What is MU Online?

MU Online is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) for Windows, built and published by the South Korean company Webzen. You see your hero from a third-person camera and roam an open world, taking on quests, talking to NPCs and fighting monsters.

The story takes place on the mythical Continent of MU, also called Lemuria: a lost civilisation in the Pacific Ocean that 19th-century writers James Churchward and Augustus Le Plongeon wrote about. The game drew its inspiration from the action RPG Diablo.

Most of the game is about making your character stronger. The usual cycle looks like this:

• Hunt monsters to earn experience (EXP) and level up, from weak goblins to big bosses such as Gorgon and Kundun.
• Spend stat points after each level on Strength, Agility, Vitality and Energy (see Character Stats).
• Collect better gear from monster drops, and buy or sell items for Zen, the game's money.
• Finish class quests to evolve into a stronger class with new skills, weapons and wings.

You can play alone, but the game rewards teamwork, and PvP fights between players are a core part of it.

There are 16 classes, from the original Dark Wizard, Dark Knight and Fairy Elf to newer ones such as the Alchemist and the Crusader. Each one changes several times as it grows; the full list is in Classes Overview.

Where you begin depends on the class: Fairy Elves start in Noria, Summoners in Elbeland and every other class in Lorencia. Later maps hold tougher monsters and have minimum levels, so weak characters cannot walk in too early.

Several events run every day for prizes. Some need an entry item or fee, others happen on open maps. The best known are:

• Blood Castle: race to recover a holy weapon and bring it back to the fallen Archangel.
• Devil Square: waves of monsters keep coming; the player with the most kills takes the top prize.
• Chaos Castle: everyone against everyone; the last one standing wins.
• Invasions: special bosses appear on several maps every few hours, and the prize goes to whoever deals the most damage.
• Castle Siege: a two-hour guild war in the Valley of Loren. The guild that holds the castle at the end owns it, with its bonuses, until the next siege.

Webzen was founded in April 2000. MU Online went through a closed beta and an open beta in Korea in 2001 and launched there in November of that year. Before the international version opened, the game already had more than 360,000 players online at the same time across Korea, China, Taiwan and Japan; by the end of 2006 it had passed 56 million registered accounts.

Big updates are called Seasons. The Korean version has had 22 major ones; the Global version gets the same content a little later. See the Timeline for each season.