Hunter Ranks Explained: From E-Rank to National Level

Before Gates appeared, humans had no supernatural abilities. When the Gates first opened ten years before the story begins, a small fraction of the population awakened — gaining mana cores that granted them combat powers ranging from elemental magic to enhanced physical strength. Non-awakened humans cannot enter Gates without dying almost immediately.

Upon awakening, a hunter is evaluated by the Hunter Association and assigned an initial rank. This rank can be re-evaluated, but only upward reassessment (re-ranking) is officially recognized; downgrading is exceedingly rare and usually indicates catastrophic injury.

E-Rank hunters are the weakest in the system. They typically possess only minimal stat boosts over an ordinary human and are restricted to Rank-E Gates, which are shallow dungeons with weak monsters. At the start of the story Sung Jinwoo is classified as an E-Rank, described as the weakest hunter in all of Korea.

Despite the stigma, E-Rank hunters are still licensed combatants. Many take on support roles inside low-rank Gates, helping higher-rank parties by carrying loot or acting as distractions.

D, C, and B-Rank hunters form the backbone of the global hunter economy. D and C-Ranks are the most common, capable of clearing mid-tier dungeons and earning a reliable living from Gate rewards — rare materials, monster cores, and magic crystals that power modern technology.

B-Rank is where hunters begin to specialize meaningfully. Fighter, mage, healer, and ranger classes emerge clearly at this tier, and party composition becomes critical for tackling higher-rank Gates. A single B-Rank hunter is roughly equivalent to a trained special-forces soldier with added magical abilities.

A-Rank hunters are considered elite. Most large-scale raiding guilds require A-Rank minimum for membership. At this level hunters develop signature abilities and magic techniques powerful enough to destroy armored vehicles or reshape terrain.

Notable A-Rank hunters in the story include many guild officers and government-sponsored operatives. The gap between A-Rank and S-Rank is enormous — an average A-Rank stands little chance against even the weakest S-Ranker in direct combat.

S-Rank hunters are the strongest officially recognized tier. Each S-Rank is treated as a strategic military asset by their home government. Korea alone has fewer than ten S-Rankers at the time the story takes place. Their raw power can level buildings, and their magic techniques are genuinely destructive on a city block scale.

Characters like Choi Jong-in (the Flame Monarch), Cha Hae-in (the sword-wielder), and Go Gun-hee (chairman and veteran S-Rank) define this category in Korea. Internationally, Thomas Andre (USA) and Liu Zhigang (China) are considered among the strongest S-Ranks in existence.

National-Level hunters are an informal category above S-Rank, used by the Hunter Association to describe the handful of individuals whose power is so extreme that they are treated as living weapons equivalent to a nuclear deterrent. Each country with a National-Level hunter does not fear conventional military threats from other nations.

At the peak of the National-Level hierarchy sits Sung Jinwoo after his full awakening. Others in this bracket include Thomas Andre and his Iron Body technique, Go Gun-hee in his prime, and Sung Il-hwan (Jinwoo's father) upon his return from Cartenon Temple.

Hunter rank is a key attribute in Solo Leveling DLE. Understanding the full rank ladder — E → D → C → B → A → S → National Level — helps you interpret yellow arrows in the guessing game correctly. In Higher or Lower, many questions pit characters against each other by power, which closely tracks hunter rank.