Party Quest (Ludibrium)
Many players at around level 40 may begin to get bored of the game, possibly because of slow training or other reasons. The Ludibrium Party Quest is a quest for those willing to take a challenge, and work with 5 other party members through 10 complex stages. Completing this quest requires teamwork, patience, and skill. This party quest is the second of the six currently available, with the first (and easier) one being the Henesys Party Quest.
Party Requirements
Before beginning this party quest, be sure to read through this list of requirements:
- You must have at least 3 party members to begin this quest. These players must all be 30 and above.
- Also, cure potions such as Eyedrops and Holy Water are recommended while fighting Alishar. All Cure Potions are most convenient because they cure all states.
If your party meets all of these requirements, you are ready to begin to PQ! To enter the party quest, you must first head to the 101st floor of the Eos Tower or use the Mirror of Dimension. Then, get the leader to click on the Red Sign to begin the party quest. That is, if no other party is in it.
Finding A Party & Getting In
To get into a party, you should ask to join the PQ (Usually by saying J>PQ and your class/level) to grab people's attention in Channel 1 at 101st floor of Eos Tower.
There is always the possibility of missing. Missing is when another party clicks faster and gets in before you get a chance to enter PQ. When your party misses, you should automatically try another channel. Leaders usually channel surf and change channels after trying once so it is reccomended to keep up with your leader.
The Quest Process
Finally! You're in the Ludibrium PQ! Unlike the Kerning City Party Quest, the Ludibrium PQ is a bit more difficult and complex, and will require a lot of precision to complete, even when inside. This is how to complete the Party Quest.
Stage One
Move up and down the area, killing the Ratz and Dirty Ratz. Their EXP and Level will depend will be based on the average level of your party. Each kill will net you one coupon however this does not take inventory space. Once all 20 passes are picked up, the stage clears and the portal is opened. Everyone goes automatically into Stage 2 once one member goes through the portal.
Passes required: 20
Stage Two
This stage has 5 portals. Each portal has two kinds of monsters: Shadow Eye from Another Dimension and Dark Eye from Another Dimension. They portals all arranged vertically with 3 monsters in each portal and the last portal only having 2 monsters. This makes a total of 14 monsters. The monsters level and EXP depend on the average level number of all the party members. All monsters need to be killed to clear the stage. Once the stage is cleared, a portal appears and once one member goes through the portal, all party members gets transported to the next stage.
Stage Three
The Third Stage is fairly simple. There are rows of platforms, each with three numbered boxes; pressing up at the correct box will teleport you up to the next platform. Pressing up on the wrong box will force you to start all over again. The boxes that will lead to the next platform are all randomised. When you press up on the correct box, the box will receive some glowing animation and you will be moved through to the next platform. Once one person reaches the very top to the platform with the portal, all party members get transported to the very top too. Then once someone enters the portal into the next stage, everyone will automatically move to the Fourth Stage. (No idea why it does this though since everyone gets teleported into the top platform, then teleported again to the next stage)
Stage Four
Stage Four comprises of three main attacking platforms, the bottom, middle and top. Two Rombots from Another Dimension will spawn on the bottom, 1 on the middle platform and 1 on the top platform. To pass this stage, all Rombots need to be killed. The Rombot's levels and EXP will be based on the average levels of all the party members.
Stage Five
This stage consists of six portals. The top most portal can only be reached by Teleport or a player with a high level of Haste, however the content inside the portal requires teleport. The bottom most portal can only be accessed by a Thief with Dark Sight or a Pirate with Oak Barrel as the king block golems are extremely powerful and will kill you in one single hit. You are not able to kill them, so no point for non-thieves going down. The other four portals should be accomplished by the other party members. In the normal portals, as you climb the rope you will find blue boxes with a star on it. You must climb higher than the platform the box is on and then jump toward the platform, because the platforms are quite far away from the player. Repeat this step until you have gotten all the passes then climb all the way up to the portal to return to stage five. Because of this, a decent level of Haste would literally speed up the process of this stage.
