History Main / PowerLevels

** The Anime/{{Pokemon}} anime has mentioned the numerical levels from the game in only two episodes. The show [[CanonDiscontinuity hasn't brought them up again since]]. It should be noted that in their brief appearances in the anime, the numerical levels are treated as petty, pedantic nonsense that a skilled trainer can overcome.

* ''Fanfic/ACertainDrollHivemind'': Misaka-11111's flatmates and their neighbors all have the same powers as the seven Level 5s, but far weaker. Aino Sumiko has the Meltdowner power, but she's level 1; she's often covered in radiation burns from her uncontrolled energy discharges. Abe Eiko has the Dark Matter power at level 1; she can create small objects with impossible properties (such as a magnetic coin that is not conductive), but she often misses details. Koizumi Kyoko has the Vector Control power at level 2; she can only affect the vectors of something she sees moving, as long as its not moving too quickly. And of course 11111 has the electromaster power, at level 3. The Network is split on whether putting so many espers with powers similar to the level 5s is an experiment on seeing how long it takes for them to murder each other, or on whether it is an effort to study the powers of the level 5s without putting the actual important espers in danger. Last Order, on the other hand, thinks that the researchers are playing a game where they try to "collect a full set" of people with powers the same as the level 5s. The Network dismisses this theory as ridiculous, but considering some of the things we've seen the researchers get up to, it's not impossible.

* ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex'' fanfics: Espers are classified as levels 0 through 5. Level 0 means having a power that is extremely weak or nonexistent - these are basically normal people. Level 1 means something like being able to bend a spoon with one's mind, but nothing more, and Level 2 isn't much better. Level 3 is when your power is actually strong enough to be useful in everyday life. Level 4 espers have tactical value as a military force, with some serving as part of law enforcement. Level 5 (of which there are only seven in the entire city) means having both massive raw power and fine-tuned control, to the point of [[OneManArmy being capable of defeating an army single-handedly]]. The gap between Levels 4 and 5 is far greater than that between Levels 3 and 4. Level 6 is still theoretical (though there are attempts made to reach it) and is implied to be divine in nature. Within the seven level 5's in the series, they each hold a numerical rank based on their strength, between 1-7:
** ''Fanfic/ACertainDrollHivemind''
** ''Fanfic/ACertainMagicalFriendship''
** ''Fanfic/ACertainUnknownLevel0''

* ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex'' fanfics: Espers are classified as levels 0 through 5. Level 0 means having a power that is extremely weak or nonexistent - these are basically normal people. Level 1 means something like being able to bend a spoon with one's mind, but nothing more, and Level 2 isn't much better. Level 3 is when your power is actually strong enough to be useful in everyday life. Level 4 espers have tactical value as a military force, with some serving as part of law enforcement. Level 5 (of which there are only seven in the entire city) means having both massive raw power and fine-tuned control, to the point of [[OneManArmy being capable of defeating an army single-handedly]]. The gap between Levels 4 and 5 is far greater than that between Levels 3 and 4. Level 6 is still theoretical (though there are attempts made to reach it) and is implied to be divine in nature. Within the seven level 5's in the series, they each hold a numerical rank based on their strength, between 1-7:
** ''Fanfic/ACertainDrollHivemind''
** ''Fanfic/ACertainMagicalFriendship''
** ''Fanfic/ACertainUnknownLevel0''

* ''WebAnimation/HoloChronicles'' puts an interesting twist on this trope, it that it's not reliant on StatOVision of any kind. Rather, it depends on one of the powers of [[WorldsStrongestWoman Sora Tokino]]. Namely, she possesses the power to summon up to 13 powerful spirits in the form of armored knights, each individual one capable of levelling a small country and the exact number summoned depending on the power of her opponent. Due to this enemy-scaling gimmick of her summoning ability, figuring out the characters' relative "power levels" is a matter of pitting them up against Sora and seeing how many knights manifest in response. Currently, we know that Roboco and Suisei could both bring forth 6 knights, while [=AZKi=] was able to make her manifest 8.

* The Website/SCPFoundation classifies anomalous objects, entities, and phenomena into object classes. In a subversion of the trope, an object class does not represent how ''dangerous'' an SCP is, but rather, how ''difficult it is to contain''. In rough order, object classes for [=SCPs=] that have not been neutralized include:

* {{Xianxia}}, in particular, the SpiritCultivationGenre of Xianxia, are arguably the UrExample in Asian Fiction. Generally, Spirit Cultivation is often seperated into realms, and depending on the work in question, range from basic martial artists that are closer to Real world people, and go all the way up to Immortal gods and beyond, with seemingly no end as long said story keeps going. More often then not, the levels of Cultivation are split into 2 categories, Ones inner {{Ki}}, and the physical body that utilizes the Ki. A lot of modern day FightingSeries owe their PowerLevel systems to these novels.

