20 Strongest Adventure Time Characters Ranked Worst To Best

"Strongest" is a hard title to pin down in pretty much any context outside of a simple weightlifting competition. Usually, when we talk about the strongest characters in a show or movie, what we really mean is who the best fighter is, which generally serves well as a basis for these discussions. But in the case of "Adventure Time," that question doesn't quite work because not all of the characters that exhibit great strength (whether that be resilience, metaphysical power, or just good old-fashioned muscles) are fighters. Many of the most powerful characters in "Adventure Time" never really participate in any proper form of combat, but they have abilities beyond many of those who actually fight. Then there are the characters who do engage in battle but never use anything that we'd consider "strength," relying instead on their intelligence to create weapons, or their magical abilities.

So, in our consideration of the strongest "Adventure Time" characters, we're weighing a number of different things. Who would win in a fight certainly looms large, but there are other things like which characters are beaten but continue to return, which ones have the greatest powers (whether those be combat powers or not), and perhaps most significantly, which characters simply cannot die? It's a surprisingly high number. So with all those considerations accounted for, let's dive into ranking the 20 strongest characters in "Adventure Time."

Princess Bubblegum lands at the bottom of this list because she's probably the least naturally-gifted fighter, and she doesn't show many signs of great strength over the course of the show. She employs Finn and Jake to be her muscle in the Candy Kingdom and has a royal guard to help out as well. Still, Bubblegum deserves a spot here because of her intelligence and leadership skills.  She also develops elemental powers, but she never gets a great handle on them.

We see Bubblegum's mind at work during an investigative problem in "Sky Witch," when she examines Maja the Sky Witch's home to figure out where she hid Marceline's beloved Hambo. In "Adventure Time" episodes like "Varmints" and "Empress Eyes," we see the versatile weapons she's able to create to combat specific types of foes and help her more traditionally powerful allies. And in "Rattleballs," we learn that Bubblegum created a third kind of candy guardian — the titular Rattleballs — who were too strong and violent for her to keep around.

That kind of difficult decision-making also plays a role in Princess Bubblegum's placement on this list. She's an overwhelmingly kind and benevolent leader, but we see her make some brutal choices in episodes like "Rattleballs," and we know from episodes like "The Thin Yellow Line" that she's just as feared as she is loved by her subjects. Her citizens are deeply loyal and willing to go to war for her, as we see in "Come Along With Me," which certainly counts as a great form of strength.

Ice King has significant magical abilities that he can deploy in a variety of ways, but what makes him land so low on this list is that he consistently gets beaten by a human teenager with nothing but a sword and a strong will.

We see Ice King's skills in combat against Finn and Jake in many early episodes of "Adventure Time," including "The Chamber of Frozen Blades," where we learn that he's studied the ninja arts of "​​Fridjitsu" and is able to create ninja weapons out of ice. We later see him using ice powers defensively to block attacks from Finn in their brief fight at the start of "When Wedding Bells Thaw" and to deflect fire attacks from Flame Princess in "Frost & Fire." "Frost & Fire" also sees Ice King hold his own against one of the most powerful "Adventure Time" characters in his fight with Flame Princess, if only because of his ability to imbue snow with sentience for a short time to create snow warriors.

But despite all those abilities, Ice King is easily manipulated, as we see in "Prisoners of Love" when Finn is able to trick him into coming into the cell he's locked the princesses in. His gullible nature is also shown in "Empress Eyes" when, despite not being hypnotized by the Empress vampire, he still does her bidding because she's pretty.

Finn is a brave hero. He saves princesses, serves kingdoms, and always strives to do the right thing. But he's still just a human in a world full of magical creatures. What makes Finn land above Princess Bubblegum and Ice King isn't any special fighting ability, but his determination.

In "The Hall of Egress," we see that Finn doesn't give up, no matter how difficult a problem may be. In "Dungeon Train," Finn doesn't want to ever leave the train because it keeps offering him new challenges to overcome. Throughout the series, Finn is determined to learn more about other humans, as seen in episodes like "Susan Strong" and the "Islands" miniseries. And in "The Tower," Finn is so angry that he wills a new arm for himself into existence, using it to build a tower into space, punch his dad, and take his arm.

But despite this incredibly powerful will, Finn often isn't able to compete with the powers of the other characters in Ooo. In "Jake Suit," we see that Finn becomes much stronger when he literally wears Jake as a suit, as it grants him all of Jake's abilities and protects him. And in "Checkmate," we see how powerless Finn is against someone as strong as the Vampire King. Finn is a great character, and it can never be doubted that he's a hero, but he's also far from the strongest character in "Adventure Time."

