STORYLINE PLAYTHROUGHS AND ORDER

On this page, I’ve compiled together a list of resources to help make it easier for anyone who wants to find storyline playthroughs, official story content, and other lore-related media. As the game doesn’t make it easy for people to access high-level or removed content, I hope that this page will help anyone who’s interested in seeing the story in-game, rather than just reading a summary of it on this site.

One important thing that I also want to address is localization. Both GMS and MSEA do their own separate localizations of the original KMS text into English. The English in MSEA’s localization is a lot more awkward and some of the names are localized differently from GMS as well (e.g. In MSEA and KMS, Athena Pierce is known as Helena, Grendel the Really Old is Heinz, etc.)

In older storylines, MSEA has also been known to have literally copy-pasted the text through Google Translate, which makes the English translation even worse. However, there’s one very major advantage that MSEA has over GMS, which is that MSEA’s localizations are much more faithful to the original KMS text. In contrast, GMS takes a lot more liberties with the dialogue in order to make it flow a lot better and a lot cleaner. However, the major downside of this is that the GMS localization often omits crucial details about the lore, and these omissions can be pretty glaring.

I typically use a combination of KMS, GMS, and MSEA localization when I write up the lore site by taking the best parts of each localization in order to try and convey everything as comprehensively and correctly as possible. Although I can’t do this for every single part of every single section, since doing so would be an immense volume of work, I try to at least do it for the important parts of each story where I know for fact that there’s a greater chance of GMS omitting something crucial.

Since there are so many significant differences between GMS and MSEA, I’ve tried to include playthroughs in both localizations for every storyline wherever I can, which will hopefully make it easier to compare the two. Obviously, some storylines might just have one or the other if people haven’t uploaded those videos, but I’ve done my best to be as exhaustive as possible when I searched them up. I’ll be updating this page whenever I find new videos, but if you happen to find one that’s not included here, then feel free to send it my way.

Chronological Playthrough Order:

As an accompaniment to the list of storyline videos, I’m also adding a recommended order of playthrough if you wanted to chronologically follow the story. This is something that I’ve been asked to share in the past, and one thing that I want to add is that a perfect chronological order for quests doesn’t really exist because of the way that so many class stories intersect at multiple points through the overarching storyline, making a true chronological order impossible to achieve unless you keep hopping on and off between characters. What I have instead is a rough chronology of storylines arranged in a way that allows you to play through the story more or less in order, while preserving the integrity of a narrative flow.

CANON:

In this ordering, I’ve filtered out any canon extraneous storylines that don’t contribute to the main plot. These storylines include: all party quests, all town storylines, Ellinel Fairy Academy, Gold Beach, Secret Forest of Elodin, Mushroom Castle, Fantasy Theme World, Korean Folk Town, Golden Temple, Partem Ruins, Kerning Tower, Omega Sector, and Ramuramu. While a few of these storylines might become relevant in the future, I’m keeping them out of this list until they do.

For the sake of making things easier, I’ve created a legend to denote which types of content each storyline entry is (i.e. whether it’s a class story, theme dungeon, webcomic, etc.) Additionally, I’ve highlighted in bold the “essential” stories that I believe are the barest minimum you would need to complete in order to get the gist of what the overall story is. Although all the class stories are essential in one way or another, the ones that I’ve highlighted are (in my opinion) the only ones you need to understand most plot points without being confused, especially since the Adversary storyline gives you all the relevant information that you might’ve missed throughout the course of the narrative.

Legend:

Class story
Theme dungeon
Webcomic
Questline
Adversary storyline

PART I: BEFORE THE SEALING OF THE BLACK MAGE

  • Grand Athenaeum, Episode 1: The White Mage

  • Read: Black Mage: Origin webcomic

  • Read: Grandis: The Ancient War webcomic

  • Grand Athenaeum, Episode 7: Sefirot’s Gardener

  • Grand Athenaeum, Episode 4: The Winter Bard

PART II: BEFORE THE SEALING OF THE BLACK MAGE

  • Grand Athenaeum, Episode 2: Empress in Training

  • Mihile class story

  • Grand Athenaeum, Episode 3: The Black Witch

  • Aran class story

  • Evan class story

  • Luminous class story

  • Mercedes class story

  • Cygnus Knight class story

  • Kaiser class story

  • Angelic Buster class story

  • Cadena class story

  • Illium class story

  • Ark class story

  • Hoyoung class story

  • Adele class story

  • Kain class story

  • Lara class story

  • Khali class story

  • Resistance class story

  • Demon class story

  • Phantom class story

  • Riena Strait theme dungeon

  • Verne Mine storyline (Edelstein town quests)

  • Xenon class story

  • Explorer class story

    • Note: Dual Blade and Cannoneer share the Explorer story in addition to their own.

    • Pathfinder does not share the Explorer storyline. Her story should be done separately, but can be done around here as well.

PART III: AFTER THE UNSEALING OF THE BLACK MAGE

  • Birth of an Alliance

  • Shade class story

  • Azwan storyline

  • Ellin Forest theme dungeon

  • FriendStory: Episodes 1-6

  • Kinesis class story

  • Heliseum Reclamation HQ

  • Evolution Lab (no longer accessible in-game, it instead plays as the prologue during the Black Heaven blockbuster)

  • Lion King’s Castle theme dungeon

  • Root Abyss (Tower of Oz takes place concurrently with Root Abyss)

  • Cygnus Awakens storyline

  • Crimsonheart Castle theme dungeon

  • Grand Athenaeum, Episode 6: Sharenian Knights

  • Silent Crusade: Arkarium prequest

  • Grand Athenaeum, Episode 5: Shadow Alchemist

  • Zero class story

  • Gate of the Past (Pink Bean prequest)

  • Stone Colossus theme dungeon

  • Gate to the Future (Future Henesys, Knight Stronghold, and Twilight Perion)

  • Detective Rave’s Case Notes theme dungeon

  • Fox Valley theme dungeon

  • Black Heaven blockbuster

  • Heroes of Maple blockbuster

  • Kritias theme dungeon

  • Silent Crusade 2

  • 5th job advancement questline

  • Vanishing Journey

  • Reverse City

  • Chu Chu Island

  • Yum Yum Island

  • Lachelein

  • Arcana

  • Morass

  • Esfera

  • Sellas

  • Moonbridge

  • Labyrinth of Suffering

  • Limina

PART IV: AFTER THE DEFEAT OF THE BLACK MAGE

  • Aftermath

  • Convergence

  • 6th job advancement questline

  • Cernium

  • Burning Cernium

  • High Mountain Epic Dungeon

  • Hotel Arcus

  • Karote

  • Odium

  • Shangri-La

  • Angler Company Epic Dungeon (takes place concurrently with Shangri-La)

  • Arteria

  • Carcion

  • Extradimensional Visitors (only exists as a KMS event currently)

  • Tallahart

GMS-VERSE:

GMS-verse is the name I gave to the shared overseas universe available in GMS. The majority of this lore is shaped through Masteria, MONAD, the Sengoku Warriors, Jett, Beast Tamer, Zen, and several other storylines. With the removal of MONAD, Jett, Beast Tamer, Zen, and several other storylines, however, GMS-verse is slowly fragmenting without the connective tissue that once held these disparate storylines together. However, I’m still choosing to present the original order of these storylines from before the mass removal of overseas lore as a way to preserve GMS-verse’s original integrity.

In this ordering, I’ve filtered out any overseas extraneous storylines that don’t contribute to the GMS-verse lore. These storylines include: The Afterlands, Beasts of Fury, Commerci Republic, The Far East, Shaolin Temple, Singapore, Malaysia, and the class stories for Lynn and Mo Xuan.

Legend:

Class story
Questline

  • Masteria Introduction (Masteria level 150 questline)

  • Masteria Through Time blockbuster

  • Kanna class story

  • Hayato class story

  • Zen class story (no longer accessible in-game)

  • Beast Tamer class story (no longer accessible in-game)

  • Jett class story (no longer accessible in-game)

  • Stellar Detectives

  • MONAD blockbuster (no longer accessible in-game)

  • Mushroom Shrine Tales

  • Neo Tokyo (no longer accessible in-game)

  • Hieizan Temple

  • The Asura Crisis

  • New Leaf City (Masteria level 170 questline)

  • Phantom Forest

  • Gollux prequest

  • MesoGears (Masteria level 190 questline)

CANON (MAIN STORY):

Like I mentioned earlier, I’ll include links to both the GMS and MSEA localizations of these storylines whenever possible. GMS is a lot cleaner to read, but it frequently omits lore or mischaracterizes people through its localization. Meanwhile, MSEA has messier English, but it’s very faithful to the original Korean text. Unfortunately, there are a lot of classes that don’t have GMS playthroughs uploaded, and so the MSEA version is the only alternative. And, in a few rare cases, no one’s uploaded any videos at all, which means that you’ll unfortunately just have to play through those class storylines in-game if you want actually want to see them and not just read about them on this site.

