This thread is about a power level ranking of Tower of God characters. More specifically, we'll be rating Rankers based on their overall combat ability but not exclusively, anyone who can at least compete with Rankers or above (special shineuhs, rare OP regulars like Adori, irregulars, etc) is elligible to be rated.
Rating system
As we know, Tower of god's powerscaling is really massive, the amount of tiers and power gaps far exceed most fictions even if we limit the ranking to just Ranker level beings. Therefore, we won't be working with fixed tiers, rather we'll be following a purely linear rating system. Each character will be given a mark respective to his overall power. If for example you evaluate that a character X is twice as strong as another character Y, then X's mark will be twice higher than Y's. Then, if you consider that a character Z is 3 times stronger than Y overall, then Z"s mark will be 3 times higher than Y's and so on and so forth.
Organization
We'll be proceeding in terms of groups, each containing several characters (or teams) to be rated based on their overall power. Each group will last several days , the duration isn't fixed and depends on the amount of participation among many other factors. As such, some groups might last more than others, though a single group can never last forever (ie: more than a week or so).
At the end of each group, I'll collect the marks attributed by everyone. A character's (or a team's) final mark will be equal to the average of these marks and will be added to the overall ranking. Once done, the next group will be unleashed and the same cycle will be repeated over and over.
Strength-based Rating
A character's rating represents his overall power, which means not only 1v1 fights but many other aspects should be taken into account. Supporting skills, the ability to fight a little group or a large amount of troops (like armies), the ability to chain multiple fights in a gauntlet mode, the impact of side effects (like abilities or modes with huge drawbacks), the ability to evolve in the heat of a fight (ie: people like Baam),...and many other factors are to be considered when rating a character's "overall" power.
Rankings
For the sake of visibility, we'll have the following Rankings initially (other rankings might be added in the future) :
Normal Ranking : includes characters in their overall form, taking into consideration all of their abilities as well as their pros and cons. Example : while Baylord Yamah can use full transformation, this ability takes a toll on his body and only uses it as a trump card. Considerations such as these are to be taken into account when rating a character's overall power.
Specific forms ranking : includes a specific form of a character. Example : Full transformation Yamah without side effects
Teams Ranking : includes teams of two or more characters. As we know, a team's overall power isn't necessarily equal to the sum of its individualities, many aspects such as synergy, balance, possible combinations, etc impact the outcome. The rated teams will be added to this ranking.
Speculative Ranking : includes characters without enough feats and/or portrayal to be part of the normal ranking.
Rules
It's strictly prohibited to attribute marks with the aim of specifically increasing or decreasing the final average of a character or a team.
Don't use personal rankings, each mark must be purely based on the overall ranking (below) which will be gradually growing and updated as we rate new characters.
Questionnable ratings (example : someone who gives the same marks to Karaka and say, an average Ranker like Quant Blitz) will not be taken into account.
The ratings are open to everyone in the forum
Each character rating must be justified with an argumentation, at least one sentence long. Otherwise, it won't be accepted.
It's possible to re-evaluate some characters if the majority of participants notice some ambiguity in the ranking and/or new canon feats or information are given.
Without further delay, this is the first group. Since no character is rated yet, you can only use the weakest Ranker as the basis for the following characters. While we don't know who is the weakest Ranker nor how strong he's, we've seen Baam facing Pan who is categorized as a low level test Ranker and it was also debatable whether Baam (in base) was Ranker level or not at the beginning of season 3.
The 25th Baam (base)
Version : the beginning of Season 3 Wiki page : link Rating : ?
This is Baam as he was at the beginning of season 3. He didn't receive transformation power yet and is restricted to his base abilities. He can use shinsu loops and Orb but any other multiplier (Shinwonryuu, Thorns, Black March, Thryssas, revolution, etc) is prohibited.
Most important fights :
-Baam vs Akryung (Season 3, chapter 10 to 12)
-Baam&Jordan vs R (Season 3, chapters 13 and 14)
-Baam's little interaction with Tall (Season 3, chapter 16)
-Baam vs R's twin (in base) (Season 3, chapters 22 and 23)
-Baam trying to wake Yamah up (Season 3, chapter 17)
-Baam&Karaka waking Yamah up (Season 3, chapter 19)
-Baam trying to close the gap between him and the weakened Doom (Season 3, chapter 29)
Some relevant blogposts :
" If you wanted him to have a fair fight with Baam, I'm sorry, but if there's any C-class Regular that can stand up to Baam right now, it'd be against the lore." (Season 3, chapter 4)
"Baam's new skills, since these are being cast without the Thorn, may look like they're on a weaker scale, but unlike the previous training, this isn't an additive power up, but more so a skill/physical development of Baam's capacity of himself. If he used the Thorn here or used the Revolution to bring out his inner powers.. it'd be stronger, but I want to show Baam's improved basic skills and techniques for a while" (Season 3, chapter 6)
"This week we have more of Deng Deng's escape continuing from last week. We have Baam outright beat the Mad Dog. Actually, Varagarv could be considered one of the strongest C-Tier Regular, but even for him, Baam's grown way too powerful.
