Breathing forms inDemon Slayerare different styles of swordsmanship that give each character their own unique fighting style. Breathing in a certain way gives these demon slayers inhuman strength that can even rival the demons. Stronger slayers can take this a step further and master Total Concentration Breathing.
Most breathing forms mimic some element in nature, such as fire or water. As time passes, breathing styles mix and become more complex, giving birth to even more breathing forms. However, every single breathing form known in Demon Slayer comes from the original Sun Breathing.
10Serpent Breathing
Serpent breathing takes the form of a snake that can quickly decapitate many demons. The slashes and strikes of Serpent Breathing are extremely fast, making them very hard for an average demon to avoid.
Serpent Breathing is also great for catching demons off guard because it bends the sword in the same way a snake moves. This is also shown through the visuals of Serpent Breathing, where a great white snake can be seen slithering around while taking off the demons' heads.
9Beast Breathing
Inosuke single-handedly invented Beast Breathing before joining theDemon Slayer Corpsand without any formal training. Beast Breathing lives up to its name, with moves that resemble a wild animal. Inosuke is often seen doing reckless slashes and attacks.
Beast Breathing’s seventh form also allows Inosuke to use spatial awareness and verify the demons' locations or weaknesses by sensing the movement of the air and the vibrations from the ground.
8Mist Breathing
As expected from its name, Mist Breathing seems to summon mist that hides the user and their movements. Muichiro was able to defeat an upper moon all by himself because of his mastery over Mist Breathing.
Without a doubt, Mist Breathing is one of the stronger breathing forms simply because of its stealth advantages. However, the strength behind the slashes of Mist Breathing might not be as strong, as it focuses on swift movements and obscurity.
7Love Breathing
Love Breathing is a breathing style invented by Mitsuri herself. She derived this breathing style from Flame Breathing, as she used to train under Rengoku. Love Breathing is tweaked perfectly to suit Mitsuri and her flexibility.
Mitsuri wields a long and flexible sword that perfectly complements her unique breathing style. All forms of Love Breathing use some sort of gymnastic-style movements that require extreme agility. These forms are great for long-range and unorthodox attacks.
6Water Breathing
Water Breathing shows waves of water along the user’s sword. It’s a flexible breathing style that allows its user to adapt to any situation. Users of Water Breathing must move their limbs and body smoothly, like the natural flow of water.
Unfortunately, the strikes of Water Breathing are not as powerful as other offensive breathing styles. Instead, Water Breathing is easier to control because it puts less strain on the user’s body.
5Flame Breathing
Like the other fundamental breathing styles, Flame Breathing is directly derived fromSun Breathing. This breathing style is visualized by lighter orange flames that follow the trajectory of the user’s sword.
Rengoku perfectly demonstrates the power of Flame Breathing against Akaza, as he is able to damage and nearly behead him. The strikes in Flame Breathing are strong and focus on offense.
4Wind Breathing
Wind Breathing is another fundamental breathing style. The users of Wind Breathing can perform powerful strikes and even create a tornado, as we see Sanemi do a low slash and defeat several demons with the help of a huge wind tornado.
Wind Breathing is a powerful offensive breathing style with little to no defensive forms. The strikes require the Wind Breathing user to spin their body or make wide slashes that generate huge wind power.
3Thunder Breathing
Thunder Breathing lives up to its name, with movement-based attacks that look as fast as lightning. The big strikes of Thunder Breathing often sound similar to lightning strikes. Fights involving the Thunder Breathing user often end in an instant because of the sheer speed of the Breathing Form.
The power behind these strikes isn’t lacking either, as Thunder Breathing also has some of the most powerful strikes. It achieves almost instantaneous movement by putting all of the user’s focus on their lower body and doing explosive dashes.
2Stone Breathing
Stone Breathing uses the power of the Earth in its forms. It may have fewer forms than other breathing styles, but it’s one of the most versatile styles. Stone Breathing specializes in both defense and offense, as we see Gyomei being able to defend against Muzan’sBlood Demon Artand destroy his head.
The Stone Breathing user utilizes axe-like weapons instead of the usual Japanese Katana. Because of this, you need an immense amount of physical strength to properly use Stone Breathing. Naturally, the attacks dealt with by this breathing style are unbelievably strong.
1Sun Breathing
As the original breathing that gave birth to every other style, Sun Breathing is certainly the best one. It has the strongest slashes that give demons a burning sensation. On top of that, the slashes from Sun Breathing are much harder to regenerate compared to every other breathing style.
The only possible downside to Sun Breathing is the massive strain it takes on the user’s body. Additionally, you have to be a chosen Sun Breather to be able to use it. Because of this, the Demon Slayers had to mimic Sun Breathing and create their own styles derived from Sun Breathing.