In this ordering, I’ve filtered out any canon extraneous storylines that don’t contribute to the main plot. These storylines include: all party quests, all town storylines, Ellinel Fairy Academy, Gold Beach, Secret Forest of Elodin, Mushroom Castle, Fantasy Theme World, Korean Folk Town, Golden Temple, Partem Ruins, Kerning Tower, Omega Sector, and Ramuramu. While a few of these storylines might become relevant in the future, I’m keeping them out of this list until they do.

For the sake of making things easier, I’ve created a legend to denote which types of content each storyline entry is (i.e. whether it’s a class story, theme dungeon, webcomic, etc.) Additionally, I’ve highlighted in bold the “essential” stories that I believe are the barest minimum you would need to complete in order to get the gist of what the overall story is. Although all the class stories are essential in one way or another, the ones that I’ve highlighted are (in my opinion) the only ones you need to understand most plot points without being confused, especially since the Adversary storyline gives you all the relevant information that you might’ve missed throughout the course of the narrative.

PART I: BEFORE THE SEALING OF THE BLACK MAGE

Grand Athenaeum, Episode 1: The White Mage (Recommended):

This storyline is central to the Black Mage and his motivations, serving as the foundation for the entirety of his plan to liberate the world from the Overseers’ influence. It follows a nameless mercenary who meets the White Mage and helps him in his research to reach the ultimate light.

Black Mage: Origin webcomic (Optional):

This webcomic delves into the White Mage’s past, from his childhood up until his awakening as the Transcendent of Light. It’s set in-between Heroes of Maple and the Arcane River storyline, as it starts out with Luminous tutoring Evan in magic, which transitions into him sharing the story of the White Mage from centuries ago. I would highly recommend reading this webcomic as a companion piece to Tenebris and the White Mage episode of the Grand Athenaeum (which gets referenced in this), as it does an excellent job of delving into the White Mage’s character and even offers a vague glimpse at what the Overseers physically look like.

I’ve included both GMS’ official translation, as well as the fan translation made by Secret Story. If the GMS page opens up to the default Tenebris promo page, try opening it up again.

Grandis: The Ancient War webcomic (Recommended):

Like I mentioned with Illium, this webcomic gives a general overview of the Flora, the Flora Civil War, and Darmoor’s awakening as the Transcendent of Life. A lot of details from this webcomic have been referenced in the game, with the only notable continuity error being that Darmoor’s father, the former God-King, is shown to be an old man at the time that the Verdant Flora get exiled, even though he’s shown as a younger man in Adele’s flashbacks, which are set after the Verdant Flora’s exile. Another minor issue is that even though the Flora Civil War is called the “Ancient War“ in this webcomic, the actual Ancient War in the game refers to the war between the Adversaries and the Ancient Gods, which takes place eons before the Flora Civil War.

Just like the Black Mage: Origin comic, I’ve included translations from both GMS and Secret Story.

Grand Athenaeum, Episode 7: Sefirot’s Gardener (Recommended):

This storyline is is the first Grandis-centric episode in the Grand Athenaeum, and it follows Asha, a humble gardener of Sefirot, the sanctum of the Transcendent of Life. The storyline covers Prince Darmoor and the Knights of the Einherjar working with Asha to find a way to summon the missing Transcendent of Life in order to cure Darmoor’s father, the God-King, of his madness. The story goes into an exploration of Darmoor’s true goals and beliefs about living things, beyond his superficial goal of wiping out all non-Flora lives.

Unfortunately, GMS didn’t get the two cutscenes that were included in the original KMS storyline, but I’ve included a link to those cutscenes and a rough translation of what they say below these links, just in case you didn’t want to read them until you’ve gone through the storyline yourself first.

There are two cutscenes omitted in GMS. The first is a very insignificant cutscene that plays as the Verdant Flora flee Edvar and Yuel, in which Darmoor unleashes the monstrous God-King and tells the Verdant Flora that the monster is the God-King whom they've been searching for. The second one is much more important and plays at the end of the story. After Asha dies, Darmoor walks through the garden and uses his power to bring the garden back to life as he walks. Declaring that he's "found it", he enters the sanctum and uses his power to bring Asha back to life. When Asha asks him why he saved her, he tells her that it's because she was the only life in the garden that had value.

Grand Athenaeum, Episode 4: The Winter Bard (Recommended):

This storyline is tied with Episode 1 as my favorite. It’s set when the Black Mage first rises to power and starts gathering his Commanders, specifically Von Leon, and showcases the fear and violence that plagued the world during that time. It follows Ryude, a mercenary-turned-bard who helps Alicia gather creatures for the Tower of Oz, as well as to light Freud’s beacon to signal the end of the world, which ultimately gathers the Heroes together.

PART II: BEFORE THE SEALING OF THE BLACK MAGE

Grand Athenaeum, Episode 2: Empress in Training (Optional):

This storyline is fairly short and self-contained, but it shows how Cygnus was crowned as the Empress and adds a few neat details, such as the origin of Neinheart’s monocle. It follows a wandering warrior whom Neinheart recruits in order to help train Cygnus as a leader.

Mihile (Optional):

When Mihile was originally released, he had an extremely barebones story that never received a resolution. It was speculated that the plot points introduced in his storyline would be resolved in future Chief Knight classes, although the poor reception to Mihile made it so that no future Chief Knight jobs were ever released. During the Ignition update, Mihile’s storyline was completely revamped from scratch, sharing no similarities whatsoever to the original version.

Grand Athenaeum, Episode 3: The Black Witch (Optional):

This storyline was originally the 4th job advancement for Cygnus Knights in the first iteration of their story. After the Cygnus Awakens revamp, this episode of the Grand Athenaeum was created using the framework of the old story in order to show the origin of the Cygnus Knight’s feud with the Resistance. It follows a Cygnus Knight who’s implied to be the protagonist of the original Cygnus Knight storyline before the Cygnus Awakens revamp.

Aran (Recommended):

Aran’s storyline was revamped in the Milestone update, which fixed all the weird early lore issues from when she was first released.

Evan (Optional):

Luminous (Recommended):

Luminous has two slightly different storylines that play out from levels 10-30 depending on whether you choose the light or dark path. Regardless of which path you choose, however, the story converges at level 30 and proceeds the same from thereon. The main storyline video for MSEA has the entirety of his storyline covered in the light side, while a smaller, separate video was created to cover the dark side storyline from levels 10-30.

Mercedes (Optional):

Cygnus Knight (Recommended):

There are three different versions of the Cygnus Knight storyline. The original was released when Cygnus Knights first came out, but there are unfortunately no complete playthroughs of this version of the story. The major beats of this storyline were later reintroduced back into the game in various ways, such as their 4th job advancement storyline being adapted into the Black Witch episode of the Grand Athenaeum.

The second iteration of this storyline was released during the Cygnus Awakens update, which revamped Cygnus Knights and created an entirely new storyline set after the events of the original Cygnus Knight storyline, which was vaguely alluded to in the dialogue. The third iteration was released during the Ignition update, which once again revamped the Cygnus Knights. The post-Ignition storyline is almost identical to the Cygnus Awakens version of the story, with just a few notable differences.

Kaiser (Recommended):

Kaiser’s storyline received some minor modifications in the KMS Fall 2023 update in order to line up better with Angelic Buster’s storyline. I don’t currently have any videos of his current story, but I’ll add it as soon as I find one. Kaiser’s class story is heavily intertwined with Angelic Buster’s, and so playing either story gives you about the same amount of information. However, I’d personally lean towards playing Kaiser’s story over Angelic Buster’s, as Kaiser has more of an active role in uniting the Nova with the Maple Alliance.

Angelic Buster (Optional):

Angelic Buster’s storyline was revamped in the KMS Fall 2023 update. Her new storyline fixed a lot of the issues that came from her old story, such as her being sexually harassed by every male character that she comes across, as well as giving her a stronger character arc.

Cadena (Optional):

Illium (Recommended):

The “Grandis: The Ancient War” webcomic was released during Illium’s release in the Nova update, which serves as a prequel to Illium’s story, and the Flora classes as a whole. It showcases the caste system of the Flora, the schism between the High Flora and Verdant Flora, the Flora Civil War, Darmoor’s awakening as the Transcendent of Life, and the surviving Verdant Flora going into hiding, which leads into Illium’s class storyline.

