Echoes of Aincrad tells the story of the players stuck in the world of Sword Art Online. Without any hope of clearing 100 floors, each of them has to find a way to survive in this harsh world. Your player character, alongside their friends, has been entrusted with a mandatory quest, and the price for not completing the quest is the destruction of Aincrad.
For more information about the game, please visit its official Steam page here.
Table of contents
Decisions
After Arne took the Legendary Weapon, the party had no hints about the location of the next Sanctuary. Iori thinks the Elven Ruins she explored with you in the Beta might be connected to the Sanctuaries.
She’ll also ask the rest of the party members if they want to continue with the quest, as things are going to get more challenging from here on.
After the cutscenes, Lara will also join your party. Head to the Terminal and accept the Final Trial quest. The quest will bring you back to Horunka, and you’ll have to find a way to get to the quest location from here.
The Elven Ruins From The Beta
As you reach the marked location, you’ll find a resting point here. If you try to approach the ruins’ entrance, you’ll find out that it’s sealed.
There are three seals on the path, so you’ll have to interact with three Arks and defeat the monsters lurking inside them.
So far, Arks have only unlocked optional paths and treasure chests. However, this time, you’ll have to find these Arks to progress the story.
First Ark
An easy way to spot the desired Arks is that they won’t have any sealed paths nearby. The first Ark is near the sealed entrance, southeast of the resting point.
Wobbling Araba
The Ark will release the Wobbling Araba boss. It is a bug-type boss that can summon lesser bugs during the battle.
Once you’ve cleared the first phase, Musoh will show up to help you out during the second phase.
Second Ark
To get to the second arc, you’ll have to unlock and teleport to the warp point called the Sacred Mountain of Lulue: Ephemeral Path. From there, take the path northwest.
This will lead you to a U-turn ahead, and you’ll find the Ark near the turn. Unlocking the Sacred Mountain of Lulue: Ephemeral Path warp point can be challenging, so you can try to follow other paths to get to the location.
Trembling Dondo
The boss for the second Ark is the Trembling Dono. It is an Ox-type enemy. Just like the bug boss, Trembling Dondo will also summon lesser Ox-type enemies during the battle.
Once you’ve defeated the boss in its First Phase, Stina will show up to help you out with Phase Two.
Third Ark
You can find the third Ark to the south of the Sacred Mountain of Lulue: Illusory Path warp point.
From the warp point, go south. The path splits into two. Take the right turn and keep going until you see the Ark.
Cunning Sasaki
Cunning Sasaki is a mountain spirit boss. Like other Ark bosses, it will summon lesser mountain spirits to aid it in battle.
The mountain spirit enemies can use projectile attacks from a distance, but other than that, they don’t pose much of a threat. After Phase One, Zash will show up to help you out in the boss battle.
Sacred Mountain Temple
After defeating the bosses inside the three Arks, the seal will be broken, and you’ll be able to enter the Sacred Mountain Temple.
There are plenty of tough Elite enemies inside this area. Follow the quest marker, and you’ll arrive at the boss arena. Here, you’ll face Red Mordred.
Red Mordred
Red Mordred is a bear-type enemy that focuses mainly on fire-type attacks. This is easily one of the more challenging fights in the game, and you should bring many healing items and status items to heal the Burning effect.
The boss can shoot fireballs out of its body. It can also breathe fire on the ground, leaving it burning for a few seconds. You’ll have to avoid stepping on the burning ground.
In the second phase, the boss will summon another bear-type Elite enemy during the battle, and it can inflict blindness.
Red Mordred will be lunging from one end of the arena to the next. You should try to defeat the other Elite enemy first so you can focus on the boss.
In the third phase, the boss will summon two bear-type Elite enemies. It will become even more aggressive, diving like a dolphin on solid ground.
Wait for the boss to slow down a little before approaching them. Try to stay in Iori’s healing circle for as long as possible, because it can drastically increase your survivability during the battle with continuous healing.
After defeating the boss, keep walking deeper into the ruins. The next resting point is some distance away. You’ll encounter many more elite enemies on the way, but if you die, you won’t have to battle against Red Mordred again.
