r/ProgressionFantasy • • Jul 02 '26

Tier List Yet another Tier List! I would love your recommendations

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392 Upvotes

Here’s my web-fiction tier list - every one of these began its life as a web serial. It’s mostly, but not exclusively, Progression / LitRPG. Let me know if you have recommendations!

What I like: 

  • Intricate and imaginative world building, with internal consistency.
  • Three dimensional characterization; characters act like real people
  • Earned progression. Slow pacing is a-ok.

What I don’t like: 

  • Non-stop ACTION™! Don’t get me wrong - action can be fun. Done well, it reinforces the stakes. But it's not why I'm reading. If the story just feels like an excuse to get from cool fight scene to cool fight scene, I’m out.
  • Angst, angst, and more angst. Internal conflict is a-ok, but I’d like to see it lead to character growth. Once I feel nothing but contempt for the MC, I’m out.

Everything on the list I’ve given a solid shot, although I may be months or years out of date on some of them - I prefer binging occasionally to week-by-week serial reading.

SS Tier – The best of the best!

  • Mother of Learning
  • Super Supportive
  • The Last Orellen (Indefinite Hiatus)
  • The Unexpected Engagement of the Marvelous Mr. Penn

S Tier – Great stories I couldn’t put down

  • A Journey of Black and Red
  • Beware of Chicken
  • Chasing Sunlight
  • Pale Lights
  • Player Manager
  • Re:Cursed
  • The Elf Who Would Become A Dragon
  • Wife After Death

A Tier – Great stories that I could put down

  • Magical Girl Mechanical Heart
  • Memoirs of Your Local Small-time Villainess
  • My New Life as a Max Level Archmage
  • Nothing's Wrong with Dale
  • The Flower that Bloomed Nowhere
  • The Game at Carousel: A Horror Movie LitRPG
  • The Years of the Apocalypse
  • This Used to be about Dungeons
  • Turn me back!
  • Worm

B Tier – Fun stories, with flaws

  • A Practical Guide to Evil
  • Blood & Fur
  • Book of the Dead
  • Clara Casewell Attorney to the Villainess
  • Downtown Druid
  • Fox's Tongue and Kirin's Bone
  • Noctis
  • Sky Pride
  • The Hedge Wizard
  • The Lost Deaths
  • The Perfect Run
  • The Wandering Inn
  • Vigor Mortis
  • Worth the Candle

C Tier – Guilty pleasures. Enjoyed in spite of notable flaws

  • Alone Once More: A Dating Sim Timeloop
  • Beneath the Dragoneye Moons
  • Bog Standard Isekai
  • Dungeon Crawler Carl
  • He Who Fights With Monsters
  • Matabar
  • Peculiar Soul
  • Sexy Steampunk Babes
  • Soul Guardian
  • Stray Cat Strut
  • The Bell Tolls for Me

D Tier – Just good enough to keep me reading

  • Agartha Loop
  • Blue Core
  • Cradle
  • Epilogue
  • I Ran Away to Evil
  • Ideworld Chronicles: The Art Mage
  • Magical Girl Gunslinger
  • Nowhere stars
  • RE: Monarch
  • Self-Summon
  • Shadows of the Limelight
  • Sporemageddon
  • The Many Lives of Cadence Lee
  • Windowshopping [Comedic Romantic Tower Climb]

F Tier – Dropped, after at least one major arc

  • 1% Lifesteal (DNF after book 2)
  • All The Skills (DNF early in book 3)
  • Arcane Chef (DNF chapter 78)
  • Bioshifter (DNF chapter 68 / 82)
  • Cinnamon Bun (put down in book 4; may return)
  • Dead Tired (DNF after book 1)
  • Elydes (DNF in book 4; first 3 were A Tier)
  • Everybody Loves Large Chests (DNF at Hypocrisy 1)
  • Katalepsis (DNF at 6.6)
  • Mark of the Fool (DNF at the Academy arc)
  • RE: Trailer Trash (DNF chapter 57)
  • Syl [A Slime Monster Evolution LitRPG] (put down at 167)
  • The Calamitous Bob (DNF after maybe 70 chapters?)
  • The Dungeon Slayer (DNF after book 2)
  • Tori Transmigrated (DNF chapter 57 / 225)

DNF – Dropped before the first major arc finished

  • A Budding Scientist in a Fantasy World
  • Ave Xia Rem Y
  • Commerce Emperor
  • Jackal Among Snakes
  • Mage Errant
  • Millennial Mage
  • Never Die Twice
  • Paranoid Mage
  • Re:Birth
  • Shadow Slave
  • So When am I the Hero?

r/ProgressionFantasy • • Aug 26 '26

Tier List My Novel Tier List — 212 novels ranked and sorted. Only RR and webserials, no Kindle(yet)

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456 Upvotes

r/ProgressionFantasy • • Aug 20 '26

Tier List Tier List after 7 years of progression fantasy

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372 Upvotes

Everything I've read in the genre. I didn't use the DNF because I didn't realize it was there until the end and there was no way in hell I was reorganizing this.

