The Corsair Guide Is Real (2026 guide by Enquiry)

Corsairs? In 2026? It's more likely than you think! (yes I drew this.)

Preface
Yo ho ho and ahoy, me hearties! I am Mexi, a long-time player since 2018. I grind like the jolly OG days and, like a real plunderer, I love me questing and collecting, they're the fine booty! cough Sorry, pirate slipped out.

My main, Enquiry, is a Lv. 170x Corsair that I've leveled since returning in November 2025. She is my first Corsair, has never leeched once, and I've learned a lot during my journey. She's also the first character I ever bossed with - now it's time to pass on the knowledge.

Seeing as there's a historically low representation of Corsairs, I decided to write this guide in order to inspire the few who want to try living the real pirate's life.
This guide took 3 months to write!
I do know this might be the only indepth Corsair guide for the next 10 years, but hey... someone has to do it

A lot has changed since the last few Corsair guides have been updated (New Source, Lionheart Castle, HP quests, etc), and the other Corsair guides are very outdated. I hope my experiences help at least some amount of people.

My goal for this guide is to give useful everyday advice for the average player, rather than number crunching/pure optimization.
I’m only adding advice for anything I’ve personally gone through ingame; I haven’t fought every boss yet. In some cases I've only fought a boss once or twice, but I'll give some advice regardless.


Not all advice here will be the most efficient, but that is not always the intention - fun is.
If you want raw stat breakdowns/calculations, please check out these other Corsair guides!

Spoiler: Other Corsair guides by posting date:

Intensity (May 2014): https://royals.ms/forum/threads/the-perfect-corsair-corsair-guide-by-intensity.13594/
xmetallica (May 2018): https://royals.ms/forum/threads/new-source-corsair-guide.121254/ (not recommended; most info lifted word-for-word from other guides)
Nemo (June 2018): https://royals.ms/forum/threads/a-comprehensive-corsair-guide.122934/ (most recent)

Table of contents
: Introduction
: The Big Checklist: Should I play Corsair?
: Corsair? Why? Is it worth it?
: HOLD UP! WHAT THE FLYING HECK IS BATTLESHIP/DISMOUNTING???
: AP Build
: SP Builds

: 1st Job: Pirate
: 2nd Job: Gunslinger
: 3rd Job: Outlaw​

: LEVEL UP: LV.120

: 4th Job Skill Quests
: 4th Job: A Preface
: 4th Job Skill Build/Breakdowns​

: Sharp Eyes and Speed Infusion: tl;dr
: Equipment (And Where To Find 'Em)

: The 2 Routes
: The List of Very Useful Gear​

: HP Washing: Do I need to add Int and HP Wash?
: Bossing 101

: 1/1s and Hyper Body: A Clarification
: Bosses: Before 4th job
: 4th job: Field Bosses
: 4th job: Early Daily Bosses
: 4th job: Daily Party Bosses
: Lionheart Castle: Bearwolves​

: Useful Macros
: Leveling
: Special Thanks


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Introduction

" Yarrrr! I see ye be hankerin' to be a gun-wielding Corsair! They be a premier damage dealer, firin' cannonballs that'll make ye teammate's maidens swoon, and don't need no crew's buffs ta' hit fine numbers.
Them Corsairs pilot a MIGHTY PIRATE SHIP, and have their merry band of summonable crew.
Buccaneers? Them newfangled strangers who turn blue or yellow? WHAT'RE YE TALKIN' ABOOT??
Corsair be the perfect job ta' live out yer pirate fantasy while ye blast Alestorm shanties! Wha' more can ye ask fer?! "

- Some Pirate captain, probably

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Corsair, the gun wielders! They're a premier damage dealer, outputting insane amounts of 1v1 damage for a ranged job without concern for party buffs or good gear. Their bossing damage is uncontestable, and their skills are designed after every pirate stereotype, unlike your Buccaneer peers - other friendly landlubbers will greet you with "G'day, Cap'n!" and want to jump on yer shiny pirate ship.

Corsair is also known as "Not Buccaneer". Everyone's first thought when you say "I'm playing a pirate" is "I'm playing Buccaneer".
Choosing to play a Gunslinger instead of a Brawler will net you such responses:

​

LUCKILY, I'M HERE TO TELL YOU THAT they are very correct.

Compared to Buccaneers, Corsairs don't get gratification every handful of levels to keep you invested. Buccs are mobbing gods - Corsairs are one of the worst.
Your first 3 jobs will make you feel like a bilge-sucking son of a biscuit eater - your damage scaling will feel underwhelming at best, and you'll wonder if your skill points even do anything.
In order to unlock your true potential, you have to go through 120 levels of very hard work, and then some.
You'll be rewarded with one of the most demanding - and most damaging - jobs in the game; one which won't be easy on you early on.

There were only 94 Corsairs in 2025. I was one of them. The fact is, barely anyone who starts a Gunslinger stays long enough to reap the rewards.

With that said, while the road to 4th job genuinely is rough, there is a misconception that Corsair is difficult - it simply requires more attention from you.
Corsair turns the simple "auto-pot and have enough max HP" gameplay cycle of Maplestory into something more engaging.
It’s unarguably one of the most fun jobs to boss with, and you’ll learn far more from your journey than other jobs who hold a button down and fall asleep.

So, you in with the crew, matey? Batten up the hatches and let's sail the briny deep!


Wait, this isn't the briny deep...

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The Big Checklist: Should I play Corsair?

A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor. Do you have what it takes?

Pick if you like:	Avoid if you dislike:
Shiny Pokemon: THE rarest job in the game and one you can flaunt - you'll probably be the only Corsair in your guild/buddy list	Slow sailing: Mediocre 1st-to-3rd jobs that put many players off from dedicating, with a rough early 4th job that really filters people out
Bring me that horizon: BATTLESHIP - The skill that provides one of the highest skill ceilings, which rewards boss knowledge and reaction time	Don't drink and drive: BATTLESHIP - a skill that demands constant attention and patience; no brain-off facetanking here
Hit like a ship: Unrivaled 1v1 damage at 4th job; only ranged job that isn't dependent on Sharp Eyes to be competitive	"YOU BROKE ME SHIP!": Huge damage output is entirely dependent on your notoriously fragile ship, which you WILL learn to protect with your life
Stun 'n gun: Spammable stun/freeze skills that are useful for frustrating mobs	"One at a time, mate": Terrible mobbing till Lv. 160+; crowd control skills aren't strong enough to mob efficiently, and Bullseye enforces the single-target playstyle
Sailin': Unique mobility via Recoil Shot and Wings, useful for party quests and traveling	Reloadin': Notoriously clunky skillset with constant animation locks, and skills that require recasting every few seconds
Take what you can: Very inexpensive equipment for how much damage you output; easily recruited into bossing parties for NX/drops	Give nothing back: Absolutely no unique party buffs (Maple Warrior is all you got)
Cleanup crew: Excellent at grinding low-level areas for quests/monster cards	Drunk crewmates: Weak/inconsistent summons that are only effective for low-level map farming/long boss fights
"For his neutral special...": For anyone who questions you, remind them who has the gun	"...he wields one move": Most of your kit supplements your strongest move (Double Shot/Battleship Cannon) and are significantly worse by themselves
Dismounting: This word scared you, didn't it? It really isn't that bad, trust me	Dismounting: Why you won't be able to multi-client multiple mules, and the reason the job's difficulty has so many misconceptions

Still reading? Good, a true pirate in the making. Shall we begin?

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Corsair? Why? Is it worth it?

This is usually the first line of thought people go down before they decide on Corsair.
If the end result isn't worth it, why put time into a job? Why not just play Buccaneer or Night Lord?

The answer: YOU GET A GUN AND A BATTLESHIP.
The real answer: Whether it’s worth it depends on if you feel the difficult grind is worth Corsair’s unique bossing playstyle, which you’ll be stuck with. I will be very transparent about the journey below.

Leveling in this era of Maplestory is split into two phases: the mobbing levels and the bossing levels.
The mobbing phase takes up majority of your early-midgame life (Lv. 1-120) while the bossing phase comes after (Lv. 121-200).

• Corsairs have TERRIBLE mobbing levels.
  
  Given how so few people actually get past the mobbing levels, Corsair's painful midgame is likely why people stop training and have the stigma that the job is bad.
  
  
• Corsairs have AMAZING bossing levels.

All this comes at the cost of constant management - WHILE FIGHTING, YOU CANNOT AFK.
Your 4th job is not like other jobs where you buff once every 2 minutes and hold down a button.
You'll be pressing buttons almost every few seconds for optimal gameplay, thanks to Gaviota, Octopus, and Battleship.

Battleship - the core of your damage. Without your ship, your damage capsizes.
If you hop off ship, no cannon. If your ship breaks, no cannon for 90 seconds (1.5 minutes). At early Corsair levels, this happens often.
Your effectiveness is entirely based on how well you can keep ship up, which means being alert and learning animations while bossing.
If you can't keep ship up, your massive damage means nothing.
Some bosses will make keeping it alive very difficult - this is your life as a captain of a ship.

This is a single-target job with forced downtime, and it's something you need to get used to. You're doing 10,000 damage per cannonball anyway. You need some downside.

tl;dr Other jobs watch Netflix and fall asleep at Krexel. You will be wide awake and have fun.
Corsair is a brain-on job where you're truly in charge of your performance: if that is worth 3 slow job advancements, command thy ship, Captain.

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HOLD UP! WHAT THE FLYING HECK IS BATTLESHIP/DISMOUNTING???

First, sign this contract for your brand new ship! Oh the small text? Don't worry, it's just some legal jargon to fill the page up.
From here on out you owe Enquiry every White Scroll, Chaos Scroll and Perfect Dragon Revolvers you obtain. And Pirate Hats. And pet parrots. Look, I just want pirate clothes.




Battleship is the source of confusion for many non-Corsairs: you hear about it, but no one explains what it even does. I myself reached Corsair without good understanding of it.
Most people get too nervous to start a Corsair because of this one skill. (Alienate the community with this one weird trick!)
To stop this once and for all, I'll do a brief summary. I'll go into more of it in the 4th job section - this is just the important info.

Link this to anyone who asks about Battleship or Dismounting.

Battleship is a 4th-job combat mount. Like transportation mounts (Hog/Silver Mane), you press the button to hop on/off.
It actively reduces your mobility (80% speed 100% jump, fixed) and removes your ability to use bullet skills (eg. Rapid Fire),
but grants you access to Battleship Cannon (single-target) and Battleship Torpedo (multi-target), the strongest projectiles in the game in both categories.
You can use a handful of other utility attacks on it, but Cannon is the big reason you use Battleship.

Battleship has a HP meter, taking the form of its buff icon. At 100% HP, the buff icon is full.
The buff icon does not go down unless you take damage while on the ship - this will reduce ship HP and deplete part of the buff icon.
This damage isn't split by you and your ship: if you take 1000HP, it takes 1000HP.
This also includes DOT debuffs like poison.
At 0%, Battleship breaks and goes on a 90s cooldown.

• Battleship at 100% HP
• Battleship at 55% HP
• Flashing: Battleship about to break (extremely sad do not laugh)

Your ship gains 2000HP each time you level.
Battleship (skill) gives 4000HP per SP.

Spoiler: Battleship HP calculation:

Battleship HP = [(Skill Level) * 4000)] + [(Character Level - 120) * 2000]
Level 120: 4,000 HP (Battleship at lv 1)
Level 140: 80,000 (Battle ship at level 10)
Level 200: 200,000 HP

(Credit to Nemo's guide)

Ship damage cannot be healed by any means outside of breaking ship or logging out. This includes switching maps, changing channels, or going into Cash Shop - if you enter Zakum with 20% ship health, you start the fight with 20% ship health. This is why you perform Dismounting.

Dismounting:
The way you avoid taking ship damage. You probably heard of it and how scary it is. This forbidden technique is the reason for Corsair's complexity, and it's not for the faint-hearted. I'll only warn you once: Are you sure you want to see what dismounting is? It might make you run back to yer nanny...

...heh, I like your courage, sailor. Don't say I didn't warn you.

This is dismounting.



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...yeah. This turns people off from Corsair.
Dismounting means "hopping off ship before you take damage". That's it.

Think of it as a parry: so long as you press the button right before an attack hits you, your ship won't take damage (but you will). In fact, viewing it as a parry mechanic makes it feel much cooler.



Dismounting happens the INSTANT you press Battleship, and is not affected by server lag - if you dismount before the game depletes your HP, your ship won't be hit.
For a lot of mobs/bosses, the timing is really generous/instantly telegraphed, so you can react to it if you pay attention.

In this clip, I'm on laggy mobile data, and all these still count as a successful dismount.

It's also fast - just like using your transport mount. You can hop on/off during attack anims so long as you don't hold another skill down, so it's not as clunky as it looks.

Dismounting is essential at early levels to make up for your ship's low HP.
At higher levels, your ship will last so long that dismounting may not be necessary, and its downtime can be planned around. It's really just an extra button press in most cases, and will become muscle memory.

The only killer is 1/1 attacks, which can wipe chunks of your ship's HP.
Here's the secret: learn what the animations are and do the same damn dismount.

Soooooo yeah. That's it. People don't play Corsair because they don't want to turn their brain on to press a single scary button. Explain dismounting to your next Assassin friend so they can try Corsair and save 60 billion on their equipment. If they want to grind 3 years for their gear, it's on them!

(click here to skip to Battleship skill info in the 4th job section)

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AP Build

Corsairs have DEX as a main stat, and STR as a secondary stat. You will start with 20 DEX since that's required for your first job advancement.

The optimal amount of base STR you should have at Level 100
is 50STR.​

This is in order to equip your strongest weapons (as of 2025): a Concerto (100STR) or a Dragon Revolver (110STR), which you will reach by scrolling equipment with STR when you get close to those levels (and adding extra base STR in your AP if necessary).

This low amount of STR lets you hit harder at early levels, while still being able to transition to the powerful endgame guns, which are significantly stronger than going pure-DEX with a perfectly scrolled Maple weapon.

There's also an equipment reasoning behind it: none of Pirate's equipment have DEX substats till much later, so it's not worth adding STR to wear them.

Once you obtain endgame items like pendants, you'll likely have so much excess STR from them that you can AP reset your base STR into DEX.
You can minmax once you reach endgame, but 50STR is enough for you to be comfortable most of your life.

I will go into gearing in the Equipment section after the skill breakdowns.
For the based players who want to run normal guns rather than boring bathrobes and Maple weapons, there'll be a section for that too!

For HP washing and whether you should have base INT, click here.

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SP Builds
I will go very in-depth with every skill.
Click the spoilers for detailed breakdowns and use cases. I've included gifs!

1st Job: Pirate (Lv. 10-30)

Priority skills: Double Shot, Dash, Bullet Time
Non-priority skills: Somersault Kick, Flash Fist

Total SP: 61

Recommended build:
Double Shot (MAX)
Dash (MAX, add early if preferred)
Bullet Time (Max)
Anything else

By Lv. 30:
Double Shot (20/20) MAXED
Dash (10/10) MAXED
Bullet Time (20/20) MAXED
Somersault Kick (11/20)
Flash Fist (0/20)

A pretty straightforward 30 levels. Your kit only has one main attack, with the rest being supportive, and you'll be using a few of them all the way through your life compared to a certain non-gun somersault. Detailed breakdowns below.

Breakdowns:

Spoiler: Double Shot:

You have a gun, get used to it! This will be your main skill all the way to 3rd job.
It's weak but extremely fast; this is easily the best thing compared to other ranged jobs, as the short animation lock gives you a lot of control and allows you to jump-fire very easily.
It really needs to be maxed ASAP to fix its pitiful base damage (81% at 1SP, 110% at 20SP), but also cause it has an unlisted range bonus each time you level it up.

Spoiler: Dash:

Useful through your entire journey, you'll be using Dash as a quality-of-life skill that helps you get to places.
At 1st job, the only other options you have to level after Double Shot are this and Bullet Time, and Dash gets more immediate results.
You can start maxing this while leveling Double Shot if you find the mobility more useful; a few points don't make a big difference when Lv. 10-30 flies by so fast.

Dash gets canceled once you attack or change direction.
Tip: To activate dash on small platforms without falling off (like Orbis' floating ones), jump, turn in midair, and double tap a direction (activate Dash). You'll keep your mobility increase without taking too many steps and sliding off.

Spoiler: Bullet Time:

Basically a clone of Thief's Nimble Body, you'll be adding this cause it's the only option.
While the passive buffs sound nice (accuracy and avoid), the accuracy portion is only important to Brawlers, as your main stat (DEX) means you'll rarely run into trouble hitting anything.
The avoidability buff (20) is negligible as Gunslingers don't possess inherently high avoid like Thieves do, but does get noticeable! ...at Lv.160. At that point it does actually make enemies miss (even Krexel or Zakum) but don't count on it.

Max this since it's better than nothing, but expect to be hit by things.

Spoiler: Somersault Kick:

Alright, there is the option to max Somersault Kick to hit 6 targets at 1st job. There is the option for it since it could be efficient.
But look at me, you godsdamned powder monkey. You're a GUNSLINGER. WHAT'RE YOU THINKING??? *slaps the pirate hat off yer head*

For real though, Lv. 10-30 is such a short time that you might as well dedicate entirely into gunslinging. Somersault Kick needs you to equip anything other than a gun for higher weapon attack. It's significantly weaker with a gun equipped, and it's going to be irrelevant within 7 levels of 2nd job, as the lack of mastery means you'll be hitting weak and volatile damage.
tl;dr you're better off Double Shotting through your first job - it's going to teach you the patience needed for the rest of your journey, and you'll need it.