While reading this webcomic isn’t necessary to understand Illium’s story, I would highly recommend it, as it not only gives proper context behind the history of the Flora, but it also introduces the God of the Verdant Flora, whose consciousness gets fused with Illium. Seeing him and his ideals better emphasizes Illium’s role as the one who’s inherited his will and his powers through the Elder Crystal, marking Illium as one who will carry on his legacy.

Ark (Recommended):

Hoyoung (Optional):

Adele (Recommended):

Kain (Recommended):

Lara (Recommended):

Khali (Recommended):

Resistance (Recommended):

Demon (Recommended):

The Demon Slayer was the original version of the Demon released in the Legends update. The Demon Avenger was released in the Unlimited update as an alternative path for the Demon, but the Demon Slayer has been established as the canonical version of the Demon. The MSEA localization is the only video that fully covers the Demon’s storyline, but it includes all the Demon Avenger-exclusive scenes as well, even though it’s not canon. The parts of his storyline involving Damien were added retroactively after Unlimited, as Damien being alive had not been established yet.

Phantom (Recommended):

Riena Strait (Level 30-60, Optional):

This theme dungeon is part of the main story and has minor connections to Black Heaven, but other than that, it’s not particularly significant. Aran also gets some exclusive dialogue at the end of this storyline, which I was able to find for GMS. This storyline is set in-between the 2nd job advancement and 3rd job advancement for characters in regard to when it would play out within the scope of their class story.

Verne Mine (Level 60, Optional):

This storyline is a streamlined adaptation of some Edelstein town quests, which have been retrofitted into the main story with the Milestone update. Although it’s not strictly necessary, it does give some good information about the Black Wings and Orchid’s true purpose in creating them. This storyline should take place after the 3rd job advancement for characters.

Xenon (Optional):

Xenon storyline video || MSEA localization

Explorer (Recommended):

The original Explorer storyline came out during the RED update. A notable feature of this storyline was that each job branch - warriors, magicians, bowmen, thieves, and pirates - would have exclusive quests that made their branch’s storyline unique. The Explorer storyline was revamped during the Destiny update, which removed this feature and streamlined the story, as well as slightly modified the flow of the Cannoneer and Dual Blade storylines in order to better integrate them with regular Explorers.

Dual Blade (Optional):

There are two different versions of the Dual Blade storyline. While the original storyline has not been uploaded anywhere, Saught has thoroughly covered the old Dual Blade lore as part of a series on his channel, which I’ve included as reference. The Justice/Renegades update revamped the Dual Blade storyline into its current version, and similar to Cannoneer, it was slightly modified in the Destiny update to meld into the Explorer storyline by having the player start out on Maple Island, travel to Victoria Island, finish the Dual Blade storyline, and then proceed with the main Explorer storyline.

Cannoneer (Optional):

Cannoneer’s storyline was slightly modified in the Destiny update. Whereas his original storyline started out with him crashing on Coco Island, the Destiny update made it so that he starts out on Maple Island, gets to level 10, and then crashes on Coco Island before resuming the main Explorer storyline. For the purposes of documentation, I’ve included both versions here.

Pathfinder (Optional):

Unlike Cannoneer and Dual Blade, Pathfinder does not share the Explorer storyline alongside her own unique class story, instead being treated as an entirely separate character in the game. However, her story does have some connections to the main Explorer storyline, such as her meeting the other Explorers (Tess, Olive, Rondo). For the purposes of chronology, you can assume that her class story takes place in the same timeframe as the main Explorer storyline.

PART III: AFTER THE UNSEALING OF THE BLACK MAGE

Birth of an Alliance (Level 75, Recommended):

The Birth of an Alliance questline is the prequest for officially joining the Maple Alliance. The placement of this questline in the chronology depends on the character, as some classes join when the Alliance is first formed, while others join afterwards. Because of how many iterations and class-specific variations there are for this questline, I’ve decided not to add links to it on the site due to the large volume of work that this would pose. However, this is a very accessible questline for all classes which can be completed at level 75, with little to no important bits of lore for most characters.

Shade/Eunwol (Recommended):

Shade (known as Eunwol outside of GMS) had his storyline revamped in the Milestone update, which ruined what was arguably the best class story ever released. I’d highly recommend checking out his original storyline in addition, as it’s some of the most emotional and poignant storytelling that the game has to offer.

Azwan (Level 80, Optional):

This is a very small storyline that takes place around the time that Fight for Azwan happened before its removal from the game. It deals with the Alliance investigating Hilla in Azwan, although there’s really nothing too important about it outside introducing her as a Commander. I don’t have a video of the revamped version, but I’ll add it once I find one.

I’ve also included the Pages of Memory event that featured a bit of Hilla’s backstory alongside several other Commanders. These backstories are set to be included in the Grand Athenaeum at some point in the future:

Ellin Forest (Level 95, Optional):

This theme dungeon was revamped shortly after the Destiny update came out, which also significantly reworked Kao’s storyline. The original version featured Kao as someone who had been in Ellin Forest of the past, but the revamp complete cut them out of the story and instead gave them a new timeline of events centered around the completed Arcane River story. The revamp also tied into the events of the current Explorer storyline from Destiny, and it defined new time-travel mechanics for the game.

FriendStory (Level 100, Optional):

FriendStory was originally marketed as a non-canon high school alternate universe spinoff. However, the introduction of Kinesis brought FriendStory into canon, which was further cemented with the Heroes of Maple blockbuster having a part of it being set on Earth. Although the game never directly calls this world “Earth”, instead just calling it “Friend World”, I would rather die than call it that, and so I will point-blank refuse to acknowledge that name.

Although much of FriendStory is just a slice-of-life series, the few portions involving the White Mage are significant to the overall lore. FriendStory, along with Kinesis’ story, directly tie into the events of the Arcane River, as it reveals that the White Mage of Earth is planning to fuse Maple World and Earth together in order to create the Arcane River, and that he’s also hoping to shape Kinesis into a potential Adversary in order to defeat the Black Mage.

FriendStory was initially released with a prologue and five episodes, but Episode 6 was later added as an expansion. There are also some Easter eggs and alternate endings that you can unlock with repeated playthroughs, although I’ve only been able to find the MSEA localizations for those. The prologue and Episode 6 are the only ones that don’t have any Easter eggs. Episode 6 also has some exclusive dialogue for the Demon, and so I’ve included a separate playthrough with the Demon for that one.

Kinesis (Optional):

Although FriendStory isn’t directly necessary to understand Kinesis’ story, I would still recommend watching at least Episode 5: Students in Crisis before going through Kinesis’ class story, as those events directly tie into the beginning of Kinesis’ storyline.

Heliseum Reclamation HQ (Level 100, Recommended):

This is the Magnus prequest, which was revamped in the KMS Fall 2023 update. Originally, Kaiser, Angelic Buster, and Cadena got entirely different versions, which were retroactively adapted into exclusive dialogue and scenes within the revamped version. All other Grandis classes get a special intro and outro quest, but outside of that, they’re treated as Maple World characters. Ark does get a bit more than other regular Grandis classes, as he can talk to Cadena, Angelic Buster, and Illium during his prequest, but I’ve only been able to find the MSEA localization for it. I’ll also include as many Grandis-exclusive scenes as I can find. The only ones that I couldn’t grab were for Illium and Adele, but you can find the writeup for them in the Siege of Heliseum section on the lore site.

Note: For the original Heliseum prequest video from before the revamp, I was only been able to find the first half of it, which just goes until Downtown Heliseum gets retaken. There’s a second part that involves defeating Victor, Treglow, and Velderoth before fighting Magnus, but as you don’t need to complete those as part of the prequest, people haven’t included it in their videos. Fortunately, the second half is common to all classes, and so the Kaiser/Angelic Buster/Cadena videos showcase it. I’ll add one of them at the right timestamp as the Part 2 for the regular Heliseum prequest video.

Lion King’s Castle (Level 120, Optional):

This is the Von Leon prequest, and although it has vague tie-ins to the Silent Crusade, it’s a fairly insignificant storyline, as Von Leon has been heavily sidelined as a character. It’s good background material for the Winter Bard episode of the Grand Athenaeum, but other than that, it’s skippable. It received a minor revamp in the Milestone update, which didn’t really add much besides an implication that Hilla was responsible for brainwashing the people of his kingdom into attacking his castle centuries ago.

I’ve also included the Pages of Memory event that featured a bit of Von Leon’s backstory alongside several other Commanders. These backstories are set to be included in the Grand Athenaeum at some point in the future:

Root Abyss (Level 125, Recommended):

The Root Abyss prequest is fairly short, but it’s pretty important to the lore. It serves as the introduction of Damien and Alicia, and it shows how Alicia was rescued and taken back to Ereve, which leads into the Cygnus Awakens storyline when Damien attacks Ereve and nearly kills Shinsoo. The Demon gets some exclusive dialogue when he talks to Vellum in this story, but I haven’t been able to find a playthrough of it. You can read what happens for that exclusive scene the Root Abyss section of the lore site.

