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Night Walker is a Cygnus Knight class that throws stars and summons bats to tear apart its enemies in MapleStory. Considered to be Night Lord's little brother, Night Walker is a great bossing class with high DPS and great mobility that'll make traveling around Maple World very satisfying.
Night Walker is very similar to Night Lord in that they both share the same type of throwing-star skills; they also have their own version of Shadow Partner each and their play styles are quite similar. The main difference is that for Night Walker you're going to be doing a lot of jumping as you get a passive skill that increases damage of your attacks when jumping. Also, in exchange for better bossing, you get worse mobbing.
Night Walker Overview
All Cygnus Knights were revamped as part of the 2022 update V.237 Ignition! They increased their damage skills, improve mobility and added in some new storylines for you to follow.
Night Walker was originally released in 2009 along with the four other Cygnus Knight classes with a level cap of 120. It has been revamped since so that it now no longer has a level cap, its own fifth job skills and can hold its own when compared with other MapleStory Classes. Night Walker's theme is darkness and bats, with a lot of visually appealing skills compared to Night Lord.
In the revamp, Night Walker's mobbing has gotten a whole lot better. First and second job mobbing skills now hit multiple enemies (before they only hit 1!) and put you on par with other classes grinding to 200. By the time you hit fourth job, you'll still be mobbing with your third job skills. Fifth job helps boost the damage of your mobbing skills, making them more highly effective and allowing you to one-shot with their bat attacks but it can be a struggle for players at low funding.
Bossing on Night Walker is where it excels. If you can master the jump attacking method, you'll be wiping out the end-game bosses faster than most classes. They also have their own i-frame skill to help dodge one-hit KO attacks, decent burst damage skills and have their own bind skill. They have some great skills for preventing knockback such as Dark Omen, very useful in end-game bossing.
- Weapon: Claw
- Job: Thief
- Class: Cygnus Knight
- Shared Cash Shop Inventory: Blaze Wizard, Wind Archer, Thunder Breaker, Dawn Warrior, Night Walker, Mihile
- Legion Block: + LUK (10/20/40/80/100)
- Link Skill: Cygnus Blessing (Level 10: Attack Power: +25, Magic Attack Power: +25, Abnormal Status Resistance: +15, All Elemental Resistance: +15%)
- Primary Stat: LUK
- Inner Ability: 20% Boss Damage
Night Walker First Job Skill Build
You can max all of your skills in first job. Follow this build:
- Lucky Seven (MAX)
- Shadow Bat (MAX)
- Shadow Jump (MAX)
- Dark Elemental (MAX)
- Haste (MAX)
- Shadow Dodge (MAX)
- Dark Sight (MAX)
Lucky Seven is your main attacking skill in first job. It has been hugely improved in the revamp and can now hit up to 5 enemies at once! Combine it with Shadow Bat and you have great mobbing during 1st job.
Dark Elemental will mark enemies you attack and add debuffs to them so you do more damage. You get some good mobility skills with Haste and Shadow Jump.
Skill Description & Overview
| Icon | Skill | Description | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
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Lucky Seven | Throw 7 lucky throwing stars to attack enemies in front. | Main Attack Skill |
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Shadow Jump | Use while in the middle of a jump to jump twice in a row. Can also be used with the Jump Key. Also, the last attack of throwing skills can be canceled with the Jump Key. If you’ve learned Dark Sight and used the Jump Key during the last attack of a throwing skill, Dark Sight will be activated automatically for a short time. With Action Customization enabled, hold the right or left arrow key while pressing the skill key to jump in the corresponding direction, otherwise you will jump in place. SP is not required for this skill, and it can be used upon job advancing to Night Walker. Action Customization On/ Off: Right-click. | Jump Skill |
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Shadow Dodge | Quickly move backwards. You can move in the air and during the last attack of throwing skills, and cannot be pushed back when moving. If you've learned Dark Sight and used it during the last attack of a throwing skill, Dark Sight will be activated automatically for a short time. SP is not required for this skill, and it can be used upon job advancing to Night Walker. | Teleport Skill |
