Loading...
Loading...
Sword Skills - Version 11 vs Version 12
Aug 17, 2026, 02:44 PM
Corrected the equipped-skill count in the summary table from 2 to 3 to match the official guidance and the rest of the article
Sep 16, 2026, 04:50 AM
Repaired blank table headers caused by raw text entries in header cells
11Sword 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.22Equip Limit44Up to three sword skills can be equipped on a given weapon at the same time. That limit still forces a real choice between offence and utility, since each slot can be the difference between a reliable gap-closer and a slow-but-devastating finisher.66How They Fit with Combos99Sword 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.1111Role in the Combat Kit1313Sword 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.1515Pool Size and Equip Slots1717Each 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. The equipped skills are shown at the bottom right of the screen and fire on the primary inputs. Holding the action-shift button does not add another 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.1919SP: The Sword Skill Resource2222Sword 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.2424Combining Skills with Normal Attacks2626Unlike 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.2828Weapon Proficiency3030Sword Skills are gated behind weapon proficiency, which rises through use of a given weapon type. Raising it has two separate effects: new skills are added to that weapon's pool, and skills already learned can be levelled up.3232That second effect is what makes proficiency more than an unlock track. A player who commits to one weapon ends up with fewer but stronger options than a player who spreads their time, and because proficiency is tracked per type, the investment does not carry across when you switch.3434Sword Skill performance was adjusted in a post-launch balance pass, alongside Combination Skills and Support Skills and the attack values of the slash counters. The published notes name the systems that moved without quantifying them, so treat older skill comparisons with some caution. See Update History for the full record.3636Named Sword Skills3838For most of the game’s life no first-party source named individual sword skills, so the wiki could only describe the system in the abstract. The August 2026 balance pass changed that: it worked through the skill lists weapon by weapon and named roughly thirty of them. The table below records every skill named in official patch notes to date, together with the direction it was adjusted.4040Two caveats. This is not a complete skill list, only the skills that happened to need balancing, so each weapon has more skills than appear here. And the entries describe the direction of a change, not absolute power, so a skill listed as adjusted downward is not necessarily weak.4242SwordsHorizontal SquareNone namedDaggersSingle Shoot, Kaynine, Rapid Bite, Fad Edge, Spiral RiserStrike Rain, Hornet SwarmTwo-Handed AxesRoaring Jolt, Whirlwind, Fierce Shock, Chain Angler, Volcano, Rockfang, GravityNone namedMacesRiot Smash, Double Cleave, Tri-Horn Medley, Spiritfall, ClashbangAbsorbing StrikeTwo-Handed SwordsCascade, Piercing Blast, Backlash, Blade Torrent, Brave Leep, Cyclone, Vertical BusterNone namedRapiersNone namedNone named43+WeaponAdjusted UpwardAdjusted DownwardSwordsHorizontal SquareNone namedDaggersSingle Shoot, Kaynine, Rapid Bite, Fad Edge, Spiral RiserStrike Rain, Hornet SwarmTwo-Handed AxesRoaring Jolt, Whirlwind, Fierce Shock, Chain Angler, Volcano, Rockfang, GravityNone namedMacesRiot Smash, Double Cleave, Tri-Horn Medley, Spiritfall, ClashbangAbsorbing StrikeTwo-Handed SwordsCascade, Piercing Blast, Backlash, Blade Torrent, Brave Leep, Cyclone, Vertical BusterNone namedRapiersNone namedNone named4444Rapiers are the conspicuous absence. They took a reduction in SP generation in the same patch without a single named skill change to go with it, which makes them the one weapon type whose individual skills remain entirely unconfirmed by first-party sources.4545What the Adjustments Actually Did4747The upward adjustments fall into a small number of repeated patterns rather than bespoke tuning per skill.4949Faster motionIncreased skill motion speed and a shorter window from startup to completion, so the commitment is less risky.Horizontal Square, all five buffed dagger skills, most buffed axe and mace skillsReduced charge timeShorter wind-up before the skill fires.Cascade, Backlash, Blade Torrent, Brave Leep, Vertical BusterLower SP cost at low levelsCheaper to use before the skill has been levelled, easing the early game on the two-handed weapons.The buffed two-handed axe and two-handed sword skillsRaised ATK correctionHigher damage scaling.Gravity, Cyclone50+PatternEffectApplied ToFaster motionIncreased skill motion speed and a shorter window from startup to completion, so the commitment is less risky.Horizontal Square, all five buffed dagger skills, most buffed axe and mace skillsReduced charge timeShorter wind-up before the skill fires.Cascade, Backlash, Blade Torrent, Brave Leep, Vertical BusterLower SP cost at low levelsCheaper to use before the skill has been levelled, easing the early game on the two-handed weapons.The buffed two-handed axe and two-handed sword skillsRaised ATK correctionHigher damage scaling.Gravity, Cyclone5151The downward adjustments are more individual. Strike Rain lost damage and ATK correction and gained both cooldown and SP cost, the heaviest single nerf in the pass. Hornet Swarm lost damage and ATK correction. Absorbing Strike had its ATK correction and cooldown adjusted downward.5252Read alongside the per-weapon SP changes recorded in Update History, the shape of the pass is clear enough: the two-handed weapons were made cheaper and quicker to use, and the fast one-handed weapons had their best skills and their SP income trimmed.5454Interrupting Enemy Attacks5656A 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.5858Stat Scaling6060Two stats have a direct effect on sword-skill performance and are therefore worth prioritising on any build that relies heavily on them:6262StatEffect 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.6464Summary of Key Numbers6565DetailValueSword skills per weapon typeRoughly 10Equipped at onceUp to 3Primary 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
