Introduction
You’re looking to make a Perm Starter the non-leech way, eh? Well, you've come to the right guide. My name’s ChroniusNightmare and I hope to shed some light on this unexplored class to help you get from level 1 to level 200. Hopefully, I'll be able to convince you and show just how easy it is to get started and eventually reach that sought out level you were told was impossible to reach without leech. You should be well aware that this journey is going to be difficult. Most who attempt the climb expect to be one-shot by anything they come across. That is true a majority of the time, especially if you’re lacking the equipment to deal with hazards such as having low max HP. Frankly, I never distribute my AP into max HP. You can actually get away with having increased max HP through wearing star-forced equipment and the amount you get from doing so out-scales the amount you would get if you distributed into AP. It has taken me a long time to tinker with the game and figure out what can and cannot be done, and there can very well be lots that I’m still not aware of. It's a fun little trial of Dos and Don'ts for a class that has unexplored potential, especially now when there's more equipment to choose from and abilities you can obtain. Whether it be from Soul weapons, unique/legendary potential armour with Decent abilities, familiars, mounts, or rings. There are actually so many equips that I've added a list in a separate post.
Beginner
The Beginner class in the Explorer tree is the most basic out of the four starters. You get to pick between two out of the three skills given to it from the start. You have the classic Snail Shell attack that's used to damage monsters from a distance, a small heal-over-time ability, and a Movement Speed buff. The two skills you want to pick are the Snail Shell attack and the Movement Speed buff; you can get around the HP restoration issues with potions that drop from monsters. Fun fact: you can make a perm beginner out of the Dual Blade class. Unfortunately, Cannoneer cannot.
Noblesse
The Beginner class of the Cygnus Knights is known as Noblesse. For a good many years, Noblesse had been carbon copies of the Explorer Beginners in that they had the same three abilities to choose from. Since 2013, Cygnus Knights had undergone a reboot. They ditched the copied abilities of the Explorers and were exchanged for two auto-picked abilities. The first skill you get is a multi-kill attack that's capable of hitting 3 enemies and does not require mana to use. The second skill is a double jump that's also capable of propelling you up into the air (jump, up+jump). If you were to make any kind of Perm Beginner that acts like an actual class, Noblesse is the Beginner for you. They also have access to receiving a mount through a quest line.
Legend
(Yes, it is STILL possible to make a Legend. After completing the first five quests, Lilin leaves your side and stops pestering you to complete the Aran pre-quests by the time you reach level 5, after which you just need 80 mesos to get off the island to depart for Victoria Island.)
The base form of Aran; Legend, is the first of two Beginners that are available through one class. Legends are given the same three skills as Explorer Beginners. They also get a free Dash and Double Jump as one skill. Currently, Legends are one of the two starters that have access to receiving a mount through a quest line at levels 50, 100, and 150. I discovered something strange one day while playing my Legend. Legends are uniquely capable of multi-killing up to 10 mobs while normal attacking with a polearm. This has a bizarre trade-off in that you have a 1-second cooldown before being able to attack again.
Citizen
The Beginner class of the Resistance tree is known as Citizen. It is a slight step up from the Explorer Beginner. The three abilities this class provides are a Crystal Throw that's similar to the Snail Shell attack, increased amounts of HP/MP from restoration items, and a Movement Speed buff that also prevents any enemy collision. Lucky for you, you're able to distribute SP into all three skills evenly.
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The base form of Shade; ???, is the second of two Beginners that is available through one class. You only have two skills available to you through the means of Blessing of the Fairy and Empress's Blessing. This is quite possibly the hardest Beginner character to play due to the severe lack of resourcefulness. On the other hand, this kind of character was never meant to be taken seriously. It's not even among the rankings on the official site. There is currently no known means of leaving Fox Valley legitimately. I can't even explain how strange this is, how this class cannot use a Hyper Rock, the Maple Guide, or any quests in the light bulb to leave the area. It is the only starter that has any anchoring, and boy do they go overboard for this one.
