Guts
Preliminary Notes
Berserk needs no introduction. It’s a critically acclaimed manga series by Kentaro Miura which follows the tales and tragedies of the Black Swordsman, Guts, as he adventures through Midland to find his place in the world and to heal himself and his loved ones. The 1989 original manga will be the primary and sole focus of the research for Guts. While the 1997 anime is great for footage, it is merely supplementary material.
Name: Guts
Age: 24
Height: 6’8" | 204 cm
Weight: 253 lbs (115 kg)
AKA The Black Swordsman
Former Captain of the Band of the Falcons
Marked with the Brand of Sacrifice
Dislikes: demons, apostles, the church, GRIFFITH
His love for Casca is like a truck… berserker…
Background
Birth / Gambino’s Mercenary Group
Born from the corpse of his lynched mother, Guts was fated to die alone in a pool of blood. A mercenary group led by infamous traveler Gambino, along with his men, stumbled upon the newly birthed child. While the mercenary group chalked it up to bad luck, one of the group’s traveling whores, Shisu, decided to take care of the child due to her recent miscarriage. At the age of three, Guts’s mother died of the plague. This would spell the first of many, many tragedies to follow.
Guts grew up under Gambino’s sword and his men’s protection. Guts saw him as a father figure. He learned the blade at age six. He would go on campaigns with the band in looting and killing for various factions. Guts would kill his first man at age nine. After one successful raid, Guts would be sold out by Gambino and raped by mercenary member, Donovan, whom he promptly murdered. The relationship between Guts and Gambino were fractured as a result. Gambino lost his leg and became a shell of his former self. Blaming Guts for his series of misfortunes, Gambino attempts to kill Guts, in which Guts is forced to murder his own father. By doing so, he was exiled and targeted by the very mercenary group he had grown accustomed to. This would traumatize Guts for the rest of the story.
Golden Age / Eclipse
Years later, Guts would end up in a skirmish with one of Midland’s most infamous mercenary groups, the Band of the Falcon. While he gained the upper hand on their men and one of their Captains, a woman named Casca, Guts was ultimately stopped by a mysterious man known as Griffith. Seeing something in Guts, Griffith challenged him to a duel. Should he win, Guts must join the Band of the Hawk. And Griffith promptly defeated Guts.
While Guts’s abrasive attitude made him unpopular with the Band at first, he nonetheless grew a connection with each member in the mercenary group. He got promoted to the Raiders’ Captain, wherein he worked directly under Griffith, much to Casca’s dismay. Griffith sought a kingdom for himself and needed Guts’s help to achieve that. Guts was satisfied as long as he could swing his blade. Eventually, the Band of the Hawk suffered major losses against the immortal, Nosferatu Zodd, who hadn’t been injured in over 300 years… until he battled Guts and Griffith. Though they lost the fight, after seeing a surreal egg-shaped artifact, the Crimson Behelit, Zodd left them with a warning that inescapable death shall befall Guts should Griffith’s dream collapse.
The Band of the Hawk made a name for themselves with the King of Midland. As Midland had been locked within the Hundred-Year War, the King tasked the Band of the Falcon to claim them victory. Guts and Casca would hear a speech from Griffith that was meant to be said in private. Ultimately, the two believe that they are far beyond Griffith’s reach and are no more than tools for him to realize his dream. During a future battle, Guts and Casca would get isolated at the bottom of a cliff after a falling out between Casca’s difficulties battling and their emotional hang ups. During this time, the two would reconcile their differences and recognize each other as not only allies, but good friends.
With Guts and Casca’s instrumental leadership and aid to Griffith, the Band of the Falcon ended the Hundred-Year War. Having helped fulfill Griffith’s dream, Guts would choose to leave the mercenary group to find his own path instead of being in Griffith’s shadow. He would defeat Griffith in a duel in order to earn his freedom. However, Guts’s departure sent Griffith into a spiraling depression. He would force himself upon the King’s daughter and have the Band of the Hawk convicted. Griffith would be sent to their dungeon for torture for the rest of his life. All of their hard work would be for not as they were recognized as enemies of the state.
