Seeing as I stayed in painful for way too long (642 days and 22 hours to be exact), my advice is:
DONT DO WHAT I DID!
But seriously, just keep at it and youll be okay 
a little each day and youll be through it in no time!
pretty interested on what gif could explain as well as this one the death, hell, paradise and reality layers, haha
well according to wkstats page i stayed on level one for 1420 days, lol, glad to hear you’re again on your feet, let’s see how it goes, good luck on the death
Thank you so much for taking your time to share your thoughts. I’ll try to be consistent on the amount of days it takes me to level up but trying to not feel overwhelmed by it.
Here comes the owww, i am not awesome, you’re awesome line
I have these mangas waiting for me on my room crying out loud for not beign read yet, i dont want to withstand for much longer the cries of the unattended babies, lol.
Best wishes
Im glad to see you are back as well!
Use. The. Mnemonics.
Even if you think you’ve been getting by fine without them up until now and you don’t need them, you will need them. At least use the radicals to make uo your own, they become so important to distinguish similar kanji
so should i use the reorder script or just follow the natural system?
Normally when you level up, Wanikani gives you the vocab you just unlocked from the previous level (~30 terms) before it lets you get to your new level’s kanji and radicals. The problem with this is that if you want to start progressing on the new level ASAP, your review batches are going to pop up with all of the new kanji, radicals, AND last level’s newest vocab every time.
So, lots of users install a reorder script to let you unlock the new kanji and radicals ASAP, and then stop for the hour. The vocab lessons are best trickled in over the next few days so that you don’t have lulls of nothing followed by sudden, massive review walls.
People warn against “abusing” reorder scripts, because it’s technically possible to always sort kanji and radicals to the front and never unlock new vocab. Just make sure your lessons are empty before new ones show up and you’ll be fine.
Yes, i’ve already felt that urge to study radicals and the first wave of kanji as soon as i enter a new level, so for that purpose using the script is a realy neat thing to do.
Anyhow, it is just beautiful to learn vocabulary imo because to see how a word conforms via the union of the kanjis it’s sometimes even mindblowing… like for example when i learned how to write emoji it was beautiful or how to write Neptune, volcano, and so on.
If i were to give my own advice on this topic it would be that don’t take away the pleasure of learning the vocabulary, there are a lot of times where you’ll get as satisfyed as when constructing something and two pieces fit together so seamlessly.
Bro, i love it so much
This. This. This. It’s not always easy because the mnemonics do get more convoluted at times, and the hardest thing for me is to not rush through lessons. You might not need it during the Painful levels themselves, but you’ll be grateful later.
completely up to you - I personally use it - it allows you to get your radicals and early kanji up and running without trailing through all your vocab lessons first.
inb4 lvl 40 panic. D: halp I must be a masochist to enjoy this much pain.
I’m right there with you. I’m excited to cross the threshold into “Painful.” I don’t really think I’m apprehensive about it though. I’m sure there will be some difficulties but I’m also sure that we’ll all be better for the challenge 
Congrats on not resetting and pulling trough!
I went the reset route.
Thanks for the link to that Jitai font randomizer, that sounds like a useful thing to practice whilst learning!
As for the OP’s general question, I’d agree with the general advice given already - don’t rush through lessons and instead work at whatever pace feels good to you whilst still being effective at around an 80-90% success rate in the reviews. That’s a good score to be aiming for and make sure to study up extra on any older kanji or vocab that ain’t stickin’ in the noggin as well as the rest. I have a focus deck on anki that helps me study up on my weakest links.
Angry Mami,
This sounds like an interesting feature. But excuse me, when I click on your link all I see is code. How could I implement your code when using WaniKani? Sorry to be clueless!
Jenifer
You need to install a browser extension first that uses the code (I recommend Tampermonkey). There is some help here:
When you have the extension the install link will work as expected (and not just show the code).
Let’s do it together! I’ve hit 10 today and I noticed that painful is just around the corner as well…
I just spread some morphine on my morning toast.
I feel you