The Pros vs Cons of Beginner types
Pros
- Travel fair is 10x cheaper.
- If you have other characters, you can benefit from having both the Blessing of the Fairy and Empress's Blessing, both of which increase your Attack Damage. Blessing of the Fairy is increased by having any job class that is non-Cygnus Knights (every 10 levels) while Empress's Blessing is only increased by Cygnus Knights (every 5 levels).
- You have access to Legion stat boosts.
"Little Time Saver": if you have quests that require lots of kills, return when your character is about to level up. A blast of energy will burst out from your character upon leveling up, instantly destroying every mob around you as long as they're within 20 levels of your character.
Cons
- You cannot get Professions.
- You do not have access to Link Skills.
- New beginners do not receive the Maple Return/Secret Assembly/Journey Home/Return to Rien skills.
- You cannot get Emblems through normal means. Emblems have been designated to fit actual classed characters at levels 60 and 100, so you have to find another way to get them. There used to be a PvP thing called Boss Arena and that allowed people to get moderate to VERY good emblems.
- You are unable to get the Pocket Slot through normal means. You must buy (or have an alchemist make) a Magic Pocket in order to use the slot.
Potentials
In the mid-game, you want to prioritize ATK/STR% (in that order). Due to full damage builds having less HP, it is best to Spell Trace your beginning equipment with HP and to have some increases of HP% potentials to help prolong your presence in battle. You can of course get away with having no HP% so long as you've prioritized to have high HP via Spell Tracing. You should also look to getting a Silent Crusader Codex set. The Dead Mine set gives ATK +2%/M.ATK +2 and the Lionheart Castle set gives ATK +1%/Damage +1%. (If you're about to attempt to party up with someone, the only Monster Cards you'll be able to produce together are from bosses. You have to be the only one to kill enemies for Monster Cards to drop. It's time-consuming work to just get a little bit more range.)
By the time you reach end-game, HP% slightly becomes less important due to equipment sets giving plenty of HP% all around. You should invest in converting your weapon into a Soul Weapon and to have a mob-like Soul. Although pricey, Magnificent souls are your go-to for summons. However, if you lack funds, the ones that are summon-like with regular souls are Pink Bean, Hilla, Murgoth, and Empress.
Familiars
Familiars are a must when you lack HP and damage. Go overboard and collect a zoo. It's highly beneficial to collect many as the new Codex gives you permanent passive stats. It is unfortunate that familiars no longer come with pre-assigned stats. However, with the random potential reveals, you have a chance at getting great stats on a fast-attacking familiar. I also strongly recommend collecting a lot of familiars that have poisoning effects to help passively shrink HP bars.
Training Areas (Try to collect as many Monster Book sets as you can to increase the stats on your Codex)
- 5-35, go to Pantheon and enter through the right portal to a map that has Sleepy Grobblers. It's the best place to train. At level 27~ you can head over to Savage Terminal - Mr. Hazard's Lair 1-3.
- 33, go to Dalair the medal NPC. He will give you the Quest Specialist medal for free and I consider it to be one of the best medals to get early.
- 35-40, complete the Gold Beach quest line.
- 40-50, all quests in Kerning City.
- 50-60, complete the Rienne Strait quest line. Completing everything nets you a lot of EXP, a face accessory, a belt, and a new medal to replace Quest Specialist. I'd advise keeping the medal around though because it has 10 Jump. There's another medal you can get reasonably early on called the One Who's Touched the Sky as it has 5 Movement Speed and 5 Jump. The way you get this medal is by climbing to the top of 5 areas. The first is located in Kerning City at the top of either crane. The second area is located in Ellinia in Chimney Tree Top climbing the ladder to the stump. The third spot is outside the Nautilus ship on top of the head of a nested bird to the right of the map. The fourth is the wooden cross in Perion at the top of the map. And the fifth is when standing atop the right wing of the Goddess's statue in Orbis Tower.
- 50-60, (after completing Rienne Strait) complete the Elodin quest line.
- 60, do the potential and bonus stats tutorials to get Curbrock's shoulder and ring accessories.
