General

The Simpletons Guide to Training

Since everyone tends to like to post their personal training regimens, I thought I'd do the same for people who want to make new characters quickly. The guide will focus primarily on the earlier levels, but I'll throw in what I think is best for 100+ to help people along more easily. Keep in mind, though, that the main focus of this guide is training for unfunded characters mostly. If you have the funds or sheer raw power to kill something at a higher stage, that's your prerogative...

...and yes, for the people who either can't read or don't want to read, there's a summary at the bottom of the post.

[b]As a Beginner...[/b]
Unless you're an Explorer, a Cygnus Knight or a Resistance character of some kind, don't worry about this. Most classes these days throw you right into the start of your first job advancement after a short cutscene or tutorial. Just do the quests laid out for you on Maple Island, Ereve or the Edelstein Strolling Path.

[b]During First Job...[/b]
First things first, you want to walk to Perion, no matter what your job is. Why? Two words: [i]Jr. Boogie[/i]. The Jr. Boogie familiar is probably one of the best early-game familiars anywhere, replenishing anywhere between 10~15% of your mana every ten seconds, give or take. Between this and careful dodging, you likely won't need any money for potions for some time... or, for some classes, at all. Even on a Level 14X Dark Knight, I've never run out of mana with a Jr. Boogie familiar out.
[b]FOR PIRATES:[/b] I personally think you have it a little easier because you have a relatively simple questline ([i]though long at about forty quests tied together[/i] ) that you can do east of the Nautilus that basically nets you your first twenty levels for a little bit of work; kill thirty of this, collect twenty of that... you know, simple stuff. Just a note to all Pirate classes who do start this questline: buy a Mana Elixir from the Nautilus' merchant, Gali. No, you won't be using it however; about two-thirds of the way through, you're going to have to do a quest for Sharyl where he wants you to get him a Mana Elixir to replenish his energy and assert a human form... monsters at this level don't drop them, and if you don't have one, it's quite the long and time-wasting trek to the Nautilus again to buy one.
[b]FOR NON-PIRATES:[/b] You have it a little harder, sadly, but it's still not bad because you can basically do the same thing as Pirates. Most people at this point would say 'train at Ribbon Pigs', but frankly, if you're just starting out, you might as well go one map over and start training on Yellow Starfish. At Level 17, they don't have much health, are small and slow targets that are easy to jump over and dodge ([i]even slower if your familiar manages to cast Slow on them[/i] ), and even if you're at Level 10 when coming here, your odds of getting a 'Miss' on any respective attack is about 35% ([i]possibly less if your class depends on range and accuracy like Bowmen or Thieves[/i] ). Then once you get to be around the monsters' level, you can go to the Golem Temple beyond Henesys; Mixed Stone Golems are your prey here, and by now, everyone should know about the mini-dungeon in Golem Temple 4. Train here until your next job advancement.

[b]During Second Job...[/b]
Your best friends here are mini-dungeons, and this is the most important part of this short guide, so read on. Let me break it down for you in three simple steps.

[b]LEVEL 30-40: ELLINEL FAIRY ACADEMY[/b]
Yes, typically Ellinel is meant for people to train until Level 35... however, due to a small bug in Tot's Know-How, once you accept the quest and first enter Ellinel through Fanzy, you can talk to Tot, do a few know-how quests and immediately level up from 30 to 35! Though that's not to say you won't be doing Ellinel anyways. It's still quite an amazing source of experience and, even doing the quests beyond the recommended level, you can easily level up to around 39 here. Doing a few quests after you get the 'Honorary Fairy Professor' medal and +3 all stat cape ([i]which you end up having to scroll[/i] ) should bump you up to Level 40, just in time to do...

[b]LEVEL 40-50: GOLD BEACH RESORT[/b]
Personally, I find this theme dungeon better than Kerning Square, but not by much. You're trading out mild tedium for moderately obnoxious NPCs; instead of needing to grind on the same level of monsters over and over and riding the elevator up and down and up and down to the point of motion sickness, all you need to do at Gold Beach is hold Enter through an obnoxious NPC speech until you have to click 'Yes' and read your objective. You won't be completing it for its medal, though--at Level 45, leave Gold Beach by any means necessary and go to any main town. Once there, you can talk to Tot again, do a few more know-how quests, one of which involves a Gachapon ticket ([i]which is rigged to give you garbage items[/i] ), and get a free pass to Level 50. At this point, you have a bit of a fork in the road and can take one of three paths.

