The protagonist of the My Hero Academia anime and manga series, Izuku Midoriya naturally ranks among the strongest characters in the story. Although he was born Quirkless, Izuku received the power of One For All, the Quirk formerly wielded by none other than All Might, the strongest Hero himself.
Slowly, Izuku has made this power his own and become an incredibly powerful character. Currently, only a handful of characters can be considered a match for him in combat, and even fewer can be called stronger than him. However, there are a few who can outmatch this hero — and even pose a threat to him.
Updated on March 22, 2023, by Rei Penber: Izuku Midoriya is the beloved protagonist of My Hero Academia and the man who will one day become the Number One Hero in the entire history of Japan. This is made clear to the fans at the very beginning of the story. Izuku goes on to surpass even his mentor, All Might, and defeat the greatest evil as well. However, the path to that isn't easy for him to follow. Izuku is not at his peak right now and there are certainly some out there who are far stronger than him. While this list already goes over some characters who fans know to be stronger, the story has progressed quite a lot since then and other characters have emerged as well. With that in mind, this list has now been updated.
7 Gigantomachia
Gigantomachia is one of the strongest characters to ever appear in My Hero Academia. He was once the bodyguard of All For One, which implies his strength must be tremendous. It's been noted that Gigantomachia has multiple Quirks which include Gigantification, Pain Blocker, Dog, and Fierce Grains, among others.
Machia was strong enough to take on the entire League of Villains by himself and still gain the upper hand in the battle. To stop him, several Heroes have to combine their efforts. Until Izuku completely masters the power of One For All, he certainly isn't going to be able to defeat Gigantomachia.
Gigantomachia's Strongest Quirks
Gigantomachia has several Quirks at his disposal, as mentioned above. Some of his strongest abilities include Endurance, which gives him the ability to turn morale into stamina, Pain Blocker, which prevents him from feeling any pain, Gigantification, which lets him grow in size when he's excited, and Dog, which gives him a sense of smell and hearing akin to a dog's.
He also has access to Energy Saver – a Quirk that lets him function on very little food and water, Fierce Gains – a Quirk that lets him harden his muscles to exceptional levels, and finally, Mole, which lets him use mole-like claws for digging, among other things.
6 Nine
Nine was the main antagonist of My Hero Academia: Heroes: Rising. He was a powerful character who had a power similar to the All For One. Nine had the ability to steal Quirks of other people and use up to nine Quirks in total, hence his name. His original Quirk was known as Weather Manipulation, and it was strong enough to destroy cities with ease. However, the price to pay for using this power was huge.
Nine also stole several other Quirks, including Cell Activation, Hydra, and Air Wall, among others. He was able to defeat Izuku Midoriya at 100% of his One For All strength, which just goes to show that his level of power was incredible. Nine was eventually defeated by the combined effort of Izuku Midoriya and Katsuki Bakugo, both of whom held the power of One For All at the time. However, Izuku likely couldn't take him on alone.
Nine's Strongest Quirks
Being among the strongest characters in My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising, Nine has quite a few great powers up his sleeve. His strongest Quirk was definitely All For One.
Unlike the original All For One, his version of the Quirk was weaker and could only let him hold up to eight different abilities. Despite that, Nine gained tremendous power thanks to it and could steal a lot of useful abilities.
5 Star and Stripe
The Number One Hero of the United States of America, Cathleen Bate, also known as Star and Stripe, was an incredibly powerful Hero. She held an overpowered Quirk called New Order, which allowed her to set a rule on the surroundings and completely alter the battle in her favor.
By bestowing new abilities upon the environment and even on herself, Star and Stripe was strong enough to take on almost anyone in battle. Not only could she give herself new abilities, but she could also manipulate the body of her opponents, making her extremely hard to defeat. Her Quirk was simply too strong, which is why some have identified it as the power that redefines what a Quirk can be. Sadly, Star and Stripe died in her encounter with Shigaraki Tomura.
Star and Stripe's Strongest Quirk
Star and Stipe was the wielder of New Order, as already mentioned above. With its power, Cathleen could completely redefine what a Quirk could and couldn't do.
By merely setting a new rule on the surroundings, she could bestow new properties to herself, and do unimaginable things. Horikoshi was quite smart to take this Quirk out of the picture as it was too powerful and with it, Cathleen had certainly become one of the strongest MHA characters.
4 Shigaraki Tomura
In the Final War arc of My Hero Academia, Shigaraki Tomura reached unprecedented levels of power. His strength became great enough to overwhelm a number of heroes at the same time. In fact, fighting him became nearly impossible. In order to keep his powers in check, Aizawa and Monoma had to use Erasure to even give others a chance to put up some sort of resistance against him.
