# MapleStory/Introduction

* MapleStory
* Complete Table of Contents
* Jobs
* Locations
* Shops
* Monsters
* Quests
* FAQs
* Glossary
* Authors list
MapleStory is a free (though with in-app-purchases) 2D side-scrolling MMORPG developed by the Korean company Wizet. There are several versions of the game for specific countries or regions, each of which has their own set of worlds. Currently there are Global, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Taiwanese and South East Asian (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand), and most recently European versions of the game. Korean and Japanese versions have been around the longest and thus have the most features, other versions being several months behind.
In the game, players defend the "Maple World" from monsters, as in a typical role-playing game (RPG). Players can interact with others in many ways, such as chatting, trading, playing in parties and playing minigames such as Omok (based upon the Japanese game of Gomoku) and Match Cards (based upon Memory) which could be obtained rarely by killing monsters.

### Current MapleStory Versions and their worlds

Template:MapleStory Versions
* People living in Thailand can play both MapleStory SEA and MapleStory Thailand.
* The Korean version was the first to be created, and thus has the most features. Other versions are at different stages of development, most of them a few months behind.
* The Korean, Thai, European, and Global versions share the same world names, but they are totally different worlds, and have no connections with each other.
* Europe MapleStory is still in the Beta Phase.
* FrancheMS is currently under development.

## Gameplay

Characters in MapleStory advance by gaining experience points (EXP), leveling up, and collecting various items and pieces of wieldable equipment. The players combat monsters, acquiring money, which are called Mesos or Meru (depending on your version) in-game and various items as well as completing quests.
MapleStory gameplay takes place in "worlds". Players are allowed to create up to three different characters in each world for every account made. Each world, which is identical, is split into up to 20 channels where players can play. Each channel is identical in terms of maps, monsters, and other things. The only difference is that there is different players on each channel. One physical server hosts two channels. Characters, items and money cannot be transferred between worlds, though they can be transferred between characters on the same world.

### New players

New players are sent to Maple Island, a floating island specifically designed to be beginner-friendly. Unlike many other MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft, Everquest, or Rakion MapleStory players cannot choose a character class or job when they create the character similarly to Ragnarok. Rather, every character starts with the job Beginner until they meet the requirements to complete the first job advancement.
When a player creates a new character, he or she is able to spread 25 ability points amongst four different statistics: STR, DEX, INT, and LUK (Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Luck, respectively). Players cannot manually choose where these points will be placed, as the distribution is randomly generated by a dice roll. However, the player can have the stat allocations reshuffled as many times as required, until the stats are placed in the order that is fitting to their planned occupation. The minimum possible point level in a statistic which can be generated is 4, and the maximum is 13. Players tend to raise only the statistics which their desired class specializes in, and they will keep the other ability levels at 4.

### Leveling up

To level up, a character must acquire a certain amount of EXP (experience points), which are accumulated by killing monsters or completing quests. At each level-up, a player receives 5 ability points (AP) to be distributed among the stats of HP, MP, STR, DEX, INT, and LUK as necessary. After undergoing any job advancement, the character gains 1 skill point (SP) however 3 skill points are given for each level following a job advancement. Each skill point can be used on various class-specific skills.
AP can also be put into Maximum HP (Health Points) or Maximum MP (Mana Points), but this is discouraged for all classes since these stats automatically increase upon a level up. Some warriors, however, choose to put all of their AP into health points. This causes their maximum HP to increase very quickly, and high-leveled "HP warriors" can have as much as 10,000 HP, although this has been often exceeded. However such warriors deal less damage than ones that have not put any AP into HP.
All characters in the game are ranked based on how much EXP they have gained, or equivalently their level and percentage. When a player logs on, they can see how their character is ranked in comparison to all other characters of any class as well as all other characters of the same basic class. It will also tell the characters change in ranking from the previous day but history over the last week or so cannot be seen.