Lady Rainicorn doesn't get a lot of time to shine in "Adventure Time," but when she does, she employs a wide range of powers in a variety of ways, easily earning her a spot on this list. Her tenacity — especially when it comes to her family –also counts for a lot.

In "Lady Rainicorn of the Crystal Dimension," Lady sets off after T.V. when she's taken to the Crystal Dimension by Lady's ex, Lee. Early in the episode, she tears a portal through the fabric of reality into the Crystal Dimension with her horn. It's an impressive display of power and one that doesn't even seem to be hard for Lady Rainicorn. Once in her home dimension, we also see her play intimidate an old friend in order to find out where her child is.

In "The Creeps," we see that Lady Rainicorn is able to fuse people into her body and then phase through solid objects like walls with them. This power comes up again in "Lady & Peebles" when she and Princess Bubblegum go on an adventure to save Finn and Jake, and she's able to use the ability to transport both of them through cave walls. And as we see in "My Two Favorite People" and "Her Parents," Lady can shoot a beam from her horn that can change the colors of things, in addition to being used as a potential weapon.

In Magic Man's first appearance on "Adventure Time" in the episode "Freak City," he turns Finn into a giant foot. We learn that he's also turned a number of other inhabitants of Ooo into strange body part creatures, so it seems pretty clear that he's a strong character from the start. Later, when Magic Man's powers are transferred to Betty in "You Forgot Your Floaties," we see these powers grow. Betty is ferocious in her quest to help Ice King return to his former self as Simon, and she uses her newfound abilities in impressive ways.

In "King's Ransom," we see Magic Betty work with foxes to steal Ice King's crown. It's then revealed in "Broke His Crown" that through this tinkering, Betty was able to insert an AI form of herself into the crown, and that this AI has been attempting to change the crown's wish magic. In the "Elements" miniseries — which she plays a significant role in causing (another sign of her power) — Betty sends Finn and Jake to collect the gems to unlock the Enchiridion's power. Her goal is to go back in time and stop the Great Mushroom War from ever happening — another ambitious idea that takes an incredible amount of power to pull off.

Of course, Betty isn't able to complete the time travel spell because Ice King messes her up. However, near the end of "Adventure Time," we see her and Magic Man — who has now become King Man (as the king of Mars) — work together to summon GOLB.

Huntress Wizard is another character, like Lady Rainicorn and others on this list, who doesn't get much screen time over the 10 seasons of "Adventure Time." However, she makes every appearance count. She's perhaps the coolest character in the show due to her laid-back confidence and her many skills, and she's certainly also one of the strongest.

We get to see her hunting prowess in action in episodes like "Flute Spell," where she helps Finn capture a wild thunder boar for its tusk, and "The Wild Hunt," in which she again helps Finn by tracking down the mysterious Grumbo. In "The Wild Hunt," we also witness her boldness in action when she throws herself in front of the charging beast — a decision meant to help Finn overcome the guilt that's holding him back from killing it.

But beyond being a great hunter and a bold ally willing to place herself in danger, Huntress Wizard is also a skilled combatant. She's first introduced in "Wizard Battle" as a competitor in the titular battle, and in "Come Along With Me," she's one of the allies Princess Bubblegum gathers for war. She even remains to help fight GOLB when he appears, further proving her mettle.

It might be obvious, but of course Susan Strong was going to end up on this list of the strongest "Adventure Time" characters. "Strong" is literally her name. Beyond that, though, we can safely say that Susan — also known as Kara (her original island name from before she lost her memories) and Seeker XJ-7-7 — is simply one of the most powerful characters in the show because of her literal strength. In fact, Susan may be the most purely strongest character in all of "Adventure Time," especially after her transformation into an even larger and more powerful version of herself in "Reboot."

But even before that transformation, we see Susan display great strength, both literally and metaphorically as leader of the Hyoomans. In "Beautopia," Susan enlists Finn and Jake's help in reclaiming the Hyooman's home of Beautopia from the evil Lub Glubs, and she shows great skill in fighting the creatures and before that exhibits incredible daring when she. And in "Dark Purple," we get to see even more of Susan's tactical, combat, and leadership skills as she and some Hyoomans raid the Super Porp factory to save an abducted baby.

