Crafting Professions in MapleStory Classic World: All 6, Leveling, EXP Table and Best Recipes

Classic World has six crafting professions, each run by its own NPC on Victoria Island: Smithing, Weaponcrafting, Tailoring, Woodcrafting, Leatherworking and Arcforge. You unlock them from character level 10. Crafting level is capped by character level (5 × crafting level), and community sources report that crafting tops out at Lv. 8 for now; the game data itself has recipes up to Lv. 10 and doesn't record a cap. Once you count what your ingots, screws and processed materials really cost to make, almost every recipe loses mesos against NPC prices, so you level crafting for the gear and the long game. The few exceptions are covered below.

The six professions

The NPCs come from Nexon's Grand Launch notes; the output counts below are from the launch recipe data (equipment recipes, all levels).

How many recipes each one has depends on who you ask:

The launch game files contain 366 recipes; the older, lower community counts are outdated. Community sources report that the Lv. 9 and 10 recipes aren't available at launch (crafting reportedly stops at Lv. 8; the game files don't say), which is what the third column filters out.

How to unlock each profession

Every profession has three NPC quests: a starter at character Lv. 10 that unlocks crafting Lv. 1, a weekly helper quest at Lv. 15 that gives the profession's Kit, and a mastery quest at Lv. 25 that gives its first Catalyst. Requirements from the launch quest data:

Each starter pays 188 EXP and 351 mesos, each helper 669 EXP and 497 mesos, and each mastery quest 3,060 EXP and 804 mesos. The quest data also requires profession Lv. 2 for the helper and profession Lv. 5 for the mastery quest, and both need that profession's starter done first.

The weekly helper quest. The Lv. 15 helper quests repeat weekly, but the quest data puts all six in one rotation: each week the game offers one helper quest, picked from the pool of six, and you don't get to choose which. So you can't plan on your own profession's Kit every week; take whichever helper the game rolls if you can do it.

Kits. Two community sources list the Kit as +10% crafting EXP for 15 minutes. Pop it before a long crafting session.

Crafting levels and the character-level cap

Crafting Lv. 1 needs character Lv. 10. From Lv. 2 up, both sources give the same rule: character level = 5 × crafting level. So crafting Lv. 6 needs character Lv. 30 and Lv. 8 needs 40.

The trap: once you hit the cap for your current crafting level, the bar parks at 100% and extra EXP is thrown away. Leveling your character later doesn't retroactively push you over; you need one more successful craft after you qualify. Both sources describe it the same way. Don't burn materials at 100%.

You also can't craft a recipe above your crafting level (a Lv. 4 recipe needs crafting Lv. 4), per community recipe data.

Crafting EXP table (sources disagree)

The crafting EXP curve isn't in the game data we have, and two community tables publish different numbers. The newer one says its values are from launch; the older one matches a closed-test archive. We show both until it's settled in game.

Total to reach Lv. 8 is 4,582 EXP on the newer table and 2,632 on the older one. The older source describes professions running to Lv. 10; the newer community table reports a Lv. 8 cap at launch and that every craft gives 0 EXP once you're there. That cap is community-reported, not something the game files show.

How crafting EXP works per recipe

On community recipe tables, equipment recipes give 20 EXP per recipe level: 40 at Lv. 2, 60 at Lv. 3, 80 at Lv. 4, up to 160 at Lv. 8. Material recipes give much less (3 EXP for a Lv. 1 ingot or Processed Wood). That's why leveling is mostly done on equipment, and why the cheapest equipment recipe at each level is what you want.

First recipes at Lv. 1

Both sources agree on the opening conversions:

Ingot fees rise with the metal: 100 for Bronze and Iron, 200 for Mithril, 300 for Adamantium and Gold, 400 for Silver, 500 for Orihalcon.

Cheapest EXP per meso

We score every recipe by full cost: the fee, plus every crafted input at what it cost you to make (its own fee plus the raw drops at NPC sell price), minus the NPC sell price of what you make. Valuing an ingot or a Processed Wood at its own tiny NPC price hides the fee and the raw materials you paid for it, so community tables that do that look far cheaper than reality.

