The Sands of Mastery (N2) region is LIVE & first N2 content drop!

Exciting news, everyone! The Sands of Mastery (N2) region, in all of its sandy glory, is now live!

Not only does this mark the release of our N2 content, but it also means that our N3 content is officially complete! I think at this point, we’re allowed to say that we cover quite a big chunk of content indeed!

For some perspective, N2 itself will span 38 batches of content, containing 268 tiles, 512 kanji, 1682 vocabulary, and 191 grammar lessons! That’s a lot of tiles. This also means that if you make it all the way from Absolute Beginner through to the end of the Sands of Mastery, you’ll have learned 5772 vocabulary and 1604 total kanji! I know, big numbers.

The Sands of Mastery is also the first region to feature a secret second area, and two hidden easter eggs. (Not to mention the seasonal easter eggs, which have now expanded to the new island!) There may or may not be some new achievements up for grabs if you manage to unearth these sandy secrets…

(Please note that although the region is now fully released, some assets (namely the regional top banner artwork) are yet to be fully completed, so what you see at the moment as banner art is still a WIP. We'll be updating it in the next couple of days, but didn't want you to have to wait any longer for the first content drop of N2!

The new region is also ready in the mobile apps, but won't be accessible until we release a new version. We're still waiting for the final banner art until the apps get submitted to the app stores. More info on that very soon!)

It’s been a long time coming, and we’re excited to release all of our N2 content, including grammar lessons, unlocks, reading exercises, and cultural lessons over the coming months. We hope you find this new, more advanced content just as engaging and awesome as ever!

And speaking of said content…

Along with the region, our first batch of N2 content is now live! Since N2 is infamous for having a lot of similar grammar, we’ve gone with a brand new structure featuring grammar “categories” that we will cycle through, plenty of compare and contrasting, as well as category wrap-up lessons where we compare similar points. Check out the N2 intro tile for more details!

In this, the very first batch of N2 grammar (!!!), learn a new way to form incomplete lists with ～やら～やら, waffle with ～というか～というか, stumble over ～にもかかわらず’s many kana, and learn about an extra special “but” with ～ものの. This batch also features a cultural lesson about お辞儀 (“bowing”) culture in Japan. So if you’ve ever wondered if you’ve been bowing incorrectly this whole time, definitely give this one a read!

This batch’s vocab features words like 偉人 “great person”, 寝坊 “sleeping in late”, and 金銭 “money”. Then, practice your new grammar with this batch’s reading, featuring the over-winter cabbage, Mike’s foray into baking, and a business email. (Yes, it’s time for the debut of the dreaded “business” email.)

I’ll wrap this up, as I’m sure you’re eager to get out there and explore the new region. Okay, ready? Set? Go!

And as always,

Happy studies!

P.s. We've also fixed a few of those pesky bugs and introduced a few smaller (but super handy!) features and improvements. I'll round those up in another announcement soon!

P.p.s. We've also decided to extend our spring sale by one more week, so it will end on the 22nd instead!

Spring sale & easter egg hunt

Hi everyone!

Our spring sale on lifetime memberships is now live! So if you’ve been waiting to grab that full-on, hardcore, lifetime, super-commitment to learning Japanese, now’s the time! The sale will last for 2 weeks, so be sure to grab it on time if you want to get it!

Also, and perhaps more importantly, our annual easter egg hunt is now live too! Head over to any of the available regions and try to catch ‘em all. I’m personally still looking for one in Depths from last year… grrr.

And just in case you missed it, our N3 content in the Jungle of Tenacity is now complete! That means you can journey all the way from absolute beginner, all the way to intermediate, and all on MM! Wahoo!

The release of the N2 region and its content is coming very soon, so keep your eyes peeled like Japanese-learning oranges. I will spoil it a bit though: it’s very sandy, mysterious, and grammatical. Does that make sense?

Happy studies!

Adept (N3) Content Complete! Onwards to Advanced (N2)!

Hello MaruMorians!

It’s been a long time coming, but we’re super excited to (finally) announce the completion of our N3 content, and the Jungle of Tenacity! This means that you can now adventure your way all the way from Absolute Beginner to Adept, all with Maru at your side!