### Ability points

There are four main types of abilities, which are necessary to advance through the jobs:
* Strength (STR) increases the maximum power of melee attacks. It increases the maximum damage for warriors. Warriors need at least 35 AP in STR to make their first job advancement.
* Dexterity (DEX) increases the accuracy, avoidability and minimum damage of all attacks, except magic. It increases the maximum damage for bowmen. Bowmen and thieves need at least 25 AP in DEX to make their first job advancement.
* Intelligence (INT) increases the magic attack and magic defense stats. INT affects a magician greatly as their damage and accuracy is based on it, although INT isn't too useful for other classes. Magicians need at least 20 AP in INT to make their first job advancement. It also determines the amount of maximum MP increase upon leveling.
* Luck (LUK) increases the avoidability and accuracy of all characters, and decreases the EXP loss when a character dies. It increases the maximum damage of thieves attack when using throwing stars and daggers that depend on LUK for attack.
It is recommended by most game guides that the various classes should only increase class-specific abilities, as follows:
* Warriors should increase STR and DEX, (with STR being the main priority) as they only use physical attacks.
* Bowmen should also raise STR and DEX, (with DEX being the main priority).
* Magicians should increase only INT and LUK (with INT being the main priority).
* Thieves should increase LUK and DEX (with LUK being the main priority), although STR dagger thieves (thieves who use a dagger that requires points in STR) also need some points in STR.

### Skill points

Every character class has specific skills to invest in. The effects of skills vary greatly. Skills fall into one of two categories, passive and active skills. Passive skills (such as a bowman's 'Eye of Amazon') take effect as long as SP has been placed in the skill, without the character having to do anything. They always enhance the character and do not require MP to use. Active skills can be used when necessary. There are two types of active skills: attack skills and enhancement skills. Attack skills tend to do more damage and can be used as the main attacking method (such as a magician's Magic Claw). Enhancement skills add temporary enhancements to the character (such as a thief's Dark Sight) or the character's party (such as a cleric's Bless). Most skills become more effective as SP is added, though there is usually an increase in MP used. Other skills cost less MP as SP is added to the skill.

### Items

There are five different item categories in the game: Equipment, Use, Set-Up, Etc, and Cash/Pet. The equipment are clothing, accessories, and weapons that are equiped and provide stat bonuses and attack or defense. Mainly, the weaker items that are available do not require anything to equip. However, most items have a Level, Stat, Class, and/or Fame requirement to equip it. Normally, only Magician items and the all-class earrings provide Magic Defense; equipment for Warriors, Rogues, and Archers usually provide Weapon Defense only. Some equipment also gives extra HP, MP, Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Speed, Jump, Accuracy, Avoidability, and/or Luck. Every item has specific "average" stats which the item always has when it is crafted by an NPC or bought from a store. When equipment is dropped by monsters, the stats have chance to differ from their average. Items with stats close to the average ones are more common than ones with a lot more or less of certain stat. Equipment can be upgraded by using item upgrade scrolls. These scrolls have a certain percentage of success, and the lower it is, the higher the stat gains are. One can only attempt to scroll a certain equipment up to 7 times for most equipment; gloves, capes, earrings and most shoes (excluding snowshoes) can be scrolled up to five times; overalls up to ten. The Use items consists of consumable items, such as potions/pills, food (serves same purpose as potions), upgrades, such as equipment scrolls, town scrolls which, when used, teleports you back to a specified town or the nearest town, and arrows and throwing stars which can only be used by using specific weapons such as a bow or a claw. The Set-Up items are mainly decorative special items for events such as Christmas and special quests. Etc items are mainly monster leftovers, ores and quest items. Cash/Pet items are the items bought in the Cash Shop. However, Cash Shop items may appear in other parts of the inventory depending on their function.

### Dying

When a character's HP on the health bar (red) reaches 0, a character dies. This is depicted by a tombstone falling from the top of the screen, and the character becoming merely a head on a floating ghost-like body. Upon dying, a character is returned to the nearest town and revived with 50 HP. The amount of MP after a character's death does not change. Beginners lose no EXP when they die, which suggests that dying is a quick and free way of getting to the nearest town. However, once a beginner makes his first job advancement, each death will cost him a percentage of EXP based up the amount of LUK they have. Thus, Thieves and Magicians will tend to lose less EXP than Warriors and Bowman because the former classes' AP builds tend to favor high LUK more than the latter classes'. Dying in towns or other safe areas will always result in EXP loss of 1% regardless of the character's LUK stat. Items such as the Safety Charm (from the Cash Shop) can prevent EXP loss when the character dies (however, the user loses the item after they are dead). But note that the Safety Charm is available in only some versions of the game. Another variation is the Valentines Day Event and the Easter Day Event, where if you receive a Box of Chocolates/Easter Charms, it protects your EXP as well. A character cannot fall below 0% EXP of its current level, so players will not drop down a level, but instead just drop to 0 EXP. If a character dies, the character can still speak,and can stay in this stage for a limited time, but instead of the usual speech bubbles, a "thought bubble" is substituted. A character may still make faces when dead.