The only reason Susan isn't higher up on the list is that she's only human — or sometimes a cyborg. She can't really compete with the more magically and metaphysically powerful characters higher up on the list.

Fern is essentially just a magically souped-up version of Finn, born of a merging of the Grass Sword and the Finn Sword as seen in "Reboot." At first, Fern is just Finn with all of the magical powers of the Grass Sword imbued into his being, as we see in "Do No Harm." Later, after Fern is transformed into the Green Knight by Uncle Gumbald between "Three Buckets" and "Seventeen," he's even more powerful. But it's not only Fern's physical strength and magic that land him on this list. It's also his cunning.

In "Three Buckets," we see Fern enact his plan to become the only Finn in Ooo. He uses Finn's trusting nature against him and is able to lure him to a dungeon where he locks him behind a stone wall. And in "Seventeen," Fern reveals his face to Finn in the middle of their arm wrestling competition to throw him off psychologically (which works perfectly).

Finn and Jake may be equally regarded as heroes, and as we see in "Davey," Finn might actually be even more popular. But when it comes down to it, Jake is the more competent of the two because of his stretchy powers and his resilience. The episode "Dungeon" in Season 1 even acknowledges this with a wink when Jake tells Finn that he won't be able to complete a dungeon without Jake's help. Of course, Jake then runs into his own challenges, like being asked to make a choice between weapons, spitting far, and needing to not get distracted by a laser pointer. As it turns out, each of the two needs the other.

There are also examples throughout the series of Finn and Jake fighting together where it's clear that Jake is much more capable. This can be seen in "Who Would Win" when they take on the Farm and are only able to beat it by fighting dirty and using Jake's stretchy powers. Then there are episodes like "The Limit" and "Jake the Starchild," in which we see Jake push his stretchy powers to the max, often at great pain to himself. This highlights his incredible resilience, which is also seen in "Jake Suit" when Finn wears Jake like a suit of armor against a variety of painful experiences. He even jumps into a volcano, but Jake survives it all, even if he does get hurt a lot.

In "His Hero," the first episode in which we meet Billy, he's described in a song as "the greatest warrior ever." We hear about his exploits, which include slaying an evil ocean, casting the Lich King down, saving a damsel from a Firecount, and also fighting a bear. Billy may not have magical powers, but of the non-magical characters in "Adventure Time," it's pretty clear that he's the strongest. After all, he's a warrior of legend who's considered to be the greatest ever.

And yet, despite having defeated the Lich in the past, Billy is ultimately killed by the villain, who then takes over his body in "The Lich." It's a strange thing to consider for this list, as being defeated by the Lich certainly counts against Billy. And yet, for an extremely powerful entity like the Lich to have specifically chosen Billy's body as a host emphasizes just how strong he is.

Beyond Billy's many exploits and his great reputation, his spirit persists even after his death and is able to communicate with Finn, as we see in "Billy's Bucket List." This is just one more sign of his strength as a character.

Patience St. Pim is the main reason that the "Elements" miniseries happens in "Adventure Time." She introduces the concept of elementals to the lore of the show, and she's also an incredibly powerful villain. When she's first introduced in "Elemental," she easily incapacitates Finn and Jake, showing that her ice powers are far greater than Ice King's. We also learn that she froze herself for thousands of years, exhibiting a strength of will that's equally impressive and frightening.

We see that strength of will and another exhibition of her ice powers in "Jelly Beans Have Power" when she attacks the Candy Kingdom with a weapon of ice so dense that it seems to be made of crystal. She's also shown planning out how she'll push the other elementals (Princess Bubblegum, Flame Princess, and Slime Princess) to their pure elemental forms. Ultimately, she succeeds, but not before harnessing the magical power of Betty, which in itself shows both her single-mindedness and her power. Patience St. Pim's strength and villainy are so perfectly matched that she's easily one of the most frightening characters on the show.

For casual fans of "Adventure Time," it may seem odd that Princess Bubblegum's butler lands so high on this list of the strongest characters in the show. But despite his adorable appearance and manservant day job — one he is deeply committed to — Peppermint Butler really is one of the strongest characters in the land of Ooo. He's not very physically strong to be sure, but he's a powerful magic user and practitioner of the dark arts.

