10 Coolest Solo Leveling: ARISE Characters, Ranked

Summary Solo Leveling: ARISE blends flashy abilities with deep gameplay progression, becoming a surprise hit.

The coolest characters in the game are aesthetically pleasing and entertaining to play.

Available characters include an archer with style, a gothic support mage, and a death-obsessed hitman.

Solo Leveling: ARISE is a successful interpretation of Sung Jinwoo's journey from humanity's weakest hunter to one of its most important historical figures. The mobile and PC action-RPG, developed and published by Netmarble, blends the flashy and stylish abilities featured prominently in the manwha and anime with a gacha acquisition system and deep, gameplay-focused modes of progression. The result has been a surprise hit - anime/manwha video game adaptations, especially for mobile, rarely gain this much traction with their audiences early, and there's a positive buzz among the game's community about its future prospects.

That's all well and good, but another element that's vital in the success of a live-service mobile game is much more surface-level - are the characters fun to look at and entertaining to play? The coolest Solo Leveling: ARISE characters tick both boxes, presenting players with a slew of aesthetically-pleasing and powerful options through which they can venture forth into dungeons knowing they look good doing it. Here's our picks for the coolest Solo Leveling: ARISE units, independent of their actual battle strength in-game and focused on a more subjective analysis of their style, presentation, and design.

Because Sung Jinwoo is so prevalent in both the game and its source material, we're shining a spotlight on ten other characters - rest assured, he's still the coolest cast member in all of Solo Leveling: ARISE.

Related Solo Leveling:ARISE Interview: Staying True To The Source While Innovating In the midst of a successful pre-registration period, we interview Solo Leveling:ARISE team members to discuss the game and its source material.

10 Lee Bora

A Gothic Maid Support Mage With Aesthetic To Spare

Lee Bora's outfit is one of the most noteworthy in the game. With plenty of characters rocking streetwear that wouldn't look out of place in a fashion district, Lee Bora has instead opted for the much more obscure Gothic maid outfit to help distinguish herself from the other members of the cast. She's also an interesting character in her own right, as something of a realist who is grappling with the fact that the world suddenly contains monsters and magic, the latter of which she can wield herself.

Lee Bora is also a fun character to play with - and immensely powerful. She's one of the best off-field DPS supports, and she uses summoning magic as her specialty, which includes a flashy Phantom Fox charm that summons 3 foxes to damage enemies. As a dark mage, her brooding tones also match the gloom of many of Solo Leveling: ARISE's dungeons, making her a complement to Sung Jinwoo and others as they tackle the challenges they face.

9 Lim Tae-Gyu

An Extremely Potent Archer With A Penchant For Style

Lim Tae-Gyu is an S-rank Korean hunter who specializes in ranged combat, and is the nation's strongest ranger-type. He's also the Guild Master of the Fiend Guild, but despite all of his accolades, he's got a bit of a laid back personality and more than enough self-doubt to make him second-guess his abilities. He's a complicated character with some skeletons in his closet, especially related to his guild and its former members, including Baek Yoon-Ho.

His cowboy-esque aesthetic separates him from the pack in Solo Leveling: ARISE, and he's got a unique playstyle that makes him a treat to use. Lim's ultimate has incredible damage-scaling potential and is one of the strongest in the game, but requires him to stand still while using it - as does one of his basic skills. Using those are crucial in unlocking his kit and making the most of his abilities, but it also requires careful analysis of a battlefield, making him a fun option for tacticians especially.

Related Solo Leveling: ARISE - How To Reroll The complicated interfaces of Solo Leveling: ARISE can make it difficult to see how to reroll for new characters, or whether you need to at all.

8 Kang Taeshik

A B-Ranked, Death-Obsessed Hitman

Kang Taeshik is the cocky, disturbed B-bank hunter who is obsessed with death - and, problematically, more so the deaths of other hunters and humans than monsters. He's one of the most memorable inclusions in the first season of the Solo Leveling anime adaptation, and his professional appearance combined with his bloodlust make him an appealing character design within Solo Leveling: ARISE, also. As a hitman who is masquerading as a respectable member of the Korean Hunters Association, there's more to Kang than meets the eye.

While he's pretty straightforward to play as in Solo Leveling: ARISE, he's actually an adept damage dealer, rivaling rarer units in his damage output thanks to his stacks of Bleed effect. That, coupled with the fact that he's a more common unit and thus more likely to get powered up by acquiring duplicates, makes him well worth an investment in the game. His flashy ultimate and killer vibes make him one of the cooler options at his rarity level, too, which should be appealing to free-to-plays especially.

7 Baek Yoonho

A Transformation Specialist & Guild Master of the White Tiger Guild

Baek Yoonho is an S-rank hunter who is the Guild Master of the White Tiger Guild, an association that formed after he and others split from the Fiend Guild in the past. He's a master of transformation magic and one of the most powerful people in Korea, though he's actually considered to be weaker than other S-ranks when compared directly to them - something he's aware of as a leader who is concerned with the survival of his followers and the betterment of humanity.

Baek Yoonho is also a silver-maned tiger monster, which he can transform into at will. These two forms are actually two separate characters in Solo Leveling: ARISE, but we're grouping them together here because it's the same person, and both of them are dynamic options that rank highly for team composition strength and individual carry potential. Baek Yoonho is so good he's an S-tier unit twice, and he's fun to play as in either form, though we'll give the edge to his Silver Mane form thanks to its unique character model and playstyle.

Related Solo Leveling: ARISE Review: Worth Your Time, Maybe Not Your Money Solo Leveling: ARISE is a wonderful action RPG title with a lot to offer, though it's mildly hampered by its gacha nature and aggressive shop layouts.

