History Main / RandomPowerRanking

* ''Manga/OnePiece'' uses a bounty system as a rough power ranking: The Marines issue a bounty on a pirate relative to the threat the Marines believe he/she 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.

->''"On a scale of no grind to Korean MMO, it gets a Tony Hawk."''
-->--''WebVideo/KilianExperience, A Garbage Guide to {{Videogame/Subnautica}}''

* ''WesternAnimation/OKKOLetsBeHeroes'': All the heroes and villains in K.O.'s world have a "power level" listed on their "POW Card" that's based on their strengths, skills, and experience. They're not a particularly hard-and-fast ranking, as in some episodes a [[HeroicWillpower sufficiently determined]] low-level character can just about hold their own against a higher-level character, while in others a low-level character can't even ''scratch'' a high-level character without help. One of the last episodes of the series has the new CEO of the company that makes POW cards [[LampshadeHanging admit the rankings are pretty arbitrary]].

* The belt color systems used by many martial arts can be seen this way.

** As stated by WordOfGod, Scouters were introduced to ''[[DeconstructedTrope deconstuct themselves]]'': by then the heroes had learnt not only how to sense ki levels naturally, but also how to suppress their own, giving lower readings and fooling their opponents into a false sense of security (which dovetailed poorly into their arrogance; they wouldn't accept the new readings and attack anyway). Scouters also emphasize brute strength among the ranks as they didn't take technique into account: someone with the ability to pause time or use the Spirit Bomb can overcome someone with a higher rating. And finally, the very presence of one meant that [[AttackItsWeakPoint destroying it]] will render your opponent unable to measure or track you, putting them at a disadvantage. Combine this with StrongAsTheyNeedToBe, and ultimately this trope is in full effect despite using hard numbers.
** Once Scouters disappeared after the Namek arc, the power of a fighter was determined by sensing it, so ki levels were conveyed with verbal comparisons or how much somebody's power caused environmental damage. They were also retired for logistical reasons: Frieza had a Battle Power of 1 million, and the next two arcs introduce characters and forms vastly more powerful than him, so measuring them would be impractical on the order of trillions. This didn't stop fans from [[FanWank trying to assign numbers to the characters through guesswork]] of course, which was not helped by differences between the manga, the anime, the [[NonSerialMovie Non-Serial Movies]], and their dubs.

* ''LightNovel/ThatTimeIGotReincarnatedAsASlime'', there's a ranking system that goes F, E, D, C, B, A ("Hazard"), Special A ("Calamity"), S ("Disaster"), and Special S ("Catastrophe"), with "-" and "+" modifiers to indicate if a monster or adventurer is on the lower or upper echelon of their rank. Notably, this ranking was designed with the inference that a party of adventurers is taking on a single monster of the same rank, so if adventurers are going to hunt a rank B+ monster, multiple rank B+ adventurers are needed (at least 3 people), which goes to show how outgunned normal people are against most monsters. Also, while adventurers are ranked by their proficiency, monsters are ranked by their [[{{Mana}} magicule]] capacity rather than their combat experience, so often two monsters with the same rank can have wildly varying strength levels depending on their skillset. Notably, while an improvement over the original system of Novice < Beginner < Intermediate < Advanced System where "Advanced System" included everything A rank and above, it's noted to still be flawed InUniverse where someone (human or monster) can be much stronger than their rank suggests (for example, [[DraconicAbomination Charybdis]] has the raw power of a Demon Lord at its disposal to make it S Class, but since it's a mindless beast that can't leverage that power to its full potential, it's classified at a "mere" Special A Class instead).

* ''LightNovel/ThatTimeIGotReincarnatedAsASlime'', there's a ranking system that goes F, E, D, C, B, A ("Hazard"), Special A ("Calamity"), S ("Disaster"), and Special S ("Catastrophe"), with "-" and "+" modifiers to indicate if a monster or adventurer is on the lower or upper echelon of their rank. Notably, this ranking was designed with the inference that a party of adventurers is taking on a single monster of the same rank, so if adventurers are going to hunt a rank B+ monster, multiple rank B+ adventurers are needed (at least 3 people), which goes to show how outgunned normal people are against most monsters. Also, while adventurers are ranked by their proficiency, monsters are ranked by their [[{{Mana}} magicule]] capacity rather than their combat experience, so often two monsters with the same rank can have wildly varying strength levels depending on their skillset. Notably, while an improvement over the original system of Novice < Beginner < Intermediate < Advanced System where "Advanced System" included everything A rank and above, it's noted to still be flawed InUniverse where someone (human or monster) can be much stronger than their rank suggests.

