When I first started poking around Echoes of Aincrad’s partner system, I expected a handful of simple recruits with one gimmick each. Instead, I found a full roster of 11 companions spread across the game’s early hours, each locked behind their own little questline, and each genuinely worth building around depending on how you play. The best part for me is being able to recruit OG characters like Asuna and Kirito! However, these special partners need some unlocking to do before you can recruit them.

So, stay with me till the end as I explain how the partner system works in the game and which are the best picks for each level. 

A little note before we start: Since the game only released this month, some of these details could shift with future patches or the planned expansion, so treat this as a baseline of where things stand right now. 

There’s actually a lot still being figured out about how this game’s world is even structured. To know more, read our article Is Echoes Of Aincrad Truly Open World?

How does the partner system work in Echoes of Aincrad?

As you may already know, the game doesn’t offer co-op, so your AI partner is effectively your only teammate, and you can only bring one with you each time you leave town. That makes choosing this partner the single most important decision you’ll make before heading out, especially once the stakes get higher and a wrong pick can mean the difference between clearing a floor and limping back to town empty-handed or worse, losing a death match!

While there are multiple partners to pick, there are some common traits in all. Every single one of them, regardless of personality or playstyle, supports a few universal combo moves that work the same way no matter who you’ve brought along:

• Dodge Slash lets your partner follow up with an attack right after you dodge an enemy’s blow, rewarding you for good timing rather than just avoiding damage
• Reversal Slash has your partner repel an enemy’s attack when you time your button press with the blue ring that appears around them, turning a defensive read into a genuine punish
• Parry Slash triggers a follow-up hit from shield-using partners after you land a successful parry, so shield builds get an extra reason to lean into that playstyle

On top of those shared moves, you can also configure how your partner actually behaves once combat starts, and this is where a lot of the strategy comes in:

• Free Mode lets them roam and pull enemy attention independently, which is genuinely useful when mob fights start piling up, and you need someone splitting the enemy’s focus
  
• Switch Mode keeps them close to you for coordinated combo attacks and works best in single-target boss fights, though it draws down their ability to avoid damage, their Focus Gauge, over time. So it’s worth watching how long you stay locked into it rather than leaving it on by default. Swapping between the two depending on the fight is generally the smartest move, and getting comfortable doing that on the fly is honestly half the skill ceiling of this whole system.

Every Partner in Echoes of Aincrad

Now that we know how your partner assists you in a battle, let’s come to the best part. Aincrad has introduced some new characters along with a few original Sword Art Online characters. And of course, to keep things interesting, it takes time and patience to unlock your favorite SAO character and recruit them as your partner. 

I have included all the partners the game has made available so far along with their signature weapons and unlock requirements:

Partner	Weapon	Unlock Requirement
Iori	Sword	Automatic during the Prologue
Wyzeman	Mace	First Floor, after appearing alongside Saayu in the Prologue
Argo	Dagger	First Floor, after tagging along for a few quests in the Prologue
Zash	Two-Handed Sword	First Floor, after “Grasp of Despair” and visiting the Monument of Life
Asuna	Rapier	Second Floor, after “The Black Swordsman I,” then “Keepsake,” “Friendship,” and “Renown”
Agil	Two-Handed Axe	Second Floor, after “The Black Swordsman II,” then “Fabled Food,” “Worries,” and “Years Together”
Kirito	Sword	Second Floor, after “The Black Swordsman II,” then “Heartbeat,” “Responsibility,” and “Trust”
Silica	Dagger	Second Floor, after “Violet Footsteps,” then found in Horunka (First Floor) for “Annihilation” and two further side quests
Klein	Sword	Town of Beginnings, after visiting the Second Floor and completing “Original Sin,” then “Bride-to-Be,” “Suspicion,” and “Truth”
Stina	Mace	Second Floor, after “Legend of the High Elves”
Lisbeth	Mace	Marome, after “Seeking Hope,” then “Helping With Trade,” “Hannah’s Request,” and “A Merchant’s Plea”

Iori is always your first partner

Iori is a new character specially designed for Echoes of Aincrad. She automatically joins you during the tutorial and stays your only option through the Prologue, and her whole job at this stage is to teach you how the partner system actually works while you’re still getting your footing in Aincrad. She’s the kind of steady, dependable presence you’d want by your side early on, and her kit reflects that. Twin Embrace deals medium damage to surrounding enemies, with the damage scaling based on how much HP your character currently has, so she hits harder the healthier you are. Healing Circle creates a zone that gradually restores HP over time, which quietly saves you from burning through your potions long before you’d expect to need them. 

First Floor Partners

Once you reach the First Floor with Iori’s help, more partner options open up, and each one brings a very different flavor to your runs.

