Slayers 2 Tier List

Ranked on the post-balance-change version · Checked September 23, 2026. Breathing styles, Blood Demon Arts and weapons are ranked from published post-patch rankings, taken from text sources and cross-read against a third-party wiki's ability list. This page carries no video-only claims.

Breathing style tier list

Ranked on realistic damage windows, combo reliability, guard pressure, mobility, defensive tools, resource cost and how well the style carries across PvE and PvP.

Why

• Flame (S) — the safest all-round pick. Its counter now answers skills as well as M1s, its X reaches farther, and the held V starts faster. Best paired with Rengoku.
• Wind (S) — the combo specialist. Faster Z, X and C startups, an X that extends combos, and a V that no longer launches the opponent away. Best paired with Shinazugawa.
• Thunder, Stone, Water, Sound, Serpent (A) — a crowded tier. Water made the biggest climb thanks to a strict-stun X extension, an immediate held X, a faster Water Wheel tap and armour on the held version. Thunder is still dangerous but has a slower Z and a perfect-blockable X. Sound lost much of its guard pressure and loses range and group value on its grab. Stone gained a second-hit guardbreak and an armoured ultimate, but its counter returns less often. Serpent is strong but has shorter range.
• Insect (B) — dropped after trading i-frames for armour, losing its strict-stun confirm and picking up heavier stamina and cooldown constraints. Still the right style for a Kocho Poison build.

Blood Demon Art tier list

Why

• Shockwave (S) — projectile impact now applies strict stun, its barrages can be steered, its counter breaks hyper armour and buffs Z/C, and its slam gains armoured tap-and-hold options.
• Ice Manipulation (S) — received no direct change and stays the broader area-control alternative.
• Blood Manipulation (A) — dropped after losing 35% V damage, its V strict stun, X's final-hit guardbreak and some cooldown efficiency.
• Pyrokinesis / Obi Manipulation (A) — both improved: Pyrokinesis through tracking and steering; Obi gained 10% kit damage, armour on Z and a V guardbreak. Dream Manipulation gained homing ranged orbs.
• Arrow (B) — improved but stays B. Tamari (C) — remains the least consistent art.
• Reaper — kept in the comparison for existing readers, but the balance notes classify Reaper as a Fighting Style rather than a Blood Demon Art.

Keep clan effects separate from the art. Shabana's party bonuses can support a Demon build, but they are clan skills, not innate Blood Manipulation abilities.

Weapon tier list

• Claws and Scythe lead after major buffs: Claws' Z gained 35% damage, Scythe's Z gained a substantially larger hitbox, and the third hit of its X gained strict stun.
• The middle of the list is close: Bladed Wagasa, Gauntlets and Spear gained faster or harder-to-interrupt attacks; Tanto's faster Z is offset by losing projectile-throw i-frames; Sickles and War Fans lost some of their easiest confirms; Cutlass took direct damage and cooldown nerfs.
• Axe and Mace gains 10% M1 damage but attacks 15% more slowly. Hyper armour prevents interruption, not damage, so the Spear and Shotgun changes are not automatic wins in every trade.
• This weapon ranking is more provisional than the other three lists — several matchups and build requirements still lack comparable testing, which is why two weapons are left explicitly unranked.

How this ranking was built

• Judge the build, not the element. An S-tier clan does not make every build S tier: some bonuses only fire for a particular style, party, mode, weapon or successful counter.
• PvE vs PvP priorities differ. For PvE, value repeatable damage, area coverage and enough stamina to survive a boss after your rotation. For PvP, learn the difference between strict stun and normal stun, i-frames and hyper armour, and true guardbreaks versus ordinary guard damage.
• Guardbreak detail: once guardbreak stun ends, guard starts recharging from 25%; another hit cancels the recharge.
• A staggered start is normal. High-tier clans are usually paired with breathing styles that were also buffed in the same patch, so chasing a famous surname without the matching style can be a downgrade.

All breathing styles and how to get them

Slayers 2 launches with 8 breathing styles. Each one gives you a set of 5 abilities (Z, X, C, V, B) that combo into each other; each style also has one cutscene finisher. Once you learn a style, its moves are available to you directly — there is no separate training bar to fill.

How you unlock a breathing style

1. Unlock double jump and wall climb in your skill tree first — the Serpent and Thunder trainer routes are unreachable without them, and you need the skill points for it.
2. Find the style's trainer NPC and talk to them (see the table above for where each one stands).
3. Complete the trainer's quest chain. Each style is gated behind a series of quests; finishing them grants the style, and progressing further unlocks each of its skills.
4. Equip a weapon that works with the style and check the tier list above for whether the pairing is worth it.

Demon Horns

Demon Horns are a progression material — players need them for breathing-style unlocks and other upgrades.

An efficient loop: clear the demons inside the waterfall, then kill Hozu when he is up, then go back to the demons while the boss respawns. Community walkthroughs describe repeating this until you have around 10 Demon Horns, which is the amount those guides treat as the working target.

← Swipe wide tables to compare all columns →