[EMS] Breath of Divinity GET!

Doing things out of spite is one hell of a motivator. As someone who's been playing EMS daily for almost 19 years, I've grown tired of outsiders siphoning our players and expecting us to pay for their greed. You have no idea how harmful the GMS Reboot mentality has been for the longevity of EMS until you've been on the receiving end of it.

Time is finite; the vast majority can only play on one server. But the notion of choosing a server ceases to exist when your server is forced to compete against five (soon seven) much larger servers in a winner-takes-all format, with the worst options ran like a cult. They can't be bargained with, they can't be reasoned with. By the time it was possible to have pushback, it was already too late. Reboot runs on mental gymnastics and that is why Go West has been able to take the piss and get away with it. Look no further than recent events. However, Nexon US are cowards and they fear the backlash because the tangible effects of the loud are real, so their decisions always boil down to safe. They opted out on contested updates but failed to comprehend what this does to the balance between the two server types. That leads us to today. I'll teach you how stupidly easy you all made it to acquire a Breath of Divinity as a free-to-play.

At the time of writing, the price for Breath of Divinity (BoD) is about one hundred billion mesos. Believe me that it isn't a lot in today's economy. I'd also like to point out that I've deliberately chosen not to grind as Frenzy service is hard to find and Chains of Resentment (90 days) is priced in the same bracket as BoD! As an engineer, the whole point of this experiment is to prove a reproducible method that is accessible to enough players with minimal effort required, which further helps to develop this "open-source" strategy as more experience gets accumulated, shared and challenged.

One hundred billion mesos to buy a BoD wasn't necessarily the goal, but rather the benchmark in which the plan could be tested and verified. Rather than figuring out a method to achieve one hundred billion quickly once (i.e. crashing the markets, which require years of preparation), I wanted something more substantial in where I was able to consistently achieve a constant rate of mesos without inference or dependency on others. This way, I'd not only tackle the price tag but also have futureproofed a more reliable means to afford (better) items and upgrades (Star Force) moving forward.

Here's some fun trivia. In context, one hundred billion mesos on our server could also buy you one of the following:

• 400.000 Maple Points.
• 30.000 Sol Erda Fragments.
• Two Petite Luna pets ("vac pets"), which can be extended indefinitely for free via Reward Point shop.
• Whisper of the Source (Limbo ring) with twenty billion mesos left.
• Two sets of complete Eternal equipment with eight Pitched Boss accessories each (no hearts and badges).
• Four complete sets of Eternal equipment, or twenty-five sets of Eternal Hat/Top/Bottom/Shoulder.
• One complete set of ten Pitched Boss accessories (including heart and badge), or four sets of eight.
• One-hundred-and-twenty-five complete sets of Superior Gollux accessories.
• Two hundred completed sets of Arcane Umbra equipment.
• Two Firestarter Rings.

Granted, not everything will be in stock at any given time but it's interesting to see how much spending power I now have in such a short amount of time. Being able to buy two Pitched Boss accessories or four Kaling Eternals weekly is tantalizing. Yes, the equipment will be clean but in practice this hardly matters as you'll see in two paragraphs.

So my method of choice for achieving one hundred billion mesos within five months is boss muling, of course. But not the traditional method of doing several high-end bosses. Quite frankly, like with grinding hours for mesos with Frenzy, that just takes too long and requires way too much effort. It is way easier, faster and cheaper to one-shot nine newbie weekly bosses a dozen times than it is to clear Tenebris bosses six times. With all of the latest changes to the overall gameplay, skills are reset when entering weekly bosses, so you throw everything on a single Skill Sequence and press Origin skill to immediately delete the boss. This way we keep it short, bite-sized with minimal effort and commitment. It's not that we do not want to achieve several Tenebris boss mules, it's that this is our way to afford it without having to spend an eye-watering amount of time or any real money. One-shots are perfect for an "AFK" playstyle, but once you aim for anything past Akechi, their separate boss phases requires substantial upgrades and skill unlocks (i.e. Ascents).

With 180 boss crystals a week and frequent Hyper Burning events, it doesn't take long to get started. One-shot mules (or "ghetto mules" as I call them) shouldn't require more than a few dozen million mesos to clear the first nine bosses, and if it requires more mesos, it just means the return on investment is a few weeks later. Either way, it is guaranteed profit and you'll quickly learn that you have access to so many cheap and accessible items to build them. The cost for each subsequent mule lowers as you become more self-sufficient in resources and unlock better stats on the account. This snowballs into billions every week and this allows you to buy powerful resources from Auction House, so you can one-shot stronger bosses. What's more important is that each boss has a chance to drop cubes. At 180, I end up with almost 30 legendary and 100 unique cubes every week. This solves the cubing problems on regular server, as at this point it's easy to afford Mystic Frontier for Additional Potential cubes, which then become common. With 30 legendary cubes, it gets me a triple % every month, or at least one rank up to Legendary. This makes replacing gear a lot faster and with our exclusive changes to Star Force you no longer need spare BoDs until you go past 22 enhancements.

Now, here's some practical advice. It's likely that eventually we'll see a backport of the updates from Korea MapleStory that we've skipped up to this point. Specifically, the reduction of boss crystals each week to 90, and the introduction of dynamic pricing. When that happens is anyone's guess, but ideally you'd want to be prepared for this change. You can still benefit a lot from the current status quo until then, and if anything: strike the iron while it's still hot.

Now, let's talk about Breath of Divinity. They won't fear it until they understand it. One hundred billion is a lot of money, but this buys you unmatched power. It's common to hear others burning several hundred billion mesos in Star Force, and while it does provide a ridiculous amount of stats, it'll never warp the game as much as purchasing a BoD would. This is not only a critique towards players who choose Reboot, but also a pet peeve towards progression on regular server. BoD provides a skill that's so disgusting it is self-defeating not to own one. You gain an additional HP bar and every (separate) attack fully restores it. Paired with Len's link skill, I went from Easy Kaling to Extreme Lotus overnight. There will be a blogpost taking a closer look at the inner workings, but yes: it's really stupid. And you can get one too. Remember: you can bank this item every month. That's how I'm going to achieve my six SSS-rank Union Champions.

Now, I've saved my best tricks for last. I wasn't the only one that was able to buy a Breath of Divinity this month. You see, what most people forget is that I'm part of a like-minded group where we openly share, discuss and challenge our understanding of this game. I've waited with this blogpost until a friend of mine, who's far less invested and lazier, got a BoD of his own. I've also had "ghetto muling" methodology be tested in the early and mid-game environments, which also helped several folks who were struggling to proceed with their accounts. That's how I measure the success of this experiment. And remember folks: I am fully, bona fide trade-restricted Bronze 0 so none of y'all have an excuse. I've been telling for years on my blog: you can still use the Auction House while restricted. I won't tolerate any misleading information: get yourself a goddamn guild storage already and start using it! That's it for today. Now leave me alone.

[EMS] Level 292 and more!

It's the Summer of 2026, and once again real life events will decide whether the status quo is prolonged, or if there is a way out of this mess. The difference with previous years however, is that moving forward I'll be more overt as surface level understanding about my personal life is now public knowledge. To go through everything that's going to happen this Summer is way out of scope for today's blogpost, but if anything of interest happens, I'll be sure to write about it.

