The first patch of the summer update, MapleStory: Black Mage, has been released! The Gathering of Heroes includes the addition of the Maple Alliance outpost, where you can collect Wishes to fight against the Black Mage and changes to make levelling up easier. The update is split into three patches (plus more potentially?). June 21: Gathering of Heroes July 5: Prelude of War July 19: Labyrinth … and the story continues Here’s the world selection screen. Here’s the Maple Update Info Centre video. In addition, Nexon has partnered with a Korean singer named Ha Hyun Woo for the Black Mage’s theme song, aptly titled DARKNESS. This summer, we definitely will be fighting him Tenebris Expedition To defeat the Black Mage, the journey of destiny begins. Characters level 61 or higher can move to the Maple Alliance’s outpost by accepting the quest “[Black Mage] Impending Time of Destiny”. You can then become a member of the Maple Alliance by completing the “[Black Mage] Resolve with Cygnus” quest. NOTE: This quest line states that it takes place after the level 235 story at Esfera, but you can participate without completing that quest line. Every time you complete an Alliance Mission, you will gather more Wishes to save the world. After the update, the defense mission and the change in Maple World <Alliance’s Support> will be added. Later updates will add much more content. Characters who complete the “[Black Mage] Resolve with Cygnus” quest will automatically complete the “[Black Mage] Gathering at the Outpost” quest. Other characters level 61 or higher in the same world will be able to complete the quest as well. I’ll try and summarize what the beginning quests are. Basically, it’s what was shown in Gathering of Heroes video above. The Maple Alliance is preparing for their final fight against the Black Mage. An outpost atop Ereb is their new base. https://orangemushroom.files.wordpress.com/2018/06/bgm48-img-outpost_new.mp3 This is the background music for this area. Here’s all the illustrations for this small set of story quests! Cygnus aged like 10 years and looks like a cool valkyrie now haha. And all of the NPC illustrations! At the outpost, you’ll join the Alliance (I guess a second time) and be given an Alliance Rank! As you complete more missions, your rank will increase. It also shows a small insignia beside your character name. In the future, there will be an Alliance Supply, which will give you special items as your rank increases. There will also be Alliance Skills which give you special stats and bonuses. In addition, the Wish gauge will appear in the bottom right part of your screen. This is the main goal of the Alliance, to gather Wishes and power up the holy light in the outpost to be able to fight the Black Mage. You can collect up to 10,000 Wishes per day. Currently, there is only a couple of ways to collect Wishes. I thought this content would be permanent but the following missions are actually time-limited like events? I’m not sure what’s going on haha. Scattered Wishes The defense mission has been added. It will be available from June 21 to July 4. Helena will give you the Embers of Wishes, which you can use to install in a map with monsters around your level range. The installed Embers of Wishes will automatically disappear if you leave the map or log off, but you can reinstall it if you have remaining Wishes for the day. There is a cooldown of 5 minutes after installing it. If you have lost your Embers of Wishes, you can re-receive it through the quest “[Alliance Mission] Embers of Wishes”. After the Embers are installed, for 10 minutes, you will receive goals to collect certain numbers of Wish Fragments of Courage, Wish Fragments of Peace, and Wish Fragments of Hope. Within the time limit, you can return to the Embers and transfer your Wish Fragments to activate a powerful explosion to attack enemies and gain Wishes. The Wish transfer can be done up to 10 times, and the amount of Wish acquired will be different each time. Alliance’s Support The change of Maple World <Alliance’s Support> has been added. It will be available from June 21 until the Black Mage is defeated. When an Elite Monster is defeated, the character who dealt the most damage will receive Alliance Support for 30 seconds. You will receive one of: troop support (an Alliance solder will be summoned alongside you), bombardment support (enemies around you will be bombarded with explosions), and airship support (an Alliance soldier in an airship will be summoned alongside you), to help you in combat. After defeating an Elite Monster, you will also receive 100 Wishes. However, if you have