Scroll Tiers in MapleStory Classic World: Lesser, Intermediate, Greater and Chaos Explained

Every scroll in Classic World comes in four tiers. Lesser always works (100%), Intermediate works 60% of the time, Greater 10%, and Chaos 10% with a 50% chance to destroy the item when it fails. What each tier gives depends on the scroll family, and the launch data has five different ladders, not one.

Quick answer: Lesser = 100%, Intermediate = 60%, Greater = 10%, Chaos = 10% plus item-destruction risk. Per scroll, Intermediate has the best average on every ladder except HP and MP, where the Lesser wins. Greater averages 20-40% of a Lesser and Chaos 25-50%, depending on the ladder.

The rules of scrolling (slots, shops, crafting basics) are in the scrolling guide. This page is the tier reference.

The four tiers

Tier	Success rate	On failure
Lesser	100%	Can't fail
Intermediate	60%	Item is safe
Greater	10%	Item is safe
Chaos	10%	50% chance the item is destroyed

The game has 208 scrolls: 52 families (a gear type plus a stat), each in all four tiers. So for every Lesser there's an Intermediate, a Greater and a Chaos, even where no player can get them yet.

The five stat ladders

The tier name tells you the success rate. The family tells you the size of the bonus:

Ladder	Lesser	Intermediate	Greater	Chaos	Used by
Standard	+1	+2	+3	+4	Gloves Attack; all STR, DEX, INT, LUK; Accuracy; Speed; Jump; Evasion; Crit. Rate; Crit. Damage
Defense and gloves magic	+2	+4	+6	+8	Every DEF scroll (Topwear, Bottomwear, Overall, Shield, Cape Weapon Def. and Magic Def.); Gloves Magic Attack
HP and MP	+10	+15	+20	+25	Hat, Topwear and Bottomwear HP and MP
Weapon attack	+1	+2	+4	+5	All 12 physical weapon types
Wand and staff	+2	+4	+8	+10	Wand and Staff Magic Attack

The DEF scrolls carry a bonus the table can't show: from Intermediate up they also add the other defense, +2 / +4 / +6 at Intermediate / Greater / Chaos (Magic Def. on the Weapon Def. scrolls, Weapon Def. on the Cape Magic Def. scroll). The Lesser adds only its main stat.

Two ladders are easy to get wrong. Weapon attack jumps from +2 to +4 at Greater, and Chaos is +5, while Gloves Attack stops at +3 and +4. And HP/MP grows slowly (+10 to +25), which flips the tier math below.

Expected gain per scroll

Multiply the bonus by the success rate and you get what a scroll is worth on average, per slot:

Ladder	Lesser	Intermediate	Greater	Chaos
Standard	+1	+1.2	+0.3	+0.4
Defense and gloves magic	+2	+2.4	+0.6	+0.8
HP and MP	+10	+9	+2	+2.5
Weapon attack	+1	+1.2	+0.4	+0.5
Wand and staff	+2	+2.4	+0.8	+1

Intermediate beats Lesser on four ladders, by 20%.
HP and MP are the exception: a Lesser averages +10, an Intermediate +9.
Greater is the weakest buy after Chaos is set aside: on the weapon ladder seven Greaters average +2.8 attack against a guaranteed +7 from Lessers.
Chaos averages a little more than Greater but can delete the item.

Chaos: what the risk really is

A Chaos attempt succeeds 10% of the time. The other 90% are failures, and half of those destroy the item, so every attempt carries a 45% chance of losing the item. Survival compounds:

Chaos scrolls used	Chance the item survives
1	55%
3	16.6%
5	5%
7	1.5%
10	0.3%

Where each tier comes from

Lesser: NPC shops (players report no shop sells anything higher; shop inventories aren't in the game data), Arcforge crafting (every scroll recipe makes a Lesser) and a few quests, like Pia and the Blue Mushroom, which can roll Lesser, Intermediate or Greater.
Intermediate and Greater: quests. Each slot page lists them: gloves, shoes, capes, earrings, overalls, shields, hats, tops, bottoms and pets and weapons.
Chaos: only one quest in the launch data gives one: Monstrous Tree Stumpy (level 34), a guaranteed Gloves Crit. Rate Scroll: Chaos.
Upgrading a craft: the Scroll Crafting Catalyst from An Arcforger in My Own Right! (level 25, Chrishrama) says in its in-game description that, used while crafting a scroll, it has a chance to produce an Intermediate, Greater or Chaos scroll of the same category. The odds aren't in the game data and nobody has published them.

Our opinion on which tier to actually use, slot by slot, is in which scrolls are worth it.

Frequently asked questions

What is the success rate of a Greater scroll in MapleStory Classic World?

10%. Intermediate is 60%, Lesser 100% and Chaos 10%.

Is Intermediate the same as a 60% scroll?

Yes. Intermediate scrolls succeed 60% of the time and give double the Lesser bonus on most ladders.

Do Greater scrolls destroy items in Classic?

No. Only Chaos scrolls can destroy an item, with a 50% chance on each failure.

How much attack does a Greater weapon scroll give?

+4 weapon attack, or +8 magic attack on a wand or staff. Gloves Attack Greater gives +3.

Why are Lesser HP scrolls better than Intermediate?

Because HP and MP scrolls go +10 then +15. At 60% the Intermediate averages +9, below the Lesser's guaranteed +10.

How do I get Chaos scrolls?

Monstrous Tree Stumpy (level 34) gives a Gloves Crit. Rate Chaos. A Scroll Crafting Catalyst can also turn an Arcforge scroll craft into an Intermediate, Greater or Chaos (item description), at an unknown rate.

Sources: Game data v1.0.0 · MapleClassic Wiki [1] · MetaRoad [1]. Names and game content © Nexon, used for informational purposes. The explanations on this page are our own.