Every S-Rank Hunter in Solo Leveling Ranked by Strength

S-Rank is supposed to mark the ceiling of human strength in Solo Leveling. In practice, it covers an enormous range. Some S-Rank Hunters are elite healers or specialists. Others can erase high-level monsters in seconds. At the very top, National Level Hunters stand so far above ordinary S-Ranks that they function more like strategic weapons than guild members.

This ranking orders the major named S-Rank Hunters by their peak canonical combat strength, using feats from the anime, manhwa, and original story. Raw destructive power matters, but so do speed, durability, special abilities, battlefield influence, and performance against high-level enemies.

Major spoiler warning: This article discusses events and abilities beyond the currently animated material, including the Monarch conflict and late-series power reveals.

For a broader discussion of the franchise’s strengths and weaknesses, read our analysis of why Solo Leveling can feel overhyped after its opening arc. Readers interested in extreme cross-series scaling can also see our breakdown of Sung Jinwoo versus Goku.

The Ranking Criteria

This list follows five rules:

1. Peak versions only. Hunters are judged at their strongest confirmed point.

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1. Combat ability comes first. Political influence, wealth, and guild size do not raise a hunter’s placement.
2. Support value still matters. A healer or barrier specialist can rank above a stronger brawler if their ability changes an entire raid.
3. Confirmed feats outweigh reputation. Statements matter, but direct performances matter more.
4. The S-Rank label is not treated as one equal tier. National Level Hunters and Sung Jinwoo are separated from ordinary S-Ranks.

Because several international hunters receive limited screen time, the middle and lower positions are necessarily more approximate than the top ten.

Quick Ranking: Strongest Solo Leveling S-Rank Hunters

1. Sung Jinwoo — South Korea: Shadow Monarch and all-rounder
2. Thomas Andre — United States: National Level tank and brawler
3. Liu Zhigang — China: National Level swordsman
4. Christopher Reed — United States: National Level Hunter and Ruler vessel
5. Siddharth Bachchan — India: National Level Hunter
6. Jonas — Brazil: National Level Hunter
7. Go Gunhee — South Korea: Ruler vessel and retired S-Rank
8. Cha Hae-In — South Korea: Swordswoman
9. Goto Ryuji — Japan: Assassin-type guild master
10. Lennart Niermann — Germany: Tank and guild master
11. Yuri Orloff — Russia: Barrier specialist
12. Hwang Dongsoo — United States: Fighter and enhanced S-Rank
13. Baek Yoonho — South Korea: Transformation-type fighter
14. Choi Jong-In — South Korea: Mage with large-scale firepower
15. Ma Dongwook — South Korea: Tank
16. Lim Tae-Gyu — South Korea: Archer
17. Min Byung-Gyu — South Korea: Healer
18. Kanae Tawata — Japan: Close-range fighter
19. Kei — Japan: Mage and sensory support
20. Kenzo Tanaka — Japan: Fighter
21. Mari Ishida — Japan: Mage
22. Akari Shimizu — Japan: Healer
23. Ippei Izawa — Japan: Assassin-type fighter
24. Atsushi Kumamoto — Japan: Fighter

24. Atsushi Kumamoto

Atsushi Kumamoto is an S-Rank Hunter from Japan who joins the Jeju Island raid. His official rank confirms that he is far beyond ordinary hunters, but the story gives him very little opportunity to demonstrate a distinct specialty before the Ant King overwhelms the Japanese strike team.

His placement at the bottom does not mean he is weak. It reflects the lack of high-level feats. In Solo Leveling, being an S-Rank is enough to dominate normal dungeons, but the Jeju Island operation exposes how wide the gap can be between ordinary S-Ranks and monsters built to hunt them.

23. Ippei Izawa

Ippei Izawa is another member of Japan’s elite raid group. His speed-oriented fighting style suggests an assassin-type role, but his performance is too brief to establish him above the better-documented Japanese Hunters.