A year later, Guts would return to a Band of the Hawk on the verge of collapse. Griffith is gone and the mercenaries are both ecstatic and angry at him. Casca had taken charge during their conviction period and was solely responsible for their survival. The two would reconcile once more, but this time, they acknowledge each other as lovers. Guts finally had someone. Together, the two and members of the Band of the Hawk would successfully rescue Griffith and defeat the men the King had sent after them. However, in Griffith’s state, he could no longer lead them. He was a shell of himself.
In attempting to kill himself, Griffith spilt blood on the Crimson Behelit, calling forth the demonic forces of the God Hand. Griffith would ascend himself to be one of their members, Femto. In doing so, he sacrificed the souls of each and every member of the Band of the Hawk. Everyone in the wake was murdered. Guts would cut his arm off to try and save Casca. In his new godly visage, Griffith would rape Casca, regressing her mental state into someone completely different. With the Brand of Sacrifice, Guts could no longer sleep soundly, have companions, or be at peace in his own path again. All because of Griffith. Now attuned to the nature of the supernatural, Guts vowed to murder all the demonic apostles and end Griffith. He would be the Black Swordsman.
Conviction / Millenium Falcon / Fantasia
Being one of three members of the Band of the Falcon to survive the Eclipse, Guts sets out on a journey to kill the apostles and the God Hand for revenge. He donned his weapons and from the blacksmith, Godot, would receive the Dragonslayer. Upon his travels, he stumbles upon an elf known as Puck, who would become his travel partner for the duration of the series. After slaughtering many apostles, demons, knights, the undead, and even some innocents over the next two years, Guts would return to Godot’s home to find Casca absent. In her near comatose mental state, she had wandered off.
Seeing where he went wrong, Guts goes out to find Casca and keep her with him for sure. In this time, he would meet various people who would form his personal traveling party across the many nations of Midland. Guts would successfully save Casca from a demonic witch hunt due to her Brand of Sacrifice and continue their travels. Puck would inform him that there is a nation that could cure Casca of her mental instability, Elfheim. So Guts, along with his new travel companions, would venture out to find the nation.
They stumble upon a true witch’s den and meet the likes of Schierke, a young, but gifted witch. She would accompany Guts as he tries to make more sense of his newfound world and battle the forces of the unnatural while witnessing great tragedies. Even after all that had occurred to him during the Eclipse, Guts was finally able to find people he could personally call friends. Through trial and tribulation, they would make it to Elfheim, where Casca would finally be cured of her mental anguish. However, given the ceremony was imperfect, Casca could no longer see Guts or discuss the Eclipse without going into a fit of madness. Fixed her personality may have been, Guts could not be with her.
After which, Griffith would kidnap Casca once more, driving Guts deeper into despair. Though he may be incredibly misfortune now, Guts has company around him that will go to any ends to help him out. Shaky as it may be, Guts finally found his trust, his heart, and his home again.
Weapons & Equipment
Base Arsenal
Dragon Slayer: Forged by the blacksmith Godot, the Dragon Slayer is a hulking claymore sharpened on nearly all ends. Godot forged it off a commission of designing a blade that could slay a dragon. It was much too big to be called a sword. Massive, thick, heavy, and far too rough. It was more like a slab of raw iron. Stated to be over “three times thicker and heavier than a normal sword.” The only person shown capable of wielding the unruly sword was Guts. It’s his most trusted companion. Its grip clings onto Guts’s magnetic hand. The strength of the sword can bisect stone, armor, and demonic forces. There’s little the Dragon Slayer cannot cut.
Because of its size, Guts can utilize it as a shield towards incoming attacks. And over the course of Guts’s journey, he’s slaughtered so much of the supernatural, that its metal had been essentially bathed in their blood. Therefore, Guts’s sword exists in the Interstice and Astral Plane, allowing him to slaughter ethereal monsters without aid from magical fetishes. It should be made clear that this does not allow him to cut someone's essence and soul. It merely exists in the astral plane as well as the physical. He’s still required to overcome his opponent’s physicality to do any damage. Dragon Slayer cannot ignore durability.
Repeater Crossbow: Its design was created by Guts’s old war friend and Godot’s student, Rickert. Mounted on his prosthetic arm, Guts shoots arrows, exactly as you’d think. However, it shoots volleys of arrows to take down a horde of enemies akin to that of a machine gun. His arrows aren’t unlimited and he would need to reload eventually.