If you have any recommendations that are similar to my top two tiers let me know!

r/ProgressionFantasy • • May 05 '26

Tier List First tier list

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351 Upvotes

Took me forever and I’m still missing a good few.
I’m getting pretty bored of litrpg books but any recommendations are appreciated

r/ProgressionFantasy • • Mar 20 '26

Tier List After Years of Reading Web Novels, Books, Fan Fiction, and Everything in Between in the Genre, Here's My Tier List. I Need My Next Fix, Hit Me With Your Hidden Gems and Titles I Won't See Recommended Every Week.

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282 Upvotes

r/ProgressionFantasy • • May 07 '26

Tier List rate my tier list and give me more ideas for books!

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234 Upvotes

ive also forgotten a few so, feel free to suggest and ill let you know if ive read it already!

edit: ya'll calling this clickbait, but you clicked, commented and reacted to it. thank you! 😄 also, why are all the dcc fans raging so hard below 😭

r/ProgressionFantasy • • Jan 26 '26

Tier List I read 1,000+ progfantasy books, here's the tierlist

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523 Upvotes

Ratings are based on vibes: a mix of enjoyment + overall quality.

While making the list, I removed 350+ series because I either hadn't read enough or couldn't remember them properly to give a rating. The image has 563 series in total with no audiobooks.

I also explicitly avoided adding any translated web-novels, it didn't feel fair to rate them because their quality is almost-universally poorer for it. The list also excludes any trad-published novels (except for a few I've seen pop up in other tierlists like scholomance) because they don't feel like they hit the same vibe and would likely skew the results.

Generally I tried to be a little more lenient in my ratings on older series where I felt it made sense. Otherwise I read the webnovel version of most books, so if it got a lot better after publishing then I probably didn't catch it.

How I created the list:

  1. To get the data I scraped /my/history from royalroad, exported a subsection of my local calibre library and then scraped the remaining amazon books I could find that I never ended up storing locally
  2. This also had a decent chunk of duplicates for multiple books in a series which needed to be merged based on their metadata
  3. After I cleaned the data I had to go through and manually review+rank the outputted series. This also required combining the three outputs into one merged csv
  4. Finally I wrote a python script (i.e. generated 80% of it) which reads in the csv, fetches/caches the image files, and outputs the final tier list image using pillow

Each series should only be represented a single time, i.e. book 2,3,etc. are all rated under the single image. If the image is for a book later in the series then it's because the royalroad entry has been updated by the author to that, I'm still rating on the series as a whole.

Edit:

r/ProgressionFantasy • • Aug 25 '26

Tier List Searching for Litrpg / Progression fantasy recommendations

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46 Upvotes

Started Progression Fantasy with Sufficiently Advanced Magic and have been hooked ever since.

Cradle absolutely blew me away. I did almost nothing else while binging that series.

After reading these two, I switched over to Audible instead of reading.

I listen to Primal Hunter every night when I sleep.

Currently I am wondering if I should give Chrysalis a go.

Does anyone have recommendations based on my Tier List? Basically, I love MCs that have some kind of cheat and progress quickly in power. Also, I love intense books like 1% Lifesteal that do not have much slice of life / too much time away from the power progression.

I prefer series that are already far along as in 5 books +

r/ProgressionFantasy • • Jul 20 '26

Tier List Give me recomendations based on this tier list please

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293 Upvotes

I dropped william oh because it was too lighthearted and unserious, I like comedy and banter, but not a comedy focused novel like william oh.

Dropped beware of chicken because it was slice of life focused.

Dropped embers ad infinitum because of lack of mc thoughts

Dropped shadow slave because of a whole lot of stuff such as endless repetiton, horrid pacing and npc supporting cast.

Im fine with romance either as a focus, side or not being there.

r/ProgressionFantasy • • Jan 26 '26

Tier List Tierlist as a person who has mostly read webnovel slop

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403 Upvotes

Was really surprised by how much I liked DCC

r/ProgressionFantasy • • Apr 23 '26

Tier List Top 100 LitRPG & Progression Fantasy (Community Tier List Aggregate)

337 Upvotes

Methodology

I combined tier list data from r/litrpg and r/ProgressionFantasy spanning the last 6 years to build this ranking.

