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MapleStory Runes

March 11, 2024

Runes in MapleStory offer you a temporary EXP boost whilst training in maps across Maple World. Runes were implemented to prevent players from using tools to play the game for you; they act as a captcha as players will need to enter in specific commands otherwise they will not get any EXP or Drops on the map until the Rune is activated.

Runes were first introduced in patch V150 Rising Heroes. Since then they have gone through a few updates and changes.

How Do Runes Work?

A rune will spawn in your map after 15 minutes of killing monsters. Players will need to jump on the rune using the Space/Harvest key and enter the arrow keys that pop-up. If you enter them successfully, you will be rewarded with a buff and sometimes a special effect. If you enter incorrectly, you can retry in three seconds.

If you leave a Rune on your map without activating it, the Rune will become cursed, implementing negative effects to the map you're on. These effects are:

Cursed Stage Effect
Stage 1 50% Drop Rate and EXP Reduction
Stage 2 70% Drop Rate and EXP Reduction
Stage 3 90% Drop Rate and EXP Reduction
Stage 4 100% Drop Rate and EXP Reduction

As you can see, if you let a rune go to Stage 4, you won't receive any items, mesos or EXP from killing mobs, making training pretty useless! You can activate a rune at any time, including stage 4 and the negative effects will be lifted.

When you activate a Rune you'll gain an EXP buff that gives +100% EXP for 180 seconds. You can increase the duration of the EXP Buff using Evan's Link Skill which gives +30% duration, +50% duration and +70% duration at levels 1,2 and 3.

List Of Runes

Each rune has it's own effect that is applied when you activate it. Here are a list of the runes in MapleStory:

Image Rune Effect
Rune Of Darkness Rune Of Darkness Spawns 3 Elite Mobs
Rune Of Swiftness Rune Of Swiftness Increases Attack Speed
Rune Of Skill Rune Of Skill Increases the level of your Skills by +1
Rune Of Destruction Rune Of Destruction Increase attack power, kills up to 10 mobs on activation and adds a damage over time effect.
Rune Of Riches Rune Of Riches Spawns the Flying Mimic that will drop down rewards as if you have just cleared an Elite Boss.
Rune Of Recovery Rune Of Recovery Increases the speed of HP Recovery
Rune Of Thunder Rune Of Thunder Lightning periodically attacks areas of the map for you.
Rune Of Might Rune Of Might Your character becomes GIANT and jumping around the map will 1-shot mobs.
Rune Of Purification Rune Of Purification As you kill mobs, the Rune will gather energy. Once filled, it will purify the map around you by dealing damage to all mobs.
Rune Of Contact Rune Of Contact Activates a beam that attacks the area between the Rune and the character.
Rune Of Ignition Rune Of Ignition Gives you the ability to launch a pillar of fire, which travels between monsters, when you attack

As of patch 214, if you leave the map after activating the Rune, you will lose the Rune's special effect (but still keep the EXP Buff).

The following runes were added in Patch 214:

  • Rune Of Purification
  • Rune Of Contact
  • Rune Of Ignition

 

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Aleph is the main writer and programmer of DigitalTQ. His aim is to provide quality gaming guides, articles and news from the video game industry. We've been playing games since the 90s and are always on the lookout for new gems to play.

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