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This post is about a meticulous, very detailed analysis of power levels in the train city arc (from chapter 111 to 152 of Season 2). Frankly speaking, gathering all the necessary informations and transforming the whole into a well structured essay wasn't an easy matter but it was worth it. Very often we only talk about Rankers and High Rankers but comparing regulars becomes much more easier when you pay more attention to their feats and portrayal.
Table of Content
I-D-class regulars Overview
I-1-Average D-class regulars on lower floors
I-2-Ticketers
I-3-Sweet and sour and Khun Aguero Agnes
I-4-Boro
I-4-Top D-class regulars
II-The mirotic guardian
II-1-How it works
II-2-Passing through the guardian
II-3-Shinsu spears
III-Train city powerhouses
III-1-Workshop battle versions of Baam, Beta and Cassano
III-2-Baam vs Beta, the Workshop fight analysis
III-3-Daniel Hatchid
III-4-Daniel, Aka, Ran and Beta's comparison
III-5-Daniel Hatchid vs Baam (without the Thorn)
III-6-Baam's growth
IV-Baam and the mad dogs
IV-1-The Thorn
IV-2-Berserk Thorn
IV-3-Buelsar Eliot vs Berserk Baam
IV-4-Buelsar Eliot's statements analysis
IV-5-The blue Thryssa
V-Interesting regulars
V-1-Moontari
V-2-Yura Ha
V-3-Angel
V-4-Hoaqin
VI-Power levels overview
I-D-class regulars Overview
I-1-Average D-class regulars on lower floors
D-class regulars on lower floors are very weak. Ran and Beta defeated many of them at the same time, as such they were deemed as "monsters" from their perspective (Season 2, chapter 116). Daniel oughtright killed 99 with little to no effort (Season 2, chapter 117) meanwhile Baam subdued 5 almost instanteneously just relying on his melee combat skills alone, forcing the remarining ones to run away in fear (Season 2, chapter 121). Based on these feats, we can pretty much consider them cannon fodder material at this point, as noted by Ran : "D-rank regulars on the lower floors are weak". (Season 2, chapter 116).
I-2-Ticketers
Ticketers are powerful among D-class regulars :
"D-rank Regulars who have been holding Tickets are strong. It means they have survival skills of their own". blogpost - Season 2, chapter 130
So, they're definitely different than the the average D-rank folks on lower floors.
However, even among them, we can find many power levels. Generally, the lower the number of your ticker, the stronger you're. For example, the lizardman who attacked Boro killed the former owners of tickets #98 and #71. According to him, the #71 gave him a hard time, implying that he didn't struggle a lot against #98. Therefore, there's a obvious gap between the former #98 and him or the former #71.
The same lizardman claimed that he would target and subdue single digit ticketers : "At this year, I'll make any ticket holder under number 10 kneel before me" (Season 2, chapter 115). Similarly, Ran found it more interesting to target ticketers with lower numbers : "Maybe I need to look for the ticket holders with lower numbers" (Season 2, chapter 115), further proving this fact.
Obviously, we can find extremely weak ticketers like Kang Hanool or Hana Yu from time to time, however them holding a ticket was only due to circumstances, it's rare and shouldn't be regarded as a general rule.
I-3-Sweet and sour and Khun Aguero Agnes
According to Hwaryun, the workshop version of S&S members (Wangnan, Prince, Miseng, Arkraptor) stood no chance at getting tickets by themselves. Improvements had to be made within a year in order to be ready (Season 2, chapter 112). So, their Train City versions can be considered as entry/low level ticketers.
1-3-1-Miseng and Prince
As a result of their training, Miseng mastered her potential power (the special seed she got from Verdi), the ability which once caused her to go berserk, gaining a lot of power (enough to casually fodderize average E-class regulars), but also causing her to lose herself as a side effect. The same goes for Prince, although it was still a bit unstable for both (Season 2, chapter 142).
According to SIU, Miseng was like an improved version of what she showed in the workshop battle :
"Miseng’s skills are, as some may have noticed, an improved version of the Gongbang Tournament" (Season 2, chapter 141 blogpost)
So, we can guess that Prince should've improved in the same fasion giving he got the same power up.
That being said, there's a massive gap between Miseng's and Prince's basic power. Back then in the workshop events, Khun said that Prince was stronger than other regulars in his group (he didn't knew that Miseng was amped by Verdi's seed though). Although he was highly pressured and overwhelmed by Berserk Miseng, he was the only one who could hold the candle against her physically speaking. Indeed, he managed to hold her a bit, leaving enough room for Arkraptor to take away Verdi's flower from her head.
Seeing how Prince was somehow not too far from Berserk Miseng in power, it's not far fetched to say that with the same power up (potential unlocking with a special seed), he'd become much stronger on his own.
1-3-2-Wangnan
Wangnan is a very old regular, old enough to be Karaka's brother and weakness is part of his character. So, it's very unlikely that any notable improvements were made for him in terms of basic power. However, he got handed the antimatter bombs from Ms.Sophia and managed to master them after a year of training. Although they're designated to take away living ignition weapons, they should be quite destructive on their own since Wangnan was assumed to become a ticketer and ticketers are quite strong among the D-class regulars.
1-3-3-Arkraptor
Arkraptor is notably weaker than Prince physically, the latter's score was almost 8 times higher in the punching machine game and Khun portrayed Prince as the strongest of his group which included Arkraptor (he didn't knew about Berserk Miseng though).
However, Arkraptor didn't have access to his umbrella in both cases. The punching machine game was about raw physical power and body strengthening meanwhile the workshop battle preliminaries consisted of royal battles where the contestants were forced to hold the plugs with one hand.
With it, it's not sure whether Prince would've been the stronger one out of the two. I mean, defensively speaking it blocked a shinsu attack from Baam at the beginning of the 2nd season, plus it can shoot beams from range and can be useful in melee combat as well.
1-3-4-Khun
According to Arkraptor, Khun became much stronger than them :
"Your brother got much stronger than us" (Season 2, chapter 142)
Implying a gap between him and S&S members who were alongside Arkraptor (Prince and Miseng). Otherwise, Khun wasn't shown fighting a worthy foe in this arc, his exchanges with Rachel don't help a lot since she's weak, so it's hard to accurately assess his power giving his lack of feats.
Conclusion
As noted by Khun, Team S&S grew quite a bit since the workshop events :
"Out teamwork is getting pretty good. Baam is strong obviously but the others have grown quite strong too". (Season 2, chapter 111)
Their power increases at a fast rate after all :
"Although Prince is a rapid-growth character, the other characters develop so fast that he, unfortunately, doesn't seem to be..." (Season 2, chapter 70)
Since Workshop Prince was still notably below entry ticketer level according to Hwaryun and was the strongest out of the bunch, we can guess that everyone got at least way stronger than this version of his own. Furtheremore, excluding Wangnan whose antimatter bombs power is unkown against a normal foes, the gaps between the rest (Prince, Miseng and Arkraptor) are pretty much explicit.
In the workshop battle, it was pretty clear that Arkraptor < Prince < Berserk Miseng. Now that Miseng almost completly mastered her potential power, we can guess that the massive difference between her and Arkraptor either settled to be the same (more or less) or increased since she got hold of herself while using it.
Similarly, Prince who could keep up, although barely, with Berserk Miseng obtained his own grain from Verdi, unlocking his potential power and he mastered it as well. So, it's safe to assume that he became far stronger than Miseng thanks to that.
Overall, three main levels were noted so far :
-tier 1 : Miseng+, Arkraptor -
-tier 2 : Prince
-tier 3 : Khun Aguero Agnes
Another seemingly low to average level ticketer who had a fair amount of panel time is Bero Bero, but it's difficult to tell to which tier she belongs giving her lack of feats.
I-4-Boro
It's interesting to discuss Boro's feats and portrayal a this point since he's basically like some kind of a link between low/average and high level ticketers and as noted by SIU, he isn't to be underestimated :
"Boro may not look like much, but his battle skills are not to be ignored. He didn’t survive the Train for nothing". blogpost - Season 2, chapter 140
At the same time, we can't really say that he's strong, very often used to hype stronger D-class regulars. For example, he was used to express the might of his 4 former comrades (Sachi, Aka, Daniel and Roen) who once dealt with Hoaqin alongside him ("Apart from me the other four were incredibly strong" - Season 2, chapter 125) or more broadly high level tickers ("The high Rankers on the hell train are beyond any level you could imagine" - Season 2, chapter 115).
He had two 1v1 fights. The first one was against the lizardman, Boro struggled a bit intially in front of his firepower (a shinsu attack through a needle) but he quickly analyzed his needle skill and won without much trouble (Season 2, chapter 115).
The second fight was against Hong Danhwa. The exchanges lasted longer this time since Danhwa had an ignition weapon (Krishna) and several things can be noted :
-Krishna is stronger than ordinary weapons. Boro was repeled a bit when they clashed at first.
-In the latest part of the fight, Krishna's blasts were deemed "deadly" (was it because of ignition ?), Boro was highly pressured because of their immense destructive capacity and was forced to dodge.
Ultimately, Boro analyzed Krishna's patterns thanks to his unique anti-weapon martial art (Fluid) and won the fight thanks to that. However, it took him a while to figure it out (unlike the lizardman).
Although Boro won both fights (low/mid diff against the lizardman and mid/high diff against Danhwa), his oponents weren't very strong. The lizardman for instance was noted to be very common as a fighter in the hell train :
"I may not be one of the strongest on the train but I'm sorry to say guys like you are a dime a dozen here". (Season 2, chapter 115)
Danhwa in other hands was "okey" in Moontari's eyes but nothing special :
"That one using a sword looks okey" - Season 2, chapter 123
Moontari also didn't knew that he was holding was ignition weapon though (it took Boro a little while to tell), which he didn't ignite anyway. So, Danhwa was most likely stronger than Moontari's "okey" level overall, arguably a bit above your average ticketer. Regardless, it's obvious that he was way below high level ticketers like Aka.
Furtheremore, Boro is a very bad matchup for weapon users, which is the case for both his opponents :
"As you saw in this chapter, Boro is very experienced. His specialty is going against armed people, so when his opponents are holding any kind of weapons, it is actually an advantage to him. This is bad news for characters who depend on strong weapons, like Hatsu and Hong. On the other hand, people who rely on their body or Sinsoo, like Ran, are tough for Boro. Of course, you can’t say who is going to win until they fight, but these things can make one better at guessing" (Season 2, chapter 137 blogpost).