Wyzeman

Wyzeman is a close friend of the protagonist who actually shows up alongside Saayu early in the Prologue, though he doesn’t formally join your team until you reach the First Floor. He wields a Mace and leans entirely into offense. Discordant Resonance lets you daze an entire room of enemies at once, while Tri Stampede follows that up by pulverizing whatever the single biggest threat in the room happens to be, especially once it’s Dazed. He’s built for players who’d rather crush a dungeon quickly than grind through it carefully.

Offense-focused kits like his have a way of turning heads in any game that leans on skill systems. To know more, read our piece Palworld 1.0: Every New Passive Skill and What It Actually Does?

Argo

Argo is a new friend you meet in the Prologue who tags along for a few quests before becoming a proper recruit.

She plays the role of an information dealer, the type who’s constantly taking notes on locations, items, and enemies, and her kit mirrors that obsession with knowledge. Analyze reveals enemies through walls and highlights trapped chests for a short window, turning unfamiliar areas into something you can navigate with confidence, and anything marked by it takes extra damage on top of that. Twin Moon rounds her out as a reliable source of damage in its own right, knocking enemies back into anything else standing nearby.

Zash

Zash is the last partner waiting for you at the end of the First Floor, joining your group after “Grasp of Despair” and a visit to the Monument of Life. He wields a Two-Handed Sword, and his whole kit is built around the idea that he’s most dangerous when things look their worst. Twin Ignition deals heavy area damage but costs both of you HP to use, while Exhilaration grants a barrier and an ATK boost that scales higher the lower the target’s health drops. Equip him with your best Two-Handed Sword, and he becomes a genuinely capable fighter who’s great at holding an Elite’s attention, and he’ll occasionally even solo one outright if you let him.

Second Floor Partners

The Second Floor introduces three of the series’ most beloved characters, and all three require completing a three-quest chain before they’ll join you, each tied to getting to know them a little better first.

Asuna

Asuna is easily one of the most well-rounded companions you’ll unlock on the Second Floor. She becomes available after “The Black Swordsman I,” followed by “Keepsake,” “Friendship,” and “Renown,” a chain that has you helping her gather materials and test out her equipment before she’ll actually fight alongside you. Once recruited, she wields a Rapier and works as a rapid-damage specialist with real support chops layered underneath. Lightning hits everything around her while recovering SP for nearby allies, which sets up Spirit Shot, a burst attack that consumes half your SP for extra ATK-based damage and scales even harder the more SP you pour into it. Chain the two together and you get a serious damage spike, though you’ll need to stay fully topped off on SP to actually pull it off.

Agil

Agil is the guy you want in the room the second a fight starts going sideways. He unlocks after “The Black Swordsman II,” then “Fabled Food,” “Worries,” and “Years Together,” a quest chain centered on helping an innkeeper get back on her feet. As a Two-Handed Axe user, he’s built to tank. Crowd Strike deals more damage the more enemies are packed around him, and Taunt pulls enemy attention onto him while keeping his Focus Gauge fully charged, letting him hold the line while you clean up. Give him the right weapon, like the Battlewise Sledgehammer, and he can start applying daze stacks on top of everything else, especially once you factor in EX-MODs like Down Rate and Status Effect Infliction.

Kirito

Our boy Kirito is easily the highest damage companion available during the Second Floor, full stop. He also requires “The Black Swordsman II,” followed by “Heartbeat,” “Responsibility,” and “Trust,” a chain built around monster hunting that basically tests whether you’re a capable teammate before he’ll commit. He wields a Sword and just hits harder than almost anyone else in the roster. Stream Edge deals heavy damage through a series of hits and recovers some SP along the way, while Striker strikes everything in range in rapid succession and lands more hits than any other single move in the game, capable of wiping out a boss’s entire health bar solo if his ATK is high enough. He doesn’t offer much defensively, but with numbers like that, he doesn’t really need to.

Silica

Silica takes the most legwork out of anyone on this list to unlock, but she’s worth every side quest. You’ll need to progress through most of the Second Floor and complete the main story quest “Violet Footsteps,” which is where you meet her for the first time. From there, she pops back up in Horunka, a First Floor town, with a quest marker waiting over her head. Talking to her kicks off “Annihilation,” a side quest that breaks from the usual formula, since you just make your way to the area, Silica comments on how strange it is that no boss shows up, and the quest clears anyway. She gives you two more side quests after that, and the second pits you against a giant boar as your first real look at what she brings to a fight.

She wields a Dagger, and her standout skill is Gracious Gift, which places crystals around a boss arena that recover both HP and SP for the player. It’s a quietly excellent kit that keeps you topped off on health while still leaving you the SP to keep spamming Sword Skills through a tough fight.

