Beginner mistakes

None of the mistakes below are a lack of skill. They are things the game does not explain and that Zaikan changed compared to the MU you know. Each one comes with what to do instead.

1. Thinking vitality gives damage

This is mistake number one, and the most expensive, because it only shows up fifty levels later. This server has a stat law: vitality feeds health and shield, and nothing else. It is in no damage formula, it does not scale pets and it does not pay for skills.

2. Refining without knowing the rate

Raising an item level has three different regimes, and the third one destroys the piece when it fails. Plenty of people find that out by losing their first good weapon.

The Chaos Machine rates are further modified by the item itself: luck adds 25 percentage points, and every complication takes some away. An excellent item takes off 10, ancient takes off 10, guardian takes off 10 and an item with a socket takes off 20. Add it all up and an excellent piece with a socket can drop to less than half the advertised chance.

3. Selling or burning an ancient without noticing

An ancient item looks like an ordinary piece in the NPC list, but it is worth far more: it lights up set bonuses and it is the base of half the midgame builds. The NPC buys it for a price that does not reflect that, and there is no undo.

The interface warns you, if you look. Ancient has a rarity floor of rare, so the piece shows up with a blue outline in the inventory and with the rarity word at the top of the tooltip. If something blue, purple or gold dropped, stop and read before you sell.

4. Ignoring the minimap spots

The classic maps have hunting spots marked on the TAB map and on the disc in the top left corner. They are not decoration: each diamond is a real cluster of monsters, and the marker with a golden halo is a hot spot, with more creatures and of the highest level species on that map.

• Hover a marker to see the species name, level, health, damage, defense and drops, with the monster portrait.
• Click the marker and your character walks there on its own, going around walls, and turns the MU Helper on when it arrives.
• Wandering around looking for monsters is the slowest possible way to play, and the server already handed you the map.

5. Thinking level 400 is the end

Level caps at 400, but progression continues: from there experience turns into master level, which goes up to 1100. The number that matters after 400 is the total level, which is the sum of the two and reaches 1500.

Look at the numbers carefully: the first master level costs less than 1% of everything you did from 1 to 400, so it arrives fast. The first 400 master levels put together, though, cost around 22 times the whole journey to 400. It is a different game, and it is where the character really gets strong, because each master level gives one skill tree point.

6. Trying to enter a map without the total level

A requirement above 400 is always total level, never the normal level. That is why a freshly arrived level 400 character is turned away at a gate asking for 630: he has total level 400.

7. Spending every point without thinking

There is no character reset on this server. The command exists in the game engine, but it is off and it will not be turned on: that is why the site ranking is by total level, and not by resets.

There is a separate system, the stat reset (`/resetstats`), which gives your points back so you can redistribute them without touching your level. It works, but it charges 1,000,000 zen and disconnects you after applying, so it is not something to use every week early on. The cheap path is to spend a bit at a time, holding points back when you are unsure, instead of dumping fifty at once.

8. Ignoring the shield

The yellow bar next to your health is the SD, and it absorbs 90% of every hit you take. Anyone who only watches the red one cannot understand why they die all of a sudden: health barely drops while there is shield, and the instant it runs out the damage goes through in full.

• The shield regenerates on its own all the time, and in a safe zone it regenerates twice as fast. Standing in town for a minute restores far more than standing in the field.
• Health, on the other hand, does not regenerate outside a safe zone. Out of town, potions only.
• The shield grows with the sum of your four stats, with your defense and with the square of your total level, so it gets very fat late in the game.

Where to read more

• StatsThe full law, class by class.
• Refining +0 to +15The rates, what breaks and when to stop.
• Total levelThe number that maps and top end items look at.
• HP, MP, SD and AGThe four bars in detail.