Welcome to the very first Tria Tribune! This periodic magazine is our way to open up the world of MapleStory 2, delving into community contests, tips for newer players, interviews with your favorite MapleStory 2 characters and what's been going on in Maple World!
Four guides were selected as the best of the best, and you can check them out below!
Gemstones & Socketing Guide
Synkido from NA West takes on a full, detailed look at everything to do with upgrading and socketing gemstones, so that you can get the most out of your accessories. Take a look at the guide to boost your gemstones!
Maple Newbie Tips: Get Dungeon Help from the Experts!
Delving into a new dungeon for the first time can be an intimidating experience, even for the most veteran MMORPG player. With the Skilled Ally Update, we added a Dungeon Helper System, to allow newer players to seek out help from those that have been playing MapleStory 2 for a long time and know the dungeons inside and out. If you need a bit of a hand to figure out that dungeon, just click on the "Get Help" button from the Dungeon Directory (default keybind: ';' ).
You can seek out help for any dungeon you have completed less than 10 times, even encounters such as Chaos Raids, Eye of Lapenta, and Cathy Mart! And don't worry about imposing on the veterans, because they get a special set of rewards for lending you a hand!
An Enchanting Moment with Ophelia!
We here at the Tria Tribune got a special opportunity to catch up with Ophelia!
Tria Tribune: Hello, Ophelia! Thank you for speaking to us, how are y-
Ophelia: How am I? I'm angry, that's what I am! Do you know what they did to me?!
T: Uh, no? Sorry, is something wr-
Ophelia: Do you have any idea how great I had it? Only game in town, complete control of all of the Enchanting, and then somebody had to go and show Peachy how to do the job right!
T: We, uh, we have some questions... are you enjoying any good restauran-
Ophelia: People were praying to me! They were begging me! Now a third of my customers have run off to that pretender and I'm suppose to act like it's no big deal?
T: Well, it was a little unfair-
Ophelia: Unfair?! Who cares about fair? Fair doesn't keep me swimming in Onyx Crystals! I swear, if I ever find this LAMBCOOK I'm going to show him what I really think of his 'New Leaf' cr-
MapleStory 2 has tons of talented artists, sharing their creations both through UGCs and through fan art. Many have also submitted their art works to the MapleStory team, and for the last few months we have been showing off their gorgeous works with the bi-weekly Art Corner posts. If you'd like your own creations featured, submit your creations and keep an eye out in the next Art Corner!
Thank you for reading the Tria Tribune, and see you next time!
Sweet Summertime Sales
August is nearly here and we have a pair of new sales for you with a pair of summer items in the Sugary Vacation Pack and a sticky situation in the Brain Freeze Weekly Style Pack!
Sugary Vacation Pack
It's looking to be a hot August north of the equator, so beat the heat or try to enjoy it with the Sugary Vacation Pack, containing the playful Buried at the Beach Emote and the chilling Sweet Ice Cream Truck ground mount!
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Brain Freeze Weekly Style Pack
The Weekly Style Packs are back for August, and you can claim a stack of ten Style Crates and get the deliciously messy Strawberry Ice Cream Hat as a bonus!
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Continuing Sale: Pink Bean Vacation Sales
Don't forget about the set of sales that came with the Skilled Ally Update! A new Style Crate, a flying Pink Bean mount, Tropical furnishings and much more are available now!
The Skilled Ally update comes with oodles of help for Maplers of all stripes! A rebalance of Job Rank II skills to make picking your favorite focus more important, Housing improvements to give the Meret-less crafting options, a Dungeon Helper system to reward veterans for helping out new friends and more comes with MapleStory 2's latest update!
General Updates
Dungeon Helper System
Job Rank II Skill Rebalance
In an ongoing effort to improve the game experience for all players, regardless of what selections they make in class or build, we improved skills for different classes that we felt were lacking.
These adjustments may not be the final changes we make to classes, so please continue providing feedback. We are especially interested in hearing from players who try out some of the lesser-used skill branches after these adjustments are made.
Please bear in mind that not all suggestions made by players could be accommodated, as some of them run the risk of creating greater balance problems in the future. We tried to use your feedback as much as possible when planning out these changes, and will keep them in mind when we examine class balance again in the future.