Time to catch up. At the end of May, I've reached Level 292! This Summer update comes with plenty improvements to level progression, including the long-awaited Mechaberry Farm. It costs one billion per entry; two entrees a week. It's a steep price, but each run gives a staggering 2%. I can afford it thanks to the "ghetto muling", and this event lasts until September, so it adds up. This does mean that I'll be cutting my weekly income by half, so the process of saving up for the grand goal will be slower for a few months. I'm currently past eighty billion mesos and if I were to skip Mechaberry, I would achieve my goal in about four weeks, but I don't think it's worth sacrificing 16% EXP to have the item earlier as there's also no guarantee that anything listed on Auction House (right now) will be available for purchase next month.

The FallenAngel guild has reached Level 29, which was overdue. When it comes to contribution, it's almost entirely a solo guild, so leveling takes years. My Bishop caught up and reached Level 260, alongside previous season's Hyper Burn: Mo Xuan. Currently, I'm working on Erel as the next boss mule, and Burning Beyond is used on my third Union Champion: Marksman. Union Artifacts reached Level 55. Now, as for the latest progress on my equipment and skills...

My Tallahart symbol is almost done, with one level to go. I've been brute-forcing three lines of main Potential on all of my equipment via the Meister Cubes obtained from "ghetto muling". We may not have the Potential revamp yet, but a small investment in Mystic Frontier has proven to be very lucrative. It's easy to get a ridiculous amount of (Additional) Potential cubes. The yield is more than any event or Reward Points can offer. It's been a tremendous help and it's also all-year round! This system sucks, but we have to make do with what we have. Speaking of which: Star Force. Once I have fulfilled the grand goal, I planned to raise all Star Force to 18 and then increase the yield from boss mules. That's still the plan, but this update also brings the opportunity to go even further with 22. Not needing spares is great for the availability and pricing for the most important equips, as we'll discuss once I reveal what I've been working towards.

Our latest 6th Job skill, Sol Hecate, is now available. It's already Level 22. Got all the fragments I need, just gotta be patient with Sol Erda. Waiting is not a big deal, I'll have it Level 30 in no time. I'm now gathering the fragments for our Winter update (Blitz Shield VI) and next year's Rage Explosion. I should probably bank some of the surplus frags and use those on my Union Champions, seeing how easy it has become to obtain them. I'm also considering to write more about progress on Union Champions, as I believe that there's a lot of interesting things to discuss regarding the ease of progression on Luna right now thanks to the years of neglect on Inkwell's end causing massive unintended exploits.

Ohey, this is a pleasant surprise. MapleStory plushies! Ya know me, I like to collect video game plushies and artbooks. In 2018, I've gotten my hands on one of the official MapleStory artbooks (and I wish they continue to make new ones), but I've never went out of my way to get the old plushies. Fortunately, the game has become massive in Korea and it warrants a lot of new merchandise. With the convenience of Ebay, it's easy to get your hands on them. I'm very happy with this series of plushies, where they share a common design language and size. I have plenty of massive plushies in my room already, so having these smaller ones is just what I was looking for. There's still a few I'd like to add to the collection and I'll keep an eye on future releases. Personally, I don't think it's worth to spend real money on free-to-play games, but remember this: digital gacha-game slop is only temporary - their physical merch however, are forever.

Now if you don't mind, I'm going to leave it here. There's plenty of other things to talk about, like how I have started on the Inti Creates backlog, or the proof of concept builds for Ouroboros as I continue to prepare the parts list and budget for the end of the year, but this blogpost is long enough already. That'll be for another time. Now leave me alone.

[EMS] It's a filler update.

Still pissed about last month because all of this has been incredibly predictable and therefore utterly dull. Contribution, like the other systems in the game that tallies cleared runs (i.e. slayers and Commerci), is one of few Nexon refuses to properly address or compensate for. The process of raising them is fun, but being denied accomplishment for the most asinine reasons amplifies the frustration. Normally, you'd have customer support for this. But this is Nexon US we are talking about, so their customer support is useless because they're paid to ignore what doesn't cost them money. Try as I have, the non-existent "Team GMS" would rather throw everyone under the bus than to seize these opportunities to build customer loyalty and repair trust. My patience with Nexon US is increasingly being tested and things will never be the same. The last thing they'll ever do is the only thing that would solve this, and their hollow apologies do nothing. The more I'm pushed to alienation the more vengeful I become. Same shit, different day. Let's never speak of it again.

Now, as the title suggests: it's a filler update. I couldn't care less about the crossover's source material itself. However, the furniture and apartment are nice. As you may recall, I grew up in Japan and everything about the culture has stuck with me. Anime as a pastime is one of that. For years I watch between ten and fifteen anime shows each season, but you may be surprised to hear that I wouldn't consider half of the watched shows to be good. Only a handful are great and usually there's only one or two each season that are excellent. It's all about those hidden gems. But just like food, a healthy balance requires all of the above, including junk food every once in a while. However, the one genre that is often not my cup of tea is the clichéd but popular action genre. Example includes this crossover and the previous one.

Grinding this crossover event was easier, though that's offset by the fact that you cannot keep this character or have it changed into another. It's only for the (cosmetic) rewards. No new boss mule this time. However, regardless whether if it's a filler update, progress continues to be made because dailies and weeklies are always available. As of the time of writing, I've saved up thirty-four billion mesos. Still a lot of mesos required until the goal is met, but I'm getting there.

The latest Epic Dungeon is now available and it yields a slightly higher EXP. I don't enjoy this one as much as Angler Company and that's because of the poor selection of quick-time-events and janky tasks. Carlisle's voice actor carries the English dub once again, which I can't say for Ymir's. That accent is jarringly familiar. Anyway, I'm already halfway to Level 292. How fast it'll go will be decided by the quality of the next event rewards. This event was modest, but the cubes have ranked up the Additional Potential of my Eternal gloves and gave it two useful lines. That's nice, I guess.

Aside from Maple, I continue to be busy with the same as always. In particular, the ramifications of 2023 still demands a lot of time, energy and keeps me stuck in this godforsaken dump. Buried in paperwork; from pillar to post yet I have exhausted so many options that our health care organizations are running out of ideas. Not that the only person who both controls and condemned me to this fate cares enough to read this blog, but one can dream. In the meantime I've been going through my gaming backlog. Recently I wrapped up Borderlands 4 co-op with Luxatus as he achieved his platinum trophy. I've started Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness earlier this year. Saving the review for the year summary, but the game was exhausting. Bigger isn't always better. It lacked the core (story, characters, world, music, gameplay) that made Colosseum compelling, but those were also part of Colosseum's critique. In trying to fix those, it created a meager "quantity over quality" sequel with its best ideas underutilized and an unsatisfying ending. It's good, but not as great as I hoped it to be. I'll do the post-game another time and play something else from the list. Now leave me alone.

[EMS] The axe forgets; the tree remembers.

