The best weapon you can get at the start of Echoes of Aincrad—and arguably the best weapon for over 90% of the game—is the humble Bronze Sword. It's not a rare drop or a secret quest reward. It's a basic recipe available the moment you meet the smithy. Its power comes from a unique mod that is so effective it feels like an oversight: it grants bonus damage equal to 100% of your attack power to all jump attacks and sprint attacks. This single perk transforms the most common combat moves into devastating attacks, letting you stagger-lock bosses and one-shot mobs with ease, making it the highest DPS weapon until the final floor.
This isn't an exaggeration. The core of efficient combat in Aincrad revolves around jump heavy attacks to break an enemy's posture and sprint heavy attacks to clear groups. The Bronze Sword doubles the effectiveness of the former and, thanks to the one-handed sword's double-hitting sprint attack, quadruples the damage of the latter. Forget grinding for other weapons; with a simple trick at character creation, you can craft this monster weapon in the first ten minutes and never look back.
Why Is the Bronze Sword So Overpowered?
The secret lies in its modifier, which adds a secondary, blue damage number to your attacks that scales directly with your attack power. While other weapons offer situational or laughably small flat bonuses, the Bronze Sword's mod is always active when you need it most. The gameplay loop of Echoes of Aincrad heavily favors aggressive, mobile combat. You are constantly sprinting between objectives and initiating fights with a powerful opening, or you're dodging a boss's combo to counter with a jumping heavy attack.
The Bronze Sword directly feeds this loop. Every sprint attack you use to clear out weaker enemies becomes a potential one-hit kill, dramatically speeding up your progress through zones. Against bosses and elite mobs, the jumping heavy attack is your primary tool for inflicting stagger and creating openings. By doubling the damage of this key move, the Bronze Sword cuts the time it takes to down a boss in half. You can achieve a stagger-lock state so quickly that many bosses won't even get to use their most dangerous abilities. This weapon doesn't just increase your damage; it fundamentally breaks the game's difficulty curve in your favor.
A Trap for New Players: Why Other Starting Weapons Fail
Many other guides and players will point you toward the Annealed Blade, but this is a trap. Its description sounds promising, promising stacking attack speed, attack power, and defense. The reality is that the weapon is bugged and functionally useless. Other early-game weapons suffer from what can only be described as the 'flat 10' problem, offering bonuses so minuscule they make no difference.
Echoes of Aincrad in-game screenshot
The Annealed Blade's Broken Promise
The most common piece of bad advice is to aim for the Annealed Blade. On paper, it increases normal attack speed and grants stacking buffs to attack and defense. In practice, it's broken. When you land a normal attack, you get a single stack that grants a paltry 10 bonus attack power. When you hit a second time, the bonus disappears before reapplying. If you manage to reach the maximum five stacks, nothing happens. No significant attack boost, no defense increase. Worse, the stacks time out and don't refresh, even if you continue attacking. It's a non-functional weapon that many have mistaken for a top-tier choice simply by reading its description.
The 'Flat 10' Problem and DPS Loss Weapons
A bizarre number of early weapons in Echoes of Aincrad are crippled by laughably weak modifiers. The Steel Sword claims to increase slash damage, but this amounts to a flat 10 extra damage, not a percentage. The Grim Foil gives you a temporary 10 damage boost after a parry. Several two-handed weapons also grant a measly 10 damage under specific conditions. In a game where you'll quickly be dealing hundreds of damage per hit, this is effectively zero bonus.
Other weapons are simply a mathematical downgrade. The Short Sword has the same bonus damage mod as the Bronze Sword, but it only triggers on the final hit of a five-swing normal attack combo. This is a massive DPS loss, as you'll rarely complete a full combo without being interrupted or needing to dodge. Similarly, the Bronze Rapier only procs its bonus damage after you use a sword skill, which is limited by cooldowns. The Bronze Sword's bonus is always available on your most-used and most powerful basic moves.
How to Craft the Bronze Sword at the Very Start
Getting this game-breaking weapon requires a specific sequence of actions during character creation. If you play through the standard tutorial, you will not have the required materials. You must skip it.
Echoes of Aincrad in-game screenshot
Step 1: The Golden Rule is to Skip the Tutorial
The most critical step is to bypass the game's tutorial sequence. The loot package you receive for completing the tutorial is inferior and, crucially, lacks enough of the 'Smooth Hide' material needed to craft the Bronze Sword. To enable the skip option, you must have completed the tutorial at least once on any character on your account.
Step 2: Create a New Character
Head to the main menu and start a new game. If you have a previous character who has finished the prologue, the game will now present you with a new choice after you finalize your character's appearance.
Step 3: Accept the 'Skip Tutorial' Option
A prompt will appear asking, 'Do you want to skip the tutorial?'. You must select 'Yes'. Doing so will start your character in the main town hub and deposit a preset bundle of items and currency into your inventory. This bundle is significantly better than the tutorial rewards, containing more money and the exact materials you need.
Step 4: Visit the Smithy Immediately
Once you load into the game, make a beeline for the town smithy. You don't need to find the recipe for the Bronze Sword; it is available by default from the very beginning. Interact with the smith and open the crafting menu.
Step 5: Craft Your Game-Breaking Weapon
Navigate to the one-handed swords tab and select the Bronze Sword. Thanks to the superior starting items from skipping the tutorial, you will have all the necessary components. Craft the weapon. As an added bonus, crafted weapons generally roll with better random 'X-mods' than those found as enemy drops, giving you yet another advantage from day one.
What if I Don't Like One-Handed Swords?
If the one-handed sword playstyle isn't for you, there is a viable, albeit less powerful, alternative you can also craft immediately by skipping the tutorial: the Steel Rapier. It's the second-best starting weapon and a solid choice for players who prefer the rapier moveset.
Echoes of Aincrad in-game screenshot
Its unique mod grants bonus damage based on your attack power whenever you deal damage three times within a five-second window. The main draw, however, is that it also restores stamina on proc. This allows for a relentless offense, letting you wail on a boss endlessly without ever needing to back off and recover stamina. For long, drawn-out fights against damage-sponge bosses, especially on higher difficulties, this infinite stamina can be invaluable.
Be warned, however, that this is a DPS loss compared to the Bronze Sword. Rapiers are also worse at staggering enemies, meaning you'll create fewer openings for massive damage. But if you value sustained pressure and infinite dodging capability over the raw burst power of the Bronze Sword, the Steel Rapier is a fantastic choice that will serve you well.
The Final Take
It's rare for a game to have a starting weapon that so thoroughly outclasses almost every other option, but that's the reality in Echoes of Aincrad. The Bronze Sword's jump and sprint attack modifier is a game-changer that feels almost like an exploit. By following the simple steps to skip the tutorial, you can have this top-tier weapon in your hands before you fight your first real boss, setting you on a path to dominate the game with an ease the developers likely never intended.