Solo Leveling: ARISE Release Date, Characters, & Roster Details

Solo Leveling:ARISE, an RPG based on the popular South Korean manhwa and anime series, finally has a release date ahead of its official launch. With the Solo Leveling anime skyrocketing in popularity last winter, this adaptation has been highly anticipated, with over 12 million players already having signed up in pre-registration. And with the manhwa/anime’s ample references to video game concepts and tropes, it was only a matter of time before a game like this came along.

Suffice it to say Solo Leveling:ARISE has a lot of expectations to live up to. Thankfully, with its release date finally official (and not very far off at all), fans won’t have to wait too long to find out how the video game adapts and transforms Sung Jinwoo’s story. Here’s everything to know about the upcoming Solo Leveling:ARISE.

Solo Leveling:ARISE – Release Date & Platforms

When & Where Solo Leveling:Arise Comes Out

Solo Leveling:ARISE will be released on May 8, 2024, just over a month after pre-registration officially opened up. It’ll be available in all regions on the same day, in a testament to Solo Leveling‘s global popularity.

Solo Leveling:ARISE will be available on all mobile platforms (Android and iOS) and PC, where it can be installed from the player’s preferred app store or via the Netmarble Launcher. There’s no word yet on a release date for other PC platforms, like Steam or the Epic Games Store.

Solo Leveling:ARISE – All Playable Characters

Solo Leveling:ARISE’s Roster

Solo Leveling:ARISE incorporates various characters from the anime, carrying over the class system from the manhwa and anime to describe each character’s relative power level and place in the world. Note that their ranks in the table below don’t necessarily determine how powerful or rare they are in-game; they instead represent their canon placements in the in-world system of hunter rankings.

Solo Leveling:ARISE – Rarity Tiers, Pulls, Banners, & Pity System

How Solo Leveling:ARISE Character Pulls Work

Solo Leveling:ARISE is a gacha game at heart, which means players must spend in-game currency on semi-random “pulls” to obtain new characters and weapons. Each character has a rarity separate from their in-universe hunter rank, although higher rarities are usually tied to higher ranks and vice versa. Rarity generally determines how difficult it is to obtain each particular character, but rarer characters also tend to be of higher hunter ranks. That means they also tend to have better stats and more useful skills.

Solo Leveling:ARISE uses a pretty standard gacha rarity system. There are three rarities: Rare (R), Super Rare (R), and Super Super Rare (SSR), in order from most to least common. On each regular pull, players have a 90% chance of summoning an R character, an 8.8% chance of summoning an SR character, and a 1.2% chance of summoning an SSR character. However, banners – time-limited in-game events – can increase the chance of pulling certain characters. For example, in early access, “The Ultimate Hunter” banner increased the chances of summoning SSR S-tier hunter Choi Jong-in.

During special banners, Solo Leveling:ARISE implements a 50/50 system similar to other gacha games. When players summon an SSR, they have a 50% chance of obtaining the featured character/item – in “The Ultimate Hunter,” that’d be Choi Jong-in. If they don’t receive the featured character on their first pull, they’re guaranteed to receive it the next time they summon an SSR. There’s also a Pity System that increases the likelihood of summoning SSRs the more pulls a player has attempted. Players are guaranteed to summon an SSR by their 80th pull, no matter what.

Solo Leveling:ARISE – Gameplay Details

Solo Leveling:ARISE is an action RPG with gameplay pretty typical of the genre. Players will control both Sung Jinwoo and parties of support characters, each of whom has a unique fighting style. Certain missions center on Jinwoo, while others are all about side characters and supports. After performing several combos, they’ll be able to unleash powerful skills and special attacks, again determined on a per-character basis.

But despite its genre-standard gameplay, Solo Leveling:ARISE has surprising tactical depth. Most of this takes place through the game’s system of character builds. Jinwoo can be freely customized; his stats and job can be changed. Other characters follow more fixed paths, but their stats can still be tweaked by equipping different combinations of items.

Between missions, players can pull for new characters and reconfigure the ones they’ve already summoned. There’s a kind of strategy to the gacha systems as well, all focused on ensuring that players spend their limited pulls wisely. A deeper understanding of event banners, daily sign-in bonuses, and the 50/50 system create a different kind of gameplay in their own right.

Solo Leveling:ARISE – Story Details

Solo Leveling:ARISE Is A Faithful Adaptation

For the most part, the story of Solo Leveling:ARISE sticks pretty closely to that of the manhwa/anime. It’s set in a world in which monsters pose a serious threat to humanity, and are held back only by the courage of powerful hunters. Hunters’ abilities are generally thought to be fixed, and thus they’re assigned to a rigid rank system from the moment they awaken with no hope of upward mobility. One such Hunter, Sung Jinwoo, finds himself stuck at the lowest rank and wholly unfulfilled.

However, after surviving a near-total party wipe, Jinwoo discovers that he alone can level up through the use of a unique video game-style interface that only he can see. With the help of his fellow hunters, Jinwoo seeks to climb the ranks and uncover the secrets of the System that granted him his powers.

This is more or less identical to the story of the manhwa and anime. It could be argued that the video game format makes even more sense for Solo Leveling. However, it’s recommended that players have at least some familiarity with Solo Leveling before attempting to play ARISE. It’s not the best way to experience the story for the first time, as its cutscenes present a truncated version of the story. Still, there’s nothing necessarily wrong with starting on ARISE, then seeking out the source material to fill in the gaps and answer questions about the lore.

And that’s everything to know about Solo Leveling:ARISE for now – the rest will have to wait until after launch. Although its two-tier battle pass and gacha systems may be cause for concern, its action gameplay and story retelling provide a lot of value to returning fans. Solo Leveling:ARISE comes out on PC and mobile platforms on May 8, 2024.