Yu Yu Hakusho-verse Strategy Guide

How to be OP in Yu Yu Hakusho

Local Scale Threat:

The characters in Yu Yu Hakusho, whether human, spirit or demon or some intermediary are designed in power by Spirit World in terms of Spirit Classes (S>A>B>C>D>E), each massively stronger then the prior spirit class.  

Local Scale Threats include the bottom two tiers. E Class beings include average inhabitants of the Human World and Spirit World, with some upper E tier beings include spiritually aware humans. E Class Demons are barely stronger then humans but are far more violent and uncontrolled. Due to how weak they are, E Class Demons are extremely rare as they would usually just be killed immediately by another demon. 

D Class Beings are superhuman beings, with even weaker ones able to easily tear through trees. Stronger ones like Saint Beasts Arc Kuwabara are able to act at speeds just exceeding the speed of sound. The weaker of the Saint Beasts, Genbu is at the top of this tier. Genbu is a Large Demon composed of rock. Genbu was nearly as strong as the very low C Class Byakko, the Tiger Demon, who could withstand being dipped in lava, and whose mere roar was capable of pulverzing enough stone that it would require energy over 1.3 tons of tnt. 

As such the power and speed limits are set at supersonic and building level.

Most beings of the verse are naturally invisible and intangible to non-spirits or spiritually aware beings which makes the very a bit tricky to fight. The invisibility itself is not a insurmountable challenge. Genbu himself was detectable by scent, usage of super senses or attacks with large area of effect should be able to counter the invisibility. The intangibility is harder, basically requiring some counter to intangibility or some level of spiritual awareness in order to counter. Should be noted that the verse itself has a lot of anti-invisiblity and anti-intangibility as well fittingly.

The humans of the verse use their spiritual energy "Reiki" and the demons use their energy "Youki" to accomplish their feats. This energy also allows for other abilities such as minor precognition, danger sense, energy aura and projection, and so on. Reiki also possess the ability to create spiritual weapons out of energy and Youki allows the user to infuse material objects with energy. 

The verse is dangerous not so much because it has one particular major strength (outside it's general intangibility and invisibility) but because of it's general lack of weaknesses. All the fighters in the verse are skilled to master martial artists. Their range is fairly standard for their tier, their stamina is relatively high, able to fight for hours even at this tier without problems. You'd think that energy-draining would be the go-to tactic to take their power source but they have vastly superhuman stamina and resistance to that form of attack meaning it's not really a weakness. The only thing notable at first is the lack of offensive haxes. Of course the way you'd want to exploit that is by using intangibility to take advantage of reliance on physical force, but of course the verse nulls that so that's not very helpful.

However watching the fight between Kurama and Genbu made me realize. There's another defensive hax. One that would work really well: regeneration. Kurama, only defeated Genbu by exploiting his weak point. Genbu's regen was almost unstoppable to this tier. A regen exceeding that, without a weak point, would be really broken. Which brings me to my first counter

Lust from Full Metal Alchemist. 

Lust was originally non-physical, being Father's Lust. While she was given physical form and is a physical being, her nature as a sin suggest she would be considered spiritually awoken and would be able to sense and affect the demons of YYH. 

Furthermore, Lust as the Ultimate Spear scales to the alchemical attack of Edward Elric which previously morphed an entire building but could not pierce the armor of Greed, while Lust could. She also scales to Edward casually dodging a bullet at close range. These two suggest she would have comparable to superior power and speed to this tier.

Lust as a Homunculus can regenerate from being blown up so long as human life energy is in the Philosopher's Stone, suggesting that the YYH-verse would have to kill her many times in order to permanently kill her.

She also possess a superhuman level of beauty and evokes desire and lust in others. This combined with her intellect and manipulative abilities would be extremely potent. This is because the amount of Reiki and Youki available to a being at any time is dependent on their emotional state, hence why it spikes when they are angry. If she makes them not want to fight her, their levels will weaken and she can slice through them.

The one potential weakness is if it is determined that despite her true nature as a sin, that she would not be considered spiritually awoken. Given her intellect and nature I think it's likely she would be able too, but next counter does not rely on that. That would be

sans from Undertale.

sans was fast enough that Genocide Frisk could not tag him without a surprise attack, even when he started attacking while sans was SLEEPING. Genocide Frisk fought and defeated Undyne the Undying, a vastly superior form of Undyne then Base Undyne who ran a distance likely above a mile and can do so in only a few seconds requiring supersonic speeds, likely over 2 times the speed of the Kuwabara's feat in the Saint Beasts Arc.