He ranks slightly above Kumamoto because his combat profile appears more suited to rapid engagement and evasion, although the difference is small and should not be treated as definitive.

22. Akari Shimizu

Akari Shimizu is an S-Rank healer. Support Hunters are difficult to rank because their value is not measured through direct damage. In a coordinated raid, an elite healer can be more important than another attacker.

Akari’s problem is survivability. Like most healers in the series, she depends on front-line fighters to keep enemies away from her. Against the Ant King, the Japanese team collapses too quickly for her healing to reverse the battle.

21. Mari Ishida

Mari Ishida is a Japanese S-Rank mage. Mages usually offer superior range and area control, which gives her a theoretical advantage over melee Hunters with similarly limited feats.

However, the story does not provide enough evidence to place her near the strongest magical S-Ranks. Choi Jong-In has clearer destructive feats, while Yuri Orloff possesses a highly specialized ability with national strategic value.

20. Kenzo Tanaka

Kenzo Tanaka is one of the more physically imposing members of Japan’s Jeju strike team. His build and combat role point toward direct close-range power.

He likely exceeds the team’s support members in a duel, but he lacks the speed, special abilities, or demonstrated durability needed to challenge the upper half of the list.

19. Kei

Kei is valuable because of his exceptional sensory ability. He can detect threats and gather battlefield information at a level that ordinary Hunters cannot match.

That makes him an important raid asset, but sensory talent does not automatically translate into winning head-to-head fights. His rank reflects strong utility combined with limited direct combat evidence.

18. Kanae Tawata

Kanae Tawata is portrayed as one of Japan’s more capable close-range S-Ranks. She has the instincts and confidence expected of an elite fighter and appears more battle-ready than several of her teammates.

She still remains below Korea’s leading guild masters because the story never gives her a comparable victory or a signature ability capable of changing a large battle.

17. Min Byung-Gyu

Min Byung-Gyu is one of the most valuable support Hunters in the series. His healing is powerful enough to sustain S-Rank combatants during a major raid, and his concealment skills help him avoid detection.

In terms of raid contribution, he could reasonably be placed higher. He ranks seventeenth because this list prioritizes complete combat strength. Byung-Gyu is vulnerable if an enemy reaches him, but a team with him is dramatically harder to defeat.

His importance is proven even after his death, when Jinwoo temporarily extracts his shadow so that Byung-Gyu can heal Cha Hae-In.

16. Lim Tae-Gyu

Lim Tae-Gyu leads the Fiend Guild and fights as an archer. His ranged attacks make him useful against large targets and allow him to contribute without entering a monster’s immediate reach.

He is clearly an experienced Korean S-Rank, but his feats do not place him beside Cha Hae-In, Baek Yoonho, or Choi Jong-In. His position reflects competence, range, and leadership rather than overwhelming individual power.

15. Ma Dongwook

Ma Dongwook is the leader of the Fame Guild and one of Korea’s major tank-type Hunters. His body-expansion ability increases his size and physical strength, making him well suited to absorbing pressure at the front of a raid.

Tanks are essential in ordinary dungeon strategy, but late-series enemies routinely bypass the defensive assumptions on which conventional raids depend. Ma Dongwook is powerful within the human system, yet he lacks the exceptional speed or supernatural defense needed against Monarch-level threats.

14. Choi Jong-In

!Official character artwork of Choi Jong-In from Solo Leveling

Choi Jong-In is known as Korea’s strongest mage before Jinwoo’s rise. As the Hunters Guild master, he controls large-scale fire magic and can destroy groups of monsters more efficiently than most melee Hunters.

His greatest advantage is battlefield coverage. Choi can reshape an encounter from range, burn through enemy formations, and provide sustained magical offense.

He ranks below Baek Yoonho because powerful opponents can close the distance before Choi’s area damage decides the fight. Nevertheless, against armies or dungeon mobs, Choi may be more useful than several Hunters ranked above him.

