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Argo
April 27, 2026 at 04:45 PM
Cleaned punctuation and AI-style phrasing (2026-04-27)
Argo is one of the four selectable NPC companions in Echoes of Aincrad. Unlike Iori, she is a returning Sword Art Online character, known in the source material as 'Argo the Rat', a top-tier information broker on the early floors of Aincrad.
Argo appears in two capacities in the game: as an in-world information broker who can be approached for guidance, and as a playable-party companion the player can bring into combat. Her in-world broker role is how the game hands out many of its tips and leads, which mirrors how Argo functions in the original novels.
Argo fights with a dagger. In the game's combat framing she is the quickest companion, emphasising short-range hit-and-run openings that play well against the timing-based defensive windows of the player's own kit.
Argo is one of the companions the protagonist already knows before the death game begins. During the Sword Art Online beta, she crosses paths with the protagonist as an informant and invites them to take on quests together with her. By the time the full launch and the game's closed-world scenario start, she is one of a small cohort of former beta acquaintances the player has history with, and that prior connection is why she is available as a selectable partner rather than a stranger who has to be recruited from scratch.
Her role as someone who gathers leads carries over from those early beta sessions into her later function in Aincrad, where the tips and quest hooks she supplies dovetail with the exploration-heavy structure of the game.
Argo's weapon of choice in battle is the dagger. Daggers are one of the six playable weapon categories, and they favour quick, close-range strikes over reach or raw damage, which lines up with the hit-and-run tempo Argo brings to the party. Her kit sits naturally alongside the dodge-heavy flow of the player's own combat system: she closes fast, chips at openings, and then cycles out again.
Argo's Support Skill is Analysis. While active, it temporarily reveals the locations of nearby treasure chests as well as nearby enemies, including enemies that are on the other side of walls. That makes it especially valuable in exploration: the player can plan a route through an unfamiliar dungeon, identify which rooms hold loot, and spot incoming threats before those enemies have a chance to close the distance.
Analysis is also strong in the opening moments of a fight. Seeing every enemy silhouette through the environment lets the player pick which target to engage first, decide whether to reposition, and avoid walking blind into ambushes that a narrow camera would otherwise hide.
Argo's Combination Skill is accessed from the action-shift button the same way every other partner's tag-team ultimate is. The underlying gauge fills through normal attacks on enemies, so aggressive play speeds up how quickly the ability comes online.
Support Skill uses can also be stocked. Multiple Analysis pulses can be banked up and held in reserve, which means the player can chain two scouting sweeps back to back through a tight dungeon bottleneck, or save stocks for the moment just before a risky boss room rather than spending each charge as soon as it is available.
Argo joins the protagonist and the rest of the starting group at the inn in the Town of Beginnings during the opening stretch of the death game. That section covers the roughly month-long period in which the party debates whether to push forward out of the safety of the starting town or to remain behind, a tension that defines the tone of the early floors. Her presence at the inn sits her inside that group of returning beta acquaintances as they argue over the decision to advance.
Like every partner, Argo has her own side-quest thread that deepens her personality beyond her front-line combat function. Progressing that thread raises the bond between her and the protagonist, and bond growth in turn unlocks additional skills and stronger versions of her existing abilities. Investing in Argo specifically therefore pays off twice: the story layer expands what the player knows about her, and the combat layer expands what she can do once deployed.
Argo is confirmed as one of several familiar faces the protagonist may cross paths with during the game, and her background as a broker naturally positions her close to the kind of information-driven encounters those characters appear in. That includes encounters with Kirito, who shows up as a background figure rather than a lead. The main story keeps the spotlight on the protagonist and their own companions, with Argo firmly on that companion side of the line.
