Blogs

Welcome to 3.0!

You wake in your own bed. While it may be a bit hazy at first, the events of the previous evening come rushing back - either you were among those on the Frontlines, or you bore witness to the horror of a vast darkness, an unrelenting storm. In both cases, the last thing you remember is being swallowed up by shadows. Effect on Lore The World Aincrad has reverted back to optimal settings. Any damage caused by the storm's influence (in Storm of Shadows) has been

Lessa in 3.0

April 1, 2021

Player Guides

3.0 Conversion Clarifications (and other additional information)

Good evening, SAO-RPG. As I'm sure most of you are aware, these appear to be uncertain times. As the onset of 3.0 grows nearer and nearer, there seems to be an ever growing arrangement of what-ifs and confusion regarding the impending conversion and transition into a completely different means of conducting operation on this website. Believe me, I understand everyone's concerns. This entry will serve as a consolidated assortment of 3.0 information, clarifications, and answers to various question

Bahr in Clarifications

March 24, 2021

Updated 3.0 Info-dump and the Home Stretch

As many of you may know, the meme of a 3.0 release has existed since the first iteration of the patch was delayed. This eventually became a tradition within our community, especially as its contents were sealed away from the community the entire time. That was changed a while back, as this newest iteration of staff released an information dump regarding 3.0 and the mechanics that had been kept from the community. I'm glad to say that the unrefined work that you saw in the previous info-dump has

Kataware

September 19, 2020

Incognito Questline Hotfix

Incognito Antics Removed, Quest Line is now a Two-Part Series Failure Condition Removed from Incognito Analysis Incognito Analysis SP Reward increased to from 3 SP to 5 SP Incognito Assassination SP Reward increased from 5 SP to 7 SP Disguise Quest Condition Removed (Incognito Analysis) Disguise condition replaced with “Intercept.” After failing to trail Uso-Tsuki with Stealth, one can elect to fight Hogo-sha. Upon his defeat, he drops a coded

September 16, 2020

[Hotfix] Crafting Cooldown Standardization and "Tierless" Classification

Just a quick update rolling off the line right now. First and foremost, we're going to be standardizing crafting cooldown. In lieu of waiting a full 24 hours between crafts, the cooldown on a crafting day will reset at 12:00am local time for all users. The Player Support Team already recognizes this; I'm merely making this the new standard. Finally, for the meat of the update. Tierless item classifications. If you craft an item that does not scale with material tier, you will generate a "Ti

July 25, 2020

Farewell 2.6 Event Notice!

Hello fellow Aincrad dudes! It's your boy Oscar here with an update. I'm sure you guys are wondering why we haven't done away with the Quarantine Bonus. It's been going for months now. Well, here's some good news about that: The Current SP Bonus Event will remain active until the launch of 3.0~~~ Since the Labyrinth Guardian has been slain, we have decided to make this bonus period permanent until 3.0 is here. The update itself is progressing smoothly so rest assured that when the Raid

June 18, 2020

Custom Skills and Sword Arts in 3.0

Custom Skills and Sword Arts in 3.0 Hello there, fellow vestigial remnants of our casually decaying reality. There are some big changes coming in 3.0 when it comes to your Skills and how you can sort them. There will no longer be Skill slots, meaning you can collect as many standard Skills as you want. We will, however, be implementing a cap on Extra Skills, as well as reclassifying certain Skills into the Extra Skills category. As the system is set up currently, it's all too common t

Bahr

June 4, 2020

Last Day to Hunt for Eggs!

Hope you've finished up your hunting, because today is the last day to collect eggs! Please read below to find important information regarding the end of the Easter Egg Extravaganza: 1) You will have until 11:59 pm EDT (GMT-4) on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2020, to roll for eggs. All posts with an egg roll must be filled in by this time, or the roll is rendered invalid. 2) After this point you may continue to post in event threads, bringing them to a natural close. You may continue to excha

Lessa

April 22, 2020

Easter Egg Extravaganza

After a long day, all you really want is a big dinner and a soft bed. The mobs have been slain, the mats have been found, and the crafts have been crafted. You’ve completed quests, messaged with friends, and hardly spent any time at all considering the harsh realities of the virtual world you’ve been trapped in. All in all, a good day, and one that you- Wait a minute. Nestled in a tuft of green grass is a vibrant pink ball. As you crouch to examine the object, you realize it isn’t exactly sp

Lessa

March 30, 2020

Quarantine Bonus SP Event

Hello fellow potential viral vectors! Staff is proud to unveil another Bonus SP Event! From now until ThE CoViD gets under control, enjoy an extra +1 SP to all threads. You may apply this bonus to threads locked today prior to this announcement. So stay home and enjoy some SP while you're bored on lockdown. And stay safe everyone~

