================================================== Maplestory: Cave Crawlers Walkthrough and Guide Written by Jason Long (evilbob) Copyright (c)2012 Jason Long. All rights reserved. This guide may not be reposted, in whole or in part, without my written permission. The only website that has permission to display this FAQ is gameFAQs.com. For questions contact me at evilbob65535 at yahoo dot com. ================================================== Table of Contents ================================================== Copy, Control+F, and Paste the codes in [] to search for something quickly. 1. General Information [1GENI] 1a. Leveling [1ALVL] 1b. Classes [1BCLS] 1c. Fighter [1CFTR] 1d. Thief [1DTHF] 2. Items [2ITEM] 2a. Armor [2AARM] 2b. Weapons [2BWEP] 2c. Rings [2CRNG] 2d. Amulets [2DAMU] 2e. Other Items [2EOTR] 2f. Enchanting Weapons and Armor [2FENC] 2g. In App Purchases [2GIAP] 3. Walkthrough [3WALK] 3a. All Dungeons [3AALL] 3b. Sleeping Forest [3BSLP] 3c. Icy Mountains [3CICY] 3d. Howling Mine [3DHWL] 3e. Forgotten Lab [3ELAB] 3f. Dreaming Temple [3FDRM] Version History: 1.00 - 03/22/12 Guide Complete. 1.01 - 03/26/12 Very minor updates. ================================================== General Information ================================================== [1GENI] Maplestory Cave Crawlers is a turn-based RPG with an interesting "battle gauge" mechanic that requires you to time your attacks by tapping the screen. There are five maze-like, randomly-generated dungeons to explore, completely with monsters and bosses at the end. Monsters give you money, EXP, and items, and you gradually build yourself up and become more powerful. It's a simple game that's pretty fun and easy to pick up and put down. The following information applies to all aspects of the game. ======== Leveling ======== [1ALVL] Leveling is pretty straightforward. There is no real trick to it, except to fight enemies close to - or right above - your current level. Fighting very high level enemies doesn't gain you much for the risk involved, and fighting low level enemies gains you nearly nothing. Since you can do any dungeon over and over as much as you'd like, there is no reason not to be at an appropriate level (or higher) for each challenge. Generally speaking, I break the game into four sections: early game - which is levels 1-20, mid game - level 20-45, late game - level 45-65, and very late game - level 65+. These are my own descriptors but they generally tell you where you are in the game. You can expect to beat the main story by the beginning of late game play. You can expect to beat hard mode during very late game. Every 5th level, you gain a level up bonus for your class. Each class has 3 to choose from, and each bonus goes up 5 times. This means at level 75 you will have gained all possible bonuses. As far as I can tell, there is no level cap. After 75, you simply stop receiving level up bonuses. Eventually, I would think that even the final hard mode dungeon monsters will give so little experience that it becomes difficult to level further. Weapons and armor can go past level 100 so that doesn't seem like a cap for anything. Dying ----- As far as I can tell, there is no penalty for dying, other than being sent back to town. ======= Classes ======= [1BCLS] Thief vs. fighter, what to pick? Answer: both! It's worth leveling up both classes for the extra gold and items you get for taking them through each dungeon. That said, the two classes have different play styles: the fighter is more consistent, and the thief is more "bursty." The fighter lends himself to people who like to do well on average, as he has very high normal damage. With a TON of HP and high defense, he can also just plod through most monsters and heal up afterward. The thief has the highest potential damage on a crit, but does far less normal damage across the board. Relying on evading more than defense, and with far less HP, the thief is also somewhat squishier and tends to go down faster. However, the thief also gets bonuses to finding items and tends to find more treasure each level. Another way to put it: the fighter is the more standard class, while the thief is great for expert players who are willing to risk more for a higher reward. As far as I can tell, the "base stats" for each class are the same: the only differences between them are the items they can use, their level up bonuses, and skills. Because of this, I would recommend playing a thief first for the Sleeping Forest and maybe the Icy Mountain, then going back and leveling a fighter - and then playing the fighter first through all the rest of the dungeons and hard modes. The thief gets a great static bonus early, but after the early game (level 1-20 or so) the fighter is just easier to play. ======= Fighter ======= [1CFTR] Level up bonuses (max 5 on each): Weapon Mastery: +10% damage with fighter weapons Armor Mastery: +10% HP with fighter armor Regeneration: Gain 1% HP each time you step into an unexplored room My recommendation is to pick Regen at level 5. This is because you probably haven't found any fighter weapons or armor yet, and while useless at level 5, eventually that regen will be nice. After that, take +damage up to max - it's the best bonus in the game and completely worth it. After that I'd suggest maybe one more in regen, then max out +HP, then finish regen last. Regen is helpful, but it's not THAT helpful. More HP is better. Skill powers: Start: Power Smash - 2x damage; normal recharge rate 1st Dungeon Complete: Nimble Retreat - Escape from battle but -50% HP; fast 2nd Dungeon Complete: Stunning Strike - Stun; normal 3rd Dungeon Complete: Second Wind - Restore 50% HP; fast 4th Dungeon Complete: Vorpal Edge - Fatal blow; slow 5th Dungeon Complete: Floor Smasher - Skip to next level; very slow The starting power is the best power. Having a guaranteed big hit is invaluable; it's also nearly the only way to kill some special enemies. This does not count as a crit, however - and so still only does 1 damage to some special enemies. A very close