General

Well, for starters, you can easily purchase an entire lv 140 set for close to 100m (the cape and shoulder accessories would be the most of that - the rest would be easily under 30m). If you want to splurge a bit more, the 150 set will do... but might take up most of your mesos. One piece of good luck is that Owl of Minerva are now purchasable through normal shops for mesos, not NX.

Your earrings, belt and rings aren't actually that bad. If there is still time, you could attempt to forge a Sylph Ring from the Freud quests, but you need about 2 weeks (5 days a week) to make one. The resulting ring will be stronger than most of what you have at the moment... but it might be a bit late to begin the questline.

You can get good totems from the Lords of Darkness event for free.

Freud's journal gives a ring that is good for unfunded characters. It's kinda bad you missed the stat scrolls, but the bonus is still pretty good.

Gollux can be obtained by yourself for basically free (just a long ass questline), especially since you can play two characters to do it. It easily overpowers any other accessories you can get. Reinforced set is fine for now, pendants and belt are cheap.

Getting the Leafre set is so easy now, might as well.

Full RA should be cheap for archers, clean is fine for now, weapon is optional.

I would suggest getting 7% DEX SW glasses and Tattoo yourself (just a short step away from Gollux quests) since they come auto-epic from the shop.

Make sure you get a lvl 100 emblem (tertiary weapon) and an EVO secondary.

There's a level 150 potentialable badge out from Boat Quay's questline.

Tyrant capes are relatively cheap now, but they may still be out of your budget. It can wait.

Fill shoulder, shoes, and cape (weapon too if you opted out of faf weap) with empress if you want, but it doesn't really matter.

After all that, you can probably get top 50 dojo gloves.

Level up link skill and character card mules, they help a lot, and training is easy, as you should have seen.

You can learn both herbing and mining, and one of the upper tier professions. Alchemy is preferred.

Wow, has it been 4 years already? Felt like it was yesterday when I would bother you for Basil-related issues. You're in Bera If you were in Broa, I would love to help you get some of the items.

@Kevvl: yes =_=.

I feel like the gray hair of my avatar now accurately depicts its age.

But like others said, do research, thier is a learning curve, and the game is continually becoming cheaper.

hello, i am also returning from many years. i main a night lord, which equips should i be looking to buy?

[quote=hyperfire7]@Kevvl: Welcome back Mr. Mod.
What is this "junk" you're proposing that will fetch you around 4b?
Sadly, the only equips that are worth anything from both of your characters are the:

14att Brown Work Glove : 15~20m
4att (PAC) Pink Adventurer Cape : 15~20m
3att PAC: 10m
Evolving Rings Version 1 or 2 Lv17: ~50m each.

Everything else you can pretty much toss away/NPC it. I'm dead serious.

The reason is because Nexon released a new mechanic called party drop sharing: In bosses like Empress and CRA (I'll explain those in a moment), each party member will get drops that are independent from other party members. So let's say when I killed Empress, I got the Empress Bow, 2h sword, Wand, and Claw. Only I can get them, no one else. Another party member might have gotten a bow, a 1h hammer, a 2h axe, a claw, etc. And so on.
This made the supply of them go way up, and coupled with the fact that there are a lot more funded players to kill these bosses, the prices of Empress and CRA equipment dropped, making the previous endgame equipment (Lv110 Dragon, Lv120 Reverse/Timeless, Lv130 Imperial), outdated and worthless.

Empress Cygnus was introduced as a boss in 2011 and it drops Lv140 Empress armors and weapons. The equipment it drops are better than anything else from before (a clean 6 set Empress armor/weapon will easily outclass anything you have at the moment), yet due to the above reason, they're also very cheap (less than 10m each for each armor piece, with archer armors being less than 2m), while Empress capes are around 20~90m (because they have a lower drop rate).

Here's another news: you guys are in luck because you're archers. Archers have the cheapest equipment prices out of the other four jobs, so I suggest you guys go for the new Lv150 Chaos Root Abyss (CRA) armors and weapons (well, not really new, they've been out for 2 years already), as they're even better than Empress equipment.
Clean archer tops are 5m, bottoms are 15m, hats are 10m. CRA Xbows are ~25m each while bows are ~90m.

