Sword Art Online Fractured Daydream: Rank 1 to Incarnate of the Radius Extreme Boss Raid in 4 Days
What does it take to battle and defeat Sword Art Online Fractured Daydream’s Season 8 Extreme Boss, The Incarnate of the Radius EX?
An Incarnate of the Radius EX – Extreme Boss Raid for Season 8
As a brand new player who just got his copy of SAOFD for the Nintendo Switch in the mail literally last week, I knew I had to find out. After all, An Incarnate of the Radius is the boss monster Kirito and Asuna face in Ordinal Scale. And Ordinal Scale isn’t just one of my favorite Sword Art Online films – it’s one of my favorites of all time.
However, given I had no experience with the game, and also because this Extreme Boss Raid is only available for a short time, I really wasn’t sure whether or not I’d be able to experience this epic battle firsthand. What does it take to grind to the very top ranks of Sword Art Online Fractured Daydream, and play alongside other dedicated players – many of whom have had the game (and the chance to level up) for two whole years at this point?
I’m going to walk you through my entire experience grinding the ladder from a Rank 1 noob all the way to the elite Rank 150 – the previous rank threshold in the game, and one at which you unlock the current season’s ultimate boss: the devastatingly powerful An Incarnate of the Radius – in just 4 days.
To do this, I didn’t do anything crazy like skip work or not eat. Aside from one all-nighter that kept me playing alongside mostly Japanese players until 4am in the morning, I achieved this while still keeping up my very busy schedule, hitting Rank 151 in the morning of day 4 since starting multiplayer battles.
Here’s how it went.
I launched into Sword Art Online Fractured Daydream at the right time
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In my recent article on SAOFD, I highlighted the most frequent criticism I see online about the game: a small player base. One of the issues that sources online cited with the game is that the active player base is heavily concentrated in the higher ranks. Theoretically this can make it difficult for lower rank players to level up, and unlock bigger, better raids.
Were this the case, low rank, new players could theoretically get stuck in a sort of hell-loop where they don’t have enough experience to move up, can’t find enough other low level players to help them with existing quests and raids, and therefore never are able to move on to the boss raids that actually have active players participating in them, and thereby gain the experience they need to face bigger, better-rewarding challenges and so on.
Starting the day new content releases is a great way to rank up
Given these criticisms were the first I came across when researching the game, I felt that in order to get to the Extreme Boss stage, my best chance would be to capitalize on the excitement everyone had over the brand new season and the release of the new character, Eydis, to launch my level-up campaign.
Unfortunately for my sanity the following day, this meant staying up until 4am in the morning grinding raids and accepting aid requests while it was prime time in Japan.
The player base is much stronger than it would appear from Steam numbers
Playing over the weekend, however, showed me that my fears of a low player base holding me back was mostly internet noise. Indeed, upon further research it seems that SAOFD is having something of a resurgence. Not only is it benefiting from constant social media posts from both English speaking and Japanese players, STEAM numbers are picking up. Indeed, according to stats from SteamCharts, over the last few days, Fractured Daydream has been trending in the same neighborhood of the much more recent Echoes of Aincrad: a solid sign of life for the older title.
This is especially impressive when we take into consideration that the majority of players aren’t actually logging into SAOFD via their PC or Steam but rather via console devices. Indeed, almost everyone I see online is playing the game via console, with the Nintendo Switch being the most prominent single device.
Regardless, that initial burst gave me a leg up the following day, and before long I was high enough level to play in the very rewarding Boss Gauntlet battle mode.
Most of my ranking up was done via the Boss Gauntlet game mode
The Boss Gauntlet mode is probably my favorite of the different game options available within SAOFD. It also happens to be quite popular, and you can pretty much play it back to back and have a very full party fighting alongside you.
In the beginning, however, it took all I had to just stay alive. Taking on two bosses back to back was a daunting task for a newbie player whose rank only barely unlocked it.
Before long I would be hanging in there with the best of them, memorizing the rhythm of the battle, landing a few last attack bonuses myself, and even making party MVP alongside my teammates!
Once I hit that point, it wasn’t long before I was flying through the ranks. One last morning boss gauntlet grind session against the Fatal Scythe and the Storm Griffin got me to level 151, unlocking the Extreme Boss Raid.
Things to consider if you are new to Fractured Daydream
Along the fast-paced journey to rank 150 and my final battle against An Incarnate of the Radius, I picked up a few insights that will help any newbie getting into the game for the first time.
For starters, given the way the game works and the emphasis put on developing not only yourself as the player but your favorite Sword Art Online characters, I knew that my time would be best spent leveling myself and the character that I would eventually use to battle An Incarnate of the Radius at the same time. This felt especially important as the Extreme Boss Raid event was only scheduled until October 15, 2026, giving me a very narrow window in which to level up myself and my character as I was starting the climb near midnight on October 8th.
That’s a good takeaway for new players to the game to learn from: pick one character you like early on and work on developing him or her before going more broad. This will help you through your initial season push, and leave plenty more to explore afterwards.
Another thing I ignored was the in-game advice to finish the story mode to unlock all the characters before attempting multiplayer raids and quests. While I tried to follow this advice at first, leveling up happened slowly in story mode, and I was eager to experience the multiplayer mode quickly, especially with all the good stuff starting that day for Season 8.
So instead of waiting to finish story mode, I waited just until I unlocked Yuuki – who is one of my favorite characters in SAO – and started hitting the multiplayer quests.
Consider buying the new player booster bundle in the shop
Before moving onto more tips on leveling up in Fractured Daydream, one thing I wish I had considered earlier than I did is buying the New Player Boost Bundle. Available in the in-game store, this bundle aims to help new players level up quickly, making it easier to by-pass the low-rank hell loop I mentioned earlier.
