In this article, I fight back against a hacker, and win–with a level 15 mage.

[Date: 061224, 11 AM -8 GMT]
[Location: Slime Tree]
[World: Bellocan, Global MapleStory]
[Character: Level 15 Magician]
[Goal: Beat the hacker]

SLIME TREE, BELLOCAN–Like many others today, I logged in to catch the 2x EXP that was going on in every world. Of course, there was one downside to that (aside from the pleas of “LET ME IN!” for Scanians, and possibly Berans). No, it’s not lag either. What am I talking about? The hated HACKERS.

It’s common knowledge that these days Global MS is clogged, jammed, stuffed, crammed, congested, packed like a constipated elephant’s behind–whatever you wanna call it. There are hackers everywhere. You’ve all seen it at least once. Random attacks popping all over the screen, items flying like a hurricane’s coming. You’ve also all heard the complaints: “There’s too many hackers,” or, “I can’t train!”

What are you going to do about it? The hackers have made themselves at home, and, let’s face it, the GMs thus far haven’t done anything to rid us of them. In fact, things have gotten progressively worse the last few weeks. Then what is left to do? Fight back.

Fight back, you say? How are you supposed to do that, when they possess such godly powers that us pathetic legits don’t have? Well, recall that sin or mage in your early days of Mapling that just wouldn’t let you catch a break? You know, the one who always ksed you, so much you called your little buddies for defame while you futilely tried to fight back against their relentless attacks?

Hackers are the same. They’re the new breed of ksing demons who come to take over your map. They are bullies, and bullies will lose interest sooner or later. Of course, there’s nothing fair about it, just like there’s nothing fair about a stronger person taking over your map and ksing you. However, there are a lot of hackers out there that are stupid, or their hacks just aren’t mature enough to beat you. I’m gonna teach you how to beat them today.

The story: I’d logged in, leveled up my young priest-to-be a couple times, and decided, ‘Hey, my Magic Claw is getting strong enough to one-hit slimes, and I do need to go get a new staff in Ellinia, so why not head to Slime Tree?’

Previously I had not encountered any hackers in my training thus far (training in an empty world in an unpopular yet still fairly decent spawn map is good for you). After I’d gotten my shiny new Sapphire Staff, I decided to go check out Slime Tree. 20 EXP a kill for a level 15 magician is just delicious.

I came in, peeped around cautiously for a bit, and instantaneously found a great channel to train. The spawn was excellent, and there was plenty of room for myself to squeeze in with the other newbish mages and thieves and warriors.

So I settled myself down for a nice training session, no big deal. All of a sudden, the dreaded event happens: the map gets taken over by a hacker! A HACKER! I, who had already settled myself in to a great map suddenly must leave because a hacker comes in, and with one flip of a switch, starts massacring all the beautiful red and green slimes?

At the time there had been a fellow mage about my level and a warrior in the vicinity. The hacker? Well, she was a magician too, about my level in fact. Our Magic Claws were almost identical in damage (around the area of 35/20). So we could both one hit those slimes quite often.

Well, my legit companions (though we weren’t partying, I will call them companions for the sake of the fact they did not hack), decided to high-tail it outta there. Who can train when someone’s killing your spawn without even moving, and then vaccing all the drops to themselves, right?

Wrong. As usual with all ksers, my stubborn side kicked in and I decided to stay. Great decision. The hacker is, as usual, one of those cowardly ones. Stay in one place, hit a few monsters from impossible range, vac items, rinse, repeat.

Well, you know what I did? I fought back, and won. However, there must first be some disambiguation here. When I say, “Win,” I don’t necessarily refer to ksing the hacker outta there (which I kinda did, eventually). When I say, “Win,” I mean I effectively continued my training without hindrance and could effectively ks the hacker if I wanted to.

I did win, after all. For the first few minutes, it was me against the hacker. The hacker, if anything, actually increased the spawn rate (God, was she a pathetic hacker). And since our damage was almost identical, I easily matched her kill rate. In fact, I got to several monsters before she did. And I was not ksed. Why?

Recall when that sin, mage, or whoever was ksing you. What was their strategy to beat the snot out of you? Follow you, attack the same monsters you’re attacking, and constantly harass you unti you leave.

This hacker was immobile. Do you see an advantage? Since they could not particularly specify me as a ks target, I easily controlled the spawn, killing (without interference) the monsters I wanted, the ones I had in my sights. Granted, every now and then a slime died right before my eyes, but I could still train.

In virtually no time at all, I leveled to 16. During that time I made an excellent profit, and I really don’t believe my training rate was slowed at all. Like I said, the hacker actually increased the spawn rate, which allowed me to stay in one spot more often rather than move about.

As time passed, a huddle of people entered slime tree, and spotted the hacker, obviously (she really needs to learn something about subtlety, that one). A couple of the newcomers left. However, I just merely continued to ignore them all, hacker and legits. I was too busy training.

Encouraged my by example, several of the other newcomers also started training there, ignoring the hacker. Quite soon a couple of the prime training spots (particularly the top) were all taken with legits training casually as they could.

What happened next? The hacker LEFT. Yep, she left. Why? The spawn had given out on her. With all those people killing, she wasn’t getting as much kills as she wanted. So she left.

Bottom Line: I successively accomplished 3 key things: train (and level) without hindrance, ks the hacker, and lastly, chase out the hacker.

Fighting back against hackers is possible. However, even so, you may probably not always, always succeed if you follow what I did here. Some hackers are better than others, just as some legit ksers are better than others. Big maps with high spawn help, too. That way the spawn is spaced out and you’ll be able to kill efficiently even when a hacker is present.

Ignore the hackers. Who cares? Wizet may or may not decide to do something about it. But you certainly can. Ignore them. Eventually they’ll go away. Are you saying you’ll let a cheater beat you? Fight back.

–AznRiceFan