Powerwise, sans can tank the heat of Hotland which can evaporate water and a styrofoam cup in seconds requiring at least wall+ levels of force. However his raw power isn't really his most famous trait even though he is at a disadvantage.

sans naturally sees and can attack the SOUL of his opponents, which is notable in that it completely nullifies the advantage of superior durability, invisibility and intangibility. sans also has spacetime manipulation, which gives him an uncontested control of the battlefield at this level. He could teleport opponents into the way of his Gaster Blasters which would destroy the soul of any of his opponents before they could react, or could teleport himself or his enemy away. Even ignoring that he has telekinesis capable of moving his opponents' enemies messing up their attacks which are mostly projectile based.

sans also possesses a genius intellect and clairvoyance, which would allow him to know where any potential threat is at any point and bring up his astral bones or gaster blaster to hit them when they didn't suspect it. And to top it off, sans is a goofy pun-making normally non-threatening skeleton. It would be hard to quickly muster up the rage to kill him for most in the verse.

Also if his attack truly does damage based on Level of Violence, then it would be extremely potent in the verse, as violence and fighting is very common among especially demons, to that point that very weak demons are rare just because they would be instantly killed.

However sans could theoretically still get hit by stealth, if unlikely. There's one character I think would be an even BETTER counter.

Madame Xanadu from DC Comics.

Madame Xanadu scales to Nightmare Nurse, the two being roughly comparable DC Magic-Users. As such she scales to New 52 Green Arrow's Mach 2-Mach 7.5 feats as well as Nightmare Nurse's shield protecting against Dragonflame that turned trees to ash. This would put her roughly in the same range of power as the YYH-verse though faster.

Madame Xanadu is clearly spiritually aware and can see spiritual entities. She also has incredibly strong sealing abilities. She regularly sealed powerful magical entities. This includes even Azazel which, if it's the same as the Azazel in The Sandman is insane. Demon Azazel from Sandman was vastly above Universal Entities, was suggested to potentially be able to threaten Dream of the Endless in certain domains and was one of the three strongest beings of Hell.

She can also teleport herself across dimensions at will, which would be impossible to be followed for basically anyone in the verse. She also has spiritual banishing which would be really powerful against the Demons, as it would send them back to Makai, the Demon World. She also has a high level of fortune-telling and would no when a threat was going to appear.

Oh and also she can time freeze on a cosmic scale, and is immortal. Due to her deal with death, she can't be killed. The lack of offensive hax really means there is no other way to beat her for the verse outside maybe the Psychics, though she has outright better psychic feats then the psychics. 

Overall while Madame Xanadu fits best in this tier, but she's basically an invulnerable immortal who can know exactly what's gonna happen, and can banish any demon at will or teleport herself to an area away from any threat, or freeze time on Earth and Makai at will.

City Scale Threat:

The Next Two Spirit Classes would be at this tier. The C Class beings, like most of the Spirit Beasts and the average power level of Demons. Seiryu, the C Class Being was able to punch 100 times in a single second before Hiei, also C Class at the time was able to slice him 16 times before he could react. The Upper C Class Suzaku in his clash with Yusuke destroyed the entire large metal dome that he and Yusuke were battling under. 

B Class are far stronger then even that, to the point that Upper Class B Younger Toguru was able to casually flick air at mach 25 with massive force. B-Class Yusuke while wearing restraints inhibiting his power was able to shoot his Spirit Gun high up into the air in a timeframe before people can react requiring triple digit mach. While Yusuke was Upper B Class his Spirit Gun was powerful enough to rip up many kilometers of forest and ocean just by flying over head, requiring power in the millions of tons of energy.

Thus the limit is MHS City Level.

At this tier, most things suggested above still apply, though the range of powers grows and becomes more dangerous. The Most dangerous ability would likely be Younger Toguro's ability to august his body with his own Reiki to massively boost himself above 100% his normal power, as well as absorb nearby souls into his being (though this can be resisted by raw power somewhat comparable to him).

What weaknesses does this tier have? Same as before, technically they need to use energy to use their abilities, the demons are vulnerable to banishment and exorcisim. Also a bit unusual for this level of ability, outside of the Wind Demon Jin, nobody has the ability to fly. As such it seems like a good strategy would be the ranged bombardment strategy. Also while there is a large variety of abilities the cast has collectively, most characters only have a few signature abilities, so a highly versatile character will have more options in general. Combining these two weaknesses, my first counter is

Spiritomb (Mikaruge) from Pokemon.

Spiritomb was considered a massive threat for a non-legendary Pokemon and so had to be sealed away. This means it would likely be at least comparable to Tyrannitar who in a weaker form was able to destroy an entire mountain. Beyond that, far weaker Pokemon have reacted to the attacks of electricity type Pokemon, which would put him at MHS speeds. 

