The Performer's Life By Conga Lyne

Introduction

Hi, I'm Conga Lyne, a performer main, hopefully this guide will help you along your journey playing the performer classes!
Take note, I haven't achieve complete endgame gears as of writing and will update this guide periodically as I progress.

This guide will also focus on magical dps Performer, specifically the skill Metallic Fury, I will be focusing on the skill as it is spammable, has a large AoE, can be any element and has low entry requirements.
If you need any direct help, you can most likely find me in the #archer channel on discord or as "Conga lyne MtF" ingame, I might take a while to respond so sending an RODex may be more convenient for both of us.

With all that said, let's get into it.

Notice:

This guide is currently work in progress, check back soon for a more complete guide!

Leveling

Going from level 0 to 200 is your first major goal, silver arrows will be the most useful throughout most areas of play.

Something that will help you significantly early on is eden group gear, you can attain eden group equipment by first joining the eden group after talking to Secretary Lime Evenor (moc_para01 27, 35), and then talking to the various equipment masters at (moc_para01 107, 79).
Start from the bottom and work your way towards the top, I recommend gathering the items for Louis's free advanced items, but find it easier to spend 10 eden group coins on Labraham's advanced weapon.
You can use the @wd <item name>, and @wi <monster name> commands to find where to locate the required materials.

You can get normal eden group equipment at any level and advanced eden group equipment at level 100.

Level	Map	Quests	Notes
0-10	Prontera Plains (prt_fild08 340, 215)	None
10-40	Ant Hell (anthell01 35, 262)	none	Focus on killing the eggs as they won't fight back.
40-70	Orc Dungeon (orcsdun01 32, 170)	None
70-99	Glastheim Monastery (gl_church 156, 7)	Eden Board level 70-99 board quest (15x Wraith & Evil Druid) (moc_para01 40, 38)
100-130	Illusion of Moonlight (pay_d03_i 140, 44)	100x of any type in Illusion of Moonlight (pay_d03_i 153, 33)
130-160	Illusion of Vampire (gef_d01_i 115, 216)	100x of any type in Illusion of Vampire (gef_d01_i 124, 237)
160-200	Verus Outskirts (ver_tunn 13, 35)	Hunt 50x recon robot (moc_para01 52, 37)	If you find someone offering a level 180+ leech and you're level 180 or above, I recommend taking their offer. When this happens, you want to accept the illusion of underwater board quests in the main office (main_office 123, 36), go to illusion of underwater floor 2 (speak to Jerry in illusion of underwater floor 1), wait until the quest is finished, turn in your quest for exp, and repeat until the leech is finished or you reach your desired level. Remember to change your job at level 200! If they specifically say they're doing einbech 3 instead, then just navigate to einbech 3. (ein_dun02 25, 250) Also at level 180, you can turn in Thanatos fragments for exp at the main office quest board, you won't be able to farm these items yourself but can usually purchase them from other players at a cheap price.
200-240	Illusion of Underwater Floor 2 (iz_d05_i 142, 188)	100x of any type in Illusion of Underwater Floor 2 (main_office 123, 36)
240+	Abyss Lakes Floor 4 (abyss_04 169, 160)	All Abyss Lakes 4 quests (main_office 123, 36) Hunt 240x of any type in Abyss floor 4 (moc_para01 52, 37)	This is also a convenient way to farm eden coins Once you have proper endgame gear, you can farm Varmundt Depths floor 1 when you're level 250

Recommended leveling skills:

• 1st job: Double Strafe, Arrow Shower
• 2nd job: Throw Arrow, Arrow Vulcan
• 3rd job: Reverberation
• 4th job: Metallic Fury

After you have a reliable zeny income, you can make a +10 Bow [4] (1702) and fill it with Bow Guardian Card (4428) to make leveling up future Performers a lot faster.

Gameplay & Skills

Trouvere stat & trait assignment

For stats, you want to max int, dex and spl
You should get a healthy amount of vit & agi for durability and fast animation speed, and dumb left over points into str, wis and sta for carry weight & additional durability.
There aren't any specific tricks to pay attention to when playing Troubadour or Trouvere, just remember to keep your buffs up.
The songs you choose however, do matter.