Basically, when you're up against him, either he's a bad matchup for you if you depend on a weapon a lot, either it's the exact opposite. Usually, there is no in between, so gauging Boro's power overall is an extremely difficult matter.
Despite building his strength and surviving for several centuries since clearing the hell train for the first time, Boro seemed to be kinda lacking in terms of raw power. It's understandable for Danhwa since he held an ignition weapon but we can't say the same for the lizardman who struggled against a below average ticketer (#71). So, if his ennemy isn't a weapon specialist, he'd be in trouble.
I-4-Top D-class regulars
There're three top D-class regulars are notorious, Sachi Faker was one of them :
"There're three top predators on this train. At the first station, you need to watch out for Sachi Faker, the ticket hunter. He's one of the top 3 D-rank regulars. He has an outstanding physical ability and the special ability to manipulate shinsu. He dominates in one vs many combats". (Seaspn 2, chapter 111)
Regulars of this tier are also assumed to be strong enough to block Baam's reverse flow control (without the Thorn) on their own :
"Did she just stop the reverse flow control even without the lighthouse ? that's the skill level of a top-D class regular". (Season 2, chapter 128)
II-The mirotic guardian
II-1-How it works
The mirotic guardian is a half-real thing created using shinsu to bring out part of the real guardian's power. It can use both a tangible and illusory states depending on the situation. For example, when an opening showed for Ran (thanks to Aka and Moontari's support), the guardian physically manifested to stop Ran. However, when Aka and Moontari were attacking him in melee, he used his illusion state to avoid the hits (like passing through their strikes).
The device responsible for maintaining the illusory state is within the door behind it, however this ability has its own flows. If you hit the guardian when he is close enough to the door, he may take some damage. Furtheremore, by destroying the device, the illusory state is lost completly.
The illusory state also has other weaknesses. Daniel for instance implied that Cassano's lef hand can kill even an illusion (Season 2, chapter 131) and Aka noted that by delaying the spears and delivering critical damage to the illusion, you could pass through the guardian (Season 2, chapter 137).
II-2-Passing through the guardian
The guardian is a very strong entity in D-class regulars standards. He's so powerful that Aka Williams, a high level ticketer with tons of experience, said that no regular stands a chance at bypassing him :
"But the guardian is protecting the train. No matter how strong a regular can be, he can't pass through that". Season 2, chapter 132
As a seasoned ticketer who lived for centuries, his statement holds some weight. However, this same Aka quickly changed his mind when he learned that the regulars in question (Yura + Rachel's team) were supported by FUG :
"It probably wouldn't matter since they've control over this place with the help of FUG". (Baam - Season 2, chapter 132)
Still, bypassing the guardian due to some cheat codes allowing a total control over the place isn't the same as going past him with your own abilities. Daniel for instance could shut down the mirotic guardian thanks to a remote that he got with the help of FUG, the same goes for Yura. Not sure if Rachel's team would've such an easy time without this support. Basically, what Aka said isn't really contradicted so far, gaining the support of FUG or a major organization only happens on very rare occasions after all.
However, when Baam got past it thanks to Hwaryun (who showed him the path), Aka changed his mind from "it's impossible to bypass the mirotic guardian" to "it's impossible to bypass it without the help of a guide" :
"Don't get greedy newbie. There's no way we can get through that attack without a guide". (Aka to Ran, Season 2, chapter 136)
But that's also understandable, it's not always that you encounter a guide, let alone a guide who is willing to provide help.
But that's not the end of it. After clashing with the guardian for a little while (him+Moontari+a tired Ran), Aka's thinking gradually shifted again. He started believing that they could get Ran past the guardian with their teamwork (Season 2, chapter 136). Finally, when Beta and S&S (Miseng, Prince and Arkraptor) joined the party, Miseng analyzed the mirotic mecanism and found its weakness. Thanks to that, they literally ended up defeating it, which is a more amazing prowess than just allowing Ran to get past it.
So, if we sum up, Aka's initial thoughts were oughtright contradicted. A well balanced team with several strong individuals managed to beat the mirotic guardian, which means his estimation was wrong. Regardless, we can't say that his statement doesn't make sens at all. If we remove Miseng's observer (which detected the mirotic guardian weakeness), they'd have failed to bypass his half-illusion state. What's difficult about dealing with him isn't just the power of the shinsu arrows but also the complete immunity to attacks (the illusory state).
Furtheremore, usually you won't be willing start a fight against a mighty foe for nothing in return. In the train city arc, it was an exceptional situation where FUG made a move and invested a lot in capturing the hell train, waking Hoaqin up, etc, but it's clear that normally, waiting an additional day for the train to depart is way more rational than going through the bother of gathering several above average to overpowered ticketers just to challenge the mirotic guardian without anything to gain in return. I guess, that's yet another reason for Aka's unaccurate judgement.
SIU also used this fight to highlight the importance of positions in the tower :
"As you saw in this chapter, an Observer’s role is very important. The Tower isn’t a place where you can survive by pure strength. Well, there are some overpowered guys who are on their own level, but then they have to use their position wisely when they fight with each other". Season 2, chapter 141 blogpost.
and further added that the fight could've been much harder : "If they weren’t lucky, it would have been a much harder fight" (Season 2, chapter 141 blogpost).
What he said makes sens. Without Miseng, they wouldn't have found the guardian's weakness and bypassing his half-real state would've been an incredibly difficult task for them.
II-3-Shinsu spears
The mirotic guardian uses shinsu spears to attack. Each holding tremendous power and below is a little summary about the performance of several strong D-class regulars against it in terms of raw power :
-Xia Xia : can't block all the bangs formed from a single separated spear with her lighthouses.
-Moontari : can temporarily freeze a single spear with reverse flow control.
-Aka : can block two spears for a longer time than Moontari, thanks to "Combustion".
-Redan Ran : he managed to survive a direct hit from a single spear. How he did is unknown since the scene was off-paneled, but Dan speculated that he dodged the blast with the dark clouds. In contrast, Daniel said that he "endured" the hit. Seing how Dan wasn't sure (he was only questioning himself), then it'd make more sens for Daniel's statement to hold true but even then, we dont know whether Ran used a lightening spear to at least decrease the damage and if he did, how much power it took away from mirotic's spear for him to be unscathed after the attack.
Besides, seeing how the guardian prepared two spears after Ran's last lightening spear attack, we can guess that the latters DC was at leat between 1 and 2 spears, not to mention that he still had an ace up his sleeve. Indeed, he was seen focusing lightening shinsu arround his two hands. Ultimately, we didn't come to see how this technique (since Daniel interrupted the fight) but since Aka who is theorically stronger than Ran in 1v1 fights could only hold two spears with difficulty, we can guess that it would've been very difficult for Ran to stop two spears even with his hidden asset.
-Daniel : he had the most impressive record shown so far. First, he absorbed two spears with some kind of invisible sphere, a little bit later, he blocked one spear thanks to a lighthouse barrier finally, he even managed to defend himself against 3 spears at the same time (without the help of the lighthouse), albeit with difficulty and while proclaming that he left his guard down.
III-Train city powerhouses
III-1-Workshop battle versions of Baam, Beta and Cassano
Beta < Baam (Thorn) <= Cassano (both devils) (Workshop version of each)
That was Beta's conclusion shorty after the Workshop battle (Season 2, chapter 110), with Baam having more potential than Cassano :
"The reason that Beta said Cassano could be stronger than Viole is because Viole still has room for growth. Cassano has an almost-complete power" (Season 2, chapter 110 blogpost).
Beta also employed the conditional tense. While Baam and Cassano's superiortiy towards him was mostly certain, it wasn't sure whether Cassano was really stronger than Thorn Baam.
Furtheremore, a year later at "Train city", Beta expressed his will to compete with Baam again, which makes sens since he was in an optimal condition unlike their last fight (in the workshop battle) :
"As expected, he's here. If I can only fight him again when I'm in perfect condition" (Season 2, chapter 126)
Unfortunately, the fight didn't happen but it shows that their workshop battle versions were kinda comparable. Beta already fought Viole, had many informations related to him and saw him "partly" activating the Thorn, so he has a pretty good idea about his strength. Therefore, his judgement is accurate.
Arround the same period, Hwaryun noted that Baam was the best cheat code on the 30th floor when Beta and Ran were still there :
"He now has the power to wipe an entier team of E-class regulars all by himself. He's currently the best cheat code of this floor" (Season 2, chapter 112)
Which further confirms Baam's superiority to Beta.
Based on these facts, the most plausible power schema would be something like : Beta < Thorn Baam ~ (Both devils) Cassano with little differences between and Cassano/Baam being much closer to each other than Beta.
III-2-Baam vs Beta, the Workshop fight analysis
Analyzing this fight is interesting since it'd help assessing the power of base Baam as well as how much the Thorn could boost his power.
First thing first, Beta was already weakened when Baam joined the fight. At least, this is what he implied one year later (in the train city arc) and it makes sens. Beta already had many fights in his account (he fought the workshop guards, Rak+Yihwa+Vespa and finally Rak+Yihwa+Laure) in which he used partial ignition a lot, including Phobos which represented his full power back then.
In terms of melee combat, despite being weakened, he held the dominant position against Baam but it was far from being a complete slaughter. Baam could exchange several moves before being repeled.
In terms of ranged attacks, Baam noted that normal bang attacks wouldn't work, implying a gap in terms of raw shinsu capacity. Instead, he used a complex piercing skill to overpower Phobos but even then, he needed Khun's help to deal with the remaining Dynosos leg.
Overall, base Baam without the Thorn seemed to compete with the weakened Beta to a certain extent, but it was clear that the latter was a solid cut stronger.
Once the Thorn started getting unwrapped (partly), Baam managed to place a Flare Wave explosion to the abdomen which weakened Beta even more and followed by effortlessly dissipating Phobos, probably using some kind of wave explosion (giving his palm stance).
That being said, despite experiencing the power of a partly activated Thorn, Beta was only concerned about a potential complete activation of it : "In this condition, it's beyond my ability. No, even if I were at my best, if that thing were to ignite..." (Season 2, chapter 96). Implying that a partly activated Thorn wasn't a threat to him if he was to face Baam at full power.
So, if I've to put it into numbers, obviously refering to the workshop version of each, with Beta as a basis of 100, we'd have something like :
-base Baam : 55
-tired Beta : 80
-tired Beta (after sustaining the flare wave explosion) : 65
-(partly activted Thorn) Baam : 100
-Thorn Baam : 150
Ofc, these numbers are very approximative and may be wrong, but they also make sens since it implies that :
-Beta was considerably stronger than base Baam.