So much for Guild Contribution. I haven't missed a single day but I can no longer say this is a perfect score. There's been plenty of close calls in the past nine years but the one thing I was ill-prepared for was the diabolical decision to increase the daily contribution cap on the 18th of March from 5000 to 35000 (and only for three hours). You can't make this shit up. Only in Maple can you continue to have a perfect daily track record and yet still losing out on 30k points.

This was a much longer blogpost, but I'm too pissed to give a damn. You can forget about the 6th Job blogpost, I can't be arsed anymore to write it for the foreseeable future. Losing this one is just one too many. I despise the demand to change dailies into weeklies. If you asked for this, I hope it was worth ruining the fun for others. Now leave me alone.

[EMS] Eternal set completed, catching up on bosses and more!

Hey all, today we'll look at some of the recent achievements and upcoming plans for this year. Let's start with the pair of new Level 260s - this season's Hyper Burning (Phantom) and my F/P from two years ago. This adds another mule to the weekly boss army, and I'll now work on raising my Bishop from 250 to 260. Next burning should be Mo Xuan.

The recent event introduces a new staple challenge for a free Plasma Heart voucher, which was an excellent incentive to get off my lazy bum and give it a shot. Before this update, I was content to settle on True Hilla as the highest weekly boss, seeing how quick and easy these runs have become thanks to 6th Job. The challenge however requires to clear at least Easy Kaling, which is further in the game. Not a boss I was familiar with to say the least, so I reserved a day to run practice mode and to study with videos. To my surprise, I had it cleared within four hours! Even better, as much as I was encouraged by friends to try out this challenge, I then found myself encouraging others to try it out as well.

At a first glance, Kaling overwhelms you with a bunch of stuff you have to learn and micromanage. Then I realized that most is irrelevant and that the boss is laughably exploitable. Defeating Hundun and phase 2 before the bind runs out eliminates most of the difficulty. It ensures you have ample time to safely clear the rest. To give an idea, this video for coaching (apologies for the subpar commentary; it's not my strong suit) was the third clear. Not sure if that video will be of use here but I figured its inclusion fits today's topic and may be interesting as part of this blog's recorded history.

With Easy Kaling being such a deceptively reasonable task, I've added it to the weekly menu. Seeing how quickly I was able to learn a new boss, I figured I might as well try out the others. I've settled on adding Normal Seren and Easy Kalos since these could be cleared immediately without much effort. I can't be arsed to practice Easy First Adversary, Hard Seren and Normal Kalos because the extra hour doesn't yield much. We don't have dynamic boss crystals and due to trade restrictions I can't sell the loot. The low effort 320 mill will do just fine. Plus, there's also Black Mage runs!

Now, the reason for this tangent has to do with the next goal. As expected, the Eternal set was completed last month. Aside from Star Forcing to 18 and grindstones, there's not many low-hanging fruits left to spend mesos on. It's been a while since I've had a massive goal to work towards (the likes of Mu Gong or Ribgol), and I fancy a new challenge to keep me occupied. I have something in mind and I'll be saving up mesos for the remainder of the year or until this goal is met. Whether if this will work out depends on the assumption that several things in EMS remain the same as they've been for years, but with the current management there's just no guarantee. I'll give it a fair chance, do what I can and we'll see where this goes. I'm pretty sure it'll work out just fine, but you can never be certain with these guys in charge.

Before I wrap up today's blogpost, a few other things to mention. Here's the regular reminder that for the next several months I'm taking a break from my LEGO portfolio in order to replenish the parts budget. Blueprints for Ouroboros legs are ready. It's got the power and the battery sorted out, so I'm fairly confident with this one. But as we all know, theory will take you only so far. I have most parts on hand, but there are several that need to be ordered in bulk, including a damn buyout. It's prohibitively expensive to do buyouts, but because it's a critical component it must be done. I'll order those later this year. For now, I'll try to publish the next 6th Job blogpost in either April or May. I'll get back to work now.

That's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post! Wait, what do you mean Konami redesigned the Sacred Beasts?

[EMS] Level 291!

Ding! Just fresh from the oven. Events end today, so that's another stack of rewards that contributes towards today's achievement. With Level 291 achieved early, I believe Level 293 as a goal is possible before the end of the year. The next symbol (Level 295) is still a long way off, but there's a lot of EXP-related quality of life updates to look forward to.

To continue on last month's objectives, I was very lucky with the results from all of this season's event cubes. All of my high priority equipment, including my recently-obtained Eternal Shoes, are now fully ranked up to Legendary Potential. This includes Additional Potential as well, and I hit the jackpot with my Reaper's Pendant! It is my first six-liner, which is a significant milestone considering the ridiculous odds of that ever happening. Furthermore, I was also able to land the first Spikes on Shoes, which is kinda funny given last month's tangent. Though now I'm stuck in Return Scroll hell because I do not have the luxury of redoing scrolls on these shoes. If only they sold the scroll in El Nath, like in JMS... As for obtaining the remaining two Eternal equips: I have enough mesos to buy one, but they're currently out of stock.

Anyway, the rush for this blogpost is intentional because I'd like to chime in on the discussion about recent events. Not that I really expect any of this to amount to much, given how meager the viewership is for this blog and how few seem to actually read anything here (especially true for new blogposts), but I do believe that in moments like these it's worth adding to the conversation. I feel like nobody is talking about two major issues and it seems to be caused by a lack of awareness on either subject matters. I'll try to keep it short because this could easily grow into two lengthy blogposts.

It was brought to my attention that multiple language support was recently confirmed for the EMS/GMS conglomerate. It's a legitimate cause for concerns because this was an ill-fated exclusive feature of EMS that caused many unfixable issues for the game. It was supported for about six years but there's good reason why this feature never returned. The technical details on how it worked is beyond the scope of this blogpost; all you need to know is that everything broke. The game is barely functional as it is. Adding more languages multiplies the required effort. EMS started out with five and had to axe two (including Spanish) after four years. The entire system was dropped after the hackwave of 2012 was over. Inkwell is a fool if he believes he can do what Nexon Europe couldn't, especially since this is well-trodden territory. It didn't work for EMS, it barely functions on MapleStory N and anything Go West has a terrible track record.

Now, the other point of discussion is the ousting of Wonky. Specifically: the dude that takes over the entire MapleStory franchise. I'd be careful about rejoicing if I were you, because historically Gaga's up there as one of Maple's worst. For those unaware, Gaga is Inkwell's mentor and his two-year tenure introduced everything we hate about the game. He may not have been the brain behind most of the game's horrendous monetization practices (that was mostly Inkwell's), but Gaga was the one that greenlit it all and then gave his position to Inkwell to further drive the game into the ground. His grossest contribution to MapleStory is the complete removal of all overseas content for Korea MapleStory in 2010; a decision so baffling that after 16 years I still don't know why they insist on enforcing this rule. If you ever wondered why KMS doesn't have certain classes or items, now you know. KMS players have never stopped asking to revert this decision and not even Changseop was able to give a sensible retort. You tell me: do we want the butcher of overseas content to oversee our version? If there's anything that threatens Go West more than its own deranged creator, it's the anti-overseas hardliner who gave the lunatic a career and put classic MapleStory into freefall. You have been warned.