## Unique gameplay features
### Fame

Fame is one of the stats on a character's character sheet. Fame is supposed to be the amount of popularity a player has in the game. Once a character is at least level 15, they are able to raise or lower the fame of any character but themselves by one point per day. A character's fame cannot be raised or lowered by the same person more than once every month. Fame has no part in Maple Story except for certain quests and a select amount of high level pieces of equipment. Some people believe that fame will increase the chances of a monster dropping rare items, but there has never been any proof in this matter. Although fame isn't a major aspect of the game, people tend to be pretty serious about it. Many people de-fame someone to get revenge, or use threats of mass defaming to intimidate.

### Mini-games

There are three mini-games that can be played between three MapleStory characters. They are called Omok, Match Cards, and Pachinko. If a player plays with other people, his or her history for the game will be listed on the screen so the other players can see how well he or she play. Playing mini-games costs 100 mesos per game. Each player starts with 2000 points and gain six points for a win, lose seven for a loss, and lose two for a tie.

#### Omok

Omok is a remake of a classic Japanese game named Gomoku. This game seems very similar to tic-tac-toe except that the board is much larger, and players must get five in a row rather than only three. Consequently, a lot more strategy is involved. The game follows the standard rule, which requires exactly five stones in a row, and the three and three rule, which states that players cannot make two unblocked rows of three stones in one move. Also, the "board" that is played on is much larger than that of Tic-Tac-Toe.

#### Match cards

This is also known as the game concentration. Match cards games can be opened in 3x4, 4x5, and 5x6 versions. The flip side of the cards contain images of MapleStory monsters which players take turn matching.

#### Pachinko (JapanMS exclusive)

Pachinko is a popular game in Japan. It is a one player game. To play Pachinko it is necessary to buy Pachinko balls (coins) in the Cash Shop and to play, the player must be in a Pachinko store (these are located in Kerning City, Shouwa Town, and Ludibrium). In order to win, one needs to try get the Pachinko balls in a mushroom hole below a slot. Once it is in, the slot will start. Sometimes an angel or a lady will try to help the player move the monsters in the slot. The chart of winning table is as follows: Stirge, Orange Mushroom, Blue Snail, Chopiter (400 balls), Red Snail, Jr. Boogie, Jr. Wraith, Jr. Sentinel (600 balls), Jr. Cellion (1,000 balls), and the Jackpot, Jr. Balrog (1,500 balls). Also there are prizes to be won if the player got the amount of balls.

### Events

Event may often occur during holidays like chance to win items in game or real life, GM (Game Master) events where a GM host the event in seven different games such as Coconut Harvest, Find the Jewel, MapleStory Physical Fitness Challenge, OX Quiz and Minigame Challenge, Ola Ola, and Snowball. Rewards include an Event Trophy and a Devil's Scroll, which requires the player to decode it through an NPC to get a Magic Box, which contains a random prize after being opened by another NPC.

#### Coconut Harvest

Participants will be divided into two teams: Team Maple and Team Story. The team which harvests the most coconuts in the set amount of time wins.

#### Find the Jewel

The goal of this event is to find maps hidden in various rooms to find a map. Return the map to Vikan to complete the event.

#### MapleStory Physical Fitness Challenge

A jump quest with four levels: finish the quest within 15 minutes to complete the event. The player will not be able to haste or teleport in this quest.

#### OX Quiz and Minigame Challenge

The OX Quiz consists of answering question asked by the GM correctly. Once a player answers them correctly, they will be teleported to the Minigame Challenge room, where players will compete in minigames. The winner will go on to the next level of the tournament, competing against players in (presumably) steadily increasing skill.