-Thorn Baam was decently stronger than Beta but he didn't stand on a whole another level.
-Thorn Baam is way stronger than base Baam (close to 3 times stronger).
III-3-Daniel Hatchid
Daniel was one of the "incredibly strong" regulars who sealed Hoaqin alongside Boro :
"Apart from me the other four were incredibly strong" - Season 2, chapter 125
Implying that he's at least far stronger than Boro and compared to then, he also became a soul hunter whose power depends on the quality of the souls he absorbs :
"Daniel is kind of a soul hunter. The stronger souls he collects, the stronger powers he can use". (Season 2, chapter 139 blogpost)
Aka who didn't see him since a long time was shocked about his strength : "Daniel, that bastard, how did he end up getting so much power like that ?" (Season 2, chapter 146).
His ability was further displayed when he neutralized 3 of the mirotic guardian's spears (albeit with difficuly) while Aka could only hold 2 momentarily (ie: section II-3). Besides, Angel, a member of Rachel's team who witnesses his performance hyped him a lot on her own, assessing his importance and value for FUG :
"Such fearsome power. Now, I get why FUG values him so much" - Season 2, chapter 131
One of his absurdly broken stats is without a doubt his speed. He was shown moving so fast that Ran (after desabling Redan) couldn't track him with his naked eyes, a shocking feat, even for powerhouses of Beta and Novick's level.
And to top it all, no one in Ran's team (Beta, Novick, Xia Xia and Dan) dared to intercept his way or challenge him when he retreated right under their noses, despite his extremely arrogant baiting :
"You kids have no chance of laying your hands on those tickets before me. I mean zero, zero chance of you kids boarding the hell train" (Season 2, chapter 124).
Further emphasizing his power.
Based on these facts, it's pretty clear that Daniel is a fair bit stronger than Ran/Beta and probably even Aka.
III-4-Daniel, Aka, Ran and Beta's comparison
Aka was explicitly noted to be stronger than Beta or Ran in 1v1 fights :
"Aka may look somewhat underpowered but in a personal 1 vs 1 fight, Aka is stronger than Beta or Ran. At least, in theory" (Season 2, chapter 141 blogpost).
Based on this fact, a power schema is starting to form among the high spheres of the train city arc :
Beta ~ Ran < Aka < Daniel
If I've to give some points, then we'd have something like :
-Beta : 100
-Ran : 100 (forced the mirotic guardian to bring two spears and still had an ace up his sleeve)
-Aka : 120 (noted to be above Ran or Beta in 1v1 fights, and could temporarily hold two spears)
-Daniel : 175 (could absorb two spears quite easily, block three of them completly. He's very fast and can control his massive shinsu as if it was a living being. Aka was shocked about his upgraded power)
Again, these numbers are very approximative.
III-5-Daniel Hatchid vs Baam (without the Thorn)
Several points can be noted about their fight :
-Daniel is notably faster : although Baam could react to his attacks initially, once Daniel increased the pace, he overwhelmed Baam his speed. Indeed, all what the latter could do was blocking his kick. Emphasizing a speed gap, although it was partly due to Daniel's previous attack, which forced Baam to put a guard in front of his face, diminishing his field of vision and allowing Daniel to blindside him for a short time. All in all, Daniel seems a fair bit faster than Baam but still not even remotely close to speedblitzing him.
-Daniel is less skilled in melee fight : after mixing hundreds of stands that he learned in the middle area, Baam outskilled Daniel and had the upper hand in melee combat despite being slower. Still, it was far from being a complete slaughter, Daniel could exchange blows with him for a little while and only sustained minor injuries despite exchanging blows for a little while, implying some kind of proximity at close combat.
-Daniel has a notably higher shinsu capacity : Baam noted that Daniel's shinsu is huge, keeps getting bigger and should attack it before it hits him, indicating a gap in terms of DC. In contrast, Baam's shinsu control was slow and didn't stand a chance on tagging Daniel. Furtheremore with his necromancer skills, the latter could control shinsu as if it was a living being, bending it at will and hitting Baam to the face. The damage wasn't great due to Baam's insane shinsu resistance (just minor bleeding) but thanks to that it was pretty clear that Daniel had the upper hand.
Overall, Daniel summarized the fight quite well :
"Even if you hold a dominant position using your skills, you can't win because this living shinsu will block all of your movements" (Season 2, chapter 139).
With his speed and Necromancer abilities, he is sure to win against Baam but the difference isn't too great either. I'd find it hard to believe if 2 Baams failed to beat Daniel.
III-6-Baam's growth
One year passed between the workshop battle and Train City events. Giving Baam's growth rate :
"Baam has grown quite much indeed. I like him since such steps are very clearly seen". (Season 2, chapter 136 blogpost)
It's very likely that the difference between him in his basic form without the Thorn and Beta should've decreased a lot and frankly speaking, his performance against Daniel speaks for itself. If 2 base Baams can beat 1 Daniel, then it's pretty much obvious that base Baam should be at least extremely close to Beta or Ran (Redan included), since they're weaker than Aka and Aka himself is quite a bit weaker than Daniel.
If we add Baam in the previous power rating (subsection III-3):
-Beta : 100
-Ran : 100
-Aka : 120
-Daniel : 175
He should be somewhere within the [90-120/130] range based on his showings. most likely much closer to 100, Ran and Beta's level, since he was clearly weaker than Beta in the workshop battle.
IV-Baam and the mad dogs
IV-1-The Thorn
The Thorn was always a massive boost for Baam. Daniel, who held a dominant position prior to its activation, sensed the Thorn's tremendous power and favored retreating instead of facing Baam directly. His cold sweet clearly indicates the clear gap separating them.
Furhteremore, even after activating the Thorn, Baam can still poor more of its power if he is cornered. In the train city arc alone, he did twice at least (before going berserk).
The first occurance was when his speed got suddenly amped as noted by Boro and Angel :
-"He's fast, how did he get fast all of a sudden, it doesn't make any sens. Is it the power of that thing that popped up on his back ?". Boro - Season 2,
chapter 142
-"What the hell ? He's damn fast". Angel - Season 2, chapter 142
The second time happened when he was confronted to Angel's metalfishes. Seeing how normal bang control couldn't do much against their number, Baam pulled more of the Thorn's power to control shinsu as if it was alive and to slap all the fishes.
So, his level doesn't seem to be fixed, although he is already strong upon the Thorn activation (way stronger than Daniel), he can become a fair bit stronger even after that. However, as noted by Hwaryn, there're side effects. Baam couldn't use it more than 10 minutes per day, otherwise he'd lose himself and get swallowed by the Thorn (Season 2, chapter 140).
IV-2-Berserk Thorn
The state of Baam when he loses control over the Thorn. The generated pressure alone was so powerful that large shinsu currents were emitted all over the place and The Thorn itself grew to be several times taller than usual.
Thanks to that, Baam managed to blitz Daniel, breaking his legs in a single hit, indicating a fearsome speed and physical might. However, it's also important to note that Daniel was already running away alongside Rachel and was kinda assaulted from a blindspot, not to mention that he underestimated Baam. If we remove the blindside and the surprise effects, it's not sure whether Baam could speedblitz him as he did in one shot with almost no reaction but it's very clear that Daniel couldn't face him head on. Furhteremore, seeing how Daniel is extremely fast on his own (he once moved faster than post-Redan base Ran can see), it's not far fetched to say that this Berserk Baam can speedblitz a fair amount of powerful D-class regulars.
In other hands, using the Thorn beyond the limit has a price, Baam fell unconscious after using it for a little while.
According to Beta, he was overloaded, hence's why he collapsed, however his life wasn't threatened :
-"It's just that he overused the Thorn, so he overloaded. He wouldn't die because of that". (Season 2, chapter 152)
"-It's true that the Thorn is a great item but having it doesn't mean you've perfect power and since he used it over the limit, it's not surprising that he's overloaded". (Season 2, chapter 152)
IV-3-Buelsar Eliot vs Berserk Baam
There were 4 main phases in this fight :
1st phase : Buelsar was shown reacting to and blocking Baam's punch with a kick while also describing him as very fast, indicating that Baam's speed wasn't so easy to handle for him. However, he also noted that his punch was light, implying Buelsar's superiority in terms of physical strength.
2nd phase : Baam's power gradually increased in all areas (probably because he was continuously pooring more of the Thorn's power). The formerly "light" punch became "quite heavy" and he kept getting faster, although not enough to overwhelm Buelsar. The latter could still keep up with him without much trouble.
3rd phase : the blue Thryssa talked to Baam and lent him part of its power. After this, Buelsar started being overwhelmed and could hardly keep up. As such, he was repeled for the first time and had his drill cracked after several exchanges. According to him, he could've died during this last exchange and should attack Baam with killing intent in order to survive.
4th phase : despite fighting with killing intent, Baam still held the dominant position physically speaking and his amazing shinsu resistance allowed him to tank the drill's shinsu blast without a scratch. Based on this, Buelsar assumed that Baam was in an invincible state and there's no way for him to beat him :
"Damn, your shinsu resistance is incredible and your only weakness physical ability is also improving. At that state, there's no way for me to beat you
I guess. You're in an invincible state". (Season 2, chapter 149)
Soon after, Buelsar jumped to the navigator, so their fight was interrupted there and Baam lost consciousness after being pushed by Rachel again.
In summary, Buelsar is a monster, far stronger than any regular not named Baam in the train city arc. I mean if, say Daniel (arguably the 3rd strongest regular in this arc), was to face this same Baam directly, he'd be slaughtered in no time based on his feats.
IV-4-Buelsar Eliot's statements analysis
-"You seem to be much stronger than what I heard last year" (Season 2, chapter 149)
Since the workshop battle, Baam built a notably stronger basic strength compared to the others (ie : section III-6), he pulled more of the Thorn's power than what he could handle and was amped by the blue Thryssa on top of that. So, him being "much stronger" is kinda expected.
More broadly, we've got the following power schema :
(Berserk Thorn + Blue Thryssa) Baam > (Berersek Thorn) Baam > Thorn Baam >> Daniel > Aka > Beta ~ Ran
And the above statement confirms the gaps even further.
-"Of course, the Thorn's power must be most of what you've got" (Season 2, chapter 149)
Same as above, the overuse of the Thorn + the blue Thryssa boost obviously makes Baam several times stronger overall.
-"I guess, there is a reason that Varagarv couldn't finish you after all" (Season 2, chapter 149)
This statement implies that Varagarv was much stronger than Thorn Baam in the workshop battle.
