Potions in Old Maple, What to Buy at Every Level

Potions were the single biggest expense in old Maple for anyone who was not a Magician, and MapleStory Classic will be the same, because the old shops and the old prices are the kind of thing Nexon means by "as it was when it first launched". The trick was never finding a potion. It was buying the right one for your level and class, in the right quantity, so that a training session paid for itself. Here is what we bought, in order, and what we stopped buying the moment we could.

The Victoria Island shelf

Every town on Victoria Island had a general store, and they all sold roughly the same list. From memory, and old players will correct the odd number:

Potion	Restores	Where it fit
Red Potion	50 HP	Levels 1 to 15, and never after
Orange Potion	150 HP	Levels 15 to 35 for most classes
White Potion	300 HP	Level 30 onward, the warrior's staple
Blue Potion	100 MP	Every Magician to about 30
Mana Elixir	300 MP	Mages from 30, and any class with a booster to feed
Elixir, Power Elixir	Half or all of both bars	Bosses only, never grinding

Red Potions cost about 50 mesos each, Oranges around 160, Whites around 320, so the price per point of HP was nearly flat and the choice was about how many you could carry and how fast you needed the heal. A slot held 100 potions. A warrior at Wild Boars went through a slot of Oranges in an evening.

The food items filled the gaps. Apples and other dropped food healed a little for nothing, and the Henesys shop's cheaper snacks were fine for a Beginner. Past level 20 nobody bothered.

Budgeting by class

Warriors paid the most and there is no way around it. Low accuracy meant misses, misses meant time in front of the monster, and time in front of the monster meant potions. From 10 to 35 a Fighter or Spearman could spend more on Oranges and Whites than they earned from drops, and our meso farming guide is honest about that. The two things that fixed it were a decent weapon, so fights ended faster, and HP passives so each potion went further.

Magicians barely bought HP potions at all once Magic Guard was up, because Magic Guard converts damage into MP loss. They bought Blue Potions instead, then Mana Elixirs, and a Cleric with Heal and MP recovery could grind for hours on a handful. This is the whole reason a Magician was the cheapest first character in the game.

Bowmen and Thieves sat in the middle. They took less damage because they killed at range, so Oranges lasted longer, but their attacks cost MP and a Hermit with Haste and a booster running needed Mana Elixirs by the stack from 30 onward.

A rule we used: if the potions for a session cost more than a third of what the session earned, the map was wrong for your level or your gear was.

What to skip

Elixirs and Power Elixirs from any source other than a drop. They restored a percentage of both bars, which made them wonderful at Zakum and pointless at Pigs, and their price reflected the first use. Hold every one that drops and sell none. Later, once Ludibrium and El Nath open, the players heading to bosses will pay for them.

Anything the cash shop sold that looked like a potion. There were none that mattered in the old game, and Nexon has said the Classic shop is cosmetics and convenience (our cash shop post tracks it).

And the fancy town food. Some shops sold dishes that healed a lot per item. They cost accordingly, and a stack of Whites did the same job for the price of a taxi.

Buying in bulk without going broke

Buy at the start of a session, not mid-map. Walking back to town for a top-up cost ten minutes on Victoria Island, and a stack of the wrong potion cost the same again. The habit that kept our guild's warriors solvent was one full slot of the level-appropriate HP potion, one of the MP potion, and a return scroll, every time, before leaving town.

Do not carry two types of HP potion. People bought fifty Oranges and fifty Whites "just in case" and ended up using neither efficiently. Pick the one that matches the monster's damage. If a Wild Boar hits you for 120, an Orange heals it and a White wastes half of itself.

One of us kept a spreadsheet in 2007 of potions per level of exp gained, per map, per class. It was, by any reasonable standard, a waste of a summer. It also made us the guild's designated map picker for two years, and the maps it picked are the ones in the 30 to 70 spots guide.

The Priest changes everything

Everything above is for solo play, and solo play is what the first weeks of Classic will mostly be. The moment you are in a party with a Cleric who has Heal, the potion bill collapses for everyone, and that is the real reason Clerics never lacked a party in old Maple. It was not their damage. It was that four other people stopped spending mesos.

So if you are picking a class partly on cost, that is the argument for a Cleric, and it is also the argument for finding one to train with, which our guild post is about. Either way, buy one slot of the right potion, not two of the wrong ones, and never pay Free Market prices for something a town shop sells.