The guide to low-STR warriors

When it comes to optimisation in MapleStory, known methods are invariably one-dimensional. The warrior provides just one small example of how this naïve approach can be wrongheaded.

At first blush, the warrior is simple: more STR means more damage output. Therefore, STR — when not at the cost of WAtk — is to be maximised, and serves as a proxy for the warrior’s optimisation in general. The present guide not only demonstrates this reasoning to be excessively artless, but also provides a more sophisticated approach that, moreover, reveals gameplay possibilities hitherto shrouded in darkness by received wisdom.

• Why?
• The blood warrior
• Class & throughclass
• Stats
• Equipment
• Other itemisation
• Levelling up and making mesos
• As sed target
• Afterword: The brawler
• Footnotes

Every MapleStory guide having to do with character-builds has an obligatory “pros & cons” section. Herein, we respect tradition.

By liberating yourself from the onus of putting all your AP into STR, you can attain such enjoyments as:

Avoidability

• Ever wish Power Stance actually worked? Perhaps you don’t even have Power Stance? No matter; the attack “miss”es you anyway.
• Found yourself in a perilous position? Mayhap you’ve been seduced? Congratulations! You’re the party’s sed target of choice.
• Not trying to get stunned by an attack? It can’t stun you if it can’t touch you in the first place!
• Berserking is a lot more effective when you don’t take damage.
• What are these “HP potions” of which you speak…?

Accuracy

Warriors are notorious for their low WAcc — but they don’t have to be.

Not a day goes by where I don’t see yet another poor warrior soul at 7 F tossing out “miss”es like they’re going out of style. On the other hand, the warrior is capable of more WAcc than even a traditionally high-WAcc class (e.g. an archer), making them ideal candidates for underlevelled combat!

Damage stability

Increasing your DEX yields increases in damage output that are independent of mastery, and indeed, independent of your rolls of the damage-dice.

Equipment

Most standard warrior gear has nontrivial STR requirements. With relatively low STR, you’ve a more nuanced choice as to what warrior gear to wear — if any. In general, the plasticity of the low-STR warrior extends to her gear: different gear for different situations, sculpting stats to fit gear & vice versa, a wider array of reasonable possibilities, etc..

Moreover, equipment like e.g. the Stonetooth Sword, traditionally difficult for warriors to wear, becomes effortless for the infinitely-plastic low-STR warrior.

Claws

Warriors can be ranged attackers too! (Sort of.)

Diverting AP away from STR into LUK helps to maximise your star-tossin’ damage! (Note, however, that Keen Eyes is unavailable to you, so your tossin’ distance won’t be great.)

Cool

Putting all your AP into STR is, in a word, boring. It’s basic, clunky, and a one-trick pony. Don’t be that kind of pony. Be more stylish & charismatic. Or, stuff it — don’t be a pony at all. Make your own path.

Redolence

Your damage-lines may smell a little funny; and on occasion, someone might notice. It’s in this case that the time-honoured proverb of “whoëver smelt it, dealt it” comes in useful.

The blood warrior (≝ HP warrior) is indeed STRless. However, this guide leaves blood warriors out of consideration, because they occupy their own niche. For relevant guides, see:

• ShurikenRonan’s A Guide for an HP Warrior! (2006-05-07).
• Chippage’s The Complete HP Warrior guide from Levels 1–30 (2008-06-27).

Warriors come in a variety of flavours — and quite a wide one, at that. We’ll consider these flavours from the perspective of low STR, and on a grade-by-grade basis.^[1]

Permawarrior

This guide won’t focus much on permawarriors, because they already exist within their own niche. Nonetheless, the permawarrior should be noted for the sheer variety of weaponry at her disposal, as a result of being unspecialised. This overlaps with one of the guiding principles of the present guide: plasticity.

2^nd grade

For weaponry, the fighter tends to have the most limited options: swords aren’t too rare, but axes are. The page is more balanced in her choice between sword & BW. The spearman is generally hybrid, taking advantage of plenty of polearms & some spears (typically skis). For more detail, see: “Weaponry”.

For signature skills, the page’s Threaten is well-rounded: the advantage for the low-STR page’s (& her party’s) damage output is not to be underestimated, the defensive aspect complements the offensive, and it’s effectively a party buff. The spearman’s Hyper Body saves lives (& potions)! And the fighter’s Rage is not very useful in implementations where it’s overshadowed by WAtk potions, but otherwise can be an offence-defining boost for the fighter & her party. Who needs STR when you’re just really angery?

3^rd grade

For defensive skills, the dragon knight’s Elemental Resistance is clearly immensely powerful: although more monster attacks could stand to be elementally typed, a 0.6× multiplier is nothing to sneeze at. However, the crusader’s & white knight’s Improving MP Recovery is nothing to sneeze at either — at least when seduction is combined with 1⧸1 and/or MP drain. The +30⁢ MP gained per tick is enough to enable a Hero’s Will when things are looking dicey!

Damage-output-wise, the dragon knight clearly benefits from a variety of attacks: Dragon Fury, Crusher, and Dragon Roar. But more notable are the crusader’s & white knight’s damage-boosters: Combo Attack & elemental charges, respectively. These sui generis damage-amplifiers are, crucially, pre-DEF multipliers, which means that they help the warrior bypass her opponent’s WDef! Incredible!!

4^th grade

Now the dark knight gets access to her own damage-amplifier: Berserk. The Berserking experience is significantly better for the low-STR DK on account of the AVOID. On the other hand, Berserk is an aftermod, leaving the DK at a considerable disadvantage relative to the other two throughclasses.

Crucially, the hero & paladin both get access to Guardian, allowing them to dodge 15% of incoming non-“miss” attacks, so long as they’re using a shield!^[2] Wow!!

The DK instead gets Beholder, and its companion skills Aura & Hex of the Beholder. Between these three skills, the DK makes up for some of the lack of pre-DEF modifiers with 80% mastery (but note that mastery only applies to STR), gets passive self-healing that works even while seduced, and gets an amazing +50⁢ AVOID & +100⁢ DEF buff! Huge!!

And finally, Heaven’s Hammer^[3] is worth noting simply due to its unique damage-calculation mechanics. In MapleLegends, for example, it deals a guaranteed 200k (50k against bosses) damage, regardless of any stats!

The comparisons given above, in addition to the smaller differences in skillset, should be your primary considerations when choosing your (through)class. Nonetheless, some quantitative considerations are also warranted.

The throughclasses don’t differ in dodge-rate until the 4^th grade, at which point we’re comparing Guardian against Hex of the Beholder. The Guardian user is 1H, the hero/paladin sans Guardian is 2H, & the Hex of the Beholder user is DK.

It seems 1H tends to have the edge over DK; but not by much, thanks to the impressive power of HotB. The advantage of Guardian is greater when the “miss”-rate (not to be confused with the dodge-rate) is lower; this follows almost immediately from how Guardian works.^[2]

Most of the same facts that apply to high-STR warriors are relevant here. However, there is at least one DPM fact peculiar to low-STR warriors: DKs, by far, benefit the most from STR, and so are more liable to be found as STR+LUK hybrids. Moreover, as mentioned above, Zerk is an aftermod, unlike the pre-DEF modifiers that characterise the other two throughclasses. The DK (in 3^rd and 4^th grade) is therefore significantly more impacted by enemy WDef.

For AP allocation (i.e. base stats), this guide considers three basic strategies to which other strategies are compared (stats are given in the form STR⧸DEX⧸INT⧸LUK):

Pure DEX

35⧸x⧸4⧸4. An all-round build; DEX contributes to WAcc, AVOID, and damage output. Also maximises both WAcc & damage stability (≝ lack of statistical dispersion in per-hit damage) in general.

Pure LUK

35⧸4⧸4⧸x. Maximises AVOID, while still having quite high WAcc. Minimises damage output in melee, but maximises damage output with a claw.

STR+LUK hybrid

x⧸4⧸4⧸y, where x and y are both “significantly large” (symbolically: x ≫ 35 ∧ y ≫ 4). Attempts to balance AVOID (& claw damage) with melee damage. Occupies the space between pure STR (commonplace build not considered here) & pure LUK (as above).

The Mapler’s methods of optimisation fail us here, because they’re limited to one dimension.

To introduce multiple possibly-conflicting objectives, we need Pareto optimisation. We say that a solution is Pareto optimal (a.k.a. Pareto efficient) when there’s no way to improve it without also worsening it in some other way. For example: pure LUK is Pareto optimal, because we can’t improve its damage output nor its WAcc without also worsening its AVOID.

As usual, there are multiple Pareto-optimal solutions, so there’s no unique “best” solution.^[4] Instead, we have a Pareto frontier: the set of all Pareto-optimal solutions. The player may then select freely from the Pareto frontier; alternatively, we might design a scheme that would do the selecting for us.

To keep things simple, we’ll only look at two objectives: damage output and AVOID. Of course WAcc is relevant too, but because we’re considering low-STR warriors, WAcc will never be miserably low; for this reason, we’ll ignore it for now.

For our purposes, an objective function $f$ takes as input an AP vector $\overrightarrow{𝐚}\stackrel{\scriptscriptstyle\mathrm{def}}{=}⟨\mathrm{STR},\mathrm{DEX},\mathrm{LUK}⟩$, and outputs an objective vector $\overrightarrow{𝐨}\stackrel{\scriptscriptstyle\mathrm{def}}{=}⟨\mathrm{DPM},\mathrm{AVOID}⟩$.

