Coco's Hunter Leveling Guide

Welcome to my Hunter Leveling Guide. This guide is aimed to reach 99 as a hunter in the fastest way possible. I have shared this technique with some of my friends and almost all of them have won the top place in the leveling events.

Things to know before you start:

1. This is a guide for beginners and is not intended for people who are expert at playing Snipers.
2. This guide helps you to reach 99 in the least amount of time.
3. The build used in this guide is not intended for non-trans server/classic servers.
4. This build prefers Solo-Gameplay until you reach Sniper. 
5. The only equipment you need is a Hunter's Bow.
6. All screen-shots are from RMS test server.
7. Please respect the CC right and mention the source if you are re-posting this guide.

Creating your chars

To level you Hunter efficiently, you will need a total of 3 chars i.e Hunter, Priest and a Linker.
Start off my reserving you main char name. Log off and create 4 additional novice for Kafra Warp Tickets and Merchant Battle Axe. This step should take ~10 minutes and gives you good amount of starting zeny. Make your Aco and Linker Novice on different accounts.


Novice Grounds:

Kill some Willows and farm some Trunks for your archer job quest. Save the Resin from Willow for Arrow Making Quest. If you server has a job changer, change your field to 'Tougher Monsters' and smack some Spores.

 

Archer Job Change:

• After changing to an Archer, head to Payon Weapon Dealer. Remember the 4 novice you created? The 4 Battle Axes, 28 Phracon and 8 Yellow Potion should sell for ~15k.
• Buy the CrossBow from Weapon Dealer and upgrade it if you have spare zeny. A +6 CrossBow has 17 damage less than a Gakkung but comes at half the price. This weapon should be sufficient till Hunter Job change and it also saves you money for arrows.

Job 1-10:

• Since you begin in Archer Village, head to spore map(1 right of payon) and kill 10 Spores for 'Mushroom Spore'. Save 7 of them for Arrow Making Quest.
  
  
  
• Head to Alberta and go to Wormtail Map. These are a bit tougher than Spores but with the 4x350 novice potions, you should do just fine. Save 41 Pointed Scale for Arrow Making Quest.
  
  
  
• Keep adding dex on your Archer.

Job 10-20:

• Head to Lighthazen and start killing Metallings. You should be able to kite them and kill them pretty easily with Double Strafe. Prioritize on taking Vulture Eye.
  
  
  
• Metallings give you a good amount of zeny which should help you in buying Fire Arrows.
• Take Warp Portal on your Acolyte and start increasing Blessing.
• While in Lhz, buy 2 Emerald from NPC if you have spare money.

Base ~35:

• At this point you should have 60 base dex. Leave the Dex at 60 and start adding Str (yeah thats right, STR).
• Go to Alberta and grab 1-2k Fire Arrows from Sunken Ship.
• Please please please DON'T go to Einbroch and kill the Geographers. Every Archer and Mage will be leeching their chars at that place and the exp/hr will be terrible with so many players trying to steal the mobs.
• As an archer you have 2 good monsters which give you good exp, i.e. Drosera and Parasite.

Drosera:

• Head to Rachel using Airship.
• Go to Rachel -> Right -> Top -> Right(portal doesn't appear on map). The field you are interested in is ra_fild09.
• Memo the field, since your leech characters will die occasionally from Hill Winds.
  
  
  
• Bring some Fly Wings, Fire Arrows and shoot away these plants.
• Be careful while running to pick up item drops. There are too many Ninja Drosera on this map.
  
  
  

 Parasite:

• Time to put those Kafra Teleport Coupons to use. Go to Morroc -> Comodo -> Umbala and save there.
• Try to get to Umbala -> Down -> Down -> Right and save the map or the one before it. Expect few deaths from Wootan-Shooters on the way.
• Once you have the memo, come back to your Archer and warp everyone.
  
  
  
• Bring Fly Wings and Arrows and shoot away them sexy plants. Use Fly Wings to avoid Dragon Tail.
  
  
  

Base 45(Questing):

• Once your chars reach base 45, go to Brasilis. Do the Lost Puppies Quest, Brasilis Dungeon Entrance Quest and Crow of Destiny Quest. Thse quest should help you reach 60-70 depending on the rates of your server.
• If you want to save the quests for Sniper, continue on Drosera/Parasite until Job Change.

Job 40:

• Congrats on reaching Job 40. It is strongly advised to keep leveling at Drosera/Parasite until you hit Base 60.
• If you are really patient, you can go to job 50 and get your free Hunter's Bow. Else, you need to save zeny to buy yourself a Hunter's Bow after job change.

