Kingdom Hearts 1... ALL KEYBLADES Ranked. Worst To Best!

Hello Fellow Gamers.
In Kingdom Hearts 1 there are 18 different Keyblades that can be wielded by Sora throughout each playthrough. Some Keyblades are more useful than other Keyblades for one reason or another.
Some Keyblades require a lot more effort to acquire than others which makes them less useful throughout the later parts of the game while other Keyblades will simply be less powerful or otherwise confer less advantages throughout your Kingdom Hearts 1 playthrough.
This video will rank every Keyblade from Kingdom Hearts 1 with an objective ranking system I personally developed.
Keyblades will be ranked based on:
1) Strength
2) Magic
3) Deflection
4) Crit Chance
5) Deflection
6) When in the game that you can get it.
7) How hard it is to get it.
Each Keyblade will be ranked on a points based system and will be given a final Keyblade Score based on this ranking system.
00:00 Intro
01:08 Grading Parameters
03:40 Keyblade 18
06:36 Keyblade 17
09:38 Keyblade 16
11:29 Keyblade 15
13:33 Keyblade 14
15:42 Keyblade 13
17:10 Keyblade 12
18:09 Keyblade 11
19:03 Keyblade 10
21:10 Keybades 5 Way Tie
21:54 Keyblade 5 (A)
23:11 Keyblade 5 (B)
24:04 Keyblade 5 (C)
24:44 Keyblade 5 (D)
25:27 Keyblade 5 (E)
26:30 Keyblade 4
28:35 Keyblade 3
30:18 Keyblade 2
32:10 Keyblade 1
34:39 Sephiroth Fight
36:29 Intro To Second Keyblade List
36:55 Keyblade Ranking (No Magic Bonus)
38:29 Intro To Third Keyblade List
39:19 Outtro

[@therealsilverking4802]

Hello, Fellow Gamers. Just a quick clear up on some of the mistakes in this video. All mistakes are only visual or audio based and have no baring on the placement of the Keyblade on the list. 1) For the Kingdom Key I showed the Kingdom Key's Deflection Score as 60 when it is actually 30. 2) At 25:10 I stated that Lionheart had a deflection score of 90, while the table showed a score of 1... Neither is correct as the actual score is 30... which still adds to 19 Keyblade Points. 3) At 18:32 I show the 3 Wishes Keyblade as having a +4 for a midgame status, then at 18:37 I show it as a +6 for early game status... the second one is correct as it still counts as an Early Game Weapon (+6 Points). 4) At 30:49 I appear to be speaking about the Spellbinder Keyblade instead of the Lady Luck Keyblade... I was actually referencing how the Lady Luck Keyblade is just a better version of Spellbinder... I just have very little inflection in my voice, so I fumbled the word timing up... this is what I was actually saying at this particular timestamp: "Now this weapon (Lady Luck) is only available for the very end of the Mid-Game, which overall means that Spellbinder finds more use in the game itself... Spellbinder also has a 30 in deflection which makes it more useful for fighting against Riku in Hollow Bastion, for example..."

[@nixuniverse5240]

The reason I don’t like what they did to Divine Rose is because it invalidates almost every Keyblade you get after it. The ULTIMA WEAPON for comparison is just barely better than it, but honestly with how badly the screwed with the synthesis in KH1 it’s hardly even worth it when all you have to do is talk to an NPC to get a slightly worse version than it.

[@therealsilverking4802]

I 100% agree. I don't know what they were thinking giving it a buff like that without offsetting it with a weakness. a +13 Strength boost makes it one of the only keyblades that would justify a -1 in Magic, but they instead decided to give that to Keyblades that, by all rights, should have more strengths and fewer weaknesses. The only explaination that comes to mind may be that it's because Divine Rose is the base form of the Keyblade of Lauriam (Marluxia's somebody). But even then, I doubt they thought that far ahead (at least not to such detail). One Winged Angel was the one that got it the absolute worst, a -2 in Magic, after fighting the hardest boss in the game to get it. At least with Metal Chocobo the -1 in Magic was justified because it was supposed to be a lesser reward that was given as a consolation prize to those who didn't clear the entire Hercules Cup (Also it was a midgame weapon, so it had to offset its length somehow so as not to outshine Olympia). But yeah, Divine Rose is way too overpowered for the place you get it/how much effort you have to put in to get it, it comes up as 2nd Place on the second list (the one where Magic is neutralised). So, as long as the player doesn't care about the MP stat, there is literally no point in synthesising the Ultima Weapon (Especially once you reach the game's damage cap).