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Shadow Bat | Summons a Shadow Bat, which occasionally attacks when you do. Its attack rate is doubled against enemies marked with Darkness, and as many summoned bats attack as there are marks. 1 additional Shadow Bat is created at this time. This skill is unaffected by enemy attack reflection skills. Cannot be used at the same time as Ravenous Bat. It's a dark-attribute attack. This skill can be toggled On/Off by using the skill key. Required Skill: Dark Elemental Lv. 1. Level 20 required to learn Bat Affinity. | Toggle Skill |
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Haste | Permanently increases Speed, Jump, Max Speed, and Avoidability. | Passive |
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Dark Sight | Hide in the shadows for a short time. While Dark Sight is active, you cannot be hit by enemies, but attacking will reveal you. The cooldown will change when Dark Sight is deactivated, depending on damage dodged. Using Shadow Jump does not deactivate Dark Sight. Press the skill key again to deactivate Dark Sight. | Buff |
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Dark Elemental | Summons a dark element to gain its power. This skill can be toggled On/Off by using the skill key. Level 10 required to learn Adaptive Darkness. | Toggle |
Night Walker Second Job Skill Build
You can max all of your skills in second job. Follow this build:
- Shadow Spark (+1), Throwing Mastery (+1), Agile Throwing (+1)
- Shadow Spark (MAX)
- Throwing Mastery (MAX)
- Agile Throwing (MAX)
- Bat Affinity (MAX)
- Critical Throw (MAX)
- Adaptive Darkness (MAX)
- Physical Training (MAX)
- Triple Throw (MAX)
Triple Throw is a single-target attack skill, so you really don't want to max this too early. Instead, you should go with Shadow Spark, which has better mobbing ability.
You get plenty of passive buffs in second job, making your Shadow Bats trigger more and deal more damage.
Increase your attack speed as early as possible with your Agile Throwing and then upgrade your Bat Affinity so that it triggers more often and hits more mobs around you.
Skill Description & Overview
| Icon | Skill | Description | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
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Triple Throw | Throws 3 Throwing Stars in a row at the target. The last attack uses the power of Darkness to deal greater dark-attribute damage. The throwing stars attack the boss with the highest HP first. | Single Target Skill |
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Throwing Mastery | Increases damage, Claw Mastery, and the max number of charges of your Throwing Stars. Level 10 required to learn Throwing Expert. | Passive Buff |
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Agile Throwing | Increases Attack Speed and Luck. Required Skill: Throwing Mastery Lv. 5. | Passive Buff |
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Physical Training | Permanently improves LUK through sheer physical training. | Passive Buff |
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Critical Throw | Increases Critical Rate and Critical Damage. Required Skill: Throwing Master Lv. 3. | Passive Buff |
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Bat Affinity | Enhances the Shadow Bat through communion. Required Skill: Shadow Bat Lv. 20 or Higher. Level 20 required to learn Bat Affinity II. | Passive Buff |
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Adaptive Darkness | Deeper darkness further enhances the Marks of Darkness. Required Skill: Dark Elemental Lv. 10 or Higher. Lv. 10 required to learn Adaptive Darkness II. | Passive Buff |
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Shadow Spark | Throws penetrating Throwing Stars imbued with the power of darkness. The stars explode when they are either at max range or all attackable enemies are attacked, dealing extra damage. | Main Attack Skill |
Night Walker Third Job Skill Build
You can max all of your skills in third job. Follow this build:
- Dark Servant (+1), Bat Affinity II (+1), Spirit Projection (+1)
- Dark Servant (MAX)
- Shadow Spark (MAX)
- Bat Affinity II (MAX)
- Adaptive Darkness II (MAX)
- Spirit Projection (MAX)
- Enveloping Darkness (MAX)
- Alchemic Adrenaline (MAX)
- Darkness Ascending (MAX)
- Quad Star (MAX)
No new mobbing skill in this job, however, you do get Dark Servant. This basically doubles the amount of attacks you do (just less damage on those mirrored attacks), allowing you to decimate maps.
Spirit Projection allows you to never consume Throwing Stars again, so put a point into that early on too.
Shadow Bats and Dark Elemental all get another round of upgrades. You also get a useful bossing skill called Darkness Ascending which gives you a free revival when you die.