• Owl's Eye
• Vulture's Eye
• Improve Concentration

Starting on 1st job and working our way to 4th, we'll max out our passive skills and attention concentrate for as many stat buffs as possible from the archer job, leftover job points can be dumped into the 1st job damage skills.

On 2nd job and onwards our skills will vary depending on the gender.

• Poem of Bragi and Assassin Cross of Sunset
• Fortune's Kiss and Service For You
• Skillful Professional Musician
• Dancing Lesson or Musical Lesson

For Male performers, you should get Poem of Bragi and your favourite song of choice (I recommend Assassin Cross of Sunset for GM events)
For Female performers, you should get Fortune's Kiss and Service For You, you won't use Fortune's Kiss outside of party play, but Service For You will be very useful for SP conservation while farming.
Skillful Professional Musician is also a critical skill to get for both classes, as well as reaching max level with Dance Lessons for more passive stat bonuses.

• Metallic Sound
• Lesson
• Swing Dance or Echo Song
• Frigg's Song
• Song of Mana
• Unlimited Humming Voice
• Reverberation

For 3rd job, you should get Metallic Sound to level 5 as we'll need it for later, additionally, reach max level with Voice Lessons.
Depending on your gender, you'll either be getting Swing Dance or Echo Song.
Make sure to also grab Frigg's Song, Song of Mana and Unlimited Humming Voice.

Song of mana will be very useful for farming dungeons as it can single handedly supply your mana if continuously recast when off cooldown.
Unlimited humming voice will be useful for when we need a large amount of damage, such as when fighting an MVP or powerful group of mobs.
Frigg's Song will likely only be used when fighting enemies who deal a large amount of damage such as Depths mobs and is useful for those circumstances.
Reverberation is also a useful skill to have for GM events.

• Metallic Fury
• Sound Blend
• Stage Manner
• Sonata of Kvasir
• Mystic Symphony
• Serenade of Jawaii
• March of Prontera

Finally for 4th job, we mainly care about maxing Metallic Fury, Sound Blend and Stage Manners.
Sound Blend will be critical for killing bosses and strong enemies as it puts a debuff on it's victims which causes them to take increased damage from Metallic Fury.
Also be sure to grab Mystic Symphony and Sonata of Kvasir, afterwards you can grab as many songs as you like.
I recommend assigning Serenade of Jawaii and March of Prontera to max level as well, as they will be your main 4th job buff skills for yourself and your party.
They won't be as significant as most 2nd and 3rd job skills are, but will provide useful benefits and become stronger if a fellow performer is in your party!

Gameplay (Arrows)

As stated in the previous section, there aren't too many tricks to be aware of, just be sure to keep your buffs up and you'll be fine.

The only thing to be weary of is what arrow you currently have equipped as it will determine what element Metallic Fury uses.
Some enemies are immune to certain elements, while others may take 200% damage when using the right element against them.
Every enemy has a unique element you'll need to be conscious of which you can check using @mi <monstername> ingame (for example @mi Moonlight Flower), or by searching them on Divine Pride.

For the most part, holy damage is generally effective against almost all creatures except holy element enemies.
I recommend keeping different arrows on your hotbar to quickly swap between them when needed, as you can easily double your damage by using the right arrow or loose 75% of it by using the wrong one.

Stat Goals

Most classes will need to hit certain amounts of fixed cast time or after cast delay before maximizing their damage, but performers only need 20% After Cast Delay (ACD) to get the most out of their main dps skill Metallic Fury.
Poem of Bragi can provide 30% for free, but is only accessible to male performers.
If you are pursuing the path of being a Trouvere rather than a Troubadour, you will need to find a way to achieve 20% ACD through equipment alone.

New Wave Sunglasses are very useful for giving 10% ACD and an illusion Silver Guard can provide an additional 5% if refined to +10 using Illusion Refinement Boxes. The remaining after cast delay reduction can be achieve through dim glacier weapons, but can prove to be very expensive to obtain early on.
A cheaper option to consider might be the Sinful accessories as their set bonus provides 5% ACD reduction and do not need to be enchanted to provide this effect.