Well, the future of EMS is certainly going to be interesting. Let's see if any of the withheld updates from Korea sees a widespread release under the new stewardship, or if the exclusivity is going to get worse. I guess we'll find out soon...

That's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!

[EMS] Spirit Caliber MAX! Silent Cleave MAX!

Well, that wraps up 6th Job. For now. All of the materials will be stashed until the next wave. Remember, you can store excess Sol Erda on every Level 260+ mule that you own. With so many Hyper Burninators, it's not uncommon to have several by now. In my case that's eleven, with more on the way. Currently burning Phantom for its Union bonus stats.

As mentioned last month, my Len is now Level 270 thanks to the plentiful event support. It is now my second highest character. Third place is my Wild Hunter. MPE should get it to 270. Furthermore, I've been working on other 250's and get them to 260, of which I recently finished Sia. I've decided to temporarily spend Level 250 pots and vouchers to aid in that endeavor, as I still have my original two Hyper Burnings who could only burn to 250. It wasn't until Ignition when they raised the support to Level 260 and introduced the daily quest EXP. All of my Level 260+ mules are now 6th Job!

Having them all 6th Job keeps the weekly bosses short. If a boss doesn't melt, it's simply not worth it. There's no cap on acquired mesos and every important item in Auction House is (dirt) cheap. This is why I strive to keep a tight leash on hours played because it's all too easy to lose track of allotted time. The quick, effortless and consistent cashflow is far more interesting long-term. Even better if you are mindful on mesos per minute. Having to spend extra minutes on low-end bosses isn't proportional when I can clear 60k an hour, or Urus in 12 seconds. Anyway, I've obtained my first Limbo/Baldrix Eternal (shoes), and I should be able to buy the remaining two equips next month to complete the set.

For upgrades, my Endless Terror's Additional Potential is now Legendary, and I'm now working on the Eternal Shoes. Redoing Spikes on Shoes is going to take a while, with how limited the monthly cap is for Reward Points. Buying all cubes and Monster Park tickets doesn't leave you with many spare points... Ya know, it's in moments like these where skipping the Potential revamp bludgeons all aspects of the game design, RP shop included. With how many items are in the shop, the monthly cap isn't high enough without having to sacrifice progress one way or another. It really sucks when trying to optimize scrolling (i.e. ICOGs). I'll remind you that the fabled Potential revamp's already two years old.

On the bright side, I'm almost Level 291. Yes, already. We might have sacrificed way too many good events in favor of some terrible exclusives, but I'll reluctantly admit that the Twenteena event has speedrun most of Level 290 because it keeps shitting copious amounts of Advanced EXP Vouchers. That's the blogpost for next month. I don't know when I'll start on the next 6th Job blogpost, because I've been so busy this month that I haven't had time to look at my blog. But rest assured, I should have plenty of time this year to work on some blogposts because I'm saving up, so progress on my LEGO portfolio will be limited in the foreseeable future. However, Ouroboros should have his first steps very soon.

That's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!

[EMS] Level 290! Guild Castle: Personal Research MAX!

One milestone at the start of the month, the other five minutes before it ends. At least, that was the case until daylight saving time (DST) pushed it past twelve o'clock, meaning this happens on the 1st of December. Oops. But as far as Maple's concerned, it technically is still within November as reset o'clock happens after this milestone. Fine, I'll allow it.

Level 290 is the big achievement of the year (it happened on the 6th of November), though it was guaranteed thanks to the amount of event support all-year round. The only thing I had to do was to participate and be diligent with dailies. Y'know, which for a creature of habit is easy. As DailyStory continues, let's see how many levels will happen next year.

The other achievement this month is quite a significant one that I've been working towards since its release. This week is the first official week where completing Guild Castle's Personal Research is possible*. It was easier said than done. 

*Interestingly, because the Personal Research skill tree was expanded within its first year (to accommodate for 6th Job and update the Cache of Greed to match Odium), it was never possible to have the original tree maxed out because it required about one-and-a-half year to unlock all of it.

You see, Personal Research is one of those long-term commitments that requires years of weekly attendance. You'll have to clear at least 5000 enemies in the Cache of Greed, turn in this weekly mission, start the Personal Research and then also claim it after a week has passed. The latter is the tricky part, because to log-in at specific times can be difficult when it must be done manually every week for two-and-a-half years. In practice, this log-in moment is often pushed back minutes or hours each week, which are made worse by (emergency) maintenances and DST. This is not a new problem, as this phenomenon is an inherent flaw of the type of (daily) reset it's using, which is a system that has been around since 2007. Yes, (daily) resets have been around for that long, and this wasn't even Maple's first attempt.

Anyway, for those two-and-a-half-years you'll receive plenty in return. At least, for Maple's standards, that is. The EXP per Cache of Greed monster is the highest in the game. Combined with Monster Park Extreme and Angler Company, that's still over 1% every week at Level 290 - excluding dailies. On top of that, dozens of Nodestones and Fragments to buy upgrades with. All of it adds up over time, and I certainly wouldn't have reached Level 290 this year without it.

Speaking of upgrades, the cooldown resets upon boss entry has been a huge boon. With so many characters above Level 250 thanks to the abundance of Hyper Burnings, they make short work of the small fry. I also forgot to mention that earlier this year I've levelled my Hayato to 260 through Mu Lung's Night Troupe, and I've decided to push my Sia to Level 260 for faster weekly bosses. Speaking of Mu Lung... You may be surprised to hear that after obtaining Level 2 Mu Gong, my collecting habit for Mu Gong shards continued and that's how I've supplied my army of mules with Mu Gong souls. Anyway, that's three billion mesos every week and my equips now have 18 Star Force... pretty good.

But you know what's not pretty good? The aftermath of the second purge. You may recall I kept track of the numbers, so I was able to compare it with the rankings after this purge. I expected Reboot to be hit much worse than Luna, but it seems my expectations were off. Reboot (Kronos) lost 800.000 characters, which is a lot, but relative to seven million, that's not even one-seventh. Compared to Luna, we lost one third (960k → 680k). Solis got a slap on the wrist (700k → 660k), so that rules out a lack of European player retention. It's depressing to think that our secondary server will be the larger server by proxy, or that we're less than one-fifth of what we used to be. The aftermath of the past nine years under Nexon US is getting a bit ridiculous, and I can't imagine it's going to be any better once Classic is added to our world selection list. Their expenses are at an all-time high and with how little effect it has on their returns, there barely is a sense of profit. I doubt that there's even a real plan for us past 2027, other than trying to see if any of their monthly experiments stick. It's hard to believe that any of this is sustainable, but I digress. It's pay to lose, y'all. Remember that.

That's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post. Metroid Prime 4 will be out in four days. Let's see if it's any good.

[EMS] Level 289, and a lot more!

Hi guys! Time to catch up on a bunch of stuff that has happened since late July.

October is usually the busiest month here with the games I play running their annual Halloween events. In particular, the contracts from Team Fortress 2 is a diabolical time sink and they get worse by the year. But I digress. With these tasks done, I should be able to start working on next year's Galidor blogpost. That said, I can only occasionally work on it as I'm too exhausted from all kinds of things. But give it some time and it'll be ready before you know it.