We also have a new technique for Baam. It's not a new Wave Piercing technique, but rather a version of the basic Wave Piercing technique performed in the state of Zero,. It's weaker than Floral Butterfly Wave Pierce, but it's the version closer to consolidating his basics. Baam was taught all these powerful techniques by force before, but now he's learning from Zero step by step but swiftly from the zero up.
The Regulars of the Ha Family this time are all basically those who cleared all the floors and had earned the right to become a Ranker, but refused to become a Ranker, so it's really iffy to call them a Regular. It's like getting into medical school with top grades, but you suddenly decide you don't wanna (gasp x2). Or getting through Law school, Public Servant license, or International Relations exams to become a public worker and suddenly choosing to become unemployed, despite even having experience (gasp x3) I wouldn't know why they would want to live like that hehe. It is true that they are weaker than those who taught Baam in the past (Yu Hansung, Ha Jinsung, God Of Guardians, Data Eduan, Evankhell), but Evankhell introduced him for a reason, you can infer. Probably because he trained to the fullest as a Regular, perhaps she thought Baam had much to learn from him." (Season 3, chapter 7)
Akryung uses Shinwonryu. Although the possibility of Akryung being an Irregular came up in S1, but whether he is really an irregular or what... that's to be seen later. Since now that Baam can't fight normal regulars anymore, we'll see more "special" regulars like Akryung, Princess, or Sorcerers. (Season 3, chapter 10)
Baam's new skill is quite flashy hehe. This skill, like the previous one isn't a specific technique, but is more so a basis for an overall powerup. It's good that it's flashy, but drawing it is a pain... The people helping me out are hard at work too haha. Anyway, this technique is only possible for the few who were born with certain traits, and the only reason it can be driven to this extreme is because Baam is absolutely optimized for this kind of technique. Not only is Baam an utter mountain of born talent for being actually able to pull it off, but Yu Hansung who was able to set the framework and teach this technique is also very skilled. He probably got a moment of exhilaration when he saw Baam replicate his theory perfectly. (Season 3, chapter 11)
Anyway, Baam's made a nice turn, stopping a target he's not even in contact with, and is headed straight to sleeping Yama. Will he be able to wake up Yama? Will He be able to save Dang Dang? Stay tuned. (Season 3, chapter 16)
"Baam ends up facing off a ranker in the fight, and whether it be luck or skill, but Baam hits from the get-go. Doom and Paul, who sent in their pitcher expecting a no-hit no-run situation is now surprise because they have a hit. Let's see how the match will go: is Baam finally Ranker tier? Stay tuned folks." (Season 3, chapter 22)
Today we have a fight scene longer than previous chapters have had so far. I mean, this is one of Baam's fights, and there is a big distinction and the fact that Baam and a ranker went head-to-head. The Elders's Envoy... In the Houndborn (tn: I came up with a cooler name than Dog People or dog folk) Arc, the Houndborn are generally drawn with thick lines to emphasize their power. However the envoy, I wanted to contrast with the houndborn and make him look a bit sly and sneaky. Actually, this arc itself unlike previous arcs has a constantly changing cast of enemies, so I wanted to make sure that he was visually apparent as an exceptionally annoying villain ,^^;; Sometimes when you go through the story, you have characters that outright scream "bad guy", and this is one of those characters. And on Baam's fight, we see Baam make the Ranker kneel. Even if he's a Ranker, there's large variety in power among them, there is the advantages and the disadvantages to consider, and most importantly he hasn't used any metamorphosis techs, so it can't be outright be said that Baam is Ranker-tier, but he can certainly be a threat. With the Thorn activated, even a Houndborn Ranker with Metamorphosis techniques would not be sure of his chances against Baam. His attack for sure at least is reaching new heights. The fight was indeed cut short by Gado, but Baam still had a few cards he could have still played, so the match probably would have gone the same. (Season 3, chapter 23)
"Recently, we have average rankers starting to lose their menace, but Baam's team are still regulars, kids who haven't been able to even try and stand up to Rankers until recently. Of course, they recently saw rapid growth, ganed overpowered abilities and items, and Baam's become unimaginably powerful, but becoming a Ranker is a major goal for someone in the Tower (although there are multiple tiers among Rankers as well.) In other words, Baam and company fighitng a Ranker is an incredible challenge from the underdogs. Of course, you are a betting person, you should generally bet on the main char.