- 60-70, quests in Perion and Sleepywood. Perion and Sleepywood quests are heavy on the elimination quests. It's starting to set in just how much harder it is to kill every mob at around this level. You've come a long way, keep it up!
- 70-80, quests in Orbis and El Nath. We're finally leaving Victoria Island. Don't worry we'll come back later when we can manage to take down that fish-shop-looking boss and Balrog party quest on our own. The notable things that Orbis has are a bunch of fetch quests, lots of item collections, and even a quest that involves lulling a creature to sleep with a harp. There's a hidden map that has Eliza as an NPC and on this map is an interactive harp, but I'm not sure if other people can hear what you play on the harp, though.
- 75, do the Birth of the Alliance quest line and pursue the Resistance quests for Willpower. Willpower increases your max HP. Completing this quest line enables you to get an additional 5 ATK as a passive and also receive a medal that has 500 HP/MP.
- 75, start the Afterlands quest line, but follow my guide to complete it quickly. There are repeatable quests in Land of Innocence and Land of Riches. The quests are called Dry Your Eyes, Distracted From Anger, and A Tasteful Favor. I have dubbed these “Lazy Recycles” because the items you need for the quests are tradable, meaning you could do the farming on another character and send them through storage. In the Land of Innocence, Dry Your Eyes needs 10 Frozen Treats and Distracted From Anger needs 10 Child's Toys. They can each be completed 5 times within ~24 hours (from the time of completion). In the Land of Riches, A Tasteful Favour needs one of two tasks: either hand in 20 Food Baskets or eliminate 50 Treasure Thief Moustrosity monsters. This quest rewards exponentially more EXP and gives an item called Delicious Piece of Gold. It is a consumable item that enlarges your character for 60 seconds.
- Do the daily repeat quests for 10 Delicious Pieces of Gold.
- 80-90, quests in Aqua Road, Edelstein Mines, and Ariant. It's getting a bit harder to get through enemies HP bars now. Good thing you gathered a lot of familiars to help you with this long slog of training.
- 90-100, quests in Magatia and grinding in New Leaf City. (By this time, you may have gotten your hands on a Soul weapon with a summonable soul be able to complete Mushroom Kingdom quests.)
- 100-120, quests in Leafre, Ludibrium, and Elin Forest. You've managed to reach the three digits, congrats!
- 120-135, quests in Fantasy Theme Park, Lion King's Castle, Dead Mine, and Silent Crusade.
- 135, as an option, you can take up doing the Heroes of Maple quests to get lots of EXP and other rewards. You can replay each of the five acts immediately after completing them once. After the second completion, you have to wait a full 7 days to be able to replay them again. When you're playing out the quests, you're playing as each one of the heroes who fought the Black Mage. Don't worry about the damage your character has. All six heroes are equipped with their own individually scripted amounts of damage when using skills. You may end up running into some HP issues, the mobs themselves deal around 200~1000 roughly, although I advise you to get much more when you reach the ending of the story where you're having to fight Damien who's capable of dealing up to 5000 damage.
- 33 and up, try to participate in as many Sudden Missions as you are able to.
- 75-200, farm Delicious Piece of Gold in Afterlands and grind monsters there while using those consumables.
- If you've unlocked the use of Legion, you can purchase three different level EXP potions from the Legion merchant. Using these potions will give you 49% EXP and a 2x EXP buff for 30 minutes. The first costs 75 Coins for 100 to 129, the second costs 110 Coins for 130 to 159 and the third potion costs 150 Coins for 160 to 179. The maximum monthly capacity for any one of these potions is 5.
- 110 and up, consider completing the MONAD quest line as it has weekly resets like Heroes of Maple. (It's tough if you're not a Noblesse or unfunded).
- 145, there's a quest line for Kerning Tower. You get good experience and a somewhat decent medal when you've finished all quests.
- 145, there's a quest from Tatamo to begin the Shanghai quest line. There are lots of collection quests and also a chance to get a gliding mount.
