While you'll be doing the bulk of the heavy combat with your Sword Skills and weapons of choice, Echoes of Aincrad allows you to select a partner for every time you venture out of a main city, and each of them have unique abilities and perks to improve your battle strategies.
But not all partners in Echoes of Aincrad are created equal, and depending on your play style and goals, you might need to switch out fairly often between missions. Keep everyone geared up and ready to accompany you as a partner in Echoes of Aincrad whenever you need them!
Wyzeman
Best For: Status Ailments And Early Crowd Control
Weapon Type
Maces
Combo Skill
Tri Stampede: Deals heavy damage to a single enemy. This damage increases if the enemy is Dazed.
Support Skill
Discordant Resonance: Deals damage to enemies within range and inflicts Dazed stacks.
It's early in Echoes of Aincrad that you learn to use items to inflict status ailments onto enemies, and though you'll eventually find weaponry that grants stacks of ailments when used in regular combat as well, Wyzeman is a great way to experiment with status ailments early on.
He and his combination of a strong Mace and his own Shield mean serious business when you bring him onto the battlefield, readily able to inflict the Dazed status onto enemies to keep them confused and stunned for a potentially all-important moment. He can follow up on inflicting the Dazed status with his Combo Skill, which does more damage to any enemy suffering from it. He's a great partner for crowd control if you keep his SP high!
Zash
Best For: High-Vitality Tank Builds
Weapon Type
Two-Handed Swords
Combo Skill
Twin Ignition: Deals heavy damage to nearby enemies. Causes Zash and your character to lose a set amount of HP each time.
Support Skill
Exhilaration: Temporarily grants Zash and the character a Barrier and increases ATK. The lower the target's HP, the higher the increase in ATK will be.
You're locked into choosing between Iori, Wyzeman, and Argo for the first floor, but Zash is the first partner you unlock once you get into Urbano on the second floor, and he's well worth exploring with, especially if you've got your character built for Vitality, which is perfect for any tank player.
His Combo Skill costs both of you a good chunk of your HP when you use it, but it deals impressive damage to any enemies around him, so Zash is a good one to use for crowd control as well. He offers quite an impressive boost with Exhilaration, providing both of you with a staggering boost to your Attack stats that can easily finish the most challenging of boss fights.
Asuna
Best For: SP Replenishment
Weapon Type
Rapiers
Combo Skill
Spirit Shot: Deals medium damage to a single enemy. Consumes 50% of your character's SP to deal additional damage based on your ATK. The more SP that's consumed, the more damage is dealt, and if this goes above a certain value, the damage done by your next Sword Skill will also increase.
Support Skill
Lightning: Deals damage to all enemies surrounding Asuna. Also recovers SP of allied characters near her.
Once you reach the second floor, Asuna might be the first of the partners in Echoes of Aincrad that you unlock through an involved series of side quests that seek to help her join the party, and she's worth the effort to bring her along, as you'll see when she joins you on the three side missions you have to do to unlock her.
Her Combo Skill can be a little risky to use if you don't have a good way to replenish your SP, but her support skill does just that for you, so bringing Asuna along is a great way to ensure your character gets the most use out of their powerful Sword Skills. Thankfully, Spirit Shot does more damage the most SP it consumes, so it's best used when you're full-up anyway, since she'll be able to do impressive damage to single enemies, like in boss fights.
Agil
Best For: Keeping Enemies Off You In Mob Battles
Weapon Type
Two-Handed Axes
Combo Skill
Crowd Strike: Deals medium damage to surrounding enemies, and the damage inflicted increases with the number of enemies in range.
Support Skill
Taunt: Causes enemies surrounding Agil to target him. After, Agil's Focus Gauge remains fully charged for a duration.
You'll meet Agil early into the story that takes place in the main quest on the second floor in Echoes of Aincrad, and after you've unlocked him as a partner through completing his series of side quests, he's one of the better partners in the game when it comes to overall crowd control on the battlefield.
