FlyFF’s curiosities and removed content (Part 1)

Dripping with sweat and just a tad bit steamed, we return from our summer break. We hope you have had a pleasant summer as well and did not fall victim to the unbearable temperatures. After a hiatus of two months, it is about time we went back to producing a bit of content and commencing our regular operations.

Before we dive back into the profound and unsettling topics to be found in the FlyFF cosmos, we would like to start things off a bit slower.

Almost every game has a few curiosities to be found. Removed content is no rare occurence either. Often times, developers have to remove certain content from a game because of deadlines or other trouble brewing. Sometimes, this content will find its way into the game with later patches. But, more often than not, it will remain buried in the catacombs of the source code.

Today, we are taking a look at some curiosities to be found in the world of FlyFF. Among these curiosities is a whole array of illustre occurences. We will divide this topic into two articles, as to not break the mould. My dear head author decided to have mercy on me in that regard (and was probably just a tad bit scared of me simply running off upon seeing an article too long to keep my sanity intact).

In today’s first part, we are taking a look at job classes, a curious NPC and mysterious happenings in the world of Madrigals Masquerpets.

The FlyFF job class ‘Puppeteer’

Some old hands may remember the legendary myths surrounding the forgotten ‘Puppeteer’ job class. Some believe that it never existed, while others believe it to be buried somewhere deep inside the game.

The story behind the Puppeteer

Many years ago – during the Korean closed beta of FlyFF – this job class did indeed exist. Its characteristic resembles that of a Summoner or Beast Master. It was able to send its own beasts into battle against the countless enemies in FlyFF.

The Puppeteer is by no means a mystery. Even today, it remains defined as a job class inside the game. With the help of ‘special means’, one would be able to assign this job class – as well as their 2nd jobs ‘Doppler’ and ‘Gatekeeper’ – to themselves today. Sadly, that is as far as one would get.

These job classes have no equipment assigned to them and the skill trees are nowhere to be found, either.

Why was the Puppeteer never put into the game?

All these incidents occured a long time ago. That being said, it is all the more difficult to find any official statements about them from back then (especially since all of it took place in Korea only).

Tradition has it that Aeonsoft (the initial developer of FlyFF) wanted to implement no more than four base job classes into the game. The job classes Mercenary, Mage and Assist had already been decided upon. But apperently, their minds were torn between the Acrobat and the Puppeteer. So it came that the decision was left to the Korean testers of the CBT via voting. The Acrobat emerged victorious from the vote and the Puppeteer was dropped.

The FlyFF NPC ‘[Donation Manager] Adrian’

Every player has probably seen him before. Similarly, every player has probably asked themselves at least once what this NPC is all about. He is a sweet little angel and has been hovering around right behind the mayor of Flarine for years.

What’s curious about this little winged fellow is his function: he does not have one. Selecting ‘Donate’ or ‘Donator ranking’ from his dialouge menu simply prompts the following message to appear: ‘You can’t donate right now.’. He has remained in this state ever since he was added to our versions of the game. Although he has led a pixel life without a function for many years, developer Gala Lab seems unwilling to remove him from the game. A great… curiosity!

‘[Donation Manager] Adrian’s function revealed

If there is no conclusive evidence to be found ingame, we will simply have to dig it up elsewhere. The name and his dialogue options are hinting towards a sort of donation system (Captain Obvious strikes again!). Presumably, players were supposed to offer certain donations to the NPC, being presented with a reward in return. Basically, every trade-in NPC of a farming event in a nutshell.

A bit of data mining helped us out and we were able to find an occurrence of this NPC within the Korean source code. There was allegedly only one single event in which this NPC and its unique functionality were put to use. However, this happened almost ten years ago.

Event Period (KR): 07/28/2011 to 09/01/2011
Global Donation Goal			Reward
	리턴즈 업데이트 기념 주화 (Returner’s Coin)	150,000		Sunglass (Black) Box	3
			Buff Reward
				Attack +150 Defense +300

Every player was able to participate and work towards the global donation goal. The ‘Donator ranking’ dialogue option allowed players to access a ranking list, detailing how much each individual player had contributed towards the global donation goal.

