Slayers 2 Breathing Style & Demon Art Tier List

Updated on September 23, 2026: Completely re-ranked the tier list according to recent buffs & nerfs.

I’m ranking both the best Breathing Styles and Evil/Blood Demon Arts in one list for the sake of meta comparison on both sides. I’ll talk about and mention PVP and PVE ranking reasons separately but the list will represent overall power for both categories. Here’s my Slayers 2 Breathing Style and Blood Demon Art tier list.

Slayers 2 Breathing Style Tier List

The best Breathing Styles and Evil/Blood Demon Arts in Slayers 2 luckily have a lot of nuance to them. There are some overall powerful options like Thunder Breathing, Blood Manipulation and Ice Manipulation but it’s generally down to personal preference after that. Still, some movesets have more optimal skills for one or the other so I’ll outline what each moveset is good for and why in terms of PVP and PVE.

• Best Clans: Slayers 2 Clan Tier List
• Demon Progression: How to Become a Demon in Slayers 2
• Best Weapon for Demons: Sickle Variants (Blood Sickles into Damascus in Dungeon)
• Best Weapon for Slayers: Flame Katana into Volcanic Katana or Nightfall Katana

S-Tier Breathing Styles & Blood Demon Arts

Breathing Style	Ranking Notes
Blood Manipulation Blood Demon Art	• Blood is easily the best Blood Demon Art and arguably the best moveset in the game even with the slight nerfs recently • First, almost every move works like a barrage where you’re dealing excellent DPS and other players can stack M1s on top for PVE • Second, for PVP and some PVE fights, your moves combo incredibly well with extensions and M1s for a ton of pressure • Thunder has faster moves but Blood with Sickles has a higher potential for PVE with allies
Shockwave Blood Demon Art	• Shockwave got massive buffs with an excellent moveset for combos if you combine with Soryu’s all Hyper Armor moveset and strong dual counters (Optional with Soyama Clan) • You can also break Hyper Armor moves with your counter • That said, unlike Dream, it’s also quite strong for PVE with a barrage against bosses and great AOE damage for Dungeons • One of the best movesets in the game with Soryu and by itself thanks to the buffs
Water Breathing Slayer Breathing Style	• Water got the biggest PVP glow up of all time with a ton of buffs and is pretty strong in PVE against bosses • X is now OP since it’s faster, stuns, is an amazing combo extend and can end other players’ combos since it can be used while stunned • This means you can now end a combo on you and start your own which is massively powerful • Water Wheel also stuns now and is a powerful combo extender even though H.A. got removed • Overall you now have better combos, iFrames on moves and great damage bumping Water into S-Tier for me
Thunder Breathing Slayer Breathing Style	• Like in the original Slayers, Thunder is incredibly powerful due to instant-cast moves • It just sets it so far apart from other styles for PVP since it’s very difficult to react to it • It’s also really strong in PVE and one of the best movesets in the game overall
Ice Manipulation Blood Demon Art	• Ice simply has a powerful array of moves for both PVP and PVE with one of the best grabs in the game • Plus you have a powerful frame one counter, great combos and the ice rain can stack with your M1s • Great for PVE Dungeons too due to some of the best AOE ranges in the game to cover a ton of enemies

A-Tier Breathing Styles & Blood Demon Arts

Breathing Style	Ranking Notes
Insect Breathing Slayer Breathing Style	• Insect is similar to Thunder in that you get a lot of fast moves which are easy to chain • With barrages you can dish out a lot of combo damage in both PVE and PVP • Overall it’s really powerful for PVP and boss killing but worse for Dungeons since it lacks AOE
Sound Breathing Slayer Breathing Style	• Some of the best moves for combos since almost every move has combo extension potential • Sound also has massive range for farming PVE and one of the best moves in the game with its projectiles that deal massive damage • You’re also supporting your team in PVE since some moves hold enemies in place to be hit by your allies
Snake Breathing Slayer Breathing Style	• Amazing combo potential and mobility with its teleport and knock-up moves • Dishes out excellent damage in PVE with its barrages • Highly competitive in PVP
Dream Manipulation Blood Demon Art	• Dream is similar to Stone Breathing and Reaper where it’s great for PVP but a bit less powerful for PVE • It’s based around its stuns and a strong grab to create some of the best PVP combos in the game • It doesn’t work as well in PVE though but it’s still decent

B-Tier Breathing Styles & Blood Demon Arts

Breathing Style	Ranking Notes
Flame Breathing Slayer Breathing Style	• Combine Flame with the Rengoku clan and you have an impressive PVE moveset with lots of AOE, range and burns that is A-Tier or maybe even S-Tier • That said, by itself it falls behind the higher-tiers for PVP and PVE due to slow start-up animations
Reaper Blood Demon Art	• Reaper is PVP-oriented with a ton of combo options and fast moves • For PVE it’s decent in groups due to the barrage where other players can M1 the boss • It’s less powerful for solo PVE so I’ll put it in the middle in B-Tier
Stone Breathing Slayer Breathing Style	• Quite a decent off-Meta PVP breathing styles due to a ton of hyper armor • Almost all of your attacks are uninterruptible, so it’s a very aggressive and oppressive PVP style • It’s not as strong for PVE but it’s still pretty good • I can’t put it in A-Tier for PVP since despite its damage, the moves are slow
Arrow Manipulation Blood Demon Art	• Arrow got a great glow-up for PVP with Hyper Armor, a speed increase and tracking • Most importantly you can now Koketsu Arrow while stunned which is amazing defensively • It’s now a very viable PVP tool if you practice with it but it’s weaker PVE wise so it stays in B-Tier

C-Tier Breathing Styles & Blood Demon Arts

Breathing Style	Ranking Notes
Wind Breathing Slayer Breathing Style	• The long start-ups got fixed but it’s still not a good Breathing overall compared to the others that received better buffs • Plus, for PVE, some of your moves displace enemies in an awkward way which can make fights tedious • It’s not unusable but it’s more difficult to play with effectively compared to higher-tiers
Obi Manipulation Blood Demon Art	• Obi got some great buffs with damage increases, guard breaks and utility fixes • It’s a nice niche PVP toolkit with a lot of mixups and combos that require practice and skill but can be viable • Sucks for group PVE though
Temari Manipulation Blood Demon Art	• Better for PVE than PVP, especially with some decent buffs, but overall it’s not the best option for either • It’s still pretty good in PVE now with the buffs
Explosive Blood Blood Demon Art	• Exploding Blood has some moves you can simply block and dash out of which makes it a bit awkward to play • That said there’s some high-damage moves here like the tornado if you can reliably land it • The problem is that with the nerf, you cannot infinite combo anymore with the right setup so Explosive Blood is a lot weaker

That’s it for my Slayers 2 Breathing Style and Blood Demon Art tier list. Check out our Slayers 2 codes for free goodies to speed up progression.