Once you have reached stage five, give the leader your passes and you will then be able to continue.
- Note: It is possible to kill the block golems you will need a Fighter or Page with alomst or maxed Power Guard and enough HP since power guard misses it was damage the golems. Lure the golems and have a Cleric going down and at Fighter or Page down and cleric will keep healing and the Fighter or Page go up and down until you killed them. The golems will drop passes. But, it is not recommended
Passes required: 24
EXP: 3770
Stage Six
The Sixth Stage is fairly simple. There are rows of platforms, each with three numbered boxes; pressing up at the correct box will teleport you up to the next platform. Pressing up on the wrong box will force you to start all over again. At this point, someone in your party might announce the order of the box numbers to the newbies or the forgetful.
The order is: 133 221 333 123 111. The numbers are easiest to remember in groups of three.
Hit up while standing on the numbered box in that order. At the top is the portal to stage 7.
You cannot skip this stage or stage 8.
Passes required: NONE
EXP: 6000
Stage Seven
Upon entering this stage, you will need to get an assassin with maxed Keen Eyes or a bowman with maxed The Eye of Amazon to kill the monsters above. Arans can also use Combat Step to reach the first two though they cannot reach the top one; which will drop a pass which will break the box and summon a Rombot at the bottom. The Rombot has a magic attack that can be avoided by jumping. You will know when the attack is going to be activated when the Rombot's eye glows and its hands sparkle. After half of its health is gone, the Rombot will start summoning Block Golems. There will be three Rombots, each summoned by killing the 3 monsters above (a Ratz, a Dirty Ratz, and a Bloctopus). Kill them, get the passes they drop and you have completed this stage.
Tips for this stage:
- The Rombot has a magic attack that can be avoided by jumping.
- The Rombot can be knocked back when 1000 damage is dealt in one hit.
- Summon one rombot at a time by killing only one monster at the top of the stage at a time. If you kill all monsters at the top at once, there may be too many monsters for your party to handle. However, most parties should be able to deal with 3 rombots at once.
- If you plan to kill all 3 Rombots at once, ask your ranged player to kill the tougher monsters first. Then the Rombots will be summoned at close intervals.
- If you have a cleric, get them to spam heal (hold down their heal key and do nothing else)
Passes required: 3
EXP: 4620
Stage Eight
Yet another puzzle stage. It is very similar to the Kerning City Party quest puzzle, but with nine boxes. This stage requires 5 party members to be on the boxes (the leader has to be on a box if someone is offline) This can get tedious and long, because there are 126 possible combinations with no preset answer. However, the combination appears to be influenced by the levels and jobs of the party members. To accomplish this quickly and in an organized manner, the following method is used. One person, generally a person that will be AFK (Away from keyboard), a newbie or a person who needs to recover HP (should there not be a cleric) should be on box one or two. Other members of the party should go on 3, 4, and 5. Don't fight over boxes, it doesn't matter, it just makes this stage longer. Assign an experienced jumper to box 4/5.
This process must be organized. So, the person at the greatest number (five at start) should keep incrementing in number until the person reaches nine where he or she will restart at six and the person that was at four will go to five. This process keeps continuing until the message "Clear" is displayed. Note, the final combination is 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. If you get it wrong that combination, you should start all over, as you have missed a combination
- If you need help, ask your party members, they should know what to do.
- If you're new, try taking the first or second box, however if your party doesn't want you to, simply take another number.
JMS
A technique of doing stage 8 is call JMS (Japan Maple Story, where it originated) You do the same thing (12345, 12346, 12347...), but imagining the numbers instead are ordered like:
1 7
2 5 8
3 4 6 9
This saves times as moving in this pattern is much faster than the normal pattern
Tip: write this down on a piece of paper, also, don't opt for position 4 or 5.
