Best Sung Jinwoo Duelist Build Guide – Solo Leveling: ARISE OVERDRIVE

Welcome to our Sung Jinwoo Duelist Build Guide for Solo Leveling: ARISE OVERDRIVE.

In this guide, we will explain how to create a powerful Duelist Build for Sung Jinwoo, including the best Stat Points, Skills, Blessing Stones and Equipment.

Sung Jinwoo Duelist Build Table of Contents:

• Duelist Build Overview
• Best Stat Points
• Best Skills
  • Class Skills
  • Weapon Skills
  • Enhancement Skills
• Best Equipment
  • Best Weapons
  • Best Armour
• Best Blessing Stones
• Best Hunter Pairings

Duelist Build Overview

In this Sung Jinwoo Duelist Build for Solo Leveling: ARISE OVERDRIVE, we’ll be combining the Sword with a Firearm to give you a versatile setup that excels at melee, range and gives you some AoE potential, something that the Duelist class seriously lacks.

Our primary weapon bar will be equipped with a Sword which we’ll use when fighting single targets or small groups of enemies. The sword has some short-range cleave and AoE potential, but it lacks the reach to inflict damage over a large area, so our secondary weapon will focus more on that.

The secondary weapon will use a firearm. This is intended for fighting several enemies at once, because the firearm actually fires at all enemies in front of you simultaneously, allowing you to deal good AoE damage if you position Sung Jinwoo properly. Be aware that even with this addition, the Duelist is significantly worse at AoE damage than the Elementalist and the Ruler – this class is more focused on single-target damage and there’s only so much we can do to mitigate that.

Duelist Build Best Stat Points – Arise Overdrive

The most important Stats for the Sung Jinwoo Duelist Build are Strength, Vitality, Agility and Perception.

Strength increases your Attack stat which is vital for boosting your maximum damage output, and it also increases the amount of damage you can block.

Vitality boosts your HP, Defence and the HP regain when using potions. The amount of points you should put here typically depends on how confident you are with avoiding enemy attacks, but for most players I would suggests putting at least 15 percent of your points here.

Agility increases your Critical Hit Rate and Critical Hit Damage.

Perception increases your minimum damage on attacks, so for a well-rounded damage profile it should be combined with Strength.

For every 10 points you earn, put 3 in Strength, 3 in Perception, 2 in Vitality and 2 in Agility.

Duelist Build Best Skills – Arise Overdrive

Your Skills are split between Class Skills, Weapon Skills and Enhancement Skills. The latter two groups only consist of passive effects that boost your stats or grant a bonus under specific conditions.

Best Class Skills

Here is our Class Skill layout for the Sung Jinwoo Duelist Build in Solo Leveling: Arise Overdrive:

Alternative Option: As you can see, a lot of the Duelist’s skills are themed around charging at enemies, punching them and knocking them over. If you want to diversify and add a bit more AoE damage to your build, you can stray into the Ruler skill tree and unlock The Commander’s Touch. This skill allows you to pull a group of enemies into one spot, damaging and stunning them. This also leaves the enemies very vulnerable to a burst of shots from your firearm, which will hit all enemies who are within a cone-shaped area in front of you.

If you decide to take this alternative option, slot The Commander’s Touch in the place of either Percussion or Rush, since these two skills do pretty much the same thing.

Duelist Class Skill Tree

The table above shows you which skills to slot, but what about the passive features in the Duelist Skill tree? For this, I recommend following the priority list below when leveling up your Duelist in Solo Leveling: ARISE OVERDRIVE:

1. (Optional) Ruler -> Touch Skill Tree
   1. The Commander’s Touch
2. Duelist Skill Trees
   1. Rush
   2. Armor Break
   3. Counterstrike I
   4. Swift Shadow: Counterattack
   5. Percussion
   6. Combo I
   7. Smash I
   8. Decimation
   9. Finish the Raging Strike tree
   10. Finish the One Punch tree

For the final two steps, it’s up to you if you want to focus on finishing the Raging Strike tree completely before starting on the One Punch tree, or if you want to progress through them both in a balanced manner.