N3 in particular, is a huge region, with over 240 grammar points spanning 176 lessons and hundreds of kanji/vocab for you to complete your foundational knowledge with. We put a lot of time and love into this region, and we hope all of our users get a chance to explore it! If you haven’t had a chance yet, head on over to the Jungle of Tenacity to check out the full region in all of its glory.

This also means that a new island is on the horizon! In the coming weeks, we’ll release the Sands of Mastery region, along with our first N2 content. We’re getting into upper intermediate/advanced Japanese, which means things are getting more intense but also even more fun! You’ll be reading native-level Japanese, learning advanced vocabulary, and diving into grammar patterns that will change your life and make you go, “I didn’t know you could do that! Is that allowed?!”.

We’re also hard at work on N2 mock exams, which we’ll have out in time for the coming JLPT, as well as the much-anticipated kanji confusion minigame (and other minigames!), which will either solve your confusing-kanji woes forever, or make you more confused than you already were! (No but really, it’s going to be a blast!)

I’ll leave it at that for now, but keep your eyes peeled for another exciting spring announcement in the near future… And as always, happy studies!

New Mobile Apps Update - v1.0.5 - Push Notifications, Level Up & Achievement modals and more!

Hi all!

A new mobile app update just went live (or should be live soon, depending on your platform). And some of you might have noticed already, but Maru now reminds you of your reviews through push notifications! But that's not all, we've also got a bunch of bugfixes and things like the level-up and achievement modals in there! Again one step closer to feature parity with the website!

Let's take a look!

New Features

• 

  Push Notifications - That's right! Maru will now remind you of your pending reviews! (Better get to it!!) Maru will only send you a message if you have any new reviews pending.

• 

  Level Up Modal - The mobile app now also celebrates your level up! Featuring a level up modal similar to the one on the website!

  
• 

  Achievement Modal - When you unlock an achievement, the mobile app will now also show you a nice modal to let you know about it!

  
• 

  Unlocks Notifications - For newly unlocked badges and titles it will now show a toast notification at the top of the screen to let you know that you unlocked something!

• 

  Home - You can now pull down to refresh the page data

• 

  Study Lists Overview - You can now pull down to refresh the page data.

• 

  Home - When re-opening the app, it will now refresh the home page if you were on the home page.

Bug Fixes:

• 

  Grammar Library - Grammar Point Details - The link to the corresponding Grammar Lesson now works properly.

• 

  SRS - Kanji - Fixed an issue where Kunyomi "Used In" Vocabulary was missing for some kanji.

• 

  Conjugation Trainer - Now properly trims whitespace before checking your answer.

• 

  SRS - Lessons - Grammar Example Sentences will now properly change when going to the next lesson.

• 

  Grammar Lessons - Fixed an issue with furigana rendering.

• 

  Grammar Lessons - Info Component - Title text will no longer go out of bounds.

• 

  SRS & Dictionary - Fixed an issue where it would sometimes display duplicate pitch accents if the vocab was kana-only.

• 

  Discord Login - Adventure - (Hopefully) Fixed an issue where Maru and level tiles would sometimes disappear after a few days when using the Discord Login.

• 

  Grammar SRS - Unscramble - Adaptive Furigana - Furigana should no longer be displayed on fake tokens unless you do not know the correct token vocabulary. This would sometimes spoil what the correct token would be.

Anddd, that's about it for now! Next up for the mobile apps are some of the missing screens (Settings, Profile, Statistics, Kana Minigame, etc)

Changes to EXP requirements for levels 60-100

Hey all! Just a quick announcement to note that we've made some changes to the EXP required per level from level 60 to 100 (prestige).

Previously, each level would require an increasing amount of EXP, and this continued compounding all the way through to 100, meaning that 60-100 was a particular slog.

To even things out a bit, we've removed the increasing EXP from levels 60-100, so each level in that range will simply require the same flat rate. This means that it will take the same amount of EXP to go from level 88 to 89, for example, as it will to go from level 60 to 61.

This also means that users in the 60-100 range received a bit of a bump in level, which may have even pushed some of you over the edge to 100! 👀 So if you suddenly noticed that you've levelled up, never fear, it's not Maru playing around!

And for the exclusive prestige pandas (and one prestige 2 panda) out there, you've received the difference in EXP to level 100 multiplied by your prestige level. Prestige 1 users can expect around 15k extra, and prestige 2, 30k.

That's all for now,

Happy studies!