Slayers 2 All Breathing Styles Ranked & Explained

Project Slayers 2 has completely rebuilt how swordsmanship works, and if you want to know about Slayers 2 all breathing styles, you've come to the right place. Breathing Styles are one of the two main damage systems in the game, sitting alongside Blood Demon Arts, and every slayer build lives or dies by which one they pick. Unlike the original game, Part 2 gives each style five movesets and a dedicated cutscene ultimate, so the gap between a good pick and a bad one is bigger than ever.

This guide breaks down every breathing style currently in Slayers 2, what's confirmed for launch, how to unlock them, and how they stack up in PvE and PvP based on community tier lists and player testing.

For more, see beginner guide and complete codes list.

What Are Breathing Styles in Slayers 2?

Breathing Styles are swordsmanship techniques built around Total Concentration Breathing, the same concept from Demon Slayer. In gameplay terms, they're your primary combo toolkit: each style gives you a set of sword skills with unique animations, hitboxes, and utility like stuns, combo extenders, and i-frames.

The Fandom wiki confirms two big structural changes from Part 1:

• Five movesets per style instead of the smaller Part 1 kits
• One cutscene move per style, which is usually the ultimate

That second point matters more than it sounds. During a cutscene move, you're locked into an animation — great for landing guaranteed damage, risky if you whiff it. Player experience suggests the styles with the best cutscene ultimates tend to be the most "busted" in the current meta.

One more thing worth clearing up: despite the water, thunder, and flame visuals, breathing styles don't actually use elements. They're just sword swings with dramatic effects layered on top. The wiki notes the only exceptions are Moon Breathing and Black Thunder Breathing, which are demon-used styles where the effects are real.

All Breathing Styles in Slayers 2 (Current Roster)

Here's the confirmed lineup based on the official wiki and community showcases. Four styles are playable in the current build, with more flagged as upcoming.

The wiki also notes that Stone Breathing has a real chance of showing up early in Part 2, since Gyomei appears in official Part 2 artwork. Nothing is confirmed on that front yet, so treat it as speculation.

Water Breathing

Water Breathing got what the Destructoid tier list calls "the biggest PvP and PvE glow up of all time." Its X move is now a fast stun that doubles as a combo extender — and crucially, it can be used while you're stunned, meaning you can escape an opponent's combo and start your own. Water Wheel also stuns now. Add i-frames on key moves and solid AoE damage, and you've got a top-tier pick for both boss fights and duels.

Thunder Breathing

Thunder keeps its identity from the original game: instant-cast moves that are brutally hard to react to. In PvP, that speed is the whole point — your opponent simply doesn't have time to read what's coming. It's also strong in PvE, making it one of the best overall movesets in Slayers 2. If you want raw speed over utility, this is your style.

Insect Breathing

Insect is a fast, chain-heavy style similar to Thunder, but it leans into poison damage. Community reports say you really want the Kocho clan to get the massive single-target poison output — with it, Insect becomes one of the best boss killers in the game. The trade-off is dungeon performance: it lacks AoE, so it struggles when enemies come in waves.

Serpent Breathing

Serpent is the strong all-rounder. It has teleports, knock-up moves, and excellent combo potential, plus barrages that burst bosses down quickly. Its weakness is counters — the Destructoid breakdown specifically warns that movesets with counters can shut Serpent down fast. If you like mobility and mixups over raw burst, it's a great fit.

How to Unlock Breathing Styles in Slayers 2

Unlock requirements in Part 2 are still being documented, and the wiki is upfront that full information isn't available yet. Here's what's confirmed so far:

Serpent Breathing was the first style officially announced for Part 2, which is why its unlock path is the best documented. The other three are playable in showcases but their trainer locations and costs haven't been published on the wiki yet.

For reference, Part 1 requirements were much more standardized: Level 12 and 5,000 Wen for starter-world styles, and Level 75 with 10,000–13,000 Wen plus 100–150 Demon Horns for the Ouwohana styles. Part 2 is clearly shifting toward Demon Horns and Demon Cores as the gating currency, so start farming those early.

Understanding Breath Levels

Your breathing style is only as good as your lungs. In Part 1, breath capacity scaled across five tiers, and the same system is expected to carry into Part 2:

If you're running a breathing style on Weak Lungs, you'll spend more time recharging than fighting. Upgrading lungs should be your first priority after unlocking a style.

Best Breathing Style in Slayers 2: PvP vs PvE

The honest answer is that Water and Thunder are currently tied at the top, but they win for different reasons. Here's the practical breakdown:

For PvP:

• Water — the stun-while-stunned X move is genuinely unfair and lets you steal turns
• Thunder — instant casts mean opponents can't react
• Serpent — great until you run into a counter-heavy matchup
• Insect — fast chains, but less oppressive than the top two

For PvE and bosses:

• Water — best mix of AoE and boss damage
• Thunder — strong all-around, easy to pilot
• Insect — best single-target boss killer with Kocho, weak in dungeons
• Serpent — solid barrages, good for bursting single targets

The pattern is clear: Water is the safest investment if you want one style that does everything. Thunder is the pick if you value speed and plan to PvP heavily.

Upcoming Breathing Styles to Watch

Four styles are confirmed as upcoming per the wiki: Love Breathing, Moon Breathing, Sun Breathing, and Mist Breathing. The wiki also states that six styles — including Serpent — are planned for the launch version of Part 2, so the current playable roster is only a slice of what's coming.

A few things worth knowing about the upcoming batch:

• Sun Breathing has already been referenced in Kamado clan perks, so its inclusion is effectively locked in
• Moon Breathing is a demon-associated style, meaning its visual effects are "real" within the game's lore rather than cosmetic
• Each new style will follow the same five-moveset, one-cutscene-move template

If you're grinding resources now, Demon Horns and Demon Cores look like the safe bet for future unlocks.

Tips for Picking Your Style

A few practical pointers from player experience:

1. Don't chase tier lists blindly. Stone and Serpent are rated lower than Water, but in the hands of a player who's learned the timings, they perform far above their ranking.
2. Match your style to your content. If you run dungeons, avoid Insect — no AoE means slow clears. If you duel, prioritize stun and combo-extension tools.
3. Learn your cutscene move's timing. Every style has one, and knowing when it's safe to commit is the difference between a highlight and a death.
4. Upgrade lungs before anything else. A maxed style on Weak Lungs loses to a mediocre style on Complete Total Concentration.
5. Check clan synergy. Kocho transforms Insect, and clan perks have already teased Sun Breathing — clan choice and style choice are linked.

For broader context on the game's systems, the official Project Slayers 2 wiki is the most reliable source for unlock data as it's confirmed.

Final Thoughts

The Slayers 2 all breathing styles roster is still growing, but the current four — Water, Thunder, Insect, and Serpent — already offer genuinely different playstyles rather than reskins of each other. Water and Thunder sit at the top of most community rankings, Insect is a specialist boss killer, and Serpent rewards players who master mobility. With Love, Moon, Sun, and Mist on the way, now is a great time to lock in your main and start stockpiling Demon Horns and Demon Cores for the next wave of unlocks.