Summary

• Sung Jinwoo's epic battles highlight his evolution into a powerful hero with thrilling moments of victory.
• Jinwoo's growth is showcased through courageous solo battles and strategic defeats of powerful dungeon bosses.
• Sung Jinwoo's relentless determination and newfound powers as the Shadow Monarch display his rise to becoming the strongest.

Of all the modern anime protagonists, Sung Jinwoo may take the crown as the coolest one, so it's not a surprise that the first season of Solo Leveling, produced by A-1 Pictures, has taken the world by storm. Solo leveling is not short of moments that give satisfaction with many levels of epicness and brilliance through its exciting battles and threatening bosses. Moreover, from his first dangerous encounter in the double dungeon to his fights with countless monsters, Sung Jinwoo embodies the essence of the epic hero's journey.

Many moments show that Sung Jinwoo is already an iconic hero in constant evolution, traveling a path full of danger where each battle puts his life on the line and keeps the viewers thrilled as he emerges victorious repeatedly against all odds.

The epic moments are the heart of the series, and each one of them contributes to the development of Sung Jinwoo into the strongest hunter who challenges everything established in Solo Leveling’s world and brings him closer to unraveling the secrets of the system and reaching his full potential.

10 Sung Jinwoo Casually One-Hit Kills a Golem Boss

Episode 4: I've Gotta Get Stronger

After leaving the instant dungeon, Sung Jinwoo realizes there’s a Dungeon Breakout nearby where a group of hunters is fighting a giant golem boss in front of a large crowd of bystanders. However, Sun Jinwoo notices their team is uncoordinated, and they seem to be about to lose, as they are only low-level hunters. Sung Jinwoo decides to give them a little help, so he throws his broken sword into the golem’s head, hoping the hunters will seize the opportunity and deal the finishing blow to the boss. However, the golem completely shatters after receiving the hit.

What makes this moment epic is not only that Sung Jinwoo one-shotted the Golem, but also that he gave credit to the other hunters, believing they had weakened him, so he didn’t realize how strong he became. Ironically, the broken sword that Jinwoo tossed belonged to Kim Sangshik, who dropped it in the double dungeon. Jinwoo picked up the sword to defend himself and later used in the Instant Dungeon, so, in a way, he tossed something tied to his past weakness.

9 Sung Jinwoo's First Solo Boss Kill Shows the Importance of Physical Training

Episode 4: I've Gotta Get Stronger

After studying the player system and training his body with the daily quests, Jinwoo faces his first solo hunt, challenging the instant dungeon provided by the system. Jinwoo faces countless wolves on his own, something impossible for him before, as he was hurt even by weak goblins, gaining a new title before fighting his first boss alone, a giant snake named Blue Venom-Fanged Kasaka.

In this fight, Sung Jinwoo obtained Kasaka's Venom Fang, which he used as his main weapon in the following battles

Kasaka’s hardened body has a high defense, and with his speed, he deals powerful attacks that outclass Sung Jinwoo. Additionally, his sword is not strong enough to penetrate the hardened snake's scales. As he feels cornered, Sung Jinwoo re his resolution to gain power and focus all of his physical strength that he had built on strangling the boss. Jinwoo kills Kasaka with his sheer force and willpower, which ends in a heroic shot of him sitting above the giant snake's corpse and affirming that he has become a little bit stronger.

8 Sung Jinwoo Showing He Won’t Run Away Anymore

Episode 12: Arise

The penalty zone is a special mission that serves as Sung Jinwoo's punishment for not completing his daily quest. This mission transports Jinwoo to a desert environment, where he is forced to run for his life while being chased by Poisoned-Toothed Giant Centipedes until the set time es. Sung Jinwoo religiously followed his daily quest until the day of the Job Change Quest Dungeon.

After failing to defeat the swarm of infinite knights, and as Jinwoo was about to lose, he was saved by being summoned into the Penalty Zone. Despite being grateful, Jinwoo channels his frustration about not completing the quest into challenging the giant centipedes, trying to level up for 4 hours, which will also restore his health. Although it's a short scene, it showcases how strong Sung Jinwoo has become, where he no longer needs to run away from any monster like he did in the past, and he will just use everything as an opportunity to level up.

7 Sung Jinwoo Defeats the C-Rank Dungeon Boss Through Strategy

Episode 6: The Real Hunt Begins

Despite having already beaten two bosses, Kasaka and the Golem, the Giant Spider, the boss of the C-rank dungeon gives Sung Jinwoo a much tougher fight. This creature is not only physically strong, but it also has reinforced skin, and its ability to throw acid makes it a difficult opponent to dodge. After furiously trying to attack the boss, Jinwoo realizes the spider's skin is too tough to damage with the dagger he gained from the Instant Dungeon.

As he tries to locate the boss' weak point for the paralyzing poison to take effect, he aims for the top of his head but begins to run out of energy. Jinwoo is able to recover by using the reward for his daily quest and striking continuously at the spider's eye, successfully killing the most powerful boss he has faced. The way Jinwoo doesn't win by simply overpowering the boss, but by analyzing his weakness and just barely avoiding death with his quick thinking makes his victory even better.