Combining New Wave Sun Glasses, Sinful Accessories and a +10 Illusion Silver Guard, you can achieve 20% ACD as a trouvere without Poem of Bragi.

When you have more endgame equipment, a Grade 5 magical spell Dim Glacier instrument along with any source of 5% ACD reduction (Mad Bunny-LT enchanting, shadow gear enchanting, etc), you should confidently be able to reach 20% without the need for specialized equipment

After achieving 20% After Cast Delay reduction you're free to pump damage as high as you can, which is exactly what we'll be doing.

Gear Progression

Based off Celery's Gear Progression Table

For female performers, remember you only need to reach 20% ACD with your equipment, pick whichever combination is most convenient for you to hit 20%!

Gear Slots	Beginner	Early Game	Mid Game	Endgame	Post-Endgame
Upper Headgear	Advanced Eden Headgear	Wickebine's Black Cat Ears-LT	Wickebine's Black Cat Ears-LT	Vesper Helm Note: You should only switch off of wickebine's black cat ears after obtaining full tempest shadow gear, as you will otherwise loose large amounts damage due to not having mdef pierce to bypass monster's mdef stat.	Vesper Helm
Middle Headgear		New Wave Sunglasses (If female) Sealed Chain (If male, any card or EoE Int3)	New Wave Sunglasses (If female) Victory Wing Ears (If female and using Convertible Magical Wing) Sealed Chain (If male, any card or EoE Int3) Poring Sunglasses	New Wave Sunglasses (If female and can't reach 20% acd without) Gambler's Seal Poring Sunglasses	Gambler's Seal Poring Sunglasses
Lower Headgear		Poring Family Balloon	Poring Family Balloon	Ace of Spades Poring Family Balloon	Ace of Spades Happy Balloon
Armor	Advanced Eden Armor	Gray Wolf Robe	Gray Wolf Robe Snow Flower Robe	Nebula Robe Depth Rune Armor	Depth Rune Armor
Weapon	Advanced Eden Weapon	Advanced Eden Weapon Glacier Weapon	Glacier Weapon Dim Glacier Weapon	Dim Glacier Weapon	Dim Glacier Weapon
Shield		illusion Silver Guard	Mad Bunny illusion Silver Guard (If female)	Mad Bunny - LT	Mad Bunny - LT
Garment	Advanced Eden Garment	Gray Wolf Robe Grace Magic Manteau (If female)	Temporal Manteau Gray Wolf Muffler Snow Flower Muffler Grace Magic Manteau (If female) Convertible Magical Wing (Combines with Victory Wing Ears for 15% ACD)	Varmundt Rune Manteau	Varmundt Rune Manteau
Footgear	Advanced Eden Footgear	Gray Wolf Footgear	Moan of Corruption	Moan of Corruption	Moan of Corruption
Accessory Right	Advanced Eden Accessory Right	Sinful or Brilliant Light accessories	Sinful or Brilliant Light accessories	Varmundt Rings
Accessory Left	Advanced Eden Accessory Left	Sinful or Brilliant Light accessories	Sinful or Brilliant Light accessories	Varmundt Rings
Pet Egg			Mutating White Knight Egg	White Knight Egg	White Knight Egg
Shadow Gear				Full Tempest Shadow Gear	Full Tempest Shadow Gear
Costume Enchants			Arch Bishop Stones in Top, Low and Garment 1 slots	Arch Bishop Stones in Top, Low and Garment 1 slots	Arch Bishop Stones in Top, Low and Garment 1 slots