[@Ikuruga]

Thanks for this video. I'm backseating a little as I watch my friend playthrough the game for the first time but I wanted to make sure I knew what I'm talking about. This video is very comprehensive and clear on not only the Keyblades efficacy but game mechanics in general. Great video

[@therealsilverking4802]

Thanks for the compliment, Ikaruga. I'm glad I was able to help you out in introducing a new player to this game series... I already know they'll enjoy it a lot more than they think they will. I saw a lot of people arguing over which keyblades were better or worse... some talking about Strength/Utility vs Obtainability and others who were arguing over whether Magic mattered or not. A lot of lists I searched up were either just opinion based tier lists or appearance based lists (with Fairy Harp usually losing the most favour because of its appearance), so I wanted to add a more objective measure to them. I'm glad I was able to entertain.

[@tylercafe1260]

I use your list as a reference for my playthroughs. It's surprisingly very accurate and helpful to what equipment I should be using

[@therealsilverking4802]

Thanks for the compliment, Tyler. The video was designed as a way to add some objectivity to Keyblade Rankings. Every other video/page I've seen on the topic has at least one weapon that they will dislike for reasons they can't seem to put their finger on, such as why Oblivion is a Terrible Keyblade and/or a Keyblade that is massively overlooked without fully exploring the options (Metal Chocobo). I have the basic concept for a Kingdom Hearts 2 Keyblade Ranking in the works, but I'm having trouble deciding how to represent the Abilities (which is the biggest aspect in a KH2 Keyblade's utility). I'm glad I was able to entertain and provide some value to your playthrough.

[@xXLunatikxXlul]

Pretty accurate list! Nice job :)

[@therealsilverking4802]

Thanks for the compliment. I'm glad I was able to entertain.

[@t.6856]

Great Video

[@therealsilverking4802]

Thanks for the compliment. I'm glad I was able to entertain.

[@alcole-holic8779]

Subscriber #350 here, hopefully we get lists for the other games following a similar setup. The most exciting one to see would be KH3, as the upgrade system allows all Keyblades to have good stats late game

[@therealsilverking4802]

Thanks a lot for the sub. I actually do have plans to make Keyblade rankings for all of the other Kingdom Hearts games (KH: 2, 3, Chain Of Memories, Dream Drop Distance, Birth By Sleep... and as soon as I am able to record DS Footage, 358 Days/2 and Re-Coded). 358 Days/2 is going to be a fun one with all of it's Gear related Keyblades, Joke Weapons and 2 different variations of the Kingdom Key "Mild Sarcasm". Kingdom Hearts 2's Keyblades are mostly ranked on the strength of their abilities, which is why Decisive Pumpkin is usually preferred by the fanbase over Ultima Weapon... But it may lose points for being a mid-late game Keyblade... whilst an early game Keyblade like Hero's Crest may have a better score. Kingdom Hearts 3's Keyblades will mostly be ranked based on the utility of their Keyblade Transformations... I haven't done the calculations yet, but I would imagine that Ever After and Favourite Deputy are high up on that list. Keyblade Transformations will definitely be a big part of that ranking, especially since you can store them for later. I am currently working on getting another 65 More Things You Didn't Know About Kingdom Hearts out onto my channel before I start working on a number of smaller videos. I am currently working on a Kingdom Hearts 2 project, so I will also be collecting footage of all the different Keyblades there. The first half should be released in a few days at most. I have a Kingdom Hearts 2 related Project that I am working on at the moment, so I will be collecting some Keyblade related footage and data for my Keyblade Ranking video. I can also work on the KH3 Keyblade Ranking if you'd like, I believe I have already 100% the game (not counting DLC), so I already have access to all of the Keyblades there... however, I may need to start again as I didn't explore the utility of those Keyblades against all of the bosses in the game.

