MapleStory Classic Elements Guide: Monster Weaknesses, Resists

Quick summary

• A weakness adds 25%, a resistance takes off 25%, and an immunity blocks all damage. Both the wiki's Damage page and NiaMeowDB use 1.25×, 0.75× and 0×. The wiki's Elements page says the client doesn't store the multipliers at all.
• Fire hits the most weaknesses and Poison the fewest. Across 131 monsters with element data, 49 are weak to Fire and 23 resist it. Holy has the best ratio (40 weak, 12 resist). Only 6 are weak to Poison, and 30 resist it (wiki).
• Most early monsters are neutral. The wiki says element starts to matter from around level 20, in elemental-themed maps.
• Heal damages undead, but NiaMeowDB says that damage isn't Holy. Holy-weak monsters that aren't undead, like Malady, Dark Stone Golem and Jr. Balrog, need Holy Arrow instead.
• Defense can matter more than element. An Iron Hog has 500 physical and 100 magic defense. Under NiaMeowDB's formula, a lightning spell does about 3.75 times the share of damage a sword does.

Checked against the Founder's Access build on October 13, 2026. Grand Launch is October 21, 2026; see the end of the guide for what may change.

Know the four element states

State	Multiplier (wiki Damage page, NiaMeowDB)	What it means
Weak	1.25×	25% more damage
Neutral	1.0×	No change. Most monsters.
Resistant	0.75×	25% less damage
Immune	0×	No damage at all

So a weak target takes 1.25 ÷ 0.75 ≈ 1.67 times the damage of a resistant one from the same spell. The wiki's Elements page adds a few rules:

• Only the matching element applies. Against a monster with both a weakness and a resistance, effects don't stack on one hit.
• Neutral attacks ignore the chart. A neutral attack on a Fire-weak monster deals normal damage.
• Element is applied after defense. It multiplies the damage that's left. It doesn't bypass defense.
• Element doesn't change drops. The wiki calls the belief that Holy damage on undead drops more items "unfounded."

Energy Bolt and Magic Claw have no element, so they're your fallback when a monster resists your school (wiki Damage page).

See which elements pay off

The wiki's counts across the 131 monsters with element data:

Element	Weak	Resistant	Immune	Who uses it at launch
Fire	49	23	0	Fire/Poison Wizard: Fire Arrow
Holy	40	12	0	Cleric: Holy Arrow
Lightning	20	22	0	Ice/Lightning Wizard: Thunder Bolt
Ice	18	40	2	Ice/Lightning Wizard: Cold Beam
Poison	6	30	8	Fire/Poison Wizard: Poison Breath
Dark	0	1	0	Monster attacks only

Skill elements per NiaMeowDB's skill pages: Fire Arrow is Fire, Poison Breath is Poison, Cold Beam is Ice, Thunder Bolt is Lightning, and Holy Arrow is Holy. Heal is listed as element "None."

Element Composition and Element Amplification show up in NiaMeowDB's formulas, but they're 3rd job Mage skills. Classic World launches with 1st and 2nd job only.

Look up the launch monsters

From the wiki's Grand Launch roster and each monster's page. The "Resists" column covers both resistant and immune entries, as listed on each monster's page:

Monster	Lv	Weak to	Resists	A spawn map (wiki)
Stump	5	Fire	—	The Tree That Grew II
Slime	6	Lightning	—	The Tree That Grew II
Dark Stump	11	Fire	—	West Domain of Perion
Octopus	12	Lightning	—	Damp Tree-Forest
Green Mushroom	14	—	Poison	West Rocky Mountain III
Bubbling	15	Lightning	—	Line 1 (Area 1)
Axe Stump	17	Fire	—	The Forest North of Ellinia
Dark Axe Stump	23	Fire	—	East Rocky Mountain V
Zombie Mushroom (undead)	24	Holy	—	Ant Tunnel III
Iron Hog	28	Lightning	—	Pig Park II
Fairy (4 kinds)	29	Poison	Lightning, Holy	Tree Dungeon, Forest Up North VI
Ligator	31	Fire	Ice	The Swamp of Despair I
Fire Boar	32	Ice	Fire	The Burnt Land V
King Slime (boss)	32	—	Fire, Holy, Ice, Lightning	KPQ last stage
Curse Eye	33	—	Poison	Sleepy Dungeon V
Jr. Wraith (undead)	34	Fire, Holy	—	Line 2
Jr. Boogie	35	—	Poison	Sleepy Dungeon V
Lorang	38	Lightning	—	A Look-Out Shed Around the Beach
Cold Eye	40	Fire	Ice	The Tunnel That Lost Light I
Mushmom (boss)	40	Fire	—	Someone Else's House
Zombie Lupin (undead)	41	Holy	—	Monkey Swamp III
Copper Drake	45	Ice	Fire	East Rocky Mountain VII
Shade (undead boss)	48	Holy	Poison	—
Wraith (undead)	48	Holy	—	Line 2 (Area 3)
Clang	49	Lightning	—	Lorang and Clang
Drake	50	—	Fire, Ice	Drake's Meal Table
Croco	52	Fire	Ice	Dangerous Croko II
Malady	55	Holy	Fire, Ice	The Forest of Evil I
Zombie Mushmom (undead boss)	55	Holy	—	The Grave of Mushmom
Stone Golem	56	—	Poison	Golem's Temple III
Dark Stone Golem	58	Holy	Fire, Poison	Sleepy Dungeon V
Red Drake	60	Ice	Fire	Dangerous Valley II
Tauromacis	70	Ice	Lightning	Sanctuary Entrance I
Taurospear	75	Ice	Lightning	Sanctuary Entrance III
Jr. Balrog (boss)	80	Holy	Poison	The Cursed Sanctuary

Monsters with no listed weakness or resistance on the roster include Orange Mushroom, Pig, Ribbon Pig, Blue Mushroom, Stirge, Horny Mushroom, Jr. Necki, Wild Boar, Evil Eye, Lupin, Tortie and Wild Kargo. Our bosses guide and training guide cover where each sits in a leveling route.

Factor in defense, not just element

NiaMeowDB's formula for monster defense is damage × 100 ÷ (defense + 100). Physical attacks use the monster's physical defense, and spells use its magic defense. Two launch monsters show why this can outweigh element. The defense values are from the wiki's roster, and the math is ours:

Monster	Phys. DEF	Magic DEF	Physical hit (neutral)	Element spell
Iron Hog (Lv 28, weak to Lightning)	500	100	100 ÷ 600 ≈ 17% of raw	Thunder Bolt: 100 ÷ 200 × 1.25 ≈ 63% of raw
Fairy (Lv 29, weak to Poison)	0	500	100% of raw	Poison Breath: 100 ÷ 600 × 1.25 ≈ 21% of raw

What it means:

• Iron Hogs are a magician map. Physical classes lose about 83% of every hit to defense.
• Fairies are a physical map. Their Poison weakness doesn't make up for 500 magic defense, and they resist Lightning and Holy too.
• These are shares of raw damage, not kill times. Your raw damage depends on your stats and skill. See our damage formula guide.

Pick targets by job

Job	Hit these	Avoid these	Fallback
Fire/Poison Wizard	Stumps (5–23), Ligator, Jr. Wraith, Cold Eye, Mushmom, Croco	Fire Boar, Copper Drake, Drake, Malady, Dark Stone Golem, Red Drake, King Slime	Energy Bolt or Magic Claw (neutral). Poison Breath isn't worth it on Poison-resistant targets.
Ice/Lightning Wizard	Lightning: Slime, Octopus, Bubbling, Iron Hog, Lorang, Clang. Ice: Fire Boar, Copper Drake, Red Drake, Tauromacis, Taurospear	Ice: Ligator, Cold Eye, Croco, Drake, Malady. Lightning: Fairies, Tauromacis, Taurospear	Swap to the other element, or use Energy Bolt
Cleric	Holy Arrow on Zombie Mushroom, Jr. Wraith, Zombie Lupin, Wraith, Malady, Dark Stone Golem, Shade, Zombie Mushmom, Jr. Balrog	Fairies and King Slime (both resist Holy)	Magic Claw
Warrior, Bowman, Thief	Low physical defense targets	High physical defense (Iron Hog)	The wiki says physical attacks are neutral

Our class guides go deeper: Fire/Poison, Ice/Lightning and Cleric.