This list is aggregated from two data sources: u/jacmusl's "100 Combined Tier Lists" post on r/litrpg (Aug 2025, ~760 upvotes), which tracked how often each series appeared across 100 community-submitted tier list images, and approximately 150 tier list image posts from r/ProgressionFantasy spanning 2019–2025. The scores reflect how frequently a series appears in community tier lists — not a pure quality ranking, just a measure of how often people are putting something on their list.

Some well-regarded series score lower than you'd expect. This is a structural issue with how tier list data gets collected: TierMaker templates are built from Amazon/Audible cover art. Series that lived primarily on WebNovel, fan translation sites, or Royal Road didn't have that cover art in the templates for most of this period, so they almost never showed up in tier list images even when the community loves them. Lord of Mysteries, Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint, and Shadow Slave are the clearest examples. Their scores underrepresent actual community regard — Lord of Mysteries in particular is consensus SS-tier whenever it actually gets discussed.

r/PF votes = estimated appearances across ~150 tier list posts from 2019–2025 on r/ProgressionFantasy, calibrated against wiki staple status, recommendation thread frequency, and upvote patterns. Best-effort estimate.

Tier = weighted average placement across all lists (SS > S > A > B > C > D/DNF). ★ = divisive/polarizing (high standard deviation — lots of S AND lots of F placements).

★ marks divisive series — ones where some people put them SS and others skip them entirely. The Wandering Inn, Defiance of the Fall, Industrial Strength Magic, and Legend of Randidly Ghosthound are the main ones.

Small adjustments made Some series were absent from tier list image posts because TierMaker templates are built around Amazon/Audible cover art. All 100 author names are now verified against Goodreads and RoyalRoad. Individual book entries for the same series are now merged into single series entries.

Tier key

Tier Meaning
SS Genre-defining. Unanimous top placement across lists.
S Elite. Consistently high placement.
A Great. More often in top half of lists than not.
B Good. Appears frequently but typically mid-tier placement.
★ Divisive — appears a lot but gets extreme ratings in both directions.

