Every time Echoes of Aincrad discussions take place in the fandom, we often find ourselves drifting into the floor design rabbit hole. With the release of the full version, we all can agree that we expected a decent number of floors to become available. However, developers always had clarity on delivering quality over quantity.
Whether you are playing from the US or UK, or any other part of the world, the current game version has the same floor design for all players. Fans have also been asking whether the game supports playing alongside friends, a topic worth covering separately. To know more, read our article Does Echoes Of Aincrad Have Co-Op?
In this post, I will be laying out how many floors the game currently has, how diverse they are, and if there is a plan of expansion awaiting us in the near future.
Total Floors in Sword Art Online: Echoes of Aincrad
This may come with a bit of sting, but Echoes of Aincrad only has two floors currently. The campaign and every side quest play out across the first and second levels of Aincrad. The storyline for the game is more or less inspired by the original SAO concept with a little spin on it. It’s an original tale about a group of players trapped in a video game simulation. If they act recklessly and die in the game, they would die in real life as well. The only way to get out of the game safely is to win the game without dying. After spending roughly a month holed up at an inn, they finally decide to move forward and take on the challenge.
Well, there is actually a detailed reasoning behind it: Another common question players raise is whether the map genuinely feels open-world despite its smaller footprint. For more on that, read our post Is Echoes Of Aincrad Truly Open World?
However, the original tower in the manga and anime had 100 floors, where Kirito managed to beat the creator and win the game on the 75th floor. Then, why did Bandai Namco reduce the floors to only two? Well, there is actually a detailed reasoning behind it:
The Actual Reason Behind Limited Floors
I think the easiest way to understand why this game stops at two floors is to walk through the actual constraint the developers were working against, because once you see the numbers, the decision starts to make a lot more sense.
In an interview with Famitsu, producer Yosuke Futami explained that each floor of Aincrad is built at roughly 10 square kilometers, and that’s not a loose figure, it’s the actual scale the team committed to for every region you walk through. When you do the math on recreating the entire 100-floor tower at that same density, you land at an estimated 10 years of development. That’s simply not a realistic runway for any studio, and it’s the specific number that shaped the decision to focus the whole game on episodes from just the first two floors instead of chasing the full arc.
The production timeline backs this up too, if you trace it back far enough. The concept for this game actually goes back to around 2018, right as the team was wrapping up Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet. From there, the project formally kicked off around 2019, and the team spent a couple of years figuring out direction before things really locked in around 2021. All told, that puts development at roughly four years spent specifically on these two floors, which starts to explain why the map feels as dense as it does despite the smaller footprint.
Why the Trade-Off Still Frustrates Players
Knowing the reasoning doesn’t erase the disappointment, and it shouldn’t have to. A lot of longtime fans (myself included) went in expecting the kind of scale the franchise is known for, and two floors, however dense, doesn’t match that mental image no matter how it’s explained.
The frustration also isn’t limited to floor count. The protagonist can’t use Dual Wielding, and the team was direct about why: it’s a skill Kirito earns under extreme, specific circumstances much later in his own story, and handing it to an original character this early would undercut that. Scout-type detection skills from the original series are absent for a similar reason tied to how early in the timeline this story sits. There’s also no affection or relationship system with companions, since the team felt it would clash tonally with the stakes of a death game where people are dying for real. None of these omissions are individually massive, but stacked next to a two-floor map, they reinforce the sense that this is a smaller, more contained experience than what most of us signed up for.
Character customization is another area players frequently ask about, and it deserves its own breakdown. To learn more, check out our article Will Echoes Of Aincrad Have Character Customization?
That gap is exactly why DLC speculation hasn’t slowed down. Both the Deluxe and Ultimate Editions include an Expansion DLC pass with undisclosed contents, so it’s worth resisting the assumption that a new floor is guaranteed just because the pass exists. Futami has said the team wants to keep expanding this world, and has even floated ideas like player-versus-player conflict that this game doesn’t touch, but only if the current foundation is well received. Nothing beyond that is confirmed, and it comes down entirely to sales.
