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Avatar: The Last Airbender powers.

19 bending arts from Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, sorted by element, with who has each one, what it costs, what stops it and a Tier ranking.

Avatar: The Last Airbender is an animated series created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko that ran on Nickelodeon from 2005 to 2008. Its sequel, The Legend of Korra, aired from 2012 to 2014 and is set about seventy years later, with Korra as the next Avatar. This page covers both.

Their world is split into four nations, and some people in each are born able to bend one element: water, earth, fire or air. Only the Avatar, reborn into each nation in turn, can master all four. Each art has grown sub-skills that only a few masters ever reach, and those are what this page sorts out: who has them, what they cost and what stops them.

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Tools for Avatar fans

How powers are paid for

Why every Avatar power has a price

Moon, sun and solid ground

Bending in Avatar always leans on something outside the bender. Water and fire follow the sky: waterbenders grow strong under the moon and helpless during a lunar eclipse, while firebenders feed on the sun and lose their fire while it is eclipsed. Earthbenders need ground under their feet, and waterbenders need water within reach. The sub-skills raise the price. Bloodbending usually needs a full moon and was outlawed in Republic City, redirected lightning has to be steered away from the heart, and flight asks an airbender to let go of everything they love. Even the Avatar State has a cost no other power here carries: if the Avatar dies in it, there are no more Avatars. Non-benders have answers too. Chi-blockers such as Ty Lee and Amon's Equalists strike pressure points that shut a bender's power off for a while.

Drawback what the bender pays

Water within reach, a firm stance on solid ground, a calm mind for lightning, and the letting go that flight and the Avatar State demand.

Weakness what the world uses against them

Eclipses of the moon and the sun, metal cells for earthbenders, platinum against metalbenders and chi-blocking against everyone.

Ranked by Tier

Avatar: The Last Airbender Bending arts ranked by Tier

We place each Bending art by the most it does in the story at full strength, on the same four Tiers as our Power List, from Minor to Cosmic. The ranking is our reading, not an official one.

  1. Cosmic0

    None on this page.

  2. World-Class2

  3. Major11

  4. Minor6

19 Bending arts

Every Bending art and what it costs

Tap an Element to jump to its weak spot, or “Filter table” to show only that Element in the table below.

  • WaterbendingMajor

    Control of water in every state: waves and whips of liquid, walls and spikes of ice, mist and steam. Waterbenders turn an opponent's force aside instead of meeting it head-on.

    Price · It needs water at hand, so travelling waterbenders carry a water skin or pull water out of plants and the air. Its strength follows the moon: weaker by day, at its peak under a full moon.

    Weakness · A lunar eclipse takes it away completely, and bound hands or a chi-blocking strike leave most waterbenders unable to move their water.

    Known holders

    • Katara
    • Master Pakku
    • Aang
    • Korra

    Held by

    Closest Power on our list

  • HealingMajor

    Water wrapped around a wound glows and speeds up the body's own repair. Healers can also ease pain, redirect the flow of a person's energy and calm a mind under strain.

    Price · It has hard limits. It cannot undo chi-blocking, most fatal wounds or bending that has been taken away, and Katara could only bring Aang back from Azula's lightning with spirit water from the North Pole's Spirit Oasis.

    Known holders

    • Katara
    • Yagoda
    • Kya
    • Korra

    Held by

    Closest Power on our list

  • BloodbendingMajor

    Taking hold of the water inside a living body and moving it like a puppet. The few who can do it without a full moon can freeze a whole room at once, and Amon used it to cut people off from their bending.

    Price · Most waterbenders can only manage it under a full moon. It is feared enough that Republic City outlawed it, and Katara came to hate it even after she learned it.

    Weakness · A strong enough will can break the grip: Aang threw off Yakone's hold by entering the Avatar State.

    Known holders

    • Hama
    • Katara
    • Yakone
    • Tarrlok
    • Amon

    Held by

    Closest Power on our list

  • PlantbendingMinor

    Moving vines, roots and seaweed by bending the water inside them. The waterbenders of the Foggy Swamp use it to fight from the undergrowth, and Huu wrapped himself in a giant creature made of swamp vines.

    Price · It only works on plants full of water, so it is strong in a swamp and close to useless in a desert. Big plants such as trees take the extra push of a full moon.

    Known holders

    • Huu

    Held by

    Closest Power on our list

  • SpiritbendingMinor

    Circling a spirit with a glowing stream of water to change its inner balance. It can calm an angry dark spirit or turn a peaceful one hostile.