Spoiler: Flash Fist:

It's not a gun. This skill isn't worthy of a Gunslinger. (You also lack mastery and weapon attack to make it useful, but mainly the first point.)

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2nd Job: Gunslinger (Lv. 30-70)

Priority skills: Invisible Shot, Gun Mastery, Gun Booster, Recoil Shot
Low-priority skills: Wings, Blank Shot
Non-priority skills: Grenade

Total SP: 121

Recommended build:
Invisible Shot (1)
Gun Mastery (MAX) / Gun Booster (6)
Invisible Shot (MAX)
Wings (5) + Recoil Shot (MAX)
Gun Booster (MAX) / Blank Shot (MAX) / Wings (MAX)
Grenade

By Lv. 70:
Gun Mastery (20/20) MAXED
Gun Booster (20/20) MAXED
Invisible Shot (20/20) MAXED
Wings (10/10) MAXED (5SP unlocks Recoil Shot)
Recoil Shot (20/20) MAXED
Blank Shot (20/20) MAXED
Grenade (11/20)

This is when you'll start to realise that Corsair's skills are full of weird clunk. Luckily, you also unlock Recoil Shot + Wings, two sources of very fun mobility, and you get your first mobbing skill! The rest of your kit is very questionable though, and there's one skill you should definitely avoid...
Overall, you won't have too much trouble early level, but the low damage of your mobbing will start to get obvious the closer you get to Lv.70.

Breakdowns:

Spoiler: Invisible Shot:

Your first mobbing skill! And... huh. It's fast, but kinda butt. This is going to be a theme.
You'll add the 1SP from job advancing here so you have a mobbing option ASAP. It's spammable, and has the ability to hit through walls/below you, which is handy for certain grinding areas.
Unfortunately, it's quite weak, and it can only hit 3 enemies... at all levels. Yep, this is one of the few mobbing skills that don't hit 6 targets.
The weak damage means it's very affected by mastery - prioritize Gun Mastery before maxing Invisible Shot, or you'll be hitting anywhere from 20-500 damage.

Note: Despite its looks, each skill use only uses one bullet.

Spoiler: Gun Mastery:

Essential to max ASAP for any job outside of Assassin, Gun Mastery is no different. It will help stabilize your damage, which is especially important due to your low base damage - the more often you hit high numbers, the better.

The bullet increase is a nice quality of life, but you won't really see yourself run out of bullets unless you're grinding or bossing for hours.


This was after one Horntail; you really don't need that many.

Spoiler: Gun Booster:

More pewpew = good! The only difference between levels is the duration, so maxing this early isn't a good use of SP - each level gives 10s, so it's acceptable to level it to 6-7 (sorry) to get a minute of booster.

The boost affects almost all gun skills, excluding Recoil Shot. Most significantly, Double Shot will become so fast that you can jump-fire the easiest out of any ranged job.
Unfortunately, once you get Burst Fire... well, I'll get to that later.

Note: While other jobs may avoid maxing Booster by 3rd job to level up more useful skills, Corsair simply doesn't have any useful 1st/2nd job skills to make this worth doing.

Spoiler: Recoil Shot:

Recoil Shot will be your main mobility tool alongside Dash. It's a Flash Jump... at 2nd job! Unlike Flash Jump, it sends you backwards, so you need to turn around in midair before using it.

While it can be used just for that purpose, it also has an attack portion, which deals the highest damage out of all your abilities so far. So far it sounds great!

Unfortunately you're a Corsair, so of course there's a downside. The downside is a cooldown of ~3 seconds after each use, which means you can't spam it.

In general, you will be using this in three ways: to finish off weak monsters, to budget flash jump, and to disengage (handy for bosses). The disengaging part is great, as you can use it on reaction to retreat while attacking. It is one of the few skills you'll use forever.

Tip: Recoil Shot can also be used in Orbis PQ to collect mage CDs if you're missing a mage! Dash + Recoil Shot will give you enough height for the platforms, though be careful of positioning.

Spoiler: Wings:

Wings is the strangest move. It just makes you jump, then start floating downwards. It deactivates once you land or float for a long enough period. I have no idea why it's in our kit, but it does offer lots of fun mobility.

The main use you'll get out of Wings is through a Recoil Shot > Wings macro. With it, you'll be able to travel flat ground really fast - faster than mounts, but slower than Flash Jump. You want to maximize your air time for this, so I recommend scrolling some equipment for jump for an easier time (shoes or pet equipment).


The Wings macro is heavily affected by slopes! If Wings activates when you face a slope, you'll FLY. If the opposite happens, you'll slow to a crawl. You can't cancel Wings once activated, so avoid the latter or you'll waste time waiting to land.


Wings can also be used while hanging! This is handy for reaching a distant platform or traversing annoying areas (like Orbis or Zakum's lava mine). You can chain them back-to-back while grabbing ropes. And no, it cannot be used for jump quests.


It's also goated in OPQ.



As much as it's a gimmick, use it creatively and have fun!

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Spoiler: Blank Shot:

Honestly, this is just here because it's useful for utility. It's a 3-target stun that can be used point blank - higher levels give higher stun chance, with a 100% chance 4s stun when maxed.
On paper this could be pretty good for killing enemies up close (it does 120%, 50% less than Invisible Shot) but in reality it's terrible for attacking, as it is not affected by Gun Mastery. It's going to hit 1 damage.

Blank Shot's saving grace is that it can stun enemies that can't be freezed in 3rd job. This means you can use it to train at places with unfreezable enemies (such as parts of Ellin Forest or Neo Tokyo), which would otherwise be a headache.

Yes, the Gun Mastery thing is intended behavior. See Grenade below.

Spoiler: Grenade:

The reason why Invisible Shot sucks. For some reason, old Maple's devs decided that Grenade will be the 6-target move, and Invisible Shot would be 3-target, presumably to reward the clunkiness of Grenade...?

And boy is it clunky. I really do not recommend using this as your main mobbing skill unless you really want to quit Corsair (PLEASE DON'T. THERE'S SO FEW OF US. )

There's many issues with Grenade. It is thrown in an arc; charging it throws it further, and spamming it will toss it at your feet.
It is not possible to aim it properly outside of gauging distance.
Tossing it takes time, so Invisible Shot, an already weak move, would outdamage it by the time two bombs hit.
Most importantly, it is not affected by Gun Mastery. THIS IS INTENDED BEHAVIOR AS OG MAPLE'S DEVS DID NOT CONSIDER GRENADE AS GUN DAMAGE. Seriously. This is also why Blank Shot is not affected by mastery, cause it's a... blank. Big thonk.

Just... don't. It's not worth it for 6 targets.

The Grenade experience: (I AM LEVEL 160 HERE)


Just get Invisible Shot, trust me

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3rd Job: Outlaw (Lv. 70-120)

MUST LEVEL FOR 4TH JOB SKILLS:
Octopus (MAX), Homing Beacon (MAX), Gaviota (15)

Priority skills: Burst Fire, Ice Splitter, Flamethrower

Total SP: 151

Recommended Builds:
Burst Fire (1)
Ice Splitter (1) + Flamethrower (1) + Gaviota (1)
Octopus (1) + Burst Fire (3/20)
Burst Fire (MAX)

FOR GRINDING:
Ice Splitter (26/30) + Flamethrower (MAX)
(Alternate whenever they gain 1 extra target)

FOR BALROG PQ BEFORE LV.100:
Ice Splitter (13/30) + Flamethrower (13/30) [both 3 targets]
Octopus (21/30) [30s duration]
Ice Splitter (26/30; 6 targets) / Flamethrower (19/30; 5 targets)
Flamethrower (MAX)

Octopus (MAX) Gaviota (15)
Homing Beacon (MAX)

By Lv. 120:
Burst Fire (20/20) MAXED
Flamethrower (30/30) MAXED
Ice Splitter (26/30)
Homing Beacon (30/30) MAXED (unlocks Bullseye)
Octopus (30/30) MAXED; (unlocks Wrath of the Octopi)
Gaviota (15/20) (unlocks Air Strike)

This is it - the long road before Corsair, and the 3rd job no one remembers the name of. I've highlighted important skills to level in blue; not cause they're good, but because Corsair needs a lot of skills maxed to unlock 4th job skills.
This requirement means there's pretty much only one final build for you by Lv.120.

While other 3rd jobs will get new powerful skills that makes grinding easier, you get your cool summons here. Sadly, this is where you'll find your moveset lacking even more in damage, and your summons will teach you just how often you'll be pressing buttons from now on (and how little they help with mobbing).
You're so close though. Keep at it, captain! The ship is at the horizon!

The only skill build difference is whether you intend to do Balrog PQ before Lv. 100: you will sacrifice some points in Ice Splitter/Flamethrower and add 21 points into Octopus instead, as their 30s duration will add up to a decent amount of DPS while bossing - this is the only time they can be taken advantage of like this before 4th job.
You won’t be able to hit 6 targets with Flamethrower as early if you choose this route, but your AOE skills won’t be helpful in BPQ.

(The gist of 3rd job is: everything is support for your main attack, Burst Fire.)

Breakdowns:

Spoiler: Burst Fire:

The skill you'll be replacing Double Shot with, literally - adding one point permanently turns Double Shot into Burst Fire. 1 SP will immediately outdamage Double Shot per skill use, it can flinch enemies better due to its much higher damage, and it will be your main attack till 4th job. However, there's something very important to note:

Burst Fire is much laggier than Double Shot.

In this clip I am jumping as soon as I can.
Top Corsair can only move slightly after landing, while bottom Corsair can move before landing.
Your character can only move once the animation of all bullets finish firing.

It doesn't look like much, but jump-firing with Burst Fire feels like jumping on glue. If you don't shoot right after jumping, you'll stick to the floor, as your character will still be stuck in the firing animation.
Once you unlock Burst Fire, say goodbye to your shooting mobility in exchange for better damage. If there's any future buffs to Corsair, this is one thing I want changed.

Spoiler: Why doesn't this affect Bowmen/Assassins?

Other ranged jobs use one basic (MP-less) attack animation, and can move immediately once the animation ends, with the remaining projectiles automatically being shot from their previous position. This is why Night Lords are still so mobile with Triple Throw + Shadow Partner.
Burst Fire has to play three attack animations in sequence before you regain control, so naturally it's slower.

Spoiler: Ice Splitter:

This is the second most important skill after Burst Fire, and you may be wondering why you're leaving it at 26/30.
Well, it freezes 6 enemies at 25pts, making it a better Blank Shot with higher damage. Its damage is also lower than Flamethower, so you're really just getting it to hit 6 targets for the utility. Finally, you'll be leveling all your other skills to unlock your Corsair ones, so there's no other place to put your last point.

(I've read that you level this skill to 26 because it gains the maximum freeze time, but from my research I don't see this being the case; you hit 6 targets and get 3s of freeze time from 25SP onwards. If this bothers you too much, then put the 1SP into Gaviota; you'll still be using either one in early 4th job.)

Note: Ice Splitter sometimes fails to freeze enemies for some reason, even if they're freezable/have been frozen before...? I have no idea why, but it may screw you over.

Spoiler: Flamethrower:

The stronger version of Ice Splitter, this one burns enemies with a DOT effect rather than freezing. Unlike Fire/Poison mage's poison, this DOT can actually kill (though it only does so once all ticks play out).

Now say it with me: unfortunately you're a Corsair. The DOT damage is ass and does so little it basically can be ignored. It also can't affect bosses (including anything tagged as a miniboss).

(This is the DOT at Lv. 160 on a normal Lv. 110 monster. Oops Enq's dead.)

The only upside is it hits 6 targets when maxed and is almost as strong as Invisible Shot (160% maxed, 10% weaker). So how do you use it?

Ice Splitter + Flamethrower Macro: Set this up ASAP and level both together, with priority to Ice Splitter. You'll be spamming the shite out of this to grind. You'll be putting Ice Splitter first to freeze things before they aggro.
(This combo takes 19 levels to max!!! Each skill only hits 3 targets at the start.
You'll likely be Lv.100 by the time you hit 6 targets with both skills. This is a big reason why mobbing at 3rd job sucks so much!!)

Both skills by themselves are laggy and weak, but combined they cancel each other's animations, and output better damage than Invisible Shot.
They also go through walls, letting you hit things like Wolf Spiders in their annoying caverns.


Like other elemental skills, these can be used against element-vulnerable enemies. An enemy that is weak to one is usually resistant to the other though, so don't depend on this. Unfreezable enemies are the most annoying thing, but you can use Blank Shot to stun them.

Note: Both these skills hits very late into the animation - this is mostly a non-issue but can look misleading.

Capsules: These are rechargeable "bullets" only used for these two skills. They double the damage of the respective Fire/Ice skills, and while those skills have low damage, it can be a matter of killing mobs in 4 hits rather than 6, so they're very useful.
Have at least 2-3 of each through 3rd job simply cause you'll be spamming Fire and Ice so often - you can sell all but one set each once you hit Corsair levels, where only Ice Splitter's freeze has relevancy.

Spoiler: Octopus:

Ye have a crew now! Octopi act like other summons (eg. Bowman's eagles) except they can be summoned every 10s, last extremely short (10s base, 30s max) and stay in place to attack. This means, unlike other jobs, you'll be constantly resummoning your crew.
Like Bowman's Eagles and your Gaviota, they ignore defense and scale as you add STR/DEX, so they do consistent damage on any mob.

Spoiler: Octopus/Gaviota calc

Phoenix/Frostprey/Octopus/Gaviota (credit to Sybaris/KaidaTan):
MAX = (DEX * 2.5 + STR) * Attack Rate / 100
MIN = (DEX * 2.5 * 0.7 + STR) * Attack Rate / 100
Ignores defense

Leveling the skill up slightly increases damage and eventually their duration (the latter being way more important).
("Fire rate" in the skill tooltip is simply a multiplier; higher means more damage.)
Since you can summon them every 10s, maxing the skill means you can have 3 Octopi on the map at a given time.
Octopi will only attack if you are within a certain range (onscreen).

You've guessed by this point: they're pretty bad. Their fire rate is extremely slow (half the speed of other summons) and their damage is low, even when maxed.
They make up for it with numbers, but the only places that will give you enough time to summon more than one Octopus before enemies die are at bosses (of which there are only three durable ones before Lv.100: Lord Pirate, Cpt. Latanica and Balrog PQ).
As the first two bosses can have 4th job PT members steamroll them, you'll mainly be using Octopi for grinding.

They're not great for equal-leveled enemies, but if your goal is grinding drops at low-level places (like Arwen's Glass Shoes at Fire Boars), they're pretty good!
Just circle the map, plant down Octopi off cooldown, and repeat. As with other summons, you have to pick up drops manually (an anti-botting measure).

Notes:
Octos can fire diagonally. They will aggro mobs while you traverse around, so it can sometimes be counterproductive to use them.
Your summons DO NOT trigger damage reflect!

Using Octopi will animation lock you into a backflip for ~0.6s.
This animation makes summoning them really clunky in 4th job, but there are ways to cut down the lag- more in the Macro section.

Spoiler: Gaviota:

Your crew now includes a birb! This is a castless-animation summon that can be used every 5s: it flies around the summoned area and, upon detecting a target, drops a bomb (a very small AOE) and leaves.
...
Yep, it leaves. It does ONE THING AND LEAVES.

For real though, get used to constantly pressing this for a bit of extra damage. It's free, can be done during any other skills, and while its damage is balls, it adds up over time when bossing... but you gotta do it every 5 seconds.
(Hoping they turn this into a toggle... one can hope...)

You can summon Gaviota anytime you aren't holding down a skill. Alternate spamming both Gaviota + another skill to fire uninterrupted.

Example with 4th job skills:


The bomb actually hits multiple targets, but it's very finnicky and imprecise that I don't recommend depending on it. The bombing animation is also very long (~4s), which will cause some confusion if an enemy dies to the bomb (they'll hang around for a while).

As with Octopus, higher levels means veeeery slightly more damage - Gaviota's "Fire rate" is a multiplier, higher means more damage.
Gaviota's overall damage is so low it's genuinely not noticeable, which is why we're leaving it at 15SP, enough to unlock Air Strike at 4th job.

Tip: Your summons DO NOT trigger damage reflect!
You can macro Gaviota with any skill to quickly summon it after using something else.
I don't recommend this unless you're multiclienting though, as macros get cancelled halfway if you input a direction, and it can glitch out if any skills aren't off cooldown, costing you several seconds to reset. And why are you multiclienting on Corsair anyway?

Spoiler: Homing Beacon:

This is marked as essential only because of how important it is at 4th job. At 3rd job, you're going to wonder why this takes 30SP to max. EVEN IF IT FEELS LIKE A MEME, DO NOT FORGET TO MAX THIS.
On use, you throw an egg. If it hits a target, all single-target attacks will focus on that target, passing through other enemies. Multi-target attacks will work as usual.

The only time I've used this skill in 3rd job is to prank my friends by throwing eggs at them. Really, this move is only worth it if you're fighting groups of ice-resistant enemies that can't be frozen (and you want to aggro one monster at a time), or when you're bossing and adds spawn - only Balrog and Lord Pirate will give you any use for it.

Funny enough, the egg itself deals really high damage (380% maxed, as much as a SINGLE MAXED CANNONBALL? WHAT??), but it's so much slower than Burst Fire that it's sadly not optimal to go around egging things. You can use the damage of Homing Beacon as motivation for reaching 4th job, though!

Tip: Use this around your friends to make them go "Wtf is that move" (true story).

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LEVEL UP: LV. 120!

By god, you did it... you actually made it, lad! Congrats on being one of the 2 Corsairs of the year! (for real, if you've hit this point, comment here and I'll congratulate you.)