Anyway, although he's a Ranker in a remote location, Delete is not a weak ranker. I hope you enjoy this fight between Regular and Ranker." (Season 3, chapter 41)
"The fight between Baam and Delete marks the beginning of Baam fighting Rankers as a routine hehe. We haven't seen Baam at full power in Season 3 yet, so even though he's facing off a Ranker, he's thinking of it as practice. Of course, for Regulars, Rankers are a big challenge and a mountain to climb." (Season 3, chapter 42)
"This week: we saw a continuation of Baam and White's battles. On Baam's front, he's fighting like his position again for the first time in a while. Being able to attack and defend against Rankers properly is a sign that Team RaKhunBaam is becoming stronger as a whole. Of course, except for Baam there aren't any Regulars that can face off against a Ranker directly, but Rak and Khun both have abilities not often seen by Rankers. I hope this battle shows that they can be significant variables now.
You may think that the main party has been developing rather slowly, but having this underdogs fighting gigantic enemies is Tower of God's thing, so I hope I can bring that out to the best that I can. Well, Baam is not an underdog in his weight class no more if he uses the Thorn or uses Shinwonryu, but it just looks like it because he is fighting enemies that are much stronger than him it feels that way ^^; Baam is self aware to the point where he treats this as training. He knows his end goal after all." (Season 3, chapter 43)
Baam's fight finally ends. Baam used metamorphosis and Shinsu together. It wasn't a bloodmatch, but Baam told Delete that they are stronger, and Delete told Baam that he is stronger. There's a lot of variables at play in this fight, and a Ranker's skills depend on their weapons or abilities, so Baam can't be put on Ranker tier with just this one fight, but this does show with proper support, he can face off against a regular Ranker and surpress them. In terms of balance and the opponents Baam face, it is difficult to have many Baam vs Ranker fights, and due to the time frame at work here, the ends of the two fights had to coincide rougly, so it may have been rough in the middle, so I am sorry to the readers that felt uncomfortable with it. Sometimes, I have to push on stories for the reasons I can't help, and it is hard on me too. Please be more understanding. (Season 3, chapter 45)
This week, we have the fight between Baam and the Test Ranker ending. We had a lot of Rankers being shown lately so you may not feel the full impact, but it is huge in the Tower of God world that a Regular beat a Ranker. The moment that happens, you are essentially proving that you are of another world. (Season 3, chapter 51)
This is R as he was when he fought Baam in the cage. Transformation is prohibited, any other ability is allowed.
Most importnat fights :
-Baam vs R (base) (Season 2, chapters 22 and 23)
Some relevant blogposts :
"Baam ends up facing off a ranker in the fight, and whether it be luck or skill, but Baam hits from the get-go. Doom and Paul, who sent in their pitcher expecting a no-hit no-run situation is now surprise because they have a hit. Let's see how the match will go: is Baam finally Ranker tier? Stay tuned folks." (Season 3, chapter 22)
Today we have a fight scene longer than previous chapters have had so far. I mean, this is one of Baam's fights, and there is a big distinction and the fact that Baam and a ranker went head-to-head. The Elders's Envoy... In the Houndborn (tn: I came up with a cooler name than Dog People or dog folk) Arc, the Houndborn are generally drawn with thick lines to emphasize their power. However the envoy, I wanted to contrast with the houndborn and make him look a bit sly and sneaky. Actually, this arc itself unlike previous arcs has a constantly changing cast of enemies, so I wanted to make sure that he was visually apparent as an exceptionally annoying villain ,^^;; Sometimes when you go through the story, you have characters that outright scream "bad guy", and this is one of those characters. And on Baam's fight, we see Baam make the Ranker kneel. Even if he's a Ranker, there's large variety in power among them, there is the advantages and the disadvantages to consider, and most importantly he hasn't used any metamorphosis techs, so it can't be outright be said that Baam is Ranker-tier, but he can certainly be a threat. With the Thorn activated, even a Houndborn Ranker with Metamorphosis techniques would not be sure of his chances against Baam. His attack for sure at least is reaching new heights. The fight was indeed cut short by Gado, but Baam still had a few cards he could have still played, so the match probably would have gone the same. (Season 3, chapter 23)
Daleet can use his weapon made from a mineral in the Cherry river.
Most important fights
-Daleet vs Baam&Khun&Rak (Season 3, chapter 42, 43 and 45)
Some important blogposts :
"Recently, we have average rankers starting to lose their menace, but Baam's team are still regulars, kids who haven't been able to even try and stand up to Rankers until recently. Of course, they recently saw rapid growth, ganed overpowered abilities and items, and Baam's become unimaginably powerful, but becoming a Ranker is a major goal for someone in the Tower (although there are multiple tiers among Rankers as well.) In other words, Baam and company fighitng a Ranker is an incredible challenge from the underdogs. Of course, you are a betting person, you should generally bet on the main char.
