[In-Depth] Shadower Guide (2024)

Hi Royallers! I present to you my comprehensive (and extremely detailed) Shadower guide, especially constructed to fit the content of MapleRoyals.

A short introduction of myself: I'm Marty and have always been a fan of Thief classes due to their stealth, spectacularly flashy skills (not kidding) and high mobility, accuracy and avoidability, as well as decent damage output and great gameplay. I joined MapleRoyals early November 2013 and started my character Linyah, now a high-level Shadower, one of the best currently active Shadower on the rankings. I have collected tons of knowledge of Shadowers during this time and I want to help out all the new (Chief) Bandits by passing on my knowledge, thus this guide!

This guide is purely based on personal experience I gained over the years; some people might prefer other means of reaching their goals. I will present and evaluate several tough choices you will have to make as a Shadower, and explain them to the best of my capabilities. Feel free to comment on this guide, I'm always accepting constructive criticism and feedback.

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Contents

1. Introduction to Bandits
2. Pros / Cons
3. AP Builds
5. 3rd Job - SP Build
6. Mechanics - Meso Explosion Explained
9. Training Locations
10. Bombing Techniques
11. Dropping Techniques
12. Recommended Equipment and Weapons
13. HP Washing - Yes or No?
15. Special Thanks

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Introduction to Bandits

You have chosen to be a Thief, specifically a Bandit. Great choice! Thieves are known for their high mobility, stealth and damage, as well as extremely high avoidability and accuracy. They are also known to be very expensive, though! Nonetheless, Thieves are considered one of the most fun to play classes of MapleStory.

There are two Thief classes: Assassins and Bandits. Assassins use throwing-stars and -knives to deal high, single-target damage, using their claws. Bandits, on the other hand, aren't really ranged; they use daggers to inflict damage to monsters. Bandits also possess one of the most remarkable and strongest skills in the game, called Meso Explosion, which causes a lot of damage using the Mesos laying on the ground.
When it comes to stats, the primary stat for Thieves is LUK. Their secondary stat is DEX, and most Bandits choose to also get STR as secondary stats. More to this later on!

Why do I want to be a Bandit?
Bandits are probably one of the strongest bossers in the game due to Meso Explosion. This, combined with Smokescreen, makes them highly desirable bossing partners. They are also have a very diverse skill kit and are, therefore, a lot of fun to play.

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Pros & Cons

Of course, Bandits have their good and bad sides. I will present them all to you now, to make your decision to make a Bandit or not a lot easier. This list should compile all aspects worth mentioning.

Pros

• Very high single-target DPS (with Meso Explosion).
• Very easy to level from 70 to 130.
• Diverse skillset, allowing several purposes (bossing, grinding, hunting, etc.).
• Desired in bossing parties.
• Capable of bossing early on with Meso Explosion.

Cons

• Very expensive.
• Training gets slow and expensive at very high levels.
• Meso Explosion damage isn't stat-dependant, which means others will eventually start to outdamage you.
• 4th Job skills are underpowered compared to other classes with the v62 Skill Table. This might change in the foreseeable future; please refer to the respective part of this guide for more info!

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AP Builds

There’s several ways of distributing your AP. I will demonstrate all used methods now. Remember, you need 25 DEX for your job advancement! Also remember that if you decide to do HP washing (refer to that section or any HP washing guide you can find until I finished it myself), the INT should be taken into account. These builds don't have any HP washing part included, so no INT!

Normal Bandit
This is the most common AP build. It's pretty straight-forward: Keep your STR and DEX as low as possible. You shouldn't even bother about STR at first, too! Add STR only from Level 100 onwards! It's not as good beforehand. Your primary stat is LUK (duh.) and should be as high as possible. Until Level 40, your DEX should always be Level x 2 to wear your equips. From that point onwards, it's Level + 40 DEX. Of course, you will get equips later on that give DEX. Don't worry about that; AP Resets are cheap (6-8m) and you can just reset away DEX you don't need. That's all there is to it.

DEX: Level 10-40, you have to have (Level) x 2 DEX. For example, you’re Level 33, which means you need 66 DEX total (not including bonuses from equips). After Level 40, you need (Level) + 40 DEX, so if you’re, for example, Level 76, you need 116 DEX total. The maximum DEX needed is 150, since this is all you need for both Dragon Khanjar and and your Level 110 weapon.
STR: Well, this is hard to describe. You will only start adding STR at Level 100 or so. In total, you will need about 50-60 STR (if you have a Zhelm). You will have to put it all in from Level 100 to 110. You don't need more than 75 STR.

STR-less Bandit
This is very similar to the Normal Bandit AP build; you just don’t have any base STR. Your base STR will remain 4 with this build; this is a very good build throughout the early phase, that’s for sure. However, it's not efficient late-game! I added the comparison based on my own stats in a spoiler. If you can't be bothered with looking into that: STR-less Bandits are mostly stronger until you can get a good scrolled Dragon Khanjar. It loses its power later on, though, with the Dragon Khanjar. So I recommend you to mix it up and add STR around Level 100-110 for your Dragon Khanjar. Without it, the minimal damage bonus from STR daggers is in no way as good as the potential LUK. The DEX formula from above applies here, too. If you STILL want to do this: You gotta be funded. No doubt. You need a really good Maple Shield to be able make this good, and with the same money, you can get a better Dragon Khanjar. Therefore I only recommend this for when you already have such a Maple Shield!

This includes Maple Warrior!

LUK = 735 + 121 = 856
STR = 34 + 51 = 85
DEX = 60 + 94 =154
W.ATT = 228

Maximum damage: floor((856 LUK * 3.6 + 154 DEX + 85 STR) /100 * 228 W.ATT) = 7,570

Now STR-less:

I replaced my own 42 W.ATT. Dragon Khanjar with a 30 W.ATT. Maple Shield. These are both perfect shields. I also take into account Maple Warrior. I have 34 base STR, enabling me to take away 30. I still add the ~45 STR you will get from equips + Maple Warrior. I also took away 2 W.ATT, which is the difference between STR and DEX Daggers.