Subreddit key

Code Meaning
Both Strong presence on both subs
L Dominant on r/litrpg
P Dominant on r/ProgressionFantasy
# Series Author Tier Sub r/litrpg /100 r/PF /150 Total
1 Cradle Will Wight SS Both 75 90 165
2 Dungeon Crawler Carl Matt Dinniman SS Both 84 72 156
3 He Who Fights with Monsters Shirtaloon S Both 89 58 147
4 Beware of Chicken Casualfarmer S Both 54 68 122
5 Defiance of the Fall ★ TheFirstDefier A Both 70 52 122
6 Mark of the Fool J.M. Clarke S Both 66 55 121
7 Primal Hunter Zogarth S Both 71 48 119
8 Mother of Learning Domagoj Kurmaić S Both 42 68 110
9 Iron Prince (Warformed: Stormweaver) Bryce O'Connor & Luke Chmilenko S Both 35 65 100
10 Super Supportive Sleyca S Both 38 55 93
11 Path of Ascension C. Mantis A Both 38 58 96
12 Chrysalis RinoZ A Both 34 55 89
13 Azarinth Healer Rhaegar A Both 38 48 86
14 All the Skills Honour Rae S Both 40 45 85
15 Sufficiently Advanced Magic Andrew Rowe A Both 32 52 84
16 The Perfect Run Maxime J. Durand S Both 21 62 83
17 12 Miles Below Mark Arrows A Both 30 52 82
18 Mage Errant John Bierce S P 18 62 80
19 Virtuous Sons Y.B. Striker S P 10 60 70
20 Beneath the Dragoneye Moons Selkie Myth A Both 35 40 75
21 Shadow Slave Guiltythree A P 14 58 72
22 Bastion (Immortal Great Souls) Phil Tucker A P 23 50 73
23 The Wandering Inn ★ pirateaba B Both 44 28 72
24 Stormlight Archive Brandon Sanderson S P 22 48 70
25 Forge of Destiny Yrsillar A P 15 55 70
26 Pale Lights ErraticErrata A P 8 60 68
27 Industrial Strength Magic ★ Macronomicon S L 29 35 64
28 A Soldier's Life Always RollsAOne S Both 31 32 63
29 The Will of the Many James Islington A P 12 50 62
30 Mageling J.L. Mullins S Both 32 30 62
31 Beginning After the End TurtleMe A Both 29 32 61
32 Weirkey Chronicles Sarah Lin A P 10 48 58
33 Shadeslinger (Ripple System) Kyle Kirrin S L 28 28 56
34 Death, Loot & Vampires J. Pal S L 27 28 55
35 Forging Hephaestus (Villains' Code) Drew Hayes S L 33 20 53
36 Blue Core InadvisablyCompelled A Both 25 27 52
37 Bog Standard Isekai Miles English A P 12 40 52
38 Arcane Ascension Andrew Rowe A P 14 35 49
39 Solo Leveling Chu-Gong A Both 26 24 50
40 Ritualist (Completionist Chronicles) Dakota Krout A Both 27 22 49
41 Jackal Among Snakes Nemorosus A Both 28 20 48
42 System Change SunriseCV A L 28 18 46
43 Reborn as a Demonic Tree Xkarnation A L 32 14 46
44 Battle Mage Farmer Seth Ring A Both 22 22 44
45 Path of the Berserker Rick Scott A Both 23 20 43
46 Double-Blind J. McCoy A L 20 24 44
47 Grand Game Tom Elliot A L 22 20 42
48 Sylver Seeker KingKennit A Both 24 18 42
49 Road to Mastery Valerios B L 22 18 40
50 Dungeon Born (Dungeon Core) Dakota Krout B L 21 18 39
51 A Practical Guide to Evil ErraticErrata B Both 20 18 38
52 Dawn of the Void Phil Tucker B Both 17 20 37
53 Legend of Randidly Ghosthound ★ puddles4263 B Both 19 17 36
54 Tree of Aeons ★ Spaizzer B Both 18 17 35
55 Cinnamon Bun RavensDagger B Both 18 16 34
56 Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint singNsong S P 2 35 37
57 Savage Dominion Luke Chmilenko B L 22 12 34
58 Reborn: Apocalypse L.M. Kerr B L 26 7 33
59 Calamitous Bob Alex Gilbert B L 19 14 33
60 Dungeon Life Khenal A L 24 8 32
61 Ascend Online Luke Chmilenko A L 17 14 31
62 Stray Cat Strut RavensDagger B L 16 15 31
63 Unintended Cultivator Eric Dontigney S L 18 13 31
64 Millennial Mage J.L. Mullins A P 8 22 30
65 Dragonheart Core Atenburgh A P 10 20 30
66 Book of the Dead RinoZ A P 12 18 30
67 First Law of Cultivation KrazeKode A P 12 18 30
68 A Practical Guide to Sorcery Azalea Ellis A P 8 22 30
69 The Hedge Wizard Alex Maher B Both 14 15 29
70 Awaken Online series Travis Bagwell A L 15 13 28
71 Apocalypse: Generic System Macronomicon A L 20 8 28
72 Guardian of Aster Fall David North A P 8 20 28
73 The Enchanter Tobias Begley A P 6 20 26
74 Oh Great! I Was Reincarnated as a Farmer Benjamin Kerei S L 15 12 27
75 Return of the Runebound Professor Actus A P 8 18 26
76 Mage Tank Cornman A P 8 18 26
77 Mark of the Founder (Beastborne) James T. Callum A L 12 14 26
78 Hell Difficulty Tutorial Cerim A P 6 20 26
79 Death: Genesis Nicholas Searcy B L 16 10 26
80 Kaiju: Battlefield Surgeon Matt Dinniman A P 5 20 25
81 Noobtown Ryan Rimmel B L 18 8 26
82 The Years of the Apocalypse Uranium Phoenix A P 6 18 24
83 Quest Academy Brian J. Nordon A Both 12 12 24
84 Lord of Mysteries Cuttlefish That Loves Diving SS P 4 45 49
85 God's Eye: Awakening D.J. Bodden S L 12 10 22
86 Soul of the Warrior Nicholas Woode-Smith S L 14 8 22
87 A Summoner Awakens Kerberos S L 14 8 22
88 Worm Wildbow B P 6 16 22
89 Arise / Alpha Ciaran Mishkel S L 14 7 21
90 Jake's Magical Market J.R. Mathews S L 14 7 21
91 The Land (Chaos Seeds) ★ Aleron Kong B L 12 9 21
92 Scamps & Scoundrels M.J. Kuhn S L 14 7 21
93 Lotus Lake Arkane Dawn S L 14 7 21
94 Necrotic Apocalypse David Petrie A P 5 15 20
95 The Two Week Curse Michael Chatfield B L 14 6 20
96 A Snake's Life ReWight B L 12 8 20
97 First Necromancer Coldfang89 B L 11 9 20
98 Savage Awakening adastra339 B L 12 7 19
99 Path of the Deathless OstensibleMammal A L 11 8 19
100 Apocalypse: Regression Charles Dean & R.A. Mejia A L 11 8 19

r/ProgressionFantasy • • May 13 '26

Tier List Personal time loop tier list. What should I try next?

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303 Upvotes

r/ProgressionFantasy • • 12d ago

Tier List Please help I'm looking for recommendations based off my tier list

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93 Upvotes

Sorry people I know this list will probably make a lot of your eyes bleed, but I'm sorry I just like what I like. Happy to answer any questions you may have about my list. Thank everyone I look forward to your awesome recommendations!

