Game Guide
MyRin uses a 40-rank progression system drawn from authentic Japanese martial arts tradition, from 見習い (apprentice) to 天下人 (Ruler of All Under Heaven).
Most apps give you a level number. MyRin gives you a rank drawn from five centuries of Japanese martial arts, cultural practice, and philosophical tradition. The 40-rank progression is not cosmetic, each rank name carries a specific meaning in Japanese cultural history, and the sequence is designed to mirror the actual stages that practitioners of any deep discipline move through.
Here is the complete rank system, in order, with the cultural context behind each name.
Every level completed in any of MyRin's 30 games earns experience points. Easy levels award 25 XP, medium levels 50 XP, and hard levels 125 XP. Daily streaks multiply this: three consecutive days of practice earn a 1.25× multiplier, one week earns 1.5×, two weeks earns 1.8×, and a 30-day streak earns 2.2× XP on every level. A first-play-of-the-day bonus adds flat XP per level across the first session.
Ranks are awarded as XP thresholds are crossed. There is no rank-down mechanism, progress is permanent. The highest rank, Tenkabito, requires approximately 810,000 XP, which at average play represents a genuine long-term achievement. The system is designed to be aspirational without being inaccessible, every rank represents real accumulated practice.
The first eight ranks are named for stages of learning in Japanese cultural tradition. These names appear in apprenticeship systems for craft, martial arts, and artistic practice. They honor the seriousness of beginning.
1. 見習い Minarai, "Apprentice." The first step on the path. Minarai literally means "to learn by watching", the apprentice who observes the master before attempting the work themselves. In traditional Japanese craft, minarai is a formal stage: the apprentice is present, watching, absorbing, but not yet doing.
2. 修行者 Shugyōsha, "Practitioner." One who undertakes shugyō, rigorous, self-imposed discipline. Shugyō appears throughout Japanese tradition: the marathon monks of Mount Hiei who walk 40 km per day for 100 consecutive days, the calligrapher who copies the same character ten thousand times. Discipline is the seed of skill.
3. 弟子 Deshi, "Disciple." A disciple walks behind the master. In Japanese tradition, being accepted as a deshi is a formal step, the teacher has taken responsibility for the student's development. A disciple walks behind the master, observing the master's path from close range.
4. 門下生 Monkasei, "Entered student." Literally "student who has entered through the gate." In Japanese arts, the gate is the formal threshold of a school, passing through it signals commitment to the school's lineage and tradition.
5. 学者 Gakusha, "Scholar." Knowledge accumulates slowly. The scholar is past apprenticeship and into genuine learning, building the intellectual structure that will support practice at higher levels.
6. 探求者 Tankyūsha, "Seeker." Every question opens another path. The seeker is defined not by what they know but by what they pursue. At this stage, curiosity about the domain itself becomes a driver, not just progress toward a goal.
7. 思索者 Shisakusha, "Thinker." Stillness reveals what motion hides. The thinker has moved from observation to reflection, pausing to examine what has been learned, making connections, beginning to see the structure beneath the surface of the practice.
8. 覚者 Kakusha, "Awakened." Something has shifted within. The Kakusha mark completes the Awakening tier. Something is qualitatively different now, not just accumulated knowledge, but a changed relationship to the domain. This is the moment practitioners in many traditions describe as the first genuine glimpse of the real thing.
The second tier uses the kyu (級) system, a descending numbered rank used in Japanese martial arts, Go, shogi, and calligraphy. Kyu ranks count down toward dan (段), the ascending ranks of mastery. This system was formalized by Kanō Jigorō, the founder of judo, in the early 20th century, adapted from the ranking system used in Go since the Edo period.
Ranks 9 through 1 kyu cover the Refinement tier, the long middle ground of systematic skill development. Each rank represents measurable progress in technique and understanding. The descent from 9th to 1st kyu is the practitioner learning to see more clearly, think further ahead, and respond with greater precision.
初段 Shodan, "First dan, first step." Shodan is one of the most recognized milestones in Japanese martial arts tradition. It is the moment the practitioner is no longer a student of fundamentals but a practitioner of the art. In kendo, a Shodan is awarded only after demonstrating consistent technical competence and understanding of form. In MyRin, the Shodan rank marks the crossing from kyu to dan, a real threshold in the progression.
Subsequent dan ranks (Nidan, Sandan through Shichidan) continue through the Sharpening tier. Each dan step requires not just accumulated XP but a deepened quality of practice, the system models this through exponentially increasing XP requirements per rank.
The Mastery tier introduces titles from the higher levels of Japanese cultural tradition:
師範 Shihan, "Master Instructor." One who has been authorized to teach and transmit the tradition. In martial arts, Shihan is not earned by skill alone but by the ability to develop skill in others, a different and harder threshold.
名人 Meijin, "Grand Master." The Meijin title has a specific history in Japanese board games. In shogi, the Meijin is the highest title, contested in an annual tournament that began in 1612. In go, the Meijin title similarly represents the summit of competitive achievement. MyRin uses it at Mastery tier rank to honor this tradition.
武士 Bushi, "Warrior." Not samurai by birth but by demonstrated capacity, the warrior who has earned the designation through practice rather than inheritance.
The Legend tier names carry the weight of their designations. These are not honorifics, they are titles from Japanese history that represent the summit of achievement in their respective traditions.
侍 Samurai, "Legend." The samurai class was formally abolished in Japan in the 1870s. In MyRin, the designation honors the ideal that the historical record preserves: the practitioner of extraordinary discipline and commitment.
剣聖 Kensei, "Sword Saint." Beyond ordinary limits. Kensei is a title historically associated with warriors of legendary technical mastery, Tsukahara Bokuden (1489 to 1571), considered one of Japan's greatest swordsmen, carried this designation.
将軍 Shōgun, "Approaching the furthest peak." The shogun historically held power equivalent to the de facto ruler of Japan. In MyRin, the designation reflects the practitioner approaching the summit of what the training system can measure.
大名 Daimyō, "Great Lord." Few have ever walked this path. The daimyō were the powerful feudal lords of Japan's pre-modern period, regional rulers of enormous influence and authority. At this rank, the XP accumulated represents a volume of practice that relatively few players will reach.
天下人 Tenkabito, "Ruler of All Under Heaven." The pinnacle rank. Tenkabito (天下人) literally translates as "person of all under heaven", a title historically applied to figures like Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi who unified Japan after a century of civil war. In MyRin, reaching Tenkabito at 810,000 XP represents a sustained commitment to daily practice that is, in its own way, a form of the same discipline.
Every rank in MyRin carries a one-line wisdom sentence. Minarai: "The first steps on the path." Tenkabito: the implied completion of the path that began with those first steps. Between them, 40 names that mark the territory that all serious practitioners traverse, not in a single domain, but in any discipline pursued with genuine commitment over real time.
The rank system is the visible form of something the app is built around: that daily practice, compounded over time, produces genuine change. Not motivational platitude, documented cognitive development, measurable in speed, accuracy, and the characteristic shift from effortful calculation to automatic perception that practitioners in every tradition call by different names, and that the rank sequence tries, imperfectly, to honor.