If your party is planning on doing JMS, make sure that at least 3 members (excluding the leader) are fluent at it. Put those without JMS experience on 1 and 2 (JMS-wise) and tell them not to move without being told to. JMS is very confusing for newbies to the system and often, with JMS newbies, it is faster to do GMS.
KMS
Another technique of doing stage eight is called KMS (Korean MapleStory) Basically, you do 12345,12346, etc. until you get to 13456. Then, you do 13456, 23456, 13457, etc. and when you get to 14567, you do 14567, 24567, 34567, 14568, etc. You continue. Like JMS, It saves time.
If your party is planning on doing KMS, make sure when you start, the people on 1 and 5 know how to KMS.
Passes required: NONE
EXP: 5040
A Crack On The Wall - Killing The Alishar (Boss)
Have your Bowman or Assassin kill the Ratz on the platform so the passes drop directly onto the treasure chest. Alternately, if your ranged party member has disconnected (DC'd) it is possible to hit the ratz with a polearm or spear. Note that the ratz should not be killed near the edge of the platform as the pass might drop to the ground below. If that happens, jump and drop the pass so that it will go back on the platform. Once the treasure chest is broken, Alishar is summoned!
Tips and Strategies:
- Your Cleric should Heal once in every few seconds and not stop until the end of the battle. This is because that you will not be able to take even 2 or 3 hits from the boss. Alishar deals out about 400-600 touch damage, and 400-600 magic damage.
- All magicians especially clerics MUST have Magic Guard on at all times of the battle, as Alishar will kill in one hit by touch damage and two for magic.
- Alishar can jump and move to the very edge of both sides of the stage, so unless your party is quick at killing him, you might find your party hemmed in on one edge. Mages can try and teleport to the other side, but everyone else will have to walk past it.
- Alishar will put status condition on you. The status condition can either lock up all your skills or blind you to drastically lower your accuracy. You should use Holy Water for the lock or Eyedrops for the blindness. Alternatively, you can use All Cure Potions which will cure you of both the Lock and blindness. Waiting for the curse to wear off is not an option, due to the nature of the battle. If you did not bring any cure potions and get cursed, you will just have to stay out of battle.
- Mages need not use Eyedrops, because they will not be affected by lower accuracy.
- After losing about 1/3 of his health, he will begin to summon Chronos. After lowering his health further, Alishar will start summoning Platoon Chronos in addition to Chronos. Alishar will begin to summon Master Chronos as well when he has about only 1/3 of his HP left. Alishar has 125000hp, some people say that if an assassin kills the rat, that Alishar only has 125000hp. Alishar also gives 4800exp, but when she is killed the exp is divided between the party members, and the more damage you did the more exp you get. So at minimum you should get somewhere near 500 - 750 exp.
- The Chronoses should be handled by the players who cannot hit Alishar.
- Eventually, the Alishar will die and drop a key. Let the leader pick up the key he drops. After the leader clicks on the Balloon, you will automatically proceed to the Bonus Stage.
- If your party is still struggling and can't seem to kill Alishar, you should simply abort the stage and attempt to rush.
- Warriors will usually miss Alishar if they are below level 43. Those at level 43 and above, and have a Maple Weapon, will find it easy as Maple Weapons add 30 accuracy. All Warriors should use Sniper Pills and Warrior Pills. Warriors basically have only one option: to tank at Alishar.
- Mages: Magic Guard on AT ALL TIMES. Turn it off only if you want to know how your tombstone looks like. Clerics should stay near the ranged attackers and spam heal. Heal can also be used to damage the Chronos, but remember that your party members are more important than damaging these minions But you can attack Chronos for you want. Bless should only be used when it is level 10 or higher because there are players who use sniper pills, which are negated once Bless is cast. Watch your MP as well, Magic Guard will drain a whole lot of it, and will cause your death once your MP reaches 0. Lastly, when Alishar casts a magic attack, teleport backwards to dodge it. Alishar is resistant to ALL elemental attacks, try Magic Claw instead. Of course, if you have invested lots of SP into your attack skill, use it.
