As the My Hero Academia story continues, the complexity of Quirks only seems to get more convoluted. Originally, MHA told you that Quirks were like muscles and had a hard-defined upper limit. Then, during the Forest Camp arc, the idea of breaking them down and building them back up was introduced to surpass that limit.

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Next, during the Overhaul Arc, Aizawa introduced the concept of a “Quirk Factor” that directly controls each Quirk. Now, in the upcoming Season 5, some more Quirk Concepts are about to pop up, this time in relation to the villains of the series. So, without going too much into spoilers (hopefully), let’s take the time to look at some of the strongest villain Quirks in the series and rank them.

Updated June 29th, 2021 by Jacob Buchalter: My Hero Academia is still going strong. The anime is in its fifth season and is about to jump right into one of the darkest (but best) arcs in the story, while the manga has revealed a ton about the story as a whole, and has taken some drastic turns. And, along the way, a lot more villains have been introduced, each with their own absurdly powerful abilities. So, let's take another look, pick out the strongest, and rank them here as the most powerful villain Quirks in all of MHA.

15 Soramitsu Tabe Of The Eight Bullets: Food

The first Quirk up is one held by a villain you probably forgot about, Soramitsu Tabe. If that name doesn’t ring a bell, he was one of the three villains Suneater went up against in the Shie Hassaikai Raid arc, and all three of them were part of the group's "Eight Bullets". Tabe’s Quirk is called “Food” and it basically means that Tabe can eat anything he wants, seemingly with no repercussions. Sounds simple, right? But, there are three primary factors of this Quirk that make it particularly strong:

• First off, it’s immediate, meaning Soramitsu simply takes a bite and the "food" is gone, there's not much chewing involved if any.
• Second, his stomach is seemingly endless, meaning the food either disappears or his stomach is a literal black hole.
• And three, other than his insatiable hunger, there doesn’t seem to be any real limits to the Quirk itself, meaning Tabe can eat anything he considers food, even if no one else would consider it food.

It's one of the more vague villain Quirks in MHA, but it's still pretty fearsome.

14 The Death-Row Inmate, Moonfish: Blade-Tooth

Next up is another villain Quirk held by someone that was insanely strong, but Tokoyami’s Dark Shadow sort of blew the guy away before he could show his Quirk off to the fullest. It's Blade-Tooth, the Quirk used by Moonfish, a villain that shows up early in the series as part of the Forest Training Camp Arc villains. And, with his Quirk, Moonfish could control the growth of his teeth to absurd levels, essentially using them as limbs or tendrils. But, what really made this Quirk unpredictable and powerful was:

• The fact that Moonfish could fully control how fast they grew, in what direction, and how many of his teeth grew at once.
• All of them were sharp like blades and strong enough to cut through solid ice.
• It wasn't just one long tooth tendril, many of them would branch out in many different paths.

Basically, it was a Quirk that was only limited by Moonfish's imagination, which is deadly when the Quirk wielder is imaginative in all the wrong ways.

13 The Former Pro-Hero Turned Villain, Lady Nagant: Rifle

Honestly, out of all the Quirks out there, Rifle seems like one of the most specialized. Sure, people with electricity-type Quirks are probably good for a lot of jobs in the power industry, but Lady Nagant's Quirk feels like her own DNA was telling her to become a sniper. Her Rifle ability is pretty simple, stored inside her arm, coming out from her elbow, is an organic sniper-like weapon. Now, this sniper has everything a sniper usually has, including:

• A scope.
• A bipod for tactical placement.
• Rifling on the side of the barrel.
• Though one thing that isn't typical for snipers is how drastically she can adjust the power output, which can even cause her "sniper" to expand from the kickback.

But that's not all! Nagant's Quirk also has to do with her hair, as taking some strands out and twisting them together creates the ammo she uses. This hair hardens and becomes just as durable as standard ammo. And, depending on what ratio she mixes the different colored strands of her hair, Lady Nagant can make bullets that act like hollow points, armor-piercing, or even bullets that can curve. All-in-all, it’s an incredibly deadly Quirk for a villain to have, especially one as skilled as Lady Nagant.