Later Partners

Klein

Klein is the definition of a lovable loser, and honestly that’s what makes recruiting him feel earned. He shows up back at the Town of Beginnings after you complete the “Original Sin” main quest, then requires finishing “Bride-to-Be,” “Suspicion,” and “Truth,” a chain that follows him chasing down a woman he lent money to and walking away completely empty-handed. His Sword kit balances offense and survival in a way that makes him a genuine safety net. Riot Fangs hits hard enough to take out a huge chunk of a boss’s health, but the real prize is Bolstering Bellow, which grants temporary invincibility and stat boosts and automatically triggers the moment your HP falls low enough. It’s basically a built-in save button, and that alone is why he’s the pick once you’re playing on Hard or above.

Stina

Stina is the shy, easy-to-overlook pick of the bunch, but don’t sleep on her. She joins after “Legend of the High Elves,” and while she comes across nervous at first, she’s deeply knowledgeable about Aincrad’s lore and ends up playing a real role in helping your team piece together some of its bigger mysteries. Her Mace-based kit revolves around Pierced Heart, which deals bonus damage against Weakened enemies and clears the status once it lands, and Detect Weakness, which applies that status to nearby enemies for extra damage and EXP. It’s a solid kit rather than a spectacular one, and Pierced Heart doesn’t outperform a basic Sword Skill unless you’re specifically using it to strip Weakened.

Passive-style bonuses like these show up in plenty of other games too, often in ways players don’t fully realize until they look closely. To know more, check out our piece Lavish Hospitality Passive Skill and Effect in Palworld 1.0: How to Get It and What It Does?

Lisbeth

Lisbeth is your steady, no-drama support pick, and she’s found in Marome after “Seeking Hope,” then “Helping With Trade,” “Hannah’s Request,” and “A Merchant’s Plea.” She’s a goal-driven adventurer with dreams of opening her own merchant stall in Aincrad, and that ambition bleeds into how she fights too someone who’d rather set everyone else up to succeed than take the spotlight herself. Reinforcement grants an ATK boost plus a bonus depending on your weapon type, and Tempered Strike gains extra Combo SP if that buff is active, ideally used right after Reinforcement lands for the biggest payoff. She won’t outdamage Kirito or Klein, but as a buffer who can also keep your gear upgraded, she’s worth having in the rotation.

Beyond Combat: Leveling, Affinity, and Gear

While a partner’s playstyle affects their compatibility with you, recruiting them isn’t the finish line. In fact, it’s really just the starting point, since none of them stay static once they join you. A few things are worth keeping in mind as you build your roster:

• Leveling and gear matter more than they might seem at first glance. Every partner can be leveled up and equipped with their own weapons and gear, and both directly affect their stats and how effective their skills end up being, so it’s worth investing in whoever you’re bringing along regularly rather than spreading resources too thin.
• Affinity builds the more time you spend with a partner, whether that’s through combat encounters or their personal questlines, and raising it can unlock extra dialogue along with additional bonuses over time. It’s a nice incentive to actually stick with a favorite instead of constantly swapping.
• More partners are likely coming. An expansion is reportedly planned for later in 2026 that should add new companions and a side story, so this roster probably isn’t the final word on who’s recruitable in Aincrad.

Best Partner by Difficulty

If you’re still not sure whom to prioritize, here are my recommended choices for you. However, this is purely based on how their playstyle can help you in a particular mode. I still have limited experience playing alongside them, so I will be changing this section when I figure out better insights for you:

First Floor

• Story and Normal Mode: Argo, since her Analyze skill covers a wide area and consistently boosts damage against marked enemies, making exploration and combat easier at the same time
• Hard, Very Hard, and Death Mode: Iori, since Healing Circle conserves your potions when survival matters more than damage output. This choice is more suited for players who haven’t unlocked advanced partners yet. 

Second Floor

• Story and Normal Mode: Kirito, whose Striker alone can hit harder in a single use than almost any other move in the game, letting you blow through fights faster than any other option here
• Hard, Very Hard, and Death Mode: Klein, since Bolstering Bellow’s automatic invincibility trigger can save a run that would otherwise end to a lucky boss combo

Again, I still need to figure out a lot more about these partners before I can give you more solid gameplay tips. 

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Whether you’re grinding through Story Mode from US or pushing into Death Mode in UK, matching your partner to both your build and the difficulty you’re playing on makes a noticeable difference in how smoothly Aincrad’s early floors go. And honestly, half the fun of this system is figuring out which of these companions clicks best with how you actually like to play. 

So, don’t just stick to my opinion; figure out which partner suits your playstyle the best and team on with them! 

This is it from my side for now. I will keep updating this guide as new patches release, or I find out something valuable. Till then, Happy Gaming, my friend.