Solo Leveling: Arise Two Years Anniversary

 Today marks two years since the game went live for everyone.

 

 I didn't pay quite as much attention to the Live Stream because I was playing Tower of God: New World and the original host still can pronounce "Jinwoo" correctly, which is annoying.  He went to Korea for the competition last year and probably annoyed a lot of Koreans there.  Oops.

The character level is now a maximum of 150.  It seems as though I get close and they move it.

 Naturally, there are new characters and a beast of a big boss, plus a new chapter.  Hopefully, that will take more than 15 minutes to complete.

On the Windows version, they've finally been cleaning up bugs from months ago.  Hopefully, they clean up some that happened right after they first released the game, also. 

Update 2026.05.07: What were they thinking?  What was I thinking not paying close attention to the Live Stream?

It feels so different, although some parts are the same.  Something I tried was new and yet, had bugs in it as though it had been planned 1 year ago.  I appreciate that they wanted to refresh it. 

 

I'm up one job category and took a third job change but failed.  I'm not sure why giving me the track suit is a good thing.  In Korea, that's considered a middle-age thing to wear.

I was looking at the Monarch's icon in the lobby.  It shows me to equip 8 artifacts.  I thought "I don't want to find new artifacts." and then, I thought, "What if I disable and enable the same artifacts?"  That worked and I got a load of Hunters and their weapons, along with runes and Sung Jinwoo weapons through 29 different selections. 

 

Update 2026.05.08:  The blue wheel of progress, that we haven't seen since the first year, has returned.

Update 2026.05.10: I have so many level 100 artifacts that I'm re-equipping a bunch of Hunters.  Too many still have level 78 or level 73 equipment and the newer characters have mismatched equipment.  Hopefully, this will help with times in the new gates. 

Update 2026.05.13: They fixed the blue wheel of progress!  Someone must have remembered the solution from two years ago.

I noticed that they still have bugs on Windows, such as using the original Ultimate skill for Sung Jinwoo, regardless of what is configured.  That's been a problem since the alternative Ultimate skills have been available.  I suspect that testing is very minimal or their testing methodology is weak.  As well, the configurable QTE skills don't work the same in every game mode.

That said, there are level 120 artifacts, along with the level 100 they introduced last week.  My Character level seems to go up every 1.5 days (or 2 levels in 3 days, if that makes more sense).   Keeping the Hunters updated has been interesting, especially since Gina, Seorin, and the American Football star have been added.

Update 2026.05.18: I just changed machines today.  I have a much more powerful laptop computer than the one from 2022.  However, suddenly, I'm not able to finish gates with Sung Jinwoo.  They're all taking longer because of the forced difficulty but it's odd that those gates where the main character is involved, they're all failing today.

Update 2026.05.28: Still not having much luck.  I noticed that they're really pushing the coupons.  It feels as though they're not making enough money from the game to keep it going.  That's why the gates are harder.  They can push that monthly subscription, and you can just sweep the gates all the time.

 Why else would I be able to crush the story on Expert and have trouble with the gates? 

 

Update 2026.06.03: They had another livestream.  I watched a little, but didn't pay attention much.  However, there is a significant problem.  I can't just level up artifacts now, even those that were already started.  I have to calibrate them.

 I like SLA because I can go into it, play a little, and wait for the results.  It's a pain to play the gates now.  Even with everyone at level 150, I lose gate matches.  I can play Expert level on the story just fine, but gates?  No. 

1 year anniversary of Solo Leveling: Arise

 We're close.  We started in May 2024 and here we are just one year later.  Everyone who started on that first day should be at about the same levels.  I'm at Character level 102 and Reputation level 66.

 

There are so many SSR-ranked characters and weapons, and we even have Shadows that can be General level.

I wonder if the people who spent loads of money are ahead of the people who did not spend much. There are several Korean players at the top and that's partly because they were playing before the rest of us.

I'm interested in what they could be changing.  I'm still trying to finish the latest Hidden Chapter that was added.  Even at Character level 102, I'm not quite there.

 There is a new level maximum for characters and for weapons, plus any Shadow that is at General level gets a weapon.  I'm not sure how they hold the weapons, but it's a game. 

 

Update 2025.05.06: Got to Monarch of Shadows: Adversary! That took two tries.  I wasn't sure exactly what they were trying to do and I wasted time.  Still, I cleared it the second time with 1.27 seconds remaining.  Finishing Hidden Chapter 6 was key to this opportunity to advance.  Feels good to have this accomplishment ahead of the 1st anniversary.

 

Update 2025.05.07: Anniversary codes are here, plus big changes in the game.  As I got to a new Job Title, they added another one.  Maximum character level will be 110.  There are 41 SSR-ranked Hunters. 

I've already used my free SSR-ranked Hunter for  Goto Ryuji and his weapon.  Plus, I used some free stuff to get my second Shadow up to General.

Update 2025.05.14: I'm making my way through the next chapters.  It's a struggle but it always is going through the new stuff.  I just got the Princess version of Cha Hae-In.  I never got one of the Japanese characters but I have her weapon ready at level 100, so the princess will be better with that than some minor weapon.

 I'm surprised how good the giveaways are, especially while Wuthering Waves is much different.  I've heard a lot of people expected great things and were disappointed.  I'm okay but I'm only a few weeks into the game.  Honkai: Star Rail did okay with the certain 5-star characters and the numerous tickets for pulls.

 

Update 2025.05.17: Got through the new chapters and ready to go back and clean up with trophies I missed.  Ready for a Job Change but first try didn't quite work.

 

Update 2025.05.23: Got my first weapon elevated to the final level, eventually up to level 110 but it can go to level 120. 

 

Update 2025.06.04: Well, there was a new livestream today.  New Hunters will be available, of course.  New slots for Gems and more categorizations.

Be sure to use the new codes quickly.

 

Update 2025.07.02: I almost missed a livestream today.  Didn't get any notice.  If it weren't for the game being in downtime, I never would have known.