What Are Red Gates in Solo Leveling? Explained

In Short
  • A Red Gate in Solo Leveling is the deadliest gate if compared to the normal dungeons shown so far.
  • Once a hunter steps inside the Red Gate, they gets sealed inside it until they kill the boss, are killed by monsters, or witness a dungeon break.
  • The harsh environmental conditions of the Red Gates makes them worst even than the monsters found inside.

Solo Leveling Season 2 is finally here, and the first two episodes delivered everything we expected from them. The new season wasted no time and started with action-packed episodes, all thanks to Jinwoo’s encounter with a Red Gate. A Red Gate is unlike anything that we witnessed earlier in the anime (or manhwa if you’re a reader). So, it’s understandable if you are curious about how it differs from a standard dungeon gate. So, here’s everything you need to know about these threatening Red gates in Solo Leveling.

Solo Leveling Red Gates Are Torture In Disguise

Sung Jinwoo inside the Red Gate in Solo Leveling
Image Credit: A-1 Pictures (via YouTube/Crunchyroll, Screenshot By Aparna Ukil/Beebom)

In the Solo Leveling universe, gates appear all over the world, and no one knows what phenomenon is behind these appearances. These gates are blue in color and are ranked based on the difficulty of the monsters residing within them. The gate ranks range from E-Rank to S-Rank, making it easier for the Hunter Association to tackle these threats. 

While it’s quite easy for hunters to analyze the threat level of a Blue Gate, it’s almost impossible for anyone to predict the presence of a Red Gate. That’s because Red Gate always disguises itself as a Blue Gate.

For the Hunter Association, this gate might appear as a B-Rank or A-Rank threat from the outside, but the gate reveals its true nature once humans are inside. Also, hunters can come outside of the Blue Gates if the threat level is too high, but they can’t exit the Red Gates until they’ve cleared the dungeon. That’s because Red Gates seals the entry and exit once Hunters are inside. 

Once Hunters step into the Red Gate, it’s impossible for anyone else to get inside or step outside of the gate unless one of these three things happen:

  • The Dungeon Boss is killed
  • All the humans are killed by the monsters
  • A dunegon break happens (a very rare phenomenon)

Conditions Inside a Red Gate Makes Things Worse for Hunters

Ice Elves in Solo Leveling
Image Credit: A-1 Pictures (via YouTube/Crunchyroll, Screenshot By Aparna Ukil/Beebom)

The rules of a Blue Gate are simple: kill the boss to close the gate or go back and return with more help if needed. However, things are tricky with Red Gates.

Firstly, no one from the outside, including the S-Rank hunters, can help those trapped inside the gate. Secondly, time moves differently in Red Gates as one hour in the real world is equivalent to a day inside the red-colored gates. 

Furthermore, the environmental conditions inside the red gates are worse than the monsters. The extremely cold climate, which was the case with the Red Gate that Jinwoo encounters, exposes the humans to a variety of threats, including Frostbite and heart stroke. Also, let’s not forget that since humans are trapped inside these gates for days, there’s also the threat of Starvation.

So, even if Red Gates are ranked normally, they are quite different from your usual B-Rank or A-Rank gates. On top of that, Red Gates shuts off their mana after sealing the entrance. It means no one from the outside can analyze the exact threat level of a Red Gate. It may have appeared as a B-Rank gate initially, but it could be an S-Rank gate in reality. 

Sung Jinwoo’s Encounter with a Red Gate

Even A-Rank hunters would find it impossible to come out alive after defeating the boss of a Red Gate. We saw that happen with Kim Chul during the Red Gate Arc. He was an A-Rank hunter who entered a B-Rank Gate. It should have been an easy task, but it turned out to be a Red Gate, which bears an S-Level threat. So, it’s no surprise that he couldn’t even predict an arrow being fired by a weak Ice Elf. 

However, luckily for the E-rank hunters, Sung Jinwoo (with his leveling-up powers) was also a part of that raid. He entered the gate thinking of it as a low-level threat. So, it was a perfect opportunity for him to expose Han Song-Yi to the dangers of hunting while keeping her safe. However, things didn’t go as Jinwoo predicted. Thanks to the System’s inventory, Jinwoo was able to provide warm clothing to everyone, preventing them from succumbing to the extremely cold environment.

However, to escape the gate, Jinwoo had to fight an S-Rank Boss, Baruka – the leader of the Ice Elves. During this raid, Jinwoo was possibly at the A-Rank level. That is why he took help from his shadow, Igris, help to fight the Boss.

On top of that, he had to kill Kim Chul and extract his shadow to get more help against Baruka. The survivors were able to get out of the Red Gate only when Jinwoo, Igris, and Kim Chul’s shadow, now called Iron, defeated the arrogant yet deadly Boss. 

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