Archer
Archer players suffered from dealing a little less damage than the other DPS who were bringing buffs to the table. Moreover, their Wind Focus, despite potentially being more powerful than their Fire Focus, felt very clunky to play due to animation locks. We boosted their damage a little bit so that they can even the playing field when facing down a single target, and improved the main attraction of the Wind Focus while also making Greater Sharp Eyes a more useful tool.
Assassin
Give me more Spirit! Assassin players have been suffering from issues of SP starvation for a very long time, which often led to a lot of memes about them. Needless to say, many of you commented that when the class works, it feels right. So, in an attempt to address the issue, we made a few cost adjustments. While these don't fully address the SP issue at its core, it should hopefully greatly alleviate the burden. Adjusting Redoubled Pain to be able to critical hit on it's main damage source will require careful monitoring to make sure it's not too powerful.
Berserker
The Berserker's Bleed Focus is notoriously powerful for dealing super-fast damage, while being nearly indestructible thanks to the Raging Soul buff. We elected not to touch this skill tree at all and instead focus on the Swordplay Focus of Berserker, designed around slow but impactful hits. By slightly adjusting the cooldown of Aerial Smash it should seamlessly flow out of two cycles of Skull Splitter. Additionally, we're increasing the amount of power Blood Fury provides while also increasing its trigger threshold from 30% all the way up to 50%. That'll really let this focus excel in the second half of battles, rather than the last leg of the fight with dynamic Skull Splitter resets, Dark Aura resets, and powerful Bloodlust mini-nukes.
Heavy Gunner
Heavy Gunner has been in a solid spot in terms of ranged DPS, but the Plasma Focus was lacking due to a number of inhibiting problems that made it finicky to use. Some slight adjustments should make it more enjoyable to play while also centering the spotlight on the Plasma Focus' Sky Hunter, which may require additional attention later to make it less difficult to use. As Heavy Gunner is a DPS class with no utility, we will closely monitor to see if it needs additional improvements to get it where it should be compared to other classes.
Knight
When it came to the Knight, we felt like the class was already in a good place with damage in the Longsword Focus. However, halfway down the Shield Focus of the Job Rank II skills we felt like its ultimate skill, Heaven's Judgment, was far too weak. We've made some slight adjustments to damage and will come back to this skill branch later to see what else we can do to make it as appealing as the Sword Focus, but centered on support. This is just a start.
Priest
Priest characters ran into an issue where if they weren't providing much-needed healing in content where it was needed, they were often passed over in favor of a more powerful damage-dealing class or a Soul Binder. In order to make them more appealing, we've made slight adjustments to make their support a little better and more consistent, while also improving their Battle Focus so that multiple Priests can play together with far fewer drawbacks than how it is currently.
Runeblade
For Runeblade characters, its Rune Focus, the lesser known little brother of the Blade Focus, is often neglected. We've made some minor adjustments to its damage so that players interested in the Rune Focus can do so; however the bulk of the Rune Focus' power will come in a later update.
Striker
No changes were needed to Striker, whose skill focuses are good as they are currently.
Soul Binder
Vision is an all-powerful omnipotent being… but compared to the powerful Animus Focus, it's currently hard to justify playing with Vision. We've increased the damage accordingly so that it can at least be a proper contender. Soul Binder will also receive the only nerf for this update, a decrease to the potency of Soul Cube, while also gaining the option for the shield to be similarly powerful by expending one of their Awakened Mantra. This skill was far too overpowered in its current state and made other classes' survivability issues obsolete. It will still retain its title of the strongest shield, just now the Soul Binder will have to sacrifice some damage in order for the shield to be as powerful as it was before.
Thief
Thief is already a top contender when it comes to dishing out damage. We wanted to focus more on bringing on some overall quality of life improvements to the class that'll make both building and playing it more comfortable. The Poison Focus saw a small buff to put it up to pace with its stronger Shadow Focus.
Wizard
The Storm Focus of the Wizard was lacking a great deal of firepower that the Fire Focus had, even though both skill trees had a great deal of complexity. By increasing the raw output of the Storm Focus, we hope that it could see situationally similar use to the Fire Focus with a different but still-exciting playstyle. We would still like to revisit the subject of the frustrations Fire Wizards have to deal with, so we ask that you give us additional time to resolve some of the playstyle problems.