Cygnus Awakens (Level 125, Recommended):

The Cygnus Awakens storyline is a short cutscene that covers Cygnus’ awakening as a Transcendent-in-reserve after Damien kidnaps Alicia and nearly kills Shinsoo. Cygnus Knights get a special version of this questline, in which they witness Cygnus’ awakening, whereas other classes get called by Neinheart, who explains what happens after the fact. I haven’t been able to find a playthrough of the generic version, but you can see the Cygnus Knight version in their class story video.

Crimsonheart Castle (Level 135, Optional):

This theme dungeon is extremely skippable. Almost all of its assets were taken from GMS Masteria, including the names. In KMS, this area is known as Crimsonwood Keep, which is an area from GMS Masteria. KMS also decided to use Masteria as the name of the demon homeland. In order to avoid having the same names twice, GMS decided to rename KMS’ Crimsonwood Keep to Crimsonheart Castle, and it renamed KMS’ Masteria to Tynerum. The events of this theme dungeon play absolutely no role whatsoever in the overall story, and it seems that Nexon is slowly shifting the aesthetic of Tynerum away from GMS Masteria and more towards its own unique version.

The Demon gets some exclusive dialogue in this theme dungeon that reveals that he’s never been to Tynerum before, which is later either contradicted or retconned by the Damien webcomic. Unfortunately, I don’t have a playthrough featuring that dialogue, but you can find it in the Crimsonheart Castle section of the lore site.

The GMS and MSEA localizations of this storyline are identical, with the only exception that MSEA uses ‘Masteria’ and GMS uses ‘Tynerum’. Both GMS and MSEA also reference Naricain, the main villain of GMS Masteria, but this dialogue doesn’t exist in KMS. The video that I have is the MSEA version, which is why Tynerum is referenced as Masteria here.

Grand Athenaeum, Episode 6: Sharenian Knights (Recommended):

This storyline is chronologically set before all the other ones in the Grand Athenaeum, including the White Mage episode. It follows Guard Captain Kellad, a disgraced knight of Sharenian who leads a squad of rejects in a battle against Ergoth Dunamis and his forces that seek to destroy the kingdom. It was created as an origin story for Darknell and the Elite Bosses, who were unceremoniously introduced and killed off in Limina with no backstory, although the Arcane River revamp in the NEXT update did give some more exposition to them, which is why I’d recommended checking this story out. It also ties a bit into Zero’s story with how Will was inspired to create Mirror World as a result of Ergoth’s machinations.

Silent Crusade (Level 140, Recommended):

The Silent Crusade storyline was revamped in 2023, with many parts of the original story omitted and streamlined. Even the pre-revamp storyline has gone through tiny revamps over the years in order to account for the change in monster levels, but the actual content wasn’t really affected. The only real change to the canon has been that the Silent Crusade was retconned to have been created by Empress Aria, rather than the Cygnus Knights, as the Cygnus Knights weren’t around centuries ago like the dialogue originally stated.

The original Silent Crusade storyline was set before the Black Mage’s unsealing and featured Arkarium traveling back in time to break the seal, although the current version has changed it to him going back in time and killing the Heroes and the Demon when they’re weak and injured from the battle against the Black Mage.

I’ve also included the Pages of Memory event that featured a bit of Arkarium’s backstory alongside several other Commanders. These backstories are set to be included in the Grand Athenaeum at some point in the future:

Grand Athenaeum, Episode 5: Shadow Alchemist (Optional):

Out of all the storylines in the Grand Athenaeum, this one might be the most self-contained. It follows Fang, a Shadow Knight who works under Will to keep Alpha brainwashed and trapped inside Mirror World. Although this story doesn’t add much to the overall lore, it serves as a direct prequel to Zero’s class storyline and ties in perfectly with the start of it. It also gives a minor lore explanation behind the moonlight mechanic in Will’s boss fight. Zero also gets some exclusive dialogue at the start and end of the story if you’re playing through it as one, which is included in the GMS video.

Zero (Recommended):

Similar to Illium, Zero has a companion webcomic to their class storyline. I would say that it’s not as necessary to read this one as it is with Illium’s, but it’s still a pretty cool webcomic that adds some extra detail to Zero’s story. Unlike the Grandis webcomic, GMS never released an official localization, and so the only version available is a fan translation created by maplf. You’ll need to open the original webcomic and compare the translation side-by-side.

I would also highly recommend checking out Episode 5: Shadow Alchemist from the Grand Athenaeum, which is a prequel to Zero’s storyline. The prequel is written with the assumption that you’ve played through at least the prologue to Zero’s story at the very start of it, but you could honestly watch it even before Zero’s story and it’ll make complete sense.

I’ve also included the Pages of Memory event that featured a bit of Will’s backstory alongside several other Commanders. These backstories are set to be included in the Grand Athenaeum at some point in the future:

Gate of the Past (Level 140, Optional):

This is the Pink Bean prequest, which was once infamously long for how many mobs it required you to kill. It’s been significantly shortened since then, although there’s very little in this story that actually plays into the main lore, as Pink Bean is quite insignificant as a character. This prequest also serves as Kirston’s introduction into the story, who’s been coming back into relevance following the end of the Black Mage arc. Pathfinder gets some exclusive dialogue when she meets him, which I’ll include as a video.

Pretty much every class also gets an exclusive quest during this storyline when the Memory Keeper tells them to go back to the beginning of their adventure. I’ll try to include as many links as I can to these quests, but there are a lot of them which just haven’t been uploaded.

The Gate of the Past also allows you to meet Kao, the amnesiac Temple Keeper, and although these quests aren’t directly part of the Pink Bean prequest, they’re still featured in the videos. Kao’s storyline in the Gate of the Past has had its dialogue slightly modified following the revamp to their story. Unfortunately, there’s no video that showcases this, but you can check out the changes in the Arcane River section of the lore site.

Stone Colossus (Level 150, Optional):

This one used to be pretty important until Damien’s involvement was cut from it in the Milestone revamp. Guwaru gets introduced in this storyline, but there’s really not much substance left in it compared to the original. I don’t currently have any videos of the current story, but I’ll add it as soon as I find one.

Henesys Ruins (Level 160, Recommended):

Although the Gate to the Future storylines never really played any important part in the story, it nevertheless teased Lucid as a Commander and thematically connects to the central idea behind the Black Mage’s plan of showing people a predetermined future in order to make them resist the idea of their destiny being decided. Henesys Ruins is the first entry in the Gate to the Future trilogy, focusing on a ruined Henesys after Empress Cygnus is corrupted and invades Maple World. The 2023 KMS update revamped all three regions, making the story much more cohesive.

Knight Stronghold (Level 165, Recommended):

Knight Stronghold is the second part of the Gate to the Future, focusing on stopping the corrupted Empress Cygnus once and for all, as well as investigating whether the future that awaits Maple World behind the gate is really true.

Twilight Perion (Level 180, Recommended):

Twilight Perion was later added as an expansion to future Henesys and Ereve, and although it takes place at level 180, I would highly recommend watching the story immediately after Knight Stronghold in order to improve story flow and cohesiveness.

Detective Rave’s Case Notes (Level 175, Recommended):

This storyline ties into Grandis lore and introduces new factions, both directly and indirectly, such as the Angler Company, the Apostles, and the elders of Grandis. It’s highly worth playing if you want to know more about the Grandis story.

Fox Valley theme dungeon (Level 185, Recommended):

This is another storyline that ties into Grandis lore. Similar to Detective Rave’s Case Notes, it continues teasing the Apostles of Darmoor, and it also expands on Shade’s storyline with the Fox God and the Anima. Certain classes get some exclusive dialogue, and it’s especially worth playing on a Shade for maximum emotional damage. See the Fox Valley section on the lore site for all the exclusive dialogue, as some of it doesn’t exist online.

One other thing to note is that Shade’s exclusive scene is different depending on whether or not you finished your final level 200 quest, in which you find out that Moonbeam received a new guardian spirit that looks just like you.

Black Heaven (Level 190, Recommended):

Black Heaven takes place almost immediately after FriendStory, with only Kinesis’ storyline happening in-between. Black Heaven was the first epic ever released, and it ambitiously attempted to tie together all the loosely related plot threads across the dozens of classes that were released, such as Orchid and Lotus, Gelimer’s Xenoroid project, the purpose of the Black Wings, the Seal Stones, and the Black Mage’s plans. It also set up the entirety of the Arcane River storyline with the creation of the Adversary. It was a massive project with an incredible amount of detail and effort put into it, especially with all the exclusive dialogue that was added into it.

