As the My Hero Academia story continues, the complexity of Quirks only seems to get more convoluted. Originally, MHA told fans that Quirks were like muscles and they 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. In season 5, the concept of "awakening" new aspects of Quirks was dropped into the story suddenly and completely surprised everyone watching. Lastly, in Season 6, the concept of 'consciousness' being stored in Quirk Factors was introduced as well. As Quirks have changed over the course of My Hero Academia, so have the villains using them, so let's go over some of the strongest Quirks among them.

Updated April 12th, 2023 by Jacob Buchalter: As of the time of writing this, the sixth season of My Hero Academia has just wrapped up, and it's safe to say that the tone of the show has changed quite a bit. Not to spoil too much, but villains are sort of in the lead right now in the battle between good and evil. And, a big factor of this is the fact that a lot of villains have powered up or have brought in new villains with brand new absurd Quirks. So, let's take another look through all the villains in this series, their Quirks, and which ones are the cream of the crop.

24 Soramitsu Tabe: Food

The first Quirk up is one held by a villain most MHA fans probably already 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, AKA Season 4 of the anime, and all three of them were part of the group's 'Eight Bullets' division. This name, by the way is representative of the fact that all eight bullets are disposable pawns who will sacrifice themselves for Overhaul while doing as much damage as possible in the process.

Tabe’s Quirk is called 'Food' and it basically means that Tabe can eat anything he wants, in any quantity that he desires. Sounds pretty basic, right? Well, while this Quirk may sound like it isn't capable of much, there are three primary factors of this Quirk that make it deceptively strong

1. The process of 'eating' when using this Quirk is immediate. To be more specific, Soramitsu simply takes a bite of what he determines to be food, and it's gone, At least from what was shown it doesn't seem like he needs to chew or even swallow.
2. Next, the actual 'capacity' of his stomach is seemingly endless, or at least the upper limit hasn't been found. While this seems to defy reality, it's likely that his Quirk involves some process of immediately breaking down whatever enters his stomach.
3. While the Quirk has a pretty clear downside in that Tabe seems to be always irrationally hungry, the fact that he can eat anything at all, be it metal or concrete, is pretty absurd.

It's one of the more 'vague' villain Quirks in MHA, due to how little Tabe is involved in the story, but from what was shown the Quirk is pretty scary.

23 Kyudai 'Dr. Tsubasa' Garaki: Life Force

Next up is a Quirk that has absolutely zero combat applications, so why is it on here? Well, fight as they might, no one is able to escape time in the end. Even All for One is a shadow of his former self due to his age. But, if his lifespan was doubled, how much more destruction could he cause?

Well, with Life Force, that's exactly what AfO now has. It's a Quirk that literally doubles one's lifespan, Kyudai has seemingly used this extra time to build this 'double life' for himself so that he can fully immerse himself in his studies and Quirk-based experiments. But, if this Quirk was in the hands of someone different, they could use it to:

• Spend twice as long training in Martial Arts or studying all sorts of different subjects.
• Come up with long con-type schemes that would almost assuredly work if they waited until anyone with a normal lifespan that knew about said plans passed away.
• Create multiple lives for themselves, creating new identities around the time a normal person would pass away from natural causes.

Of course, a Quirk that doubles one's lifespan is going to have downsides. There's the obvious flaw in that Life Force has no combat applications, but that's not all. Apparently, this Quirk also reduces the user's physical abilities in exchange for the extra time, but in the hands of AfO that flaw can easily be mitigated using other Quirks.

22 Moonfish: Blade-Tooth

The funny thing is, this is a Quirk held by someone shockingly 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. And, with his Quirk, Moonfish could control the growth of his teeth in ways no one could ever imagine, essentially using them as limbs or tendrils. But, what really made this Quirk unpredictable and powerful was:

• Moonfish had full control of the scale and shape of his teeth growth, which allowed him to surprise enemies by extending his tooth in seemingly random directions, similar to the Rivet Stab Quirk All for One uses.
• Each tooth could also sprout out into more 'branches', acting like tree roots that could grow in any direction they wanted.
• The durability of these teeth. Moonfish is shown cutting through solid ice with ease while fighting Shoto Todoroki (this was long before his series of power-ups).

Basically, it was a Quirk with a lot of versatility, and that's dangerous in the hands (or mouth) of someone as twisted as Moonfish.