second is the +50% HP; this is a great power (especially since fighters have tons of HP) and can save your defense bonus at the end of each level. It's especially useful when you're not leveling up quickly (which also heals you), and against wraith-family monsters that do a percentage of your total health in damage. The fatal blow power is about the same in usefulness as the first power; it is most useful for wraiths and other undead that never take more than 1 damage (or 2 on a crit), but it charges slowly. Stunning is beyond useless and skipping to the next level is not really that helpful, especially for how slow it is. The retreat one is a horrible, horrible power. ===== Thief ===== [1DTHF] Level up bonuses (max 5 on each): Backstab: +3% crit damage with thief weapons Artful Dodger: +5% evade with thief armor Golden Luck: +5% item drop rate My recommendation is to take +item drop rate at level 5 since you probably don't have any thief armor yet. After that, max +evade - it's the best bonus the thief gets. After that, boost +item drop rate to max, and then finally +crit damage. +15% crit damage might be nice on a whip, but it is barely noticed on a claw. Either way, it just isn't that valuable until late game. Skill powers: Start: Power Smash - Crit; fast recharge rate 1st Dungeon Complete: Nimble Flight - Escape from battle; fast 2nd Dungeon Complete: Treasure Hunter - 2x meso & EXP for battle used in; normal 3rd Dungeon Complete: Magic Hand - Open a chest; normal 4th Dungeon Complete: Deft Strike - Fatal blow; slow 5th Dungeon Complete: Stealthy Passage - Skip to next level; slow Again, the first power is the best for the same reason - except this one is even better because it charges faster. (Probably to offset the fact that you likely kill things quicker as a thief.) It also specifically counts as a crit - meaning if you have a whip, you stun things! The escape one is probably second best, since it ends battles instantly and is a fast recharge - but critting and winning is better. Fatal blow is ok, but you have to balance the fact that it is a LOT slower (especially for a thief) for nearly the same effect as the crit one. Treasure hunter is fun to play around with if you are stomping the crap out of things and don't need the extra damage, but the rewards are quite meager and it's slow to charge. Skipping to the next level is nearly useless - you WANT to explore, since that's the point of the game. ================================================== Items ================================================== [2ITEM] Items are available in the shop and as treasure. The shop's inventory resets each time you kill a boss. It is typically set up to offer you things that are fairly expensive for your current resources and a few things that are well above your expected resources - this is to try to get you to purchase money in-game through In App Purchases. Never do this. You will get something better soon - it's NEVER worth real money. The item shop eventually stops selling better items around level 65. The shop inventory never really gives options for anything higher than the low 70s. You'll have to get A- or S-ranked finishes on really tough dungeon levels to get better equipment after that - and even those may have an upper limit of around the high 90s. All types of items potentially have +EXP, +meso (money), and +item drop rate as attributes. Of these, +EXP is best: the higher your level, the more items and money you'll get anyway, and the rewards increase on a greater- than-linear rate. This means leveling up is much more valuable than money. For example, at level 10 you might get 500 meso for a treasure, but at level 20 you might get 10000. ===== Armor ===== [2AARM] All armor comes in two types, which are basically standard and special versions. You won't see the special types of armor until you start getting up in levels; eventually, you'll have a choice of every type from the shop. Armor numbers: The formula for armor power is very simple: each +1 equals +50 HP. So, a 2 armor gives +100 HP. There are no other stats. This actually makes the number of the armor somewhat relative to its power level; while more HP is better, sometimes a more powerful armor type can trump the additional HP. An armor that is 5 levels above your current armor but loses 10% defense is probably not worth trading (except very early on). This becomes even truer in the late game, when damage relative to max HP makes armor stats typically more valuable than HP. Defense vs. Evade: When it comes to choosing armor, keep in mind that while evading negates ALL damage, defense negates a percent from every attack (except special attacks that always do a percentage of your health). ON AVERAGE, these two stats should balance out: evading 30% of the time should effectively negate about 30% of the damage you receive, like defending. However, the problem is that sometimes taking ANY damage is not good. Plus, evading depends entirely on random chance, which has the potential to really hurt you. Overall, the consistent nature of defense is generally better than the random nature of evading. All armor also comes with a completely random attribute: +defense, +evade - These are excellent; the higher, the better. Note that two types of fighter armor have the ability "Cannot Evade." As far as I can tell, this makes a random +evade useless for these armor. +EXP, +mesa, +item drop rate - Not as good, but at least they offer constant bonuses. A high +EXP bonus might be worth it occasionally. +25% defense against <>, +25% evade against <> - The worst attributes because they are so situational. However, there are times when this attribute can be moderately helpful: - Sleeping Forest: vs. plant or vs. animal - Icy Mountain: nothing is particularly helpful - Howling Mine: vs. undead or evade vs. magic (defend vs. magic is not that useful) - Forgotten Lab: vs. machine is EXTREMELY useful here - Dreaming Temple: vs. magic All --- Outer Wear Def: 5%; Eva: 5% 2nd: EXP +10% - Better than nothing, and good at