As it turns out, eliminating WAcc from consideration implies that the entire Pareto frontier is DEXless! The basic idea is that a given amount of DEX only effects half as much AVOID as the same amount of LUK does (i.e. 0.25 = 0.5∕2). Therefore, in order for adding DEX to be worthwhile, DEX must contribute at least half as much to damage output as STR does — but it doesn’t. Therefore, any increase of DEX by two must be Pareto dominated by instead increasing both STR & LUK by one each.

Moreover, STR contributes just as much to damage output with claws as DEX does, whereas LUK is superior to either one in this respect. Therefore, two DEX is still strictly inferior to one each of STR & LUK, even for claw damage purposes.

Independently of the above reasoning, I wrote a program that calculates the entire Pareto frontier for a representative array of seven different models — you can find it in the git repo for this guide. The results are as expected: all Pareto-optimal solutions (typically on the order of a thousand such solutions per model) have less than 6 base DEX. The “less than 6” (as against “4”) condition is an artefact of the basic idea given above: DEX can only be Pareto dominated when it’s split into (roughly) equal parts STR & LUK, but a single (1) AP cannot be split.

Both pure DEX and pure LUK are classic builds that fit their niches well. If you’re not really sure about all the mathematical stuff, and you just want to try a low-STR warrior yourself, then consider simply putting all your AP into DEX — it’s foolproof!

That said, if you truly desire to strike a balance between DPM & AVOID, and you’re willing to sacrifice some WAcc (especially at lower levels), then STR+LUK hybrid is the way to go. Because LUK gives twice as much AVOID as DEX does, a half-&-half split between STR & LUK is a good point of reference, and makes for a highly potent build: all the AVOID of the DEX warrior, but with greater melee DPM (& claw DPM) — at the cost of WAcc & damage stability, of course.

If WAcc is an issue at lower levels, then start your journey more LUK-heavy. More generally, consider investing in DEX. Why not have all three stats? Go nuts.

Yet another hybrid option is given by the not-quite-pure DEX warrior, who sacrifices purity for the little extra STR necessary to overcome some of the equipment limitations of pure DEX.

Beyond this point, however, the choice — should you make it — of a hybrid build is simply yours. Part of the beauty of hybridisation is that, within certain limits, it’s amorphous & mouldable; it can always be adapted to your needs at the time. You therefore must possess a working understanding of what your stats mean, and how they affect your gameplay.

Typically, you’ll want to use weapons that allow you to use your entire skillset. Nonetheless, as compared to the mainstream warrior, your choice of weaponry is rather different in respect of both weapon usability and weapon usefulness.

In melee, your damage increases with both your STR & your DEX. Naturally, STR is of greater consequence here — but how much greater? We can answer this question with the $\mathrm{\mu }$ factor: increasing your STR by 1 increases your expected damage by the same amount as does increasing your DEX by $\mathrm{\mu }$. For more detail on $\mathrm{\mu }$, see above: “Justifying the STR+LUK hybrid”.

As a low-STR warrior, your (total, not base) $\mathrm{STR}:\mathrm{DEX}$ ratio will typically be smaller than that of your high-STR counterpart. This is most clearly the case for the DEX warrior, but it tends to be true even for the low-DEX low-STR warrior, simply due to the low STR. On the other hand, this situation can occasionally be reversed because LUK obviates DEX (for WAcc purposes). Thus, although the $\mathrm{\mu }$ factor is technically relevant to all warriors in melee, it likely takes on a modified significance for you.

Not surprisingly, $\mathrm{\mu }$ tends to be larger for two-handed weapons. The extreme cases are those of the dragon knight & the dark knight, due to the quirks of their skillset; the dark knight frequently sustains a truly incredible $\mathrm{\mu }≔4.3$.^[67]

If your $\mathrm{STR}:\mathrm{DEX}$ ratio is low, then differences between values of $\mathrm{\mu }$ simply don’t mean as much to you as they do to the high-STR warrior. One-handed weapon + shield combos are therefore unusually potent for you. In other cases, take these $\mathrm{\mu }$ values into account when making your own judgements about equipment.

Although low-STR often means STRless, it doesn’t always. You therefore might have access to ordinary warrior-specific weaponry. Even then, however, your access will be gated by stats rather than level, making weapons with low or nonexistent STR requirements very appealing; for STRless builds, these weapons are effectively the only option.

Just as all weapon types are (in most implementations) not created equal for the high-STR warrior, so they aren’t for the low-STR warrior either; in fact, the situation is typically more severe. Any choice is possible (i.e. “viable” sensu stricto), but depending on your implementation, you might run out of new weaponry at a disappointingly low level (i.e. not “viable” sensu lato). Axes and 2H BWs are evidently at the greatest disadvantage, but have some appeal when level 64 Maple weapons and/or the Black Paint Brush are available.

For reasons explained above — Guardian & “The $\mathrm{\mu }$ factor” — as a low-STR warrior, you’re more nimble than the average warrior, and therefore likely have a natural affinity for 1H weapons.

STRless builds have, as compared to most character builds, a modestly greater incentive to seek out weapons that are easier to scroll. (“Easier to scroll” meaning that such weapons are plentiful/cheap, and so are the corresponding WAtk scrolls.) This is because scrolling is not just a source of WAtk, but also of STR.

Unusual stats sometimes bring unusual weapons with them. This section discusses two important cases: claws and daggers. (It comes, perhaps, as no surprise that low-STR warriors’ focus on DEX & LUK brings them closer to thieves.)

First, however, we should address the general question: can I still use my skills with odd weapons? This is largely answered by the “Claw warrior” section of the Oddjobs website.

Often, the most important cases are those of the damage-amplifying skills: (A)CA, WK/pally elemental charges, and Zerk. Because these skills, when active, amplify the damage of all outgoing attacks, they’re of great import to any attacking warrior, odd-weaponed or otherwise:

(A)CA

Works per se perfectly with any weapon. Consuming the orbs to use Coma/Panic, however, requires the relevant weapon-type (e.g. sword for Panic: Sword).

WK/pally charges

All charges are weapon-type-specific. Nonetheless, in a limited way, the odd-weaponed warrior can still make use of them: simply use the charge with an appropriate weapon, and then switch to the desired weapon so that the remaining duration of the buff can be used. Because this requires (un)equipping, however, it’s not practically possible without a safe spot where you can “catch your breath” — and even then, some combat time is lost. Charged Blow is entirely unusable.

Zerk

Works per se perfectly with any weapon. However, because Zerking is a matter of carefully balancing one’s HP, using neither a polearm nor a spear makes Zerking considerably more awkward: Sacrifice & Dragon Roar are both unavailable,^[40] so that your only method of shedding HP is taking hits from external sources (or the rather pitiful Slash Blast & Dragon Blood…).

Warrior-equippable claws are highly implementation-dependent. The classic example is the Magical Mitten (available in GMS from v48), which has no requirements to wear, other than being level ≥10. However, it comes with some drawbacks:

1. It’s only obtainable from certain events — Maplemas, in this case — and is untradeable.
2. It has a meagre 10⁢ WAtk, and no slots with which to improve this figure.
3. It can only throw certain projectiles: Snowballs & arrows.^[38]

All three of these features reflect the role of these sorts of claws: weapons intended to be used for particular event activities, rather than as serious weapons for general gameplay. Nonetheless, if you can get your hands on such a claw, you should — particularly if you’re not LUKless — consider whether you can make it part of your arsenal, or even your main weapon. Strategies for overcoming these claws’ limitations include:

1. When an event makes claws equippable by nonthieves available, make a character to grab one — even if you don’t plan on playing the character right away.
2. Squeeze every last WAtk you can out of your gear & buffs. Given your AP build, your claw DPM is almost exclusively anchored to your WAtk. Still, other stats — especially all-stat items, since STR, DEX, & LUK all contribute to claw damage — help too. Get used to chuggin’ Ciders ’n’ partyin’ with fighters.
3. Some event claws can throw stars normally, e.g. ML’s Sweet Fork Cake. This is ideal, and should be paired with the highest-WAtk stars you can get your hands on. With the Magical Mitten, Snowballs^[38] (+10⁢ WAtk) are your best bet; but they can’t be replenished when the event is inactive. It’s therefore worth seeking out the highest-WAtk arrows (for bow — to my knowledge, the Magical Mitten cannot throw quarrels) you can find, e.g. Diamond Arrows for Bow (+4⁢ WAtk).^[39]

Dagger warrior is a classic odd job. However, this is a guide to low-STR warriors; so we’ll focus only on the aspects relevant thereto.

Be not confused by the sui generis property of daggers that their damage formula changes based on the wielder’s class. As a nonthief, LUK does not contribute to your damage with daggers. Instead, daggers have the same damage formula as 1H swords for you — the main difference in this respect, then, being that your dagger mastery can never be anything other than 10%.

The main utility of a dagger in this context is that it can be made into what I affectionately call an AVOID stick. Because most dagger scrolls grant LUK when they succeed, and because some daggers even come with tAVOID^[41] already built in, daggers are the ideal weapon-type when you just need to get outta the damb way.