13. Baek Yoonho

Baek Yoonho leads the White Tiger Guild and possesses one of the most distinctive transformation abilities among Korea’s S-Ranks. He can partially or fully transform into a white tiger-like beast, increasing his strength, speed, senses, and durability.

Baek’s instincts are also unusually sharp. He recognizes the danger surrounding Jinwoo earlier than many other Hunters and can assess powerful beings through direct observation.

He outranks Choi Jong-In in individual combat because he is faster, tougher, and more dangerous at close range. His limitation is scale: he remains an elite human Hunter rather than a being capable of contending with Monarchs.

12. Hwang Dongsoo

Hwang Dongsoo is a Korean-born S-Rank who joins the Scavenger Guild in the United States. He is physically stronger than most ordinary S-Ranks and becomes even more dangerous after receiving an enhancement from Norma Selner.

His aggressive temperament makes him threatening in a direct confrontation, but it also makes him predictable. He relies heavily on raw strength and intimidation.

Jinwoo defeats him with overwhelming ease, demonstrating that an enhanced S-Rank can still be insignificant beside a true top-tier existence. Hwang ranks above Korea’s standard guild masters on physical power, but below Hunters with superior specialties or National Level credentials.

11. Yuri Orloff

Yuri Orloff is a Russian S-Rank barrier specialist hired to contain the massive Gate in Japan. His barrier magic is impressive enough that governments treat him as a strategic solution rather than a normal raid member.

His placement is based on specialization. Yuri may not defeat the strongest brawlers in a duel, but his barriers can cover enormous areas and resist forces that ordinary Hunters could not contain.

The Giant Monarch’s forces ultimately break through, revealing the limit of his confidence and preparation. Even so, the scale of the assignment shows that his magic stands above conventional S-Rank support abilities.

10. Lennart Niermann

Lennart Niermann is Germany’s strongest Hunter and the guild master of Richter Guild. He is powerful enough to recognize the hidden danger surrounding high-level conflicts and brave enough to intervene when Thomas Andre is threatened.

His performance against the Beast Monarch is brief, but surviving even momentarily in that environment distinguishes him from most ordinary S-Ranks. He combines strong defense, experience, and accurate threat perception.

Lennart is not a National Level Hunter, yet he sits near the upper boundary of what a conventional S-Rank can achieve.

9. Goto Ryuji

Goto Ryuji is Japan’s strongest Hunter and the master of the Draw Sword Guild. Before Jeju Island, he is treated as a candidate who could potentially reach National Level recognition.

He possesses exceptional speed, killing intent, and assassin-like close-range skill. His sparring exchange with Jinwoo shows that he is dangerous by human standards, even though Jinwoo has already moved beyond that scale.

Goto’s fatal encounter with the Ant King damages his reputation among readers, but the result should be understood correctly. The Ant King is not an ordinary S-Rank monster. Goto remains one of the strongest standard Hunters in the series; he simply meets an enemy designed to exceed the entire raid team.

8. Cha Hae-In

!Official character artwork of Cha Hae-In from Solo Leveling

Cha Hae-In is Korea’s strongest active Hunter before Jinwoo is publicly recognized. Her swordsmanship, speed, and mana sensitivity place her above the country’s other guild-level S-Ranks.

She defeats Igris during a controlled test and performs well against several of Jinwoo’s shadows. Although Beru overwhelms her, even reaching that level of evaluation is significant.

Cha’s greatest strength is balance. She has no major weakness within ordinary S-Rank combat: she is fast, technically refined, physically powerful, and highly sensitive to mana. She represents the peak of a normal human Hunter before the story enters National Level and Monarch territory.

7. Go Gunhee

!Official character artwork of Go Gunhee from Solo Leveling

Go Gunhee is difficult to rank because age and physical decline prevent him from using his full potential for long periods. At his peak, however, he is more than a retired Korean S-Rank. He is one of the human vessels chosen by the Rulers.

That connection gives him power far beyond his public role as chairman of the Korean Hunters Association. During his confrontation with the Frost Monarch, Gunhee reveals a level of spiritual force that shocks his opponent.