What’s Actually on Floor 1
Your home base is the Town of Beginnings, the largest town in Aincrad, with a streetscape built around an old European aesthetic. Much like OG SAO, it houses the shop and blacksmith functions you’ll get to return to constantly. To make things interesting, the game offers a rotating set of side quests tied to companions that unlock as the story advances.
As for the surrounding map, it spreads into grasslands, forests, lakes, and mountainous ruins, with boars, wolves, and wasp-type enemies scattered throughout. You’ll also pass through Tolbana, a smaller town known for its cultural history, and eventually reach the Labyrinth, the tower connecting Aincrad’s floors, known locally as the “Tower of Heaven,” with multiple internal levels to clear before the boss room.
It is important to remember the outline of the map, since it isn’t open-world despite feeling expansive. The development team designed each area more like a dungeon: cliffs, rivers, and lakes act as boundary walls rather than traversable terrain, so wandering into deep water just pushes you back to land instead of letting you swim across.
To maintain an element of surprise, detailed map data for a region also stays hidden until you physically discover and activate a Safety Area or Warp Terminal there.
What’s Actually on Floor 2
You transition into a bit of a change in scenery as Floor 2 trades Floor 1’s greenery for savanna terrain, rocky plateaus, and small caves with hidden underground water. The main hub in this floor is Urbus, which is directly located in a mountain crater. On this floor, enemy variety shifts with giant cows and buffalo-type monsters replacing the boars and wolves from the floor below.
Because enemy levels climb here, gear enhancement stops being optional. So, prepare yourself to visit the blacksmith more often from here on. Trust me, enhancing and configuring EX-MODs is the only way you can keep up with the enemies on this floor.
If you want the full rundown on every companion and how to recruit them, it’s worth checking a dedicated guide on that topic. To see the details, read our article Echoes Of Aincrad Partner Guide: Every Companion, Their Skills, and Exactly How to Recruit Them
The Systems Built Into Those Two Floors
Now that I have rambled enough about what doesn’t align with the original SAO, it’s time to talk about what actually gets closest to the concept.
First off, partners! Even though the game doesn’t offer co-op, there are in-built AI partners that you can unlock on completing certain quests. They are not just someone who follows you around; they come with a Switch Mode and actively assist you during battles.
They trade turns attacking your locked-on target and regain Concentration as a result, or Free Mode, where they engage other enemies independently. However, they tire out the longer they use these abilities.
They possess three additional combat techniques: Dodge Slash, Reversal Slash, and Parry Slash. As these skills grow more advanced, they offer precise timing on dodges, guards, and parries with bonus damage windows.
Another exciting feature is the Death Game Mode. Personally, I feel this is the closest the game gets to the real Sword Art Online. When you toggle this feature on, the stakes get 100% real, and if you die during this mode, your entire save slot is deleted.
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How This Compares to Other SAO Games
Echoes of Aincrad isn’t the first SAO game project; it isn’t Bandai Namco’s first SAO project either. Here are the highlights of map design that the previous games have offered.
| Game Title | Floor Count / Scope |
| Echoes of Aincrad | Floors 1 and 2 only, with deep, detailed content |
| SAO: Integral Factor | All 100 floors, in a mobile gacha format |
| SAO: Hollow Fragment | Floors 76 through 100 |
| SAO: Fractured Daydream | 21 playable characters across large 20-player raids |
While Integral Factor could realistically cover all 100 floors, it’s built on a lighter mobile framework. And honestly, Echoes of Aincrad has done an impeccable job in their detailing.
So, it all came down to limited floors with more details and more floors with less complexity. And Bandai Namco made the conscious choice of choosing details.
With the game being just released, it is still too soon to say whether the developers will add more floors in the upcoming updates and DLCs. So, for now, all we can do is hope and enjoy the current gameplay alongside our favorite partners.
Well, this is all I could find out about the possibility of more floors in Bandai Namco. I hope this post answered all your questions. And if not, feel free to drop a comment below. I will see you around!
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