the beginning for the XP boost. Useless later. Formal Wear Def: 10%; Eva: 10% 2nd: EXP +10% - By the time you can get these, you'll only want to use class-specific armor. Training Jacket Def: 0%; Eva: 10% 2nd: Meso +30% - Decent choice for the thief early on, and nice to help with some starter cash. Late game you'll want the class-specific stuff more than you'll want the money boost. Very late game extra money is nearly useless. Uniform Def: 0%; Eva: 20% 2nd: Meso +30% - By the time you can get these, you'll only want to use class-specific armor. Fighter ------- Chain Mail Def: 10%; Eva: 0% 2nd: Skill Charge +20% - Terrible. No skill is worth that poor of a defense. Elven Chain Mail Def: 20%; Eva: 0% 2nd: Skill Charge +20% - Still pretty bad, especially by comparison to the other special fighter armor. Only use if you REALLY want that skill to charge, and keep it mind +20% will be barely noticeable. Plate Mail Def: 20%; Eva: 0% 2nd: Def +30% when under 30% HP - A decent, standard fighter armor. The special power shouldn't come up much and still can't protect you from certain types of percentage damage attacks, but it's nice if you really need it. Double Plate Def: 30%; Eva: 0% 2nd: Def +30% when under 30% HP - This is more like it: an excellent armor choice. Best when paired with a random attribute that increases evade or defense, ideally by 5% or more. Full Plate Def: 30%; Eva: 0% 2nd: Cannot Evade - Not as good as Double Plate, but still a decent choice. Note that +evade random attributes (or wearing +evade amulets) are worthless. Ancient Plate Def: 40%; Eva: 0% 2nd: Cannot Evade - Arguably the best fighter armor, especially with a high +defense attribute. Note that +evade random attributes are worthless. Thief ----- Leather Armor Def: 5%; Eva: 15% 2nd: Crit: skill charge x2 - Not a bad beginning choice, but see defense vs. evade above. Studded Leather Def: 10%; Eva: 20% 2nd: Crit: skill charge x2 - A very strong armor choice that is a decent alternative if you can't find good mail armor - but it's better to hold out for good mail armor. Scale Mail Def: 10%; Eva: 10% 2nd: Recover 2% HP / turn in battle - The second best thief armor, period. The stats are ok, but the ability to recover 2% HP at the beginning of each round of battle is spectacular. Once you get used to that mechanic, you won't trade it for any other type of armor. Lizard Scale Def: 20%; Eva: 10% 2nd: Recover 2% HP / turn in battle - The absolute best type of thief armor. Even better when paired with a +defense or +evade attribute. If you see one like that, get it. Shadow Cloak Def: -20%; Eva: 20% 2nd: Evade: skill charge up - A horrible, horrible choice. Taking more damage in exchange for evading is useless; this armor actually gives no benefit to the wearer on average. Night Cloak Def: -30%; Eva: 30% 2nd: Evade: skill charge up - Same as the shadow cloak - almost completely useless. There is one way to make this cloak useful: if you find one with a 25% chance to evade vs. machines, are maxed on your thief +evade level up bonuses, and also have a 25% chance to evade vs. machines amulet. All combined, this gives you a 95% chance to evade machines - at the cost of taking 130% damage each time you don't. (And this is assuming there is no evade cap, which there may be.) This would be a great way to play through the Forgotten Lab - but otherwise you're better off sticking with scale armor. ======= Weapons ======= [2BWEP] Like armor, weapons come in two types; eventually you'll have all options in the shop. Unlike armor, the class-neutral club/mace weapons are valid choices for either class, even later in the game - and don't forget you can switch them between classes if you find a very powerful one. Weapon numbers: Weapon numbers represent the total power of the weapon - however, the formula is not simple. I haven't been able to figure out exactly what +1 does to a weapon, but a good rule of thumb is that it's somewhere in the neighborhood of +5% of the weapon's current power. That's not exact, but it's close enough and easy to remember. So for example, generally speaking, a long sword (100%) would need to be around 4 higher (~20%) than a battle axe (120%) to do the same normal damage. Unlike armor, it's almost always worth trading up weapons, especially at higher levels: due to the greater-than-linear nature of the increase, the power difference starts to become ridiculous. There are also more valid choices for a weapon for both classes, unlike armor - so it makes trading up easier. All weapons also come with a random attribute: +damage increases normal damage only; +crit damage works for crits. -battle gauge speed - A useful trait that slows down the speed of the cursor in battle, making it easier to get hits/crits. However, even -20% speed is hard to notice, especially on very fast enemies, although every little bit helps. +regen on a crit - This is rare until later levels but it can be really nice if you find one with a high percentage. This is especially good for thief weapons since you'll need to crit a lot anyway. +EXP, +meso, +item drop rate - Valid choices if nothing else is really available. +50% damage against <> - Generally not that useful since they are so situational, there are times when these are pretty good: - Sleeping Forest: vs. plant or vs. animal - Icy Mountain: nothing is particularly helpful - Howling Mine: vs. undead (some undead cannot take more than 1 damage per hit, however) - Forgotten Lab: vs. machine is EXTREMELY useful here and it may be worth snagging a +50% damage vs. machine weapon specifically for this dungeon - Dreaming Temple: vs. magic (some magic cannot take more than 1 damage per hit, however) +fatal blow vs. <> - Pretty useless; even when you know the type of enemy you're up against, this just isn't reliable enough to be valuable. All --- Short Sword N: 100%; C: 200% 2nd: EXP +10% - Better than nothing, and ok at the beginning when you need XP. Gladius N: 105%; C: 210% 2nd: EXP +10% - By the time you find these, your fighter probably won't mess with them