Link Skills

To manage a character's Link Skills, open the Skills Tab UI and navigate to the Beginner skills tab and locate Link Manager

Link Skills are generally a passive skill that is unique to each class and can be shared with all your other characters on the same World. There are also special cases where a class has an active Link Skill or the Link Skill has a different effect when shared

Upon reaching Lv. 70, a Link Skill can be shared with all other characters. Link Skills grow stronger at Lv. 120 (Skill Lv. 2) and in GMS, Lv. 210 (Skill Lv. 3). For Explorers, Cygnus Knights, and Resistance classes, their Link Skills can stack to increase the strength of the Link Skill up to Lv. 9 for each unique class of the same Class Faction

Each character can have up to 3 Presets of 12 Link Skills (13 if including themselves) at one time. There is no limit as to how many characters can share a Link Skill - they can be linked to as many characters as needed

For advice on choosing Link Skills, choose skills that provide stats you need. For example, if I am trying to reach 100% Crit Chance, I try to get as many %Crit Chance Link Skills to help me reach that goal. There are also other essential stats that are useful for all classes such as %Damage, %Boss Damage or %Ignore DEF. Other important Link Skills include ones that increase the amount of EXP gained. For more curated advice, check class discords

Quick Jumps

• Explorers
• Cygnus Knights
• Heroes
• Resistance
• Nova
• Sengoku
• Flora
• Anima
• Shine
• Jianghu
• Other
• Notable Link Skills
• Examples of Link Skill Builds

Explorers

[Hero, Paladin and Dark Knight]

Invincible BeliefPassive

Master Level: 9

• Can be stacked up to 3 times, once for each unique Explorer Warrior to reach Master Level
• Useful for BOSSING because of increased SURVIVABILITY

Automatically activates when your health falls to 15% of your Max HP or below. Restores 44% of Max HP every 1 sec for 3 sec

Cooldown: 90 sec.

[Bishop, Arch Mage (Ice, Lightning) and Arch Mage (Fire, Poision)]

Empirical KnowledgePassive

Master Level: 9

When attacking, your attacks have a chance to debuff against the enemy with the highest Max HP

• [Debuff]: Increases %Damage and %Ignore DEF against this enemy (stacking up to 3 times)
• Can be stacked up to 3 times, once for each unique Explorer Magician to reach Master Level
• Useful for BOSSING because of INCREASED DAMAGE and IGNORE DEF is ESSENTIAL TO DEALING FULL DAMAGE

When attacking, has a 31% chance to identify the weakness of the enemy with the highest Max HP among those struck, granting you the following bonuses against them:

Damage per Stack: +5%, Enemy DEF Ignored per Stack: +5%

Effect Duration: 10 sec, Stacks up to 3 times

[Bow Master, Marksman and Pathfinder]

Adventurer's CuriosityPassive

Master Level: 9

• Can be stacked up to 3 times, once for each unique Explorer Archer to reach Master Level
• Useful for ALL CLASSES with LOW OR LESS THAN 100% CRIT RATE
• Additionally useful for adding monsters to Monster Collection

Chance to add monsters to Monster Collection: +50%, Critical Rate: +15%

[Shadower, Night Lord, and Dual Blade]

Thief's CunningPassive

Master Level: 9

• Can be stacked up to 3 times, once for each unique Explorer Thief to reach Master Level
• Useful for INCREASING DAMAGE for CLASSES WITH DEBUFFS

Upon debuffing an enemy, Damage: +18%. Duration: 10 sec

Cooldown: 20 sec.

[Corsair, Buccaneer, and Cannoneer]

Pirate's BlessingPassive

Master Level: 9

• Can be stacked up to 3 times, once for each unique Explorer Pirate to reach Master Level
• The stats are affected by %Stat bonuses
• [Note]: Link Skill has a togglable effect where stats provided from your equipment can be swapped between STR + %STR and DEX + %DEX
  • Double-click the Link Skill to turn this effect ON/OFF
  • The effect only applies to the original Link Skill, not the transferred version
  • Excludes Primary and Secondary Weapon, Totems, and Symbols
• Useful for INCREASING DAMAGE and TRAINING characters pre-200 because of increased SURVIVABILITY

STR: +100, DEX: +100, INT: +100, LUK: +100, Max HP: +1750, Max MP: +1750, Damage Taken: -21%

