Sword Art Online Strongest Characters

The light novel adaptation of the anime series Sword Art Online (SAO) quickly became a fan favorite. The series has progressed from the NerveGear death game “Sword Art Online” to the Augma augmented reality game “Ordinal Scale.” From the first season onwards, and especially in the film adaptation, viewers see the characters put through their paces in a number of different gaming worlds. Characters with varying strengths and abilities have emerged from its many gaming settings.

Virtual reality massively multiplayer online games mix fiction and reality. This allows for the portrayal of a wide range of personalities, each with their own set of talents and expertise. Each character in the Sword Art Online series has their own unique set of strengths and weaknesses, and these disparities are reflected in their respective degrees of ability.

Updated March 10, 2023, by Oluwatokiloba Folami: Despite its first season being more than a decade old, the Sword Art Online series is still talked about in the anime community. With its unique portrayal of battles and life in a VRMMORPG world, the series has gone on to leave its mark among various other classic anime series. From Aincrad through Alfheim Online, Gun Gale Online, Project Alicization, Ordinal Scale, and many more VRMMORPGs, Kirito, the protagonist of the series, has met a lot of allies and enemies, some of whom would even give him a run for his money in terms of abilities. With differing characters lie differing abilities and various degrees of strength, but some characters manage to outshine others regardless of the VRMMORPG they find themselves in, even if they do have preferences. Given the number of strong characters in the series, more have been added here to flesh out this list.

11 Heathcliff

With The System At His Beck And Call, Heathcliff Was Untouchable

The creator of the Sword Art Online VRMMORPG, Kayaba Akihiko, was so enamored with virtual reality that he designed a game to trap people in it, himself included. Once in the game, Kayaba took on the persona of Heathcliff and achieved many notable feats. He founded the Knights of the Blood Oaths, and as the guild leader, he was known as the strongest player in-game. With his holy sword and liberator shield, Heathcliff’s life bar was known to have never entered the yellow range, meaning his life had never been put in danger.

While many adored him, Heathcliff was finally revealed to be the game master of Sword Art Online, which granted him many privileges, explaining many of his inhumane feats. While powerful, Heathcliff was weaker than Kirito without the system at his beck and call, and fortunately for the players trapped in Sword Art Online, the Black Swordsman put him down.

10 Death Gun

The Mystery Surrounding Death Gun Made Him Widely Feared

Rather than a person, Death Gun is a group that came together to orchestrate killing avatars in Gun Gale Online while also killing their real-life personas, all to make it seem like dying by Death Gun’s hand in-game would kill a player in real life.

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While known as a single person, Death Gun comprises the brothers Shinkawa Shouichi and Shinkawa Kyouji, who came together to instill fear in others. Kyouji was the one who orchestrated the deaths of players in real life, and did so by using succinylcholine, a muscle relaxant, to stop the hearts of his victims by injecting their real-life bodies while they were in the game online. Meanwhile, Shouichi, a former member of Laughing Coffin, went around killing players in the game. With his skills from Sword Art Online, very few players could give Shouchi a run for his money.

9 Sinon

Few Could Face This Sniper And Come Out On Top, Whether She Used A Rifle Or A Bow

At a young age, Sinon, known in real life as Asada Shino, was involved in a robbery incident and became traumatized by guns. Taking the advice of a friend, Sinon started playing Gun Gale Online to get over her phobia of guns, and from then on, she became a living legend.

With her avatar name of Sinon, and her signature Hecate II sniper rifle, Sinon became a renowned sniper feared by many. After resolving the Death Gun incident with Kirito, Sinon went on to become the co-winner of the third Bullet of Bullets championship (the largest PvP tournament in Gun Gale Online) and came in second in the fourth tournament. After the Death Gun incident, Sinon became particularly close with Kirito and has assisted him in various other virtual reality games since. Whether it be as a sniper or an archer, Sinon has always showcased her talent for long-range accuracy.

8 Eugeo

Kirito Thought Of The Deuteragonist In Alicization

In Alicization, Eugeo played the role of deuteragonist in the second story arc by becoming Kirito’s best friend. Eugeo was raised in the underworld by Kirito, who taught him to use a sword, and who has a good heart. Eugeo is a formidable swordsman.

Blue Rose Sword was a divine-level weapon that Eugeo used. Bercouli Synthesis One, leader of the Integrity Knights and possessor of a time-piercing sword, fell to it and was thus defeated.