Now, let's talk about the latest achievements. Exactly two months ago, I've reached Level 289. As of today, I'm already past 66%! With the current event providing plenty of VIP Boosters, 3x EXP coupons and Advanced EXP Vouchers, I'm expecting to reach Level 290 next month. There's going to be another major milestone in November as well.

As for 6th Job, I've maxed out Incising VI and Aura Blade VI. What's left are Spirit Caliber and Silent Cleave. After that, I'll bank my Sol Erda (Fragments) and start upgrading my Union Champions. I'm currently at a minimum of two billion mesos each week, which can buy a lot of progress. I have enough to purchase one of the Limbo/Baldrix Eternals, but I'd rather wait for lower prices as they have been declining in value for a while. Folks can't get them sold, y'know.

Speaking of equipment: all of the essentials have Legendary Potential. There's still a handful of Additional Potential left to rank up, as that's limited by events because we aren't allowed to have proper updates. Eh, it's just a matter of time.
I should be able to solo Black Mage and Hard Seren now, but at the moment I can't be arsed. I'll do those next year.

Union progress has been going surprisingly well. I got lucky with finding a large number of Pitched Boss this year, so my Wild Hunter is coming along nicely. I'd rather not buy gear from Auction House because I can source most of these myself. Union Champions is really a long-term thing, and I treat it as such. As for Union levels, I've reached 9500+ and my Marksman and Bowmaster are Level 260. Sia from Challenger World got past Level 250. Thanks, I hate this class.

Anyway, I've procrastinated enough. Now that my schedule's free, I'll be spending the next three weeks contacting everyone to get their accounts unflagged, as discussed last month. To be honest, I'm dreading some conversations I'll be having (not everyone was on board last time), but the alternative (doing nothing) is much worse... Well, off I go.

That's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!

[EMS] 18 years of Rayque!

I hope you've brought your gokiburi hoi hoi plus today, because you should've brought the whole damn aisle.

Today is day 6576, the 30th of September - which means I've been playing EMS daily for 18 years now!

As promised in last year's blogpost, I'd like to take the opportunity to continue the evaluation about the state of EMS. In particular, this year is very important historically as it's the point of equilibrium where EMS has been as long under its current management of Nexon US as it has under Nexon EU. The contrast between these two nine year tenures is concerning at times, and while I would love to write a more in-depth post I just don't have enough time for that.

However, what I can do for today's blogpost is to write a concise evaluation that probably communicates the point a lot better than something of the length of last month's blogpost. Besides, a more casual conversation like this might be a good palette cleanser after all that raw data. I can always revisit certain topics that we'll discuss today in a future post. With a more casual approach to this blogpost, I'm also just going to be yapping in a less organized, impromptu matter.

So, I'll just rip the band-aid off by addressing the Shrelephant in the room: EMS has not been performing well under the current management of Nexon US. You'd be hard pressed to find people who would disagree with this statement. 

I do believe this is a well-understood fact, but what is not is how damaging Nexon US and its community has been to EMS. Understandably not the prettiest topic to discuss, but it is unavoidable in today's topic given we'll discuss how little EMS has recovered from the migration purge and why that is. Understand that this topic is nuanced but I'll try my best to write it as best as I can within the week I've given myself. To my surprise, this wasn't the type of blogpost I was expecting to write because I was saving it for an autopsy whenever EMS kicks the bucket - yet here we are.

[EMS] 6th Job - The first three waves

6th Job is everything a new Job Advancement should strive to be. Learning from 5th Job's shortcomings, it recaptures the impact that both 3rd and 4th Job had during their heyday. Not only are the new skills splendid, the new mechanics and utilization of the updated game engine advances the game(play) in many ways the Destiny revamp couldn't.

In today's blogpost, we'll discuss the impact that 6th Job has and examine the many new skills we're given. Similar to 5th Job, 6th Job is an ongoing work in progress as new skills and updates are released in batches. Thus, this blogpost can only cover the first three skill waves but I'll continue to write for future updates to 6th Job as I have done with 5th.

As always, I've tried to be as comprehensive as possible. Writing this blogpost took a few months and a bit more effort than I expected. It's obviously not as long as the nightmarish behemoth that was the Destiny blogpost, but it's the long promised sequel to it. But first, as is the tradition: before we dive into the subject, it's time for another history lesson.

[EMS/LEGO] New skills, new parts, Donkey Kong Bananza!

Hi guys! It's time for this month's news roundup.

The first round of Hyper Burning is pretty much done in less than three weeks. Marksman is already Level 253, so two more level ups for it to be ready for Union Champions. The next round of Hyper Burning should be available after that.

The new skills are also out, and they're great. Of course I'll have the 6th Job blogpost out somewhere next month, and for the time being I'm doing the usual dissection before I'll add their chapters to the current draft. Seeing how busy I've been lately, I'm expecting to have it published late August. The sooner the better, as the lineup of the next blogposts are pretty much locked at this point... There's a lot of work to be done, in particular next year's Galidor blogpost.

Speaking of LEGO: new parts have arrived! The majority of which are the new joint pieces I've talked about in the past few months. As I'm trying to get the 6th Job blogpost out as soon as possible, I haven't been able to build a lot with 'm, but they are promising. As always, it'll take a couple of weeks to see if these are of any help for the Ouroboros project.

Last but not least, Donkey Kong Bananza has been out for a week now! It's wonderful. Comparisons with Super Mario Odyssey are inevitable... but gameplay-wise Bananza is an improvement over its predecessor. You might be surprised to hear that I initially was not planning to get it, but the contagious speculation about its story and the fact that I had a good time with Odyssey won me over. Though after reaching the 100% completion rate I feel that Bananza's greatest moments were too sparse and that Odyssey handled a lot of things better. For that reason I'm genuinely curious to see how Bananza will age and what fans of the collect-a-thon genre have to say. If you're planning to own a Switch 2, I'd say you can't go wrong with this one. Despite my nitpicks, it's been fun and worth my time. I certainly have no regrets.

If you don't mind, I'll get back to work. I'll see you guys again next post!

[EMS] Level 288!

Ding! Time to catch up. I hit Level 288 at the end of last month and with the abundance of EXP rewards from current events, I'm already past 20%. There's going to be a lot of Advanced EXP Vouchers starting July, which is another big boost. I should also note that I now have four Eternal equips and all the important Pitched Boss accessories. What's left are the more expensive ones like Mitra's Rage and the Limbo/Baldrix Eternal equips for which I'll be saving up for the time being, as these continue to drop in price. I have a bunch of (Additional) Potential to get to Legendary again...

Hyper Burning is going effortless. I should have my Marksman done somewhere in July. There's another burning at the end of this event, so I'll probably use that to get my Bowmaster to Level 260. After that, the only Union Champion left to burn is my Wind Breaker as I haven't quite decided yet who'll be my sixth. I've been leaning towards Paladin, which might not be ideal but it'll do the job. Especially with all the skill and knowledge I have. It certainly is a very safe bet...