Hard Adventure Dungeon Rebalance & Trader's Ribbons
Maple Life Updates
Meso House Assistants
Overworld House Plot Discount
New Housing Blocks
Miscellaneous Updates
Pink Bean Vacation Sales
August brings us a new Style Crate, a package with a summer fun theme, Pink Bean's favorite vehicle, new Tropical-themed decorations and much more! Check out the new sales below as Pink Bean's vacation fun begins!
August is lucky indeed, because while the heat is at its peak, we've got a set of six events for you to enjoy! Collect the letters of Pink Bean, pop open some Lucky Boxes for the prizes within, fish up some new outfits and much more with this month's slate of fun!
Check out the full details and get a good look at all the new items in the Lucky August Events post!
August brings us a new Style Crate, a package with a summer fun theme, Pink Bean's favorite vehicle, new Tropical-themed decorations and much more! Check out the new sales below as Pink Bean's vacation fun begins!
August Style Crate
The Style Crate and Coin Shop have been updated for the month of August, with new Kitten Maid, Energetic Star and Plump Pink Bean outfits, plus new Swim Tube badges, a new Buddy Emote and Mount and more! You can check out the full list of items on the Style Crate Contents page.
Sale Duration: End of Maintenance, Thursday, July 25th - Start of Maintenance, Thursday, August 29th
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Sea and Sand Pack
There's plenty of summer left to go and you can enjoy the back-half of summer vacation with the Sea and Sand Pack! Ride on the speedy Flying Sunfish, lounge out on the beach with the Beach Day Emote and show off your Neon Vacation Chat Bubble and Name Tag!
Sale Duration: End of Maintenance, Thursday, July 25th - Start of Maintenance, Thursday, August 29th
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Flying Bean Style Pack
Pink Bean's outfit is a highlight of this month's Style Crate, so dress up like him and take flight in his very own flying car! The Flying Bean Style Pack contains 20 Style Crates and the new, inexplicably-flying Pink Bean Car!
Sale Duration: End of Maintenance, Thursday, July 25th - Start of Maintenance, Thursday, August 29th
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Tropical Summer Furnishing Package
Create the dance floor and then hit it with this special package filled with music-themed tropical decorations!
Sale Duration: End of Maintenance, Thursday, July 25th - Start of Maintenance, Thursday, August 29th
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New Hairstyles
Paulie's been taking your suggestions, and the new set of hairstyles includes a pair of styles you recommended! Men can now get the community-suggestedModern Shaggy Cut and the Spiky Locks with Bangs, and women can get the community-suggestedSultry Wave and the Long Shaggy Hair styles.
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New Face Style and Cosmetic
Finally, claim the new Red-Ringed Eyes face style from Dixon in Tria Plastic Surgery, and get a darling Pineapple Face Paint from Ren at the Rosetta Beauty Salon!
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[Update Jul 25] Lucky August Events
Update (Jul 25): The Summer Fishing Event details originally stated that it was possible to fish up Metal Strainer lures with this event. This was in error and we apologize for the confusion.
August is lucky indeed, because while the heat is at its peak, we've got a set of six events for you to enjoy! Collect the letters of Pink Bean, pop open some Lucky Boxes for the prizes within, fish up some new outfits and much more with this month's slate of fun!
Lucky Box Event
The cornerstone of August's events is the humble Lucky Box, a locked container that can contain Elixirs, Onyx Crystals, Chaos Onyx Crystals, colored Crystals and more! Each Lucky Box must be opened with a Lucky Golden Key, and you'll get a pair of both of them every day... but if two per day isn't enough for you, however, you can also earn Lucky Boxes and Lucky Golden Keys from activities throughout Maple World!
Bonus Lucky Boxes can be claimed from Mini-Games, Fishing, Performing and from the Twisted Pocket Realm when opening Turka's Cache, while additional Lucky Golden Keys can be found by defeating Lv. 10 and higher Elite Monsters and opening the Wooden and Golden Treasure Chests hidden throughout Maple World! Open up 200 Lucky Boxes for a special set of bonus prizes, including a unique title, Legendary Toad's Toolkits and Legendary Armor Bonus Value Re-Rollers!
