Sword Art Online: Eternal World

Now, when you open up your menu, you'll notice a difficulty option. It ranges from Very Easy, all the way up to Beater. It's exactly what it sounds like; enemies will be made weaker or stronger on the different difficulties. And it affects the battle rewards too. Although not as HUGE as one might think.

Let's talk a bit about equipment and stats. From the central plaza, you can go to the left to find the armor and weapon stores. Your sword's just fine, so go to the armor store.

You can equip the following:
Weapon
Shield (not always)
Helmet
Armor
Two Accessories
Special Slot

Now personally? Your battle speed is affected by your agility stat. This is the only stat you should worry about as a result. Get equipment that raises this. Always. Once you've finished your purchases for now, head back to the plaza, then head to the south. Keep going in that direction. You'll eventually run into Klein, then keep heading south after he joins your party.

You'll reach the ToB Grass Field, this is where enemies can spawn! So keep heading to the right. There's no treasures to find for now. The game directs you to the safe area, these locations heal you.

This is your first grinding area! So what's the goal? Reach Level 8 with Kirito. For Klein, it doesn't matter as much. Don't go to the north, you'll encounter a "miniboss" and then you won't have this grinding area later on. Klein will also leave your party, meaning level grinding is more difficult.

So let's talk about skills, at Level 3 you'll get your first skill. When you use a skill, it levels up. Generally this results in more damage being done. The levels go 1-15, and then EX. To level it from 1 to EX, you need to use that skill 400 times. Also, keep in mind that you can head back to town whenever you want to buy more items. Again, don't worry about Klein too much, you want Kirito's stats to be good.

Feel free to sell whatever items you don't need. However, keep the following:
Good Wolf Pelt (not Wolf Pelt)
At least 2 Animal Blood
Everything else you can sell.

So you get Kirito to Level 8. Yes, it's a long grind. But it's also worth it to do it this early. Because now every single fight and quest you complete from this point on is going to reduce future grinds by that much more. It ALSO opens up a nice opportunity later...

Once you're ready to move on, head north and then head towards the open field, when you do, dialogue and then a battle automatically trigger. You'll fight a Miniboss here, though it's... Honestly a letdown of a fight.

Afterwards you're teleported back to the City. Despite what Kirito says, you're in no obligation to leave just yet. Use this time to buy items you want, and sell off excess goods, etc. I recommend that you keep ALL your potions, though. Then, leave the city via the south exit.

Now, it's the Path to Horunka Village. There's not much to say here, it's a road. Just follow it to the end and you'll get there automatically.

Look around in the Village and you'll find an Inn, there's another building that has a 'sign' on it, enter it to find the Village Chief, speak to him and accept his quest. Are you feeling like getting a new weapon? Well good! Because this quest will give you one.

But you need to be Level 8 to defeat the boss. And the Forest (to the left of the village) is a maze... But it's not as bad as you'd think.

When you enter the Forest, here's the directions to follow:
Down & Left
Up
Left
Keep going forward
Go left.

You've found Little Nepent! When you activate the flower, the battle automatically starts. So save your game and make sure you're healed up before doing so. Win or lose, the way back to the village is above you. Turn in the quest to get Anneal Blade.

This is your best weapon. Cherish it. So take another trip to the Inn in the Village if it's needed, and then head north.

You're on the Path to Tolbana now. And as Kirito said, there is in fact a shortcut that takes you straight to the City. If you want to use it right now, keep going right until you find a cabin, you'll notice that above it, there's a small path. Walk into it and then go to the edge of the screen.

Ta-da! Straight path to the City! But for your first time through, I recommend going the long way, if only up to the point of finding a lake, take the flower that's there, it's needed for a quest later on.

Either way, when you arrive at Tolbana, there's quite a bit to go over... First, stop off at the armor shop. There's a new armor called "Leather Armed Clothes", decent protection without loss to Agility, get it.

Aside from that, there's an inn in the far left corner, and on your way there, you'll come across a building with a gold sign. This is the Quest House. There are such houses in at least one city on each floor. Generally there's three quests as well.

The ones here are:
Sami's Lost Toy
Dive into the Snake Hive
Crossover Battle

Sami's Lost Toy is easy, just check each bush until you find it. You only fight Wolves here, from my experiences.

Dive into the Snake Hive is a bit more tricky, you need to reach the three NPCs and save them. The last NPC heals you, though. And then you fight three Snakes at the end of the quest.

Finally, there's Crossover Battle. It's exactly what it sounds like, you'll fight a character from another game. These are the fastest to complete, although also the most difficult. You'll be thrust into a battle straight away. This one you'll be facing Cress from Tales of Phantasia. And he's quite the difficult foe!

He has two dangerous skills you need to watch out for, a lightning type move, and a combo move. Both can take out HUGE chunks of your health. When he's low on health, he'll also activate a buff which makes him even harder to compete with. If you beat him at the earliest possible point in the game, you are set for Floor 1 and Floor 2, essentially.

Anyway, regardless of your progress in the quests, there's also another path to the right. This leads to the Dungeon. When you actually enter the Dungeon, there will be two paths you can follow.

The path to the right just leads to treasure. It's certainly worth it to venture down there. But keep in mind you'll encounter Strong Wolves and Snakes in here.

The path leading north eventually brings you to a safe area for healing, this is where you can level grind some more. Heading deeper into the Dungeon will lead you to Illfang's Room, however you can't enter it yet. Kirito will automatically go back to town upon discovering the door.

To continue the story, you head north into the enclosed stone area, the meeting will take place, and then you can speak to Asuna so she'll join your party. You automatically head back to the Inn to recover after this. Now, Asuna's in your party!

She starts at Level 6, but she's certainly no pushover. If you wish, you can head right back to Illfang's Room in order to fight him. Or you can wrap up any unfinished business now that you have Asuna to even the odds. It's your choice!

When you do actually fight Illfang, he'll have two Kobold Sentinels helping him out, when you defeat either one, another one will spawn in it's place -- Don't worry, they're not endless. Take them out for the extra experience, and so you then only have to worry about Illfang.

There's really not anything that special to say about this fight, having Asuna around -- even without leveling her -- really does make the entire process MUCH simpler. When you beat him, you'll get the Coat of Midnight Black, which is actually an accessory, equip it.

From here on, you can access Floor 2... Congrats! You cleared Floor 1!