r/IntelligenceScaling • u/Ancient-End2474 SCD recommendations • Sep 14 '26
Tier List Top 10 methodology characters (requested)
Tiering System: Since this is the top 7, all characters in the list will be Top Tiers, Top Tiers are divided by Stars represented as "+", each + having a High Diff gap. (Lowest position in the lower star gets High diffed by the lowest position in the higher star)
We don't have an agreed terminology for the tiering for now.
Top 1: Pun Yunchuan [ The Demon World I Designed ]
Character Type: Planning Merchant
(the biggest reason he is kept in the list is to serve as a reference point, apart from that, half in my group doesn't recognize him as Top 1)
Top 2: Mu Zixuan [ Court of Sword-treading ]
Character Type: Elegant Schemer.
He is one of the characters whose schemes are like brilliant music.
Top 3: Mo Tan [ Quadruple Split ]
Character Type: Man of Reasoning
He is like Chen Ran.
Only Morningz read him, but most of us trust him with this take for now. Don't recommend people to read this unless they want to sacrifice themselves, since only Morningz scaled him to the latest chapters right now...
Note: Top Top 4 to Top 6 are all extremely close, extreme diff matchups.
Top 4: Niu Youdao [ Heavenly Genius ]
Character Type: Elegant Schemer
Top 5: Chen Ran[18loh]
Character Type: Man of Reasoning+Complex Schemer
The pride of SCD is slamming Bum Yunchuan soon.
Top 6: Lu Chen [ Nine Bestowments]
Character Type: Man of Reasoning+Elegent Schemer
Scaling taken from someone since I didn't read it.
Top 7: First Saint [ Batics ]
Character Type: Elegant Schemer
He is only good in scheming related categories, so scaling him this high is quite controversial as he lacks reasoning aspects, despite his quality being high, quantity is very lacking. The only solution is to analyze him deep enough to extract all the required reasoning in his schemes.
Top 8: Kang Jinhyuk [ Solo Max Level Newbie ]
Character Type: Idk, Planning Merchant maybe
but most details in his schemes requires analysis to be extracted. Basically after every situation he reveals that he planned nearly everything.
Top 9: Ma Ki [ The Demon World I Designed ]
Character Type: Planning Merchant
Planned things from the start of the story.
Top 10: Ang Xiao [ Being A Talent In Chusheng Demon Sect ]
Character Type: Elegant Schemer+Contingencies
The former top 1 who fell so bad.
More Details:
Yue Guanshan from Eighteen Levels of Hell can also reach within Top 10 now that I think about it...
Colonel Timo is Extreme High Tier for me, and yes he did plan majority of Solo Max Level Newbie which carries his scaling so much.
Edit: Fixed an error
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u/AndyMadu1234 Sep 14 '26
How would you rank how much you like each novel in the top ten in terms of story and scd
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u/Ancient-End2474 Sep 14 '26
Top 10 is too difficult, since there's so many, so I'll only list what I can remember.
Everything included in this list are all at least High Tier.
Anyways both are subjective.
In terms of story:, which is how much I enjoyed the story.
1.) Reverend Insanity(Heavily gaps the top 2)
2.) Ten Days Ultimatum
3.) The Demon World I Designed(haven't finished this yet, I only asked others for its scaling)
4.) The Terrible Eternal Path(gets very enjoyable after 1,500 chapters something, although it is already enjoyable for me early on, just that the later was on another level)
5.) Being A Talent in Chusheng Demon Sect, (story was very enjoyable too me, it's sad that it got a rushed ending, otherwise First Saint vs Lu Yang would've been crazy)
6.) Blackstone Code
7.) I don't exactly recall the title, I think it was [The Shadows that Looms Over Heaven]
8.) Honestly it was another work which I forgot the title of💀
9.) I also forgot the title🙏
10.) Usogui
In terms of SCD, how much I enjoyed the outsmarting wise
1.) Eighteen Levels of Hell
2.)Court of Sword-treading
3.) Heavenly Genius
4.) Being A Talent In Chusheng Demon Sect
5.) Ravages of Time
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u/AndyMadu1234 Sep 14 '26
Bro dosent remember the novel but remembers he likes it 😭
But ten days ultimatum is good right? I was planning on reading that soon.
And also, what chapter does niu youdao start to get good feats
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u/Ancient-End2474 Sep 14 '26
Bro dosent remember the novel but remembers he likes it
Too many titles ro remember in my head😭
But ten days ultimatum is good right?
Wanna know how good it is? Well as a Reverend Insanity fan myself, you can ragebait RI fans by saying TDU is more well written than RI, although that's not true it's actually a valid ragebait.