I'm not really participating in the Challenge World because our version is quite abysmal. I can't be arsed to grind for weeks as I also don't even have character slots for it. What I am doing however is casually working on a Sia for its Skill Link and on-grid Union effect. It's already Level 210+ without much effort, so for the remainder of the Challenge World event I'll be coasting. Ya know, it would've been nice if we knew in advance whether we'll get the Kaling pass.

But forget about all of that: it's time to talk about the juicy news. The silver lining in not doing well means my insomnia is at an all-time high. With so many restless hours I've been speeding through the 6th Job blogpost as it's nearly done. The only chapters left to write are the new skills that'll arrive next month. Give it the usual 2 weeks of in-game testing and by that time, it's already late July. Until then, I'll be finalizing everything else. The 6th Job blogpost is pretty much locked for an August release. I'll give a better estimate on which week I'm expecting to publish it in the next blogpost.

I was also given the opportunity to own a Switch 2 a month earlier than planned, so I took it. I believe it's the first time I've actually bought a console in its release week. Not gonna lie, from the perspective of someone who's sunk years in MKDS: Mario Kart World is a bit all over the place. It's been a reality check and a reminder why the series is struggling to recover from MK Wii's legacy. Don't get me wrong, on a technical level the game's quite the achievement. Loading times are non-existent, the attention to detail is meticulous. The racing experience's both effortless and comfy. But on the other hand, free roam is quite barren and its façade crumbles after some playtime. The game then also becomes a completionist's nightmare as all of the modern Mario Kart issues accumulates into a frustrating experience trying to tackle its final challenges. It's where the game falls apart as winning races becomes a grind for hours, fishing for that one lucky run. No matter how well prepared and skilled you are, the homestretch will take away your agency. Going from F-Zero (G)X on Master Difficulty to this has certainly been a whiplash. Donkey Kong Bananza on the other hand looks to be in good hands. I'm looking forward to play that one next month, and I'll probably share my thoughts then.

Now, what about my thoughts on Cyber Shadow, as I've now played it? It's great. In fact, I'd like to save the topic for its own blogpost as there's a lot of good stuff to talk about. Kudos to its sole developer; he really understands what made the NES Ninja Gaiden trilogy tick and it's clear to see the inspirations he got from some of the other works he's played.

But that's it for today as I'll get back to work on that 6th Job blogpost - I'll Sia guys again next post!

[EMS] Hyper Burning #7!

Another Level 260 character done; this be my eighth mule past Level 250. It'll be my second Union Champion, once that's out. Next up is Marksman, and moving forward we should have Hyper Burning Max to make this process easier.

Usually I would maximize the event's duration and reach 260 towards the end, but due to recent circumstances I opted to sacrifice some of the EXP rewards that would've gone on my main. Quite frankly, I haven't been doing well lately as setbacks keep piling up faster than I'm able to manage them. Things continue to get worse, and this leads me to be less harsh on myself by softening the grind. I have to preserve myself for the long and arduous road ahead, y'know.

That said, with all of these Hyper Burnings in the past couple of years, I'm now two burnings away from reaching 9500 Union. Level 288 guaranteed within two weeks; I'm still on schedule for Level 290 this year. I now have time to work on that 6th Job blogpost again, as I've wrapped up the building session for Ouroboros. Conclusion? None worked; going back to the build developed by James Bruton. Unfortunately, translating this into LEGO requires* up to 48 of the new clutch joints, which aren't available from LEGO's store until later this year. I aint paying those current Bricklink prices.

*To give you an idea: I've built several prototype legs this year (without clutch joints) to determine the viability of James Bruton's build in LEGO. Leg frames (without decoration) can easily weigh 1 kg, and they're going to have to carry a tremendous amount of weight. Technic turntables can work, but they necessitate a large amount of connectors and pins, all of which adds weak points to the frame. These become a liability with the speed and weight of the model. The new joints simplifies the build process and requires less parts. In doing so, it provides a much sturdier and compact frame.

Anyway, next month is the Summer update reveal for KMS; I'm looking forward to that. Also, by then I should have my copy of Cyber Shadow so I can finally play that one. It can't be worse than last year's ninja game, right? Right!?

That's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!

[EMS/LEGO] The busy month of April...

It's been a jam-packed month. Let's unpack what we got.

EMS had its 18th anniversary this month; that also means in September I'll be playing for 18 years daily as well. Of course I haven't forgotten my plans for that blogpost; but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

With the essential weekly bosses now on the menu, I've achieved my short-term goal in preparation for the NEXT update. Upgraded all of the low-hanging fruit, so back to saving up mesos for the remaining Eternal equipment I go. As I've paid off the symbol fees, I'm now done with them until the next one unlocks at Level 290. Combo Instinct's 6th Job enhancement is maxed out, so until the new 6th Job skills arrive I'll be working on enhancing Sword of Burning Soul.

Earlier today I've wrapped up the grind for the Tanjiro class. Do I even want to open the can of worms and start writing about anime and literature on this blog? No, I don't think I will. That said, I've played my cards right so the Level 260 grind was without much effort. Maple has always been about resource management. I've been frugal with my stuff so I had the perfect use for this month's Chains of Resentment. You'd be surprised how many people called me a madman for "wasting" it on Tanjiro. I'll remind you that none of these guys got theirs to Level 260. The event provided more than you need as it was trivial to reach the one-shot ceiling with 1764% bonus EXP - a hard cap of about 68% every hour between 250 and 260. The only thing that would've made it faster was to add Holy Symbol, but I was too lazy to use my Bishop laptop next to me. Anyway, off to become a Paladin you go, and it even managed to recuperate some cost.

The Hyper Burning coupon from the Tanjiro event is currently used on my first Union Champion mule; a Wild Hunter. Just the plain ol' daily quest to Level 260 approach, so I'll get there by the end of next month. I now have the time to resume writing the 6th Job blogpost, which had to give because of this month's busywork. I've reserved 31 chapters (Destiny blogpost-style), and I've just start writing about the first skill in chapter 5. I'll try to get as much work done as possible in the next months, and the current plan does include adding in the upcoming skills once we have them.

But more importantly, at the end of March I was given the opportunity of a lifetime. About ten years ago I've started to write about Mokarr: an unreleased LEGO set that you could consider my white whale. During my hunt, I've become somewhat of a Galidor journalist within the community. I've had plans to write about the other parts that I got my hands on years ago, but I never really found time for that due to the four years lost to the production hell of ill-fated projects. 

The silver lining of having delayed the Galidor blogposts meant that I was able to get far better information during that period, and I stumbled upon a group effort with other LEGO fans as I've helped theqelement website with cataloging Mokarr and other unreleased Galidor sets. One thing led to another, and by coincidence we now have a complete list of all cancelled Galidor sets for the first time in 23 years after its cancellation. To make up for keeping you all waiting, I'm planning to write a proper blogpost going through everything I know and (now) have once I have the time for it.

That said, my blog is always a low priority. I will always give priority to more important matters. Right now, my portfolio for LEGO will always be first as it's my life's work. At the end of last year I've talked about the plans for Ouroboros and I have been looking into ways to get this bipedal robot to walk. Next month I will spend several weeks in research and development to determine how feasible a particular solution is. It might not sound much, but if this works... I might've accidentally solved everything. And by everything I really mean everything... Even the dreadful projects MK. 7 and 11.