6 The Job Change Dungeon's Monsters Strengthened Sung Jinwoo’s Resolve

Episode 12: Arise

After Jinwoo ventured into a special dungeon to do the Job Change Quest and faced off against Igris, a new challenge appeared, and that was that he had to survive as long as possible by defeating a multitude of adversaries. Sung Jinwoo has to face an infinite swarm of mighty silver knights, with more appearing every time in a fierce battle where he is pushed to his limits and mentally hunted by the ghost of his past weakness.

After almost dying, Jinwoo is sent to the penalty zone, where he is once again motivated to continue improving. Jinwoo returns and fights again, realizing the knights are summoned by the mages, aiming at them, who then unify the knights into a giant golem. However, Sung Jinwoo quickly defeats the mages and destroys the golem, finally completing the quest. This epic moment of Sung Jinwoo shows how he was able to overcome his insecurities and rise again as the strongest even in an overwhelming fight.

5 Kang Taeshik Challenges Sung Jinwoo’s Ability and Morality

Episode 9: You've Been Hiding Your Skills

Kang Taeshik is a powerful B-rank hunter who ed the Hunter Association to satisfy his bloodlust, as he prefers to kill humans rather than dungeon creatures. Taeshik provides good resistance to Jinwoo thanks to his experience as a killer and initially has the upper hand thanks to his stealth ability, a rare skill that very few hunter-assassins possess and that completely masks one's presence. Their fighting styles were matched in a high-tension display of speed, but Jinwoo showed his dominance and intimidated Kang Taeshik with his Murderous Intent skill.

The epicness of this clash is fueled by their different senses of justice since Taeshik makes Jinwoo reflect on its power after stating that conventional morality does not exist in the world of hunters and warns him about not letting himself be consumed by the darkness. Jinwoo is still defining his moral code after what happened with the lizard group, so the fight shows how he is struggling to maintain his humanity as his power grows exponentially.

4 Sung Jinwoo Clears a Triple Threat

Episod 7: Let's See How Far I Can Go

In the Demon Castle, Jinwoo is greeted by a three-headed dog monster called Cerberus. Cerberus is the gatekeeper of Hell and one of the first enemies that Sung Jinwoo doesn't feel capable of defeating. Cerberus' power is extraordinary, high enough to be a challenge for s-rank hunters, as proved by the beast not receiving much damage from Kasaka's dagger slashes and being resistant to the Murderous Intent skill effect.

The situation worsened when Cerberus used his Rage skill, which gave him incredible strength for three minutes, pushing Jinwoo to his limit, so he decided to use Kasaka's Venom Gland to sustain more damage. The last stretch of the battle is quite gruesome, as Jinwoo lets himself be bitten to stab the eye of the remaining head over and over again until the beast is down thanks to the ability of the dagger, Drain. This brutal fight showcases Sung Jinwoo's newly gained strength as he faces alone the guardian of an S-rank dungeon.

3 Hwang Dongsuk’s Team Massacre

Episode 6: The Real Hunt Begins

The incident occurred after Jinwoo successfully defeated the C-rank dungeon boss, where Hwand Dongsuk's team, named lizards for the way they used other people, came to finish off both him and Jinho, as they did several times with other low-rank hunters. However, the lizards' actions backfired on them because they triggered the system to give Jinwoo an emergency quest to kill them all.

Knowing that there was no other choice to survive but to kill, Jinwoo does not hesitate to kill them, which turns into one-sided slathering. Solo Leveling's anime doesn't hide in its crudeness, showing all the harshness of a world of hunters in which there is no place for mercy. The moment was harrowing, and elevated by the background music as Sung Jinwoo's true hunting begins after realizing the cruelty of the system and human beings.

The OST featured in Solo Leveling episode 6 is DARK ARIA by Hiroyuki Sawano, the composer of legendary soundtracks for Attack on Titan, Guilty Crown, and The Seven Deadly Sins.

2 Jinwoo Becomes the New King in His Fight With Igris

Episode 11: A Knight Who Defends an Empty Throne?

One of the best fights in recent anime because of its dynamic animation, Blood-Red Commander Igris, made Sung Jinwoo almost taste defeat, as he was far above him in of strength and defense. The fight against Igris was overwhelming for Jinwoo and much more frenetic and intense than the fight against Cerberus.

Since the knight's skill at swinging a sword is far greater than Jinwoo's ability, the hunter decides to fight with his bare hands, and Igris, as an honorable opponent, also loses his weapon. Jinwoo was only able to win because he found a gap in Igris' helmet and stabbed him repeatedly until the knight was down. The insane fight is not only Sung Jinwoo's most difficult clash of season 1, but also, makes him worthy of sitting on the throne after becoming the new master of Igris.

1 The Rise of Jinwoo as Shadow Monarch

Episode 12: Arise

After going through the job change quest, Jinwoo gets the necromancer class and is immediately promoted to Shadow Lord, then Shadow Monarch, which gives him the power to summon shadows of defeated enemies. To use the shadow extraction, he needed to assign a command, telling the word every fan of Solo Leveling's manhwa was excited to hear 'Arise'.

Jinwoo immediately tried out the power on the knights he had previously killed, including Igris. After two failed attempts, Sung Jinwoo successfully extracts Igris, who becomes his most loyal and powerful warrior. Jinwoo becoming the Shadow Monarch is the most epic moment of Solo Leveling season 1 because it shows how all the shadow warriors rise up to serve their new king, and they kneel before him as a sign of respect. Also, it's the start of Jinwoo's shadow army, which is a key aspect in his path to an even greater power in the Solo Leveling season 2.