SWORD ART ONLINE Fractured Daydream Guide | How to Level Up Fast

Here are some of the fastest ways to level up in SWORD ART ONLINE Fractured Daydream.

Game Guide by Joyramen on Nov 14, 2024

Leveling up can be a tedious process in SWORD ART ONLINE Fractured Daydream. Players find it challenging as it consumes a lot of time, but there are quicker methods to increase the time and experience gained.

This guide is intended to describe the fastest ways to upgrade individuals’ characters in SWORD ART ONLINE Fractured Daydream. The player level and the character level are different, and many players tend to forget this important detail. Let’s dive right in.

When you level up your characters, you receive several benefits, such as cosmetic items, increased base stats, and passive skills. These passive skills can significantly enhance your characters, and simply boosting base stats through leveling will increase your damage output and improve your survivability in boss raids and co-op missions; cosmetics are always a nice bonus as well.

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Certainly, some other benefits come with the aspect of leveling up one player's rank. So, as you increase your player rank, you also get additional content. Most importantly, with high player ranks, you can receive better items from drops, which improves your damage output and survivability quite a bit. Getting your player rank as high as possible is essential, as the gear will ultimately provide the most significant improvements for your characters.

However, unlocking certain character passives can make gameplay with specific characters more enjoyable. For instance, if you obtain gear with a chance to freeze enemies and combine it with Eugeo’s passive, it increases your freezing potential. Alternatively, if you equip Quietus for a 30% crit rate, you can freeze enemies and take advantage of that critical hit chance, much like the Blizzard Strayer set in Genshin Impact. These synergies can make certain characters much more engaging to play.

Unfortunately, the methods for leveling your player rank and character rank differ. My recommendation is to prioritize grinding your player rank since your characters will gain experience naturally as you play.

There are several ways to level up, and they revolve around different game modes, including story mode, additional story, Tower of Determination, free roam, co-op quests, and boss raids. In my opinion, the boss raids to provide the fastest experience.

Why Boss Raids are the Best Method

The purpose of prioritizing the boss raids over co-op quests or story missions is that even though boss raids require a good chunk of time to complete, they provide the highest amount of experience for the time spent. There are three boss raids available, though most players won’t be at rank 85 yet. If you’re ranked 85 or higher and looking for a leveling guide, you’ve likely already discovered the best leveling methods.

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So, which boss raid should you choose? This varies depending on whether you give an upper hand to level the characters or increase the player rank. If the aim is to promote more character level-ups within the shortest time, it is best to concentrate on the lower-level bosses since they are easier to conquer than mid-tier bosses. For instance, SBC Trommel can be more daunting to deal with in action than the Skull Reaper, as he avoids direct action for quite extended durations.

Boss raids typically take between 5 to 12 minutes, with most runs falling between 7 to 10 minutes. Exceptional Skull Reaper kills can be as fast as 5 minutes, while Trommel can take up to 12 minutes, depending on the group. This enables a rather relaxed approach towards these raids, especially with a party of four players.

When it comes to earned experience (XP) for characters, both Skull Reaper and Trommel grant nearly the same experience, with Trommel surpassing slightly over XP. Generally, a character can expect around 1,000-character XP per raid, plus some additional bonuses.

However, if you’re not playing a ranged character on Trommel, you might miss out on some of the bonuses. Therefore, if your main goal is character leveling, Skull Reaper spam is the best option, as Trommel can be quite a hassle.

Nonetheless, in case you are more concerned with leveling your player rank (which I find of higher value), you have to try your best and raid the highest-level boss raid that you can manage. The difference in player experience between Skull Reaper and Trommel is enormous.

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For instance, even though Skull Reaper perhaps gives less than one thousand experience points, Trommel can award more than 3000 XP. Moreover, the time taken to complete the two tasks is not very different, which is why Trommel is preferable when it comes to increasing players’ rank.

Maximizing XP Through Online Play

An additional benefit of playing online is that you receive bonus XP for every S-rank you achieve at the end of a mission. Completing challenges, such as dealing the most damage or getting the most revives, will help you level up faster, as these bonuses can significantly increase your character XP.

Another useful feature is the aid request. When you join another player’s session, sometimes you will enter in the middle of their game, allowing you to complete the mission in less time while still earning the full amount of XP. I recommend joining these when they pop up unless they involve high-level co-op quests that might take too long for your current rank.

While co-op quests offer similar player XP to boss raids, they often take longer to complete. For example, I recently ran the Jade Maze, which took 28 minutes but yielded less than double the XP of a typical boss raid. At the same time, I could have completed three or four boss raids, making them a more efficient option for leveling.

Offline Leveling Method

If you prefer to play offline or if you don’t have a stable internet connection, there is a solid method for leveling your characters offline. The best approach is to replay story missions on the easiest difficulty, particularly the mission called “Enemies on the Prairie.” Although this method only provides about 200 XP per run, each run takes around 2 minutes and 30 seconds, making it a fast way to accumulate experience.

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In one hour, you can earn approximately 6,000 characters XP using this method. Keep in mind, however, that these only level your characters, not your player rank. Eventually, you will need to return to online play to raise your player rank, but this is a fast offline method for leveling characters.

To summarize, the best approach to level up quickly in SAO: Fractured Daydream would be targeting boss raids. Other techniques, such as co-op quests and offline story missions, can be aggravating, but these provide the most optimal experience-to-time ratio, especially while leveling player rank. Whichever mode you decide to choose, online or offline, these strategies will assist you in leveling up the characters and player rank effectively.

Also, check our SWORD ART ONLINE Fractured Daydream review below and other guides below: