Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Power Rankings

The world of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood isn’t just about alchemy — it’s about sacrifice, ambition, and the terrifying cost of power taken too far. Some fighters rely on skill and discipline but fall apart against overwhelming force. Others appear limited at first glance, only to reveal terrifying versatility once the battlefield shifts in their favor. And then there are the monsters — beings whose regeneration, Philosopher’s Stone reserves, or mastery of alchemy push them so far beyond human limits that ordinary rules simply stop applying.

This ranking covers the major characters strictly based on what is shown in the anime. No manga-only feats. No assumptions about off-screen scaling. No inflated statements. Just on-screen alchemical ability, combat intelligence, durability, destructive capacity, and how dangerous each character truly is when the fight becomes life or death.

28. Maes Hughes

Genius investigator, clutch tactician, and the heart of the series, but strictly a non-combatant. In a one-on-one scenario, he’s outgunned by literally everyone above him.

27. Riza Hawkeye

Elite markswoman whose calm under fire keeps monsters honest. She can drop humans and chimeras with surgical precision, but without alchemy or superhuman durability she caps out at “top human.”

26. Barry the Chopper

A murderer turned animated armor that ignores pain and fear. He can terrify civilians and low-tier soldiers, but he’s outclassed by skilled alchemists and homunculi who carve armor like tin.

25. Slicer

Two souls, one armor: faster and cleaner than Barry with dual-blade pressure. Still, once stronger alchemists adapt to the gimmick, Slicer’s ceiling shows quickly.

24. Captain Buccaneer

Briggs’ automail tank. He tanks punishment, hits like a truck, and proves it against Sloth and most impressively staggers Wrath with a sacrificial stab that turns the tide. Purely human, but elite among them.

23. The Freezing Alchemist (Isaac McDougal)

Water and ice transmutation lets him reshape battlefields and hard-counter crowds. He forces both Mustang and Armstrong to respect him, then gets erased by Bradley the instant a top predator takes the field.

22. Fu

Old, fast, and terrifyingly precise. His ninja tools and stealth let him tag even Wrath for a moment, no small feat, though his body can’t cash checks against sustained homunculus speed.

21. Lan Fan

Relentless Xingese assassin who literally severs her own arm to escape Wrath. With automail she gets a real power bump: explosive mobility, smarter trades, and enough speed to matter against mid-tiers.

20. Sig Curtis

A walking wall who ragdolls chimeras and pairs beautifully with Izumi. No alchemy, just freakish strength, timing, and zero hesitation. Against homunculi he’s support/DPS, but a scary one.

19. Alex Louis Armstrong

The Strong Arm Alchemist mixes bodybuilder power with instant stone spikes and shields. Durable, mobile, and proven against Sloth, he’s a battlefield controller who scales well with support.

18. Olivier Mira Armstrong

Ferocious commander whose reads and positioning win sieges. She’s not an offensive alchemist like Alex, but her swordsmanship, nerve, and tactics let her hang in homunculus battles and make the crucial calls.

17. Solf J. Kimblee

Explosive alchemy plus ice-cold psychology. With a Philosopher’s Stone he can carpet an area, booby-trap contact, and snipe structures mid-fight; without it he’s still a surgical glass-cannon.

16. Mei Chang

Alkahestry gives her long-range mapping, healing, and surgical chi strikes. Acrobatics and needles let her bully bigger targets and disrupt homunculi, though she lacks the raw damage of the flame and stone monsters above.

15. Greed

Ultimate Shield lets him no-sell most physical hits and trade aggressively. As a standalone homunculus he’s a tanky bruiser, deadly in brawls but limited in AoE and hax compared to the top tiers.

14. Sloth

A dump truck with legs: overwhelming strength and surprising sprint speed. His issues, slow acceleration in close quarters and simple move set, get exploited by coordinated teams like the Armstrongs.

13. Gluttony

Brute force, rapid regen, and the terrifying False Gate that can swallow everything in front of him. It’s inconsistent to deploy and easy to bait, but when it’s on, it’s instant-delete territory.

12. Izumi Curtis

Circleless alchemy and savage CQC. Even while ill, she one-shots chimeras and wrestles homunculi around with technique and tempo. If she were at full health she’d flirt with the top 10.

11. Edward Elric

Transmute-on-touch creativity, traps on the fly, iron stamina, and top-tier adaptation. He regularly punches up, out-thinks stronger foes, and in the finale wins the most important 1v1 in the show.

10. Alphonse Elric

Comparable alchemy to Ed with superior durability thanks to the armor body. When he briefly wields a Philosopher’s Stone, his defensive and restorative ceiling spikes, letting him anchor fights against Pride and Father’s forces.

9. Scar

Destruction first, reconstruction later, giving him both a shredder’s touch and a healer’s counterplay. He defeats Wrath in a grueling duel, but generally lacks the battlefield control of the sorcerer-level picks above.

8. Lust

Regeneration plus Ultimate Spear turns every angle into a kill angle. She’s fast enough to blitz elites and durable enough to shrug off most small arms; only sustained, high-heat spam (Mustang) hard-counters her.

7. Ling Yao (Greedling)

Ling’s predatory instincts plus Greed’s Ultimate Shield create a complete package. He trades with Wrath, shrugs off lethal pokes, and turns defense into offense with ruthless efficiency.

6. Envy

Shapeshifting, infiltration, and a kaiju-class true form with monstrous durability. The downside: big hitbox, heat vulnerability, and a tendency to get out-maneuvered by focused counters like Mustang.

5. Roy Mustang

Snap. Burn. Repeat. He hard-checks regenerative homunculi (Lust, Envy) and pressures Pride with precision flame spam. Weather and fuel (gloves/circles) gate him, but indoors and prepped he’s an S-tier easily.

4. Wrath (King Bradley)

Human physiology, inhuman execution. His speed, lines, and read-and-react let him blitz squads, carve grenades mid-air, and duel monsters. He falls to Scar, but only after an all-timer endurance fight.

3. Pride

Oldest homunculus with shadow constructs that slice, grapple, and overwhelm at range. Light is the hard counter, but in neutral he’s a one-man army with lethal reach and layered win conditions.

2. Van Hohenheim

A walking Philosopher’s Stone stuffed with thousands of souls, battlefield-wide transmutation, and near-limitless stalling and patching power. His barriers, counters, and stamina make him the premier human-class anchor.

1. Father

Pre-God he’s already a multi-Stone monster; post-absorption he’s basically a pocket deity, nullifying alchemy, spawning suns, and rewriting the rules mid-fight. It takes the entire cast, precise timing, and cosmic leverage to bring him down.