- Bowmen should bring Sniper Pills, even with insane accuracy. They won't do the best damage, but will help if they have Arrow Bomb to finish off the Chronoses. Note that that causes quite a bit of lag. Remember that Bowmen succumb easily to Alishar's wrath if they do not watch their HP.
- Thieves: Use your best throwing stars and jump attack. Assassins are probably the main attackers in this stage. Sniper pills are good, Warrior pills can also be used. Bandits need not worry getting up close and personal with Alishar if they have a cleric or two. Haste would be nice, but it is not necessary. Watch your HP. When you are out of reach from your dear cleric, make sure you keep your HP up.
- Mages from level 35 to 42 should use Magic Claw as it will have a better chance at hitting Alishar.
- Be prepared to use your own HP-restoring items if necessary, as the party can get spread out and/or separated with Alishar in between them. If either of those situations occur, you may be without the help of your Cleric.
- It is important to get a high level Bowman or Assassin if you have a low level Bandit in the party. Double Stab will do low or too little damage without critical and Savage Blow will suffer too much weapon defense penalty.
Bonus Stage
This stage consists of many, many prize boxes. Upon entering, you have one minute to collect as much loot as you can. Hitting a box opens a cascade of Mesos and items. It is recommended that you not bother with them unless you see a cape, earrings, or Dew (sells for a few thousand Mesos at an NPC). After a minute, your party will automatically be ejected into the conclusion stage. Refrain from looting another party member's items. Take others' mesos or potions only if it is apparent that they do not want it. There are many, many more prize boxes at the top than the bottom, so it is advised that 4 people go up and 2 go down.
Determine to Adventure
This is not a stage, however to exit the party quest and to get your prize, you will need to talk to Artuto, whom is at the top of the map. After talking to Artuto, he will give you a prize, make sure you have one slot in Use, Equipment, and ETC available before talking to Artuto.
Total Experience
Assuming that you complete the entire Party Quest you should receive an average of about 30,000-40,000 exp per party member. (Killing Alishar does give exp, but only to the one person who kills her).
Rushing
Rushing is the art of entering the party quest again before another party gets in. Several methods are used to rush. The most common method is the leader leaves via the Sergeant NPC and then quickly clicks on the Red Sign. Reasons why parties rush include:
- The party has lost vital members of their party either through death or disconnection.
Bonus Rush
Bonus rush is when you don't do Bonus but you get your prize. The party enters Bonus, and the leader immediately expels a planned member of the party, expelling the party from Bonus. The party will be sent to Determine to Adventure. Everyone needs to get out of this map as soon as possible, so it is helpful to have maxed Haste, no lag, and at least one space in Equip, Use and Etc. to claim your prize. If the leader has teleport it will be useful. After all the party members are in the 101st Floor, the leader should click.
Things to avoid doing while in PQ
- AFK-ing. This causes trouble, whether you are in the PQ or trying to get in. You will hold up your party if in PQ because no one can advance to the next stage without you. Outside PQ, when your party has found a channel with no party inside the Party Quest, they find that they cannot go in because you are AFK. Avoid going AFK as much as possible.
- Looting. In the Bonus stage, looting another person's items may result in defames and undesirable exchanging of words.
- Impatience. Patience is crucial in Stage 8, which may take a long time.
- Flaming. Try not to flame as it could escalate situations beyond what they are.
- Slacking. It is selfish to sit at the bottom of the map while all your party members kill the monsters, letting you leech from it. A PQ requires all the party members to work together.
- Disconnecting. Of course if you cannot get a better computer, try switching your graphical mode to the lowest possible. Note that this may cause confusion in Stage 6, when you cannot see the boxes clearly. Stay out of fights (except for the boss fight) as far as possible.
Dealing with situations
Inevitably, during your PQ career, you will come across some nasty people. When that happens, do not panic, and follow the steps below.
