Echoes of Aincrad: How To Unlock Death Mode

If you're a Sword Art Online fan who has suffered through a slew of pretty mediocre games focused on the series, Echoes of Aincrad might just be the salve to those wounds.

It's one of the most authentic SAO games ever made, and it lets you step out of the shadows of Kirito and Asuna to carve out your own story. Heck, you can even play the game in permadeath mode, mirroring the scenario in the anime.

However, this won't immediately be available to all players right from the beginning of the game. So, if you want to unlock Death Mode, stick with us, and we will help you unlock this sadistic mode.

What Is Death Mode?

To put it simply, Death Mode is a permadeath mode that can be chosen at the start of your Echoes of Aincrad adventure, provided the mode is unlocked.

This mode will delete your save file the moment you are killed in-game, making every fight extra intense, every build decision vitally important, and every safe point a welcome rest.

The only exception is that water and fall damage do not count towards this stipulation.

How To Unlock Death Mode

Death Mode can be unlocked one of two ways. Ways that will differ depending on whether you bought the standard or Ultimate Edition.

Standard edition players will need to play and complete the game on any other difficulty to unlock Death Mode.

Those who spring for the Ultimate Edition will gain access to Death Mode immediately as an exclusive bonus for buying the more expensive version of the game.

The only downside for Ultimate Edition players is that if you played the demo, you will not be able to use this save data for Death Mode and will need to create a fresh save file. However, that save data will be fine to use for all other difficulty settings.

Is There Any Way to Recover Save Data?

It depends on how dedicated you are to save-scumming and how proactive you are.

You will likely lose some progress, as saving this way is a little too long-winded to do very often. However, there is a way to create a safety net.

Players can, for example, use PlayStation Cloud Save settings to transfer a Death Mode save to their stored save data off-console. Then, when you lose your save data by dying, you can import this save, overwriting any existing data, and voilà, you have your death-mode run back.

Sure, it beats the purpose, but it might just save you a lot of grinding.