Royal Road Rising Stars This Week: What's Climbing and Why

Which serials are climbing Rising Stars this week?

These are six of the top seven on the main Rising Stars list as of October 22, 2026. The table below has each one's place, numbers and launch.

Genre views. Doomsday Pivot! also leads the LitRPG and Fantasy views. Fight Dirty leads Progression, and The Law of the Abyss leads Cultivation, with Sepulchral Sun second.

Tags and start dates. All six carry a LitRPG or Progression tag, and five also carry an Apocalypse, Post Apocalyptic or System Invasion tag. Sepulchral Sun started on September 28 and Midnight's Monster on August 18. The other four started in October.

For how the list works in general, see our guide to the Royal Road algorithm and Rising Stars.

Doomsday Pivot! by Alexander Wales

Doomsday Pivot! drops a three-person startup into a system apocalypse. Duluth is cut out of Earth as if by a giant cookie cutter, everyone's phone asks them to pick a class, and the founders decide they are well placed to take on alien demons. It started on October 6, 2026.

It has the most followers, favorites and ratings of the six.

Why it's climbing. We think a well-known web-fiction author brought his readers with him. Early reviews name Worth the Candle and his other serials. He launched with 9 chapters in 19 minutes on October 6 and posted daily at about 17:00 UTC from October 12 to October 21.

On Patreon. Alexander Wales shows his Patreon numbers publicly, and his Patreon covers all his serials, not just this one. Graphtreon shows his paid members up 159 and his monthly earnings up $646 over the last 30 days, a stretch that includes this launch.

What readers say. Early reviews praise the author and the take on the genre. One mixed review says "Jake and Charlotte are kind of just there so far."

How chapter 1 does it. It opens on office banter about their education AI hallucinating facts about ostriches. A blue Class Selection pop-up with no close button takes over the narrator's screen about a quarter of the way in.

The chapter ends on the line that gives the book its title, that the company will have to make a major pivot.

Fight Dirty [Stealth Archer LitRPG] by Perseus XXVII.

Fight Dirty is a stealth archer build in an urban System invasion. Earth has been integrated into the System, the lead's class burns through arrows, food is running out, and gangs have learned that killing people gives good EXP. It started on October 5, 2026.

Why it's climbing. Readers followed the author from his other story set in the same world, and reviewers mention paying for more chapters on Patreon. He launched with 12 chapters in 11 minutes on October 5, then posted every 2 to 3 days, about 3 a week.

Short chapters make the backlog quick to binge. Another reviewer likes that there are "no constant stat sheets and level ups". One 2.5-star review objects to the body count, calling the lead an "unrepentant mass murderer in under 20 chaps".

How chapter 1 does it. It opens mid-scene in first-person present tense, with a hungry Lukas casing a gang-held warehouse full of hoarded food. In the first lines the guard carries a status tag (~ Marauder, Level 9) and an energy meter appears. There is no prologue.

Dungeon Expert Eric by noct

Dungeon Expert Eric: Alone in the Apocalypse to Solo the Dungeons follows an office gofer whom the System skipped for the tutorial. He faces hell difficulty alone, with no one to split EXP with. It started on October 1, 2026.

The blurb names its comps outright (Dungeon Crawler Carl meets Solo Leveling meets Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint) and ends with a TLDR list.

Why it's climbing. We think it climbs on reliability. After 4 chapters on launch day, it posted one chapter at 20:00 UTC every day from October 2 to October 21, with no gaps.

An earlier audience? Its reviews don't mention earlier work, but noct has 11 other fictions on Royal Road, among them God of Trash. On Patreon, noct offers Eric chapters ahead of time in a $10 tier.

A critical review finds the stakes low and says Eric "has basically everything handed to him".

How chapter 1 does it. The whole city empties in the first paragraph, while Eric is checking a mochaccino order with seven sugars.

Midnight's Monster by Kennillicious

Midnight's Monster follows an elite MMO player with a dead-end daytime life. She dies and wakes inside the game as the level-1 vampire she has just created, instead of her max-level main, with a growing hunger for blood.

It is monster-evolution LitRPG with horror elements, and the only female lead among the six. It started on August 18, 2026.

Why it's climbing. It is the slow burn of the group. It launched with 2 chapters on August 18 and had 4 by August 20, then posted 3 a week, Tuesday to Thursday, from August 25 to September 17.

On September 21 it moved to 5 a week, Monday to Friday at 13:00 UTC, which is the schedule its blurb promises. Its climb to the top came after that change. The blurb also invites shout-out swaps through a link.

All 5 of its reviews are recent (October 11 to 20) and positive. It is Kennillicious's only fiction on Royal Road.

If your own launch was slow, see how to recover a failed Royal Road launch.

The Law of the Abyss [Apocalypse Fantasy] by JPwrites

The Law of the Abyss is progression fantasy with no system, set in a world a cataclysm reshaped into stacked layers. Sam, a mortal, goes deeper into the Abyss than he is allowed, hired as a "training dummy" for a spoiled, newly awakened teenager.

Its "What to expect" list says up front that there is no system, interface or stats. It started on October 5, 2026.

Why it's climbing. It has the most aggressive release plan of the six. Most chapters are split into A and B halves. Launch day brought roughly one post an hour, and since then it has posted twice a day, with one skip, on October 11.

Readers of the author's earlier work came along, including Patreon readers who were ahead of the public chapters. With 2 reviews and 49 ratings, its place seems to rest on follower growth more than review volume.

