Solo Leveling: ARISE Cheats and Tips

Solo Leveling: ARISE is Netmarble's action RPG based on the hit Solo Leveling webtoon, you play as Sung Jinwoo as he climbs from the world's weakest hunter to the Monarch of Shadows.

It's easy enough to pick up, but the game throws a lot of systems at you early and explains few of them well. Once the gates start fighting back, knowing how Break, elements, and your Shadow Army actually work makes all the difference.

Check out our tips below which are aimed at players just getting started with this game.

Follow the main story first

Your character level caps how high your hunters can level, so the fastest way to grow is to push the main Story chapters. They hand out EXP, Essence Stones, and Custom Draw Tickets, and clearing them unlocks systems like Challenges, Crafting, and Fusion.

Don't skip the Side Chapters either. They're quicker to clear and the rewards are comparable to the main path. Keep an eye on the Battle Missions that pop up during each stage too, since clearing them adds extra rewards on top.

Learn to dodge — Extreme Evasion is your lifeline

The dodge button gives you a short burst of invincibility frames. Time it so you dodge the instant an attack would land and you trigger a Perfect Dodge (Extreme Evasion), which briefly slows time and opens a window to counter.

Leaning on this is far more reliable than tanking hits, especially against bosses. The slowed window is also your cue to fire off a QTE skill or your hardest-hitting combo.

Break the gauge for huge damage

Tougher enemies have a yellow Break gauge under their HP bar. Chip it down with Break-capable skills and the enemy is stunned, taking sharply increased damage while it's broken.

Break comes in Light, Medium, and Heavy intensities, with heavier hits draining the gauge faster. Skills like Multistrike, Crushing Blow, and Death's Door are Jinwoo's go-to Break tools, with Death's Door applying Heavy Break. Save your Ultimate skills and biggest combos for the stun window rather than spending them early.

Play to elemental weaknesses

Every hunter, weapon, and monster has an element, and matchups matter. Hitting an enemy with the element it's weak to noticeably raises your damage, so check the enemy's element before you build your team for a fight.

It's worth keeping a few hunters of different elements levelled rather than pouring everything into one, so you're not stuck against a boss that resists your only option.

Build your Shadow Army

Extracting shadows from defeated monsters lets you recruit them as Shadow Soldiers that fight alongside you. The leading frontline Shadow passes its Authority — a buff or stat boost — on to your hunters, so the one you put up front isn't just for show.

Pick your frontline Shadow to suit the fight rather than always using the same one, and summon the army at the moments where the extra bodies and the Authority bonus help most.

Time your hunter skills

Your three support hunters are AI-controlled, but you choose when to fire their skills. When you're playing as Jinwoo, his squad-support skills run on long cooldowns, so treat them as emergency buttons rather than spamming them.

In fights where you're controlling the hunters directly, their cooldowns are much shorter, so you can use their abilities far more freely. Coordinating hunter skills with Jinwoo's attacks is also a quick way to drain Break gauges.

Change your job to grow stronger

As you level up you can change Jinwoo's job, which teaches him new skills and hands you extra skill points. The path runs from Assassin all the way up to the Monarch of Shadows.

Unlocking the later jobs means clearing a challenge, and the tougher ones expect a decent level before you attempt them, so keep your level moving and take them on when you're ready.

Match your artifact sets

Artifacts come in sets with bonuses for equipping two or four matching pieces, so it's usually better to commit to a set than to mix random high-stat pieces. Some sets reward a specific playstyle — the Solid Analysis set, for example, boosts the damage you deal to enemies under the Break effect.

Build toward whatever your hunter actually does. A Break-focused hunter wants Break-boosting artifacts; a pure damage dealer wants raw damage and Power Gauge sets.

Spend your Essence Stones with a plan

Essence Stones are your main summoning currency. You can spend them on Gate and Encore Mission Keys, but their best use is summoning, with 250 Stones buying a single draw ticket.

There are two draw types: Custom Draws, which aren't time-limited and let you set a Rate Up List of the hunters and weapons you want boosted, and Rate-Up Draws, which feature specific limited hunters. Custom Draw Tickets are fairly easy to earn around the game, while Rate-Up Draw Tickets are rarer, so it's often smart to spend Stones on the rarer rate-up tickets and save the common ones for custom pulls.

Recycle the gear you don't need

You'll pile up duplicate weapons and low-rarity artifacts fast. Don't let them sit in your bag — recycle spare weapons for upgrade materials and blueprints, and sell leftover artifacts for Gold.

Gold is the core upgrade currency and it's not the easiest thing to farm, so clearing out clutter you'll never equip is a steady way to keep it topped up.

Grab the free rewards

Netmarble drops redeem codes regularly, and they're worth claiming for free Essence Stones, tickets, Gold, and upgrade materials. You enter them in Settings, under Account Settings, via the Redeem Code option, then collect the rewards from your in-game mail.

Daily check-ins, the Hunter Pass (which has a free track), and the Achievements list are all reliable sources of Custom Draw Tickets and resources, so make a habit of remembering to check for your free rewards.

Summary

Push through the Story to grow, lean on Extreme Evasion and the Break window to win the hard fights, and play to elemental weaknesses while your Shadow Army backs you up. Spend Essence Stones with a plan and keep claiming codes and dailies, and your hunter roster will climb steadily toward the top.