Oh, and just to help you, here's a condensed summary of all the important changes that happened starting with the Big Bang update in 2010:

[b]December 2010 - Big Bang:[/b]
[b]Map layout of almost every single map changed to become more user-friendly. User interface theme changed. Levels of many monsters changed. [/b]
Release of the "Resistance" branch of classes. The city of Edelstein has fallen under control of the Black Wings (Black Mage supporters), so the Resistance formed as a result. They consist of the Wild Hunter (crossbowman who rides on a jaguar), Battle Mage (melee-style mage), and Mechanic (a pirate that rides a mech robot to attack, don't ask me why that qualifies as a pirate class).

[b]June 2011 - Chaos:[/b]
[b]The Profession system replaced the Maker system and completely overhauled crafting.[/b] Now you can learn Alchemy to brew potions, Jewel Crafting to make accessories, and Smithing to make weapons & armor.[/b]
Release of Corrupted Empress Cygnus and her Chief knights as bosses that drops the then-endgame-worthy Lv140 Empress armor/weapons.
Aran & Evan got their much needed buffs.

Fall 2011 - Ascension:
Bunch of new PQs released, old ones revamped.
Explorer warriors/archers/mages got buffed slightly.

Winter 2011 - Legends:
Release of Cannon Shooter (3rd Adventurer pirate class), Mercedes (3rd Legend class who's an Archer that uses dual bowguns), Demon Slayer (Resistance warrior that uses Demon Force to attack with the dark element)

Summer 2012 - Renegades:
Release of Phantom (4th Legend class who's a Thief that can steal any Explorer classes' skills and use it as his own).
Explorer thieves and pirates got buffed slightly.

Winter 2012 - Tempest:
Release of Luminous (5th Legend class who's a Mage that uses light and dark magic).
Release of the "Nova" branch of classes: (Kaiser = A 2h sword Warrior with a dragon theme. Angelic Buster = A Barbie who was the most OP class ever made at the time because they were the only class to be able to break the damage cap of 999k).
[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hQbd2YPmo4]Click here to see how retardedly OP they once were.[/url] Don't worry though, Angelic Busters got nerfed very hard.

Spring 2013 - Mark of Honor:
Release of previously JapanMS exclusive classes = Hayato (a samurai) and Kanna (an okami-themed Mage who uses fans to attack)

Late Spring 2013 - Cygnus Returns:
Dawn Warrior/Wind Archer/Thunder Breaker completely overhauled. Their max level cap raised to 200 from 120.
*Blaze Wizard and Night Walker got their overhaul more recently.

[b]Summer 2013 - Unleashed:[/b]
[b][i]Damage cap raised to 50,000,000 from 999,999. Damage range cap increased to 2,000,000. Level cap of all classes increased to 250 from 200.[/i][/b]
[b]Huge HP/ATT buff to all bosses. Release of Lv140+ Hyper Skills for ALL classes to (sorta) accommodate the buff. Peak of the pay2win theme.[/b]
Release of Xenon (Resistance Pirate/Thief hybrid class with a cyborg theme) and Demon Avenger (2nd Resistance warrior who uses HP to attack with the dark element).
Release of Root Abyss and Chaos Root Abyss where its bosses drop Lv150 armor/weapons. These replaced Empress armors/weapons as the new (and still currently used as) endgame equips.
[url=http://www.basilmarket.com/MapleStory-Tyrant_Lycaon_Gloves___ATK_145-Items-Screen-230542.html]Stuff like this became more and more common since that update[/url]
[url=http://www.basilmarket.com/MapleStory-Fafnir_Damascus_337WA__95__Boss__39__ATK-Items-Screen-230321.html]Or this[/url]
[url=http://www.basilmarket.com/MapleStory-Fafnir_Mana_Crown___393_M_Att-Showoff-Screen-230624.html]Or even this[/url]

[b]Winter 2013 - RED:[/b]
[b]Complete overhaul of all Explorer classes.[/b] Release of the 'Zero' class, a tag-team warrior class where you control 2 characters.
[b]Various stuff implemented to make the game significantly less pay2win since Nexon realized they screwed up with the Unleashed update.[/b] (i.e. You can now craft cubes. They were previously only obtainable via the Cash Shop).

