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{{trope}}
▲<small>{{quote box|Two dozen referees were needed to get the fine distinction between Undertaker and Triple H's [[Power Level|Power Levels]] ''just'' right.}}</small>
The tendency of Anime, [[Video Games]], Card games, and even some fighting TV series to classify the [[Super Weight|fighting skill]], [[Ki Attacks|Ki]], [[Mana|magical ability]], or whatever phlebotinum passes for the local [[Serious Business]] in an overly simplistic
Much like [[Character Tiers]], this discussion centers on which character(s) are the most powerful. Unlike [[Character Tiers]] this happens [[All There in the Manual|inside the show/game]] and does not get deeply involved in the factors affecting the debate. Basically, a character is reduced to a [[Power Level]] and his victory over another is treated as a numerical [[Probability Tropes|probability]]. Things like [[Heroic Resolve]], [[Crazy Prepared]] or [[Elemental Rock
This can get particularly counter-intuitive if a [[Joke Character]] is graded higher than the [[Jack of All Stats]] simply because he can go [[Cherry Tapping]] his way to victory. In a universe rife with [[Martial Arts and Crafts]] or full of [[Badass Normal
It should also be noted that these power rankings will always either be the sole form of rank and/or have to do solely with one's ability to fight. One is never given a high rank based on noncombat powers or leadership potential. In fact, expect to run into [[Authority Equals Asskicking]].
Inevitably, any series with this kind of grading system will be subject to [[Rank Inflation]], sometimes to ridiculous levels just to keep up with things like the [[Sorting Algorithm of Evil]]. In the end the heroes will always be as [[Strong
Compare [[Awesomeness Meter]].
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* Colors
* Standard Numbers
{{examples
== Anime & Manga ==
* The [[Guardian Entity|Stands]] from ''[[
* ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'' has the Mage Ranks used by the [[Heroes
** Mage Ranks simply denote the amount of magical power an individual is able to reliably control, not their combat ability. The test only proves that an individual mage is operating at the required level with a reasonable level of consistency. Teana, shortly after passing her B rank test, was able to use a spell that would normally be classed AA, but was utterly exhausted by it. Hayate is a particular case in point, because she's capable of regularly throwing around magical blasts that compare to ''tactical nuclear warheads''. However, as mentioned her close-combat capabilities are absolutely pathetic... because pretty much the ''only'' available setting on her magical blast is "tactical nuclear warhead", and she's a relatively slow caster compared to the combat mages. Hayate's one of the most powerful people in the setting, but is also a very specialized artillery unit that doesn't have much day-to-day utility.
* ''[[Claymore]]'' has a simple numerical ranking system of 1 through 47. Although the distinction is pretty blurry for the below tens, the top five can pretty much curb stomp everyone.
* All jutsu and missions in ''[[Naruto]]'' are ranked. Usually this scale goes D, C, B, A, S. Jutsu rankings indicate ease of learning and personal risk to the user, and a few Jutsu like rope escape and transformation are E-ranked. In the case of missions, however, it's a bit more realistic, as there is an organization giving out the rankings for a plausible purpose (assignment of missions to appropriately ranked ninja and charging of appropriate fees), and the rankings are shown to be mistaken on occasion (Tazuna lies about how dangerous protecting him is because the Land of Waves can't afford an A-rank mission).
** The ranking of village-affiliated ninja themselves, however, is limited to a four tier system of chain-of-command: Genin ("low ninja"), Chuunin ("middle ninja"), Jounin ("high ninja"), and Tokubetsu Jounin ("specialist high ninja"). This is
** There's also the Kage rank, which theoretically is supposed to go to the absolute no questions strongest ninja in the village. In practice, however, Konoha at least is decided by a majority vote of the village's Jonin and then waiting for approval from the Daimyo of the Land of Fire. If you're severely lacking in the ability to mix it up with people who can legitimately claim to be Kage tier, but are incredibly famous, then you can get the position no questions asked.
** During the Chuunin Exam arc, Kabuto has data cards (based on his own research, or so he claims) that numerically rank the various examinees on traits like physical strength, agility, and skill in various ninja arts. The accuracy and usefulness of these ratings never gets closely examined.
** Ninja are also S-D ranked in each village's "bingo book", presumably based on how difficult a mission it would be to take them out. This is largely only referenced with respect to "S-Rank" missing ninja, such as the members of Akatsuki.
* ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'' uses this starting from the middle of the Dark Tournament arc on; Toguro is a high-level B-class, while the heroes are low to mid level Bs, IIRC. Later on they're all high As, but a veritable swarm of ''S'' class show up, the first of which is Sensui, the [[
* ''[[Fate/stay
** And individual Noble Phantasms also receive their own ranking based, roughly, on how much destruction they are capable of causing with a single use; anti-personnel, anti-army, anti-castle, or anti-''world''. That last one has annoyed people for a long time (can it destroy the world? can it destroy all the ''people'' in the world? Is it just called that because it breaks the 'rules' of the world's reality? Who knows, the series never tells us!).
* ''[[
** [[Word of God]] says that the scouters and power levels were phased out precisely for the reason that assigning mathematical odds to fights started feeling silly.
* ''[[One Piece]]'' uses a bounty system as a rough power ranking: The navy issues a bounty on a pirate relative to the threat the navy believes he represents. Inaccurate as it may be, it works because the characters believe in it; enough that pirates with high bounties can make lesser pirates pee their pants with their mere presence, and you get lines like "How could pirate X beat pirate Y? X Has a mere 50 million bounty while Y has 150 million! It can't be!" Of course, it's a direct tribute to Dragonball's power ratings.
** Your bounty is directly related to how much the World Government wants you off the seas. This doesn't necessarily have to relate to strength but it generally does, with notable exceptions like Nico Robin, who received a 79 million Berry bounty at the age of 8 for being able to read Poneglyphs, rather than being a strong fighter. This fact is directly exploited by Blackbeard, who, despite being one of the strongest men in the world, had a bounty of 0, being [[Genre Savvy]] enough to stay off the radar until he was ready to make his move.
*** In reference to the 'threat level = bounty' idea, among groups with relatively similar power levels the highest bounties tend to go to the most [[Ax Crazy]]. Examples include Donquixote Doflamingo of the Seven Warlords of the Sea and Eustass Kid of the Supernovas. This makes sense since, all other things being equal, someone who goes around slaughtering people [[For the Evulz]] would be considered more of a threat than someone who raids the occaisional merchant ship.
*** It's been stated that the most wanted man in the world is the Revolutionary Dragon. This probably has little to [[Power Levels]] and more to do with the fact that he's the head of an organization that wants to violently overthrow the World Government. Basically he's the most wanted by the World Government in the same way that Osama Bin Ladin was the most wanted by the U.S. Government.
** During the Enies Lobby arc, one character had a (apparently annoying) habit of ranking the other members of his assassin group based on how hard they hit, measured in Dourikis. The average marine has 10, most of the CP9 members have 600-800, Kaku and Jyabura have 2,200 and 2,180, respectively (and Jyabura is upset over the very small difference), and [[The Dragon|Rob Lucci]] has ''4000''. Interestingly, the actual leader had a score of ''nine'', a subversion of the usual [[Authority Equals Asskicking]].
* Seen in ''[[
** A more random version is the numbers within the Level 5's. They aren't combat strength, although, with a few exceptions, it works as such. They seem to be an indication of how important they are to research.
** It should be noted that even though 3-7 among the level 5's appear to be random with Misaka(3) and Mugino(4) about even and Gunha(7)
* ''[[Kiddy Grade]]'' has C-class, S-class, and G-class ES members, where their class refers...well, approximately to the awesomeness and/or power of their ability.
* Deliberately invoked in ''[[Kenichi:
* In the Manga version of ''[[Sailor Moon]] S'', the Witches 5 have levels assigned to them. Eudial is level 78, Mimete is level 40, Tellu is level 404, and Viluy and Cyprine are level 999.
* [[Mahou Sensei Negima|Negima]], in the manga version, does this with Jack Rakan's power chart. Of course, he states that other factors determine the chances of victory, but his basis for the data is questionable at best. One character even mentions who'd ever fight an Aegis Warship, and Negi, who's power level was 500 at the time imagined himself losing to 1001 cats, each with .5 worth of power. On the side of that were letter rankings, with Negi just slightly above A, while the 'Mysterious Boy' had a power level of around 3000 and a ranking of AAA.
* In [[Fairy Tail]], we actually rarely hear about rankings other than the S ranked members. However, it's somewhat subverted in that while the likes of Gray and Natsu are presumably A rank, they've both taken down S ranked mages without much difficulty and Erza admits to Gerard that an enraged Natsu is probably on par with her and Makarov agrees during the Laxus arc. They're wrong, of course, but Erza is just incomparably badass.
* ''[[Bleach]]'' has the Espada ranked <s>one to ten</s> <s>zero to nine</s> [[Canon
** It should be noted that Aizen assigned the ranks himself for the Espada featured in the present time of the storyline. Given his long and famous history of [[Magnificent Bastard|manipulating everyone]] [[Xanatos Roulette|100 years in advance]], it's certainly possible the numbers he chose had nothing to do with their real strength at all, and ultimately were only a method of controlling a group of incredibly strong entities with wildly varying (and often clashing) personalities.