-"That reticent muscular guy who is damn strong. I also have some history with him too" (Season 2, chapter 149)
It seems like Buelsar grealy respects Varagarv for his power. Best case scenario for him is the latter being just a little bit weaker than him, otherwise stronger. Especially if Buelsar was refering to the version of Varagarv prior to gaining Blood Tamara, he knew him way before he got this item after all.
-"Damn, your shinsu resistance is incredible and your only weakness physical ability is also improving. At that state, there's no way for me to beat you
I guess. You're in an invincible state". (Season 2, chapter 149)
-"Perhaps, I've met a true match for myself right here". (Season 2, chapter 149)
While these two statements seem to contradict themselves at first glance, the issue is a bit more complicated. Buelsar is known as the mad dog of struggle, the more he struggles, the stronger he becomes and as shown in the dallar show, when he was really pushed to his boundaries, his eyes became red and the shinsu surrounding the drill was black colored instead of white. Yet, at train city, despite going Berserk with the Thorn and borrowing a bit of the blue Thryssa's power, Baam failed to push him to this extent. This's probably the reason why Buelsar considered (Train City) Baam as a true match of himself and he was also eager for their next fight.
IV-5-The blue Thryssa
It was mentionned in one of the blogposts that Baam almost reached a new level in his fight against Buelsar :
"Baam almost stepped on to a new level, but I guess he fell before he reached it". (Season 2, chapter 151 blogpost)
There is a very high chance that SIU was refering to the blue Thryssa. Shorly after the trainc city events, while aspleep, Baam had an internal dialogue with it in which in part of the power was lent to him. The Blue Thryssa furthere mentionned that he'd become quite useful, emphasizing a new power up.
V-Interesting regulars
V-1-Moontari
V-1-1-Hype
Moontari's first interaction with Boro was "mocking him". Boro in other hands didn't feel threatened even the slightest giving his answer : "You must be a subordinate of Aka Williams, stop pestering my teammates and get lost" (Season 2, chapter 121).
But he also didn't seem to know any more about Moontari, other than him being Aka's underline (obviously). So, we can't say much just based on that alone.
In other hands, Moontari doesn't consider himself special in the hell train : "I'm not special here. You'll find much stronger guys getting on the train at every station" (Season 2, chapter 132), so we can guess that he was a fair bit below high level ticketers. In contrast, he's no pushover among the ticketers. Ran who already got a ticket implied that it should be more interesting to challenge ticketers with lower numbers ("Maybe I need to look for the ticket holders with lower numbers" - Season 2, chapter 116), indicating that he "easily" defeated the former owner of the ticket he held back then, all without Redan, yet Moontari overwhelmed him. So, while not the strongest, it's pretty clear that the latter is far from being a weak ticketer.
V-1-2-Moontari vs Ran fight analysis
Moontari one sidely dominated the fight. At first, he numbed Ran with reverse flow control and stole his ticket. After some off-paneled moments, Ran was sent flying to be crushed on the ground, bleeding a bit from his face as a result, with Moontari mentionning that he used more power than intended (although it's plausible that he only said that as a bait).
Based on these facts, it's pretty clear that Moontari one sidely overwhelmed the fight. However, Ran was far from being at full power, he already fought the mirotic guardian after all and used Redan against him. In fact, he was so weakened that even normal lightening skills were dangerous for him according to Dan ("He shouldn't use the lightening in his current condition" - Season 2, chapter 132).
And Moontari being quite a bit stronger than a weakened normal Ran doesn't mean that he can beat him at full power with Redan and his strongest Maschenny style spears.
Basically, we can't oughtright say who is stronger than who in neutral conditions just based on the little fight they had at train city. However, 100% Ran with Redan had more impressive showings against the mirotic guardian, he forced him to use two spears after all and still had an ace up his sleeve. Moontari in comparison could barely hold a single spear, just momentarily, with reverse flow control.
However, Redan has a time limit and the strognest Maschenny style spears take a toll on Ran's body (like the Espada de la Luz he used in the hand of Arlene arc). Overall, we can say that Ran is comfortably stronger than Moontari without standing on a whole another level.
V-1-2-Base Baam joining the fight
After seeing Ran being crushed, Baam explicited his will to join the fight. Despite this fact, Moontari remained collected, very calm and arrogant at the same time:
"I won't mind fighting you both at the same time". (Season 2, chapter 132)
Furhter proving his power. Obivously, he still didn't knew the extent of Baam's power when he said that. He only saw him using 3 bangs and reverse flow control (in the game against Yura). However, we know that Baam could use at least 6 bangs on top of Hansung deadly skills, the wave explosions in melee, Love's support moves, martial arts mixture that he learned in the middle area, as well as many other skills and aspects (let's not talk about the Thorn). Plus, Ran himself was very weakened from his previous fight with the mirotic guardian and far from his full power.
Overall, Moontari's confidence doesn't translate to his superiority over these two, far from it.
V-2-Yura Ha
V-2-1-Overview
Yura was described as a "strong" D-class regular :
"Both Yura and Daniel will be important in the Hell Train. Both are strong D-rank regulars. So please give them some attention". (Season 2, chapter 123 blogpost)
However, for a Ha family descendent, she's below par in terms of physical might, having talents other than muscle power :
-"Although her specs are good, it isn’t the original Ha style as with Yuri". (Season 2, chapter 128 blogpost).
-"Ha Yura is not really an elite among the Ha family members. She is a weirdo, having skills other than her family’s muscle power". (Season 2, chapter 129 blogpost).
More specifically, in terms of speed, she was only equal to Hwaryun :
-"They're both fast, Yura is a bit slow for a person from the Ha family". (Season 2, chapter 136)
-"She's not that fast for a Ha family member, her speed is similar to mine". (Season 2, chapter 136)
but still faster than Hong Danhwa who struggled a bit to keep up with her : "Indeed, she's from the Ha family. It's hard just to keep up with her" (Season 2, chapter 134).
Yura also owns a special suitcase that she won from a workshop battle. It has the ability to raise her shinsu resistance, copy and teleport.
"You should know that my bag is higher than a C-level item. This's the lighthouse I got from winning at the workshop battle. It has three functions including a function to block the ennemy's shinsu control completly. The other two functions are as good as this power". (Season 2, chapter 130)
Thanks to that she noted that she isn't afraid of high level ticketers : "Well, they don't scare me a bit" (Season 2, chapter 130).
V-2-2-Yura vs Baam analysis
It wasn't a real fight but Baam struggled a bit against her in the crazy ball game. Yura's amped shinsu resistance allowed her to block Fast Skip, something only a top D-class should be capable of. She also never imagined that she'd lose to Baam in the game (Season 2, chapter 130), probably because she knew his strengthes (shinsu conrol which is neutralized by the suitcase) and weaknesses (physicaly ability) already.
SIU further added that Baam would've a hard time against her due to her uncommon traits :
"Also, there are some uncommon traits in her blood too. It might be hard for Baam to fight against her" (Season 2, chapter 120 blogpost).
Which was the case indeed.
V-2-3-Conclusion
As opposed to Yura, Ran and Novick noted that Baam was the obvious winner. Overall, Yura was a deception for someone from the Ha family : "Hmph, what can you expect from a strong girl who does nothing but sing" (Khun Ran - Season 2, chapter 130).
So, purely as a fighter, she was probably quite a bit weaker than someone like Ran (a new ace of the Khun family) but her suitcase is a really useful item. As she said, it can be used defensively to neutralize the attacks of even high level ticketers.
Placing her now would be a bit difficult, maybe with the later chapters feats (for example when she fought AA) but not currently.
V-3-Angel
One of Rachel's team, she's an anima and control special metalfishes which don't require a bowl :
"Angel’s Shinheuh are very hard and strong. Also they are special in that they do not require a ‘fish bowl’.""Angel’s Shinheuh are very hard and strong. Also they are special in that they do not require a ‘fish bowl’" (Season 2, chapter 139 blogpost).
She effortlessy defeated Hwaryun thanks to them.
She also has the hax ability to either fuse them into massive fishes or very small countless pieces depending on the situation. By dispersing them into tiny entities, even a Thorn amped Baam struggled, he couldn't target all of them with his limited number of bangs after all and since he was in a hurry, he had to deal with them as quickly as he could. Therefore, his only way was to target all the fishes at once, to do that he had to bend the bang at will, controlling it as if shinsu was alive and to perform this much, he was forced to poor more of the Thorn's power.
While Angel's ability is very hax, it's far from being invincible and showed its limits several times. For example, when she faced the mirotic guardian alongside the rest of Rachel's teammates, she was shocked when she saw Daniel whistanding 3 spears :
"That guy is freaking though (he blocked that ?), what a monster!" (Season 2, chapter 131).
Implying that powerful shinsu blasts like that can simply bypass the metalfishes and kill her without much trouble.
Offensively speaking, although the fishes could shew Hwaryun's weapon and body, Yihwa could whistand them way better, probably due to her sturdy body (she's a DD of the 10 GFs after all). Furtheremore, she neutralized them with the Yeon flame, albeit with difficulty and after exerting a lot of effort.
Overall, we didn't come to see the extent of her power yet, so rating her with the train arc feats would be kinda lacking in terms of accuracy. So, it's better to wain until the Dallar Show arc in which she had a real 1v1 fight against Yihwa.
V-4-Hoaqin
VI-Power levels overview
This section represents the consolidation of the whole analysis. A total of 8 tiers were noticed so far among the D-class regulars, probably more if average D-class regualrs on lower floors had more developpement.
The "+" symbol implies that the regular in question is among the strongest of the tier he belongs to meanwhile the "-" symbol represents the opposite. The "?" mark in other hands means that the palcement of the said regular is uncertain.
Tier 1 : low to average level regulars on lower floors, there's probably more to them than just a tier but since this category of regulars wasn't developped much, I'd let it go at a single tier.
Kang Hanool, Hana Yu, Felix
Tier 2 : entry/low level ticketers
Arkraptor-, Miseng+, Wangnan ?, Bero Bero ?
Tier 3 : average ticketers
Prince+, Wangnan ?, the lizardman+, Bero Bero ?