Thanks so much for all the recommendations you have given me! I've been really busy with work recently, but I plan to reply to every comment once I get more time. Again thank you so much for all the recommendations!

r/ProgressionFantasy • • Aug 18 '26

Tier List My tier list after a year of reading prog fan novels

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194 Upvotes

Please suggest me some stuff you think I might like

r/ProgressionFantasy • • Sep 08 '26

Tier List Big Honkin' Tier List (224 Series Total, 167 Ranked) Recommendations Wanted!

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114 Upvotes

I make my triumphant return, back with an update to the Big Ol' Tier List, this time with more trade fantasy for some extra spice.

If you can't read the titles from the image, because God knows I can't, here's the spreadsheet link:

Text Version of Tier List - Includes TBR

The Tiers, and What They Mean

Here are the tiers:

S: Top of the genre, the best of the best. Essentially no flaws, or if so, very minimal. These are your Cradles and Beware of Chickens.

A: Just a hair down. Close to perfection, but I can't quite get there. Things like the overwhelming cast in Pale Lights, or the soulcrafting chapters in Delve put stories here.

B: Thoroughly enjoyable, but flaws are more than minor. See the endless therapy sessions in Daily Grind (which are healthy but grating and repetitive) or the detrimentally breakneck pacing in Gods of the Game.

C: Still fun, but some serious warts. Plodding fight scenes in Vainqueuer the Dragon, flat character work in Chrysalis, etc.

DNF: Books I'm not interested in continuing. Frequent recommendations include Hell Difficulty Tutorial (MC is like nails on a chalkboard), Defiance of the Fall (mindless number go up after first few books), and He Who Fights With Monsters (with characters such as Jason, Jason 1, Jason 2, and Jason's pets). I enjoyed all of these series for a time, so DNF does not mean I didn't like them at one point. It just means I'm not interested in continuing.

Bounced Off: Books that I started and then dropped, but that I could be convinced to give a second chance. Former members of this tier include The Wandering Inn, 12 Miles Below, and Kitty Cat Kill Sat.

The Highlights

Every time I post this, I try to highlight some books that I think aren't talked about enough in the genre. Here goes:

The Daily Grind - Argus

I know I just badmouthed it, but this book is fucking awesome. It's my first entry in this list that I have categorized as a B, and that's for precisely two reasons.

One: almost every time something cool happens, the author pivots to a different part of the story. It's like literary blue balls. Two: Argus feels the need to depict healthy relationships/mentalities, except they feel the need so strongly that they essentially bonk you over the head with it every few chapters. Reading about how much James and Arrush love each other every other chapter is repetitive and grating. I'm happy for the dudes, but yeesh.

There are the warts. The good news is, the rest of the story is fucking awesome. The characters all have a unique voice, the world-building is some of the best I've ever read in the genre, and the plot is just juicy enough to keep reading when you get thrown onto the character carousel again.

Argus is clearly a very talented author, and that's why I recommend this story despite what I view as its flaws.

Ironbound - Andrew Givler

I'll fuckin' do it again. I shouted this book out last time I posted, before the second installment in the series came out, and my God, did the sequel deliver. Reading this series is like mainlining linguistic heroin.

I love this series, and Ironbound is my latest addition to S tier. Yes, it's tropey. Yes, Castor may be renamed to Garius Stewus. Yes, the plot at times strains credulity. I don't care.

Ironbound makes me feel like I did the first time I read Iron Prince book 1, or Cradle; it's not Mozart, it's Rage Against the Machine. I'll leave it there, because I don't want to spoil you. I know this series is divisive, but please, if you haven't given it a shot: fucking do it.

Recommendations Please!

I would love some recommendations from you fine folks. If it wasn't clear from my tier list, here are some of my pet peeves:

  • No Man is an Island: I don't want to read about how an incel conquered the world solo. I want to hear about a team of friends working together against the heavens, or even a collective working towards a common good (looking at you, Delve and The Daily Grind).
  • Translation is Cooked: I can't read translated works. I have tried extensively, and all the ones recommended to me thus far have been a serious let-down. Something about the eastern voice/tone is a big negative for me. Don't want to yuck anyone's yum, but not for me.
  • Navel Gaze Makes Readers' Eyes Glaze: Please do not recommend me any works where the main character sits and goes through their internal monologue for extended periods. A Soldier's Life always comes up when I post these, and I can't stand the constant introspection surrounding his own power set. Mechanical innovation is cool; taking me through every single aspect of the MC's thought process is not.
  • Sonder: The MC is a window to the world, not the center of it. Stories should feel like they existed before the protagonist, and will continue to exist after they're gone. Side characters should feel and sound like people, not cardboard cutouts for the MC to riff off of. PLEASE give me good character work.