Anyway, although he's a Ranker in a remote location, Delete is not a weak ranker. I hope you enjoy this fight between Regular and Ranker." (Season 3, chapter 41)
"The fight between Baam and Delete marks the beginning of Baam fighting Rankers as a routine hehe. We haven't seen Baam at full power in Season 3 yet, so even though he's facing off a Ranker, he's thinking of it as practice. Of course, for Regulars, Rankers are a big challenge and a mountain to climb." (Season 3, chapter 42)
"This week: we saw a continuation of Baam and White's battles. On Baam's front, he's fighting like his position again for the first time in a while. Being able to attack and defend against Rankers properly is a sign that Team RaKhunBaam is becoming stronger as a whole. Of course, except for Baam there aren't any Regulars that can face off against a Ranker directly, but Rak and Khun both have abilities not often seen by Rankers. I hope this battle shows that they can be significant variables now.
You may think that the main party has been developing rather slowly, but having this underdogs fighting gigantic enemies is Tower of God's thing, so I hope I can bring that out to the best that I can. Well, Baam is not an underdog in his weight class no more if he uses the Thorn or uses Shinwonryu, but it just looks like it because he is fighting enemies that are much stronger than him it feels that way ^^; Baam is self aware to the point where he treats this as training. He knows his end goal after all." (Season 3, chapter 43)
Baam's fight finally ends. Baam used metamorphosis and Shinsu together. It wasn't a bloodmatch, but Baam told Delete that they are stronger, and Delete told Baam that he is stronger. There's a lot of variables at play in this fight, and a Ranker's skills depend on their weapons or abilities, so Baam can't be put on Ranker tier with just this one fight, but this does show with proper support, he can face off against a regular Ranker and surpress them. In terms of balance and the opponents Baam face, it is difficult to have many Baam vs Ranker fights, and due to the time frame at work here, the ends of the two fights had to coincide rougly, so it may have been rough in the middle, so I am sorry to the readers that felt uncomfortable with it. Sometimes, I have to push on stories for the reasons I can't help, and it is hard on me too. Please be more understanding. (Season 3, chapter 45)
He’s quite difficult to rank accurately. He could react to the attacks of R’s Twin and put him on his knees even after he got serious in Base (the Canine Ranker couldn’t use Transformation and was perfectly capable of putting him on the ropes and continue the fight after being hit by an Airwave Explosion though). SIU also said it couldn’t be outright said that this Baam was Ranker Tier in one of his blogposts IIRC.
Another vital fight to evaluate him (although you might argue he already grew a bit considering all the previous fights until that point) is his fight against Pan, a low-level test Ranker. Now, I don’t think Pan is the weakest Ranker in existence. Simply for statistical purposes. There’s little way that out of the 90.000 Rankers that exist in the Tower (excluding Advanced Rankers and High Rankers), Baam got to fight against literally the weakest of them all. That being said, I believe it’s also clear he should be among the weakest considering the way he was introduced (“low-level” says a lot and Charlie even said he shouldn’t get too cocky to beat that test Ranker; he himself being another Ranker considered among the Elite).
Pan started the fight looking down on the Regular and got hit quite badly by a Shinsu Control Skill he had never seen before without being unable to defend himself, presumably taking quite the considerable amount of damage. Then, once he came to his senses, he seemingly started overwhelming Baam with his superior physical stats, but the Irregular could still dodge his attacks and counter with an advanced Shinsu Skill to make up for the gap in damage. The Ranker relied on his sheer brute force and “superiority” to try and dominate Baam, but Baam had more experience and could adapt much more quickly than the inflexible Ranker. Now, a vital thing to note here is that Baam continued to grow throughout the battle (Pan noted he was dodging his attacks even better than before and the narration also said this) and copied the Ranker’s skills to use them against him. Overall, my impressions of the narration were that Base Baam started the fight being a solid cut weaker than the Ranker but that due to his superior experience/flexibility, his growth rate during the fight, his copy skills and hax, the gap closed much quicker than anyone had thought and ended up defeating him with hard difficulty. At the same time, it’s not sure whether this Baam was or not a bit stronger than the one in the first chapter of S3 considering his growth and fights against other Rankers prior to that moment.
Overall, even if I assume Pan is a bit stronger than the weakest Ranker in existence, I can’t see Base Baam at the beginning of Season 3 being exactly Entry Ranker Level. I believe he’s not far obviously, but considering everything I believe he’s a cut weaker without taking into account growths in the midst of a fight. Of course, since this thread takes into account growths in the midst of a fight and Baam is an expert on this, he'd probably be able to defeat the Weakest Ranker with that (and Pan too I guess since he's probably not far from this level).
Overall Score: 110.