Ten Days Ultimatum is Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint level in writing wise.
Unlike others, the building up in this story isn't boring and the peak is truly something to behold
And also, what chapter does niu youdao start to get good feats
Okay a lot of people misunderstands me when I say "good feats or "get good".
If you mean Bottom Tier~Low Tier feats
He already has them by first 100 chapters.
If you mean Mid Tier feats, it's in between 100 and 300/400.
Solid High Tier at chapter 300/400
(I typed "300/400" because I'm actually not sure what chapter it was, but it was the Qi Kingdom Scheme where Niu Youdao was fighting Shao Pingbo and met Guan Fangyi)
If you mean Top Tier then that's ch1,000+
But it should already be around Guo Jia level by like ch800.
My advice in reading this, is keep your comprehension level high, although the Novel gives good explanations not everything has to be explained.
I scaled ch400 lower before because I was reading mindlessly and just taking the direct explanations. (Even then it still scaled at High Tier) But Morningz woke me up, went to re-read some parts and realized I was an idiot to not see tge connections.
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u/Far_Field7691 Sep 16 '26
{If I can ask}
Is End Of Ten Days not outsmarting enjoyment? It has the best rigour by far from all these mentioned (I'm only asking because maybe you forgot about it)
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u/Strict_Seaweed_9735 Sep 14 '26
Do you have Yue Guanshan's ongoing scheme>Chen Yang's internal strife chamber scheme?
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u/Ancient-End2474 Sep 14 '26
Yeh, and I don't even think I need to decide now becaue later chapters will only buff him anyways
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u/Mental_Ad_1830 Sep 14 '26
Mu Zixuan above Niu Youdao? Are you sure about that one?
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u/Ancient-End2474 Sep 14 '26
Yes. I actually have a high confidence here since 5 scalers agreed. Difficulty is Very High
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u/Mental_Ad_1830 Sep 14 '26
How far have you read in Court of the Sword Treading and what are your thoughts on it? Haven't had the time to read it myself yet.
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u/Sane-Law Sep 16 '26
Me excited to read scd recs*
Find out its 90% chinese novel slop. Yk theres more than chinese novels out there
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u/Ancient-End2474 Sep 16 '26
We wish bro.
Our ambitions are too high.
If you really find a non-chinese work with 50~100+ layers back to back scheming then we'd be happy.
Unfortunately among everything we explored, none of them reaches Top Tier with the exception of Malazan and Solo Max Level Newbie.
(Even then, this relied on a lot of interpreting just to have them ascend to Top Tier while those Chinese works didn't require as much interpreting...)
Believe me, we don't only explore china's works but most Extreme High~Top Tier are Chinese. Why? Probably because of a mix of two reasons.
1.) accessibility+searchability
2.) There's so many stories in china regarding those certain genres that it's practically a goldmine for SC
Other countries smart stuff doesn't match China's peak unfortunately.
At least not for now.
We also all wish there's more but smart stuff is just so niche, I already went through like 500+ private works and barely anyone of them is worth for SC.
That's just how niche smart characters is bro...
I'm just waiting till 10~20 years when these non-chinese characters get published: Vereiya, Reverie, Mirthril, Sumin, etc...
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u/Sane-Law Sep 17 '26
I feel like you are super super biased
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u/Ancient-End2474 Sep 17 '26
Yeh I am biased for non-chinese media. Which is why I scaled Kang Jinhyuk at Top Tier even though his feats barely have any direct explanations rather than "he planned this" "this was under his anticipation."
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u/Sane-Law Sep 18 '26
you are clearly biased towards chinese media, you need to read more non chinese media in the first place if Kang Jinyuk is your one non chinese pick lmao Even within Korean media there's way better choices.
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u/Far_Field7691 Sep 16 '26
Even then the smartest MAY be Chinese 🗿
Only one of the authors is Chinese but the main author isn't
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u/Far_Field7691 Sep 16 '26
Who is Reverie BTW? Sumin I think you mean Park Su In?
Or are those part of the private groupe like Xuan Lou (hopefully not)
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u/ConversationSea1684 Sep 14 '26
Despite all these characters, the Sleeping Dragon will always be the goat from chinese SCD for me
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u/Regressor7228 Sep 14 '26
Thanks brother
idk if it's my request but I also wanted the ranking for reference on what to read
Immortal cultivation is repetant enlightenment
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u/Far_Field7691 Sep 14 '26
Mo Tan was scaled by Standard, Jarionn, and Secret. But none of them passed CH.2000
Are you planning on reading it AE?