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Tolbana is one of the smaller settlements on Floor 1 of Aincrad. It sits alongside the Town of Beginnings as one of several named locations in the opening area of Echoes of Aincrad.
Overview
Tolbana is one of the named settlements on the first floor of Aincrad in Echoes of Aincrad. In the established lore of the floating castle, it is the second-largest town on Floor 1, smaller than the starting hub but still a populated settlement of meaningful size. Its position on the floor is what gives Tolbana its character. It sits between the floor's main hub city and the entrance to the Floor 1 Labyrinth, the dungeon that holds the staircase up to the next floor, which makes it the natural last stop for any party pushing toward the floor boss.
Tolbana is a confirmed location in Echoes of Aincrad. It appears in the game's published location line-up alongside the Town of Beginnings, the Citadel Ruins, and the Labyrinth, where it is described as a bustling town that is also regarded as a town of culture thanks to its extensive history. That framing is first-party, so Tolbana's presence in the game and its civic character no longer rest on visual identification alone.
What has not been published is the interior. As of September 2026, specific shopkeepers, named questgivers, and the town's exact layout are still undocumented in first-party material, and this page does not assume them from other material.
Position on Floor 1
Floor 1 is built around the Town of Beginnings as its central hub city, with smaller settlements, ruins, and field zones spread out across the surrounding terrain. Tolbana is one of those smaller settlements, but with a specific positional role: it lies on the side of the floor closer to the Labyrinth entrance rather than near the starting hub. In established Aincrad fiction, the trip from Tolbana to the Labyrinth is roughly thirty minutes on foot, which makes Tolbana the closest populated stop before players push into the dungeon proper. That thirty-minute figure belongs to the source material, and no in-game travel time has been published as of September 2026. In the released game, the Labyrinth entrance lies north of Tolbana.
That position gives Tolbana a different feel from a field village such as Horunka Village, which sits out in the broader Floor 1 overworld without a special tie to the Labyrinth. Horunka is a discovery-based settlement that the player wanders into during exploration. Tolbana, by contrast, is the staging town that frontline players gravitate to when they are getting ready to attempt the floor boss.
Role as a Frontline Staging Town
A populated town close to a Labyrinth entrance has clear value for a clearer party. The shorter trip to the dungeon means less travel time on every run, which matters when a group is testing strategies, gauging boss timing, or rotating in fresh members between attempts. A nearby town is also a recovery point, a place to resupply, regroup, and reorganize without falling all the way back to the floor's main hub. In established Aincrad fiction, Tolbana plays exactly this role for the players who reach the front of the Floor 1 advance, with frontline groups gathering there to talk strategy before pushing into the dungeon.
The safety angle matters as well. A wipe deep inside a Labyrinth is a serious setback, and a closer fallback point lowers the cost of a failed push. For players who run with Death Game Mode active, where a single in-game death deletes the save file, the value of a nearby staging town grows further. How the released game uses Tolbana for the Floor 1 raid is covered in the next section.
The Floor 1 Boss Strategy Meeting
In established Aincrad fiction, Tolbana is also the town where the players organize the strategy meeting that plans the assault on the Floor 1 boss, Illfang the Kobold Lord. Frontline players gather inside the town, share what they have learned about the boss room, divide responsibilities for the actual fight, and then move out together toward the Labyrinth. That meeting is one of the most recognizable scenes in the canon Aincrad arc, and Tolbana is the town where it happens.
The released game includes this scene: Diavel organises a strategy meeting in Tolbana to form a raid team, and the push into the Labyrinth follows. The protagonist's party supports the raid rather than leading it, holding off the smaller kobolds while the frontline fights the boss.
Aincrad Lore Framing
In established Aincrad lore, Tolbana is described as a town roughly two hundred meters across, lined with windmills along its outer ring, with the Labyrinth visible in the distance from the town's edge. The architectural feel is medieval-village rather than walled-city, fitting Floor 1's overall pastoral aesthetic. Those measurements come from the source material. As of September 2026, no building count or shop layout for the in-game town has been published; what the released game confirms is Tolbana's role as the settlement where the Floor 1 raid is planned, with the Labyrinth entrance to its north.
Floor 1 Context
Floor 1 is the opening playable region of Echoes of Aincrad, and its hub-and-villages structure is the template for how the game frames each playable floor. The starting hub is covered in the Floor 1 Town of Beginnings article, with smaller settlements on the same floor handled in their own pages. After the Floor 1 boss is cleared, players move up to Urbus, the hub city of Floor 2, and from there into the second of the game's two playable floors.
Within that structure, Tolbana sits alongside the starting hub as one of the floor's two main populated stops. The starting hub is where players arrive, learn the basics, and meet a wide range of NPCs. Tolbana, by contrast, is where the floor's clearer-side activity is concentrated, with frontline players using the town as their forward base while they push into the Labyrinth.
What is and is Not Confirmed
The points below separate what the official site states, what the released game shows, and what comes only from the source material. Anything that would require assuming specific NPCs beyond those in the story, specific shop offerings, or specific side quests has been left out on purpose, because under-specifying the town is preferable to inventing details that turn out to be wrong later.
Confirmed (official site): Tolbana is a named location, described as a bustling town that is regarded as a town of culture because of its extensive history.
Confirmed (released game): Diavel's strategy meeting for the Floor 1 raid takes place in Tolbana, and the Labyrinth entrance lies north of the town.
Source material: In established Aincrad fiction, Tolbana is the second-largest town on Floor 1 and sits between the starting hub and the Floor 1 Labyrinth.
Source material only: The town is described as roughly two hundred meters wide, lined with windmills, and about thirty minutes from the Labyrinth entrance. These figures do not come from the game, which may render the town with different proportions.
Not documented as of September 2026: specific NPCs at Tolbana beyond the raid meeting, named quests tied to the town, shop or blacksmith layouts, and the exact in-game distance to the Labyrinth entrance.
Related Pages
Town of Beginnings is the central hub city of Floor 1 and the structural counterpart to Tolbana within the floor's hub-and-villages layout.
Floor 1 Town of Beginnings covers the broader Floor 1 region, including its hub, its field zones, and its role in the opening of the main story.
Illfang the Kobold Lord is the Floor 1 boss whose raid is planned in Tolbana, both in the game and in the source material.
Horunka Village is the other named non-hub settlement on Floor 1, included here as a structural point of comparison.
Urbus is the hub city of Floor 2 and the next major populated stop after the Floor 1 clear.
Aincrad describes the floating castle as a whole and the role each playable floor plays within it.