[@alcole-holic8779]

@@therealsilverking4802 you’ve got a lot planned, I’m very happy to see it. And finally someone will do a 358 keyblade ranking, it feels like everyone skips it because they’re intimidated by the variety. Oh, something to note about 358 that I’d like you to test is if the “Aubade” keyblade really does attack faster than any other

[@phoenixgemini42]

The scoring system is mostly great, but I think it is a little reductive to penalize keyblades for being late game or locked behind a difficult curve. The idea of a tier list should be to indicate which keyblade you should be using over others provided you have access to it.

[@therealsilverking4802]

Thanks, Phoenix. The Scoring System is always going to be imperfect... nobody is going to account for all different playstyles. The whole idea behind it was to try to balance the strengths of the Keyblade (once it's in your hands) vs how hard/worth it it is to get -One Winged Angel Intensifies- and how late you get it to determine a final... Better than (

[@phoenixgemini42]

@therealsilverking4802 the video was great and I'm not intending to be critical. This comment was the classic: post comment at end of rules and not at end of video situation. I like how you factor in mp, reach, and deflection. Its just always been a pet peeve of mine when tier lists, especially in games like fire emblem or pokemon, put more emphasis on availability than viability. I like to think that tier lists should reflect what option is most viable provided amongst all your available optionz. Whether you get milage out of it is a different story and can be used as tie breakers. That's just my opinion though.

[@therealsilverking4802]

@@phoenixgemini42 Thanks, Phoenix. I'm not taking offence, I just have a tendency to splurge a bit when I write comments, I go off on tangents a bit and just write walls of text. The other Keyblade videos I found which inspired this one seemed to be Opinion based or based on Aesthetics rather than Utility, so I made the ranking system to add a bit more objectivity to it, so as not to add yet another Baseless Tier List that fails to actually Rank anything. I'm not familiar with Fire Emblem, but Pokemon I think have Smogon Tiers, so I think they've already been thoroughly ranked with little margin for error. I had a Boss Tier List in mind which has resulted in an extremely convoluted ranking system, which I have no clue how to display in video format... but I have the final scores ready for all KH1 Bosses.

[@therealsilverking4802]

Hi, Guys. Sorry about the long wait between this upload and my last. I've had a few things pop up in my personal life that demanded more attention than I would've liked. I'm back on KZbin now and I will be uploading more regularly. My next video will be a sequel to my "101 Things You Didn't Know About Kingdom Hearts 1". I have found 38 New things so far and It should be posted sometime within the month of May. Edit: I don't hate the Oblivion Keyblade, I just have an awkward sense of humour.

[@miciso666]

also -3 for how hard ice titan is? i beat ice titan without even attacking him. sipping a single elixir. if u want proof. theres my page on retroachievements that says : beat ice titan on proud fire attacks only. hell i decided to skip the fire attacks. out of fear of swinging my keyblade. all i did was guard and heal :D

[@therealsilverking4802]

Yeah, I agree that Ice Titan isn't all that hard or all that time consuming to defeat... the thing that justifies the -3 in my opinion is the fact that unlocking the Gold Match requires you to have completed the Hades Cup first. Ice Titan on his own is fodder... and I personally use him to Level Grind. Half the time I defeat him by accident while reflecting his Icicles. Hade's cup is one of the tougher challenges in the game though. Still, Ice Titan can be quite a challenge for more casual players, especially those who are just after the Trophy. So even if the Hades Cup wasn't required, it'll still be at least a -2.

[@meevil24]

Im not sure i understood the Deflection criteria

[@therealsilverking4802]

Hi, Aasim. I'm not 100% myself because there seems to be so little information about it. But to my own understanding it is something like this: Every Keyblade has a Deflection (may be called Reflection) score. This game only gives the player a choice of 4... these scores are either 1, 30, 60 or 90. Enemies in the game will have varying levels of Deflection on their own attacks. Basically if you parry an enemy (or they parry you) it determines how much you stagger or how much stagger you cause to the enemy. Basically if your number is bigger than theirs you will stagger less and they will stagger more when your attacks clash with one another. (You will always be able to block a blockable attack with no damage taken, but a higher deflection stat just means that your recoil animation is a bit shorter). The best deflection score in the game is 90 and is found on One Winged Angel, Metal Chocobo, Olympia and Ultima Weapon. You will not stagger as much when you are striking with these weapons. Jungle King, Wishing Star, Oathkeeper, Oblivion, Pumpkinhead and Lady Luck all have a deflection score of 1, which means that you will likely stagger hard if you clash with an enemy attack. If you equip Counterguard while you have a higher deflection stat than your opponent then you will be able to counter immediately. I show this briefly during the number 10 entry on the list (found here at: 19:33) I hope I was able to entertain. Thanks for watching.