We first learn that he may not just be a great cook and attendant in "Death in Bloom." Peppermint Butler opens a portal for Finn and Jake to the underworld, and it's revealed that he's good friends with Death. In "The Suitor," we see him summoning the demon Ogdoad, who he hopes to get the key to the Shadow Dimension from. When he's interrupted in this pursuit by a gumball guardian, it calls him "Dark One." Perhaps the greatest single exhibition of Peppermint Butler's powers is "Nemesis," in which he faces off against Peace Master using powers of parallel dimensional travel and transmutation.

All this power is the result of hard work and study, which we see emphasized in "Ghost Fly" when Finn and Jake call him to perform an exorcism. It's also evident in the "Stakes" miniseries when he offers the main characters not only an array of weapons, but also his knowledge of vampires, both of which prove to be invaluable.

Flame Princess is without a doubt the strongest of the elementals, even more powerful than Patience St. Pim. First off, she's literally made of fire and can transform herself into a giant raging flame, as we see in "Incendium" (her first appearance) and "Frost & Fire." In her fight with Ice King in "Frost & Fire," we also get to see her use a powerful flame attack that's basically a kamehameha of concentrated fire. And in "Vault of Bones," she displays the ability to create a small but extremely hot blue flame that she can wield as a sword or precision weapon. We also learn that she has a "heat sense" that allows her to locate things that are out of place based on their heat signatures.

While all of these abilities would already be enough to land Flame Princess high on this list, her power as a leader makes her even stronger. We see her care for her citizens in episodes like "The Cooler," where she calls on Princess Bubblegum for aid even though she doesn't quite trust her because she needs to do whatever she can to help her people. And we see her outsmart her father and his evil allies in episodes like "The Red Throne," but also show mercy for her father in "Bun Bun," emphasizing that she is strong but not cruel.

While some of the other vampires from the "Stakes" miniseries could arguably also belong on this list, the only one who has to be here is their leader: The Vampire King. Throughout the miniseries, his significant powers are put on display. These include telekinesis, which allows him to lift and choke other characters, as seen in "Vamps About," and destroy stakes being used to attack him in "Checkmate." "Checkmate" also shows us that he has the ability to teleport both himself and others, and that he can read minds and speak to people telepathically.

Vampire King is also an incredibly strong fighter, as shown in both "Checkmate" and the flashback Marceline has to their initial fight in "May I Come In." In the latter instance, despite Marceline having soul-sucked all the other vampires and absorbed their powers, the two still essentially come to a draw. It's no wonder that he's so powerful, though, as we learn in "The Dark Cloud" that he contains a potentially reality-altering amount of vampire essence. The titular dark cloud of vampire essence is then unleashed on Ooo and is only contained when Marceline sacrifices her mortality again to absorb it.

In addition to all his powers, Vampire King is also fearless and wants to face the unknown instead of simply repeating his past. "I'm not afraid of the unknown," he declares in "Checkmate." "My path runs straight into the void."

In Hunson Abadeer's first episode, "It Came from the Nightosphere," it's revealed that he literally cannot die or be killed. He's a deathless being, so that immediately lands him pretty high on a list of the strongest characters in the show. But more than simply being unkillable, he also displays a variety of powers over the course of the series, and his title as Lord of Evil and ruler of the Nightosphere certainly helps cement him as one of the strongest characters as well.

In "It Came From the Nightosphere," we see Hunson suck the souls of a variety of creatures who inhabit Ooo and grow to a huge size. He transforms into a different, more terrifying version of himself to better terrorize the land. He also shows Ice King a version of his face that horrifies the lesser villain. Hunson's soul-sucking abilities are also passed on to his daughter Marceline, who uses them to absorb the powers of the vampires she stakes, allowing her to grow even more powerful.

Marceline the Vampire Queen was born half-human and half-demon. Over the course of her vampire-hunting — both in the past and again throughout "Stakes" — she uses her inherited soul-sucking power to absorb the powers of the vampires she kills. Finally, she's turned into an immortal vampire herself after being bitten by the Vampire King (as seen in "May I Come In") and absorbing his pure vampire essence (shown in "The Dark Cloud"). To say the very least, she's got a lot going on when it comes to the "strongest" conversation.

Her vampire abilities vary greatly but are all useful to her in different contexts. She's able to fly and almost never fully lands on the ground, preferring to float, as we see in "Heat Signature." She also turns invisible in "Heat Signature," "Empress Eyes," and other episodes. Marceline is able to shapeshift — a power best shown in "Varmints" when she transforms into a wolflike creature and quickly learns to mimic the titular varmints and their abilities. To top it all off, Marceline can raise the dead to serve as her army, as we see in "Henchman."

