Aincrad - Sword Art Online
Aincrad, and New Aincrad, is the setting of the VRMMORPGs Sword Art Online (SAO) and ALfheim Online (ALO). It gets it's name from a concept called An Incarnating Radius and is an abbreviation of that concept.
Construction
Aincrad is a floating, conical castle made out of iron and stone. It consists of 100 floors, with each floor being slightly smaller than the one below it. There are towns and villages, forests and lakes, castles, arenas, plains, and and palaces scattered throughout Aincrad.
These 100 floors were originally regions from the world that were home to the elves, dark elves, humans, and dwarves, until they were cut out from the earth and stacked on top of each other during the formation of Aincrad. During this time, the nine kingdoms of the humans were lost.
There is only one stairway in Aincrad and all 100 floors are connected by it. The only way to reach each floor's stairway is by defeating the boss of that floor, as every stairway lies beyond the boss room of each floor. One can also teleport between floors by using Teleport Gates within the cities, once they have been unlocked.
It's also possible to climb the exterior of Aincrad, but there is a barrier surrounding each floor until it has been unlocked by defeating the boss of the floor beneath it.
Purpose
Each floor of Aincrad has monsters and bosses meant to test player's skill. Monsters that are defeated will respawn after a certain amount of time. Bosses, once defeated, will not respawn. Once a boss has been defeated, passage to the next floor will unlock. The difficulty of the monsters and bosses also increase with each floor.
Many guilds are formed so that players can band together and develop strategies to use their skills and abilities together to take out the formidable enemies. Defeated monsters drop Cor, the primary currency in Aincrad, and loot for the players, so defeating monsters is the primary way to make money and increase one's strength and abilities.
Notable Locations in Aincrad
| Floor | Locations |
|---|---|
| 1 | Town of Beginnings, Black Iron Palace, Hidden Dungeon, Monument of Swordsmen, Monument of Life, Chamber of Resurrection, Tolbana, Horunka Village, Medai Village |
| 2 | Urbus, Marome Village, Taran Village |
| 3 | Forest of Wavering Mists, Zumfut, Dessel |
| 4 | Rovia, Bear Forest, Yofel Castle, Usco Village, Caldera Lake |
| 5 | Karluin, Mananarena, Shiyaya |
| 6 | Stachion, Suribus, Ararro, Castle Galey, Lake Talpha |
| 7 | Monster Arena |
| 8 | Frieven Village |
| 9 | Dark Elf Queen's Castle |
| 10 | Thousand Snake Castle |
| 11 | Taft |
| 19 | Ralberg, Hill of the Cross, Griselda's Tomb |
| 20 | Sunshine Forest |
| 22 | Coral Village, Forest House K4, Lake Outside Coral Village |
| 24 | Panareze |
| 25 | Giltstein, Former location of the Knights of Blood Headquarters |
| 27 | Ronbaru Town |
| 28 | Wolf Plains |
| 35 | Forest of Wandering, Mishe |
| 39 | Nolfret, Former location of the Knights of Blood Headquarters |
| 40 | Jaileum |
| 46 | Ant Hill |
| 47 | Floria, Hill of Memories, Forest of Giant Flowers |
| 48 | Lindarth |
| 49 | Myujen |
| 50 | Algade |
| 55 | Granzam, Knights of Blood Headquarters, West Mountain |
| 56 | Pani, Divine Dragon Alliance Headquarters |
| 57 | Marten |
| 59 | Danac |
| 61 | Selmburg |
| 65 | Old Castle Labyrinth |
| 66 | Old Castle Labyrinth |
| 72 | Ozmalt, Agarla Village |
| 74 | Kamdet |
| 75 | Collinia |
| 100 | Ruby Palace |
New Aincrad
In the conclusion of the Fairy Dance Arc 1/2 arc, the world of ALfheim Online was acquired by Ymir, a new company that comprised of MMO veterans. Ymir discovered a full copy of Aincrad within the servers of ALfheim Online, which they implemented into ALO.
New Aincrad has a few differences compared to the original, namely that the enemies are much stronger, due to the fact that permanent player death is no longer part of the game. New Aincrad also uses a mixed combat system, using Sword Art Online’s sword skill system while also implementing ALfheim Online’s magic and flight systems. To account for player flight, any uncleared floor is protected by a barrier around its perimeter.
The Monument of Life from SAO has also been changed, as it no longer displays any surviving players. It is instead known as the Monument of Swordsmen, and displays the players who have defeated the boss of each floor.