R's twin (base)
Already quite addressed in the previous post. He seemed to have superior physical might than Baam judging by how he was pushing him back during their clashes (once he got serious), but Baam could still take his attacks head-on and ended up overpowering him with a Reverse Flow Control followed by an Airwave Explosion, which left him on his knees. One thing to note is that the Ranker wasn’t knocked out by that. He seemed to be more than capable of continuing the fight. Reverse Flow Control is also a technique that’s quite difficult to pull off during a fight. It’s what basically allowed Baam to end up overpowering him (before that, he was the one being overwhelmed). I believe that he had better stats than Base Baam, but Base Baam had more experience/flexibility, versatility (at least in that version) and hax, which is what allowed him to end up prevailing against the nerfed Canine Ranker. I don't believe the gap was necessarily very significant, just that Baam used his techniques very well (but that could not always be the case considering RFC is not an easy technique to use). I believe he's probably the closest thing we've got to the Weakest Ranker (while nerfed without being capable of using transformations ofc).
Overall Score: 97.
Daleet
For starters, Daleet was deemed as the second strongest Ranker guarding the wall where Dowon was sealed, right below Tonki (who SIU confirmed to be on the High Ranker Level). This puts him above other Rankers that were guarding the area, who in turn don’t have a low chance to be a bit stronger than that the weakest Ranker in Existence for the very least (just statistically speaking ofc).
As for his feats, well, he ended up being defeated quite easily by Baam, Rak and AA’s teamwork (Baam was also using the Red Thryssa Transformation, which grants him much greater AP than normally). He was still more than capable of reacting to most of their attacks and ended up losing because the Red Thryssa transformation was far stronger than his strongest Needle (AA and Rak's distractions also put delays on his attacks that were mainly directed at Baam). It should be noted that Daleet could have chosen to kill Baam’s massively weaker teammates first as noted by Baam, which would have increased his chances of victory. This means Daleet had a very good chance of killing AA and Rak while Baam was there using the Red Thryssa.
I don’t think there are enough feats to rank him accurately, but I believe he was at least a bit better than your average Ranker (who in turn should be significantly better than the weakest Ranker in Existence the way I see it).
Version : the beginning of Season 3 Wiki page : link Rating : 115,00
This is Baam as he was at the beginning of season 3. He didn't receive transformation power yet and is restricted to his base abilities. He can use shinsu loops and Orb but any other multiplier (Shinwonryuu, Thorns, Black March, Thryssas, revolution, etc) is prohibited.
Most important fights :
-Baam vs Akryung (Season 3, chapter 10 to 12)
-Baam&Jordan vs R (Season 3, chapters 13 and 14)
-Baam's little interaction with Tall (Season 3, chapter 16)
-Baam vs R's twin (in base) (Season 3, chapters 22 and 23)
-Baam trying to wake Yamah up (Season 3, chapter 17)
-Baam&Karaka waking Yamah up (Season 3, chapter 19)
-Baam trying to close the gap between him and the weakened Doom (Season 3, chapter 29)
Some relevant blogposts :
" If you wanted him to have a fair fight with Baam, I'm sorry, but if there's any C-class Regular that can stand up to Baam right now, it'd be against the lore." (Season 3, chapter 4)
"Baam's new skills, since these are being cast without the Thorn, may look like they're on a weaker scale, but unlike the previous training, this isn't an additive power up, but more so a skill/physical development of Baam's capacity of himself. If he used the Thorn here or used the Revolution to bring out his inner powers.. it'd be stronger, but I want to show Baam's improved basic skills and techniques for a while" (Season 3, chapter 6)
"This week we have more of Deng Deng's escape continuing from last week. We have Baam outright beat the Mad Dog. Actually, Varagarv could be considered one of the strongest C-Tier Regular, but even for him, Baam's grown way too powerful.
We also have a new technique for Baam. It's not a new Wave Piercing technique, but rather a version of the basic Wave Piercing technique performed in the state of Zero,. It's weaker than Floral Butterfly Wave Pierce, but it's the version closer to consolidating his basics. Baam was taught all these powerful techniques by force before, but now he's learning from Zero step by step but swiftly from the zero up.