12 The Chimera, Chojuro Kon: Chimera

Chojuro Kon is a unique case, as he's a villain from one of the MHA movies, particularly My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising. Now, because this film is canon, so is Kon, and so is his Quirk called Chimera. Quite honestly, this Quirk is never fully explained in the movie, but from what fans have pieced together, Chojuro is able to endow himself with the abilities of multiple animals at once, which is incredibly similar to Suneater's Manifest Quirk. Just in his brief appearance in the movie, Kon:

• Grew wings, horns, and a lizard tail.
• Turned his hands and feet into talons.
• Transformed into a monster twice his normal size.
• And even fired multiple devastating fiery beams similar to a mythical dragon or even something like Godzilla.

Seriously, Chojuro feels like a monster that deserves his own spinoff Kaiju Movie or something. 

11 The Nomu Named Kurogiri: Warp Gate

Talking about Kurogiri as a character in regards to their backstory is difficult since a lot of his story is spoiler potential, but at the very least fans should know that Warp Gate is insanely strong in the right hands. Teleportation Quirks in MHA are exceedingly rare, and Warp Gate is much more versatile than Kurogiri displays.

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Basically, AfO and Shigaraki use him as a teleportation Uber, but Warp Gate could easily be used in some truly horrifying ways if Kurogiri so desired, such as:

• Creating a portal leading to the bottom of the ocean, crushing anyone who went through it, or flooding the area if he left the portal open.
• Holding someone halfway through a portal, then closing it.
• Dropping someone into a portal that connects to another one miles in the sky, essentially dropping them from a lethal height.

And those are just a few easy examples, there's so much more Kurogiri could do. Thankfully, he's not used as much more than a tool, and he can't create a gate anywhere he doesn't see currently, know of, or has coordinates for, but that's still pretty versatile for something as overpowered as this.

10 Chizome Akaguro AKA Stain: Bloodcurdle

While MHA did its best to paint Stain AKA Chizome Akaguro as a vigilante whose insane physical skills and obsessive dedication to his ideals compensated for his lackluster Quirk, that just simply isn’t true. Bloodcurdle is honestly one of the most powerful Quirks out there, shown by how hard Deku, Ilda, and Todoroki had to fight to beat him. But, to be more specific:

• It completely incapacitates anyone it’s used on, no matter how strong they are.
• There doesn’t seem to have a limit to how many opponents it can infect at once.
• The only weakness is the fact that Stain has to get blood from his opponent, and the blood type differentiation, but it doesn't matter how "fresh" the blood is.
• The amount of blood seemingly makes no difference.

If Chizome only had more unique support items that helped him steal blood easier, as Himiko Toga does, he could have easily become a top-three contender for the strongest villain in the franchise. At the very least, he's one of the coolest inclusions in the spinoff Vigilantes series. 

9 The League Of Villain's Himiko Toga: Transform

By default, Toga's Quirk is almost too powerful in terms of assassination or espionage, but as far as a combat Quirk, it's not great. Himiko's Quirk is called Transform, and it allows her to fully morph into whoever's blood she drinks. Now, the amount of time Toga can stay transformed ranges depending on how much blood she drinks, but she needs a full cup to last a day or so. But after a certain something happens (which has yet to happen in the anime), Toga's Quirk develops a bit.

Spoilers ahead for Himiko Toga specifically in Season 5 of the MHA anime

But season 5 has a lot of new developments. For example, in it, Toga's Quirk "awakens" and she's now able to mimic the Quirk of the person she's transformed into as well. So what was previously a very lackluster Quirk in terms of combat, just became a lot stronger. Think about it:

• Toga can drink the blood of multiple people at once and transform into them one after another.
• This means she can use multiple Quirks in sequence, without having to go back to her basic form.
• If Himiko uses her Quirk to get close to a powerful Hero, such as Mirko, she could utilize the powers of even the most elite Heroes.
• There's no limit on the amount of blood she can mix or drink at once.
• She's obsessive and insane, making her even more terrifying.

With all that in mind, there's no question that Toga has the potential to rival some of the strongest heroes and villains out there,  but her eccentric nature and personality usually leads to her trying to Transform into people she likes, rather than ones with true power.

