Demon Slayer is a series that features a never-ending conflict between demons and humans that has been going on for multiple centuries. Within the anime, there are a collection of battles in which both sides have employed powerful techniques to gain the upper hand. While the demon slayers who represent the humans make use of Breathing Styles, powerful demons employ their special abilities called Blood Demon Arts.
Blood Demon Arts are signature techniques exclusive to demons that can be used once they reach a certain level of strength. They are strong enough to turn the tide of crucial battles and, most times, serve as a demon’s trump card. Over the course of the series, strong demons with equally powerful Demon Arts have been introduced, and this list features those that stand out as the strongest.
Updated May 25th, 2023, by Emedo Destiny: Blood demon art techniques are not always offense-oriented like Akaza’s, they can also be better suited for survival or be more practical, like space and vector manipulation. On some occasions, the blood demon art manifested by each demon is reminiscent of the life they lived as humans; mementos from their loved ones, breathing styles once used, and sometimes personalities. Blood demon art techniques can have more than one form of manifestation and can have subsets under the same general concept. The strongest demons usually have the best blood demon arts. Here are some of the most powerful blood demon art techniques employed in Demon Slayer.
15 Koketsu Arrow – Yahaba
Yahaba can manifest red arrows that seem to be invisible by blinking the eyes that are located on his palms. He can manifest as many as he wants and can move them in any direction he pleases.
With his arrows, he has shown to be able to control the vectors of his desired target and carry them in any direction, enabling him to slam people into the ground at vicious speeds. The Blood Demon Art can prove to be a big obstacle for demon slayers to overcome since the arrows are intangible.
14 Electrokinesis – Kaigaku
The Blood Demon Art of the New Upper Moon Six is perfectly in sync with the breathing style he employed while he was a demon slayer. It gives him the ability of electrokinesis and allows him to conjure and control lightning from his body. The lightning generated is stronger than Sekido’s and can burn the skin of its victims.
When combined with the five forms of thunder breathing, it greatly augments it and increases his range and hit speed, making him the strongest user of thunder breathing, and even the swift Zenitsu had a hard time keeping up with him.
13 Infinity Castle – Nakime
An unorthodox blood demon art manifested by the unorthodox demon, Nakime, the only demon with one eye, takes the shape of a dimension that contains a seemingly unending castle with infinite rooms and variety which Muzan uses as his base of operation.
Inspired by the human life she lived as a biwa player, she can manipulate and alter the space by strumming on her biwa. She can further attach herself to the infinity castle to give her easier control. Nakime can create portals to move people and objects within and outside the castle.
12 Pyrokinesis – Nezuko
As the main deuteragonist of this show, it’s only fitting that she has one of the most powerful blood demon art techniques. She can make her blood combust into bright pinkish flames, and unlike the rest, hers is harmless against humans and other objects and can only be used to hurt demons or things that contain demon blood; this was shown when her flames affected Genya, who eats demons even though he is a human.
Her flames have also been shown to deter the regeneration of demons, as Daki’s burn wounds did not heal quickly in comparison to the other wounds that were inflicted on her.
11 Blood Bewitchment – Tamayo
Tamayo’s Blood Demon Art is more suited to her pharmaceutical skills. She cuts through her skin, draws her blood, and uses the scent released to influence the state of her victims. She can create illusions and induce hallucinations that affect the eyesight of her target by surrounding them with flower patterns.
She can also imitate the effects of truth serum, making her targets more agreeable and gullible by decreasing their brain functions, making them unable to tell lies and keep secrets, as shown when she uses it to manipulate Susamaru to say Muzan’s name out loud.
10 Thread Manipulation – Rui
Tanjiro’s battle with Rui served as the first direct confrontation with a demon where the young demon slayer genuinely felt his life was at risk. This was greatly due to the strength of Rui’s Blood Demon Art, Thread Manipulation.
As the name implies, this Demon Art allows Rui to manipulate powerful threads capable of easily dismembering ordinary human beings. They are also powerful enough to break Nichirin Swords, weapons crafted specifically to counter demons. Furthermore, by infusing the threads with his blood, Rui is able to significantly increase its power, making it strong enough to overwhelm Tanjiro’s Constant Flux.
9 Dream Manipulation – Enmu
During his battle with the demon slayers on the Infinity Train, the demon Enmu wasted no time displaying the strength of his Demon Art, Dream Manipulation. With this Demon Art, he can manipulate his opponents' dreams after putting them to sleep using his primary Demon Art, Sleep Inducement.
What makes Dream Manipulation so special, however, is that it grants Enmu the ability to infiltrate his victims' dreams and destroy their spiritual core. By destroying the spiritual core, he essentially destroys a person's mind, making it extremely easy for Enmu to kill. Nevertheless, it can be countered if his opponent possesses immense willpower.
8 Porcelain Vases - Gyokko
The Blood Demon Art Porcelain Vases belongs to the Upper Moon Five, Gyokko, and involves many abilities facilitated by multiple pots with special properties. Using these pots, Gyokko can manifest fish-like creatures and abilities, which he uses to overpower his opponents. It’s not limited to that, however, as he can also trap humans in his pots and alter their shapes however he pleases.
