How Strong is S3 Yuri?
Abstract
Yuri's strength seems to not be constant/she is constantly growing stronger? She has the narrative of someone that has not yet realised her full potential and seems to be stronger each time she appears on panel (regardless of whether she underwent a training arc or not). Yuri appears to be just as strong as the narrative needs her to be.
How strong was Yuri at the end of Season 3?
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Inconsistent Power
S1 Yuri was not very impressive.
In S1, Yuri was sneaking around from Evankhell on the Floor of Tests. Hansung told Evan that he was only still alive because Evankhell was absent:
The implication is that Evankhell could have defeated Yuri's entire party.
SIU also said that while Evan was a Top 100 High Ranker, his actual combat ability was more comparable to Yuri who's in the Top 500.
So at least in S1, SIU saw Yuri as being around Evan level and much weaker than the likes of Evankhell.
S2 Yuri was already very strong
But by Season 2, SIU seems to have decided that Yuri is much stronger. He said that "with the exception of Yuri and Mazino" Jinsung is the strongest person Baam has met.
Season 2 Chapter 155 Blog Post
Ha Jinsung appeared after not showing up for a long time.
He met with team Sweet and Sour before, but to Rak and Koon, this is their first meeting.
Also, he is perhaps one of the most dangerous people currently active...
Among those whom Baam has met so far, he is the strongest ‘person’ yet.
(Excluding Yuri and Mazino.)
This is a pretty unambiguous demonstration that as early as the Hell Train arc, SIU had already decided that Yuri was meant to be no weaker (and very plausibly stronger) than the likes of Jinsung.
Later at the Last Station Yuri states that she's in Kallavan's League:
Granted this could have been empty bluster on her part to try to distract Kallavan, and Kallavan for his part did not seem overly troubled by Yuri herself. But if you combine this statement with SIU excluding Yuri from the people Jinsung was stronger than, it becomes plausible that SIU was already seeing Yuri as someone supposed to be CC tier at the time of this battle.
That said, Yuri's feats at the Last Station were just not as impressive as the likes of e.g. Evankhell.
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A Rising Star
As I mentioned earlier, Yuri is constantly growing and has an incredibly high ceiling.
SIU has said that Yuri is the "rising true power" of the Zahard Family:
Season 2 Chapter 196 Blog Post
Yuri, as explained by Khun… is one of the worst Princesses to bother in the Tower.
And being in her prime right now…
She’s the rising true power in the Zahard Family.
High Rankers after a while don’t really care about the outside world.
And alongside Karaka, described Yuri as someone with "immense potential":
Season 2 Chapter 319 Blog Post
It feels like Karaka and Yuri have been bumping heads throughout the hell train.
The situation has been set up for them to be rivals.
The truth is even though Karaka has the power/skill to be a slayer, there are other, more important reasons why he is a slayer.
In the battle scene, it’s evident that Yuri is shown to be stronger. (lately Yuri’s temper(?) seems to be rising as the days pass)
Well.. even then Karaka is a character with an immense potential. But that’s true for Yuri as well.
Be strong Karaka.
Yuri is the most talented member of the Ha Family:
There is no reason to believe the Ha Regents are an exception to this. SIU has said in his lore posts that Yurin's twins were constantly fighting over the leadership of the Ha Family. However, after Yuri's birth the Ha Twins set aside their bickering and put their trust in Yuri to acquire all the 13 Month weapons. Yuri has also be stated to "greatly resemble" Yurin, to the extent that her sobriquet takes after Yurin's.
Top 15 High Ranker Character Profiles: #10 Ha Yurin
The leader of the Ha clan, one of the 10 Great Families. Grandmother of Yuri Jahad (appearance-wise, Yurin doesn't look much older than Yuri)
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She had two children (twins) with another great clan leader, Ari Han (TN: not Arie Hon), but they never married.