The Regulars of the Ha Family this time are all basically those who cleared all the floors and had earned the right to become a Ranker, but refused to become a Ranker, so it's really iffy to call them a Regular. It's like getting into medical school with top grades, but you suddenly decide you don't wanna (gasp x2). Or getting through Law school, Public Servant license, or International Relations exams to become a public worker and suddenly choosing to become unemployed, despite even having experience (gasp x3) I wouldn't know why they would want to live like that hehe. It is true that they are weaker than those who taught Baam in the past (Yu Hansung, Ha Jinsung, God Of Guardians, Data Eduan, Evankhell), but Evankhell introduced him for a reason, you can infer. Probably because he trained to the fullest as a Regular, perhaps she thought Baam had much to learn from him." (Season 3, chapter 7)
Akryung uses Shinwonryu. Although the possibility of Akryung being an Irregular came up in S1, but whether he is really an irregular or what... that's to be seen later. Since now that Baam can't fight normal regulars anymore, we'll see more "special" regulars like Akryung, Princess, or Sorcerers. (Season 3, chapter 10)
Baam's new skill is quite flashy hehe. This skill, like the previous one isn't a specific technique, but is more so a basis for an overall powerup. It's good that it's flashy, but drawing it is a pain... The people helping me out are hard at work too haha. Anyway, this technique is only possible for the few who were born with certain traits, and the only reason it can be driven to this extreme is because Baam is absolutely optimized for this kind of technique. Not only is Baam an utter mountain of born talent for being actually able to pull it off, but Yu Hansung who was able to set the framework and teach this technique is also very skilled. He probably got a moment of exhilaration when he saw Baam replicate his theory perfectly. (Season 3, chapter 11)
Anyway, Baam's made a nice turn, stopping a target he's not even in contact with, and is headed straight to sleeping Yama. Will he be able to wake up Yama? Will He be able to save Dang Dang? Stay tuned. (Season 3, chapter 16)
"Baam ends up facing off a ranker in the fight, and whether it be luck or skill, but Baam hits from the get-go. Doom and Paul, who sent in their pitcher expecting a no-hit no-run situation is now surprise because they have a hit. Let's see how the match will go: is Baam finally Ranker tier? Stay tuned folks." (Season 3, chapter 22)
Today we have a fight scene longer than previous chapters have had so far. I mean, this is one of Baam's fights, and there is a big distinction and the fact that Baam and a ranker went head-to-head. The Elders's Envoy... In the Houndborn (tn: I came up with a cooler name than Dog People or dog folk) Arc, the Houndborn are generally drawn with thick lines to emphasize their power. However the envoy, I wanted to contrast with the houndborn and make him look a bit sly and sneaky. Actually, this arc itself unlike previous arcs has a constantly changing cast of enemies, so I wanted to make sure that he was visually apparent as an exceptionally annoying villain ,^^;; Sometimes when you go through the story, you have characters that outright scream "bad guy", and this is one of those characters. And on Baam's fight, we see Baam make the Ranker kneel. Even if he's a Ranker, there's large variety in power among them, there is the advantages and the disadvantages to consider, and most importantly he hasn't used any metamorphosis techs, so it can't be outright be said that Baam is Ranker-tier, but he can certainly be a threat. With the Thorn activated, even a Houndborn Ranker with Metamorphosis techniques would not be sure of his chances against Baam. His attack for sure at least is reaching new heights. The fight was indeed cut short by Gado, but Baam still had a few cards he could have still played, so the match probably would have gone the same. (Season 3, chapter 23)
"Recently, we have average rankers starting to lose their menace, but Baam's team are still regulars, kids who haven't been able to even try and stand up to Rankers until recently. Of course, they recently saw rapid growth, ganed overpowered abilities and items, and Baam's become unimaginably powerful, but becoming a Ranker is a major goal for someone in the Tower (although there are multiple tiers among Rankers as well.) In other words, Baam and company fighitng a Ranker is an incredible challenge from the underdogs. Of course, you are a betting person, you should generally bet on the main char.
Anyway, although he's a Ranker in a remote location, Delete is not a weak ranker. I hope you enjoy this fight between Regular and Ranker." (Season 3, chapter 41)
"The fight between Baam and Delete marks the beginning of Baam fighting Rankers as a routine hehe. We haven't seen Baam at full power in Season 3 yet, so even though he's facing off a Ranker, he's thinking of it as practice. Of course, for Regulars, Rankers are a big challenge and a mountain to climb." (Season 3, chapter 42)
"This week: we saw a continuation of Baam and White's battles. On Baam's front, he's fighting like his position again for the first time in a while. Being able to attack and defend against Rankers properly is a sign that Team RaKhunBaam is becoming stronger as a whole. Of course, except for Baam there aren't any Regulars that can face off against a Ranker directly, but Rak and Khun both have abilities not often seen by Rankers. I hope this battle shows that they can be significant variables now.