Throwing Daggers: Taught to Guts by Judeau, Guts added a belt of fin-shaped knives to use against his enemies. Though Guts admits he really only knows the basics of throwing knife combat. While mainly used in stealth, Guts will go to it if pinpoint precision is required to defeat a foe. Limited in use but handy if he’s running out of options.
Miniature Bombs: These are tiny grenade-like mines. After the fuse is lit, the bombs will explode three seconds later. Its design is spiked like a sand spur. As a result, it can attach itself onto surfaces for more creative uses.
Elf Dust: Guts has a collection of Elf Dust in his travel bag due to Puck traveling with him for an extended period of time. Its main use is to patch up his wounds. While serious wounds take days to heal, he can apply it to smaller injuries for immediate healing.
Arm Cannon: Designed by Rickert and Erica, it replaces Guts’s left forearm. It holds a magnet that’s meant to hold the Dragon Slayer with ease. By pulling a cord on the arm’s end, Guts can unveil his hidden cannon (hidden by detaching his left arm). It’s loaded with gunpowder and can unleash an incredibly powerful explosion. Because of the recoil and destructive power, Guts often goes to it as a sort of a last resort or a surprise attack. He even has shown the ability to pull the cord with only his teeth. Its explosions can blow away Apostles and higher echelon demonic forces. It’s not a flamethrower.
Berserker Armor
The most dangerous tool in Guts’s arsenal. It’s not augmentation in a traditional sense. The Berserker Armor completely suppresses all subconscious systems that normally inhibits the body’s natural limits. These inhibitions usually prevent the person from hurting themselves by nature of physical exertion. The Berserker Armor ignores this. The result is physical amplification beyond imagination.
The bearer cannot feel pain; they cannot feel remorse; they can only feel amplified feelings of rage, hatred, and hate. It’s likely that without proper training or an indomitable will, one will succumb to the armor and slaughter even allies. The aim of the armor is for the wearer to fight as long as possible. It can twitch, crush, and reshape the body as needed. It’s not healing the wearer, but rather ensuring that they are kept together. Broken limbs may be retwisted back into place or inject the user with tiny spines to “repair” broken bones. The armor will allow Guts to continue to fight until every last drop of his blood is spilt. (except in cases wherein he loses his heart or his brain functions through decapitation for instance)
It’s a dangerous tool that Guts does not like employing into battle without good reason. However, with the Berserker Armor, Guts can fend off some of the most powerful demons and apostles in Midland, like Grunbeld’s awakened form. Because it’s an abyss of negative emotions, Guts can seldom don the armor without falling into its darkness. Even as of now, the only means of remaining stable while using the armor would require the presence of a powerful magical spirit to keep him in line. After Guts’s is done with the armor, the exertion it puts on his body will no doubt leave him incapacitated for days on end.
Powers & Abilities
Offensive Hax
Base
Superhuman Physiology & Enhanced Senses - While Schierke theorized that his od and link to the interstice is the primary reason for his strength, Guts’s training gave him strength, speed, and endurance unimaginable for most humans in the Berserk world. Guts’s keen sense for a battlefield also improved his hearing and sight to allow him to fight on any battlefield.
Astral Interaction / Brand of Sacrifice - Guts’s Brand of Sacrifice keeps within the astral layer known as the Interstice, where both the physical and astral worlds intermingle. He’s able to see the world of the demonic and more that the astral world has to offer. His Dragon Slayer, due to slaying countless apostles, allowed it to fully exist in both the world of the physical and that of the astral plane. Astral plane beings include ethereal beings such as ghosts and fairies.
Berserker Armor
Physiology Amplification / Increased Acrobatics - Berserker Armor bolsters Guts’s power far beyond what he’d be naturally capable of alone. Capable of leaping and practically flying great distances by bounds. On the level of high level Apostles.
Night Vision - Can see in dark areas as clear as day.
Defensive Resistances
Base
Possession Resistance - Expels evil spirits with Dragon Slayer & his own mental willpower.
Mental Willpower - Pushes past his perceived limits through sheer force of spite and anger.