This storyline gave an exclusive cutscene to every class (except Kinesis, as the original intention was that his story was set after Black Heaven before the Adversary storyline necessitated it to be set before), and unfortunately, there just aren’t enough playthroughs online to showcase all of them. I’ll do my best to add as many as I can, but for a full description of those cutscenes, along with all the other exclusive dialogue throughout the blockbuster, see the Black Heaven section on the lore site.

The prequest for the Evolution Lab was removed from KMS and reworked to be the prologue for Black Heaven, although it’s still currently in GMS. There are almost next to no differences between the prologue and the prequest, but I’ll include a video for the sake of comparison once the changes make their way to GMS. This one is very important to Black Heaven, and so I’d strongly recommend watching it.

I’ve also included the Pages of Memory event that featured a bit of Orchid and Lotus’ backstory alongside several other Commanders. These backstories are set to be included in the Grand Athenaeum at some point in the future:

I would also highly recommend checking out the Wing Master webcomic. This webcomic features the origins of Orchid and Lotus as Spirits of Darkness. Although this webcomic was commissioned as a prequel for Black Heaven, a lot of the details introduced here were retconned by Black Heaven, such as the White Mage being the one to grant Orchid and Lotus human bodies, rather than them approaching the Black Mage in order to request human bodies from him. Because of this, I’d treat most of it as non-canon, except for whatever doesn’t conflict. It also has a lot of cute moments between Phantom and Aria, which is always worth reading.

Unfortunately, only four out of the five parts of this webcomic were translated by maplf, but the last part is mainly a retread of the Evolution Lab storyline. Some of the images on maplf’s site have gotten removed, and so it’s recommended that you open the original and translated pages side-by-side for parts 3 and 4.

Heroes of Maple (Level 190, Recommended):

Heroes of Maple is a unique epic because instead of playing as yourself, you play as the six Heroes and use a certain subset of their skills. It’s set directly after Black Heaven and follows Damien and his quest to lead the demons of Tynerum to victory by conquering Maple World, while Evan picks up Freud’s mantle and reunites the Heroes in a second battle to save the world from annihilation. The end of the blockbuster transitions directly into the events of the Arcane River with the elimination of two of the three Transcendents of Maple World.

There were two prequels released before the blockbuster. The first was called Act 0: Freud, the Last Record, which was a webcomic commissioned by Nexon. Although it was never directly released in English, Spadow put up a translated video of it on his channel. The other prequel was an event called Dark Decree, which was meant to tease the demon army’s invasion of Maple World and the eventual reunion of the Heroes. The Heroes also got exclusive dialogue for that event, and while the video that I included features some of that dialogue, the rest were unfortunately not recorded.

I would also highly recommend checking out the Damien webcomic. This webcomic revolves around Damien, including his childhood, his servitude to Arkarium, and his actions as a Commander. Although it offers a great insight into Damien’s character and motivations, the canonicity of certain events is a bit dubious. The comic shows that Damien and the Demon were both born in Tynerum, and that they later settled in Maple World.

However, the exclusive dialogue that the Demon gets in-game during the Crimsonheart Castle theme dungeon reveals that they were both born in Maple World, and that Damien had only ever heard stories of Tynerum before being sent there after the Black Mage’s sealing. While in-game story would normally take precedence over a commissioned webtoon, it’s also possible that Nexon changed its mind on this plot point and asked the author of the webcomic to include it. This webcomic was translated by maplf.

Kritias theme dungeon (Level 170, Recommended):

Kritias was initially suggested to be a lot more significant to the overall story, as the storyline teased the existence of a massive spell pentacle that the Black Mage creating there, although this plot point was later dropped. However, these plot threads were finally tied together with the Morass storyline in the Milestone update, which added a bonus questline to wrap things up. I don’t have a video of the bonus quest, but I’ll add it once I find it. There are also a few bits of exclusive dialogue that the Heroes and the Demon get, which are included in the GMS video. Although this quest is set at level 170, I personally feel like it makes more sense to be set after Heroes of Maple, as it ties better into Arkarium escorting Tana from Kritias to the Arcane River.

Silent Crusade 2 (Level 190, Optional):

The Silent Crusade 2 storyline was added in the Milestone update and serves as the transition into the Arcane River storyline, as well as giving closure to the Silent Crusade lore. It features Will sending monsters from Mirror World to invade Maple World in order to test the Adversary’s resolve for the final battle against the Black Mage in Tenebris.

5th job advancement (Level 200, Recommended):

Starting with the 5th job advancement, the Adversary’s journey into the Arcane River and beyond takes place. This storyline is very important to many elements found in the main story, such as Erdas, the Goddesses, and the Arcane Symbols. I don’t have a specific video for this job advancement, but it should be pretty accessible to most classes.

Vanishing Journey (Level 200, Recommended):

The Arcane River storyline is the final part of the Black Mage arc and the first part of the Adversary’s journey. Although there are a few bits of filler content, such as Chu Chu Island and Arcana, it’s still worth watching all of it, if nothing else because it’s sometimes humorous or adorable. A lot of these storylines have exclusive dialogue, much of which isn’t up online. I’ll do my best to include as many playthough POVs as I can, but for the ones that I can’t find, I have it all on the lore site, so feel free to skim through the author notes if you want to read it, as a good deal is fairly important.

Reverse City (Level 205, Recommended):

Chu Chu Island (Level 210, Optional):

Although this storyline is mandatory to advance in the Arcane River, the story is entirely filler and can be safely disregarded.

Yum Yum Island (Level 215, Recommended):

Lachelein (Level 220, Recommended):

Arcana (Level 225, Optional):

Much like Chu Chu Island, this storyline is entirely filler and can be safely disregarded, although you still need to complete it to advance.

Morass (Level 230, Recommended):

Esfera (Level 235, Recommended):

After the Esfera storyline, you can start seeing Kao’s memories in the game. The first set of Kao’s memories is recommended to be seen directly after the Esfera storyline (you’ll want to watch anything that’s set in Esfera in the video), but the second set should only be seen after finishing Limina.

Sellas (Level 240, Recommended):

Moonbridge (Level 245, Recommended):

Labyrinth of Suffering (Level 250, Recommended):

Limina (Level 255, Recommended):

Limina went through a minor revamp during the same update that revamped Ellin Forest and Kao’s story. There was a significant amount of dialogue that was added to the Adversary’s conversation with the White Mage, which changed the direction of the Black Mage’s goals and motivations to align with the story group’s vision and connect with the revamped Kao timeline. For the purposes of comparison, I’ll include both versions of this dialogue. There are no full playthroughs of Limina in GMS with the new dialogue, and so I’d recommend opening it up at the time that you reach the White Mage conversation in the old playthrough. After the Limina storyline, you can watch the second set of Kao’s memories as well.

Explorers also received some slightly different dialogue following the Destiny update, and so I’ve included that as well. Additionally, Phantom, Xenon, and the main Resistance classes also received additional exclusive dialogue with this revamp. I haven’t found any post-revamp playthroughs, and so I’ll be sure to mark the one Phantom POV video as pre-Limina revamp in order to make this clear.

New White Mage dialogue playthroughs:

Original White Mage dialogue playthroughs:

PART IV: AFTER THE DEFEAT OF THE BLACK MAGE

Aftermath (Level 255, Recommended):

These are class-exclusive cutscenes that take place after Limina. I have them all in the GMS localization (with the exception of Adele and the current, post-Ignition Mihile cutscene), and I’ve included as many as I can in the MSEA localization. There’s also an intro and epilogue for the entire Aftermath sequence, which most of these videos omit. I did find one video that includes both of them, which I’ll make a note of.

  • Explorer (current, post-Destiny) || GMS localization

  • Explorer (original, pre-Destiny) || GMS localization

  • Explorer (original, pre-Destiny) || MSEA localization

  • Explorer Pirates (including Cannoneer and Jett) || GMS localization || The first part is the pre-Destiny cutscene, but the second half is the same both before and after the revamp. It's common to all pirates, with the only addition for Cannoneer being that Monkey shrieks at the end. For Jett, the Explorer Pirate cutscene plays first, and her exclusive scene plays right after.

  • Explorer Pirates (including Cannoneer and Zen) || MSEA localization || This scene is common to all Explorer Pirates, with the only addition for Cannoneer being that Monkey shrieks at the end. For regular Explorers and Cannoneer, this scene plays after the main Explorer cutscene. For Zen, the Explorer Pirate cutscene plays first, and his exclusive scene plays right after.