[@miciso666]

@@therealsilverking4802 that explains so much why i once struggled when using pumpkin compared to olympia as a kid vs riku. my friend said just use olympia u stagger less and have more time to fight back once u block.

[@therealsilverking4802]

@@miciso666 Yeah, I never understood it when I was a kid either. To me all the Keyblades were just good for their base stats, so I just equipped whichever was the strongest at the time. (I would always end up going back to Fairy Harp because of the extra MP for Cure casts. I actually didn't know Lady Luck or Spellbinder were in the game at that time). Whenever I would watch the earliest "How To..." guides for Riku Ansem I would always wonder why every single cutscene had Sora carrying the Olympia Keyblade... Turns out though that Metal Chocobo is a better choice for the Riku-Ansem fight because of it's longer reach, which makes it less likely that Riku can dodge your retaliating swings.

[@keith3278]

On Lionheart you made 2 errors. 1st) You displayed it as having a score of 19 but the math you displayed on the table totals to 18. 2nd) At 25:09 you said it had a "Deflection-stat of 90" Which under your ranking would give it +3 , but again your table displayed had it marked as "Deflection-stat of 1". - Edit: for Spellbinder If you do the Phil Cup (for the 1st Gravity) you can get S.B as ye finishing Monstro (1st Stop), & then strike down Reverse Armor (likely with a strength build of 3 Wishes alongside 2/3 Golem Chains.) for the 1st Aero.

[@therealsilverking4802]

Yeah..... I was kinda waiting for someone to notice the Lionheart error... It was a major blunder on my part. EDIT: I've pinned a comment which goes over all of the mistakes I made in this video. It was one of my older tables that I accidentally included in the video... I do have the proper version, I was originally going to pull the video because of it, but I was thinking instead that I may as well just add it as an error later (my bad, I forgot to do that). The Deflection stat of Lionheart is actually 30, not 90 or 1 as the video implies... so the final score does still apply (Keyblade Score =19), it's just the faulty table and speech error that are a bit misleading. I'm trying to find the caption section on the youtube editor that lets me add a little note clearing it up, but it doesn't seem to be there (I've seen other youtubers do it, but I have never found it anywhere). I even went through the effort of making a 10 second video on one of my other channels a while back just so that I could add the link to it on screen... The KZbin editor hates me though, so I eventually just gave up in favour of just focussing on my next project. I may end up just putting it in a comment and Pinning it if I don't find another solution. As for the Spellbinder point. Yeah... it's available for about as long as Wishing Star and at least as long as Pumpkinhead... which just adds to its usefulness throughout the game... Especially with Magic being as broken as it is in this game. The sad part though (given some of the KZbin Shorts I've watched, where some of the things I thought were common knowledge are actually very niche) is that most casual players probably don't even know that this Keyblade Exists. The same gap in knowledge also seems to occur with Lady Luck: As it seems with some of the comments from the video below: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oWXPlmVopKhjacU There's a few other videos I had linked but they are very loud... so removed them just in case anyone with earphones clicked on them.

[@miciso666]

damn i was like would it not be funny if obliv was worst... jeez. i dont think i ever used it either u get it AFTER riku near the very end. sure it has big damage. but by that time if u grinded alot its really wont matter much. keyblades with +2mp are far more usefull for grinding materials to get ultima. my top list is honestly > pumpkin big damage. hearts keyblade for the mp. and maybe ultima but a lot of time its just pumpkin and heart and i barely touch others if at all. maybe spellbinder before hearts.