21 Danjuro 'Gentle Criminal' Tobita: Elasticity

For as silly of a criminal as Gentle Criminal (AKA Danjuro Tobita) is, his equally silly Quirk, 'Elasticity' is shockingly strong. This Quirk does one thing and one thing only, endow whatever Danjuro touches with elastic properties. When touched, the objects suddenly become exceptionally elastic and able to be manipulated with that new elasticity in mind. Because it's such an odd Quirk, it can be difficult for people to imagine its upper limits. With that in mind, let's go over just a few of the ways Gentle uses his Quirk:

• Turning a construction crane elastic so that he can 'fling' himself through the air.
• Creating pockets of elastic 'air' that both function as invisible barriers to stop people approaching him and also as footholds so that Gentle can basically 'bounce' through the air as if he's flying.
• Imbue an entire building that was under construction with elasticity, making it incredibly dangerous for anyone to be anywhere nearby.

But, the primary reason this Quirk is so scary is simply that the objects that Gentle Criminal imbues with elasticity keep their weight. For example, if Gentle made a 1-ton block of metal elastic and then pushed it off a building, that block would absolutely still destroy anything or anyone it lands on, but it would also bounce after landing, adding to the total overall damage it could cause.

20 Tomoyasu 'Skeptic' Chikazoku: Anthropomorph

Here is an example of a Quirk that, with enough prep time has the potential to overthrow entire countries. Of course, this is in reference to the Anthropomorph Quirk used by Tomoyasu Chikazoku, otherwise known as 'Skeptic'. This Quirk allows Skeptic to transform any object around the size of an average person (such as a bike or a large mailbox) into a human-shaped puppet that he can determine the appearance of and command at will.

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And, while these puppets only seem to have the relative strength of a normal person or maybe someone slightly stronger than that, the real scary 'aspect' of them is the fact that they're mindless. What this means is that if Skeptic tells them to break someone's arm, they'll do it and they'll do it with a completely emotionless expression on their faces. To give a few more short reasons as to why Skeptic's Quirk is worth mentioning:

• There doesn't seem to be a 'limit' to the number of dolls he can create.
• While it's dependent on prep time, Skeptic can literally make his own army.
• Because he can individually determine the appearance of each puppet, his Quirk is perfect for espionage.

19 Kaina 'Lady Nagant' Tsutsumi: Rifle

Honestly, out of all the Quirks out there, Rifle seems the one that almost 'forces' it's wielder into a certain profession. 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, and she did, But, after understanding how unfair the world is, she sort of went off the deep end, quit the Hero life, and became a villain (and can still be considered one) up until her fight with Deku.

Her Rifle Quirk is simple, Nagant has a literal rifle in her elbow that comes out when she bends it. The Rifle is organic and is able to fire bullets made from her epoxy-like hair at a similar speed to actual snipers. In fact, her sniper has all the modifications one could want, such as a scope, a bipod, rifling in the barrel, a power output option, and it doesn't even require gunpowder.

Funny thing is, the Rifle is only 'half' of Lady Nagant's Quirk. The other half comes from the pink and purple hair strands that she can twist together and pull out to create different ammo types, such as:

• Hollow Point Rounds
• Curving Rounds
• Radio Transmission Rounds

After pulling the hair out, it quickly hardens and becomes as hardy as regular ammunition. So, with all this combined, it's no wonder that Lady Nagant's Quirk is this high up.

18 Chitose 'Curious' Kizuki: Landmine

MHA fans saw just how powerful this next Quirk was during the Meta Liberation Army Arc in Season 5. The Quirk in question is Chitose Kizuki's Quirk, Landmine. It's simple, with this Quirk, Chitose can turn anything she touches into an explosive. This could be a teacup, a massive boulder, or even a person, with the explosion radius and power being dependent on both Chitose's will and the size of the object/individual. This goes the other way too, as Chitose, the evil villain that she is, can even grant something as microscopic as blood cells an explosive attribute so that she can cause her faithful follower to explode with the snap of her fingers.

Now, Kizuki already used this Quirk pretty well in the show, but there are so many more ways to use it that are even scarier:

• Instead of making humans into bombs, she could've used pheromones and 'bomb-ified' insects to cause much more damage with less of a consequence.
• If the wielder of Landmine was a close combat specialist, they could use weapons that are meant to flake off and slowly break apart while using them so that the wielder could fight someone and then detonate the 'flakes' that landed on or near their opponent.
• Like Skeptic, it's another Quirk that grows exponentially in strength the more time the user has to prepare. With enough time, Chitose could turn an entire city, including all its residents and every single individual object, into ticking time bombs.