unless it's much higher than your current stock. Club N: 150%; C: 150% 2nd: NONE* - Excellent choice, especially early. The club works by doing the same damage on a hit or a crit - but it does a ton of damage. It also means you don't care about critting any more (other than boosting your attack bonus for the level). These weapons will probably be the mainstay of both your classes until you find particularly good class-specific weapons, and may stay in your thief's hands even longer. Mace N: 160%; C: 160% 2nd: NONE* - Even better than the club, this is always a strong contender. A mace that is a few levels higher than your normal choice may STILL do more damage, even with a maxed fighter level bonus to weapons. Never sell these without careful consideration. *The club and mace claim to offer immunity to counterattacks - however, they do not. This is an error in the description of the weapon (bad programming). My guess is that this ability was removed from the game because otherwise these weapons would be the best choice all the time, regardless of other abilities. Fighter ------- Long Sword N: 100%; C: 200% 2nd: Normal attack: 10% chance of crit - Generic fighter weapon. The chance to crit on a normal hit is nice, but nothing to write home about. Given the lackluster fighter-specific weapon choices, it's only good because the others are not much better. Bastard Sword N: 110%; C: 200% 2nd: Normal attack: 10% chance of crit - A better sword, but only a tiny bit. Sadly, it's much more expensive in the shop - and probably never worth the price. Lance N: 80%; C: 250% 2nd: Crit: 10% chance of fatal blow - This weapon is what you'd use if you like playing a thief and want to try out this fighter guy. The massive crit damage will sail you through most enemies, especially with the fighter's very high +weapon damage. However, the tradeoff of low normal damage will likely not appeal to the standard fighter. Piercer N: 80%; C: 280% 2nd: Crit: 10% chance of fatal blow - The best crit damage a fighter can do, this weapon is equivalent to the thief's bloody claw with the fighter's maximum +50% weapon damage - except the thief can squeeze out a slightly higher crit with her own +crit damage ability while the fighter does a lot more normal damage. Get this if you're great at getting crits - otherwise, avoid. Battle Axe N: 120%; C: 180% 2nd: 1% chance of fatal blow - A very good fighter weapon. This is your highest potential normal damage (although the mace may give it a run for its money with a close item level), and it still has a decent crit. Good, simple, reliable. The fatal blow is extremely rare, so you can pretty much ignore it and just get pleasantly surprised. Great Axe N: 130%; C: 180% 2nd: 1% chance of fatal blow - Even better than the great axe, if you can find one it's great but the price in the shop is almost never worth it. Thief ----- Dagger N: 40% (80%); C: 100% (200%) 2nd: "Double attack" - "Double attack" means the weapon does double damage, NOT that you can attack twice with it. This makes this weapon pretty much useless, since even the short sword does more damage and it also gives +10% EXP. Avoid. Sharp Dagger N: 50% (100%); C: 100% (200%) 2nd: "Double attack" - Still useless. All other thief weapons are better than daggers. Whip N: 100%; C: 120% 2nd: Crit: stun - The whip and the claw are two extremely good weapons, and they both rely on getting constant crits. Stunning works against all enemies - even bosses - and allows you to skip the enemy's turn entirely, which is extremely powerful - other than being ambushed, you can potentially not allow the enemy to act at all. The only downside is the low crit damage - which means you'll need to stun them again and again, since you'll probably have to hit them several times to kill them. This is the best weapon if you are spectacularly good at getting crits. Chain Whip N: 110%; C: 120% 2nd: Crit: stun - Ironically not really better than the whip, since you REALLY want to crit for it to be useful. The bonus normal damage might help in a pinch, but overall don't worry about it. Considering its massive increase in price in the shop, it's almost never worth a buy. Claw N: 70%; C: 300% 2nd: Battle gauge speed -20% - Now this is a great thief weapon. Stratospheric damage on a crit, junk damage on a normal. Potentially better than a whip since you can one-shot many enemies - but if you don't kill them, be prepared to get smacked. However, the real gem is the battle gauge slowdown: -20% may not be much (and it may make snails a REAL pain), but ANYTHING that helps you make those crits is great. Best when paired with a -battle gauge or a +crit damage attribute. Bloody Claw N: 70%; C: 330% 2nd: Battle gauge speed -20% - Probably the only special weapon that's worth the price, the bloody claw is what causes the thief to have the highest potential damage in the game. Potentially the best thief weapon, especially with a -battle gauge or a +crit damage attribute. ===== Rings ===== [2CRNG] Rings are somewhat rare in the game, both as treasure and in the shop. Their attributes are also completely random. There is a hierarchy of power - copper is usually weaker than silver, which is usually weaker than gold, which is usually weaker than platinum - but for the most part, the specific stats are pretty random. That said, there are some good ring stats to keep an eye out for: +EXP - Look for good, high bonuses. +damage - Rings tend to give static damage boosts. If you can find a very high +damage early, or one that also gives +EXP, you're doing great. A small damage boost is rarely worth it. Late game (level 45+) you'll be doing tens of thousands of damage per hit: who cares about +50 damage then? +meal recovery - Find a good, high bonus and keep it in your inventory. When you go to eat something, put the ring on, eat something, and then replace it with your normal ring. That way you get the bonus only when you want it. +meso, +item drop rate - Decent choices, but EXP is better. +HP - Rings tend to give static HP boosts. Early on, these