[@therealsilverking4802]

Hi, Misco. Yeah, I personally prefer to use Pumpkinhead as well. Crabclaw can seem a little underpowered in terms of physical damage, which just makes fights take a bit longer. Overall, Crabclaw got a higher score on the list because of its +1 in MP, but in terms of actual utility, once you have the Keyblade in hand, I'd say they are about even. Pumpkinhead is pure offence while Crabclaw is more balanced and helps to improve support abilities like Summons, while providing a reasonable defence. When you say "Heart Keyblade", I assume you're talking about Lady Luck. Yeah, I've prioritised it a lot more in more recent playthroughs... it really is just that good... especially if you want to take on the Hades Cup with more Aero/Cure casts... it also buffs the damage of Thunder so that you can speedrun the smaller mon enemies. It's useful pretty much until it is replaced by Diamond Dust for its +3 in MP. Lady Luck is also a good contender for Final Keyblade (the one you take into the final boss). Oblivion is shockingly bad... I don't know why the developers decided to buff Divine Rose (effectively rendering Oblivion useless)... especially because it's a fan favourite. In the PS2 Version it was a basically the prime choice for Final Keyblade.

[@yasq1482]

If you managed to get olympia before going into hollow bastion it's way more useful than pumpkin as a strength keyblade, but yeah I too just use lady luck for the mp and olympia for strength

[@MatthewCenance]

Unfortunately at 30:49 you made a textual error and referred to the Lady Luck keychain as the Spellbinder...

[@therealsilverking4802]

Hi Matthew. Sorry about the confusion there, my voice doesn't have too many inflections, so I kinda droned on through that sentence.... It was supposed to read: "Now this weapon (Lady Luck) is only available for the very end of the Mid-Game, which overall means that Spellbinder finds more use in the game itself... Spellbinder also has a 30 in deflection which makes it more useful for fighting against Riku in Hollow Bastion, for example..." Because Lady Luck is basically just a better version of Spellbinder I just spent half the run time for it just talking about Spellbinder. I did make another mistake earlier in the video though. At 25:09 I mention that Lionheart has a 90 in deflection while it shows a 1 on the table on the screen. Both are actually wrong as the deflection score is 30... which adds up perfectly with the Final Keyblade score of 19. Also, the table disappears from the screen when I'm covering Pumpkinhead because of another editing error.

[@therealsilverking4802]

I just realised what you were referring to in this comment. You were talking about 30:41 where I have the word Spellbinder in the 2nd place slot instead of Lady Luck. Sorry about that, I thought you were referring to the voice line right afterwards starting just after 30:49. I may have to make a re-com/HD Final Mix version of this video at some point because of all the errors I made in it.

[@gageperuti5519]

Your math doesn't add up for me. I tried it and it didn't match. Am I missing something?

[@therealsilverking4802]

The math is just there to add more objectivity to the ranking system, so I don't have to sit there for 10+ minutes telling people my personal opinion on these weapons. Strength= Just the strength stat of the Keyblade Magic = Just the magic stat of the keyblade. Deflection = the ability of that keyblade to deflect blows and how quickly sora recovers from being staggered. Crit% = The chance that the keyblade has to randomly do more damage than normal. Each Keyblade got half a point for this stat because it relies on luck (theoretically, as unlikely as it may be, you could play this game and never get a crit). The other 2 scores are based around which part of the game you get them and how hard/tedious/worth the effort they are to obtain. The final score is just the sum total of the other scores... which allows one keyblade to receive more or less points than another and thus, be considered better or worse. If you hack the game to give yourself all keyblades from the start of the game, you would only ever need to use Ultima Weapon or Diamond Dust as every other Keyblade is just inferior to them in their dominant categories (Ultima Weapon = best overall keyblade and Diamond Dust = best Magic boost in the game). I'm not trying to imply that Lady luck or Spellbinder are superior to Diamond Dust or Jungle King, just that they add more value to a particular playthrough if you choose to get them as soon as they are available. I hope I was able to answer your question and sorry if I wasn't of any help.