We believe this NPC to be harbouring a lot of potential. The ever-present Lord debate in particular could be turned on its head with the help of this little angel. Then again, it is questionable why Gala Lab has not used him again ever since 2011. It remains… a curiosity!

Curious encounters inside the FlyFF monster world

The current database holds over 800 different monsters in FlyFF. Most of them are probably known to you from Madrigal, premium areas or dungeons. Even most event monsters are likely to have crossed your way once or twice.

In this segment of our curiosities, we have prepared some fellows for you which are rarely or never seen in FlyFF. You may remember some of them from years ago and know that they cannot be encountered anymore.

An homage to FlyFF Game Masters and Moderators

In the surprisingly long lifespan of FlyFF, the game has seen many game masters and volunteers come and go. Some of them have left a rather lasting footprint inside the game. Next to their human pixel alter ego, they have taken on an additional identity as a Masquerpet.

None of them are likely to be found out in the open. Sometimes, however, one will be able to find them during an invasion event.

Material monsters for the FlyFF Collector System

Everyone knows todays collector system in FlyFF. Just outside of each of the three main cities, a marked-out and mysteriously glowing field can be found. Placing oneself on this field and starting up a collector leads to one (drum roll, please) collecting small pieces of an item over time. An NPC allows players to trade in said pieces for their complete item counterpart.

Long before the launch in our version, another collector system existed. This time, the goal was not a designated field, though. Instead, free-roaming monsters were ‘sucked empty’.

Back then, players still needed fuel in order to use their flying vehicles. Said fuel could only be collected from these material monsters, however. Much to the players’ chagrin, this turned out to be a very elaborate and non-profitable procedure. As such, many complaints were raised by the community and this feature ended up being removed again.

Now and then, game masters or moderators take pity on these dusty fellows and take them out for a walk during invasion events.

Massive FlyFF EXP machines

Wagsaacs are known to us as small, carnivorous plants just outside of Sain City in Saint Morning. Did you know that these meatless fellows have some extremely ‘nutritious’ relatives?

These Waagsac carbon copies are monsters which were created by Aeonsoft for internal testing purposes during the development of FlyFF. They can be found across different level ranges. Contrary to their monster colleagues in similar level ranges, these power flowers provide a humongous amont of EXP.

Bucketfoot

Image	Name	Level	Type	HP	EXP
	Small Bucketfoot	1	Small	550	21
	Bucketfoot	1	Normal	550	24
	Captain Bucketfoot	2	Captain	550	33
	Giant Bucketfoot	5	Giant	3.300	510

Circus Bear

Image	Name	Level	Type	HP	EXP
	Small Circus Bear	47	Small	9.364	163.152
	Circus Bear	47	Normal	9.364	189.256
	Captain Circus Bear	48	Captain	9.545	187.624
	Giant Circus Bear	51	Giant	163.346	1.426.755

Pire

Image	Name	Level	Type	HP	EXP
	Small Pire	75	Small	15.025	8.168.119
	Pire	75	Normal	15.025	9.475.018
	Captain Pire	76	Captain	15.204	9.393.336
	Giant Pire	79	Giant	254.566	71.430.440

Clawdoll

Image	Name	Level	Type	HP	EXP
	Small Clawdoll	79	Small	15.910	14.286.088
	Clawdoll	79	Normal	15.910	16.571.862
	Captain Clawdoll	80	Captain	16.049	16.429.001
	Giant Clawdoll	83	Giant	272.765	124.932.275

Rampage Butcher

Image	Name	Level	Type	HP	EXP
	Small Rampage Butcher	83	Small	17.048	24.986.455
	Rampage Butcher	83	Normal	17.048	28.984.287
	Captain Rampage Butcher	84	Captain	17.185	28.734.423
	Giant Rampage Butcher	87	Giant	282.251	218.507.315

The chances of meeting one of these beasts in the wild are probably virtually zero. Since they were originally designed for internal testing purposes only, Aeonsoft / Gala Lab never integrated them into FlyFF. Game masters and moderators are probably not allowed to spawn them, either.

