10 Best Action Manhwa Like Solo Leveling

If you’re a Solo Leveling fan, you might find yourself with a content void as you wait for Season 3’s release. Whether you like the anime, manhwa, or original novel that started it all, Solo Leveling is filled with action and includes system elements that any gamer would love to have as part of their real lives if it meant unlocking new powers. Luckily, there’s a wide variety of manhwa that can help you fill the absence of Solo Leveling as you wait for the next season. Plus, it seems like there’s a constant stream of new manhwa being picked up and released.

There’s an incredible range of genres that you can find in manhwa, and most of them blend multiple genres together rather than focus on just one. Here’s a set of manhwa that have elements similar to Solo Leveling in terms of action, and a mix of them include features like an overpowered protagonist or a system that’s unique to a single character.

10. Chronicles of the Martial God’s Return

Dan Woo-Hyeon (Duan Wuxian in the Tapas localization) is known as the Boundless Divine Demon, and because his strength is so great, he’s sealed in Dongting Lake for 1,000 years. Once he’s finally free, the world is different than he remembers, and he’s lost everything that he used to have. He finds that he’d be content to live peacefully with Somi, a girl he found when she was on the verge of death, which causes him to use his power to revive her out of pity.

Of course, a peaceful life proves impossible, as the Martial Factions of Murim keep dragging him into their issues. As a result, Dan Woo-Hyeon finds himself having to balance raising Somi as his own daughter and reminding the world about the fabled strength of the Boundless Divine Demon.

9. Reaper of the Drifting Moon

Time for a darker shift without a heartwarming father-daughter dynamic to lighten the content. Follow Pyo Wol, an unfortunate orphan who ends up kidnapped and forced to participate in a brutal experiment to create human weapons. Wol is one of 300 kidnapped children, which he learns when he’s released from the isolation that starts his training and forces him to become strong if he wants to survive.

Depending on who you ask, there are a number of fans of this series who believe that the manhwa doesn’t do the novel justice, especially because it skips the seven-year period that Wol is in captivity alone, which is a big part of his character growth as it shows how he learns to survive and become one of the strongest experiments. While the manhwa is still enjoyable, you might want to consider taking a look at the novel, too.

8. The Lone Necromancer

Yu Sungwoo is just a normal college student at first. In the middle of class, quest text and cards pop up, leaving the class confused. Then, the situation grows worse when the lights go out, and Sungwoo makes the decision to pick a card for the sake of surviving, becoming a necromancer.

Making the decision to pick a card is the key to Sungwoo being able to survive when the school turns into a battleground, flooded by enemies that need to be defeated if he wants to complete his first quest. Luckily, the abilities of a necromancer prove to be powerful, and Sungwoo is able to create a force of his own to help him grow stronger. Naturally, this is only the beginning of Sungwoo’s journey, and he’ll need even more strength if he wants to continue surviving in this new world.

7. The Beginning After the End

If you ask about a series like Solo Leveling, you’ll find repeated mentions of The Beginning After the End. It also has an anime series, if you would rather watch what’s available instead of reading the manhwa. After being an unrivaled power in a world where martial ability decided who was in charge, King Grey is given another chance at life when he’s reborn in a new world that has magic and monsters filling it.

However, King Grey, now reborn as Arthur Leywin, finds that this new world is also filled with unexpected challenges and hidden threats. Now, he has to figure out why he was reborn here and how he can keep everything he worked for from being destroyed while he corrects his past mistakes at the same time.

6. Tower of God

This is another option that also has an anime adaptation, if you’re somebody who prefers watching to reading, or if you want to experience the story in both ways. The series centers around a mysterious structure known as The Tower. It’s filled with what’s essentially magic, and forces those who enter to pass increasingly difficult tests of strength in order to ascend to higher levels, but as a reward, higher levels offer better living conditions.

Tower of God centers around Twenty-Fifth Bam, a boy who has spent his life alone beneath the Tower with only his friend Rachel to keep him company. When Rachel leaves Bam alone by entering the Tower, Bam makes the decision to enter the Tower as well, surprised to find he’s able to get inside. From there, he’s resolved to do anything he has to in order to see Rachel again.

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5. Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint

Kim Dokja is the only reader of a novel, dedicating thirteen years of his life to reading the web novel “Three Ways to Survive in a Ruined World” whenever it updated. However, when Dokja finished reading the final chapter, he found himself at the starting point of the novel, and as the only person who knows how the world is going to end.

Of course, Dokja makes the decision to change the ending of this world, using his knowledge of the web novel to solve the problems he knows he’ll face and conquer the upcoming challenges. The hard part is that his interference makes the world of the novel start heading down a new path, one different from what he knows in the novel.

4. Tomb Raider King

What would you do if God’s tombs appeared all over the world and contained relics that give the users of those relics power? Well, hunt for the tombs, of course. Seo Joo-Heon lives in a world where God’s tombs have appeared and contain relics, but he finds himself with a unique opportunity when he returns 15 years into the past when he should’ve died.

Joo-Heon decides to make the most of his return to the past, going through the effort of hunting down all the tombs before anybody else can find them and learn about the power of the relics kept inside. It’s time for Joo-Heon to take matters into his own hands and get revenge on those who would cause his death in the future.

3. Feng Shen Ji

This is technically a manhua instead of a manhwa, but it’s still an action-packed journey that focuses on the power of man versus the power of gods. When the Great Shang dynasty has a new emperor, the gods are unhappy and find fault with him. Instead of listening to the gods and submitting to their will, the new emperor decides that he’ll free humanity from their hold.

Of course, the new emperor isn’t only facing the gods. He also has to face the Zhou emperor, who has submitted to the gods for reasons of his own and decides that he will defeat the new emperor of the Great Shang dynasty. The result is a story filled with action and drama.

2. I Turned Off the Pain Perception Setting

This manhwa is a little bit different, and it features a female protagonist. Lee Lina lives in a dystopian world, and her one joy comes from playing her favorite VR game: Raison D’Etre. She’s the first player to clear every ending and starts her 100th playthrough to find that the game is a bit different this time. The NPCs around her act differently and the storyline goes in directions she isn’t used to, plus the system seems to be glitching and trying to tell her something.

At the same time, she learns that the game’s server is shut down for everybody else, only allowing her into it. The problem is that she might not have the time to solve these mysteries, as she learns that she has a heart problem that leaves her with only months left to live. As if that’s not enough, she finds herself joining a rebellion against the design of the dystopian society that makes up her real world.

1. Second Life Ranker

Second Life Ranker is another manhwa that tends to be one of the first recommended for anybody who enjoys Solo Leveling. However, it tends to have more of the Tower-focused world that you see in manhwa like Tower of God and Reaper of the Drifting Moon. Follow Cha Yeon-woo who shifts from a soldier to a Player.

Cha Yeon-woo finds the journal of his deceased younger brother and makes the decision to enter the Obelisk, a tower that promises to make whoever reaches its final floor into a god. With his brother’s journal as a guide, Cha Yeon-woo goes through the Obelisk with the goal of getting revenge on those who betrayed his brother. In the middle of this story of revenge, Cha Yeon-woo has to learn how to trust, too.

The world of manhwa is incredible, and it often ends up being addicting. When you finish a story you love or reach the point where you have to wait for the next updates, you might find yourself searching for a way to fill the void in the meantime. Luckily, there’s no end to new stories that you can pick up.