LUK = 856 + (48 * 1.05) = 887
STR = 50 (4 base)
DEX = 60 + 94 =154
W.ATT = 228 - 12 - 2 = 214

Maximum damage: floor((887 LUK * 3.6 + 154 DEX + 85 STR) / 100 * 214 W.ATT) = 7,344

Conclusion: With somewhat decent end-game gear and a high level, STR-less bandits will be approx. 3-4% weaker than normal bandits (based on my own stats). This is even higher if you're unfunded.

Full-LUK (DEX/STR-less) Bandit
Unlike the two above builds, you don't have any secondary stats: You only add LUK. This isn't very efficient, even with the addition of a Kebob. Your range will be significantly lower, as you can see in the spoiler below. If you have a DEX-less Night Lord, though, this will save costs for items, so it's a lot cheaper if this is the case. If not, don't go this way unless you have a good reason to do so. I hope I made that clear now.

This includes Maple Warrior!

LUK = 735 + 121 = 856
STR = 34 + 51 = 85
DEX = 60 + 94 =154
W.ATT = 228

Maximum damage: floor((856 LUK * 3.6 + 154 DEX + 85 STR) /100 * 228 W.ATT) = 7,570

Now full-LUK:

I replaced my own 42 W.ATT. Dragon Khanjar with a 30 W.ATT. Maple Shield. These are both perfect shields. I also take into account Maple Warrior. I have 34 base STR, enabling me to take away 30. The same applies for DEX; I can take away 35 DEX, giving me 35 extra LUK. I still add the ~45 STR and ~55 DEX you will get from equips + Maple Warrior. I also took away 20 W.ATT, since this is the difference between a high ATT on a Kebob compared to my own Dragon Kanzir.

LUK = 735 + 121 + (30 * 1.05) + (35 * 1.05) = 924
STR = 50 (4 base)
DEX = 80 (25 base)
W.ATT = 228 - 20 = 208

Maximum damage: floor((924 LUK * 3.6 + 80 DEX + 50 STR) / 100 * 208 W.ATT) = 7,189

Conclusion: With somewhat decent end-game gear and a high level, full-LUK bandits will be approx. 5-6% weaker than normal bandits (based on my own stats). This is even higher if you're unfunded.

See Also

Reinstalling and patching your Quicken Subscription version after your membership has expired (Quicken for Mac)Quicken Subscription Membership FAQsReinstalling and patching your Quicken Subscription version after your membership has expiredQuicken Review (2023): Features, Pricing & More

LUK-less Bandit
Some of you might wonder now; LUK-less Bandit? Is that possible? Yes, it is! This is a rather unorthodox build, yes; it is, however, plausible with the right funding, and definitely strong end-game. Your primary stats will be DEX and STR. LUK can be added for some extra damage output. Warning: These are truly a pain to train until Level 70! After Level 70, it should be manageable to level at a high extent to a level where your DEX comes to use after you reach 3rd Job and get Meso Explosion. The key here is to get as much Weapon ATT as possible from your equips instead of LUK/DEX/STR (Think of Facestompers, SCG, PGC, you name it), which is why STR is definitely useful for the Dragon Khanjar. Use the STR formula used above! The rest is dumped into DEX.

Why would you do this, you ask? Simple. LUK provides most damage for Bandits, yes. DEX and STR, however, add damage, too; just less. They make up for stable damage. To give you an example: I can deal between 28,510 damage and 49,530 damage with Boomerang Step, which is a range of 21,000. As LUK-less Bandit, your damage will be very stable. As you can see in the example below, the maximum and minimum damage of a full LUK-less bandit is only about 100 apart, so your Bstep range is about 1,000. At high levels and very good gear, you can deal tremendous damage with this, and always deal this damage (Still, normal bandits deal a lot more).

Since this build requires a lot of patience and funding, I do not recommend this for beginning players; this is for those who want a challenge and are willing to spend a lot of mesos on it! You have to be very, very funded for this! Not only that, this is something for those who want a challenge. LUK-less Bandits can't compete with normal ones damage-wise.

The example here is a Level 150 LUK-less Bandit. I'm working with relatively good end-game gear, comparable to my own gear (even a bit better). I also take into account Maple Warrior.

LUK = 40 (taking into account Zakum Helmet and other stuff, 4 base LUK)
DEX = 800 (~700 base DEX)
STR = 110 (75 base LUK)
W.ATT = 200

Maximum damage: floor((40 LUK * 3.6 + 800 DEX + 110 STR) / 100 * 200 W.ATT = 2,108
Minimum damage: floor((40 LUK * 0.9 * 0.6 Mastery + 800 DEX + 110 STR) / 100 * 200 W.ATT = 1,975

Blood Bandit
The principle of blood bandits is quite simple: You get to 25 DEX for your Job Requirement, and then only add AP into HP. Why? Simple. From LV. 70 onwards, you'll have Meso Explosion, which deals static damage, not based on your LUK, DEX or STR. So you can just pump everything into your HP and be able to tank anything at very early levels. With this, your range will obviously be at rock bottom, but you'll have 30,000 HP before you even hit LV. 200. This is the cheaper alternative to HP washing, but means you won't be of any use without ME. Once you've hit 30,000 HP, you can put points in either DEX, STR or LUK. Only meant for people wanting to make a bossing mule or have fun with Meso Explosion.

