It’s one of my favorite battle mechanics in anime, due to its versatility and preference towards imagination and absurdism. So to put it lightly, this list was difficult. I’ve tried to find a balance between design and power to figure out my favorites throughout the whole franchise. I mean, sometimes a cool-looking Stand just doesn’t have an impressive ability, and vice versa. And one of the most fun parts of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is uncovering the mechanics of a stand… so a fair warning: full Stand spoilers for all parts follow from here on!
30. Stone Free
Stone Free is a cool looking Stand of humanoid stature wearing some equally cool sunglasses. It’s fast and strong, capable of packing a punch on its own. It can unwind itself (and Jolyne) into string, sharp enough to cut off a head. Thanks to Stone Free, Jolyne can use her body to weave a net, stitch wounds, slither through thin crevices, swing around (a ’la Spider Man), and transform into an infinite Mobius strip capable of deflecting other Stand abilities.
29. Kiss
Kiss is a short-range Stand with versatile capabilities. Its design is regal, gold and crowned and covered in stickers. Ermes can use Kiss to create one such sticker. When stuck to something, it creates a replica. If the sticker is removed, the two objects merge and cause devastating amounts of trauma and damage. Neat!
28. Doobie Wah!
Doobie Wah! is a unique Stand with an overwhelming ability. It resembles a small tornado, rapidly spinning around a tiny humanoid figure shaped like a genie. No matter the distance, when this locks onto a target the Stand will manifest through their breath. When the victim exhales, a tornado forms that grows with every exhalation. Escaping the wrath of Doobie Wah! is near impossible.
27. Sugar Mountain
Sugar Mountain is a Bound Stand fused to a gargantuan tree. At the base of its trunk are its human victims. It operates in three waves. The Trial of Avidity activates when an object is dropped in the water sources nearby. A Guardian then appears with that object, and two other rarer items, and asks you which was yours. If you lie: your tongue and innards are removed. If you tell the truth, you’re given the item you dropped in and one of the other objects. However, then the Trial of Avarice kicks in. You must ‘use/consume’ those objects before sunset. If you don’t, the third ability Guardian occurs. You’re absorbed into the tree and must wait in line to become the next Guardian.
26. The Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead may not pack pure strength or speed. But it does flaunt a horrifying ability. It can rapidly increase the mental and physical aging of organisms within its range proportional to temperature. The hotter you are, the quicker you age – all the way until death if you cannot stop it in time. It has no hands or mouth, and uses its massive arms to carry its eye-covered torso.
25. The World / Star Platinum
Star Platinum and The World are very similar both in their humanoid designs and abilities. They both boast incredible strength and speed statistics, making them combat intensive Stands. As such, they’re among the most powerful in the series. Both Stands can stop time for up to 5-seconds, though it’s very likely that training and honing would increase that limit.
24. Crazy Diamond
Bubblegum pink flesh covered in a pale blue Corinthian armor (and a design reminiscent of Star Platinum) makes Crazy Diamond one of the cuter buff humanoid Stands in the series. This, alongside its ability, reflect Josuke quite well. It possesses the power of restoration, capable of restoring objects to a previous state. However, it can also recreate things ‘incorrectly’ letting him manipulate materials and fuse items together. It also possesses great strength, speed, and precision stats. Unfortunately, Josuke cannot undo death or heal illnesses.
23. Made in Heaven
The third and final Stand owned by Enrico Pucci is one of the most powerful in the entire series. It resembles a two-headed, two-legged centaur, retaining a humanoid appearance. And it looks almost majestic, chromatic, covered in clocks and speedometers. Its ability permits Pucci the power to accelerate time at a rate nobody but him can keep up with. However Pucci’s real goal is to accelerate to the ‘vanishing point’ wherein the universe will recreate itself with only Pucci unaffected. Truly devastating.
22. Metallica
This Stand may look unassuming – small, metallic worms – but they possess devastating abilities in the right hands. It can control and manipulate iron through magnetism – which itself is powerful, until you consider the iron found in blood. Operative within 5-10 meters around Risotto, he can create razor blades and scissors in your bloodstream, de-oxidize you until you suffocate, and turn himself invisible.
21. Jail House Lock
Jail House Lock looks straight out of a horror game, with a fleshy humanoid body covered in red stitches giving off a Silent Hill vibe. Its ability is equally terrifying, for it causes the target to only be able to store three pieces of information in their short-term storage. As soon as a fourth thought occurs, the first vanishes. This makes them a creatively tormenting Stand that can play with its victims’ memory before execution.
20. Mandom
This Stand’s personality is embodied by its user. Ringo is a noble soul, who believes in telling his opponent the exact mechanics of his Stand before combat… Those mechanics consist of a time reversal up to 6-seconds. The reversal is instantaneous, with all memories and events forgotten by every member of the conflict. It’s a simple Stand that proves deadly in the hands of a sharpshooter with a strong resolve.
