Color Cursor

The «Color Cursor» in Sword Art Online is part of the visual display of a player. It appears over the heads of players, NPCs and monsters whenever the player focuses his or her gaze on the said players or NPCs, or if the said monsters are within the player's detection range, which can be increased by leveling the «Searching» skill. The cursor shows the threat of level of an entity towards the player.

Color Cursors do not appear inside of a building, as, for example, in restaurants it would be impossible to eat if the cursor kept appearing whenever a player focuses his or her gaze on another person.

Green
Players that have not directly committed an infraction receive a green cursor. Most players in Sword Art Online have green cursors. NPC in Sword Art Online also have green cursors and also have an «NPC» tag under the HP bar.

Dangerous characters can still have green cursors by getting around the system. Monster PKing (player killing) or Sleep PKing will not turn a player's cursor from green to orange. Attacking an enemy in a safe zone deals no damage and will not change cursor color.

Defending against an attack by another player in a non-safe zone also will not change cursor color.

Orange
Players that have committed an infraction receive an orange cursor. An infraction is initiated typically by the first act of attacking a green player outside the safe zone.

An orange color cursor will gradually restore itself to a green color cursor within several hours for the first three infractions committed. For the fourth infraction, the orange color cannot be removed unless the player performs a quest. After the fifth infraction, a player's color cursor will remain permanently orange.

Players with orange cursors are unable to enter villages or streets that have the AREA effect on. If they try to get in these areas, they will be attacked by NPC guards that are extremely strong until they leave the affected area. In order for an orange player to move around floors, they must either walk from floor to floor or use teleportation crystals.

Player Killers are granted permanent orange colors. While in the linguistic slang refers to these players as "Red" players, their player cursor is not actually red.

Yellow
Inactive monsters and certain NPCs have a yellow cursor.

Red
All active monsters have a red cursor of various shades. The shade of red can be used as a reference to the monster's power when compared to the player's level. The cursor of monsters that need to be killed for a quest appear with a narrow yellow border surrounding the cursor.

Light Pink
Monsters that are considerably weaker than the player and reward little to no experience points have light pink, close to white, cursors.

Pure Red
Monsters that are equal in level to the player have a pure red cursor.

Purple/Magenta
Active monsters that are of a higher level than the level range of a player receive purple cursors.

Dark Crimson
Monsters with an overwhelming disparity in level and which cannot be defeated by the player, no matter how hard one tries, have a dark crimson cursor.