MU Online Season 8 Guide

Season 8 arrived in 2013 and is best remembered as the update that put elements into Mu Online. It opened the Acheron continent (Alkmaar, Ubaid and, in Part 2, Debenter), introduced the pentagram slot with its errtel gems, and built a whole layer of activities around it: the Arca War guild siege, the Acheron Guardian obelisk fight, the survival versions of Chaos Castle and Illusion Temple, muun pets, the Mu Rummy card game, Pandora's Jewel mining and a rebuilt personal store. Below is a walk through each system with the numbers, NPC spots and rewards as they shipped.

Acheron: Alkmaar, Ubaid and Debenter

Acheron was Season 8's end-game continent. You land in the Tree of Life safe zone and go hunting in Alkmaar or Ubaid; Debenter came with Part 2 as the third and toughest region. What makes the continent different from anything before it is that every monster carries an element, so the elemental attack and defence you get from pentagrams count for as much as your ordinary stats do.

Beside the Debenter exit stands the Safety Guardian, an NPC that teleports you straight into Debenter (he refuses while an Arca War is in progress). Debenter's monsters hit harder than anything in Alkmaar or Ubaid, and the region was designed for characters who already have some elemental defence on their pentagram.

The five elemental bosses

Once an hour one of five bosses appears somewhere in Acheron, each tied to an element. Hunting them is the main way to get the new pentagram items.

Pentagrams and errtels

A pentagram goes into its own equipment slot and acts as a holder for errtels, the elemental gems that give it its options. Part 2 added ten new pentagrams at level 300, which come from the Acheron bosses and from Acheron Guardian rewards. The strongest of them are trade-limited: they change hands only once unless a Tradable Seal has been applied.

Set options from errtel combinations

Depending on which errtels are socketed, a pentagram unlocks up to two extra options (Wren's Magic Book and Etramu's Skull do not take part):

• Errtel of Anger at rank 2, level 3 — one of: pentagram attack +10%, pentagram defense +10%, or elemental critical damage +10%.
• That Anger errtel plus Errtel of Blessing rank 3, level 5 — 5% of your defense is counted as elemental defense and 1% of your damage as elemental attack.
• Blessing R3 L6 together with Errtel of Integrity R3 L6 — 5% resistance to the element that beats yours.
• Add Errtel of Divinity R3 L6 — 5% resistance to elemental attacks in general.

Acheron Guardian: the Cursed Obelisk

Acheron Guardian is a once-a-day PvE fight. A Cursed Obelisk spawns at 23:00 server time in Alkmaar, Ubaid or Debenter — never on Wednesdays and never while an Arca War is on. Entry is through NPC Leina in Noria or Lorencia, using the "Enter as Acheron Guardian" option.

The clock gives you 30 minutes. Waves of monsters matching the obelisk's element defend it and grow thicker the longer it stands. Bring it down and the whole party is paid in jewel bundles, Ruud and a roll at the new pentagrams. One minute after the obelisk falls, everyone is sent back to Noria.

Arca War and the elemental towers

Arca War is Acheron's guild siege. Obelisks rise in two of the three regions and the guild that holds them takes the war. One quirk of the Debenter rotation: winning there gives no set-item prize — what the guild wins is the tower buff, which it keeps for the week that follows.

On top of its own buff, each tower adds +5% elemental attack and defence whenever the pentagram you wear matches the tower's element, plus +20% experience.

Chaos Castle Survival

Also called the Battle of the Strongest, Chaos Castle Survival is a monthly free-for-all for characters of level 280 and up. Signing up costs nothing at NPC Mite in Loren Market. Preliminary rounds run from the 1st to the 3rd of the month between 18:00 and 23:00; the best 20 from each round go through to the main rounds on the 4th and 5th, and the last 10 fight the final on the 6th at 21:00. A match needs between 5 and 70 players and runs as 5 minutes of entry, 1 minute of waiting and 10 minutes of fighting.

Scoring is simple: a monster kill is worth 1 point, a player kill 2, and surviving to the end 3. Preliminaries hand out Jewels of Bless and Soul; the final pays Jewels of Creation and Life plus set items. The winner is written into the Hall of Fame and gets the Wings of Conqueror.

Illusion Temple Survival

Illusion Temple came back as a survival league. Relics fall from the Cursed Statue and have to be carried to one of ten Occupation Statues, with guilds fighting through a league and tournament structure that NPC Mite (85, 136) registers. The winners take home the same Wings of Conqueror as the Chaos Castle champion.

Tradable Seal and the transformation rings

With the Tradable Seal a trade-limited item can be sold or traded once more; it is applied from the warehouse and can be stacked up to 255 trades. Seals also gained set bonuses this season: wear one alongside the Panda or Skeleton pet and you get +30% experience.

Resistance accessories from Kalima

Kalima 4 to 7 drop five accessories that each resist one kind of damage; Kundun and Medusa can drop the excellent versions. The resistance climbs with the item's level — 1% at +0, 2% at +1, 3% at +2, 4% at +3 — and an excellent piece adds another 3%.

Muuns

Muuns were Season 8's new take on pets. Every muun has a buff, a life value, a grade and a level. Life ticks down while the muun is equipped and is topped back up to 100% with a jewel. To level one you merge two identical muuns, and each muun can be evolved once with its own Evolution Stone.

Mu Rummy

Mu Rummy is a small card game built on a 24-card deck — the numbers 1 to 8 in red, blue and yellow. Monsters drop Card Pieces; collect 24 of them to make a deck, then play runs of three. A run in one colour is worth 50 to 100 points, a run in mixed colours 10 to 60, and three of the same number 20 to 90.

Pandora's Jewel mining

NPC Bolo in Karutan sells Pandora's Pickaxe for 100,000 zen. With it you dig the jewel zones inside the safe areas of Lost Tower, Tarkan, Aida, Swamp of Peace and Raklion. The pickaxe loses durability as you dig and is repaired with Jewels of Bless (it can reach +4 and 255 durability). A dig advances through five stages, and the payout arrives as gift boxes:

Personal store, map and party matching

Part 2 also reworked a lot of everyday tools. The personal store got a searchable list of every open shop, prices in jewels as well as zen, and a shortcut (P) to open it. The map behind TAB became a see-through overlay that you resize with - and + and fade with [ and ]. Party and guild matching (N) lets you post a party or join one with no level restriction, though it is switched off in event maps and closed to PK characters. Screenshots could be shared to Facebook and Twitter directly from the client, and the interface as a whole was tidied up.