  • Dual Blade || GMS localization || The first part of this is the pre-Destiny Explorer scene, which got replaced by the post-Destiny version in the revamp. The second part of this cutscene is exclusive to Dual Blades, which is the same both before and after Destiny.

  • Dual Blade || MSEA localization || The MSEA video only features the Dual Blade-exclusive part, but the regular Explorer cutscene is still supposed to play before this.

  • The first part of this cutscene is the pre-Destiny version, which got replaced by the post-Destiny version in the revamp. The second part of this cutscene is the same both before and after Destiny.

  • Pathfinder || GMS localization || Pathfinder doesn't get the regular Explorer cutscene because she doesn't share the common Explorer storyline.

  • Pathfinder || MSEA localization || Pathfinder doesn't get the regular Explorer cutscene because she doesn't share the common Explorer storyline.

  • Cygnus Knights and Mihile (pre-Ignition) || GMS localization || The first half of this cutscene is common to both Cygnus Knights and Mihile, and it was unaffected by the Ignition revamp. The second half is exclusive to Mihile, which was changed in the Ignition update. The one that plays here is the pre-Ignition version.

  • Cygnus Knights and Mihile (pre-Ignition) || MSEA localization || The first half of this cutscene is common to both Cygnus Knights and Mihile, and it was unaffected by the Ignition revamp. The second half is exclusive to Mihile, which was changed in the Ignition update. The one that plays here is the pre-Ignition version.

  • Resistance || GMS localization || This scene is common to the main Resistance classes, including the Demon and Xenon.

  • Resistance || MSEA localization || This scene is common to the main Resistance classes, including the Demon and Xenon.

  • Xenon || GMS localization

  • Xenon || MSEA localization

  • Demon || GMS localization || This video includes the full Aftermath sequence, including the intro and epilogue that most other videos omit. The intro is just a summary of Tenebris, but I would strongly recommend watching the epilogue that plays after the main Aftermath cutscene.

  • Demon || MSEA localization || Even though the caption says “Demon Slayer”, this scene is common to both Demon Slayer and Demon Avenger. Similar to the GMS version, the MSEA video also has the full Aftermath sequence, including the intro and epilogue. All the MSEA cutscenes are part of the same video, and so you can just skip to the end of all the class-exclusive scenes to find the epilogue.

  • Aran || GMS localization || The first part is common to all Heroes, and the second part is unique to Aran.

  • Aran || Part 1 || Part 2 (end) || MSEA localization || The first part is common to all Heroes, and the second part is unique to Aran.

  • Evan || GMS localization || The first part is common to all Heroes, and the second part is unique to Evan.

  • Evan || Part 1 || Part 2 (end) || MSEA localization || The first part is common to all Heroes, and the second part is unique to Evan.

  • Mercedes || GMS localization || The first part is common to all Heroes, and the second part is unique to Mercedes.

  • Mercedes || Part 1 || Part 2 (end) || MSEA localization || The first part is common to all Heroes, and the second part is unique to Mercedes.

  • Phantom || GMS localization || The first part is common to all Heroes, and the second part is unique to Phantom.

  • Phantom || Part 1 || Part 2 (end) || MSEA localization || The first part is common to all Heroes, and the second part is unique to Phantom.

  • Luminous || GMS localization || The first part is common to all Heroes, and the second part is unique to Luminous.

  • Luminous || Part 1 || Part 2 (end) || MSEA localization || The first part is common to all Heroes, and the second part is unique to Luminous.

  • Shade || GMS localization || The first part is common to all Heroes, and the second part is unique to Shade.

  • Shade || Part 1 || Part 2 (end) || MSEA localization || The first part is common to all Heroes, and the second part is unique to Shade.

  • Kaiser || GMS localization || This cutscene is shared with Angelic Buster, but it diverges partway through.

  • Kaiser || MSEA localization || The MSEA version cuts past where Kaiser and Angelic Buster share their scene, and so it’s recommended to watch the MSEA Angelic Buster video before watching the MSEA Kaiser one.

  • Angelic Buster || GMS localization || This cutscene is shared with Kaiser, but it diverges partway through.

  • Angelic Buster || MSEA localization || This cutscene is shared with Kaiser, but it diverges partway through.

  • Cadena || GMS localization || There’s a major localization error in the GMS version, in which Cadena incorrectly says that she wants to meet Mr. Hazard’s bosses, Magnus and Darmoor, rather than her saying that she wants to meet the leader of the Shadowdealers.

  • Cadena || MSEA localization

  • Kain || GMS localization

  • Illium || GMS localization

  • Illium || MSEA localization

  • Ark || GMS localization

  • Ark || MSEA localization

  • Adele || MSEA localization || This video technically covers the Cernium story as well, but the Aftermath cutscene starts at the beginning.

  • Khali || GMS localization

  • Hoyoung || GMS localization

  • Hoyoung || MSEA localization

  • Lara || GMS localization

  • Zero || GMS localization

  • Zero || MSEA localization

  • Kinesis || GMS localization

  • Kinesis || MSEA localization

  • Jett || GMS localization || The first part of this is the Explorer Pirate cutscene, while the second half is Jett’s exclusive scene.

  • Beast Tamer || GMS localization

  • Hayato || GMS localization

  • Hayato || MSEA localization

  • Kanna || GMS localization

  • Kanna || MSEA localization

  • Zen || MSEA localization

Genesis Weapon Liberation (Level 255, Optional):

The Genesis Weapon storyline has a few important flashbacks that get revealed about the Commanders and the Black Mage during this storyline, which makes it worth seeing. The intro quest has been omitted from the videos, but it’s nothing significant at all - Neinheart just asks you to defeat the Black Mage’s afterimage, and the video then picks back up after you finish. The Demon gets some exclusive dialogue during the quest to face Damien, which is also included in this video.

Convergence (Level 260, Recommended):

Convergence is the start of the continental Grandis story - the current arc of the game - which showcases the battle against Gerand Darmoor and the High Flora. With the end of the Transcendents of Maple World, the Ancient Gods are reawakening and both Maple World and Grandis have now completely fused together. With the Alliance crippled and on the verge of dissolution following the war against the Black Mage, the Adversary and the Glory Guard now work to find allies and uncover the truth behind what Darmoor and his Apostles really hope to accomplish.

Unlike the Arcane River storyline, continental Grandis has no filler content. The story group was formed early into the Grandis storyline’s development, with their first released work being the Explorer revamp and Karote in the Destiny update. The Grandis lore is a lot more streamlined than the Black Mage arc, both in content and presentation, similar to how the Arcane River storyline worked. Class storylines (and occasionally theme dungeons) set up plot points, which get payoff in the continental Grandis storyline. Watching all the Grandis class stories is highly recommended before jumping into these storylines.

Similar to the Arcane River storyline, certain classes get exclusive dialogue in these stories. Just like before, I’ll be sure to include more POVs wherever I can, although I have the dialogue on the lore site if you’re interested in learning more about them.

6th job advancement (Level 260, Recommended):

This storyline takes place towards the end of the Convergence storyline, in-between the moment that Grendel breaks the dimensional seal and Carlisle arrives to meet the Adversary.

Cernium (Level 260, Recommended):

Burning Cernium (Level 260, Recommended):

Epic Dungeon: High Mountain (Level 260, Recommended):

This is the first Epic Dungeon introduced in the game, focusing on Seren’s meeting with Mitra as she repairs the holy sword Azor. Similar to the Grand Athenaeum, you get to roleplay as a different character (in this case, Mitra the Sun God), and you get a variety of special skills to use during the gameplay. The Epic Dungeon content, outside of the story, involves fighting through various stages and enemies in order to receive special rewards for character progression. This storyline is set between the events of Burning Cernium and Carcion, although I’d personally play it immediately after the end of the Burning Cernium storyline.

Hotel Arcus (Level 265, Recommended):

This is a storyline which has conditional exclusive dialogue, meaning that if you didn’t play through Detective Rave’s Case Notes, you’ll get some slightly different dialogue when you meet Senya. All these playthroughs have completed the theme dungeon, with the exception of one.

Karote (Level 265, Recommended):

Similarly here, if you didn’t complete Reverse City, you’ll get different exclusive dialogue that if you did. All these playthroughs have completed Reverse City, with one exception.

Odium (Level 270, Recommended):

Just like Hotel Arcus and Karote, there’s conditional dialogue dependent on your completion of Detective Rave’s Case Notes, Reverse City, and Yum Yum Island. The first GMS playthrough has all of them, while the others have some missing. There’s also some exclusive dialogue for certain classes, for which I’ll try to post as many of those videos as I can here. Odium also has some bonus quests that can be completed at the end, which I’ll label for the videos that do showcase them.