reached your daily limit, you will no longer receive Wishes. Tera Burning The Tera Burning event will run from June 21 to August 31. When you create a new character during this event, you can choose to make them a Tera Burning character! Note that you can only do this once per Maple ID. Characters can only become Tera Burning characters when they are created. You cannot change your Tera Burning character but if you delete it, you can make another one. The main benefit of a Tera Burning character is the ability to gain two extra levels per level up. This effect will take place until level 200! You’ll also receive the Eternal Flame title which gives 15 all stats, 15 attack/magic attack, 10% boss damage, 10% defense ignore, 750 HP/MP, 10% bonus experience and 30 Arcane Force. The title can only be used after completing the 5th job advancement and its stats will expire in 14 days. At level 150, you’ll receive the Expiring Root Abyss Set Box which when opened will reward you with a full level 150 Root Abyss set. These items will have Epic potential and 12 stars, but will expire in 30 days. A special benefit for Tera Burning characters is that they do not have to complete any of the pre-quests required to complete the 5th job advancement! At level 100, you’ll receive the Legendary Secret Box which when opened will reward you with 4 Mastery Book 20’s, 4 Mastery Book 30’s, and a full Black set. At level 30, you’ll receive the Level 30 Equipment Box which is self-explanatory. When your Tera Burning character is created, it will receive a Snail pet that has 5 hours of magic. It comes with meso loot, item loot, auto loot, and auto HP/MP. You cannot use the Water of Life on it. Ultra Lev-Up! The experience required to level up from level 200 ~ 220 has been decreased by 25%. If your current experience exceeds the required experience, you’ll level up as soon as you gain any experience. You can see the new experience values here (thanks to Grey of Southperry!). Quests below level 200 have had their efficiency increased and difficulty decreased. Level 100 ~ 200 theme dungeons and town quests‘ completion experience have been increased. Haven story quests will now give experience upon completion. Certain area’s quests’ difficulties have been decreased. Door to the Future Kritias New medals have been added for completing all quests in a town. Rocky Mountain Hunter (Perion) The One Chasing Danger (Sleepywood) Snow Field’s Explorer (El Nath) Ludibrium’s Sheriff (Ludibrium) Fresh Meditation (Mu Lung) Rising in the Ruins (Destroyed Henesys) Twilight Warrior (Twilight Perion) The Maple Contents Guide has been reorganized. The new Town classification has been added. You can receive a completion stamp after completing all of a town’s quests. Perion Sleepywood Ludibrium El Nath Mu Lung Three Doors Kritias The classification of certain Guides has been changed from regular maps to Towns. The conditions for the completion stamp have been changed. Aquarium Destroyed Henesys Twilight Perion Haven Certain regular maps will appear on the guide after completing the corresponding Town. Completion requirements will now be displayed on the Guide UI. Hyper Skills have been changed so you can acquire them faster. The levels when you acquire passive SP and the levels required for passive skills have been changed to 140, 150, 165, 180, and 190. The levels when you acquire active SP and the levels required for active skills have been changed to 140, 160, and 190. The rewards for completing the 5th job advancement have been changed. Instead of receive a special Core Gemstone that gives you one class-specific 5th job skill, you will now receive 2 class-specific Skill Cores immediately. The Road of Vanishing weekly quest have been added. The “[Weekly Quest] Reward for Diligent Research” can be completed once per week. If you complete the “[Daily Quest] Road of Vanishing Research” 2 times in a week, you’ll receive 3 Core Gemstones. The method of receiving mesos from Dimensional Library has been changed. The meso rewards for the quests “[Dimensional Library] Read the White Mage/Read Becoming an Empress/Read the Black Witch” have been removed. After completing any 3 chapters from Chapter 1~5, you will receive mesos after completing the “[Dimensional Library] Today’s Civilization” quest. Characters who have already completed Chapters 1~3 and received mesos will have that amount deducted from the new reward. The levels required to acquire Honor and open Ability slots have been changed. At level 50, the “Opening Eyes on Ability” quest will now open all 3 Ability slots. Previously opened slots will remain unchanged. If you are below level 50, you will no longer be given Honor upon leveling up and you will not be able to receive Medals of Honor from monsters under level 50. The drop rate of Medals of Honor has been changed to be the same for all monsters. You will no longer lose experience when dying in certain boss content. Balrog Horntail New effects have been added to certain regular equipment’s set effects. Certain regular equipment set effects have gained 2%~20% damage to regular monsters. The following equipment sets have been affected. 