He ranks above Cha Hae-In because his peak power belongs to a higher supernatural category. He ranks below the National Level Hunters because his aging body cannot sustain that power effectively.

6. Jonas

Jonas is Brazil’s National Level Hunter. His exact abilities receive little direct exploration, but his title places him among the humans recognized for surviving the Kamish raid or possessing equivalent strategic power.

National Level status is not ceremonial. These Hunters are treated as military assets capable of influencing relations between countries.

Jonas ranks sixth because the canon confirms his tier but provides fewer feats than the Hunters above him. His position is therefore based more heavily on status and implied power than direct combat evidence.

5. Siddharth Bachchan

Siddharth Bachchan is India’s National Level Hunter and one of the highest-ranked Hunters in the world. Like Jonas, he has limited direct action in the main story, but his international standing places him above nearly every conventional S-Rank.

The lack of shown abilities makes an exact placement impossible. Fifth is a conservative position: high enough to respect National Level status, but below fighters whose destructive power or Ruler connection is demonstrated more clearly.

4. Christopher Reed

Christopher Reed is an American National Level Hunter and a vessel of the Rulers. When attacked by multiple Monarchs, he transforms into a gigantic flame-covered spiritual form and fights back with enormous power.

He ultimately dies, but the circumstances matter. The Monarchs treat him as a serious enough threat to target collectively. His Ruler-derived transformation places him firmly above ordinary S-Ranks.

Christopher ranks below Thomas Andre and Liu Zhigang because those two have stronger reputations and clearer top-tier combat portrayal. He remains one of the most dangerous human Hunters in the series.

3. Liu Zhigang

Liu Zhigang is China’s strongest Hunter and one of the world’s most respected National Level figures. He fights with bladed weapons and displays enough power to eliminate massive magical beasts with ease.

His presence carries international weight, and other elite Hunters treat him as a genuine top-tier combatant. He combines speed, precision, and destructive cutting power without relying on a slow or defensive style.

The story does not provide a complete duel between Liu and Thomas Andre, so their ordering is debatable. Liu takes third because Thomas has more extensive feats against Jinwoo and the Monarchs.

2. Thomas Andre

Thomas Andre is the strongest fully demonstrated human Hunter who is not Sung Jinwoo. As the master of the Scavenger Guild and a National Level Hunter, he possesses extraordinary physical strength, durability, and Ruler-derived abilities.

His Reinforcement and Capture techniques allow him to increase his already massive body and control opponents across the battlefield. During his clash with Jinwoo, Thomas withstands punishment that would instantly defeat ordinary S-Ranks.

He later fights during the Monarch crisis and proves that his confidence is supported by genuine power. Still, Jinwoo defeats him decisively. Thomas is the apex of the old Hunter hierarchy, while Jinwoo represents the arrival of an entirely different system.

1. Sung Jinwoo

!Official character artwork of Sung Jinwoo from Solo Leveling

Sung Jinwoo is officially reevaluated as an S-Rank Hunter, but the label becomes almost meaningless as his power develops. He is the Shadow Monarch’s successor and eventually inherits the full authority of Ashborn.

His advantages include:

• Extreme physical strength and speed
• Rapid regeneration
• Telekinetic Ruler’s Authority
• Shadow Exchange for near-instant movement
• A continuously expanding immortal army
• Shadow Extraction from defeated enemies
• Exceptional resistance to poison, injury, and magical effects
• The ability to grow stronger through the System

Even before receiving the Shadow Monarch’s complete power, Jinwoo defeats elite S-Ranks, clears high-level dungeons alone, overwhelms Beru, and defeats Thomas Andre. At his peak, he fights Monarchs directly and commands an army capable of changing the outcome of a global war.

No other S-Rank Hunter is close. Thomas Andre may dominate the human hierarchy, but Jinwoo eventually operates on the level of cosmic beings who use Earth as a battlefield.

Are National Level Hunters Still S-Rank?