A FlyFF monster fell into the cauldron full of Magic Potion…

Do you still remember the Mocomochi? Some players own a Mocomochi pet, but there used to be a monster version as well. It was a constant part of the ‘Fluffy Invasion’ event in the past. Today, it can no longer be found in this event. Instead, the rather unspectacular ‘Pinata’ has replaced it.

The reason behind the disappearance of the Mocomochi is likely to be found inside the patch from 08/06/2019. According to lores from the Far East, the Mocomochi fell into a sort of Baruna soup during the server maintenance. The little tot has been an unstoppable force ever since. Looking at its newly acquired HP, this comes as no surpise at all.

Image	Name	Level	Type	HP	EXP
	Mocomochi	1	Small	999.999.999	0

The reasons behind this ‘vitamin regimen” are unknown as of today. With its one billion HP, the Mocomochi sadly does not fit in with the other monsters of the ‘Fluffy Invasion’ anymore.

The great FlyFF depression of the Naiphins

With the ‘Turning Point – Part 2’ update, developer Gala Lab bestowed upon us a new dungeon with high-level monsters. Although, ‘new’ seems to miss the mark… ‘recycled’ sounds much more apt.

Be that as it may, the Mars Mine dungeon found itself populated by new high-level monsters. Among them, one can find the Naiphin. They are a group of walking tree stumps with a lot of emotion. Some of them are neutral, others are rather agitated and still others are simply depressed. But one thing confused us concerning the Naiphin. Their listing, according to levels, is as follows:

Image	Name	Level	Type	HP	EXP
	Naiphin	158	Normal	1.080.000	16.143.996
	Depressed Naiphin	160	Normal	1.080.000	18.861.914
	Angry Naiphin	160	Captain	5.400.000	18.347.194
	Huge Naiphin	168	Mid-Boss	122.400.000	82.510.632

This listing begs the question of why there are two different Naiphin at the same level. And why does the level distance between the Angry Naiphin / Depressed Naiphin and the next higher monster (Yggdrasil Guardian Ant) span 5 levels?

We believe that this may be a mistake made by the developers. In actuality, there are two different monsters with the name ‘Depressed Naiphin’; one at level 160 and another one at level 163. Gala Lab potentially mistook the both of them and falsely put the level 160 Depressed Naiphin, instead of the level 163 one, into the Mars Mine.

Image	Name	Level	Type	HP	EXP
	Depressed Naiphin	163	Normal	1.080.000	29.343.996

The personified FlyFF reaper

As with a lot of other cool stuff that this game has to offer, the FlyFF World Championships (FWC) happened almost a decade ago now. This spectacle not only came with its own cool arena, it brought along its very own mascot as well: the Ripper.

Today, the Ripper is primarily known to us as a pick-up pet. Yet, inside the database of FlyFF, he is defined as a monster as well (in a much bigger form than the corresponding pick-up pet).

Image	Name	Level	Type	HP	EXP
	Ripper	200	Giant	1.081.995	1.901.497

A few years ago, game masters and moderators still used him as an atmospheric prop and embellishment for ingame events. The unique attributes of the Ripper are what made all of this possible. He does not move, nor does he receive any damage and he never attacks anyone, either.

Sadly, developer Gala Lab disallowed the use of the Ripper outside of the FWC arena somewhere along the lines. He was supposedly bugged and, as a result, would even be able to crash the servers. We have never seen this raw-boned fellow in its full glory ever since in FlyFF.

This marks the end of the first part of our collection of curiosities. Next week, our second part will occupy the center stange. Among other things, we will be shining a light on peculiar locations, removed and never released features, as well as the fifth part of an equipment set which was never implemented.