Summary
TheDarksidersgames are quite a treat to play. Not only are they incredibly fun action-adventure games with a focus on high-octane combat and puzzle solving, but they’re also some of the most intricate representations of the Four Horseman out there. Death, Fury, Strife, and War are the Four Horsemen of the apocalypse, and as they govern different aspects of the apocalypse, people who use these characters in their story have a lot of freedom to design these characters in incredibly unique ways that make them stand out. For example, Death is typically designed as a sort of Grim Reaper, War can often share a lot of similarities to how a character like Ares is shown in most media, Strife (also known as Pestilence) is often shown as a chaotic character or a sickly schemer, and Fury (also known as Conquest) is often shown as a fiery and bloodthirsty marauder.
The representations of the Four Horsemen in theDarksidersgames are especially unique, as we get to see the individual personalities and journies of each of the Horsemen, and we experience their combat abilities firsthand. With that in mind, in this specific setting, whichDarksiderHorseman is the strongest overall? Let’s take a look at each one individually, go over the abilities they’ve shown in their games, and rank them in terms of power from weakest to strongest.
First up is Strife, the Horsemen who got their own game the last and sadly the one who ends up last in this list of rankings for a variety of reasons. Strife is essentially the middle child of the Horsemen, seemingly in between Fury and War in terms of age, and is the only Horsemen whose primary weapon isn’t a melee one. Instead, Strift uses Mercy and Redemption, two revolver-style pistols with the ability to fire all kinds of different elemental ammunition infused with Strife’s own brand of magic. However, this doesn’t mean that Strife is out of luck if an enemy gets close to him, as he also has dual (unnamed) sabers he uses at close range. Still, in comparison to the rest of his siblings, it seems that Strife specializes more in dexterity and speed than he does in strength or endurance. To put it another way, War is essentially a strength build, Death is a quality build (aka an ‘across the board’ build) with a focus on Strength and Intelligence, Fury is a mage or spellblade build (AKA intelligence primary and strength/dexterity secondary), and Strife is a dexterity build.
This is all to say that, if the competition was to see how ‘fast’ the siblings could take out a group of enemies in front of them, Strife would almost assuredly win. But, if the competition was between siblings to see who was the strongest, Strife would likely lose as soon as any of his siblings managed to close the distance between them. This also takes Strife’s own super form into account, which is his Anarchy Form, and his Anarchy Form seems to be the most visually interesting but the least capable in comparison to the other Horsemen transformations. This must all be taken with a grain of salt, however, as Strife unfortunately did not getthe same treatment with his own gameas his other three siblings. Where War, Death, and Fury all had their own third-person action games,Darksiders: Genesisin which Strife was the lead was a twin-stick shooter which ended up not showing off his prowess or abilities nearly as well as a third-person action game would have.
Next up is Fury, the hot-headed sister of the other three Horsemen. If War could be described as a fighter who specialized a bit too much in the physical side of his build (and not the magical), and Death could be described as well-balanced, then Fury would be described as a fighter with a bit too much stake in her magical abilities. Fury describes herself as a blade mage, using a combination of her Bladed Whip (known as Scorn), her magic, and her Arcane Counters to accurately read and react to her opponent’s attacks (this fighting style is also likelydue toDarksiders 3being a Soulslike).
Like Death, Fury has very strong telekinetic abilities which she uses both in combat and out of itto solve puzzles in her game(AKADarksiders 3). In her pursuit of the Seven Deadly Sins, Fury acquires a whole host of new magical abilities including fire magic, force magic, wind magic, electricity magic, and even time magic, proving that Fury puts a bit more focus into her magical abilities than her physical ones. This isn’t to say that Fury isn’t more than a capable fighter in combat, she absolutely is, and when in her Havoc Form she can even use dual whips as well as her elemental magic abilities to absolutely lay waste to any enemies in her path. InDarksiders 3,Fury starts the game with essentially all of her abilities intact, so she seems a lot more powerful than her siblings in comparison. However, based on in-game lore and conversations, it’s likely that both Death and War would still overshadow her in a fight, though her new magical powers gained inDarksiders 3might ‘even the odds’ a bit more than one might expect.
In all honesty, the four Horsemanin theDarksidersuniverseare all within the same sort of ‘realm’ of power when it really comes down to it. As is the case with most good teams, they just all specialize in something different (typically relating to the ‘concept’ they represent). For War, who is the youngest of the Horseman, his physical prowess and general combat technique seem to be the highest among the Horsemen, which would make sense for the Nephelim representing something as violent as war.
If we were to compare War to an MMORPG class, he’d be a Warrior or a Tank, AKA someone who takes a lot of hits, is incredibly skilled at close-range combat, and is well-known for a specific weapon of choice. However, because War is so incredibly built towards the more ‘physical’ sides of combat, his magic skills, smarts, and ranged abilities leave a lot to be desired. When it comes to using magic in general War is more than capable, but typically his Wrath magic manifests itself by either covering him in different buffing auras or as simple projectiles in different forms. On top of that, most of the time War will end up just tanking unnecessary hits from enemies because he knows he can take it or he doesn’t bother to think of how to avoid these attacks, which is a habit that would only serve as a drawback when in a fight against someone or something actually capable of damaging War. Overall, War is very likely to be the second strongest among the Nephelim, especially in his Chaos Form in which he seems to be entirely invulnerable while it is active, forcing his opponents to ‘wait out the clock’ while War drains the energy of this transformation. While it’s impossible to say with certainty who the strongest Horseman is, based on the information gleaned from all of theDarksidersgames, it really seems like War is second only to Death.
And finally let’s talk about the de-facto leader of the Four Horsemen, Death. Death is the most feared of the Four Horsemen (and rightfully so) and not only is he the oldest of the Nephilim but he’s also the strongest. However, like War, Death spends the majority ofthe game in which he is the protagonist(AKADarksiders 2) building up his power from essentially nothing. So, by the end of the game, Death is relatively representative of his own power at its peak, but not all the way. This is all to say that for the majority of time spent with Death, players only see him at a fraction of his full power.
As far as his attributes go, Death is known to be very acrobatic and limber, have exceptionally absurd amounts of strength, hold dominion over Death itself thereby allowing him to converse and resummon the spirits of the dead, and he’s also able to siphon life energy from his targets to restore himself. Physically, while Death may not seem as muscular or as skilled in hand-to-hand combat as War, it’s very likely that he is (if not even a bit better than War). When it comes to magic, the area War is weakest in, Death is also incredibly proficient. His Death magic is not at all restricted to just summoning spirits or the undead, Death is very creative with it. Using his magic Death can summon lightning infused with Death Energy, create raging bone storms, generate all sorts of skeletal constructs, and it even gives him very powerful telekinesis which he primarily uses in conjunction with his Scythes. And this isn’t even going into his Reaper Form or the fact that Death is also a skilled artisan. Death shows that he did not waste his time as the oldest of the Nephilim, as he is proficient in quite a large range of things, and is typically more proficient in any shared skill that he has with any of his fellow Horsemen.