#### Ola Ola

Ola Ola takes place in a maze set in a forest with three maps. The goal of this event is to reach the end within four minutes. At the top of each map there are a series of portals which may bring players to the next map, bring them back to the beginning of the current map, or fail to do anything whatsoever. In Ola Ola, the player will not be able to jump, haste, teleport, etc.

#### Snowball

Snowball is a GM event where players are divided into two teams: Team Maple and Team Story. The goal is to push a giant snowball to the end of the stage before the other team by attacking it. The players can also attack a snowman which prevents the other team from pushing the snowball.
Other events include Christmas tree events, wedding events, drawing events and quest events: for example, find an item and return it to the event quest NPC or GM.

## MapleStory world

    Main article: Towns
There are three main continents common to all versions in the MapleStory World: Maple Island, Victoria Island and Ossyria. There are also two subcontinents common to all versions in the MapleStory world: Florina Island and Ludibrium. Although Ludibrium is a subcontinent of Ossyria, some players consider Ludibrium to be a continent as well.
On JapanMS, there is an additional continent called Jipang based on Japanese culture; similarly, Fairy Tale Village is based on the Korean culture. It is unknown if this subcontinent will feature in other versions of the game, and which continent it belongs to. Peach Blossom Island is accessible only to ChinaMS and MapleSEA where couples take part in traditional Chinese marriages (via purchasing a large amount of Cash Shop items).
In addition, there are also event towns. Happyville is only available during the Christmas period. Premium Road has been made available to KoreaMS, JapanMS and ThailandMS; it can be accessed only if the player is connected from a real-life Internet Cafe which has previously made contracts with the local programming staff of MS.

## Monsters

    List of Monsters:Monster List
MapleStory differs from most other MMORPGs in that many of its monsters, especially low-level ones, are designed to look cute and harmless. Some notable exceptions are Curse/Evil/Cold Eyes, Werewolves, and Jr/Crimson Balrogs.
Monsters residing on the beginner island (Maple Island) are suited best to beginners, just as Victoria and Ossyria Islands' monsters are to higher levels.
Killing monsters gives the player experience, common drops (leftovers from the monsters), ores (used to make items), equipment, quest items (for certain types of quests), usable drops (potions, throwing-stars, etc.) and, during certain periods of time, "set-up" items, used for the special events. Usually the higher level monsters will have the more valuable drops, but low-level monsters can also drop scrolls, amongst other valuable items.
Some monsters are more vulnerable to certain elemental attacks. For example, fire boars are weak against ice-elemental attacks, while undead monsters such as zombie lupins are weak against holy attacks.
Other monsters are more or less vulnerable to the type of attack, whether it be weapon attack or magic attack. For example, a Sentinel (a monster residing in the Orbis Tower) is very armored against weapon attacks, making it hard for most characters other than mages to defeat, and Luster Pixies are less vulnerable to magic attacks.
Other monsters, such as Jr. Boogies, will use their own skills on characters in a certain range when attacked. These skills will include Sealing, which locks skills so that players cannot use them, Darkness, which decreases accuracy, Weakness, which disables jumping ability, and a curse that halves experience. Some monsters also have skills that can raise certain attributes of themselves or monsters around them. For example, Stone Golems, and Lunar Pixies can increase their weapon defense, and fairies can increase defense of other monsters around itself.
Some monsters can attack characters from a distance. Monsters like Sentinels, Torties, Lupins and Lunar Pixies, when attacked, will attack back with a physical attack, like the Lupin's Banana, or a magic attack, like the Luster Pixies' Magic Attack. Some monsters will attack without provocation; until a recent patch, the Nependeath would attack anything in range. More powerful monsters usually will have a very powerful area attack that can attack anything in its range. For example, some bosses, including the Mushmom and King Slime (found only in the Kerning City Accompaniment party quest), can slam into the ground, causing damage to anyone nearby. This can be avoided by jumping in-sync with the monster, climbing onto a ladder, or any method that allows you to avoid contact with the ground around the monster.
Zakum, a boss monster found only in a level 50 and above Party Quest, attacks with fire, ice, and poison-based attacks. It has a number of arms, each with an individual amount of life, which players must kill before attacking its main body. Zakum is considered by most players as the toughest monster in the game, though not the highest level, and can be extremely difficult to defeat, usually requiring two parties of very high level characters working together for an extended period of time. The Zakum party quest can last up to one hour or more. Correspondingly, the rewards for killing Zakum are great - experience points in the millions, and several drops and mesos. Zakum is currently unavailable in ThailandMS
Mushmom, a giant version of the smaller Orange Mushroom, only spawns at one map. The time taken of the Mushmom to spawn varies usually between 40 mins - 1 hour. The Mushmom is notoriously hard to kill, and must only be attempted by high-level characters. The Mushmom is famous for the famous Ilbis, the strongest throwing star. It is usually hard to kill it by oneself as it can be difficult to find an empty map (high-level characters might be stealing your kill), and also due to the Mushmom's high damage. Going in parties of four or five people is advisable if a person wants to hunt the Mushmom. The drops of the Mushmom can be split afterwards.
There is also an undead version of the Mushmom; Zombie Mushmom. It only spawns in one part of the dungeon, and is usually accompanied by Zombie Mushrooms. Unlike the Mushmom, it is stronger, but takes damage from "Heal", a spell which only a cleric can learn, and it takes more damage from holy attacks. It usually spawns every 90 minutes or so.