Important: You also need to unlock your Overdrive quite early on. This is the large skill in the middle of the tree, and it allows you to perform a special counterattack when you deflect an enemy attack. You need to deflect an attack after using your Overdrive to get the proper benefit of this Overdrive, which makes the Duelist’s Overdrive the most difficult to use of the four Sung Jinwoo Overdrive skills.

If you don’t like playing into the Deflect mechanic, you can always replace this with an Overdrive from another class. For example, the Ruler overdrive summons up to three shadow soldiers to help you.

Weapon Skills

It takes quite a long time to upgrade the Skills in this category. We recommend following this priority order:

1. Sword -> Heartsteel tree
   1. Sword Skill Damage Increase (Rank 1 only)
   2. Frontal Charge (Make sure to avoid Back Attacks from now on so you get the damage bonus)
   3. Sword Protection
   4. Attack Increase (Upgrade to Rank 3)
   5. Defense Increase (Rank 1 only)
   6. Heartsteel (start off your skill chains with your sword’s weapon skill to buff all of your subsequent skill damage)
2. Sword -> Blade Resistance tree
   1. Sword Skill Damage Increase
   2. Attack and Guard (allows you to block attacks with a well-timed Basic Attack, preventing the need for blocking if you are very skilled with the timing. If you’re unable to master this technique, remove all points from the Blade Resistance tree and invest them elsewhere).
   3. Guardian Sword
   4. Precision Increase (Upgrade to Rank 3)
   5. Defense Penetration Increase (Rank 1 only)
   6. Counterattack Launch
3. Firearm -> Aim of Patience tree
   1. Reload (After you switch weapons, you increase the damage of firearm skills)
4. Firearm -> Kata tree
   1. Firearm Skill Damage Increase (rank 1 only)
   2. Massacre (increases damage proportionally to the number of targets hit by a firearm skill. This is great for rapidly clearing trash packs)
   3. Swift Attack (using Extreme Evasion decreases skill cooldowns)
   4. Firearm Skill Damage Increase (upgrade to rank 3)
5. Sword -> Blade Resistance tree
   1. Defense Penetration Increase (Upgrade to Rank 3)

It will take you quite a while to purchase all of these upgrades. After this point, you can gradually finish purchasing the missing nodes in the trees we started investing in.

Enhancement Skills

The Enhancement Skills are split into a Physique and Monarch’s Awakening category. We will be focusing on upgrading Physique in this guide. Once you’ve finished with that, you can choose to either fully upgrade all of the defensive Physique skills, or start upgrading your Monarch’s Awakening form (if you don’t know what that is, just keep playing the main story until you do).

Here is our upgrade priority for Sung Jinwoo’s Enhancement Skills for the Duelist Build:

1. Physique -> Body Enhancement I tree
   1. Attack Increase (upgrade to rank 3)
   2. Defense Increase (rank 1 only)
   3. HP Increase (rank 1 only)
   4. Attack Increase (upgrade to rank 3)
   5. Defense Increase (rank 1 only)
   6. HP Increase (rank 1 only)
   7. Attack Increase (upgrade to rank 3)
2. Physique -> Body Enhancement II tree
   1. Critical Hit Rate Increase (upgrade to rank 3)
   2. Defense Penetration Increase (buy rank 1 of both of them, don’t upgrade them)
   3. Critical Hit Rate Increase (upgrade to rank 3)
   4. Left branch Defense Penetration Rank 1
   5. Left branch Damage Taken Decrease Rank 1
   6. Left branch Critical Hit Rate Increase Rank 3
   7. Right branch Defense Penetration Rank 1
   8. Right branch Damage Taken Decrease Rank 1
   9. Right branch Critical Hit Rate Increase Rank 3
3. Now you can either fully upgrade the rest of these trees, or start upgrading your Monarch’s Awakening tree.

Duelist Build Best Equipment – Arise Overdrive

Your equipment comes in two categories – weapons and armour. We will discuss these separately:

Sung Jinwoo Duelist Build Best Weapons

You can have two weapons equipped at a time. The top weapon is your primary weapon and it will be associated with your Basic Skill Set A. The secondary weapon is associated with Basic Skill Set B. This allows you to have two different Basic Skills equipped depending on which weapon you are currently wielding.

For our Duelist Build, we are using a Sword as our main weapon and a Firearm as our secondary.

Main Weapon – Sword

See the table below for good Swords you can use as you progress through Solo Leveling: ARISE OVERDRIVE. The end goal of the build is to get the weapon at the bottom of the table, but that will take a lot of grind so you should obtain the lower level options along the way to make the process easier.

Some weapons can be looted, but most of the time you obtain them via crafting. The Duelist is quite flexible, so you can make it work with any melee weapon type in the game if you don’t like Swords.

Weapon	Description
Kim Sangshik’s Sword I	This is your starting sword. It’s a decent starting weapon that deals some AoE damage. It’s quite unremarkable, but it’s good enough for the first couple of chapters. You can upgrade it to rank II if you want, but after that we’ll be switching to a much better sword.
Razan’s Blade I	Razan’s Blade comes with a Flame Slash, which is a decent single-target skill, coming in handy when you need extra boss damage. Once again, I recommend upgrading this sword once to rank II, and then we’ll be swapping to a better sword. Remember to click on the materials in the crafting menu and select “Source” to find out which bosses drop the materials.
Frostbite Falchion I	Frostbite Falchion I has exactly the same stats as Razan’s Blade III, but slightly better upgrade potential and a better skill, so we recommend making the switch to this weapon instead of upgrading Razan’s Blade any further. It comes with the Bitter Cold Wind skill, launching ice at the target and knocking them over. You should be able to obtain the materials for this sword at around level 35-40. When you can, upgrade to Frostbite Falchion II (usually around level 45-50).
Demonic Plum Flower Sword I	You’ll need to be around level 60-65 to get this sword, due to the high-level bosses you need to beat to find the materials. This sword comes with the Plum Flower Swift Flight skill, allowing you to create illusions that rapidly attack enemies. You also get the Full Bloom status when you use Chain Smash, temporarily giving you a large damage boost. To activate Chain Smash, perform a Basic Attack right after your Combo Attack, Weapon Switch or Weapon Skill.
Demonic Plum Flower Sword II	This is just an upgraded version of the previous sword. It comes with better stats and a slightly better version of the Plum Flower Swift Flight skill.  To craft it, you’re going to have to farm some of the most difficult bosses in the game, such as Fores scaled up to level 71. It’s not strictly necessary to complete this upgrade – view it as a final challenge if you want to progress to the best possible version of the Duelist build.

Secondary Weapon – Firearm

Just like with the Sword, progressing through the Firearm crafting tree will take quite a lot of grinding and crafting. The table below shows several important milestones along the way.

Weapon	Description
Lycan Slayer I	This is your starting firearm. Upgrade it to green/blue if you want, but don’t put too much effort into this one because we’ll be replacing it around level 20-30.
Black Falcon I	Black Falcon comes with an epic skill that allows you to randomly teleport around and hit nearby targets. This is a great multi-target skill. Craft this weapon as soon you feel strong enough to gather the ingredients without too much trouble (remember to check the Source of the materials in the crafting menu) and then replace Lycan Slayer. Now you can start upgrading the Black Falcon as you continue to level up. It can go up to B-rank, at which point we’ll transition to the next weapon in the tree.
West Wind I	West Wind comes with Secret Bullet, a powerful single-shot sniper skill that’s awesome for dealing boss damage from a distance. You’ll have to do quite a lot of leveling up from the previous stage until you can craft West Wind, but once you’re here you only have two more upgrades to go until you have the best firearm in the game.
West Wind III	West Wind III is the best firearm in ARISE OVERDRIVE. It’s an S-Tier weapon and you’ll have to complete several juiced-up max level bosses to get the materials, so don’t worry about settling for the C or A-tier versions until you’re strong enough to farm them.

Duelist Build Best Armour

Your Armour includes four armour slots and four jewelry slots.

Always ensure you combine items from the same set so you get access to the additional 2x and 4x bonuses. Prioritise sets that boost your Attack (or Defense/HP if you’re struggling to beat some of the bosses).

Important: You can click on your armour and artefacts to Enhance them. Prioritise Enhancing your Bracelet and Gloves, because this will give you a decent buff to your Attack stat. I don’t recommend enhancing any of the other item slots until you’ve settled on a high-level set of armour, otherwise you’ll waste a lot of gold on low level items.

Here are our recommended armor/artefact sets for early game, mid game and late game.