Gyokko first displayed the power of this ability against the Mist Hashira, Muichiro Tokito. He was able to immobilize the young hashira and drive him to the brink of death. However, this was only possible due to his opponent trying to protect others. In normal circumstances, his Blood Demon Art may not be as effective, but even in the aftermath of the battle against Tokito, the Mist Hashira was overwhelmed and fell unconscious.
7 Obi Sash Manipulation – Daki
Daki may be the weaker of the two Upper Moon Six demons, but her Blood Demon Art remains a very impressive ability. Through it, she can manipulate floral patterned Obi sashes in many useful ways. For example, she can store countless numbers of humans in a long extension of her Obi, and can manifest a separate conscious entity by infusing it with some of her power.
During Daki’s battle against Tanjiro, she could already overwhelm him with normal attacks using her Obi. However, after recalling her offshoot obi, her attacks became even more powerful, slicing through and destroying multiple houses with little effort. In addition, she can give her neck the properties of her Obi, making it extremely difficult to cut through, as shown when it took the combined efforts of Inosuke and Zenitsu to finally decapitate her.
6 Emotion Manifestation – Hantengu
This Blood Demon Art was demonstrated by former Upper Moon Four Hantengu during the Swordsmith Village Arc of the series. It involves the manifestation of multiple powerful clones representing different emotions stemming from Hantengu’s main body. They each possess Blood Demon Arts of their own and can be identified by specific marks on their tongue.
The most powerful form of Hantengu’s clones is Zohakuten, the form representing Hatred. It is a combination of four other clones and possesses all their Demon Arts in one body. As a result, he can perform deadly attacks that combine his wood manipulation with powerful sound waves, dangerous special spears, aerokinesis, and lightning generation.
5 Blood Manipulation – Gyutaro
As the main threat occupying the position of Upper Moon Six, Gyutaro’s Blood Demon Art is tremendously powerful and extremely dangerous. With it, he can perform various attacks using blood from different parts of his body, and project them from his sickles as well. Apart from possessing immense destructive power, they are also laced with a deadly poison powerful enough to overwhelm the Sound Hashira, Tengen Uzui.
The strongest technique facilitated by the Blood Demon Art is Gyutaro’s Rotating Circular Slashes: Flying Blood Sickles. It is nigh-unavoidable and can spread over a wide area, also capable of destroying multiple structures and houses. It is a difficult Demon Art to fight against as it is powerful and can be employed in different forms, making it hard to avoid.
4 Destructive Death – Akaza
Incorporating his talents from back when he was a human, Akaza’s Blood Demon Art uses Soryu Style martial arts to compliment most of his attacks. Furthermore, he can generate shockwaves that pass through the air and inflict significant damage to his opponents upon impact.
However, more impressive forms of his Demon Art are Technique Development and Compass Needle. These abilities are usually employed at the start of battle and grant him extrasensory perception. They allow him to perceive his opponents and react to their attacks more efficiently depending on the amount of fighting spirit they possess. This Blood Demon Art was strong enough to kill Rengoku and simultaneously fight against an improved Tanjiro and Tomioka Giyu.
3 Cryokinesis – Doma
Doma’s Blood Demon Art allows him to manipulate ice and perform frighteningly powerful attacks with it. Though the power of his attacks is greatly enhanced by his Japanese war fans, his ice contains additional properties which make it lethal just to inhale. Doma’s skill with his Demon Art is also extremely impressive as he can perform various techniques that serve multiple purposes.
He can conjure ice clones that roughly share the same amount of power as him and perform the same abilities he can. He can also summon a massive Bodhisattva statue which possesses immense force and can emit ice from its mouth. Furthermore, he was responsible for the death of two known hashira in the series, proving the lethality of his Blood Demon Art.
2 Biokinesis – Muzan
Despite being the progenitor of all demons and the main antagonist of the Demon Slayer series, Muzan’s Blood Demon Art is not the most exciting. However, it is still extremely useful and grants him significant strength in important battles. The main feature of his Blood Demon Art is cell and body manipulation, allowing him to shapeshift and alter his body in various ways.
He can extend bone-like whips from his back which he uses to perform deadly attacks. He is also capable of growing mouths all over his body, and an especially large one near his torso, able to generate massive shockwaves that deliver significant amounts of damage to his target. As further proof of his Demon Art’s utility, he can cover himself in a mound of flesh resembling a baby, making him impervious to the effects of the sun while in it.
1 Crescent Moon Blades – Kokushibo
Kokushibo’s Blood Demon Art is special because it is the first case of a Demon Art being combined with a Breathing style. Regular demon slayers create optical illusions whenever they employ their different Breathing Styles. However, with Kokushibo, that illusion is reality, as he can inflict damage with multiple crescent-shaped slashes that can appear from anywhere on his sword.
These slashes are so strong that they can easily overpower multiple hashira simultaneously, allowing Kokushibo to sever Tokito’s left hand early in the battle. Furthermore, he can alter the shape of his sword as it is a weapon made from his flesh, permitting him to perform even more unpredictable attacks.