[@noahocker9096]

Your +5 points per magic value is way too high. It should have been +3 at most. Spellbinder should not have been that high

[@therealsilverking4802]

Perhaps. I made Magic out to be 5x more important than strength because even among the most basic strategies in the game (Mashing X to win being among them) Magic is still much more useful than strength per point because of its utility in Cure, Aero and Summoning Tinkerbelle. Strength has a cap after 55 damage (61 against Sephiroth), which means that after a certain point in the game, extra strength is unnecessary. Magic follows a damage formula that is reliant on the MAX amount of MP you possess, leading to a much easier time reaching damage caps. Fire requires 19MP to reach its damage cap (I believe that with a full MP bar, you can cast Fire over 80 times without refiling the MP bar). Thunder requires 15MP. The rest of the spells will never actually reach the damage cap, unless they hit an enemy that is weak to them. Stop and Aero will increase in damage/duration the longer your MAX MP bar and Gravity always results in %based damage... thus meaning that it always does a set amount of HP per enemy. Of course Curaga will get more casts, which is amazing considering that it basically converts 1MP into an entire health bar. Summons will get longer staying power and will do more damage based on Sora's MP. Combined with Bambi, this allows a great deal of Magic Spam, including Stop+Gravity, which can take bosses out with low difficulty (unless their name is Riku). Tinkerbelle allows you to more easily out DPS enemies and recover from fainting once. Dumbo allows free damage while invincible. Simba is a Screen Nuke ...and Mushu and Genie are just extra casts of base spells like Fire, Thunder, Gravity and Stop all for the cost of just 2MP. Overall I think Magic has much greater utility throughout the game than Strength, especially at the end/post game. I did acknowledge that some people prefer to use a magicless strategy, and that is present in the second list (where all Keyblades get 0 points for Magic). The 2nd list is at 36:55 But if I were to alter the list to 3 points per MP this is the list. 18) One Winged Angel = 6.5 17) Kingdom Key = 13 16) Oblivion = 14 15) Jungle King = 14.5 14, 13) Wishing Star and Diamond Dust = 15 12) Metal Chocobo = 15.1 11), Pumpkinhead = 16 10, 9, 8, 7) Three Wishes, Crabclaw, Oathkeeper and Lionheart = 17 6) Fairy Harp = 17.5 5, 4) Olympia and Spellbinder= 18 3) Divine Rose = 19 2) Lady Luck = 20 1) Ultima Weapon = 26

[@noahocker9096]

@@therealsilverking4802 superb reasoning. Thank you for the list!!!

[@therealsilverking4802]

@@noahocker9096 No problem. I'm just glad I was able to entertain.

[@MatthewCenance]

Cure was nerfed in Final Mix so that each MP only adds one point to the HP restored, not three points as it did in the original release. At the maximum of 19 MP in Final Mix Curaga can only restore 55 HP, only slightly more than the curved part of the HP gauge. Curaga in the original release can restore 84 HP which is enough to get far into the horizontal part of the gauge, and the horizontal part seems longer than the curved part (at least to me). So Curaga can never restore "a whole health bar" worth of HP in Final Mix unless you're healing a poorly equipped Donald Duck or Sora's like level 50 or so with only ~60 HP. At the absolute max of 114 HP there's no way you're convincing me only the curved part of the gauge is the "whole HP bar" when the horizontal part is extremely long in comparison. I'm only arguing about the "whole HP bar" statement though, everything else stands and a high MP stat build can get you ten MP during Atlantica which makes magical attacks feel really strong in the mid game.

[@xXLunatikxXlul]

Curaga in OG KH healed a full bar. The equation only applied to Cure and Cura, lol

[@CHINGIZMMMM]

Spellbinder is a useless keyblade for my opinion because it does too less damage

[@jadenzombieslayer1569]

Spellbinder is the worst keyblade

[@therealsilverking4802]

I agree that it's pretty redundant once you get hold of Lady Luck, but for the midgame it is a pretty good MP based Keyblade, just in case you wanted to get a bit of extra damage with Gravity or Stop, or if you wanted to increase the power of certain summons, Like Bambi or Simba. In terms of Stats though, it quickly gets outclassed... on this list it got a high spot because Magic is just that Good in this game. In terms of overall usefulness I'd say One-Winged Angel is the worst, but The Kingdom Key is surprisingly weak in this game.