Summer 2014 - Rising Heroes
Release of Shade, the 6th and final Legend class who's a pirate with a spirit theme.

Fall 2014
Blaze Wizard & Night Walker completely overhauled. Their max level cap raised to 250 from 120.
*Night Walker revamp is coming within the next 2 weeks.

In between all these patches, numerous new areas, monsters, and quests were released. Existing monsters got rebuffed a few additional as well (EX: Robos in Ludibrium were around Lv60 around the time you quit, now they're Lv100).

Oh and D/C hacking is pretty much gone now.

Two very useful sites you want to check out:
[url=http://orangemushroom.net/]This blog has an in-depth description of every patch about to be released in KoreanMS.[/url]
It takes about 5-6 months for a patch that was released in KMS to be applied to GMS. So if the post about a particular patch was dated August 2014 in KMS, it would likely come to us around Feburary 2015.

www.maple [dot] fm (can't actually type the site's URL since Basil censored it) is a legit site that shows ALL items being sold at the Free Market realtime. Super helpful.

Hope I helped.[/quote]

Man that was an informative summary. Thanks for this

[quote=Spartan]Didn't you have an archer guide back in the day? Or was that someone else.[/quote]
Most of the guides were originally owned by the Archer Guide Forums. I joined in later and attempted to keep the guides updated, which I did for about a year before I had to pass them off.

The only guide I wrote myself was the Wind Archer Guide, which is obviously now vastly outdated.

4b should be enough to buy both characters a full set of RA. Then you can work on potentialling that and getting tyrant gear and gollux accessories. Meanwhile you might want to look at getting link skills, as they will boost your range a ton without costing you anything. Level 2 DA/Kanna = +10% total damage (these stack), level 2 Xenon = +10% all stats, level 2 Demon Slayer = +15% boss damage, level 2 Mercedes = +10% exp gained.

All of your gear is trash except for the evolving rings, but even they're replaceable nowadays so don't expect much money out of them.

Well I suppose that's reasonable, hah! Couldn't have expected too much, but I'll see what I can do with them.

@Kevvl: Idk where you saw them selling for 130m, but they hover more in the 70m area.
And I'm going to kill your hopes a bit more, but thanks to the new spell trace system, the 2h pink scrolls are harder to sell now.
The only practical use for the 2h pink scrolls now is to scroll android hearts.

Oh and I got some spare archer CRA equips laying around in my inventory, if you wanna get on right now, I'll give them to you for free
You've been on this site for quite some time anyways

@bluebomber24: Woah! You're still here? Glad to see it, thanks for the welcomes.
@hyperfire7: Welp, that's about as much info as I could possibly ask for, thanks a ton! Since you asked, the junk I'm referring to are about 37 50% 2H Weapon Attack Scrolls. The pink ones from an old event, I managed to save them since I knew they'd be worth money, and I've seen then selling as high as 130m. I also had a small amount of cash on hand to begin with, so i feel like even I sell them low, my estimate will be accurate.

Glad to know my equips can all be swapped out, and gladder to know that it'll take more grit and sweat than money. I've always been bad with money, haha

Accessories: Keep the evolving rings for now, but start replacing them with Superior/Reinforced Gollux set which half of it you can obtain by spending time killing the boss: Gollux. The coins that drop from the boss can also be exchanged for scrolls to scroll these.

Armor / Weapon: Scrap all of what you have and get a clean cRA set (relatively cheap). Scroll them slowly using event scrolls and/or spell traces.

If you've "only" got 4b, it's probably not wise to even spend it. Nexon has put in considerable effort into making opening to accumulate strength through time rather than raw meso/nx.