*** [[Word of God]] has come out and said that the numbers were based on raw reiatsu levels. Which explains how [[Brilliant but Lazy|Starrk]] can outrank [[A God Am I|Barragan]]. {{spoiler|And how Yammy can outrank Starrk.}}
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==
* ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'s'' aren't really [[Power Levels]], unless you think Mr. Immortal, an Omega Rank mutant, is one of the strongest mutants out there (Mr. Immortal's power is to return from the dead... and that's it.) Hell, every [[Death Is Cheap|X-Men character has that power!]]
** In the movie series, mutants are apparently graded on a five-tier system based on the potential abilities their mutations give them. Magneto is a Class 4 mutant, while Jean Grey is a Class 5.
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** Although, after he {{spoiler|defeated a sorcerer}} he's technically one himself now. He's also a professor, but that's totally within the trope of random titling even in the real world.
** The level system is even more useless when you consider that in the pre Archchancellor Ridcully days, you generally attained such positions by killing all the wizards between you and the position you were after.
* Diana creates a system for this in ''[[Gone (novel)]]''. The ranks typically go from 0 to 4, with 0 being no superpowers, 1 being weak, and 2 and 3 getting progressively stronger. Only [[The Hero]] and the [[Big Bad]] are 4's. On the other hand, Little Pete's [[Disability Superpower]] earns him about a ''10''. Diana's own power is [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?|the ability to read others' levels.]]
== Tabletop Games ==
* The gameline of ''[[Hero Clix]]'' has a point value (or [[Power Level]]) for every [[Comic Book]] character they've turned into a figure. These values are added for all the heroes and/or villains on your team (to make 100, 200, 300 or more point teams); however these are secondary to the traits and powers the "clix" or figures have. Things like [[Spider-Man]]'s ingenuity are treated as Outwit, an power canceling power. Probability controlling heroes get Probability Control, letting you reroll bad dice. Players themselves can value a "weak" 20-30 point figure over a 100 point one because it's more efficient or has powers in a better order. All in all, it's a fairly robust system.
* Like most miniature games, ''[[Warhammer
** 40k background also features a system to classify the power level of psykers (people with psychic powers), known as "[http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/The_Assignment the Assignment]". The ranks are based on greek letters. The exact details are not known but, to sum it up, Rho and Pi encompass average non-psykers (e.g. common human being); Omicron to Kappa denote unconscious ''and'' uncontrollable psyker talent that is of such a minor level that it only manifests under high stress, and gets frequently [[Hand Wave|handwaved]] by the common citizen as "good luck" or "fluke"; Iota and above are the "true" psykers, including the battlefield-worthy "Sanctioned Psykers"; Delta and Gamma are [[Million
** Also in-universe, the [[State Sec|Inquisition]] uses a two-part rating scale to classify threats to humanity. The first part describes the nature of the threat: Hereticus (human, mutant, or abhuman), Xenos (alien), Malleus (daemonic), and Obscuro (true nature unknown). The second part gives the danger of the threat, and ranges from Minima (poses little threat to a competent fighter) to Terminus (potentially [[Earthshattering Kaboom|world-ending]] or [[Apocalypse How|worse]]).
* This can happen when players in point buy systems that give non-combat abilities like wealth or beauty a point value use those same values to determine how powerful a character is.
* In almost much every RPG with point-based character creation, there are ways to make a more effective character with fewer points by making use of more efficient builds. So the point-totals of characters doesn't always work as an overall measuring stick of power. As an extreme (and deliberate) example, in [[Tri Stat]] it's possible to use 140+ points (theoretically a superhero-level budget) to build a character who is ''inferior'' to a 24-point completely-unskilled average human.
* The first edition of ''[[Dungeons
* Due to a combination of this and [[Gameplay and Story Segregation]] some of the cards in Magic: the Gathering for the legendary creatures from the varies novels tend to be all over the place. The standard example is that Gerrard Capashin, the hero of several of the novels, has a card that would lose in a straight up fight to most if not all of the foes he defeated over the course of the storyline. Moreover, due to balance reasons and the fact that 1/1 is the smallest a creature can get you can end up with bizarre situations like a dragonfly successfully killing an elite soldier.
* Character Point scores in ''[[GURPS]]'' are sort of a power ranking but since they measure absolutely everything about the character using them as rankings turns out completely random. The classic example is the 1000CP accountant who can mentally collate spreadsheets with all the money going through multinational corporation but will lose a fight to a 50CP thug.
