MapleStory The Legends Return Minigame Guide

MapleStory The Legends Return Minigame Guide by MrBearpoop and Draw

Please note that this is a minigame in Star Planet

Preface: The reason we are writing this guide is to further the meta in this game and bring more competition to the scene. Also, not enough people play party play in this game. I find myself often queing for more than 5 minutes!

Pregame Knowledge: On character select screen in the game remember to expand your map to the biggest possible size. Make sure you have map set on “normal” in system options, or else you won’t be able to see the entire map. Having full awareness of the map will allow you to avoid opponents if you’re low on health or kill them if they’re in a bad situation. Also know where every portal takes you. Make note of if on red or blue side (strategies explained later in this guide).

What to know before reading: This guide assumes that the reader already knows every characters’ skills. That part of the game will not be covered. Please note that this guide will refer to each skill as “character’s” “skill” (i.e. mage ult) for fluidity. There are three locations monsters spawn. These will be referred to as 1(mushrooms/pigs), 2(monkeys/deer), and 3(chronos/pirates. This guide will also not be covering Hologram Boss due to our lack of information about the risk/reward. Also, 3 side levels characters the fastest while killing players nets the killer more gold instead of levels. This was tested by our friend PSBN who got 32 kills and 0 deaths in a game and barely hit level 14, while I got to 15 with ease and no kills. Killing yourself by a monster attack or landing in your opponent’s base does not give the other team gold benefits/exp.

Goals Of Each Side:

Overall: In the simplest form, the goal of both teams is to become the strongest in the final fight. This will give you an edge over your opponents, increasing the chance that you win. In most cases, this means getting to level 15. In order to maximize a team’s leveling experience, here are a few tips. An important thing to note is that this game will cut off any extra exp when leveling. For example, if you needed only 10 exp to level up and you kill a mushroom which gives 27 exp, that extra 17 exp will not be added to the next level. The game will start you off at 0 exp once you level. Thus, when a team member is about 80-90% this member should not get the last hit on a monster, since any extra exp will not be counted towards your next level. Whoever gets the last hit on a monster gets the majority of the exp (around 60% of the monsters exp given). For example, if a mushroom is killed, the person who killed the mushroom would get 27 exp while the person’s teammates would get 9 exp each. In order to level the fastest, one must waste the least amount of exp leveling up. This will require one to coordinate well with one’s teammates. You can gauge your leveling success based on my best record of getting to level 15; I got 15 by 3:10 minutes left. One should target monkeys at 2 in early levels due to the Holodeers having too much hp and defense. Until around level 5, killing monkeys will grant faster exp gains. Same goes for targeting Chronos at 3 until you’re strong enough to kill the pirates too. Another very useful thing to apply to your game play is “ksing” or kill stealing. In this game, if your opponent gets the last killing hit on a monster, the opponent’s team gets all the exp. Even if you attack the monster until last hit, the exp will not be given to your team. This is very useful to apply in game because not only will it take you less time to kill a monster for exp, but also the opponent will waste a lot of time getting no exp. If done correctly, this will help further your team and your opponent’s levels immensely. Think of this game like a race to get to the highest level. In general, Red side is usually on the defense while Blue side is usually on the offense. This will be explained in depth later.

Red:

I am writing about Red side first because it is commonly thought of as the “bad” side. Too many times have I seen top players complain about losing because they were Red side. Here, I will explain why being on Red side isn’t disadvantageous. If played correctly, Red side could actually be better than Blue side. Where Red lacks at 2, Red makes up for it at 3. Early game, you’ll have to make every kill count. This is because of Blue’s ability to easily force you into a suicide or get-killed situation. Being on Red at 2 is quite tricky. Ironically, the safest way to avoid getting killed is by dying in Blue’s base by jumping off the left side of the map. The negatives of doing that is that Blue will be farm levels a lot faster than Red and exp will not be shared with the teammates that are dead. This could lead to very disproportionate levels among your teammates. One could be level 5 when the other could already be level 7. Basically, Red’s goal is to be as close of levels to Blue early in the game or else they risk getting dominated later in the game.