8 Geten AKA Iceman: Ice Manipulation

Geten is one of the only examples of a side character in MHA whose Quirk (which is currently unnamed but is tentatively called Ice Manipulation) has undergone the “Awakening” that Shigaraki’s and Toga's went through. By default, Ice Manipulation allows Geten, AKA "Iceman", to:

• Freely control any ice near him similar to telekinesis.
• Sense any nearby ice (and control it) in a radius about the size of a small town.
• Combine ice into a variety of fake limbs, shapes, or weapons that he desires.
• Fly using the ice to lift him up.
• Control the force and speed at which the ice he's controlling moves.

After awakening this Quirk, Geten is now able to freeze liquids around him, giving him more ice to manipulate. Imagine if he learns to control his Quirk even more, couldn't he potentially freeze all the water within the human body? This ability was powerful even before its awakening, but now it's just downright overpowered. That said, if there's no liquid nearby at all, Geten is pretty much Quirkless, so at least that's one weakness.

7 The Man With The Alias "Dabi": Cremation

Spoilers: Dabi's identity and backstory have been revealed in the manga, and it's talked about below. 

Let’s talk about Dabi’s Cremation Quirk. Unlike Endeavor's Hellflame Quirk, Toya "Dabi" Todoroki can’t control the shape of his flames almost at all, and he can’t really get too creative with it as well. But, in return, his flames are naturally much hotter than either Todoroki’s Half-Hot-Half-Cold or Hellflame's which is why they're blue. This allows Dabi to:

• Almost instantly incinerate opponents caught off guard.
• Burndown entire forests with ease, or spread his flames over a battlefield in an instant.
• Create flames from any part of his body at high intensity with little to no effort.
• Generate hotter and hotter flames depending on his overall emotional state.

That said, the time Dabi can use his Quirk in comparison to his brother or father is laughable, as his flames start to sear and damage his own body over time and cause him to go numb. That said, Cremation is still an unimaginably destructive Quirk, even if it isn't as versatile as any of the other fire-based Quirks seen in the series.

6 Rikiya "Re-Destro" Yotsubashi: Stress

Rikiya Yotsubashi is a character anime-only people haven’t quite met yet (but they're about to) so talking about his Quirk is impossible without giving it away.

So, for those who want to stay completely fresh for the second half of S5, move on to the next entry.

Moving on, Rikiya’s Quirk is Stress, which is the ability to convert frustration, anger, and of course the emotion of stress into raw power. Now, this isn’t just normal super strength conversion similar to how Rikido Sato's Sugar Rush works. No, Yosubashi, can:

• Intentionally put himself in stressful situations to "stockpile" his stress levels for later use.
• Change the size and power of any part of his body completely separately.
• Grow into a giant black mass capable of leveling entire cities.
• Send out waves of raw frustration energy at his opponent.

Essentially, Rikiya is the Hulk but with full control of his state of mind, size, strength, and output. That said, if Rikiya isn't able to stockpile enough Stress for a battle, he's basically Quirkless as well.

5 Jin "Twice" Bubaigawara: Double

There are a couple of reasons why Double, the Quirk used by Jin Bubaigawa, otherwise known as "Twice", is shockingly powerful. For one, it allows him to create a perfect copy of anything or anyone as long as he knows their exact measurements. And two, the clone has their own free will, memories, personality, and a copy of the Quirk of the original. Now, the main downside is that Jin can only clone a person one at a time, and the clone has relatively low durability, turning into this mud-like substance after taking any sizeable amount of damage.

Once again, spoilers below for some "Twice" characterization and Quirk changes in the upcoming second half of MHA Season 5.

But remember, Jin can create infinite clones of himself since every clone would be able to create another in an endless loop. The only reason he doesn't is because of his mental trauma, but he gets over that trauma in an incredible way during the final section of the "Meta Liberation Army Arc". This development lets Jin:

• Create tidal waves of clones, enough to overrun an entire city.
• Overpower even the most fearsome opponents with infinite clones that aren't afraid of death.
• Detect when any of his clones are killed, even from far away.
• Send endless clones towards his friends, all of which have the Double Quirk, at his friends in order to double them.