Use Heal on the right monsters

Heal is the Cleric's group damage against undead. Two sources describe it differently:

• The wiki's Elements page says Heal deals Holy damage to every undead monster in range, and that Holy is "hard-coded" against anything with the undead flag.
• NiaMeowDB's Heal page says Heal "can damage undead targets, but that damage does not carry the Holy element." Its element field reads "None."

They agree on the part that matters most for training: Heal damages undead monsters, not every Holy-weak one. On the wiki's roster, the undead are Zombie Mushroom, Jr. Wraith, Zombie Lupin, Wraith, Shade and Zombie Mushmom. Malady, Dark Stone Golem and Jr. Balrog are weak to Holy, but they aren't tagged undead, so use Holy Arrow on them.

NiaMeowDB's Heal page also notes an October 8 patch that cut Heal's area height to 180 px at every level, from 300 at Levels 1–15 and 400 at 16–30. Width didn't change. The page says Heal has room for up to five undead monsters when you're solo, or four with one party member nearby.

Avoid the common mistakes

• Using an old GMS weakness list. Those lists include monsters that aren't in Classic World, and some values differ. Use the wiki's Grand Launch roster.
• Assuming 1.5× and 0.5×. Both Classic World sources that give a number use 1.25× and 0.75×.
• Casting Poison on bosses. Shade and Jr. Balrog resist Poison, and the wiki's Elements page lists Jr. Balrog as immune.
• Taking an Ice/Lightning Wizard to Tauros. Tauromacis and Taurospear resist Lightning. Use Cold Beam, since they're weak to Ice.
• Bringing elemental spells to King Slime. It resists Fire, Holy, Ice and Lightning, so use physical damage or neutral spells.

Plan alts and returning players

• Coming back from old GMS? Elements matter less than you remember. A weakness is +25%, not +50%, under both Classic sources. And Fire/Poison's 3rd job element tools aren't in yet.
• Picking a Magician alt? Fire hits the most weaknesses. Ice/Lightning covers two elements, and Cleric gets Holy for the undead and every boss after Mushmom (Shade, Zombie Mushmom, Jr. Balrog).
• Partying across jobs? A Cleric's Holy Arrow plus a Fire/Poison's Fire Arrow covers Jr. Wraiths from both sides, since they're weak to both.
• Leveling fast? Our MapleStory Classic hub and powerleveling page cover the options. Our launch skill changes guide covers Holy Arrow's switch to 1 target.

Want a hand with this?

If you would rather skip the grind that goes with this, MapleStory Classic powerleveling services are listed on FullBoosts. Read Nexon's Terms of Service before you buy any service from anyone, FullBoosts included — a marketplace listing isn't publisher permission.

What may change at Grand Launch

This guide describes the Founder's Access build as it was on October 13, 2026. Re-check these against Nexon's Grand Launch notes on October 21: whether crafting still stops at craft level 8, whether Forgotten Hollow, Orbis and third jobs stay closed, KPQ channel limits, NPC shop stock, and any Founder's Access-only events or packages mentioned here. Nothing here assumes a closed area or feature will open.

FAQ

How much extra damage does an elemental weakness do? 25% more (1.25×), per the wiki's Damage page and NiaMeowDB. A resistance cuts damage to 0.75×, and an immunity to 0.

Which element is best in MapleStory Classic? Fire has the most weak monsters: 49, against 23 that resist it. Holy has the best ratio, 40 weak to 12 resistant. Poison is the worst (wiki counts).

Does Heal deal Holy damage? The wiki says yes. NiaMeowDB says Heal's undead damage has no element. Both agree it only damages undead monsters.

What is Iron Hog weak to? Lightning. It also has 500 physical defense and only 100 magic defense, so magic works far better (wiki).

What does King Slime resist? Fire, Holy, Ice and Lightning (wiki, NiaMeowDB). Use physical attacks or neutral spells.

Do physical attacks have an element? Not by default. The wiki's Damage page says physical attacks are neutral. The wiki's other pages mention elemental ammo, but we found none in NiaMeowDB's launch shop lists.

Is Poison any good? Rarely. Only 6 monsters are weak to it, 30 resist it, and the bosses Shade and Jr. Balrog resist it too.