About Star Force

Introduction

Star Force is the next step after using up all upgrade slots on an item. Items that can be starred will display the possible number of upgrades (stars) above its name. The more stars you successfully get on an item, the more stat bonuses you receive! Starring costs mesos, and higher level items cost more per starring attempt. Each star represents 1 Star Force.

Once upgrades available is 0, you're ready to star force! This item can be starred up to a maximum of 25*, and is currently at 18*.

The Star Force Process

Similar to tracing, the same upgrade window is used for Star Force. Place your fully-upgraded item inside the upgrade window (accessed via red hammer icon at the bottom of your inventory or keyboard shortcut ) to begin.

Star Catcher & Chance Time

For each starring attempt, you enter the Star Catcher mini game, where a star moves left and right along a bar. Hit spacebar (or click Stop) to "catch" the star within the highlighted region, and gain a very slight boost to your success rate for that attempt. The more times you star successfully (even without Star Catch), the more difficult Star Catcher will become.

You can disable Star Catcher if you wish to save time and do not care for the boost.

Star Catcher difficulty increases when you play the mini game a certain number of times, with faster star movement and smaller highlighted region. It decreases in difficulty every 10th minute (:10, :20, etc.).

If you fail two consecutive starring attempts, you get Chance Time, which grants you 100% success rate for the next attempt on the item.

Chance Time only works on the item you were starring. It will disappear if you star other items before using Chance Time or did not use it within 5 minutes.

Failing Star Force

Success rates gradually decrease as you get more stars on the item. After reaching a certain number of stars, failing star force will result in loss of one star or even item destruction. There are also "safety checkpoints", where the number of stars cannot fall below these checkpoints even if starring fails. All these depends on whether the item is a regular (non-superior) or superior item:

Item Type Chance of Losing 1 Star Chance of Item Destruction

Regular Items

Regular Items 16* onwards
Safety at 20*
15* onwards
Falls to 12* if destroyed

Superior Items

Superior Items 1* onwards
No safety
5* onwards
Falls to 0* if destroyed

Regular items provide the Anti-Destruct option at 15* > 16* and 16* > 17*, which removes destruction chance when starring at those stages at the cost of double mesos. Use this option wisely! You may only want to anti-destruct if you have mesos to spare, or if the item is in low supply that makes preventing destruction more worth it.

Anti-destruct can prove very useful in your journey to 17* or higher, but costs you more.

Item Destruction

Items destroyed during starring leaves an item trace which is unusable, but can be restored by having a duplicate of the same item. Note that items with the same name but have fixed potentials/star force (usually obtained from events) are not valid duplicates. The item trace retains all properties (potentials, flame stats, etc.) from your original item, as well as all star force stats up to 12* (regular items). Upon restoring the item, it will start off at 12* for you to continue the starring process.

A destroyed item falls back to 12* and leaves an item trace.

Restore an item trace using a duplicate.

Superior Items

Superior items are special items that cost significantly more mesos per star, but also give higher boosts for each star achieved. There are only a few such items in the game:

Item Name Coin Costs Boss Drops

Elite Heliseum Cape, Boots

Elite Heliseum Cape, Boots 100 x -

Elite Heliseum Belt

Elite Heliseum Belt 150 x

Nova Cape

Nova Cape 250 x

Nova Boots

Nova Boots 250 x

Nova Belt

Nova Belt -

Tyrant Cape

Tyrant Cape 70 x

Tyrant Boots

Tyrant Boots 70 x -

Tyrant Belt

Tyrant Belt 100 x -

Tyrant Gloves

Tyrant Gloves 400 x -

Star Force Scrolls

There are certain scrolls that assign a fixed number of stars to your equipment. Most of these items either have certain restrictions, are difficult to come by, or have consequences if the scroll fails.

Item Name
[Item Name]
Function
2 / 3 / 4 / 5 Star Enhancement Scroll
[2 / 3 / 4 / 5 Star Enhancement Scroll]
Adds 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 stars. Works only on items at 0*.
(Advanced) Equipment Enhancement Scroll
[(Advanced) Equipment Enhancement Scroll]
Adds 1* to an item up to 15*. Destroys item if scroll fails and does not leave an item trace.
High Quality Equipment Enhancement Scroll
[High Quality Equipment Enhancement Scroll]
Adds 1* to an item up to 15*.
10 / 12 / 15 / 17 / 20 Star Force Enhancement Coupon
[10 / 12 / 15 / 17 / 20 Star Force Enhancement Coupon]
Makes an item 10* / 12* / 15* / 17* / 20*. Does not work on Superior equipment. Scrolls from events usually are level restricted (usable only on items of specific level stated in description).

Star Force Progression

Meso costs for starring rise very quickly, jumping in costs at 10*, 15* and 20* while also costing more for higher level items. It can be hard to handle for a newbie, so take things slow! When starting off, consider starring the lowest level item you have for lower costs. The table below is just a recommendation, so don't worry if you find it too difficult or expensive to reach these values.

Join a guild with guild level 5 or above for a free +30 Star Force passive. This reduces the overall burden on spending mesos for starring by a significant amount.

Character Level Total Star Force Rationale
Below Level 100 - Not a priority
Level 100 to 120 5* to 30*
(0 to 5* per item)
Allows training in Star Force maps (better EXP)
Level 120 to 140 55*++
(5* to 10* per item)
Training in Star Force maps, some stat boost for bossing
Level 140++ 80*++
(5* to 10* per item)
Training in Star Force maps, more stat boost for bossing

Slowly build towards 12*, 15* and eventually 17* as you acquire more mesos and resources for starring. Beyond 17*, you're probably knowledgeable enough on the risks of Star Force to understand how to proceed and what to focus on first. Starring beyond 17* gives decent stat bonuses, but item destruction risks are always present and anti-destruct is not an option. Not everyone has the mesos or resources to get a replacement item back should things go poorly. Plan well, and may starring luck be with you!

Credits

Acknowledgements

Credits go to Nexon and Maplestory for images seen on this page. Thanks also to LukeAwesum on the MapleSEA Discord for helping refine recommended per-equip star force values to be more newbie-friendly!

Contact

If you spot any errors, please contact @whackybeanz on Discord with the list of corrections to make. Thank you!