Yarrrrrr, pat yourself on the back and smega for the world to see, because the journey has just begun! You thought it's going to be easy from here? NO! A captain has to earn their stripes!
Now come along, there's a lot to break down! We got 10,000 damage cannonballs to fire!

First things first: Unlocking your 4th job skills
Before you can have fun, you need to do your skill quests to unlock your full kit. Because of this, I won't be doing a breakdown of your skills till later.

Corsairs start with these unlocked skills: Rapid Fire, Bullseye, Elemental Boost and Wrath of the Octopi.

You gain 3SP after obtaining 4th job. The most efficient use is to put 1SP into:

• Rapid Fire, which will replace Burst Fire! Lv.1 Rapid Fire outdamages Max Burst Fire, so you can immediately have a stronger attack to grind the other skill quests with.
  
  
• Wrath of the Octopi / Elemental Boost / Air Strike. as even 1 point is worth it.
  
  
• Otherwise, save the points for Battleship and Battleship Torpedo after doing your job quests.

Yes, all your Battleship skills are locked behind quests. Luckily, Corsair has easy skill quests compared to other jobs - they're all soloable. One perk of being a Cosair!

PLEASE do the skill quests, as they give AMAZING exp and you'll likely gain 1.5 levels just doing all of them. This conveniently lets you put points into Battleship and Cannon early on.

4TH JOB SKILL QUESTS:

Spoiler: Skill Quests

Kyrin Quests (Pirate Job Instructor):

Battleship: Survive for 2 minutes (till a message pops up) and leave to unlock your shiny new ship! She only hits around 3.5k and fires dodgeable projectiles, so just bring potions and you're golden.

Battleship Cannon/Torpedo: Both of these need you to kill different Spirit Vikings to collect 50 unique etcs that only drop with these quests active. Cannon needs Spirit Vikings (Warped Path of Time 4) and Torpedo needs Gigantic Spirit Vikings (Hidden Street: Twisted Time - top left of the Spirit Viking map).

Bart Quest (Outside Nautilus' top right watchtower):
Air Strike: Talk to Bart and then Lord Jonathan (old bird in Nautilus). The first answer is 72.
Talk to Lord Jonathan again and he'll ask you to find the correct Bart within a room of sussy Barts. Hit the NPC with the correct eyebrows (he looks like this c:<).
Talk to Lord Jonathan one final time to do a solo version of the Guild PQ statue game: remember which order the statues light up, then hit them.
There are three rounds: make sure to let the statues stop glowing after every hit, or it may not count. If you fail, you start from round 1.

Shulynch Quest (Training Room):

Hypnotize: Pick the second option to be sent to a Korean Folk Town jump quest area. Go through all three areas and avoid the snakes (they send you back to area 1). Talk to the ghost and protect it for a few minutes (like Kenta's mount quest) to complete the quest.

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4th Job: A Preface

This section will be slightly different, as I'll break down the struggles I went through during early 4th job, and recommend some builds for you.

Corsair's first few levels have a rough learning curve. Going into this without guidance will likely just frustrate you into playing something else.
(*taps the 94 Corsairs in 2025 sign*)
Hey, I'm just trying not to lose more fellow sailors here.

(It goes without saying that you need Battleship to use Battleship Cannon or Battleship Torpedo. Lv. 121 will have you putting 1 point in Battleship by default.)

Corsair starts with an insanely good skill, Battleship Cannon, that you absolutely have to get to Lv. 11 ASAP. The reasons for this:

• The damage of cannon at Lv. 11 blows everything you have out of the water. It's so central to your kit that leveling anything else is detrimental - it is your Triple Throw.
• Did you know that some 4th job skills have a leap in skill damage every 10ish levels? Corsair has quite a few!
  Here is Battleship Cannon's damage numbers:
  
  Lv. 10-11 is a massive damage increase. 735% - 750% - 1060% per volley??
  DO NOT LOSE OUT ON THIS.
• Cannon's 4-hit barrage is mandatory for effectively stunlocking certain area bosses if you aim to fight them.

4-hit cannon's damage will also help you hit breakpoints with killing monsters before they can damage your ship. And speaking of which...

Unlike any other job, Corsair starts as a true ugly duckling. Your ship is incredibleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey fragile.

It starts with 4000HP — 2 to 3 lasers from a Skelegon will kill it.

If it breaks, it’s on a 90s cooldown at any level. Yep. Do you see the problem here?


Battleship Cannon's insane damage is crippled by your ship's horrendous staying power at early levels. It WILL break if you don't dismount properly, and it will straight up die if you dare fight a crowd.
You have to take enemies one-by-one; this is the reality.

If you level Battleship Torpedo this early for the purpose of grinding, you'll simply aggro a crowd of very angry monsters who will give you no pauses between attacks to dismount. Ship dead = you very big sad and you quit Corsair. Please don't. You're already here.

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This is where your game sense will matter: "Can I keep ship alive?"
My two recommended routes from 120-130 are as followed:

Your early levels will suck: 20s of ship uptime and 90s of downtime. That's an eternity.
As you level, it'll become 10 minutes of ship uptime and 90s of downtime. No biggie!

Your ship will stop feeling like soggy paper around Lv. 130, so learning to dismount early on is very important. Lv. 121-125 are your training wheels.
Get a feel of when monsters hit, watch your ship HP, and take in the feeling when your ship can survive Skele grinding for 10 full minutes.
You’re no half-awake scallywag - show the world who’s the bleedin’ captain.

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4th job skill build:

Put at least 1 point at early levels:
Wrath of the Octopi (1)
Air Strike (1)
Elemental Boost (1)

Priority skills:
Battleship Cannon
Battleship
Bullseye
Rapid Fire

Low-priority skills:
Battleship Torpedo (ONLY AFTER PRIORITY SKILLS)
Elemental Boost (ONLY AFTER PRIORITY SKILLS)
Wrath of the Octopi
Air Strike
/ Maple Warrior

Non-priority skills:
Hypnotize
Hero's Will (get it cause it’s for Horntail heh)

Below are the recommended skills that'll help tackle the problems/content you’ll face, with reasonings under. I won’t give level breakdowns down to the number, as everyone has a different confidence level for Corsair and will find certain skills used more than others.

Breakdowns:

Skill book (20/30): Griffey, Scarlion, Targa, Dark Wyvern, Temple Block Golem/Lyka, Red Wyvern, Gallopera

Spoiler: Battleship Cannon:

THIS is your reward for playing Corsair, matey. Welcome to the crew.

THE strongest spammable projectile by default. Yes, really.
Stable damage due to its nonreliance on crits.
Can be fired point blank with enemies in your face.
Picture 25,000 damage without crits. Now picture 4 of them in a row.


Oh, it's glorious...

This glorious life does start slow. Lv.1-10 cannon is honestly pretty shite (the damage is meh as it only hits 3 times, and you're better off spamming Rapid Fire during these fragile ship levels) but Lv.11 onwards - when it hits 4 times - is the real rum n' raisins. There's an additional jump in damage from Lv. 20-21, which you should prioritize.

Cannon has a very long range (almost half the screen), but the low mobility of Battleship can make it hard to catch up to enemies if they knock you back. Luckily, cannon can be fired while jumping, so you can slowly jump fire forwards to gain ground.



For how high cannon's damage is without party buffs, it also doesn't benefit much from them - it's still nice to have, but not substantial.
However, the insane damage multipliers of cannon + Bullseye means you're still going to outdamage everyone in a 1v1 scenario if everyone has party buffs and full uptime.

At the end of the day, this is your defining skill. You'll use it for grinding, bossing, and - quite frankly - everything else in your kit sucks because of how much better cannon is.
The big downside is that you have to manage Battleship to use cannon... but man, is it beautiful up here on deck.

No skill books

Spoiler: Battleship

Your lovely, slow-moving, insurance-less ship, here to make others jealous of how cool it looks while you cry at early levels.
All the essentials were already explained early on in the guide, so I'll detail a few more things I haven't mentioned.
Click here to go back to the Battleship/Dismounting breakdown.

Skills:
While on your ship, you can use the following skills:

• Battleship Cannon, Battleship Torpedo, Ice Splitter, Flamethrower
• Gun Booster, Maple Warrior, Hero's Will
• Octopus, Gaviota

You'll have to hop off ship to use anything else, notably with Blank Shot and Homing Beacon.
Battleship doesn't give passive attack buffs, so hop off if you're not using cannon (unless you want the most inefficient traversal mount in the world).

The ship summoning animation is near-instant (~0.4s) and gives you free movement throughout.
It's recommended you spam whatever skill you want to use after hopping on/off to avoid skills not activating.
Disregarding the cast time, you can mount/dismount during ANY attack animation, and it will cancel the skill's lag depending on what's used.


(here I mount halfway through Homing Beacon's animation)

Ship HP is calculated through Battleship's skill level (1-10) and your character level - Your own HP (including from HP washing and Hyper Body) DOES NOT AFFECT THIS.
Adding points into the Battleship skill adds a fixed amount of Ship HP; you cannot gain more by leveling it earlier.

Leveling Battleship:
Adding points into Battleship increases ship HP by 4000HP each, for a maximum of 40,000HP. Each point gives twice the ship HP compared to when you level (2000HP).
The extra ship HP is a big deal at early levels: it means you can tank 1-2 extra Skelegon lasers each level. With proper dismounting, this will noticeably increase the longevity of your ship.
When maxed, your ship also gets +100 weapon and magic defense.
The defense isn't beneficial enough to matter until your ship has enough HP to facetank (which is around Lv. 145) and does wipe existing defense buffs (like Pain Relievers from Omega Sector) because you're a Corsair.

Battleship HP scaling:
As mentioned previously:

Spoiler: Battleship HP calculation:

Battleship HP = [(Skill Level) * 4000)] + [(Character Level - 120) * 2000]
Level 120: 4,000 HP (Battleship at lv 1)
Level 140: 80,000 (Battle ship at level 10)
Level 200: 200,000 HP

Your ship gains 2000HP per level without accounting for Battleship's skill level. This means Battleship's uptime is NONEXISTENT for your first few levels.
By the time you max cannon though (10 levels), your ship will have 24,000HP if you don't add Battleship points - not a bad amount, but it still crumbles if you don't dismount (context: ~11 hits from Papulatus).

This is why you need to decide between leveling Battleship or Rapid Fire: Battleship will give you ~10 more hits to work with, while Rapid Fire will help with the inevitable ship breaks in your early life.

Once you hit around Lv.150+, your ship will have so much HP that, while bossing, you'll be learning when your ship will go down rather than if it will go down, as staying on your ship can squeeze out extra DPS.
Try to time your ship going down with your buffs (eg. Onyx Apples) so you can maximize uptime.

Other notes:
If you are stunned while on ship, right click the buff icon to cancel it!

Freeze/stun enemies to blast them with cannon. However, once they start the animation of an attack, it will play out and hit you. Don't take unnecessary damage because you think you're safe!


Contrary to belief, being on ship does not reduce the knockback you take, but the slow speed makes it easier to microspace if you're trying to avoid falling off a platform.

Battleship significantly lowers your mobility and doesn't allow you to climb ropes, but it also means you won't move as far when seduced at Horntail.

You can dismount ship when sealed, but you cannot mount.

DOT debuffs (like poison) will damage your ship if you're on it while they tick. This makes Ellin Forest fairies really annoying to fight.

You can use Wings before mounting ship for some goofy-looking Flying Dutchman shenanigans.

Skill book (20/30): Manon, Dark Cornian/Cpt. Latanica, Leviathan, Shark

Spoiler: Rapid Fire

This is literally just Hurricane. You hold down the button and PEWPEWPEWPEW. It's a straight upgrade to Burst Fire and it gives you way more control, but you cannot start the skill in midair. It is also not affected by Gun Booster or Speed Infusion; it has a fixed firing speed.

Compared to cannon, it's faster, weaker, can't flinch enemies well, and you'll melee enemies if they come close. This is problematic for certain bosses that spawn adds or extend their hitboxes while attacking.
Basically, it's your filler move: if ship is down, spam this. If you need to reposition, spam this. If the boss casts weapon cancel, spam this till it expires.

Rapid Fire is used the most during early levels when ship goes down a lot, and exponentially gets less use as you level and ship gets more durable. It's still a skill you should max eventually (as it will make your downtime better), but more confident Corsairs can leave this for later.

This skill has noticeably lower range than cannon (~1/3 of the screen compared to ~1/2).
However, you can just spam the button to scoot closer to an enemy while moving.



To use your summons halfway, stop holding Rapid Fire for a moment!

Skill book (20): Pianus, Nest Golem, Grey Vulture

Spoiler: Bullseye

You know how I shilled Battleship Cannon so hard? This is another reason why.

Bullseye makes Homing Beacon actually useful: a whopping 20% extra damage to the marked target when maxed, and it stays forever (with a few exceptions). This is why Corsairs demolish single targets - max this ASAP for bossing.

Homing Beacon's marked effect makes it fantastic for bosses, as you'll just ignore every other target like a focused laser beam. Examples include the Headless Horseman (ignores Jr. Wraiths) and Zakum (ignores summons).



The downside is that this needs to be reapplied off-ship whenever you want to switch targets. It also makes it difficult to fight adds that you'd want to remove (eg. Chao's boars), so make sure you remember to mark whatever your priority is with the funny bird.
Bullseye also has very little use for mobbing - it's really annoying to reapply for every target, and they'll die in 2 hits anyway. The only place that it's useful is at Neo Tokyo, where aggroing other mobs is a death sentence for your ship.

Note: With crowds, you can mark a target with Bullseye and use mobbing skills! The marked target will take more damage even while you hit everything else!

Skill book (20): Left Pianus, Risell Squid

Spoiler: Wrath of the Octopi

What Octopus wish it was at 3rd job (pls buff).
Like Burst Fire, this directly replaces a skill (Octopus). It DOUBLES their firing rate so they finally hit as fast as other summons, and adds 5 seconds to their lifetime (35s total). At a 1-point investment, this is fantastic - I recommend you do so.

For farming, this increased fire rate means your Octopi will be more efficient.
For bossing, the Octopi will contribute some pretty impressive damage over their lifetime, especially for bosses that sit around and take every hit.
If you combine this with maxed Rapid Fire, you can get pretty close to Battleship Cannon's DPS, but this requires 3 Octopi to be constantly hitting the boss, and it only matters at very long fights.


Leveling Octopus increases their damage, but not noticeably. 7 points is like ~500 extra damage?

The biggest impact comes at Lv.11, where Octos will last 40 seconds total.
You can leave this skill at Lv. 1 or 11 as Octo damage is only useful for bossing, and I genuinely didn't feel a difference outside of the duration increase.

The extra 10secs will give you more time to spam cannon, or summon a 4th Octopus if you want (this is very hard to do as you have to summon them all off-cooldown).

Remember that Octopi will only shoot if you are within a certain distance: you might have to willingly put yourself (and your ship) in danger if you see them go inactive.
If your ship's broken, plant these octos near the boss off cooldown! They'll contribute even if you aren't actively attacking!

Skill book (20/30): Left Pianus, Skelesaurus, Small Bronze Monk/Left Pianus, Red Dragon Turtle

Spoiler: Battleship Torpedo

A slow but very strong torpedo that instantly beats all your mobbing skills in raw damage. At Lv.28, one Torpedo does double the damage of one maxed cannonball. It's also the strongest mobbing projectile multiplier-wise (excluding Piercing Arrow against enough targets).

"Wow, finally a worthy mobbing skill!" I hear you say.
*slaps the Pirate Hat off yer head*
Listen to me first, ya darn goober.

As much as it's tempting, don't add this skill early - ESPECIALLY NOT AT 120-140. It won't be useful.
This is coming from someone who SP reset Torpedo two separate times- don't be fooled by the damage numbers.

It doesn't stun/freeze, is slow, and its damage is much lower than cannon.

The main issue, though: we've already talked about how fragile your ship is at early levels. What happens when you slap 5 monsters?

This skill will KILL your ship.
Torpedo GUARANTEES your ship will get hit before the monsters die; for other jobs it's just facetanking, but for you, your ship will be shred to pieces. If it dies, back to Fire/Ice you go. It's simply not an effective use of your ship's HP.


Cannon keeps your ship safe while Torpedo doesn't!

At low levels, Torpedo takes so many shots to kill that it's only effective against 5+ mobs, which needs 11SP (Torpedo hits 4 targets at Lv.1).

11SP used in Torpedo is 11SP you could put into Cannon or Battleship.
11SP is exactly how much it takes to reach cannon's big damage jumps.
10SP gives you at least 10 extra hits on your ship.​

Only level Torpedo once you max your core 1v1 skills (Cannon/Bullseye/Battleship/Rapid Fire).
Lionheart Castle content awaits you past Lv. 150 - this is where you'll need mobbing damage, and it's the best you'll have. You'll always be using appos there, so you'll be doing a ton of damage with maxed Torpedo!
At that level, your ship is also durable enough to finally use Torpedo elsewhere without much risk (such as soloing Ellin Forest bosses).

Notes:
As with Cannon, Torpedo gets power jumps at Lv.11 and 21 (more dmg than usual + 1 additional target).
Unlike Kyrin's boss fight, Torpedo only flies straight forward, but it also ignores walls/props, making it good in areas like Ulu City.
Speed Infusion helps with the slow fire rate - you'll want a Bucc at Lionheart Castle (which you'll have, don't worry).

Skill book (20/30): Zakum, Wulin Yaoseng (boss/clones)/Horntail

Spoiler: Air Strike

BIRD GENESIS

I'm not gonna lie, I had way more fun with this skill than Battleship when I first got Corsair. I spent hours going around just exploding everything.

