MU Online currencies: complete guide to Zen, Ruud, WCoin, and Goblin Points

MU Online's economy runs on multiple currencies serving different functions. Understanding which currency does what — and how to earn each efficiently — saves confusion and optimizes progression.

Zen — the foundation of everything

What Zen is:

Zen is MU Online's base in-game currency:
→ Drops from every monster in the game (small amounts from weak monsters,
   large amounts from high-level monsters and bosses)
→ Has no maximum cap (can accumulate indefinitely)
→ Used for virtually every in-game transaction

Visual: gold coin icon, displayed in the bottom interface

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How to earn Zen:

Primary sources:

1. Monster drops:
   → Every monster in the game drops Zen
   → Amount scales with monster level
   → Low monsters (Lorencia area): 100-500 Zen per kill
   → Mid monsters (Dungeon, Devias): 500-2,000 Zen per kill
   → High monsters (Tarkan, Aida): 2,000-10,000 Zen per kill
   → Boss monsters: 50,000-500,000+ Zen per kill

2. Selling items to NPCs:
   → Weapons and armor sold to the Weapon Smith NPC
   → Low-level items: 100-5,000 Zen each
   → High-level items: 5,000-50,000+ Zen each
   → Items with Excellent options: significantly more when sold to NPCs

3. Player trading:
   → Selling items to other players for Zen
   → The primary way to accumulate large amounts quickly
   → A single Excellent item can be worth 10-100 JoB equivalent in Zen

4. Quest/event rewards (some servers):
   → Server-configured quest rewards in Zen
   → Event participation bonuses
   → Not present on all servers

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Zen income by level range:

Level 1-50 (Lorencia, Noria, Devias):
→ Income: 5,000-50,000 Zen/hour from farming
→ Sufficient for: potions, basic repairs
→ Usually tight: prioritize spending carefully at this stage

Level 50-100 (Dungeon, Lost Tower, early Atlans):
→ Income: 50,000-200,000 Zen/hour
→ Sufficient for: comfortable potion use, item repairs, some NPC purchases

Level 100-200 (Atlans, Tarkan, Icarus):
→ Income: 200,000-1,000,000 Zen/hour
→ Surplus begins: sell items to NPCs, accumulate reserve
→ Zen starts feeling abundant rather than scarce

Level 200-300 (Aida, Karutan, Land of Trials):
→ Income: 1,000,000-5,000,000 Zen/hour
→ Zen is no longer a concern: operating costs covered by a few minutes of farming
→ Accumulate Zen for large crafting sessions or trading

Level 300+ (Kanturu, Raklion):
→ Income: 5,000,000-20,000,000+ Zen/hour
→ Zen becomes trivial — focus on Jewel accumulation instead

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What Zen is spent on:

1. Health and Mana Potions:
   → Small Healing Potion: ~120 Zen each
   → Medium Healing Potion: ~240 Zen each
   → Large Healing Potion: ~480 Zen each
   → Mana Potions: similar pricing
   → High-level farming: hundreds of potions per hour → Zen cost adds up at low levels

2. Item repair:
   → Items degrade durability over time
   → Repair cost scales with item quality and level
   → Regular items: 100-5,000 Zen to repair
   → +9 Excellent items: 5,000-20,000 Zen to repair
   → Keep items repaired: broken items reduce stats

3. NPC purchases:
   → Gate entry fees (Blood Castle tickets, etc.)
   → Chaos Goblin combination fees (required for every combination)
   → Arrow/Bolt purchase (Elf using bow: buy arrows from NPC)
   → Special items from Potion Seller (Antidotes for poison areas)

4. Chaos Goblin combination fee:
   → Every Chaos Goblin combination requires Zen payment
   → Amount depends on combination tier
   → Basic combinations: 100,000-500,000 Zen
   → Wing L2 combinations: 2,000,000-5,000,000 Zen
   → Wing L3 combinations: 5,000,000-20,000,000 Zen
   → Budget Zen for combinations when planning crafting sessions

5. Player trading:
   → Zen used directly to buy items from other players
   → Small items: 50,000-500,000 Zen
   → Major items (Excellent weapon): millions to tens of millions of Zen
   → Zen reserve needed for opportunistic purchases

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Zen management:

Zen reserve to keep:
→ Minimum: 1,000,000 Zen (covers potions + repairs for a session)
→ Comfortable: 5,000,000-10,000,000 Zen (ready for trades or combinations)
→ Crafting session: 10,000,000-50,000,000 Zen (Wing L2/L3 combinations)

Zen-saving tips:
→ Don't buy potions from NPCs if you farm areas with potion drops
→ Sell item trash to NPCs rather than dropping it
→ Repair items regularly — waiting until 0 durability wastes a bit
→ In a party: share Zen pickup range (some server configs do this automatically)

Zen-earning tips:
→ Excellent item drops are worth far more sold to players than to NPCs
→ Hold Excellent items until you can sell to players (not NPC vendor)
→ Ancient items: always player-sell
→ Old +level gear: sell to other players, not NPCs

Ruud — the Season 12+ event currency

What Ruud is:

Ruud is a secondary currency introduced in Season 12:
→ NOT present in Season 6 servers
→ Earnable through events, specific maps, and some bosses
→ Spent at special Ruud Merchant NPCs for items unavailable otherwise

Why Ruud exists:
→ Gives players additional progression rewards beyond Zen and Jewels
→ Creates a second economy layer for players who complete events consistently
→ Items purchasable with Ruud complement but don't replace the primary item economy

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How to earn Ruud (S12+ servers):

Primary sources:
→ Blood Castle: entry rewards + kill points → Ruud
→ Devil Square: survival points → Ruud
→ Chaos Castle: elimination progress → Ruud
→ Special Ruud-drop maps: some maps in S12+ drop Ruud as item pickup
→ Boss kills (some S12+ bosses): Ruud drop alongside regular loot

Income rate:
→ Active event players: 500-2,000 Ruud per day from consistent event participation
→ Casual players: 100-500 Ruud per day
→ Ruud accumulates slowly → save for high-value purchases

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What Ruud buys:

At the Ruud Merchant NPC:
→ Season 12+ exclusive items (not available through normal farming)
→ Arca items (S12+ tier)
→ Special enhancement materials for S12+ content
→ Cosmetic options (server-dependent)

Note: Ruud items vary significantly by server configuration
→ Check your server's Ruud NPC before farming for it specifically

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Ruud vs Zen relationship:
→ Ruud: event-gated, limited per day → scarce
→ Zen: monster-drop, unlimited → abundant at high levels
→ Two complementary currencies: different items, different sources
→ Neither replaces the Jewel economy (JoB/JoS for upgrades)

WCoin and Goblin Points — shop currencies

What these currencies are:

WCoin and Goblin Points are Cash Shop credit currencies:
→ Used in the server's Cash Shop (item shop with cosmetics, convenience items, etc.)
→ NOT part of the primary item economy
→ Primarily: cosmetics, pet appearance changes, storage expansions, etc.

Important: availability and purpose are ENTIRELY server-defined
→ Official Webzen servers: WCoin purchased with real money (or earned via events)
→ Private servers: administrators decide if these currencies exist and how to earn them

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WCoin:

What it is:
→ The original Cash Shop credit from Webzen's official client
→ On official servers: purchased with real money (or earned via events)
→ On private servers: may be earned through in-game events instead of purchased

What WCoin typically buys:
→ Costume sets (visual appearance changes, no stats)
→ Pet skins (Uniria skin variants, etc.)
→ Storage expansion (additional vault slots)
→ Convenience items (extended buff times, etc.)
→ Transformation rings (appearance only)

Private server WCoin:
→ Many private servers have made WCoin earnable in-game (not purchased)
→ Events like Golden Dragon, Chaos Castle, or special quests reward WCoin
→ This makes WCoin a second in-game currency rather than a real-money currency

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Goblin Points:

What they are:
→ A variant Cash Shop credit used on some servers
→ Usually earned through specific in-game activities (server-defined)
→ May buy different items than WCoin at the same shop

Goblin Points vs WCoin:
→ Different exchange rates for shop items
→ Some items: WCoin only; others: Goblin Points; some: either
→ Exact split depends entirely on server configuration

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How to think about shop currencies:

Primary rule: these don't affect combat power directly
→ Cosmetics and convenience: YES
→ Excellent weapons and armor: NO (earned through farming and trading)
→ Jewels: NO (drop from monsters and boss events)

Check your server's shop before planning around these currencies:
→ Every private server configures its shop differently
→ Some are nearly empty (bare minimum cosmetics)
→ Some are extensive (pet changes, bonus EXP packages, event access)

Currency interaction and the overall economy

How all currencies relate:

Primary economy (all seasons):
Zen
→ Earned from farming (all monsters)
→ Used for: potions, repairs, NPC fees, crafting (Chaos Goblin)
→ Traded between players for items

Jewels as pseudo-currency (all seasons):
JoB (Jewel of Bless) → most common trade unit ("worth X JoB")
JoS (Jewel of Soul) → second most common trade unit
JoL (Jewel of Life) → less common trade unit
→ Jewels serve as "hard currency" — stable value benchmarks
→ Players say "that item costs 30 JoB" not "that item costs 3,000,000 Zen"

Secondary economy (S12+ only):
Ruud → Event currency for specific S12+ items

Optional economy (server-dependent):
WCoin / Goblin Points → Cash Shop currencies, convenience items

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Currency priority by player level:

Early game (Level 1-100):
→ Focus on: Zen (enough for potions and repairs)
→ Start learning: Jewels (when you find your first JoB)

Mid game (Level 100-200):
→ Zen: comfortable income, stop worrying about it
→ Jewels: start accumulating (sell Excellent items for JoB)
→ Ruud: participate in events, collect passively (if S12+)

End game (Level 200+):
→ Zen: trivial income (more than needed)
→ Jewels: primary measure of wealth
→ Ruud: accumulate for S12+ NPC purchases (if S12+)

See also the trading and player economy guide (how to trade Jewels and items safely), the Chaos Goblin crafting guide (Zen costs for combinations), and the event rewards guide (how to maximize Ruud income on S12+ servers).

Frequently asked questions