However, a few of the weapons that are already good for low-STR warriors (see: “Notable weapons”) come with sizeable tAVOID too. Scrolling them for tAVOID is, of course, less efficient and probably not worth the damage sacrifice, since this can only be accomplished through the modest DEX gains granted by some WAcc scrolls. Nonetheless, consider: Black Tube (+10⁢ tAVOID), Duck tube (both level 50 & 100, +3⁢ tAVOID each), and Frantic Stirge (+10⁢ tAVOID).

If using a 1H weapon, you’ll want a shield. In this connexion, the most interesting aspect is how you choose to scroll it. Happily, as a low-STR warrior, almost any type of shield scroll (the only real exception being MAtk) benefits you. Your scrolling strategy is therefore an extension or enhancement of your character build.

For DPM, WAtk naturally can’t be beat. If WAtk scrolls are unavailable, STR does nicely; consider any combination of STR, DEX, & LUK for a well-rounded shield. On the other hand, having a tAVOID shield can be very nifty indeed, and is the only proper complement to your weapon whenever you’re wielding an AVOID stick!

The choice of shield itself is largely self-explanatory. Nonetheless, a direct comparison of STRless-friendly shields is illustrative:

The Maple shields (especially the Warrior one) are clearly the most desirable in general, since we’re expecting most of the interesting stats to come from scrolling. Nonetheless, the Palette is also notable for its relatively high WDef and its built-in tAVOID, and the lower-level shields are plentiful enough to facilitate repeated scrolling.

To some extent, the choice between overall vs. top–bottom combo is a function of scroll availability & overall availability. If wearable overalls are rare, and/or scrolling a top–bottom is statistically/economically superior, then top–bottom is the way to go. In this connexion, male characters have a slight advantage in STRless cases due to their access to Camo Pants.^[49] However, in most cases, you’ll end up with an overall.

Of particular note is the Sauna Robe,^[50] which boasts an impressive +10⁢ AVOID. For better DPM & DEF, you should consider warrior-only overalls. Typically, the goal is to wear level 35 chainmail.^[51] The 110⁢ STR requirement means that fully STRless warriors will need a whopping 75⁢ STR from gear+buffs without the assistance of overalls/tops/bottoms. This is a reasonable goal to have in ML, for example, but not in implementations where allstat items are relatively more scarce; in the latter case, lower-level or classless overalls will have to suffice for the STRless. And of course, Bathrobes are always useful — zoom zoom!

In the unlikely event that you’ve access to iTCG equipment, the iTCG overalls, tops, & bottoms equippable by STRless warriors are extremely powerful. Of particular note are Stirgeman Skirts/Pants, and Bosshunter Armor.

Typically, a pair of shoes will be made as either DPM shoes or tAVOID shoes. Either way, however, starting with more than five slots is ideal: Red Snowshoes, Violet Snowshoes, Yellow Snowshoes,^[52] Silver Strap Shoes, Christmas Socks,^[53] etc..

For DPM shoes, Dark War Boots are of particular note: they grant +2⁢ STR on average clean (i.e. up to +3 clean if randomly generated), which is a lot for a shoe that “only” requires 80⁢ STR to wear. The Navy Christmas Sock is another clear winner STRwise.^[53] And finally, GMS veterans will no doubt remember Facestompers,^[54] a GMS-exclusive shoe added in v51 (ML, ¬F) as an iTCG item. The WAtk of these shoes is unparalleled and an ideal fit for almost any warrior, but ultimately not as superior to statted shoes (for e.g. a STRless warrior) as one might hope — excepting claw users, of course. Nonetheless, the ultimate DPM shoe.

For tAVOID purposes, Yellow Strap Shoes (+5⁢ tAVOID average clean) are difficult to beat. For more slots, Yellow Snowshoes (+¾) and Yellow Christmas Sock (+½) also come with some tAVOID.

Considerations for capes are quite similar to those for shoes.

For those playing implementations with CWKPQ,^[55] the Crimsonheart Cloak (≝ CHC) deserves special mention. Not only does it have a whopping 8⁢ slots, but also +4⁢ allstat average clean (i.e. +3〜5 per stat)! This makes the CHC an ideal candidate for scrolling for stats, and the highest-DPM cape for STRless warriors when scrolled for STR — barring only a high-WAtk cape like a well-Chaos’d PGC. Also with extra slots are the YAC, YGC (8), and the APQ couples bonus stage capes (7).^[56]

For tAVOID, the standouts are the ORC (+10⁢ tAVOID; ca. v14 quest), the Cape of warmness (+10; v53 quest^[57]), Stirgeman Cape Mk II & Mk III (+10; v59 iTCG, ¬ML), Stirgeman’s Cloak of Darkness (+20; ibid.), and of course, the almighty Icarus Cape (1) (+15; ca. v14 quest). Unfortunately, “Icarus and the Flying Pill” only has a ≈⅓ chance of awarding this cape, and it isn’t repeatable. Because this is the end of a relatively arduous questline, most characters who make it to level ≥42 won’t even finish it at all. Nonetheless, the Icarus Cape (1) is more than worth seeking out.

Your preferred glove — a WAtk one — will be largely the same as that of a high-STR warrior. That is, with the exception that you don’t so easily meet STR requirements. But because gloves sans stat requirements are by no means exotic — at worst, a good ol’ Work Glove^[58] will do the trick — this isn’t typically a problem.

Like Dark War Boots, the Orihalcon Missel deserves special mention: it can have up to +3⁢ STR clean, with a STR requirement of “only” 90.

Making a tAVOID glove is possible, but not usually recommended; it makes sense only in extreme cases. Your scrolling options are, effectively, entirely limited to Gloves for DEX 10% & 30%. This is because passing a Gloves for DEX scroll grants +0, +0.25, or +1.75⁢ tAVOID depending on whether it was a 100%, a 60% (≡ 70%), or a 10% (≡ 30%), respectively. This implies that you are, astonishingly, better off (on average) 10%ing all the way than you are using even a single 60% at any point. If you choose to subject yourself to this scrolling process, then it’s worth seeking out gloves with built-in tAVOID, if possible. For example, the Pink Marker can have up to 1.5⁢ tAVOID clean.

For other equipment, it tends to come down to maximising the stats (STR+DEX+LUK) that you get, and maximising tAVOID whenever gaining relatively large amounts of raw AVOID is possible (e.g. scrolling face accessories for AVOID). To this end, allstat items are unusually powerful for you.

This advice is especially important when it comes to pendants in an implementation like ML. The default choice for physical-attackers tends to be a MoN. For you, however, a Horned Tail Necklace^[59] — to say nothing of its superior cousin, the Timeless Pendant — completely blows MoNs out of the water.

Drugs, drugs, and even more drugs. If you don’t have therapeutically significant concentrations of at least two or three distinct drugs in your blood plasma at all times, you’re doin’ it wrong. WAtk is evidently mandatory (unless you produce it endogenously anyway), AVOID is a no-brainer, and sometimes, you might want a little extra WAcc to help you hit that monster that’s 50 levels above you.

But to afford drugs, you’re gonna need mesos. Moreover, your character cannot even begin its journey, much less flourish, without EXP.

On this subject, MapleStory guides typically give a list of training locations, sorted by level. But we might worry for the low-STR warrior’s sake: if you don’t have STRongth, how will you kill the monsters dead? Since there already exist enough training guides out there,^[71] we can answer this question more directly as a collection of principles:

Take advantage of your AVOID when training

This principle really can be applied to any game content, but we’ll focus on “training” in the narrow sense. Having AVOID can make it more practical to train against monsters that use ranged attacks. The same can be said for training locations where the incoming DPM is relatively large, meaning that you’re constantly touch-attacked, and/or the monsters just hit really hard. In the latter case, mathematically speaking, AVOID goes further than DEF does.

Kill above your level

Speaking of taking big hits, your WAcc can take you a long way, too: train on stuff that you shouldn’t even be able to hit. This is, to be sure, more easily said than done. Nonetheless, high-AVOID monsters & bosses are certainly out there, and getting ahead of yourself is a great way to get ahead. For example, if you’ve access to high-powered buffs, you can train on things that are well & truly out of your league. Also consider last-hitting for an F/P mage. Experiment a little.

Quests & partyquests are your friends

Sometimes what you need is not a myriad miniscule EXP piñatas, but rather, a handful of chunmky EXP lodes. Even on a relatively quest-free implementation like RS, quests not only give you something to do, but also give you those little extra EXP nudges. And partyquesting is, naturally, fun for the whole family, the whole party, and the whole guild. Being one piece of a larger puzzle gives you a place to shine, and a way to mine those lodes.

You can boss too

Speaking of mining EXP lodes with the whole family, the perceived PQing/bossing divide is probably per se unwarranted, but nonetheless a stark one in most Maple implementations — if only due to the rift in character-levels. We might, then, suspect that the low-STR warrior isn’t to be found within the bossing realm; but our suspicion wouldn’t be entirely justified. Being a warrior, your skillset already makes you an asset to your party. Moreover, your unique stats can sometimes allow you to fill special combinations of roles in your party (see, for instance: “As sed target”). And your damage lines are pretty decent, too. Don’t be so hard on yourself.

If you’re not losing mesos, you’re gaining mesos

Although not exactly a profound discovery, it’s nevertheless true that the way to make mesos is to do stuff. You know — The Grind™. This does not, however, stop people from asking around in search of get-rich-quick schemes, infinite meso glitches, etc.. The reality is that if there’s an activity or activities that you enjoy doing and are capable of, then you can make decent money doing just that kind of activity.^[60] For the most part, therefore, it’s a matter of heeding how many mesos you’re losing, and feeling your way around various activities until you find yourself wandering into wealth.