The Lich is the embodiment of the death of all things, so of course he lands high on this list of the strongest characters in "Adventure Time." Yes, he's defeated by characters much lower on this ranking like Billy (as we learn in "His Hero") and Finn (in "Mortal Folly"), but because he's a cosmic entity, he keeps on returning even when he seems to have been defeated. This longevity also plays a major role in the Lich's high ranking here.

In "Mortal Folly," we learn that the Lich has incredibly powerful mind control abilities, which he's capable of using even when locked in amber — compelling a snail to break him out of his prison. In "Mortal Recoil," he possesses Princess Bubblegum and displays pyrotechnic abilities by setting her room on fire, which is unsurprising given his ability to conjure fire in his hands and use the flames as projectiles. This powerful combat ability is shown many times throughout the show, including in "Mortal Folly." Then there's his ability to seemingly suck the life out of any being, as shown when he kills Prismo in "Wake Up."

Even after the Lich is turned into Sweet P by the healing blood of the Citadel Guardians in "Escape from the Citadel," he still lurks within the child and can take over his body when Sweet P is upset, as we see in "Gold Stars." He makes a final return after the events of "Elements" in "Whispers," where he's only defeated by Sweet P, who himself is born of the Lich. Therefore, the Lich is only ever really defeated by his own power.

Like the Lich and Hunson Abadeer, Prismo simply refuses to die. It certainly helps that he's another cosmic entity — a Wishmaster to be exact — who's able to manipulate time and space so that when he does die, he comes right back to life. The complex time manipulations through which he accomplishes this are seen in "Is That You?"

Before we even meet Prismo, he's described by Booko, a hologram creature that pops out of the Enchiridion to explain dimensions. Booko calls him "almighty," and this seems to be true, especially given his power to grant wishes and manipulate space and time. These powers also combine to allow Prismo to create new alternate realities, as we see when he creates the Farmworld reality in "Finn the Human" and "Jake the Dog." Unsurprisingly, he's also incredibly smart and fully acknowledges that his wish-granting powers often work like a Monkey's Paw unless the wish is extremely specific. 

The only reason Prismo doesn't land higher on this list is that he lacks a corporeal form and exists only as a shadow on the surfaces in his time room, so he can't engage any of the other characters in physical combat.

Gunter is a veteran of physical combat (or at least violence), whether that be casually tasing Ice King and Finn in "Princess Potluck," breaking bottles in "Still" and "Reign of Gunters," or fearlessly slapping Hunson Abadeer after being named "by far the most evil thing [he's] encountered" in "It Came from the Nightosphere." Hunson's comment seems to be a simple joke, until much later when it's revealed that Gunter is in fact the cosmic entity known as Orgalorg in the episode "Orgalorg."

Orgalorg is feared as a god on its homeworld, and its natural form is a giant creature based on an alien from Tobe Hooper's cult classic "Lifeforce." In this form, Orgalorg can absorb the essence of other beings, including other cosmic entities, as we see in "The Comet." Orgalorg is essentially a Lovecraftian horror entity that exists as a being of such horrifying power and unearthly form that it's almost impossible to comprehend. And yet, when forced to Earth, Orgalorg is reshaped by the planet's gravity into the form of an adorable penguin who loves smashing glass bottles. But it's always lurking within that penguin, ready to take any opportunity to regain its power, as we see in "Hot Diggity Doom."

GOLB only significantly appears in one episode of "Adventure Time," but it's the extended series finale "Come Along with Me," so it certainly makes an impact. GOLB surpasses the cosmic entities that make up the last few entrants on this list and is in fact a deity. GOLB is the embodiment of chaos, GOLB is pure discord, and as Simon explains in a flashback in "Come Along With Me," its "presence is felt in every crevice where chaos lurks." A testament to GOLB's power is that the Lich refers to himself as "the last scholar of GOLB" in "Whispers," so GOLB is the ancient evil that the embodiment of all death worships and studies.

And while we certainly don't get to see all of GOLB's power — which to be fair might not even be possible given that it is so (literally god-level) powerful — we do get to see some of its abilities when it arrives in Ooo. It releases a gas that merges a number of Uncle Gumbald's cake warriors into a horrifying creature that's then able to add other living beings to its mass and create more monsters. GOLB is the ultimate antagonist of "Adventure Time" and is without a doubt the strongest character in all of the show.