Event Duration: End of Maintenance, Thursday, July 25th - Start of Maintenance, Thursday, August 29th
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Event Details Each Lucky Box contains one of the following, selected randomly:
Patch Day Login Event
Join us on the first day of the new patch to collect a special bonus to start off your Lucky Box fun fast: 5 Lucky Boxes and Lucky Keys! You'll need to login before 3:30 PM UTC on Friday, July 26th in order to get these bonuses, so be sure to hurry in once the maintenance ends!
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PINKBEAN? Letter Collection Event
Pink Bean has been having his fun in this new dimension of Maple World, and you can enjoy it all with a special Letter (...and punctuation) Collection Event! Earn 5 of Pink Bean's favorite healing candies by collecting the letters each day, and collect 100 total to earn the Monkey Dance Emote, a Floating Pink Bean Balloon and 50 buckets of Pink Paint to play pranks with!
Event Duration: End of Maintenance, Thursday, July 25th - Start of Maintenance, Thursday, August 29th
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Summer Fishing Event
There's nothing more relaxing in the height of summer than settling in by a pool of water and casting a line for dinner... but with the Metal Strainer fishing lure from the Summer Fishing Event, you'll be able to claim a special set of fishing rewards, including Revive Vouchers, healing items, party buffs and an exclusive set of ocean-themed outfit items!
Update (Jul 25): The Summer Fishing Event details originally stated that it was possible to fish up Metal Strainer lures with this event. This was in error and we apologize for the confusion.
Event Duration: End of Maintenance, Thursday, July 25th - Start of Maintenance, Thursday, August 29th
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Summer Rewards Event
Want more than just Lucky Boxes for logging into MapleStory 2 this August? We're giving away 21 days of items to everyone that joins the fun, including Elixirs, Music Scores, an exclusive Name Tag and Chat Bubble and, um, more Lucky Boxes! No hoops to jump through or challenges to complete, just hop in-game and collect your prizes!
Event Duration: End of Maintenance, Thursday, July 25th - Start of Maintenance, Thursday, August 29th
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Weekend Enchant Catalyst Discount Event
Finally, Ophelia and Peachy have teamed up to give you a special discount on Enchanting every weekend! Get enchanting on Saturdays and Sundays (UTC) and power-up your gear for 25% off!
Event Duration: Every weekend between Thursday, July 25th and Thursday, August 29th:
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Producer Blog - Dungeon Helper & Skill Rebalancing
Dear Maplers,
I can't believe it's already been a month since we last published a Producer Blog. I want to thank everyone who's tuning in to read the blog today, and I'd like to report back on the progress we've made up to now. Our upcoming Skilled Ally update arrives next week and we hope it infuses some excitement! I'll go over the big ticket items of this update briefly, but rest assured there will be a lot more details shared via our event post and Patch Notes as usual.
Here's the rundown of topics for today that are included in the Skilled Ally update:
Dungeon Helper and More
As the community has been discussing, we think there's more to be done to assist new players with settling into MapleStory 2. There have been some excellent community initiatives to do this, and we wanted to find a systematic way to reward players for doing good deeds with the Dungeon Helper system.
In a nutshell, the Dungeon Helper system is designed to reward players who assist newbies. With this update, if you are a veteran who's played a specific dungeon more than 10 times, you can assist those who haven't cleared that goal and receive a token for your help. If you are a novice player who's played fewer than 10 times, you can click a button to get help and your request will be blasted out in world chat to summon your knight in shining armor!
We understand that this system won't function at its best if the rewards are not meaningful for you. With this token, you can purchase some of the most desired items in MapleStory 2. This includes not only the often discussed and requested Epic Accessory Attribute Lock Scrolls, but also Legendary scrolls and more. The Dungeon Helper system is now a designated permanent location for receiving these scrolls, and an exact list of potential rewards and prices will be detailed out in the Skilled Ally Patch Notes, so stay tuned.