** 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 for research purposes. For instance, Misaka (ranked 3rd) and Mugino (ranked 4th) are by all appearances mostly equal in raw power (Mugino might even be more powerful in terms of pure destructive force), but Misaka's abilities have far more broad applications, and she can do a lot more with them. Meanwhile, Misaki (ranked 5th), has MindControl abilities that some would consider more effective and impressive than either of the aforementioned two, yet she's ranked lower. And Gunha is ranked 7th, the lowest, simply because nobody (including himself) has ''any idea'' of what the true nature of his power is or how it works. The only thing that's clear is that the #1 (Accelerator) and #2 (Kakine Teitoku) rankings are very obviously deserved: Accelerator is so broken that no one, not even Misaka, is even capable of touching him, and he can theoretically do virtually anything she can do, with even more power and precision; while Kakine's powers are so strong and versatile that he once fought off multiple other Level 5's at the same time, and he's capable of actually harming Accelerator, though the latter still destroyed him in combat.

* In ''Manga/FairyTail'', we actually rarely hear about rankings other than the S-ranked mages. However, it's somewhat subverted in the sense 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 Jellal 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.

** Its uselessness [[InvokedTrope was precisely the point]]. Even after the [[PhysicalGod Sourcerers]], Wizards were still relatively [[BewareTheSuperman powerful]] and [[AmbitionIsEvil ambitious]]. Since every rank has a maximum capacity applied (eg. only eight Level 8 wizards at any given time), it encourages a [[YouKillItYouBoughtIt Darwinist approach]] to rank ascension. In the end, Wizards ended up fighting each other for meaningless titles instead of, say, enslaving the {{Muggles}} and so on. (In the Ridcully era, assassination of senior wizards has been replaced by academic politics, which serves much the same purpose and is even more vicious.)

* In the ''VideoGame/MegaManX'' series, X is ranked B, while Zero is S (or SA). In the later games of the series, completing levels with zero deaths, finding all the hidden items, taking minimal damage, etc, allowed you to get a higher hunter ranking, which went as high as MH/UH. (D, C, B, A, SA, GA, PA, MH/UH for ''X5''/''X6''; D, C, B, A, AA, AAA, S for ''X8'')

* ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'', 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.

* ''Comicbook/XMen's'' aren't really PowerLevels, 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 [[DeathIsCheap X-Men character has that power!]]

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'':

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': The Espada are officially ranked from one to ten. [[spoiler: They're actually ranked from zero to nine.]] Numbers five to ten made sense but numbers one to four seemed completely random, with [[AGodAmI #2]] having an ability that seemed more deadly than anything #1 had and #4 seeming more powerful than #3, in part due to a special ability he hid for unclear reasons. WordOfGod clarified that they're ranked on reiatsu level, not physical strength, and that [[spoiler: #0 had more raw power than the others, but lacked any special abilities.]] This however comes off more like a HandWave, because it's stated elsewhere in the series that reiatsu is the main deciding factor in who wins in a fight, and both Kenpachi and Ichigo have a tendency to beat characters much more skilled than they are through sheer power alone.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'', [[NebulousEvilOrganisation the Guild of Calamitous Intent]] ranks their villains on an "Equally Matched Aggression Level" in order to make sure that they are paired with an appropriate nemesis. The system was started after a [[BoisterousWeakling overconfident villain]] attempted to kidnap Rusty Venture as a child and was [[CurbStompBattle very quickly murdered]] by [[PsychoForHire the Action Man]]. The system is based on the power and threat the villain poses to their adversary; the Monarch was ranked "9 or 10" when he had an army of {{Mooks}}, a floating fortress, and [[HypercompetentSidekick his wife]] backing him up, but after he lost all of that and was left with just the equipment on his back and his old top henchman, he dropped to a 4 (and that was pushing it), though he managed to raise his rank through effort. Augustus St. Cloud, an out-of-shape rich guy with a lot of old movie props who lost a fight to [[RetiredBadass an arthritic old woman]], was considered a 1.