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1st & 2nd Job - SP Build

There is two paths to choose; Sindit and the normal Bandit. Sindits are more powerful than normal bandits and use throwing-stars until Level ~40, thus the name (Assassin+Bandit=Sindit). I only recommend this when you can afford two or three sets of Ilbi Throwing-Stars, otherwise the damage difference is so insignificant that it's not worth it. Ilbis aren't that expensive, though; with 10-15 million mesos (which isn't a lot on this server), you can easily afford some of those bad boys. Now, to the SP builds! These are just recommendations of what I consider the most useful, you can tweak it around a bit.

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3rd Job - SP Build

From this point onwards, you'll be focusing on Meso Explosion, your core skill. Let the bossing begin!

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Mechanics - Meso Explosion Explained

Now, this is one of your signature skills. It is, however, a rather complex skill. The damage formula can be found at the end of this guide. The skill description in-game already shows some of this, but it in no way illustrates on some important details. The in-game description...

First of all, it states that you can only blow up your own mesos. This means the mesos dropped by monsters you killed, the Pickpocket meso drops and mesos you actually dropped yourself. This is quite obvious and straightforward, I'd say.
The second thing mentioned is the Mastery, which is 100% at Level 30. The Mastery simply determines the damage, and increases up to 100% as you level Meso Explosion. At 100% Mastery, you will deal a set amount of damage, which is unrelated to your stats (LUK/DEX/STR), and will remain constant until Level 200. To give you an idea of the damage dealt, I have tested it with several amounts of mesos dropped per bag. This graph illustrates the damage dealt. This also disproves the theory that the maximum damage of Meso Explosion is reached at 10,000 mesos, since this is simply not true (I have blown up 30,000,000 mesos just to test this).

This graph displays the damage dealt by one Meso Explosion (LV. 30) with 20 bags or more of a specific amount mesos. E.g. when there's 20 bags of 1,000 mesos on the ground, ME will use them to deal a total of 88,000 damage. Formula: (27,500 + [ME level] * 2,750 / 3) * [Bag size] / ([Bag size] + 5,250) * 10 or 55,000 * [Mastery] * [Bag size] / ([Bag size] + 5,250) * 10 (100% Mastery = 1; 50% Mastery = 0,5).

As you can see, the damage does improve at higher meso drops, but it also gets out of proportion. For example, the damage is doubled from 1,000 to 4,000 mesos per bag, which is 4x the mesos per bag for double the damage. From 5,000 to 50,000 mesos per bag also doubles the damage, but it also takes 10x the mesos per bag to do so. This is why most Shadowers choose to find a good balance between mesos per bag and damage dealt; this balance is, for most Shadowers, 4,000 - 6,000 mesos per bag. This deals good damage and is still within an affordable range. On a side-note: Meso Explosion always knocks back to the left.

Freeze Bug
An interesting bug is the one where Meso Explosion causes monsters (only really applies to bosses in practice) freeze when you use Meso Explosion on them for a long time. If you don't interrupt your bombing and blow up a lot of money for a long time, there's a chance that the monster will stop using any magic attacks and will stop moving. Since normal monsters die after bombing that much, it only works on bosses: It mostly happens at Zakum, Papulatus, Pianus and Bigfoot. This bug, if it even is a bug (not sure), is efficient for us and our party members, since there's no magic attacks, so there's that!

Visual Bug
Another thing is the Meso Explosion visual bug explained by myself in this thread. Essentially, you see this when you blow up mesos:

That was 5 hits, approximately 50,000 damage per hit. However, anyone spectating you bombing will see the following:

A spectator will see 10 hits, approximately 25,000 damage per hit. Your damage remains the same, of course; just don't be confused when you only see 5 hits instead of 10!

Advanced techniques: "Speed bombing"
This is a more advanced part of Meso Explosion, but also a very important one. Skip to the TL; DR at the end if you aren't interested in the details. Now, to start off: The Meso Explosion delay is 750 milliseconds. After 750 milliseconds, a new Meso Explosion is started (with Dagger Booster on). However, for all 20 meso bags used per Meso Explosion to explode, you have to wait 2 seconds, since it takes 100 milliseconds to explode 1 meso bag. The full damage is dealt on the first 5 bags exploded. So, to sum up so far:

See Also

How Do I Manage My Quicken Subscription?

• Meso Explosion's delay is 750 ms with Dagger Booster.
• It takes 100 ms to blow up 1 meso bag.
• All damage is dealt in 500 ms, the first 5 bags exploded.

Now, if you were to spam Meso Explosion, a new Meso Explosion would start every 750 ms. Up until then, you have only exploded 8 bags of the previous Meso Explosion. So, you have dealt all damage, but haven't exploded all 20 bags yet. Here's the whole point of this: The next Meso Explosion will use the meso bags that haven't been exploded on the previous one yet, and deal damage with it. So this reduces the bags used per Meso Explosion to 8 instead of 20. Now, what does this mean for your damage? This means that you can potentially deal 250% of the original damage with the same amount of mesos if you can use Meso Explosion without interruption. This makes Shadowers so incredibly strong at major bosses; you can bomb with only few interruptions at Zakum, meaning you deal way more damage with the same amount of mesos, and in a lot less time. This also makes skills like Smokescreen and Shadow Shifter incredibly important, since this will help you get interrupted a lot less at such major bosses, meaning you deal more damage overall in less time.

TL; DR: If you use Meso Explosion without any interruption, you deal 250% of the damage you are supposed to deal with that amount of mesos in less time. This, of course, is incredibly strong and makes you very good at major bosses like Zakum, Papulatus, Pianus, Horntail, etc., and a very desirable bossing partner. This also means you can drop more mesos during 1 dropping phase, since you make them explode faster (remember, mesos disappear after 5 minutes!). To bomb with even less interruptions, you should max Shadow Shifter and Smokescreen very quick (look at the 4th Job SP build for more info!).

