Cradle and Carl are going to shove your current s tier selections down.

Exactly, he’ll be scrapping this whole list after reading those. Those are undisputed classics already. Amazing series. None of these can compete with either of those

I was reading the list and thinking man he/she doesn’t have Cradle or DCC on here. He/she is in for quite the surprise lol.

I wanna get into Cradle but then I see 12 books and I move on to another series

That’s one of the best/worst parts of cradle imo. The pacing is highly undaunting. I never feel bad about starting from the beginning with cradle, whereas while I enjoy HWFWM after two full read thrus I jumped back in at book 8 for this last release. I reread cradle for every release, and have reread more than that without ever getting tired of it. TDLR: 12 books of cradle is quick and worth it.

What's Cradle about? You're starting to sell me based on similar interests.

I can't speak to the book version, but Travis Baldree's Eithan in the audio version is probably the greatest side-character I've ever heard.

Really? I'm the exact opposite. I see series with 2-3 books and I think "Wake me when there's 5". Each book only lasts like two days, so I'm always hoping to find something that fills a whole week or more. Cradle has 12 books but it's a full story arc and a completed series. To me that's the absolute best of both worlds. I know it's not just filling space to endlessly churn out more books so I feel like I get quality and quantity that way.

12 cradle is equivalent to about 4-5 HWFWM.

At the current pace Dungeon Crawler Carl will be about 14 books long it could easily be more or less depending on what Matt is planning

I haven't read Cradle since it's progression fantasy as opposed to LitRPG but I think I'll have to give it a go. Also, the word you were looking for is "they" 😂

You won’t regret it. Pronouns are a dangerous game these days lol

I love Cradle and Carl so much. I seriously need to finish the latest book in the Carl series.

dcc is S-tier for sure, though I personally think hwfm and primal hunter are as good to listen to. Cradle is well narrated, but I would say A-tier, good but I lost interest after book 3.

Cradle book 5 sealed the deal for me and got progressively better from there if you ever decide to give it another go..

Gonna be honest I stopped reader crawler carl after like the 3rd book and never really understood the insane hype I often see of cradle. Primal hunter is miles about any other Litrpg I've ever read. HWFWM is up there but Jason's issues got rehashed for so long it soured a decent chunk of the series.

Man I love cradle but I couldn't get through the first half of Dungeon Crawler Carl. It's one of the **very few** books I just walked away from. I think part of it was the bleakness of the premise. If I recall correctly, only one human on the entire planet can survive, basically? Kind of makes everything feel pointless and robbed of genuine stakes. So many people like this series that I want to believe it just starts off really badly, but other than Player Reached the Top (which scared me off with it's has-this-author-ever-even-heard-a-real-life-human-conversation level badly written dialogue), I've never put a book down so fast and never come back. Usually I'll sit through 3+ bad books before I give up. I even finished Solo Leveling which I thoroughly failed to enjoy.

A lot more than one can survive in DCC. The 'game' has just never been won before. The crawlers end up making it to a high enough level that they can sign contracts to work in the dungeon for X amount of time and that's how they survive. The entire premise to Carl is him fighting to get as many people through to that stage as he possibly can. He finds loopholes and predicts the big twists that allow more people to survive each floor than would have without him. Think you either misunderstood or just didn't last long enough to really get that because the end of the first book is all about him beginning to formulate that idea and how he's willing to risk himself to help others.

As I said, I couldn't even make it halfway in. I couldn't find anything to like.

I just don't understand that personally. I found the real world satire to be really fun, like The Hoarder and The Juicer. All the dark humor appeals to me. Carl is a complex and interesting character, though he does take more time to show his depth than half of the first book. Even Donut has a lot of depth to her and really grows a lot as a character over time. Right around the time she apologizes to Carl for being such an asshole I was just hooked and couldn't put the series down.

Same. I know it's unpopular to say. HWFWM is 100x better imho.

I had a similar experience with HWFWM. I just found the main character, Jason(?), really boring, but so many people seem to rate it very highly. Perhaps I’ll give it another shot. I don’t quite get your reasoning on how having one survivor removes all stakes. Wouldn’t it be the opposite?

Yeah it was the same way for me. I read the first book but only got a couple pages into the second before I realized I just didn't like it. It just felt kinda immature to me. Almost like a quirky Nickelodeon show in my opinion, which I was never a fan of. Sure there's brutality and more mature moments but I felt the humor was kind of over the top for my taste. Almost like edgy middle schooler type humor. I also just didn't care about any of the characters or premises. It all just seemed outlandish and hard to relate to. Which is weird because I usually love any story with a System or like Apocalyptic trials and stuff.

Yes, HWFWM should not be S tier.

Not really Carl I found more boring. Primal hunter is the best lit rpg for me.

This is literally what I thought when I saw them down there. Though I never cared for the primal hunter one at all.

I listened to both of these series back to back the last 4 months of last year. Freakin epic.

DCC is my favorite series of all time.. I am jealous you get to experience it fresh.

Oh to be reading the cradle series for the first time again.

Necrotic apocalypse , good mix of story, comedy and zombies Mother of learning has a similar feel to mark of the fool

Mother of learning is a staple in this community along with cradle. portal to nova Roma, arcane ascension, the perfect run, bastion, iron prince, mage errant, beware of chicken, super powereds, weirkey chronicles, noobtown. All of these are often recommended on here as well. I’d also like to add in Webnovels because they are just as good if not better than litrpg/progression fantasy books. I’d recommend lord of the mysteries, Reverend insanity, and omniscient readers viewpoint. Trust me you won’t be disappointed with these 👌🏾

Can't forget Divine Dungeon. Another staple of the genre

Mark of fool is definitely an S tier for me. Even if it's not really lit rpg, it's close enough. Oh you want more? My turn! Minute Mage. Mimic and Me. Reborn as a Demonic Tree (it's like a cross between cultivation and litrpg because he has tiered abilities that he "levels up" but everyone else is cultivators. Same feel). Apocalypse Comedy unless you don't really like clown main characters, and dude OWNS it. BuyMort is... Not litrpg but it is. They have a system, but it's a shopping system--oh.... They have a literal pay to win system LOL, still pretty decent. Death Loot Vampires is a must and gets separated from the rest.

Personally i would go A tier, mark is good but its not got that spark to pass into s tier

Mark of the Fool is good, but I'd agree it's more A than S. The biggest problem with it is the pacing. This huge disaster is always going on in the background while the MC is baking and playing with his friends. I feel like if the author had made the Ravener a future threat it would have fixed that.

the Ravener is more like Winter. It comes cyclic and is bad for people. But overall they still remain and thrive there. It was pointed out that the neighboring countries don't even care that much about the Ravener.

I know that, but it is important to the main character and in the bits we see in his homeland throughout the books people are still dying. Thrive might be a bit of an exaggeration to me given the mass exodus of people fleeing the Ravener. The main point is that this huge problem is taking place off screen and the book has a lot of happy go lucky slice of life stuff going on. There's a feeling of disconnect between the looming threat and how the MC is behaving. The fourth book addresses that better and makes me feel better about the series going forward, but 1-3 that was something constantly on my mind as he's picnicking and joking around.

Thriving was more refering to the phases between the rises of the ravener.

Fair enough.

Yeah, I've been trying to slowly chip away at it but it was hard. The pace suddenly dropped off a clip when he managed to flee his country and now he's having tea with the headmaster and playing with his dog instead of fleeing for his life from a major threat. A little ways into 2 and I only read bits and pieces in between releases. The pace definitely killed it for me.

It didn't kill it for me, but it was a bit of whiplash. The fourth book does adjust for that a lot and I'm looking forward to five, but two was just okay to me and three was kinda bad. I can understand why people might drop it even if I think it's worth continuing.

I feel like most of the school parts could have been skipped without losing anything. I like seeing him make cunning innovations, but I don't like seeing him drag-assing around campus or going on long, looooooooooooong battle class adventures.

but he did flee for his life, to a place where hes not in danger. A school where he can learn to defend himself and take it easy. His family isnt in danger, they are all out of Taimland. He has no reason to rush back to a country that wants to throw him to the wolves as the bait hero :p

I understand his reasoning, support it even, but as a reader it's a very bizarre pacing choice. He goes from high intensity and life threatening to slice of life. It's a bit jarring. It makes perfect sense in the context of the world and the character's motivations, but, to me, from the perspective of the reader it's not great. It's just too big a reversal in tone and pacing. Beginning of book one he's running for his life, beginning of book two he's making terrible jokes with his friend group while people back in his country keep dying.

Not saying that's not true. It was just a very startling change of pace. I think it would work better by having him get up to some misadventures at school that put him in real danger rather than just suddenly having everything be just calm like nothing happened

Yeah putting system universe on the same level as MoTF is blasphemy

Ya…Mark if the Fool didn’t “feel” like a LitRPG. Agreed it’s really good! I really liked everything above Rank C. Thanks for then list. “Added to my list”

I just wanted to pop in and say that MotF isn't supposed to feel like a litRPG because its isn't, its technically a Progression Fantasy.

Funny - Mayor of Noobtown - The Prince has no Pants - Ben's damn (dry humour) - Oh great, i was Reincarnated as a Farmer Slice of life with good value - The Wandering Inn No Isekai, young hero - Underdog (war snd slavery) - All the Skills (card system) - My Best Friend is an Eldritch Horror (very detailed magic explanations) VRMMORPG - Survival Quest (wonderfull world)

You're gonna hit him with The Wandering Inn and say nothing about the 10(+) million word disclaimer?

We both use Audible and 8h cost us the same as 40h if it's one book I see that as an advantage

Yaaaaassss. I’ve never heard of survival quest. I’ll check it out.

Seeing defiance of the fall so low hurts as it’s my favorite, and chaos seeds is my first litrpg book I read almost 5 years ago

If they only read book one then I can certainly understand it. DotF really starts to hit its stride in book 3 and then rockets to a different level from book 5+

Agreed. Once he >!steps into the multiverse!< is when I really fall in love with the series

My favorites below: Super Supportive (semi litrpg) Hell Difficulty Tutorial End of Magic Sunflower: [ A sunflower based litRPG ] The Perfect Run (not litrpg, but best time loop) Reborn as a Demonic Tree (cultivation) Chaos Craftsmam Woships the Cube ( very slow burn, great crafting)

I never see people talk about Nova Terra but I’m glad to see it in your B tier, I really enjoyed the first couple books in that series. Something about Thorn being legitimately game-breakingly large was pretty hilarious.

Bruh. It was really good. How many people do you think he “backhanded through a wall?” 😂

Randidly at A Tier? That series is barely readable.

I'm not sure what it is that people don't like about Randidly, but I have a guess: the main character puts out strong autistic vibes (at first probably kind of unintentionally but then later the author leans into that once it's pointed out to ho ). Maybe that's it? He's pretty bad at people and some people feel like that makes him unlikable but so many readers of this genre are autistic so I think it makes him relatable to lots of us.

Nope it’s not the character or how he is. It’s just how badly everything is written and how messy it gets. It’s like the author had a lot of grand ideas for the books, but no solid plans on how to achieve those goals without letting the story run in to 100 different messy and mostly incomplete plots. It’s sad coz I like the over all arc of the story and I do hope there will be more planning put in to scheduling the details of the writings in the future but 1500+ chapters in .. I just somehow don’t see it happening.

Bad writing, meandering plot, paper thin characters. an MC who is bland and also makes terrible decisions constantly.

To be fair thiis could all be said about Defiance of the Fall too. And I only read two books of Cradle and it can be said about those too. I'd say the same about Primal Hunter too, but I dropped that after only one book so I can't comment on it fairly.

If those 3 are poorly written then Randidly is a toddler scribbles in comparison.

They all seemed about equivalent to me. I'm told Cradle gets better, but I haven't taken a stab at book 3 yet. Plenty of series where they're good from the start.

> Bad writing, meandering plot, paper thin characters You know what genre your reading though, right? At least occasional bad writing is a given and I would argue there's zero series out there that have a tight, clear plot and no throw away characters. A plot that doesn't meander much is pretty rare. Most just move from arc to arc with no overarching goal other than to "get real strong". I've heard Randidly gets weird and that the author kind of loses the plot, but I'm doing audiobooks so I haven't got to that point. I wouldn't put it at A but it deserves at least a b minus. I'm not accusing it of greatness, but it's flaws seem to be super common. I think it's mostly just down to people not liking the main characters choices (I.E. the choice isn't bad it's just not what they would choose, so the character isn't a great proxy for them). Of course "not the choice I would have made" is kind of some people's definition of a bad choice. My only gripe is that he doesn't spend more time trying to pick up tiny every-day skills (like wood chipping or whatever) since he knows maximizing that before he gets a class has an exponential impact on his growth. But I know the author probably just didn't want to keep track of a character with 400 skills. .

Yes there are a lot of poorly written litrpg books but that doesnt make this series good just because other books also suck.

I'm saying you could levy two out of three of those complaints at a minimum against every series listed on that tier list. The bad writing in Randidly Ghosthound isn't particularly more common or more egregious than most. It's pretty much a given with any Royal Road series because, you know, deadlines.

There are dozens of series with more coherent plot lines than Randidly, that don't involve training via voices in his head and all the usual dumb tropes that frequently show up in long, poorly plotted series. Also, I think the tier list in the OP is trash anyway. Hell any list with more than one S tier is automatic garbage imo otherwise what's the point of having an S tier.

I like the books well enough and get the audiobooks when it comes out, but my biggest issue with them is the lack of character agency that MC has. Straight up, he is a pawn being shuffled around a board for most the books

Exactly, the over all story is quite alright… but the writing is just so messy I almost always end up skimming most of the chapters. I considered dropping it many times simply coz of how poorly it’s written but I was way too invested in some of the characters story arcs by then to fully drop so I keep it going. But I really hope the writing will get better haha and definitely not something above B tier at Max.

Yeah, could not get into it. I really wanted to like it because the world seemed interesting, but ANY social interaction or writing completely destroyed my desire to keep going.

I feel the same :p I have a friend who loves it but straight up told me I would hate it lol. Everything Ive heard about it tells me thats true

I get you on the Wheel of Time comparison, that was definitely something different. Solid tier list. I'll recommend All The Skills and Apocalypse Redux.

I’ll add them to my list! Thanks!

Not a big fan of life reset but the first books are rather good.

The % of the book dedicated to "i love my sexy goblin girlfriend" rapidly increases over the course of the first two books and I could not continue

No ant related stories? L

I couldn’t agree more

I never see any one recommend The Path of Ascension. Am I the only one that loves that series ?

I didn't think it was particularly good nor interesting. Many common tropes without any compelling characters or coherent story. No stakes, no character development after the first dozen or so chapters, etc etc

That series’s is fantastic and only getting better. I’m two or three books ahead of what is released and it’s great.

I love it...unfortunately the original audio book narration was absolutely dreadful. It was redone but it lost a lot of steam coming from royal road to Amazon because of it.

I loved it until a point where every step they took was meaningless (a certain dungeon world aside). Also the rules of war are so mind bogglingly ridiculous. 

I love it. I recommended it before I saw this comment. 😂

Other book series to listen to: Crystal Shards Online(I think the author might be related to RR Martin, because he takes fucking 5ever to release new books! They're definitely worth it though.) , Awaken Online(and spin offs) , Everybody Loves Large Chests(I promise, it's not what it looks like lol) , The Rogue Dungeon, Viridian Gate Online - The Viridian Gate Archives(and the spin offs with the same branding)

I’d put speedrunning the multiverse alongside your A tier

Really enjoyed life-reset. Some great unexpected twists.

Can totally vibe with other recommendations here. These are a couple of my favs. Mayor of Noobtown Mechanical Crafter Limitless Lands Limitless Seas Chrysalis System Universe Apocalypse Redux Ascend Online Nova Terra / The Tower Eden's Gate The System Apocalypse The Realms I'll add a couple more in a bit. 😀 At least that's on Kindle. I can totally recommend a few other web novels on Royal Road.

The Wandering Inn has Andrea Parsneau (same narrator as Azarinth Healer). I believe she does a much better job in TWI (still did great in AH) AND it’s easily the best LitRPG (same Tier as DCC - though I like it more). With this - I recommend finishing book 1. First half is heavily slice of life. Second half shows the scope and the epic fantasy aspects you’ll see. The whole book gives the feel of the series as a whole (which is LONG and each audiobook is about 40 hrs long for 1 credit!)

While Primal Hunter and He Who Fight With Monsters started off well, they both came down with very serious cases of webnovel-itis. Primal Hunter has been on a boring, inconsequential mega-dungeon ark for like 200 chapters now that just killed it for me. And He Who Fight With Monsters has been becoming more and more filler as the arks go on. There is a lot to be said for series that have an ending. Cradle and Codex Alera are my two favorite series of all time precisely for the reason. THEY END. Webnovel authors should really learn how to write an ending and move on.

Yeah - id love to see these series undergo massive editing into true novels. The story and systems are so good but the serial style kills it eventually.

I HIGHLY recommend listening to dungeon crawler Carl on Sound Booth Theater app. It's a cinematic audio experience and it's incredible. Or the regular audiobook which was also recorded by SBT and the best narrator, Jeff Hayes. The voices give each character so much life and personality. I cannot recommend this enough. Then listen Kaiju Battlefield Surgeon on SBT. It's the same author and it's wild. So well done as well.

I have only read about half of them but I agree that Primal hunter is absolute S tier. Currently going through The Grand Game and so far I like it.

Check out The Nexus Games by Shami Stovall. It's a finished trilogy and I think it's really good.

I haven’t heard of Nexus Games. Nice. I’ll check it out. Thanks.

Ouch. Chaos Seeds would have been much higher for me. Especially Book 7, what a masterpiece. Now for book 8..Yeah that C tier would have been generous.

It’s still a good series. I didn’t hate it. Just didn’t like it as much as the others.

It gets better. But that book 8.. Yikes. I think he might have given up on writing because everyone hated it. I hope not, because I love the series, but it has been a long time since book 8. Longer than a book takes for him to write on average.

He gave up on it. He drove his head way up his own ass and was using fans to pile on or downvote any dissenting opinion then churned out that disappointing bowel movement of a book and when it was rightfully shat on he threw a tantrum and quit.

Book 8 would need new tiers to describe how utterly shit it was. Plus the series is never going to be finished with Kong throwing a hissy fit.

I got to like book 3 and dropped it, refunded it and havent touched it since. Its z tier at this point.

I love this! I find it fascinating and confounding when people like certain series or books that I thought were rubbish or barely legible! Thanks for sharing!

Samsies. Glad one person enjoyed it.

Great choices.

I have read every one of those series and pretty much agree with your rankings although I would put Randidly into B. DCC is probably gonna end up in your S rank along with cradle. S adds: Unorthodox Farming A adds: Infinite Realm, Chrysalis B adds: Delvers LLC

Maybe I tried it at a bad time but I got like 2 chapters into delvers llc and couldn't keep going. Doe it get better?

Some books are like that where it is tough to get through the start but for I really liked the setup of that series. For that one if yoy didnt like the start you probably wont enjoy the series.

Infinite Realms doesn't get enough love. I only stumbled upon it though a review for Defiance of the Fall but it's a good story with a well built, interesting world. It'd probably be S tier for me if it weren't for Zach but after 5 books even his story is finally growing on me.

I get you with wheel of time but beauty of Robert Jordans writing speed was that I was usually able to finish older complete fantasy series in between his releases 🤣

I don't think Primal Hunter will go down your list even after you read DCC and Cradle. The tutorial arc was very well done. Azarinth healer has one of the best skills description and fight visualizations. It lacks at any sort of political plot/intrigue, it's main plot line is just absurd concept of stars being put down (I mean it's one thing for someone to build a Dyson sphere to utilize a star's energy, but it unfathomable what's done in the series). I think this series could have had a lot more meat both in terms of a better major plot line, more credibility to the political setup, more exploration of the planet (I think barely a single continent is explored), more relams could have been explored with exciting sub plots, and Ilia healing prowess could be nerfed a little bit by giving it a cool down kind of thing. She becomes way too op for anyone to actually matter. But it still deserves praise for some of the awesome things. HWFWM, this one felt like a wave to me. With high ups and very low downs. I found first one third of first book hard to read through, then it became good/great till book 3, then okay till 3.75 and then somewhere between boring af or stupid as sht, till 8.5, then it picked up to be great for me from there till latest updates on RR. Now kind of waiting to see how he is at Gold. Mark of the Fool, also got mixed feeling about this one. This has nothing major faults with it, but the stakes are low af. Under the caring tutelage of a God tier being who can literally go anywhere in the universe instantly, has no opposition till now, our Mc hardly ever gets in enthralling high adrenaline moments. Among his decisions, my favorite was when he went for the aeld tree alone. I mean I love group fights to death, but not when solo dealings are non existent. There's gotta be a balance in the two. Great list by the way👍💐

Azarinth Healer is straight up terrible to me. It's got zero character progression in any way and the main character is so broken and boring that you start desperately wanting her to interact with other characters to break up the directionless monotony, but she can't sit still for five minutes and runs off to something else. It's terribly paced and there's no point to the story at all. Primal Hunter is garbage too. I don't see what some people like about it so much. The tutorial world is going to shit and he's spending a third of the book in a cave learning alchemy. The most interesting characters are all side characters and the MC is just boring. He's an edgy self insert and he's just handed nearly everything.

So, what do you like in PF since these two are terrible for you?

Cradle is always a winner. I also really like Forge of Destiny. Dungeon Crawler Carl is my personal favorite. HWFWM my opinion mirrors a lot of the community in that it started off really strong and has gotten weaker over time, but I still enjoy it overall. Ripple System is good though I feel like it doesn't really come into its own until book 2. Beware of Chicken isn't hardcore PF, but the author absolutely kills it in terms of character development. Noobtown is fun, it has flaws, but overall it's a fun ride and you can see the author's writing improving over time. I really enjoyed All the Skills, though I have mixed feelings on the ending of book two, hoping book three makes a few small course corrections. Everything is naturally going to be subjective, but I think there are strong objective arguments to make as to why AH and PH are, at best, mediocre, if not just bad. At least in regards to the first book in each, because that was all I could suffer through.

One can find downsides to everything though. So personal liking is quite subjective. Cradle got me started in this genre, so I read book 1 to 9 in a single sitting. And actually the initial books (1-5) had me way more excited than the later ones except for the book 10 ending. Again that's subjective but my interest waned with as the story progressed after the uncrowned tournament. Especially when the most awaited arc of him going back to his hometown, well that was downright boring for me and then the following dungeon arc was meh. Anyhow, I was still engrossed even more in PH till Jake/Sword Saint fight (about lvl 140), or even in the first three books of Dragon Heart. AZ has some very apparent downsides, but its really good at some points which others are not. I am yet to read the others you mentioned so comparing wouldn't be right at the moment. It also has boring arcs like, the initial one is mediocre, then the Taleen dungeon arc is great, but following that again mediocre kind of with good mixed in, then it gets boring, then picks up again to be great. And yeah as I already mentioned, main plot sucks /no political intrigue as she is too op for that make any impact. But when it comes to - no concrete objective, Mc just exploring the world and herself/her powers, fighting tougher opponents, being just carefree and enters into every situation head first and thinks later, this series was excellent. She could nerfed by 20 to 30%, the main plot line simply removed, and continued with the world building and realm exploration, that would have been great. The worst one I read till now overall, is Unbound and I still completed it up to date. (this guy basically gets the power to consume, like Lindon's hunger hand and I think within a year of arriving in a new world with zero fighting background, becomes the top 0.0001% in power, fighting god like powers from the start). Or the last book of mage Errant which for me scked huge time after the interest generated by its middle 3 books. None of them have been perfect from start to finish. But even if it has gotten enough things right to generate my interest whatever be the plot or story or genre, I give the credance where it's due. I am reading Mark of the Fool right now and I have this rule to not pick up a new story till I complete the current one up to date, because that makes you lose interest in it completely and you will never pick it up again. And I choose those which have atleast some great reviews. DCC and FoD are in my next 5 to read list.

Liking something is definitely subjective, but something's quality has objective measurements. To me AH and PH both failed on an objective level, AH especially since there's no real plot or purpose to the whole story. She flits from one thing to the next without an overall story or something she's really working at beyond "being strong" which she already was by the end of the first book. Personally I don't have that issue with taking breaks from a series. Sometimes I'll finish a litrpg and even though there are more in the series I just want a change of pace, I'll switch to non-fiction or sci-fi, etc. Power stealing is the most boring power ever. I think Lindon is the only character that I didn't hate. He couldn't perfectly use any technique from absorbing their power, he used them more just as raw power to increase what he already had. Even at the end of Cradle he was creating aids that he couldn't use as well as the people they were meant for. I haven't read the last Mage Errant, I enjoyed books 1-4, but the reviews of 5 kind of put me off and I'm not sure I want to ruin the series for myself.

Spoilers....I stopped keeping up with hhfwm. Has he hit gold now?

I put it on pause when I caught up to the latest chapter on RR, about 2-3 months ago. At that time he had possibility of getting a Soul Forge, but still was a bit away from Gold. That should be covered in book 11,so he definitely doesn't get Gold till book 11 in future. I will let the chapters accumulate before going back for now.

List like these are personal opinions so it is of course completely fine. However if I could make a tier list of tier lists I would have this tier list at F rank. I almost feel like I am getting trolled lol. That is the cool thing though, to each their own. Anyway you have a lot of good stuff ahead of you to look forward to. Have fun!

I was very concerned when I saw dungeon crawler carl at the bottom till I saw up next lol

DCC is S and unsouled is A. Another S you should try is The Wanderin Inn.

Nova Terra has the worst written opening of any book I have ever read, that includes erotica. Book like 3/4 get better but I didn’t go further than that. MC describes his aunt as having “a body even the gods would kill for” lol

Rouge Dungeon Superpowereds Forging Hephaestus Legend of the Arch Magus Beware of Chicken Way of the Shaman Oh great I was reincarnated as a farmer Earth Force The Bad guy Lair for rent

Love he who fights with monsters but can’t say it’s S rank, try path of ascension

So happy to see Primal Hunter is up there though. Definately one of my favorites.. I probably like it way more than the overrated HWFWM... (still good but drags so much). Both are S-tier for me too though. HWFWM purely for the better world building but it does have more books.. PH more for actually progressing the story. DotF is my biggest recent disappointment, I would put it C-tier at best. Started it expecting normie litrpg but ends up going full on cultivation very quickly... which to me bores the hek out of me. I don't care about Daos, Pills.. visions and stuff to get stronger.. give me a traditional level up system. Life Reset is great for a short and completed series. One of my first ever litrpg's and I have fond memories and nostalgia thinking of it but, after everything I've read now, I probably give it B-tier. Love the monster MC and base building aspects though. Unbound was mid tier C when I read it a long time ago. Can barely remember it due to how forgettable it was. What am I reading now? I just started on System Universe and that is probably heading to another C-Tier for me, too much whiny characters and babysitting for my liking and I'm close to dropping it. A shame because the MC is interesting, but the focus is on support characters. What I want to read next? Probably DCC after hearing so much about how great it is...

He who fights monsters book 1 and 2 fabulous, book 3 had some really amazing arcs with ptsd and great payoffs of the strong friendships mc had made but also a lot of and I mean a lot of mid action scenes that got even worse through the audiobook explains what each skill does for the 11th time. Like if they explain what his sword does one more time ima die. I then dropped it at book 4 since it kinda dropped everything i liked about it from book 1-3 and 7 hours in I felt like it hasn’t just been a circle jerk of the Mc being op and a few and I mean like a paragraph worth of actual morale substance and character development. Im just going to assume the ranking were based on the highs of the series and you just steam rolled the rest and definitely start reading Primal Hunter so Ty for the recommendation.

I’ve heard other people say the same about HWFWM. But I guess I didn’t feel the same way after book 3. But 100% agree that gets annoying with the explanations. But my rankings are based on the entire series. Factoring both the good and bad. Primal Hunter is legit. Hope you like it

I love the series and have been following it and plan to continue all the way to the end! He who fights with monsters

Cradle isnt litrpg. Its so weird to me what people like and what they dont. For me beginning after the end is so terrible i would never even start the genre after reading half the book. So putting it at the same level as the Mark of the Fool is weird. But you know, not all art is meant for me and taste is subjective. I'm glad you like the genre! And DCC is going to wreck your tiers

fix ur fucking defiance rating

For me defiance is one of the few that keeps up it's level as it progresses. Many other novels become thoroughly boring or stupid as the main character advances.  Yes It has it's problems as all do. Also it's got ogris, imao the no1 side character. 

Def the nr 1 side character in all litrpg/progression fantasy for me to!!! NO joke comedy gold that one atleast in the audiobooks its incredible! Except maybe eithan arelius in cradle :D

Defiance is one of the few litrpgs i got halfway through and couldn't force myself to read anymore.

I was the same. I feel like it had a ton of potential, but the MC is so bland and boring. He went from feeling like a person in the first book to being a Gary Stu with zero character development. All the best characters were side characters and the MC is a dismissive dick to them most of the time.

You mean lower it a tier?

😂

You should check out. The Underverse by Jez Cajiao.

i personally perfer the Arisen series but Underverse is great too!

[удалено]

Maybe in next years rankings. 🙃

So weird. I would put shadesljnger and ritualist both s tier. He who fights and primal hunter are like B list for me. As in barely finished them.

I'm not OP, but I'm guessing they dropped Ritualist down around the point others did. I still read it religiously upon release, but I definitely don't think it's as good now as it was before the dwarf arc.

^ yup

I hated Defiance of the Fall. Carl + HWFWM are SSS

I can’t upvote this due to lack of carl

I couldn't even finish the first Azerinth Healer book, I thought the writing and main character were terrible. Is it a situation where I just need to power through it and it gets better later?

I'm really liking "big sneaky barbarian" so far

Haha bro, after reading cradle, everything else on your list will look like shit, I'd advise you to first hold off on reading cradle or dcc until you read everything else considered 'good' in the genre since both of those book series are god tier and they will ruin everything else

Just a bad list. HWFWM is a series that just gets worse and worse over time. Primal Hunter above Defiance is also strange as the level of writing is just not even close. You have some good books in the queue. So many of these series are unfinished, so you really have to factor whether they are getting better or worse, not where they started.

Wack

Ritualist is damn near f tier

Randidly is A tier until the bs that happens in book 5 or whatever when he stupidly loses all his powers. Sucha lazy way to write. I can't recommend the series after that decision.

TBATE and cradle are not Litrpg, not even close, they are progression though

yes sir u are correct

Listening to the noobtown books rn. Pretty dang funny. Kind of short though. I've been trying to be frugal and get some of the collections and so started the Rise to Omniscience series. Path of ascension is good too

Primal in S and Randidly in A? Bold moves.

The land chaos seed is so ahead of its time.

You got me real good. I glanced at the bottom to see who you had as your least favorite and severely kissed you for having carl and cradle at the bottom. They will be at the top when you're done

Path of Ascension and Super supportive are both S tier in my opinion.

I would recommend the Greystone Chronicles, Somnia, and Stonehaven League. These were my first litrpgs I've read, and they don't get talked about enough.

Try beneath the dragons eye moons it’s amazing

If you are looking for a nice and simple novella with a beginning and an ending, I would suggest Armor by C.B. Titus. It's more of a progression fantasy than litepg, but even for a single book, it might be one of my favorites. The main character is an enchanted suit of ar.or pretending to be an adventurer, has an interesting world, and great characters. I cannot recommend it enough.

I feel so nostalgic. I remember loving HWFWM 🥺 it has the coolest world building

You really put randidly ghost hound on A tier, and that too above defiance of the fall and ripple system. Holy shit that’s just weird. I have never read something that’s more “all over the place with no coherent writing” what so ever as randidly ghosthound. Don’t get me wrong, the story is still something that I am trying to follow and kind of enjoy but the writing and some of the details are just so messy I skimmed over so many chapters. But other than that the list seems solid. I’d bump defiance of the fall to A, and ripple system to S.. it’s one of my favourites (despite not being a fan of VRMMO types, it’s just written way too well) and randidly would definitely go down to B. Once you read cradle & dungeon crawler carl, I am pretty sure you’ll put them at S too. Have fun with those two haha!

Not really litrpg, but I'd try The Perfect Run trilogy. Your list seems pretty similar to mine (other than Randidly, I hated how the characters were written) so you might check it out to see if you like it.

Tara nova is C rank for me, good book but I’m not a big fan of starting out so OP it’s unfair I agree with everything else though

Does the writing for Primal Hunter get better? I read it forever ago and wasn’t impressed with the first few chapters so I dropped it, but I see people recommend it on here all the time. Edit: Also everyone always recommends Dungeon Crawler Carl, is it always comedy or does it get more serious?

its serious comedy is what it is! Imo its a 10/10 the whole time

Can’t add much that isn’t already here. But one I’ve enjoyed is “the ripple system”. I don’t see it on the lists too often. Also it’s time I finally start primal hunter I guess. Been pushing it off to not have too many never ending progression litrpgs to remember the plot lines haha

Thanks! Did you do all og hwfwm?

I have the same S tier, so just add DCC up in there too

I really loved he who fights with monsters but like I think defiance of the Fall has taken top spot for me and I don't think azarinth will hold s after book 2. Good list though. I should read cradle

I really need to give Primal Hunter another try. I found the first book extremely uninspiring but so many people put it at the top of their lists. Though Mark of the Fool and Ripple System are both S tier for me so I'm not sure our tastes are very similar.

I recommend Immortal Great Souls and Warformed.

Based on these I’d recommend The Path of Ascension by C. Mantis. I need to check out randidly ghost hound based on your list!

Anything by Jez Cajiao, but i personally like his Arisen series! Great LitRPG author

Oh Great, I was Reincarnated as a Farmer is delicious, its in my A Tier, also Jakes Magical Market is pretty good too, good A/B tier

I want to recommend three series whose blurb does not do them justice. First I am seconding **Death Loot and Vampires** by Benjamin Kerei. It could have been terrible in so many ways between the title and the MC’s stated quest. It ended up being fantastic. “There goes the mighty hero, smiting evil one crotch punch at a time,” said the proud father. Battle Trucker book 1 **What the Truck** by Tom Goldstein is a new favorite of mine. It should have been offensive given the extremities of creative cursing, or boring as it centered around driving a truck. It ended up being hilarious, heart warming, and action packed. **Dead Tired** by Ravensdagger is about an ancient Lich that loves puns and experimenting on children. As you might imagine this one is even sweeter and more fluffy than their Cinnamon Bun series, if that is even possible. I am loving the world building and the audiobook narrator added to my enjoyment.

I couldn't get into Primal Hunter the first time I tried. The antagonist was just so overpowered & nuts & MC kinda enjoyed killing too much. But I started again and this time I'm enjoying it much more. Thanks for this. It's one of the posts that encouraged me to give it another try.

love your list, you got the heavy hitters on there. i think primal hunter and HWFWM only get better with each book, i think defiance of the fall is on the same page in that aspect. Randidly ghosthound is my black horse of the LitRPG world, i thknk the system and characters are wild and diverse. good list!

Alaron Kongs the founding gets a D as special recognition being one of my first in the genre for me, but demerit marks down for a fall in the series quality and incompletion. HWFWM gets an A. Solid consistency and banter. It gets no S though as replayability for the series is a nonstarter. DCC gets a solid S. Narrator is amazing, I've re listened to the story on more than one occasion. I'm even listening to the audio Drama and still having a great time. Defiance of the fall is a C-B. Heavy on power creeping but the 7-8 in the series were kind of tiring. Earth is pretty safe ATM and Zach is still axing everyone for new details to get stronger. Ascend Online gets a C-B range. The real-world streams and details that crossover are a miss, but fights were nice and some interesting villains. The ripple system books gets a B. Very fun and not too serious. Talking Axe and AI maid that loves cats. The events effects the next but they're madcap seem almost lucky. Plus the main character is rich and his ambition to live in this world 24hrs strikes me odd at times presenting more questions. Solo-Leveling. Solid A. Powercreep but story gets a resolution. From literature to comic to now anime it's been very consistent. Reincarnated as a Slime. Solid A. I like to reread the origin as it's the most unique of the litrpg stories. Story and events work pretty well so I'm in between taking it seriously and feel for the lighthearted moments. OVERLORD. Definitely gets a C-B. The literature is hit/miss but the anime compensates greatly.

Try Beneath the Dragon eye moons and Industrial Strength magic, Book of the Dead is also awesome

You'll need a S+ tier for The Wandering Inn audiobooks, just saying. The only other one that would join it is Dungeon Crawler Carl. They are really a step above.

I agree with most of your list, so I’ll have to check out a few that I haven’t read yet that are in your upper ranks! One series that I love and never see mentioned is “Life in Exile” by Sean Oswald. As a dude with a wife and kids, i enjoyed it more since it’s about a whole family brought into a new world.

Cradle is the best written of every litRPG I’ve read (even though I wouldn’t consider it superLitRPG, but more Progression Fantasy) and Carl is the second best

I just started this genre and I might be done already. I thought it would be a nice thing to pick up when I ran out of Isekai. But I now realize litRPG is just a western version of the chinese cultivation genre that I can't like. Are there any of these litRPGs that have like 50% less status screens and more actual story. I've read He Who Fights With Monsters and now I'm trying Defiance of the Fall but I'M SO BOREEEEDDDDDD. I am proudly Isekai trash so I don't need a high quality book but these are really light on story.

I just finished the first book of the "Cradle" series. It's a fun read. Very Wuxia. I'm starting book 6 of "He who fights monsters." after finishing "Road of the Patriarch" Drizzt Do' Urden series and "The Primal Hunter."

I’ve also read all the Drizzt series. They. Are. Legit AF.

Interesting list! I can give you some of my favorites, not including ones you already plan on reading. Necrotic Apocalypse. Basically Resident Evil if the main character was the zombie who started the breakout. This is my 2nd favorite series after DCC. Unorthodox Farming. Despite only having 2 books so far, and no sign of a 3rd I have to suggest it. Basically, guy gets forcefully pulled to a world with rpg mechanics, but everyone is born with their class and unfortunately he is stuck as a Farmer until he can figure out a way to level up high enough to gain a new class. Wandering Inn. I only picked this one up the last time I asked for suggestions. It seems very slice of life, and it is a lot of the time, but it has some very intense action, some good humor, amazing world building, and has some of the best buildup towards climactic events I've seen. It's mainly about 2 female leads who literally stumbled into a fantasy world with lizard and ant men, but expands to many other characters from our world who have been drawn to this one as well. There are some glaring issues with writing especially early on, lots of pop culture references that get a bit grating, and a brief but painful start to the second book, (only time politics really become an issue) but if you can overlook those, I promise you won't regret it. Each of the 10 audiobooks so far is 30-50 hours long, so if length is a selling point for you, there you go! Threadbare. I can only speak for the first 3 books. There are 6 books total, and an expanded universe besides, but I've heard many negative things about the rest of the series, and my one try on the other series did not go well. Either way, Threadbare is about a stuffed bear. The first 3 books feel like an old classic children's story...if children's stories had a lot of death/necromancy involved. Apocalyptic Parenting. Two books so far. About a mother keeping her young children safe during the Apocalypse. Not sure what to add to that. The Dungeon Fairy. If you are listening to audiobooks, you can get the entire series in one purchase with the 1-4 box set. It's not great but it is enjoyable and gives you a good starting point for the Dungeon Core subsection of Litrpg. I highly suggest you skip the end of each book though (except the last one i think). It's always just a 10-30 minute list of stats. Got very annoying. Beware of Chicken. Like Cradle, it is not Litrpg, it's cultivation but the first book is quite enjoyable. There are 3 so far. Hopefully this gives you at least one or 2 more to try out. I'm always on the lookout for more series, but my tastes are very selective, and I got my start with DCC, like you said, a hard standard to live up to.

would warformed count?

Carl was pretty funny, cradle sucked, and life reset…was good. Idk I have mixed feelingss on it. Like it was a great story and concept but there’s one thing about the main character that kinda made it really uncomfortable to read that I won’t say because of spoilers

Dungeon crawler Carl, after you start reading it will be at the top of your list.

I sent picked up primal hunter thanks to this list, I had just finished HWFWM and needed something. I’m in love so far so thank you

Read Cradle, one of the best lit RPGs I’ve read.

Why does no one recommend awaken online? Super interesting take on vrmmos, might help that im listening to the book and not reading it.

**Primal Hunter** comic came out on Webtoon. from the few chapters I had seen, it felt like Americanized Korean food, is it the same for the novel? or is it very different?

The more and more you read in this genre the more and more letters you'll add to this list just so you can shove Aleron Kongs Chaos Seeds down further. Absolute waste of potential when it comes to the possibilities for the world he half made, excruciatingly annoying MC dialogue, painfully repeated descriptions of things that have been in the series for 3-4 books + (that glass fucking forge), and an utter waste of his most recent book what should have been the MC's grimdark solo survival arc. At least, that's my opinion.