When fighting Horned Tail (≝ HT ≝ Horntail), the first PC to enter each map becomes the seduction target (≝ sed target) for the duration of that stage.^[61] Every time the boss casts seduce,^[62] the sed target is, true to her name, the one seduced.

The tricky thing about being seduced is that your autonomy is divested of you; unlike when stunned, you cannot even consume Use items while seduced. As a result, you’ll have to rely on all of three things: anticipating your own seduction, your PC’s natural ability to withstand punishment, and the mercurial whims of Fate.

As a low-STR warrior, you combine the party-friendliness & innate tankiness of the warrior with the agility of the thief. You’re therefore uniquely positioned to fill the role of sed target. Ordinarily, shadower (≝ shad) is the class of choice for this role; in addition to her general thievery, the shad boasts Meso Guard, which helps to make her almost invincible when played well. Not being a shad, you often won’t be the first pick for sed target. Nonetheless, with the help of this guide and some experience under your belt, you can fill the role perfectly competently and to the benefit of your expedition.^[63]

HT has three stages, in the following order: left prehead, right prehead, body. Although the two preheads operate a bit like a relaxed prelude to the main fight, they can seduce you too. In all cases, the seduction debuff lasts for 10⁢ s. Also in all cases,^[62] each relevant body part has three separate seductions, each with its own three-minute cooldown (≝ CD). However, the body has two arms^[64] (left & right), each of which seduces independently, for a total of six CDwise-independent sources of single-target sed when both arms are live.

If you’re able to keep track of these CDs — for instance, with a timer app on your phone — then you’ll have the advantage of knowing when you can be seduced. When you know that all applicable seds are on CD, you can chill out and attack freely! However, this isn’t a requirement; personally, I’ve never been able to keep track of the cooldowns independently, so I usually keep track of them as a group of three. And even then, I typically lose track at various times throughout the body fight…

You must know well what the sed animations look like. During preheads, it looks kinda like a glowy orange-yellow circle (with little bits sticking out of the top, bottom, left, & right) that appears in front of the prehead.^[65] However, this animation is virtually identical to the animation that summons Wyverns, so you shouldn’t expect to distinguish the two. Instead, try to at least keep track of the sed CDs as a group, so that you know when sed is impossible — and therefore all sed animations are actually just Wyverns.

During body, the sed animation looks like HT wagging its little middle finger (beckoning you!) while the hand glows a dark purple.^[65] This animation is always either sed or mass sed, so the ambiguity isn’t very important (for you, at least).

The relevant body parts each have three independent seds, because HT’s seds come in three flavours: left, right, and jump. Left & right sed make you walk in the respective directions. Jump sed makes you jump continuously — as if virtually holding down your jump button — but virtually leaves your arrow keys alone. Crucially, sed cannot move you if you’re holding onto a rope or ladder.

All of HT’s heads — prehead or otherwise — can perform 1⧸1 attacks. If & when a 1⧸1 successfully hits you, your HP & MP are both reduced to 1 each (this isn’t quite true, as we’ll see below). Not surprisingly, 1⧸1s will be your enemy № 1.

HT’s 1⧸1s are similar to Zakum’s stun-pillars attack in that they strike particular randomly-selected locations (seven of them, to be precise), and those locations are marked ahead of time by a second or two. Being able to react to these 1⧸1 warning markers — for example, by getting out of the way — is crucial, and you therefore must become adept at spotting them as quickly as possible.

As you can see, the right head’s lightning 1⧸1 is especially dangerous, because each of the seven striking locations spans the entire height of the map! Still, the ice & fire 1⧸1s mustn’t be confused with one another, as they have distinct hitboxes also.

HT likes to do a global dispel (≝ DP) that, for each PC in the entire map, has a 90% chance of DPing that PC’s buffs. This can only be performed by mid head and left arm — and even then, only when the relevant body part is below 60%⁢ HP.

DP isn’t quite as important for you as it is for MG users — be they Meso Guard or Magic Guard users — but it’s still a big deal. You should know the animations, and also remain aware of when the relevant 60%⁢ HP thresholds have been reached. Thankfully, because it’s global, your bishop(s) will be aware of, and your entire expedition will react to, DP. If you’re on VoIP, you’ll probably hear your bishop(s) call out each DP, as well.

Dark Wyverns also like to DP, so watch out for them. Their DP is local rather than global, however.

HT’s arms can cast mana drain (≝ MP drain). This might seem like a minor detail, but it can be the difference between having & not having enough MP to use Hero’s Will. The animation is red — both on the hand itself, and on you — and used quite frequently, so you’ll probably start to recognise it pretty quickly. MP drain usually(!) cannot be manually evaded, but it is a magic attack, so it should “miss” you relatively frequently.

If MP drain gets you, you lose 3 000⁢ MP (& 1⁢ HP). Because Hero’s Will costs 30⁢ MP, you have a survival advantage if your maxMP ≥ 3 030.

Right arm can cast seal, darkness, or weakness upon you. Of these, only seal is problematic, because it prevents you from Hero’s Willing. The animation is recognisable — an extended purple fist that wags a few times before exploding — but isn’t guaranteed to be a particular one of the three debuffs, so there’s not much you can do, unless the animation worries you enough to justify a Hero’s Will.

Part of playing sed target well is knowing the significances of your skills & items for sed target purposes.

Hero’s Will (≝ Will)

An important skill in any sed target’s arsenal. You should have it maxed out (i.e. level 5) so that its CD is minimised. When you’re in a pinch and have ≥30⁢ MP to spare, Will allows you to choose to DP your own seduction. This is, in fact, the only way that sed can be DP’d in general, making it a sui generis mechanic. Will should be bound to a key such that you can always monitor how much of its CD remains.

Achilles

Remember how I said that a 1⧸1 reduces your HP to 1? Not so fast. Achilles multiplies all incoming damage by 0.85 (at level 30), and this applies even to 1⧸1s! If you’ve 30k⁢ HP at the time you’re 1⧸1’d, you’ll still have 4.5k⁢ HP to spare; this doesn’t mean you’re in the clear, but it can easily be the difference between life & death in many instances. And of course, Achilles applies to damage sources other than 1⧸1, which is another serious boon.

Note, however, that Achilles only applies to HP damage. A 1⧸1 will therefore still reduce your MP to 1, and an MP drain will still steal 3k⁢ MP from you. As a result, getting hit by a 1⧸1 usually seals your fate, because your ability to Will is lost for the remainder of the sed. This is perhaps the single most crucial advantage that the shad has over you, because Meso Guard does apply to MP damage.

Power Stance (≝ Stance)

Stance still applies even while seduced. This is extremely important mostly because it (in addition to your AVOID) tends to prevent you from getting unroped when you’ve intentionally roped yourself in anticipation of sed.

If unroped during left or right sed, this is mostly important because it allows you to get to the left or right side (respectively) of the map as quickly as possible. The edges of the map have falling rocks that, although they deal damage, also grant iframes that can potentially save your life if you’ve not already been 1⧸1’d.

Being unroped during jump sed is more complicated in this respect. If you’re already in a not-that-dangerous position and have little or no horizontal momentum, then Stance can be a huge boon, because it prevents you from being unceremoniously flung across the map, smacking your pate into every possible obstacle along the way. If, however, you find yourself with similarly low horizontal momentum and bashing your head into e.g. one of HT’s arms, then having Stance off (right-click it!) can potentially save your life by sparing you the repeated touch-attacks.

Maple Warrior (≝ MW)

By effectively increasing your base stats, MW both increases your AVOID and reduces incoming damage (although the latter effect is modest).

MW is a party buff, so you don’t necessarily have to be casting it yourself. Nonetheless, being able to MW yourself can make DP very slightly less dangerous.

Iron Body (≝ IB)

More DEF never hurts!

This skill is, however, irrelevant to the HotB user.

Threaten

Threaten is fundamentally both offensive & defensive. With any luck, your Maple implementation has a useful version of Threaten, and it debuffs both WAtk and MAtk.

Guardian

Guardian is obviously a massive boon, and is your version of the shad’s Shadow Shifter.

Power Guard (≝ PG)

Ideally, you shouldn’t take touch-damage while seduced. When you do, however, having PG is evidently a big win.

Improving MP Recovery (≝ IMPR)

Oh, you thought this skill was worthless? You’ll be thinking something very different when it saves your life.

Because there’s no relation between your IMPR cycle and the time at which you actually want it to work, this passive skill’s usefulness is a matter of happenstance. Nonetheless, ⅒⁢ Hz ain’t that bad, and the extra MP is just enough to get you a Will, even if you were at 0⁢ MP!

Shield Mastery

More DEF, thank you!

Hyper Body (≝ HB)

It should be clear by now that more maxHP & maxMP are both very welcome.

Elemental Resistance (≝ ER)

This is an absolutely massive damage reduction, because HT’s ranged attacks are (if implemented properly) undoubtedly elementally-typed magical attacks, as made clear by the elemental theming of the three heads (see above: “1⧸1”). Between ER & Achilles, you can often tank a surprising number of attacks — even if one of them is a 1⧸1.