[b]LEVEL 50-60: CONTINUE GOLD BEACH / RIENA STRAIT / FLOATING ISLAND OF CHRYSE[/b]
This is where preference comes into play. Both are great sources of experience that only require a little bit of work each, so I'll put their pros and cons one after the other.
[*]If you take the free levels to 50 through Tot's Know-How and end up with Gold Beach Tickets to spare, you could always use them to finish the theme dungeon and get the 'Beach Bum' medal for it. Under normal circumstances, it should take you to Level 49... but with the level skip under your belt, you should easily make it to 53 ([i]sadly, this is only an approximation[/i] ) before moving onto the next of the Level 50+ theme dungeons, so afterwards...
[*]I personally would take Riena Strait for its simplicity, its innovation... and, I'll admit, it has some pretty awesome music that you won't soon get tired of. There's no shirking either of these theme dungeons' questlines off, unfortunately, but the rewards for doing all Riena Strait's quests are the 'Deckhand' medal with +3 to all stats and a stylish face accessory. There is a lot of back-and-forth with this questline, but none of the quests are exceptionally hard and mostly pertain to killing X amount of monster Y. Plus, if you stick it out, you get to read some funny quips from characters like Barbara talking about how all kids care about today is 'their PQs and their Level 200s'. If you're in it for easy levels, I'd pick Riena Strait for you, though the theme dungeon only manages to get you to Level 56 or so.
[*]On the other hand, you have the Floating Island of Chryse... which is the epitome of fetch-questing in MapleStory. You can't even start the actual theme dungeon's questline unless you go to the first map with monsters and kill Rabbits until you find a 'Chryse Hall Entry Pass'. From then on, it's basically a straight running theme of '[i]kill these monsters until you get enough of their specific ETC drops to turn in your quest... then collect double that amount for the next quest[/i] '--a good rule of thumb is that if they ask you to just collect items, collect triple what you need ([i]e.g.: if they ask for 50 Practice Spears, collect 150 before moving on to the next quest[/i] ) and if you're killing monsters and collecting items in tandem for a quest, just collect the normal amount. On a more positive note, the quests are very linear and seldom have you going back to the main hall to turn in quests ([i]being able to turn them in remotely via the lightbulb on the left side of the screen is a huge plus[/i] ), though unless you have a pet with an Item Pouch handy, you're going to be mashing the 'Z' key in frustration... very often. This quest line gets you to Level 58, though the other rewards are... sketchy at best. You get a medal with +2 to all stats and +200 HP/MP, but instead of a mandatory equipment piece given away, you have to hunt down Xerxes over and over in order to have a chance to obtain either Michael's Glasses or Michaela's Glasses, both of which drop at a very low rate...

...but after all's said and done, you can easily get your last couple levels through Spiegelmann's Gonzo Gallery. Each mission takes about ten minutes at the best of times and will net you a half-decent piece of shoulder equipment and belt... however, the belt is subpar and the shoulder is time-limited, so... if you've been doing the Curbrock quests up to this point, it's better to just use those. It's only for a while longer, anyhow.

[b]TRAINER'S TIP:[/b] Even if you don't like picking up every item on your route, if you have little to no funds, do yourself a favor and pick up weapons and armor if you can. Typically, weapons and armor sell for tens of thousands of mesos a pop with weapons netting you slightly more in the long run than armors of the same level. If you have a pet, as was suggested in the Chryse explanation, you can sell off stacks of ETC items for as much as some weapons--for example, a stack of 200 May Mists from Homunculi sells for as much as your average Level 80 weapon.

[b]During Third Job...[/b]
For most of this, you're going to have to settle for more grinding. For this job advancement, most of your time will be spent in the Nihal Desert area where you'll be killing monsters almost non-stop. At Level 60, you either want to start training on Cactus and Royal Cactus monsters ([i]taking the easternmost exit to Ariant that circles around; the monsters' levels start at 73[/i] ), or you can start on your journey to Magatia and work on killing Meerkats to start out. As you gain about five levels, go down the next map and kill the next strongest monster... of, if you prefer, you can head to the Sakura Castle theme dungeon and complete that to kill someone of the monotony of the desert landscape. However, at about Level 80, your best bets are... Homun and Homunculus monsters in Magatia, by entering the Zenumist building ([i]leftmost building in Magatia[/i] ) and going to the second basement floor; the leftmost portal here leads to a flat map with Homuns, the other two lead to a flat map and a multi-tiered map respectively, both containing Homunculi... and that's it. That's basically all you do until 100. If you want to spice it up a little, feel free to go to Ellin Forest at 95, but I never saw the need to because Homunculi are probably the best experience you're going to get at this stage in the game... save for maybe Captains and Krus between Mu Lung and Herb Town.

[b]OPTIONALLY...:[/b] At Level 75, you can start doing the Silent Crusade questline which spans until Level 160 ideally, though I've managed to complete it at Level 140. However, seeing as how the difficulty spikes quite rapidly throughout the questline's four chapters, I'd recommend that you wait until fourth job, at least until around Level 110. Collect 765 Crusader Coins in order to buy a set of 'Mystic' equipment pieces that are equipable at Level 115 which, with a full set, gives you an additional 21 attack... and the stats on the individual pieces at nothing to scoff at, either, especially if you don't have the funds to purchase godly gear like the 'pros' have.

[b]During Fourth Job...[/b]
...what, this really needs saying? Ugh, fine. From Level 100 onward, you have access to Evolving World, a personalized training ground that you can use to consistently grind monsters of your level or higher, if you so choose. Since the monsters scale to your level, the experience always changes and grows so it's not like wallowing around in a stagnating pool of water for too long. Once you get to 115, you can head to the Golden Temple and train there for decent experience that should get you at least four levels; and at 125, I personally recommend going to Neo City through Leafre--completing that questline gives you a great medal that gives weapon and magic attack as well as a cool-looking hat that gives +10 to all stats. Beyond that, your training spots really spell themselves out: Dimensional Invasion at 140, Future Henesys at 160, Future Perion at 190... if you have the time and patience to level up that high.

[b]In Summary...[/b]
10-30: Yellow Starfish and Mixed Stone Golems for non-Pirates; job-based quests for Pirate classes.
30-40: Go to Ellinel, then do a few things for Tot... and then actually start and complete Ellinel Fairy Academy.
40-50: Find a way to tolerate Gold Beach until you reach Level 45, then stop and do Tot's again 'til 50.
50-60: Flip a coin, roll a die, whatever--finish Gold Beach if you want, then pick either Riena Strait (better rewards) or Chryse (higher level gain).
60-80: Kill everything you see between Ariant and Magatia; if you're getting bored of the scenery, head to Sakura Castle.
80-100: Homuns and Homunculi until you're sick of them... then more Homuns and Homunculi.
100+: Evolving World all the way, Silent Crusade at 110, Golden Temple at 115, and Neo City at 125.