Sword Familiar



The Sword Familiar (剣魔（インテリジェンスソード)) is a sword which has free will and generally attacks on its own without being wielded in its owner's hands. This is essentially an Evil Sword that helps the hero instead of trying to kill him.

Sword Familiars in Castlevania
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night introduced the Sword Familiar. In addition to randomly slicing enemies on the screen, it had a personality: could talk, could level up and gain new abilities, including the ability to be used as a regular sword. Soma Cruz can summon a similar familiar called the Alastor Familiar in Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow by obtaining and using Alastor's soul.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
The Sword Familiar is available once Alucard finds the Sword Card in Olrox's Quarters. This card can be accessed once he can turn into a bat and is located in the room right below the one where the Olrox battle took place. However, it is not accessible from the Olrox battle room, Alucard will have to access it from a hallway that runs a bit below that room, then break the ceiling near where the Holy Water is.

The Sword Familiar becomes the active familiar when the player activates the Sword Card in the Relics menu. When it is first activated, it says: "Have you power enough to wield me?", it will then hover around and every now and then head toward an enemy and twirl, exclaiming "Slice!" or "I won't let you get in the way!". As the sword levels up, it will become more powerful and aggressive. Once reaching level 50 the Sword Familiar will disappear from the screen and can now be equipped as a weapon (explained below) or reactivated in the Relics menu to continue working as a familiar. At level 50 it also changes in appearance by gaining two smaller blades on both sides of the main blade extending from the hilt. Once reaching level 70 the sword changes in appearance one last time with the blade changing to a deep blue color that glows blue to blue-green and with the tip of the blade becoming pointed instead of rounded off. It also changes its method of attack, instead of its original attacking method of attempting to fly near enemies, which is usually very inaccurate, and slicing in a circle, it will now quickly fly directly at an enemy, or group of enemies, damaging them and then flying into the background, then damaging the same enemies or different enemies it targets as it quickly flies back into the foreground.

The Sword Familiar is the only familiar which can use a spell. The Sword Brothers spell is accomplished by pressing down, then rolling the directional pad 180° forward and holding up for two seconds, and then pressing down and attack at the same time. It will perform a move that damages all enemies on the screen. This will consume a hefty 30 MP, the second highest consuming spell after Soul Steal.

Once the Sword Familiar has leveled up to beyond 50, it proclaims: "You have grown mighty, my master. I grant you my power. It's my pleasure.", it can then be equipped as a normal sword. When equipped, its attack strength is equal to its level. The Sword Familiar won't level up when equipped, though. It will be the strongest sword in Alucard's arsenal once it can be equipped, unless the player has played more hours than the level of this sword, in which case the Badelaire will be stronger. Even at its weakest equipable point, it's already stronger than the Alucard Sword, the strongest constant-strength sword. It has no special attacks while equipped, though, and the player cannot perform the Sword Brothers spell.

There is a famous Sword Brothers glitch which can allow the player to go to areas of the castle they normally cannot and increase their percentage game complete to levels higher than intended. There is another glitch allowing the player to increase their money to $999,999. This can be accomplished by having any gems (the higher priced the better) and being able to cast Sword Brothers. Proceed to the Master Librarian's room and cast Sword Brothers, then quickly (while Sword Brothers is casting) talk to the Master Librarian. Having cast Sword Brothers and speaking to the Master Librarian will allow the player to open their menu while in the Master Librarian's store menu, so go to "Sell Gem". While on the Sell Gem screen, go to Alucard's menu and go to "Equip". Equip a gem, then exit Alucard's menu and you will still be at the Sell Gem screen. Sell all of whatever gem you equipped and exit the Master Librarian's store completely and go back to Alucard's Equip screen and scroll to the gem you have equipped and you will see you now have 255 of it! This can be done with every gem you have while on the Master Librarian's Sell Gem screen. You just have to go to Alucard's Equip menu and equip two different gems at a time and sell them while still on the Sell Gem screen then go back to Alucard's Equip menu and repeat with the other few different gems. After obtaining 255 of whatever gems you want, go sell them for lots of cash! When selling 255 (or just 254 so you still have one to duplicate again) once you up the amount to sell to the Master Librarian past 99 it will read E1, E2, E3, and so on since you're not meant to possess more than 99 of any item, but will still count as 100, 101, 102, etc.

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
The Alastor Familiar is essentially a watered-down version of the Sword Familiar found in Symphony of the Night. It does not talk, does not level up, cannot gain abilities, does not have a special on-call attack move, and cannot be equipped. Despite this, it's still a fairly useful guardian soul, randomly attacking enemies every once in a while. The only other familiar in this game in is the Imp Familiar, which can be obtained much earlier in the game, but is not nearly as good. The Alastor Familiar causes about four times more damage, consumes the same amount of MP, attacks more often, and has a greater attack range.

It can only be found near the very end of the game, in the Chaotic Realm. The first one is found a little bit before Soma reaches the second Save Room. If the player has collected all souls, the Chaos Ring can be found in a room adjacent to this one as well.

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
The Alastor Familiar in this game is very similar to the one found in Aria of Sorrow. It can be commanded to attack a particular enemy by pointing to that enemy with the stylus in this game, though. It also gains one level for every three Alastor souls Soma obtains, up to three. It becomes stronger each time it levels up.

There are a lot more familiars to choose from in this game compared to the previous one (Bat Familiar, Corpseweed Familiar, Mini Devil Familiar, Quetzalcoatl Familiar, Great Armor Familiar, Needle Familiar, Harpy Familiar and Gaibon Familiar).

Like in Aria of Sorrow, the Alastor soul can only be found late in the game, in the Pinnacle and the Abyss.

While Soma cannot equip this sword in his hand as in Symphony of the Night, he can use the soul that gives him this familiar to evolve a Final Sword into the most powerful and evolved great sword in the game, the Claimh Solais.

Castlevania: Judgment
In Judgment, Summon Sword Familiar is Alucard's guard-breaking attack.