7 Asuna

With Her Epithet, Lightning Flash Asuna, Most Don’t See Her Attacks Coming

One of the series’ main protagonists, Asuna plays a pivotal role in the Sword Art Online series. When SAO became a deadly game, she, along with many other characters, became trapped within its virtual world. Constantly risking her life in battle served to hone her swordsmanship. Lightning Flash Asuna is a name she was given since her swordsmanship is based more on speed than strength.

During the first season of Sword Art Online, Asuna served as vice commander of the top guild, the Knights of the Blood Oaths. As a result, she became more well-known among gamers, and her abilities were recognized by all.

6 Eiji

In The Ordinal Scale VRMMORPG, Only Kirito Could Match Eiji

Eiji (formerly known as Nautilus), a former member of the Knights of the Blood Oath guild led by Heathcliff (Kayaba Akihiko), wasn’t as powerful as one may think. But in the augmented reality game Ordinal Scale, he quickly rose to the position of number two player.

Eiji may have been a formidable SAO warrior, but he was paralyzed by his fear of death and never reached his full potential as a combatant. In Ordinal Scale, where he formerly faced certain death, Eiji is now a formidable foe. In addition, Eiji (Nautilus) managed to temporarily halt PoH’s advance.

5 Alice

The Goddess Of Creation Created Alice’s Sword As The First Immortal Object

Alice was friends with Eugeo and Kirito when they were kids, but after she became an Integrity Knight, she forgot them. Alice Synthesis Thirty was her name when she was an honorable knight. She was a powerful Integrity Knight, right alongside Bercouli, who claimed he didn’t know who was stronger.

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Alice was unstoppable on the battlefield thanks to her divine class object, the Fragrant Olive Sword. Because it was the first thing the Goddess of Creation had ever made that would live forever, the Fragrant Olive Sword possessed unfathomable strength. With it, Alice single-handedly destroyed thousands of Emperor Vecta’s dark army, forcing his generals to sacrifice civilians to generate magical powers.

4 Quinella

With Knowledge And Power, The Administrator Sought Immortality

For good reason, Quinella, better known by her alias Administrator, is one of the most formidable characters in Sword Art Online. Quinella, the senior priest of the Axiom Church, had witnessed the development of humanity over the course of many centuries. But she wanted more; she wanted to live forever. In order to ensure that her laws were followed everywhere, Quinella established a system of Integrity Knights. Kirito finally put an end to her reign of deceit and scheming as she sought immortality.

Her fight with Kirito demonstrated her great strength since Kirito needed Eugeo’s assistance to ultimately prevail. In the process of fighting her to the death, he lost one arm in a savage exchange of blows.

3 PoH

An Ex-Member Of Laughing Coffin, Sadistic To An Extreme Degree

Back when SAO was a death game, PoH formed the notorious guild Laughing Coffin, which became notorious for its mass murder of various characters. He is a sadist who will exploit anyone to further his own ends. He ratted out his own guild, Laughing Coffin, to the clearers (capture groups made up of Elite players), with the intention of turning the Clearers, and Kirito in particular, into killers.

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PoH won a frontal assault against Asuna, Eiji, and other famous players despite assassination being his specialty. On the battlefield, he was nearly unstoppable with his Mate Chopper, a dagger like a kitchen knife that became larger and more powerful when an aura of death pervaded the region, as in the second part of the Alicization arc.

2 Gabriel Miller

Gabriel Proved Stubbornly Powerful Until The Very End

Gabriel Miller went by a number of monikers before he was revealed to be the Alicization arc’s final adversary. Previously, he had roles as the antagonist Subtilizer in Gun Gale Online (GGO), and then the antagonist Emperor Vecta in Alicization. With Emperor Vecta’s downfall, Gabriel logged into his subtilizer account and engaged in a fierce battle with Kirito, nearly putting him out of commission.

Kirito used the lethal talent Starburst Stream with two sacred rank swords in the decisive battle against Subtilizer. Despite this, Subtilizer remained resistant to defeat until the ghost of Eugeo helped Kirito launch a final attack that finally killed him.

1 Kirito

The Black Swordsman Is Widely Renowned Across Various VRMMORPGs

Kirito’s strength has always been his ability to adapt to new virtual reality games. Instantly, he is regarded as the game’s best player by his peers. Kirito takes on a wide variety of foes for entertainment and lifesaving purposes using his signature dual-wielding skill. Many people in SAO seek to prove themselves against Kirito because of his reputation as the “Black Swordsman.”

After constantly fighting for his life in SAO, Kirito has learned to take no prisoners and give his opponents everything he’s got. The constant threat to his loved ones just fuels his desire to succeed at all costs.

Sword Art Online

Studio

A-1 Pictures

Creator

Reki Kawahara

Number of Episodes

96