If you stack up the characters of Devil May Cry against other franchises, these characters will almost certainly win without much difficulty. The characters here have powers you can’t even imagine, and it’s fitting they all lock up against each other as most other characters in their universe wouldn’t stand a chance against them.
With that in mind, here are the Strongest Devil May Cry characters, Ranked. For this list, we’ve omitted characters who are different versions of the same person and taken into consideration powers certain characters attained by other means, which weren’t inherently within them.
Updated June 5, 2023 by Jerel Levy: If you're looking for the strongest characters in Devil May Cry, look no further. A series where Dante vs. Vergil will result in a battle that'll be stronger than any other characters that come to mind, we rank them all to see who the strongest DMC characters are. This list has been updated for formatting and readability and retains the answer to the question you've been asking, with lots of characters from across the series to consider.
15 Lady: Powerful For A Human
A celebrated devil hunter in her own right, Lady proved she could hang with the big boys by taking the fight to the demons in Devil May Cry 3. She’s been shown to be proficient in killing normal foes, making her the peak-level human as far as fighting evil beings is concerned.
However, her limits are also clear to see when she’s fought demonic characters, as Lady has fallen short against the likes of Dante, Vergil, and Trish. Being a human, there’s only so much damage she can do before her enemies’ invulnerable factor kicks in.
14 Credo: Powerful Human Hybrid
Although technically a human, Credo was imbued with demonic powers and became a different kind of being. He was in charge of the foes Sanctus had created, seeming a cut above those powerful suits of armor.
He was strong enough to give a real fight to Nero (even if he was handily defeated, as well). Credo doesn’t have the capacity of power to contend with higher-level beings but would probably have made short work of others.
13 Lucia: Limited Screen Time
Lucia would probably rank higher if she’d been given more than just one game for her story to be told. Having the devil nature within her, she seemed to be around the same level as Dante in Devil May Cry 2 with a few weak points.
Her blades were such that she could pierce through just about any enemies that came her way, and she also possessed her own devil trigger that allowed her to become a birdlike demon. Still, her lack of evolution in these abilities means her placement isn’t really possible among the top-level characters.
12 Trish: A Powerful, Lower-Level Demon
A demon made in the form of Dante’s mother, Trish has shown she’s unlike any regular demon as we’ve seen her vanquishing demonic foes like they were nothing. On the skills side, Trish has the ability to jump several times higher than even Dante.
She’s got the whole set of abilities of a super demon akin to anime characters, these being strength, endurance, and durability. Trish, however, doesn’t stand a chance against higher beings like Dante or the antagonist of the games, as these beings’ abilities outrank hers where it matters the most. Still, she’s enormously powerful if considering her opponents to be regular demons or very powerful humans.
11 Arkham: Brain Vs. Brawn
Arkham made up for his lack of true demonic power by utilizing his immense intellect. He brought Dante and Vergil to their knees by pitting them against each other and causing them to be severely weakened to the point that Arkham was the one standing tall.
In his Jester form, he was still very powerful as he had several tricks up his sleeve, like duplicity, manipulation, and slights of hand that almost defeated Dante on the occasions they matched up. With the power of Sparda, Arkham briefly became more powerful than Dante and Vergil, and it took both to defeat him. He loses out to other beings, though, due to not having these powers inherently and relying on other means to gain said power.
10 Berial: He Ruled Hell Once, You Know...
Being the ruler of Fire Hell for millennia, it’s a shame we only saw Berial being treated as a joke by Nero and Dante, who both outranked him in power, as Berial was nothing to shrug off. The problem was that Berial wasn’t in his native Fire Hell, which would’ve made him a foe unlikely to be defeated. Berial’s fire powers are such that he can incinerate an entire town simply by his presence. Any low-level being would be toasted in seconds by the explosive projectiles Berial produced. It would’ve been interesting to see how Berial would’ve fared against opponents of his level; too bad he had to meet Dante and Nero.
9 V: Not Quite Vergil
Being the good side of Vergil, V brought a lot of traits from his original self. He wasn’t all-powerful like the original version or Urizen, but he had the tenacity of spirit to summon the beings at his disposal to fight off his enemies.
V’s main strength came from his mind, as he possessed the wit and brains that characters like Dante and Nero lacked. He wasn’t the most versatile in combat but was strong enough to face the meanest of them out there.
8 Argosax: Somehow, Less Powerful Than Dante
Argosax was the ruler of Hell for a significant time, and it required Sparda's assistance to seal him in when they locked up. When not in its true form, Argosax could assimilate other demons around them to bring itself shape and form; this meant Argosax couldn’t truly be hurt.
