If you're wandering through the various wild areas between villages between main quests, Echo of AincradYou will find strange markers on the map that indicate not only a strange thing called the Ark, but also several seals of various types.
Head to the marked location on the Echoes of Aincrad map and you'll engage in a mini-boss battle with some relatively tough enemies in the area you're in. However, if you choose to seek out, fight, and defeat this Ark boss in Echoes of Aincrad, you'll be rewarded with hidden paths, sweet rewards, and more.
The Ark is an optional mini-boss battle
With safe areas unlocked for each quest section and detailed views for those sections, there's already plenty to see, do, and adventure on Echoes of Aincrad's map. However, if you are looking for additional combat experience, one marker to watch out for is: purple pedestal icon. There is usually at least one in each major area of the game.
These point in the direction of the Arks. Powerful enemies for you to fight As you venture between areas of the main quest. If you go to that location on the map, you will see the pedestal itself sticking out of the ground, and you can choose to interact with it. release When you're ready, start fighting immediately.
When the Battle of Ark begins in Echoes of Aincrad, Stronger variants of enemies in the areagenerally much bigger All kinds of additional combat perks are available. Just like a normal boss fight Health bar at top of screen This will let you know how much HP the Ark boss has left, so come with restored SP and mastered sword skills. Because if you want the potential benefits of winning the Battle of the Ark, you have to fight for it.
The Ark bosses in Echoes of Aincrad are not only usable; abnormal status attack Unlike in this melee game where you and your teammates will quickly run out of HP, which will limit your movement or force you to stop using consumable items, they will usually bring in reinforcements from the enemy Cluttering the battlefield with regular-sized variants of the enemies you're fighting.
These little enemies aren't particularly difficult, but they're great at getting in your way and attacking you at inopportune moments. This is especially true if you rely on heavy attacks that leave you vulnerable for a period of time while swinging your weapon.
But if you can level up to the appropriate level for your area and heal when needed, you'll be in good shape. Fight the Ark as you make your way through the area for the first time.Because you can unlock various perks.
Fighting the Ark in Echoes of Aincrad will grant you numerous benefits, including drops such as:
- powerful weaponEven if the enemy is unlikely to actually use it. This is how you can get some of the best weapons in Echoes of Aincrad, whether it's good base stats or a ton of Ex-Mods. This weapon is great for synthesis. That's because you can give that weapon's Ex-Mod to a weapon of your choice, even if you don't plan on using it!
- Bone, ore, various crafting materialsSame as when defeating a normal sized enemy of that variant. For example, if you fight an Arc who normally drops Iron Chunks, you will usually receive a few Iron Chunks if you beat the Arc variant.
- access to seal I'll go into more detail below to give you some sort of added benefit.
There are enough tangible benefits to deciding to fight some of the Ark bosses in Echoes of Aincrad, but they also provide valuable advantages. Battle experience between main story segmentsThis could potentially close the experience gap before you take on the area's actual boss.
Every area of the map has a recommended level, and enemies also scale with you. So if you're not ready for the next major battle, it's a great way to work towards gaining experience and growth points.
Crucially, your partner will join you in Ark battles in Echoes of Aincrad, so you'll need to know how to best use them before taking on the optional boss battles found in the Ark. It's a decent way to level up a partner you don't normally use. This is because, in addition to the large amount of combat experience and weapon expertise your partner gains from gaining experience and putting in effort compared to you, they also get a lot of loot for themselves.
Every Ark has its seal removed.
After actually defeating the Ark boss and collecting all the prizes that drop, if you look at the map again when it opens in the game, you will see the following message: red seal icon It's not far from the purple ark icon.
Whenever you defeat Ark in Echoes of Aincrad, you'll see a brief cutscene. The seal is being liftedThis is a hint to go to the seal icon and see what kind of perk you got for your problem.
Sometimes a seal can be a barricade. Hiding a treasure chestThis also applies if you already see a box marked on the map when approaching a safe area. These are the most visible treasures of the Seal, as they are not far from the Ark itself, and you can often see the bright red barricades of the Seal. from This is where you actually fought the Ark boss.
If it's not valuable extra loot, you'll often end up using this method: Unlock crafting blueprints Use it again at the forge the next time you return to the main city. You can use some armor as you progress through the main quest, but as Iori says early in the prologue to Echoes of Aincrad, the best weapons and stronger armor are often found as accessories in quests.
If you don't have the right gear for the area you want to progress through, you can always go back out and fight a few Ark bosses in Echoes of Aincrad to see what kind of blueprints you unlock.
But in other cases, you can: Unlock shortcuts via maps This is because when you return you can potentially expand what appears to be a dead end on the map and later allow you and your chosen partner a much faster route through the area. Each floor in Echoes of Aincrad has a fair amount of backtracking, so it doesn't hurt to spend some extra time early on to create shortcuts later on.
You can also unlock it. Access to “inaccessible areas” On the map, it's a place that doesn't seem to be connected to anything else. Defeat the Ark boss to unlock the seal and proceed to this new area. Here you can find rare resources, additional treasure chests, and more.
