The Debt system is MapleStory Classic World's penalty for real money trading. Nexon added it on 22 October 2026: an account found buying or selling mesos or items for real money, or trading mesos or items that were obtained illegitimately, is given a debt in mesos, and loses its trading features, among other restrictions, until the debt is repaid.
While an account is in debt
Every login shows a pop-up with the current debt and the restrictions that apply, and a Repay Illegal Mesos button stays at the top center of the screen until the debt is paid off. Until then, the account cannot:
- use a Store Permit
- use a Hired Merchant
- trade, whether in-game items or Cash items
- send gifts from the Cash Shop
- drop items on the ground, apart from the Coupons and Passes of the Kerning City Party Quest
- pick up mesos or items that other players dropped
Picking up other players' drops has been blocked since v1.1.0, on 29 October 2026. Drops from monsters the player defeated, and certain party quest items, can still be picked up.
Nexon asks players who believe a debt was applied by mistake to contact Player Support.
Repaying a debt
- Go to a town, since payments can only be made there.
- Click Repay Illegal Mesos and enter an amount. It starts at the whole debt, or at all the mesos in the inventory when that is less. The smallest payment is 1 meso, and a payment cannot be more than the mesos in the inventory.
- Confirm with OK, or close the window with Cancel.
A debt can be paid off in parts. Once it is fully repaid, the restrictions are lifted and the button disappears.
See also
- Update:22 October 2026 Unscheduled Maintenance, the patch that added the system
- Update:29 October 2026 Scheduled Maintenance, the patch that stopped players in debt from picking up other players' drops
- Truth Booth, where the Lie Detector sends characters suspected of cheating