While we hope the Dungeon Helper system will help new players grow, we also wanted to revisit the balance for Lv. 60 Hard Adventure Dungeons. Compared to the easy-to-follow Epic questlines, the Lv. 60 Hard Adventure Dungeons that follow right after come as a jarring experience as the difficulty ramps up significantly, as some players have pointed out. To put these dungeons more in line, we'll be lowering the HP of enemies by 25% for all Lv. 60 Hard Adventure Dungeons, and reducing damage from enemies by 30% for The Song of the Oracle and Guardian of the Seas.
Job Rank II Skill Rebalancing
As skills are one of the most discussed topics among players, we rounded up as much feedback as we could and went back to the drawing board with the development team to see if there were any changes we could make. We're happy to report that our first full pass of the Job Rank II Skill rebalance is done and ready to make its way into our Skilled Ally update. The full list is pretty extensive, but all the final adjustments for each class will be fully detailed in the Skilled Ally Patch Notes.
Our focus at this time was to make the less popular skill trees of each class more interesting, giving you more of a choice in which tree to pursue. Please note that we had to be selective in choosing the changes we elected to make, in order to keep the overall balance of current meta while not jeopardizing future meta as well. By no means will this be our final adjustment of skills though, so please do let us know how they feel after you've experienced them.
Trader's Ribbon for Lv. 60 Equipment
Lv. 60 Epic and Legendary Equipment that came with the Awakening update can now be traded using Lv. 60 Trader's Ribbons. Similar to how Lv. 50 Trader's Ribbons worked, these new ribbons will be obtained from Dungeon Rank Boxes from Lv. 60 Chaos Raids / Eye of Lapenta.
Please note that only Dungeon Rank Reward Boxes obtained AFTER the Skilled Ally update will contain the Trader's Ribbons. If you are planning to save your runs for the noted dungeons until then, we wouldn't advise it, since this means you will be saving runs for the entire week to be done in a couple of hours (assuming a quick and problem-free maintenance). That said, the choice is ultimately yours, and we wanted to make sure this was known for everyone today.
Red Crystal for Pet Talent Changes
Currently Pet Re-rolls consume Green Crystals, the same as accessories. With the Skilled Ally update, we are switching this to Red Crystals instead. This is so we give specific purpose to each of the crystals. After this update, Red Crystals will be for your pet talent changes, Green Crystals will be for accessories, and Blue Crystals will be for your armor.
Same as the Lv. 60 Trader's Ribbons, we thought this would be important to know ahead of time, so that players who plan to re-roll their pets' talents will have time to accrue the right crystals for their needs.
Maple Life Improvements
With the Skilled Ally update, we're introducing some additional changes we wanted to bring related to housing. This includes:
Meso House Assistants
House Assistants available for hire have previously been a meret-only service, but we're now introducing Meso House Assistants. We'll be adding four Meso House Assistants, just like Meret House Assistants, with all four specialties: Ring, Necklace, Beverage and Cooking. For those who have Meret House Assistants, rest assured: Meret House Assistants function better than Meso House Assistants, as they require fewer materials to craft the items.
Plot Purchase Price Reduction by 90%
We're also going to permanently reduce the house plot purchase and extension costs by 90%. While we've done similar changes as limited-time events, the feedback and activity that resulted has convinced us to make this a permanent change. We'd love to see you decorate the world of MapleStory 2 with your own colors!
New Housing Blocks from Community Requests
We asked, we heard, and we listened. We're adding 18 community-suggested objects and blocks from overworld to housing blocks, including picture frames, glass windows and the almighty Foosball table! There are also some popular community items in the Style Crate and Paulie's Hairstyles this time around!
And More!
We haven't forgotten players concern over the lack of Onyx Crystals. To remedy this, we've crafted Skilled Ally update events to favor Onyx Crystal rewards. We are also preparing weekend discount events on enchant materials to aid you for the month.
In Closing
As you may have noticed, in today's blog we mentioned things at a mostly high level. We will discuss the changes in more detail in this week's livestream, but the main reason we opted to wait to share the full details in the Patch Notes is because we are still making some final adjustments, especially on the skill rebalancing pass.
I hope I don't sound like a broken record by saying that our ears are open and always ready to hear more from you about MapleStory 2. We care deeply about your feedback because we truly believe that's the only way we can build a better game together.