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4th Job - SP Build, Mastery Books & More

Congratulations on reaching Level 120! It's time to do your fourth job advancement in Leafre. Go to El Nath to get the Recommendation Letter (or whatever the item is called) from your 3rd Job Instructor. Then head to Leafre and talk to your 4th Job Instructor, Hellin. She will ask you for two items: Heroic Pentagon and Heroic Star. Get a Secret Spell Scroll (they are often sold in the FM for 15,000,000 mesos) by either buying one from someone or going down to the 44th floor of the Eos Tower yourself to buy it for 10,000,000 mesos. Exchange the scroll at Chief Tatamo in Leafre for the items, then head back to Hellin. You’re now a Shadower! Congratulations!

Skills & Skill order
Now, I don’t know which Mastery Books you have, so I will make a sort of priority list. First of all, at Level 120, after your job advancement, you get Shadow Shifter, Boomerang Step, Taunt and Venom if I recall correctly. Use the book you got for Maple Warrior 10. Now, there’s several quests to get more skills. Here’s all the skills summed up for you:

Boomerang Step: Your main attacking skill. When used, you go into a so-called iFrame; this essentially is brief moment where you can’t get hit while attacking. I will explain this in the next section, where I elaborate on all mechanics of the 4th job skills. This skill has a delay of two seconds. At level 1, you deal 210% damage twice to 2 monsters in range. This goes up by 10% every level, and the maximum amount of monsters hit goes up every 10 levels (Level 1, 11 and 21). At level 30, you therefore deal 500% damage twice to up to 4 monsters. Also has a chance to stun your enemies (90% at level 30).
Shadow Shifter: Makes you completely avoid a hit with a given chance. Level 1 means 11% chance to dodge an attack, and at Level 30, this is 40% (increases by 1% every level).
Maple Warrior: Adds stats for a short period of time. At Level 10, this would be +5% all stats for 300 seconds (5 minutes).
Assassinate: Deals damage 3 times to a monster, and dashes forward to deal a critical hit to the same monster. The damage exponentially rises when you charge this attack, by staying in Dark Sight longer before using Assassinate.
Smokescreen: Summons a smokescreen, that makes all party members in its range invincible. Range and duration increase as you level it. Cooldown is 10 minutes.
Taunt: Gives a monster a higher drop rate, meso drop rate and XP given. This doesn’t work on major bosses, but stacks with Holy Symbol (not 100% sure).
Venom: Adds poison to your weapon. Deals damage over time when you hit a monster with a certain chance. This chance, as well as the damage dealt and the period of time in which it is dealt, increases as you level the skill. Impossible to kill monsters with this; they will drop to 1 HP, but not lower.
Ninja Ambush: Deals damage to all monsters around you. The skilldoesn’t work on MapleRoyals.
Some of these skills are very important, some are useful and some are just useless, especially on MapleRoyals. To put them into order:

1. Boomerang Step
2. Shadow Shifter
3. Maple Warrior
4. Smokescreen
5. Assassinate
6. Venom
7. Taunt
8. Ninja Ambush

However, this can be different depending on the Mastery Books you have! If you don’t have [Mastery Book] Boomerang Step 30, you have to max Shadow Shifter first. I will explain my reasoning for this, as well as the general order, now.
At Level 120, you get 3 SP. 1 goes to Boomerang Step, 1 to Shadow Shifter and the last depends on what you want: If you have the time and funding to do the Smokescreen quest, you should do it right now and put the last point in Smokescreen. If you don’t want to do this or are very poor, you can just throw it in any skill you want, except for Taunt and Ninja Ambush. These skills don't work properly and are rendered useless. They might be fixed someday, but as of yet, they remain glitched. I recommend putting it in Venom, since this adds just a little bit of DPS.

Shadow Shifter or Boomerang Step?
From that point onwards, you have to choose first: Shadow Shifter or Boomerang Step. This completely depends on your preparations; if you have passed Boomerang Step 30 (you can use the 20 book at Level 1, and when you pass it, you can use the 30 book at Level 1, too), you should max Boomerang Step first. Otherwise, choose for Shadow Shifter; this will help during bossing because of the higher miss rate. The 20 books for both skills are very easy to obtain; Boomerang Step 20 is even dropped in the FM as it is a Skelosaurus drop. After maxing both skills as far as possible, follow the order presented above. Smokescreen and Maple Warrior are both very important; Smokescreen gives you a great party skill that will be very useful during Zakum runs, Papulatus, Pianus, you name it. Do remember to use it at a time where as much profit can be gained from it as possible! Maple Warrior is needed for the +5% of all stats it gives you; you can even only get 147 DEX (base and bonuses from equips), since Maple Warrior will give you the last 3 DEX needed for a Dragon Khanjar. Same goes for the last 2 STR!

Mastery Books
Since you will be needing Mastery Books to increase a skill’s maximum level, I will post the drop list here. Those that I can’t confirm entirely are marked red.

Boomerang Step 20: Skelegon, Skelosaurus, Lyka
Boomerang Step 30: Papulatus, Krexel
Shadow Shifter 20: Dark Wyvern, Left Pianus
Shadow Shifter 30: Leviathan, Right Pianus, Dodo, Qualm Monk Trainee
Smokescreen 20: Zakum3
Smokescreen 30: Horntail
Maple Warrior 20: Horntail
Assassinate 20: Jr. Newtie, Griffey
Assassinate 30: Doesn't drop - obtained from GPQ bonus
Ninja Ambush 20: Spirit Viking
Ninja Ambush 30: GPQ bonus stage, Krexel
Taunt 20: Nest Golem, Manon, Lilynouch
Taunt 30: Zakum3
Venom 20: Green Cornian, Dark Cornian, Papulatus
Venom 30: Zakum3, Memory Monk Trainee, Qualm Monk
Job Quests
Several skills require quests to acquire them. I can tell you right now some of these quests don't work on MapleRoyals, and I have personally never taken the time to thoroughly test them. I've heard Ninja Ambush can be obtained when you ask a GM; Taunt, however, is bugged in itself, too, so it's not worth getting it. I will start with the most important quest for a skill: Smokescreen. I have used this source when I got it myself, and will therefore use it in my guide, as well.