Usually, once Red is around level 6-7, going to 3 and killing Chronos becomes the best option. Late game Red side is the fun part. At 3, Red has a huge advantage over blue. There are so many advantages when killing monsters at 3. If pressured, Red can easily hop off the right side of 3 and heal in base. That being the case, Red can challenge Blue if Blue ever tries to come attack at 3. Blue will be constantly be hit 500s by Holopirates. This will make it easy to either kill or force them into your base. If Blue kill themselves by jumping into Red base, the revive time will cause Blue to not be able to get exp for a long time. Red’s job at 3 is to level and defend because leveling at 3 is the fastest. I remember outleveling a Blue team when they were all level 8 and we were all level 5. Because of Blue always dying when they tried to challenge at 3, we had the level lead in the final fight. It is very important to watch the map to see if Blue is plotting an attack at 3. Because Holopirates hit 500s it is safer to heal when at half health then risk dying when running back to heal with no hp. Dying to the monsters should never be an option because of the revival time and no exp share when dead. Generally, Red should be more on the defensive side late game because they can level a lot faster on their own turf (3). If you find yourself on the left side of 3 with low hp and an opponent on the right side of 3, think twice about using the top right portal at 1 to teleport to the right side of 3. It is probably best to jump down to the 1 area and walk back to your base that way.

Blue:

Your job as blue side is to abuse the fact that you can just fall off left side of map and land in your base to heal up to max health. Seeing as Red Team does not have this privilege, there is no reason Blue Team to lose a fight at 2, due to Blue always being at full health before a fight. Especially in early game, your goal is to force your opponents to either die to you, or die by jumping into your base. Not only will this slow Red’s ability to level up in the early game, but it also keeps Red busy running away instead of attacking monsters. If done right, by the time Blue reaches level 8, Red should only, at highest, level 6. With this early lead, Blue has Ultimate Abilities first, which can really net Blue a few easy kills. In late game when Red is farming monsters at 3, Blue has a few options. In a low risk approach, Blue can keep on farming at 2 and let Red catch up in levels. This will result in both teams being the same level in the final fight. This is a low risk approach because it will be hard for Red to kill Blue if they try to challenge by going 2. As explained earlier, Blue can easily escape fights by using portals and falling in their base.

In a more risky approach, Blue can try to find kills at 3 by quickly going to 3 at Blue Base and intercept any Red who is trying to jump off and heal at their own base. This is risky because Red can always trick Blue by hunting at the right edge of 3 with full health. Even if all three Blue go in and try to get kills, Red can easily fall off into their own base and heal or preset skills like Mage Ult and get an easy triple kill. If Red jumps off to heal in their own base, this leaves Blue at a very bad situation because Blue will be constantly hit 500s from pirates and Blue has no where to run if Red comes back with full health. Then, the only safe option is to jump down into red portal and kill yourself, which is a huge waste of time. The whole process of trying to kill Red, Red running away to heal, and then Blue killing themselves after knowing they will get killed, could be the time where Blue gets more exp farming at 2. It is really risky because if done incorrectly, Blue risks losing the level lead, getting killed, and spending 25 seconds reviving. Finally, finding a balance between challenging and farming is probably the best option. However, every Red team is different, so making the call is situational. For example, if you notice that Red is bad at watching map, or if they are constantly killing on left side of 3 and jumping down and teleporting to right side of 3, challenge and make them think twice about not watching their back. However, if Red is more experienced at 3, it is very hard to get kills on Red at 3.

Option Select: Option select is about having a reason why you use a skill. Too many times do I just see a manji run in and X then Z. Having predictable moves will likely not hit a person who is expecting it. For example, if I know a Manji will just X-Z, I will jump immediately to dodge the Z. The only time you should be predictable is when knowing it will kill the opponent. When on the offensive, don’t randomly throw out skills to try and achieve the maximum DPS. This can easily lead to the opponent running away and you having no skills to finish the opponent with. For example, sometimes a mage will instinctively Shift an opponent right when the mage sees the opponent. However, it would be better to use regular attacks first and bait your opponent into coming in and then shifting as final hit. Mage should save Shift because it has a lot of range. If your opponent is running away, it’s better to hit them with moves with less range and then Shift as they are running away, as this could possibly make the difference between killing your opponent and getting them low health.

Tasks for each character/Character Builds:

Mage: As a mage, your task is to avoid 1v1 situations unless you are sure you can win and also to take out players ultimate skill. A mage’s ultimate skill is really the only thing that he has that can reliably kill. Since a mage has very low health, they are vulnerable in 1v1 situations vs the entire cast. To counter this, mage has to use his ultimate in ways that prevent the enemy from getting close. (i.e. preemptive ulting). Many mages choose to camp the 2 spawn because there is no way of running away from the ultimate once it is casted. Some common counters to mage ultimate are: theif ultimate, manji’s “x” skill, and mike’s “x” skill. Mages ideally want to deal the most amount of damage in the least amount of time, so a recommended build would be attack, crit, speed, att, crit, att, crit… etc. It is not recommended to build hp/mp on a mage because at max hp/mp mages only reach 6.5k hp, still not enough to live a manji’s x skill or another mage’s ultimate. A mage’s goal early game is to get to lv 7 ASAP. the fastest way to do this is to have your teammates duo 2 once everyone is level 3, and you solo 1 until level 6~7. Training at 1 will benefit you and your whole team because as you get kills, your teammates also get experience. If your opponents are also training at 1, you can time your shift skill when the monsters are low to get easy kill steals. It is not recommended to train at 1 with multiple team members after level 3. Once you have reached level 7, it becomes faster to train at 2.

