Built from scratch
We wrote every part of Lith ourselves, over three years. When something needs fixing or changing, we don't guess at what the original developers were doing. We already know.
Lith: The Push To Completion
Lith is a free, fan-run MapleStory 2 server. Three people have been building it for three years, and it will keep getting built whether or not this campaign raises a cent. Donations just make it faster. And you don't have to wait for any of it: the server is up, and you can play tonight.
15%of our campaign goals
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What is Lith?
Lith is a free, fan-run revival of MapleStory 2, the MMO that shut down in 2020. When the official servers closed, the game went with them. The client is still sitting on people's hard drives, but there was nothing left for it to connect to. Lith rebuilds the missing half. It's a server written from scratch by studying how the original behaved, so that old client has something to talk to again.
It's playable right now. You can make an account today, log in tonight, and go quest, fish, decorate a house, or run dungeons with other players. Some systems are finished, some are half-built, and the plan for the rest is right here.
Lith gets finished either way. Donations decide how fast, and how safely.
We build in the open. Patch notes go out regularly, the roadmap shows what's done and what's next, and you can measure progress by what's playable. Hold this campaign to the same standard.
How Lith is different
Most of this list comes down to time: three years building the server, and a decade with the game before that.
Since the first Korean beta
The MapleStory 2 experience behind Lith goes back to the first Korean beta in 2014, through the western release, and through the shutdown. When you're trying to bring a game back to what it was, having lived through what it was helps.
Tools that go deeper
Because we built our own editors, we can change the game at a level most servers can't reach. Where others tweak drop rates and numbers, we can rebuild whole systems, add ones that never shipped in the west, or bring back features the game had and lost. It's what makes the rest of the roadmap possible.
A game worth playing
All the rebuilding above exists for this part. Somewhere you log in, meet people, do things together, and feel like the hours added up to something.
See what we're building
A few looks at what we're working on right now. This is the kind of work your support pays for, and none of it asks for faith. The game is already live, so you can log in today and see for yourself.
In development
Dungeons, rebuilt
We're rebuilding the dungeon system. No more daily entry caps or waiting on a timer to run the content you're in the mood for. What's in this clip is mid-development, so the encounters, pacing, and rewards are all still being tuned.
In development
Life skills, revamped
Gathering is becoming its own reason to explore. This is an early pass at the revamped life-skill loop, where you roam the world for ingredients that feed a rebuilt crafting and cooking system.
In development
Bosses you never got to fight
Some encounters never reached the western release at all. We're rebuilding them by studying how the original game behaved. This fight is in active development, with mechanics coming first and polish after.
In development
Fishing, revamped
We're reworking fishing into something worth doing for its own sake rather than a daily chore. This clip shows where that work is now. The loop is playable, and the feel of it is still being tuned.
In development
Custom features, like day and night
Some of what's coming isn't in the original at all. This is one of those additions, a full day/night cycle that moves the world through morning, day, evening, and night. It's a small feature, and it's the kind of thing we're free to add because we build the game ourselves.
In development
Crafting, reworked
We're rebuilding crafting recipes to feed the new life-skill loop, so what you gather has somewhere to go. We're also expanding horizontal progression, so growing your character sideways matters as much as pushing its level.
In development
Maple Island
We're bringing back the original starting experience, where every new character begins on Maple Island and works through the tutorial questline the way it first shipped. We're also making each level count again, so the climb is worth playing rather than something to rush past.
What your support does, in order
Goal 1Reached ✓
Lith moves to resilient hosting, funded through 2027
A full year of hosting, paid up front. Infrastructure that can take a growing server without falling over. It comes first because everything else on this page assumes the server is still up.
Mostly this just means the server is there when you want to play, whether that's a normal Tuesday night or the night your guild finally clears a raid. And when more players show up, that's something we've planned for instead of something that knocks the whole thing over.
Paying a year ahead also changes how we work. When we're not wondering whether the lights stay on next month, the hours go into the game instead.
Goal 2
Full development velocity
Funds the people making the game. One of us already builds Lith full-time. This goal keeps it that way, and buys the rest of the team more hours in the week for the game.
In practice this is speed: how quickly a bug report becomes a fix, or a broken dungeon becomes a clearable one. That pace comes from focused hours, and focused hours are what this goal pays for. The difference between shipping something every month and shipping something every week isn't hardware. It's time.
A slice also covers the recurring costs around development: the services and subscriptions we build with, paid a year ahead so they stop being a monthly question.
