Grand Launch release notes: Stumpy, the Excavation Site, Housing and a month of events

Grand Launch is on Wednesday 21 October at 6:00 PM UTC, which is 11:00 AM PDT, when the launch maintenance ends. No package is needed any more: anyone with a Nexon account can play, and Founder’s Access characters carry on where they are.

• Stumpy joins the bosses, which makes six.
• The Excavation Site, a new area in Perion, with eight monsters.
• Housing in Henesys or Kerning City, for citizens.
• The Lie Detector Test, sold to citizens.
• A trading restriction on new accounts, until 24 hours after a character reaches level 15.
• Korean in beta, beside English and Spanish (Beta).
• The Kerning City Party Quest on Channels 3 to 12.
• A new check-in, two launch events, Halloween, three GM events, and what a Scroll of Secrets is for.

The launcher advice hasn’t changed. The Classic World client can’t be downloaded until launch day, so install the Nexon Launcher and sign in now; 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 having MapleStory installed and updated now means a much smaller patch when the doors open.

A new account starts with a trade restriction: every trading feature opens 24 hours after one of its characters reaches level 15. The game runs on Windows and macOS, in English with Spanish and Korean in beta. In those two, class names, Cash items, pets, the interface and some special content stay in English, and the translation is automated, tuned for MapleStory.

Three character slots per account, and a deleted character waits a while before it’s gone. Everyone starts as a Beginner on Maple Island and moves on to Victoria Island, where the job towns are. The cap is level 100, and the notes stop at 2nd job.

Forgotten Hollow still isn’t open: the path there hasn’t been discovered yet, the notes say, and it opens in November. That fits the 18 November update on the roadmap.

New to Perion, and new to everyone: none of its eight monsters is in the Public Release client this site is built from, so all there is of them yet is Nexon’s pictures, and none of them has a page here. They will once a client that has them has been read.

Unchanged from Founder’s Access: at level 10 you pick one of the four jobs from the instructor in its home town, and at 30 you go back to the same NPC for your 2nd job.

Stumpy is the new one, second in the notes’ list after Mano. Like the Excavation Site it isn’t in the client this site has, so it’s Nexon’s picture and no page; the other five link to theirs, and the bosses guide has where each one spawns.

From level 10, with the same six teachers. Each one shows what they can make and what it takes, and the more you craft, the more recipes open up.

From level 12, with Arthur in Henesys Town Hall or Roxy in the Kerning City Civic Center. Citizens get the town’s specialty shop and cheaper cabs, Storage Keeper fees and some general store items, and the Community Board’s requests raise their grade. That grade is what Housing asks for now.

New in the Citizen General Store: an account-bound test that lasts 7 days. Use it on a character you think is playing abnormally and they get a minigame; fail it and they go to the Truth Booth, where they have to stay logged in for a set time before they can leave, and can do nothing else while they wait.

A home of your own in Henesys or Kerning City, one at a time, shared by every character on the account. You need to be a citizen with a Citizenship grade of Visitor or higher, and you buy it with mesos from the town’s Housing Registrar: Bianca in Henesys, Scarlett in Kerning City. Furnish it, invite people over and visit theirs. The notes give no price; the housing guide has what the client carries.

Somewhere to keep the hairstyles, faces and skin colours you’ve had, so you can switch back to a look later.

The Kerning City Party Quest, from level 21, with Lakelis in Kerning City: puzzles, monsters and King Slime at the end. The notes now print what Nexon’s Discord has said since Founder’s Access, that it runs only on some channels, and from launch that is Channels 3 to 12, up from 3 to 7.

The Grand Launch check-in runs from launch until 11:59 PM UTC on 18 November. Unlike Founder’s First Step it costs something: 30 Maple Leaves a check-in, which monsters of level 10 and up drop. It counts the days you check in rather than the dates, so a missed day loses nothing, and each day’s reward is once per account. Day 1 is the one to log in for: a Snail pet.

Two run from midnight UTC on 21 October, before the servers open, until 18 November. Jay in Henesys starts a trail of clues around Victoria Island for characters of level 25 and up, ending at the Mark of the Beta, which the Founder’s Access notes held back for this day. And anyone who finished ‘A Strange and Familiar Wood’ and ‘Beyond the Unknown’ in the closed tests gets the Classic Beginnings rings by mail, two of each for having done both tests.

From 28 October to 18 November. Malady, in Henesys and Kerning City, has lost her Halloween Candies to the monsters: win back 100 from monsters of level 10 and up, then share them with the children around Victoria Island for a Pumpkin Basket, a one-handed sword with 27 Weapon Attack. Meanwhile Orange Slimes turn up in Henesys, Ellinia, Kerning City and Perion with candy on them.

Three this time, one sitting each, all from midnight to 2:00 AM UTC, so the evening before in the Americas: the Physical Fitness Challenge on 22 October, Coconut Harvest on 6 November and Up and Up on 19 December. The entry rules are Founder’s Access’s, and everyone who takes part now gets an Event Trophy.

What a Scroll of Secrets is for, which the Founder’s Access notes never said. Take it to Chun Ji at the Kerning City Construction Site and finish his quest for a Magic Box, then have Mr. Pickall in Kerning City open it into one of 61 prizes: ore, food, a stack of Elixirs, or an Intermediate or Greater scroll for armour, shoes, earrings, gloves, a shield or a cape.

The front page now has the short version of these notes: the jobs, the six bosses, what opens when, the events that are on and the next GM event. Stumpy and the Excavation Site’s monsters get pages once a client that has them is read; until then this write-up is the only place they are.