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Introduction
Powerscaling refers to determining a character's power by comparing them to other characters in their series. The logic behind powerscaling works much like that of transitive relation: if A > B and B > C, then A > C. As such, if Character A is more powerful than Character B and Character B is more powerful than Character C, then logically, Character A is more powerful than Character C.
Another way powerscaling works is by attributing feats a character performs to other characters who are equal to or greater than them. For example, if Character A can lift cars and Character B has proven themselves more powerful than Character A, it's safe to say that Character B can also lift cars.
Although misuse or over-extrapolation of powerscaling can lead to grossly inaccurate ratings, a logical and moderate use can be helpful and essential to properly determining one's power. Without powerscaling and going purely by feats, many characters would end up Unknown in stats or lowballed to absurd extents. For example, going by pure feats, Whis would be weaker than Piccolo, Sosuke Aizen would be weaker than Ulquiorra Cifer, and many characters consistently portrayed as on par with Planet level characters would be Wall level.
It's possible for a character depicted as vastly superior to another in a statistic to achieve a tier above them if the latter is close to the next tier. However, such ratings ultimately require case-by-case analysis.
While, as a whole, the legitimacy of powerscaling within a franchise should receive a case-by-case basis analysis, the following is a general guide to what would and wouldn't be accepted to scale off of in most situations.
Examples of Viable Powerscaling
- Character A performs a feat of destroying a city and has City level Durability. Character B defeats, critically injures, and/or shows themselves as physically superior to Character A. In this case, it is safe to assess that Character B also has City level Attack Potency and Durability despite Character B not having a direct City level feat.[1]
- Alternatively, if Character A performs a City level feat, Character B overpowers Character A, and Character C overpowers Character B, it's also safe to assess that Character C has City level Attack Potency.
- Character A performs a speed feat of outracing light, and Character B outpaces or speed blitzes Character A. In this case, it's safe to assess that Character B also has FTL speed.
- Alternatively, if Character A has an FTL feat, Character B is faster than Character A, and Character C is faster than Character B, it's safe to assess that Character C is FTL.
- Character A performs a feat of destroying a city and has City level durability. Character B lost a fight to Character A, yet still put up a considerable struggle, was able to harm Character A, and made Character A exert significant effort to defeat Character B. In this case, it's safe to assess that Character B also has City level Attack Potency and Durability.
- In this case, due to the massive broadness of tiers, even if there is a clear power gap between two characters, it typically cannot be a big enough gap that they're tiers apart if they can have an actual fight with someone. For example, a Small Planet level character would never be able to harm or do anything to a Large Planet level character, as the gap between the two tiers is nearly 30 million times. As such, even if a character overall lost to a Large Planet level character, if they were able to cause considerable harm to and hold their own against that person, they'd also have to be Large Planet level, though on a lesser extent than whoever they lost to.
- Character A performs a feat of destroying a city and has City level Durability. Reliable sources state that Character B is superior to Character A. In this case, it's safe to assess that Character B also has City level Attack Potency and Durability.
Examples of Nonviable Powerscaling
- Character A has City level durability and Character B harms them using hax that negates durability. In this case, it's not safe to assess that Character B has City level Attack Potency since they didn't use their Attack Potency to overwhelm Character A's durability.
- Character A has City level Attack Potency and Durability, and Character B withstands attacks from and/or harms Character A. However, Character A was holding back, restricting themselves, not putting their all into their attacks, and/or was in a weakened state during the fight. In this case, it's not safe to assess that Character B has City level Attack Potency or Durability since they didn't demonstrate scaling to Character A's regular statistics.
- Character A has Solar System level Attack Potency and Durability and moves at FTL speeds, and Character B bests Character A in combat. However, Character B's upper limits are otherwise consistently established as Wall level and Subsonic. In this case, it's not safe to assess that Character B has Solar System level Attack Potency and Durability and moves at FTL speeds, as such occasions irreconcilably contradict Character B's narrative portrayal and would stand as Outliers/Plot-Induced Stupidity on Character B's part.
- Character A has Human level Attack Potency and Durability while also wielding telekinesis with Building level Attack Potency and Durability. Character B defeats Character A in a physical fight for which the latter didn't use their telekinesis. In this case, it's not safe to assess that Character B has Building level Attack Potency and Durability, as they wouldn't need such statistics to physically overpower Character A due to the latter's telekinesis being much more powerful than their body.
Powerscaling via in-verse ratings
In the case of powerscaling via in-verse statistics, it's generally preferable to scale the characters based on their own feats. However, if the in-verse tiering system is consistent enough, statistics powerscaling can be applied.
For example, if a character rated 4.5 in an in-verse ranking system has better showings than a character rated 3, who, in turn, is more powerful than someone rated 1.5, this would be evidence indicating that two characters with the same rating in this system are comparable in power because the ratings are consistent with the established strength of the characters.
Note that when dealing with numerical statistics, don't assume that they are linear (For example, a character rated 1000 isn't necessarily 20 times stronger than a character rated 50); without evidence to the contrary, it's safer to assume that they merely show which character is more powerful in general.
Also read
For pages similar to this one that may help you understand some of the concepts described here better, please visit these pages:
- Tiering System
- Attack Potency
- Durability
- Speed
- Speed Blitz
- Statements
- Hyperbole
- Outliers
- Plot-Induced Stupidity
- Universal Energy Systems
Notes
- ↑ Crucially, note that in fiction, a character's Attack Potency (the energy a character can output and how powerful their attacks are) is not always equal to how much one can destroy or the area of effect one's attacks hold. In most fictional works, characters' attacks don't have to destroy a city to output energy equivalent to doing so or harm people with City level durability. For example, characters who can tank planets exploding upon them can get hurt when a more powerful person punches them through a building. Thus, a character possessing City level Attack Potency doesn't always mean their attacks can destroy cities.
Discussions
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