So uhm, what are my thoughts about the DEX? What could I possibly add to the conversation that hasn't already been said at length? Perhaps that, whatever was originally planned is thrown out of the window. They reprinted the artbook for the occasion but any of the grand plans it reveals means little now. It feels like they just rushed this port because the Switch 2 was around the corner and they made sure to kill off any prospects for a sequel. And even if there's going to be one - it's going to need to be something truly special to make up for it. Caveat emptor; just stick to the original.

That's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!

[EMS] Levels 286 and 287!

Hi guys! With the DEX releasing in twelve days, I'm clearing this month's stuff early so my schedule is free. While I'm looking forward to do a second playthrough, the tonal shift with the revised user interface, brighter colors, particles and sound hurt my soul. Not to mention the worse performance; let's hope it can handle them diskbombs. Despite these changes, I'm sure it retains the fun experience as it's still Xenoblade X, after all... That's all that matters, doesn't it?

But back to the main subject matter. Two days ago, I hit Level 287! It took seventy days, which is pretty good. To stay on schedule, there has to be one level every three months. With each level up requiring an additional 20%, I'm curious to see how it'll go. The event rewards will determine if Level 290 is either happening this year or early 2026.

Though Level 287 isn't the only major milestone that happened this week. After four months of upgrading, I've gone from being unable to clear Hard Lucid to soloing Hard Tenebris for the first time! Events weighed in a lot, as with the many rewards it was trivial to get double Legendary and proper ICOG results. The damage boost from 6th Job carried the rest; skipping Abso, Arcane, Gollux and potable rings entirely with only a single 22 SF item. The extra mesos is going to replace the five remaining Amaterasu sooner with what's left from the Eternal set. There's still a lot left to do.

Work on the 6th Job blogpost has begun. There's not much on paper yet (only the foreword), but give it some time.

That's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!

[EMS] Carcion Symbol MAX, Hyper Burning #5!

Hi guys! Time for this month's news roundup.

I've maxed out Carcion's symbol, which was faster than I expected. Because symbol selectors are readily available from events all year round, it only took five months. It could've been faster but I opted for rewards of a higher priority because I'm going to continue daily quests for their EXP, anyway. That said, I have yet to pay the required meso fees to unlock the final levels as the mesos are better spent elsewhere - it'll make more sense as I'll explain later this year.

The fifth season of Hyper Burning (and the Milestone update) wrapped up about two weeks ago and it was slightly more challenging than the previous two. You see, what sets apart the fifth season from the others is that you could Hyper Burn up to two characters - one being either Aran or Eunwol, as part of their class revamp during this update.

Seasons three and four of Hyper Burning were rather trivial as the combination of daily EXP and event support meant you could easily reach Level 260 within the event period. However, daily EXP is only for one character and Milestone's event support was not as generous as last season, as the change in events into the second month reduced the overall EXP yield. I also wanted to maximize the EXP yield for my main as Level 290 is currently the most important goal in the game right now, so I did not waste any EXP voucher or growth potion on the two Hyper Burning characters.

Manual grind on the second character was simply unavoidable, though it wasn't as bad as the original two Level 250 Hyper Burning seasons because New Age reduced the EXP to Level 260 significantly. That and Eunwol has access to Loaded Dice and Soul Splitter. Furthermore, 3x EXP coupons are now standard and we ended up with so many VIP Boosters that I couldn't even use all of them on my main with that daily limit. The surplus went to both burnings and by the time they hit Level 260, I still had dozens left that expired as these boosters were only usable during the event.

For this season, I picked Mercedes and Eunwol specifically for their on-grid Union effects. It was my plan to select future Hyper Burnings the same way, but as the NEXT update (pun not intended) introduces Union Champions, I will now select Hyper Burnings based on which classes I want as Union Champions. You might be surprised to hear I'm almost going exclusively bowman for this, however if you've been an avid reader of my blog it shouldn't come as a surprise that I'm selecting characters based on my knowledge and experience with this game. Though the selection process is an entire blogpost on its own, the succinct explanation is that all pre-2011 bowman have the easiest time bossing because they attack from a distance, hold-down attacks allow for the best response time and they all have either heal on-hit or an aggro puppet. For Union Champions I'm not going to be messing around and there's no reason not to pick the best classes to take full advantage of one's proficiency. Better be caught well-prepared for this one.

Anyway, I should be Level 287 next month, so I'm still on schedule to 290 at the end of this year. I'm expecting to work on the 6th Job blogpost soon as I've done enough research and development on Ouroboros until the March parts (i.e. this and that) are available, though with the DEX releasing next month, some more medical status quo limbo, Cyber Shadow finally having a physical release soon and the Switch 2 around the corner, I'm not sure how much work I'll be able to get done before NEXT arrives. Oof. I've been doubting for a while if I should combine the two blogposts. As I've alluded before, the upcoming skill wave is so intertwined with the first two that it's difficult to examine any of these on their own. So the plan is to just write as much as possible and see where we go from there. I'll keep y'all posted.

That's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!

[EMS] Milestone - 5th Job's ninth wave!

Finally, a weapon to surpass Metal Gear.

Before delving into the 6th Job territory, there is one 5th Job skill left to discuss. Released after the Milestone update, Holy Fountain is the latest 5th Job skill after a three year hiatus. As alluded in my coverage of Crest of the Solar, Holy Fountain proves that there's still a place for new 5th Job skills in the current 6th Job environment.

Even though Holy Fountain is a 5th Job skill available to everyone, I would go so far as saying it's one of the better 5th Job skills, period. In today's blogpost we'll take a look at Holy Fountain, alongside a quick coverage of changes made to Hero's skills and examine how much any of this update addresses the Destiny revamp.

Reminder that this blogpost will act as a prelude to future 6th Job blogposts, but as with the COTS blogpost, it is not mandatory to have read either in advance. Where necessary, I will refer back to this blogpost in the same way I have referred back to certain chapters of the Destiny blogpost in the past.

[EMS] Neo - 5th Job's eighth wave!

The power of the suuuuuuuuuunnn! - Dave Rodgers, probably.

Released back in 2021, the Neo update brought us our next 5th Job skill: Crest of the Solar (COTS). For a while, it became the final 5th Job skill wave as later that year the Pangyo truck protests happened. This incident changed the course of the game forever, as it assigned Changseop as the next KMS director, who had different priorities in mind.

The next following years, we've had the Destiny, Ignition, New Age, Dreamer and Milestone updates. These updates placed a greater emphasis on fundamentally fixing the game, rather than padding the game with more 5th Job skills. 

More importantly, New Age saw the introduction of 6th Job. As our latest Job Advancement, sporadic releases of new 6th Job skills are now the next big thing. Thus, with all the attention going there, we haven't seen new skill waves until two months ago. This out-of-nowhere release has taught us that there's still a place for 5th Job in the modern era with the latest skill (Holy Fountain), as 5th Job is perfect for closing the gap between classes through new support skills.

