The Violet Fencer II clear guide for Echoes of Aincrad

The Violet Fencer is the second main-story chapter in Echoes of Aincrad, the Sword Art Online VRMMORPG where the weapon you carry defines how you fight. Clearing its later stage comes down to three things you control before the fight even starts: a tuned weapon, a partner whose skills cover your weak spots, and enough restoratives to outlast a boss locked behind a barrier.

Quick answer: Equip a weapon with EX-Mods that lower Stamina cost or raise Attack damage, bring a partner with a healing or defensive Support Skill, stock plenty of restoratives, then push to the barrier-gated boss and defeat it without letting your SP hit zero. The chapter closes, and your Cardinal Rank ticks up once the boss falls.

Weapon and loadout preparation in Echoes of Aincrad — The Violet Fencer is the second main-story chapter in Echoes of Aincrad. Credit: Bandai Namco

Set your build before you start the chapter

You can only change weapons between quests while you are in the Town of Beginnings, so settle your loadout there first. The rapier suits this chapter’s flowing, counter-heavy pace because it has long reach, chains attacks together, and can still pair with a shield. That said, any weapon you have leveled works as long as it is ready for the difficulty.

Visit the Smithy in the Town of Beginnings, which opens up after you reserve your room at the Inn. Use it to raise your weapon’s base parameters by spending materials or by breaking down spare weapons into materials.

Combine weapons of the same type to pool up to four EX-Mods on one weapon. Reduced Stamina cost and improved normal Attack damage are the most useful here, since they let you trade blows longer before your SP runs dry.

Rest in your room at the Inn and spend Growth Points on the stats your weapon scales with, drawn from Strength, Dexterity, Agility, and Intelligence. Add to Vitality and Endurance if you keep running out of Health or Stamina mid-fight.

Note: Every time your Cardinal Rank goes up, monsters get tougher to match. Spend your Growth Points and upgrade at the Smithy after each rank increase, or the next stretch of the main quest will outpace your gear.

You can only change weapons between quests while you are in the Town of Beginnings.

Pick the right partner for the fight

You never take a quest alone. One or more partner characters join you, each with their own fighting style, Combination Skills, and Support Skills. You can preview a partner’s skills while preparing the quest, so check those before you commit.

What to bring	Why it helps
Healing or defensive Support Skill	Keeps you alive through the boss’s longer attack chains
One or two Combination Skills assigned to your action wheel	Delivers a burst of damage once you have built up enough hits
Offensive buff Support Skill	Speeds up clearing respawning packs before they overwhelm you

During the fight, set the partner to Switch Mode when you need them to draw enemy focus so you can line up a timed attack. Flip to Free Mode when you want to focus a single target together or clear a crowd one enemy at a time.

Work through the dungeon and manage SP

The map starts hidden and reveals as you explore. Reaching a checkpoint marks the surrounding area with points of interest like hidden treasures and sealed shortcuts. Some of those shortcuts only open after you clear bosses at Arks, so expect to fight your way through rather than slip past.

Exploring a dungeon and revealing the map in Echoes of Aincrad — Some shortcuts open only after clearing bosses. Credit: Bandai Namco

Every action you take, including light attacks, heavy attacks, special attacks, parries, and evasion, drains Stamina. Watch your SP bar closely, because running it down mid-combat leaves you exposed. Learn each new enemy’s reach and attacks before you commit to a heavy swing.

Monsters respawn in larger numbers if you leave them alive, so running away is only a short-term fix. Clear packs quickly and efficiently to avoid being surrounded on the way to the boss. Crafted mines can also help, since they deal damage and can interact with the environment to open hidden paths.

Beat the barrier-gated boss

The chapter ends at a large Boss enemy sealed behind a barrier. Once that fight starts, it does not stop until one side is dead, so there is no retreat to restock. Walk in with a full stack of restoratives and the partner you chose for healing or buffs.

Open with light attacks and parries to read the boss’s patterns while you build toward a Combination Skill. Save heavy and special attacks for the openings you create, since whiffing them burns SP you cannot spare.

Switch your partner to draw focus when the boss winds up a big move, then punish with a timed strike or a charged attack while it is distracted.

Fire your Combination Skill once damage is built up, and call a Support Skill from the action wheel to heal or buff at the moment you need it. Drink restoratives early rather than waiting until your Health is critical.

A barrier-gated boss encounter in Echoes of Aincrad — Boss fights behind a barrier run until one side falls. Credit: Bandai Namco

How to confirm the chapter is complete

You know it worked when the boss drops and the main quest advances. Completing parts of the Main Quest raises your Cardinal Rank, so a rank increase right after the kill is your signal that this stage of The Violet Fencer is done. A higher rank also unlocks better merchant and Smithy items and improves your partners’ abilities.

If the fight keeps ending badly, the cause is almost always one of a few things. You ran out of SP mid-combat, you let respawning enemies pile up before reaching the boss, you went in short on restoratives, or your weapon and Cardinal Rank were too low for the bumped difficulty. Fix the matching item before your next attempt and the run becomes far more manageable.

The Echoes of Aincrad demo lets you practice these systems now, and the full game lands on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on July 10, 2026. You can grab the demo or pre-order from the official Echoes of Aincrad page if you want to drill the combat loop before the campaign opens up.