All 11 Titan Types In Attack On Titan Explained

Warning: Spoilers for Attack on TitanAttack on Titan unveils a plethora of different Titans, with certain types ranging from your basic run-of-the-mill average types that roam just outside Wall Maria and others that have the capacity and size to take that same wall down. Each Titan plays a pivotal role in expanding the narrative and power system set in Hajime Isayama’s world.

Titans are monstrous creatures, often considered to be the main antagonist in the series, alongside a few wicked humans. Whereas some threats can be detected based on their appearance, others are a lot more hidden. The following includes all Titans that are featured in Attack on Titan, as well as their characteristics and most pivotal moments in the anime.

The Pure Titans

Pure Titans resemble humans but with varying levels of enlarged forms. The majority of the observed Titans, both in the manga and the anime, belong to this category, their overarching feature being their inability to form and process thoughts.

Despite being made similarly to other Titan types, Pure Titans are mindless and tend to attack without discrimination. They are dangerous due to their sheer numbers, formidable strength, and enormous size. Pure Titans have been used as weapons of war, first by Eldia and then by Marley, and can only be killed by slashing the nape of their neck.

A notable example of a Pure Titan would be the humanoid dubbed Bean, who first appeared when the gates of Trost District were broken by Attack on Titan’s epic Colossus Titan. Bean was one of the two Titans kept alive for the sake of experimentation in an attempt to better understand the nature of these beasts and their innate weaknesses.

The Abnormal Titans

The Abnormal Titans are one of the most bizarre Titan types. Abnormals are Pure Titans that display unusual behavior and intelligence, allowing them to perform unpredictable moves. They often tend to ignore nearby humans and move on to strategic locations to inflict more damage.

Abnormals are adept at performing tremendous leaps, running, speed-walking, and in a few cases, communicating in human tongues. An Abnormal Titan’s ability to form thoughts and speech has been chronicled in the diary of Ilse Langnar, who had run into a hesitant Titan amid an expedition massacre.

After Hange Zoë and Levi’s squad found the diary, it is revealed that the Titan addressed Ilse as “Lady Ymir”, mistaking her for Attack on Titan’s Founder, Ymir Fritz. Confused by the possibility that a Titan can experience emotions, Ilse became increasingly frustrated during her attempts at communication, ending with the Titan crushing her skull whilst shedding tears.

The existence of the Abnormal Titans forces humans to approach the beasts with a more nuanced perspective. This revelation proved to the remaining soldiers that not all Titans are mindless killers.

The Attack Titan

As the name suggests, the Attack Titan is an offensive powerhouse, standing at 15 meters tall and characterized by a highly muscular build and fleshless jaws. Eren Yaeger would later improve the Attack Titan’s metrics by drinking the Armor serum that allowed him to harden the Titan’s skin during pivotal moments.

As his default Titan Form, Eren was able to receive memories from those who possessed the Attack Titan and those who had yet to inherit it. This would later come to help him manipulate his father, Grisha, to cause his own Titan creation subsequently. Although these memories allow the user to gain insights, they are often incomplete and short snippets.

The Armored Titan

Reiner Braun’s Armored Titan stands at 15 meters and was initially inspired to share a ​​​​​resemblance to WWE Superstar Brock Lesnar. The Armored Titan has thick, hardened plates all over its body, acting as a natural defense against external attacks, including cannon hits, steel blades, and vertical maneuvering equipment, making it the most defensively strong of the Titan types.

In addition to this, these Attack on Titan Titans are able to harden their arms and feet, creating sharp claws in the process. The Armored Titan’s only weakness seems to be the areas on the back of its exposed joints. The armor is not capable of withstanding high-power weaponry, such as the Mid-East Allied Forces’ artillery.

The Colossal Titan

Users of the largest Titan type, the Colossal Titan, can control the energy produced during their transformation to create various effects, such as when Bertolt attacks the Trost District, and his transformation triggers a powerful wind blast. The Colossal Titan can also create a mushroom cloud of dust and rubble, leading to the death of many Survey Corps members during the Battle of Shiganshina District.

