MapleStory Familiar Guide

MapleStory Familiar System was completely overhauled in 2020, bringing with it a whole host of new changes and features that allow players to increase their damage. The Familiar system has been expanded so that any familiar you obtain can now be useful (rather than before when only a select few had good effects). Familiars work similarly to item potential, giving 2 random potential lines that can be ranked up. Let's take a look into this new system to see how Familiars work in MapleStory GMS.

Familiars Quicklinks

• Familiar Basics and Overview
• Familiar Ranking Up
• Familiar Potential Lines
• Familiar Badges
• Familiar Shop
• Reboot World Familiar Farming
• Changelog

Familiar Basics And Overview

At first glance, the familiar system can seem quite confusing and overbearing. There are quite a few different mechanics that make it all work together, but it really is quite simple.

Players can collect familiars by obtaining Familiar cards that drop from their corresponding mob in MapleStory. Familiar cards drop in Common, Rare, Epic varieties, but they can also rank up to Unique and Legendary using special items.

A player can summon up to three familiars. When you first start out, you'll have access to only one Familiar slot, but you can unlock more by collecting badges (more on that later).

When you add a Familiar card to your Familiar collection, you'll be able to reveal it's potential. On the Collection tab, you can select all the cards you have added. Once you've highlighted a familiar card, you can click on the ? box to reveal the potential of that card. These effects aren't applied automatically- you have to summon your familiars to apply the potential to your character.

The Familiar Summon Skill can be found in your Skill window in the common skill's tab (where your Link Skills management icon is). When you summon your Familiars, your Familiar Summon Gauge will slowly deplete over time. You have 2000 points each day and they reset each day. You can also refill 50% of your Summon Gauge using the Familiar Essence in the Familiar Shop. 2000 Points will roughly last you around 2 hours of continuous Familiar time. The rate in which your Summon Gauge depletes is based on your Familiars Defense stat and how many Familiars you have summoned (the more the better!).

Your Familiar's Stats (ATK and DEF) increase with your Familiar's Level (Max Level 5 in Reboot and 7 in Regular Servers). You level up your Familiars by fighting monsters near your level.

As mentioned, Familiars have different ranks (like item potentials). Each rank provides better potential lines than the previous rank. In Reboot worlds, you are limited to the Unique rank as they do not have access to the special items required to rank up to legendary.

Familiar Ranking Up

You can rank up your Familiars by fusing the same familiars together to increase their rank up points. You also need to get your Familiar's to level 5, which is done by having them summoned when you kill monsters near your level (20 Levels below and 20 levels above your character's level).

You can use the table below to see how many rank up points you need in order to get your Familiar cards to rank up. When your Familiar ranks up, the potential will be rerolled to a random line in the new rank.

In order to rank up to Legendary, you need to use the CashShop item Red Familiar Card. This is currently only available in non-reboot worlds.

Mobs in MapleStory can drop Common, Rare and Epic Familiar cards. Not all mobs have familiar cards.

To obtain Rank Up Points, you need to use the Fusion mechanic in the Familiars UI. Fusion allows you to fuse the same familiars together to get rank up points. As mentioned in the table above, you need a lot of rank up points in order to get to the next rank. You can get more rank-up points from higher-rarity familar cards.

Familiar Potential Lines

When you add a Familiar to your Collection, you can reveal it's potential. The rank of the Familiar determines what potential lines it can get. You can reroll a Familiar's potential using the Red Familiar Card (only available in non-reboot worlds).

NEW: You can now reroll the potential of any familiar using the Mystical Familiar Card. This card is available in the Familiar Shop for 10,000 Famliar Points!

Each Familiar has 2 lines of potential. It has one line of potential from it's current rank, and one from the previous rank. So an Epic card has 1 line of potential from the Epic Tier and 1 line from the Rare tier.

Below is a list of disired potentials you'll want to look out for when revealing your potential.

Note: Meso Drop Rate is not the same as Mesos Obtained. Mesos Drop Rate increases the chance of Mesos being dropped, not the actual value.

Common Rank & Rare Rank Potentials

• Attacks ignore 15% Monster DEF
• Increase Item Drop and Meso Drop Rate by a small amount (20%)
• Increase Item Drop by a small amount (30%)
• Increase Meso Drop by a small amount (30%)
• Increase Item Drop Rate (50%)

Epic Rank Potentials

• Attacks ignore 30% Monster DEF
• Attacks ignore 20% Monster DEF
• Damage to Bosses: +30%
• Damage to Bosses: +20%
• Continually restores a large amount of HP (15%)
• Continually restores a large amount of MP (15%)
• Continually restores HP and MP (10%)
• Continually restores HP & MP to party members (10%)
• Increases Meso Drop Rate by a large amount (100%)
• Increases Item Drop Rate by a large amount (100%)
• Increases Item and Meso Drop Rate (40%)
• Increases Meso Drop Rate (60%)
• Increases Item Drop Rate (60%)

Unique Rank Potentials

• Attacks ignore 40% Monster DEF
• Attacks ignore 35% Monster DEF
• Attacks ignore 30% Monster DEF
• Damage to Bosses: +40%
• Damage to Bosses: +35%
• Damage to Bosses: +30%
• Continually restores a large amount of HP & MP (15%)
• Continually restores a large amount of HP & MP to party members (15%)
• Increases Item and Meso Drop Rate by a large amount (60%)
• Increases Item Drop Rate by a large amount (100%)
• Item Acquisition Rate: +10%

Legendary Rank Potentials

• Attacks ignore 50% Monster DEF
• Attacks ignore 45% Monster DEF
• Damage to Bosses: +50%
• Damage to Bosses: +45%

There are some other useful lines you can get such as % weapon attack and stat gains that you may also look to roll.

