Short version: your avatar has seven attributes in two groups. Four damage stats — Strength, Dexterity, Agility, Intelligence — raise how hard you hit. Three support stats shape your survivability and resources: Vitality raises HP, Endurance raises Stamina, and Mind raises SP-ability effectiveness. You raise all of them with Growth Points at the Inn. This page is the deep dive on what each does; for build templates and avatar creation, see the character creation guide.
Based on the demo build. The seven attribute names and their broad roles are confirmed from the official Starter Guide. Exact scaling — how much damage each point buys, and which weapon draws from which damage stat — is not published yet and is flagged below as reasoning rather than confirmed math.
Two groups, one build
The smartest way to read the attribute screen is as a split between offense you can shape and a foundation you can't skip. The four damage stats decide the flavor and force of your attacks; the three support stats decide whether you live long enough and have the resources to use them. A strong build almost always mixes both — pure damage with no Vitality or Endurance folds to the first boss that punishes a mistake, and pure survivability never kills anything. The question isn't "damage or support," it's "which one damage stat and which one or two support stats define this character."
The four damage attributes
Officially, "your stats can increase the amount of damage your weapon skills do, depending on the weapon and skill." That "depending on the weapon" is the key phrase: different weapons almost certainly scale from different damage stats, so your stat choice and weapon choice are one decision, not two. Which weapon maps to which stat isn't fully spelled out yet — treat the pairings below as informed reasoning to verify at launch, not confirmed numbers.
- Strength — raw physical power. The natural home for blunt and heavy weapons: the mace, two-handed axe and two-handed sword feel like Strength scalers, trading finesse for impact. If you want big single hits and Guard Breaks, this is the likely stat.
- Dexterity — precision and finesse. The fit for light, technical weapons like the dagger and rapier, where fast, accurate strikes matter more than brute force. A Dexterity build is about landing many clean hits, not few huge ones.
- Agility — speed and evasion economy. Beyond damage, Agility is quality-of-life in a Stamina-gauge system: faster actions and better evasion mean more effective decisions per fight. It suits hit-and-run playstyles that live or die on repositioning.
- Intelligence — skill-based damage. If SP-hungry Sword Skills scale with Intelligence, it defines a burst archetype built around big, well-timed skill windows rather than sustained normal attacks. Pair it with Mind (below) and you have a skill-centric damage dealer.
The three support attributes
These three are confirmed clearly, and they're the ones that quietly decide whether a build works. Unlike the damage stats, their effects aren't ambiguous:
- Vitality → HP. Your health pool, and your margin for error. Every point is a mistake you can survive. It's the safest stat to over-invest in for a first character, and the backbone of any Death Game Mode build, where a single death ends the run.
- Endurance → Stamina. Your Stamina pool — the budget that pays for attacks, dodges, guards and sprinting. More Endurance means more actions before you hit the reserve, which is especially load-bearing for heavy weapons that spend Stamina in big chunks. A committal two-hander on low Endurance feels starved; the same weapon with Endurance behind it feels sustainable.
- Mind → SP effectiveness. The multiplier on your Sword Skills. On a skill-focused build, Mind makes every skill you land hit for more — and because SP is earned by attacking, that compounds with aggressive play. It's the difference between "I use skills sometimes" and "skills are my damage."
How the stats map to a build
Put the two groups together and clear archetypes fall out. None of these is the "correct" build — they're starting points you can tune:
| Fantasy | Lead damage stat | Support stats | Weapon fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Durable frontliner | Strength | Vitality + Endurance | Sword & shield, mace |
| Fast duelist | Dexterity / Agility | Endurance | Rapier, dagger |
| Skill-burst caster-melee | Intelligence | Mind + Vitality | Any skill-heavy weapon |
| Stagger-focused heavy | Strength | Endurance + Vitality | Two-handed axe |
The unifying principle: pick one damage identity and back it with the support stats it needs. A fast duelist needs Endurance so its constant dodging doesn't run dry; a skill-burst build needs Mind to make its big windows count and Vitality to survive setting them up; a heavy needs both Endurance and Vitality because it commits hard and can't reposition quickly.
Don't spread yourself thin
The biggest first-timer mistake is dabbing points into all seven attributes to "stay flexible." The game frames stats, weapon, equipment and partner as one synergy system, and a little of everything synergizes with nothing — you end up with a character that's mediocre at its damage and still fragile. Commit to a lead damage stat and one or two support stats, and let your weapon and partner choices reinforce that identity. Because your demo progress transfers to the full game, the stat decisions you make now are the start of your real build, not a throwaway — but they're also low-stakes to experiment with while the demo lasts, so try a direction and feel whether it fits before you commit hard at launch.
Raising your stats
You don't allocate attributes freely at any time — you spend Growth Points, earned by leveling up, while resting at the Inn. That ties your stat growth to actually playing: defeat monsters, gain levels, bank Growth Points, then invest them on a visit to town. The full loop — where Growth Points come from, how leveling works, and how to budget your points — is covered in the Growth Points guide. Full respec rules haven't been detailed; the town's "stat enhancement" framing suggests at least forward flexibility, but plan as if your early choices matter, because they probably do.
Respec and flexibility
The question every stat system raises is whether you can undo a choice. Bandai Namco hasn't confirmed full respec rules for Echoes of Aincrad, so until it's clear, the safe assumption is that your points are semi-permanent. The town's "stat enhancement" framing implies at least forward growth and possibly some flexibility, but plan as if early choices stick. That has a concrete upshot for a first character: lean into a clear identity rather than hedging, but don't reflexively spend every Growth Point the instant you earn it. Banking a small reserve lets you answer what a specific wall demands — more Vitality to survive a boss that keeps killing you, more Endurance to stop running out of Stamina mid-fight — without ever needing a respec. It's the middle path between rigidly pre-planning a build you can't adjust and scattering points you can't get back.
Because your demo save carries into the full game, the discipline you practice now is the same one that pays off across the whole campaign: commit to an identity, feed it consistently, and keep just enough in reserve to react. Treat that reserve as your respec — it is the flexibility the system builds in, and it works whether or not a formal reset is ever offered.
FAQ
What are the character stats in Echoes of Aincrad?
Which stat increases HP?
How do damage stats work?
How do you raise your stats?
Where to go next
Turn a stat spread into a full plan in the character creation guide, match it to a weapon in the weapon guide, and learn how to earn and spend your points in the Growth Points guide.
Sources
Gameplay frames captured from the Echoes of Aincrad demo and official Weapon Overview; player-captured footage credited in each caption.