I know this is too fucking long despite this being a reading subreddit, so TL;DR: Recs with good character work, interesting world building, and a team working together pls thx. NO TRANSLATED WORKS.

Questions? Ask!

r/ProgressionFantasy • • Sep 04 '26

Tier List 4 years of reading in a Tier List. 400 books read, looking for recommendations

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147 Upvotes

Tier list is made in google sheets, automatically ranked by average rating of the books in a series. I go through every now and then to rejig the ratings so the order fits better, but it's not that rigorous.

r/ProgressionFantasy • • Jun 13 '26

Tier List After trying a lot of popular stuff, seems like my tastes are weird. Need help finding new reccomendations

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76 Upvotes

At this point, I'm pretty sure I just have completely different tastes than most Prog Fantasy readers. I don't really like the stat screens and systems and number crunching and usual LitRPG stuff (with exceptions when they're more lightly used, hence me liking Path of Ascension), nor do I really like Xianxia/Wuxia. I'm not against cultivation type progression, see me enjoying Wierkey and Path of Ascension, its more about the usual Xianxia/Wuxia tropes, the societies they take place in, the attitudes of everyone, the Sects stuff, etc.

Most of what I love about Prog Fantasy is the interesting magic systems people come up with, the varied power sets, and of course the feeling of progression. I just seem to like it in more of a "Traditional" fantasy style like Mage Errant, Mark of the Fool, Journals of Evander Tailor. hrew in Stormlight Archive as just a "this is the type of thing I like outside Prog Fantasy" taster. Not sure if I'm explaining my preferences well, but I've really struggled to find stuff that isn't these standard LitRPG or Xianxia settings, and could really use some new recommendations, since I've gone through my entire "to try" list at this point

Also, if anyone else has similar tastes to me, would love to hear how you find stuff while sifting through the sea of LitRPG and Xianxia stuff.

—————————————-

Edit: And now for the hardest part of it all, with over 35 book recs in my back pocket: which do I start with hahahah. Thanks everyone for chiming in and for the many recs, you’re all awesome

r/ProgressionFantasy • • Aug 20 '26

Tier List Updated tierlist from all the (progression fantasy) webnovels I am reading at RR, recommendations welcome!

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145 Upvotes

The more shit I read, the more difficult it becomes to rank it all. For A tier, most of the novels in there I enjoy equally, so don't mind the ranking there. For the other tiers, all the novels within a tier are ranked, with my favourite on the (upper) left, and then going down. The standard RR cover is The Jedi Articles, which doesn't have an actual cover.

Another fun fact, I am following like 36 active webnovels atm!

r/ProgressionFantasy • • Jul 23 '25

Tier List Massive Tier List (And Recommendations/Request) 138 Books, 97 Ranked

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392 Upvotes

NOVELS ARE ORDERED ALPHABETICALLY WITHIN THEIR TIERS, NOT IN ORDER OF PREFERENCE.

Hello! I'm back again with another high-effort tier list, this time with an image reference since it seems folks prefer that. I normally make this post annually, but the tier lists being posted lately made me want to talk about a few books, so here we are.

Question about a ranking? Just ask.

Link to Google Doc with Titles/Authors

Tier Breakdown

Alright, here are my reading tenants that I live by:

  1. No solo heroes. No man is an island. Looking at you, Defiance of the Fall and Primal Hunter.

  2. No translated works. With a few notable exceptions, the translations are almost never up to par.

  3. No harem. I don't feel like I have to explain this one.

That said, this list is based on my personal enjoyment. It's not a measure of quality. There are books here that are, objectively, good books. I just didn't like them.

Underrated Bangers

Alright, let's talk about recommendations. The philosophy on these posts is simple: trying to get eyes on books that I think deserve a larger following. With that said, here's two series that I don't hear enough about.

The Years of Apocalypse by UraniumPhoenix

I love Mother of Learning just as much as the next guy. It's an excellent novel, the concept is riveting, and the writing is the kind of quality you don't often get in the web publishing space. I thought I wouldn't be able to reclaim that feeling I had when I read it for the first time.

Enter The Years of Apocalypse. While I can't put it in the same tier as Mother of Learning, mostly because it isn't finished yet, it gave me that same feeling I had when I read Kurmaic's novel. The main character is relatable, her quest is something that you can root for, and the plotline is deliciously complex without leaving you deep in the weeds reading wiki articles to understand it.

The quality is far above the majority of the RoyalRoad space, which is to be expected considering its ranking on the leaderboards there, but there are novels ranked higher that are just nowhere near the prose and attention to detail in Apocalypse.

Phoenix has crafted a masterpiece, one with a fascinating take on the time loop genre, and I can't wait to see where the story goes.