While I did end up purchasing this pricey bundle, I did so when I was already over level 80. The main thing the bundle gives you is a 5x multiplier on Player Rank experience points until you reach level 130. It’s a huge boost, and once I used it I shot up from rank 80 to rank 130 very quickly.
However, I would’ve gotten more bang for my buck had I purchased it at the beginning of my grind. So that’s something for you to consider, especially if you are looking to level up as quickly as possible.
Prioritize Boss Raids over quests
As fun as quests are, boss raids seem to reward more player rank experience points than doing the co-op quests do. Once you unlock the Boss Gauntlet mode, this leads to even faster leveling up than do the single boss raids. However, they are quite challenging at lower levels.
Pay attention to Aid Requests
While it’s easy enough to find matches to take on things like the Boss Gauntlet, it can sometimes take longer to get paired for other quest types, particularly at the lower level.
That being said, I think a lot of players were attempting to power up Eydis when I was doing my grind, so it’s possible more players were playing at lower levels than usual as I found it reasonable to get teammates throughout my journey (although it did get easier once I hit higher levels).
Regardless of what rank you are at, however, an excellent way to quickly rank up without much added effort is to just pay attention to the “Aid Request” notification that pops up from time to time in your lobby. Clicking this will drop you into an already formed party, and many times the battle has already progressed a ways by the time you drop in.
Mornings and evenings are a solid time to play
While I’ve not experienced any issues finding live players to match with, more players do appear to be active in the later evenings and earlier mornings. I did most of my play in the evening between 8pm and 12am, and in the morning from roughly 8am to 11am. These times give some solid overlap between US-based players and those in Japan and Asia, meaning you’ll have more players in your Raid party, less bots, and battles will progress faster.
Getting stronger feels so, so good
One of the best aspects of playing SAOFD other than getting to live in the SAO world as your favorite character alongside other SAO fans is how good it feels to get stronger.
There’s a noticeable difference between how you interact with bosses and the game in general as you level up your character. Because the game resets you to a lower level each time you enter a quest or raid, however, the progression feels natural.
It’s so natural, in fact, that you almost don’t notice it has happened until you go an entire Boss Gauntlet without dying once.
Auto Optimize your gear if you feel overwhelmed
Auto-optimizing gear speeds up your progress as you grind out new ranks
Because I was grinding out raids on a time crunch, I didn’t have much time to learn the ins-and-outs of how the game works outside of growing levels. There’s quite a lot involved with building your character, especially in regards to abilities and items. However, for newbies like me, there’s also a handy “auto optimize” button. I pressed this before jumping into every raid or quest. Because I was leveling up and collecting so much loot so quickly, it usually caused a sword or other gear to change out to a new one.
There’s much, much more an experienced player could tell you about how to optimize your gear. But just know that if you’re grinding up the rank ladder quickly, auto-optimize will save you time.
Learn your character inside-and-out
One thing that I didn’t take for granted was my chosen character’s skills. I learned Yuuki’s basic attacks and powers pretty thoroughly while playing her all the way from the low ranks to 150. That’s an added bonus to sticking with one character all the way through: you figure out how to use him or her under a variety of situations.
Yuuki’s flight capabilities, for example, came in handy in many scenarios, such as when chasing after airborne monsters like the Griffin, and later on when avoiding attacks from The Incarnate of the Radius.
Don’t overlook farming lower powered monsters during boss raids
The other thing I noticed is that more skilled players typically focus on objectives outside of just dealing damage to the main boss monster. Taking out the lower level monsters that spawn during boss raid battles seems to be beneficial for you, granting stat bonuses, chances to refill life, and even adding to your overall score.
Make plenty of friends
As you can see from various social media platforms, Fractured Daydream players are pretty social. It’s easy to make in-game friends while playing, and while you’ll need to join a third party service to chat with them beyond basic stamp commands, you can invite them to join your party and raid with you.
Add lots of friends after your battles, and don’t be afraid to reach out with a group request! Having actual players in your party will help you level up faster than if you simply raid with bots.
The final battle – how taking on An Incarnate of the Radius actually went
After following all of these tips and tricks that I figured out along the way, at last I reached rank 150 and unlocked Season 8’s Extreme Boss Raid, Incarnate of the Radius EX.
In my head, I was the heroic Kirito or Asuna, ready to take on the Incarnate of the Radius on equal footing just like they did in Ordinal Scale. My actual reality at level 150 was barely hanging on for dear life. For me, most of the battle was spent avoiding lethal attacks and taking out weak monsters while my much stronger teammates did all the work.
Battling low level monsters during the Extreme Boss Raid was the best I could do
This boss raid was nothing like the others. At every turn there was something there to kill you. And unlike when fighting other monsters, there was nowhere to run. Back up too much and you’d hit a wall of ice that could freeze you to death. Go too close or stay in one place for too long and you’d be equally in trouble.
The coolest moment for me, however, was when I somehow managed to land my ultimate Mother’s Rosario attack on the giant beasty shortly before my teammates finished him off.
Despite surviving the raid, I had low damage output compared to my phenomenal teammates
In the end, I only dealt a fraction of what my strongest teammates (all of whom were rank 180 minimum) did to the monster.
Regardless, it was a satisfying conclusion to a weekend-long grind.
In the end, the best part about my adventure from rank 1 to 150 wasn’t just the bragging rights: it was the fun along the way. Sword Art Online Fractured Daydream is a one-of-a-kind experience for dedicated Sword Art Online fans. My only real regret is not knowing about this game earlier!
With more content promised, and a dedicated and even increasing player base, there’s still more to come and enjoy following the game’s 2nd anniversary.
