Summary
Monster invasions are common in manhwa. For any number of reasons, portals open up across Earth, allowing monsters and strange beasts to rampage across the land, and the only people who can fight back are hunters. It’s a fantasy sub-genre that started in the early 2010s and has only become popular since.
Theoretically, anyone can be a monster hunter so long as monsters exist, but a distinction should be made. In manhwa, monster hunters fight and harvest monsters because it’s a source of income or because it’s necessary for survival, hunting to prevent being hunted. In manhwa with players or awakened people, the goal is usually something more grand, like climbing a tower or clearing a dungeon. This list will focus on the former.
10Seoul Station Druid
The King Of The Jungle Becomes A Hunter
When portals opened all over the world and monsters invaded, some people were transported to different worlds, including Park Suho. He was stranded on a planet that was host to a huge jungle filled with giant animals. Suho survived there for hundreds of years before a portal back to Earth opened again and sent him home. It doesn’t take long until he’s considered the strongest hunter in the world.
Although this manhwa is pretty standard when it comes to overpowered protagonists and hunter stories, it’s still fun and satisfying to read because Park Suho is such a unique protagonist. Due to his time on the jungle planet, he’s much more primal than a normal person. He’s like a wild animal in a human body, which makes the story much more exciting, sincehe strays from normal logic.
9I’ll Retire After Saving The World
Nihilist Government Worker Goes Back In Time
Time travel is a common theme in hunter manhwa. There are many protagonists who regress and become stronger, but this is not one of those stories. When dungeons began to appear faster and faster, it was only a matter of time before humanity was overrun. Through some miracle, Woo Hwijae was able to go 20 years into the past. To help society prepare for the disaster, Hwijae starts teaching at the Hunter Development Agency.
What makes this regression story different is that Hwijae doesn’t get younger. He returns to the past as an adult in his thirties. He’s not even trying to get stronger himself; he trains young hunters so they can deal with all the problems in the future. This manhwa is one of the few that portrays the perspective of hunters in training.
8Limit Breaker
A Glitch In The System Creates The Strongest Human
In some manhwa, people don’t randomly awaken their powers; they’re put through some kind of tutorial. InLimit Breaker, they are made to survive against a monster for as long as they can. Unfortunately, Kim Kibong’s tutorial had an error, keeping him confined despite meeting the requirements. After he escaped, a long time had passed, andhe’d become significantly stronger, capable of one-shotting almost any monster.
Even the most traditional power fantasies take some time to establish their protagonist, but this manhwa doesn’t waste time. Kibong blasts through even the strongest enemies with his bare fists with little care. It can be a little repetitive, but it’s still an interesting story with some great fight scenes.
7Metro Hunter
The Adventures Of A Veteran Hunter
It’s always more interesting to see how authors incorporate fantasy elements into the real world. InMetro Hunter,monsters literally took over the underground metro lines. The story follows Kang Cheol, a strong hunter who takes the hardest jobs and ventures into the most dangerous areas. His goal is to kill the Master of Fire.
The world building in this manhwa is great because the author incorporates the magic and monsters into the environment so well. By using Kang Cheol’s perspective, exploring the world isn’t overwhelming because he’s already seen everything as a veteran hunter. With a cartoonish art style, this manhwa is a great read overall.
6Solo Resurrection
The Only Strategy He Needs Is His Fist
In this story, anyone over sixteen is put into a tutorial while they sleep, and if they can complete one stage, they can use the system in real life. However, once they fail, they can’t go back to the tutorial. Kang Hyeon is lucky, because his special ability allows him to come back to life. This means he can retry as many times as he wants, which helps him become incredibly strong before the tutorial is even over.
There are few manhwa as chaotic as this one. Kang Hyeon’s decisions have little rhyme or reason, and at a certain point,he’s just doing things to be a nuisance. However, it does make for some fun moments because he goes for a full strength build, solving any and all problems with might. Since he can come back to life, he confronts everything with reckless abandon.
5The First Hunter
The Apocalypse’s Legendary Hunter
InThe First Hunter,the world is ravaged by monsters, leaving only the smallest spaces for human civilization. The story follows Kim Taehun, an ex-special forces soldier, as he leads other survivors through the apocalypse. Fortunately, by eating magic stones, they can gain power and skills that will help them defeat monsters.
This dark, gritty story is much more grounded compared to other hunter manhwa. There is no system or game screen that guides the characters. They must learn things on their own, and everything they do is purely for survival.
4Auto Hunting With My Clones
Two Heads Are Better Than One
In this manhwa, anyone can become a hunter if they go through the awakening process. When Jeong Sang-Woo awakens, he gets the skill “Cloning,” which allows him to create a copy of himself. It follows his orders and can even gain stats for him. By using his clones, he can grow stronger, make money, and have a social life all at one. Unfortunately, being a hunter requires much more than strength and money.
Auto Hunting With My Cloneshasgreat pacing and character development. Sang-Woo doesn’t become strong overnight, and the author doesn’t skip the training parts of the story. The reader gets to follow Sang-Woo throughout his growth, which makes his rise in power feel natural.
3S-Class That I Raised
Han Yunjin is an F-Class hunter who is barely different from a normal human, but his brother Yoohyun awakened as an S-Class. Due to their differences, they drift apart until an unfortunate disaster brings them together, ending with Yoohyun’s death. Yunjin uses a wish to turn back time, using this chance to give up being a hunter and reconnect with his brother.
Although he intends to quit being a hunter, Yunjin is drawn into hunter conflicts as he starts recruiting people for his brother’s guild. There are still adventures in dungeons and monster hunts, but most of the story revolves around Yunjin’s interactions with other hunters, especially when he starts raising monsters himself. It’s a fun and slightly sillystory with great fight scenes and characters.
2I Stole the First Ranker’s Soul
Some Accidents Have Terrific Consequences
There arevery few female protagonistsamong hunter manhwa, butI Stole the First Ranker’s Soulproves there should be more. Son Mo-Ah is a regular office worker who accidentally falls into a dungeon one day. There, she awakens as a hunter with gathering abilities, allowing her to harvest materials more efficiently. This leads her to witness the death of the strongest hunter, Seo Jihan, and using her abilities, she takes his soul by mistake.
From then on, it plays out like many other power fantasies, but unlike those stories, she’s not alone. Jihan is there in spirit form, guiding her as they find a way to bring him back to life. It’s a cohesive story that balances a serious, world-ending plot with a slice of life and romance. Plus, it has a protagonist with a fun personality, which many other manhwa lack.
1Solo Leveling
Story Of The Most Iconic Necromancer
As far as monster hunters manhwa go,Solo Levelingis by far the most popular. Although these types of fantasy stories popped up years prior, it wasn’t untilSolo Levelingthat the sub-genre really took off. Sung Jinwoo’s journey from theweakest to the strongesthunter inspired many others to put their ideas on paper and write their own version.
The story follows Sung Jinwoo, an E-rank hunter, as he raids dungeons to help pay for daily necessities and family hospital fees. As the weakest hunter, he barely breaks even. But after a huge incident where a majority of his team dies, he gains a game-like system that allows him to grow stronger. This strange development changed his life forever.