** Pirates and other outlaws are assigned [[PriceOnTheirHand bounties]] as a measure of their threat to the World Government and the world at large. Bounties are not strictly a measure of physical power, since what earns a bounty doesn't necessarily correlate to that person's combat ability. For example, individuals who possess knowledge and intelligence deemed dangerous by the World Government will be assigned a high bounty, with one such example being Nico Robin, who was assigned a 79 million belly bounty at the tender age of 8 years old. Despite not being particularly strong[[note]]she did have a Devil Fruit ability at this time, but she wasn't skilled enough at using it to justify such a high bounty[[/note]], the World Government put such a high price on her head because she is the only living person in the world that can read and decipher Poneglyphs. This clearly illustrates how bounties are not influenced solely by the individual's martial prowess. However, if the individual ''is'' strong, it will only serve to increase their bounty even further. There are just as many exceptions as there are examples, with bounties both over-estimating and under-estimating the real threat of the character. For example, Chopper was originally given a measly ''fifty belly'' bounty, because the government just thought he was the Straw Hat Pirates' ''pet'' and are apparently unaware of his fighting prowess and human-level intelligence.

** Child Emperor creates a machine to measure physical strength, hoping to use it to better quantify the power of a hero and the threat levels of the current rampaging monster or villain. At first, it seems to work, with higher ranked heroes being rated higher and civilians being rated low, but on the first field test, it quickly ran into problems. It can be fooled if different parts of a living being give different ratings, and cannot measure Saitama because he is too strong. It also only measures ''physical strength'' as defined by muscle mass, so it can't give accurate ratings for Genos, who is a cyborg, and Fubuki, who is physically weak but has powerful telekinesis. Child Emperor gives up on the device he made as a failure because of these problems.

** Pirates and other outlaws are assigned bounties as a measure of their threat to the World Government and the world at large. Bounties are not strictly a measure of physical power, since what earns a bounty doesn't necessarily correlate to that person's combat ability. For example, individuals who possess knowledge and intelligence deemed dangerous by the World Government will be assigned a high bounty, with one such example being Nico Robin, who was assigned a 79 million belly bounty at the tender age of 8 years old. Despite not being particularly strong[[note]]she did have a Devil Fruit ability at this time, but she wasn't skilled enough at using it to justify such a high bounty[[/note]], the World Government put such a high price on her head because she is the only living person in the world that can read and decipher Poneglyphs. This clearly illustrates how bounties are not influenced solely by the individual's martial prowess. However, if the individual ''is'' strong, it will only serve to increase their bounty even further. There are just as many exceptions as there are examples, with bounties both over-estimating and under-estimating the real threat of the character. For example, Chopper was originally given a measly ''fifty belly'' bounty, because the government just thought he was the Straw Hat Pirates' ''pet'' and are apparently unaware of his fighting prowess and human-level intelligence.

* In the ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'', most powers have defined levels, at least they're defined by the powers testing guys. And the authors even wrote a bunch of them up on the website. Power levels are more for the purposes of classification, and are known to be really deceptive, as they're very much descriptive, rather than proscriptive. Still, they're all WAY below Marvel or DC levels.

** Child Emperor creates a machine to measure physical strength, hoping to use it to better quantify the power of a hero and the threat levels of the current rampaging monster or villain. At first, it seems to work, with higher ranked heroes being rated higher and civilians being rated low, but on the first field test, it quickly ran into problems. It can be fooled if different parts of a living being gives different ratings, and cannot measure Saitama because he is too strong. It also only measures ''physical strength'' as defined by muscle mass, so it can't give accurate ratings for Genos, who is a cyborg, and Fubuki, who is physically weak but has powerful telekinesis. Child Emperor gives up on the device he made as a failure because of these problems.

** The protagonist, Goblin Slayer, is a Silver-ranked adventurer. According to the novel, Silver-ranked adventurers are trusted veterans who have built up their strength and reputation, and usually assume fthe role of leaders in adventuring parties. Usually, it's only Silver-ranks and below who are actually adventuring out in the field, as anyone ranked Gold and Platinum likely have more important matters to tend to.