As a Ghost/Dark Type, Spiritomb is at massive advantage against ghost types, which would likely translate to having a large advantage against the spirits of the YYH verse. Beyond that Spiritomb can naturally levitate above the battlefield and rain down attacks from a far more versatile attack pool then anyone in the verse. Particularly potent is using Pressure and Curse to drain the life energy of the YYH verse, life energy being a third type of energy that maintains the life of the being. Spiritomb could also arguably drain that with the combo of Hypnosis and Dream Eater.

That said, Spiritomb could arguably get overwhelmed by numbers. For a counter that can fight the YYH-verse on it's own terms and still win I would suggest

Iron Fist from Marvel Comics.

Iron Fist's punch was compared to a Hydrogen Bomb and he defeated Radion whose power was measured in the hundreds of megatons. He can also dodge bullets in microseconds requiring MHS speeds.

Iron Fist can essentially match all the natural abilities of the YYH-verse, with chi projection, spiritual sensing, energy projection. He can flow his chi into objects and mimic the effects of demon energy and can create things out of his chi life spirit energy, albeit no one in YYH has ever created anything out of spirit energy as impressive as a DRAGON. However his martial arts skills are even better, having mastered every single martial arts. 

Iron Fist's most notable ability is chi manipulation. He has used this as a soul to recreate his body, which likely wouldn't be too broken in this verse as they can attack intangible souls, but what's more notable is he can affect the chi of others, either via pressure points or just directly. If he can attack their life energy directly that this would be a one-shot kill against anyone in the verse, and even if not, it would SEVERELY weaken them with any strike. 

He can also read minds and can actually manipulate minds with his martial arts, which would be insane in the verse. Hiei's Jagen Eye is so infamous specifically for it's ability to manipulate minds, yet it can be resisted via raw power. Iron Fist's mental techniques do not have this weakness and could be yet another form of one-shot against anyone in the verse.

There's also the possibility that in a verse full of powerful chi manipulators, that he could grow much stronger since by absorbing their unique energies, he may gain their abilities or just learn them via his raw skill.

While Iron Fist would be very impressive, there's one fighter who I think would be not stronger but even more impressive as his powerset is even more uniquely suited to fight the verse at this tier. That character is

Drizzt Do'Urden from Dungeons and Dragons

Drizzt in power rivals the Legendary Dragons who can create storms at will and even the Elemental Prince Imix who can turn an area into a desert with his presence, requiring city level power. As a High Level Ranger he has the ability to dodge the spell Call Lightning which would give MHS speed.

Drizzt as an elf naturally has superhuman levels of senses and grace. Beyond that his sword Vidrinath glows when danger is nearby, increasing his defense further. Vidrinath also has vorpal properties, meaning it automatically cuts off the head of beings it hits, which would be an automatic kill against anyone save Elder Toguro due to his regeneration properties.

What is really notably about Drizzt though is the other sword he dual wields, which is actually a sentient object with a desire to slay specifically evil outsiders...including demons, which a huge amount of the verse is comprised off. Both of Drizzt's swords without any boost would be one-shots against anyone in the verse, aided by his naturally adept and graceful combat style which would equal the skill and agility of the verse. Meanwhile his mithril armor would mean that it would be hard to counterattack or hurt him, especially as due to his elven heritage and his level of power he's naturally resistant highly to all forms of hax the verses possesses.

Also Drizzt has a super form known as the Hunter, a psychological state in which his inner rage and determination takes over, which would boost his power and speed beyond anyone in this tier, nevermind that due to his actual spells and spell-like abilities he has a versatility advantage as well.

Planet Scale Threat:

Above the B Class Beings are the A Class, including the strongest beings of the Spirit World, beings whose power resemble the mythological gods, who can create country level volcanic eruptions and are vastly more powerful then the B Class beings.

S Class is vastly above this. They are the beings from the Makai that Spirit World has no chance of containing. Demons consider the Spirit Class Ranking insulting as S Class contains beings that Makai consider footsoldiers all the way up to the Three Kings waged in hundred-year long wars for control of Makai. Low-S Class Beings can fodderize A Classes yet their power is inconsequential compared to Upper S Class Beings.

Range at this tier is Planetary as Low S Class Sensui was shaking the entire Earth with his power. Stamina is....well Upper S Class Raizan deliberately starved himself for hundreds of years without dying or even losing much of his power. In fact on his deathbed he was still able to contend with S Class Yusuke. Even Besides the Three Kings, there are other Demons of Upper S Class Power, like the friends of Raizen from deep in Makai who attended Raizen's funeral and were said by the other 2 Kings, Yomi and Mukuro to be comparable to them in power.