All-in-all, Landmine is just a very versatile and very dangerous Quirk that was only beaten because Chitose was caught unaware by Toga's sudden 'Quirk Awakening'.

17 Chojuro 'Chimera' 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. Quite honestly, Kon's Quirk, named Chimera, 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. That said, it works a bit differently, as it doesn't seem dependent on anything like Suneater's is with ingesting food, and it seems like Chojuro can even go into the realm of fantasy creatures. 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 as if he was trying to imitate Kaido's Blast Breath from One Piece.

If more was revealed about his Quirk, it's likely there would be more restrictions to it that the audience doesn't know about, but with the current information, it seems like one of the strongest in the franchise.

16 Kurogiri: Warp Gate

Kurogiri is such a tragic character for a multitude of reasons. For one, Kurogiri only became like this because All for One stole the corpse of Oboro Shirakumo and let Garaki Kyudai experiment on it. Two, it's obvious that there are some vestiges of Oboro in there, implying that he's somewhat sentient still and is suffering. And three, he's forced to be a villain and protect the very same person who has caused such pain and suffering to his closest friends.

Technically, Warp Gate isn't the original Quirk of this body, Cloud Manipulation is, but through experimentation, Cloud was turned into Warp Gate by fusing multiple other Quirks with it. As a Quirk, Warp Gate is terrifyingly powerful, and it's only because Kurogiri is constantly sidelined as Shigaraki's bodyguard that fans haven't seen the full power of it. Just to give a few examples of how it could be used more creatively:

• Kurogiri could create a gate at the bottom of the sea and then open another gate facing his opponent. The sudden change in depth, pressure, and environment as the water came through would basically turn the water into a Jet Cutter, slicing anyone in front of the portal in two.
• He could simply create portals underneath opponents that lead to another gate miles in the air.
• He could push someone backward, create a gate behind them so that half of their body goes through and then close said gate, effectively cutting that person in half.

And these are just a few of the many ways this Quirk could be used to almost instantly win a fight, so the Heroes are lucky that Kurogiri isn't used more proactively in the story.

15 Chizome 'Stain' Akaguro: Bloodcurdle

While MHA did its best to paint Stain AKA Chizome Akaguro as a vigilante whose superhuman physical skills and obsessive personality are what compensated for his lackluster Quirk, that just simply isn’t true. Bloodcurdle is honestly one of the most powerful Quirks out there, as shown by how hard Deku, Ilda, and Todoroki had to fight to beat him. It's a Quirk that, by definition, completely stops an opponent in their tracks if Stain simply tastes their blood. Not many Quirks have a 'win condition' as Bloodcurdle does. But, to be more specific on the benefits of this Quirk:

• It completely incapacitates anyone it’s used on, no matter how strong they are.
• The amount of blood Stain tastes seems to have no impact on the length of the disabling effect, which means he only needs a drop. Compare this to Himiko Toga's Quirk where the amount of blood directly correlates to the amount of time she can stay transformed.
• There doesn’t seem to have a limit to how many opponents it can infect at once, or an upper limit of 'power' it can restrict.
• The only weaknesses are that Stain has to somehow draw blood from his opponent as well as the weakness of the blood type of the opponent having an impact on the 'duration'.

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. To make it a bit more clear how much of an advantage this Quirk gives, imagine if one of the previous One for All users had this Quirk and then passed it down to the Crybaby Hero that is Deku, it would make him nigh unstoppable.

14 Gigantomachia: Endurance

Gigantomachia, the giant of the Paranormal Liberation Front, is obviously one of the strongest villains in all of My Hero Academia. The guy is an unstoppable Giant that needed the equivalent of 'all hands on deck' for the Heroes to stop him during the Paranormal Liberation War Arc. But, this unstoppable power of his comes from the multitude of Quirks that All for One and Dr. Garaki infused in him. All that said, what about his original Quirk? Well, before everything else, Gigantomachia was born with a Quirk called Endurance that honestly seems like something that would be perfect for a shonen protagonist to have. To put it in simple terms, the more motivated Gigantomachia is towards a task or goal, the more stamina and strength he has. This Quirk allows him to:

• Put cracks in and potentially destroy buildings with a single hand while motivated.
• Fight for days on end without rest.
• Have multiple Quirks infused into him without needing to become a Nomu or anything equivalent.
• Fight on par with other super strength-type Quirks and even surpass them depending on the circumstances.