First: THIS IS NOT AN UPGRADE TO GAVIOTA. IT'S A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT SKILL.

Air Strike is basically a weaker Genesis with a 5 second cooldown. It only hits 6 targets, its damage is weaker (10~13K at Lv. 120), and it animation locks you for ~3s, but it's still a screenwide nuke for a single SP!

It's not going to be any use at areas where things die in 3+ hits, but it is AWESOME for grinding weak mobs anywhere else. It's like Dragon Roar or Genesis, but without massive resource drains! It's free real estate!
Rotate between Octopus, Fire/Ice and Air Strike for some real good farming.

Air Strike's hitbox is a large circle above you - it doesn't extend far under you, so try to use it below your targets.

It also has damage jumps at Lv. 11 and 21, but this is sadly one of the last skills you'll level. GMs pls buff this to be castless to replace Gaviota thanks.

Tip: Use this at Krexel to shock your friend into thinking Krexel fucking exploded (true story).

Skill book (20/30): Left Pianus, Rexton, Bronze Monk, Shining Fairy/Reindeer

Spoiler: Elemental Boost

Level 1 of this skill is useful because it gives Ice Splitter 1 extra second of freeze time. Any levels after that are honestly not worth it compared to your other skills, at least not until Lv. 160+.

Elemental Boost increases the potency of Flamethrower and Ice Splitter. Both attacks get extra damage; Flamethrower also gets extra DOT damage, and Ice Splitter gets extra freeze time.

The problem is the buffs are not substantial enough till you spend a lot of points into it - both skills have low damage, and you need to prioritize all your 1v1 skills due to how much you're bossing. You genuinely won't get any use out of it compared to just leveling cannon; 2-shotting enemies individually is way more efficient.

Elemental Boost doesn't do anywhere close to Torpedo's damage at low levels. The damage increase is also only significant on element-weak enemies, but they usually resist the opposite element, so your Fire/Ice combo adds up to the same damage anyway. Against neutral enemies, you won't be impressed by the damage.

Finally, Flamethrower's crappy DOT doesn't benefit from 5% extra damage (at max), and it takes 16SP to make Ice Splitter freeze for 2 more seconds.

HOWEVER! With the addition of Lionheart Castle, Elemental Boost finally has some use, as Reindeers and Bearwolves are weak to ice and fire, respectively; they don't resist the other element either.
While the DOT/freeze doesn't work on them, the damage you do is genuinely not bad with buffs and potions (which will always be the case at LHC).
From my limited skimming of the forums, a near-maxed Elemental Boost is estimated to have similar effectiveness as Torpedo, but with much more mobility.
I don't have actual numbers to give you, but if you intend to do LHC a lot, investing in this is worth it at higher levels, as you'll be more efficient whenever ship is down!

Also, I HAVE NO IDEA HOW THE DAMAGE CALCULATION WORKS.

Spoiler: Potential calculation

I tried searching for resources on whether Elemental Boost is additive or multiplicative - the latter would be significantly stronger, but there's just no answers!
To test this myself I'd have to SP reset and add points into Elemental Boost, which would be waaaay too much NX.
If someone can actually test this out, please comment below.)

Additive: 360% (200%+160%)
Multiplicative: 480% (200%, 3x the damage)
(credit to ImVeryJelly in A Comprehensive Corsair Guide)

/
Skill book (20): Horntail (good luck)

Spoiler: Maple Warrior

Maple Warrior increases your base stats by a set %. The more of a stat you have, the larger the benefit. More DEX = bigger DPS boost.
In general, while MW is definitely a strong buff, it's a universal skill that's shared with everyone else. Majority of 4th job content is group content, and at least one of your party members will have MW9/MW20, so I don't find much reason in adding this unless you are solo grinding.
Corsair has a lot of other skills that needs skill points before you should touch this, especially with Lionheart Castle as Lv. 150+ content.

If you're solo grinding bosses, it's a different story. I would have recommended to leave this alone till a friend showed me how much of a DPS upgrade it is.
MW9 gave my character ~200 attack range, a substantial amount if you're solo grinding.
MW3 gave me 50~60 range, which is still good.

MW20 gives way more, but you need 2 billion for a 70% chance to increase MW's max level............................ yeah I'll stick with my friends thanks lol.

If you do level this, leave it at 9, as MW10 is just a duration increase.

Note: Maple Warrior also has use for reaching STR requirements; if you are heavily minmaxing, you can use MW to reach Concerto/Dragon Revolver requirements and save a few STR points.
If you are INT washing, it will give you more MP based on how much INT you had when leveling, and you'd get better results the earlier you do it. In this case you'd be very funded to attempt this anyway.

Skill book (20): Papulatus, Stone Bug, Crocky the Gatekeeper

Spoiler: Hypnotize

I've never used this skill. Google doesn't show a single image of anyone using it. I have no idea what it looks like.

It's pretty much a gimmick - you have a chance to make a monster friendly for around 20 seconds. It does de-aggro the monster, which may be of use at Lionheart Castle, but idk man.
I'm pretty sure you'll be able to kill the monster accidentally, and monsters do 3-4k damage max, so... add this if you want to meme I guess.

Skill book (20): Von Leon (good luck)

Spoiler: Hero's Will

You add 1 point into this to do Horntail. That's it. The questline is long and costly, so do it only if your intention is to be the Seduce target.

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Sharp Eyes and Speed Infusion: tl;dr
This is a quick summary without specific calculations (in a bossing context).

Sharp Eyes (SE) and Speed Infusion (SI) are two important buffs that affect some jobs more than others.
Most people don't know how Corsair is affected, so here's a quick summary compared to their peers.

Corsair benefits more from Speed Infusion than Sharp Eyes.
They are the only ranged job where SE isn't mandatory for their performance - Corsair actually benefits the least out of SE.
The difference is Corsairs do not DEPEND on these buffs to hit hard; they just do. SE+SI is just a quality-of-life.

Sharp Eyes grants + 15% crit chance and +140% additional crit damage: as cannon doesn't depend on crits, it benefits far less than Bowmen and Night Lords.
(These jobs have to crit to do meaningful damage, and a higher crit chance + crit multiplier means their damage skyrockets).
Corsairs gain ~5.5% DPS with Sharp Eyes. Compare that to the ~53% increase Night Lords get, though do note this is pretty much required for Night Lords to be competitive. Without hitting a crit, Bowmen/Night Lord damage is pitiful - it's not an exaggeration to say they need Sharp Eyes. This is why you always bring SE mules for Night Lords.


Night Lord crits VS without crits. Oof. That's harsh.

Speed Infusion, which increases attack speed, does benefit cannon unlike Night Lord (as their Claws already hit the attack speed cap with Booster) and Bowmaster (Hurricane has a fixed attack speed). The only other ranged that's affected are Marksmen, as they use Strafe.
This buff is more meaningful due to cannon's high raw damage - faster firing means you hit more of your cannonballs.
It's also guaranteed for every attack rather than the chance-based crits from Sharp Eyes - a 15% crit rate isn't that amazing for you.
Because your other common competitors aren't affected by Speed Infusion, this is where you'll edge out.
Corsairs gain ~7.4% DPS with Speed Infusion, which is higher than Sharp Eyes.

In total, if you are buffed with SE + SI + Bullseye, your damage increase is ~14.3%. This is significantly lower than Night Lord (~53%) and Bowmaster (~66%), but this is because they require the crit buff to hit comparable numbers. You'll still outdamage everyone in an ideal scenario, especially if there are no/all party buffs running!

This only applies to Battleship Cannon. If you're using Rapid Fire, it only benefits from Sharp Eyes as its firing speed is capped (not affected by boosters).
If your ship breaks, your damage is significantly worse than everyone else. Keeping ship uptime is the key with whether these calculations matter at all!

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Equipment (& Where To Find 'Em)

Here's some good news: Corsairs are incredibly cheap to fund.
As someone who plays one character and doesn't sell services like leech/VIP bosses, I found it very easy to buy/scroll decent equipment; I survived off daily voting.

Your 30% gun scrolls cost 1mil+, and your perfect weapon (88wa Dragon Revolver) costs ~3.5b - basically nothing compared to meta jobs. For how much damage you're doing, you don't have to break your back for it.

Yes I'm shilling, but I'M NOT MAKING THIS UP!


This has been sold for at least 100 billion. Good luck selling leech for 5 years.
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As mentioned in the AP section, you should aim to have 50 BASE STR MAX through your life. Any higher is a waste as STR is only meant to hit requirements to equip endgame weapons. The Defense stat doesn't do much in this era of Maple, so you'll be minmaxing DEX on low level equips.

Yes, this means you'll be restricted to the boring meta: Green Bandana, Bathrobe, Maple Gun...

Just kidding.

Pirates have low STR requirements, and Mapleroyals has very accessible STR scrolls.
If you don't want to play the boring meta, you can still wear all Pirate equips with 50 base STR by scrolling.
This is the route I played, so yes it's possible.

You'll be less optimized, but it's barely a difference when your first 3 jobs hit so low anyway.
Plus, you're deciding to play Gunslinger! Show off those rare-ass gun models!

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The 2 Routes:

The Boring Meta (Pure DEX, late STR)
This route will maximize damage, and won't have you worrying about changing gear. You'll also look ugly as shit. Sorry, just facts.

The Chad Fun Enjoyer (STR+DEX)
This route will have you swap armors and weapons every opportunity you have.
It's less efficient, you'll do less damage, and I had a lot of fun. It's the route I took.
You'll also look cool as shit. Sorry, just facts.
For equip regions not listed, please check the next section.

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The List of Very Useful Gear
For both routes, there are some essential gear that are so good that you should get them ASAP. A lot of these provide STR, which is how you'll make up for having only 50STR.

This is intended as an MID/ENDGAME checklist!

Guns:

Bullets:

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HP Washing: Do I need to add INT and HP wash?
Look, you're playing Mapleroyals. Its whole identity is leeching and washing, and there's no going around that. If you don't HP wash, you can't boss. Right?

No. I feel like there's a misconception/overfocus on HP that makes people worry about it far too much.

In the current state of Royals (2026), HP washing is not a necessity due to alternate HP methods.

It will let you fight certain bosses earlier, but you can do 90% of content without AP washing once.
If your aim is only to fight nostalgia bosses (Papulatus, Zakum, Krexel, Horntail), it's possible without AP washing.
I'd recommend hard-focusing on washing only if you have specific bossing goals (Wulin Yaoseng/Kacchu Musha), intend to do the endgame of endgames(Auf Haven/Von Leon), or if you're very funded and have no time.

Do not be discouraged to play legitimately because you see everyone washing.

If this was 10 years ago, I would have said otherwise. However, current Royals has a myriad of HP equipment not available before, and additional HP quests you can do to gain HP. Do these over time and don't put them off early; it adds up to a lot of HP.
With Enquiry as my first bossing character, I was surprised at how little HP I actually needed.

The earliest sources to gain HP without washing, which should be done ASAP, are:

Spoiler: HP QUESTS:

• Olaf Questline (An Adventurer's Assignment) - Lv. 20 onwards:
  New questlines appear every 10 Lvs, and rewards incrementally more HP + other rewards (3000HP total). DO THIS ASAP FOR MAX EFFICIENCY - the content is based on the quest level!
• Water from the Spring of Youth - Lv 70:
  5-part quest where you collect lots of etc items for the Ellinia pet fairy (500HP total).
• Reuel's HP Quest (Search for the Elixir of Life) - Lv. 120 4th job:
  Late-game option to slowly increase max HP (20-50HP per quest). Quests are infinite until you reach a base HP threshold (9995 for Corsairs) - it becomes a daily quest after that point.

Spoiler: EQUIPS:

• Medals: Some of these will take a while to grind but are very worth it; Quest Specialist (+5 stats, 150HP) and Amazing Collector (1wa, 250HP) are some examples.
• Equipment: There are so, SO many options. There's so many that I can't list them all.
• Pet Equipment: Get three pets and scroll their equips with HP ASAP - that's ~350HP just from pets!

To test how much washing I'd be forced to do, my character has had 57 base INT just in case I needed to wash. I've washed a total of 4AP (~50HP), and never had to worry for HP. I've been able to do all content within my level range, barring a few.

The only bosses I can't fight without Hyper Body are Shao (Wulin Yaoseng), Neo Tokyo bosses (Dunas onwards), Castellan Toad and Von Leon - fights not on my priority list.

I'll eventually wash this out, but the fact is - it really isn't necessary!

Look how scuffed this is at Lv. 160. I managed!

If you're REALLY nervous about HP and unfunded, you can play with some base INT as I did, with self-scrolled INT equips for leveling. I assure you though, you'll be fine (and you'll be spending your NX gachaing instead of buying AP resets. Yes I'm looking at you, me).

If you ARE washing, I believe Corsair can survive all content in the game with 17k max HP. Any higher and it can be detrimental to your ship against 1/1s.

tl;dr A real pirate doesn't wash. Yar har! Okay we kind of stink though.

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Bossing 101

Bossing: the real meat and potatoes. This will be a very indepth section with GIFs for important attacks.
"But Enq, don't you just facetank-" You're Corsair. You're going to learn the animations like a fighting game player. That's how it is!

General Tips
- As a Corsair, your effectiveness is dependent on how hard a boss hits you. Certain bosses are easy cause their damage comes from contact (and they might never be able to touch you), while others have huge spammable magic attacks that will make it hard to keep ship up.

- If you feel like you'll be hit on ship or are stuck on it while using another skill, just dismount. You can dismount at anytime with no lag, there's no downside!

- Most stationary bosses knock to the left with their magic attacks, regardless of your facing direction.
Jump towards the knockback to lower the distance you're hit, and jump-fire to reposition! This is essential for keeping on platforms and staying within distance for your cannon!

- Gauge if the amount of ship damage you're avoiding from dismounting is worth the time! If you can see the Battleship buff icon go down on hit, you should probably dismount that attack. If not, you can stay on ship. Staying on ship lets you squeeze out more DPS!

- When mounting/dismounting, spam the attack you want so it comes out as early as possible (button mash, not hold the button).

- Once you have enough ship HP, you can permanently stay on ship till it's about to break, then dismount everything until you want ship to break. Usually you'll time this with Appos running out, or if you know you need a ship refresh (eg. after Horntail's preheads).

- Make sure your party knows that Sharp Eyes isn't a mandatory buff for Corsairs unlike other ranged jobs! If possible, prioritize Speed Infusion on a party if you're the only ranged!

(Link to Battleship skill's rundown)

Minimum HP
A lot of guides recommend very high HP requirements for bosses, but this is usually the boss' touch damage. You're incredibly unlikely to touch most bosses, so it's reasonable to have enough HP just to survive magic damage.
(This is dependent on the boss; please check before fighting!)

Boss magic damage is usually significantly lower and survivable, and majority of grindable bosses don't move.
You're a Corsair, so you're always paying attention, and shouldn't hug the boss ever. (I've never done it. No don't ask. Please I only died to Krexel eye once-)

If you can survive at least one hit at a boss, you're set to fight it.
Any more is just a safety net in case your pet doesn't auto-pot.

Etiquette
When bossing with a party, remove pet item pouches, and discuss who gets what loot before fighting. Rewards are usually split between boss drops/NX. NX usually goes to the one who uses the boss summoning item.
If possible, log out/in after each boss fight to reset your ship HP - this is the only way to do so yourself! Just don't log out at a location which sends you back to town!
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1/1s and Hyper Body: A Clarification
There's a lot of confusion on how these matter for bossing as a Corsair, so I'm breaking it down here for posterity.

What are 1/1s?
These are attacks that reduce your current HP/MP to 1. These are the make-or-break for Corsair bossing. As in it breaks. Your ship.

If a boss usually hits for 3000HP, and your ship has 30k, your ship lasts 10 hits.
If a boss does 10,000HP with a 1/1 attack (cause your current HP is 10,001), your ship lasts 3 hits.

If a boss has 1/1s, dismount those attacks or your ship will die extremely fast.
The more current HP you have, the more damage you will take.
CURRENT, NOT MAX HP. IF YOUR HP IS 251/10001, 1/1s DO 250 DAMAGE, NOT 10k.

If a boss has 1/1s, use potions that heal both HP/MP (eg. Watermelon). This is because pets use HP pots before MP ones, and you may not be able to remount immediately if your pet doesn't replenish your MP.
Put the HP+MP pot in the MP pouch, and try not to use percent-based ones against weaker bosses (eg. Zakum); you'll heal far too much HP and be vulnerable to a huge 1/1 again!
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What does Hyper Body (HB) do for you and your ship?
Hyper Body increases your Max HP, but not your Ship HP. Some people assume that this is always bad for some reason, the worst being "always cancel HB on Corsair!".

Unless a boss has 1/1 attacks, Hyper Body does nothing bad to your ship. You don't have to cancel it.
Against 1/1 bosses, Hyper Body will make your ship take much more damage from 1/1s since your current health will be much higher (especially if you heal to max health with auto pots).
If you don't need Hyper Body and a boss has 1/1s, just right click and cancel it.

If you have high max HP, you can lower the amount of damage you take from 1/1s by auto-potting as close to survivable HP as possible, using lower-HP potions like Ice Cream Pops/Melting Cheese. Just make sure you won't die to any attacks!

If you need Hyper Body to survive an encounter and the boss has 1/1s, be active with dismounting or your ship will shatter.

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All boss sections will have gifs and strategies.
Click the spoilers to expand!

Bosses before 4th Job:

There are only a few of these before 4th job, but you may find them relevant!

