How Many Mesos Do You Need in Classic? A Level Guide

Less than you think for the first thirty levels, and more than you think after that. On Maple Island and the early Victoria Island maps your only real cost is potions, and a few thousand mesos covers it. The bill starts at second job, when you want a proper weapon, and it grows from there as scrolls and better armour come into reach. This post goes bracket by bracket, with real NPC prices where we have them, so you can work out your own number instead of guessing.

Prices for player-traded items move every day in a new world, so for those we give the logic rather than a figure that will be wrong by Friday.

Level 1 to 10, almost nothing

Maple Island hands you most of what you need. Quests give potions and starter gear, the monsters barely scratch you, and the shops sell everything at prices a Beginner can afford.

For reference, the community database for Classic lists a Red Potion at 50 mesos for 100 HP, and food like Apples and Eggs at the same rate per HP. A few of those prices are marked as test-era figures, so treat them as close rather than exact. Either way, you will finish Maple Island richer than you started.

Level 10 to 30, potions become the bill

This is where your class starts to matter. Warriors burn HP potions. Magicians burn MP, and Blue Potions are the expensive ones: the same database lists them at 220 mesos for 200 MP. Bowmen and Thieves add arrows or throwing stars on top.

A simple way to size it: count how many potions you drink in half an hour of normal training, then multiply. A mage drinking 30 Blue Potions an hour is spending 6,600 mesos an hour just on MP. A warrior drinking 40 Red Potions an hour is spending 2,000. Neither is a crisis, but it explains why mages always felt poor until they could leech or party.

Kerning PQ opens at 21 and is good exp, but plan for the potions it eats. Our potions guide goes through which ones are worth buying at each stage.

Level 30, the first real purchase

Second job is the moment most players feel broke for the first time. You have new skills, the maps get tougher, and the weapon you carried from level 20 suddenly looks thin.

This is the purchase worth saving for, more than anything before it. A better weapon makes every hour after it faster, and faster hours mean more mesos. It is also where Citizenship helps: residents of Henesys or Kerning City, from level 12, get cheaper cabs, cheaper storage and a discount on some general store items. If you have not signed up yet, do it now. It quietly cuts your running costs for the rest of the game.

When we started over on a new world in 2007, the rule in our guild was that nobody bought armour until their weapon was sorted. It was a good rule. Nobody followed it.

Level 30 to 100, scrolls and gear

After second job the budget becomes what you want it to be. Potions stay a steady cost. On top of that come armour upgrades every ten levels or so, scrolls for gloves and weapons, and whatever the new Crafting system turns out to need in materials.

Everything in this bracket is priced by players in the Free Market, and in a world this young those prices will fall for months. That is the main argument for patience: the same scroll will cost less next month than this week. Our post on meso prices from launch onwards explains why.

Putting it into one number

Here is the rough shape. The K figures for potions are worked out from NPC prices; everything else depends on the market the week you shop.

Bracket	Main costs	Rough budget
1 to 10	Almost none	Covered by quests
10 to 21	Potions, arrows or stars	A few K per hour played
21 to 30	Potions, KPQ runs	Several K per hour, more for mages
30	Second job weapon	Your biggest single purchase so far
30 to 100	Potions, armour, scrolls	Set by the Free Market

To get your own number: take your hourly potion cost, multiply by the hours you play in a week, then add the one item you are saving for. That total is what you need. Anything above it is just sitting in your inventory losing value.

Spend less before you spend more

The cheapest mesos are the ones you do not burn. Train on maps where you are not drinking a potion every few seconds, sell the drops you do not need, and use the Citizenship discounts. Our guide to farming from level 1 to 30 covers which drops are worth keeping.

If your number still comes out higher than what you can farm in the time you have, that is the honest case for buying a small amount, and the shop lists rates per server. Buying breaks Nexon's terms, though, so weigh that first. Our advice either way: save for the weapon at 30, and nothing else, until you have it.