Skills

«Sword Skills» are programmed movements assisted by the system after a player performs the initial movement in «Sword Art Online». These skills fall into four properties: Thrust, Slash, Pierce and Blunt. There is also another beginner ability: Final Thrust.

Background
Swords Skills are the basis of combat in Sword Art Online. Skills are activated by beginning the movement of the skill (such as raising a sword above one's head), and then allowing the program to take over and automatically complete the movement and combo. The weapon typically glows a different color when a sword skill is activated.

There are several different classes of Weapon Skills (all a subset of general Skills, of which there are a maximum 11-12 slots). There are generic weapon skills such as «One-handed Straight Sword»and «One-handed Curved Sword». Then, there are additional weapon skills that can be unlocked after fulfilling a certain set of conditions. For example, in the sword category, the «One-handed Straight Sword » skill must be trained quite a bit before «Rapier» and «Two-Handed Sword» appears on the weapon skills list.

Weapon skills that do not have clear conditions for appearing are called Extra Skills. There are roughly around ten known Extra Skills, including the «Katana Skill » weilded by Klein.  Each of these extra skills have at least ten people in the Sword Art Online world who practice the skill.

There are only two known Unique Skills, which are weapon skills unique to a single player. These are Heathcliff's «Holy Sword» and Kirito's «Dual Blades».

Sword Skills are native from Sword Art Online. The system was later added to «ALfheim Online» with minor modifications, including elemental attributes, and allowing the players to create their own skills. It is rumored that about ten skills were removed on the adaptation.

One-Handed Sword

 * Armor Pierce
 * Fad Edge
 * Horizontal - A simple one-handed sword skill slashing horizontally
 * Horizontal Square - A mid-level one-handed sword skill with a four-hit combo tracing the shape of a rhombus
 * Rapid Bite
 * Rage Spike - A basic, weak one-handed sword skill that leaps at the enemy and follows with an upward strike
 * Sharp Nail
 * Slant - A simple one-handed sword skill slashing diagonally
 * Sonic Leap - A one-handed charge-type sword skill that dashes toward the enemy to deal a downward strike
 * Uppercut - A simple one-handed sword skill delivering an uppercut
 * Vertical - A simple one-handed sword skill slashing vertically
 * Vertical Arc - A simple one-handed sword skill slashing 2 times create 'V' shape trajectory
 * Vertical Square - A mid-level one-handed sword skill with a four-hit combo tracing the shape of a square
 * Vorpal Strike - A heavy one-handed sword skill with a reach that is double the length of the blade and has high attack power. It has a long cool-down.
 * Savage Fulcrum

One-Handed Curved Sword

 * Fell Crescent -  A high-class charge-type one-handed curved sword skill that delivers a downward blow
 * Reaver -  A basic one-handed curved sword skill

Two-Handed Sword

 * Avalanche -  A high hitting high-level two-handed sword skill

Martial Arts

 * Embracer -  An unarmed skill that pierces the enemy with the fingers
 * Flash Hit - A  basic skill

Rapier Sword

 * Linear -  The first rapier skill learned that delivers a single thrust at the enemy at a great speed
 * Star Splash - A high-level one-handed thrusting sword skill with an eight-hit combo
 * Flashing Penetrator

Dual-Blades Sword

 * Double Circular - A dash-type dual-blades sword skill that swiftly attacks with the right and left sword consecutively for a two-hit combo
 * Starburst Stream - A high-class dual-blades sword skill that deals a sixteen-hit combo
 * The Eclipse - The highest level dual-blades sword skill that deals a 27-hit combo

Other Sword Skills

 * Meteor Break - A seven-hit combo, needing unarmed and one-handed sword skills, that uses tackles to chain together strong attacks

Other

 * Also see Original Sword Skills.