Cygnus Knights

[Dawn Warrior, Wind Archer, Thunder Breaker, Night Walker, and Blaze Wizard]

Cygnus BlessingPassive

Master Level: 15

• Can be stacked up to 5 times, once for each unique Cygnus Knight to reach Master Level
• Useful for INCREASING DAMAGE and REDUCING DURATION OF DEBUFFS

Attack Power and Magic ATT: +35, Status Resistance: +22, Elemental Resistance: +22%

[Mihile]

Heroes

[Mercedes]

[Aran]

[Phantom]

[Luminous]

[Evan]

[Shade]

Close CallPassive

Master Level: 3

• Useful for BOSSING because of increased SURVIVABILITY

Fatal Attack Survival Chance: 15%

Resistance

[Wild Hunter, Battle Mage, Mechanic, and Blaster]

Spirit of FreedomPassive

Master Level: 12

• Can be stacked up to 4 times, once for each unique Resistance character (excluding Demons and Xenon) to reach Master Level
• Useful for BOSSING because of increased UTILITY

Grants 12 seconds of invincibility after being revived. Removed upon moving to another map.

[Demon Avenger]

[Demon Slayer]

[Xenon]

Hybrid LogicPassive

Master Level: 3

• Useful for INCREASING DAMAGE

All Stats: +15%

Nova

[Kaiser]

[Kain]

Time to PreparePassive

Master Level: 3

• Useful for INCREASING DAMAGE

By defeating 8 enemies or attacking a boss 5 times, you gain 1 stack of Time to Prepare. At 5 stacks of Time to Prepare, your damage increases by 25% for 20 sec.

Cooldown: 40 sec

[Cadena]

Unfair AdvantagePassive

Master Level: 3

• Weaker opponents refer to enemies lower level than you
• Useful for INCREASING DAMAGE

Attacks against weaker opponents deal +9% damage. Attacks against monsters afflicted by Abnormal Statuses deal +9% damage.

[Angelic Buster]

Terms and ConditionsBuff

Master Level: 3

• Useful for BOSSING for classes with BURST ATTACKS

Duration: 10 sec, Damage: +60%

Cooldown: 60 sec

Sengoku

[Hayato]

Keen EdgePassive

Master Level: 3

• Useful for INCREASING DAMAGE

All Stats: 35, Attack Power Increase: 20, Magic Attack Power Increase: 20

[Kanna]

ElementalismPassive

Master Level: 3

• Useful for INCREASING DAMAGE

Damage: +15%

Flora

[Adele]

Noble FirePassive

Master Level: 3

• Useful for BOSSING

Boss Damage: +6%

Increases damage by 3% up to 12% for each party member, including yourself, on the same map.

If you are not in a party, you will be considered to be in your own party.

[Illium]

Tide of BattlePassive

Master Level: 3

As you move around, you gain a stacking %Damage buff

• Useful for INCREASING DAMAGE for classes that MOVE A LOT

Activated when moving a certain distance. Max number of stacks: 4 times, Duration: 15 sec, Damage per stack: +4%

[Khali]

Innate GiftPassive

Master Level: 3

• Unaffected by cooldown resets, cooldown reduction, and buff duration increase
• Useful for SURVIVABILITY

Damage: +7%

Upon attacking, Recovery Chance: 100%, Recovery 3% of Max HP/MP per sec, Duration: 5 sec

Cooldown: 30 sec

[Ark]

Anima

[Ren]

Grounded BodyPassive

Master Level: 3

• Useful for BOSSING because of REDUCED DAMAGE TAKEN from %MAX HP ATTACKS

Reduces damage taken by 4%, including attacks at a certain ratio of maximum HP

[Lara]

Nature's FriendPassive

Master Level: 3

• Useful for TRAINING because of INCREASED DAMAGE

Damage: +7%

Activate nature's help upon defeating 20 normal monsters. Increases Damage Against Normal Monsters by 15% for 30 sec. when nature's help is active.

Cooldown: 30 sec.

[Hoyoung]

BravadoPassive

Master Level: 3

• Useful for INCREASING DAMAGE

Enemy DEF Ignored: +15%, Damage +19% against enemies with 100% HP

Shine

[Sia Astelle]

Tree of StarsPassive

Master Level: 3

• Useful for BOSSING because BUFF DURATION is USEFUL FOR EXTENDING ANGELIC BUSTER'S LINK SKILL and CRIT DAMAGE for INCREASED DAMAGE

Buff Duration: +10%, Critical Damage: +3%

Jianghu

[Lynn]

[Mo Xuan]

Qi CultivationPassive

Master Level: 3

• Useful for BOSSING

Boss Damage: +6%. If the target is a boss, up to 3% increase for every successful attack. Max Stacks: 6, stack activates once every 2 sec.

