The Party Quests of Old Maple, From KPQ to Pirate PQ

The party quests were the best part of pre-Big Bang Maple, and we will argue that with anyone. Grinding Wild Boars alone is fine. Standing in the Kerning City subway with three strangers, arguing about who goes up the ropes, is the game. If MapleStory Classic keeps the old PQ ladder, and Nexon has said little about which ones ship at launch, this is what you are in for.

Kerning City PQ, levels 21 to 30

KPQ lives in the subway under Kerning City. You talk to Lakelis at the entrance, you need a party of exactly four in the old version, and the leader clicks in. Everyone in the party had to be inside the level range or the whole group got bounced.

Four stages: Ligators for coupons, the ropes, the platforms, then King Slime and a short bonus room. The exp was the point, a good run at 24 beat an hour at Henesys Hunting Ground, and our Kerning PQ guide walks every stage, the rope combinations, and the "track" queue at Lakelis that nobody explains to new players.

One of us spent most of a school holiday in 2006 sitting on the subway platform typing "cleric lf> kpq" every thirty seconds. It took forty minutes to get a party some evenings. It was worth it every time.

Ludibrium PQ, levels 35 to 50

LPQ is the one people talk about most, and for good reason. Six players, a party leader with a pass from the NPC on the top floor of Ludibrium, and nine stages of the toy tower. Whether Ludibrium is open on day one is one of the things Nexon has not said.

The early stages are a scavenger hunt through Ratz and Bloctopus, stage six is the jump, stage eight is the box combination, and Alishar waits at the end with a lot of exp and the occasional pair of Broken Glasses. A fast party at 42 was some of the best exp in the game, and our Ludibrium PQ guide covers every stage and who to send up the tower.

Orbis PQ, levels 51 to 70

OPQ sits in the Orbis Tower area and it is a bigger, stranger PQ than the two before it. Six players again. Stages included a lounge with lots of Cellions and Lioners, a sealed room, and the music stage where you had to play a tune on platforms in the right order. The boss at the end is Papa Pixie, who summons and takes a while to kill without a decent Fire mage or a Hermit with good throwing stars.

OPQ was slower than LPQ and needed more coordination, so it never had the same crowd. The upside was that the parties you did find tended to be people who knew what they were doing, and the exp for level 55 to 65 was genuinely good. It is also where a lot of people learned that Orbis Tower has a lot of floors and no elevator down.

Pirate PQ

Pirate PQ came later in the old era, in the Herb Town area, and the boss was Lord Pirate. It was roughly the level 55 to 100 bracket, and we remember it as a shorter, punchier run than OPQ, with a lot of killing and less puzzle. Whether it makes the Classic cut at launch is anyone's guess.

The four side by side

PQ	Levels	Party	Boss	What it paid
Kerning PQ	21 to 30	4	King Slime	Exp beyond anything solo, modest mesos from coupons and drops
Ludibrium PQ	35 to 50	6	Alishar	Exp, scrolls from the bonus boxes, Broken Glasses
Orbis PQ	51 to 70	6	Papa Pixie	Good exp, harder to find a party
Pirate PQ	55 to 100	6	Lord Pirate	Exp and drops from a shorter run

The level bands and party sizes are the GMS ones we remember. Treat the Pirate row with the same care as the section above it.

Finding a party without being a nuisance

The channel one map outside each PQ was the meeting point. You typed your class and level, you waited, you did not spam. Party leaders looked for a mix, one ranged attacker, someone who knew the combinations, and whoever else turned up. A Cleric was welcome and never required. KPQ has its own queue etiquette, the "tracks" at Lakelis, and the KPQ guide explains how not to jump the line.

A few bits of etiquette that still hold.

• Do not go AFK inside a PQ. The party is stuck until you come back or get kicked.
• If you are the jumper in LPQ and you keep falling, say so. Someone else will do it.
• Split the bonus stage properly. Grabbing all the drops at the end got people blacklisted quickly.
• Say thanks at the end. It sounds soft. It also got you invited back.

A well-run PQ party is also where guilds got formed. Half of ours came from a single week of LPQ tracks in 2007. If you are looking for people at launch, our post on finding a guild covers where they gather, and if you want to know what to do between PQ brackets, the leveling map guide fills the gaps.

Our advice for launch day is simple. Get to 21, go to the subway, and do not leave until you have done KPQ at least once with strangers. Everything good about this game starts there.