Star Force Cost Calculator
Pick your current star and your target and see what the climb usually costs — the expected mesos, the typical run and the unlucky tail, star by star — with the success, drop and break chance of every tap.
★10 → ★20
Expected cost
1.68 bil
Typical run
1.17 bil
Unlucky run
3.73 bil
Expected taps
877
Expected breaks
44
Typical is the median of 2,000 simulated runs; 9 in 10 runs finish under the unlucky figure.
Your climb
Mesos to reach each star
Cumulative from ★10. Hover or tap a star for the numbers.
- Expected
- Typical (median)
- 10–90% of runs
Star by star
| Star | Per tap | Success | Keep | Drop | Break | This star | Expected total | Typical total | Unlucky total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ★11 | 560k | 50% | 35% | 10% | 5% | 1.57 mil | 1.57 mil | 560k | 4.12 mil |
| ★12 | 640k | 45% | 40% | 10% | 5% | 2.1 mil | 3.67 mil | 2.56 mil | 7.8 mil |
| ★13 | 720k | 40% | 40% | 15% | 5% | 2.96 mil | 6.63 mil | 5.44 mil | 12.5 mil |
| ★14 | 800k | 35% | 45% | 15% | 5% | 3.98 mil | 10.6 mil | 9 mil | 18.6 mil |
| ★15 | 1.2 mil | 30% | 45% | 20% | 5% | 7.16 mil | 17.8 mil | 15.1 mil | 31.6 mil |
| ★16 | 1.6 mil | 25% | 50% | 20% | 5% | 12.7 mil | 30.5 mil | 25 mil | 54.2 mil |
| ★17 | 2 mil | 20% | 50% | 25% | 5% | 26.7 mil | 57.2 mil | 44.7 mil | 105 mil |
| ★18 | 2.4 mil | 15% | 55% | 25% | 5% | 61.4 mil | 119 mil | 88.9 mil | 233 mil |
| ★19 | 2.8 mil | 10% | 55% | 30% | 5% | 214 mil | 332 mil | 237 mil | 679 mil |
| ★20 | 3.2 mil | 5% | 60% | 30% | 5% | 1.35 bil | 1.68 bil | 1.17 bil | 3.73 bil |
Each row is the tap from the previous star. Totals run from ★10 and include 3 mil per break.
Notes
- • Each row is one enhancement tap from the previous star to this one: the meso cost and the chance of success, keeping the star, dropping one star, or breaking.
- • A break keeps the star, but the item has to be repaired for mesos before it can be enhanced again.
- • The source lists ★11 and ★12 with no break chance, but those rows only total 95% and its +5% table shows 5% break for both — 5% is used here.
- • Expected values are solved exactly from the rates. The typical and unlucky figures come from thousands of climbs simulated in your browser against the same table.
- • Rates and costs from the community Star Force cost spreadsheet, last checked 2026-09-15.
How to use this table
Set your current and target star
Drag the two sliders. The headline, the chart and the table all rebuild for that climb — costs are cumulative from your current star, not from zero.
Say how you tap
Tick the minigame box if you reliably land the +5% timing bonus; it multiplies every success chance by 1.05. Set the repair cost to what a break actually costs you — or 0 if a Shielding Ward covers it.
Read the three numbers
Expected is the long-run average, pulled up by the unlucky few. Typical is the median run — half of players spend less, half more. Unlucky is where 9 in 10 runs have finished. Budget for typical; know unlucky.
Read the chart
Each point is the total to first reach that star. The orange line is the expected cost, the blue line the median run, and the shaded band where 80% of runs land. The scale is logarithmic because each star costs several times the last — flip to linear to feel the wall.
Check the tap odds
The table shows what a single tap does at each star — success, keep, drop, break — and what that star alone is expected to cost on top of everything before it.
Worked example
Climbing from ★10 to ★17 with no minigame bonus and a 3 mil repair per break:
- Expected cost
- 57.2 mil
- Expected taps
- 45
- Expected breaks
- 2.2
- The last star alone
- 26.7 mil · 47% of the whole climb
That is the shape of every Star Force climb: past ★15 each star costs about as much as every star before it combined, so the last star is always the bulk of the bill.
Reading the table
- • Expected cost is the long-run average — what the climb costs per player if thousands of players did it. A few disastrous runs pull it well above what most players pay.
- • Typical run is the median of simulated runs — half finish cheaper, half dearer. Unlucky run is where 90% of runs have finished; the last 10% run longer still.
- • Log scale is the default because each star costs several times the last — on a linear scale everything before the final star flattens to nothing. Linear is there to show exactly that.
Before you spend
- • From ★10 upward a failed tap can drop you a star, and from the same point it can break the item. Both are already priced into the expected cost — a drop means paying for the previous star all over again.
- • A break keeps your star but costs a repair before you can tap again. Set the repair cost to 0 to see exactly what a Shielding Ward is worth to you.
- • Budget for the typical run and know the unlucky figure before you start. At ★17 and above one long drop streak can double a climb — the mean does not warn you about that, the band does.
- • Past ★20 every tap succeeds 1% of the time and drops 40% of the time. ★21 alone is expected to cost more than thirty times the entire climb from ★0 to ★20.
More tools
Mob and boss damage per hit, with the level penalty, boss defense and food buffs factored in.
Nexon's official flame tables, made interactive. Pick the options you want and see your real chance per flame — and how many flames it takes to get there.
Potential and bonus potential odds for every equipment part and rank, with the cubes needed to hit the lines you want.
Guide
- How many mesos does it take to reach 17 stars in MapleStory M?
- From ★0, the expected cost to reach ★17 is about 59.2 mil including repairs, and a typical run comes in around 48.9 mil. ★18 is about 121 mil expected, ★20 about 1.68 bil. Set your own current star in the calculator — the total from ★10 is barely lower than from ★0, because the low stars are almost free by comparison.
- What are the Star Force success rates in MapleStory M?
- They start at 100% for ★1 and fall 5% per star: 95% for ★2, 50% for ★11, 30% for ★15, 20% for ★17, 10% for ★19 and 5% for ★20. From ★21 every tap is 1%. The full per-tap table — success, keep, drop and break — is on this page.
- When can Star Force enhancement drop a star or break the item?
- Taps from ★10 upward (that is, going for ★11 or higher) can drop one star or break the item. Drop chance climbs from 10% at ★11 to 30% at ★19–20 and 40% from ★21; break chance is 5% from ★11 to ★20, 10% from ★21 and 15% from ★26. A break keeps the star but the item must be repaired before the next tap.
- Is the +5% Star Force minigame worth doing?
- Yes — it is a multiplicative 1.05 on the success chance, so 20% becomes 21%, and the extra comes out of the keep-star chance. That trims the expected cost of a ★0 to ★20 climb from about 1.68 bil to 1.41 bil, roughly 16% off, for nothing but a well-timed tap.
- Why is the expected cost so much higher than the typical cost?
- Because Star Force costs are skewed: most runs are unremarkable, but a few hit a long streak of drops at high stars and cost several times the median. Those runs pull the average up. The typical figure is what half of players beat; the unlucky figure is what 9 in 10 beat.
- How much does 21 stars and above cost?
- From ★21 every tap is 1% to succeed and 40% to drop, so the expected cost of ★21 alone is around 54.4 bil — more than the entire climb from ★0 to ★20 many times over. The calculator shows the expected values up to ★30, but the simulated typical and unlucky figures stop where a single run would take millions of taps.