Solo Leveling: Arise for 1 Month

 I'm at character level 47 and Reputation level 18.  It's been about one month.  To me, that's tremendous growth that I didn't see with Honkai: Star Rail until about six months.

How did I do it?

I played Gates often and mostly, Normal Gates.  I avoid Gold Gates. I have concentrated on three hunters, then later, on six.  I concentrated on a limited number of weapons, usually SR-rank or SSR-rank, but occasionally on R-rank weapons.  I tried to find level 25 artifacts but accepted level 20 artifacts in sets of four.

I've played all of the Gate keys that are given and then, in the morning, buy another 3 or 4 sets and play more.  Is this too much?  I don't know.

I'm still at the end of Chapter 11.  My Battle Tier is 9, with a total power of 99,762 with Woo Jinchul, Silver Mane Baek Yoonho, and Choi Jong-In.  I have some secondary characters, including the original three: Yoo Jinho, Lee Joohee, Song Chiyul, and somewhat later came Anna Ruiz.  My Army of Shadows level is 7/10 and total power is 16,501.  Mining level is 12.

I don't feel that I'm great but good enough.

It feels as though I'm going to have to be more aggressive soon.  I have spent some money but that was already after I was making progress.    The Custom Draw tickets must have helped some, although I had one SSR-rank character before spending money.  Somewhat like the Wish in Genshin Impact or Warp in Honkai: Star Rail, if you don't have 10 tickets, you can add to them by tapping on the 10 Draws button.

Hopefully, they'll fix more bugs and make things feel a part of the total, instead of several scenarios and characters brought from one scenario to the other.  However, it worked for a while with Honkai: Star Rail.

I look forward to more interesting ways to battle and grow.

Update 2024.06.13: I'm at Reputation level 19, character level 48.  I changed the Difficulty level to 11.  I got level 40 artifacts for the first time.  I should be able to raise the Difficulty Level to 17, but I'm not sure how well I will do.  I'm still working on getting Sung Jinwoo's weapons to level 60.  I've tried a few combinations of weapons to get myself through the end of Chapter 11, but it hasn't worked yet.  His artifacts are up to level 17, but obviously that isn't enough.  I got a necklace to go with the bracelet and even though they're not the same kind, they both help his statistics.  Oh, my Battle Tier is level 9 at just over 100,000.  Since I'm past the halfway mark for characters, they should be sufficiently powerful, but I'm not so certain.

I tried running the battles on automatic to see what would happen.  I noticed that up until the boss character, they took less damage than when I was in control.  I could still switch between characters and initiate skills, which helped.  Knowing what the game expects to happen for less damage will help when running the battle manually.

 

Update 2024.06.15: I'm at Reputation level 20, character level 49.  I'm getting the weapons to more powerful levels, thankfully.  The main character is okay and the Hunters are okay, as well, with a few SSR-ranked weapons.  Still struggling to complete chapter 11.  Baruka kills me regularly.  I think I'm doing better and then, I'm suddenly finished and not in a good way.  I'll get it but when?

 

Update 2024.06.16: I'm at character level 50.  Extra goodies are available.  Battle Tier 10 is available now, as well.  I watched some of the Solo Leveling anime last night.  More things make sense now.  The Knight Killer is on its way to level 80.  As it is an SR-ranked weapon, it's still weaker than the SSR weapons at level 60.

Update 2024.06.17: I completed chapter 11, barely completed, I should say.  The Knight Killer is at level 72 out of 80 now, and it's still not as powerful as the SSR weapons at level 60.  I switched it out with an SSR-ranked weapon and finished chapter 11.  The dark-oriented weapons together weren't working and I ended up using a wind-oriented weapon that provided some HP benefits.

In Bonds, the Hunters are showing some rewards for moving them to level 50.  I've been seeing more of the necklaces and bracelets since moving up in difficulty.  Those artifacts are helpful.  I would imagine that I'm going to have to go much nearer to difficulty 17 to get the other two artifacts in the sets.

The keys for the Gates seem to be used more quickly or perhaps, I'm just trying to achieve more and more quickly, as things seem to be moving more slowly with the increase in difficulty.

Update 2024.06.18: I'm up to character level 51, Reputation level 21, and Battle Tier 11.  I'm starting to see artifacts of level 50.  The Knight Killer weapon is at level 78 and still isn't as powerful as an SSR weapon at level 60.

With the game update, Hunter Archive is working again.  I've got five mining teams and mining is now at level 13.  Armory has opened up more slots, but the cost is too high.  I still don't have a clear reason for the Armory or why Sung Jinwoo's weapons should be displayed like that.

