There’s no shortage of terrifying giants stomping around the world of Attack On Titan, but most of them are a mindless threat. Driven by instinct to consume humans, they have no intelligence, and can usually be easily outwitted. Outside of the standard variety, dubbed “Pure Titans”, there are nine special instances.
The Nine Titans are all directed by the intelligence of the human able to transform into them, at least until a Pure Titan eats them and inherits the power. Each of the Nine Titans is unique, possessing a distinct appearance and set of abilities. Read below to find how they’re ranked and learn which Titan stands above the rest.
9 Cart Titan
In It For The Long Haul
The Cart Titan isn’t the most visually impressive, crawling on all fours and possessing an elongated equine face, but there’s more to this Titan than looks. The Cart Titan has incredible endurance, perfect for carrying heavy loads and missions with a long duration, but otherwise no special abilities.
This is shown when the Cart Titan is equipped with artillery platforms for soldiers to operate. The only Inheritor, the person who can transform into one of the Nine Titans, we see wielding its power is Pieck Finger.
She shows during the final battle that this endurance has combat utility too, since she can eject from her Titan form and transform back into it many more times than the Inheritor of a different Titan would be able to.
8 Jaw Titan
Bite-Sized But Mighty
By far the smallest of the Nine Titans, the Jaw Titan makes up for this with incredible agility and a powerful jaw. Some Inheritors also display sharp claws and other mutations. The last to hold the power, Falco, notably can fly in his Jaw Titan form, but this is an anomaly and not the norm.
The small size might offer greater speed, but it’s also the Jaw Titans’ weakness. If it gets caught out by a larger Titan, it doesn’t have the strength to compete and can easily be overpowered. It does have a great design, but when it comes to power it lags behind the others.
7 Attack Titan
Remember The Future?
It would be easy to assume that the Titan form of protagonist Eren Jaeger would be the best, but the Attack Titan is actually fairly unremarkable. In most ways, it’s the only one of the Nine Titans with nothing special about it, aside from one notable exception. While all Inheritors have a limited ability to view the memories of those who held their Titan power before them, Inheritors of the Attack Titan can see the memories of future wielders.
This is what drives so much of the plot of the series, as we learn the otherwise unfathomable motivations of Inheritors of the Attack Titan have been motivated by knowledge of the future. This is a double-edged sword and vital to the series as a whole, but it isn’t easy to compare it to the more destructive abilities of other Titans.
6 Armored Titan
A Real Heavyweight
The Armored Titan makes a dramatic entrance early in the manga and anime, charging right through the Shiganshina district and destroying the gates of Wall Maria. Covered in thick armor plating and able to strengthen its defenses further with a diamond-hardening ability, the Armored Titan is visually distinct and seemingly indestructible. At least at first.
As the series goes on, the Armored Titan becomes less impressive. Weaknesses are discovered and exploited, turning its Inheritor, Reiner Braun, into something of a punching bag. It’s still more than a match for the likes of the Cart or Jaw Titans, but it’s hard to imagine the Armored being able to overcome any of the others.
5 Female Titan
The Female Of The Species Is Decidedly Deadlier
Putting aside for a second how odd it is that only one titan presents as female when all the others range from male to androgynous, the Female Titan is actually one of the most dangerous. Known for being adaptive and versatile, it can replicate the abilities of others of the Nine after eating only a small part of them.
We see that it also has excellent endurance, shown when Annie Leonhart uses the Female Titan form to pursue the Scout Regiment over huge distances. It can even call Pure Titans to it with a scream, throwing just about any scenario into disarray. Annie is such a skilled combatant that it can be hard to determine how much of the Female Titans’ effectiveness is down to her, but it’s impressive either way.
4 Beast Titan
Fate Worse Than Death
The Beast Titan varies wildly in design from one Inheritor to the next, but the large Bigfoot-inspired appearance is the one we see most. It’s distinct from the other Nine Titans, which is a plus, but it stands out for its abilities more than being particularly hirsute.
While the Female Titan can summon Pure Titans with her scream, the Beast Titan can control them. Not only that, but his spinal fluid can be weaponized to allow him to transform others from regular humans into Pure Titans under his sway. Remember, Pure Titans have no control over themselves, so there’s a case to be made that this is one of the worst fates imaginable in the series.
3 War Hammer Titan
A Living Arsenal
Introduced later in both the manga and anime, the War Hammer Titan is the best equipped for combat. It can produce and manipulate structures made from hardened Titan flesh, forming a range of titanic weapons.
These have been shown to include pikes and war hammers, but also weapons with flexible components like whips and crossbows. Since other Titans are limited to hand-to-hand combat, this is a considerable advantage.
The real ace of the War Hammer Titan is that its operator doesn’t have to be situated at the nape of the neck, unlike every other variety of Titan. So long as a tether connects the human with their Titan, it can be operated remotely, allowing them to remain hidden and safe.
2 Colossal Titan
Sometimes Bigger Really Is Better
The appearance of the Colossal Titan staring over the top of Wall Maria is one of the most iconic in all anime and manga, heralding that the supposed rules the series was establishing in its beginning were already being shown as less than ironclad. The size of the Colossal Titan is enormous, standing at 60 meters tall.
Being a behemoth that big comes with immense strength far beyond that of the other Titans, but does have the drawback of making it considerably slower. The Colossal has other advantages though. Transforming into it can cause a detonation similar in strength to a small nuclear blast, and it can emit scalding hot steam from its body at any point. The Colossal Titan is a devastating force, as well as iconic to the series overall.
1 Founding Titan
Unsurpassable Power
The Founding Titan was the first, and undeniably most powerful. It can turn anyone of the right lineage into a Pure Titan, even making them as large as the Colossal Titan. It also can control Titans, can manipulate the anatomy and memories of Subjects of Ymir, and even holds powers of clairvoyance. It’s in a league of its own, which makes sense since the other Nine Titans originated from the Founding Titan.
Eren Jaeger’s Founding Titan form is awe-inspiringly monstrous, an enormous skeletal creature traversing the land with its rib cage functioning like the legs of a centipede. It’s a unique visual, even if it is very different from the form we see other Founding Titans take.
There’s no way the Founding Titan could be considered anything less than the greatest of the Nine Titans thanks to its power, narrative importance, and outstanding design. It started it all, so it’s only right that it gets the acknowledgment it deserves.