** In the Kinnikuman 2012 manga series, it's revealed why are the Devil Chojin and Perfect Large Numbers are fighting against each other. It's for the latter's mission to preserve order to the Chojin World not only because of Suguru's Burning Inner Strength... It's also because of the PowerOfFriendship which affected all other Chojin he came contact with regardless of being Devil and Perfect!

* Done in every ''Anime/YuGiOh'' anime series, [[JustifiedTrope justified]] by the way the [[TabletopGame/YuGiOh actual game]] operates in real life, as well, though one has to wonder by what scale they're able to determine the Attack and Defense powers of the monsters... or their monster level, for that matter. It's said somewhere that the "average" monster has 1500 attack and defense power. ''Yu-Gi-Oh'' doesn't use exponential power growth like DBZ, making 9000 mean a lot even late in the series.

* In the lesser-known (but completely insane) anime ''Ai City'', power levels are displayed ''literally right on the foreheads of the psychics.'' They all have some sort of sub-dermal implant to let us see how charged up any particular person is. The protagonist, K, is only able to go up to "5" and that basically just gives him enough mind over matter to be really good at kung fu, while his female rival K2 effortlessly goes up to 20-something and can fly. On a couple of occasions when K links his mind with Ai ("I") his power meter goes all the way up to an infinity symbol.

* ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'':

* ''LightNovel/GoblinSlayer'' has the Adventurer's Guild ranks, which are named after the material used to make an adventurer's ID tag. They are, from the lowest to the highest: Porcelain (newbies), Obsidian, Steel (where they are no longer considered newbies), Sapphire, Emerald, Ruby, Bronze, Silver, Gold (adventurers who handle matters at a national level) and Platinum (adventurers revered as legendary heroes).

* ''LightNovel/ThatTimeIGotReincarnatedAsASlime''

* ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'' fanfics: Espers are classified as levels 0 through 5. Level 0 means having a power that is extremely weak or nonexistent - these are basically normal people. Level 1 means something like being able to bend a spoon with one's mind, but nothing more, and Level 2 isn't much better. Level 3 is when your power is actually strong enough to be useful in everyday life. Level 4 espers have tactical value as a military force, with some serving as part of law enforcement. Level 5 (of which there are only seven in the entire city) means having both massive raw power and fine-tuned control, to the point of [[OneManArmy being capable of defeating an army single-handedly]]. The gap between Levels 4 and 5 is far greater than that between Levels 3 and 4. Level 6 is still theoretical (though there are attempts made to reach it) and is implied to be divine in nature. Within the seven level 5's in the series, they each hold a numerical rank based on their strength, between 1-7:

* Justified in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight''; a status screen a la TabletopRPG is how Shirou is able to rank the abilities of each Servant. For each stat, (STR, END, AGI, MAG, LUK, Noble Phantasm) a letter from E to A is assigned, and a + marker is assigned for those stats which can be boosted depending on the circumstance. It is also noted that E-rank is already far beyond what a normal human could ever achieve. This same ranking system is also used for the Noble Phantasms. In addition, the Noble Phantasms are assigned a type depending on how much damage they can deal, from Anti-Personnel to Anti-World (in one case), or even Anti-God (in ''LightNovel/FateApocrypha'').

* ''ComicBook/{{Powers}}'', where ordinary detectives investigate superpowered crimes, has a rough and not very well defined set of power levels from 1-10 to identify how strong a SuperHero or villain is. The Franchise/{{Superman}} {{Expy}} is ranked as a 10, but only because the entire world would be horrified to find out that ''they have no way of classifying the upper limit of his power.'' [[spoiler:Especially when he has a mental breakdown.]]

** Speaking of Moria, he is a perfect example of why you can't use bounties as an indicator of strength. Of the Warlords [[spoiler:prior to the TimeSkip]], his former bounty was the second highest, right after Doflamingo. Throughout the Paramount War, however, it became explicitly clear that of the Warlords, he was the ''weakest'' one. This was due to the fact that during the intervening years between his defeat at the hands of Kaido and the present time, he let himself go and suffered major BadassDecay, [[spoiler:all of which eventually got him kicked out of the group]]. In general, a Warlord's bounty is a poor indicator of their strength because it's frozen at the time of their induction and doesn't take into account whether they got stronger or weaker since then. The best example is Boa Hancock who, despite having the lowest bounty (80 millions) of all the Warlords, is far stronger than Moria.

* ''Manga/ShamanKing'' has furyoku levels - Horo Horo's is just under 10,000, while the BigBad, Hao's is over 1.25 million. Even after [[TookALevelInBadass taking numerous levels in badass,]] most of the main characters are hovering around a few hundred thousand. Hao gets comparatively stronger. The characters acknowledge just how broken this is, and the story becomes less a matter of beating Hao, but of [[spoiler: waiting till Hao wins and then killing him before he becomes God.]]