Tier 4 : above average ticketers
Boro-, Khun Aguero Agnes+, Moontari+, Hong Danhwa-, Beniamino Cassano (single devil)+, Yeon Yihwa+
Tier 5 : above average to high level ticketers
Yura Ha, Aka Williams+ > Khun Ran+ ~ Beta+, The 25th Baam (base)+, Beniamino Cassano (both devils)+
Tier 6 : high level ticketers
Daniel Hatchid-
Tier 7 :
The mirotic guardian+, Baam (Thorn)-, Baam (Berserk Thorn+Blue Thryssa)+, Buelsar Eliot+
Tier ? : a threat to the existence of all D-class regulars
Hoaqin
Table of Content
I-D-class regulars Overview
I-1-Average D-class regulars on lower floors
I-2-Ticketers
I-3-Sweet and sour and Khun Aguero Agnes
I-4-Boro
I-4-Top D-class regulars
II-The mirotic guardian
II-1-How it works
II-2-Passing through the guardian
II-3-Shinsu spears
III-Train city powerhouses
III-1-Workshop battle versions of Baam, Beta and Cassano
III-2-Baam vs Beta, the Workshop fight analysis
III-3-Daniel Hatchid
III-4-Daniel, Aka, Ran and Beta's comparison
III-5-Daniel Hatchid vs Baam (without the Thorn)
III-6-Baam's growth
IV-Baam and the mad dogs
IV-1-The Thorn
IV-2-Berserk Thorn
IV-3-Buelsar Eliot vs Berserk Baam
IV-4-Buelsar Eliot's statements analysis
IV-5-The blue Thryssa
V-Interesting regulars
V-1-Moontari
V-2-Yura Ha
V-3-Angel
V-4-Hoaqin
VI-Power levels overview
I-D-class regulars Overview
I-1-Average D-class regulars on lower floors
D-class regulars on lower floors are very weak. Ran and Beta defeated many of them at the same time, as such they were deemed as "monsters" from their perspective (Season 2, chapter 116). Daniel oughtright killed 99 with little to no effort (Season 2, chapter 117) meanwhile Baam subdued 5 almost instanteneously just relying on his melee combat skills alone, forcing the remarining ones to run away in fear (Season 2, chapter 121). Based on these feats, we can pretty much consider them cannon fodder material at this point, as noted by Ran : "D-rank regulars on the lower floors are weak". (Season 2, chapter 116).
I-2-Ticketers
Ticketers are powerful among D-class regulars :
"D-rank Regulars who have been holding Tickets are strong. It means they have survival skills of their own". blogpost - Season 2, chapter 130
So, they're definitely different than the the average D-rank folks on lower floors.
However, even among them, we can find many power levels. Generally, the lower the number of your ticker, the stronger you're. For example, the lizardman who attacked Boro killed the former owners of tickets #98 and #71. According to him, the #71 gave him a hard time, implying that he didn't struggle a lot against #98. Therefore, there's a obvious gap between the former #98 and him or the former #71.
The same lizardman claimed that he would target and subdue single digit ticketers : "At this year, I'll make any ticket holder under number 10 kneel before me" (Season 2, chapter 115). Similarly, Ran found it more interesting to target ticketers with lower numbers : "Maybe I need to look for the ticket holders with lower numbers" (Season 2, chapter 115), further proving this fact.
Obviously, we can find extremely weak ticketers like Kang Hanool or Hana Yu from time to time, however them holding a ticket was only due to circumstances, it's rare and shouldn't be regarded as a general rule.
I-3-Sweet and sour and Khun Aguero Agnes
According to Hwaryun, the workshop version of S&S members (Wangnan, Prince, Miseng, Arkraptor) stood no chance at getting tickets by themselves. Improvements had to be made within a year in order to be ready (Season 2, chapter 112). So, their Train City versions can be considered as entry/low level ticketers.
1-3-1-Miseng and Prince
As a result of their training, Miseng mastered her potential power (the special seed she got from Verdi), the ability which once caused her to go berserk, gaining a lot of power (enough to casually fodderize average E-class regulars), but also causing her to lose herself as a side effect. The same goes for Prince, although it was still a bit unstable for both (Season 2, chapter 142).
According to SIU, Miseng was like an improved version of what she showed in the workshop battle :
"Miseng’s skills are, as some may have noticed, an improved version of the Gongbang Tournament" (Season 2, chapter 141 blogpost)
So, we can guess that Prince should've improved in the same fasion giving he got the same power up.
That being said, there's a massive gap between Miseng's and Prince's basic power. Back then in the workshop events, Khun said that Prince was stronger than other regulars in his group (he didn't knew that Miseng was amped by Verdi's seed though). Although he was highly pressured and overwhelmed by Berserk Miseng, he was the only one who could hold the candle against her physically speaking. Indeed, he managed to hold her a bit, leaving enough room for Arkraptor to take away Verdi's flower from her head.
Seeing how Prince was somehow not too far from Berserk Miseng in power, it's not far fetched to say that with the same power up (potential unlocking with a special seed), he'd become much stronger on his own.
1-3-2-Wangnan
Wangnan is a very old regular, old enough to be Karaka's brother and weakness is part of his character. So, it's very unlikely that any notable improvements were made for him in terms of basic power. However, he got handed the antimatter bombs from Ms.Sophia and managed to master them after a year of training. Although they're designated to take away living ignition weapons, they should be quite destructive on their own since Wangnan was assumed to become a ticketer and ticketers are quite strong among the D-class regulars.
1-3-3-Arkraptor
Arkraptor is notably weaker than Prince physically, the latter's score was almost 8 times higher in the punching machine game and Khun portrayed Prince as the strongest of his group which included Arkraptor (he didn't knew about Berserk Miseng though).
However, Arkraptor didn't have access to his umbrella in both cases. The punching machine game was about raw physical power and body strengthening meanwhile the workshop battle preliminaries consisted of royal battles where the contestants were forced to hold the plugs with one hand.
With it, it's not sure whether Prince would've been the stronger one out of the two. I mean, defensively speaking it blocked a shinsu attack from Baam at the beginning of the 2nd season, plus it can shoot beams from range and can be useful in melee combat as well.
1-3-4-Khun
According to Arkraptor, Khun became much stronger than them :
"Your brother got much stronger than us" (Season 2, chapter 142)
Implying a gap between him and S&S members who were alongside Arkraptor (Prince and Miseng). Otherwise, Khun wasn't shown fighting a worthy foe in this arc, his exchanges with Rachel don't help a lot since she's weak, so it's hard to accurately assess his power giving his lack of feats.
Conclusion
As noted by Khun, Team S&S grew quite a bit since the workshop events :
"Out teamwork is getting pretty good. Baam is strong obviously but the others have grown quite strong too". (Season 2, chapter 111)
Their power increases at a fast rate after all :
"Although Prince is a rapid-growth character, the other characters develop so fast that he, unfortunately, doesn't seem to be..." (Season 2, chapter 70)
Since Workshop Prince was still notably below entry ticketer level according to Hwaryun and was the strongest out of the bunch, we can guess that everyone got at least way stronger than this version of his own. Furtheremore, excluding Wangnan whose antimatter bombs power is unkown against a normal foes, the gaps between the rest (Prince, Miseng and Arkraptor) are pretty much explicit.
In the workshop battle, it was pretty clear that Arkraptor < Prince < Berserk Miseng. Now that Miseng almost completly mastered her potential power, we can guess that the massive difference between her and Arkraptor either settled to be the same (more or less) or increased since she got hold of herself while using it.
Similarly, Prince who could keep up, although barely, with Berserk Miseng obtained his own grain from Verdi, unlocking his potential power and he mastered it as well. So, it's safe to assume that he became far stronger than Miseng thanks to that.
Overall, three main levels were noted so far :
-tier 1 : Miseng+, Arkraptor -
-tier 2 : Prince
-tier 3 : Khun Aguero Agnes
Another seemingly low to average level ticketer who had a fair amount of panel time is Bero Bero, but it's difficult to tell to which tier she belongs giving her lack of feats.
I-4-Boro
It's interesting to discuss Boro's feats and portrayal a this point since he's basically like some kind of a link between low/average and high level ticketers and as noted by SIU, he isn't to be underestimated :
"Boro may not look like much, but his battle skills are not to be ignored. He didn’t survive the Train for nothing". blogpost - Season 2, chapter 140
At the same time, we can't really say that he's strong, very often used to hype stronger D-class regulars. For example, he was used to express the might of his 4 former comrades (Sachi, Aka, Daniel and Roen) who once dealt with Hoaqin alongside him ("Apart from me the other four were incredibly strong" - Season 2, chapter 125) or more broadly high level tickers ("The high Rankers on the hell train are beyond any level you could imagine" - Season 2, chapter 115).
He had two 1v1 fights. The first one was against the lizardman, Boro struggled a bit intially in front of his firepower (a shinsu attack through a needle) but he quickly analyzed his needle skill and won without much trouble (Season 2, chapter 115).
The second fight was against Hong Danhwa. The exchanges lasted longer this time since Danhwa had an ignition weapon (Krishna) and several things can be noted :
-Krishna is stronger than ordinary weapons. Boro was repeled a bit when they clashed at first.
-In the latest part of the fight, Krishna's blasts were deemed "deadly" (was it because of ignition ?), Boro was highly pressured because of their immense destructive capacity and was forced to dodge.
Ultimately, Boro analyzed Krishna's patterns thanks to his unique anti-weapon martial art (Fluid) and won the fight thanks to that. However, it took him a while to figure it out (unlike the lizardman).
Although Boro won both fights (low/mid diff against the lizardman and mid/high diff against Danhwa), his oponents weren't very strong. The lizardman for instance was noted to be very common as a fighter in the hell train :
"I may not be one of the strongest on the train but I'm sorry to say guys like you are a dime a dozen here". (Season 2, chapter 115)
Danhwa in other hands was "okey" in Moontari's eyes but nothing special :
"That one using a sword looks okey" - Season 2, chapter 123
Moontari also didn't knew that he was holding was ignition weapon though (it took Boro a little while to tell), which he didn't ignite anyway. So, Danhwa was most likely stronger than Moontari's "okey" level overall, arguably a bit above your average ticketer. Regardless, it's obvious that he was way below high level ticketers like Aka.
Furtheremore, Boro is a very bad matchup for weapon users, which is the case for both his opponents :
"As you saw in this chapter, Boro is very experienced. His specialty is going against armed people, so when his opponents are holding any kind of weapons, it is actually an advantage to him. This is bad news for characters who depend on strong weapons, like Hatsu and Hong. On the other hand, people who rely on their body or Sinsoo, like Ran, are tough for Boro. Of course, you can’t say who is going to win until they fight, but these things can make one better at guessing" (Season 2, chapter 137 blogpost).
Basically, when you're up against him, either he's a bad matchup for you if you depend on a weapon a lot, either it's the exact opposite. Usually, there is no in between, so gauging Boro's power overall is an extremely difficult matter.
