Red Rising
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50 free Red Rising trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Red Rising opens deep under Mars, where a young miner named Darrow believes his work will one day make the planet livable. Then he loses everything, learns what his rulers have been hiding, and is rebuilt to pass as one of them. Pierce Brown's debut has been winning readers ever since with its mix of Roman pageantry, schoolyard warfare and revolution. This quiz follows the book through its four parts: Darrow's life in the mines, his transformation, the long war between the Houses at the Institute, and the final assault on the adults running the game. A good share of the questions come from the Institute chapters, where alliances shift fastest and the details are easiest to mix up. The rest cover the later novels, the author and the adaptations. It is written for readers who have finished the first book, book clubs looking for a warm-up, and students revising a set of chapters. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so a wrong guess still leaves you knowing the story better.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In Red Rising, what do Darrow and the Red miners dig for deep beneath the surface of Mars?
Helium-3
Helium-3 is harvested as fuel in the novel, and Darrow is among the best at drilling for it. His clan out-mines every rival and is still denied its reward.
Q 02In Red Rising, what is the name of Darrow's wife, whose public hanging turns him against the Golds?
Eo
Eo is hanged in public while the event is being broadcast. Her death is what drives Darrow to accept a new body and a new name so he can live among his enemies.
Q 03What does Darrow discover about the surface of Mars after rebels rescue him in Red Rising?
Terraformed long ago
It was terraformed long ago, and cities already stand on the planet. The miners below are lied to about its true condition so that they stay obedient.
Q 04Which act of defiance gets Darrow's wife hanged by the ArchGovernor of Mars in Red Rising?
Singing a forbidden song
Singing a forbidden song during her own public whipping costs her life. The song protests the enslavement of the Reds, and the punishment is being broadcast as she sings.
Q 05Which nickname do Darrow's classmates at the Institute give him in Red Rising?
Reaper
Reaper comes from the sickle-shaped blade Darrow carries as his weapon. The name outlasts the school and follows him through the later novels.
Q 06Red Rising fans call themselves by which name, borrowed from a band of characters in the novels?
Howlers
Howlers is the name readers adopted from characters in the books. Pierce Brown has singled out how warmly LGBT readers in particular have embraced the series.
Q 07Kirkus Reviews called Red Rising reminiscent of Game of Thrones and which other dystopian blockbuster?
The Hunger Games
The Hunger Games was the comparison Kirkus reached for. The review called the book a fine novel for readers who like to immerse themselves in alternative worlds.
Q 08For which illegal act is Darrow himself sentenced to hang early in Red Rising?
Burying his wife
Burying his wife is against the law, and a grieving Darrow does it anyway. He survives the noose only because a relative drugs him to fake his death.
Q 09In Red Rising, how is Mustang related to the Jackal, a secret Darrow learns late in the Institute's war?
His twin sister
His twin sister is the truth Darrow hears only as the game is ending. He fears she will betray him, but she delivers her brother to him instead.
Q 10How did Pierce Brown decide which Red Rising character would die at the hands of the Jackal?
Drew a name from a hat
Drew a name from a hat is how Brown settled it, leaving out only Darrow and Mustang. He admitted he was tempted to put the name back, since nobody would ever have known.
Q 11Which rebel group takes in Darrow after his hanging and remakes him as a Gold in Red Rising?
Sons of Ares
Sons of Ares is the underground movement that wants the Society's hierarchy overturned. A prequel comic series later told the story of how the group was founded.
Q 12Which rebel mentor shows Darrow the truth about the Golds in Red Rising and asks him to become one?
Dancer
Dancer is the mentor who first reveals the lies of the Golds to Darrow. By the sequel novels he has become a powerful senator and leads the opposition.
Q 13In Red Rising, Mickey the Carver who rebuilds Darrow's body as a Gold belongs to which Color?
Violet
Violet is the Color of Mickey, whose carving is a black market trade. He physically transforms Darrow so completely that he can pass among the ruling caste.
Q 21Which Gold ruler of Mars orders the hanging of Darrow's wife in Red Rising, then later recruits him?