might be helpful - but later, +80 HP is nothing compared to +5% HP. The nice thing about rings (and amulets) is that they are not class specific - so you can always share your best ring between the two classes. Be sure to keep at least two "junk" rings so it's easy to trade them around, but always remember to put your best ring on whichever class you're using. ======= Amulets ======= [2DAMU] Amulets are more common than rings, and there are four types: Fire - +damage Wind - +evade Water - +HP Earth - +defense There are also special types for each element; for example, there are Blaze that are special fire types, and Storm that are special wind types. Each amulet also has a random attribute chosen from any of the armor attribute list or the weapon attribute list (except a few weapon attributes are excluded, like battle gauge speed and +crit). Generally speaking, +damage and very high +defense or +evade amulets are the best due to their general use. +HP seems like it would be good, but +damage is still better. Very high +EXP attributes are also great. Like rings, always remember to trade out your best amulet for whichever class you're using. Note: Be sure to purchase or keep a +50% damage vs. machine amulet if you can (you only need one). This is amazingly powerful in the Forgotten Lab. =========== Other Items =========== [2EOTR] For the most part, other items are pretty straightforward and obvious in what they do. Here are a few specific tips. - Apples are the most cost effective way to heal yourself at 10% HP for 100 meso. However, since you'll have to use several of them, you may lower your overall defense score for the level. You'll probably want to buy a few at the beginning, but by mid game (level 20+) you'll have so many healing items you'll probably never buy any again. - Potions are a 100% heal and you can only carry 1 at a time. ALWAYS purchase a potion after you use one; they are only 1000 meso and very useful. - Return Scroll-Town are town portals. When you return to town, you get your HP set to max and your skill charge set to zero. You can buy/sell like normal and even change out classes. HOWEVER, when you return, the level you left will be RESET completely. Don't use this one step away from the exit: go through and then use it. ============================ Enchanting Weapons and Armor ============================ [2FENC] Enchant Weapon and Enchant Armor scrolls give you a chance to boost your weapon or armor permanently - however, they are not straightforward. Here's how they work: - Each weapon (or armor) has a series of stars on it (typically 3-8 stars). These are the number of times you can ATTEMPT to enchant the weapon. - Using a scroll will apply the appropriate enchantment to whatever you have equipped. (So a fighter cannot enchant a thief weapon, for example.) - Each time you use an enchantment scroll - WHETHER IT WORKS OR NOT - you consume 1 star on that item. - Each scroll has a percent chance of success. If you succeed, you get the enchantment. If you fail, you get nothing. - Once you are out of stars, I suspect - but I do not know - that a restore item from In App Purchases will reset the stars on that item. Don't ever buy this, either. Here is the list of each type of enchantment: Level 1: +1 - 100% - 10k meso Level 2: +2 - 50% - 30k meso Level 3: +4 - 25% - 100k meso Level 4: +7 - 10% - real money Level 5: +10 - 5% - real money So what does this all mean? It means that you should only ever use +1 enchants on your weapons or armor. Why? Because a 50% chance to get +2 to a weapon means on average you will get +1 per 1 star used. Same for a 25% chance for +4. The +7 for a 10% chance means you'll do worse on average. The +10 for 5% is the worst of all. You may do a lot better than that - you may get really lucky. But you may also do worse. It's completely random, and the odds are not good. When you factor in the prices of the enchants, it gets EVEN WORSE. Late game (level 45+), 10k meso for a +1 enchant isn't very much. If you have a good weapon but see another one like it that's 5 levels higher, it's probably much cheaper to spend 50k on level 1 weapon enchants to upgrade instead of 500k on a new weapon. However, spending 100k for a 25% chance to go up +4 is like playing the lottery. Spending REAL MONEY for an even worse chance to go up more means you are bad at math. By all means, feel free to waste a star or two on a weapon with plenty of stars for the chance to go up a lot if you happen to find high level enchants in the game and feel like trying your luck. But don't buy any - it's a total waste. ================ In App Purchases ================ [2GIAP] There is a special area in the shop for In App Purchases (IAP). You should never, ever buy anything there, ever. The main things they sell are meso - which you will get plenty of and eventually not care about - and oddball items like faster EXP gain (this whole game is about EXP gain), carrying more potions (one is plenty), and the level 4 and 5 item enchants (a horrible, horrible idea). The main thing to remember is: there will always be more stuff. There is no reason to buy something big now because you will replace it later. The regular in-game buying area is designed to put a lot of items juuuust out of your reasonable resource range, just to make you want to purchase more in-game money with real money. Don't ever fall for this. There are no IAPs that will help you more than a tiny bit - and the game is easy enough without them. Don't buy them! ================================================== Walkthrough ================================================== [3WALK] Because the game levels are randomly generated, there is no direct walkthrough. However, there are some general tips for each dungeon and very specific boss strategies. ============ All Dungeons ============ [3AALL] Challenges ---------- Completing all three challenges for each dungeon unlocks "hard" mode for the dungeon. The only tricky thing about challenges is that if you town portal, any "counting" challenge