Despite building his strength and surviving for several centuries since clearing the hell train for the first time, Boro seemed to be kinda lacking in terms of raw power. It's understandable for Danhwa since he held an ignition weapon but we can't say the same for the lizardman who struggled against a below average ticketer (#71). So, if his ennemy isn't a weapon specialist, he'd be in trouble.
I-4-Top D-class regulars
There're three top D-class regulars are notorious, Sachi Faker was one of them :
"There're three top predators on this train. At the first station, you need to watch out for Sachi Faker, the ticket hunter. He's one of the top 3 D-rank regulars. He has an outstanding physical ability and the special ability to manipulate shinsu. He dominates in one vs many combats". (Seaspn 2, chapter 111)
Regulars of this tier are also assumed to be strong enough to block Baam's reverse flow control (without the Thorn) on their own :
"Did she just stop the reverse flow control even without the lighthouse ? that's the skill level of a top-D class regular". (Season 2, chapter 128)
II-The mirotic guardian
II-1-How it works
The mirotic guardian is a half-real thing created using shinsu to bring out part of the real guardian's power. It can use both a tangible and illusory states depending on the situation. For example, when an opening showed for Ran (thanks to Aka and Moontari's support), the guardian physically manifested to stop Ran. However, when Aka and Moontari were attacking him in melee, he used his illusion state to avoid the hits (like passing through their strikes).
The device responsible for maintaining the illusory state is within the door behind it, however this ability has its own flows. If you hit the guardian when he is close enough to the door, he may take some damage. Furtheremore, by destroying the device, the illusory state is lost completly.
The illusory state also has other weaknesses. Daniel for instance implied that Cassano's lef hand can kill even an illusion (Season 2, chapter 131) and Aka noted that by delaying the spears and delivering critical damage to the illusion, you could pass through the guardian (Season 2, chapter 137).
II-2-Passing through the guardian
The guardian is a very strong entity in D-class regulars standards. He's so powerful that Aka Williams, a high level ticketer with tons of experience, said that no regular stands a chance at bypassing him :
"But the guardian is protecting the train. No matter how strong a regular can be, he can't pass through that". Season 2, chapter 132
As a seasoned ticketer who lived for centuries, his statement holds some weight. However, this same Aka quickly changed his mind when he learned that the regulars in question (Yura + Rachel's team) were supported by FUG :
"It probably wouldn't matter since they've control over this place with the help of FUG". (Baam - Season 2, chapter 132)
Still, bypassing the guardian due to some cheat codes allowing a total control over the place isn't the same as going past him with your own abilities. Daniel for instance could shut down the mirotic guardian thanks to a remote that he got with the help of FUG, the same goes for Yura. Not sure if Rachel's team would've such an easy time without this support. Basically, what Aka said isn't really contradicted so far, gaining the support of FUG or a major organization only happens on very rare occasions after all.
However, when Baam got past it thanks to Hwaryun (who showed him the path), Aka changed his mind from "it's impossible to bypass the mirotic guardian" to "it's impossible to bypass it without the help of a guide" :
"Don't get greedy newbie. There's no way we can get through that attack without a guide". (Aka to Ran, Season 2, chapter 136)
But that's also understandable, it's not always that you encounter a guide, let alone a guide who is willing to provide help.
But that's not the end of it. After clashing with the guardian for a little while (him+Moontari+a tired Ran), Aka's thinking gradually shifted again. He started believing that they could get Ran past the guardian with their teamwork (Season 2, chapter 136). Finally, when Beta and S&S (Miseng, Prince and Arkraptor) joined the party, Miseng analyzed the mirotic mecanism and found its weakness. Thanks to that, they literally ended up defeating it, which is a more amazing prowess than just allowing Ran to get past it.
So, if we sum up, Aka's initial thoughts were oughtright contradicted. A well balanced team with several strong individuals managed to beat the mirotic guardian, which means his estimation was wrong. Regardless, we can't say that his statement doesn't make sens at all. If we remove Miseng's observer (which detected the mirotic guardian weakeness), they'd have failed to bypass his half-illusion state. What's difficult about dealing with him isn't just the power of the shinsu arrows but also the complete immunity to attacks (the illusory state).
Furtheremore, usually you won't be willing start a fight against a mighty foe for nothing in return. In the train city arc, it was an exceptional situation where FUG made a move and invested a lot in capturing the hell train, waking Hoaqin up, etc, but it's clear that normally, waiting an additional day for the train to depart is way more rational than going through the bother of gathering several above average to overpowered ticketers just to challenge the mirotic guardian without anything to gain in return. I guess, that's yet another reason for Aka's unaccurate judgement.
SIU also used this fight to highlight the importance of positions in the tower :
"As you saw in this chapter, an Observer’s role is very important. The Tower isn’t a place where you can survive by pure strength. Well, there are some overpowered guys who are on their own level, but then they have to use their position wisely when they fight with each other". Season 2, chapter 141 blogpost.
and further added that the fight could've been much harder : "If they weren’t lucky, it would have been a much harder fight" (Season 2, chapter 141 blogpost).
What he said makes sens. Without Miseng, they wouldn't have found the guardian's weakness and bypassing his half-real state would've been an incredibly difficult task for them.
II-3-Shinsu spears
The mirotic guardian uses shinsu spears to attack. Each holding tremendous power and below is a little summary about the performance of several strong D-class regulars against it in terms of raw power :
-Xia Xia : can't block all the bangs formed from a single separated spear with her lighthouses.
-Moontari : can temporarily freeze a single spear with reverse flow control.
-Aka : can block two spears for a longer time than Moontari, thanks to "Combustion".
-Redan Ran : he managed to survive a direct hit from a single spear. How he did is unknown since the scene was off-paneled, but Dan speculated that he dodged the blast with the dark clouds. In contrast, Daniel said that he "endured" the hit. Seing how Dan wasn't sure (he was only questioning himself), then it'd make more sens for Daniel's statement to hold true but even then, we dont know whether Ran used a lightening spear to at least decrease the damage and if he did, how much power it took away from mirotic's spear for him to be unscathed after the attack.
Besides, seeing how the guardian prepared two spears after Ran's last lightening spear attack, we can guess that the latters DC was at leat between 1 and 2 spears, not to mention that he still had an ace up his sleeve. Indeed, he was seen focusing lightening shinsu arround his two hands. Ultimately, we didn't come to see how this technique (since Daniel interrupted the fight) but since Aka who is theorically stronger than Ran in 1v1 fights could only hold two spears with difficulty, we can guess that it would've been very difficult for Ran to stop two spears even with his hidden asset.
-Daniel : he had the most impressive record shown so far. First, he absorbed two spears with some kind of invisible sphere, a little bit later, he blocked one spear thanks to a lighthouse barrier finally, he even managed to defend himself against 3 spears at the same time (without the help of the lighthouse), albeit with difficulty and while proclaming that he left his guard down.
III-Train city powerhouses
III-1-Workshop battle versions of Baam, Beta and Cassano
Beta < Baam (Thorn) <= Cassano (both devils) (Workshop version of each)
That was Beta's conclusion shorty after the Workshop battle (Season 2, chapter 110), with Baam having more potential than Cassano :
"The reason that Beta said Cassano could be stronger than Viole is because Viole still has room for growth. Cassano has an almost-complete power" (Season 2, chapter 110 blogpost).
Beta also employed the conditional tense. While Baam and Cassano's superiortiy towards him was mostly certain, it wasn't sure whether Cassano was really stronger than Thorn Baam.
Furtheremore, a year later at "Train city", Beta expressed his will to compete with Baam again, which makes sens since he was in an optimal condition unlike their last fight (in the workshop battle) :
"As expected, he's here. If I can only fight him again when I'm in perfect condition" (Season 2, chapter 126)
Unfortunately, the fight didn't happen but it shows that their workshop battle versions were kinda comparable. Beta already fought Viole, had many informations related to him and saw him "partly" activating the Thorn, so he has a pretty good idea about his strength. Therefore, his judgement is accurate.
Arround the same period, Hwaryun noted that Baam was the best cheat code on the 30th floor when Beta and Ran were still there :
"He now has the power to wipe an entier team of E-class regulars all by himself. He's currently the best cheat code of this floor" (Season 2, chapter 112)
Which further confirms Baam's superiority to Beta.
Based on these facts, the most plausible power schema would be something like : Beta < Thorn Baam ~ (Both devils) Cassano with little differences between and Cassano/Baam being much closer to each other than Beta.
III-2-Baam vs Beta, the Workshop fight analysis
Analyzing this fight is interesting since it'd help assessing the power of base Baam as well as how much the Thorn could boost his power.
First thing first, Beta was already weakened when Baam joined the fight. At least, this is what he implied one year later (in the train city arc) and it makes sens. Beta already had many fights in his account (he fought the workshop guards, Rak+Yihwa+Vespa and finally Rak+Yihwa+Laure) in which he used partial ignition a lot, including Phobos which represented his full power back then.
In terms of melee combat, despite being weakened, he held the dominant position against Baam but it was far from being a complete slaughter. Baam could exchange several moves before being repeled.
In terms of ranged attacks, Baam noted that normal bang attacks wouldn't work, implying a gap in terms of raw shinsu capacity. Instead, he used a complex piercing skill to overpower Phobos but even then, he needed Khun's help to deal with the remaining Dynosos leg.
Overall, base Baam without the Thorn seemed to compete with the weakened Beta to a certain extent, but it was clear that the latter was a solid cut stronger.
Once the Thorn started getting unwrapped (partly), Baam managed to place a Flare Wave explosion to the abdomen which weakened Beta even more and followed by effortlessly dissipating Phobos, probably using some kind of wave explosion (giving his palm stance).
That being said, despite experiencing the power of a partly activated Thorn, Beta was only concerned about a potential complete activation of it : "In this condition, it's beyond my ability. No, even if I were at my best, if that thing were to ignite..." (Season 2, chapter 96). Implying that a partly activated Thorn wasn't a threat to him if he was to face Baam at full power.
So, if I've to put it into numbers, obviously refering to the workshop version of each, with Beta as a basis of 100, we'd have something like :
-base Baam : 55
-tired Beta : 80
-tired Beta (after sustaining the flare wave explosion) : 65
-(partly activted Thorn) Baam : 100
-Thorn Baam : 150
Ofc, these numbers are very approximative and may be wrong, but they also make sens since it implies that :
-Beta was considerably stronger than base Baam.
-Thorn Baam was decently stronger than Beta but he didn't stand on a whole another level.
-Thorn Baam is way stronger than base Baam (close to 3 times stronger).