Card Progression

Based off Celery's Gear Progression Table

Gear Slots	Normal	MVP	Notes
Headgear	Weakened Fenrir Card (4557) , Uzhas Card (27159) , Demon's Essence INT 3 (4913) or any Lichtern card	[MVP] Ultra Limacina Card (300377)
Armor	Bathory Card (4119) , Evil Druid Card (4141) , Two Eyes Dollocaris Card (300376) or Meyer Lugenburg Card (300308)	[MVP] Clown Alphoccio Card (4560) , [MVP] Nightmare Amon Ra Card (4652)	Two-Eye Dollocaris should only be used on +12 armor, as it will provide curses instead of boons otherwise. Exercise caution when using the Meyer Lugenberg card, as it can cause SP consumption to be higher than what is sustainable with Song of Mana, which can be troublesome if farming without a Small Mana Potion (23203) . Evil Druid will grant immunity to shadow damage like bathory but will also grant immunity to being frozen, however, it will also come at the cost of being damaged when a Priest attempts to heal you. The Clown Alphoccio MVP card will only be useful on female performers, as male performers already have the skill Poem of Bragi. The Clown card can also be used on a piece of equipment you swap to rather than your main robe, as you only need to cast the skill periodically.
Weapon	Mutating White Knight Card (27384)
Shield	Mutating Khalitzburg Card (27385) or Modified Senior Rgan Card (300379)		Modified Senior Rgan should only be used on a +12 shield, as it will provide curses instead of boons otherwise. You will also be sacrificing a very small amount of damage using Senior Rgan by breaking the white knight/khalitzburg combo, but will gain a significant boost to your survivability in return. While the [MVP] Bijou Card (4636) can allow for the highest dps possible from the card slot, you may still want to use a normal defensive card as you will need some amount of durability for most late game content and the damage gained will be negligible at best with endgame equipment.
Garment	Napeo Card (300260) , Friedrich S. Heine Card (300424) or One Eye Dollocaris Card (300375)	Any 100% elemental boost card, best being Himmelmez	One Eye Dollocaris should only be used on a +12 garment, as it will provide curses instead of boons otherwise. One Eye Dollocaris, if put on the appropriate garment, will likely be the best card to use for boosting damage output as it provides a 33% boost to selected elements over Friedrich's 24% boost on a +12 garment. While Friedrich boosts all elements over Dollocaris's select elements, Dollocaris's element pool contains the four most frequently used elements in the game as a Performer, particularly holy and shadow.
Footgear	Nightmare Verit Card (4658) , Green Ferus Card (4381) , Green Cenere Card (27014) or Extra Joker Card (300292)	[MVP] Falling Bishop Card (4441)
Accessory	Dispol Card (300448) , Elvira Card (4577) , Headless Mule Card (27125) or Creamy Card (4040)		The creamy card can teleport faster than flywings as the skill has no use delay when cast, but consumes an accessory slot which could be used to improve damage. To negate this, teleport shadow gear can also provide the skill without taking up an accessory slot.

Dungeon/Instance Progression

As you gain more powerful equipment you'll be able to take on more powerful dungeons and instances.
It can be confusing to know where to start however, but here's my general recommendation for when it's a good idea to start farming a certain dungeon.

The following list does not take elemental bonuses into account, so you'll need to think about that yourself before tackling a certain dungeon if you feel you're ready for it.
With that said, here's my general recommendation for progression:

