Sword of the Sea How Long to Beat: Story & 100% Time

How Long Does It Take to Beat Sword of the Sea?

If you’re looking up Sword of the Sea how long to beat times, budget about 2½–3 hours for the main story. Exploring optional areas brings that closer to four hours, while full completion takes roughly 9½ hours. You can fit the campaign into an evening, but collecting everything and finishing the trophy challenges takes considerably longer.

Playthrough goal	Estimated time
Main story	2½ hours
Main story plus optional content	4 hours
Completionist	9½ hours

The main-story average is 2h 47m, across 256 submitted playthroughs. Story-plus-extras runs average 3h 56m, while completionist runs average 9h 26m.

Treat those categories as different goals. Reaching the credits doesn’t require completing every collectible hunt, trick challenge, or replay achievement. Likewise, spending four hours exploring doesn’t mean you’ll have everything needed for 100%.

Official page: Sword of the Sea (swordoftheseagame.com)

Why Exploration Can Extend Your First Run

Sword of the Sea’s Hoversword makes getting around part of the appeal. Ramps, wall rides, halfpipes, and rolling dunes give you room to practice tricks or investigate an awkward-looking rooftop instead of heading straight toward the next objective.

Image: PlayStation Store

A leisurely first run can stretch to 6 hours when you spend time exploring and enjoying the movement. That’s a reasonable pace for someone searching without a collectible walkthrough, rather than a separate campaign-length requirement.

Several optional activities add time:

• Secret shells: There are 50 in total, including one earned through the mysterious vendor.
• Stele messages: Reading all 23 contributes to trophy completion.
• Trick attack areas: Four arenas have their own high-score challenges.
• Optional water points: Restoring more water opens up additional exploration and collectible opportunities.
• Vendor rewards: Receiving all five requires a total of 8550 Tetra.

Collect visible Tetra, open treasure chests, and activate fish tiles while exploring. Those rewards contribute toward the vendor purchases, reducing the amount you’ll need to gather during cleanup.

Don’t restart your adventure over a missed collectible. Chapter Select unlocks after finishing the story, and collectible progress carries into chapter replays and New Game+.

How Long Does 100% Completion Take?

Budget roughly 9½ hours total if you want the full completionist experience. The extra time includes collectible cleanup, another campaign run, score objectives, and a damage-free final boss fight.

Image: Nintendo

The Untouchable trophy is a particular variable: it requires defeating the final boss without taking a hit. Each failed attempt adds another replay of the last chapter, so this challenge can push your total beyond the average.

Use this order to keep the requirements manageable:

1. Finish the story and gather collectibles. Explore thoroughly, collect Tetra, and purchase vendor rewards along the way.
2. Clean up through Chapter Select. Return for missed shells, stele messages, water points, and other outstanding objectives.
3. Attempt Untouchable separately. Replay Chapter 8, Sky Abyss, after learning the complete fight. Let the credits finish after a successful attempt; the trophy unlocks afterward.
4. Complete a New Game+ speedrun. Combine the second campaign clear with the under-two-hour challenge and score objectives.

New Game+ retains your unlocked abilities, making a faster route possible. Completing it also satisfies New Game Plus Completed, provided you finish the adventure and view the credits.

Avoid using Chapter Select during that New Game+ run: it resets playthrough progress.

Can You Finish in Under Two Hours?

Yes. Speed Surfer requires completing the adventure in under two hours, and a practiced run can take around 1–1½ hours. That’s a replay target once you know the route, rather than the time to budget for an unfamiliar first playthrough.

Finishing under two hours also awards a 2x completion-score bonus. For Great Score, which requires 1,000,000 points, that means reaching 500,000 during gameplay can satisfy the target after the bonus. Use jellyfish sequences to extend trick combos when you need more points.

Updates That Make Trophy Cleanup Faster

Older launch-era advice includes delays and tracking limitations that later Steam updates changed. These updates matter when planning repeat attempts and collectible cleanup:

Image: Steam / Giant Squid

Update	Change relevant to completion
September 19, 2025	Added a collectible tracker to Chapter Select and to the pause screen in New Game+.
September 19, 2025	Made the final chapter’s intro cutscene skip automatically when using Restart Chapter or entering through Chapter Select.
September 23, 2025	Fixed a trophy/achievement award issue when starting the final level through Chapter Select.

On the updated Steam version, use the chapter tracker to target unfinished areas. For damage-free boss attempts, restart the final chapter without budgeting for the launch version’s repeated intro cutscene. Keep the successful attempt running through the credits so the trophy can unlock.