Formula for the Black Cloud - Smokescreen
Go to Orbis and hunt Lucidas. Find them on the Stairway to Sky and Garden of Darkness maps. Keep defeating them until you acquire the Formula for Black Cloud book.
Go to Orbis Tower and speak to Hughes the Fuse, the mad scientist in the laboratory.
Collect the items Hughes asks for: the 10 Dual Pirate's Propellers dropped by Dual Pirates, 50 Screws awarded by completing quests and dropped by Psycho Jack, 100 Ink Bottles dropped by Squid, 20 Steel Plates received from quests or refined, and 50 Cogs found by defeating varieties of Chronos.
Speak to Kay in the Omega Sector and bring her a Steel Plate and 100 Propellers dropped by Helly, the helicopter monster, to receive a Ventilation Fan.
Speak to Porter in the tower (near the Silo). He will ask you to kill Papulatus in Ludi. Having a Papulatus Certificate will be enough. Once finished, returned to Porter, and he will award you with a Long-Lasting Battery.
Return to Hughes and give him the items. He will award you with the Black Cloud Maker. Use this item to add Smokescreen to your list of available skills. To use the Black Cloud Maker, open your inventory and double-click on it. You will now be able to use the Smoke Screen skill.

The One Hidden in the Shadow - Ninja Ambush
Talk to your 4th Job Instructor to start the quest.
Go to the Dark Lord in Kerning City. He will explain about the six Disciples.
Talk to him again and click the last option (under the ETC. section).
You will be warped to a map ith 6 Dark Lords in it. Kill them all. The portal back back to the Dark Lord doesn’t work, so you have to reconnect.
Talk to the Dark Lord again to receive the skill!

This skill is glitched! Refer to the mechanics section for more information.

Arec and Shadower - Assassinate
Talk to your 3rd Job Instructor in El Nath, Arec. He will tell you to visit Shawn at Excavation Site <Camp>.
Go to Shawn and talk to him and follow his instructions. Once you have done this, you will have to talk to him (or Shuang, not entirely sure) to get warped to a new map. This warp does not work, you will disconnect. Contact a GM and ask for the item, Shawn’s Request.
Give the item to Shawn to receive the skill!

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Mechanics - 4th Job Skills & v86 Skill Tables?

A lot of 4th job skills are rather complex and I thought I’d make a special part for the skills and explain their mechanics. I will also explain in detail how the skills are glitched. I will also provide some background info about the discussion about the v86 Skill Tables and explain why this is highly beneficial for Shadowers.

Skill Mechanics
First of all, let me point out that Shadowers have three glitched 4th job skills. These are Ninja Ambush, Taunt and Assassinate. Two skills, Ninja Ambush and Taunt, don’t work at all; they just show their animations and that’s it, no damage and no effect. Assassinate, on the other hand, is different. The skill works fine in theory; however, its true purpose, attack combos at bosses, is nullified because it simply disconnects you. If you find any other info in my description that is wrong or you see something is missing, please tell me!

Boomerang Step
Your main attacking skill. Dashes forward and back quickly, dealing 210-500% damage to up to 2-4 monsters twice. The damage increases by 10% per level, and the amount of monsters hit every 10 levels. There’s several things you have to know about this skill. First of all, the delay between two beginnings of a Boomerang Step is 2 seconds (with Dagger Booster). This means you can determine your DPS by multiplying your average attack range with the damage percentage of one Boomerang Step hit. This makes Boomerang Step a lot weaker, sadly. Secondly, remember that the range of Boomerang Step is bigger than the animation. Not a lot, but even monsters who are barely touched by the tip of Boomerang Step or just not hit at all by the animation still receive damage. This makes the total range of Boomerang Step 400, which is the distance from the middle of the screen to the left/right side. To get an idea of the animation size and the actual size, let me illustrate it:

The red bars show the actual range of Boomerang Step compared to the animation itself. As you can see, there's a slight difference between the hitbox and the animation, so keep that in mind!

Another important aspect of Boomerang Step is the so-called iFrame. The concept of iFrames is simple: While using the skill, your character disappears, making you invulnerable to all damage for a short period of time. When you're in the dash of Boomerang Step (as seen above), this iFrame takes place, and you can't take damage. This makes grinding a bit easier, since it adds extra invulnerability and therefore less potions! This can also be used to dodge attacks if timed correctly. Boomerang Step also stuns all monsters hit, with a whopping 90% chance at Level 30! This is useful, too, for grinding, as it pretty much makes you get hit almost... Well, never.

Shadow Shifter
Shadow Shifter is one of your most important skills. It doesn't deal any damage directly; however, it prevents you from getting knocked back, meaning you can utilise the "speed bombing" principle more efficiently.

It also looks nice and has a humorous touch, since you F2 when it procs. At Level 1, you have 11% chance of not getting hit, which increases by 1% every level (40% at Level 30). A Shadow Shifter proc is recognisable by the puppet popping up in front of you:

Now, the concept is simple: When you get hit by a monster, it first determines if a Shadow Shifter proc occurs, based on the level of Shadow Shifter. If this is the case, only the puppet will appear and you will receive no damage and no knockback. If this isn't the case, it will first see if you will get missed or get hit, just like normal. So, adding to Shadow Shifter the high avoidability Shadowers have, you get a ridiculously high miss rate in the end. This is of importance with speed bombing (refer to the Meso Explosion section above), and is very useful in general. Let me also point out that the Shadower Shadow Shifter has 10% more dodge chance the the Night Lord one!