19. Gold Experience
Gold Experience (and Gold Experience Requiem) is indisputably the strongest Stand in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. We’ll get to why shortly, but first we have to go over its design and core abilities. It possesses themes of creation, regeneration, peace, and warfare through the scarab beetle / ladybug / wings / helmet motifs. It can transform inorganic objects and entities into natural formations, which deflect the blow of any attack back on the perpetrator. It can over-rejuvenate living beings, accelerating an enemy’s consciousness past the point of physical operation. Plus it can accelerate organic growth rates and it can heal by constructing artificial organic matter out of random objects (like turning a stone into a replacement eye). It can even detect life through the environment. And then, it gets even stronger. Once pierced with the Stand Arrow, Gold Experience evolves into Gold Experience Requiem – the most overpowered Stand there is. It can nullify anything, reverting it back to never having happened. It’s so powerful that even Giorno doesn’t know how it operates.
18. The Hand
The Hand is one of the most powerful Stands in the series and would be near unstoppable, were its user not a complete idiot. Whenever The Hand swipes with its right hand, it ‘removes’ whatever was in the swiping trajectory, fusing the two points on either side. He can effectively wipe out anything or anyone, except Okuyasu relies on simple combat tactics that can be seen coming a mile away. Truly, a tragedy.
17. King Nothing
King Nothing is a very weak Stand, not able to hold itself in combat at all. It can track a scent and recreate the tracked object and its path by assembling a replica out of jigsaw pieces. This Stand isn’t too powerful – in fact, quite a few perform similar, better abilities – but I’ve chosen him this high in the list for his design, and the way it manifests its power. Looking like a glowing jester, with a lilac body made of jigsaw pieces, King Nothing has an incredibly unique and artistic design I adore.
16. Bohemian Rhapsody
The Stand of Ungalo is more on an unconscious supernatural phenomenon than any physical entity. It manifests around the user, affecting fictional characters into the real world with a sinister twist. The target starts to see these manifestations, which proceeds to try and drag the victim into their world through enactment of their various stories. This is a hard one to explain. Basically, he can make Peter Pan come to life and kill you. That kind of thing. Absolutely mental, befitting the psychotic, drug addled Ungalo.
15. Awaking III Leaves
This Stand takes the form of an ominously floating hooded figure covered in rotating arrows. Mitsuba uses Awaking III Leaves to create little arrows. When attached to something, it will move energy to displace the surrounding vector space to propel it in the direction the arrow is pointed. She can even stack these arrows to multiply the force, making her a powerful Stand user capable of complete repulsion / attraction.
14. Vitamin C
Vitamin C is a terrifying Stand. It emerges out of the wall, hundreds of spectral tentacles attached with hands at the tips. It carries the same jester motif as King Nothing, representing his part to play in the story. It can leave fingertips that, when touched, turn organisms into a liquid state. It’s like you’re being melted, removed of substance, devolving into a puddle. When softened, you become effectively useless, unable to resist or move due to lowered cognitive faculties. Horrific.
13. Civil War
Weirdly mechanical, with a menacing, mocking, calm demeanor, Civil War has a very peculiar power. It can bring back anything a target has willfully discarded throughout their lives. Let’s say you threw away a present and afterwards felt guilty about it. Well, when Civil War activates its guilt materialization, that present would reappear in front of you – then try to merge with you. This ability extends to itself, as if it’s killed, it will be resurrected. It’s far more complex than that, but really that’s the gist. It’s a devastating power that can quickly overwhelm.
12. Killer Queen
As cute as it is threatening, Killer Queen is a disturbing Stand with multiple abilities. Firstly, it can create mini bombs capable of entirely decimating an opponent upon contact. Secondly, it can (when equipped with Stray Cat) fire invisible projectile bombs. Third, it can manifest mini tank-like heat detecting bombs on wheels that can deflect any magnitude of force thrown at it. Fourth, after being pierced with a Stand Arrow a second time, he reawakens Bites the Dust. This final and outrageous ability allows him to create a temporal loop (think Groundhog Day) keeping him safe through futile repetition on his adversary’s behalf. He’s a Killer Queen.
11. Paisley Park
Paisley Park is essentially “Google: The Stand”. It can manipulate and navigate technology to gather information and discover searchable targets. Its creepy feminine aura and distinct alien glow almost makes Paisley Park feel like an illuminated King Crimson. Though it strangely has a lot in common with its user, Yasuho.
10. Nut King Call
Nut King Call is covered in screws and separating slates, giving the illusion it might fall apart at any moment. This reflect its awesome power: it can create nuts and bolts on a target. When a nut is removed, the artificial assemblance comes apart and dismantles painlessly. He can also do the reverse and combine things together. It’s like a re-imagining of Crazy Diamond (but, personally, way cooler).
9. Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
The bunny resembling glamorous D4C is a cold humanoid presence that goes through two different forms. Despite having above-average statistics, it possesses an incredible power in the JoJoverse. It can travel parallel dimensions by being closed between two entities (underneath a blanket, behind a door) and reappear nearly anywhere else. Funny Valentine can then switch places with an alternate version of himself, and return with the memories of the Funny Valentine that left. In this way, he can consistently nullify wounds and actions committed against him by switching bodies. However, when in possession of the Saint’s Corpse, D4C evolves into D4C Love Train, a ridiculously overpowered Stand that can hide the user in a pocket dimension and redirect any misfortune to befall him elsewhere. This essentially makes him invincible as any strike dealt against him will instead affect someone unknown, somewhere unknown. D4C is one of the strongest Stands, and every fight with this ends up tense as all hell because of it.