Duration: 5 sec

Other

[Zero]

Rhinne's BlessingPassive

Master Level: 6

• This skill is leveled up by completing the Zero storyline
• Useful for BOSSING because IGNORE DEF is ESSENTIAL TO DEALING FULL DAMAGE
  • Also useful for TRAINING pre-200 because of increased SURVIVABILITY

Incoming damage reduced: 18%, defense ignored: 12%

[Kinesis]

JudgmentPassive

Master Level: 3

• Useful for INCREASED DAMAGE

Critical Damage: +6%

Notable Link Skills:

Some Link Skills may fit multiple roles, for example, Lynn's Link Skill provides %Boss Damage, %Crit Rate and %Max HP/MP

For Damage:

• [Ark] - %Damage
• [Demon Avenger] - %Damage
• [Explorer Thieves] - %Damage (for classes with debuffs)
• [Explorer Pirates] - All Stats (affected by %Stat)
• [Illium] - %Damage
• [Kanna] - %Damage
• [Kinesis] - %Crit Damage
• [Xenon] - %All Stat

For Bossing + Ignore DEF:

• [Angelic Buster] - For Burst skills
• [Adele] - %Boss Damage
• [Lynn] - %Boss Damage, %Crit Rate and %Max HP/MP
• [Mo Xuan] - %Boss Damage
• [Cygnus Knights] - Useful for Abnormal Status Resistance and slight damage boost
• [Demon Slayer] - %Boss Damage
• [Explorer Mages] - %Ignore DEF
• [Luminous] - %Ignore DEF
• [Mihile] - Useful for Abnormal Status Resistance
• [Resistance] - iFrames after reviving
• [Shade] - Survivability, chance to not die from fatal attacks
• [Zero] - %Ignore DEF
• [Sia Astelle] - %Buff Duration and %Crit Damage
• [Ren] - %Damage Reduction (against %Max HP attacks)

For Training:

• [Aran] - Useful for pre-200
• [Cadena] - Increased %Damage to lower level enemies + enemies with Abnormal Statuses
• [Evan] - Useful all levels especially pre-200
• [Hoyoung] - Useful if you need a small boost to one-shot enemies
• [Kaiser] - For pre-200 if you die a lot
• [Mercedes] - Best results for training Lv. 200+

For Low Crit Rate:

• [Explorer Archers] - Up to 10%
• [Lynn] - Up to 10%
• [Phantom] - Up to 20%

Examples of Link Skill Builds:

For more curated advice, check class discords. The following are to give a rough rationale on how Link Skills are considered

Training:

(Aran, Ark, Cadena, Demon Avenger, Evan, Explorer Archer, Explorer Thief, Explorer Pirate, Hoyoung, Zero, Kanna, Mercedes)

Rationale: Increased EXP Gain, Damage, and Damage Reduction if required. If you feel that you do not need extra survivability, you can swap out some Link Skills for more damage or other stats like %Crit Rate

Other options: (Crit Rate, Max HP/MP), (Damage), (Damage), (Damage), (Max HP), (Crit Rate), (Damage) (Lynn, Cygnus Knights, Hayato, Illium, Kaiser, Phantom, and Xenon)

Bossing:

(Angelic Buster, Mo Xuan, Lynn, Shade, Demon Slayer, Explorer Pirate, Explorer Mage, Explorer Thief, Resistance, Kinesis, Luminous, Phantom)

Rationale: Increased damage, %Crit Rate (to get 100% if needed), and %Ignore DEF. Other Link Skills are used for survivability

Other options: (Crit Rate), (Damage), (Damage), (Damage), (Damage), (Abnormal Status Resistance), (Damage), (Damage), (%Ignore DEF) (Explorer Archer, Ark, Demon Avenger, Explorer Warrior, Illium, Mihile, Xenon, Cygnus Knights, and Zero)

For more info on Link Skills check out:

https://maplestorywiki.net/w/Link_Skill

For help optimizing your Link Skills check out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zT1jX_tnQjM

Credits:

Skill Icons + Info: MapleWiki