When you finally reach the resting point, you’ll find out that your party is already there. The party will then spend some time together at the warp point before returning to the town.
Volor’s Sanctuary
After making the necessary preparations, accept the Founding of the Order quest from the Terminal. This quest will take you to Volor’s Sanctuary.
When you teleport, you’ll arrive at the resting point in the Sacred Mountain Temple. From here, you have to progress ahead until you find a spherical object. This is a teleporter, and it will take you to Volor’s Sanctuary.
Unlike the other Sanctuaries, there’s no Elven Guard here. Stina suggests that this Sanctuary might have been built by the humans instead. She’ll point towards a relief and ask you to use a sword skill on it.
If you use the sword skill, it will open a path through the wall. You’ll then be able to progress after another cutscene.
As you progress, Pucci will show up. He’ll tell you that you can know more about this Sanctuary by checking out the relief ahead, but he wouldn’t recommend it. I walked straight ahead without checking out the relief.
There will be an Elven Guard here. He’ll move aside to let you pass through. There’s a dungeon section ahead that you’ll have to clear.
After the dungeon section, there will be a resting point. You can then head to the Hall of Protection. Shortly after, you’ll find yourself in a boss arena.
Here, you’ll first fight against a Dire Wolf enemy. There’s no boss health bar over it. Once you’ve defeated the Dire Wolf, a Spine enemy will show up.
After defeating the Spine Elite enemy, a Blood Wolf Leader will show up in the arena with a boss health bar.
The Blood Wolf Leader has two phases and uses fire-type attacks that can inflict the Burning status effect.
After the boss battle, you’ll have to keep going deeper. A dungeon section will follow a long cutscene between the party.
Once you’ve cleared the dungeon section, rest at the warp point and keep going deeper into the Relic Hall section of the Sanctuary.
White Morrigan
As you enter the Relic Hall, you’ll face the guardian. It’s the same guardian that you saw in the visions related to the Swordsman of Salvation quest.
It’s best to stay behind the boss rather than near its face. As the battle goes on and you’ve depleted 50% of its HP, the boss will summon three Golems in the arena. You’ll have to take care of them quickly.
The boss will keep summoning different types of enemies throughout the battle. Once you’ve defeated its Phase One, the rest of your party members will arrive to help you in the battle.
In Phase Two, White Morrigan can go underground and come out somewhere else on the ground. Once it comes out of the ground, it will also unleash several projectiles.
The boss will also start flying more in Phase Two to launch aerial attacks. After you defeat its Phase Two, the boss will disappear. Multiple error messages will appear on the interface, and the Hybrid Version of White Morrigan will appear.
In its hybrid form, White Morrigan will switch weapons rapidly throughout the battle. However, since you’ve got your entire party fighting against this boss, they can act as incredible decoys while you try to dish out as much damage as possible.
You should try to wait around until the boss switches to a greatsword. The boss is quite slow with it, and this will give you some room to approach and deal damage.
You only have to defeat this boss once in the hybrid form. There is no other health bar. After you’ve finally defeated the boss, move ahead to pick up the Legendary Mace from the pedestal.
Ending
After obtaining the Legendary Weapon, you’ll have to walk out of the Sanctuary. As you walk, the real identity of Iori will be revealed during a cutscene.
Once the cutscene is over, walk outside the Sanctuary. You’ll find yourself near the Cherry Blossom Trees that you saw during the Beta. Approach the resting point here to trigger the ending cutscene.
This concludes the walkthrough for Echoes of Aincrad.
If you’re looking for more walkthroughs for the title, don’t forget to visit its main hub here. Please check out the following pages as well:
- Into Indie Games Homepage
- The Incident at Galley House Walkthrough Hub
- Dead Weight – Walkthrough And Guides Hub
- Mesmalie – Walkthrough Hub
- The Alters: Last Variable Walkthrough Hub
Fahad Suleman is an avid fan of fighting games who spends most of his time writing walkthroughs and reviews for cozy indie titles or mashing around in Tekken. If he’s not writing or playing any games, you’ll often find him watching historical videos on YouTube for hours.