The only weakness this Quirk has is that Double can only copy other people a maximum of twice, but two Shigaraki's instead of one is still a huge difference.

4 A Nameless Villain Who Went By "Nine": Weather Manipulation

Here’s another one of the movie villains (sadly not from the Two Heroes film), Nine, from the Heroes Rising movie. Now, in the film, Nine is "technically" part of the League of Villains and was gifted by their own specialist with a couple of Quirks, such as:

• All For One (Copy): A weaker copied version of One for All that allowed Nine to steal other Quirks from people.
• Air Wall: Allows Nine to create walls of air that block attacks or push people away.
• Scanning: Lets Nine scan people to see their current status and look at their Quirks before they're used.
• Bullet Lasers: Gives Nine to power to shoot purple lasers like bullets that easily pierced most materials that had contact with.
• Hydra: Grants the power to summon water-like Hydra objects from his back.
• Cell Activation: Repairs the damage taken, but only for people of a certain blood type, making it worthless for Nine.

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However, the one he was born with was Weather Manipulation. Think of it like Storm’s Mutant power in the X-Men series. It allows Nine to create tornadoes, high winds that allow him to essentially fly, summon lightning, storms, and any other type of “weather”. It is by far one of the most widely destructive Quirks seen in the series to date, with the only drawback being the Cellular Degeneration it causes the user with extended use of the Quirk.

3 Kai "Overhaul" Chisaki: Overhaul

Quite honestly, Chisaki's Quirk Overhaul is an upgrade to Tomura’s Decay in almost every way, at least in the beginning. Think about it:

• Kai Chisaki only has to touch his target with a single finger, rather than all five like Shigaraki.
• Overhaul can use his Quirk to kill someone then bring them back good-as-new, while the destruction and violence Decay causes are permanent.
• Chisaki can fuse himself with other people, essentially giving himself multiple Quirks at once.
• And finally, Overhaul can heal people as easily as he can kill them, making him both a powerhouse and a support.

The only downside is Chisaki's germaphobia. Truly, no one expected the stereotypical anime Yakuza character to be such a clean freak. Now, it’s a bit unfair to Tomura, but the villain known as Overhaul really has him beat in most departments until the events of the "Meta Liberation Army Arc" that is. After that, Chisaki's Quirk suddenly found itself quite a bit weaker in terms of power than Shigaraki's.

2 Protege Of All For One, Tomura Shigaraki: Decay

Obviously, Tomura Shigaraki, the leader of the League of Villains, was going to be somewhere on here. His Quirk, Decay, allows him:

• To disintegrate anything he touches with all five fingers of either hand.
• To kill people with a single touch.
• To break into anywhere with minimal effort.
• To escape from any situation
• To destroy any evidence of murder or of a crime left behind

That alone is a terrifying ability, for sure, but that's not all.

Final spoilers below for the second half of Season 5. 

As it was stated earlier, Shigaraki's Quirk also goes through an awakening during the "Meta Liberation Army Arc" (one of the best arcs in the series), which let his Quirk spread from what he originally touches to any objects that were touching what decays. But his instance of awakening was different from the others. To put it simply, it wasn't an awakening, but rather Shigaraki remembered a repressed memory that told him he always had his ability, so it became unlocked once again. Even before Tomura unlocked the "domino effect" of his Quirk, it was still one of the scariest in all of MHA. And after he upgraded it, it finally became truly horrifying.

1 AfO AKA "Master" Shigaraki: All For One

Was there any other choice but this one? AfO with his Quirk All for One is the only criminal who:

• Can give All Might a run for his money.
• Perfectly counter any opponent.
• Steal his opponent's Quirk, essentially winning the fight.
• Grant Quirks to other criminals.
• Stack Quirks, fuse them, or even create brand new ones from other Quirks.
• And finally, he's the one who creates One for All

At the end of the day, All for One is the Quirk that beats every other Quirk out there, simply because it technically is every other Quirk out there. No matter the setting, the power to steal powers will always reign supreme.

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