III-3-Daniel Hatchid
Daniel was one of the "incredibly strong" regulars who sealed Hoaqin alongside Boro :
"Apart from me the other four were incredibly strong" - Season 2, chapter 125
Implying that he's at least far stronger than Boro and compared to then, he also became a soul hunter whose power depends on the quality of the souls he absorbs :
"Daniel is kind of a soul hunter. The stronger souls he collects, the stronger powers he can use". (Season 2, chapter 139 blogpost)
Aka who didn't see him since a long time was shocked about his strength : "Daniel, that bastard, how did he end up getting so much power like that ?" (Season 2, chapter 146).
His ability was further displayed when he neutralized 3 of the mirotic guardian's spears (albeit with difficuly) while Aka could only hold 2 momentarily (ie: section II-3). Besides, Angel, a member of Rachel's team who witnesses his performance hyped him a lot on her own, assessing his importance and value for FUG :
"Such fearsome power. Now, I get why FUG values him so much" - Season 2, chapter 131
One of his absurdly broken stats is without a doubt his speed. He was shown moving so fast that Ran (after desabling Redan) couldn't track him with his naked eyes, a shocking feat, even for powerhouses of Beta and Novick's level.
And to top it all, no one in Ran's team (Beta, Novick, Xia Xia and Dan) dared to intercept his way or challenge him when he retreated right under their noses, despite his extremely arrogant baiting :
"You kids have no chance of laying your hands on those tickets before me. I mean zero, zero chance of you kids boarding the hell train" (Season 2, chapter 124).
Further emphasizing his power.
Based on these facts, it's pretty clear that Daniel is a fair bit stronger than Ran/Beta and probably even Aka.
III-4-Daniel, Aka, Ran and Beta's comparison
Aka was explicitly noted to be stronger than Beta or Ran in 1v1 fights :
"Aka may look somewhat underpowered but in a personal 1 vs 1 fight, Aka is stronger than Beta or Ran. At least, in theory" (Season 2, chapter 141 blogpost).
Based on this fact, a power schema is starting to form among the high spheres of the train city arc :
Beta ~ Ran < Aka < Daniel
If I've to give some points, then we'd have something like :
-Beta : 100
-Ran : 100 (forced the mirotic guardian to bring two spears and still had an ace up his sleeve)
-Aka : 120 (noted to be above Ran or Beta in 1v1 fights, and could temporarily hold two spears)
-Daniel : 175 (could absorb two spears quite easily, block three of them completly. He's very fast and can control his massive shinsu as if it was a living being. Aka was shocked about his upgraded power)
Again, these numbers are very approximative.
III-5-Daniel Hatchid vs Baam (without the Thorn)
Several points can be noted about their fight :
-Daniel is notably faster : although Baam could react to his attacks initially, once Daniel increased the pace, he overwhelmed Baam his speed. Indeed, all what the latter could do was blocking his kick. Emphasizing a speed gap, although it was partly due to Daniel's previous attack, which forced Baam to put a guard in front of his face, diminishing his field of vision and allowing Daniel to blindside him for a short time. All in all, Daniel seems a fair bit faster than Baam but still not even remotely close to speedblitzing him.
-Daniel is less skilled in melee fight : after mixing hundreds of stands that he learned in the middle area, Baam outskilled Daniel and had the upper hand in melee combat despite being slower. Still, it was far from being a complete slaughter, Daniel could exchange blows with him for a little while and only sustained minor injuries despite exchanging blows for a little while, implying some kind of proximity at close combat.
-Daniel has a notably higher shinsu capacity : Baam noted that Daniel's shinsu is huge, keeps getting bigger and should attack it before it hits him, indicating a gap in terms of DC. In contrast, Baam's shinsu control was slow and didn't stand a chance on tagging Daniel. Furtheremore with his necromancer skills, the latter could control shinsu as if it was a living being, bending it at will and hitting Baam to the face. The damage wasn't great due to Baam's insane shinsu resistance (just minor bleeding) but thanks to that it was pretty clear that Daniel had the upper hand.
Overall, Daniel summarized the fight quite well :
"Even if you hold a dominant position using your skills, you can't win because this living shinsu will block all of your movements" (Season 2, chapter 139).
With his speed and Necromancer abilities, he is sure to win against Baam but the difference isn't too great either. I'd find it hard to believe if 2 Baams failed to beat Daniel.
III-6-Baam's growth
One year passed between the workshop battle and Train City events. Giving Baam's growth rate :
"Baam has grown quite much indeed. I like him since such steps are very clearly seen". (Season 2, chapter 136 blogpost)
It's very likely that the difference between him in his basic form without the Thorn and Beta should've decreased a lot and frankly speaking, his performance against Daniel speaks for itself. If 2 base Baams can beat 1 Daniel, then it's pretty much obvious that base Baam should be at least extremely close to Beta or Ran (Redan included), since they're weaker than Aka and Aka himself is quite a bit weaker than Daniel.
If we add Baam in the previous power rating (subsection III-3):
-Beta : 100
-Ran : 100
-Aka : 120
-Daniel : 175
He should be somewhere within the [90-120/130] range based on his showings. most likely much closer to 100, Ran and Beta's level, since he was clearly weaker than Beta in the workshop battle.
IV-Baam and the mad dogs
IV-1-The Thorn
The Thorn was always a massive boost for Baam. Daniel, who held a dominant position prior to its activation, sensed the Thorn's tremendous power and favored retreating instead of facing Baam directly. His cold sweet clearly indicates the clear gap separating them.
Furhteremore, even after activating the Thorn, Baam can still poor more of its power if he is cornered. In the train city arc alone, he did twice at least (before going berserk).
The first occurance was when his speed got suddenly amped as noted by Boro and Angel :
-"He's fast, how did he get fast all of a sudden, it doesn't make any sens. Is it the power of that thing that popped up on his back ?". Boro - Season 2,
chapter 142
-"What the hell ? He's damn fast". Angel - Season 2, chapter 142
The second time happened when he was confronted to Angel's metalfishes. Seeing how normal bang control couldn't do much against their number, Baam pulled more of the Thorn's power to control shinsu as if it was alive and to slap all the fishes.
So, his level doesn't seem to be fixed, although he is already strong upon the Thorn activation (way stronger than Daniel), he can become a fair bit stronger even after that. However, as noted by Hwaryn, there're side effects. Baam couldn't use it more than 10 minutes per day, otherwise he'd lose himself and get swallowed by the Thorn (Season 2, chapter 140).
IV-2-Berserk Thorn
The state of Baam when he loses control over the Thorn. The generated pressure alone was so powerful that large shinsu currents were emitted all over the place and The Thorn itself grew to be several times taller than usual.
Thanks to that, Baam managed to blitz Daniel, breaking his legs in a single hit, indicating a fearsome speed and physical might. However, it's also important to note that Daniel was already running away alongside Rachel and was kinda assaulted from a blindspot, not to mention that he underestimated Baam. If we remove the blindside and the surprise effects, it's not sure whether Baam could speedblitz him as he did in one shot with almost no reaction but it's very clear that Daniel couldn't face him head on. Furhteremore, seeing how Daniel is extremely fast on his own (he once moved faster than post-Redan base Ran can see), it's not far fetched to say that this Berserk Baam can speedblitz a fair amount of powerful D-class regulars.
In other hands, using the Thorn beyond the limit has a price, Baam fell unconscious after using it for a little while.
According to Beta, he was overloaded, hence's why he collapsed, however his life wasn't threatened :
-"It's just that he overused the Thorn, so he overloaded. He wouldn't die because of that". (Season 2, chapter 152)
"-It's true that the Thorn is a great item but having it doesn't mean you've perfect power and since he used it over the limit, it's not surprising that he's overloaded". (Season 2, chapter 152)
IV-3-Buelsar Eliot vs Berserk Baam
There were 4 main phases in this fight :
1st phase : Buelsar was shown reacting to and blocking Baam's punch with a kick while also describing him as very fast, indicating that Baam's speed wasn't so easy to handle for him. However, he also noted that his punch was light, implying Buelsar's superiority in terms of physical strength.
2nd phase : Baam's power gradually increased in all areas (probably because he was continuously pooring more of the Thorn's power). The formerly "light" punch became "quite heavy" and he kept getting faster, although not enough to overwhelm Buelsar. The latter could still keep up with him without much trouble.
3rd phase : the blue Thryssa talked to Baam and lent him part of its power. After this, Buelsar started being overwhelmed and could hardly keep up. As such, he was repeled for the first time and had his drill cracked after several exchanges. According to him, he could've died during this last exchange and should attack Baam with killing intent in order to survive.
4th phase : despite fighting with killing intent, Baam still held the dominant position physically speaking and his amazing shinsu resistance allowed him to tank the drill's shinsu blast without a scratch. Based on this, Buelsar assumed that Baam was in an invincible state and there's no way for him to beat him :
"Damn, your shinsu resistance is incredible and your only weakness physical ability is also improving. At that state, there's no way for me to beat you
I guess. You're in an invincible state". (Season 2, chapter 149)
Soon after, Buelsar jumped to the navigator, so their fight was interrupted there and Baam lost consciousness after being pushed by Rachel again.
In summary, Buelsar is a monster, far stronger than any regular not named Baam in the train city arc. I mean if, say Daniel (arguably the 3rd strongest regular in this arc), was to face this same Baam directly, he'd be slaughtered in no time based on his feats.
IV-4-Buelsar Eliot's statements analysis
-"You seem to be much stronger than what I heard last year" (Season 2, chapter 149)
Since the workshop battle, Baam built a notably stronger basic strength compared to the others (ie : section III-6), he pulled more of the Thorn's power than what he could handle and was amped by the blue Thryssa on top of that. So, him being "much stronger" is kinda expected.
More broadly, we've got the following power schema :
(Berserk Thorn + Blue Thryssa) Baam > (Berersek Thorn) Baam > Thorn Baam >> Daniel > Aka > Beta ~ Ran
And the above statement confirms the gaps even further.
-"Of course, the Thorn's power must be most of what you've got" (Season 2, chapter 149)
Same as above, the overuse of the Thorn + the blue Thryssa boost obviously makes Baam several times stronger overall.
-"I guess, there is a reason that Varagarv couldn't finish you after all" (Season 2, chapter 149)
This statement implies that Varagarv was much stronger than Thorn Baam in the workshop battle.
-"That reticent muscular guy who is damn strong. I also have some history with him too" (Season 2, chapter 149)
It seems like Buelsar grealy respects Varagarv for his power. Best case scenario for him is the latter being just a little bit weaker than him, otherwise stronger. Especially if Buelsar was refering to the version of Varagarv prior to gaining Blood Tamara, he knew him way before he got this item after all.