As indicated by its name, the Colossal Titan is known for its enormous size, able to peer over the edge of Wall Mari and powerful enough to take down the outer gate with a single kick. They possess a unique ability to control the steam emitted from their bodies, burning and repelling attacks in proximity.

During his final moments in a fight against Armin and Mikasa, Eren’s Titan form engages in a hand-to-hand fight with the former in his Colossal Titan form. While Eren bests Armin in terms of physical and strategic prowess, Armin manages to immobilize him long enough for Mikasa to enter his Titan’s mouth and kill him before kissing him goodbye.

The Female Titan

Much like other powerful Titans, the Female Titan exercises a certain degree of influence over Pure Titans through a scream-based ability. However, this attraction ability has its disadvantages: once arriving near the Female Titan, the others tend to attack and eat its body.

The Female Titan is known for its tremendous endurance and mobility, able to harden its skin at will in order to shatter blades of ultrahard steel upon contact. Interestingly, Annie can also come out of her Titan’s nape to create a hardened crystal cocoon around herself for protective purposes.

During the 57th Exterior Scouting Mission Arc, Mikasa succeeds in slicing the Female Titan’s fingers off, allowing Eren to rip the Titan form apart. However, after winning the fight, he began to merge with the Titan and required Levi’s help to remove him and stop the process.

The Beast Titan

The Beast Titan is slightly larger than most and exhibits animal traits that depend upon the user. They are known to have displayed traits common in elk, birds, bulls, and wolves, among others, as shown in Attack on Titan‘s Season 2 opening, while Zeke’s Titan assumed an ape-like form.

An interesting note in the series indicates that because Zeke’s spinal fluid was used to transform Falco into a Titan, it later gave his Jaw Titan falcon-like epithets similar to those of the Beast Titan.

Moreover, Zeke’s Beast Titan possessed the formidable ability to throw objects with great accuracy and destructive capability, notably during the battle of Shiganshina District, wherein most of the Survey Corps were wiped out by crushed rocks. Due to his royal blood, Zeke’s Beast Titan holds the ability to turn Subjects of Ymir into Pure Titans.

The Cart Titan

Possessing greater endurance levels than Pure Titans and other members of the Nine Titans, the Cart Titan can partake in longer missions without having to pause for rest. This Titan’s absorption resistance allows it to maintain its beastly form and wear armaments such as battle armor, mobile machine gun platforms, and cargo packs.

As opposed to most bipedal Titans, the Cart Titan assumes a quadrupedal form, which potentially hinders the user from walking upright in human form. In terms of weaknesses, the Cart Titan has lower defenses and slower regenerative abilities as opposed to the others, and is more likely to be taken down by a fatal blow.

However, similar to the Jaw Titan, the Cart Titan possesses immense speed, such as when it defeated Zeke and Reiner during the Battle of Shiganshina. This shocking characteristic even managed to catch Attack on Titan‘s strongest soldier, Levi, off guard.

The Jaw Titan

As indicated by its name, the Jaw Titan possesses a powerful set of jaws that can tear through almost anything, even if it is considered to be the weakest of Attack on Titan‘s Titan Shifters. They can move fast enough to catch some of the Nine off-guard and cause severe damage to armored opponents.

Those who hold the power of the Jaw Titan possess incredible speed and agility. However, the jaw manifests in slightly varying forms with respect to different users, such as Ymir only having hardened teeth, while Falco and Marcel had hardened, armored masks and jaw plating that were almost bulletproof.

The War Hammer Titan

Attack on Titan’s War Hammer Titan has powers that allow it to produce and manipulate structures made of hardened Titan flesh, weaponizing them in the form of spikes and blades with serrated edges. Theo Magath states that while a formidable asset, the War Hammer Titan’s structural hardening should be used in moderation, as constant usage can lead to serious exhaustion.

However, unlike the rest of the Nine, the War Hammer Titan can remove its control center from its nape, connecting the Titan and the host with a long cable of flesh, a unique ability that the rest of the Nine in Attack on Titan do not possess.