resets. There is also one challenge that lies about what is required; it is noted below. There are no challenges for the hard mode of dungeons at this time (and likely never will be). End-of-Level Ranks ------------------ You get three scores/ratings at the end of each level of the dungeon. Like similar games, the ranks you get are S (best), A, B, C, or D (worst). Attack: You have to do at least some attacking on each level. Getting crits apparently helps. Getting a low score is based on missing, or not killing enough enemies (not attacking enough times before you leave the level). It's pretty hard to get an S - you need to kill lots of enemies and crit a lot - but note that killing a lot of enemies is counter-productive to Defense and Exploration (below). An A is pretty easy. Getting a B or lower means you missed a lot. Getting a C or D means you probably only killed 3 or 4 things that level. Defense: How much damage you took, modified by how much you healed yourself with food. Fighters don't take much damage and thieves can evade a lot, but generally fighters will do better on this one. Eating seems to subtract based on the number of food items ingested; the fighter healing power doesn't seem to count. I am not sure about either of these, however - it's very hard to measure. So, your best strategy is to use the best food possible as rarely as possible and fight the fewest battles possible - which is counter- productive to Attack (above). Getting an S isn't hard if you don't get hit much (kill everything really quickly). Getting an A isn't hard with a fighter. Getting a B or lower means you ate a lot and got your butt kicked. Exploration: This is based on the number of steps you took. Each time you explore a new room or move to a room you've visited, this is one step. Completing a level very quickly will get you an S, but it's hard to balance this will Attack (above). Getting an A is not too hard. Getting a B or worse means you backtracked a lot. I have only gotten a C once and that was actually hard to do. Your scores are averaged to produce a final score for the level, which gives you an item. Getting an S is difficult but the reward will always be a very good weapon or armor. While always helpful, very late game (65+), this is the only way to get the best equipment. An A typically rewards a mediocre item. Getting a B will usually get you a healing item. I've not gotten worse, but I imagine it gets worse from there. Monster Detection ----------------- Don't ignore the monster detector in the top right! A Red means you're next to an unexplored room with a monster. Orange means you're about 2 steps from one. Green means there's not one near. This is a great way to determine whether or not some spaces have monsters in them; if you're near a single, isolated, unexplored room and it's red: that's a monster. If it's not red and it's not a treasure, it's probably the exit (although it may be an empty connector room). Keep an eye on the detector and you can avoid battles (or find them). It's worth noting that the monster detector is only right about 99% of the time. Very rarely it will show orange when it should be red. Level-up Monsters ----------------- Every dungeon has a small chance to spawn one or more of a rare monster that looks like a cross between a fluffy, white chicken and a slime. The first one you meet will probably be called Tino, but they are all instantly recognizable by the fact that they all have a stupid-fast battle gauge that is impossible to time in any way. It's a matter of luck - or intelligent skill use - to kill them, but if you do you will always level up. They tend to run away if you miss, so always try to save a good hit for these guys. =============== Sleeping Forest =============== [3BSLP] Normal: level 1 Hard: level 15 Notable for being the only dungeon with only 5 levels, the majority of enemies are of the plant or animal type. The trickiest enemy is a plant that inflicts "paralyze" - this makes your battle gauge stutter along randomly and makes it very difficult to hit. It also lasts until the end of the battle. Use your crit/double damage power on these guys. Challenges: - Kill the boss - Kill 10 monsters - Chain battle 3 slimes Just complete the dungeon in one go and you'll get all these. The slimes randomly chain new slimes; it's a matter of luck, but you'll have several opportunities. Boss: King Slime! ------------------ The Fight: The first time you hit this boss, he splits into two. Each half will then split into quarters. Each quarter has "deadly" spot that kills it instantly, or a normal hit will split it into an eighth. Each eighth has only a deadly spot. Every single creature on the screen attacks on the enemy's turn, meaning things can quickly get out of hand if you're not careful! The Strategy: Kill each section completely before moving on to the next so that there is the fewest number of enemies on screen at a time. I suggest going after the right half first; the right half of the screen is typically easier to hit. Do your best to kill the quarters in one blow - if you miss, quickly snuff the eighths before moving to another quarter. Once you're done with the first half, spend a turn to drink your potion. This is the best time to use it, since you'll only be attacked by 1 creature (and you'll probably need it by the end). Use the same tactic on the left half until it's dead! ============= Icy Mountains ============= [3CICY] Normal: level 10 Hard: level 30 There are at least 5 different enemy types in the Icy Mountains, making most +X vs. <> weapons/armor/amulets less effective. The plant monster from the Forest is back, so save your crits. A new monster to watch for in this dungeon is the wisp. The wisp is a magic type that does damage equal to a set percentage of your CURRENT health, regardless of defense. I think regular wisps do 30% or something like that. The interesting thing is that since it is a percentage of your current health, they do less and less damage as you are more and more wounded. I believe they can