The Fate franchise has a wild power ceiling. In one arc, it’s two magic swordsmen fighting over a wish-granting cup; the next, it’s a demon god trying to burn away 3,000 years of human history (yes, history, not world). That gap is exactly why ranking the strongest characters is tricky, as “strong” means something different in every show.
Hence, for this ranking, we’re not just looking at who can punch the hardest. We’re checking whether that power comes with strings attached. A god-tier being that needs a ritual, a borrowed body, or a one-time trigger to actually use their full strength gets ranked lower. A character with almost no restrictions is ranked higher, even if their stats are lower than those of a literal god. Let’s dive in.
| TITLE | Fate/Zero | Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works |
| MAL RATING (as of Aug 5, 2026) | 8.26 / 10 | 8.18 / 10 |
| STUDIO | ufotable | ufotable |
| RELEASE DATE | Oct 2, 2011 | Oct 12, 2014 |
| STREAMING | Crunchyroll, Hulu | Crunchyroll, Hulu |
10. Karna – Apocrypha’s Demigod with a One-Shot Noble Phantasm
Karna is one of the servants summoned in Fate/Apocrypha, and he is a walking Nuclear Bomb with cheat codes. His golden armor, called Kavacha and Kundala, makes it so that he is practically invincible. Furthermore, his Noble Phantasm, called Vasavi Shakti, guarantees a one-hit kill to almost anything.
That sounds like a perfect package, like Superman, but there is a big catch that makes him rank at the bottom. Vasavi Shakti only works once, since activating it costs him the armor that made him invincible in the first place. Once he is done with his Noble Phantasm, if the enemy somehow survives, he can easily be killed.
9. Ishtar – The Goddess Bound to a Borrowed Body
Ishtar is a literal goddess in this franchise, inspired by the Sumerian myth of the same name. She cannot show up in the modern world as herself, so she takes a human body to host herself. In Babylonia, her vessel is Rin Tohsaka. Many fans were confused about why they look alike; this was the actual reason.
Her actual divine authority is real, dangerous, and capable of rewriting parts of the world around her, but it only shows up when the vessel situation perfectly lines up. She has authority over the sky itself, and can change reality at will.
For example, if she wanted the crows to be white, the black ones would be erased from existence. She also has the power of charm, which works even on concepts such as the laws of physics. However, her restriction is why she is ranked this low. It is also worth noting that she is one of the most cunning characters, as she was able to outsmart Gilgamesh in Fate/Strange Fake.
8. Shiki Tohno – The Eyes That See the Death in Everything
Shiki appears in the Lunar Legend Tsukihime anime, which is fairly old at this point. Shiki’s Mystic Eyes of Death Perception let him see the “lines of death” hidden in anything, living or not, and cutting along those lines kills the target instantly no matter how tough they are. This means that if he sees the line on an entire building or servant, he can carve it, and the building would collapse while the servant would simply die.
That sounds like an automatic top-five pass, but this ability is loaded with conditions. He has to physically see the lines and trace them with something sharp. So, if there are no lines in sight, he is not doing much. Furthermore, overusing the eyes causes him a lot of pain, which is why he wears special glasses just to function day to day (which were given to him by a character much higher in this ranking).
7. Shiki Ryougi – The Woman Who Touched the Root Itself
Do not confuse her with Tohno. Ryougi carries the same Mystic Eyes as Tohno, but she takes them further. She is described as being directly connected to the Root of Akasha. To understand how serious this is, know that if there was anything, if there is anything, or if there will be anything, we can thank Akasha for that. Because of that, technically speaking, all Fate fan art or stories are also canon, as Akasha looks over the infinite timelines and possibilities.
Touching something like the Root is something the mages fight in the grail war for, but Shiki Ryougi just has it. Then why is she ranked so low? It’s because that Root-level connection belongs to an unstable alternate personality that doesn’t surface on command. Her regular fighting self still has to physically trace death lines just like Tohno does. Her ceiling is higher than his, but she can’t access that ceiling whenever she wants.
6. Enkidu – The Chains That Bind Even Gods
Enkidu’s signature move, Enuma Elish, not to be confused with Gilgamesh’s Enuma Elish, uses the Chains of Heaven, which are strong enough to bind gods and monsters that most Servants can’t even scratch. It is worth noting that Enkidu is an entity that was created by the gods themselves, just to kill Gilgamesh, who ranks much higher in this ranking.
However, Enkidu’s whole fighting style leans on setup and restraint rather than destruction. While he was able to hold back Tiamat herself, he couldn’t exactly scratch her. Compare that to a character who can simply blast a target with zero requirements, and Enkidu starts looking more like a specialist than an all-around powerhouse, which makes him rank somewhere in the middle.
