You can expand Healing Crystal Slots in Sword Art Online: Echoes of Aincrad quite early on. As a beginner, Healing Crystals will be your best friend, as they heal you up and get replenished once you enter a safe zone, akin to the healing flasks in a Souls-like game. Although you can expand the slots early on, doing so requires you to unlock and start a side quest, which culminates in a tough boss fight. So, you want to be prepared for that in advance.
Expanding Healing Crystal Slot Early in Sword Art Online: Echoes of Aincrad
By default, you will have 2 Healing Crystal Slots available at the start of the game. To expand this, you need to start a specific quest called ‘Onward To Tolbana’. During this mission, you have to pick up a trinket on the map, which will unlock the Side Quest needed for the Healing Crystal Slot. You are recommended to be at least or around level 15 for this quest.
The item itself is marked with a ‘?’ on your map, as indicated above. The Legend to the right confirms that this is a Side Quest Trinket. Get near the item and hold the Interact button when it appears. Once it is complete, the game will notify you of a new Side Quest available in Horunka. This quest is issued by an NPC priest and is called Depiction of the Divine.
How To Expand Healing Crystal Slots By Completing Depiction of the Divine in Sword Art Online: Echoes of Aincrad
This quest will take you to the Shrewman Queen boss fight. Be careful before starting this fight, as being unprepared can lead to a swift death since this boss does a lot of damage. It might not be a bad idea to get your hands on the Earthly Jacket, as its high defense perk is especially useful in boss fights. There is another reason that you need to be careful during this boss fight, especially if you are playing in Death Game mode.
There seems to be a bug where if you cut off its body part before its health reaches zero, then you get locked into the boss fight permanently. So, take proper measures to not do that. Even after you defeat the boss, and the ‘Quest Complete’ notification shows up, you won’t get the completion reward instantly.
Instead, you must head back to Horunka and talk to the same NPC you got the quest from. This will finally expand your Healing Crystal Slot. If you did this quest early on, you should now have three slots instead of the usual two, which is sure to be a huge boon going forward.
If you run out of Healing Crystals while exploring, then potions are a good alternative. However, these Crystals are free and replenish on their own, making them an unparalleled source of healing.