## Cash Shop

Since playing MapleStory is free, the developers of MapleStory introduced the Cash Shop to generate revenue. This is a virtual shop where players can buy items using real money. However, most items do not give bonuses to the character. The items sold in the Cash Shop include clothing items, haircut coupons, pets and many more.
Cash shop items are mainly for looks, and can only be obtained through the Cash Shop itself. Other than fancy equipment that the players can wear, some other items from the Cash Shop can also grant the players special abilities, such as negating the experience points lost from dying and giving players a 2x EXP gain bonus (only available in some versions of the game). In MapleSEA, Gachapon tickets can be purchased in the Cash Shop. When used at designated Gachapon machines located around the Maple world, players can receive random items. Its effectiveness is highly debatable, however, as it can be equated to purchasing in-game items with cash. Opponents say this unbalances the game.
Pets can be useful apart from looking cute, mainly through the fact that they can be trained to pick up items and mesos for their owners, speeding up the training process, but to use these features, players have to buy extra items, for an example, if they want their pet to pick up their Mesos for them, a Meso Magnet must be purchased from Cash Shop and equip it to them. However, all cash items bought will disappear after 90 days. The only exceptions to this are inventory/storage expansions, effects of hair/surgery/tanning coupons, and pets, which revert into their "doll" forms and require reviving with a Cash Shop item "Water of Life" to be usable again.
Players who are not able to afford these items due to real life monetary constraints might trade the in-game currency, mesos, for the Cash Shop items. Scamming is likely to happen in such cases, which is why trading of in-game items for Cash Shop items is a bannable offense, even if the trade goes through successfully with no stealing involved.
Cash items are available for sale in the Cash Shop. There are two currencies the Cash Shop accepts. One is Nexon Cash, frequently shortened to NX Cash. MapleStory Points is the other currency used in the Cash Shop. NX Cash is purchased outside of MapleStory through the MapleStory web site. MapleStory Points, however, can be earned through special events. PayPal is the only accepted method in MapleStory Global, although Wizet has stated that they will soon implement direct credit card transactions. Additionally eChecks are currently not being accepted.
In MapleSEA's case, in addition to credit card payment (through PayPal), it has also released Prepaid cards that are sold at a fixed price of S$10.50 [Tax inclusive](approximately US$6.30) per 10,000 A-Cash (which can be used to convert into MapleCash) or RM 24 (approximately US$6.40) for 24,000 MOLePoints (which can be used to purchase 10,000 A-Cash).

