Producer's Permanent Beginner Guide

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Welcome to Producer’s Permanent Beginner Guide!​

I have been playing Beginner characters since 2009 and my main is currently my level 212 Beginner. This guide will explain the whats, whys, and hows of this unique class, its many variations, and its role in the modern era of Maplestory.​

Section 1: What on Earth is a Permanent Beginner?​

A Permanent Beginner is a character who never job advances. This applies to Explorers, Cygnus Knights, Aran, Resistance classes, and Shades. Characters who have 1st job skills upon creation or are forced into their first job advancement at level 10 cannot be Permanent Beginners.

Beginners are the first type of character folks were ever introduced to when beginning Maplestory. It was designed as a blank slate to learn the basics with, while offering the freedom for players to shape their character into any class they choose. Somewhere along the way, someone thought it would be goofy to not advance their character into a Mage, Archer, or Warrior and it birthed the permanent beginner.

Here are the different types of Beginners and what makes them unique!


Beginner:

Standard Explorer Beginners are the only class to remain the same since launch. Beginners have gotten zero revamps and therefore are the most plain class you can possibly play. This is the most popular choice for people who want to play Permanent Beginners because they remain true to the point of their class: no bells and whistles, unlike many other starting classes who now have access to mobbing abilities or mobility skills.

They have three skills:

Three Snails; A ranged attack that does 40 damage and costs 7 MP
Recovery; A healing skill that recovers 72 HP in 30 seconds and costs 15 MP
Nimble Feet; A speed buff skill that increases speed by 20% for 12 seconds and costs 10 MP


Noblesse:

This is the Beginner of the Knights of Cygnus. While they used to be very similar to standard beginners, they now have access to mobbing abilities and mobility abilities making them the strongest no-jobbed characters in the game. If you want to play a Beginner character but can’t bear the slowness of both mobility and training, then this may be for you. They offer a more modern playstyle while still bearing the relative weakness of a jobless character.

They have two skills:

Elemental Slash: A slash that hits 3 enemies at 130% damage and costs no MP.
Elemental Shift: A double jump that costs 4 MP.


Legend:

This is the beginner for the Aran class. Legends exist as Arans who haven’t rediscovered any of their powers yet, which they have the option to do at level 10. If you choose not to fully realize yourself as Aran, you can remain a Legend! Legends are Beginners who still have a tiny flicker of their past inside them, meaning they have a few advantages more than Beginners and a few less than Noblesses making them a rare species of middleground.

Legends have three skills which are essentially the same as Beginner:

Three Snails; A ranged attack that does 40 damage and costs 7 MP
Recovery; A healing skill that recovers 72 HP in 30 seconds and costs 15 MP
Agile Body; A speed buff skill that increases speed by 20% for 12 seconds and costs 10 MP

This is not marked as a skill of any kind, but Legends can hit more than one monster at a time when using a Pole Arm weapon. They also disregard the attack speed of Pole Arm weapons, granting them all the same speed. If you're playing a Legend, it's best to use Pole Arms.


Citizen:

A Citizen is a Resistance character who has not yet chosen a job. These are very close to generic explorer Beginners, but are much less common purely because they are less traditional. There are ever-so-slight benefits compared to regular Beginners but the difference is hardly substantial by any means.

Citizens have a whopping FOUR skills:

Crystal Throw; A ranged attack dealing 40 damage which costs 7 MP
Potion Mastery; A passive buff that adds +115% effectiveness from all potions
Infiltrate; A speed buff and invincibility skill that increases speed +15% for 30 seconds with an MP cost of 15 (Cooldown is 1 minute)
Spirit of Freedom; A passive skill that states you will not take damage for 5 seconds after you are revived

???:

A ??? is a Shade who does not job advance at level 10. This is a more controversial type of Beginner because it doesn't have its own rankings and is considered illegitimate. The only way to play normally as a ??? is by glitching, hacking, or exploiting your way off the tutorial island for Shades. They are the most uncommon type of permanent beginner due to the fact that they are hard to get into the regular maple world.

