and Legendary gear will play the dungeons that have a shorter playing time to collect resources and players who need to focus on weapons to play the dungeons with weapons. Players who want to re-roll their optional stats for their already enchanted gear will play the dungeon with Re-roller fragments.
Addition of Epic Todd’s Enchanting Stone Fragments will be run as an experiment for over a month with the tag of “EVENT” to test the progression
Before January 10th, we will be reviewing the data and will provide information on the next steps
Depending on the data, we will be coming up with new system improvements or will continue with the experiment if we need more data points to better assess the gear progression design
I would like to emphasize that it is very tricky to make changes to intricate systems, especially when the game has been released and has already gone through a large number of changes. The development studio spent a very long time coming up with the specifics of MapleStory 2’s progression system, and as we work to improve it we need to make sure that the new models will work well.
We hope this month-long experiment can give the studio enough of data to make a decision on next steps, and create a better experience for the game going forward.
On top of this changes, weekly mission and Sky Fortress content will provide more things for players to work on to get the items you need for gear progression. Please see the details of Sky Fortress contents below!
Sky Fortress Contents
As mentioned in the previous blog, a new adventure is inbound and Maplers will soon experience Sky Fortress and faction missions! In today’s blog, we’ll give you a spoiler-free sneak peek at what the Sky Fortress is and the effect it has on Maple World!
Starting at level 50, you can begin your Sky Fortress adventures and gain favor from 5 powerful groups maintaining the safety and order of the citizens. For those planning to join the Alliance with Soul Binder using Level 50 potion that we are giving out, fear not! The Sky Fortress Epic Quests can be started at level 50 independent of previous Epic Quest progresses.
With the Sky Fortress, you can take on Field Missions, Daily Missions, and Weekly Missions for each faction. You can complete the following number of missions per faction:
Field Missions: 1 per day, 7 per week
Daily Missions: 5 per day, 35 per week
Weekly Missions: 3 per week
When you take the mission, you will be earning a reputation, and reputation will progress in the order of “Known” → “Trusted” → “Respected” → “Beloved” → “Revered”.
A certain level of reputation is required for you to participate in the mission as below:
Green Hoods: Available from the start.
Lumiknights: Available from the start.
Dark Wind: Available when your reputation for Green Hoods and Lumiknights is Trusted (Lv. 2). Achievable in 1 week.
Royal Guard: Available when your reputation for Dark Wind is Trusted (Lv. 2). Achievable in 2 weeks.
Maple Alliance: Available when your reputation for Royal Guard is Trusted (Lv. 2). Achievable in 3 weeks.
Also, by doing missions for each faction, you will be obtaining tokens that can be used to purchase items from the Faction Shops. You will be able to collect up to 1,260 Tokens per faction per week, and the items you can buy from each Faction Shop will include those listed below (a detailed list to be revealed with the patch notes):
Please note: you will be getting a weapon of your class when you purchase the weapon box from the faction shop. Also, all items will be Character Bound, except the Souvenirs)
Green Hood Shop - Green Hood Tokens
1,080 Tokens: Lv.50 Legendary Shoes Bonus Value Re-roller (1 per character per week)
450 Tokens: Exquisite Headgear/Gloves/Shoes Selection Box (Epic) (2 per character per week)
20 Tokens: Blue Crystal (2 per character per week)
20 Tokens: Green Crystal (2 per character per week)
20 Tokens: 100x Crystal Fragment (3 per character per week)
Lumiknights Shop - Lumiknights Tokens
1,080 Tokens: Lv.50 Legendary Gloves Bonus Value Re-roller (1 per character per week)
450 Tokens: Exquisite Headgear/Gloves/Shoes Selection Box (Epic) (2 per character per week)
20 Tokens: Blue Crystal (2 per character per week)
20 Tokens: Green Crystal (2 per character per week)
20 Tokens: 100x Crystal Fragment (3 per character per week)
Dark Wind Shop - Dark Wind Tokens
1,080 Tokens: Lv.50 Legendary Headgear Bonus Value Re-roller (1 per character per week)
450 Tokens: Murpagoth Warrior Weapon Box, Ancient Rune Weapon Box, MSL Onyx Weapon Box (2 per character per week for each type of weapon box)
20 Tokens: Blue Crystal (2 per character per week)
20 Tokens: Green Crystal (2 per character per week)
20 Tokens: 100x Crystal Fragment (3 per character per week)
Royal Guard Shop - Royal Guard Tokens
1,220 Tokens: Lv.50 Legendary Bottoms Bonus Value Re-roller (1 per character per week)
450 Tokens: Exquisite Top/Bottom Selection Box (Epic) (2 per character per week)
20 Tokens: Blue Crystal (2 per character per week)
20 Tokens: Green Crystal (2 per character per week)
20 Tokens: 100x Crystal Fragment (3 per character per week)
Maple Alliance Shop - Maple Alliance Tokens
1,220 Tokens: Lv.50 Legendary Top Bonus Value Re-roller (1 per character per week)
450 Tokens: Absolute Accessory Random Box (Epic) (2 per character per week)
20 Tokens: Blue Crystal (2 per character per week)
20 Tokens: Green Crystal (2 per character per week)
20 Tokens: 100x Crystal Fragment (3 per character per week)
This new content will provide players with a variety of different gameplay experience, while supplying a large amount of supplies to help overall gameplay progression. Please look out for more details on the Sky Fortress with the upcoming patch notes!
Meso Seller & Bots
I have been seeing feedback regarding the overall restriction putting into the black market and the Crystal Fragments. We understand the inconvenience players will be going through, but after a thorough review, we decided to pull the trigger after ensuring it does not impact the normal gameplay.
The vast majority of transactions under level 50 and 60 at the Black Market were used by Meso Sellers, creating or transferring mesos to the RMT buyers. I assure you, we do have all the logs from Black Market who sold which item at what price, and our filters can easily catch who is making suspicious transactions with meso sellers. Please refrain from purchasing meso from these sellers.
We will be reviewing more measures which can solve the issue without creating too much friction on the player’s end, and will provide more updates later on.
We look forward to see everyone in game with the Skybound Expansion next week. The team here is working hard to prepare everything for the update, and to ensure that we have don’t face any technical issues with the major expansion.
Cheers, Jungsoo Lee & LAMBCOOK