Founder’s Access release notes: level 100, five bosses and two weeks of GM events
Nexon put out the release notes for Founder’s Access on 3 October, three days before it opens. It’s the first proper look at the live game: how far you can level, who hands out jobs, which bosses are around, and two weeks of GM events. Here’s all of it, with Nexon’s pictures.
Founder’s Access opens on Tuesday 6 October at 6:00 PM UTC, which is 11:00 AM PDT. You need the Orange Mushroom or Zakum Package to get in, and whatever you do in the two weeks before Grand Launch on 21 October carries over.
- Maple IslandEvery character starts here, as a Beginner.
- 1st job, and CraftingWarrior, Magician, Bowman or Thief.
- CitizenshipHenesys or Kerning City.
- Party quest‘First Time Together’, in Kerning City.
- 2nd jobFrom the same instructor.
- Level capAs far as Founder’s Access goes.
Before you log in
Get the launcher sorted now. The Classic World client itself can’t be downloaded until launch day, so install the Nexon Launcher and sign in ahead of time. On the day, find MapleStory in your library, flip the Classic World toggle and download the standalone client. On Steam the two games ship together, so installing MapleStory now means a much smaller patch when the doors open.
The game runs on Windows and macOS, in English, with Spanish in beta. You get three character slots per account, and deleting a character isn’t instant: there’s a waiting period first. Founder’s Package items turn up in your in-game mailbox and have to be claimed by 11:59 PM UTC on 30 November.
Maple Island, then Victoria Island
Everyone starts as a Beginner on Maple Island: first monsters, first quests, the basics. Then it’s the boat to Victoria Island, where the four job towns are. The cap is level 100 and the notes stop at 2nd job, which fits with the Ossyria report pulling 3rd job from launch.
Picking a job
At level 10 you pick one of the four jobs from the instructor in its home town. At 30 you go back to the same NPC for your 2nd job.
Five bosses
Victoria Island has five bosses, and Nexon’s advice is to gear up and bring friends. Four of them are in the test client this site is built from, so they link to their monster pages. Shade is new to us: it isn’t in that client, so all we have is Nexon’s picture.
Update, 7 October 2026: since 6 October the Public Release client has Shade, a level 48 boss with 47,000 HP, alone on a new Kerning City map, the Cabin of the Forsaken, so all five link to their monster pages now. The same client puts Zombie Mushmom at level 55, up from the second test’s 50, and the bosses guide has every boss in it with where each one spawns and how often.
Crafting
Crafting opens at level 10. Each of the six crafting NPCs shows you what they can make and what it costs in materials, and the more you craft, the more recipes you unlock.
Citizenship
From level 12 you can sign up as a resident of Henesys with Arthur in the Town Hall, or of Kerning City with Roxy in the Civic Center. Citizens get the town’s specialty shop and cheaper cabs, Storage Keeper fees and some general store items.
Each town’s Community Board has requests from the people who live there. Finishing them earns Contribution, Contribution raises your Citizenship grade, and a higher grade opens up more ways to help the town.
Beauty Album
New in Classic World: somewhere to keep the hairstyles, faces and skin colours you’ve had, so you can switch back to a look later.
First Time Together
The Kerning City Party Quest, from level 21: puzzles, a lot of monsters and King Slime at the end, all done as a party.
Not in yet
Forgotten Hollow isn’t open during Founder’s Access. The notes say the path there “hasn’t been discovered yet” and that it’s coming later. Two things are held for Grand Launch on 21 October: the Mark of the Beta event starts then, and accounts that finished ‘[Event] A Strange and Familiar Wood’ and ‘[Event] Beyond the Unknown’ in the closed tests can claim the Classic Beginnings Label and Chat Ring.
Founder’s First Step
The check-in event runs for the whole of Founder’s Access. Day 1 is the one worth logging in for.
Maple Administrator
Once you reach level 10, come and see me and take [Event] Founder’s First Step. Check in once a day until 20 October and I’ll have something for you.
I count the days you come, not the dates, so a missed day doesn’t set you back: Day 1 on Monday and back on Wednesday is Day 2. One claim per account, per day.
x5
x3
x3
x30
x30
The potions are account-bound and keep. Everything else is untradable and lasts 7 days. A box opens into one of Snowy Snow, Sprinkled Flowers, Soap Bubbles, Sprinkled Presents, Snowflakes.
GM events
Eight sessions of four events between 7 and 20 October, all at midnight or 1:00 AM UTC, so the evening before in the Americas. Three of them start with Paul in Lith Harbor and pay a Scroll of Secrets; you can’t get in if you already own one or did a GM event in the last 24 hours. The fourth, the Monster Invasion, comes to the towns.
Next GM event
0 days, 20 hours and 45 minutes until it starts.
- Physical Fitness Challenge
- Up and Up
- Monster Invasion
- Coconut Harvest
- Physical Fitness Challenge
- Monster Invasion
- Up and Up
- Monster Invasion
- Physical Fitness Challenge
- A jump quest against a 15-minute limit. Movement and jump are set to default, skills like Haste and Teleport are disabled, and consumables have no effect. Scroll of Secrets for finishing the course.
- Up and Up
- Three stages of ladders and portals against the clock. Some portals lead on and some send you back to the beginning. Movement and jump are set to default, skills like Haste and Teleport are disabled, and consumables have no effect. Scroll of Secrets for reaching the last stage.
- Monster Invasion
- GMs summon monsters into the towns, and everyone fights them together for a chance at rewards. Death penalties do not apply in a town. A chance at rewards from each invader.
- Coconut Harvest
- Two teams knock coconuts off the trees with melee attacks for five minutes, around obstacles and traps. The higher score wins. Ranged attacks and skills are disabled. Without a melee weapon, buy one from Harry on the event map. Scroll of Secrets for the winning team.
What the invaders drop
Five monsters turn up in town during an invasion, King Slime among them. Any of them can drop mesos, an Event Trophy, a Scroll of Secrets and an Elixir, and Mano, Mushmom and Zombie Mushmom each have one extra.
- Mano
- King Slime
- Mushmom
- Zombie Mushmom
- Jr. Balrog
On this site
The planner still goes to level 120, because that’s where the test client’s EXP table ends. Anything past 100 is content you can’t reach yet. The front page now has the short version of these notes: the jobs, the bosses and the next GM event.
If you don’t have a package yet, the Orange Mushroom and Zakum Packages are the ones that get you into Founder’s Access. They’re on sale on Nexon’s site and on Steam until 11:59 PM PDT on 14 October.