???s have NO skills.

Section 2: Why the heck would you play a Beginner? Why would I?

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There are so many reasons why I or someone else would play a Permanent Beginner.

Does your weird uncle Bob have one of those singing plastic fish plaques mounted over a wall somewhere? Does your Aunt Sheryl have a huge snowglobe proudly on display in her curio cabinet? Well that's basically what you're playing as when playing as a beginner-- a novelty. There is no purpose except to exist and be a neat little thing to look at.

While that may sound like a painful, sad existence, it's got a lot of charm to it. You will be as proud of your beginner as your uncle is of his singing fish or your aunt is of her huge snowglobe.

Playing with no skills is challenging and very rewarding. Anyone can get to level 200+ with massive mobbing capabilities of the russian military and the mobility of a drunk acrobat on a Red Bull I.V. via moden maplestory skills. Not many people can do it while being a useless turd and that is something to be proud of. After lots of us have been playing maplestory for an entire decade, a permanent beginner offers a new challenge that goes beyond just hitting higher and higher numbers.

Beyond it being a fresh challenge, you don't have to worry about funding. A beginner will always be awful no matter how much money you pump into it. My level 212 has a 70k range which is comparable to the damage of a level 50 normal character. If you are continuously stressing about keeping up with the equipment and damage meta and you never feel good enough, playing a beginner can cure that because it doesn't matter.

Have you veterans ever wanted to go back and play maplestory like it was when you first started with slow movement and weak damage lines? Look no further. Beginners still have the same feel as all the classic maple playstyles and have not changed since maple was designed. They also have the classic A E S T H E T I C that a lot of older players really miss. Guess what, boys? Zhelms, bathrobes, SCGs, Facestompers, BWGs and flowers/tubes/red whips etc are all viable again. You're probably going to cover it in KaWaIi XD NX eventually but it's there.

Do you miss that sense of community Maple used to have? Do you feel like Maple is a single player MMO now? Well Beginners can cure that. You literally HAVE TO rely on other people to help you. Forget grinding alone to level 250; you will be a worthless turd to yourself and others and you will need to rely on friends and strangers to help you do literally everything.

You may be thinking "Wow, you're making Permanent Beginners seem really bad right now." Well they are and that is the point. If you're reading this guide you're likely considering starting one or looking for advice on continuing one. You should begin your beginner adventure knowing this class is basically a funny joke that some people like me take too far. If you like to take jokes too far too and think you can handle it, keep reading the guide!

TL;DR: Beginners are good if you want to exist in a virtual world purely as a meme.

Section 3: How to be successful as a failure

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SP/AP Builds:

If you want to do damage or see how strong you can get your Beginner then add everything to STR all the time.

If you want to survive bossing with your friends and do no damage, add all into STR until you can't train yourself anymore (usually around level 70) and then add into HP for the rest of your life.

If you want to kill things sometimes for fun but also want to survive bossing, then I'd do a mix where you add STR until you can't viably grind anymore (again, usually around level 70) and then do +2/3 Str and +2/3HP every time you level. You can add as you see fit. One of the perks of being a beginner is that it doesn't matter how you build your character at all; you have free reign!

As far as SP goes, it doesn't matter at all. Max out whichever skills you want because you will never use any of them.

Equipment:

Note that Beginners can only equip Class-Common gear.

Surprise, surprise; equipment is super random. You'll have long periods of time dealing with the same equipment because most class-common equipment was made for lower levels to equip. Beginners don't have access to a CA/Fafnir set or Tyrant equips so you have to make do.

Scroll/spell trace for whatever you need. [Likely defense, HP, or STR. depending on your AP build]

SKILL NEBULITES ARE A MUST! Hyper Body and Haste will make your life a lot easier. You should definitely use it on your end game gear.

[2019 Update: Nexon removed nebulites. You can still get some decent skills with potentials though.]

Clothes

Level 10: Default Clothes.