Assassinate
This is probably one of the most complex skills of Shadowers. You deal 3-4 hits to a single monster. You can only use this skill when you’re in Dark Sight, too. The 4th hit only occurs when the monster still lives after the first 3 hits, and the 4th hit is a dash. This 4th hit has a certain chance to be a critical hit, and the critical damage increases as you level up Assassinate. The damage dealt with all hits increases when you charge Assassinate and has 3 stages: Uncharged, half-charged and fully charged. The charge time increases every 10 levels, and so does the damage.

With a fairly decent range, it’s possible to actually hit the damage cap of 199,999 with one hit at LV. 30 Assassinate! Very unlikely… However, the last hit can be a critical hit, dealing 250% damage, which will make you hit damage cap with ease.

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Training Locations

Level 10 - 20:

1. Ellinia - Southern Forest I
2. Henesys Hunting Ground I - III

Level 21 - 29:

1. Kerning City PQ
2. Kerning Subway Area 1
3. Ant Tunnel I - IV

Level 30 - 50:

1. Monster Carnival
2. Cave of Evil Eye I - III

Level 51 - 70:

1. Ludibrium Maze PQ
2. Singapore - Ghost Ship 2
3. El Nath - Forest of Dead Trees IV

Level 71 - 120+ (bombing):

1. Encounter with the Buddha (Himes) - see notes below
2. Bigfoot & Headless Horseman
3. Deep Sea Gorge II (Gobies)
4. Crimsonwood Keep

Level 120+ (grinding):

1. Temple of Time - whichever map you can train at efficiently
2. The Dragon Nest Left Behind
3. Elderwraiths

High-level bosses:

1. Bigfoot (LV. 70+, gives 13.6m XP with leecher and HS, takes 7m to bomb)
2. Krexel (Requires pre-quest, gives 72m XP without HS, takes 70m to bomb)
3. Zakum (LV. 135+, gives up to 30m XP in a party)
4. Horntail (LV. 155+, gives up to 70m XP in a main party, 30m in 3rd party)

Note: If you don't know how a Duo as a CB works at Himes:

1. You need a Priest to lure the mobs (either with Shining Ray or Heal). For better results, try looking for a max HS priest.
2. You need at least lv1 Meso Explosion and around 5,000,000 mesos (this is not an exact number, you may need less but its not recommended to have less than this when going to this map) for each hour you plan on staying. (Don't worry much about losing this money, the equips/scrolls you get from this map are enough to repay this and even get some more money out of it).
3. Go to the corner and wait while using Dark Sight to prevent mobs from killing you.
4. Drop mesos as the priest is luring the monsters and use Meso Explosion when all the mobs are at the corner with the priest.
5. Repeat.

• Do not come out of Dark Sight unless you are bombing. If you get hit once and have a bit of HP do not panic and try getting away from the Magic Attacks from Himes.
• Ideally your Priest should use Heal at all times. It has a faster animation than Shining Ray, therefore luring the monsters faster and when positioning in the corner, the priest will be healing you in case anything happens.
• Try positioning your mesos near but not to close to the corner. Drop bags of 2.2k (or more if you don't have Meso Explosion maxed, formula: 2,200 / Mastery [beware, it's in %, so divide by 100!] mesos near the left side of the tomb. Around 25 bags should be enough to kill all Dreamy Ghosts.
• (If you don't have Meso Guard/want to avoid damage) Position yourself here when your priest is coming back to the corner. This will prevent you from being hit by the Dreamy Ghost's magic attacks.

Credits to Bizqnation.

These are just recommendations; there are other places that serve as decent training spot. Bombing other bosses like Papulatus and Pianus is decent. Right now, Meso Explosion is your main training skill and is superior to standard grinding in almost every case.

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Bombing Techniques

This is mostly just for Bigfoot bombing, against other bosses, you just drop mesos and bomb them all, often keeping them to the left wall, as fast as possible ("speed bombing"). For Bigfoot bombing, however, there's two ways of doing so.

Normal Bigfoot bombing
This is the most commonly seen way of bombing a Bigfoot amongst Shadowers and Chief Bandits. The concept is simple: Drop mesos in Dark Sight, then bait him onto your mesos. When he jumps, bomb twice and move back a bit. When he starts moving towards you again, bomb twice again to knock him back. Rinse and repeat. This requires quite a bit of practice, but can lead to fast clearing times when mastered.

Cost: 7,000,000 mesos per Bigfoot
Duration: Depends on how fast you drop and how many mistakes you make; 7 - 14 minutes.

Bigfoot Pinning
This is a special way of killing Bigfoot. Bigfoot gets stuck in the wall when you hit him (and knock him back) at the very end of the map (against a wall) for a bit. He then knocks back, then stays there for about a second before he will start to move again. This is called pinning. To keep him pinned, you have to time your attacks; he knocks back into the wall, and you can't hit him during this short period of time; you have to hit him in the 0.5-1 second(s) of him being "stuck" against the wall to keep him there. Too slow and he moves away, too fast and you miss, causing him to move away nonetheless. This is mostly done by Warriors and Pirates; however, Shadowers can do it, too. It's even very easy for us once he's pinned; Boomerang Step has a 2-second delay (with Booster), so we don't have to watch our timing with Boomerang Step.

The trick is to bait him to the left wall (only left because of the Meso Explosion knockback), and then moving in the other direction and quickly leaving Dark Sight and turning around to pin him. To demonstrate this, again a video. Keep in mind that Dark Sight is slightly delayed!

Once you have him pinned with Boomerang Step, you can switch to Meso Explosion (if you have dropped mesos at the left wall beforehand) and pin him with that. You can't spam Meso Explosion, you have to time it! One last video to show how to switch from Boomerang Step to ME and time your Meso Explosion!

All this can be done in any map where Bigfoot spawns (Twisted Paths 1 - 5, Evil Rising, Evil Dead, Forgotten Path).

Cost: ~10,000,000 mesos per Bigfoot
Duration: Depends on how fast you drop and how fast you can pin; approx. 15 minutes.