Bosses: Balrog, Cpt. Latanica

Spoiler: Bosses before 4th job

Balrog (Balrog PQ)

Level range: Lv. 75-99 (Lv. 90+ recommended)
Prequests?: Yes (First quest starts from Manji at Lv. 75)
Attempts per day: 2
Damage/Debuffs: ~2500HP (magic/touch); 5000HP (damage reflect)
Damage reflect, Undead, Dispel
Min HP to have: 4000 (just pay attention to reflect!)
Recommended?: Yes (if you can find a party/service) - bring attack buff potions

Good drops: 3x Balrog Shoulder Pad
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Balrog PQ dumps you straight into a boss fight with this bad boy. It's a tough one - it's durable enough that it's an actual DPS check, and needs more attentiveness than some endgame bosses! You have 25 mins to kill it - if you are trioing with 2 other people, this can cut really close.

It does provide some hefty exp (20-25%?), but you probably only need to do this once or twice, as there's a lack of parties and people only do it to get a Balrog Shoulder Pad.
This is the only serious boss before Lv. 100 that will test you, so I don't recommend going in till you have proper damage.
Make sure you are at least Lv. 90 with attack potions - I'd even recommended to get an Onyx Apple if your party isn't entirely attackers.

Shoulder pads are one-of-a-kind and untradeable, but you can move them around on your account through Storage Keepers.
Do note: as of early 2026, pad stats do not count for equipment requirements. If you are missing 2STR to wear a Concerto and a pad gives 2STR, you still won't be able to wear it.

Spoiler: Balrog strat

(all pics credited to etumimi's Balrog guide)
Fight tldr: Right arm (25%) > Left arm (25%) > Head (50%)
DO NOT HIT THE HEAD BEFORE ARMS ARE DOWN. IT WILL HEAL BALROG

Adds (Jr. Balrog/Crimson Balrog) will spawn during the fight; don't worry about them.
Use Homing Beacon to tag the part you're fighting for convenience; it'll also teach you that it exists before 4th job lol.

Arms: The reason you start at right arm is cause the boss knocks you to the left (towards the arm), while left arm/head knocks away (less of an annoyance).
The arms are nothing to speak of; just facetank it.
Once left arm is dead, climb to top plat and fight the head.

Head: As a Corsair-to-be, this fight will teach you to PAY ATTENTION. The reason is simple: Damage Reflect. Only a few bosses possess this, and Balrog is one of them.

If you see orange horns and a magic circle, STOP ATTACKING. It's casting Damage Reflect. If you attack it will do 5k and will most likely KILL YOU.
Octopus and Gaviota do NOT trigger Damage Reflect!
When this icon disappears above Balrog's head, it's safe to attack.





If this purple circle appears, purple bites will hit you and may apply a debuff: Dispel or Undead.
IF YOU HAVE A PRIEST, PLS TELL THEM NOT TO USE HEAL ASUNDEAD CAN AND WILL KILL YOU. It also reduces potion efficiency by 50%; you might need to manual pot.





When Balrog goes black, Balrog will slowly heal, and the party needs to go around and destroy a totem with basic attacks.

Once Balrog dies, you'll be teleported into a room where you can collect one of three Balrog Shoulder Pads!

Captain Latanica

Level range: Lv. 95+
Prequests?: Yes (The Secret of Ghostship, Lv. 63)
Attempts per day: Unlimited (100 Jr. Selkies, 100 Slimy, 100 Mr.Anchor for a summon item)
Damage/Debuffs: ~2300HP (touch); ~3900HP (magic)

Min HP to have: 4000
Recommended to solo?: Yesn't (drops 5k NX, but locked behind a repeatable quest for each kill)

Good drops: Soul Lantern (tradeable etc, needed for Krexel preq), 5000NX
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There's almost no guide for Latanica, so I might as well give the Singaporean captain some love. (I'm SG :3)

Captain Latanica kinda just exists: most people will fight him only once, and you'll probably forget he exists. I do recommend you start The Secret of Ghostship questline as early as you can in order to fight him, because Ghost Ship is a great grinding location, so you'll knock out two birds with one stone.
Latanica is really only fought for the Soul Lantern, which is needed for Krexel's prequests, as he doesn't drop anything good outside of NX. He CAN be fought repeatedly so long as you finish the quest to get a White Essence; whether this is worth it is up to you.

Spoiler: Latanica strat

Latanica acts like a field boss - there isn't much to him other than "make sure you can survive". You don't have your ship yet, so there's no management involved.
Just tag him with Homing Beacon, spam Burst Fire, aaaand that's it really. He casts weakness and summons ghost adds occasionally, but that's all. Simple!

He is a good place to learn your rotation though; summon your Octopi and Gaviota during the fight to get the rhythm down.

Once you hit Corsair, I recommend you fight Latanica even while your ship is weak! He doesn't hit too hard, so it's a good location to learn dismounting.

Attack tells:

• Roar - Summons a slow moving boat, can be avoided by standing on side platforms
• Turns dark with ghosts - Typical AOE
• Ground punch - Causes weakness

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4th job: Field Bosses

These are bosses that roam certain areas and respawn after a set (and slightly randomized) time. As you're the premier bossing job, they are great for EXP/NX, and you have the option to hunt these whenever. No prequest requirements; just make sure you have strong buff potions and have enough health to tank touch damage (or make sure you DON'T GET HIT).
Just know that you're not the only one hunting these down - if someone else is already fighting one, be a good pirate and change channel.

All of these bosses have the same strategy:

• Go to location > Kill enemies to see if boss spawns > Tag boss with Homing Beacon > BLAST WITH YER CANNON till it dies
• When necessary, rebuff/move around (Royals has an anti-afk measure where skills stop casting if you use 100 of them without moving)

A lot of these maps have mobs that disrupt other ranged jobs, or the bosses have really weird hitstun animations that make them annoying to fight.
Except you're Corsair! You have Homing Beacon, and your cannon happens to fire in the perfect rhythm to stun them near-constantly. What a boon!

So, you ready to go plunder?

Bosses: Headless Horseman, Bigfoot, Black Crow, Kacchu Musha

Spoiler: 4th job field bosses

Headless Horseman

Level range: Lv. 120+
Location/Respawn time: Huge variety of areas in NLC's Phantom Forest - Easiest location is Phantom Forest: Hollowed Ground (~6hrs)

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Damage: ~2500HP
Recommended buff pot: Heartstoppers
Good drops: Jack-o-Lantern (untradeable, for Bounty Hunter quest), 100/250/1000/5000NX, Topwear STR 30%

This is a boss you should fight ASAP, as he gives great exp at early 4th job and doesn't ask much from you. He doesn't hit hard and the map mobs are just Jr. Wraiths - this is a good time to learn how to use Homing Beacon.
Hollowed Ground is the easiest map to find him, but you can check the other maps he spawns on - more than one can spawn in a channel on separate maps!

Spoiler: Horseman strat

The Horseman's flinch animation is really short, so you want to cannon him and pin him on the spot.


Tag, cannon, repeat. Octopi can help you kill the Jr. Wraiths while you cannon.




His sword attack is very easy to dismount as he pauses before every swing, so your ship isn't in much danger at early levels.
Watch out for the head attack though.




Nothing to it; keep finding more and learn the basics!

Bigfoot



Level range: Lv. 130+ (for efficiency)
Location/Respawn time: Huge variety of areas in NLC's Phantom Forest - BE CAREFUL WHEN HUNTING HIM (~12 hrs)

Damage: ~12,000HP (touch) ; 1HP (attacks)
Recommended buff pot: Heartstoppers, Onyx Apple (if you are CONFIDENT about surviving; die and the buff's gone)
Good drops: 100/250/1000/5000NX, Bigfoot's Toe (untradeable, for Bounty Hunter quest)

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Look at that touch damage. You're gonna need big (cannon)balls to hunt this inexperienced. Its general weirdness, massive touch damage and annoying maps do turn people off till higher level. If you are truly terrified of it, bring another ranged friend to help you with stunning; that's how I fought Bigfoot early on.
Most of the difficulty comes from the FEAR OF BEING HIT and having to navigate the goddamn Phantom Forest again, so keep your cool. Corsair is actually one of the best jobs to solo Bigfoot due to the rhythm of your cannonballs.

Like the Horseman, many Bigfoots can spawn per channel and its EXP/NX is equivalent to Papulatus, making it rewarding to fight. Once you get the hang of it, Bigfoot can be an incredible EXP/NX supply, though it is a notable timesink, taking 7~10 minutes to solo.

Spoiler: Bigfoot strat

First things first: BE CAREFUL WHEN NAVIGATING THE FOREST. YOU CAN TELEPORT STRAIGHT INTO BIGFOOT WHILE IT IS WANDERING.
That was... my first encounter with it.

Bigfoot's flinch animation causes it to be unattackable for ~0.5s. The trick is to keep a specific distance from it, as your cannon will keep it in a constant animation lock.

The typical strat: Get its attention with Homing Beacon/Rapid Fire, lead it to a wall, and Recoil Shot over it.
Bigfoot's hitbox is smaller than it looks - you'll be safe doing this without Dash.
Alternatively, get hit by another map mob (like Jr. Wraiths) and run past it.


Once it's there, keep around this distance and spam cannon. The rhythm will keep it locked in place.
Halving this distance will give you double the hits, but you risk getting hit by Bigfoot if your rhythm stops.

In the event your rhythm is disrupted or you need to rebuff, Recoil Shot over it, wait for it to turn around, Recoil Shot over again, and repin.



You can also pin it without a wall at this distance.


I RECOMMEND NOT USING OCTOPI/GAVIOTA. If they hit Bigfoot, it will flinch and you may lose your rhythm. Just focus entirely on cannon.

Once it's dead, pat yourself on the back - good job. You got nerves of steel, mate.

Black Crow


Level range: Lv. 135+; duo recommended till you have enough HP
Location/Respawn time: Encounter with the Buddha (~8hrs)

Damage: ~8500HP (magic); ~7700HP (touch)
Recommended buff pot: Heartstoppers, Onyx Apple (if you can survive)
Good drops: 100/250/1000/5000NX, Stonetooth Sword

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The bane of Priests grinding everywhere.
This is the first field boss that you'll likely need to do HP quests/wash for, as he frequently uses PAINFUL magic attacks when close enough. He also spawns in an area with strong mobs, which means you can't ignore them like the Jr.Wraiths for Horseman/Bigfoot.
If you don't have enough HP, this boss is risky as it will eventually catch up and hit you.

If you're around Lv. 130, I highly recommend you fight this boss with someone else (ideally a ranged attacker + Priest/Bishop to pull Dreamy Ghosts away).
Your cannon will not consistently pin him and the ghosts will disrupt you constantly, so I can't guarantee you'll avoid being hit unless you partner up.
You can eventually solo him later on when your ship is durable enough.

Spoiler: Black Crow strat

Same deal: pull him to the sides and pin him. This is much easier with another ranged; if solo, he will eventually catch up and whack you.
If playing with a Priest/Bish, get them to heal and pull the ghosts away.
Make sure they don't kill the Dreamy Ghosts or they'll just respawn and interrupt you.




MAKE SURE YOUR HEALER DOESN'T TRY HELPING. THEY'LL DIE.



Rapid Fire is more efficient with stunlocking him. You can spam this till he is far enough to cannon.



Keep him around this distance (left gif: wall, right gif: no wall).
Octopi can help you stun him easier, but it will also aggro nearby Dreamy Ghosts.



If you're soloing, you can use the Dreamy Ghosts' touch damage to take less ship damage (they do 1-2k compared to 7-8k).



Done. Go hop channels; there's likely other Priests wanting a Black Crow killed!

Kacchu Musha


Level range: Lv. 135+; takes very long to kill, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE HP
Location/Respawn time: Zipangu: Castle Corridor 9 (complex map; Map guide for MapleLegends, but still applies here); ~11 hours

Damage: 10000~11000HP (sword shockwave), 8000-9000HP (lightning)
Recommended buff pot: Heartstoppers, Onyx Apple (if you can survive)
Good drops: NX, Samurai Knight Armor Piece (needed for Neo Tokyo prequests), Scroll for Eye Acc 70% (STR/DEX/LUK)

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A very hard hitting boss that spawns within the confusing Ninja Castle. He gives great EXP but takes a long time to kill (~7 mins) and he's very difficult to fight due to how HARD he hits. You'll most likely fight him for Olaf quests or Neo Tokyo prequests, but the HP requirement for Kacchu is so high that you'll have difficulty fighting him early.
There are solo strategies if you are a ranged, but I've only fought him with my friend (Pat), so I can only give advice for duoing.

Kacchu can be pushed with any amount of damage, so it's easy to pin him: the problem is avoiding his huge attacks while solo. The map he spawns in also has weirdly placed props that can block your projectiles. Because of how hard he hits, the main goal is to keep ship alive!

Oh, also, you need to keep yourself alive. If you're barely in the survivable threshold, Kacchu may roll a high number and kill you Bring high-HP potions!!

Spoiler: Kacchu solo, credit to faulty waffle iron

Spoiler: Kacchu strat

Fight tl;dr: Get your good buddy Pat to push the boss to the sides, then blast with cannon. There are certain places to stand, but most of it will have you facetanking very painful attacks. Do be careful.
Any day now...


Because of the map's weird props, left and right have different areas for you to stand. I'll cover them after the attacks section.


Attacks:

Lightning: The weaker of his attacks, this strikes the ground around its target.
As the hitbox only hits the ground, others will be safe despite the animation. (Pat's mules are all ok!)
If you are duoing, the lightning will be far away and it'll miss you.
If you're soloing, this will be aimed AT YOU, which means you can't avoid it like I am here!




Sword shockwave: BIG OUCH. If you're not the only one attacking, it's very hard to tell when Kacchu does this, as it looks similar to his idle.
The shockwave is a lot easier to avoid when soloing, as you're the one dictating when it gets hit.


The shockwave is avoidable by standing on plats and jumping near the very edge of the attack: it needs to be timed right or it'll clip you.
I ended up spamming jump to try avoiding them, but it's inconsistent.


Fighting Kacchu: Left wall

If you are duoing, the second-top wall arrow will let you avoid the shockwaves, but not the lightning.




It's not consistent: your cannons can miss as there's a fuckass arrow that blocks some shots, but it's a lot safer than the ground.
On the ground, there's another fuckass arrow that will block your Cannon/Rapid Fire.

In general, either hug the second-top wall arrow or stand on the windowsill.


Fighting Kacchu: Right wall

I find right wall more difficult, as there's a wall arrow that seems to give enough height to avoid the shockwave, but it doesn't.
The wall arrow will also block your shots if you jump.

I believe this is the better spot to solo Kacchu due to the lack of fuckass arrows, but I wasn't able to do it properly so I can't give advice on it.

Don't mind me, just doing Corsair things.

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4th job: Early Daily Bosses

These are the earliest "daily bosses" you'll be fighting (aka they're limited to a few entrances a day). All of these need prequests before you can fight them, which you should do before 4th job (the quests provide good EXP/grinding locations).

It's recommended to duo (party with someone else) for these from Lv. 120-135, as you'll get more efficient kill times and your kit isn't fully built yet.

Once you get past these levels, you'll be able to solo most of these under 10 minutes; they drop NX that can add up to much more than a daily vote, so it's highly recommended to!

One Papulatus kill with ALL NX CARDS dropped- good money!

Bosses: Papulatus, Chao, Ephenia

Spoiler: 4th job early daily bosses

Papulatus



Level range: Lv. 120+
Prequests?: Yes (Protect Ludibrium! questline)
Attempts per day: 2 (needs Crack of Dimension ; each player given one a day from Flo)
Damage/Debuffs: 1/1, ~2500HP (magic), ~4500HP (ground bomb summons), ~8000HP (platform bomb summons), ~5100HP (phase 2 touch)
Slow, Dispel
Min HP to have: 5200 (to survive phase 2 contact); 4000HP (don't get hit by bombs/phase 2)
Will ship break?: Yes, before Lv. 135
Recommended to solo?: Yes, at Lv. 130+ (Heartstoppers)
Good drops: Mastery books, 100/250/1000/5000NX
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Your first proper boss, and a nostalgic one at that. You'll unlock his fight while doing the prequests to access Ellin Forest; killing him is not mandatory to unlock the area, but you'll be able to enter his arena to fight him from then on. I hope you realise he's an annoying piece of shclock though.
Papu is a prime EXP boss to grind till Lv. 135. He's known for being extremely annoying because of his constant dispels and invulns, but he doesn't hit very hard.
He's also the first boss that has 1/1s, so it's time to learn animations!
Truthfully, Papu is a pretty bad boss to learn dismounting to: most of his attacks are very fast and unreactable, with the exception of his 1/1. You can dismount them anyway - it'll build up useful muscle memory.

By the time you hit ~Lv. 130, you'll be able to solo him with Heartstoppers. From Lv. 140 onwards, he will be a daily solo grind that you'll be very used to.
(If you're early 4th job and wondering why no one in your guild wants to fight Pap with you, this is why - they want the NX for themselves! Don't blame them, I do this too lol)

Spoiler: Papulatus strat

tldr: Bullseye, push Pap to the corner, stand far enough to avoid dispels, and summon Octos whenever possible.
Your octos only attack very close to Pap's max dispel distance; always check if your octos are active.
MAKE SURE SHIP IS UP FOR PHASE 2! You want to do 10k or more to push Pap back so he can't ram you!

Attacks:

1/1: You'll hate him for this. The tell is a yellow speech bubble - there's a lot of time to react, and this is the one attack that you need to dismount.
He'll go invincible immediately after. This is guaranteed and he can do it in a row - you can see why he's annoying. Just summon Octos/rebuff while you wait.





Debuff: Has an electric sound cue. If you are too close, it will stun or dispel you.
This won't affect you if you stand far enough! The safe zone is around the two holes in the background wall where I'm standing (second gif). Ty StacksMalone for this tip!