Hex of the Beholder (≝ HotB)

This is a big one, particularly for the AVOID & DEF buffs:

HotB’s buffs at level 25

AVOID	50
WDef	100
MDef	100
WAtk	15
WAcc	25

Aura of the Beholder (≝ AotB)^[66]

At skill level 25, the amount of healing that you can get from AotB over the course of a single sed (i.e. 10⁢ s) is admittedly not huge: either two or three “ticks”, for a total of either 1.0k or 1.5k⁢ HP — and chances are that the first tick occurs when you’re still ≈100%⁢ HP anyway. Nonetheless, with all your other sources of damage reduction, AotB can be the difference between surviving & not surviving a 1⧸1.^[66]

Berserk (≝ Zerk)

Zerking while sed target might sound like it’s anywhere from a bad idea to a contradiction, but I assure you that it’s neither. To be sure, a little extra skill is required on the part of the player, because you have to pot up to 100%⁢ HP (and ideally to ≥3 030⁢ MP, if possible) when you’re about to be seduced. But potting up doesn’t prevent your movement, and there are ways to make this process easier. See below: “Use items and buffs”.

Of course, AVOID is of great import, so you’ll want to bring with you some tAVOID-focussed gear. For this purpose, we’ll make three categories of outfits:

🧱 brick

Full DPM outfit.

🥷 ninja

Full AVOID outfit, possibly including an AVOID stick & an AVOID shield to match. Untouchable but relatively harmless.

🦋 butterfly

Hybrid outfit, intermediate between brick & ninja. This is where it gets interesting. The question is: which equipment slots should have tAVOID gear in them?

overall/top/bottom

It’s probably time to bust out the LUK-scrolled Sauna Robe.^[50]

shoes

Your ninja shoes are an easy win, because your brick shoes probably weren’t giving you that much DPM anyway.

cape

This one can be a bit tricky. If your brick outfit uses a CHC or similar that already gives decent tAVOID, then you may consider keeping it on. If, however, your brick outfit gives little or no tAVOID, and your ninja cape gives >10⁢ tAVOID, then you probably ought to go with the latter. Nonetheless, if your brick cape is very strong, and you feel confident in your abilities, brick it up.

shield

It goes without saying that if you have Guardian, you’re using a shield even with your brick outfit. If you’ve a specific tAVOID shield, it probably belongs only with your ninja outfit. However, if your brick shield has little or no WAtk, then the ninja shield might make sense with your butterfly outfit.

earrings

Your ninja earrings are an easy win, much like with shoes.

pendant

Your brick pendant & your ninja pendant should probably be one & the same. If not, prefer the ninja pendant.

weapon

Being your outfit’s main source of DPM, your weapon should be the brick one (if it even differs from your ninja weapon).

Anything not mentioned in the above list is assumed to not offer a meaningful choice.

When you’re relatively inexperienced, you should probably just go with the ninja outfit, or a slight variation thereon — excepting perhaps during left prehead. You should still learn to attack, since that’s part of your job as sed target, but you shouldn’t — at least, not at this point — be too worried about the exact magnitude of the damage-lines you’re putting up.

Once you get the hang of it, you can start wearing the brick outfit during preheads, and butterfly during body. You can switch to your butterfly outfit early — just before right prehead starts — if you’re worried about the danger posed by lightning 1⧸1s during prehead.

In general, you should always minimise your JUMP whenever doing so isn’t at some greater cost. The lower your JUMP stat is, the less dangerous jump sed is. This isn’t really a huge deal, but it’s worth pointing out.

HP & MP

Because you’ll have to pot up to 100%⁢ HP — if you’re not already there — any time you’re about to get seduced, you’ll need enough extra HP pots, and sufficiently strong pots, to do that. If you’re really paranoid about rare cases where you might have to tank a 1⧸1 immediately before sed takes hold of you, then you can bring a few PEs to use manually — but it’s really not necessary. More important is binding a pot that heals both HP and MP to your pet’s Auto MP, so that 1⧸1s (outside of sed) are easier to deal with.

If your maxMP ≥ 3 030, then you should try to arrange things so that you get to MP ≥ 3 030 after topping up. There are various ways to do this; for example, if your top-up potion gives some MP, then you can simply use small MP potions in your Auto MP, combined with a high MP threshold (e.g. 80%). Alternatively, you might do something like bringing a few Sunrise Dews to use manually. Whatever works for you and isn’t needlessly expensive.

If you’re Zerking, then you should bind multiple pots for manual use. At the least, since your usual HP pot will be small so as to facilitate Zerk, you should have a larger HP pot bound to another key. When you’re about to be seduced, you can even choose to mash two HP pot buttons simultaneously. For this purpose, I personally use Page Down.

AVOID

If you’re not an HotB user, you’ll need to bring your own AVOID pots. Victoria’s Amorian Baskets (+40⁢ AVOID; APQ) are particularly notable, but whatever is the best you can get your hands on will do.

In this connexion, Bless is important for its +20⁢ AVOID. Bless, however, is DPable, so having pots is still useful for giving yourself at least some AVOID buff when you find yourself in a pinch.

DEF

Even if you’re not an HotB user, you probably have your own WDef buff. MDef, on the other hand, can be more difficult to come by, so MDef pots can be handy. Similarly to the case of AVOID, Bless is important here for its +20⁢ MDef, so you can probably just rely on Bless at worst.

SPEED (& JUMP)

Having high SPEED can be surprisingly significant in certain situations. Speed Pills (+10⁢ SPEED; NPC) are the usual suspect, but Victoria’s Amorian Basket (+40) is once again the gold standard.

It’s not unlikely that you’ll get Haste from party members on some runs. On the one hand, Haste guarantees you any SPEED you might need; on the other, Haste gives you unwanted JUMP, and is DPable. The JUMP aspect isn’t the end of the world, but if your SPEED is already high, then you might persistently right-click Haste to cancel it (and replace it with a SPEED pot, if warranted). This right-clicking is also useful sporadically, when in a sticky jumpsed situation.

Having a mount also helps quite a bit, particularly when crossing between the left & right sides of the map — which may be urgent in some cases — or when climbing from bottom to top, if your implementation has climbing SPEED. If seduced while riding, it can often (but not always) be helpful to right-click the buff icon to dismount. Yes, it is possible to dismount while seduced.

Chalkboard

The use of a Chalkboard is basically at the discretion of your bishop. The purpose is to make your location more consistently visible.

Left prehead is the easy beginning. Your main concern is reacting to the sed animation by climbing the rope. You need to be sufficiently high up on the rope that the 1⧸1s cannot reach you. Getting unroped is potentially dangerous, as always; but this danger is minimised by the fact that left prehead’s attacks will hit you away from the prehead (and towards the falling rock).

Right prehead spices it up considerably by altering two things: there’s no longer anywhere in the map where 1⧸1s cannot reach you, and right prehead’s attacks will hit you towards the prehead (and away from the falling rock). Right prehead is therefore genuinely dangerous, although you’ll probably be fine — especially if your bishop is awake.

Your job is still to rope when sed is cast. The only notable exception is if you know for a fact that it’s going to be rightsed, and you’d prefer to just take falling rock damage.

What will kill you is being unroped on the left-hand part of the map during jumpsed. This puts you at risk of taking arbitrary touch damage, which is especially fatal if the thing that unroped you was a 1⧸1. Theoretically, this problem can be mitigated by using the rope on the right-hand side. This is, however, generally not possible if you’re still to deal DPM to the prehead, and so only makes sense if your PC is actually fulfilling a sed mule role, or is taking this role for preheads only.

With this in mind, knowing when you’re jumpseduced can help you to decide when Willing is justified. In any case, using your Will here can mean that its CD overlaps some of the main body fight; but this is hopefully not an issue (especially if used earlier on in the right prehead stage), because HT’s main body won’t be spawned immediately, and your bishop should Holy Shield (≝ HSh) your initial main body (left arm) seds anyway.

Main body is, naturally, where it gets real.

At the beginning of the body fight, everything is trying to kill you. Not only are all three heads live — maximising 1⧸1age — but not even the floor itself is safe. Taking touch-damage from legs hurts quite a bit, and tail has some of the deadliest touch-damage in the entire game!

The good news: If your bishop is paying enough attention, they should ideally be HShing you when, at the least, the first sed animation occurs. If you get this HSh, you probably won’t even get seduced at all by the entire first wave of left arm seds, since an arm tends to be a bit greedy when it has all three seds to spare.

Your ideal position to be seduced in is at the top of RL1. The most important thing is being roped, for the obvious purpose of staying away from touch-damage. Being at the top of RL1 means that fire 1⧸1s can’t reach you, and being at the tippy-top means that neither can ice 1⧸1s (this applies to both RL1 & RR1 any time head(s) are alive). However, getting the tippy-top — or even knowing when you’ve got it — can be difficult, and it’s sometimes better to just be certain that you’re roped at all. This generally implies that you’ll be at the right-hand edge of PL2 whenever threatened with the possibility of sed, because this is the attacking position most conducive to roping.

Be aware that legs’ ranged attacks can stun. If you’re really good, you can keep an eye on the legs & jump to dodge the relevant “stomp” attacks. You can be stomped from anywhere on PL1, PL2, or the floor.

When you’re not threatened by sed — you’ve HSh, or all seds are on CD, or whatever — and weapon-cancels aren’t stopping you, you can attack “normally” (from the warrior’s perspective, that is) by cleaving left & mid heads from the right-hand edge of PL4 (or wherever is comfy for you). This is generally damagewise superior to cleaving from your sed target position, if only because the arm/wings damage is not really wanted until heads are dead. Alternatively, PL1 can be used when you’re feeling confident and don’t have good reason to climb up.