In its true form, Argosax was neither male nor female and had the appearance of a corrupted archangel. It had the powers of electricity, fireball conjuring, and shape-shifting. But we can’t place Argosa all that high as it still lost to Dante at the end, who didn’t seem to break much of a sweat to beat Argosax.
7 Sanctus: A Decent Challenge For Dante And Nero
Sanctus also had cunning and influence in his favor, which he employed to be reborn as a higher being. In his demonic state, Sanctus could teleport, use lightning projectiles and shields, and showcased invulnerability. However, while Sanctus was definitely more powerful than almost any being at this time, these powers were tied to The Savior, meaning they weren’t truly his.
Still, The Savior and Sanctus gave an awfully difficult time to Dante of all people, and it required Nero to penetrate within the Savior to finally confront and defeat Sanctus. Had Sanctus had more time, he would’ve been able to tap into further powers.
6 Urizen: A Shadow Of Himself
Urizen was a force of nature, having had the power to deal with both Dante and Nero. While this sounds like reason enough to place him at the top, the truth is that his status as being half of Vergil means he’s not at the level of the original version.
Urizen ticked all the boxes as far as power was concerned, showing off incredible invulnerability and a devilish thirst for consuming things around him. He might have even been an entity to fear in his own right had he not been bound by his identity as a halve of Vergil.
5 Nero: Chill Out Little Dog
The only thing keeping Nero from the top spot is the fact that he doesn’t have enough experience. When we’ve seen him supercharged, Nero has been able to backhand Dante to submission and even beat Vergil.
His drawback is his immaturity and the way he runs his mouth. On the power front, Nero’s true devil trigger is the stuff of nightmares for his enemies, as no one has a clue how to answer it. Nero has taken down the biggest and baddest, albeit with help from Dante, and might be at the top of the list once he gains a few years of experience under his belt.
4 Vergil: I'm Nero, But More
The perfected version of Nero has to be his father Vergil. There’s no one who has exhibited the level of skill and finesse that Vergil has. Vergil is knowledgeable in all facets of demonic lore and tapped into his demon side long before his younger brother Dante.
On paper, no one should be able to beat Vergil, or even his corrupted form Nelo Angelo; however, Vergil’s fatal flaw has been his arrogance. He proved no match for Mundus due to charging into battle in a weakened state, and every time Vergil has lost, it has been because of underestimating his opponents. With the Yamato and a controlled mind, Vergil can beat any being in the universe.
3 Mundus: Mundus Is Dead, Long Live Mundus
How do you kill a being that can’t die? The answer is that you don’t. Mundus is still alive and out there somewhere in the Devil May Cry universe despite losing to Dante; he just can’t be finished. Mundus’ powers seem to be impossible to gauge, as he can even go all the way into space and beyond.
In his true form, Mundus is all-encompassing and can assimilate whatever he wants. Mundus has his own lair in the demon world because he would otherwise consume everything around him. He loses out on the top spot due to having no answer on how to beat Sparda and Dante, the only failure Mundus has ever had in his millennia of existence.
2 Sparda: A Mythic Legend
From what we’ve heard of Sparda, he never lost at all. His power and legendary status have been such that the people of Fortuna worship him as God despite Sparda having died some time ago. A slice of Sparda’s true form made Arkham the most powerful being in existence, which is telling as to how immensely powerful he was.
Using the sword Sparda (not to be confused with the person Sparda), Dante was able to defeat Mundus of all beings, attesting to what insane level of power Sparda must have been controlling. He doesn’t make the top spot because we’ve only ever heard of him and not seen him in action, plus he seems to have passed away like any mortal. But let’s not forget that every single powerful being in existence seems to have lost to Sparda at some point or another.
1 Dante: The Demon Man Himself
Of course, there’s no doubt that Dante has reached the point where he has surpassed his father. While Sparda defeated immensely powerful beings, Dante ended almost all of them. He has never lost in any fight or battle, and not even the demon world has been able to hold him.
Dante showed he was on another level by beating Argosax like it was nothing, toying around with Nero at every turn, vanquishing Mundus, and defeating Vergil every time it counted. Dante’s devil trigger is such that in his true form, he can achieve just about anything. Regeneration, flight, power amplification, and super speed, among others, come second nature, and he does it in style. Imagine how ridiculously powerful Dante would be if he did use all his abilities rather than joke around.