7th Warrior Set 7th Mage Set 7th Archer Set 7th Rogue Set 7th Pirate Set 8th Warrior Set 8th Mage Set 8th Archer Set 8th Rogue Set 8th Pirate Set The number of Mastery Books given when completing certain quests has been changed. When completing content, the given Mastery Book has been replaced with a Mastery Box. The Mastery Box will give you a choice of 500 Scroll Traces, or to increase the maximum level of one of your skills to 20 or 30. Different content will give different numbers of Mastery Boxes. Dimensional Library: 3 Lion King’s Castle: 2 Fantastic Theme Park: 2 Cross Hunter Chapter 3: 2 Korean Folk Town: 2 Root Abyss: 1 Crimsonwood: 2 Golden Temple: 2 Mu Lung and Herb Town quests’ beginning levels have been changed to level 135. The quests’ beginning level and the area’s monster levels have been increased by 10. If your level is lower than the new beginning level and you have already started a quest, you will be able to complete only that quest. The level of Golden Temple has not been changed. Monster Park has been added. The Chew Chew Island stage has been added to Monster Park’s advanced dungeon. You will receive more experience than existing stages. Only characters who have completed the “[Chew Chew] Goodbye Chew Chew Island” quest can enter this new stage. The field bosses in the Temple of Time will appear more often. They will no longer drop Cross Coins. After completing the 1st job advancement, you will now receive 10 Return to Town Scrolls. The Toad’s Hammer UI has been changed. Items that cannot be extracted using Toad’s Hammer will now be displayed on the UI, and clicking on them will display the reason why they cannot be used. If an item cannot be extracted, it will not be displayed on the target list. The conditions are as follows. Equipment with fixed potential stats Time limited equipment Cash equipment Superior equipment Miraculous Enhancement Scroll equipment Equipment that has no upgrade slots Equipment with unique skills Equipment that disappears upon logging out Equipment that cannot receive potential Zero-only weapon You can press the checkbox at the bottom of the UI to display only extractable equipment. The number of parties that can enter at the same time in a channel for certain content’s boss maps has been increased. Gold Beach Golden Temple Lion King’s Castle The following content’s boss maps can now be entered even when not in a party. Fairy Academy Ellinel Gold Beach Riena Strait Helisium Ellin Forest Lion King’s Castle Stone Colossus Skill Related Archmage (I/L) Lightning Sphere: cooldown has been increased from 60 seconds to 75 seconds Thunder Break: cooldown has been increased from 30 seconds to 45 seconds Bishop Holy Magic Shell – Cooltime Reduce has been changed to Holy Magic Shell – Enhance: Holy Magic Shell’s damage reduction is increased by 5%. Pray: at level 25, the maximum final damage boost possible has been decreased from 75% to 40% but the final damage will now apply fully to yourself, INT required for 1% final damage boost has been increased from 1500 INT to 2500 INT Night Lord Mark of Assassin: your Stars’ attack bonus now applies to this skill Mark of Night Lord: your Stars’ attack bonus now applies to this skill Shadower Eviscerate: cooldown has been increased from 10 seconds to 14 seconds Viper Serpent Screw: Energy consumption has been changed from 100 when charged/110 when uncharged to 85 Energy regardless of charge status, boss monster energy consumption reduction has been increased from 60% to 70%, this skill now consumes 60 Energy per second regardless of attack Wind Breaker Spiral Vortex: the upper and lower attack ranges of the arrow have been increased to 15x as much Night Walker Shadow Servant Extend: at level 25, the number of times you can change positions with the summoned shadow has been increased from 1 to 3, you cannot change positions for 0.5 seconds after summoning the shadow or changing positions Aran Brandish Maha: this skill can now stack Combos Mercedes Sylphidia: this skill’s final damage will be increased accordingly if used while Elemental Ghost is active Resistance