Just imagine if Bakugo had this Quirk and his motivation to beat Deku quite literally made him more powerful. All that said, this Quirk also has a fatal flaw, as the moment the user loses their motivation or believes they'll lose, their power and stamina take a nosedive.

13 Number 6: Overclock

While the MHA: Vigilantes series is a completely individual story within the MHA universe, it does connect to the events in the mainlines series in a lot of ways. And one of them is the fact that AfO appears in it and is shown "bestowing" what was originally the pro-Hero O' Clocks Quirk, Overclock, to the series's main antagonist, Number 6, who has already undergone a multitude of experiments to give him other superhuman abilities. In any case, Overclock is essentially a 'super-speed Quirk' but instead of actually moving that fast, the user 'overclocks' their brain to process information at a speed that makes everything else look slow.

Essentially, this is what Overclock does:

• Speeds the user up between three and ten times their normal moving speed.
• Accelerates their senses to match the speed, allowing the user to think, process, and observe things are a massively accelerated pace.
• Allows the user to add this massive speed increase to their physical attacks which makes it seem like they've punched or kicked multiple times all at once.
• In certain circumstances, it can even cause the user to accelerate so much that the world looks like it's standing still or moving at a snail's pace.

All-in-all it's a Quirk with a lot of drawbacks considering that the user is restricting oxygen from reaching their brain while using it, but the benefits more than make up for it. And, if it was in the hands of anyone at UA, this Quirk would be worthy of instantly promoting them to the Hero course, no questions asked.

12 Atsuhiro 'Mr. Compress' Sako: Compress

Mr. Compress isn't the best with names, considering his Villain name is literally just the name of his Quirk with 'Mr' in front of it. But other than his naming sense, Atsuhiro Sako is a fantastic showman. He's incredibly stealthful, dexterous, fast, and exceptionally creative with his Quirk, Compress. On paper, his Quirk doesn't seem all that absurd, as it just allows him to 'compress' anything he touches into a small orb or 'bead'. But, when a Quirk like that is given to someone naturally creative with some real sticky fingers, it begins to show its true colors. For example:

• Compress has been used to trap a Hero in his Quirk's marble along with Dabi's flames, essentially burning them alive with no way out.
• With this Quirk, Atsuhiro is able to take chunks out of people or remove entire limbs in an instant.
• He can compress his allies, transport them as marbles, and release them later in a safe location.

It's another Quirk with a pretty easy 'win condition' like Bloodcurdle. The minute Compress manages to touch his opponent, he can Compress them, and they're trapped in a marble at Atsuhiro's mercy. As a villain, Mr. Compress used this Quirk to steal things or move allies primarily, but if he did the combination with Dabi that he used against Snatch against some of the more important Heroes, MHA would be in an even darker place than it is now.

11 Goto 'Muscular' Imasuji: Muscle Augmentation

For this next Quirk, imagine someone who could essentially make themselves as buff as something like the Hulk, but to do so they need to cover themselves in muscle fibers. Pretty gross, right? Well, this is the Quirk Muscle Augmentation, used by the villain known as Muscular, who Deku absolutely decimated in Season 6. Goto Imasuji is a twisted individual that seems to love a hot-blooded battle and violence in general, which is scary considering his Quirk makes it easier to do both of these things.

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The description of his Quirk seems to imply that Goto uses his own muscle fibers and enhances them to create his absurdly large physique, but that doesn't seem quite right. Rather, it seems like he's capable of creating new muscle fibers or generating them at a lightning-fast rate and then manipulating them as he pleases. With this Quirk Goto can:

• Cover his body in fibers to create a powerful set of armor and massively increase his offensive potential.
• Allocate more muscle fibers to specific areas depending on what he needs such as more in the legs to jump high or more in the arms to punch harder.
• Block gunfire using these fibers, and it doesn't seem to cause him much pain, if any.
• Tank attacks of all types with ease, usually outlasting his opponent's stamina to secure the win.

What really makes Muscular scary, even more so than his destructive potential, is how unstoppable he is even after being defeated. For example, when Deku beat him during the Quirk Training Camp arc, Muscular wasn't knocked out for long, and is seen fighting against his restraints not long after.