Despite that, Shigaraki proved to be in a league of his own. In the fight against Izuku, Shigaraki went on to reach his final form, which he deems to be the strongest. He is now at his very peak and stopping him requires Izuku to master his very own Quirks. It must be sad that, at this point, Shigaraki certainly appears to be stronger than him. It must also be noted that for the vast majority of the Final War arc, Shigaraki was under the control of none other than All For One. All For One wants to take over his body and that is his ultimate goal at this point in the story. However, Shigaraki hid his conscience within a corner of his heart and eventually started eating All For One up from the inside. Once the battle against Izuku started flaming up, Shigaraki was in full control of his own body and, thus, he is among the strongest MHA characters.
Shigaraki's Strongest Quirk
Shigaraki has several powers now that he didn't have before but his Decay Quirk is still the strongest one that he has. This Quirk is destructive by nature and fighting against someone with this power is incredibly difficult. He can immediately disintegrate anyone in his surroundings within a matter of mere seconds.
Initially, he needed contact to spread Decay slowly to another person, however, now, he doesn't need to make direct contact with who he is trying to disintegrate. The only way to stop his power is to make use of the Erasure Quirk or fly and fight him midair. A mere touch from his hands is enough to kill anyone.
3 All For One (Old)
All For One remains the greatest villain to appear so far in the world of My Hero Academia. He is quite an old person whose Quirk has kept him alive through generations. With the power of All For One, he is able to steal, stockpile, and distribute Quirks freely among people. All For One possesses tremendous strength and when using the multitude of Quirks that he has up his sleeve, he's almost unstoppable.
He was strong enough to injure even All Might in his prime, which just goes to show that he was on a truly different level compared to every other villain in the story. All For One was ultimately defeated by All Might; however, to do so, he had to go past every single limit he had.
All For One's Strongest Quirk
All For One was the original wielder of the All For One Quirk and even today, he wields a duplicate of his power. It is using this Quirk that he rose to the pinnacle of villainy and created an age where villains ran amok.
He also played a part in Nine receiving a duplicate of All For One. Eventually, his Quirk was transferred over to Shigaraki Tomura, however, he still holds a duplicate of the All For One Quirk.
2 Prime All For One
The Final War saga of My Hero Academia has been full of surprises for the fans. These surprises range from smaller ones to ground-shaking ones, like the return of All For One. Fans know that All For One was freed from Tartarus and he kept a duplicate of the All For One Quirk with himself. In the Final War saga, not only did he make a difference by fighting at the pinnacle of his abilities, but he also returned to his prime state. This was done through a drug that Dr. Kyudai Garaki by researching Eri's Quirk. Now, All For One has returned to his prime state and this drug has rejuvenated his body.
His powers have reached a point where nobody in the world of My Hero Academia can defeat him, however, this boost of his is only temporary. Despite that, he was strong enough to defeat Izuku Midoriya in combat if the two were to meet. At the same time, his control over the All For One Quirk has also improved. Now, his body can use more Quirk combinations at once, and, at the same time, he can also hold more Quirks in his body at any given time. Added to that is the fact that his body now has returned to its physical peak. All For One is much stronger, and faster in every aspect of battle and, for him, defeating Deku would not be too hard.
Prime All For One's Strongest Quirk
Now that All For One has returned to his prime, he has several powerful Quirks up his sleeve that he can utilize in battle. He has recently stolen some Quirks, however, his eyes are on bigger prizes such as Dark Shadow. That said, his strongest Quirk is still All For One. This Quirk is the strongest in the world of My Hero Academia, rivaled only by the One For All.
All For One, at its. peak, allows him to swiftly steal anyone's Quirks and stockpile them within his body. It also allows him to use as many combinations together as he can, now that his body is at its peak. He can also choose to redistribute these Quirks among other people, however, that is completely up to his discretion.
1 All Might
All Might is certainly the strongest character in MHA so far. Born Quirkless just like Izuku, All Might received the power of One For All from his mentor, Nana Shimura. With some training, All Might was able to make this power his own, and within a few years, he became recognized as one of the strongest Heroes of all time. With time, he established himself as the Symbol of Peace, and thanks to him, the crime rate in Japan dropped significantly.
With the power of One For All, he was able to reach the very top and stay there for years to come. Even someone as strong as All For One didn't have it in him to defeat All Might. During his time as the Number One Hero, All Might fought All For One twice and managed to defeat him during both encounters. Without a doubt, he's far stronger than Izuku Midoriya.
All Might's Strongest Quirk
The former Number One Hero was the 8th wielder of One For All and used this ability long before Izuku. Even though he no longer possesses this power, he still remains to be its strongest user to date.
All Might could even go beyond 100% with his power and bring down villains such as All For One for good. At his best, he was simply unstoppable, and in his prime, not even the strongest villains could stop him.