Infiltrate: the skill will be released if a summon attacks while this skill is active Blaster Charge Mastery: if a Charge skill is used in the air, a Bullet will not be automatically reloaded Hurricane Mixer: now maintains Combination Training’s maximum stacks while hitting enemies with this skill Mechanic Metal Armor: Tank: critical rate boost has been decreased from 50% to 30% Overtuning: now gives 20% critical rate Homing Missile System Research: required skill has been changed from level 10 Advanced Homing Missile to level 15 Advanced Homing Missile Kaiser Advanced Will of Sword: sword flying range has been increased by up to 25% Guardian Nova: when cast in Final Figuration form, the casting action will now be the same regardless of colour Will of Sword: Strike: sword flying range has been increased by up to 25% Angelic Buster Energy Burst: invincibility buff duration has been changed from a fixed 10 seconds to 6~10 seconds based on the Energy Orb’s stage Spotlight: install locations have been changed to be based on the 1366*768 resolution Zero Advanced Rolling Assaulter: blade’s attack range will now match the effect’s size Joint Attack: at level 25, Beta’s 1st and 3rd attacks’ number of hits have been increased from 4 to 8, their damage has been decreased from 3500%/6500% to 1750%/3250% Illium Crystal Ignition: at level 25, the number of hits has been increased from 3 to 4 The following errors have been fixed. Spider in Mirror will no longer attack wile in Dark Sight state but will attack normally while in Ultimate Dark Sight state. Fixed an error where Marksman’s Additional Bolt applied to Erda Nova. Fixed an error where Wild Hunter’s Jaguar Storm and Kaiser’s Guardian of Nova could not be resummoned after changing maps. Fixed an error where Mechanic would sometimes become unable to use Homing Missile. Fixed an error where Kaiser’s skill voices would not play sometimes when using skills while jumping and in Final Figuration. Fixed an error where the Mysterious Anvil could be used on certain secondary weapons. In the case of items which had Anvils used on them, they will be returned to their original appearance and the account holders will be given an Anvil. Esfera Daily Quests New daily quests have been added to . You can complete research missions with the Alliance’s soldier Ollie. Completing a daily quest will reward you with 2 Arcane Symbols: Esfera. You can complete up to 3 quests per day. If you complete all 3, you’ll receive an additional 2 Arcane Symbols: Esfera. Completing Esfera will now simplify previous Arcane River areas’ daily quests. Spirit Saviour: completing Esfera will allow you to immediately complete Spirit Saviour 2 times per day Morass: completing Esfera will allow you to complete one less daily quest per day (total amount of Arcane Symbols acquired will be the same) New daily quests have been added. Eliminate 200 Atuins Eliminate 200 Atus Eliminate 200 Bellalions Eliminate 200 Bellaris Eliminate 200 Arania Eliminate 200 Aranea Eliminate 200 Watchers of Light Eliminate 200 Watchers of Darkness Eliminate 200 Executioners of Light Eliminate 200 Executioners of Darkness Collect 50 Atuin Shells Collect 50 Atus Shells Collect 50 Bellalion Scales Collect 50 Bellalis Scales Collect 50 Arania Claws Collect 50 Aranea Claws Collect 50 Watcher of Light Rings Collect 50 Watcher of Darkness Rings Collect 50 Executioner of Light Rings Collect 50 Executioner of Darkness Rings Game Related In Urus, Demon Avenger’s attack correction has been increased up to 3 times the previous amount. For the boss Chaos Papulatus, a 30 minute re-entry cooldown has been added. 1280*720 resolution is now supported. It can be set in windowed mode, as well as in full screen mode if your display supports it. High resolution support beta testing has begun. Click the picture for full size! Note that you don’t actually see more around you, the UI stays the same size but the game itself is upscaled from 1366*768. 