The following general kinds of situations should make you seriously consider Willing:

• You’re unroped and are in danger of taking touch-damage, either because you’re rightsed, or because you’re jumpsed and have acquired an unfortunate momentum.
• You’re about to be 1⧸1’d, you have the majority of your sed’s duration remaining, and you don’t expect to get Healed any time soon.

If your bishop is particularly Heal-happy, you might consider roping lower, so as to be in Heal range. This especially applies during legs/tail, because your bishop will be with you in the bottom-left corner of the map. Usually, though, the higher up on RL1, the better.

Once legs & tail are dead, your expedition will typically pick a favourite side — left or right — to start with. This choice doesn’t concern you, so it may as well be random.

However, just because your expedition is (for instance) “doing left side” at the moment doesn’t mean that noöne will go to the right-hand side. Bishops may wander somewhat (often for good reason), and more to the point, when the opposite side’s head is the only one not weapon-cancelled, attackers (especially NLs) clearly need to swap sides if they’re to continue dealing head DPM.

This is relevant to you because an arm only uses its active abilities when a PC is within its half of the map, thus activating it.^[68] The halfway point is marked by the axial line of HT’s abdomen. If noöne crosses over to activate the opposite side’s arm, then you only have to deal with one arm, and therefore 3 (< 6) single-target seds.

It’s no surprise that little or no crossing makes the sed target role less dangerous. You should not, however, expect your expedition to enforce/observe a no-crossing behaviour. Instead, pay attention to when crossing does (or is about to) occur, so you know when to be more wary of the farther arm. This is especially true when you’re attacking more aggressively because the nearer arm’s seds are all on CD.

Left side is similar to when tail is live, except that you’re not so heavily punished for scooting your boots around the floor, and you can’t be stunned. You can attack more aggressively in three ways:

• Using PL1 to cleave arm & wings. This is clearly not the best place to attack, but it’s your go-to when you’ve a healthy fear of sed. This position is all right even when your Will is on CD, etc..
• Using PL3〜5 to attack (hopefully, cleave) heads. If you’re expecting arbitrary crossing, then you probably don’t want to take this position unless you’ve HSh or a backup plan, e.g. your Will is off CD.
• Using PL2 to jump-cleave(!) left head & wings. This position is a good compromise between the previous two, because it does some head damage and avoids unwanted arm damage, while having most of the safety of RL1. However, because your attacks are less frequent, your DPM per se will generally be worse. Moreover, being in the air can leave you with a bit less time to react.

Leftsed poses relatively little threat, because you’ll start eating falling rocks pretty quickly. In other cases, responding to sed is even more important. If you find yourself up high when sed is cast, drop down to grab RL1 — or any rope, when not hoping for Heals — if possible. More likely, however, is that you cannot rope at all. In this case, the name of the game is lowering your elevation, and that means going for a downjump — or two, if you’re lucky.^[69]

Although legs & tail are dead, touch-damage is still real. Even putting aside the obvious case of getting rightsed into left head — which shouldn’t happen if you’re properly prepared — unroped jumpsed can have you taking a lot of arm touch-damage. In rare cases, you might even need to Will just to forestall this damage.

Three extra challenges present themselves on the right side (as against the left):

• You’ll have to deal more frequently with lightning 1⧸1s. The effectively infinite vertical reach is just really powerful, even if it does come with a smaller horizontal reach. This means that it’s possible (unlike with the other two 1⧸1 types) to be targeted with a lightning 1⧸1 that you can’t even see the marker for! But this only happens if you’re insufficiently low (elevationwise).
• Roping safely can be somewhat more difficult. This is partly because of the path from you to the rope, and partly because RR2 isn’t as analogous to RL2 as you might think. RR2 is more dangerous both because it’s higher up, and because it still leaves you within reach of wing flaps. Wing flaps do hurt — they’re touch-damage. You should therefore avoid RR2 — in favour of RR1, if possible; or else downjump aggressively and walk rightward.
• Seal is now a problem.

Attacking is significantly different as well:

• PR4 allows you to cleave right head and, importantly, mid head. It’s therefore basically just the more difficult-to-use counterpart of PL4. This added difficulty can make the use of PR4 hard to justify, because by the time you properly get in position to hit mid head, the time for another sed probably already draws near.
• With PR3, however, you can make up for the prohibitiveness of PR4 by hitting right (but unfortunately not mid) head from here, without putting yourself in much danger.
• PR1〜2 are technically the safest spots from which you can attack, but the slight additional safety is, by default, not worth it. You should therefore avoid attacking from these platforms unless right head is weapon-cancelled and PR4 isn’t a good option, or unless you’re in a particularly precarious situation. The main advantage safetywise is that you can more easily grab RR1 at a lower point — or simply get all the way to the floor — if needed to make receiving Heals easier.

In other ways, the orientation is simply reversed. For instance, leftsed is the least dangerous sed when you’re on the left side, and vice versa.

On the whole, the main body fight tends to get easier (albeit not monotonically) for you as it goes on, assuming a competent expedition. Once left & right heads are both dead, you’re not in much danger anymore. Even if mid head is still live, the worst it can do (bearing in mind that it can still DP) is try to 1⧸1 your seduced body, which generally ain’t happening unless you’re unroped and being seduced around the floor.

But, you know. Don’t get complacent. Mid head will still try to murder you.

Once all heads are dead, you can be more liberal with your Wills. At this point, you can’t really die unless you’re jumpsed under an arm, so just avoid that. Ropes are still your friends, since they prevent you from being involuntarily flown about the map.

Because you’re the sed target, the bishop in your party is called the sed bishop. If there’s only one bishop in the expedition, then there’s no distinction to be made against a “reg bishop”, but the sole bishop still fills the sed bish role.

Because the sed bish is a bishop in HT, she already has a lot to do — it’s just a very demanding role. Deliberate interactions with the sed target only add to this pile of responsibilities. You should therefore be largely independent of your sed bish, and by default, not rely on any particular behaviour thereof.

Nonetheless, the bond between sed target & sed bish ought to be a beneficial one, to the extent practical. To this end, the following remarks apply. (These are phrased from the sed target’s perspective, as if she were speaking with her bish.)

• Unless explicitly requested, the only time you want to be Healing me is if I take a 1⧸1 during sed, or maybe if it looks like that’s about to happen. There’s also the possibility of taking touch-damage during jumpsed, but that’s rarer, and I’d probably be right next to you anyway. Otherwise, you can pretty much ignore me. (Of course, extraneous Heals don’t hurt.)
• All three stages (= two preheads + main body) have sed, so HSh is always useful. Try to HSh the first sed of main body. Other than that, you can pretty much HSh whenever, so long as it reaches me. For extra credit, you might (if practical) pay attention to seds — and maybe even sed timers — so that you know when is a good time to HSh. But this isn’t necessary, and HShing whenever it happens to be off CD is a fine substitute.
• If I do manage to die somehow, don’t hesitate to Resurrect me. I’m ready. As long as I’m dead, someone else is sed target, and that’s not supposed to happen.
• [DKs only:] If I’m seduced, I’m not Zerking. You therefore don’t have to worry about disturbing my Zerk.

You probably want a way to request Heals from your bishop, just in case it might save you in a pinch. It is, however, fairly rare that help is actually necessary. Nonetheless, when doing this in-game, agreeing on a particular single-character message (a safeword, if you will…) like, for example, “h” (short for heal or help) helps. Because 1⧸1s are announced in advance, you can ask for help before you know you need it. Of course, if the 1⧸1 ends up missing you, then the help is unnecessary in retrospect. (You can clarify this by saying something like “it missed”, if you feel this to be appropriate.)

After all that, you have everything that you need in order to learn — through your own experience — to play the sed target role right, and to be a special asset to your expedition. But you’re still lacking one crucial element: psychologically accepting your fate.

Sed target is, needless to say, an inherently perilous & difficult role. This is true irrespective of your character’s class, build/job, equipment, etc.. However, as a non-shad, your failures — the same ones suffered by all mortal beings when placed in difficult situations — will feel like they count against you more, because you’re not “supposed to” be the sed target.

Like so many things in MapleStory, the sed target experience is a kind of gambling: the multifarious confluence of (pseudo)random events & unforeseeable unfoldings that is unique to each individual HT^[61] run that ever occurs. Your job, then, is to be maximally prepared, and to use your accumulated instincts to respond to each moment. But preparation is not destiny, and no moment is perfect. When — not if — you fail, by haps or by lapse, you have to have already known this. As the saying goes: “shit happens” — and for that matter, it usually happens not to you, but to someone else in your expedition.

Learn from your mistakes, and know that each new failure mode can only strengthen your future readiness.

