Kerning PQ Guide, Every Stage From Lakelis to King Slime

Kerning PQ in MapleStory Classic is the first party quest most players ever do, and it is the fastest way through levels 21 to 30 if the version Nexon ships matches the pre-Big Bang one. Four players, four stages, King Slime at the end, and a run that takes about ten minutes once the party knows the combinations. You enter through Lakelis in the Kerning City subway, and Cloto is the NPC inside who takes your coupons and passes. Here is the whole thing, stage by stage, plus the unwritten rules about "tracks" that nobody explains to new players.

The level range is 21 to 30 and the party must be exactly four. Nexon has not confirmed those numbers for Classic, so we are describing the GMS version we ran a few hundred times.

Getting in: Lakelis and the tracks

Lakelis stands in the subway entrance and only lets in one party per channel at a time. On a busy evening in old GMS there would be five or six parties standing near her, and the etiquette was that whoever had been waiting longest got the next run. Players called the waiting spots "tracks", as in the subway tracks, and you would see "track 1", "track 2" typed in the map. The party in track 1 clicks first when the current run ends. Everyone else shuffles up.

Clicking Lakelis when it is not your turn is the surest way to be ignored by everyone in the channel for the rest of the night. Wait your turn, and if you are new, ask which track is next. Someone will tell you. If the map is empty, congratulations, click.

The other way to skip the wait is to change channel. Channels above ten were quiet, and a party that could not get in on channel one could usually enter immediately three channels up.

Stage one: Ligators and coupons

The first room is full of Ligators, the green crocodile monsters, and they drop coupons. The party needs a set number of coupons (ten in the version we remember) to hand to Cloto. Everyone kills, everyone picks up, and whoever has coupons passes them to the leader or hands them in directly. Ligators hit harder than a level 21 expects, so keep an eye on HP and bring Orange Potions rather than Red.

This stage is quick. If it is taking more than two minutes, someone is standing on a platform.

Stage two: the ropes

The second room has four ropes hanging from the ceiling, and three of the four party members must climb the correct three ropes and stay there while the leader talks to Cloto. The leader stays on the ground. Cloto answers "correct" or tells you how many are right, and the leader calls the next combination from the standard list. Most of us kept the list on a scrap of paper next to the keyboard, and it goes through the combinations in an order that finds the answer in at most a handful of tries.

The rules of the rope stage are simple. Climb all the way to the top of your rope. Do not move until the leader says. If the leader says "2, 3, 4" you climb ropes two, three and four, counting from the left. A player who drops off the rope while the leader is checking gives a wrong answer and wastes the attempt, and this is where most new parties lose their time.

Stage three: the platforms

Stage three is the same idea with five platforms instead of four ropes, and three players stand on the correct three. Getting onto the platforms means a small jump quest through the room, with Jr. Neckis and Curse Eyes in the way, so clear them first or accept some damage. Again the leader stays down, calls the combination, checks with Cloto, and calls the next one.

Between the rope stage and the platform stage a good leader will tell the party "same three people, same order", so nobody has to reorganise. Combined, the two stages take about three minutes with a leader who knows the list and ten with one who does not.

Stage four: King Slime

The last room is King Slime, a giant version of the Slime you fought at level 5, with a lot more HP and a stomp that hurts at 21. Small Slimes and Curse Eyes spawn as well. Everyone attacks. Warriors stand in front, archers and thieves stand at range on the platforms, and mages keep their distance and throw whatever they have. He goes down in a minute or two for a party in the mid-20s and longer for four level 21s.

When he dies the party gets its experience, and a bonus room opens with more monsters to kill for a short time. Kill fast, pick up everything, and leave through the portal before the timer runs out.

The Nella exchange

The etc drops from inside KPQ include Squishy Liquid, and Nella in Kerning City had a quest that took it, so keep a stack and check with her before you sell. One thing people mix up: Broken Glasses are not a KPQ drop. They come from Alishar in Ludibrium, and our LPQ guide covers that trade-in.

Runs per hour and when to leave

A party that knows the combinations and does not fall off ropes gets six to eight runs an hour, including the wait at Lakelis on a quiet channel. A new party gets three or four. Either way it is better experience than Pig Beach. The mesos are modest, coupons and King Slime drops sell a little, but a session on swamp Ligators earns more, as our meso farming post explains.

From 30 the next thing is Ludibrium at 35, if Ludibrium is open at launch, and the LPQ guide linked above covers it. The overview of every PQ in Classic is in the party quests guide. And say hello when you join a party. It costs nothing.

One last thing. Leave at 30. Not 29, not "one more run", because at 30 you are done and cannot enter again. A friend of ours hit 30 mid-run in 2007, got kicked at the stage change, and spent the next hour explaining to the rest of us why the party of three was stuck on the platforms. Do not be that friend.