Ideally, you want to push Pap all the way to the sides so you can avoid dispels. At the start of the fight, fire cannon at max distance so he doesn't dispel you while you push him.
There is also a slow debuff that can affect you further away; however you're already on your slow-ass ship, so who cares lol.
If Pap stuns you, right click the Battleship buff to hop off!





Generic attacks: Thunder, Fire, Ice
Pap will spam this whenever it's not doing anything else. Thunder and Fire are really fast and I don't recommend dismounting them (Thunder is instant); Ice is slightly slower, so dismount that one if possible.





Summons: Summons a bunch of bomb adds. They explode in one hit/by proximity and they actually do more damage than Pap does, so make sure you aren't low HP and standing near them when they explode.
THE TOP PLATFORM'S BOMBS ARE WAY STRONGER (8K) SO BE CAREFUL!

If your ship is down before Pap dies, wait for it to return before phase 2, as you need cannon to knock phase 2's body back (10k dmg minimum).





On death, Papulatus separates from his clock and tries to ram you. Show him that it's really inappropriate by blasting him.





And that's it! Congrats on your Papulatus kill!
(this was my first )

Chao

Level range: Lv. 115+ (Lv. 120 recommended)
Prequests?: Yes (Ellin Forest questline, Step 8; after lots of 999 kills)
Attempts per day: 2
Damage/Debuffs: 3000-3500HP
Min HP to have: 6000
Will ship break?: Yes, before Lv. 135 (depending on if you can kill adds)
Recommended to solo?: Yes, at Lv. 135+ (Heartstoppers)
Good drops: Lv. 100 weapons, Earring STR 30% , 250/1000/5000NX, Yellow Snowshoes
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This little piggy is the first boss of the Ellin Forest questline, and one that's very easy/time-efficient to solo later on. While you can fight it around Lv. 110-130, it's challenging at those levels due to your lack of damage/ship health, so I recommend you fight it with a party till your ship feels durable enough. For my first attempt, I fought it at Lv. 117 with 2 other friends and could only survive 1 hit - it was quite fun!

Chao is actually quite easy due to its long telegraphed attacks; it's the summons that are an issue at early level. Not to worry though. Eventually you'll be turning Chao into pork chops for daily NX.

Spoiler: Chao strat

Aside from tagging with Bullseye and blasting it, Chao only has 3 attacks that you need to remember.


Slam: Jumps and causes rocks to fall around it. Chao's hitbox rises, so your attacks will miss before it lands (my second barrage misses).
The rocks can be avoided by Recoil Shotting away. If not, dismount them.





Tusk attack: Whacks you backwards with knockback. Bye Enq.
This is actually an earthquake attack that can be avoided by jumping! If you're stuck in an attack animation though, just dismount.
You can cancel the knockback halfway if you dismount ship while sliding, saving you time to walk back if you happen to get hit on ship.





Summons: This will be the big headache if you're low level. Bullseye will let you focus on Chao, but the boars will constantly attack your ship for 3k damage - really bad!
Each boar takes around 4-7 hits to kill, each. They aren't affected by freezing, and you're a Corsair so your mobbing sucks - this is why you bring friends.
At later levels where your ship is more durable, you can single them out with cannon, or blast the bunch with Torpedo.

Rinse and repeat till dead. Honestly, this boss is a pretty good dismount practise target.





(an example of dismounting all Chao's attacks)

The Fucking Fairy I Hate (Ephenia)

Level range: Lv. 125+ (PARTY UP for the love of god)
Prequests?: Yes (Ellin Forest questline, Step 11; final boss)
Attempts per day: 2
Damage/Debuffs: ~3500HP (electric), ~4500HP (touch/fire) 1500HP (poison mist), ~2000/3000HP (fairy summons/magic)
Slow
Min HP to have: 8000
Will ship break?: YES IT ABSOLUTELY WILL
Recommended to solo?: NO (unless you REALLY want the NX), please don't actually solo her till Lv. 155+
Good drops: 250/1000/5000NX, Yellow Work Gloves

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THIS IS NOT A SOLO CORSAIR FIGHT. This is designed to be a party boss first and foremost.
Only solo once you are much higher level. I HIGHLY recommend soloing her AFTER you have Battleship Torpedo.

Ohhhhhhh my GOD I hate her. Even at Lv. 160 she's a nightmare. Please just do this with a party.
Ephenia is the final boss of Ellin Forest, and the only one I skip for daily solo bossing. She's possible to solo, but it's a huge pain.
You have a 10 minute time limit to defeat Ephenia. Me and 2 other friends fought her during early 4th job and we beat her with 5 seconds to spare.
(we didn't pick up the drops in time )

For other jobs, it's not so bad so long as they have enough HP. The problem is you're Corsair: you're juggling your ship's HP too.
She has so many attacks that your ship is guaranteed to die. I'm not exaggerating - she's just a ball of DOTs.
You know how Corsairs are horrid mobbers? She will reaaally dig that into you.

...Wait, you still want to solo her? Really? Okay then... here we go...

Spoiler: Ephenia strats; you'll need it

Ephenia's fight is really difficult for a Corsair for many reasons. Let's go through all of them.


Teleport: She always starts with this. If you see her stop moving, she's most likely teleporting, and she always tries to teleport behind you.
Tele cleanses Homing Beacon (you can even see the egg hitting). This is because Ephenia dies and creates an exact-HP clone of herself on teleport, which becomes a new target.
Make sure to reapply beacon after every tele!




Electric AOE: Looks scary, but it's the easiest attack to dismount. It's massive and telegraphed, and is the least of your problems.




Debuff: Causes a variety of debuffs - Crazed (reverses controls), Undead (50% less healing, hurt by Heal skill) and Weakness.
Crazed makes it really annoying to reposition with Recoil Shot, and Undead is an issue if your base health is really low (you might need to manually pot to avoid dying).
IF YOU HAVE A PRIEST FRIEND PLS TELL THEM NOT TO HEAL WHILE UNDEAD!




Fire pillar: She only does this if you're mid-distance; usually you'll be clipped by it cause your melee pt members are in her face.
It's quite fast so you might not be able to dismount in time.




Fuckass fairies: WELCOME TO YOUR NIGHTMARE.
Ephenia summons these fairies when she reaches 80/60/40/20% HP. She summons 4 purple fairies and 2 green fairies, and they are the reason your ship will DIE.

These fairies attack you across the screen together. There's no way to dismount them properly; you'll likely be hit the instant your invuln frames end.
They will poison you, which will deal 1500 DAMAGE PER TICK TO YOUR SHIP WHILE YOU'RE ON IT. They can also stun.
They take at least 6-10 cannon shots to kill, or 10+ maxed torpedos. EACH.
They don't show a health bar, so you won't know which ones are close to death.
They extend their hitboxes when attacking - once your ship is dead, Rapid Fire will usually end up with you smacking them with your gun.
Finally, they are immune to Flamethrower and Ice Splitter's effects, and are resistant to both elements. They can survive 30+ Fire/Ice shots. Yes I tested and counted for your sake.

You are NOT made to mob these fairies.


PLEASE SEND HELP

If in a party, tell your party to kill the fairies ASAP; it will benefit everyone.
If soloing, apply Homing Beacon to the adds/Torpedo everything, and kill as many of them before your ship dies. It will die. I'm sorry, my friend.




Poison mist: Farts and puts down a green cloud. This will do 3000HP per tick while you are in it. If your Max HP is ~6000HP, stay away from it or you might get hit by another attack and die.



This mist stacks with the fairy mob's poison btw. Because of course. Look how scared Goober is.




Knockback: She only uses this if you're close to her, which means she might do it if a melee friend is attacking. It knocks you back like Chao's tusk attack, but I didn't get a good gif of it, sorry.

tl;dr Fight her if you want a challenge as a Corsair, or REALLY spite your ship.

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4th job: Daily Party Bosses

These are daily bosses that are meant for a party of Lv.135+ players, and are your true endgame bosses. They have significantly more HP than previous bosses; expect clear times of about 20-30mins. You'll always be running these with a HS mule (or someone else's) for optimal EXP.

All of these outside of Krexel and Wulin Yaoseng have to be signed up through expeditions: the party leader will set one up through the NPC, and all participants have to sign up at the NPC to enter the arena. This means more than 6 people can fight at once!

ALWAYS BRING APPOS OR HEARTSTOPPERS as they will cut clear times in half. This is mandatory (and etiquette) when party bossing!

Like the other daily bosses, these need prequests completed before you can fight them; it's highly recommended to do these before Lv. 120 (the quests give good EXP/unlock great grinding locations).

You'll be fighting these to the end of your days, and for good reason - the EXP is incredible and they drop endgame equips that you'll be hunting godlys for. Plus you're a Corsair - you EAT these guys for breakfast.
This is your reward for sticking through; enjoy the spoils, sailor!

Bosses: Krexel, Zakum, Scarlion/Targa, Wulin Yaoseng, Horntail

Spoiler: 4th job daily party bosses

Krexel

Level range: Lv. 135+ (Lv. 140 recommended)
Prequests?: Yes (Ralph the Wanderer's Ghost Ship + Ulu City prequests); you DO NOT need a Soul Lantern to enter after your first kill
Attempts per day: 2
Damage/Debuffs: ~2500HP (magic), ~7500HP (eye touch), Weapon/Magic cancel (left eye)
Min HP to have: ~3000HP if you're confident (just DON'T TOUCH EYE)
Will ship break?: Depends on if you dismount all attacks; may break once
Recommended party: Trio (with Paladin for Crash, though not mandatory)
Reason to do: AMAZING EXP, Almighty Ring (1x) , Lv. 100 weapons

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This is THE definitive Corsair boss, and you'll be demolishing so many of these. I call Krexel an endurance boss - he isn't challenging (in fact he's really easy) but you're going to be sitting there shooting him for 30 minutes while he takes it. Thankfully he BLEEDS exp - expect to level if you do it the earliest possible.

Entering the portal to Krexel signs you up into the fighting party - more than 6 people can go in this way.
You summon Krexel by hitting a fruit branch till he spawns. Once the fight starts, no one else can enter.

Krexel has two phases: Left eye and Right eye. You'll be killing left eye first, which has weapon cancel (this is why Paladins are recommended for Crash), while right eye is more aggressive but doesn't have weapon cancel. Other jobs will fall asleep on second eye, but you'll be actively playing due to how much it attacks.

Krexel is a prime boss for perfecting dismounting - all he does is attack with very slow attacks that don't endanger you, but he'll chip at your ship till it breaks. Your ship will likely break at least once during your first few tries, but it will last SIGNIFICANTLY longer if you dismount attacks. See if you can get your ship to survive a whole eye!

Spoiler: Krex strat

Attacks:

Vines: An unavoidable attack telegraphed by a wing icon above. Super easy to dismount.


Lasers: Groups of these will hit the platforms. They only hit near the end and have a larger hitbox than the laser (the explosion). Easy dismount.
Lasers won't hit you if they hit the upper Krex platforms, but will on the lower ones (gif above).


Weapon cancel (Left eye): Forces all physical damage to be 1. If you don't have a Crash member, just dismount and wait/rebuff.


Summons (Right eye): Spawns these broccoli fellas; they do low damage and just annoy those under bottom plat, so just kill them.
These drop cards btw; they're very rare.


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How to fight:

Positioning is important for Krexel. He is made out of a bottom stone platform + a bunch of invisible plats on his body; you'll be mainly using the bottom platform for consistency.

Left eye:

You can fight left eye on the right-side pipe and stone (constantly hit, but easier to position) or the left-side broken sign (avoids most attacks, but harder to position). I recommend starting on the left sign and transitioning to left/right depending on your HP/playstyle. Left = lazy, Right = active.

Start the fight on the edge of the left sign: the vines cannot hit you there, but the lasers will. You'll be fighting there till you get knocked off.
Once you see lasers come down, move forward so you get knocked back to the edge. If you don't move, you will fall off. Remember to move back to the edge after to avoid vines!
Because of how slow your ship is, moving forward on ship makes it easier to reposition, but you'll risk ship damage.



Once you get knocked off, you have two options:
- If you have enough health: Jump past eye (~7200HP) to go back to sign; you'll lose a lot of time repositioning! Also, if you die to eye, your friends will never live it down. (Talking to you, Cynocephali )
-If you don't have enough health: Go to the pipe and stone, and dismount all the attacks for the rest of left eye; this is efficient when you're around Lv. 135-140, as tanking lasers on the left sign might break your ship too fast. Right side will have you constantly hit (which means lots of dismounting), but repositioning isn't difficult.

Fighting on the pipe is easier with the left eye compared to the right eye, as left eye is quite generous with how much active space you got.
Your Octos and cannon won't have much trouble being active.

Right eye:

As with left eye, you can fight right eye on the pipe (recommended), or the root (not recommended).
The root lets you avoid vines, but lasers will knock you off, and it's a hassle getting back on. If you get knocked entirely off the root, it's even worse. You also get knocked TOWARDS the eye. Not worth it imo.




Do note: right eye positioning is finnicky. Position yourself on the tip of the bent pipe!
If you're too far back, your Octos will stop shooting as you're not in range of eye.
If you're too front, your cannons will fully miss, as Pat generously tells me here lol (love ya Pat ty for carry).





Right eye is really aggressive compared to left eye - expect to need to dismount 4+ vines in a row. No I'm not kidding.



Do this for 30 straight minutes and bam - tons of exp and an Almighty Ring! Now go do it again - foreeeeveeeeeeer.

Zakum


Level range: Lv. 135+ (Lv. 140 recommended)
Prequests?: Yes, the hardest one in the game;
Has an alternative quest if you don't want to do the jump quest (which takes ~9 HRS FULL-TIME TO GRIND; I KNOW CAUSE I DID IT). Good luck! You'll need it.
Spawns when an Eye of Fire is dropped on altar; gained from doing Gold Tooth prequest
Attempts per day: 2
Damage/Debuffs: BRING ~100 ALL-CURE POTIONS (MANDATORY)
Arms: 1-1400HP (magic)
Body: 1/1, ~3200HP (magic), 7000~9000HP (touch, body 1/body 3)
Weapon cancel, Magic cancel
Min HP to have: ~3500HP (just DON'T TOUCH BODY)
Will ship break?: At least once (more if you get hit by 1/1s)
Recommended party: Trio (with buffs; Pala for Crash, though not mandatory)
Reason to do: Zakum Helmet (3-5x) , GENESIS 20 skill book , Chaos Scroll , NX, Lv. 90-100 weapons, 4th job skill books (untradeable, not for Corsair skills)

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Everyone wants to beat Zakum at least once. I wanted to - you want to. Time to beat him once and for all.

Zakum is a boss you'll fight as much as Krexel - it offers less total EXP, but has far better drops. It's also locked behind the hardest prequest chain in the game. Depending on your friend/guild groups, you might be fighting one more than the other; Zakum is constantly in demand for the helms and $$$, while Krexel offers more EXP and is pretty chill to fight.

Zakum is an intimidating boss due to its multiple arms, but it can be boiled down to "kill arms and kill body". There's no need to memorize what each arm does, as they'll all be attacking at once. Fighting the body is the main attraction.

Zakum's body has three forms, with each one becoming more aggressive - EXP is mostly gained through body 3. The body spams TONS of debuffs, so it's mandatory to bring a lot of All-Cure Potions (ACP).
It is also the first big boss after Papulatus to have a 1/1 attack! It's large and telegraphed, but so much shit happens during the fight that you might miss it.

Also, each add drops a card. If you're a card gremlin and don't have enough HP to survive Zak touch damage, don't try to get them (you'll die, I've done it before).

Spoiler: Zak strat

Fight tl;dr: Top right arms (work downwards) > TP at top right plat > Top left arms (work downwards) > Body
Bind your All-Cure Potions (ACP) to a button you can press easily!

Arms:
Look, it's just going to be a clusterfuck. All you need to know is it's your job to fight the top arms - only ranged and certain jobs (like Bucc) can reach it.

Tag any arm and start blastin'. The arms do extremely low damage, so don't worry about anything but knockback.


Right arms:

Zakum knocks to the left, so you'll eventually get knocked off if you don't reposition.

You can jump backwards while on ship, or dismount and Recoil Shot once.
Recoil Shot is more efficient but you may fly right off the platform. Dismount and use it when you've been knocked right to the edge.




When an arm dies, retag with beacon. Make sure you hear the egg hitting!
Work your way downwards.




When all right arms are dead, take the teleport at the top right plat to move to the left.
Don't run into body for the love of god lol.


Left arms:

For left arms, compensate for knockback by jumping forwards. Your downtime is significantly lower than right arms since you're always facing arms here.




Arms dead. Now the real fight begins!



Body attacks:

1/1: THE ONE YOU LOOK OUT FOR. The anim is huge, but you can easily miss it; trust me.




Lightning: Arena-wide attack that seals. Use ACP.



Fire pillars: Small totems telegraph these falling. They stun for ~5 seconds on hit, so avoid them. If you are hit, right click your ship buff to dismount ASAP!
You can Recoil Shot to jump away for swag points.




Summons: Spawns a variety of low-damage mobs. These aren't a problem for a Corsair (since you have Homing Beacon).




Cancel: Casts either weapon or magic cancel, denoted by the body icon. If it's weapon cancel and you have no Crash, just rebuff.



-------------
Body strategy:

Because of how long the fight is, your ship will likely break somewhere during Body 2 (assuming early levels).
If you are using Onyx Apples, you can stay on your ship till it's almost breaking, then time it to break alongside your appo running out. Use a weaker buff like Heartstoppers till your ship returns.
Knockback hits you away from Zak, so there's no danger of hugging him.
Remember to tag every body phase!
Avoid summoning Octos/Gaviota for Body 3 if you have ranged buddies. Adds can get aggro'd and they'll interrupt them.