You may think that the main party has been developing rather slowly, but having this underdogs fighting gigantic enemies is Tower of God's thing, so I hope I can bring that out to the best that I can. Well, Baam is not an underdog in his weight class no more if he uses the Thorn or uses Shinwonryu, but it just looks like it because he is fighting enemies that are much stronger than him it feels that way ^^; Baam is self aware to the point where he treats this as training. He knows his end goal after all." (Season 3, chapter 43)
Baam's fight finally ends. Baam used metamorphosis and Shinsu together. It wasn't a bloodmatch, but Baam told Delete that they are stronger, and Delete told Baam that he is stronger. There's a lot of variables at play in this fight, and a Ranker's skills depend on their weapons or abilities, so Baam can't be put on Ranker tier with just this one fight, but this does show with proper support, he can face off against a regular Ranker and surpress them. In terms of balance and the opponents Baam face, it is difficult to have many Baam vs Ranker fights, and due to the time frame at work here, the ends of the two fights had to coincide rougly, so it may have been rough in the middle, so I am sorry to the readers that felt uncomfortable with it. Sometimes, I have to push on stories for the reasons I can't help, and it is hard on me too. Please be more understanding. (Season 3, chapter 45)
This week, we have the fight between Baam and the Test Ranker ending. We had a lot of Rankers being shown lately so you may not feel the full impact, but it is huge in the Tower of God world that a Regular beat a Ranker. The moment that happens, you are essentially proving that you are of another world. (Season 3, chapter 51)
Baam's fight with R's twin is arguably the most revealing regarding his strength at this point. Despite using shinsu loops, he was still a cut beneath the Ranker when it comes to long ranged shinsu clash and he could hardly keep up in melee, so I guess Baam's raw stats weren't quite Ranker level yet, he could hold his own though. If he combines both the Orb and Shinsu loops (as he did in order to close the gap to Doom), he might actually tilt the balance in his favor, I guess that's one of the reasons why SIU said Baam would've won regardless.
Now, does R's twin remain in the realm of Rankers if we remove transformation power ? As we know, Baam gained transformation shortly after their fight. Yet, even during his future confrontation with Daleet, SIU was still questionning himself whether he reached Ranker tier or not. In contrast, Baam's RT shield is without a doubt stronger than R's twin transformation considering it could scratch Gado and even block his 7th level partial transformation. Furtheremore, when Baam striked R's transformed arm with a stream of shinsu loops, it started cracking after a little while. Although, it's to be taken into perspective (R was taken off guard thinking that a regular shouldn't have so much power and although still preping his skill, Jordan was still there ready to strike if the occasion shows of, implying that his focus was dispersed), Baam's Thryssa blade most certainly holds more punch and is more sturdy than R twin's transformation. So, if transformeless Baam can beat transformless R, then if we add transfomration to both, the slayer candidate should've the edge.
All in all, there's a pretty high chance that Baam after gaining transformation became slightly stronger than an unrestricted R's twin. Which leads me to think, what does SIU mean by Ranker tier ? Did he refer to the lowest entry point to this tier or was just comparing Baam broadly to average Rankers ? Considering the above analysis and the fact that SIU was questionning himself based on Baam's performance agaisnt Daleet (who is at least an average Ranker), the author was actually comparing him to average Rankers makes far more sens actually.
Also, considering Baam's figth with Pan came one or two days (or a bit more at best) since the beginning of season 3, it's doubtful whether the slayer candidate became noticeably stronger between the two fights. If Gado didn't cut the fight short, R's twin would've probably lost after pushing Baam to a high/extreme diff win in a smilar fashion.
Overall, I'd say that this version of Baam is very slightly above the weakest Ranker, he should at least come up on top after growing in the heat of battle as he always does.
This is R as he was when he fought Baam in the cage. Transformation is prohibited, any other ability is allowed.
Most importnat fights :
-Baam vs R (base) (Season 2, chapters 22 and 23)
Some relevant blogposts :
"Baam ends up facing off a ranker in the fight, and whether it be luck or skill, but Baam hits from the get-go. Doom and Paul, who sent in their pitcher expecting a no-hit no-run situation is now surprise because they have a hit. Let's see how the match will go: is Baam finally Ranker tier? Stay tuned folks." (Season 3, chapter 22)
Today we have a fight scene longer than previous chapters have had so far. I mean, this is one of Baam's fights, and there is a big distinction and the fact that Baam and a ranker went head-to-head. The Elders's Envoy... In the Houndborn (tn: I came up with a cooler name than Dog People or dog folk) Arc, the Houndborn are generally drawn with thick lines to emphasize their power. However the envoy, I wanted to contrast with the houndborn and make him look a bit sly and sneaky. Actually, this arc itself unlike previous arcs has a constantly changing cast of enemies, so I wanted to make sure that he was visually apparent as an exceptionally annoying villain ,^^;; Sometimes when you go through the story, you have characters that outright scream "bad guy", and this is one of those characters. And on Baam's fight, we see Baam make the Ranker kneel. Even if he's a Ranker, there's large variety in power among them, there is the advantages and the disadvantages to consider, and most importantly he hasn't used any metamorphosis techs, so it can't be outright be said that Baam is Ranker-tier, but he can certainly be a threat. With the Thorn activated, even a Houndborn Ranker with Metamorphosis techniques would not be sure of his chances against Baam. His attack for sure at least is reaching new heights. The fight was indeed cut short by Gado, but Baam still had a few cards he could have still played, so the match probably would have gone the same. (Season 3, chapter 23)
I don't know if he is more impressive than Pan if we remove transformation but in terms of durability/Shinsu resistance at least, he was shown to be above the test Ranker considering he took a Flare wave explosion and was still able to stand on his feets whereas Pan was knocked after getting hit by a wave explosion - zero (which is weaker than the flare wave exposion according to SIU).