8. Milagro Man
This is one of the coolest Stands out there. Basically, it manifests through an unlawful monetary transaction, and then overburdens the new user with cash. Money will multiple slowly, then quickly, then unmanageably, eventually suffocating the user. The only way to avoid its full potential is to either successfully return the money taken, or have it destroyed by someone else. It’s a fun & gimmicky stand that works based on human psychology – and the way it almost floats from user to user makes it more of a curse than anything. Really imaginative use of the Stand mechanic.
7. King Crimson
King Crimson is one of the most menacing Stands in JoJo’s thanks to its perpetually tormented faces and piercing green stare. This, combined with the fact Diavolo often speaks through King Crimson, makes him a maniacal monster of a character. His abilities are just as terrifying, as he has two: one that grants him the ability to see into the future, and another that allows time erasure lasting up to 10-seconds. Ergo, he can perceive coming events and then undo them before they occur. King Crimson is a powerhouse able to compete with some of the strongest in the series – it just works.
6. C-Moon
C-force has an incredible design, comprising of a skeletal chromatic, green and silver figure, with arrows pointing out of its shoulders. C-moon possesses three powerful abilities. It unconsciously accelerates the rate of time around him; it can invert whatever it punches (including turning your body inside out, reverse the flow of water, etc); and acts as the center of a gravitational pull covering a radius of 3km. So C-moon can become the core of any combat situation, making his enemies come to him against their will, waiting to land a devastating blow.
5. Catch the Rainbow
Catch the Rainbow is a ridiculously simple Stand that can be rendered completely useless dependent on circumstance. When it’s raining, it manifests as a mask for Blackmore to wear and gives him the ability to walk atop raindrops. Essentially, he’s given an infinite number of bullets with velocity and direction he can adjust. It’s got an awesome design – a sleek white façade imprinted with a rainbow – and is one of my favorites due to its subdued, practical design.
4. Heaven’s Door
Heaven’s Door is a small humanoid Stand resembling the main character of the manga authored by its user. In this way, it has an intrinsic personal connection with Rohan, literally being a manifestation of his artistic imagination as well as his soul. Many would suggest Heaven’s Door could be the strongest Stand in the whole franchise, were it not for the fact Rohan simply wants to draw manga and has no other ambitions aside that. It can turn a person into a book, letting Rohan invasively read every aspect of your being, and even make some adjustments. He can even use this Stand on himself and has proven to give someone the ability to speak Italian with a simple action. Rohan could effectively rewrite any character of plot point at any moment, and is clearly an extension of Araki as an author and mangaka.
3. Soft and Wet
With a design comprising mechanical and sailing motifs, you’d expect a complex Stand ability revolving around one of the two. Well, kind of… though we’ve yet to see the full extent of Soft and Wet’s ability. It’s got multiple complementary powers: bubble generation permits the formation of rapidly vibrating, rotating cords giving the illusion of transparent spheres – these ‘bubbles’ can lift things and deflect impact. When used in conjunction with its second power, Plunder, it becomes truly frightening. When a bubble explodes aside a target, it can steal a property – eyesight from an eye, water in a body, light from a lamp, friction from a surface, etc – allowing a versatility that mirrors Golden Experience’s creative capacities.
2. Sticky Fingers
Sticky Fingers is one of the coolest, simplest stands, with awesome appeal. Basically, whenever Sticky Fingers or Bruno punches, they can create zippers. Once unzipped, a pocket dimension is revealed allowing Bruno quick traversal, containment, or willful dissection. Essentially – he creates a hole through which he can travel or hide. The versatility of his Stand makes Bruno a confident, constantly threatening opponent no matter the circumstances.
1. Tusk
Tusk goes through four ACTS dependent on Johnny’s SPIN state, and whether he possesses a Saint Corpse part. In ACT1, it’s a small cute creature of odd proportions. It allows Johnny to shoot his fingernails like bullets and reload at a rapid speed. He learns to harness this power into a tracking shot. In ACT2 it gains technological aspects and resembles a machine. Tusk can now shoot more proficiently, with greater accuracy and speed and tracking. In ACT3 it grows to become a slightly more humanoid creature. Now, Tusk gives Johnny the ability of sucking his own body into a void by shooting himself with his fingernails. This wormhole grants Johnny interdimensional travel, but it is intensive. In ACT4, attainable only through the Golden Spin, it becomes a beastly towering humanoid wall of slates and clippings, held together with motifs of stars and an awesome color palette. This final form can create an infinite rotation throughout time and space, defying gravity and reason to force an endless Groundhog Day effect relative to the target. It’s what many of the stands of the first 6 parts were building up to, combining Bites the Dust, Gold Experience Requiem, and other overpowered Stands into a fathomable assault of the senses. Truly nonsensical. And I love it.