Poison Resistance - Lived through Rosine’s poisonous stings on his body.
Emotional Manipulation Resistance - Unaffected by forced emotional subjugation by the God Hand, which can force others to obey and fear them.
Removed from Casualty - By existing outside the world’s logic, Guts is not affected by the flow of fate in the same manner as everyone else in Berserk world.
Berserker Armor
Pain Nullification - Due to the armor’s psychological suppression, Guts ignores any pain while the armor is fully activated. It allows him to ignore, at least for a time, the detrimental side effects.
Telepathy Resistance - The emotional abyss makes it difficult for mages to reach his mind.
Limited Body Repair - It’s disingenuous to call the armor’s healing functions true regeneration. It twists, crushes, and bends Guts’s body to keep it together as long as possible. As long as Guts has blood to spill and a working nervous system, the Berserker Armor will continue to fight.
Emotional Suppression - The suppression of Guts’s psyche does not only extend to pain, but also to fear as well. Any emotion not tied to the act of battling is being constantly crushed in favor of an all-out warrior who feels nothing but hate and anguish. (for more, see its section in Arsenal)
Feats
excluding most bit feats…
Strength & Attack Potency
Base
Cleaved steel, and full armor in one swing. Plenty of examples throughout the entire series of Guts humiliating armored foes.
Deflects a javelin that had the force of a cannon by Guts’s account.
Lifts and throws Mozgus while he is in his Released Stone form.
Berserker Armor
Speed & Reactions
Base
Berserker Armor
Forced back several high-level apostles.
Durability & Stamina
Base
Lived through snake slaps that could crush human organs in a single strike.
Defeated an entire skeleton army for hours while succumbing to his injuries.
Battled a 100 man troop of skilled warriors over several hours.
Capable of enduring the side effects of the Brand of Sacrifice for days without rest.
Battles demonic forces every day.
Wyland chucks Guts across the forest through multiple trees.
Charged through Ganishka’s lightning form for the most raw panel ever.
Berserker Armor
Skill & Intelligence
Defeated the likes of apostles, various Kushan assassins, various knights, Lord Zandark, Griffith (pre-Femto), Boscogn, Serpico, Bazuso, Silat, Wyald, Rosine, Emperor Ganishka (mist form), Mozgus and his clergy, and the Sea God.
Survived the Eclipse, which was predestined to kill him and Casca.
Fought toe-to-toe with Nosferatu Zodd and Grunbeld.
Escaped the grips of death many, many times, thus earning his “Struggler” title.
Scaling
(notable feats only)
Schierke / should be comparable to her best magic in the Berserker Armor
Zodd / fought him on multiple occasions and shouldn’t be far behind in Berserker Armor
Fought and got electrocuted by Ganishka’s lightning mist form.
Was near the epicenter of the light & birth of Fantasia, which eclipsed the planet.
Serpico / absolutely comparable even at a baseline level, as he’s defeated him handedly
Daiba / dispatched Daiba’s summoned water demons with Berserker Armor
Sea God / defeated it in Berserker Armor
Weaknesses
Brand of Sacrifice: Due to the events of the Eclipse, Guts is forever branded by a mark on his neck. As a result, Guts attracts a whole host of demons and powerful entities towards him 24/7. Whenever he approaches demonic entities, the mark bleeds profusely and the extent of the bleeding relates to the strength of the threat. However, he did receive Talismans from Schierke which reduced its effects considerably.
Irritability & Rage: Guts has an inner beast that is constantly taunting him and driving Guts to become a worse version of himself. He’s prone to anger in situations that remind him of the horrible times (especially those during the Eclipse). It is very easy for Guts to feed into his own insecurities and rage to draw out most of his strength. Not a healthy coping mechanism when alongside allies.
Succumbing to Berserker Armor: Guts’s inner turmoil combined with his malicious od practically makes him fodder to the Berserker Armor’s hatred. As it suppresses all emotions except that of hatred, suffering, and strength, Guts pushes his body well beyond his own natural limits. He does not care for debilitating injury or even a sense of control. Even now, he still requires interference from Schierke or another luminous body to gain full awareness while in the armor. Without those safety nets, Guts will become a husk of hatred stuffed into a slab of armor.
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