Considered by many to be the best villain of the Mass Effect rogues gallery, Sovereign made a huge impact when he was first introduced back in 2007. Eloquent, emotionless, and powerful enough to make an Alliance Fleet look like paper airplanes, Sovereign is one of the deadliest enemies thrown against Commander Shepard in their intergalactic adventures.
But, is Sovereign the toughest being in the galaxy? Not by a longshot! There are few entities that not only overpower the Reaper vanguard but completely eclipse him. Whether it’s in terms of weaponry, cunning, or sheer physical strength, these characters prove that you don’t have to be first to the party in order to make a big impression.
5 Harbinger
Harbinger was the first Reaper ever made and serves as the primary antagonist of Mass Effect 2 and 3. Sovereign walked so Harbinger could run — the Reaper leader is bigger, badder, and even more vicious than his younger brother in every way. Although his speeches might be a bit less eloquent, Harbinger outstrips Sovereign in terms of body count, army size, and ferocity.
Harbinger succeeded in killing Shepard using its Collector minions, a feat which Sovereign tried and failed at many times. Not only that, but Harbinger could assume direct control of its underlings to directly threaten the galaxy from afar. As head of The Reapers, Harbinger boasts shields and weapons in far greater excess than Sovereign, and even managed to worm his way into the most anti-alien faction in the galaxy, Cerberus. Plus, his weird little twitchy legs are far creepier, so there’s that.
4 The Catalyst
The architect of the entire Reaper race, The Catalyst is an artificial intelligence created by the Leviathans to oversee the relationship between organic and synthetic life. Spoiler: it really came to the wrong conclusions. Predictably, the thing that helps end the entire Reaper war is much more powerful than Sovereign — even if it appears to Shepherd in the guise of a holographic ghost kid.
The Catalyst is able to work miracle-level effects on the galaxy depending on Shepard’s choices, not least of which is entirely wiping out The Reapers in an instant. Needless to say, this god-like AI is magnitudes more powerful than Sovereign, hands down. It might be the most powerful entity in existence, in fact. The Catalyst was even so strong, it even managed to go beyond the game to kill some fans’ faith in the franchise’s ending.
3 The Leviathan of Dis
Not to be confused with the undersea squid folk elsewhere on this list, the Leviathan of Dis is a fellow Reaper who is never seen in-game, but referred to throughout the franchise in codex entries. A supposedly dead Reaper found on the planet Jartar, the Leviathan of Dis was taken down in a previous cycle and salvaged by the Batarians for study. So, it’s probably not too dangerous, right?
Wrong. From beyond the grave, the Leviathan of Dis managed to indoctrinate and convert the Batarian Hegemony before the Reaper/Alliance war even began. Sovereign, meanwhile, failed to do the same thing with a traitorous spectre, a machine race at his command that is generally a lot more alive. The Leviathan of Dis is magnitudes more powerful than Sovereign, so much so that it didn’t even need to be living in order to eclipse his efforts.
2 Kalros
The mother of all Thresher Maws and terror of Tuchanka, the gargantuan Kalros makes her first appearance in Mass Effect 3. Her entrance? Just casually murdering a Destroyer — the kind of Reaper that required the entire Quarian fleet shooting it at once to take down. No big deal. It should’ve thought twice before getting in the sandpit.
Now, Reaper Destroyers are smaller than Sovereign, sure. But according to codex entries, Kalros is still bigger than the OG Reaper. Although Sovereign’s kinetic shields are powerful against high-speed projectiles, they won’t do much against a kilometers-long monster crushing it to pieces. Sovereign has the edge in space, but on land, Kalros would drag him into the Dune nightmare zone just like his Destroyer ally. Power might be subjective, but in terms of physical strength, Kalros has Sovereign beat.
1 The Leviathans
Introduced in the aptly-titled Leviathan DLC from Mass Effect 3, the mysterious Leviathans were the race who created The Catalyst and ended up being the first victims of The Reapers — who, incidentally, took their physical appearance. But despite their poor track record in the judgment department, these giant talking cuttlefish are no joke.
They might be organic, but Leviathans are Reaper-killing machines. They downed the Leviathan of Dis with a massive energy blast, and even treat Shepard to a show when they remotely disable a Reaper capital ship in mid-air. If that wasn’t enough, they even exhibit the ability to assume direct control of Reaper constructs. Sovereign might be scary, but there isn’t a lot you can do when someone can just take control of your minions and hit your power button from a hundred miles away.
NEXT: Mass Effect: Ranking The Trilogy’s 10 Most Evil & Villainous Characters