Wow, welcome back. Hope you have fun.

@Kevvl: Welcome back Mr. Mod.
What is this "junk" you're proposing that will fetch you around 4b?
Sadly, the only equips that are worth anything from both of your characters are the:

14att Brown Work Glove : 15~20m
4att (PAC) Pink Adventurer Cape : 15~20m
3att PAC: 10m
Evolving Rings Version 1 or 2 Lv17: ~50m each.

Unfortunately everything else just hogs your inventory space. Trash it.

Along with the fact that Nexon released better endgame equips, the main reason why I'm telling you to get rid of it is because Nexon released a new mechanic called party drop sharing.
In bosses like Empress and CRA (I'll explain those in a moment), each party member will get drops that are independent from other party members. So let's say when I kill Empress, I get the Empress Bow, 2H Sword, Wand, and Claw. Only I can get them, no one else. All other party members would also get their own slew of weapon drops that are independent from my drops.
This made the supply of these equips go way up, and coupled with the fact that there are a lot more funded players to kill these bosses, the prices of Empress and CRA equipment dropped, making the previous endgame equipment (Lv110 Dragon, Lv120 Reverse/Timeless, Lv130 Imperial), outdated and worthless.

Empress Cygnus was introduced as a boss in 2011 and it drops Lv140 Empress armors and weapons. The equipment Cygnus drops are better than anything else from before (a clean 6 set Empress armor/weapon will easily outclass anything you have at the moment), but due to the aforementioned reason, they're also very cheap (less than 10m each for each armor piece, with archer armors being less than 2m), while Empress capes are around 20~60m (because they have a lower drop rate).

Here's another news: you are in luck because you're an archer. Archer equipment is the cheapest out of the five basic class categories, so I suggest you to go for the new Lv150 Chaos Root Abyss (CRA) armors and weapons (well, not really new, they've been out for almost 2 years already), as they're even better than the Empress equipment.
Clean CRA archer tops are 5m, bottoms are 15m, hats are 10m. CRA Xbows are ~25m each while Bows are ~90m.

Oh, and just to help you, here's a condensed summary of all the important changes that happened starting with the Big Bang update in 2010:

[b]December 2010 - Big Bang:[/b]
[b]Map layout of almost every single map changed to become more user-friendly. UI changed. Levels of many monsters changed. [/b]
Release of the "Resistance" branch of classes. The city of Edelstein has fallen under control to the Black Wings (Black Mage supporters), so the Resistance formed as a result. The Resistance consisted of 3 classes:
1) Wild Hunter (Crossbowman who rides on a jaguar)
2) Battle Mage (Melee-oriented Mage that uses staves)
3) Mechanic (A Pirate that pilots a mech robot to attack--don't ask me why that makes him a pirate class. Uses guns as their weapon).

[b]June 2011 - Chaos:[/b]
[b]The Profession system replaced the Maker system and completely overhauled crafting.[/b] Now you can learn Alchemy to brew potions, Jewel Crafting to make accessories, and Smithing to make weapons & armor.[/b]
Release of Corrupted Empress Cygnus and her Chief knights as bosses that drops the then-endgame-worthy Lv140 Empress armor/weapons.
Aran & Evan got their much needed buffs.

Fall 2011 - Ascension:
Bunch of new PQs released, old ones revamped.
Explorer warriors/archers/mages got buffed.

Winter 2011 - Legends:
Release of 3 new classes:
1) Cannon Shooter (3rd Adventurer Pirate class. Uses cannons as weapons).
2) Mercedes (3rd Legend class who's an Archer. Uses dual bowguns as weapons).
3) Demon Slayer (Resistance warrior that uses Demon Force instead of MP to attack with the dark element. Uses 1h-mace or 1h-axe as weapons).

Summer 2012 - Renegades:
Release of the Phantom (4th Legend class who's a Thief that can steal any Explorer classes' skills and use it as his own. Uses canes as weapons).
Explorer thieves and pirates got buffed.