Job Change:

• Before you change into a Hunter please do the Charge Arrow Quest. I have seen to many Hunters who stand like a Baboon when the monsters are aiming the Wizards. Seriously, learn to play in a team efficiently and keep your party members alive.
• After getting Charge Arrow, do the Arrow Making Quest. You will need it once you become a Hunter. Just buy the trunks from new players or head to Karakasa in Amatsu if you are impatient.
• There is one last step before you job change. I always do it as a Archer, since Hunter can be easily found out through Control Panel.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Base 60:

• By Base 60 you should have lvl 10 Beast Bane and the following stats:
  
  
  
  
   
• Go to Goblin map using Orc-Village Teleport and kill few Black Mushroom for Crystal Blue. If lucky, you could get a goblin card which is really useful for your build.
• Save you chars at an inn which has both a tool dealer and a Kafra close-by.
• Welcome to the Goat map. You will probably stay here till 99.
• Link, Bless, Agi, Improve Conc and warp. You should using Flywing -> Double-Strafe -> Beast- Strafe ->Double Strafe -> Beast Strafe -> Flywing. Use inn when out of sp and repeat.
  
  
  
• Every 150 kills should net you 2.3m exp on a 1x server from level 70-85. [(3k goat exp*150)+(380k killing quest*3)+(250k Horn Turn-in *3)].
• The leveling from 60-85 should be ridiculously fast with the exp quest. The money from Antelope Skin should cover the inn costs and you should save the Blue herbs and Empty Bottles.
• Keep adding str till you hit 96 base str.

Base 85:

• You should be doing pretty well by now and should be the top person on the Ranking List.
• At 85 you should be killing Goats in 1 shot. This will greatly help in increasing the exp/hr.
• The only other chars who could reach up to your level would be Turn-Undead Priests. However, they will soon face competition and the Anubis map would become inefficient when more priest start going there. However, your map should be relatively free and since there are plenty of goats and you are spamming flywings, your exp/hr should be constant.
• I would personally stick to Goats until 99. You will be ending up with huge number of Antelope Horns, which you could monopoly or save them for you Sniper.
• However, I understand, if you become a bit tired of goats and would like to explore different places.

 Base 90:

• Congrats on reaching 90! You are almost there. You stats should be looking like this:
  
  
  
  
  
• With the above stat you can save your sp on and kill Goats without using Improve Conc.
• Now, you are free to add stats on your preference. It usually depends on your finance. If you have good money and a free healer, put your stat point into Agi to help you spam Beast-Strafe faster. Else, put them into Int, to squeeze in more Goat Kills.

Alternate Leveling Places:

Grand Peco:

• Memoable, 1-shot, Mastela, Oranges, Wind of Verdure.
• It is also similar exp as Goats. However, finding mobs if a tiny bit more hassle since the map is really huge.
  
  

Atroce:

• Beast-Strafing Hunters are the 2nd most effective chars to kill Atroce only behind a Whitesmith (3rd if you include Creator).
• I will write a specialized guide on MVP later. Just grab a priest/Wizard with Safety Wall and let him tank the MVP. Kill 2 Galions to help reduce the number of hits. Spam away Beast Straf with Silver Arrows and hope for an Ulles.
• Convert your Blue-Herbs and Empty Bottles into Blue Potions to help with the Beast-Strafe Spam.
• You could also sell the Ring[1] for your Rebirth Zeny.

Tatacho:

• This is a good monster to get your last few levels. However, you will have to do New World Quest on your Priest.
• Complete the New World Quest. Do the Cat Hand Quest(Till Step-3) and save your Priest at the Cat Hand on man_fild02. Now you have a warp to manuk field and should help you level easily.
• Use Beast-Stafe->Charge Arrow->Beast-Strafe. They should probably die in 2-3 hits. Alternatively, You could use Ankle Snare.
  
  
  
  
  
  

Naga:

• If exploring uncharted territory is your thing, you could go give these a try. Use ankle snare and pray that they won't use Spear Boomerang.
• You could also have a go on Cornus(shadow arrows).
• You can save the warp on the Splendide Filed 2 using Cat Service, but you will have to walk to the bottom portal to reach Naga.
  
  
  

Galion:

• They do give a good exp, but have the most ridiculous drops.
• I tend to make better exp and money at Goats rather than these monsters.

Seal / Sea-Otter:

• I would put these on a lower scale, since there are hardly 20 of them on the map.
• You could try Sea-Otter and sell the furs for 5k ea. They are good money especially since every other hunter wants to rush Moscovia.
  
  
  
  
  
  

Gryphon:

• If its hard to find a forger to help you with Rough-Winds, you can camp Gryphon to get them.
• You will need 5 Rough-Winds for Ice-Necklace Quest.

HillsLion:

• Its a fantastic mob with great exp and awesome drops. However, you can't memo this field and its hard to farm this place without SP Items.

Thats all folks~ This should help you reach 99 within 2-3 days depending on the rates of your server. I have many friends who have won upto 50 Euros by being the first 99/50 using this technique. Hopefully, this guide will help you achieve the same.

Until next time~
-Coco