## Game issues
### Scamming

Scamming is rather common in MapleStory, as in most MMORPGs. The most usual scamming type is tricking new players into selling items for several times less than their actual value, buying items for several times what they are actually worth, or by stealing their items. Scammers do this by daring other players to drop valuable items and then picking the item up before the player has a chance to pick it up again. This is aided by using an "autoloot" program to automatically pick up any items dropped nearby. This was later addressed by the MapleStory Global staff to be the "drop game". In an older variation of the drop game, the player being scammed would be told to drop an item and type /mapclone, /mapsuperitem, or /map100 et cetera, causing the server to kick the user (and in some cases crash the client), allowing the other player to take the dropped item.
Another common scam is "tab tab space enter". To perform this scam, a scammer will open a trade window with the victim, ask him or her to show the scammer a rare item, and try to get the victim to press this combination of keys. The key combination moves the cursor to the accept trade button and accepts the trade.
There are also some people who scam about faming (the act of increasing one's fame) since players cannot trade fame in a secure trading window. One will ask to buy or trade fame with other players, under the condition that the other player will fame them first. When the scammer receives the fame he/she will then leave without finishing the trade. There is little a MapleStory player can do about this since trading and buying/selling fame is not encouraged by the creators of the game.
In the Cash Shop, there is a "Gift" feature (currently in GlobalMS this feature is disabled). A player can buy that item and give it to another player. Players would trade in-game items for the Cash Shop items. Since there is no trading window the items must be traded one at a time. Similarly to fame scamming, the scammer would take the other player's item first and not give the item they promised, either from the cash shop or the in game item. It is difficult to catch such scammers, as trading of Cash Shop items is deemed illegal, and players who get scammed dare not report them. Any user caught doing this will be banned if they are caught.
There are also some people who try to scam people together, as in one person hiding while the drop game is happening and jumping out and stealing the victim's item. There are also some cases where people in trading areas are trading something highly valuable for something of less value, and usually have a partner who is selling the item the person is looking for on the other side of the map. Both characters log off when the item is bought.
Another technique that people use to gain money is to show someone a scrolled item. The person buying it will offer their price and put up the money. The person with the item could then say something that will allow them to close the trade. Later, the person with the item will retrade the buyer and tell them to put the money again. The item-holder will then put up an item with worse stats and accept the trade. The buyer could forget to check the stats and trade, thus losing money. A similar scam is using scrolls, since all scrolls with the same percent work-rate all look the same.
A less plausible technique would be to unequip all items, weapons, and clothing, and claim to be hacked, and has lost all their items and/or mesos (in game currency). They would then request people to donate items or mesos, and once the items/mesos are received, they would simply leave the area in the search for another victim, or re-equip the weapons and clothing to spite and mock the person who has donated.

### External programs

Botting was a problem in MapleStory. Instead of playing their character, a player will leave a program to control their character. The program will automatically do a sequence of steps to kill enemies and gain experience for the character without human intervention. It is considered unfair as the player is able to gain experience for their character without actually playing the game. Maple Story is working to get rid of these "bots". Anyone caught doing this will be banned or suspended for an extended period of time.
It was at one time common for players trying to enter a PQ (Party Quest) to use an auto-click program (or "AC"), but with the recent implementation of nProtect GameGuard into certain versions of MapleStory, the use of auto-click programs has become significantly less common.
Another problem that has become more common recently is keylogging, but the risk of losing one's account to keylogging has been decreased significantly due to the Security PIN feature that has been added. The keylogger records all keystrokes typed by the person and sends a log back to the hacker who then uses that username and password to try to log in to the account by guessing the PIN. However, keyloggers need to be installed into a computer for it to work and are usually contained in computer viruses.
Other programs such as "Vaccing devices" allow the user to enter in a code which enables the monsters in a map to be "vaccuumed" into a certain desired area enlisted by the user. This issue has been happening ever since MapleGlobal went out of its Beta stage. Although being caught vac hacking causes an instant ban, many users simply create a new character/account and begin their hacking spree again.

### Other issues

Another issue about fame is "mass defaming". When one person wants to "mass defame" another character, the player calls upon their friends or any other characters they may have to defame the other character, decreasing the victim's fame stat significantly. Although a defaming may not have any lasting effect in the game (as it is possible to buy fame from other players), some players threaten others with mass defames in the hope of intimidating others to do what they want, particularly to drive away other characters in the same training area.
Another issue is the existence of fake GMs (Game Masters). These characters are ordinary players who imitate names of GMs and claim to have GM powers. Some of the names include, but are not limited to, Wiznet, GlVl, GMDiddy022 and names with GM in the end. They pretend to be GMs and ask for money, items, or passwords, and threaten to ban players if they do not give them what they request. There are many ways to find out if a character is a GM. GMs always have a floating "GM" sign on top of their character and always type in a distinctive blue text. It is impossible to view the character information of a GM. If one spots a fake GM, they are able to alert a real GM by using a feature called "Alert GM", which they can access by right clicking on the character. Wizet states that all GMs are full-time employees.
MapleStory was once plagued with inflation, as with many other MMORPGs (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games). Wizet has now installed a tax system on the Global version of MapleStory and MapleSEA. This system taxes a certain percentage of money from the transaction. A percentage listed on a window below the trade window shows the amount deducted for trading amounts larger than 50,000 mesos, 100,000 mesos, and so on. This is an effort by Wizet to stop inflation.