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[-[[caption-width-right:380:Two dozen referees were needed to get the fine distinction between Undertaker and Triple H's {{Power Level}}s ''just'' right.]]-]

* ''Franchise/DragonBall'':
** The second series of the franchise, ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', introduced the concept of PowerLevels, which could be measured by scouters. These devices measured how much power a combatant had and gave a concrete number that allowed fans of to know the exact odds for any encounter, but was more useful to the [[{{Mooks}} troopers]] using them to estimate their odds in a fight. Obviously, more powerful people had a higher power level; a regular human had a power level of 5, whereas the main characters, who could accurately be described as martial artists with superpowers, had power levels ranging in the hundreds at the start of the series.
** While they were useful in other ways (e.g. finding people, keeping oriented without a map, ''[[SubspaceAnsible FTL communication]]''), the downsides to scouters included that they weren't discreet, and [[AttackItsWeakPoint became obvious targets]], leaving the characters who relied on them at a handicap against those who knew how to sense energy. Another was that they meant that those using them often checked once, and didn't check again until prompted, leaving the scouters' users prone to deception by those who knew how to suppress and raise their power level. ''Another'' drawback was that skilled, higher-end fighters could outperform a simple number assigned to them, so they weren't entirely reliable. ''Yet another'' drawback was that their power measurement [[ExplosiveInstrumentation could be overwhelmed]] if measuring a [[ReadingsAreOffTheScale sufficiently high power level or a dramatic power up]].
** Later in the series, the people who relied on power level measuring technology faded into the background, effectively obsoleting power levels as a measurement of power, leaving more abstract means (like one character commenting how powerful another is relative to anybody else, or if a power up causes ecological damage). While eventually the characters became so powerful that their numbers "could not be estimated," that didn't stop fans (or series guides, or games) from assigning them numbers through research and guesswork.
** WordOfGod says that the scouters and power levels were phased out precisely for the reason that assigning mathematical odds to fights started feeling silly.
*** The entire reason for introducing the scouters and subsequently power levels was to show how silly it was. The villains constantly get the shaft because of their over reliance on battle power to determine who'd win. (Then again, considering the many sequences of high-power combatants effortlessly curbstomping low-power ones, they seem to have been on the right track.)

* Franchise/TheTransformers originally gave toys a bio with some stats on the back of the box. These included things like rank, speed, intelligence, firepower, strength, and endurance. Even at the very start when the first wave of toys came out there were weird things, like Optimus Prime having a higher speed rating than Sideswipe and a higher intelligence rating than [[TheSmartGuy Wheeljack]], but things really got bad as things went on. Brawn, for example, was the original "strong" Autobot, only to see a series of much stronger characters released, like the Dinobots or the citybots like Metroplex and Fortress Maximus, who still had their stats on the same scale as Brawn, indicating that the diminutive truck was somehow as powerful as a robot the size of a skyscraper. The various Transformers media pretty much ignored the biography stats of the characters and gave them relative power levels that mostly made sense for each character's size and alt-modes.

* ''TabletopGame/Battletech'' assigns “battle value” to different ‘Mechs. The three generally accepted methods of determining force limits are Max value (in c-bills, the in-universe currency), Max battle value, and Max tonnage. Generally speaking, a higher cost for a ‘Mech means it has a higher battle value, and usually a higher tonnage as well. However, most ‘Mechs are specialized to one (or two, for Heavy and Assault class) role, and lack versatility outside that role, meaning that having a higher battle value isn’t going to ensure victory if your opponent can counter or exploit a weakness that you’ve left open. In-universe, most lances and stars (4 or 5 ‘Mech squads, respectively) have varying makeups, designed around their purpose on the battlefield: an Assault lance usually only has two actual Assault-class ‘Mechs, rounded out with a Heavy and a Medium to remain versatile.