However, the fact that Baam would've defeated him doesn't play in his favor considering the latter extreme diffed Pan. The best I can extrapolate in his favor is him being very slightly above the test Ranker in base.
Daleet can use his weapon made from a mineral in the Cherry river.
Most important fights
-Daleet vs Baam&Khun&Rak (Season 3, chapter 42, 43 and 45)
Some important blogposts :
"Recently, we have average rankers starting to lose their menace, but Baam's team are still regulars, kids who haven't been able to even try and stand up to Rankers until recently. Of course, they recently saw rapid growth, ganed overpowered abilities and items, and Baam's become unimaginably powerful, but becoming a Ranker is a major goal for someone in the Tower (although there are multiple tiers among Rankers as well.) In other words, Baam and company fighitng a Ranker is an incredible challenge from the underdogs. Of course, you are a betting person, you should generally bet on the main char.
Anyway, although he's a Ranker in a remote location, Delete is not a weak ranker. I hope you enjoy this fight between Regular and Ranker." (Season 3, chapter 41)
"The fight between Baam and Delete marks the beginning of Baam fighting Rankers as a routine hehe. We haven't seen Baam at full power in Season 3 yet, so even though he's facing off a Ranker, he's thinking of it as practice. Of course, for Regulars, Rankers are a big challenge and a mountain to climb." (Season 3, chapter 42)
"This week: we saw a continuation of Baam and White's battles. On Baam's front, he's fighting like his position again for the first time in a while. Being able to attack and defend against Rankers properly is a sign that Team RaKhunBaam is becoming stronger as a whole. Of course, except for Baam there aren't any Regulars that can face off against a Ranker directly, but Rak and Khun both have abilities not often seen by Rankers. I hope this battle shows that they can be significant variables now.
You may think that the main party has been developing rather slowly, but having this underdogs fighting gigantic enemies is Tower of God's thing, so I hope I can bring that out to the best that I can. Well, Baam is not an underdog in his weight class no more if he uses the Thorn or uses Shinwonryu, but it just looks like it because he is fighting enemies that are much stronger than him it feels that way ^^; Baam is self aware to the point where he treats this as training. He knows his end goal after all." (Season 3, chapter 43)
Baam's fight finally ends. Baam used metamorphosis and Shinsu together. It wasn't a bloodmatch, but Baam told Delete that they are stronger, and Delete told Baam that he is stronger. There's a lot of variables at play in this fight, and a Ranker's skills depend on their weapons or abilities, so Baam can't be put on Ranker tier with just this one fight, but this does show with proper support, he can face off against a regular Ranker and surpress them. In terms of balance and the opponents Baam face, it is difficult to have many Baam vs Ranker fights, and due to the time frame at work here, the ends of the two fights had to coincide rougly, so it may have been rough in the middle, so I am sorry to the readers that felt uncomfortable with it. Sometimes, I have to push on stories for the reasons I can't help, and it is hard on me too. Please be more understanding. (Season 3, chapter 45)
Despite being in a remote region, SIU said that he's by no mean a weak Ranker, implying that Daleet is an average Ranker at least. Furthermore, he got this Cherry river needle which is quite hyped as a weapon, so there's that. However, RakKhunBaam beat him arround mid difficulty (slightly tending to high) with Khun/Rak not doing much on their own really. Slightly delaying Daleet's reactions put aside, Baam did most of the work. What really mattered IMO is the Yeon flame, which noticeably amped the Thryssa blade. Baam could've easily replaced their support by simply using higher level skills such as a shinsu-loop/Orb combinations most likely (he only used shinsu loops in the confrontation).
If we remove the flame's boost however, the issue becomes less certain. Baam said that he needed to amp the Thryssa balde with as much shinsu as he could, that's why he managed to break the Cherry river needle in one shot. Without the boost, the transformation would've been much weaker and it's doubtful whether Baam could compete with Daleet in melee for several clashes or not.
Now, even without the Cherry river needle, Daleet remains an average Ranker or something very close to it at least (he's by no mean a weak Ranker according to SIU), that puts him above Pan and the super needle boost should be notable considering its hype.
All in all, I suspect that Daleet, with a normal needle, should be able to beat base Baam (without transfomration) even if we take into accound a potential instanteneous growth of the latter. He should be arround 130/135.
