Radicals that appear in only one kanji?

[sergiop]

Having the radicals 凸 and 凹 in level 57 is just mean spirited… They are used only in the corresponding kanjis.

[sansarret]

Maybe it’s an internal design requirement, as in each kanji supposed to have at least one radical. You know, mandatory non-empty column in database or foreign key (sort of). Given that levels above 50 were not planned from the start, it’s quite possible.

[Hyva]

While this might also be true, i think it’s more of a semantic concept of WK, that kanji have to have radicals.

[chepe263]

Since there are not many radicals in levels 50 and up, it would be nice to put all radicals in just one level.

[Leebo]

What would that help with? It would just make some kanji significantly separated from their radicals.

[HotWeather]

radical is entry point for kanji so somehow you started to get used to it…

[sansarret]

I learned “snake” radical on level 8. Still have not seen any kanji with it, the earliest will be on level 16.
Another example “hills” (level 8). Kanjis are level 30, 42, and 55.

I guess there were content updates, and changes to mnemonics that created such gaps.

[Leebo]

I don’t think any of those are intentional, the way this was being proposed to be. They might move them the next time there is a move of things.

[Kurei_0]

Well, there’s nothing wrong honestly.

@Hyva

i think it’s more of a semantic concept of WK, that kanji have to have radicals.

I think this is the real reason. All kanji are given after their radicals. They couldn’t very well do it for 1998 kanji and then say “and at last these kanji…, no radicals for these. Why? Did you need radicals to learn kanji?”
While they are simple enough that they don’t need a radical decomposition, it won’t hurt because they chose the meaning of the kanji and radical to be the same, so they are actually making you learn the meaning two times, nothing more…
Lv 57 also has only 2 radicals, so they don’t even do it to slow us down, it’s just there for consistency.

[RachelG]

It does feel like torture since you’re so close to completing WaniKani at level 57, but it was well-intented . Some users have answered this already (thanks guys!) but basically the way WaniKani’s mnemonics work is they use radicals to describe the kanji in a story format. So, that’s why those radicals needed to be learned (even if just for one kanji).