Update 2024.06.20: Reputation level is up and so is mining level.  I have also increased difficulty to 13.  Level 50 artifacts have started to appear.

Update 2024.06.24: Mining level is up to 15.  Character level is 52 and Reputation level is 22.  I've upgraded weapons so much, my gold is low.  I'll have to wait a bit.  Other resources have been severely depleted, as well.

I tried to redeem the June codes, but none would work.  The article was new but apparently, they didn't see the codes until it was too late.  The money I spent went away when the new version of the game arrived.  I'm not exactly surprised but it did seem a bit short, considering that it was only a couple of weeks into the first month of the game when I paid.  If I buy again, I'll make sure it's on the first of the month.

My keyboard problem is gone.

Update 2024.06.25: 50 days of logins?  Is it going quickly?  I'm at Character level53 and Reputation level 23.  Progress is slow but steady.  Got the 50 days custom draw tickets and ended up with Meilin Fisher.  I've got plenty of artifacts but there aren't enough good weapons.  Genshin Impact was similar for me with the weapons and Honkai: Star Rail was similar with the Light Cones.

 

I just finished Chapter 12.  Now, earrings and rings are available to add, in addition to necklaces and bracelets.  This all sounds so much like Seven Knights II. I got the right runes and crafted the materials to level up the Ultimate skill Mutilate and more.

 

Well, I just finished Chapter 13, as well.  The Character level is up to 54.  Wasn't having much luck with the Avaricious Vulcan until I switched to Thetis' Grimoire, which is now at level 68.

I couldn't sleep and I'm almost finished with Chapter 14.  The final episode requires almost 150,000 in power, and that means that I'm about 25,000 short at the moment.

 

Update 2024.06.27: My Mining levels and Reputation levels are both up.  The 50th day Celebration bits are helping with getting the SSR-ranked weapons' levels increased.  I made sure to limit break two of the Hunter's SSR-ranked weapons.  In order to finish Chapter 14, I'm going to need something awesome to get to that power level.

Does anyone know what this secondary Hunter's Pass is supposed to do, other than confuse?

Update 2024.06.28: My character level is up to 55 and Mining level is up to 16.  Trying to enhance artifacts past level 14 is depleting my credits.  I went from over 1 million to just over 1 thousand.  However, my power was around 126,000+ and now, it's about 10,000 more.  I'll probably run out of credits and enhancement materials before I get to 149,000.

 

Update 2024.06.30: Mining level is up to 18.  Artifacts on main character and three most powerful hunters are at 16 for armor and 17 for bracelet, etc.  I'd like to go much higher, but I need resources to do that.  Battle Tier is up again, since I'm over 144,000 total power.

 

Update 2024.07.01: I'm up to character level 56, along with increasing the power on a couple of SSR-ranked weapons.  I've finished Chapter 14.  Power of Destruction is a battle mode that just opened for me.

Update 2024.07.02: Mining level is up to 19.  Credits are down but the total power is around 156,000 since I got a beast ring and have a four-piece beast set for Woo Jinchul.  Started Chapter 15 last night and failed by a few seconds.  Chapter 14 side story is not working out just yet, either but I'm partway through it.

 

Update 2024.07.03: Character level is 57.  I got Seo Jiwoo's weapon, along with Meilin Fisher's weapon.  I'm working on getting those up to helpful levels but I'm out of credits so often.  Every time I take a Hunter up a level, a pay for that.  Obviously, raising the level of weapons and artifacts will cost credits.

 

The total power is 161,509, which is good, but I still can't seem to finish the opening episode in Chapter 15, which requires 150,000.  Getting weapons up to level 80 is taking time and I've got two Hunter weapons and one main character weapon to get to that level.

Update 2024.07.04: Mining level is 20 and Reputation level is 26.  Power is slightly better with the main character's weapons at level 80 and level 79.  Tried to bring artifacts up but ran out of resources.  Difficulty has been at 16 for a couple of days and it's difficult to finish Red gates that are ranked S.

Update 2024.07.09: Character level is 60 and Reputation level is 27.  The power level with the main character and top three Hunters is just over 171,000, which is still Battle Tier 14.  Going higher requires enhancing Artifacts.

I've been going through the Chapters is Hard mode and that's given me Essence Stones and Upgrade materials.  Two of the top three hunters have their weapons at a level where only a Limit Break can take them higher.  I have three other SSR-ranked Hunter weapons to raise to higher levels and one for the main character.  I've had the credits at around 58 twice this week.

As an aside, I'm glad I ignored the Zenless Zone Zero hype.  Honkai: Star Rail and Genshin Impact are on the back burner now.  Honkai Impact 3rd was with me less than one week.  I can't imagine why anyone would play it.