Magic Maze
The Magic Maze is a mysterious place where a variety of bosses and enemies can be summoned and fought. It is the primary source of obtaining accessories, which are a very important aspect of a character's power growth.
How to Unlock
To unlock the Magic Maze, you must first speak to Ronde located outside the Mokomoko House in North Port Lendor . If you are at least level 20, you will be able to accept Quest 121 from Ronde. Doing so will put you through a 'trial' run of the Magic Maze to see how it works. Once you finish, return to Ronde to clear the quest. You will now have access to the Mokomoko House and will receive the Magic Key key item.
How to Enter the Magic Maze
There are two ways to enter the Magic Maze:
- Using the Magic Key item from your Key Items.
- Talking to Dorothy inside the Mokomoko House.
If you enter via the Magic Key, you will be able to enter with other human players. However, you will not be able to bring your own AI companions and will be either matched with other random players or assigned random AI around your level. If you want to enter with your own AI companions, you must enter via Dorothy.
How It Works
Depending on how you enter the Magic Maze, its structure will differ.
If you enter via the Magic Key, the dungeon layout will be similar to how the 'trial' run functioned when you first accepted the quest. There will be multiple floors of enemies and a fixed boss at the end. However, you can offer a boss item at the center statue to fight a specific boss instead. That will be explained in the next section.
If you enter via Dorothy, you will need to be carrying at least one boss item to offer or else you cannot enter. That will be explained in the next section.
Boss Items
Boss items are special items that allow you to summon Coin Bosses in the Magic Maze to fight (although they're called "Coin Bosses", all Boss items will summon a Coin Boss). Each boss has a specific accessory they drop as well. Boss items are offered at the central statue in the first room of the Magic Maze. When offering items to the statue, you are allowed to use up to four items of the same boss. Doing so will increase the amount of rewards the boss will drop by the number of additional items you offer past the first.
Boss items come in four different types: coins, medals, cards, and tags. Coins, medals, and cards are essentially the same type of item in function, and tags are their own separate category.
- Coins: Do not expire. Can be purchased from certain vendors and can be sold/traded to other players.
- Medals: Do not expire. Cannot be sold or traded.
- Cards: Do expire. Cannot be sold or traded.
- Tags: Do not expire. Can be purchased from vendors for 100 G. Used for boss practice.
Coins, medals, and cards can all be offered at the same time so long as the summoned boss is the same among them. Tags must be offered alone, as they are simply a way to practice the boss and give no reward.
When you receive a boss card, its expiration time will start counting down. You can see how many hours the card has left in its description. Once a card is expired, it is useless and can be thrown away.
How to Get Boss Items
There are a variety of ways to get boss items:
- Coin Shops: There is a Coin Shop located right inside the Mokomoko House (as well as the other minor towns) that sell a variety of boss coins. However, they will not have the newest bosses available to purchase.
- Casino: The Casino has a variety of lower level boss cards to purchase with Casino Tokens. This is a good way to get some starting accessories without having to spend any Gold.
- Lottery: The SP Lottery has a chance to give you some lower level boss coins as prizes. If you're looking to score the newest boss coins, the regular lottery at Glen Castle Town or Gartlant Castle Town will have them as their top prizes.
- Events: Events that happen year round will most likely have boss medals and/or cards as rewards you can acquire by participating. Generally, these will be newer bosses, so it's wise to pick these up.
- 10 Day: Every 10th of the month (in Japan), you can run into an NPC named Pu-chan inside the Magic Maze who will give you one free boss card. These include newer bosses, so make sure you don't forget to do this.
- Treasure Chests: Sometimes treasure chests in dungeons or in the overworld will contain boss items. Usually, they will be cards.
Offering Items
Once inside the Magic Maze, you will see a large statue in the middle of the first room. By examining this statue, a list of currently held items that you can offer will appear. Once a boss item is offered, only items of the same boss can be offered next. Each player can offer as many or as little as they want, but the limit will still be four items. However, there are a few types of items which do not follow this offering restriction:
- Metal Slime Coin/Liquid Metal Coin/Metal King Coin & Gem Slime Medal: These items can be offered separately and do not need to match types. (For example, you can offer 1 Liquid Metal Coin and 1 Metal King Coin.) However, these are NOT considered boss items, and cannot be offered until a boss item is offered first. When offered, the associated enemies will appear in the room before the boss and must all be defeated to move on. These items also count towards the four item limit.
- Substitution Coin: This can be offered in addition to four boss items and does not count towards the four item limit. In the event of a loss against the boss, the offered items will be retained. However, the Substitution Coin will be consumed even if you win the battle. If you're going against a boss you think you may lose against, it's a good idea to use one of these just in case.
