The unique (and copyrighted) breathing sound of one fictional history's most infamous character always foreshadowed a scene where power was expressed to its fullest. Darth Vader was a master duelist, a tyrant, and an expert in the Force. He's fluent in both ways of the Force, and under the puppetry of his master, Darth Sidious, he became an incredibly powerful figure. As far as most people seemed to understand, Darth Vader to them was a god.
For quite some time, Darth Vader was seen as the most powerful figure in the Star Wars universe. He was used as an intimidation tactic by Darth Sidious when things went really south, as we saw so well in the final scene of Rogue One. He grew a reputation among both his enemies and his fellow soldiers as a fearless overlord who used his god-like powers to win the upper hand or have the last word in most situations.
Only but a handful of canonical characters were able to defeat the all-powerful Darth Vader. When people began to contribute to the universe with spin-offs and further additions via what is now Star Wars Legends, contributors have been able to create and broaden characters now more powerful than the original Dark Lord. Combined with their sheer lightsaber skills or affinity for their deep connection with the Force, there exist entities stronger than Darth Vader himself. With that being said, we have compiled a list of 25 Star Wars characters, both canon and Legends that are more powerful than Darth Vader.
25 Darth Sidious: The Puppet Master
Although it was Vader who ended him, Darth Sidious held the strings that controlled the puppet that was Vader for well over 23 years. It was he that created Darth Vader in the first place.
Darth Sidious won over Anakin Skywalker to the Dark Side after manipulating him for well over 20 years.
He designed Vader's suit to have it so, if Vader ever misbehaved, he could end him in an instant by using Force Lightning, which would short-circuit Vader's suit and therefore end him within moments [see my other article].
24 Yoda: The Wise
Yoda handled his own in a battle against Sidious, which means he could surely take on Darth Vader no problem. He often guided him as a mentor in the darkest of his days when Vader was previously Anakin Skywalker.
Master Yoda foresaw Anakin's future problems, he knew very well Anakin's weaknesses and how to handle him. If ever Vader found his way to Dagobah system to end his old master, Yoda could easily defeat him using the swampy lands with the force to paralyze Vader.
23 Luke Skywalker: The Son
Luke Skywalker was no stranger to the Dark Side. Even though Vader played with him towards the end of the Empire Strikes Back, Luke was able to hold his own. In Return of the Jedi he was able to do what countless of Jedi had failed to do.
Luke was the only Jedi to have converted Darth Vader back to the Light Side of the Force.
Luke, being the son of the Chosen One was able to defeat Vader, going at him until dismembering his cybernetic hand from the rest of his robotic body. By tuning into the Dark Side of the Force, Luke found within him the strength to end his father's tyrannical reign.
22 Abeloth: Force Goddess
She's known as the Bringer of Chaos for a reason. It is believed that Abeloth is the most powerful Force user to have ever existed within the Star Wars universe, being far stronger than Darth Vader, even before his fate on Mustafar.
Abeloth was considered by many to be reckless, dangerous and incredibly powerful.
Abeloth could be seen as a "Goddess of the Force." She could transmit her entity by teleporting herself to various places and fight many people at once. It took both Luke Skywalker and Darth Krayt in a different realm to finally vanquish her... not even end her.
21 Satele Shan: Seeing The Future
Not many Jedi or Sith had the ability to block a lightsaber with their bare hands, however Satele Shan could. Vader could as well, but it was the armor of his gauntlets that allowed him to do so.
Satele Shan even took down a mountain in the midst of her fight with the Sith Lord, Darth Malgus. She was also able to foresee the future, a Force tactic that Vader had difficulty with. She eventually became a Jedi Grand Master, putting her on par with Yoda in both status and skill.
20 Revan: The Undecided
He could be seen as rather undecided. Revan has flipped between both the Dark Side and the Light making him very knowledgeable and experienced in both practices.
Revan was quite a shield per se. He could read and probe the minds of many virtually anywhere across the galaxy. His telekinetic abilities were seen as superior compared to other Force Users and was able to perform incredibly accurate and lengthy Force visions of the future.
19 Meetra Surik: Unique Force
Jedi Master Meetra Surik was among other Jedi, quite talented. It was her with her abilities that was able to finally take down the all-powerful Darth Nihilus.
Meetra Surik was a woman of wisdom, who invented new Force Tricks to use at her disposal.
She developed a variety of Force techniques like controlling her breath, so she could survive in areas where there was a lack of oxygen. Additionally, she developed a technique called beast tricks that allowed her to control animals and creatures with the Force.
18 Darth Nihilus: Using The Mask
It's in the name. Darth Nihilus was an evil, yet all-mighty Sith Lord. With just his doing, Nihilus could create "wounds" in the Force. This could be done by sucking the entire life force out of planet to fuel his power, causing nearby Force users to feel the suffering of others.
Additionally, Darth Nihilus was powerful enough to control an entire warship and its crew up and ready with the Force. Like Skyrim's Dragon Priests, Nihilus got most of his power from his mask; it was said that anyone who wore it would achieve the same power of a Sith apprentice.
17 Exar Kun: Mastering The Double Blade
According to his Jedi Master, Vodo-Siosk Baas, Exar Kun was by far the most "formidable student he had ever trained." Kun would later fall to the Dark Side, which in turn made him stronger. He studied ancient Sith alchemy.
Kun professed in creating apparitions of Dark Side creatures. He even used his Force abilities to mind control the entirety of the Galactic Senate as well as its Supreme Chancellor. He was also an expert swordsman; capable of defeating his master as an apprentice and mastering the double-bladed lightsaber style.
16 Bastila Shan: Not To Be Underestimated
Bastila Shan was a Jedi Knight who fought with the Light Side during the Jedi Civil War, siding with the council. Shan was incredibly in-tune with the Force and could alter the outcome of a battle with just her mind alone.