10 Wolfram: Metal Manipulation

Moving on to another movie-specific villain it's Wolfram, the main antagonist from My Hero Academia: Two Heroes released back in 2018. As far as Quirks go, Wolfram might have the one more easily comparable to someone from another IP, as he's basically a low-budget Magneto. Wolfram has the Quirk called Metal Manipulation. Like Magneto, this ability allows him to freely manipulate and telekinetically control metal after making physical contact with it. The physical contact aspect obviously makes his Quirk worse than Magneto's power, but unlike Magneto Wolfram can easily change the shape of the metal he manipulates without 'forcing' it to change by bending it, crushing it, and so on. With this Quirk:

• Wolfram made himself a full suit of metallic armor.
• He's able to fling metal at opponents at high speeds.
• He can encase people in metal or easily restrain them.
• The guy can even make himself an 'exo-suit', covering himself in metal and controlling it from within.

9 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 used to be pretty weak. Himiko Toga'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 is dependent on how much blood she drinks from the target. For example, she needs a full cup to last a day or so.

Additionally, after her confrontation with Curious in Season 5, Toga's Quirk has awakened and is now also able to copy the Quirk of the person she's transformed into. With this new aspect of Transform, Toga can:

• Drink the blood of multiple people (or one after another) and transform multiple times, with a new Quirk each time.
• Start hoarding blood she's stolen to basically go on a spree, transforming into a multitude of different Heroes with different Quirks.
• Actually outperform the person she's transformed into, as Toga has a ton of combat experience and innate battle senses.

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 lead to her trying to Transform into her love interests or 'friends' rather than the truly powerful Heroes.

8 Geten AKA 'Iceman': Ice Manipulation

Geten is one of the few 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, Twice, Toga, and even a character from Vigilantes went through. By default, Ice Manipulation allows Geten to:

• Freely control any ice near him similar to telekinesis.
• Sense any nearby ice (and then take control of 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, basically making it so that he always has ice on hand. That said, if there's no liquid nearby at all, Geten is pretty much Quirkless, at least until he's able to freeze the water inside people and steal it from them.

7 Just 'Dabi': Cremation

Disclaimer: Dabi's identity and backstory are HUGE spoilers, so be careful reading below.

Let’s talk about Dabi’s Cremation Quirk, which is a stronger version of his father, Endeavor's Quirk, Hellflame. Toya Todoroki can make hotter, more powerful flames, but sadly, he has his mother's innate resistance to cold and no resistance to heat. Because of this, Dabi's own Quirk hurts him, but when using it, Dabi can:

• Almost instantly incinerate opponents caught off guard.
• Burn down 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 flames that get increasingly hotter depending on his overall emotional state.

That said, the time Dabi can use his Quirk in one instance 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. Cremation is still an unimaginably destructive Quirk, and the upper limit of it still hasn't even been showcased in the manga, though it's certainly become a bit more 'dangerous'.

6 Rikiya 'Re-Destro' Yotsubashi: Stress

Rikiya Yotsubashi'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 a 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 turns into a giant but with full control of his state of mind, size, strength, and output. That said, if Rikiya isn't able to stockpile enough Stress before a battle, he's basically Quirkless.

5 Jin 'Twice' Bubaigawara: Double

Disclaimer: There are also pretty hefty spoilers for Twice below, so be careful

There are a couple of reasons why Double, the Quirk used by Jin Bubaigawa, otherwise known as "Twice" is way too underrated. For one, it allowed him to create a perfect copy of anything or anyone as long as he knew their exact measurements. And two, the clone has its own free will, memories, personality, and a copy of the Quirk of the original.

Now, the main downside used to be that Jin could 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. But, during the traumatic events in the Meta Liberation Army Arc, Jin got past this mental barrier and was then able to create seemingly infinite copies of himself using what he called 'Sad Man's Parade'.

This Quirk development lets Jin:

• Create tidal waves of clones, enough to overrun an entire city.
• Manufacture a long-range communication system as a clone can just say what they see and have all the clones behind them pass it down telephone-style.
• 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, all of which have the Double Quirk, at his friends in order to double them.

The only weakness this Quirk has, even with the 'awakening' is that Double can only copy other people a maximum of twice, but two Shigarakis instead of one is still a huge difference. In fact, it was such a powerful Quirk that Hawks, still an agent of the Public-Safety Commission at this time, killed Twice in fear of his Quirk.