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11 Sword skills are Echoes of Aincrad's special attacks. Each of the six weapon types has its own pool of around ten sword skills, unlocked as the player progresses through the campaign.
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33 Equip Limit
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55 Only two sword skills can be equipped on a given weapon at the same time. That limit forces a real choice between offence and utility, since a single slot can be the difference between a reliable gap-closer and a slow-but-devastating finisher.
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88 How They Fit with Combos
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1010 Sword skills layer on top of the regular light and heavy attack combos rather than replacing them. They are strongest when used to extend a combo after a successful Parry Slash or Dodge Slash, where the enemy is briefly open to extra damage.
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1212 Role in the Combat Kit
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1414 Sword skills are the strongest offensive actions in the combat system. They deal more damage than a normal light or heavy attack, and every skill enters a cooldown the moment it is used, so the player cannot simply spam the biggest hit to erase a health bar. The rest of the toolkit, regular attacks, guards, and movement, has to fill the gap between activations.
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1616 Pool Size and Equip Slots
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18-Each weapon type has roughly ten sword skills in total across its learnable set, and the player can equip up to three of them at once. Two of the equipped skills are always visible at the bottom right of the screen, ready on the primary input. The third is tucked behind an action-shift button: holding that modifier swaps the HUD over to show the third skill alongside the current partner's Support and Combination Skills, which are covered in more detail on the Special Skills page.
18+Each weapon type has roughly ten sword skills in total across its learnable set, and the player can equip up to two of them at once. The two equipped skills are always visible at the bottom right of the screen, one bound to the right trigger and the other to the right bumper, ready on the primary input. Holding the action-shift button does not surface a third sword-skill slot. Instead it swaps the HUD over to show the current partner's Support Skill and Combination Skill, which are covered in more detail on the Special Skills page.
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2121 SP: The Sword Skill Resource
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2323 Sword skills draw from SP, a meter that is separate from stamina. Stamina governs regular attacks, dodges, and guards, while SP is spent specifically to fire off a sword skill. SP rebuilds through aggressive play: landing regular attacks on enemies feeds the meter back up, and a specific kind of potion can also be consumed to restore it. The intended flow is that while cooldowns are ticking on your strongest hits, you are still weaving in basic strings to refill SP for the next activation rather than standing back and waiting.
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2525 Combining Skills with Normal Attacks
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2727 Unlike prior action-title entries set in the same universe, Echoes of Aincrad does not use a dedicated timing-based chain input for linking one sword skill into another. There is no special prompt or cue that has to be hit on the exact frame a skill ends. Instead, basic attacks and sword skills can be woven together freely, as long as the player still has the stamina for normal swings and the SP for the next skill. The pacing of each sequence comes from resource management rather than from a separate chain meter.
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2929 Weapon Proficiency
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3131 Each weapon type also has a proficiency level that rises the more the player uses that weapon. The developers have confirmed that a proficiency system from earlier titles returns in some form here, and it remains a reason to stick with a given weapon rather than rotating too quickly. It has not been confirmed whether crossing a proficiency threshold is the specific gate that unlocks the full slate of sword skills for a weapon type, so the exact unlock path is best treated as still pending further detail.
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3434 Interrupting Enemy Attacks
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3636 A sword skill used just before an incoming enemy attack lands can interrupt that attack outright, stopping the swing and leaving the enemy open. This is not universal: it appears some attacks cannot be cut through, which points to a priority system where certain skills or certain enemy moves take precedence over others. When the timing and priority both line up, the result is a mid-combo counter that folds into the wider Parry, Dodge, and Reversal Slash family of counterattacks. The two systems share the same instinct: read the enemy, act at the right moment, and trade their attack for damage on your end.
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3838 Stat Scaling
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4040 Two stats have a direct effect on sword-skill performance and are therefore worth prioritising on any build that relies heavily on them:
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4242 StatEffect On Sword SkillsMindIncreases the maximum SP pool, so more sword skills can be used between rest and potion stops.DexterityIncreases sword-skill damage and is the primary scaling stat many weapons favour, making it the core offensive stat for skill-heavy builds.
4343 Summary of Key Numbers
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45-DetailValueSword skills per weapon typeRoughly 10Equipped at onceUp to 3 (2 on HUD, 1 via action-shift)Primary resourceSP (refilled by attacking or a specific potion)Chain-input systemNone; free combination with basic attacks via stamina and SPInterrupt potentialYes, subject to an attack-priority systemMain SP statMindMain damage-scaling statDexterity
45+DetailValueSword skills per weapon typeRoughly 10Equipped at onceUp to 2 (right trigger and right bumper)Primary resourceSP (refilled by attacking or a specific potion)Chain-input systemNone; free combination with basic attacks via stamina and SPInterrupt potentialYes, subject to an attack-priority systemMain SP statMindMain damage-scaling statDexterity