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Because of this, the Ha family does not have many branch families, and the main branch of the family is centered on Yurin’s two sons. However, the two sons do not have a friendly relationship, and each claims that he is the rightful heir to the clan. Even within the Han family, there is a not-so-small quarrel about this matter. Of course, Yurin has no interest in such things, and lately, she’s has ceased all her other activities and is enjoying herself in her main house.
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With the birth of Yuri (who greatly resembles Yurin), the Ha clan placed their faith in her, hoping that she would collect all 13 months series weapons. Because of this, Yuri’s title takes after her grandmothers (Black Snake Head).
This only reinforces SIU's later comments that Great Family Princesses become the "central power" of their Family in future:
Season 2 Episode 105 Blog Post
So Yuri's potential can be understood to exceed even those of the Ha Twins (the children of two Irregulars and Regents of one of the Top 3 Families).
It is only a matter of time until Yuri rises to a level above even the most powerful Regents.
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Yuri's Strength in Season 3
It's hard to scale Season 3 Yuri. The only opponent she had a protracted fight against was Tiara, whose powerscaling the fandom has wildly different opinions on.
But we do have unambigous feats/portrayal re: Yuri's strength in S3.
Yuri vs Branch Leaders
The absolute lowerbound on Yuri's strength i consider plausible is "much stronger than ordinary Branch Leaders".
Yuri was able to match and exceed penless Tiara. That same version of Tiara could neg diff a Branch Leader (Goruro) who had been amped by Enkidu.
So just by feats alone, Yuri should be much stronger than the ordinary Branch Leaders.
In a separate scenario, Yuri felt confident she could defeat the Lo Po Bia Branch Leaders invading, but was worried about the political complications of doing so:
And unlike the Kallavan statement in S3, this is Yuri's own internal thoughts, so it should be very credible. There's no argument that this sheer boasting or empty bluster on Yuri's part.
So I think the Tiara fight and this scene gives us our lower bound on how strong S3 Yuri is.
Yuri's Other Portrayal
When you factor in Yuri's other portrayal she only appears to be even more impressive.
#1: AA described Yuri and Tiara as "the Families' bigshots":
This reinforces the idea that Yuri and Tiara are both extremely high up in the power hierarchy of their respective Families.
#2: AA separately stated that alongside Traumerei and Gustang, Tiara was the only one present at the sprout that could beat Dumas:
People emphasise that AA said that he wasn't entirely sure about Tiara, but from context, that could simply be about her loyalties. AA is saying that Dumas is on the same side as the Po Bidau Family Leader and so it's best he doesn't come across them. Tiara is also a Po Bidau loyal to Gustang, and so could be an ally of Dumas.
One could contend that regardless, AA doesn't know Dumas' or Tiara's full power, but the portrayal still stands. Dumas is known to be the Po Bidau's #3 and "the most reliable warrior in the Family". Despite that fame, AA still thought it plausible that Tiara could defeat Dumas.
Tiara was also separately very confident that she could defeat Kirin and Haetae together if only she had her pen.
There's a very credible argument to be made that with her pen, Tiara is Regent tier. At the very least, she looks considerably more impressive than the likes of Proust.
Granted while Yuri was favourably compared to Tiara, I'm not claiming that Yuri is exactly equal to her either (Tiara did not use her dragon form/flames "close" to Gustang's power vs Yuri). But I do think they would be more or less on the same tier (with Tiara probably edging it out).
#3: Jinsung said that Yuri would be more helpful than them:
This could be because Yuri is more powerful than Jinsung himself. Perhaps Yuri is more helpful than them for other reasons, but again when you consider that SIU implied that Yuri is more powerful than Jinsung as far back as the Hell Train arc, it becomes more credible.