Angler Company Epic Dungeon (Level 270, Recommended):

This is the second entry in the Epic Dungeon series, focusing on Senya Angler rescuing Cosim from Angler Company headquarters. This dungeon lets you roleplay as Senya and gives you a variety of special skills to use in gameplay. Unlike High Mountain, this Epic Dungeon involves a lot more puzzle-solving to make it through each stage. This storyline is set after Odium and takes place concurrently with Shangri-La, and so I’d recommend playing it in whatever order you want.

Shangri-La (Level 275, Recommended):

Arteria (Level 280, Recommended):

Carcion (Level 285, Recommended):

Extradimensional Visitors (Currently only exists as an event):

Extradimensional Visitors is a transitional event storyline set after Carcion that leads into Tallahart. It offers our first glimpse at the Primacy, first mentioned by Seren as a Grandis-based resistance group, and ties into several open plot points that were first brought up in Hotel Arcus, such as Rusty’s friend, Kelly, and Archelon’s friend, Gob. This storyline currently only exists as an event, although it is set to be made into permanent content at some point in the future.

Tallahart (Level 290, Recommended):

Morning Star Banquet (Currently only exists as an event):

Morning Star Banquet is a transitional event storyline set after Tallahart that leads into future content. It involves the player working with the Primacy to infiltrate a High Flora banquet that the Apostles will be attending in order to learn important information about them. This event gives us our first look at Ressa, the seventh Apostle of Darmoor, as well as some interesting insight into the Apostles’ personalities. Similar to Extradimensional Visitors, this storyline currently only exists as an event, although it is set to be made into permanent content at some point in the future.

GMS-VERSE (OVERSEAS STORY):

GMS-verse is the name I gave to the shared overseas universe available in GMS. The majority of this lore is shaped through Masteria, MONAD, the Sengoku Warriors, Jett, Beast Tamer, Zen, and several other storylines. With the removal of MONAD, Jett, Beast Tamer, Zen, and several other storylines, however, GMS-verse is slowly fragmenting without the connective tissue that once held these disparate storylines together. However, I’m still choosing to present the original order of these storylines from before the mass removal of overseas lore as a way to preserve GMS-verse’s original integrity.

In this ordering, I’ve filtered out any overseas extraneous storylines that don’t contribute to the GMS-verse lore. These storylines include: The Afterlands, Beasts of Fury, Commerci Republic, The Far East, Shaolin Temple, Singapore, Malaysia, and the class stories for Lynn and Mo Xuan.

Original Masteria Lore:

For the fun of it, I’ve also included the original Masteria storyline from before the revamp, which I’d recommend watching before delving into the Masteria lore for GMS-verse. Personally, I like this storyline infinitely more than what we currently have. The original Masteria story includes New Leaf City, Phantom Forest, and the Crimsonwood Keep party quest. Unfortunately, there are no full videos of Crimsonwood Keep PQ, but there’s one that’s more or less complete, which I’ll add for the sake of completionism. You can also check the writeup I made for the Crimsonwood Keep PQ storyline in the Original Masteria Storyline section from the bits and pieces that I had to work with.

As a bonus, I’m also including compilations that OG Masteria fans made that document a lot of the little details and plot threads about Masteria.

Masteria Introduction (Level 150, Recommended):

This questline is a prequel to the Masteria Through Time blockbuster. Although it was added after the blockbuster came out, it’s intended to be watched before.

Masteria Through Time blockbuster (Level 160, Recommended):

This blockbuster is GMS-exclusive, and it’s the first entry in the new continuity for Masteria. Masteria was originally written long before the Black Mage plot was introduced in KMS, and it was extremely popular in GMS because of how well-written and well-presented its story and mysteries were. The original writer for Mastera, NxProse, eventually left the company, and after his departure, GMS Nexon decided to revamp the Masteria storyline with their own ideas, resulting in the creation of this blockbuster.

If you want my honest opinion, this current version of Masteria is one of the worst-written stories that I’ve ever seen in my entire life. There are no redeeming qualities whatsoever to this story, and the writing team probably knows this too, because they’ve been slowly trying to soft-retcon this blockbuster out of existence through weird time-travel gimmicks introduced in future storylines. Regardless, though, this blockbuster is the foundation for overseas lore, and so you’ll have no choice but to suffer through it once in order to understand everything else. Since this is GMS-exclusive, there’s no MSEA localization available for this storyline.

Kanna (Recommended):

Hayato (Recommended):

Zen (Optional, No Longer Accessible In-Game):

Zen had an extremely minimal, barebones storyline up until it was removed when the entire class itself was deleted from the game. As you’ll see, the entirety of Zen’s storyline was less than 30 minutes.

Beast Tamer (Optional, No Longer Accessible In-Game):

Beast Tamer originally had an extremely long and tedious storyline upon her initial release. Eventually, the entirety of Beast Tamer’s storyline after level 30 were completely scrapped. This playthrough covers the full, original Beast Tamer storyline from her initial release. The current version of her story is everything up until her conversation with Evan at the end of Part 3 of the playlist, as well as her final level 140 quest included in a separate video, as it wasn’t part of the playlist. The final quest being part of her current storyline is quite jarring with all the context being deleted.

Jett class story (Recommended, No Longer Accessible In-Game):

Stellar Detectives (Level 90, Recommended):

This epic was created in order to tie together the overseas classes at the time - Jett, Hayato, Kanna, Beast Tamer, and Zen. It follows these five classes banding together in order to rescue several magical animals from PULSAR, an interstellar pirate organization that wants to clone these special animals for their own army. With Zen’s removal from the game, Stellar Detectives is the only thing keeping him in the overseas canon, although even this storyline is slowly being removed from different regions, as it currently only exists in GMS.

Soon after Stellar Detectives came out, a prequel called Captain Vaga was released that showcased the hierarchy and goals of PULSAR. However, Captain Vaga was removed from the game and there are unfortunately no complete playthroughs that were recorded of it. If you want to read about what happened in it, I have the writeup for it here, which PirateIzzy was kind enough to make.

MONAD blockbuster (Level 110, No Longer Accessible In-Game):

MONAD was one of the most ambitious blockbusters in the game, probably on the level of Black Heaven with how much it attempted to tie together. The actual story was really well-written and the lore that it introduced with Afinas, a holy philosophical organization that militarized itself in its quest for knowledge, is a really cool idea that I wish that we got to explore more in a sequel.

The story revolved around missing villagers in the Abrup Basin of El Nath, who were kidnapped by PULSAR for unknown reasons. Soon after, mutant creatures began invading Abrup, which is suggested to be the result of PULSAR working together with the corrupt leaders of Afinas in order to experiment and create powerful monsters, which ties into PULSAR attempting to clone magical animals in Stellar Detectives.

The end of the story involves a vision of the Antellion, an object of great importance in the Masteria storyline, capable of manipulating time and space. The vision features Narician and Crimsonheart from the Masteria storyline, Sakuno and the Sengoku Warriors, and Burke from Jett’s storyline, showing that all these stories are meant to be connected. Personally, I’m not a fan of bridging together so many completely unrelated stories with different aesthetics and plots, especially at the cost of making the Masteria story fall even further from what it originally was. With the removal of MONAD, these disparate storylines are only indirectly tied together through other media, which is more or less the end of the overseas shared universe.

Mushroom Shrine Tales (Level 100, Recommended):

Mushroom Shrine Tales is a JMS epic that was created as a revamp to the original Mushroom Shrine area in Zipangu. It’s a very character-driven story and doesn’t really factor too deeply into the overall overseas lore, but it might just be my favorite overseas epic because of its characters and the way that it feels like we’re all coming together as a found family. The epic also ties slightly into Neo Tokyo, which was removed with the release of this epic. It featured Asia as a character in the story and teased the return of Dunas. Many years after its removal, Neo Tokyo was revamped and released as an event, which didn’t really end up tying much into Mushroom Shrine Tales at all.

Mushroom Shrine Tales also features the Threads of Fate mechanic, which involves building up closeness with the characters that we meet. Certain characters need to be unlocked through a few prequests, which I’ve included in both the MSEA and GMS localizations.

Neo Tokyo (Event-Only, No Longer Accessible In-Game):

Neo Tokyo is no longer accessible in the game. The original version was removed in the update that released Mushroom Shrine Tales, and the revamped version was released as an event that’s now over. There are playthroughs available for the revamp, but there aren’t any for the original. However, I do have a transcript of the dialogue available, which I’ll include here for the sake of comparison.

The storyline is set after the events of Mushroom Shrine Tales, but the two stories are pretty independent of each other. You can watch Mushroom Shrine Tales before Neo Tokyo if you want, but you won’t really miss anything if you don’t.