Full-cost values of the common intermediates: Bronze or Iron Ingot 200 (5 ore at 20 + 100 fee), Screw 40 each (1 Bronze + 1 Iron Ingot make 10), Processed Wood 150 (10 Tree Branch at 5 + 100 fee), Processed Leather 150 (5 Leather at 10 + 100 fee), Spool of Thread 11 each (1 Animal Fur Bundle + 100 fee make 10).

The skullcaps and winter hats differ only in their monster drops: Snail Shell sells for 1, Red Snail Shell for 4, Orange Mushroom Cap for 8 and Leaf for 11, and each also takes Processed Leather (1 for a skullcap, 2 for a winter hat) and Spool of Thread (3 or 6).

The fee looks steep, but you get it back by vendoring the result. The Bat costs 3,500 to make and sells for 3,500, so the real cost is the 5 Processed Wood: 750 at full cost. You need the mesos up front, though. Mind the prerequisites: Iron Knuckle needs Screws from Weaponcrafting, and every skullcap and winter hat needs Processed Leather (Leatherworking) plus Spool of Thread (Tailoring).

Recipes that make money (against NPC prices)

At full cost, only these Lv. 1 to 8 recipes come out ahead:

Iron Knuckle often shows up on "profitable" lists at +1,576, but that counts its 8 Iron Ingots and 24 Screws at their NPC sell price (100 and 1). At what they cost to make it loses about 160 per craft. Hardwood Wand is the standout early: the same 60 EXP as the Bat for no net cost, as long as you farmed the 30 Orange Mushroom Caps. More on selling crafts in how to make mesos.

So out of the 308 recipes at Lv. 1 to 8, five make a small profit at NPC prices and one breaks even; everything else is a money sink. Player prices can be far higher than NPC prices, often by an order of magnitude, which is where crafting really pays.

A sample Woodcrafting route

Woodcrafting gets to Lv. 4 on its own materials (Tree Branches and Orange Mushroom Caps), and Hardwood Wand makes Lv. 3 → 4 almost free. Using the recipe EXP from the game data, here's how many crafts each step takes on both EXP tables:

Remember the cap: crafting Lv. 3 needs character 15, Lv. 4 needs 20 and Lv. 5 needs 25, so don't push a step before your character qualifies or the overflow is wasted. Balanche needs 12 Screws, so the last step leans on Weaponcrafting (or on buying Screws). At Lv. 5 (character 25) you can take the mastery quest, which wants The Red Relaxer.

Where the materials come from

Crafting runs on monster drops. These drop sources appear in more than one community list:

Drop rates aren't in the game data, but spawns are. The densest Jr. Necki maps are Dangerous Croko I (27), Dangerous Croko II (21) and The Swamp of Despair III (19), but all three are mixed level: Croko I adds 14 Ligators (Lv. 31) and 6 Crocos (Lv. 52), Croko II has 24 Crocos (Lv. 52), and Swamp of Despair III has 28 Ligators (Lv. 31), against Lv. 21 Jr. Neckis. Damp Forest has only 11 Jr. Neckis but nothing above Lv. 21 (15 Octopus, 2 Slime), so it's the safe pick at low level.

Single-source extras, so treat them as leads: one community database says Wild Boars also drop Animal Fur Bundles and that Drakes drop Dragon Skin, used in 23 recipes. Player-reported drop lists show Tree Branch and Bronze Ore from Stumps, Fragment of Magic from Octopus and Green Mushroom, and Firewood from Dark Axe Stumps.

Ores also come from quests: Rowen the Fairy's Cursed Doll chain (Lv. 36) pays 7 random metal ore, then 10 random gem ore, then 5 Gold or Diamond Ore across its first three steps. The GM-event Magic Box from Mr. Pickall can roll stacks of ore too, per Nexon.

What's still unknown

• Which EXP table is right. Watch your own bar and compare.
• What Catalysts do in numbers. One community source says they give a chance to change a finished item's bonus stats; no rate is published.
• Whether the reported Lv. 8 cap is real, and when it lifts. Nexon hasn't said.