Skill Description & Overview
| Icon | Skill | Description | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
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Shadow Momentum | Gives the attack inertia to use throwing skills even faster, and increases Final Damage permanently. Obtain inertia by moving a certain distance, and the last attack can be canceled when using throwing skills consecutively. The higher the inertia level, the faster you can cancel. This buff is not affected by buff duration extension effects. | Passive Buff |
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Spirit Projection | Allows you to attack without consuming Throwing Stars, and increases Attack Power. The Throwing Stars in your inventory with the highest Attack Power will be used to calculate your damage. Throwing Star skills cannot be used if there are no Throwing Stars in your inventory. | Passive Buff |
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Quad Star | Throws 4 Throwing Stars in a row at the target. The last attack uses the power of Darkness to deal greater dark-attribute damage. The throwing stars attack the boss with the highest HP first. | Secondary Attack Skill |
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Enveloping Darkness | Cloak yourself in darkness, increasing Status Resistance, Elemental Resistance, and Knockback Resistance permanently. | Passive Buff |
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Darkness Ascending | When hit by a fatal attack, the power of darkness will restore you back to life. Not affected by Cooldown reset. Can be toggled On/Off. | Toggle |
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Dark Servant | Summons a shadow which copies your actions after a short delay. The copied actions are limited to throwing stars and movement skills. Your shadow disappears when the summon time runs out. All attacks of the shadow are dark-attribute and can activate Marks of Darkness, Shadow Bats, or Ravenous Bats without being affected by attack reflection. Level 20 required to learn Shadow Illusion. | Buff |
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Bat Affinity II | Enhances the Shadow Bat through communion. Summons an enhanced Shadow Bat for every fixed number of bats in the place that was attacked to deal explosion damage. The enhanced Shadow Bat isn't enhanced by Bat Affinity and Bat Affinity II, and is unaffected by attack reflection. Required Skill: Bat Affinity Lv. 20. Level 20 required to learn Bat Affinity III. | Passive Buff |
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Alchemic Adrenaline | Increases the effect of recovery items like potions. Does not work on percentage-based recovery items like elixirs. Also increases Critical Damage. | Passive Buff |
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Adaptive Darkness II | Deeper darkness further enhances the Marks of Darkness. Required Skill: Adaptive Darkness Lv. 10 or Higher. Level 10 required to learn Adaptive Darkness III. | Passive Buff |
Night Walker Fourth Job Skill Build
You can max all of your skills in fourth job. Follow this build:
- Bat Affinity III (MAX)
- Throwing Expert (MAX)
- Dark Omen (MAX)
- Adaptive Darkness III (MAX)
- Dark Blessing (MAX)
- Call Of Cygnus (MAX)
- Shadow Stitch (MAX)
- Shadow Slip (MAX)
- Ravenous Bat (MAX)
- Vitality Siphon (MAX)
- Quintuple Star (MAX)
No new mobbing skill, so you'll be stuck with Shadow Spark. But you do get upgrades to both Shadow Affinity and Dark Elemental which should make mobbing a little bit easier. You'll want to be using Dark Omen in your training rotation, it has a 20 second cooldown that is reduced each time you attack.
Quintuple Star is your main bossing skill going forward, with Shadow Stitch being your Bind skill. Call Of Cygnus comes from a quest called The Alliance Gathers.
Skill Description & Overview
| Icon | Skill | Description | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
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Quintuple Star | Throws 5 Throwing Stars in a row at the target. The last attack uses the power of Darkness to deal greater dark-attribute damage. The throwing stars attack the boss with the highest HP first. | Main Attack Skill |
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Vitality Siphon | Absorbs liveliness from your enemies to create a protective shield for yourself while you set your Mark of Darkness. Protective Shield will not be affected by buff duration increase. | Passive Buff |
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Throwing Expert | Increases Claw Mastery, Attack Power, and Critical Damage. Required Skill: Throwing Mastery Lv. 10. | Passive Buff |
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Shadow Stitch | Detonates condensed shadows to lock nearby enemies. Increases incapacitation in proportion to the condensed duration. Cannot be pushed back when condensing shadows. Unaffected by attack reflection. | Secondary Attack Skill |
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Shadow Slip | Chance to melt into the shadows, avoid enemy attacks, and decrease damage taken. | Passive Buff |