Body 3 is especially aggressive - it will use its 1/1 in a row, and it summons LOTS OF ADDS. If you don't pay attention, your ship will likely break halfway.
You know how I said you'd miss the 1/1 animation? Look at this shit. Good luck seeing!

what is even happening here dude





During body 3, there is a strat where you stay on top plats to get hit by the weaker adds (to avoid Zak's attacks).
It wasn't effective in my testing, as you can't predict how they'll knock you, and Homing Beacon didn't seem to work well.
You can try if you want; just do the mechs properly imo.




Eventually, Zakum will crumble. Congrats on beating the poster boss of old Maple!

Scarlion/Targa



Level range: Lv. 135+ (Lv. 140 recommended)
Prequests?: Yes (quest chain from Lam at Malaysia - Kampung Village)
Attempts per day: 2
Damage/Debuffs: Only Body 3 does any damage
~2500HP (Scarlion train/slam/helmet), ~5500HP (Scarlion slash)
~7300HP (contact, Targa roar), ~2500HP (Targa rampage knockback)

Min HP to have: 7000 (Scarlion), 8500 (Targa)
Will ship break?: Yes (~1x for Scarlion, ~2x for Targa)
Recommended party: Duo (Scarlion, possible without Pala Crash), Trio (Targa, with Paladin for Crash, highly recommended)
Reason to do: Scarlion/Targa Boss Helms , Lv. 100 weapons, NX

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To MapleSEA players, these two are really nostalgic. They're sadly not fought often as they aren't as rewarding as Krexel or Zakum, although their prequests are much easier.
The EXP rate is meh - you'll likely be fighting these just for Scarlion/Targa Helmets, which are slight upgrades to Zakum Helms. Scarlion is your goal, as it drops STR/DEX helms (unless you're INT washing, in which case Targa drops the INT helm). The godly system does make the differences pretty irrelevant 90% of the time though.

The arena has two statues that you drop summon etcs on - whichever boss you want is the one you summon. The arena gives you 30 minutes to kill whatever you want.
Each boss has three body phases, with only the third body being a danger (and the most health). If you are duoing and don't have Crash, you can cut really close; I've had runs that end with 2 minutes left.

It is possible to fight both Scarlion and Targa together, but it's extremely challenging; you need a VERY good team with buff mules and mobbers to kill them in time. If you do though, it maximizes your two daily entrances as you'd kill four bosses total.

Scarlion is a pushover that isn't very difficult, but Targa is an ASSHOLE. Service sellers price Targa higher and for good reason.

Spoiler: Scarlion/Targa strat

Fight tl;dr: Mules/buyers stay on platform furthest from boss. Warrior/Bucc pushes boss to the side while you blast it. Rebuff at mules whenever needed, and don't bring them to the side with the boss.

Only body 3 does notable damage - the first two are super weak, so use them to learn attack anims.

Keep enough distance for your Octos to be active, while being far enough to avoid the harsher attacks. The melees will most likely eat all of them.

Get pushers to push boss to mid before body 3 dies, or all loot will pile up in one spot.

As the bosses spend their time in the corner, it can be hard to tell what they're doing. Luckily they do have obvious tells. Both bosses have similar attacks, but Targa's are much worse - you'll really hate it.

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Attacks (Both bosses):


Weapon cancel: This can REALLY add up to a lot of lost time during the 30 mins. This is one fight where bringing a Paladin can matter rather than being a quality-of-life.

Helmet toss: No gif as you're not likely to be hit by this; this targets the closest players. Signaled by a funny tossing noise, these cause Crazed when it hits (reverses controls). Spammed a lot in body 3 - hope your pushers don't push the boss the wrong way.

Summons: No gif here as it's just a bunch of add spawns. They'll die super fast.

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Attacks (Scarlion):

Scarlion's attacks are mostly focused on the melees; the attacks that do hit you are pretty telegraphed and only do ~2500 damage. It's not a difficult boss and your ship will survive quite easily.



Leaping slam: You WILL see this, don't worry. It's the easiest attack to dismount - make sure you do so at body 3, as they start to hurt. It can't be dodged by jumping and affects half the arena; your mules might get knocked off the platforms.
If Scarlion is facing away, this attack will knock you towards him, so space well!




Train: Summons a train that rams you. The visual cue is the boss glowing yellow - dismount as soon as you see it, as it hits instantly (despite what the anim shows).




Claw: A REALLY PAINFUL swipe that hits one person at melee range (Cyno has Power Guard, so actual dmg is higher). This is why you keep your distance; make sure only melees are getting hit by it.


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Attacks (Targa):

Targa is SIGNIFICANTLY WORSE as it hits MUCH harder, has a variety of strange attacks that move its hitbox, and replaces Scarlion's telegraphed attacks with an untelegraphed ROAR. Prepare to deal with constant unavoidable AOES or repositioning. Ship WILL break at least 1-2 times; have more than one attacker.




Roar: The reason why your ship's going to break. Look at how much it spams it - it's so fast that it's not worth dismounting.
As fitting the weirdo Targa is, roar knocks you TOWARDS it for some reason. Make sure to space properly!
The killer? Roars have a chance to STUN. If stunned, right click your ship buff ASAP.
Just expect to be taking ~7k damage constantly if Targa isn't doing other attacks.



Rampage: THIS IS WHY TARGA SUCKS. LEARN THE ANIMATION DURING BODY 1 AND GET USED TO IT SPAMMING THIS. This move SUCKS, and all ranged jobs struggle because of it.

Targa glows yellow, then does multiple dashing claw swipes, followed by a leaping slash before returning to position. This weird ass attack moves its hitbox SIGNIFICANTLY and is really janky.


If you touch Targa itself, you take big contact damage (~7300).
If you stand behind Targa while it rampages, you'll be hit and get FLUNG back because the entire area behind it is the attack hitbox.
(notice Cyno getting hit even though Targa isn't there)



Targa's moving body causes a lot of misleading situations.
Seriously, why is its body hitbox THERE?


If you're Rapid Firing, the misleading hitbox will screw you over.




Proper way to avoid Rampage:

The good news is that the telegraph + dash takes a bit to start.
You can dismount and jump+Recoil Shot on reaction, then mount and fire three volleys during the anim. Recoil Shot back and hope it doesn't do it in a row.
This rotation is recommended because one Recoil Shot puts you at the perfect distance to avoid the whole attack.




IMA FIRIN MY LASER: Yea you're not dodging this. Once you see Targa float, this is what it's doing.
It sweeps across the arena and covers so much ground that Recoil Shotting is pointless. Just dismount or hope it misses.
Keep your buyers/mules on second plat faaaaaar away so they don't get clipped!



The laser also moves Targa's hitbox till you'll miss, btw.


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Double boss strat:
It's highly recommended to bring multi-enemy DPS like Buccaneer/Warrior, as they'll be pushing both bosses to the walls and hitting both at once.
Other ranged DPS are less optimal as they cannot choose which boss they hit (only Corsair has Bullseye)!

Discuss who gets what loot before going in. It's likely that you might not have time to do this after the bosses die, as you'll cut close to your time ending.

Get your melees to drag both enemies to the side walls.
TAG SCARLION AND KILL HIM FIRST. MAKE SURE YOUR PARTY KNOWS THIS.
It's better to rid of Scarlion as he just exists; Targa gets very bad at form 3, so you want to delay that as long as possible (form 1-2 barely hurt).
Once Targa reaches form 3, you'll have to juggle him constantly doing 7k roars while fighting Scarlion, which will decimate your ship!

If you're with a party of mobbers (eg. Dragon Knight + Bucc), they will soften both bosses, but you're the deal breaker with whether a boss dies at all.
Worst case scenario: even if you can't kill both in time, you'll at least kill the weaker one and have some drops.

Wulin Yaoseng


Level range: Lv. 145+ (Lv. 150 recommended)
Prequests?: Yes (Shaolin Temple prequests)
Attempts per day: 1
Damage/Debuffs: 1/1, ~12500HP (magic), ~4700HP (flamethrower) ~5000HP (contact/spear attacks), ~3000HP (clone attacks)

Min HP to have: 13000HP
Will ship break?: Depends on if you avoid attacks/don't aggro adds; will likely break 1-2x
Recommended party: Duo/Trio (so long as there's enough damage output)
Reason to do: AMAZING EXP for the time you spend, NX

The boss of Shaolin Temple, and one of the best EXP-to-time ratios you'll get; however, you need to grind through the tedious Shaolin Temple quests (with really beefy enemies) and have at least 13000HP. Wulin's main attacks don't actually hit too hard (~4500), but it's impossible to survive the random magic smokes he throws without that much HP.


(he does this the instant you enter btw)

This is the first boss I was unable to fight while unwashed as the HP requirement is crazy high; bring someone with Hyper Body or grind some HP quests if you want to do this.

You get 10 minutes to defeat Wulin; it really isn't a lot of time, and you want to ensure whoever you're doing it with has enough damage output. Luckily you're Corsair, and you have two distinct advantages: you can Bullseye to tag the boss, and you can use Ice Splitter to freeze the clones that spawn early on!

Ensure you have high ship uptime and an Appo/Heartstoppers going, especially if you're duoing. I was able to beat him on my first attempt (duo with a Bucc buddy) with 1:20 to spare!

He has a 1/1 and constantly attacks for ~4000HP , so it's horrid for Corsair...

...just kidding! There are some low-damage map spears positioned at the sides of the arena. Hug these and you'll avoid majority of Wulin's attacks!

Spoiler: Wulin strat

tl;dr: Dismount 1/1; other attacks can be avoided by hugging spears most of the time.
Focus entirely on Wulin even when clones appear! The clones are way too beefy to bother killing.
Alternate Ice Splitter between cannons to freeze the clones!


Attacks:

What a lovely day to be playing maple- OH MY GOODNESS.
As scary as it looks, this just causes weakness, which is mostly irrelevant.




1/1: Thankfully an extremely obvious telegraph. Dismount this at all costs as ship uptime is very important for the fight.




Stab: Has a long-lasting animation that hits throughout, so hope the background spears hit you instead.



Stab combo + Slam: I believe this is the magic attack that does 12.5k damage. If so, it has a map-wide effect.
Despite the long animation, this seems to hit only at the start.



Clone slam: Similar but with clones. Dismount as soon as you see the spinning clones.
Dismountable if you want, or you can bet on the spears helping you avoid it.



Clones: Wulin eventually summons these. They're simply there to be annoying and constantly hit you (~3200HP). Make sure Homing Beacon has tagged Wulin!

Usually you'd have your melee push the clones away, but then I found out that you can freeze the clones...

Alternate between freezing and cannon to keep clones out of the fight!
Sometimes Ice Splitter bugs out and doesn't freeze them; idk why this happens but just keep doing it between cannons.




Wulin dead (this was my first)! Just pick up the loot and don't bother killing the beefy clones; leave after.
If you have ~2mins to spare and are bothered to, try killing some of the clones for a bit of extra EXP.

Horntail
(Credit to Zanck's Bossing Guide)

Level range: Lv. 160+
Prequests?: Yes (Chief Tatamo: Wars of the Dragons) for Dragon Elixirs; second part of quest is repeatable
Attempts per day: 2
Damage/Debuffs:
Weapon cancel, Magic cancel, Seduce, Dispel, Defense up
Min HP to have: 9800HP (DON'T TOUCH HT)
Will ship break?: YES (although I had massive skill issue)
Recommended party: Yes (bring all the buffs if possible)
Reason to do: Horntail Necklace (3-5), Maple Warrior (20!!) skill book, Lv. 100 weapons, Lv. 110 weapons (Dragon weapons)

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Alright I'll be honest - I've only fought Horntail once. It was with my guild for my first Horntail Pendant.
"How did it go?" Well uh...



Horntail will test you as a Corsair. It's Zakum's arms, but all parts hit like Zakum's body. It's an utter clusterfuck that only gets better as you kill each body part.
Each part has a gimmick and only has 2-3 attacks, but you'll be dealing with 9 monsters attacking you at once.
Horntail as a whole has multiple 1/1s, Seduce mechanics, and you'll be pelted left-and-right by attacks.
It's difficult, and it's where you can truly master Corsair if you put in time! Experienced Corsairs only experience 1 ship break here at most; I probably experienced 3-4 lol.

In total, most Horntail fights take around 1 full hour. Bring a lot of high-HP potions (preferably Elixirs/Power Elixirs) and All-Cure Potions!

I've only done this once so I can only break down some attack animations!
If you want a true detailed breakdown of HT procedures:
Jooon's Biship Guide under "Horntail Guide 2020"
Dong's Corsair Bossing Guides under "Horntail"

Spoiler: Horntail strat

REMINDER THAT I'VE ONLY DONE THIS ONCE.
Octopi can carry in this fight - drop them down whenever possible so you passively do damage even while repositioning.

Horntail's fight starts with fighting two heads back-to-back (preheads): left head and right head. They'll use the same attacks during the full body fight.
Take the time to learn their attack animations because by god you'll need it.

NOTE: The seduce target priority for the real fight is dictated by who enters the portal first after preheads! This will be the person with the most survivability (AKA probably not you!)
YOU CANNOT USE POTIONS WHILE SEDUCED.

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Head note:
All heads have two versions of an attack with an identical animation: one is a 1/1, and one isn't.

The 1/1 is signified by totems and is slower, while the non-1/1 has no totems but hits faster.

Left prehead (Ice head):
This head knocks you away. You can either jump-fire cannon or Recoil Shot to reposition.


Ice breath: Slow, telegraphed, and knocks you back. Hits only once the ice breath hits the floor.




Ice shard: 1/1. Memorize this one! If it's telegraphed by totems, it's the 1/1. If it's not, it's a faster and weaker magic attack. They will hit either top or bottom plat.




ok byeee. REMEMBER NOT TO ENTER PORTAL BEFORE OTHERS UNLESS YOU LOVE BEING SEDUCED

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Right prehead (Lightning head):
This head knocks you towards it. Recoil Shotting to reposition here is much better as you don't need to turn around!



Lightning breath: Same as ice breath, but it hits faster (immediately once the breath comes out).


Lightning AOE:
1/1. Like left head, if you see totems, it's a 1/1.

Left: 1/1. Right: Non-1/1.

The 1/1 takes longer to hit (when the totems disappear).
The non-1/1 hits a lot faster. If you don't see totems, dismount as soon as you see the head flash.

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The real Horntail fight:

Okay, warmup done. You ready, captain?


Kill progression: Legs > Tail > Wings > Heads > Arms
Once killed, parts can safely be walked through.

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Leg phase:
Prepare for an utter clusterfuck; there's no way you'll dismount the correct skills here. The most you can do is control when your ship breaks.

The legs and tail do tons of knockback + stun you. The stuns are really problematic for Corsair, as you'll be bombarded by all other attacks.
You can right click the Battleship buff while stunned, but the stuns happen a LOT and you'll lose DPS.
There's a way to avoid most of it:
Plant yourself at the far left under the falling rocks. These do ~1500 damage and allow you to cheese through most attacks with invuln frames!

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Tail phase:
Once legs are dead, you need to walk slightly into Horntail's abs to hit tail. Don't walk past the middle of his abs or you will DIE!
DON'T TOUCH TAIL IT DOES 30K



Tail phase is annoying as it will constantly knock you back and there's no rocks to cheese it with. Dismounting is generally a waste of time here.
You can jump to avoid tail's attacks, but you'll still be hit by everything else.

There's two ways to fight tail:
-Stay on ship and blast em: Your ship WILL die, but that's the point. If your ship is almost broken, let it break so it gets refreshed for the later phases.
-Rapid Fire + Octopus: If your ship is very healthy, do this instead. You need the mobility since tail keeps knocking you back, and you can Recoil Shot on reaction to reposition.
Octos + Rapid Fire also add up to some decent damage here without any harm to ship.

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Wings phase:
All the Wings do are summon Cornians every 30%HP, and heal Horntail after each part hits ~30% HP.
The only thing to worry is the wing flap animation, which can extend and clip you on the platforms.
Otherwise this isn't much to talk about.

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Head phase:
Middle head's 1/1 can hit the whole arena compared to left/right heads. You may want to prioritize killing it first, but it has the most HP out of all heads.


Fire breath: Very long telegraph, but not a 1/1.



Fire pillar: Like the other heads, this has two identical anims; one is a 1/1 and one isn't. If you see totems, it's the 1/1.

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Arm phase:
This is where you can take it easy.
At 30% HP, both arms will mass seduce up to 10 people. You generally want to leave arms for last because of this.


Arm attacks (above) do 1 damage (but much more MP damage, around 2000). Abuse the heck out of arms so you can avoid ship damage!



(Credit to Jooon's Bishop Guide)
Left arm occasionally casts Dispel, and right arm casts Darkness/Seal/Weakness.
They will also buff Horntail with defense up (25%; this will be cleansed by Bishops or Warriors).
Only one of them can target you on each side.


Arms will also seduce one target occasionally. Usually this won't be your issue, as we've talked about seduce priority.


If you kill arms last, the mass seduce at 30% won't do anything but give you a free ride. Beep beep!


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And with that, the durgen is dead. Congratulations!

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Lionheart Castle: Bearwolves



Lionheart Castle (LHC): The premium EXP/free shit simulator. You have to do a lot of difficult prequests to reach there (the quest monsters are VERY BEEFY), but it's the best place for EXP at 4th job! Expect a guaranteed level per day till Lv. 165!