still kill you if you have only 1 HP, however. These enemies also only ever take 1 damage - or 2 on a crit - so a high level weapon doesn't help much, and it takes forever to kill them. However, their crit area is a "deadly" attack - meaning it will kill them in one go - so go for the crit. Just don't get freaked out by the large damage and take it slow - you'll survive. Challenges: - Kill the boss - Kill 50 monsters - Kill 3 Beliflower Roots Again, just complete the dungeon in one go and you'll get these. If somehow you miss the roots, start the dungeon again and go out of your way to kill everything on each floor until you have it. Boss: Three-headed Balrog! -------------------------- The Fight: This guy has three heads and three hitboxes. Each head attacks on his turn. You kill a head by hitting that hitbox repeatedly; once a head is down, it no longer attacks. Once all three are down, you win. The Strategy: This is the easiest boss in the game. The only strategy is to completely kill each head before moving to the next; I recommend right-to- left to make it easiest. This guy is a pushover compared to that slime. ============ Howling Mine ============ [3DHWL] Normal: level 20 Hard: level 45 The encounter rate is noticeably higher in this dungeon. There are still several enemy types, but undead are the most prevalent. The flying eye monster types will blind you on a hit - this lasts only until their next turn, so if they miss, you can see again. This hides the gauge so you don't know when to swing; you'll pretty much have to feel it out, but the trick is that their battle gauge is quite fast. You'll find more counter-attacking enemies; play it safe or go for the kill! Wisps are back, along with their bigger brothers who do 60% of your current health, and the worst enemy in the game: wraiths. Wraith-type monsters do a percentage of your TOTAL health every time they hit (I think 15 or 20%?), and they also cannot take more than 1 damage (2 on a crit). If you can nail their deadly attack zone, they go down in one hit, however. They have only 3 or 4 HP, so you can take them down with normal attacks. Occasionally during late game play wraiths will get "angry" - this is great, because they actually do damage based on their strength instead of your total health. Challenges: - Kill the boss - Kill a wraith in a chain battle - Kill a Flyeye without missing Completing the dungeon will get you the first two - you'll come to hate the chain battle wraiths anyway. Killing a Flyeye is best done with a thief; your high evade means they may miss you at the beginning of the battle and then you can see the gauge normally and kill them (it will probably only take one hit regardless). Or, if your timing is good, you can learn how to hit them blind - and you should probably do that anyway. Or just use your crit skill. That's the easiest of all. Boss: Riche! ------------ The Fight: UGH. Riche is the hardest boss in the game, period - but only because of his "trick." You have ten turns to kill Riche before he kills you outright. He displays a countdown on the screen each turn, and when it gets to zero he will do damage equal to your total health. His normal damage each turn is not deadly - just start the fight with full health and you will be fine - but like the Wraiths he cannot take more than 1 damage at a time - or 2 on his tiny crit box. The Strategy: On normal mode, Riche has ten HP. This means you have to hit him every single turn. If you miss, you need to get a crit to make up for it - or you will die. The best strategy is to just nail that big orange hitbox and wait it out. If you try to get flashy, you could miss - and the hitbox (and crit area) get smaller toward the end. However, on hard mode Riche has a nearly impossible 13 or 14 HP. That means you need to crit at least 3 times and also not miss a single time to beat him. I say "at least three" because I've never managed to beat him. I hate this boss. ============= Forgotten Lab ============= [3ELAB] Normal: level 30 Hard: level 60 I love this dungeon! It's 99% machine enemies, so be sure to buy/find a +damage vs. machines amulet and put it on. (The other 1% are level-up monsters and the very rare wisp.) If you can find a +defense or +evade vs. machines armor or amulet, these are good, too. Weapons tend to get upgraded quickly but a nice +damage vs. machines weapon will be nice for a while. All the monsters in this dungeon are harder versions of things you've fought before, but the best part is: no wraiths to spoil your day. Even the music is cool here. Challenges: - Kill the boss - Kill a Porky with one critical hit - Kill a Golem with one hit By "Porky" they mean "Mecha Porky" - and this guy is hard to crit. You will have a ton of opportunities to kill one, so you can either hone your skills... Or you can just bring a thief with the crit skill. Encounter, crit, done. Killing a golem in one hit is even harder, but if your thief is strong enough you can try the same trick. A fighter with the 2xdamage skill might work as well. Interestingly, another way to get this is to use a fighter with a Long Sword (or Bastard Sword). You have a 10% chance to crit on a normal attack - which is easy to do, and you'll fight enough of these that it may come up. You can always try to hit their tiny "deadly" attack box as well - but that's not recommended. Boss: Super Robot MK XIII! -------------------------- The Fight: This boss has a very interesting mechanic. He has three sections: left, middle, and right. He starts out doing very poor damage, with poor defense, and a slow battle gauge. However, if you do a normal attack on the left, he will gain an attack boost. A normal attack in the middle gains him a defense boost, and a normal attack on the right will speed up the battle gauge. Each of these boosts is huge - three boosts to any one area will make him very powerful and hard to deal with. However: hitting the crit box in any one area means that nothing happens! The Strategy: With this boss, you never want to get a normal hit. Always