Hieizan Temple (Level 140, Optional):

This is the Princess No prequest, which is a bit similar to Heroes of Maple, in that you roleplay as a Sengoku Warrior named Ayame and use her skills to make it through the storyline. It’s strongly recommended that you play through Hayato and Kanna’s class stories before this one, as you won’t understand most it without context. Hayato and Kanna also get some exclusive dialogue in this storyline, which are included in the GMS video.

The MSEA video is from before this storyline got revamped, and it features a roleplay option with Hayato and Kanna, which has now been removed, and so you can just ignore those parts.

Asura Crisis (Level 200, Recommended):

This is the Akechi Mitsuhide prequest, and it’s also a major event in the Sengoku storyline, which has been building up to this moment for a long time. I would strongly recommend playing through Hayato and Kanna’s class stories, as well as the Hieizan Temple storyline, before starting this. Additionally, the events of Mushroom Shrine Tales are referenced in this storyline, although it’s a very minor callback and you won’t miss much by not playing through it first.

Strangely enough, I’d also recommend playing through the Masteria Through Time blockbuster. Although this storyline has nothing to do with those events, there’s a certain hint at the very end of this storyline that MONAD has strongly suggested ties into the Antellion in the Masteria lore, and it makes a lot more sense with the added context.

New Leaf City (Level 170, Recommended):

This questline is set after the Masteria Through Time blockbuster, and should only be watched after seeing both the blockbuster and Masteria Introduction storyline. Jett also gets some exclusive dialogue in this story, which is included in the video.

Phantom Forest (Level 180, Recommended):

The Phantom Forest storyline is set after the New Leaf City storyline. It also features several Afinas knights, and while they’re all new characters, the concept of Afinas was first introduced in MONAD. I would strongly recommend watching MONAD before starting this storyline, as the Afinas connection only becomes even more important as the Masteria storyline progresses.

Gollux (Level 180, Recommended):

The Gollux prequest is a short but important storyline that continues where Phantom Forest left off. It ties Gollux into the Masteria storyline after the removal of Dawnveil and Shadow Veil Forest in overseas Tynerum, and it also adds more Afinas lore.

MesoGears (Level 190, Recommended):

The MesoGears storyline is considered to be the soft conclusion to the Masteria story, mostly because overseas content started getting removed after this storyline’s release. Although it ends on a major cliffhanger, it’s unlikely that this story will be picked up again, as overseas lore seems to be getting phased out. Ironically, this is the same place where the original Masteria storyline was cut short before its revamp.

EXTRA STORIES (CANON):

Webcomics:

Child of God:

I included this in the Zero storyline, but like I mentioned, this is a webcomic detailing Zero’s creation and features some scenes set around the fall of the Temple of Time, the final battle between the Heroes and the Black Mage centuries ago, and Arkarium attempting to travel back in time in the Silent Crusade storyline.

Damien:

This webcomic revolves around Damien, including his childhood, his servitude to Arkarium, and his actions as a Commander. Although it offers a great insight into Damien’s character and motivations, the canonicity of certain events is a bit dubious. The comic shows that Damien and the Demon were both born in Tynerum, and that they later settled in Maple World.

However, the exclusive dialogue that the Demon gets in-game during the Crimsonheart Castle theme dungeon reveals that they were both born in Maple World, and that Damien had only ever heard stories of Tynerum before being sent there after the Black Mage’s sealing. While in-game story would normally take precedence over a commissioned webtoon, it’s also possible that Nexon changed its mind on this plot point and asked the author of the webcomic to include it. This webcomic was translated by maplf.

Wing Master:

This webcomic features the origins of Orchid and Lotus as Spirits of Darkness. Although this webcomic was commissioned as a prequel for Black Heaven, a lot of the details introduced here were retconned by Black Heaven, such as the White Mage being the one to grant Orchid and Lotus human bodies, rather than them approaching the Black Mage in order to request human bodies from him. Because of this, I’d treat most of it as non-canon, except for whatever doesn’t conflict. It also has a lot of cute moments between Phantom and Aria, which is always worth reading.

Unfortunately, only four out of the five parts of this webcomic were translated by maplf, but the last part is mainly a retread of the Evolution Lab storyline. Some of the images on maplf’s site have gotten removed, and so it’s recommended that you open the original and translated pages side-by-side for parts 3 and 4.

Events:

Page of Memory: Commander Backstories:

Page of Memory was an event that ran during the Milestone update, which featured short backstories of several Commanders: Von Leon, Hilla, Arkarium, Orchid/Lotus, and Will. These stories are set to be added in the Grand Athenaeum at a later point, and though it hasn’t yet happened, I’ve included them here for the sake of completion. These stories aren’t integral to the lore and can be viewed with even a basic knowledge of the lore.

Theme Dungeons and Other Storylines:

Theme dungeons typically push the story in small ways, usually just serving as introductions to villains or introducing plot points that get capitalized on in future storylines. Along with these, there are also boss prequests and other miscellaneous storylines that similarly set up later content which I’ve included in this section.

Ellinel Fairy Academy (Level 30-60):

This theme dungeon is completely unrelated to the plot and can be safely skipped.

Gold Beach (Level 30-60):

This theme dungeon can also be skipped.

Secret Forest of Elodin (Level 30-60):

This is another one that you can skip too.

Mushroom Castle (Level 60):

This theme dungeon is a sequel to Mushroom Kingdom, which was removed from the game. There are certain parts of the old story that get referenced in the new one, and so I’ve included the original Mushroom Kingdom storyline if you wanted the context. Neither of them are relevant to the plot.

Fantasy Theme World (Level 120):

Fantasy Theme World is a revamped version of a small storyline called Fantasy Theme Park in Malaysia, a World Tour region. It has an okay story and no connections to the main lore, and so you can easily skip it if you want.

Korean Folk Town (Level 130):

Korean Folk Town has a pretty decent story, but it doesn’t really have any connections to the wider lore. It’s worth seeing for fun if you like self-contained stories.

Golden Temple (Level 130):

Golden Temple doesn’t really have any connections at all to the wider story, with the sole exception of Luminous’ story, in which the Grand Augury is hidden inside. However, the actual storyline is completely irrelevant to it - you just have to complete it in order to defeat Ravana and obtain the Augury. You can pretty much skip this story entirely.

Partem Ruins (Level 135):

At first glance, Partem Ruins doesn’t really have any connections to the wider story. There might be a few things that will become important down the line, specifically in regard to Kirston and Pathfinder’s relic, but as of right now, it’s skippable. Pathfinder does get a few bits of exclusive dialogue in this storyline, which are covered in the GMS video.

Dimension Invasion (Originally Level 140, Removed):

This is a very short, minor storyline that really has no connections to the wider story, receiving just a brief expansion from Magnus’ Genesis Weapon flashback. It’s also been removed from the game, and so you can honestly just view this as an interesting bit of removed content.

Kerning Tower (Level 140):

Similar to Mushroom Castle, Kerning Tower is the revamped version of Kerning Square, and it serves as a direct sequel to the original story. It doesn’t really have any connections to the overall story, and so you can skip it if you want. I’ve included both the Kerning Tower and Kerning Square storylines for the sake of comparison.

Omega Sector (Level 165):

The story is so unnecessarily cheesy and dramatic and I love every second of it. It has absolutely nothing to do with the main plot, but 10/10 would recommend purely for entertainment value. There’s a small detail in Hotel Arcus where a movie based on the events of the storyline plays in a drive-in theater, and if you went through this storyline, you’ll get to understand how and why it became a movie in the first place.

Ramuramu (Level 210):

Similar to Partem Ruins, this storyline doesn’t have anything to do with the main story yet, but there are a couple of plot points very likely to get picked up in the future, especially in regard to the Slime God and how he relates to the Ancient Gods. Almost all of the story is filler and pretty boring, though, so I would personally recommend skipping it until the story progression makes it mandatory viewing.

EXTRA STORIES (OVERSEAS):

The Afterlands (Level 75):

Even though it’s not canon, I really like this story. It’s definitely worth taking your time to read, especially with the OST playing.

Beasts of Fury (Level 140):

Beasts of Fury was an event in KMS, but it’s permanent content in a few overseas regions. Although you can choose to pick which dojo you want to be part of, the actual plot is identical no matter which one you choose. Beasts of Fury later got a story expansion, which is included in both videos.

Commerci Republic (Level 140):

The Commerci Republic was originally part of the continent of Dawnveil, along with Arboren and Tynerum. However, Dawnveil was removed as a concept, and the somewhat interesting plot threads with the threat of the Heaven Empire is unlikely to be followed up on again. It’s not a bad story, but it’s not worth the investment if you’re hoping for a sequel. This storyline only has a GMS localization, as MSEA never got it.