Trying to contend with this tier in raw power is generally a really bad idea as they as vastly above the baseline level. Really the tactics are generally pretty simple at this level; sealing or some form of banishment/exorcism is the best bet. It would also probably be best to have some level of manipulation as the god tiers of the verse include really really good manipulators like Yomi, the three kings also having engaged in a war over hundreds of years without one ever gaining victory via their strategies. My first counter is definitely a manipulator...of sorts.....that being

Vlad the .... NOT Vampire from Magicka.

Vlad is an extremely skilled spellcaster, able to briefly take on the great Grimnir himself. He scales to lower tier wizards able to react to lightning, and can put up a planetary forcefield to protect himself.

Vlad has described himself as having wolflike senses and so should be easily able to detect his opponents and simple magicka can turn opponents corporeal. This leads to Vlad's signature spell "Portus" which can BFR enemies into other dimensions or other times. He could use this to send any of his opponents into the underworld at will, or to whatever dimension he wishes.

Vlad is also immune to any magicka used against him, meaning he should be immune to most of the YYH-verse's haxes. He also has life mana and death mana which can hurt the dead and ignore physical durability to hit the opponent with raw entropy, ripping apart causation, which should be able to hurt even the Three Kings. Even without that he can also freeze opponents to delay them for a "Portus". 

Vlad is also seemingly not very threatening at all as well as a fair manipulator, manipulating long-terms events to his goals and should be able to keep up in a game of manipulation, buffered by his ability to astral project across space and time.

That said Vlad could get overwhelmed by the verse. For a similar character that wouldn't apply too I would suggest

Sorin Markhov from Magic: The Gathering.

Sorin is a Black/White Planeswalker, the two types of mana that especially excel at banishing and exorcisims or controlling of demons, meaning he could likely use the verse's demonic fighters own nature against them. He was able to create his own pocket dimension, the Helvault from part of Innistrad's moon, which he could bfr them too, and they would have no way to get out from.

In terms of power, Sorin was powerful enough to casually erase Avaycn from existence, who herself was powerful enough to overwhelm Jace and Tamiyo, two lesser planeswalkers. Jace was powerful enough to transmute a whole sea requiring country levels of power and reacted to lightning, showing that Sorin much like the verse has Country+ and MHS+ stats. Sorin backs this up with numerous forms of one-hit kill like death manipulation, brainwashing, turning people to dust, existence erasure etc.

Sorin actually has a range advantage on the verse as he was able to affect Innistrad's moon from the planet's surface, a distance likely around 384,400 km, the distance to our moon. Conversely YYH's best range feat is affecting all of one planet, which has a diameter of 12,742 km (though admittingly it was a casual feat).

Sorin would also be able to keep up with the manipulation game, being an extremely intelligent mortal with thousands of years of experience of battling other similarly powered entities in a mental battle.

However for a very different character, there's another....less intimidating character I would recommend

that being Fate Testarossa Harlaown from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha.

As an Adult, Fate is much stronger then she was as a kid, contributing to destroying Chrono's Eternal Coffin technique which had frozen a large section of ocean, calculated to requiring over 30 TERATONS of energy. She also the famously fast speedster of the verse to the point that beings with over Mach 1,000 reflexes thought she was a teleporter because they could not see her move.

Fate has a number of magical-auto shields that protect her from a number of magical abilities and raw force, up to and including the level and haxes used in YYH and even if they did get through that they auto-repair and she can heal herself.

She also has the ability to manipulate light and lighting energy in her magic to blind and shock her opponents with enough force to harm even the Upper S Class Beings.

However that's not getting into the really dangerous part. As a TSAB Officer, Fate has tracking and scanning capacities as well as sealing abilities that work on the dimensional level, allowing her to perceive past dimensions and launch homing inter-dimensional sealing spells that would absolutely counter anything in the YYH-verse. 

Even without that she has soul and spacetime manipulation capable of warping the battlefield and one shot-ing her opponents. She can also sense killing intent which Demons use to grow stronger as their Youki gets stronger via emotional state. While Fate isn't a genius level intellect, she is famously noble and would be hard to manipulate.

Fate would be at the level of an Upper S Class Demon, but can also one-shot seal beings with homing attacks from other dimensions, with a bevy of other helpful sensory and battlefield manipulation abilities so that even in an up close fight she would be able to trip up enemy plans and one-shot.

And that's how to be OP in Yu Yu Hakusho.