#4: AA witnessed (the end of) Dark Change Baam's fight with White and went on to say that it was fine to leave Yuri alone in an argument with Tiara because Yuri was "way more powerful" than them (including Baam):
Two things are relevant here:
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AA assessed Yuri as being on a similar power level as Tiara
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AA thinks Yuri is much more powerful than Dark Change Baam
Either of those suggests someone much stronger than CCs
#5: And of course, Yuri has told us that the Princesses of Zahard combined are stronger than all forces under the 10 Families:
Note the "we" above. Yuri is clearly including herself among the Princesses who if they gathered could subdue all forces under the 10 Families (including all Regents of every Family).
Caveats
Unlike Tiara, Yuri never expressed confidence that she could defeat Kirin and Haetae by herself. So this could be used to perhaps cap Yuri below Regent tier.
Though Yuri was trying to avoid directly fighting against the Lo Po Bia Branch Leaders (which would include Kirin) due to the political ramifications of it neutralise how damning this scene is. It's not implausible Yuri was stronger than Kirin but refused to fight him entirely due to politics.
Conclusions
S3 Yuri is at the barest minimum CC tier (much stronger than ordinary Branch Leaders), and potentially Regent tier if you accept her portrayal/statements.
Importantly, Yuri has multiple portrayals (elevating her above CC tier/justifying a Regent tier placement)
- Relativity/peer status to Tiara who has a very strong argument to be Regent tier
- "Way more helpful" than Jinsung
- "Way more powerful" than Baam
But the Kirin encounter could also be a soft cap on her power level.
I think I would probably place S3 Yuri in an intermediate tier between CCs and Regent tier as my best effort guess. But I would not be in the least bit surprised if when Yuri returns in S4, she's just flat out confirmed to be Regent tier or above. Her portrayal in S3 makes such an upscale not implausible.
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Common Misunderstandings
Yuri's Ranking
Yuri is not a Top 500 High Ranker. Yuri was in the Top 500 Rankings at the start of the story, but her present Ranking is now "much higher":
- Yuri's ranking got much higher after achieving Green April. People inside kingdom talk behind her "Despite incidents, capable girl is capable" (Might sound strange, but I couldn't translate it betterㅠ) but Yuri herself is very satisfied with that admitting that she is a 'capable girl'
The only Ranking categories for High Rankers explicitly differentiated by SIU (in Webtoon/blog posts) are:
- Top 500
- Top 300
- Top 200
- Top 100
- Top 5
"Much higher" than the Top 500 suggests Top 300 at minimum, and potentially Top 200/100.
Moreover, Yuri's Ranking does not necessarily correspond to her strength.
Enne Zahard only became a High Ranker after the Enne Zahard incident and jumped straight from ordinary Ranker to #7.
Top 15 High Ranker Character Profiles: #7 Eurasia Enne Zahard
Only princess who had owned the Colorless December. Displayed extremely talented abilities, and was graded differently with other princesses. She was highly supported due to her gorgeous looks and pacific personality. She went up to the top of the Tower fast and became one of the Rankers.
But after she became a Ranker and was given the Colorless December she started to change oddly. Sometimes she killed with no reasons. She would wear pacific expression, and suddenly attack people in anger.
About the same time Garam Zahard killed Uram Zahard and seized the Indigo July, and the rumor that Enne Zahard was connected to the two princesses started to spread. Some days later, Garam Zahard and Enne Zahard disappeared. (They became the High-rankers after this incident. Garam Zahard was given the sobriquet of Mako Shark, and Enne Zahard was given the sobriquet of Great White Shark.)
So Enne Zahard was Top Towerborn in strength but was Ranked below #1,000. Yuri's strength can also be significantly above her Ranking.
Karaka
Yuri is not Karaka's peer. Not in S3 and not even when they originally fought in S2. Back then, Yuri was holding back for the sake of the Regulars.
Karaka says this outright, commenting that Yuri was extraordinarily powerful and lampshades that Yuri would have grown by the next time he meets her:
The next couple times Yuri encounters Karaka on the Hell Train she no diffs him.
Exhibit A
Posted Oct 2, 2025, 7:54 PM UTC