Winter 2012 - Tempest:
Release of 3 new classes:
1) Luminous (5th Legend class who's a Mage that uses both light and dark elemental magic. Uses shining rods as their weapon.).
2) Kaiser (A 2H-sword-wielding, dragon-themed Warrior).
3) Angelic Buster = (Basically MapleStory's Barbie who was the most OP class released yet because they were the only class at the time to be able to break the damage cap of 999k. Uses soul shooter as their weapon).
*Kaisers and Angelic Busters are categorized under a new branch of classes called "Nova."

Spring 2013 - Mark of Honor:
Release of yet another new branch of classes: "Sengoku". Previously JapanMS exclusive. They consist of:
1) Hayato (a Samurai Warrior. Uses katanas as their weapon).
2) Kanna (An okami-themed Mage. Uses fans as their weapon).

Late Spring 2013 - Cygnus Returns:
Dawn Warrior & Wind Archer & Thunder Breaker completely overhauled. Their max level cap raised to 200 from 120.
*Blaze Wizard & Night Walker got their overhaul more recently.

[b]Summer 2013 - Unleashed:[/b]
[b][i]Damage cap raised to 50,000,000 from 999,999. Damage range cap increased to 2,000,000. Level cap of all classes increased to 250 from 200.[/i][/b]
[b]Huge HP/ATT buff to all bosses. Release of Lv140+ Hyper Skills for ALL classes to (sorta) accommodate the buff. Peak of the pay2win theme.[/b]
Release of 2 new Resistance classes:
1) Xenon (Resistance Pirate/Thief hybrid class with a cyborg theme. You can wear both thief and pirate equips. Again, don't ask me why that makes him a pirate. Uses whip blades as their weapon).
2) Demon Avenger (2nd Resistance warrior who uses their massive HP pool to attack with the dark element. Uses desperados as their weapon).
Release of Root Abyss and Chaos Root Abyss where its bosses drop Lv150 armor/weapons. These replaced Empress armors/weapons as the new (and still currently used as) endgame equips.
[url=http://www.basilmarket.com/MapleStory-Tyrant_Lycaon_Gloves___ATK_145-Items-Screen-230542.html]Stuff like this became obtainable only by the very funded since that update[/url]
[url=http://www.basilmarket.com/MapleStory-Fafnir_Damascus_337WA__95__Boss__39__ATK-Items-Screen-230321.html]Or this[/url]
[url=http://www.basilmarket.com/MapleStory-Fafnir_Mana_Crown___393_M_Att-Showoff-Screen-230624.html]Or even this[/url]

[b]Winter 2013 - RED:[/b]
[b]Complete overhaul of all Explorer classes.[/b]
Release of the "Zero" class, a tag-team Warrior class where you control 2 characters.
[b]Various stuff implemented to make the game significantly less pay2win since Nexon realized they screwed up with the Unleashed update.[/b] (i.e. You can now craft cubes. They were previously only obtainable via the Cash Shop).

Summer 2014 - Rising Heroes
Release of Shade, the 6th and final Legend class who's a pirate with a spirit theme. Again, don't ask me why that makes him a pirate.

Fall 2014
Blaze Wizard & Night Walker completely overhauled. Their max level cap raised to 250 from 120.

In between all these patches, numerous new areas, monsters, and quests were released. Existing monsters got buffed and rebuffed a few additional times as well (EX: Robos in Ludibrium were around Lv60 around the time you quit, now they're Lv100).

Oh and D/C hacking is pretty much gone now.

Two very useful sites you want to check out:
[url=http://orangemushroom.net/]This blog has an in-depth description of every patch about to be released in KoreanMS.[/url]
It takes about 5-6 months for a patch that was released in KMS to be applied to GMS. So if the post about a particular patch was dated August 2014 in KMS, it would likely come to us around Feburary 2015.

www.maple [dot] fm (can't actually type the site's URL since Basil censored it) is a legit site that shows ALL items being sold at the Free Market realtime. Super helpful to get general price check of any item.

Hope I helped.