As the brawler throughclass^[1] is the “warrior half” (as it were) of the pirates, so is the low-STR brawler parallel to the low-STR warrior. Although this isn’t a guide to brawlers, it’s worth at least noting the relevant differences:

• Although brawlers do gain the usual 0.5⁢ AVOID from LUK, they gain 1.5 from DEX! This implies that even the low-STR brawler is still LUKless (= 4 base LUK).^[70]
• For the brawler, LUK fares even worse in the WAcc department. On the other hand, DEX grants a whopping 0.9⁢ WAcc (compared to the warrior’s 0.8), making the pure DEX brawler the single most accurate job in the game!
• The ranged attacking story for the brawler is very different, due to their access to guns & Double Shot. Unlike the claw warrior, the gun-wielding brawler is truly “ranged”.
• Ceteris paribus, the brawler’s damage tends to suffer more from a loss of STR, simply because of her high PSM (4.8 with a knuckle) and her lack of pre-DEF damage mods. The partial exception here is Demolition, which ignores DEF entirely. None of this applies when comparing to DKs in particular, however.
• Weapons are the hardest to come by for the low-STR brawler — especially the STRless one. This is largely because “just for fun”, “goofy” weapons tend to have weapon-types associated with warriors, whereas the only pirate-type weapons of this sort are the Mapleversary ones. On the other hand, even a modest amount of STR — whether through particularly STRong equipment, a bit of hybridisation, or both — is enough to equip surprisingly decent non-knuckle pirate gear (guns included).
• Unlike the low-STR warrior, the low-STR bucc isn’t a particularly good candidate for sed target. Although her AVOID is a great boon, a little bad luck goes a long way when AVOID is your only real asset. To make a somewhat more apt comparison: unlike the NL, the bucc has no Shadow Shifter, and her “miss” chance is capped at a lower value. Nonetheless, in a pinch, you can do a lot worse than a high-AVOID bucc.

0. [↑] As a good Aristotelian, I ought to establish my rhetorical phrónēsis. In addition to leading the Oddjobs guild and writing its list of odd jobs, I’ve played the following low-STR warriors:

   • rusa (MapleLegends), pure DEX dark knight.
   • axisaxis (MapleLegends), pure LUK white knight.
   • unicolor (RevivalStory), hybrid 50%⁢ LUK + 50%⁢ STR spearman.
   • elaphus (MapleLegends), pure DEX crusader.
   • kinds (MapleLegends), pure DEX page KPQ/SGQ mule.

   I’ve also played the pure DEX brawler sorts (MapleLegends).

   I precursed this guide with my essay “The STR–DEX–LUK continuum” (2023-08-02). You can also find other game-analytical and technical texts on my website.

   This guide is written for MapleStory implementations that are based upon pre-“Big Bang” (≝ pre-BB) MapleGlobal (≝ Global MapleStory ≝ GMS), but should still be useful for any pre-BB implementations whatever.

   This guide is offered under the terms of the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

1. [↑] This guide uses the following nomenclature for MapleStory classes:

   Class

   The kind of “job” (loosely speaking) that a particular PC has at a particular time, as explicitly named by the game itself. Each class has its own skillbook.

   Examples include: beginner, swordman, fighter, white knight, dark knight.

   Grade

   The number of class-advancements (which are then synonymous with grade-advancements) necessary to go from character creation to the class in question.

   For example: the grade of the beginner class is 0, that of the swordman class is 1, that of the fighter class is 2, that of the white knight class is 3, and that of the dark knight class is 4.

   Throughclass

   A set of classes grouped together by specialisation. This typically includes a single class of the highest possible grade, along with all classes that necessarily become that class after taking all available class-advancements. For universality, we refer to a throughclass by the name of its lowest-grade class.

   For example: {fighter, crusader, hero} is a throughclass that we call the fighter throughclass (or simply fighter, when context clarifies). {Swordman, fighter, crusader, hero} is not a throughclass, because the swordman can also specialise into e.g. the page class. {Crusader, hero} is not a throughclass, because fighter is missing, and all versions of MapleStory that have crusader also have fighter.

2. [↑] For a more thorough explanation of how Guardian actually works, see: “Miss me with that shit”.

3. [↑] Some players (especially of MapleSEA) may know Heaven’s Hammer as Sanctuary.

4. [↑] We say that a solution $s_{\ast }$ Pareto dominates a solution $s$ when $s_{\ast }$ isn’t worse than $s$ in any way, and $s_{\ast }$ is superior to $s$ in at least one way.

   In one-dimensional optimisation, we have a total order on solutions; so we can simply pick the maximum. In Pareto optimisation, Pareto domination is a strict partial order, and we pick a maximal element — that is, a Pareto-optimal solution. The Pareto frontier is the set of all maximal elements.

5. [↑] GMS version data have been painstakingly extrapolated from maplestory.io, True “what came when in GMS” (due to Kimberly), archived versions of Hidden Street on the Wayback Machine, What Came When in GMS, and What Came When in GMS (Extended Version!) (the latter two are due to BBD).

6. [↑] Named The Pig Sword in early MapleSEA versions.

7. [↑] Exists in the game data even in beta versions, but wasn’t available in-game in GMS until the release of Orbis at the absolute earliest. Later (v39) also available from Zipangu.

8. [↑] Originally named Menacing Bat.

9. [↑] Hidden Street uses the ⟨Aluminium⟩ spelling. This appears to have been the spelling used in pre-BB MapleSEA. However, maplestory.io’s MapleSEA archive doesn’t have any pre-BB versions.

10. [↑] This is a so-called “eraser quest” (actual name: “An Immovable Sword”, QID 9414), which requires obtaining one of each monster eraser plus an Undine’s Cloth from gachapon, and then giving them all to Burnt Sword at East Rocky Mountain III. The relevant items were present in the game data starting from v37, quest data from v49 (but in Korean).

11. [↑] Similar situation to ^[10]. Quest name is “A Revenge on Gray the Alien”, QID 9413. Quest NPC is Alien Gray at Kulan Field II. Doesn’t require Undine’s Cloth. Quest data exists in earlier versions (v28 or earlier), but the text is still in Korean.

12. [↑] Originally named Maple Celtic Sword.

13. [↑] I cannot find any info on how the Trumpet might’ve been available in-game. It presumably did exist, however, considering that Hidden Street represented it even before it was added into the GMS WZ data. It might’ve been in MapleSEA but not GMS. Its addition to the WZ data coïncides with a Maplemas/New Year event in GMS. It’s still included here, because it’s quite a useful weapon — and certainly interesting, too.

14. [↑] Random reward for giving a Ridley’s Stone (an iTCG item) and any one of various boss Etc items to the statue of Ridley. Considered a so-called “exchange quest”.

15. [↑] One of five possible umbrella weapons randomly awarded by Dreamy Park Concert (QID 8683 in the original and in ML), which is a TMS quest that takes place in Taipei 101. Artale localises the name as Dream Band Concert. The original quest name is 夢幻樂園簽唱會.

16. [↑] Named Brush in earlier MapleSEA versions.

17. [↑] A roughly one-year earlier version of this weapon was released in MapleSEA as Maple Big Maul.

18. [↑] The quest (“Nightmare”, QID 4957) is a Masterian one, making it GMS-exclusive — at least, originally. Hidden Street does not represent this weapon.

19. [↑] I can find no evidence that this weapon was available in GMS from an event, presumably a Hallowe’en one. It first appears in the WZ data in v48, which was released on 2007-12-13 as a Maplemas event. MapleStory Wiki claims that it was awarded by a Hallowe’en event in JMS, but was only available through gacha in other retail regions.

20. [↑] Named Metal Stick in MapleSEA, and perhaps originally Aluminium Bat.^[9] According to Hidden Street, an earlier version of this weapon (prior to its addition to the GMS WZ data) used to be warrior-only and have a 130⁢ STR requirement.

21. [↑] Dropped much earlier from Leader A (available in GMS v54), but probably(?) just in MapleSEA, not in GMS.

22. [↑] Named Ribgol Sword in MapleSEA & EMS.

23. [↑] Earlier (MapleSEA?) named Nasty Mop.

24. [↑] Hidden Street calls this Gold Snowboard.

25. [↑] The actual availabilities of the snowboard weapons aren’t entirely clear. The items themselves are already in the GMS WZ data by beta versions. Most sources seem to assume that they were ordinary entries in ordinary Victoria Island etc. monsters’ droptables, effectively making these weapons timeless (not in the Temple of Time sense…).

    However, later (meaning 2006 instead of 2005) versions of Hidden Street claim that snowboards were available in GMS/MapleSEA only for a limited time: 2005-11-16〜2005-11-23, in the case of MapleSEA’s Blood Snowboard; unspecified in all other cases.

    In fact, the official patch notes for GMS v13 (2005-11-30) list the Sky Snowboard, Aqua Snowboard, Silver Snowboard, and Golden Snowboard as “Event Item”. However, this is partially contradicted by the fact that the Silver Snowboard (and Dark Snowboard, for that matter) appears in the earliest archived version of Hidden Street (2005-06-21), which claims that it simply drops from Evil Eyes & Stone Gollems.

    I suspect that the connexions here (for the non-Silver, non-Dark Snowboards, at least) might’ve been obscured by the fact that GMS v13 ended the first-ever Thanksgiving event. There was therefore — at least, after the first time, apparently — no real reason to have a seasonal event filling the gap between Thanksgiving & Maplemas. As for MapleSEA, its target audience lives in a tropical climate, making the snowboarding theme inappropriate. The one-off nature of the event, then, must’ve either resulted in Necks0n deciding to just add the weapons to the game permanently, or else later reconstructions (by MSPSes) mistakenly interpreted Hidden Street’s data to mean that this occurred.

26. [↑] Originally named Maple Pole Arm.

27. [↑] This weapon exists in the v22 GMS WZ data without a name, disappears in v23, and returns with a name in v32.