    Price · It works on spirits, not on the physical world, and it is no cure-all: when Korra tried it on the spirit vines choking Republic City, they grew back stronger.

    Known holders

    • Unalaq
    • Korra

    Held by

    Closest Power on our list

  • EarthbendingMajor

    Moving rock and soil: raising walls and pillars, hurling boulders, opening tunnels and shaking the ground. Its fighting style is rooted and patient, holding still until the right moment to strike.

    Price · Its power comes up through the legs, so it needs a firm stance on solid ground. It is a strength art more than a precise one.

    Weakness · Lift an earthbender off the ground or lock them inside metal and there is nothing left to bend. The Fire Nation kept earthbender prisoners on a metal rig at sea for exactly that reason.

    Known holders

    • Toph Beifong
    • King Bumi
    • Bolin
    • Aang
    • Korra

    Held by

    Closest Power on our list

  • MetalbendingMajor

    Bending refined metal by feeling and moving the specks of earth still trapped inside it. Toph invented it to break out of a metal cage; seventy years later Republic City's police swing through the streets on metal cables.

    Price · It is far harder than ordinary earthbending. Metalbenders who carry cables and armour also carry a conductor, so an electrified glove or baton can shock them through their own gear.

    Weakness · Pure metals such as platinum have no earth in them to grab, which is why Hiroshi Sato built his mecha tanks from platinum.

    Known holders

    • Toph Beifong
    • Lin Beifong
    • Suyin Beifong
    • Kuvira
    • Korra

    Held by

    Closest Power on our list

  • LavabendingMajor

    Turning rock into molten lava and shaping it, from spinning discs of lava to whole eruptions. Only a handful of earthbenders and Avatars have ever shown it.

    Price · The gift is rare and can't be taught on demand: Bolin only found he had it during a desperate escape. Molten rock burns whatever it touches, so it is hard to use near allies.

    Known holders

    • Ghazan
    • Bolin
    • Avatar Kyoshi
    • Avatar Roku

    Held by

    Closest Power on our list

  • SandbendingMinor

    An earthbending style built for loose sand. The sandbenders of the Si Wong Desert whip up small sandstorms to push their sand-sailers along and pack sand hard enough to throw.

    Price · Sand flows more like water than stone, so earthbenders used to solid rock find it awkward at first.

    Known holders

    • Ghashiun
    • Toph Beifong

    Held by

    Closest Power on our list

  • Seismic senseMinor

    Feeling vibrations through the ground to 'see' everything touching it, in every direction at once. Toph, blind from birth, learned it from badgermoles and can even catch a lie from a racing heartbeat.

    Price · It only works through contact with earth. In the air, on water, ice or wood, Toph is blind, and even shoes dull the sense.

    Weakness · Sand blurs the picture and makes lie-reading impossible, as Toph found when questioning the sandbender Ghashiun.

    Known holders

    • Toph Beifong
    • Aang
    • Lin Beifong
    • Suyin Beifong

    Held by

    Closest Power on our list

  • FirebendingMajor

    Making fire from the body's own energy and breath, then throwing it as blasts, whips and shields, or as jets strong enough to fly short distances. It is the only bending art that creates its own element.

    Price · The fire comes from the bender's breath and drive. Fire fed by rage burns hot but wild, and when Zuko let go of his anger his flame shrank until he relearned the art from the dragons.

    Weakness · It draws on the sun: weaker at night, and gone completely for the few minutes of a solar eclipse.

    Known holders

    • Zuko
    • Iroh
    • Azula
    • Fire Lord Ozai
    • Mako
    • Aang

    Held by

    Closest Power on our list

  • Lightning generationMajor

    Splitting the body's energy into two opposites and letting them crash back together as a bolt of lightning from the fingertips. By Korra's time, firebenders use it to power Republic City's factories.

    Price · It needs a long wind-up and a mind at peace, and it drains the bender. Zuko could never do it: when he tried, the charge blew up in his face.

    Weakness · A bender who knows redirection can catch the bolt and send it back.

    Known holders

    • Azula
    • Iroh
    • Fire Lord Ozai
    • Mako

    Held by

    Closest Power on our list

  • Lightning redirectionMinor

    Catching a lightning bolt, guiding it through the body and sending it out of the other hand. Iroh worked it out himself after studying how waterbenders turn an opponent's force aside.