Bastila Shan was a master of using the Force to improve her intellectual abilities, being predict the far future.
She could even use Jedi Mind Tricks on creatures and people we never saw work on such as the Hutts... something that Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Luke could never do. According to her own perception, the only person stronger than her was virtually Revan.
15 Celeste Morne: Ancient Master
Celeste Morne was an ancient Jedi Master who hid herself in a stasis pod for a thousand years in order to protect an ancient Sith artifact which would exploit creatures near it by mind controlling them.
Darth Vader at first did not want to harm Celeste Morne, wanting to adopt her as an apprentice.
Vader would discover her and set her free. Morne then attacked Vader once discovering he was a Sith Lord. When she was cornered by Vader, Morne tapped into the dark powers of the Sith artifact and forced all nearby Stormtroopers to turn on Vader, forcing him to retreat.
14 Alema Rar: Falling To The Dark
Alema Rar was a gifted Twi'lek Jedi during the days after Vader's fall. Many Force Users failed to combine both Force and lightsaber techniques as it required a sheer amount of patience, skill and focus (which is why Grievous confused and scared his enemies before ending them).
Alema also fell to the Dark Side. In her turn, she often used accurate saber throws to attack her opponents, combined with throwing projectiles using the Force. She was so powerful in her telekinetic abilities that she was able to erase herself from the memory of those she would encounter if need be.
13 Darth Plagueis: The Creator
We've all heard of the tragedy following the wise character, the old apprentice of Darth Sidious. Theoretically, in his attempt to manipulate midichlorians to create the ultimate Sith weapon, he created Anakin Skywalker.
Darth Sidious was able to end Darth Plagueis in his sleep, igniting the room with his powerful Force Lightning abilities.
Apparently, the midichlorians sensed malevolence and instead chose to rebel against Plagueis' foul intentions and chose to conceive Anakin Skywalker through his mother Shmi Skywalker in order to bring balance to the Force by destroying both the Sith and the Jedi.
12 Darth Traya: The Power Of Three
Darth Traya was a Sith Lord who had profound and exquisite Force-like abilities. She used the Force to control and manipulate both the surroundings and beings around her. She can be seen telekinetically manipulating three lightsabers at once.
Darth Traya was a trickster of a Sith. She was known to defend herself using lightsabers she wielded with the Force.
She unlike most had accurate abilities in predicting and foreseeing the future. She even foretold of the end of Jango Fett by the doing of Mace Windu, which would occur more than 4000 years after her lifetime.
11 Darth Malgus: Brute Strength
Darth Malgus was a powerful Sith Lord during the violent days of the Old Republic. He was attributed to having a "flawless" lightsaber form. Like Darth Maul would later show, Malgus focused on using his brute strength, rage and speed to outlast and defeat his opponents.
He was quite powerful in the Force as well. Especially in his Force Lightning abilities, Darth Malgus was a destructive person. It can be seen in one scene him destroying three Jedi at once electrifying them in one burst of Force Lightning.
10 Kirak Infil'a: The Savior
Kirak Infil'a once bested Vader, almost destroying him by pushing him off a cliff, crippling him and disarming him. Vader even needed to use the legs of a droid to replace his broken cybernetic ones from the fall.
Vader was eventually able to defeat Infil'a exploiting his compassion, flooding a nearby city.
Infil'a used the Force to stop the flood from destroying more of the city. Infil'a begged Vader to take him as a sacrifice to save the city. Vader responded by throwing him into the flood along with the rest of the city.
9 The Father: The Choice
The Father is one of the most powerful, if not the second-most powerful entities in the Star Wars universe beside Abeloth. The time he had met with the younger Anakin Skywalker, he stopped his lightsaber with his bare hand.
The Father pushed Anakin past his emotional breaking point to make him realize of his unreal Force abilites.
He then toyed with Anakin, forcing him to choose between saving his apprentice Ahsoka or his master Obi-Wan, and then making him fight "The Son" and "The Daughter" without his lightsaber and just the sheer power of the Force.
8 Mace Windu:
Windu was a Jedi Master like no other. He was more aggressive than most Jedi on the Council and was known to have a particular liking to battle, unlike his colleagues... which explains his purple lightsaber.
Mace Windu is the only Jedi to have ever beaten Darth Sidious, as confirmed by George Lucas.
He was able to hold his own against a very angry Darth Sidious, even tapping into the Dark Side to acquire more strength and speed to match that of the Dark Lord's. Surely if Windu wasn't cheated by Anakin, he would have detached himself from the Jedi Order and made his personal mission to avenge his fallen Jedi by ending Vader.
7 The Force Priestesses: They Mean Trouble
They're seldom known to most casual fans, but these five ethereal beings are among the most powerful creatures within the Star Wars universe. Little is known about them, what we do know was told to us by Qui-Gon Jinn, Yoda, and Obi-Wan.
The Priestesses are formed by five members; Serenity, Anger, Confusion, Joy, and Sadness.
The Priestesses represented the connection between the Force and its ties to all living things. It was they who would go on to teach the ancient lost secrets of becoming one with the Force and thus transitioning into Force spirits.
6 Marka Ragnos: The Hybrid
Ragnos was a interesting beast-like creature who served the Dark Side of the Force as a Sith Lord. He's a Sith-Human hybrid who created a Sith Empire that carried out atrocities in the name of the Dark Lord.
Under his leadership, the Sith experienced a Golden Age. Even during his funeral, he was able to summon himself as a spirit to speak with those around him. He was seen as "unwoundable." Ragnos didn't even use a lightsaber, he instead used a Sith Sword that was protected with ancient Sith magic.