-"Damn, your shinsu resistance is incredible and your only weakness physical ability is also improving. At that state, there's no way for me to beat you
I guess. You're in an invincible state". (Season 2, chapter 149)
-"Perhaps, I've met a true match for myself right here". (Season 2, chapter 149)
While these two statements seem to contradict themselves at first glance, the issue is a bit more complicated. Buelsar is known as the mad dog of struggle, the more he struggles, the stronger he becomes and as shown in the dallar show, when he was really pushed to his boundaries, his eyes became red and the shinsu surrounding the drill was black colored instead of white. Yet, at train city, despite going Berserk with the Thorn and borrowing a bit of the blue Thryssa's power, Baam failed to push him to this extent. This's probably the reason why Buelsar considered (Train City) Baam as a true match of himself and he was also eager for their next fight.
IV-5-The blue Thryssa
It was mentionned in one of the blogposts that Baam almost reached a new level in his fight against Buelsar :
"Baam almost stepped on to a new level, but I guess he fell before he reached it". (Season 2, chapter 151 blogpost)
There is a very high chance that SIU was refering to the blue Thryssa. Shorly after the trainc city events, while aspleep, Baam had an internal dialogue with it in which in part of the power was lent to him. The Blue Thryssa furthere mentionned that he'd become quite useful, emphasizing a new power up.
V-Interesting regulars
V-1-Moontari
V-1-1-Hype
Moontari's first interaction with Boro was "mocking him". Boro in other hands didn't feel threatened even the slightest giving his answer : "You must be a subordinate of Aka Williams, stop pestering my teammates and get lost" (Season 2, chapter 121).
But he also didn't seem to know any more about Moontari, other than him being Aka's underline (obviously). So, we can't say much just based on that alone.
In other hands, Moontari doesn't consider himself special in the hell train : "I'm not special here. You'll find much stronger guys getting on the train at every station" (Season 2, chapter 132), so we can guess that he was a fair bit below high level ticketers. In contrast, he's no pushover among the ticketers. Ran who already got a ticket implied that it should be more interesting to challenge ticketers with lower numbers ("Maybe I need to look for the ticket holders with lower numbers" - Season 2, chapter 116), indicating that he "easily" defeated the former owner of the ticket he held back then, all without Redan, yet Moontari overwhelmed him. So, while not the strongest, it's pretty clear that the latter is far from being a weak ticketer.
V-1-2-Moontari vs Ran fight analysis
Moontari one sidely dominated the fight. At first, he numbed Ran with reverse flow control and stole his ticket. After some off-paneled moments, Ran was sent flying to be crushed on the ground, bleeding a bit from his face as a result, with Moontari mentionning that he used more power than intended (although it's plausible that he only said that as a bait).
Based on these facts, it's pretty clear that Moontari one sidely overwhelmed the fight. However, Ran was far from being at full power, he already fought the mirotic guardian after all and used Redan against him. In fact, he was so weakened that even normal lightening skills were dangerous for him according to Dan ("He shouldn't use the lightening in his current condition" - Season 2, chapter 132).
And Moontari being quite a bit stronger than a weakened normal Ran doesn't mean that he can beat him at full power with Redan and his strongest Maschenny style spears.
Basically, we can't oughtright say who is stronger than who in neutral conditions just based on the little fight they had at train city. However, 100% Ran with Redan had more impressive showings against the mirotic guardian, he forced him to use two spears after all and still had an ace up his sleeve. Moontari in comparison could barely hold a single spear, just momentarily, with reverse flow control.
However, Redan has a time limit and the strognest Maschenny style spears take a toll on Ran's body (like the Espada de la Luz he used in the hand of Arlene arc). Overall, we can say that Ran is comfortably stronger than Moontari without standing on a whole another level.
V-1-2-Base Baam joining the fight
After seeing Ran being crushed, Baam explicited his will to join the fight. Despite this fact, Moontari remained collected, very calm and arrogant at the same time:
"I won't mind fighting you both at the same time". (Season 2, chapter 132)
Furhter proving his power. Obivously, he still didn't knew the extent of Baam's power when he said that. He only saw him using 3 bangs and reverse flow control (in the game against Yura). However, we know that Baam could use at least 6 bangs on top of Hansung deadly skills, the wave explosions in melee, Love's support moves, martial arts mixture that he learned in the middle area, as well as many other skills and aspects (let's not talk about the Thorn). Plus, Ran himself was very weakened from his previous fight with the mirotic guardian and far from his full power.
Overall, Moontari's confidence doesn't translate to his superiority over these two, far from it.
V-2-Yura Ha
V-2-1-Overview
Yura was described as a "strong" D-class regular :
"Both Yura and Daniel will be important in the Hell Train. Both are strong D-rank regulars. So please give them some attention". (Season 2, chapter 123 blogpost)
However, for a Ha family descendent, she's below par in terms of physical might, having talents other than muscle power :
-"Although her specs are good, it isn’t the original Ha style as with Yuri". (Season 2, chapter 128 blogpost).
-"Ha Yura is not really an elite among the Ha family members. She is a weirdo, having skills other than her family’s muscle power". (Season 2, chapter 129 blogpost).
More specifically, in terms of speed, she was only equal to Hwaryun :
-"They're both fast, Yura is a bit slow for a person from the Ha family". (Season 2, chapter 136)
-"She's not that fast for a Ha family member, her speed is similar to mine". (Season 2, chapter 136)
but still faster than Hong Danhwa who struggled a bit to keep up with her : "Indeed, she's from the Ha family. It's hard just to keep up with her" (Season 2, chapter 134).
Yura also owns a special suitcase that she won from a workshop battle. It has the ability to raise her shinsu resistance, copy and teleport.
"You should know that my bag is higher than a C-level item. This's the lighthouse I got from winning at the workshop battle. It has three functions including a function to block the ennemy's shinsu control completly. The other two functions are as good as this power". (Season 2, chapter 130)
Thanks to that she noted that she isn't afraid of high level ticketers : "Well, they don't scare me a bit" (Season 2, chapter 130).
V-2-2-Yura vs Baam analysis
It wasn't a real fight but Baam struggled a bit against her in the crazy ball game. Yura's amped shinsu resistance allowed her to block Fast Skip, something only a top D-class should be capable of. She also never imagined that she'd lose to Baam in the game (Season 2, chapter 130), probably because she knew his strengthes (shinsu conrol which is neutralized by the suitcase) and weaknesses (physicaly ability) already.
SIU further added that Baam would've a hard time against her due to her uncommon traits :
"Also, there are some uncommon traits in her blood too. It might be hard for Baam to fight against her" (Season 2, chapter 120 blogpost).
Which was the case indeed.
V-2-3-Conclusion
As opposed to Yura, Ran and Novick noted that Baam was the obvious winner. Overall, Yura was a deception for someone from the Ha family : "Hmph, what can you expect from a strong girl who does nothing but sing" (Khun Ran - Season 2, chapter 130).
So, purely as a fighter, she was probably quite a bit weaker than someone like Ran (a new ace of the Khun family) but her suitcase is a really useful item. As she said, it can be used defensively to neutralize the attacks of even high level ticketers.
Placing her now would be a bit difficult, maybe with the later chapters feats (for example when she fought AA) but not currently.
V-3-Angel
One of Rachel's team, she's an anima and control special metalfishes which don't require a bowl :
"Angel’s Shinheuh are very hard and strong. Also they are special in that they do not require a ‘fish bowl’.""Angel’s Shinheuh are very hard and strong. Also they are special in that they do not require a ‘fish bowl’" (Season 2, chapter 139 blogpost).
She effortlessy defeated Hwaryun thanks to them.
She also has the hax ability to either fuse them into massive fishes or very small countless pieces depending on the situation. By dispersing them into tiny entities, even a Thorn amped Baam struggled, he couldn't target all of them with his limited number of bangs after all and since he was in a hurry, he had to deal with them as quickly as he could. Therefore, his only way was to target all the fishes at once, to do that he had to bend the bang at will, controlling it as if shinsu was alive and to perform this much, he was forced to poor more of the Thorn's power.
While Angel's ability is very hax, it's far from being invincible and showed its limits several times. For example, when she faced the mirotic guardian alongside the rest of Rachel's teammates, she was shocked when she saw Daniel whistanding 3 spears :
"That guy is freaking though (he blocked that ?), what a monster!" (Season 2, chapter 131).
Implying that powerful shinsu blasts like that can simply bypass the metalfishes and kill her without much trouble.
Offensively speaking, although the fishes could shew Hwaryun's weapon and body, Yihwa could whistand them way better, probably due to her sturdy body (she's a DD of the 10 GFs after all). Furtheremore, she neutralized them with the Yeon flame, albeit with difficulty and after exerting a lot of effort.
Overall, we didn't come to see the extent of her power yet, so rating her with the train arc feats would be kinda lacking in terms of accuracy. So, it's better to wain until the Dallar Show arc in which she had a real 1v1 fight against Yihwa.
V-4-Hoaqin
VI-Power levels overview
This section represents the consolidation of the whole analysis. A total of 8 tiers were noticed so far among the D-class regulars, probably more if average D-class regualrs on lower floors had more developpement.
The "+" symbol implies that the regular in question is among the strongest of the tier he belongs to meanwhile the "-" symbol represents the opposite. The "?" mark in other hands means that the palcement of the said regular is uncertain.
Tier 1 : low to average level regulars on lower floors, there's probably more to them than just a tier but since this category of regulars wasn't developped much, I'd let it go at a single tier.
Kang Hanool, Hana Yu, Felix
Tier 2 : entry/low level ticketers
Arkraptor-, Miseng+, Wangnan ?, Bero Bero ?
Tier 3 : average ticketers
Prince+, Wangnan ?, the lizardman+, Bero Bero ?
Tier 4 : above average ticketers
Boro-, Khun Aguero Agnes+, Moontari+, Hong Danhwa-, Beniamino Cassano (single devil)+, Yeon Yihwa+
Tier 5 : above average to high level ticketers
Yura Ha, Aka Williams+ > Khun Ran+ ~ Beta+, The 25th Baam (base)+, Beniamino Cassano (both devils)+
Tier 6 : high level ticketers
Daniel Hatchid-
Tier 7 :
The mirotic guardian+, Baam (Thorn)-, Baam (Berserk Thorn+Blue Thryssa)+, Buelsar Eliot+
Tier ? : a threat to the existence of all D-class regulars
Hoaqin