crit or miss - even missing is better than hitting normally. I find the easiest crit box to hit is the rightmost one: it's on the left of the right hitbox, but most importantly it's on the edge of the hitbox. This means you should always hedge "early" on your attacks - you'd rather miss than get a normal hit. Don't sweat missing several times: he's a real wimp as long as you don't power him up. Continue to crit and he will go down easily. If you mess up and do a normal hit, it will get harder with the faster battle gauge - but keep trying. If you mess up about three times, the gauge will be so fast it's just random chance what you do after that - but hopefully he'll be nearly dead, and you won't make it too much worse before he's down. =============== Dreaming Temple =============== [3FDRM] Normal: level 40 Hard: level 75 The majority of enemies in this dungeon are the magic type, so feel free to load up on magic-destroying items. Wild enemies abound as well, but they are easy enough to deal with. There are now three types of wisp that you will chain battle - and they really suck. The last one does 90% of your current HP each time. The worst enemy is the Shade - an upgraded wraith who does 20% of your total health on a hit and has 4 HP. Try to save your special attack (or 50% heal) for this guy. Another new type of enemy is the Cellion and its younger version: they will inflict "confusion" on you, which makes the gauge run backwards. This doesn't sound bad but it can really throw you off. Finally, there are some enemies that heal when they hit you; a whip is a great tool against these since you can stunlock them until they're dead. Challenges: - Clear the final floor - Survive 3000 damage* - Kill a Cellion without missing At this time, I am unsure if "clear the final floor" means "kill everything on the final floor" or just "beat the boss." (I cleared everything and then beat the boss, so I don't know.) You definitely have to beat the boss to get it, however. Killing a Cellion without missing is again best done with a skill. If you find a weak one (probably on the lower floors) you can probably just nail it with one hit as well. Try to get it with a crit before it can confuse you. *Survive 3000 damage: This is the worst challenge in the game only because the challenge lies to you: it should say "Survive 3000 damage from a tauro- type creature." THAT description makes it very clear what you should do; the other description makes it impossible. Many creatures (especially the Will- O-Wisp) can do over 3000 damage to you, but only one of the tauro-types (Tauromacis, Taurodual, or Taurospear) can actually give you the challenge. Knowing that: the way to get this challenge is still a little tricky, because you'll want to cause the Tauro to charge enough times to seriously hurt you without charging enough to kill you. Also, Tauros get "angry" which boosts their power when they are low on HP. However, they also generally will not attack you until they are low on HP. I found that finding a Tauromacis on the first floor made it easiest: it depends on the level of the creature (randomly determined), but I had him charge about 6 times and then attack angry and it worked. If you charge too few times, you'll probably be unable to get him to charge enough again; if you charge too many, he'll nail you. It's also worth noting that "charge" only affects the next attack; once he swings, he'll have to charge up again to seriously hurt you. I am unsure if a charge is wasted on a miss/evade. Be warned that it is apparently possible to miss this challenge entirely! If you get too high of a level - to the point that you can ONLY kill these guys in a single hit with a normal attack - they will charge forever and NEVER attack you. Even their counter attacks merely cause them to charge. The best you can do is equip the lowest-level weapon you can, get the highest- level Tauro you can find, and try to not kill them once they are charged up. A thief with a claw may be your best chance. Be aware that this will probably only happen if you are FAR above the normal level for this dungeon (I'm guessing over 60 or 70 - maybe higher). Boss: Tome Master! ------------------ The Fight: This guy has about a jillion HP but his real trick is that once he is damaged a little, he will summon a random monster and change his power, battle gauge, and hitbox. So far I have seen him choose from a monster that speeds up the gauge (Porky), a stunning monster (Jr. Yeti), a monster that heals on a hit (Monk), or a monster that confuses on a hit (Cellion). This doesn't sound too bad but monsters that heal themselves or confuse you both really suck. It's possible he will heal more than you can damage him on a normal hit, and confusion lasts until the end of the battle. When he gets close to the end, he'll change once again and pull out a new hitbox with a special counter attack - if you hit this special counter, the boss will HEAL TO FULL and you'll basically have to start the battle over. His power level seems to go up as well, making this a tense end to a tough battle. The Strategy: Other than it taking a while, this guy isn't too horrible. Don't forget to bring a potion - it will probably be very useful, unless you're very overpowered. Try for the crits at first and do your best to nail 
them over and over; if you mess up he'll probably summon something.  Continue 
to do your best with crits and deal with whatever he's throwing at you; 
sometimes he'll switch monsters again, and sometimes he won't.  Once he gets 
low, however, do everything you can not to hit that special counter attack!  
Missing is better than that - so just go for the normal hit and bring him 
down.


Your reward for beating the game is a rapid-fire, confusing cut scene - 
enjoy!  (There is no additional reward for beating the hard mode version.)



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Maplestory: Cave Crawlers Walkthrough and Guide
Copyright (c)2012 Jason Long.  All rights reserved.
Version 1.01.  Last Updated 03-26-2012