What is the best Sword Skill in Echoes of Aincrad?

There isn't one universal best — it depends on your weapon and whether you want burst, sustained damage or SP efficiency. At max proficiency, the highest sustained DPS of any skill is Starpierce (a Rapier skill), while the biggest single hit belongs to Starpierce (Rapier). This page ranks all sixty skills three ways for every weapon type.

Does the best sword skill change as my ATK gets higher?

It can. Each skill mixes a flat base with a percentage of your ATK, so skills with a bigger ATK% scaling climb faster as your ATK grows and can overtake ones that lead at low ATK. The rankings here use a reference ATK of 100 — plug in your own ATK with the Skill Damage calculator, or use the ATK-crossover tool to see the exact ATK where one skill passes another.

How do I unlock the best sword skills?

Each weapon type has ten Sword Skills, one per proficiency rank. Raise a weapon type's proficiency by using it in combat and the next skill in that tree unlocks. Committing to one weapon type gets you its top-ranked skills — and their full damage — far faster than spreading across several.

Guides

Best Sword Skills

The best Sword Skills in Echoes of Aincrad, ranked by the game's own damage numbers — biggest hit, best sustained DPS and most SP-efficient — for all six weapon types, at max proficiency.

There's no single "best" Sword Skill — the right pick depends on your weapon type and what you need from it: a huge opener, sustained damage over a fight, or the most damage for every SP you spend. So instead of a hand-waved tier list, this page ranks all sixty skills by the game's own numbers, three ways, for each of the six weapon types.

The standouts across every weapon

The single leader in each lens, out of all sixty skills at Rank 5 (max proficiency).

Rapier

Rapier

Rapier

Biggest hit — Total damage of one full activation — the burst you bait an opening for.

Best sustained DPS — Damage per cooldown second — how much a skill adds when you fire it the instant it's ready.

Most SP-efficient — Damage per SP spent — the skill that turns a full SP bar into the most damage.

Every figure below is that skill's curve-resolved damage at a reference ATK of 100 and Rank 5 (its damage once you've maxed that weapon's proficiency). Skills with lower cooldowns and more strikes tend to win on sustained DPS; single big-motion skills win on raw hit. Because each skill scales differently with ATK, the order can shift as your ATK climbs — use the Skill Damage calculator for your own ATK, or the ATK-crossover tool to see exactly where one skill overtakes another.

Rank for your own ATK See where skills cross over

Best skills by weapon type

You only carry one weapon type at a time, so here's every type's ten skills ranked — the three lens leaders, then the full table sorted by sustained DPS.

One-Handed Sword

Biggest hit

Horizontal Quad Slash

#	Skill	Hit	DPS	SP	Dmg/SP
1	Horizontal Arc	730	34.8	24	30.4
2	Vertical Slash	460	28.8	18	25.6
3	Horizontal Quad Slash	1,370	28.5	54	25.4
4	Slanted Edge	440	27.5	18	24.4
5	Sharp Nail	1,050	25.0	48	21.9
6	Vertical Arc	690	21.6	29	23.8
7	Horizontal Slash	450	21.4	24	18.8
8	Breakrift	430	20.5	18	23.9
9	Rage Impact	600	18.8	35	17.1
10	Rage Spike	530	17.1	30	17.7

Rapier

#	Skill	Hit	DPS	SP	Dmg/SP
1	Starpierce	1,980	66.0	15	132.0
2	Lightstreak	400	57.1	22	18.2
3	Phantom Thrust	1,160	48.3	43	27.0
4	Tri Slash	1,050	43.8	38	27.6
5	Linear Strike	400	33.3	27	14.8
6	Pyre Dance	390	32.5	27	14.4
7	Lier Lunge	750	31.3	5	150.0
8	Rumble Horn	1,430	26.5	64	22.3
9	Oblique Lunge	670	22.3	48	14.0
10	Lateral Lunge	520	21.7	5	104.0

Dagger

#	Skill	Hit	DPS	SP	Dmg/SP
1	Single Stab	410	37.3	26	15.8
2	Trend Edge	1,250	34.7	74	16.9
3	Flick and Twist	410	34.2	27	15.2
4	Fulmination	590	32.8	37	15.9
5	Incision	500	27.8	37	13.5
6	Rapid Bite	470	27.6	27	17.4
7	Dagger Barrage	410	22.8	38	10.8
8	Swarm Sting	480	20.0	44	10.9
9	Disorder	570	19.0	58	9.8
10	Rising Helix	390	17.0	43	9.1

Mace

#	Skill	Hit	DPS	SP	Dmg/SP
1	Tri-Horn Medley	1,250	41.7	49	25.5
2	Spiritfall	680	40.0	24	28.3
3	Beatdown	820	35.7	35	23.4
4	Clashbang	420	35.0	18	23.3
5	Bull Rush	1,000	34.5	36	27.8
6	Double Cleave	780	33.9	30	26.0
7	Wave Bash	390	32.5	18	21.7
8	Solid Sling	610	26.5	35	17.4
9	Riot Smash	560	18.7	36	15.6
10	Absorbing Strike	230	9.6	36	6.4

Two-Handed Sword

#	Skill	Hit	DPS	SP	Dmg/SP
1	Piercing Blast	1,780	61.4	36	49.4
2	Blade Torrent	1,750	58.3	42	41.7
3	Cascade	1,830	50.8	42	43.6
4	Backlash	1,910	45.5	60	31.8
5	Brave Leap	1,020	44.3	39	26.2
6	Brutal Fang	1,560	38.0	54	28.9
7	Swordfall	680	37.8	24	28.3
8	Vertical Buster	1,380	28.8	90	15.3
9	Cyclone	610	26.5	35	17.4
10	Avalanche	620	25.8	30	20.7

Axe

#	Skill	Hit	DPS	SP	Dmg/SP
1	Rockfang	1,270	33.4	54	23.5
2	Roaring Jolt	900	33.3	38	23.7
3	Rising Cross	960	25.9	53	18.1
4	Fierce Shock	480	21.8	32	15.0
5	Meteor Strike	740	19.5	59	12.5
6	Chain Seeker	600	18.8	48	12.5
7	Volcano Slam	690	18.6	48	14.4
8	Serpent Strike	1,200	17.1	102	11.8
9	Gravity	460	14.4	48	9.6
10	Whirlwind	640	12.1	80	8.0

How to use these rankings

→For a main-hand rotation, weave the top DPS skill with its cheapest SP-efficient partner so you're never idle waiting on a cooldown.
→Save the biggest-hit skill for a staggered or parried enemy — its long post-motion is only safe in a window you've made.
→Sustained-DPS rankings assume you re-fire on cooldown; if your SP can't sustain that, weight the SP-efficient picks more heavily.
→These are max-proficiency numbers — early on, the skill you've actually unlocked and levelled beats a theoretical top pick you can't cast yet.

Turn a ranking into a build: plan a shareable loadout, read how Sword Skills work, or browse the full Sword Skills database.