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Dark Omen | Summons a pack of bats to attack enemies. Shadow Bat and Ravenous Bat are summoned for every enemy hit. Cooldown decreases every time dark-attribute attacks succeed, except for Shadow Bat, Ravenous Bat, and Dark Omen. Unaffected by enemy damage reflection skills and cannot be pushed back when casting. | Summon Skill |
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Dark Blessing | The power of darkness fills you, increases your stats. | Passive Buff |
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Call Of Cygnus | Grants the blessings of Cygnus’s Awakening to temporarily increase all stats for you and your party members. Does not stack with Maple Warrior, Call of Cygnus, Nova Warrior, Hero of the Flora, President’s Orders, Anima Warrior, or Rhinne’s Protection. | Buff |
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Bat Affinity III | Enhances the Shadow Bat through communion. Summons an enhanced Ravenous Bat for every fixed number of Ravenous Bats that deals more powerful damage. The enhanced Ravenous Bat isn't enhanced by Bat Affinity, Bat Affinity II, and Bat Affinity III, and targets the boss with the highest HP first. Enhanced Ravenous Bat is unaffected by attack reflection. Required Skill: Bat Affinity II Lv. 20. Level 30 required to learn Shadow Bite. | Passive Buff |
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Adaptive Darkness III | Immerses you in even deeper darkness to enhance your Marks of Darkness. Unaffected by Combat Orders.Required Skill: Adaptive Darkness II Lv. 10. | Passive Buff |
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Ravenous Bat | Summons a Ravenous Bat thirsting for more blood, which occasionally attacks when you do. As many summoned bats attack as there are enemies marked with Darkness. 1 additional Ravenous Bat is created at this time. It targets the boss with the highest HP first and is unaffected by attack reflection. Cannot be used at the same time as Shadow Bat. This skill can be toggled On/Off by using the skill key. Required Skill: Dark Elemental Lv. 1. | |
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Cygnus Knights Will | Hone your resolve to ignore certain abnormal status effects. Immune to most abnormal status effects for 3 sec after use. Certain abnormal status effects and combat orders will still get through. |
Night Walker Hyper Skill Build
Hyper skills are available at level 140. You get Hyper Skill Points as you level towards 200, but not enough to max all the skills, so choose wisely. These skills mostly help increase the damage of your current skills.
- Quintuple Star - Reinforce
- Quintuple Star - Boss Rush
- Dark Omen - Cooldown Cutter
- Vitality Siphon - Extra Point
- Vitality Siphon - Reinforce
- Dominion
- Glory Of The Guardians
- Shadow Illusion
Night Walker Fifth Job Skill Build
Upon reaching level 200, you will now have access to the V Matrix, which acts as your new fifth job skills. Each class gets their own skills to use, along with boosting nodes to increase the damage of existing skills. To obtain new skills, you open up items called Nodestones, which drop from every mob in Arcane River. You have limited number of slots in your V Matrix, so you want to obtain perfect nodes for maximize your character's damage.
Check out the 5th Job V-Matrix Guide for more in-depth details about fifth job.
Night Walker's Nodes should include:
- Shadow Spear
- Greater Dark Servant
- Shadow Bite
- Rapid Throw
- Trio: Dark Omen, Shadow Spark, Shadow Bat
- Trio: Quintuple Star, Dominion, Shadow Stitch
All 5th Job classes should try to also obtain these:
- Decent Holy Symbol
- Decent Sharp Eyes
- Decent Speed Infusion
- Erda Nova
- Rope Lift
- True Arachnid Reflection
- Venom Burst
- Last Resort
- Empress Cygnus's Blessing
- Phalanx Charge
Skill Description & Overview
| Icon | Skill | Description | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
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Shadow Spear | The shadows on the ground coalesce to form a spear that pierces enemies. Unaffected by attack reflection. Has no effect in towns. | Cooldown Attack Skill |
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Greater Dark Servant | Summons an immovable shadow. The Shadow faces in the direction of the enemy with the highest Max HP and mimics throwing-star attacks. It cannot be injured, and vanishes when its duration ends. You may activate the skill again to swap places with the shadow 1 time. However, you cannot do this wile in the air. Unaffected by attack reflection. Capable of triggering Mark of Darkness and Shadow Bat. | Summon Skill |
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Shadow Bite | Activate a wind barrier around yourself that will defend you and decimate your enemies. Creates a whirlwind when you attack to deal additional damage. Elemental is consumed upon defending against an attack and the wind barrier will disappear when it's completely consumed. The whirlwind is unaffected by attack reflection. | Buff Attack Skill |
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Rapid Throw | Toss countless throwing stars at blinding speed. If you use this skill in the air, you'll hover while you toss them. Max Level 25. | Burst Attack Skill |
Changelog
26/03/2024 - Ignition Update
26/10/2021 - First update
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