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 and monsters, which shows the threat of level of an entity.

Green
Players that have not directly committed an infraction receive a green cursor. Most players in Sword Art Online have green cursors. NPCs in Sword Art Online also have green cursors.

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 damages 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 player in a non-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.

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.

Red
Active monsters that are within the level range of a player receive the red cursor.

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