6 Nam Chae-Young

An Obscure Choice Turned Into SR Excellence

Nam Chae-Young is almost a Solo Leveling: ARISE exclusive character. Those with a keen eye will realize she actually does appear in the manwha and anime adaptation, however, the former in Chapter 17 during the attack on the golem following Sung Jinwoo's battle with the Blue Venom-Fanged Kasaka. Nam appears in the outfit she wears in-game and chastises Lee Joohee for being unable to heal properly during their battle becuase of the latter's trauma from the Double Dungeon incident.

If that isn't cool enough - Netmarble fleshing out these obscure character choices bodes super well for the kind of depth fans love in these adaptations - Nam is also an incredible unit in her own right. She's good at breaking an enemy's guard and her freeze abilities make her an excellent choice for boss battles, allowing teams to get shots in without risk of counterattacking for a while. She's one of many characters who really gets a chance to shine thanks to the intricacies of Solo Leveling: ARISE.

5 Park Heejin

A Red Gate Incident Survivor & B-Rank Hunter

Park Heejin is a Korean B-rank hunter and another member of the White Tiger Guild. She is most notable in the source material as one of the few survivors of the Red Gate Incident, and a loyal member of her guild, attempting to convince Sung Jinwoo to join when her guildmaster made it known that's what he wanted. She is also smart and able to assess situations quickly, understanding that Sung Jinwoo is her best ticket out of a bad situation while other more experienced hunters fall victim to impulse decision-making in a tough moment.

In Solo Leveling: ARISE, Park Heejin is a great unit to use. She's a massively useful support with all kinds of utility, including debuff cleanse and ultimate damage buffs. As an SR unit she's easy to obtain, and getting duplicates of her unlocks some other obscenely powerful options - at A3, she increases party Power Gauge, and at A5, she begins each fight with her ultimate ready to go. Her gorgeous aesthetic design and unique play make her one of the coolest Solo Leveling: ARISE options at launch.

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4 Emma Laurent

A Solo Leveling: ARISE Original Character

Emma Laurent is an original character designed specifically for Solo Leveling: ARISE, which already makes her an auto-include on this list - it's rare that IPs have characters added to them in their adaptations so successfully at launch, but Emma is a great bonus. She was revealed as part of the pre-release campaign and integrated into the game at launch, with only a little back story to go on - she's in the Justitia Guild, a French organization, and an A-rank hunter who can use flame attacks.

Her memorable outfit aside, she's also a menace on the battlefield. She has a great AOE attack and her skills all have break, which means she's flexible for what she can be used for. She can apply burn to enemies and increase Fire Damage and Defense Penetration for the team as a support, which means she really slots into almost any composition a player can think of. That kind of versatility is a boon when playing a game like Solo Leveling: ARISE, and the fact she looks stylish while doing it is all the more reason she rates so highly for cool character options in the Netmarble adaptation.

3 Choi Jong-In

An Explosive Mage Somehow Pulling Off A Cape In 2024

Choi Jong-In is a Korean S-rank hunter and the Guild Master of the Hunters Guild. His know-it-all appearance and aura combined with his fire magic make him a standout character, and is the strongest mage-type hunter in his nation. Scarred by past trauma from Jeju Island, he's also seeking answers to the growing threat of dungeons and monsters, putting him at the center of some of the game's story mode progression and keeping him relevant.

On the battlefield, Choi Join-In is a top-tier DPS capable of mowing down enemies with ease. His burn application makes his damage over time aggressively powerful, while his Ultimate resets his skill, allowing him to chain together big damage numbers at the right time. He's fun to play, too - as a mage, he can affect combat at a distance, and his ultimate cutscene is one of the coolest in all of Solo Leveling: ARISE.

Related Solo Leveling: ARISE - Do You Need To Read Or Watch Solo Leveling Before Playing? Based on Solo Leveling, do you need knowledge of the comics or anime before you start playing Solo Leveling: ARISE, or can you jump in blind?

2 Hwang Dongsoo

The Scavenger Guild's S-Rank Hunter

Hwang Dongsoo is a Korean S-rank hunter and a selfish thug, but that separates him from a lot of the other characters available in Solo Leveling: ARISE, who tend to skew towards more noble behavior. While that doesn't necessarily make Hwang cool - in fact, we'd argue he's the opposite for that reason - it does make him unique, and his appearance is also notable when compared to many other units who don armor and more traditional garb while fighting.

Hwang also features a mechanic in Solo Leveling: ARISE that feels like it will eventually be more relevant than it is now, so he's intriguing as a potential investment into the future. He's able to remove armor, and while that isn't needed for any difficult content yet, the second it is, he'll become way more valuable. Because of that unique mechanic - and his balance of offense and defense - he's one to watch as things progress in the live service game and could become more of a major player soon.

1 Cha Hae-In

The Only Rival To Sung Jinwoo In Coolness In Solo Leveling: ARISE

There was never any doubt who would top the list of the coolest characters in Solo Leveling: ARISE. Cha Hae-In is a Korean S-rank Hunter and the Vice-Guild Master of the Hunters Guild, but more than that, she's one of the most powerful hunters on the planet and the eventual romantic interest of Sung Jinwoo. She's a bit socially awkward but one of the hardest working characters in Solo Leveling, and her distinctive battle attire and presentation are standouts in design.

She is, understandably, also one of the strongest units in all of Solo Leveling: ARISE. Her damage output is easily one of the highest available, and she's incredibly satisfying to play as thanks to her crit-stacking, which results in huge chunks of health evaporating in enemies as soon as she's online. She also has some of the coolest battle animations in Solo Leveling: ARISE, which means she's both a mechanical and visual powerhouse that instantly makes content clearing both easier and better for anyone luckier enough to have her on their squad.