** Speaking of Moria, he is a perfect example of why you can't use bounties as an indicator of strength. Of the Warlords [[spoiler:prior to the TimeSkip]], his former bounty was the second highest, right after Doflamingo. Throughout the Paramount War, however, it became explicitly clear that of the Warlords, he was the ''weakest'' one. This was due to the fact that during the intervening years between his defeat at the hands of Kaido and the present time, he let himself go and suffered major BadassDecay, [[spoiler:all of which eventually got him kicked out of the group]]. In general, a Warlord's bounty is a poor indicator of their strength because it's frozen at the time of their induction and doesn't take into account whether they got stronger or weaker since then.

Some works can use StatOVision to record [[TheForceIsStrongWithThisOne or sense]] the magnitude of [[MyKungFuIsStrongerThanYours a character's strength]], to [[SuperWeight an exact number]]. [[NotDrawnToScale Units are rarely included]], though -- it's senseless enough as it is. In any case, this is mildly useful for comparisons, until [[SortingAlgorithmOfEvil said levels start getting silly]] and are dropped altogether, never to be mentioned again.

** WordOfGod has also clarified one doesn't necessarily have to ''do'' anything in order to gain a bounty or a bounty increase; simply serving underneath someone notorious may warrant such. Including the previously mentioned example of Chopper gaining a bounty just for being the Straw Hats' pet, Sanji was given a 100 million belly bounty increase simply for being a member of the Straw Hat crew after the events of Dressrosa, not because he actively participated in the battle. An Emperor's top fighters also have enormous bounties in part ''because'' they are an Emperor's top fighters, not just because they're powerful. And finally, ''the'' biggest threat the World Government faced in the past, [[spoiler:PredecessorVillain Rocks D. Xebec]], never had a bounty of any kind at all, because even ''acknowledging he existed'' is too dangerous to the World Government.
** An organization like the Marines will assign military ranks to each of its members, which serve as general indicators of their competence. The higher the rank, the more capable the individual. This is clearly illustrated with the Marine Admirals. Possessing the second highest rank in the Marines, the Admirals are some of the strongest and most fearsome characters in the One Piece world. However, on very rare occasions, a marine's rank is not a good indicator of strength. Like any formal organization, it's possible for any member to voluntarily decline a promotion to a higher rank, despite being qualified. Therefore, it is entirely possible that an otherwise powerful Marine would willingly stay at a lower rank. This is very rare, with the only known example being Monkey D. Garp, who has declined the promotion to Admiral multiple times, choosing to stay as a Vice Admiral. Additionally, current Vice Admiral Smoker was severely under-ranked at the beginning of the series, being a mere Captain. While he has been gaining promotions over the course of the series, he didn't become a Vice Admiral until after the TimeSkip.
** Additionally, some bad guy groups have group-specific power level-like ways of demonstrating their strength relative to one another, such as [=CP9's=] Douriki. The Douriki is pretty much a straight example, which was used during the [=CP9=] arc to rank the members of that storyline's QuirkyMinibossSquad. For a scale comparison, the average soldier has a rating of 10, and anyone above 500 is essentially superhuman. [[TheDragon CP9's strongest member]], Rob Lucci, had a rating of 4000 (nearly double that of the next two below him, Kaku and Jyabura who had 2200 and 2180 respectively). Afterward, Douriki was never mentioned again, on account of it being specific to [=CP9=]. Amusingly, the dub outright calls it power levels, including a not-so-subtle "Over 9000" reference.[[note]] Meanwhile, the boss of [=CP9=], Spandam, is said to have a Douriki of 9, making him weaker than the average mook. However, he has a devil fruit-powered sword, so he is not completely defenseless.[[/note]]
** Other examples include the numbering system for Gecko Moria's zombies, who were numbered based on what category they fell into, and Baroque Works, whose top six agent pairs were ranked in overall power with 5 being weakest and zero being strongest. Also, there were the percentage-based survival rates for the Upperyard Priests' ordeals during the Skypeia arc.

** Registered heroes within the Hero Association are measured in classes and ranks. The classes are, from lowest to highest, C, B, A, and S. Within each class, heroes still hold individual numbered ranks. The series subverts this, though: Genos is a genuinely talented S-class hero, while Saitama, who is infinitely more powerful than Genos, is relegated to C-class because of his poor performance on the written portion of his entrance exam. In practice, a hero's rank is determined based on combat ability, defeating monsters and other evildoers, contributing to society (like helping people), and popularity. Based on the latter two criteria, Saitama remains a class C hero for a long time because his superhero presentation is very poor.