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Dropping Techniques


There's several ways to drop your mesos quickly and efficiently. I will elaborate on the common way of dropping, what you're not allowed to do and some tips and tricks to make you drop quicker. There's two ways of dropping: One with Mouse Keys and one without.

Normal dropping

1. Put the amount of mesos per bag you want to drop, plus another six 0's before that, on your clipboard (so if you want to drop 5,000 per bag, copy 0000005000).
2. Place the meso drop window so that the OK button is on top of the meso icon in your inventory, like this:
   
3. Now, you can keep down Ctrl + V (Cmd + V on Mac) and spam click to drop.

Mouse Keys dropping

1. Turn on Mouse Keys.
2. Put the amount of mesos per bag you want to drop on your clipboard, so you can access it with Ctrl+V (Cmd+V on Mac).
3. Place the meso drop window so that the OK button is on top of the meso icon in your inventory, like this:
   
4. Now, you can keep on doing this: Num5 > Ctrl+V (Cmd+V for Mac) > Num5 to drop a bag of mesos. You can repeat this. Another way is to keep Ctrl + V pressed and spam click Num5; however, not all keyboards will be able to do this. Check if yours does. Do NOT press "+" because that is a double-click and banable!

Double-click '+' num pad key is not a 1:1 action but a 1:2 action (a single press of this key performs a double click in game) and is not allowed.

You are also not allowed to bind the paste command to a single key, which will allow you to click it faster (you only have to click 1 key instead of 2 at the same time), turning the Ctrl+V in step 3 into a single button. This would only be useful if you don't use the first option (The first option is where you keep Ctrl+V pressed and spam click).

Mouse Keys: Mouse keys basically means you turn your numpad into a mouse on your keyboard; you can move your mouse and click with it. On Windows, you can turn it on by clicking Alt + Left Shift + Num Lock. You will see a little icon at the bottom right corner of your screen, looking like this: , indicating that it's turned on. You have to have Num Lock on to use mouse keys normally; clicking on the icon will allow you to change the settings manually. This is up to you to decide. On a Mac, go to your Accessibility settings (System Preferences > Accessibility) and go to Mouse & Trackpad. Here you can turn MouseKeys for Mac on.

There's a limit, though: You can't drop faster than 6 bags per second! This is simply not possible, period. Even the fastest droppers around have trouble passing 5. In the end, the Mouse Keys will be the faster option, if you have a keyboard that allows you to keep Ctrl+V pressed and spam click Num5. If your keyboard doesn't allow the second option, then just stick to normal dropping.

Careful!: I have to stress this to those wanting to try: MACROING IS NOT ALLOWED. This is considered robot play and is bannable!

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Recommended Equips and Weapons

These numbers aren't meant as must-have for someone; these are goals you should aim for. Of course, you can go for even better or even perfect scrolling, but this is out of reach for most of us. Always try to get as good as possible clean equipment (with Godly Items preferably)! Also take into account that the efficiency listed decreases when you already have a really good equip of that (it's not efficient to upgrade a 15 ATT PGC if you have a 115 ATT Dagger to upgrade).

	Basic Gear	Decent Gear	Good/End-game Gear	Cost/Damage increase Efficiency
Helmet	Zakum Helmet, any stats clean	Zakum Helmet, scroll a good clean for 30+ DEX	Zakum Helmet, scroll a 19+ DEX clean for 35+ DEX	7/10, relatively cheap to upgrade, mediocre damage increase
Face Accessory	Any DEX Maple Leaf	6+ DEX Maple Leaf OR Rudolph's Nose	10+ DEX Maple Leaf scrolled OR Rudoplh's Nose, Chaos'd	6/10, cheap to upgrade, very small damage increase
Earrings	8+ DEX Earrings scrolled	10+ DEX Earrings scrolled	12+ DEX Earrings scrolled	4/10, moderately expensive to upgrade, small damage increase
Cape	10+ LUK cape scrolled	4+ ATT Pink Gaia Cape, eventually Chaos'd	12+ ATT Pink Gaia Cape Chaos'd	8/10, very expensive to upgrade, immense damage increase
Topwear	LV. 60-90 Top, 14+ all-stat scrolled	LV. 60-90 Top, 20+ all-stat scrolled	LV. 60-90 Top, 28+ all-stat LUK scrolled	7/10, relatively cheap to upgrade, small damage increase
Bottomwear	LV. 60-90 Bottom, 13+ all-stat scrolled	LV. 60-90 Bottom, 19+ all-stat scrolled	LV. 60-90 Bottom, 27+ all-stat DEX scrolled	7/10, relatively cheap to upgrade, small damage increase
Overall (for DEX-less)	Bathrobe for (Wo-)Men, 16+ LUK scrolled	Bathrobe for (Wo-)Men, 23+ LUK scrolled	Bathrobe for (Wo-)Men, 30+ LUK scrolled	7.5/10, a bit expensive to upgrade, mediocre damage increase
Pendant	Spiegelmann's Necklace/Horus' Eye	Silver Deputy Star, possibly Chaos'd	Horntail Pendant, Egged, 23+ DEX, STR & LUK	10/10, virtually no cost to upgrade, relatively big damage increase
Gloves	Work Gloves/BWG/SCG, 10+ ATT	Stormcaster Gloves, 13+ ATT	Stormcaster Gloves, 15+ ATT	9/10, relatively expensive to upgrade, big damage increase
Shoes	LV. 60-90 Shoes, 12+ all-stat scrolled	Facestompers, 5+ ATT Chaos'd	Facestompers, 12+ ATT Chaos'd	8.5/10, very expensive to upgrade, very big damage increase
Weapon	LV. 100-110 Dagger, 116+ ATT scrolled	Gold Double Knife/Dragon Kanzir, 122+ ATT scrolled	Dragon Kanzir, 127+ ATT scrolled	9.5/10, a bit expensive to upgrade, big damage increase
Shield	Dragon Khanjar, 25+ ATT scrolled	Dragon Khanjar, 28+ ATT scrolled	Dragon Khanjar, 32+ ATT scrolled	9/10, expensive to upgrade, big damage increase

Remember the DEX requirement for all your equips! I recommend you lower your DEX/STR whenever you upgrade any equipment to prevent any problems. I'll list some numbers in terms of efficiency later on. And, again, if something is already very good, upgrade something that isn't first!