Dealing with a party member that is offline
Occasionally, there will be a party member that disconnects or simply left the party for no reason. If this person does not have a pass when they left the party, then there should be no problem. However, if the person did have a pass, you will have to rush. However, in order to more quickly rush, one person in the party should go and get another person ready so that the leader can invite that person to the party, and the party can rush back in. Alternatively, wait until the disconnected party members comes back. There is no garauntee that he/she comes back online, but if he/she does, it is good because you can then rush out and back in. This step is risky if you are towards the end of the PQ, because other people are more likely to track you when you are further into PQ. However, if any of the party members know how to 'smuggle' the passes out of the pq. You can clear the stage even without having to fight the monsters. This does not work for Stage 8.
Dealing with a party member that is afk
Occasionally, there will be a party member that does not respond, because he is not at the keyboard. Of course you should wait for him, but when it is apparent that he will be gone for quite some time, and you do not wish to wait any longer, just do what you do when there is an offline member: rush out and find a replacement.
Dealing with a party member that is rude
Occasionally, there will be a party member that is rude toward you. Please know that this is like the real world where you might hate your peers but you must ignore them. Simply remember the rule of "don't feed the troll," which simply means don't talk to him or her. It is important to NOT expel the rude party member. When one party member is expelled, the whole party is booted out of the Party Quest.
If there are two members fighting with each other (eg. two mages taking the mage portal in Stage 5), then try to resolve the dispute, but know your limits. They may threaten to leave the PQ, or to hold on to the passes which holds up everyone.
Obtaining Tracks
- Tracks are very simple to obtain. First, you should go channel surfing and write down the names of the people there. Later on, you can use the /find command to see if that certain person is in a party quest. If they are, you should tell your party to come to that channel. You should keep this track for future PQs.
- Buying tracks. This is not a good option as the sellers most likely are scammers.
- Free tracks. Often, someone gives out a track. It is usually for one of the following reasons:
- To get people to change channel, increasing their chance to successfully get in.
- To cause their old party to fail to enter the next PQ (they may be angry at them).
- It might be a fake track; the person could be somewhere else or the name may not exist.
Try not to use these, because the word spreads fast, causing a lot of competition with other parties.
Party Quest Terminology
Party quests has terminology which many be confusing to first time party questers. The following are used commonly in the Ludibrium Party quest.
- Clear - The second stage's second box has been broken, you can now enter the second stage without going to the trap.
- Done - Has the same meaning as "clear".
- Go - Has the same meaning as "clear".
- Pass - The ETC item that allows the leader to clear the stage, which opens the portal to the next one.
- AC - Auto Clicker, a macro that allows one to click the red stop sign very fast. It can get you banned if used, this is against the terms of policy for MapleStory.
- MC - Manual Click. The method of clicking on the Red Stop Sign using your fingers. It's slower than an AC, but it is legitimate. By using the space bar, this can be very fast
- Track - Someone that you can look up to check their party's progress through the Party Quest.
- Miss - The leader fails to get the party into the party quest and another party enters the party quest.
- CC - Change Channel. Used when a party member has found a track and is telling the party which channel it is at (i.e. cc12 stg5)
- Out - The current party inside the party quest is now out of the Party Quest, enabling another party to get in.
- LDR - This means Leader
- PL- This means Party Leader
- Click - This means that the person tracking is telling the leader to click the red sign because the party in, is at the bonus stage.
- Crack - This is used to inform the party leader that the party inside is at the last stage : A Crack on the Wall
See Also
Notes
Repeatable Quest (notice)
- Overall, there are fewer people wanting to Ludibrium PQ, as Monster Carnival is arguably faster and doesn't have the confusing stage 8. Because of the low amount of people wanting to PQ, rushing is usually an excluded step when attempting to get back in.
- Stage 8 has different forms which make it easier, while the method itself takes some time to get used to
- Once you complete this 35 times you get an awesome item called Broken Glasses which has a high market value after using Scissors of Karma.
- You can get Maple Stars from this.