Level 20: Bathrobe (Overall)

Level 50: Zakum Helmet (Hat), Pumpkin Hat, (Hat) Stormcaster Gloves (Gloves), Facestompers (Shoes), Pink Adventurer Cape (Cape) [These equips will have to last you to level 100 or 150]

Level 100: Maple Anniversary Set/Frozen Set [If they are available at the time]

Level 150: Sweetwater Tattoo (Face Accessory) Sweetwater Monocle (Eye Accessory) [Generic Commerci Set is good too as you wait for 160]

Level 160: Sweetwater Set

Weapons:

Level 10: Stars and Stripes, Frozen Tuna (Lvl 10), Wooden Bat

Level 20: Fish Spear, Frozen Tuna (Lvl 20)

Level 30: Aluminum Bat, Green Paintbrush, Red Whip

Level 40: Glowing Whip

Level 55: Blazing Sword

Level 65: White Mop

Level 70: Colorful Tube

Level 90: Enraged Stirge Whip

Level 95: Super Summer/Purple Surfboard

Level 100: Crimson Arcglaive

Level 127:VIP Dagger (STR)



Familiars:

You're gonna need familiars with you on this journey.

Any familiar will do until level 100 at which point you will need a SAO (Sword Art Online) Familiar. These are called Gleam Eyes, The Skull Reaper, and The Fatal Scythe. They were given out during an event so you will have to buy them off another player.

At later levels, get Empress Cygnus familiars and gacha familiars.

As your damage becomes less and less effective on monsters, your familiars can help pick up some of the slack.

Training:

Beginners follow the same training guide as everyone else for the most part so I won't copy+paste a whole training guide. You can reference one on this site or a dozen others.

There are some minor differences and changes which I will discuss though.

There will also be two sections for those who are okay with leeching and those who don't want to.

Leeching Guide:

Follow a standard training guide, but have someone leech you. It's that simple. You should still be able to hit level 50 without leeching at least.

*You can no longer leech while AFK because you cannot obtain EXP unless you are actively in combat. (You can circumvent this by spamming your attack key in a safe location on the map but you risk getting banned if you are trying to do this without paying attention or doing it manually.)

At level 200 you're pretty screwed. Other folks will be going to Arcana which is only accessible through 5th job and since you don't have 1st job, you're going to have to stop at Scrapyard or Perion Ruins. I personally use Scrapyard Hill 5 since it has a safe location to stand and attack.

You may need to leech yourself on a seperate computer/account or have a good friend help you. If for some reason you care enough about being the best meme character ever, you can pay someone to leech you but that's a little silly on a character that doesn't really matter.

Non-Leeching Guide:

Follow a standard training guide but don't move on to the next spot until you can successfully train at the recommended spot. I don't know what you expect; it's not like Beginners have any secret or preferred maps compared to normal folk.

Instead of grinding it out all the time, quest lines help. You get common-class equips and good exp for doing recommended quest lines. And if Party Quests are relevant again while you're reading this, they are a gift from god. I got from level 50 to 160 on PQs by doing the objective while my party killed things.

Your grinding abilities will probably cap at around level 145 at which point you should be accepting and doing the Heizan quests. "Regards, Takeda Shingen" will appear in the lightbulb tab and accept it. It will lead you to "Princess No's Alter Ego." It's a 15 minute boss run that transforms you into a character with skills. You will likely be doing this until level 250. maybe with some Temple of Time grinding thrown in there.

Section 4: Other random tidbits

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Bad Stuff:
Beginners can't get professions
Beginners can't go on Commerci runs
Beginners can't access link skills
Beginners can't enter Elin Academy
Beginners can't get the Maple Return/Journey Home/Secret Assembly/Return to Rien skills
Beginners can't get the Pocket Slot through normal means

Other Stuff:
ALL Beginners can use Cygnus Knight secondary weapons OR class-common shields
No EXP loss upon death

This guide is somewhat a work in progress. I'll periodically update it with more details and I'll make some things more fleshed out and specific. I'm taking suggestions and corrections!

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