    Price · The bolt has to travel down through the stomach and never cross the heart. A wrong path through the body can kill the person redirecting it.

    Known holders

    • Iroh
    • Zuko
    • Aang
    • Mako

    Held by

    Closest Power on our list

  • CombustionbendingMajor

    Focusing energy through the forehead, usually marked with a third-eye tattoo, to fire a beam that explodes where it lands. One shot can split a cliff or turn a pool of water to steam.

    Price · It takes years of brutal training. Once a shot is charged it cannot be held back, so anything that blocks it close by makes it blow up next to the user.

    Weakness · Hit the third eye or block the beam and the blast goes off early. Sokka's boomerang ended Combustion Man this way, and Suyin trapped P'Li's own blast around her head.

    Known holders

    • Combustion Man
    • P'Li

    Held by

    Closest Power on our list

  • AirbendingMajor

    Shaping air into gusts, spinning balls, cushions and tornadoes, and riding it on gliders and air scooters. Airbenders move in circles, dodging and redirecting instead of trading blows.

    Price · It depends on spiritual calm: an airbender whose mind fills with worldly worries can feel their bending weaken. The Air Nomads also taught that every life is precious, so their style holds back from killing blows.

    Known holders

    • Aang
    • Monk Gyatso
    • Tenzin
    • Jinora
    • Kai
    • Bumi
    • Zaheer

    Held by

    Closest Power on our list

  • FlightMajor

    True flight with no glider or bison: the airbender becomes weightless and moves like the wind itself. It was thought to be a legend until Zaheer did it.

    Price · The price is total detachment from everything earthly. Zaheer only managed it after losing P'Li, the woman he loved.

    Weakness · A flier still answers to wind and weight. In the final fight, the airbenders spun Zaheer into a vortex and Korra anchored him with ice.

    Known holders

    • Guru Laghima
    • Zaheer

    Held by

    Closest Power on our list

  • Spiritual projectionMinor

    Sending the spirit out of the body to pass through walls and water, find someone the bender shares a bond with, and appear to them as a glowing figure.

    Price · It needs silence and deep focus, and the body stays behind, still and unaware, while the spirit is away.

    Weakness · A wandering spirit can be caught: Unalaq trapped Jinora's spirit in the Spirit World, and her body lay unconscious until she was freed.

    Known holders

    • Jinora

    Held by

    Closest Power on our list

  • EnergybendingWorld-Class

    Bending the life energy of another person's spirit instead of an element. It can take someone's bending away for good or give it back, and it is older than the four elemental arts.

    Price · The bender's own spirit has to be unshakable. If it wavers at all, the other person's spirit takes over instead, and Aang was nearly overwhelmed by Ozai's the first time.

    Known holders

    • A lion turtle
    • Aang
    • Korra

    Held by

    Closest Power on our list

  • Avatar StateWorld-Class

    The Avatar's defence and greatest power: the eyes and tattoos glow, and the skill of every past Avatar flows through one body at once. Aang used it to seal himself and Appa in an iceberg for a hundred years.

    Price · Untrained, it switches on by itself in danger or grief and leaves the Avatar with no control over the damage. Taking control of it means letting go of earthly attachments, which Aang could not do at first.

    Weakness · If the Avatar is killed while in it, the cycle of rebirth ends. Azula's lightning nearly did this to Aang, and the Red Lotus poisoned Korra to force her into it, hoping she would die there.

    Known holders

    • Aang
    • Korra
    • Avatar Roku
    • Avatar Kyoshi
    • Avatar Wan

    Held by

    Closest Power on our list

4 Elements + Avatar and spirit arts

Elements, their Weak spots and First teachers

Benders are born with one element at most. Each Element below lists its sub-skills, the weak spot every bender of it shares, and the teacher people first learned it from. We tag each weak spot as a Drawback or a Weakness; that tag is our reading, not a rule from the show.

Has

Showing 5 of 5

  • WaterThe art of the Water Tribes at the North and South Poles and of the Foggy Swamp. Flexible and defensive, it rises and falls with the moon.

    Weak spot

    Lunar eclipseWeaknessThe moon fuels waterbending. When Admiral Zhao killed the Moon Spirit during the siege of the North Pole, the moon went dark and the Water Tribe's benders lost their power until it came back.