Location	Damage Output	Notable Drops	Zeny Gained
GM Events	0 dps	Muh Coins	Varies depending on market price. As of writing, Muh Coins are valued at 80,000 zeny each. Be careful not to throw away all your coins when the slot machine appears.
Geffenia	100k damage with Metallic Fury	Almost everything	Every item earned here is NPC vendable, it is recommended to have a fully leveled haggler pass or have a merchant character you can move your items to before selling for 24% extra zeny per item. With basic drop rate gear and bubble gum, it should be possible to achieve 50m per hour, however, your zeny/hr depends solely on how fast you can kill monsters. For this reason, you may not want to use Metallic Fury here and instead use Reverberation as it has a much shorter 0.15s cooldown compared to Metallic Fury's 0.4s cooldown, allowing you to cast it much more often. Your attack speed with reverberation will depend on how much After Cast Delay reduction you have, if you have fast cast time and fast attack speed, so your equipment will likely differ from your normal gear. You may want to start with metallic fury until you feel confident you can One Hit kill mobs with Reverberation, at which point continue using reverberation from there. Here is a useful @nolootid list by Teragram, to be used with @autoloot 100 for Geffenia: @nolootid +2866|+15036|+1974|+2865|+1478|+12020|+509|+1009|+1919|+2864|+12370|+1004|+12736|+932|+5072|+1472|+12373|+7578|+5017|+2407|+2318|+2255|+2125 Remember to have an empty inventory aside from the bare essentials before starting as you will frequently be moving items between inventories while depositing farming loot.
Dungeon of Oz Floor 2	5m damage per Metallic Fury	Amethyst Fragment (1000405) , Shadowdecon (25729) , Zelunium (25731)	Varies depending on market price. As of writing, 1400 fragments can be consistently gained per hour with Bubble Gum & Guyak Pudding. Assuming they're sold at 40,000 zeny each, this can earn 56m zeny per hour Combined with raw zeny earned from killing monsters, you can easily boost this up to 67m zeny per hour.
Challenge Old Glast Heim	100m dps	Temporal Spell (25866) }, Temporal Fragment (25867)	Varies depending on market price. As of writing, 21 fragments can be consistently gained per run at Challenge 10. Assuming they're sold at 300,000 zeny each, this can earn 6m zeny per run Additional item drops such as temporal circlet, spell fragments, temporal gemstones and NPC vendable items like Glast Horrendous Mouth (6610) and Glast Decayed Nail (6609) can also add to the zeny per run. You will need to play the easier tiers to unlock the more difficult levels of the instance with more rewards, so you may need to do a few runs before you can gain the full rewards from this instance.
Niflheim Dungeon Floor 2	100m dps	Bloody Branch (12103) , Shadowdecon (25729) , Zelunium (25731) , Etel Dust (1000322)	Varies depending on market price. As of writing, 20 branches can be gained on average per hour with Bubble Gum & Guyak Pudding. Assuming they're sold at 1.5m zeny each, this can earn 30m zeny per hour. Taking the raw zeny gained from killing monsters (18m) and assuming you earn 200 Zelunium sold at 85k each (17m) It isn't unreasonable to gain 65m per hour on average depending on the market rate for each item.
Varmundt Death Sphere	100m dps	All Biosphere unique item drops https://wiki.muhro.eu/index.php/Varmundt's_Biosphere	Varies depending on market price. Most of the items dropped here won't immediately be for zeny gain, but rather for materials to work towards crafting and enchanting a Death Rune Manteau [1] (480233) , which will be a critical piece of equipment for the endgame. You may need a The One Potion (50035) to farm here until you gain better equipment to easily deal with mobs without the need of buff items. Note that the monsters here have a very high amount of MDEF, so you will need some source of 100% mdef pierce to properly fight the monsters here.

Miscellaneous Advice

This section is dedicated to other pieces of useful information which doesn't quite fit anywhere else.
Let's get started

• Free Bubble Gum & Buff Potions
  • You can earn free bubble gum, battle manuals and buff potions by completing eden board quests and trading your eden coins in at the Eden Vending Machine (moc_para01 51, 31).
  • My preferred way to farm eden coins is in Abyss 4, by taking the Abyss 4 eden board quest (moc_para01 52, 37) and the main office Abyss Lakes 4 quests (main_office 123, 36) as you can farm Eden Coin (25223) and Forgotten Heirloom (50001) simultaneously.
• Casual MVP farming
  • Field MVPs can be fun to hunt, but remember use a bubblegum when you go to hunt them, BBG is nearly free thanks to Eden Board farming and a 0.08% MVP card drop rate is a lot better than 0.04%.
  • Further on this note, if used with guyak pudding, a single bubble gum is enough to clear all of Endless Tower or Endless Cellar.
  • MVPs also frequently drop Shadow Crate (50034) , Shadowdecon (25729) and Zelunium (25731) which are useful materials.
  • Random MVP drops such as Heroic Emblem (968) and Knot Letter (25629) are also useful for shadow gears, so shouldn't be abandoned.
• Bloody Branch Popping
  • Are you rich and want to gamble for an MVP card?
  • If you have a large amount of bloody branches, you can pop a HE Bubble Gum and spam bloody branches for a chance at an MVP card.
  • On average, you'll usually want about 1,000 branches for 1 MVP card using this method, since while you'll have a 0.12% chance to drop a card on each MVP, not all MVPs spawned from the branch drop an MVP card.