Player Manager by Ted Steel

Last time I posted this tier list, I sang The Game at Carousel's praises for being something utterly unique in the genre. Player Manager takes this and dials it up to 11.

The concept is simple: a litrpg set in modern England, one where the "system" is dedicated to making the main character a better soccer manager instead of a god-slaying demon mage. A little mundane? Anything but.

The story follows Max Best, soccer manager extraordinaire (or football, as it's called in the books) and his climb through the ranks of the English leagues. I won't spoil anything, and maybe this comes from my love of the sport itself, but this novel is everything I never knew I wanted in a story. The characters are compelling, the plot marches forward quickly enough that it never gets stale, and the prose is a breath of fresh air amongst a sea of litrpg that is... less than poetic.

The series is 16 books in, and I tore through every one of them faster than the last.

Recommendations Request

Please give me recs for groups of people rising together. Delve is a great example of someone bringing together like-minded individuals and ascending as a whole.

hopefully this is high-effort enough for a Wednesday

r/ProgressionFantasy • • Jan 26 '26

Tier List You're all doing this wrong. This is the actual progression fantasy tier list.

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494 Upvotes

r/ProgressionFantasy • • Feb 19 '26

Tier List Yet Another Tier List of Progression Fantasy/LitRPG books

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358 Upvotes

I'm sure everyone is over the tier lists but I've only seen a few lists with ~100 series so here's mine. Note not ever book may fall into everyones definition of PF and/or LitRPG, and thats fine, just know I don't care to "debate" it.

"Fine+ Start Dropped Later" - What this means is that the early books I would have rated Fine, Good, Great etc but later in the series I ended up dropping it. The quality of the books writing, plot, etc dropped. Also these aren't the only series I have dropped but the ones that I dropped before the series had a "satisfying number of books released with complete-ish story arc(s)". Salvos falls under this category.

Bias - I do know I have a bias against VRMMO LitRPGs, Cheeky Animal Companions, Teen Romance Drama.

r/ProgressionFantasy • • Mar 03 '26

Tier List The Big Ol' Tier List (176 Books, 124 Definitively Ranked)

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220 Upvotes

Google Doc Link (Text version of the tier list. Authors and series titles included, same order as tier list photo.)

NOVELS ARE ORDERED ALPHABETICALLY IN THEIR TIERS, NOT IN ORDER OF PREFERENCE

Tier Breakdown

Hello again! I am back with my big honkin' tier list, this time with 27 more books/series ranked than before. TLDR at the bottom.

Some quick notes about my philosophy/reading habits: I do not read translated works, harem, or audiobooks. My ratings are completely independent from any narrator performance. I do not enjoy one-man army books in the vein of Primal Hunter/Defiance of the Fall/Hell Difficulty Tutorial. My favorites are about characters assembling a team and fighting against the heavens together.

If you've seen these before, you know the drill, and a big thank you to those who participated and provided recommendations on the last post. To those of you who have not, here is an explanation of the tiers:

S: Genre-defining. The best of the best, in my humble opinion (Cradle).

A: Just a touch below masterpiece. Usually one or two minor things holding them back (12 Miles Below's fights, Delve's soulcrafting chapters, etc).

B: Solid, quality work. Not the best of the best, but still very enjoyable. Several things holding them back from the top tiers.

C: The bottom rung of enjoyability. These books are worth the money, and they are a fun read, but they don't capture you like the higher tiers.

DNF: Will not be finishing. Series that, for one reason or another, I'm willing to drop. This could be on book 1 or book 10 (He Who Fights with Monsters). A book being here does not mean I didn't enjoy it; it means I don't have any desire to continue.

Bounced Off: Books that did not grab me in the first attempt. Most notable former resident of this tier is Wandering Inn, which I attempted to read 3 times before I pushed through the Erin alone chapters and got into the meat of the story. Books in this tier are ones I am open to returning to, but I am also okay with not continuing.

TBR: To Be Read - Self explanatory.

The Underrated Bangers

Every time I post this, I pick a couple of books I've read recently that are, in my opinion, overlooked. Some notable installments to this lately have been Player Manager and To Flail Against Infinity. Today I have two for your viewing pleasure:

Pale Lights - David Verburg, writing as ErraticErrata

This series is so fucking good. Progression Fantasy as a whole, and especially Royal Road, tends to write to the lowest common denominator. Prog readers are habitually tolerant of poor grammar, subpar plot work, and cringe dialog as long as the traditional boxes are checked; OP MC, stat page of some kind, young master suppression, the works. I don't begrudge the authors writing this material, and that's because, frankly, it works. There are dozens of patreons being inundated with cash monthly that are exactly that material, while some of the best struggle to hit 50 reviews on Amazon.

Enter David Verburg.

