While pulling on banners for popular limited characters is one of the gacha genre’s most appealing features, avoid this fatal mistake in Solo Leveling: Arise or risk rerolling an account. The new action RPG game inspired by the popular South Korean web novel was released with massive success and over 15 million preregisters. The game offers players the chance to experience the story of Solo Leveling for themselves while building a strong party of Hunters. However, while most Hunters must be pulled from banners, the game is still completely beatable with the standard Hunters given out.
Gameplay-wise, Arise, available on PC and mobile devices with some differences, plays similar to the popular action RPG Genshin Impact. Each character has a series of skills that can be used with a short cooldown, and using those skills will charge up an ultimate ability. It also implements a dodging system similar to souls-like games where perfect timing will grant players invulnerability for a short period. Overall, the simple combat system does enough to welcome new Hunters while becoming more appealing as the difficulty rises.
As suggested by YouTuber Volkin Gacha, it is important to vary pulls between Hunters and Weapons. Though it is usually unwise to pull on Weapon banners in Gacha games, Arise‘s standard banner is more fair with selection features due to the wishlist system. With that in place, Volkin suggests a 2-2 ratio for pulling on Hunters and Weapons. This is due to the massive Gold problem in the game, a resource needed for everything but ran out of quickly.
Since Gold is so hard to come by, it is best to save it for the necessary upgrades. With too many Hunters, players will get stuck with weak weapons, as Arise has a shortage of powerful SR weapons. The same problem arises if one has strong weapons but limited Hunters to equip them. Thus, a proper balance of both is important as the difficulty rises.
One caveat to this is the must-pull Cha Hae-In banner active for the launch of the game. Not only is she one of the best Hunters in the game, but her Signature weapon is a free drop from an event. This avoids the previous issues while giving players a great and complete addition to teams. Even though it will still cost a lot of Gold to upgrade her, it will be worth spending on one of Arise‘s premier Hunters.
With so many options to put in just four wishlist slots, it can be hard to pick from some of Solo Leveling: Arise‘s best characters. However, for those looking for the best options, the choice becomes more clear. Both Emma Laurent and Seo Jiwoo are fantastic tank options. Emma is a defensive option that focuses on Break damage while boosting her survival. Meanwhile, Seo is a fantastic hybrid option who balances out her defense with offensive abilities.
Min Byung-Gu is the only Healer on the standard banner but is a great pull for those who want a do-it-all support. Outside his healing, Byung-Gu will boost the team’s critical rate/damage, and increase ultimate damage. He also has some HP boosts to help his survivability and make up for his low offensive capabilities. Overall, while other support options can fill the role and allow for other positions to be the focus, getting Min Byung-Gu if the other roles are fulfilled is a huge boon.
For damage dealers, Choi Jong-In and Lim Tae-Gyu are the go-to options. Jong-In is the better of the two, as he focuses on boosting his burn damage. For those not planning to pull for Cha Hae-In or Silvermane, Jong-In will be the best DPS option outside Jinwoo. Tae-Gyu is a powerful Break-damage attacker but is more limited in enemy-heavy fights and requires high accuracy to maximize damage.
Unlike the Hunters, the majority of SSR weapons on the standard banner are great acquisitions. It should be mentioned that those weapons can only be used by Jinwoo. Other Hunters will need weapons crafted by the player or acquired through events. Hunters can use weapons on any element, but some effects will not activate if the correct element isn’t present. Some weapons will also be the signature of specific Hunters and give them a bonus effect if equipped.
The three best weapons to pull for Jinwoo are the Demonic Plum Flower Sword, The Huntsman, and Thethis’ Grimoire. The first two are for DPS builds, while the Grimoire is best for Support. The beautiful thing about Jinwoo is how flexible he can be based on the other Hunters players acquire. However, this does come with the caveat of having to invest in him for multiple builds to keep the team’s strength high.
The other weapons on the banner are still usable but require more investment and certain situations to be at their best. In this regard, it is better to save resources for future weapons than upgrade them. That said, the beauty of many gacha games is finding fun playstyles for individual players and still having them work. It is just that these styles will not be the meta that others try to achieve through the best characters and gear.
This balance, while sadly a subject of Arise‘s poor Gold development, has its pros in creating complex team builds to maximize what can be acquired. This 2-2 pull balance can also be ignored by those who feel comfortable spending money on resources, pulls, or the Special Summons system. However, for those who wish to remain free-to-play, or as close to it as possible, avoid this common mistake in Solo Leveling: Arise to avoid having to re-roll.
Source: Volkin Gacha/YouTube