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HP Washing - Yes or No?

This is one question most people ask me, so I've decided to make a short section about it. I hope this clarifies things for most of you! If you have any other doubts or questions concerning HP Washing in general, you should check out Pheelo's HP Washing Guide here on the forum.

What is HP Washing?
HP Washing is a way of using your AP to lower your MP and get more HP in return. It's something that is quite expensive, but considering that we're playing on a private server, it's manageable. HP washing is fundamental for some bosses!

How does it work for Shadowers?
First, you need to calculate your Minimum MP. The formula for this is Minimum MP = (14 * Level) + 148. Then you check how many washes you can do. One AP Reset resets 12 MP and gives you 20 - 24 HP. So you subtract your MP from the Minimum MP of your level, then divide it by 12 to get the amount of washes you can do. You then put 1 AP into HP, use an AP Reset and take it out of MP. Then you put it in a stat you want (so LUK most likely). You can repeat this process by putting the MP you take out back into HP until you hit your minimum MP and can't wash anymore.

How do you get the extra MP, then? That's simple. For every 10 INT you have when leveling, you get 1 MP extra when you level. So that means you can do 1 wash per level if you have 120 INT when you level. You can get INT from equips (you will get 20 or so from a Zhelm and Deputy Star), since you can scroll equips for INT and wear it when you level only. These are called INT gear and make INT scrolls so valuable. Another way is putting AP into INT and later resetting it back to any other stat you need/want.

Do Shadowers need to HP wash and how much?
This is for everyone personally to decide. It's possible to do most bosses without HP Washing thanks to Meso Guard, which halves all damage received. So my assessment of this question would be:

Yes, HP wash if you have the money, but you don't need that much. One wash per level is more than sufficient. Even one wash per two levels should suffice for BF and Zakum if you start early with washing. I myself never had INT gear and was able to get to 5300 HP at Level 150 with just my Zhelm and Deputy Star. To give you an idea of the amount of damage bosses deal (MG = Meso Guard):

If you have any more questions concerning HP washing, check out Pheelo's guide. The link can be found in the next section and above!

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Useful Tips & Links

Links

These are some of the sources I've used and gained my info from. Check them out for a more detailed explanation of the topic at hand!

Pheelo's HP Washing Guide
A Guide to MapleRoyals by Katsuruka
All Bosses in MapleRoyals
'Godly Items' Explained
Raddy's Merchant Enchiridion
Ayumilove's Pre-BB blog

Tips

• Try to be as efficient as possible with bombing! Don't blow up mesos at Zakum when it uses its Cancel Weapon Attack skill, you'll be blowing up your mesos without purpose.
• As Raddy says in his Merchanting guide, be sure not to drop below a certain amount of mesos so you don't run out of mesos entirely.
• Always keep track of your Dark Sight and Meso Guard timer to prevent any unwanted deaths.
• This goes for all jobs, but: Don't focus on getting a single perfect equip. Try to get an all-rounded set of equipment.
• Remember, Meso Explosion always knocks back to the left!
• Never depend on Auto HP of your pet to save you.
• Try to use Smokescreen at the most beneficial times at bosses! For example after one of Zakum's Cancel Weapon Attack skills so the attackers can have their way at him.
• Speed Infusion does not buff a Shadower's attack speed, since Daggers are Fast(4) and reach max speed with booster alone (awaiting feedback on the weapon Kebob).

Minimum MP: (14 * LVL) + 148 MP
Maximum Attack Formula: floor((LUK * 3.6 + STR + DEX) / 100 * ATT)
Minimum Attack Formula: floor((LUK * 3.6 * Mastery * 0.9 + DEX + STR) / 100 * ATT)
[A floor function means the integer are returned. e.g. floor(103.53) would be 103.]
Meso Explosion average damage (20 bags): (27,500 + [ME level] * 2,750 / 3) * [Bag size] / ([Bag size] + 5,250) * 10 or 55,000 * [Mastery] * [Bag size] / ([Bag size] + 5,250) * 10
Meso Explosion maximum damage (1 bag): (25,000 + [ME level] * 2,500 / 3) * [Bag size] / ([Bag size] + 5,250) or 50,000 * [Mastery] * [Bag size] / ([Bag size] + 5,250) * 10
Meso Explosion minimum damage (1 bag): (25,000 + [ME level] * 2,500 / 3) * [Bag size] / ([Bag size] + 5,250) / 2 or 50,000 * [Mastery] * [Bag size] / ([Bag size] + 5,250) * 10 / 2
[100% Mastery = 1; 50% Mastery = 0,5]

If you have any other useful formulae, please post them below!

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Special Thanks

First of all, special thanks to an old GMS friend (he doesn't play MapleRoyals anymore) for proof-reading this. Second of all, thanks to all my fellow Shadowers and others alike for the tips along the way:

• Bizqnation: General tips and help, as well as the training techniques at Himes
• Vic (ManSIut): Showed me his BFing ways
• Ty (Hacker): Tips and help with the training section
• Chokladkakan: Help with the mathematical matter
• Ray (Desensitized): Tips here and there (and an inspiration!)
• Cifer: General help and tips here and there
• Plenty: Help with Training and Equips section

Lastly, thanks to everyone for being patient while I finished this. Feedback, constructive criticism and tips are still always welcome!

~ Marty (Linyah)