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*** At the conclusion of X5, X has lost the hesitation that held him back, becoming as confident as Zero (hence Special A). X7 made him go in the complete opposite direction. [[Unexplained Recovery|He gets better]] in X8 and Command Mission.
* ''[[Guilty Gear]]'' uses a letter grade for the threat levels of characters, with Dizzy being [[Rank Inflation|ranked S]] due to her being a Command Gear that could cause a war. Unusually, the [[The Omniscient Council of Vagueness|organization assigning the rankings]] seems to place extra emphasis, not simply on combat ability, but on political clout and how easily a given character is to manipulate, neither of which has any real practical relevance in a fighting game. Several highly-trained professional assassins and ninjas are given fairly low ranks due to the fact that their various quests for vengeance make their movements easy to predict and control, and when you get right down to it, "killing people" is pretty much their only skill set.
* ''[[
* In ''[[
** Chao stats can go as high as S, which is one rank above A.
** Many recent Sonic games (most of the main series since SA2) use this letter ranking system, and many that don't use some other type of letter ranking. For example, [[
* In the ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' games, a character's ability to use a type of weapon (sword, lance, axe, bow) was ranked by S, A, B, C, D, and E, with S as the highest and E as the lowest.
** A recent game added SS.
*** Or [[Unfortunate Implications|S+
* Many rhythm games score you on a letter scale after a stage. ''[[Dance Dance Revolution]]'', granddaddy of them all, goes from F to AAA (and AAAA on unofficial simulators), while ''[[In
** Also some mods of Unofficial simulators go up to AAAAA
* The ''[[Resident Evil]]'' series does this a lot, as well, with rankings from F to S depending on how well you did in the game (overal time, health items used, etc). ''Resident Evil 5'' took this to an extreme by ranking you for each individual chapter, as well as the game overall.
* Weapons in ''[[
** The levels were actually supposed to be the number of achievements for that class you needed in order to unlock the item. There was a bug that caused the levels of the random drop items to be randomized, so players hoarded the high-level items for bragging rights.
* [[Fatal Fury|Garou: Mark of the Wolves]] gives you a rating after each round you win. They go C, B, A, AA, S, SS, SSS, and MIRACLE. You have to destroy your opponent in roughly five seconds to even have a shot at the higher two rankings.
* ''[[Viewtiful Joe]]'' has five rankings for quality - V(iewtiful), A, B, C and D. It's possible to get a "Rainbow V", if the player gets all Viewtifuls for a level, and getting Rainbow Vs on every stage unlocks unlimited VFX.
* ''Picross DS'' awards rankings A through E for Daily Picross based on time, and grants an S ranking overall to players who have As on all the types of Daily Picross.
* ''[[
* In ''[[Wild
* In ''[[Elite Beat Agents]]'', your score (due to the bonuses it gives) is based primarily on how many hits you get in a row. Your rank is based off how many 300s, 100s, 50, and Xs you get. They are independent of one another, so you can get a higher rank but with a lower score.
* ''[[Mass Effect]]'' averts this: letters denote military operational specialty, and numbers denote proficiency and commendations in that MOS. The numbers go from 1 to 7. The only letter that has been explained is N, which is special operations (it's assumed that whatever Joker's letter is, his number is definitely 7).
* ''[[Urban Rivals]]'' assigns cards a minimum and maximum star rating based on it's current abilities and stats, to limit the total power of a hand in tournament matches and better equalize for skill of play. Often the ranks are based on cards with similar function, sometimes they're evaluated based on play-testing before release. A few have been re-ranked due to unexpected gameplay impact, but cards that turn out to be so off-the-scale that they're [[Game Breaker|broken]] are simply banned from tournament play.
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== Western Animation ==
* One episode of ''The Extreme Ghostbusters'' features the Tentabrog, considered a class 13, a class never seen before. However, all it took to defeat the ghost was to smash the orb it was bound to.
== Real Life ==
* The US military has something similar to this. Some jobs require the ability to lift various amounts of weight, and they assign these to letters. For example, being able to lift 60
** The [[Israelis With Infrared Missiles|IDF]] assigns two primary values to each new recruit: a medical rating called a "Profile", and a catch-all behavioral rating called a "Quality Group" value. These determine the recruit's potential, which corps he/she will serve in, which jobs will be available to him/her, etcetera. These values are meticulously calculated from all the information the military has on the recruit (including interviews and examinations done before recruitment), but the result is often a completely arbitrary classification of a person based on very incomplete data. Then again, with dozens of thousands of recruits to process each year, there really are no alternatives.
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