Early Game Best Sets

In the early game, there aren’t many strong sets, so we just take whatever items we can get that will boost damage output. The Apprentice Mage set gives us a modest boost to Attack and Critical Damage, which makes for a decent DPS boost.

• Armour Set: Apprentice Mage
  • [2 Items] Slightly Increases Attack
  • [4 Items] Increases Critical Hit Damage
• Jewelry Set: Put any items on Jewellery, none of the early sets are good for the Jinwoo Duelist Build.

Mid Game Best Sets

High-Ranking Demon is a well-rounded set that boosts your attack and defense. This should help you out with the rather tricky bosses you’ll encounter around this time. Viridescent gives more damage boosts and slightly reduces your skill cooldowns.

• Armour Set: High-Ranking Demon
  • [2 Items] Increases Attack and Defense
  • [4 Items] Using a Basic Skill triggers a moderate chance to grant Super Armor, and will increase the user’s Basic Skill damage for a certain amount of time.
• Jewelry Set: Viridescent
  • [2 Items] Very slightly reduces the user’s Basic Skill cooldown, but slightly increases their MP Consumption.
  • [4 Items] Using the Basic Skill very slightly increases the user’s Basic Skill Damage Increase effect for a certain amount of time, stacking up to 10 times.

Late Game Best Sets

We’re using the Corrupted Knight and Beast sets because they synergise quite well. The Beast Set boosts your Critical Damage and makes it so your Critical Chance ramps up over the course of a fight. Corrupted Knight boosts your Basic Skill damage whenever you land a Critical Hit. The Corrupted Knight set only requires 3 pieces, so we also equip the Burning Blessing Robe which grants a standalone bonus to Critical Hit Damage.

• Armour Set: Corrupted Knight
  • [2 Items] Slightly Increases Attack and Critical Hit Rate
  • [3 Items] When the user lands an attack as a Critical Hit, it slightly increases their Basic Skill damage for a certain amount of time, stacking up to 10 times.
• Standalone Armour Piece: Burning Blessing Robe
  • [1 Item] Using a Basic Skill twice increases Critical Hit Damage of team members, including user, for a long period of time.
• Jewelry: Beast
  • [2 Items] Increases Critical Hit Damage
  • [4 Items] If a Critical Hit isn’t activated, the chance of the next attack landing as a Critical Hit increases very slightly, stacking up to 30 times.

Duelist Build Best Blessing Stones – Arise Overdrive

Blessing Stones are divided into two types – Survival and Empowerment. Sung Jinwoo can equip two of each type.

You will receive a few Blessing Stones by progressing through the main story, but the best way to obtain them is by farming Red Gate missions on the World Map, and later on by completing the Horizon of Eternity boss fights that are unlocked after completing the main story. Blessing Stones can drop in different Rarities, and higher Rarities will have more potent effects.

Below is our recommended Blessing Stone setup for this Sung Jinwoo Duelist Build in Solo Leveling: ARISE OVERDRIVE:

Blessing Stone	Description
Pulverize	The damage of skills in the Duelist tree and your Stagger effectiveness are significantly increased.
Boss Slayer	Your damage dealt to Boss Monsters increases.
Penalty Quest: Survival	Each time you use Extreme Evasion, your Defense increases very slightly, stacking up to 10 times. At 10 stacks, you get a significant additional Defense boost.
Camouflage	Using Dash has a high chance to trigger Target Priority Decrease, making enemies less likely to attack you (ensure you raise your Shadow Soldiers to benefit from this).

Best Supporting Hunters – Duelist Build

Sung Jinwoo can choose three recruited Hunters to support him in combat. In most missions, the Hunters briefly appear and perform their Support Skill when a certain condition is met. Each Hunter can do this once per 45 seconds.

You can improve your strength significantly by selecting Hunters who have strong Support Skills that can be easily activated by your build and playstyle.

For the Solo Leveling: ARISE OVERDRIVE Duelist Build, I recommend pairing Sung Jinwoo with the following Hunters:

If you don’t think you need the healing from Byung-Gu, you can replace her with either Kang Taeshik for an easy tick of damage that activates on QTE skills, or Lee Bora for an AoE that increases the damage taken by enemies within (activated on QTE skills or when surrounded by 3+ normal monsters).

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