* The Basic and Advanced versions of ''TabletopGame/MarvelSuperHeroes'' ranked power (and everything else) on a scale from 1 to 100, broken into named tiers ranging from Feeble, Poor, and Typical through Monstrous and Unearthly. The Advanced version added categories above and below this, with the highest ranks reserved for CosmicBeings like Galactus and the Beyonder. The system was plagued by two problems. First, the categories lumped together characters with vastly different abilities (Jocasta can lift 5 tons, Nova can lift 40 tons, but they have the same rank in Strength because the cutoff was at 50 tons). Second, attributes like Reason and Psyche had no possible objective measurement, making assigning and interpreting values mostly guesswork.

* The basic version of ''TabletopGame/MarvelSuperHeroes'' ranked powers (and everything else in fact) in a scale from 1 to 100, broken into the following tiers: Feeble (1-2), Poor (3-4), Typical (5-6), Good (up to 10), Excellent (20), Remarkable (30), Incredible (40), Amazing (50), Monstrous (75) and Unearthly (100). Most Marvel characters had abilities between Excellent and Remarkable ranks, while the most powerful ones had some between Monstrous and Unearthly. A later expansion also added Shift Zero (0) for abilities ever lower than a 1 (small child Franklin Richards and frail elderly Aunt May both had Feeble strength - an infant incapable of sitting up would be Shift Zero), and Shift X (150), Shift Y (200), and Shift Z (500) for ones beyond Unearthly (barring the Invulnerability powers, Shift Z is the highest a superhero is allowed to reach in anything - the only superhero who broke this rule was Jean Grey when she was the Phoenix). Class 1000, Class 3000 and Class 5000 were added for the truly [[CosmicEntity Cosmic Beings]]. The absolutely highest level was Beyond-Rank, that had no number (it was infinite.) Only one character had abilities of this caliber: the Beyonder from ''ComicBook/SecretWars1984''. A huge drawback of this system is that it lumped beings that were far different in might as being equal (Jocasta is a robot that could lift 5 tons, while Nova is a [[CosmicEntities Herald of Galactus]] who could lift 40 tons. To the game, they're both ranked as having Incredible strength and so they're equals. Meanwhile Rogue or original Ms. Marvel can lift 50 tons and so they end up in the superior Amazing strength).

[[folder:Web Original]]
* The ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'' has Object Classes, the main four being Safe, Euclid, Keter and Thaumiel. The first three take into account how hard an [=SCP=] is to contain, not how powerful or dangerous it is. Safe means that an object can be easily and reliably contained. Euclid indicates a less easily contained object, [=SCPs=] that can move and think on their own are generally Euclid at a minimum. Keter is used for objects that are extremely difficult or costly to contain or cannot be contained in a reliable way (for example any object in space is likely a Keter by default), but again, they need not be dangerous ''per se''. Thaumiel is outside of this hierarchy and refers to [=SCPs=] used to contain other [=SCPs=]. More unusual Object Classes exist, but these are rarely used and lack formal definitions. Put another way: if you can put it in a simple lockbox and be sure that it will not be getting out, it's probably Safe; if you can't be sure what will happen if you put it in a lockbox, it's Euclid; if you cannot put it in a lockbox because it is in space or another dimension or the lock requires a regular human sacrifice to keep working, it's Keter; and if the object ''is'' the lockbox, it's Thaumiel.
[[/folder]]

*** In reference to the 'threat level = bounty' idea, among groups with relatively similar power levels, the highest bounties tend to go to the most AxCrazy. Examples include Donquixote Doflamingo of the Seven Warlords of the Sea and Eustass Kid of the Worst Generation[note]at least until Luffy's was skyrocketed to 1,500,000,000 at the conclusion of the Tottoland arc[/note]. This makes sense since, all other things being equal, someone who goes around slaughtering people ForTheEvulz would be considered more of a threat than someone who raids the occasional merchant ship.

*** In reference to the 'threat level = bounty' idea, among groups with relatively similar power levels, the highest bounties tend to go to the most AxCrazy. Examples include Donquixote Doflamingo of the Seven Warlords of the Sea and Eustass Kid of the Worst Generation[note:at least until Luffy's was skyrocketed to 1,500,000,000 at the conclusion of the Tottoland arc]. This makes sense since, all other things being equal, someone who goes around slaughtering people ForTheEvulz would be considered more of a threat than someone who raids the occasional merchant ship.