March 18, 2020

[2.6.4] Patch Notes

Crafting/Shop Changes: Crafting in a player's shop thread is now considered an out-of-character interaction. Systems & Development Comments: One of the main reasons why crafting required a 100 word requirement was because the «Merchants and Shops» sub-forum is considered an in-character sub-forum. Now that crafting is an out-of-character interaction, there is no longer a 100 word requirement while crafting. However, any in-character interaction (e.g. interacting with another

Kataware

January 3, 2020

Rewarding Staff Members

Hello SAO-RPGians! We recently had a discussion in the staff chat, and thought it would be appropriate to bring it to the community. The conversation ran along the lines of how much work goes into the events that take place around site. Keeping track of everyone's stats, keeping the events in context and engaging, and making sure that things stay on a reasonable timetable can really take a lot out of a person. Because of this, the idea was brought forth that perhaps it would be appropriate

Ryo

November 28, 2019

3.0 and all its information!

Check out the latest information for 3.0!!! Give us your feedback! https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TjXmiFEH8mBiL3fM5ygjmogs4Eq8oKCp-v9rmXf8Fm8/edit?usp=sharing Note from the team: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-qQUKNBp-mHhKeb6gl2kQbcL5QcBnSQmiw39_FL72tw/edit?usp=sharing

Shark

November 21, 2019

Sword art Poll and Debate

Hello members of the SAO RPG forums! Welcome to a debate topic that the system's dev team put together (along with a few others) to get you guy's opinion! This topic involves the weapons system! The main star of this particular debate topic are sword art cooldowns! essentially, there's a bit of a dilemma that we're currently having in regards to that, which is the type of cooldowns we're going to have for sword arts, and whether or not they should change from sword art to sword art. We also plan

tricolor_mina

October 29, 2019

Administration Desk

[Announcement] Clarifications of Site rules

Hello all! It has come to staff's attention that there are a lot of questionable and unwritten rules. We are working hard to try and get those added into the system. Here are a list of rules that have been found to be unwritten. If you have questions regarding these types of rules, please see this guide that was created by our Player Support Team: The PST Playbook If you think we are missing some things or you think there is an unwritten rule that needs to be added, enter a submis

Shark

August 25, 2019

The Podcast Corner

Sword Art Podcast Season 6!

Hello my fellow Aincradians! It's that time of the year for the Podcast Series. The return of the podcast for the 6th season has been set! We have some new graphics as well as a new and improved signup method! The Co-Host has not yet been set in stone but will be soon enough. This season, we are trying something new. The Special Guest spots will be officially open to the public! If you are interested in being a special guest, please fill out the form below. The sign-ups are open f

Shark

July 18, 2019

Special Items

Hey all, The staff team is currently trying to track down and catalogue special items that have enhacements or abilities outside of what's listed in the current Enhancement List. If you have any item that possesses anything not listed or defined in the guides, please contact @Neopolitan with the details of what it is, what it does, and if possible, where it was obtained. We appreciate your help with this!

Teion

May 24, 2019

[2.6.3] Patch Notes

Mechanic Changes: Stealth: Players must roll to maintain Stealth at the beginning of their turn. If a player wishes to attack out of stealth they must roll to maintain stealth and attack in the same roll (declaring both in the purpose). If they failed to maintain stealth, they are considered detected and would lose any appropriate bonuses before their action is processed. Simplified Passive Stealth Detection rules (whenever the stealth roll falls below the passi

Cardinal

April 1, 2019

[2.6.2] Patch Notes

Mechanic Changes: New mechanic: Passive Stealth Detection: Follows the general rules of stealth detection except it is performed at the start of combat, the turn a player enters stealth, and on the opposition's turns. The passive stealth detection rating is (10 + stealth detection bonuses) and is performed against the enemy's stealth rolls. In the case of a tie, the stealthed player wins. Does not count as an action. Unless declared othe

Cardinal

March 15, 2019

The Weekly Link

The Weekly Link #14

The Weekly Link Week #14 Boyu oh boy do I have a lot to cover. It has been nearly a month since the last blog and I am so sorry for that wait. As a treat for being so patient, I'm going to be releasing this immediately rather than waiting for the usual 6:30 PST time to release this. As such, I apologize if I make a quick edit or two in the initial release as I may notice a typo New players Surprisingly enough, there aren't that many new players to herald in the new year.

Neopolitan

January 12, 2019