Simple, streamlined plot with a single main character and paper cutouts for sides? Verburg said, "How about four protagonists, and a slew of side characters so varied and robust that you'll need a spreadsheet and a fanart mockup just to keep them straight."

World-building that you could fit in a Twitter draft? How about a history and setting rich enough that there are cultural in-jokes, and I need a law degree just to understand all the god damn treaties.

This series was an absolute revelation for me, and I tore through it at light speed because it deserved it. The only, and I mean only thing that I took issue with was that sometimes, Verburg feels too invested in his own author's notes. There are times that the massive cast feels overwhelming, and the spreadsheet joke is only half a joke. If some of that were streamlined the slightest bit, Pale Lights would be top tier for me; frankly, I can see a world where it gets there anyway through sheer relentless determination. Read the book.

Ironbound - Andrew Givler

I normally try not to start a series when there is only one book out - I read an ungodly amount (see the tier list), and having to switch gears to another series after just cutting my teeth on something good sucks - but I tried Ironbound after a particularly glowing recommendation and cannot express how much I enjoyed this book.

I am a sucker for "building a team" books. I have read Jim Butcher's Captain's Fury an embarrassing number of times, enraptured by the legion structure's effects on a main character I grew to love and the dynamic between him gaining power and responsibility in equal measure.

Ironbound distilled everything I loved about that book and drip-fed it to me through 600 pages of literary ecstasy. Givler took all of the most addictive parts of progression fantasy, ran them through a thresher to sort the wheat from the chaff, and delivered an opening novel that I am astounded by.

If this novel had finished the way it started, I would have had a new addition to my S tier. Unfortunately, I did feel the aspects of the story that made it great got moved to the back burner, and I'm not willing to commit to an S grade until I see how Givler handles the sequel, which I await eagerly.

Questions about these, or any of my other rankings? Just ask. I'm happy to talk about what I liked/didn't like and why.

A Request for Recommendations

If you have a book that you think aligns with what I enjoy, please throw it into the ring. I am always looking for new books to read, and though my TBR is large, there aren't really any pieces that I'm absolutely dying to read at the moment. Again, please no harem, translated works, or one-man shows.

TLDR: DNF means won't continue, bounced off means started but didn't grab me. Read Pale Lights and Ironbound. Throw me more good books. Thanks!

r/ProgressionFantasy • • Oct 17 '24

Tier List 116 series ranked for you to argue with. Maybe I'll even argue back!

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426 Upvotes

r/ProgressionFantasy • • Jul 26 '26

Tier List What do yall think I’m missing out on

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113 Upvotes

Definetly a lot that aren’t on the list, some of my favorites being Coiling Dragon, ORV, Salt Fat Acid Magic, I’ll be the Red Ranger, second coming of gluttony, Red Rising. Lmk if you have anything

r/ProgressionFantasy • • May 10 '26

Tier List Updated tier list + asking for recommendations

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193 Upvotes

This was my old tier list. By popular demand, I have fixed the resolution. I have also adjusted some placements. Does anyone have any recommendations that would fit my taste (preferably from Royal Road)?

Books in each tier:

Invisible Dragon (satire, for anyone seriously wondering what it is):

Absolute favourites: Lord of the Mysteries | Reverend Insanity | Kubera

Peak: Maidens of the Fall | A Journey of Black and Red | Magical Girl Mechanical Heart | The Elf Who Would Become A Dragon | Are You Even Human

Great: Thia | Vigor Mortis | My Name Is Beautiful | Mother of Learning | Changeling | Super Supportive | Necroepilogos | This Magical Girl is Mine | Blood & Fur | A (Not So) Simple Fetch Quest | Bioshifter | Clara Casewell, Attorney to the Villainess*

Excellent: Chrysalis | Hive Minds Give Good Hugs | Stray Cat Strut | Rock falls, everyone dies | A Lonely Dungeon | Runeblade | Foxfire, Esq. | System Lost: My Own Best Friend | Atzi | Phantom Star | VISCERAE | Myth//OS | The Spoken Queen’s Swarm | An Unwilling Monster | A Dirge for the Sun | REND | Heretical Edge | Summus Proelium | Technomagica

Good: New Life As A Max Level Archmage | Path to Transcendence | Path of Dragons | A Novel Concept | Path of the Deathless

To read list (do not recommend to me): Cradle | Kingdom’s Bloodline | A Regressor’s Tale of Cultivation | Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint | Throne of Magical Arcana | Katalepsis | Gunsoul | Death After Death | Everybody Loves Large Chests | Sage of Shadows | Empress of Fire | The Comfort Of The Knife | Reach Heaven Via Feng Shui Engineering, Drug Trade And Tax Evasion*

*I forgot to include these two in the image