ON red side: When mage reaches level 8, he threatens his opponents with his ultimate. Because of this, it becomes more safe for mage to farm at 3. Mage can level very fast by soloing 3 because of his x, shift, and z for healing. You also have the option of healing in base whenever necessary. Be aware that by going back to base to heal will cause you to lose valuable time and you also risk getting sniped by the other team. (who can spawn on the right side of 3). This can be countered by preemptively ulting blue side’s 3 spawn to cover anyone who tries to challenge a mage at 3. Since you are on red side, you can easily run away from challengers by going back to base through the left portal (which takes you to the right side of 3) or traveling by foot through the bottom. This option is the most safe, however requires the most amount of time to heal.

ON blue side: When mage reaches level 8 on blue side, it is recommended to cover 2 spawn with your ultimate skill. Covering 2 spawn usually leads to an easy kill or a ton of exp from the monsters. On blue side, a mage cannot go to 3 unless he is teamed with either a manji, mu gong, or mike. Think of going 3 as a high risk, high reward option. If you go 3 and end up getting killed, you wasted all that time where you could have been getting exp from monsters, and the extra 15 seconds that it takes to respawn. However, if you manage to take out some of red side’s members, you can spend the time that they take to respawn to kill the weakened monsters for quick exp. If you are low health at 3, it is best to kill yourself before your opponents arrive.

Team Compositions:

Manji Mage Mike Team: This team has so many options in the final fight. Any character can rush or stay back. Mage can run in and ult the opponent and Mage can also support fairly well with X, Shift doing a good amount of damage. Manji, possibly the most OP classes, can help support with stun and finishing with X or he can just run in and try to take out the opponent. His insane speed, hard hitting moves, and good amount of HP gives him the option to play all roles in the final fight. Mike is extremely underrated. I don’t see enough Mike’s in game. He has the ability to tank lots of hits and heal his team very quickly. He is only lacking in speed. With the longest stun in game, Mike can time the explosion of X and stun an opponent. Stun has a lot of uses in the final fight.

Manji Mike Thief Team: Having a no mage team? What in the world is he thinking? It seems the majority of people who play TLR believe that mage is extremely useful in the final fight because of mage’s ability to 1 shot a lot of the cast with ult. However, that is the only skill that challenges the opponent. Without ult, mage is just a squishy character. With this team composition, this team has the power to dodge or tank mage ult easily. It takes almost no skill to dodge mage ult as a thief. As you see the ult animation, all you have to do is put up your own ult and disappear. If mage should never try to ult thief because it will always miss completely. Next, if Mage tries to ult Manji, Manji can easily dodge the ult. Manji’s mobility and his X makes it nearly impossible to get hit by ult. If Mage tries to ult from the bottom, Manji can easily jump over it on the top platform. He also has a safety X which moves him a great distance within a flash just incase you were not prepared to dodge ult. Finally, Mike can easily tank Mage’s ult. His X, ult, and C can heal himself back to full or high health within a few seconds. Even if Mage builds max crit and luckily (30% crit chance at max level) lands an ult on Mike doing 14.5k damage (this will 1 hit anything), if you C at the right time, the game will think you’re still alive heal you from 0 health. All these characters have an easy time against Mage final fight. One may think that this team composition is lacking in leveling up with before the final fight. However, this is not true based on Thief’s ability to level early game due to Theif’s ability to outrange monkeys and not lose health, Mike’s ability to never die at 3 or die to opponents, and Manji’s versatility at 2 and 3. I have tested this team composition and it has worked quite well in final fight. The downfall to this team is that Mike is out speeded by Manij and if left in a 1v1 situation, Manji could easily make it a Draw or win.

Tips for the Final Fight: If Manji just runs in, try to 3v1 the manji on the other team without taking much damage. Always dodge mage ult, or take it for your team if you’re Mike. Don’t ult thief Try to take out mage first before mage uses ult.

About the Authors: Draw: I’ve been playing Super Smash Bros. Melee for almost 2 years now. In that time, I have learned skills applicable to any other fighting game. While I may not be a veteran in the game yet, I still have knowledge on the basics of neutral game, punish game, and technicality. I like to play Maplestory occasionally. I find TLR the most fun to play in this game because it require the most skill to be good at. Unlike regular maple which has a P2P aspect, TLR is completely fair for everyone. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions. I was too lazy to elaborate in some areas.

TL;DR: Blue side too OP, ez win 100%.