In today's blogpost, we'll take a closer look at Crest of the Solar. I initially planned to publish the big 6th Job blogpost later this year after finishing the Destiny blogpost, but because Ouroboros had some unforeseen development issues, most of my time this year was lost fixing that. I'll start working on the 6th Job blogpost next year.

[EMS] 17 years of Rayque!

Hi guys! Today's the 30th of September. I've been playing EMS daily for 17 years now!

Past year has been a wild ride. First year of 6th Job and it started out strong. It's a shame though that we have to wait a bit longer for the next skill wave, but Holy Fountain as our next 5th Job skill is fantastic. KMS has been substantially improving the game by addressing the many fundamental problems that were created in its early years. It continues to move forward, even if some decisions were difficult to make. If anything, Changseop's tenure is very much like Anna's.

Unfortunately I don't share that enthusiasm for EMS, looking back at the past year, or the three years after Anna left. In fact, management is in a worse state than between post-migration and Anna's temporary return. Sally was supposedly her successor, but left quietly at some point. Hyun (who's presumably Mjolnir) took over with Dennis and Inkwell joined earlier this year. Under their management, EMS has gone backwards and the future isn't looking great either. It's hard to be excited for any KMS update when the GMS team openly flaunts they might not implement any of it. Dare I say, it's become hard to be excited for anything related to EMS at all, in general. You can't put the genie back in the bottle.

Last year I expressed "if only they could do something about gear progression", and that happened. Potential in its entirety got reworked the same way that happened when Enhancement Scrolls became Star Force. The rework is a straight upgrade; you'll always have the maximum tier up rates, there's a guarantee on rank-ups and it even has the before/after choice for both Potential types. It no longer requires Maple Points - it's become mesos-only. This way it's no longer affected by the fickle Meso Market as pricing is now at a fixed rate. This is the update that Maple needed the most for over a decade. But as you know by now, only KMS has it. Other versions have no plans to get it, even though Maple Coin Exchanger pretty much is a direct upgrade revenue-wise. They killed their golden goose. What a shame.

If I had to make an educative guess for the future of EMS under the new management, is that Nexon's long-term plan for EMS is to consolidate Reboot with Luna and to reintroduce the original geo-blocking from 2007-2016. Reboot is on its way out, even here. I'm surprised it took them this long because Reboot repeats all of the same mistakes that the Supreme server did. It really is a repeat in history, although you'd be hard-pressed to find people that understand this. Knowledge on Supreme has always been esoteric. Anyone able to tell me the three revenue models for Supreme?

But why do I expect geo-blocking to return? It's because the GMS servers continue to siphon European players away. I can't imagine EMS staying financially viable for another decade, unless hard calls are made. Keep in mind that in only six years, we've gone from every channel almost full to more or less empty. Whales can only contribute so much.

According to the rankings, we've only had about 20.000 characters (not accounts or people) on Luna this September. Specifically, characters that have gained any EXP. This week, it's only been 6000 characters*. To give you an idea on how few 6000 is: every week I gain any EXP on about fifty. Granted, I'm an outlier in that regard. But with how Union artificially inflates the character count, we're realistically looking at only a few hundred weekly recurring players at best.

*I specifically keep Level 10 mules to be able to monitor these statistics. Next year we'll discuss how little EMS has recovered from the 2016 purge, as we'll be nine years pre-migration versus nine years post-migration. Yes, we're at that point in 2025. The post-migration numbers are concerning.

If there's anything most people seem to be unaware of, is that GMS/EMS is a small percentage in Nexon's revenue and that Nexon themselves report that it has a staggering operational cost for how little it generates. For that reason do I have a hard time believing a larger team and branching off the KMS roadmap can be financially justified unless they're planning to offset these costs by doubling down on monetization. The fewer players would need to pay more.

Anyway, don't forget that Changseop and Inkwell are both working under Wonky. Same plan. Although that doesn't mean that each team produces equal results. Obviously I'm curious to see the updates they're hyping up for the next two years, but I haven't forgotten the damage Inkwell and his prior did to MapleStory in its early years and how often EMS steered away from it. Fun fact: some KMS stuff we're not getting are those that changes Inkwell's old stuff. Oh.

Jokes aside, the last thing I want for EMS is to remain in a status quo. That's why I was excited for those major KMS updates, especially the rework for Additional Potential. With European Maple Points skyrocketing in price, it currently costs 400m (!) for a single Additional Potential reroll in EMS. And that price is only going up. It's also without the before and after selection. Imagine how expensive this becomes after totems are back, as that'll cause even more inflation. So much for addressing spawn modifiers over the past couple of years. All of that effort gone just for a quick buck.

And even if we dismissed the Potential rework, as far as basic changes from KMS are concerned, there's a lot we do not have. Guaranteed Potential rank ups, reduced Star Force costs, dynamic Boss Crystals, Maple Coin Exchanger, no more paid battle passes* and Sol Erda from Reward Points to name a few. Having daily caps for mesos and Sol Erda would've further helped to contribute towards an even playing field, get players to do dead content and combat inflation while also keeping the prices for staple goods in check. There's only one good roadmap: catch-up with KMS.

*These passes used to be generous and worth spending mesos on. Nowadays they are more expensive and stingy, and have outdated rewards.

I'm sure that the new World Tour content will be fun 'n all, especially considering we haven't had many good ones in years. It's just that in the grand scheme of things, we need those drastic updates more than World Tour fluff. Look no further than how quickly abandoned that budget-shattering Phantom Forest revamp became. And as far as expensive efforts go, it's such a shame to then also leave out parts of KMS updates. Destiny, Ignition and New Age started that roadmap in improving the game drastically and we would've continued that streak of good will with the Dreamer and Milestone updates, weren't it for all of this. Then we also have to talk about the inevitable "Inkwell spaghetti code"...

But I digress. Regardless, past year did see good progress. Level 285, two Hyper Burnings and 9000 Union. Most of my equipment has Legendary Additional Potential and there's only one Grandis symbol left until 290. Although within the current economy, it's starting to become really difficult to proceed much further. Trade restrictions are a pain, and those monthly (Reward Point) Additional Potential cubes are worthless since we should've had the rework by now. Both Star Force and Additional Potential have become such poor value that I'm better off redoing my equips, rather than continuing with what I have. As such in the next upcoming year, I'm expecting to have my first pieces of Eternal. 

Level 290 is likely to happen by the end of next year, as event EXP adds just enough to make that possible. Wouldn't be possible without (paying). As for 6th Job progression, Raging Blow VI is maxed out and I should have Sol Janus done before the end of the year. After that I'll max out Rage Uprising VI and start boosting some 5th Job skills. Next year we should have our guild Level 28 and have most of the Guild Castle unlocked. There's still a lot left to do, huh?

And let's not forget that this year also saw the release of the Destiny blogpost, which I was working on for almost two years. It's only been five months but KMS has introduced some changes that does solve some issues. Coincidence? Probably. But any change is any, and I'll gladly take them. That was the point of that post: to move (the game) forward.

Anyway, that's it for today guys. I'll see you guys again next post. The journey continues!