5. Artoria Pendragon (Saber) – The Restrained King of Knights
Saber is one of those characters that changed the perception of female characters in anime forever, but her position in this ranking may seem baffling to the fans who have only seen the anime. But that’s the beauty of the Fate franchise: there is always some lore that you miss. Artoria isn’t as weak as we saw her in the anime, where she looks like nothing but a skilled swordswoman with a single AOE attack. In fact, her sword Excalibur is locked behind something called Restraints of the Round Table.
They are a set of conceptual conditions, for example “The enemy must be stronger than oneself” or “The battle must not be against one pure of heart”. Fun fact: these are the same restraints that Gray was seen releasing in the Lord El-Melloi II’s Case Files.
When all 13 restraints are removed, Saber’s mana burst can break the laws of physics, threatening the entire planet. If these restraints were not in place, she would easily top the ranking, but we keep her in the middle.
4. Gilgamesh – The King of Heroes and His Gate of Babylon
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Credit: CloverWorks -
Credit: A-1 Pictures -
Credit: A-1 Pictures
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Credit: CloverWorks -
Credit: A-1 Pictures -
Credit: A-1 Pictures
The first few Fate anime did not really do justice when it came to showing just how strong Gilgamesh is. In Zero, he defeated an entire army with a single attack of Ea, but in UBW, he was easily defeated by Emiya Shirou. In fact, in Heaven’s Feel, he didn’t even get to put up a fight.
However, Fate/Grand Order finally did him justice, which is probably why it is one of the best anime in the franchise. Gilgamesh’s Gate of Babylon gives him access to nearly every legendary weapon in human history, and he can pull them out and fire them off with no ritual, no setup, and no cooldown to get in his way.
Ea can tear apart reality itself, and the only reason it is not used much is that Gilgamesh doesn’t seem to think anyone is worth enough. Unconditional, on-demand destruction like that is exactly why he sits close to the top of this list.
3. Tiamat – Beast II, the Primordial Mother Goddess Restrained
The Draconic Corpus we actually see fighting in Babylonia is already terrifying enough to reshape the entire battlefield. But here’s the catch: that form is stated to be Tiamat’s weakest one. She’s still held back by seals placed on her by the Underworld even in that state, meaning the version the story shows us isn’t close to her real output.
A restriction that big – being locked out of her true form entirely – is a serious condition working against her, even though her raw potential is close to the very top of the franchise. But her ranking is justified by the fact that Enkidu first had to use Enuma Elish to hold her down, then Ishtar sent her to the underworld, and then Gilgamesh had to use Enuma Elish to erase her from existence. Such giants ganging up on her are why she is in the top 3.
2. Aoko Aozaki – Mahoyo’s Unrestricted Human Magus
Aoko is the one who gave Shiki his glasses. She doesn’t come with any conditions, really. She isn’t sealed, she isn’t bound to a borrowed body, and she doesn’t need a specific ritual to unlock her real power. As a Sorcerer who inherited the Fifth Magic, she deals with time itself. According to Alice Kuonji, who is another primary character in Witch on the Holy Night, her powers are more about fooling time itself.
That lack of restriction is what separates her from almost everyone else on here. Characters like Tiamat and Artoria technically have higher ceilings once their limiters are removed, but removing limiters is exactly the problem – something has to change first for them to reach that ceiling. Aoko doesn’t need anything to change. Whatever power she has, she already has access to it.
1. Goetia – Beast I, the Planetary-Class Demon King
Goetia tops this list because almost nothing stands between him and his full power. His Noble Phantasm, Ars Almadel Salomonis, converts 3,000 years of human history into a single beam of destructive energy, and he can fire it off the moment he decides mankind is out of chances. There’s no borrowed body, no one-time trigger, no chains that need to land first – just an entity whose default state is already strong enough to threaten the entire planet.
His Nega-Summon ability also lets him cancel out a Servant’s strongest attacks without any special setup required, which makes him nearly invincible as well. When a character’s normal, everyday state is already planet-threatening, and using that power doesn’t require jumping through any hoops at all, there’s nowhere else for them to sit but at the very top.
| RANK | CHARACTER |
| 10 | Karna |
| 9 | Ishtar |
| 8 | Shiki Tohno |
| 7 | Shiki Ryougi |
| 6 | Enkidu |
| 5 | Artoria Pendragon |
| 4 | Gilgamesh |
| 3 | Tiamat |
| 2 | Aoko Aozaki |
| 1 | Goetia – Beast I |
Which of these characters do you like the most? Let us know in the comments.