Nero au Augustus
Nero au Augustus is ArchGovernor of the planet, and he secretly bribes the Institute's Proctors so that his own child will win the school's war game.
Q 22Which uncle drugs Darrow so that he survives his own hanging in Red Rising?
Narol
Narol fakes his nephew's death with a drug, then delivers him to the rebels. Two books later he is caught sabotaging the Jackal's satellites.
Q 23What is Darrow's dangerous job in the mines at the start of Red Rising, operating a huge drill?
Helldiver
Helldiver is the title for the operators of the huge drilling machines. Darrow is one of the best, and he pushes hard so that his tribe can win extra food.
Q 14Under which Gold family name does the disguised Darrow enter the Institute in Red Rising?
au Andromedus
Darrow au Andromedus is the false identity that hides his birth as a Red. He does so well in testing under it that Mars's most elite school accepts him.
Q 15Which opening trial at the Institute in Red Rising forces paired students to fight to the death?
The Passage
The Passage pairs new students off and forces them to fight barehanded until one is dead. Only afterwards does the war between the school's Houses begin.
Q 16Which brother of Cassius does Darrow kill barehanded at the start of the Institute in Red Rising?
Julian
Julian was a kind boy who had befriended Darrow on the flight to the school. Darrow hides what he did, and the secret later wrecks his friendship with Cassius.
Q 17Which violent House Mars faction leader in Red Rising turns out to be a remade Red like Darrow?
Titus
Titus is another Red in a Gold body, which Darrow realizes while interrogating him as a captive. To protect his own cover, Darrow sentences him to death.
Q 18What does the Jackal cut off to escape a trap that Darrow sets for him in Red Rising?
His own hand
His own hand is the price the Jackal pays to get free. The Proctors then help him counterattack and slip away from Darrow's army.
Q 19Which House does Mustang lead at the Institute when Darrow first crosses her path in Red Rising?
Minerva
Minerva is the House Mustang commands, and Darrow manipulates it into defeating a rival faction inside his own House. He later enslaves it but lets her escape.
Q 20In Red Rising, which captured object lets Institute students enslave the members of a rival House?
Its standard
Its standard can be used to enslave rival students, who must then obey. Darrow and Mustang later turn one to the opposite use, freeing slaves to build a loyal army.
Q 24Which prize of extra food is denied to Darrow's tribe in Red Rising after it out-mines its rivals?
The Laurel
The Laurel goes to the elite Gamma tribe instead, even though Darrow's Lambdas clearly out-produced them. The rigged contest is an early sign that the game is fixed.
Q 25The Institute's war game in Red Rising is staged in which real region of the planet Mars?
Valles Marineris
Valles Marineris holds a massive recreated medieval landscape, with a castle assigned to each House. The school's Proctors watch the fighting from afar.
Q 26What is the name of the Proctors' base that Darrow's army storms near the end of Red Rising?
Olympus
Olympus falls after Darrow's army gets hold of the Proctors' own anti-gravity boots. The students free Mustang there and take the Proctors captive.
Q 27Which Proctor does an enraged Darrow kill in Red Rising after the Proctors kidnap Mustang?
Apollo
Apollo is killed in answer to the kidnapping, after Darrow had already conquered the House he oversees. The Proctors had been helping the Jackal all along.
Q 28Which post, a kind of aide-de-camp, does the ArchGovernor of Mars offer Darrow at the end of Red Rising?
Lancer
Lancer is the role Darrow accepts, joining the house of the man who killed his wife. In return he keeps quiet about how the school's game was rigged.
Q 29In Red Rising, which elite rank do the highest-performing students of the Institute graduate into?
Peerless Scarred
Peerless Scarred graduates get the best apprenticeships and government jobs. The ArchGovernor who hangs Darrow's wife is one of them.
Q 30Which woman rules the entire Society as Sovereign during Darrow's rise in Red Rising?
Octavia au Lune
Octavia au Lune governs from the Moon, and she took power by beheading her own father, a tyrant. She rules for sixty years before the rebellion reaches her.