*** It tried to defy this a little bit by having something called "Level X" which can't be definitively measured and has the capacity to be infinite. Despite being introduced like it was going to be a really big deal, not a lot was done with it, and the main Rider who used such a level, Genm, was demonstrably overpowered again and again by other Riders who ''did'' have numerical levels or whose powers were specifically created to outclass everything else in the show at the point they were introduced. One of the epilogue movies got a little silly with it, with Genm creating a form he claimed was "Level Billion", but he was opposed by one of the heroes with a new Level X form.

* The Wiki/SCPFoundation classifies anomalous objects, entities, and phenomena into object classes. In a subversion of the trope, an object class does not represent how ''dangerous'' an SCP is, but rather, how ''difficult it is to contain''. In rough order, object classes for [=SCPs=] that have not been neutralized include:

** An organization like the Marines will assign military ranks to each of its members, which serve as general indicators of their competence. The higher the rank, the more capable the individual. This is clearly illustrated with the Marine Admirals. Possessing the second highest rank in the Marines, the Admirals are some of the strongest and most fearsome characters in the One Piece world. However, on very rare occasions, a marine's rank is not a good indicator of strength. Like any formal organization, it's possible for any member to voluntarily decline a promotion to a higher rank, despite being qualified. Therefore, it is entirely possible that an otherwise powerful Marine would willingly stay at a lower rank .This is very rare, with the only known example being Monkey D. Garp, who has declined the promotion to Admiral multiple times, choosing to stay as a Vice Admiral. Additionally, current Vice Admiral Smoker was severely under-ranked at the beginning of the series, being a mere Captain. While he has been gaining promotions over the course of the series, he didn't become a Vice Admiral until after the TimeSkip.

*** It tried to defy this a little bit by having something called "Level X" which can't be definitively measured and has the capacity to be infinite. Despite being introduced like it was going to be a really big deal, not a lot was done with it, and the main Rider who had such a level, Genm, was demonstrably overpowered by other Riders who ''did'' have numerical levels or whose powers were specifically created to outclass everything else in the show at the point they were introduced. One of the epilogue movies got a little silly with it, with Genm creating a form he claimed was "Level Billion", but he was opposed by one of the heroes with a new Level X form.

** The franchise typically provides data for the abilities of each Rider, such as how hard they can punch and kick[[note]]Which is measured in "tons", as in "X tons of TNT exploding"[[/note]], how fast they can run the 100-meter dash, how high they can jump, and other similar statistics. The stats are a measure of raw ability, completely disregarding outside elements like unique powers and equipment; for example, Series/KamenRiderKabuto has a SuperSpeed ability that lets him move at nearly the speed of light, but his 100-meter dash rating ignores this and is based entirely on normal running speed (enhanced by the suit, of course). The numbers don't actually have any bearing on what the characters are capable of in the shows and sometimes they're patently absurd, as seen with the memetic example of [[Series/KamenRiderExAid Kamen Rider Poppy]] (a JokeCharacter with DatingSim powers) having higher stats than [[spoiler:Series/KamenRiderGaim's final form [[SuperMode Kiwami Arms]]]] (who is quite literally a PhysicalGod).

* In ''Literature/TheBartimaeusTrilogy'', demons are ranked in ascending order of power as imps, foliots, djinn, afrits, or marids. Below the imps are even less powerful spirits called mites that magicians usually don't bother with, and above the marids are great entities of godlike power that are considered too dangerous to summon. Within those categories, spirits are further classified with a numeric power level; Bartimaeus is a "fourth-level" [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness (or "fourteenth-level")]] djinni, which means he is right in the middle of the pack, power-wise. This is a downplayed example though, because no other character's level is ever given and it never really impacts the plot at all.

* In ''Literature/TheBartimaeusTrilogy'', demons are ranked in ascending order of power as imps, foliots, djinn, afrits, or marids. Below the imps are even less powerful spirits called mites that magicians usually don't bother with, and above the marids are powerful entities of godlike power that are considered too dangerous to summon. Within those categories, spirits are further classified with a numeric power level; Bartimaeus is a "fourth-level" [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness (or "fourteenth-level")]] djinni, which means he is right in the middle of the pack, power-wise. This is a downplayed example, though, because no other character's level is given and it never really impacts the plot at all.