Not only does Agil's Combo Skill deal an additional percentage of damage for every extra enemy he hits with it, but his Support Skill is one of the best ways to catch your own breath in battle. Do you need to heal up, or will it be a moment before your best abilities have run down their cooldown timers? Have Agil use Taunt and watch the enemies flock to him, leading themselves to the slaughter of his battleaxe.
Klein
Best For: Late-Game Buffs And Bosses
Weapon Type
Swords
Combo Skill
Riot Fangs: Deals heavy damage to a single enemy, but temporarily reduces DEF for both Klein and your character.
Support Skill
Bolstering Bellow: Temporarily grants invincibility, and increases ATK and DEF for you and Klein. (This support skill automatically triggers only when your HP falls below a certain amount.)
Another partner that arrives fairly late into the game, Klein makes for an excellent partner in Echoes of Aincrad, especially if you're playing the game on one of the higher difficulty settings. Another character that requires you to finish a few side quests before he'll join you, Klein is a good choice to bring with you into boss fights.
Being able to become invincible for a few all-too important moments during boss battles when your HP hits a critical level can easily give you the upper hand you need to finish the fight strong, making Bolstering Bellow one of the better partner Support Skills in Echoes of Aincrad. It not only buys you time to attack, but maybe more critically, to heal. Riot Fangs is a nice bonus and can deal a powerful finishing blow during this time, so give Klein a great Sword and bring him into your late-game fights.
Kirito
Best For: Overall DPS
Weapon Type
Swords
Combo Skill
Stream Edge: Deals heavy damage to a single enemy with a series of attacks, and recovers a set amount of SP.
Support Skill
Striker: Strikes all enemies within a certain range in rapid succession, and kills mob enemies if their HP is below a certain amount.
If you're looking for a partner without any bells and whistles who offers a stellar outright damage output when you bring them into combat with you, series protagonist Kirito is your guy. He unlocks on the second floor and will easily decimate plenty of the tougher fights you'll be facing up there.
Stream Edge, his Combo Skill, does replenish some SP, but we doubt you'll be using it primarily for that purpose, since Kirito is a powerful DPS partner, especially in boss battles once you've gotten him a good Sword. Striker makes him invaluable for mob battles as well, since he can easily one-shot the group for you if you've chipped away at their HP. It's good for exploration, but it's even better for the bosses who just won't stop calling for reinforcements.
Argo
Best For: Exploration And Analysis
Weapon Type
Daggers
Combo Skill
Twin Moon: Deals medium damage to a single enemy, and knocks them back to damage foes they collide into.
Support Skill
Analyze: Reveals enemies through walls in the surrounding area and allows the player to detect trapped chests for a short time. Deals bonus damage based on your Attack when attacking an enemy target by Analyze.
While we'd definitely recommend beelining it for the Safe Area in each map section in Echoes of Aincrad to unveil the entire map, Argo is a great work-around for the need to do this, able to scan the area as you go to provide critical info before you go.
She can find and outline plenty of things, like enemies for you to either target and fight to gain experience or carefully tip-toe around if you're low on HP, treasure chests waiting to be opened and pillaged for loot, and plenty more. You'll still want the map for path-finding and any other rewards or battles she doesn't cover (like Arks and their rewards, for example), but Argo is perfect for exploring new areas.
Iori
Best For: Consistent HP Replenishment
Weapon Type
Swords
Combo Skill
Twin Embrace: Deals medium damage to surrounding enemies with Iori’s assistance. The more HP you have, the higher the damage dealt will be.
Support Skill
Healing Circle: Creates a zone in which HP is gradually restored to any allied character within for a set period of time.
She;s the very first partner you get during the lengthy prologue in Echoes of Aincrad, but Iori is an excellent partner throughout the entire game, and we found ourselves using her quite a lot, both for regular gameplay and for Death Game Mode, where she's more than capable of keeping you healthy long-term.
Her Healing Circle ability is one of the more valuable partner skills in the game, and it's available to you almost as soon as you begin playing, giving you consistent access to a potent green circle she casts that will heal you for every second you stand within its glow. It's a great way to conserve potions and Healing Crystals between fights, but she's also able to cast it during battle, so you can lure enemies your way and heal up while you fight!