In LHC, you get a 1-hour daily timer that massively increases party EXP bonuses. Party up with 6 people for the biggest gains!
(The timer starts counting the INSTANT you enter any LHC mob area; it stops when you're in the towers. Make sure to save the tower locations on a Teleport Rock!)

You also get Totem drops, which are used to access the Lionheart Gacha from Murt (it's an easy money maker)!

There are three common mobbing locations in Lionheart Castle: Blood Reindeers (Lv. ~135), Bearwolves (Lv. 150), and Golems (Lv. 180+).
For this section I'm only specifying Bearwolves (BW), as they're the only one I've done, and they're the most likely one you'll be recruited into.

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Composition
LHC parties will recruit as "Melee" or "Mixed/Ranged".
Melee = Melee jobs only.
Mixed = Ranged attackers + melee pushers.
Ranged = Only ranged jobs (EXTREMELY RARE/INEFFICIENT).
No one will run LHC without a Warrior/Bucc. Grouping mobs is too essential.

Party compositions for LHC areas can vary, but the lingo doesn't change. You'll have a 6-man comp of:

• A melee pusher: Warrior/Buccaneer, sometimes two, to easily group enemies in one spot
• Attackers (melee): They're better mobbers, so more reliable kills
• Attackers (ranged): Mostly for buffs - Bowmen (offers Sharp Eyes, necessary if pt has Night Lord), Night Lord (Haste, most common ranged), or you, the Corsair, who has... a ship! :3

The map consists of extremely beefy mobs that take forever to kill.
All you do is just grind like it's any other area, but with as many buffs/party members as possible to maximize EXP gain in that one hour.
You'll be cycling around the map, following your party, letting them group mobs, and doing as much mobbing damage as possible.

Hmmm. Mobbing damage. I remember Corsairs being not great at mob- oh.
Say it with me: Unfortunately, you're a...

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Are Corsairs useful at Bearwolves?
Now, I'm going to be honest with you. Corsairs are one of the least picked jobs for LHC grinding. You don't offer any party buffs, and the community only knows Corsair as a bosser.

However, as the job is so rare, Corsairs are very misunderstood. The assumption is they're bad because of ship/lack of mobbing/mobility or otherwise. There isn't a common resource for LHC Corsairs anywhere, so everyone just rolls with the assumptions.
So here, I'm going to clarify a few things from my own experiences.
tl:dr - Corsairs have relevancy in both melee and mixed teams due to their self-sufficiency, so long as you've leveled Torpedo/Elemental Boost.

Spoiler: What does Corsair offer to a team?

- Not reliant on Sharp Eyes (SE) and benefits from Bucc's existence:

- Corsairs aren't as bad at mobbing as people think:

- Mobbing can be good both on or off ship:

- Can blast stragglers:

- Mobility is NOT THAT BAD:

- Dependent on player skill:

- You got no buffs, man:

-Ranged/Mixed parties straight up earn less EXP:

​

Of course, if you have the party buff known as "I have friends", none of this matters Get yourself a nice guild and have a good time together!
<3 bums y'all are cool

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Bearwolf Rotation

With that out of the way, let's run down what you'll be doing for the full hour.

Glossary:
t/m/b: Top/middle/bottom platforms
3/3/3 or any combination: Number of mobs per platform
Appo: Onyx Apple
d: "done" (appo used/expired)

Spoiler: Bearwolf Rotation

- Ensure party is ready
- Activate all buffs, including Echo (if available)
- Enter portal after countdown
- Follow pusher closely as they group mobs - always know where their position is
(leader will signify top/middle/bottom platforms with t/m/b)
- Pop ("d" in chat) and whenever it expires
- Mob with Torpedo/Fire and Ice (whichever is higher) at a distance where you won't get hit
- Repeat; rebuff with Echo at 30min (either by taking left portal or having the Echo mule enter the BW area)
- Pick up any Totems as they're client-side (aka for you!)

That's basically it: farming mobs. You'll be following the leader, and they'll be prioritizing the platforms with the most mobs. Even if you see more mobs, just follow the pusher as they're the ones grouping mobs for you.

There's two ways to group mobs:


Middle: Lets party attack from both sides, but the melees need to constantly pull with Snatch/Monster Magnet.
Sides: Good for ranged as the melees just pull once and keep them there. There's also no danger of mobs getting pushed into teammates.



Be alert for offscreen mobs as they may sneak attack you.



If there's only ~2 mobs left, tag them and cannon; you may end up killing them.


There are a few optimizations you can do:

Just Corsair things uwu

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Useful Macros

These are just for optimization, but some are useful while bossing! I'll also list the ones already shown in the skill breakdowns.
Even if you have these macros, make sure you have Battleship as an individual button as it is your fastest way to dismount.

Important notes for macros:

• Macros play out all actions frame-perfectly. This is especially handy for your summons. (NOTE: If you macro Battleship as skill 2/3, there will be lag to dismounting!)
• Macros cannot use later actions if a previous action is on cooldown. If you have Gaviota on skill 1 and it's on cooldown, skill 2/3 won't activate!
• Macros are cancelled if you input a direction while the macro plays out. You can take advantage of this by cancelling macros halfway.
• Macros sometimes glitch out and trap you in several seconds of lag. I'm not sure why this happens, but just take note if you somehow can't use any skills. Just mash your other macros till they work again.

Recoil Shot + Wings:
Make this a separate bind to traverse flat ground much faster.



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Ice Splitter + Flamethrower:
This should be your default bind for these skills, as it's way better than using them individually.



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Gaviota + Octopus:
Use this for effective summoning! Gaviota is instant (and it has a 5s cooldown compared to Octopus' 10s), so you can use Gaviota off-cooldown even while Octo is unusable.
If you reverse this macro, you won't be able to summon Gaviota while Octo is cooling down!

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Octopus has ~0.6s summon lag. During the backflip, you cannot do anything. This translates to using Octo on ship: notice how much lag I have when summoning!



Octopus lag: Ways to remove delay

This animation lag can be bypassed by using ship, which uses ~0.4s (saving you time). It doesn't sound like much, but it really helps with the clunkiness!
You can cut Octo lag in two ways:

(While off-ship) Octo > Battleship (manual input)

ONLY USABLE WHILE OFF-SHIP.
This puts you on ship much faster compared to waiting for the full animation to end.
You do this with a manual input cause macros do it too fast; you'll have a brief moment where you can't fire.
Don't do this in reverse (Battleship > Octo); you will be stuck in lag as you'll perform the backflip on ship (without an anim)!




> (While on-ship) Gaviota + Octopus + Battleship > Manual Battleship:

ONLY USABLE WHILE ON-SHIP.
This summons all your crew with almost no lag! This macro is really good for bossing.
Don't use this to dismount attacks though, as the lag from using two skills means you'll get hit while dismounting.




This also allows you to plonk down an Octo while moving, completely lagless!



Just remember: Only use this macro while on-ship!!!
Here I use the macro while off-ship, and I can't fire while the octos are being summoned.



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Battleship + Cannon + Cannon:

Useful if you're juggling mules, but I'd otherwise recommend against this. Use if you feel it works for you.
As macros cast each skill the frame they're available, this macro lets you mount and instantly cast cannon, rather than spam cannon and hope it comes out.
However, this macro gives you less mobility (as you cannot jump during the cannons without canceling them), and it floods the chatbox with "You're not on ship" messages if you dismount. It's really only useful on stationary bosses or juggling mules.
I personally don't like the feel of this macro, but try it if you feel it's beneficial.

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Cannon + Cannon + Ice Splitter:

Suggested by @Vinilos!

This is specifically for Shao (Wulin Yaoseng) to deal with his clones.
Usually a melee would push clones away, but this will let you take the clones out of the equation while DPSing.

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Air Strike + Battleship + Battleship:

Suggested by @Crags!

This blew my mind when I tried it - you can cancel Air Strike's slow endlag by mounting/dismounting!
This is so much more optimal that I highly recommend it for item grinding!
The downside is you'll mount ship while using it, so it's bad for high-level areas like Lionheart Castle.



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Leveling

This is where we separate the leechers and the grinders.
...Wait, you're playing the NAUTICAL NAVIGATOR THEMED JOB and you want to leech? Sorry, no advice for that here. Go and explore the world!

For real though, play the game yourself if this is your first/second character. It's a lot more fun and you won't be waiting 2 months to actually begin playing cause you have 400 INT and 2 attack.
Here are some encouragement/advice for those wanting to grind the old-fashioned way:

• Stay on CC1 and MAKE FRIENDS. FRIEND BUFF IS THE MOST OP BUFF
  It makes the grind much easier and you'll enjoy yourself a lot more!
  This is how I met my super-based guild and it is the best thing the game could have given me. I boss/talk with them everyday.
  Who needs buff mules when you got buff friends?
  
  
• MEDALS: Grinders get a head start in collecting Quest Specialist/Virtruoso and Collector Medals (some of the best medals in the game) since you'll be spending lots of time interacting in each area!
  They are significantly better than other medals that you gain from lazy work (eg. Adventurer medals) and are super worth it.
  If you do either of these at much higher level (Lv. 120+) it'll feel like a huge waste of time since you'll be grinding Lv. 10 mobs and not leveling from it.
  
  You can show them off too!
  Yes this is an excuse for you to look at my medals.
  
  
  
• All monsters drop Monster Cards, which are how you get Collector medals.
  Getting your 5th copy gives you a one-time +15% EXP boost from that monster for 1hr which incentivizes you to grind even more! You can loop around grinding locales doing this and it's pretty worth your time.
  Field bosses drop cards that increase item/meso drop rates of a given location, including card drops. It's beneficial to hunt them!
• Unlocking endgame bosses requires you to grind anyway. You might as well go do it for the EXP and quest completions.

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Quests

Quests are very lucrative from Lv. 1-70 and tend to be worth the time.
A lot of people just spam Orbis etcs. for EXP, but I've never understood it when Lv.10-40 quests give such good returns!

In general, your quest loop should look like this:
Lv. 10-30: Victoria Island (check every town; Nautilus/Perion has great ones); Ariant (if you finish Manji's quest that teleports you to Ariant for free 5 times)
Lv. 31-40: Pick up delivery/traveling quests on Victoria Island > Orbis/Ludibrium/Korean Folk Town
Lv. 41-50: Omega Sector/Korean Folk Town/Herb Town/Mu Lung
Lv. 51-60: Magatia/Herb Town/Mu Lung
Lv. 61-79: Singapore (very few quests at this lv range)
Lv. 70-80: Leafre/Malaysia/Crimsonwood
(Pirate Party Quest is AMAZING from here till Lv. 100, especially during 2x PQ EXP events!!)
Lv. 81 onwards: Pretty much all grinding from here on! Ulu City, Ellin Forest and Temple of Time are fantastic grinding locations past Lv. 95.

Notable quests:

HP QUESTS: DO THESE AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

Olaf Questline (An Adventurer's Assignment) - Lv. 20
Water from the Spring of Youth - Lv 70
Reuel's HP Quest (Search for the Elixir of Life) - Lv. 120 4th job​

Nautilus:
In general, the Nautilus has a ton of quests with great EXP. Most of them are collection quests - here's the tl;dr list of etcs to hold onto.

• Pig's Ribbons
• Evil/Curse/Cold Eye Tails
• Pure Water
• Rat Traps
• Tablecloths
• Solid Horns

Manji & The Secret Group/To The Desert... (Perion):
A quest that can only be done before Lv. 30. It lets you teleport to Ariant for free 5 times; there's a large chain of low-level quests there for some reason.
The teleports are non-refreshable and last even after Lv. 30+.
To get back to Victoria Island, talk to Karcasa at Tent of the Entertainers (right portal, 2 times) and pay some money to him.

Winston (East Rocky Mountain II):
I love this dude. He gives quests that bring you to the Excavation Site, and it's amazing for Lv. 25-30.

Bartol's Requests (Nautilus):
A Lv. 30 quest that gives you 5 free Omega Sector tickets daily after you finish it the first time. You use these in Kyrin's job instructor room (top right) to teleport to Omega Sector and vice-versa. It's a BIG quality-of-life to get to Omega Sector or Ludibrium!

Pet Quests:
Trainer Bartos (Henesys Pet Walking Road)
Kenta's Advice (Aquarium)
Get these done ASAP! Henesys' quest lets you equip multiple pets (after a jump quest and buying a "Pet Snack" NX item), while Kenta's quest will speed up your pets to travel as fast as your own speed (after a very long break-chests quest; it may take you an hour).

In Search of the Book of the Ancient (El Nath):
The longest questline in the game (31 quests!!!) that unlocks Alacaster's shop; it is hella tedious to do, just warning you.
The bright side is you can buy All-Cure Potions and Summoning/Magic Rocks, which are useful if you aim to sell them/make jobs that use them.

Any field boss questline:
Rewards a large chunk of EXP upon killing the boss and turning it in! You'll likely level from them.

Muirhat questline:
Lv. 55 is when you can unlock a hidden questline from Muirhat (third floor of Nautilus): A chain of "kill monsters" quests that reward ~50% of a level each time!
Click the trash can outside of Kyrin's job instructor room and talk to Muirhat to start the first quest.
Most people don't know this exists, but you can get ~5 levels total just from doing these.



Chief Tatamo's Magic Seeds (The Messenger of the Fairy Forest, Lv.70):
This quest leads you to Leafre and gives you two Magic Seeds you can use at Ellinia (top left forest, first map) or Leafre (left forest, second map) to teleport between continents!
You can buy Magic Seeds off Chief Tatamo once you're there. You don't NEED to do this quest to buy seeds from him, but the free quest seeds will let you tele back to Ellinia immediately after.

The seeds start off extremely expensive, but get cheaper as you trade in Leafre monster etcs to Chief Tatamo (non-Dragon Forest/Canyon mobs).
I can currently buy seeds at 24,000 mesos each!

Boss prequests:
Zakum (Lv. 50)
Captain Latanica (Lv. 63) and Krexel (Lv. 70)
Temple of Time (Lv. 91+ for grinding areas; Pink Bean someday right?)
Papulatus (Lv. 60+) and Ellin Forest (Lv. 110+ recommended)

Do these along the way to unlock good grind locations + bosses for your future Corsair self. Some are quite challenging (Ellin Forest) but they're all very good EXP.
A lot of these are "Kill 999 enemies" so bring some friends!



Thanks for being cool, Foxy. Please let me out of jail though.

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Special Thanks

Shoutout to:

• The four Corsairs that will use this guide in 2026.

• for being the best guild I could ask for! Genuinely, my Royals experience wouldn't be the same without you guys. Thank you Noaah for inviting me, it's been great here.
• @RicePat for enabling me with writing this guide in the first place, giving me a million Concertos, and for always being there to carry us with their clones. You've done so much for us, ty for being a good friend!
• @cynocephali for being one of my earliest and most consistent grinding buddies when I returned, along with TamGandr (pls come back we miss u). I appreciate you always being here! Nerf Hero btw.
• @pinkvodka and twinkmagic/zestythief for being funny lads during Snowman (and being hangout buds).
• @Stacks for grinding field bosses with me in early 4th job, and @juckfimmy for being my first Krex runner. You guys were my first trio!
• Keyn0te/Sh4ke for dying at Zakum (and also bringing hype for everyone).
• tigertran for Hyper Body :3 And looking forward to this guide while I'm writing it!
• Teefs/poot for bringing me through my first Wulin Yaoseng.
• @Foxy for humouring me with my GM jail request!
• All other guides I linked in this guide as resources.

And you, for reading and commenting!
If you've reached 4th job Corsair in 2026, comment below with a screenshot of your character and I'll say grats!



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First

 

OMG ITS REALLLLLLL

 

tam was here

 

Arrrr matey, nice guide
(Sair model 2025 here also)

Macro suggestion for Shao:
cannon + cannon + Icespitter

this will keep Shao clones away from you, I don't need to distract the mobs left side plus your Shao partner don't have tonworry about them also

if dismounted just Rapid Fire and Icespitter sometimes (don't Octopi or Seagull since they can move clones towards you)

 

Thanks for this!!!!

There was so much outdated info and misunderstanding behind this class!

 

THE ONE PIECE IS REAL

 

TYYY!

 

bro i dont even play / plan to play this class and i read this guide like i'm about to be new main

kudos.

very entertaining to read

 

Bro literally wrote a whole book

 

Wow what a very dedicated and entertaining guide. Kudos for you Enquiry, for the well-made guide and for maining the least popular, weird bug called Corsair.

P.d. I love your cover image! The tears besides the broken ship fits perfectly.

 

Gotta make it good if no one else will write it
(you make games? that's cool! thanks for commenting!)

 

Thank you! I wanted to make it detailed because I'm certain no one else will write one anytime soon.

I drew the cover image on the day I posted! It was a funny idea I wanted to get out of my head, and what better way than to show the pain of losing ship?

 

very nice guide!

small correction: you get 3 sp from 4th job advancement. might be worth revising since you spend a lot of time talking about early 4th job builds

another macro i've found useful is air strike + battleship + battleship which cancels the long air strike delay

 

Thanks for the guide. I do agree as a fellow sair, that Wings is fun. I love flying through the air

 

Thank you! I edited the 3SP part.

I DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT THE AIR STRIKE ONE THOUGH. That's definitely going in as well, thanks!

 

Rec a note on not using gun for apq/event bosses as the basic attack animation is slow as all heck. Was a pain during vday

 

Heya!
Thank you for writing such a nice and elaborate guide

I think here you meant to say you are required 20 DEX for first job adv -

Based on this guide - https://royals.ms/forum/threads/new-source-job-advancement-guide.110142/#firstja

 

Ty for finding the typo! I didn't catch that one.

 

''You may not use the skill yet. '' TOO REAL LMAO