Assist Character

Assist Character is a special type of companion, who can be interacted with, can level up, learn skills and equip avatar changing items. They've been introduced in the game at December 2018. First characters available were Kirito and Asuna.

These characters can help the player in similar manner as Koharu, though there are many differences between their mechanics and in the way the player can take care of them.

First steps with Assist Characters
After opening main menu in the left upper corner of the screen, there can be found a button with Kirito and Asuna visible on it, which leads to Assist Characters submenu. There the player can slide through characters list to see their affinity, EXP and Stamina levels. Each of these character can enter an Assist Party, to help in the field and dungeons. Most importantly, each character can be interacted with, to increase their battle proficiency.

For a newly created character only Asuna, Kirito and Alice are available. Rest of the characters can be unlocked by completing certain main quests.After confirming choosing a character, player is being taken to the tavern in static first person view, where choosen character is waiting in the center. Now some actions can be taken:

Greetings
Player can tap on the character, to view and hear a welcome message. There are only few messages, which are shown in random order. There exist special hidden messages, which can be heard only during some special occasions and/or when an Assist Character is wearing a specific set of items. For example: Asuna wearing a Halloween dress will ask what the player thinks of her outfit.

If the Assist Character is greeted for the first time during current day, he/she will receive 20 Friendship EXP.

Equipping skills and avatar items
Each Assist Character can be equipped with skills in the same way as the player or Koharu. The efficiency of skills depends on Assist Character's Friendship level. On low levels, skills' levels are decreased to 50 - every ten Friendship levels until 30 these can be used on higher levels.

Characters can wear avatar items as well, which don't affect their stats at all, though can unlock some special greetings messages.

Reviewing skills
Assist Characters learn skills only by interacting with them through "Interaction" submenu visible on the tavern screen. Most skills can be upgraded to level 10 with few exceptions, like Lisbeth's "Mark of Defense, which can be only on level 1. None of the other actions taken by the player or Assist Character themselves have any impact on the skills. There are some dependencies between skills - for example, if you aren't able to learn Kirito a "Battle Healing" on higher level, try to increase "Faster!" first.

Click on "Expand" button to see every skill available for the character and what interaction is needed to learn it.

Creating a party
Each character can be picked to create a party with two Assist Characters at most. Each character has 30 points of stamina, which means they can be on the field for 30 minutes. If stamina reaches 0, they cannot be picked to the party.

An Assist Party can be created from the usual "Search for a party" menu as well and up to two characters can be choosen to form a party. If the player didn't increase a Friendship Level to 15 with at least one character, then only one character can be choosen.

Stamina refills by itself when the Assist Characters isn't in the party. Additionally it can be refilled by feeding them with an Energy Fruit.

Gifts
Player can choose a gift for Assist Character, which increases Friendship EXP. Each character has their own taste in such items. Below's a table showing an effectiveness of every such an item:

Interaction
Assist Characters can interact with the players 3 times a day. In this submenu, it is possible to participate in few shorts Visual Novel scenarios, like:


 * Chat - short gossip with the Assist Character. Rewards the character with 22 Friendship EXP and the player with 200 Guild EXP and 100 GP. If the player chooses this option, if the Assist Character is on required Friendship level, one of several unique conversations can be triggered, which increases one of this character's skills.
 * Practice skills - thanks to this action the most skills are being learned by the characters. Usually it rewards the player with 20 Friendship EXP and 1000 EXP, but when character learns a new skill (or upgrades known one), reward will be few times larger.
 * Defeat the Boss - an Assist Character picks a floor boss to fight. The first one will always be Illfang the Kobold Lord, but every next time the boss from higher floors can be choosen. Choice is random and dependant on his/her level. Rewards the character with 16 Friendship EXP and the player with an amount of EXP and Col the same as from the Board Quest featuring choosen Floor Boss.
 * Collect items - after a short scene, where chosen character goes looting with the player, the character receives 16 Friendship EXP, and the player gets 1000 EXP and two random rewards of the listed:
 * 1) Record Kit S,
 * 2) Glare Stone,
 * 3) Refining Hammer+,
 * 4) Red Fruit,
 * 5) Blue Fruit,
 * 6) Release Crystal (S),
 * 7) MOD Remover (it can appear as a third reward in addition to two of the items listed above)
 * Go out together - this action usually involves a bit longer scene, where usually player goes with an Assist Character to the bakery, fishing or looking for supplies. In rare occasions, they go to learn new skills, viewing an unique dialogue. Rewards the character with 25 Friendship EXP and the player with some items, which can be used as Gifts or with EXP.
 * Event-specific actions - during some events like Christmas, player can go with an Assist Character to special map and have a short talk about this special occasion. Rewards the character with 40 Friendship EXP and the player with some EXP and event-specific rewards.

After using up all Interactions, the player can interact with the character again by using Golden Bells by tapping on "Interaction" when there are no more actions left.

Battle Mechanics
Unlike Koharu, whose health can't drop below 100%, Assist Characters can fall in battle. After that, they need to wait 30 seconds to get up. This time can be shortened by the player standing in character's red circle.

Their "mortality" means they can utilize skills like [Axe Master] Leafa, which is dependant on amount of HP left.

Assist Characters can be equipped only with skills usable by their weapon of choice. As their weapons are upgraded automatically, when they level up, they cannot be equipped with another type of weapon, which means that Kirito can use only 1H sword, Asuna can use only 1H rapier etc. To compensate for that, they can be equipped with skills which are currently in use by the player or Koharu.

Similarly to Koharu, Assist Characters use their skills at random and can partake in Switch chain. Unlike her, they try to avoid AOE attacks. They are unable to use Burst skills or Rush Recollection.

Limitations
All Assist Characters can be leveled up to 50 Friendship Level and 100 Experience Level.

Their equipment cannot be changed, which means that they'll be using only one weapon type and they are unable to wear any armor. It is only possible to change their appearance by using avatar equipment.

Only skill records viable to the weapon used by the Assist Character can be used by them. They are unable to enter Rush Recollection mode, use Burst and some skills from Skill Records don't apply to them (like Toukou Buff).

List of Assist Characters
As of July 2020, eight Assist Characters are available in game:


 * Kirito
 * Asuna
 * Sachi
 * Silica
 * Sinon
 * Yuuki
 * Lisbeth
 * Leafa
 * Alice

Special Assist Characters

 * Koharu

Trivia

 * If the player is in a party with Assist Characters with 0 Stamina, they'll keep fighting and receiving EXP as usual, until the party disbands.
 * Items such as Golden Bells and Energy Fruit can be usually received as event rewards.
 * Option "Defeat the Boss" can result in the Assist Character defeating a Floor Boss which the player didn't reach yet, if his/her Exp Level is high enough.
 * As of April 2021, in the Assist Party Select are visible two cloaked silhouettes, hinting a possible appearance of at least two more Assist Characters.Assist charas screen.png