28. [↑] The official GMS v5 patch notes refer to this weapon as a Surfing Board.

29. [↑] Named Green Dragon Sword in MapleSEA, where it dropped from Dark Nependeath very early on (2005).

30. [↑] Yes, there are indeed two (2) distinct polearms with the exact name Green Surfboard that are, moreover, visually indistinguishable. Only the level 55 one is represented by Hidden Street.

31. [↑] The naming/visual situation here is similar to that of the Green Surfboard (see: ^[30]). In this case, the more lately added one is level 15.

32. [↑] To my knowledge, the only reason to believe that the Red Surfboard differed from its level 55 green & level 45 black counterparts in terms of its basic availability is that Hidden Street seems to not have ever marked it as an event item. All signs, however, point to it having been added to the game in the same GMS version release. MSPSes are, presumably due to Hidden Street, exceptionally likely to make the level 95 Red Surfboard (as compared to other summer-themed weapons) a perennial drop.

33. [↑] Visually identical to the Gold Surfboard.

34. [↑] GMS v30 was Hallowe’en, whereas v31 was Thanksgiving. However, the Pumpkin Spear is absent from the v30 WZ data, so I’ve assumed that it was first available in v31.

35. [↑] Originally named Maple Spear.

36. [↑] Originally named 101模型 “model of 101”. A TMS exclusive. ML’s version is faithful to TMS v209 (the only older TMS version I have access to is v13, which is too old to have Taipei 101). Artale gives this weapon completely different stats, and even a hefty 150⁢ STR requirement. Artale localises its name as simply Taipei 101.

37. [↑] Dropped by the Spirit of Rock area boss in Taipei 101. This boss’s original name is 瘋狂喵z客, localised more faithfully by Artale as Crazy Meowz.

38. [↑] Snowballs come in two flavours: Snowball, and Big Snowball. The difference between these items, however, seems to be purely cosmetic. Note that Snowballs — Big or not — are, technically speaking, arrows (the bow kind), because their IIDs have the form $''𝟸𝟶𝟼𝟶''d_2{d}_1{d}_0$, where $d_i$ is some arbitrary decimal digit. Snowball mustn’t be confused with Snowball (+17⁢ WAtk), the latter being an ordinary throwing-star that therefore cannot be thrown with the Magical Mitten.

39. [↑] +5⁢ WAtk in ML. Introduced with GMS v40 as part of Masteria, & therefore typically exclusive to GMS & GMS-based implementations. A good alternative is Red Arrow for Bow (originally confusingly named Arrow for Bow), which is purchasable in Showa Town, and drops from some monsters in the area.

40. [↑] Pre-BB MapleStory implementations will want to remove the weapon-type restrictions from Sacrifice. It behaves like a melee basic-attack (or equivalently, like Power Strike) in every possible way — down to the weapon animations and their probabilities — other than its self-damaging aspect. And even then, Slash Blast technically has this aspect as well (−16⁢ HP at maximum skill level), also animates like a basic-attack, and also can be used with any weapon-type. However, I’m not aware of any implementations that actually do this.

    Dragon Roar is an entirely different beast, due to its custom damage formula (including a custom PSM).

41. [↑] tAVOID is contrasted with AVOID. For example, an equip that grants +1⁢ AVOID & +2⁢ LUK grants +2⁢ tAVOID to a warrior, who passively benefits from +½⁢ tAVOID per LUK.

42. [↑] Almost uniformly referred to as K-Fan.

43. [↑] Originally named Square Wooden Shield in early MapleSEA versions.

44. [↑] Frequently compounded as Panlid.

45. [↑] Named Wood Buckler in MapleSEA.

46. [↑] All versions of Hidden Street prior to its split into two separate websites for MapleSEA & GMS (ca. 2007-02-02, corresponding to GMS ca. v34) claim that this item dropped from Jr. Wraiths. In fact, even for those Hidden Street versions which very clearly discriminate between MapleSEA & GMS droptables for each item/monster, Jr. Wraiths are still understood to drop Wooden Bucklers in, apparently, both MapleSEA & GMS. The split resulted in this info being obliterated on the GMS side, but not on the MapleSEA side. For this reason, I assume that it was an error or delayed update, and that Wooden Bucklers therefore never dropped from any monsters in GMS. This is (most? all?) GMS-based MSPSes’ interpretation as well.

47. [↑] GMS v5 added “Summer Items Set 2” (according to the patch notes), so I’ve simply assumed that v4 — on which I cannot find any info — added *“Summer Items Set 1”. Set 2 consisted of Surfboard, Black Tube, Emergency Rescue Tube, and Colorful Tube. This event, apparently responsible for introducing the first wave of summer weaponry to GMS, ended with v7: “Removal of Summer Items from the monsters”.

    It seems to be widely believed — a notable exception being Old School Library — that most or all of the relevant summer weapons dropped perennially from ordinary monsters at some point relatively early on in GMS’s history. Whether this is a false impression gained by taking Hidden Street overly literally, or an actual droptable change that occurred some time after v7, is unclear.

48. [↑] The GMS WZ data v42 through v44 give this shield the same stats as the Gold Aquila Shield.

49. [↑] Also named Warfare Pants or Woodland Pants. NPC-purchasable in virtually all MapleStory versions.

50. [↑] Originally named Gown. Added to GMS ca. v14, but present earlier in MapleSEA.

51. [↑] Like Sauna Robes, these overalls are gendered. The female version is Fitted Mail (but doesn’t include the Steel Fitted Mail, which is level 15), the male version Crusader Chainmail. For reasons beyond my comprehension, although the Fitted Mails are symmetric — two colours STR, and two DEX — the Crusader Chainmails are not, with only one DEX version.

52. [↑] Originally named Violet Eigen and Yellow Eigen, respectively.

53. [↑] However, Christmas Socks don’t even appear in the GMS WZ data until v80 — which was also the version in which they were released. They’re nonetheless available in ML.

54. [↑] Frequently abbreviated FS.

55. [↑] CWKPQ was added as a GMS exclusive in v66, and therefore had to be backported for ML.

56. [↑] These are the Cecelia Cloaks and The Legendary Elias Capes, of which there are three each — all level 65. The APQ couples bonus stage is distinct from — and takes place on a different map than — the APQ bonus stage. It requires the APQ party to consist of three married couples.

57. [↑] This quest (Alcaster’s Cape, QID 3103) appears in the GMS WZ data already by v49, but isn’t translated into English until v53.

58. [↑] Renamed to Work Gloves in later versions.

59. [↑] Later renamed to Horntail Necklace. Frequently, if confusingly, referred to as HTP.

60. [↑] This is, regrettably, not life advice.

61. [↑] HT was first made available in GMS in v52. It’s possible that other bosses/PQs/etc. might have the “sed target” mechanic; for instance, Pink Bean has a vaguely similar mechanic whereby the initial map-entry order determines who’s initially in “sed range”. However, this PB mechanic is ultimately not relevant here, except inasmuch as the low-STR warrior would presumably enter the PB map before high-STR characters. In any event, this non-shadower sed target guide will hopefully still be of some assistance even for those placed in situations not identical with “vanilla” HT.

62. [↑] Unless it’s mass seduce (≝ mass sed), which affects up to ten PCs. But if your expedition^[63] does it right, mass sed won’t happen at all until HT’s death is imminent.

63. [↑] Expedition meaning the team/group of PCs running a particular instance of game content. Expeditions were introduced into MapleStory to accomodate bosses, guildquests, etc. in which more than one party (in the technical MapleStory sense) participates, or in which more than six PCs (the upper limit for a single party) participate.

64. [↑] Actually called hands in the WZ data.

65. [↑] Once again, please refer to Trlnltyy’s MapleLegends Horntail Guide (archived).

66. [↑] In ML, AotB & Dragon Blood are completely revamped. AotB won’t help the ML DK survive sed (nor is it defensive in any way), but Dragon Blood takes its place, more or less. Dragon Blood heals considerably more than AotB, but has a CD, and is DPable (Beholder is a summon and therefore unDPable).

    To use Dragon Blood optimally, then, the DK must keep track of the CDs of global DP and of sed: casting Dragon Blood is ill-advised if you’re pretty sure that it’s about to be DP’d anyway, and you can wait to cast Dragon Blood if you know that you can’t be seduced any time soon. However, because Dragon Blood’s CD is designed to allow a relatively large uptime of ⅔ (in the absence of DP, at least…), it can be used more liberally if you don’t have good timers — you just have to hope for good luck with DPs etc.. If you’re feeling spicy, you can even wait for the sed animation to begin before you cast Dragon Blood.

67. [↑] This particular figure doesn’t apply to Fantasia. See the Fantasia-specific table for more info.

68. [↑] There are some poorly-understood details here having to do with “aggro” etc.. But these are presumably implementation-dependent, and in any case, not necessary to understand.

69. [↑] Another possibility, albeit a riskier one inasmuch as it’s more difficult to pull off, is simply walking rightward until you take touch-damage, potting up immediately, and then walking leftward until sed takes you. This is, however, only possible if you’re already very close to a body part’s hitbox.

70. [↑] Remarks on the AVOID of brawlers are not meant to apply to MapleLegends.

71. [↑] See, for example: mangos’s Phoenix leveling guide — general training spots (2022-02-08), Kargo’s Comprehensive Training Guide v2.0 (2024-05-26, ML), RS Farming Guide, etc..