Familiar Badges

In order to unlock all 3 Familiar slots, you need to have completed 10 Familiar Badges. Familiar Badges are collections of a specific group on familiars that you will need to obtain once in order to unlock the badge.

Once you have registered your Familiar in the collection, you can safely extract or fuse it as the registration will still have counted towards the badge.

You can unlock 2 Familiar slots by completing 1 badge, and 3 Familiar slots by completing 10 badges. Not all Familiars in the badge sets are available from mob drops, which means you will need to open Booster Packs in order to obtain them. Booster packs can be purchased from either the CashShop in regular worlds or if in Reboot, you can buy them from the Familiar Shop (see below).

Unlocking a Familiar badge also gives you bonus stats that are applied to your character at all times. You can equip up to 8 badges at once. Below is a list of all badges and their stats.

Since you need 10 Badges to unlock 3 Familiar Slots, the easiest badges to complete are:

• Starter Badge
• Snowflake Badge
• Oppressor Badge
• Rebel Badge
• Mineral Badge
• Lion Badge
• Commerci Badge
• Mariner Badge
• Mushking Badge
• Snow Badge/Shadow Badge/Sandy Badge/Mesa Badge

Of your 10 badges, only 1 really requires you to farm mini-bosses. You can pull all of these cards from Booster Packs.

Familiar Shop

The Familiar Shop can be accessed from the Familiar User Interface. It opens up a shop that allows you to purchase items with Familiar Points.

Familiar Points can be earned by Extracting unwanted Familiar Cards. This is done via the Familiar UI. Based on the Rank of the Familiar card that is extracted, you will get a certain amount of points.

In the Familiar Shop you can purchase 3 different items.

• Familiar Essence - 300 Points (Refills the Summoun Gauge by 50%)
• Roro's Familiar Booster Pack Coupon - 2,000 Points (Gives 1-3 randon Familiar cards, rarity common-unique) [1 Per Day]
• Suspicious Fauxmiliar Coupon - 5,000 Points (Gives 15 Rank-Up Points) [1 Per Week]
• Mystical Familiar Card - 10,000 Points (Resets the potential lines on any Familiar, does not rank up) [1 per month]

If you have an abundance of Familiar Cards, you can buy multiple Booster Packs on other characters as all Familiar Cards are tradable through Storage.

Reboot World Familiar Farming

In Reboot World, players do not have access to the Red Familiar Card. This item is used to reroll the potential on Familiars and also used to rank up Familiars to Legendary rank.

This means that the only way players can obtain Familiar's of a high rank is by farming thousands and thousands of common and rare Familiars. By using the Fusion system, players can achieve Epic and Unique Familiar cards. However, the fact that players will need to farm thousands and thousands of Familiars at low-level areas (gaining no EXP, mesos) it makes it unrealistic for most players to be able to obtain decent Familiars.

To obtain 1 Epic Familiar, players will need to farm 150 Common Familiar Cards, or 100 Common Familiar cards if Fusing from Rare rank. Obtaining 150 Familiar Cards will take around 1-2 hours depending on the player's drop rate. 1 Epic Familiar Card has over 100 different potential lines that it can give, many of them rubbish. In order to have a chance at getting decent lines, you'll need to create hundreds of Epic Familiar Cards, which is 100s of hours of farming low-level mobs for their Common and Rare cards. Unless you're at the end-game, level 275 and have maxed out your equips, it doesn't make sense to be farming Familiars.

Since Familiars came out in patch 215, there is still time for Nexon to change the drop rate of Familiar cards to make them more useful or introduce the Red Familiar Card to Reboot.

Update: Since Patch 216, Familiars now drop for Level 250+ areas in Tenebris. This means when your character starts training in higher level areas, they can now farm familiars at the same time. Unfortunately, you're going to need to have an end-game character to farm familiars at higher level maps, but at least you can still make good progression for EXP and Mesos on your main account whilst farming.

Update: Since Patch 252, Familiars now drop in Cernium!

Old Familiars Conversion

The system was revamped in Version 215 from the old Familiar system. This meant many players had old cards that needed converting. In GMS, players were given the same familiars and effects if they had them registered in the old system.

Changelog

• Patch V253 introduces Mystical Familiar Cards. - 30/08/2024
• Updated notes for Patch 216 and new Tenebris Familiars - 23/09/2020
• First version gone live - 27/07/2020