Every Buffy the Vampire Slayer Hero, Ranked By Power

Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a fantasy TV show that originally focused on one teenage warrior named Buffy Summers, the Chosen One, who killed vampires in Sunnydale, California. However, her surrounding cast grew from there, with everyone from her friends on the Scooby Gang and her watcher, Giles, to friendly vampires like Angel and Spike joining her in the battle against great evil. By the time the show ended, there was an entire army of future Slayers, but through the show, there were a good, solid 10 heroes on Buffy who proved themselves over and over again against the worst demons the Hellmouth could throw at them.

Here is a look at the 10 main Buffy the Vampire Slayer heroes in the TV series, ranked by power.

10) Xander Harris

The least powerful Buffy the Vampire Slayer hero is Xander Harris, but his sad backstory made him someone who never gave up on his friends or his willingness to put his life on the line to stop the evil roaring into Sunnydale. Of all the heroes on the show, Xander is the only one who has no power at all. His defining feat is not a fight. In the Season 6 finale “Grave” (2002), unarmed, he walks up to a fully powered Dark Willow on a cliff and talks her down with the story of a broken yellow crayon, absorbing magical attacks until she breaks and the world is saved. He loses his eye in the final season, but still wouldn’t quit fighting until victory was in hand.

9) Jenny Calendar

Jenny Calendar is the Sunnydale High computer-science teacher introduced in Season 1, and she becomes Giles’ love interest. However, she had hidden secrets from everyone. She was a techno-pagan, and since she couldn’t conjure magic herself, she fuses occult knowledge with computing, digitizing rare texts, and tracking demons online. She is also Janna of the Kalderash, a member of the Romani clan that cursed Angelus with a soul, sent to Sunnydale to monitor the curse and keep him and Buffy apart. Angelus murders her when he loses his soul again, but she had already created a soul-restoration spell that helped Willow end Angelus’s threat.

8) Anya

Anya Jenkins is a demon who debuted in Season 3’s “The Wish” (1998) as Anyanka, the Patron Saint of Scorned Women. After using her powers to help Cordelia get revenge on Xander, she eventually became a human when Giles depowers her by smashing her amulet, stranding her as a mortal teenager. However, she is still powerful. When Xander left her at the altar of their wedding, Anya massacres a fraternity by summoning a Grimslaw demon. Her powers are conditional, and she was stripped of them twice before she died in the series finale.

7) Rupert Giles

At first, Rupert Giles seemed like a powerless Watcher, sent to teach Buffy Summers and lead her in her role as the Chosen One. However, the librarian was also an occult expert and a magic user in his own right. His youth as “Ripper” in 1970s London involved dark magic and the demon Eyghon, leaving him with the Mark of Eyghon tattoo and a working knowledge of black magic he tries to keep dormant. In Season 6, he channels white magic directly into Willow, which was used to help her regain her humanity. He has magical powers, but they are limited and situational.

6) Kendra Young

Buffy Summers died more than once on the series, and when she died, a new Slayer was called. One of these was Kendra Young, who debuted in Season 2 to replace Buffy after she died for a short time in the Season 1 finale, “Prophecy Girl.” Unlike Buffy, her parents gave her up as a young child to train relentlessly to be a Slayer throughout her childhood. She has the same powers as Buffy, but is more militaristic in her approach, with no time for friends or a social life. She ranks below the other called Slayer because Drusilla killed her after only three appearances, which is what activated Faith as the next Slayer.

5) Faith Lehane

Faith is one of the most popular characters on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the third Slayer to show up on the series, and the one with the worst attitude. However, it is this attitude that makes her so popular, as she was the opposite of what Buffy stood for, and this turned Faith into a villain for a time before her redemption arc in Angel and her return for the final battle in the final season of Buffy. Faith has the same powers as Buffy, but she has more of a pain tolerance and is equal in raw output. However, Buffy beat her and almost killed her in “Graduation Day, Part One.” In the final season, she helped lead the Potentials against the Turok-Han in the Hellmouth and survived.

4) Spike

Spike showed up in Season 2 as a villain vampire with his lover Drusilla, and while he was supposed to be a one-off villain, he was so popular that the network demanded that Joss Whedon keep bringing him back. This led Whedon to eventually give Spike his soul back and then move him over to Angel when Buffy ended. He has the power of a vampire, but he has lived longer than almost any other vampire in the series, and he has upped his power constantly along the way. He sacrificed his life to save Buffy in the series finale, but he was still powerful enough to resurrect and return for the final battle on Angel as well.

3) Angel

Angel is the most powerful vampire in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer universe. He was there in the first season, watching Buffy and ensuring she remained safe, as the only vampire at the time with a soul. He ended up returning to fight by her side before becoming a ruthless villain in Season 2 when he experienced true happiness and became Angelus again. He ended up killing Jenny Calendar and could have killed Buffy, but he regained his soul just long enough for her to kill him to save the world. Angel returned from the dead and left after Season 3 to lead his own show, where he seemed even more powerful than before.

2) Buffy Summers

Buffy Summers is the Chosen One, and she is the only person who was fated to save the world from evil on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She died more than once, and when she returned, she was even stronger than she was before. Two Slayers showed up after her, and she proved more powerful than both of them, outliving Kendra and almost killing Faith. She defeated the supposedly invincible bio-mechanical demonoid Adam, and she was the first hero on the show to defeat an actual god, hammering Glorificus into reverting to her mortal host Ben with Olaf’s troll hammer. She is someone who has beaten more god-tier villains than anyone else in the universe, but there is still one person she didn’t stand a chance of beating.

1) Willow Rosenberg

Willow Rosenberg was the most powerful witch to ever appear on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She was a powerful ally, although she was learning her abilities for most of the first few seasons. That said, when Warren Mears of the Trio killed her girlfriend, Tara, in a shooting, Willow embraced her dark side and set out for vengeance. Willow would have destroyed the entire world if it weren’t for Giles sending white magic into her and Xander reminding her of their friendship and who she is supposed to be. Even with that moment, there is no one who is more powerful when using magic than Willow. Giles and Anya even said there was no way Buffy could beat Willow, making her the strongest hero ever shown on screen in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

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