1920*1200 and 1920*1080 resolutions will now be supported. They can be set when your window display settings are on 1920*1200 or higher. Because it is a beta test, it may cause problems in certain situations, in which case you should use 1366*768 resolution which is officially supported. In the Equipment Enhancement UI’s enhancement tab, the Innocent Scroll and Ark Innocent Scroll will now have descriptions that state when they cannot be used. All created Pink Bean characters have been deleted. The following errors have been fixed. The Union Master will only be allowed to leave the Union after transferring their position. Unions which currently do not have Union Masters will automatically appoint one of the guild masters. Fixed an error where the average level of guilds with users who logged in privately was lower than it should have been. Fixed an error where in Monster Life, the Judas world mark was shown instead of the Elysium world mark. Fixed an error where the Arcane Shade Essence could be purchased in Reboot World. Fixed an error where Twilight Essence and Brilliant Twilight Essence were not dropped by Mysterious Veins and Legendary Veins. Fixed an error where you would appear online if you logged in privately then searched through guilds. Fixed an error where Training Characters gaining experience in certain boss content would cause NPCs to not be summoned or quests to not be completed properly. Fixed an error where the Rune of Thunder would not attack after changing channels. Fixed an error where Nautilus Harbor’s weapon salesman and armor salesman’s locations were swapped. Cash Related When using Royal Hair Coupons while having a Mix Dyed Hair, the current mix dye information will be shown in the result window. Royal Style The Royal Style Coupon will be on sale from June 21 to July 18 and has been updated with new items. This month’s Special Label is the Refreshing Morning Walk set. If you collect all 5 items, you’ll get the Green Swing Chair! Royal Hair and Trendy Face The July Royal Hair Coupon will be on sale from June 21 to July 18. The Trendy Royal Face Coupon has been updated with a new set of faces. Sleepy Dogs The Sleepy Dog pets will be on sale from June 21 to July 18, featuring Cookie, Croquet, and Meringue! Golden Apple The Gold Apple has been updated with a new set of rewards. Deadly Deathroid (M/F) Voucher Android Ear Sensor Clip 100% Level 160 17 Star Force Enhancement Scroll 100% Level 150 17 Star Force Enhancement Scroll 10 Core Gemstones Voucher Friends Forever Chair (uses your saved Hair Room hairs for the other characters!) Mushroom Country’s Hammock Chair Sky Squirrel Riding Voucher Pacca Pacca Riding Voucher Magnificent Souls Other Events Gathering of Heroes The Gathering of Heroes event will run from June 21 to July 5. The rewards will be given out from July 5 to July 18. To participate, all you have to do is login and complete the “[Black Mage] Impending Time of Destiny” quest and become a member of the Alliance. You will receive four Gathering of Heroes Boxes, each with a different set of rewards. They can only be received once per Nexon ID, but they can be moved freely through the storage in a world. Each box has guaranteed rewards and then a few extra items you can get if you’re lucky. Gathering of Heroes Pet Box Petite Nineheart Pet Package (guaranteed) 3 Premium Waters of Life Scuba Ducky Pet Voucher Skunk Pet Voucher Harp Seal Pet Voucher Summer Von Bon Pet Voucher Ice Knight Pet Voucher 1st Heroes Pet Package 2nd Heroes Pet Package 3 Petite Commander Pets Package 3 Miracle Lucid Pets Package Wonderberry Black Label Package Gathering of Heroes Item Box Shinsoo Damage Skin (guaranteed) White Spear Chair (guaranteed) 3 3x Experience Coupons (15 minutes) (guaranteed) 200 Core Gemstones 100% Unique Potential Scroll Sun Chair Lucidroid Legendary Dominator Pendant Voucher Legendary Papulatus Mark Voucher Jewel Bird Riding (Permanent) Voucher Magnificent Will Soul 100% Level 160 20 Star Force Enhancement Scroll Legendary Absolabs Equipment Full Package Gathering of Heroes Beauty Box Trendy Royal Face Coupon (guaranteed) July Royal Hair Coupon (guaranteed) VIP Dye Coupon + Skin Care Coupon Voucher Serran Hair Coupon (F) Circular Hair Coupon (M) Miro Hair Coupon (M) Mina Hair Coupon (F) Chess Hair Coupon (M) Lady Blair Hair Coupon (F) Bling Guardian Hair Coupon (M) Bling Mystery Hair Coupon (F) Selective 4 Master Label Hair Coupon Gathering of Heroes Money Box 2,000 Milage (guaranteed) 3,000 Maple Points Voucher 30,000 Maple Points Voucher 50,000 Maple Points Voucher 100,000 Maple Points Voucher 500,000 Maple Points Voucher 1,000,000 Maple Points Voucher 300,000,000 Maple Points Voucher 500,000,000 Maple Points Voucher 1,000,000,000 Maple Points Voucher 5,000,000,000 Maple Points Voucher 10,000,000,000 Maple Points Voucher Sunday Maple The Sunday Maple event will take place on June 24 and July 1. On June 24, the following benefits will take place. Receive 20 Selective Arcane Symbols Receive 4 2x Experience Coupons (15 minutes) Receive 1 Storm Growth Potion On July 1, the following benefits will take place. Receive 2x rewards from all Arcane River daily content Receive 2x experience from Pollo and Fritto’s Bounty Hunter content Receive 2x experience from Flame Wolf Source: Orange Mushroom's Blog