Yes, but National Level is effectively a category above standard S-Rank. The title is awarded to Hunters whose power gives them strategic importance comparable to a nation’s military force.

The crucial difference is not simply that National Level Hunters have larger mana readings. Several are vessels of the Rulers, which grants them abilities beyond the normal Hunter awakening system.

A useful hierarchy is:

1. Ordinary S-Rank Hunters
2. Elite national champions such as Cha Hae-In and Goto Ryuji
3. National Level Hunters
4. Rulers and Monarchs
5. Peak Sung Jinwoo and the highest cosmic entities

Why the S-Rank System Fails

The ranking system cannot measure growth beyond the initial awakening. It also compresses every power above the machine’s limit into the same letter grade.

That creates a misleading category. Min Byung-Gyu, Cha Hae-In, Thomas Andre, and Sung Jinwoo can all be called S-Rank, yet their abilities belong to completely different scales.

This flaw supports one of Solo Leveling’s central ideas: institutions can classify ordinary power, but they cannot understand an exception that breaks the rules of the world.

Strongest Korean S-Rank Hunters

Excluding Jinwoo, the strongest Korean S-Ranks are:

1. Go Gunhee at his Ruler-powered peak
2. Cha Hae-In
3. Baek Yoonho
4. Choi Jong-In
5. Ma Dongwook
6. Lim Tae-Gyu
7. Min Byung-Gyu

Hwang Dongsoo was born in Korea but represents an American guild during the main story. His physical power places him near the top of this group, especially after enhancement.

Strongest Japanese S-Rank Hunters

Goto Ryuji is clearly portrayed as Japan’s strongest active Hunter. Kanae Tawata appears to be among the best of the remaining named Japanese team, while Kei provides exceptional sensory support.

Their defeat on Jeju Island does not mean Japan’s S-Ranks were fraudulent. It means the Ant King evolved beyond the level the human ranking system was built to describe.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Sung Jinwoo technically an S-Rank Hunter?

Yes. He is officially reevaluated as an S-Rank in South Korea. However, his power soon surpasses the category so completely that the label stops being useful.

Who is the strongest S-Rank Hunter besides Sung Jinwoo?

Thomas Andre has the strongest confirmed combat portrayal among human Hunters other than Jinwoo. Liu Zhigang is his closest rival, but the story gives Thomas more direct high-level feats.

Is Cha Hae-In stronger than Goto Ryuji?

The comparison is close. Goto has the stronger international reputation and assassin-like speed, while Cha has better sustained feats later in the story. This ranking places Cha slightly higher because her abilities are demonstrated more extensively.

Is Go Gunhee stronger than Cha Hae-In?

At his physical peak with access to the Ruler’s power, yes. In his elderly everyday condition, Cha is the more reliable active combatant.

Why is Min Byung-Gyu ranked so low?

This is a combat-strength ranking. As a healer, Byung-Gyu may be more valuable to a raid team than several Hunters above him, but he is less capable in a direct fight.

Are all National Level Hunters stronger than ordinary S-Ranks?

The story consistently treats National Level Hunters as a superior class. Exact ordering is difficult when some have few feats, but their status, political influence, and connection to the Rulers place them above conventional S-Ranks.

Final Verdict

The strongest S-Rank Hunter in Solo Leveling is Sung Jinwoo, and the gap is overwhelming. Thomas Andre and Liu Zhigang stand at the top of humanity’s traditional Hunter system, while Christopher Reed, Siddharth Bachchan, Jonas, and Go Gunhee belong to the Ruler-influenced tier beneath them.

Cha Hae-In is the clearest example of peak conventional S-Rank ability. Below her, specialists such as Goto Ryuji, Lennart Niermann, Yuri Orloff, Baek Yoonho, and Choi Jong-In show that strength can mean speed, defense, barriers, transformation, or large-scale magic.

The ranking ultimately reveals why Jinwoo changes the world. He does not merely become the best S-Rank. He makes the entire ranking system obsolete.