The various vampire hunters of Castlevania have always been armed to the teeth with a full arsenal of weaponry to confront Dracula and the forces of darkness. From the Belmont clan's legendary Vampire Killer whip to a whole line of holy sub-weapons to vanquish the evil sweeping across Transylvania, the heroes of Castlevania certainly aren't charging into battle unprepared. However, 1997's Symphony of the Night for the original PlayStation featured a matching set of armor and weapons that were specifically designed to trick the players into equipping them with minimal payoff all centered around a slight misspelling: the Alucart armor.

Symphony of the Night begins with Alucard, Dracula's dhampir son introduced in 1989's Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse for the NES, awakening in the late 18th century from his undead slumber. With Richter Belmont having mysteriously disappeared five years after the events of 1993's Rondo of Blood for the TurboGrafx-16, Alucard investigated Dracula's castle to learn what his evil father was up to after being defeated five years prior and stop his latest bid for conquest.

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Shortly after Alucard entered the castle, he was confronted by Dracula's trusted lieutenant Death, who punished Alucard for rising against his father by seizing Alucard's armor and weapons from him. This left Alucard unarmed and in a weakened state at the start of the game.

As Alucard explores Dracula's castle and acquires new items, weapons and armor to replace what Death stole, he locates the Alucart Mail and Alucart Shield in the Marble Gallery and the Alucart Sword in the castle's central Clocktower after acquiring the Leap Stone. While all three greatly resemble the family armor and sword Alucard came armed with originally, these possess some truly terrible stats, with only a +2 on attack and defense for the sword and mail and no defense bonuses with the shield. Equipping all three items together does not increase their usual stats, but it does boost Alucard's luck by +30 to improve chances of landing critical attacks and receiving better item drops.

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The potential origin of the Alucart Mail would be revealed in 2005's Curse of Darkness for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, with the game's story taking place over 300 year before Symphony of the Night. As one of Dracula's former Devil Forgemasters, protagonist Hector is able to forge new weapons and items to use over the course of his adventure and can be forged by combining Midas Gold with a half-plate. The Alucart Mail in Curse of Darkness is even worse than its appearance in Symphony of the Night, offering +1 defense and, with the other pieces of the Alucart set absent, no luck bonus available.

Alucard would eventually locate his old armor and sword while exploring Dracula's castle, with even more powerful armor and weaponry located later in Symphony of the Night before Alucard takes his revenge on Death. In the meantime, the Alucart armor set is something of a wink from the developers to players that thought Alucard would be quickly restored to full power. Alucard's first foray into the Marble Gallery takes place quite early on as the dhampir explores the full breadth of his father's castle and discovers the treasures hidden inside.

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