Boss Rewards
If you successfully defeat a boss you offered items to summon, a number of red chests equal to the number of items offered will appear. (This means a maximum of four chests can appear as a reward.) These chests will contain either accessories or accessory shards. Duplicate accessories should be kept as they can synthesized together at the Accessory Shop in Verinard Castle Town to increase their power. Accessory shards can be restored into actual accessories in the Accessory Shop as well, provided you have enough.
Special Characters
There is a chance you will encounter a special character from past Dragon Quest games inside the Magic Maze. The chance is quite low, but can be increased with an item called Guidance Perfume. The easiest way to get this item is via the Casino with Casino Tokens. These are the characters that you can encounter, and what they do:
- Robbin' 'Ood: He will give you random consumable items, a random amount of Gold, or a random amount of Mini Medals.
- Fortune Teller Minea: Minea will pull a random Tarot that will give you a random beneficial battle buff. If the Tarot is right-side up, it will last 2 hours, otherwise it will last 1 hour. You will also be asked to draw a random boss card in three different ways, with differing results based on your choice:
- "Draw without thinking.": Any boss card.
- "Draw with a calm mind.": Any boss card except the newest 3.
- "Draw passionately!": Any of the 3 newest boss cards.
- Swordsman Terry: You can give Terry one of your boss items (coin, medal, or card that is not expired) and he will fight the boss for you. The next time you see him (or by talking to Ronde in the Mokomoko House) you can receive the reward from the boss (either an accessory or accessory shards.) If you talk to Lizzie, she will give you 3 Lottery Tickets.
- Merchant Torneko: Torneko will sell unique and rare items in his shop. However, you can only purchase one item each time you see him, so choose wisely.
Metal Maze
The Metal Maze is a special version of the Magic Maze filled with various types of Metal Slimes. It is a very efficient way to get your lower leveled vocations up to speed in levels, or get some quick experience for your higher levelled vocations. To enter, you will need a Metal Maze Ticket. There are three types:
- Metal Maze Ticket: The normal ticket. Allows you to enter the Metal Maze solo.
- Metal Maze Pair Ticket: The same as as a normal Metal Maze Ticket, but allows you to bring one friend with you.
- Express Metal Ticket: Brings you straight to the final room of the Metal Maze.
To enter the Metal Maze, speak to Dorothy in the Mokomoko House, and select the option of which ticket you want to use. If you are going with a second party member for a Metal Maze Pair Ticket, they must be on your friends list as well, or they will not be allowed to come with you. Also, even if you are going solo or with a friend, you are still allowed to bring a fellow monster on standby with you. They will still gain experience while on standby.
Once inside, the hallway before the boss room and the boss room will be littered with Metal Slime enemies. The catch here is that all your hits will be critical, meaning they will be defeated in one hit. It's recommended to use a weapon or skill that can hit multiple enemies, as the slimes can still run away. In the boss room, the main boss will be a Metal King Slime along with a random assortment of other Metal Slime enemies. If you do not have a way to hit multiple enemies, it's recommended to focus on the other slimes first, as the Metal Slime is the boss, so it will not run away. Feel free to save it for last.
So, you're probably wondering how you get Metal Maze Tickets? The main way to get them is via the Energy Charge system. While logged out, you will accrue hours up to a maximum of 440 hours that can be spent at concierges for various items. The three types of tickets can be purchased for 220 charge hours. However, trial players cannot purchase them in this way! In this case, there are a few other ways to get them:
- Alchemy Pot: Once you obtain this via the story, Metal Tickets earned from the lottery can be alchemized into Metal Maze Tickets.
- Fishing: Fishing has a variety of rewards for hitting certain milestones in unique types of fish caught. Metal Maze Tickets are sometimes given as prizes.
- Events: Albeit rarely, events will sometimes given them as rewards. Make sure to check each event as it comes around.
There are three types of tickets, but which one is the best? If you are going with a friend, the obvious best choice is the Metal Maze Pair Ticket. But what about going solo? What is the best choice? Honestly, it depends. Usually people will use a Bonus Orb and food that boosts experience and both of those last 30 minutes. A normal Metal Maze Ticket will give more experience per run, but takes more time due to having to clear the hallway before the boss room. Express Metal Tickets give less experience per run, but will go faster due to skipping the hallway before the boss. If you have enough Express Metal Tickets, you would probably gain more experience in a half hour due to the faster speed. But, if you aren't sure, you can always stick to normal Metal Maze Tickets. It's also possible to use the alchemy pot to change the different ticket types into another one.