Goal 3
Lith survives whatever comes
Builds the warchest. A cash reserve for the problems we can't schedule.
Projects like this run into surprises. A wave of chargebacks, a dead hard drive, a bill we didn't budget for. A reserve keeps those as annoyances instead of letting them turn into emergencies.
It's the least exciting goal here, but it protects the promise this page makes. The roadmap below commits to Q4 2026, and a reserve is what keeps a surprise bill from pushing that date back.
And anything raised past the goals goes to the three of us directly. No studio or company in between. We put that in writing so nobody has to guess.
Roadmap to Q4 2026
These are areas of work, not a schedule. The full breakdown lives on the roadmap page and shifts as things get done. The only date we'll commit to in public is the one at the bottom of this list.
Core combat
Skills, buffs, and the mechanics that make fights feel like MS2. Everything else is built on top of this.
Dungeons, end-to-end
Every dungeon runnable from start to finish, with working triggers, mechanics, and rewards.
The full main story
The complete main questline, playable from the first cutscene to the last.
The date we're committing to: the full main story, all dungeons end-to-end, and core combat complete by Q4 2026.
The team
All of Lith is built by the three of us.
StarFull-time development
ZinCore developer
SnowCombat tuning and test coordination
Supporter perks
Recognition and custom-made cosmetics, only available while the campaign runs.
Everything below is either recognition or a cosmetic made for this campaign and never handed out again. None of it gives you power or stats or a shortcut, and it never will.
Supporter
$10+- Supporter Discord role
- Your name on the website supporters page
Early Supporter
$30+- Everything above, plus:
- Exclusive in-game Early Supporter insignia (custom-made, never re-issued)
Founder
$75+- Everything above, plus:
- The Founder's Cape (custom-made, never re-issued)
- First wave in every test-invite rollout
Founding Patron
$150+- Everything above, plus:
- Your name engraved on a founders' monument in a hub map (custom-built)
Any amount from $1. Perks apply at whatever tier your amount reaches.
Perks go to the account you were signed in to when you paid. The cosmetics are being made specifically for this campaign, so they'll show up in-game as they're finished rather than right away.
And if you can't or would rather not donate, just keep playing. That helps us too.
Tooling we build ourselves
A good chunk of what lets three people keep up with a much bigger job is software we wrote for ourselves. Here are two of them.
LapentaTool
Our in-house content editor. It reads and writes the client's own data, so we can build drop tables (pictured), items, dungeons, shop stock, and more without hand-editing raw game files. Work that used to eat a whole evening now takes minutes.
MapEditor
Built on Unity. It lets us reshape existing MapleStory 2 maps and lay out brand-new ones, placing terrain, props, and entities right in a 3D view. It's how new places to explore get made.
And it already shows in-game: areas that sat "under construction" in the original game are now finished, with usable plots.
Risks and challenges
Most campaign pages bury a section like this one. We'd rather you read it. It's short, and it's the part we most need you to agree with before you send us any money.
The disclaimer below is a legal statement. It stays in English on every language of this page.
Lith is a free, fan-run project. Donations are voluntary contributions that fund server hosting, development tools, and the team’s time. They are not purchases, and no goods, services, or in-game advantages are sold. Supporter cosmetics and recognition perks are thank-you gestures, not products. We can’t promise this project runs forever; projects like this can be shut down at any time, for reasons outside our control. If that happens during the campaign, we’ll refund everyone; after the campaign ends, donations will not be refunded. By donating, you’re supporting the work, not buying an outcome. If that doesn’t sit right with you, please just play for free. That genuinely supports us too.FAQ
Is this pay-to-win?
No. Nothing sold affects gameplay. Perks are recognition and exclusive custom cosmetics that we never re-issue.
Why does a free server need money?
It barely does, which is why the goals are small. Money mostly pays for hosting that can take a hit and stay up, and for the team's time, so the hours going into Lith don't depend on what's left over after everything else in life. Whatever's left past the goals also goes to the people doing the work.
What happens if Lith gets shut down?
See the disclaimer above.
Can I donate monthly instead?
After the campaign ends we'll open monthly memberships for ongoing server costs. The campaign is the one-time push.
How does my donation get linked to my account?
You donate while signed in, so it links to your account automatically. See your donations on your account page.
What happens to donations processed before this campaign?
If you donated to Lith before this campaign, reach out to us on Discord with proof of the donation and we'll credit you properly once we're past beta.