Sepulchral Sun by The Alchemical Elf

Sepulchral Sun: An Occultivation Story blends cultivation with eldritch sorcery. A cultivator has every reason to flee his sect (its politics, a rival heir, a deranged master), and a breakthrough gone wrong gives him eldritch powers, including resurrection, so death becomes a weapon. It started on September 28, 2026.

Why it's climbing. The author brought readers over from fanfiction. It posted 6 chapters in its first 7 hours and about one a day since.

An editor who has been helping with it says so in his review, and its grammar score is 5 out of 5. No serial here has a higher share of followers who also favorited it, which suggests a smaller but deeply engaged base.

Another reviewer finds "The constant yapping and quipping during fights" undercuts the brutal tone.

How the title and chapter 1 do it. The brackets in the full title name the hybrid build. Chapter 1 opens on a familiar genre beat, the arrogant young master celebrating a tournament win, and ends with the real lead robbing him and walking out of the sect.

What do the six have in common?

Royal Road doesn't publish its ranking, so treat these as shared habits as of October 22, 2026.

They launch with a backlog, then keep a fixed schedule. All but one put up a burst of chapters at launch (chart below) and then kept to the timetable in the table at the top.

Midnight's Monster is the exception. It launched with 2 chapters and climbed after it moved from 3 to 5 chapters a week. Chapter length varies a lot, from about 1,680 words on average (Fight Dirty) to about 3,910 (Sepulchral Sun), so there is no single right length here.

Most bring readers with them. Doomsday Pivot! reviewers cite Alexander Wales's other serials, and Fight Dirty readers came from the author's other story in the same world. The Law of the Abyss drew readers of the author's previous work, and Sepulchral Sun drew readers of the author's fanfiction.

Reviewers of Doomsday Pivot!, Fight Dirty and The Law of the Abyss mention Patreon advance chapters from the first weeks.

Reviews of the other two don't name earlier work. Eric leans on daily posting, though noct has 11 other fictions on Royal Road. Midnight's Monster, its author's only fiction there, leans on shout-out swaps linked from the blurb.

One familiar frame, one twist, stated up front. Each twist fits in a sentence.

• Startup founders in a system apocalypse
• A stealth archer in an urban System invasion
• The only person who skipped the tutorial
• A level-1 vampire instead of the player's max-level main
• Progression with no system
• Cultivation plus eldritch sorcery

Genre keywords go in brackets or after a pipe in the title. Doomsday Pivot!, which leads with a well-known author's name, skips them. The blurbs close with a "What to expect" or TLDR list, except Fight Dirty's.

Titles can still move after launch. A day-one review says Fight Dirty's title was changed, and The Law of the Abyss posted an author note on October 18 asking readers to help pick a title.

Chapter 1 starts in motion. All six deliver their genre promise in chapter 1, from the level tag in Fight Dirty's first lines and Eric's city emptying in the first paragraph to Midnight's Monster opening mid-raid and ending with the death that carries her into the game.

Reviewers single out how quickly Fight Dirty and Sepulchral Sun get going.

Readers reward competent leads and clean prose. Doomsday Pivot!, Fight Dirty, The Law of the Abyss and Sepulchral Sun all show 5 out of 5 grammar scores. Reviewers praise rational, competent leads in Doomsday Pivot!, Eric and Fight Dirty.

The low and mixed reviews we read are about the lead's morality, detachment or quipping in fights.

Doomsday Pivot! also discloses its AI use in the blurb. It says no AI was used in the writing and some was used to catch mechanical errors.

What should you do if you're planning a Rising Stars launch?

None of this guarantees a place on the list. Royal Road makes that call. These are the parts you control, in the order you'll need them.

1. Bank a backlog. These six put up 2 to 15 posts in their first day (chart above). Bank enough beyond that to keep your schedule through the first month. See how many chapters to stockpile before launching.
2. Pick a schedule you can keep, and keep the hour. Eric posts at 20:00 UTC every day. Midnight's Monster posts Monday to Friday at 13:00 UTC and says so in its blurb. Choose what you can hold for a month, then put it in your blurb. Here is when to post on Royal Road.
3. Tell the readers you already have. A previous serial, fanfiction, a Discord or a newsletter all count. Give them the launch date. If you plan Patreon advance chapters, have them ready in the first weeks. If you have no audience yet, swap shout-outs with authors in your genre.
4. Write your twist as one sentence. Put it in the title and the opening lines of the blurb, add genre keywords in brackets or after a pipe, and close with a short "What to expect" list. See how to write a web fiction blurb.
5. Deliver the genre in chapter 1. A status tag, a class pop-up or the death that starts the story should land in the first chapter, and early in it. Our chapter hook guide covers how.
6. Give readers a lead who makes sense, and proofread. Competent leads and clean prose are what these reviews praise.
7. If you use AI, say how. Doomsday Pivot! does it in the blurb. If AI-written text goes into a chapter, Royal Road needs its AI tag. Here are the AI tag rules.

Posting this fast is also when continuity slips. As of October 22, 2026, Dungeon Expert Eric has 24 chapters since October 1 and The Law of the Abyss has 43 posts since October 5. At that pace a level, a skill or a secret can drift between chapter 4 and chapter 24.

PlotWrite was built for that problem. Its founder, Akshay, writes LitRPG on Royal Road, and his readers caught his lead's rank flipping between chapters.

Its Story Bible keeps a page for every character, place, item and skill with what is true at each chapter. Check chapter compares a new chapter with everything before it and flags contradictions before you post. Memory and checks need no AI tag.