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Editorial Team · 2026-09-16
Solo Leveling: Arise vs Wuthering Waves: Which to Play
By Editorial Team · published 2026-09-16 · updated 2026-09-17
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Wuthering Waves if you want an open world to move through and fights won by parrying; Solo Leveling: Arise if you want the combat itself — dodge timing, combo counters, bosses raised as shadow soldiers — and nothing else in the way. They tie at 7.2 on our scores, and the tie is honest: both have an 8.5 for gameplay, both give the full story away, both list loot boxes, and both score in the lowest monetisation band we use — 4.5 and 4.0. What separates them is shape and Android. Wuthering Waves is a 3.6 GB world with a $4.99 subscription; Solo Leveling is a 2.8 GB arena with a $18.99 pass and a Google Play rating of 3.8 across 719,000 reviews, the widest platform gap in our catalogue. Prices as of September 2026.
The short answer
- Our score — Solo Leveling: Arise 7.2 — Wuthering Waves 7.2
- Kind of game — stage-based action RPG with co-op raids — open-world action RPG with exploration
- Combat — dodge, combos with a live hit count, shadow extraction — parry-and-counter, intro skills, three-character rotation
- Monetisation mark — 4.0: draws, three daily packs, $18.99 pass — 4.5: loot boxes, $4.99 subscription, packs to $99.99
- Install on iPhone — 2.8 GB — 3.6 GB
- App Store rating — 4.7, 59,000 ratings — 4.6, 59,000 ratings
- Google Play rating — 3.8, 719,000 reviews — 4.3, 515,000 reviews
- Controls — 8.0, virtual stick and skill buttons — 7.5, dodging on glass; a controller helps
Same score, same genre, same economy, different game. One is a series of fights; the other is a place with fights in it.
Price and what the free tier blocks
Neither blocks the story. Solo Leveling: Arise's campaign is free to finish, and the money sits in the roster: Apple's listing names loot boxes, characters arrive through draws, and the purchase list is built around them — a Rate Up Draw and a named-character chance at $1.99 each, a Daily Draw Ticket Pack at $0.99, a premium ticket subscription at $9.99, daily growth supports at $6.99 and $7.99, a Diamond bonus pack at $3.99, and the Deluxe Hunter Pass at $18.99 on top. Three overlapping daily purchases is the pattern, and a 4.0 for monetisation is the result — the strongest hunters come from chance, not play.
Wuthering Waves' campaign is also free and fully voiced. The App Store lists currency from $0.99 to $99.99, a Lunite subscription at $4.99 a month, channel bundles at $9.99 and $19.99, and loot boxes at 13+. The banner economy is the genre's standard, which is why it scores 4.5 rather than lower: one subscription and one ladder, not three daily packs.
Neither shows advertising. Both are worth installing for the free part and worth a hard rule about draws before the first one.
The data cards are close and unremarkable for the genre: Google Play records seven collected categories for Solo Leveling with device identifiers shared onward, and Apple states identifiers are used to track users across other companies' apps. Wuthering Waves lists loot boxes at 13+ and updates on a six-week cadence; both need a connection for everything, story included.
What the fighting is
Solo Leveling's combat is the reason to install it, and it is the better of the two at the moment of contact. Attacks chain into counters with a live hit count; a perfectly timed dodge triggers Extreme Evasion, slowing the fight long enough to punish a boss mid-swing; beaten enemies can be raised as shadow soldiers who fight alongside you, so a defeated boss becomes a permanent ally rather than a cleared checkpoint. Co-op dungeons put several hunters in one raid, and time-attack ranks the same fight by speed. An 8.5 for gameplay, 8.0 for controls, and a 9.0 for graphics — among the best-looking action games on a phone, with effects that stay readable in motion.
Wuthering Waves builds its fights to be answered rather than survived. Enemies telegraph with a visible flash; hitting the dodge at that moment produces an intro skill that swaps in another character mid-animation, and three characters rotate through a team with a resonance skill and an ultimate each. The timing windows are tight enough that a mistimed dodge costs the exchange. Also 8.5 for gameplay, but 7.5 for controls — dodging on glass is the limiting factor, and a controller improves it noticeably.
What is around the fighting
This is where they part. Solo Leveling is stages: a fight, a result screen, the next fight, with co-op and time attack extending past the story. Progression eventually waits on draws, which is why replay value is 7.5.
Wuthering Waves is a world. Characters wall-run, grapple and glide with far fewer stamina interruptions than the genre standard; the setting is post-apocalyptic — ruined cities, drifting mist, a civilisation rebuilding — leaning grey and blue where rivals lean bright; echoes collected from enemies become equipment and transformations, so exploration has a purpose beyond scenery. Updates arrive roughly every six weeks. Replay value is 8.0.
Where Solo Leveling wins
The fight. Shadow extraction and Extreme Evasion are the best combat ideas in either game, and the effects are the best-looking.
Controls. 8.0 against 7.5; a stick and skill buttons that are precise once configured.
Focus. No traversal, no map, no stamina — the next fight is a menu away.
Install. 2.8 GB against 3.6.
Where Wuthering Waves wins
The world. Exploration with real movement, a voiced story in a place worth crossing, and echoes that make wandering pay.
The economy. A 4.5 against 4.0 — one subscription and one ladder rather than three daily packs and an $18.99 pass.
Android. 4.3 across 515,000 Play reviews against 3.8 across 719,000, and a narrowing gap to its App Store 4.6 that suggests its rocky launch is history. Solo Leveling's 3.8 is the widest platform gap in our catalogue, and its Android build carries the heavier burden, streaming content on top of the install.
Replay. 8.0 against 7.5, because a world keeps giving you somewhere to go when the banners do not.
One thing weighs on Wuthering Waves alone: it is demanding enough to heat a mid-range phone.
Bottom line
Wuthering Waves, for most people — the same combat quality inside a world worth exploring, an economy that is bad rather than worse, and an Android build that does not need a warning. Solo Leveling: Arise, if the fight is all you want and you are on iPhone: the combat is genuinely better at the moment of contact, and nothing else gets in its way. On Android, read the 719,000 reviews before installing, and on either platform decide about the draws before you see the first banner.