    First teacher

    The MoonThe first waterbenders learned push and pull by watching the moon draw the tides.
  • EarthThe art of the Earth Kingdom, the largest nation. Solid and patient, it has a wide family of sub-skills, from metal to lava to sand.

    Weak spot

    Cut off from the groundWeaknessAn earthbender held in the air, on water or inside metal has nothing to bend. Only metalbenders can fight their way out of a metal cell.

    First teacher

    BadgermolesBlind burrowing animals that move earth as they dig. The first earthbenders learned from them, and so did Toph.
  • FireThe art of the Fire Nation. The most aggressive of the four, it draws on the sun and is the only one that makes its own element.

    Weak spot

    Solar eclipseWeaknessFirebending feeds on the sun, so it weakens after dark and disappears while the sun is eclipsed. The invasion on the Day of Black Sun was timed around those few minutes.

    First teacher

    DragonsThe Sun Warriors learned fire from dragons, and Zuko and Aang later learned its true meaning from Ran and Shaw, the last known dragons of their time.
  • AirThe art of the Air Nomads, who were all born airbenders. The Fire Nation wiped them out a century before the first series, leaving only Aang, until Harmonic Convergence woke new airbenders in The Legend of Korra.

    Weak spot

    DetachmentDrawbackAirbending asks for inner calm and letting go of worldly ties. An airbender who loses that peace can feel their bending weaken, and the deepest skill, flight, asks them to let go of everything.

    First teacher

    Sky bisonThe Air Nomads learned from flying bison, which became sacred to them; Aang's bison Appa is his oldest companion.
  • Avatar and spiritnot an ElementPowers that work on the spirit rather than on one element. Apart from the lion turtles, only the Avatar has shown them.

    Weak spot

    Spirit before skillDrawbackBoth answer to the spirit, not the body. The Avatar State overwhelms an Avatar who can't control it, and energybending turns on a bender whose spirit wavers.

    First teacher

    Lion turtlesBefore the four nations, lion turtles lent people bending and took it back with energybending. One of them taught the art to Aang.

Across fiction

How Avatar powers compare to other fiction

FAQ

What are the four types of bending in Avatar?

Waterbending, earthbending, firebending and airbending, one for each of the four nations. A person is born able to bend one element at most; only the Avatar learns all four. Each art also has sub-skills: healing and bloodbending for water, metal, lava and seismic sense for earth, lightning and combustion for fire, and flight and spiritual projection for air.

What is the rarest bending in Avatar?

Energybending, which works on a person's spirit rather than an element: in the two series only the lion turtles, Aang and Korra use it. Among the elemental sub-skills, unaided flight is the rarest, with just two known airbenders, Guru Laghima and Zaheer. Combustionbending and lavabending are held by only a handful of people, and for a century airbending itself was down to Aang alone.

Can anyone learn bloodbending?

Only waterbenders, and only skilled ones. Most need a full moon, when waterbending is at its strongest. Yakone and his sons Tarrlok and Noatak, who called himself Amon, could do it at any time after years of harsh training. It was outlawed in Republic City, and Katara, who learned it, came to hate it.

Can a non-bender become a bender?

Normally not: people are born with bending or without it. The exceptions come from spirits and energy. In ancient times lion turtles lent bending to people leaving their cities, and after Harmonic Convergence in The Legend of Korra many non-benders woke up as airbenders, including Tenzin's brother Bumi, Kai and Zaheer.

What is the strongest type of bending?

No element beats the others outright; each has its own conditions, like the moon for water and the sun for fire. On our scale the Avatar State and energybending rank World-Class, because they reach past a single element. Among the sub-skills, bloodbending, metalbending, lavabending, combustionbending and lightning hit hardest. The ranking above is our reading, not an official tier list.

What type of bending would I have?

Try our bending quiz, linked near the top of this page. A few quick questions match your answers to water, earth, fire or air.

Unofficial fan reference

This page is fan-made and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Nickelodeon, Paramount, Avatar Studios, Michael Dante DiMartino or Bryan Konietzko. Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Legend of Korra and their characters and terms belong to their owners and are used here only to identify the series. Every description is written in our own words; no official art or logos are used.

Sources and how this page was written Updated October 16, 2026 +

We checked each bending art and its Holders against the Avatar Wiki and Wikipedia pages below, which cover both series, and wrote every line ourselves. Holders are characters the series shows using the art; the Tiers are our own reading.

Michael Dante DiMartino & Bryan Konietzko / Nickelodeon.