### Security and reporting abuse

Recently Wizet has added a loader called GameGuard created by nProtect to protect the MapleStory client from modification in the Global, Japanese, South East Asia and South Korea version of the game. Most of these autoloot programs have been blocked by GameGuard, which is also used by Softnyx for its Gunbound, Rakion games, Webizen for its "MU Online" game, and FlyFF, by Aeonsoft. Although GameGuard stops many hacks, hacking is still a problem. Though many players are skeptical of this, Godmode (invincibility) hacks still work under certain circumstances. The players who use this hack most likely train in obscure spots, or use Godmode to reach areas most people avoid. Contrary to popular belief, these players can be hard to catch, as GMs tend to stay in areas that have more people, and Godmoders can sign off or quickly and constantly change channels if they notice someone approaching. Lag also contributes to making them harder to catch, as if someone sees another player walk through an enemy undamaged, they will most likely think it was only because of the lag between the two characters.
The "Alert GM" feature can be accessed by right clicking on a character and selecting Alert GM. A window pop out that lets one choose the situation they want to alert this person for. An alert to a GM can be made only once a day. Too many false alerts from a player could result in penalties (such as suspensions like a banned account). This feature is more updated in the South Korea version, where now a player can report specifically what the abuse was.
The latest security measure implemented by Wizet is the "Security PIN" feature, which is currently implemented in the Global version. A keypad will appear on the screen and the user has to enter their PIN by clicking on the numbers with their mouse to access their account. It has been implemented so that hackers using keyloggers that only monitor keyboard button presses are not able to get into people's accounts. The numbers change position as well so that tracking the mouse will not reveal the PIN number either. More advanced keyloggers will take a screenshot whenever the left mouse button is clicked. However, every time the user presses a key, the keyboard changes completely randomly so it is harder to figure out what the PIN number is.

### Website requirements

The MapleStory Global and MapleStory South Korea websites will only allow access from the newest version of Microsoft Internet Explorer browser, although Firefox users can access the page (in a limited fashion) by either using the NoScript extension or the IETab extension.

## See also
### Official websites

* MapleStory portal - Official MapleStory website
* Global MapleStory site - MapleStory Global (Requires Internet Explorer)
* Chinese MapleStory site - MapleStory China
* Japanese MapleStory site - MapleStory Japan
* South East Asian MapleStory site - MapleStory South East Asia/SEA
* South Korean MapleStory site - MapleStory South Korea (Requires Internet Explorer)
* South Korean MapleStory TESTER site - MapleStory South Korea Tester (Requires Internet Explorer)
* Taiwanese MapleStory site - MapleStory Taiwan
* Thai MapleStory site - MapleStory Thailand
* MapleStory Europe Closed BETA
    English
    French
    German
    Spanish
    Dutch
* Official MapleStory Developer site - Wizet Corp., Ltd. Korean
* Official MapleStory Developer site - Wizet Corp., Ltd. Japanese

### MapleStory fansites

* Hidden Street - Library of game information [GlobalMS & MapleSEA].
* Happy Mapling - Library of game information and outstanding community [GlobalMS & MapleSEA].
* BasilMarket - Item auctioning website and forums [GlobalMS & MapleSEA].
* A Drop of Maple - Library of game information [JapanMS].
* Sleepywood - Message board with extensive trading forum [GlobalMS].
* Mapletip - Library of information with unique features such as a MapleWiki. Also in Spanish, Hebrew, and Japanese. [GlobalMS & MapleSEA].
* Sauna - Library of information taken directly from game client [GlobalMS].
* Omega Sector - Library of information taken directly from the game client [JapanMS]
* Extreme - Library of game information & MS background music [JapanMS].
* Chinese Maple fansite - Library of game information [cMS].