Link skills are an integral part of building up your characters in MapleStory. By creating and leveling additional characters, you can obtain powerful link skills to boost your main. From increasing damage and boss damage to critical rate and XP gain, link skills offer a variety of beneficial effects.
With around 40 different link skills in the game, choosing which ones to focus on can be difficult. This comprehensive guide will outline the best link skills to prioritize for both training and bossing.
Table of Contents
What are Link Skills?
Link skills are unique passive skills that each MapleStory character unlocks at level 70. You can then link these skills to your other characters to share their effects. Here are some key things to know about link skills:
- Each job unlocks their link skill at level 70.
- Link skills can be leveled up further at 120 and 210.
- You can link each skill to 1 character at a time.
- Up to 12 link skills can be active on a character.
- Link skills provide bonus stats and effects passively.
- Link skills only work within the same world and not across servers.
By creating and training many MapleStory jobs, you gain access to their link skills which can significantly strengthen your main character.
Link Skill Transfer Process
To link a skill, you first need to unlock it on a character at level 70. Then:
- Open the Skill menu and go to “Link Skills”.
- Select the link skill you want to transfer.
- Pick which character to link it to from the drop-down menu.
- Click Confirm to complete the link.
You can swap link skills between characters twice per day. So make sure to link skills to whichever character would benefit from them the most.
Link Skill Priority Order
When getting started with link skills, you’ll want to focus first on ones that provide early game benefits while training:
1. Mercedes (EXP Gain)
The Mercedes link skill, Elven Blessing, provides a percentage boost to XP gained from defeating monsters. At level 120, this skill gives 15% bonus XP which dramatically improves leveling speed for all your characters. Mercedes also offers a teleport to Elluel on a cooldown.
2. Aran (Combo Orb EXP)
Combo Kill Advantage increases the amount of XP gained from Aran’s combo orbs when killing multiple enemies in a row. At level 120, this link boosts combo orb XP by 650%. Using Aran early helps you quickly gain levels when training.
3. Evan (Rune Duration)
Rune Persistence increases the duration of all rune buff effects by 50% at level 120. With runes giving a big XP boost, Evan’s link helps you maximize your leveling rates.
4. Kanna (Damage)
Kanna directly increases your damage by 10% at level 120. Having more damage makes training and early bossing much more efficient.
5. Demon Avenger (Damage)
Similarly, Demon Avenger provides a 10% damage boost at level 120. More damage means faster mob killing, so this link skill is extremely helpful early on.
After focusing on faster leveling and damage, aim for improving bossing capability:
- Phantom (Crit Rate)
- Luminous (IED)
- Beast Tamer (Boss Damage & Crit Rate)
- Explorer Thief (Damage on Debuff)
- Kinesis (Crit Damage)
Level 3 Link Skills
Here are the jobs that can currently reach level 3 link skills:
- Mercedes, Evan, Aran, Demon Avenger, Phantom, Luminous, Shade, Beast Tamer, Resistance, Angelic Buster, Kinesis, Illium
At level 210, these jobs unlock powerful level 3 links. While leveling to 210 takes significant time, level 3 links provide major late game benefits.
Best Link Skills for Bossing
When fighting challenging bosses, you want to optimize your damage output as much as possible. Here are the best link skills for bossing:
- Luminous (Ignore Defense): Helps overcome bosses’ high defense.
- Phantom (Crit Rate): Boosts your overall critical hit rate.
- Demon Avenger (Damage): Straight damage increase.
- Beast Tamer (Crit Damage & Boss Damage): Improves raw damage and damage against bosses.
- Explorer Thief (Damage on Debuff): Requires you to debuff boss but gives large damage boost.
- Kanna (Damage): Provides an unconditional damage percent boost.
- Demon Slayer (Boss Damage): One of the few direct boosts to boss damage.
- Kinesis (Crit Damage): Scales well later on as crit rate improves.
- Cadena (Damage on Debuff): Like Explorer Thief but a bit harder to apply.
- Adele (Boss Damage): Gives more boss damage based on party members.
Optimizing these links lets you deal significantly more damage during boss fights and improves survivability.
Best Link Skills for Training
When training and mobbing, your priorities shift towards quicker killing and better experience rates:
- Mercedes (EXP Gain): Level faster.
- Aran (Combo Orb EXP): Gain EXP bursts from combo orbs.
- Evan (Rune Duration): Extend the 2x XP rune buff.
- Kanna (Damage): Speed up mob killing.
- Demon Avenger (Damage): Flat damage boost.
- Ark (Damage): Damage increases in extended combat.
- Illium (Damage): Rewards you for moving constantly.
- Hoyoung (Damage): More damage against full HP mobs.
- Kain (Damage): Boosts damage when defeating enemies.
- Phantom (Crit Rate): Improve crit rate for crit-reliant classes.
Adjust your links by using the Battle Analysis system to optimize one-shotting mobs.
Reboot Link Skill Tips
Reboot has some key link skill differences:
- Demon Avenger, Kanna, Luminous are essential.
- Stack IED links heavily to counter bosses’ high defense.
- Use meso-boosting links like Phantom for farming.
- Shade’s revive can help recover from deaths while learning bosses.
Advanced Link Skill Tactics
Further ways to maximize your links:
- Combine Crit Rate/Crit Damage links together.
- Stack Explorer Warrior resistance skills.
- Swap links when switching between training and bossing.
- Use damage calculators to optimize your link setup.
- Combine complementary skills like Boss Damage + IED.
Conclusion
The MapleStory link skill system allows you to significantly enhance your characters by leveling multiple jobs. Prioritize early game links like Mercedes, Aran, Evan, Kanna, and Demon Avenger first. Then shift to bossing and damage focused links. Tailor your link skills to each character’s needs. With smart linking, you can get the most out of this powerful system!
