Updated Street Fighter canon power tier list

Media Outlet Fan Fiction Library
1

**Here is the Street Fighter canon power tier list with the new characters in SF5 added, and to reflect what is known of the SF5 cinematic story mode. The characters within each tier from tiers 3 to 9 are in no particular order of strength. However, the characters in tier 1 are listed in order, from strongest to weakest. The characters in tier 2 are also listed in order, from strongest to weakest.

Tier 1

  1. Oro
  2. Dhalsim
  3. Gouken
  4. Gen
  5. Akuma

Tier 2

  1. Ryu
  2. Gill
  3. Urien
  4. SF4/5 Bison
  5. SFA2/3 Bison
  6. SF2 Bison
  7. Rose
  8. Necalli
  9. Sagat
  10. Ken
  11. Q

Tier 3

  1. Nash
  2. Guy

Tier 4

  1. Guile
  2. Chun-Li
  3. Hugo
  4. Vega
  5. Twelve
  6. Maki
  7. FANG
  8. C. Viper
  9. Sodom
  10. Rolento
  11. Cody
  12. Sakura
  13. Juri
  14. Karin
  15. Alex
  16. Rashid
  17. Zangief
  18. Seth

Tier 5

  1. Adon
  2. Abel
  3. Balrog
  4. Cammy
  5. T. Hawk
  6. Eagle
  7. Dudley
  8. Mika

Tier 6

  1. The dolls
  2. Necro
  3. Lee
  4. Mike
  5. Geki
  6. Retsu
  7. Joe
  8. Hakan
  9. Laura
  10. Birdie

Tier 7

  1. Blanka
  2. Fei-Long
  3. E. Honda
  4. El Fuerte
  5. Dee Jay
  6. Ibuki
  7. Makoto
  8. Yun
  9. Yang

Tier 8

  1. Elena
  2. Remy
  3. Poison

Tier 9

  1. Dan
    2.Rufus

Tier 10

  1. Sean**
2

Bullshit.

3

How did you end up with this particular order? Why are Akuma and SF4/5 Bison placed higher than Oro?

4

**In the SF sidestory “Musings on a Still Night”, Oro tells Dhalsim that his (Oro’s) days of acting like he can save the world are long behind him, so that means Oro can’t defeat SF4/5 Bison. And Capcom’s statement was that Akuma and Oro fought to a stalemate. Their fight in SF3:3S has Oro fighting non-Shin Akuma. During this fight, the player controlling Oro can make Oro use two arms during a Super. Nevertheless, Akuma is not seen fighting as Shin Akuma during this battle.

I put SF4/5 Bison under Akuma because in SF4, Bison didn’t want to wait until the Shadaloo scientists could make his (Bison’s) body capable of withstanding the full extent of his Psycho Power. As a result, the body that Bison has in SF4/5 is, in a sense, an unfinished one. It is indicated that Alpha 3-era SnH Ryu has a stronger body than Alpha 3 Bison (in addition, Alpha 3 Bison says that he will not be able to achieve true power unless he makes Ryu’s body his, and he also says that the darkness within Ryu is powerful enough to be Bison’s source of energy). Alpha 3-era SnH Ryu’s body would have been able to contain the demonic strength of Psycho Power, whereas Alpha 3 Bison’s body not. SF4/5 Bison’s body would not have been able to contain it either, so Alpha 3-era SnH Ryu is stronger than SF4/5 Bison. If Alpha 3-era SnH Ryu’s body is able to contain so much power (the SnH), then Akuma’s body should be able to do the same. So Akuma is stronger than SF4/5 Bison too.**

5

Oro’s statement about his days of saving the world being long behind him just means that it’s time for someone younger to start saving the world. But I’m pretty sure Oro could still do that if he wanted to. And actually, I think the only thing that’s officially stated about Oro and Akuma is that they fought. There’s nothing officially mentioned about either of them winning, and there’s nothing officially mentioned about them fighting to a stalemate either. There’s also nothing officially mentioned about whether Oro used one arm or two. But Oro’s pre-fight dialogue to Akuma pretty much has Oro saying that the true path of a warrior is harder than Akuma thinks. There is an implication here that whether Akuma is shin or not, Oro is still stronger.

You shouldn’t put Gill at the bottom of tier 1. Gill is stronger than SFA3 Evil Ryu, who is stronger, as you said, than both SFA4/5 Bison and SFA2/3 Bison.

6

You’re just making things up.

7

Um, no I’m not. Here’s Oro’s pre-fight dialogue with Akuma:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECMkjRoqS4U

Heck, even Saiki, the original guy who made the SF canon tier list, says that Oro is most likely stronger than Akuma;
http://fightingstreet.com/folders/variousinfofolder/shoryukencomfolder/oldgamefaq/sf_storylong.txt

His exact statement is: “Oro is most likely stronger than Gouki and Oro really isn’t training Ryu.”.

Gouki is Akuma’s Japanese name, by the way.

8

And here’s Oro’s pre-fight dialogue with Gill. Here, Oro considers Gill and Ryu to be around the same level as each other. So, it’s an indication of Gill’s strength. The event of Oro and Gill meeting each other is non-canon, but that doesn’t mean that Gill and Ryu being around the same level is. See video on 11:36 mark:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ci8sHdjaEs

Ryu at this time would be stronger than his SFA3 evil (Satsui no Hado) self would be.

9

Hmm…looks like I overlooked some things when doing the canon power tier list. But are you sure Ryu in SF3 is stronger than the SnH Alpha 3 version of Ryu would be?

10

Yup. In SF3, Ryu has the Denjin Hadoken, which he doesn’t learn until SF5. The Denjin Hadoken is more powerful than the regular Hadoken. SFA3 Evil Ryu doesn’t have the Denjin Hadoken. So, that is one indication that SF3 Ryu is stronger than SFA3 Evil Ryu.

11

Ok, I changed tier 1’s order on the canon power tier list. Tier 2 is now in order from strongest to weakest, as seen in this thread’s first post. I had to make several changes. The order, from tiers 1 to 2, now goes like this:

**Tier 1

  1. Oro
  2. Dhalsim
  3. Gouken
  4. Gen
  5. Akuma

Tier 2

  1. Ryu
  2. Gill
  3. Urien
  4. SF4/5 Bison
  5. SFA2/3 Bison
  6. SF2 Bison
  7. Rose
  8. Necalli
  9. Sagat
  10. Ken
  11. Q**

Gill’s still below Akuma. For one thing, Akuma is still implied to be stronger when Oro’s pre-fight dialogue with Akuma is compared to Oro’s pre-fight dialogue with Gill. Akuma gets a better first impression from Oro more than Gill does.

By the way, can you tell me when Ryu learned the Metsu Hadoken?

12

I’m fairly certain he learns it at some point during the SF4 timeframe.