We've discussed a lot today but I know you'd like more details on some topics. Please be on the lookout for the official Skilled Ally Events, Sales and Patch Notes posts next week for more information. We also have an official preview livestream happening on July 18th at 1:00 PM PDT (8:00 PM UTC) to discuss next week's update, so don't miss your chance to join the conversation. Please let us know your questions and feedback via the subreddit and forum links below and we will go over some of them in tomorrow's livestream as well.
Join the Forum Discussion: http://forums.maplestory2.nexon.net/discussion/45733/dungeon-helper-skill-rebalancing-by-lambcook?new=1
Join the Reddit Discussion: https://www.reddit.com/r/MapleStory2/comments/ceka60/producer_blog_dungeon_helper_skill_rebalancing/
Sincerely,
LAMBCOOK
Sweet Summer Weekly Style Pack
We have one last Weekly Style Pack to go before our update next Thursday! Get the special Sweet Summer Weekly Style Pack, and take one last look at this month's special sales before they go!
Sweet Summer Weekly Style Pack
Get your Style Crates with a bonus emote this week! You'll get 10 Style Crates to go along with the new Watermelon Punch Emote, to let you lounge around in a tasty, oversized bowl of punch!
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Continuing Sale: Outta This World Style Pack
Get outta this world with a special bundle of twenty Style Crates, a brand new Space Walk Emote and the long-legged SR-100 ground mount, complete with just the cuddliest red targeting laser!
Sale Duration: End of Maintenance, Thursday, June 27th - Start of Maintenance, Thursday, July 25th
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Continuing Sale: Outta This World Sales
Don't forget about the set of sales that came with the Guilded Glory Update! There's a new Style Crate, packages filled with space-age mounts, a summer vacation themed Daily Wonders and more!
Surf's up, up and away with the brand-new Summer Beach Pack! Get a Summer Vacation Chat Bubble and Name Tag, and take to the turbulent skies with the Surfboard flying mount!
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Continuing Sale: Tropical Music Pack
Hit the beach and play some tropical tunes with the Tropical Summer Electric Piano and Steel Drum!
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Revitalizing Summer Sales
July rolls on with a pair of new sales for everyone enjoying the warm beach. Hop on a flying Surfboard and restock your Elixirs with the pair of packages below!
Summer Beach Pack
Surf's up, up and away with the brand-new Summer Beach Pack! Get a Summer Vacation Chat Bubble and Name Tag, and take to the turbulent skies with the Surfboard flying mount!
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Revitalizing Weekly Style Pack
Want to stock up on some some functional items while checking out some of the summer's hottest fashions? The Revitalizing Weekly Style Pack bundles a stack of 10 Style Crates with a 7 Day Auto-Gathering Badge and 30 Elixirs!
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Continuing Sale: Outta This World Sales
Don't forget about the set of sales that came last week with the Guilded Glory Update! There's a new Style Crate, packages filled with space-age mounts, a summer vacation themed Daily Wonders and more!
Hit the beach and play some tropical tunes with the Tropical Summer Electric Piano and Steel Drum!
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Summer Vaycay Sales
July is the perfect month to hit the beach, soak up some sun and enjoy some great music, and you can get two tropical-themed instruments and a week-long Style Crate package sale that includes birdy headgear as a bonus!
Tropical Weekly Style Pack
You've got one week to claim a special package of 10 Style Crates with an exclusive Toucan Nest headgear outfit to let a colorful bird take a seat on your noggin!
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Tropical Music Pack
Hit the beach and play some tropical tunes with the Tropical Summer Electric Piano and Steel Drum!
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Outta This World Sales
Don't forget about the set of sales that came last week with the Guilded Glory Update! There's a new Style Crate, packages filled with space-age mounts, a summer vacation themed Daily Wonders and more!
We will be performing a scheduled maintenance on Tuesday, July 2nd at 8:00 AM PDT. During this period, all servers will be unavailable. We anticipate the maintenance to last approximately 2 hours, concluding at around 10:00 AM PDT.
- Start and End Times -
Please note that the estimated length of time for each maintenance is subject to change without notification.
