For decades, video games were dominated by grizzled soldiers, space marines, and silent male heroes saving the world with oversized guns. But over time, a new kind of legend emerged — female protagonists who didn’t just keep up, but completely stole the spotlight.
These characters weren’t sidekicks. They weren’t damsels. They were survivors, warriors, hunters, assassins, and icons. Some carried entire franchises on their backs. Others redefined how female leads were written in games altogether.
This list celebrates the 10 most badass female video game protagonists ever, ranked not just by popularity, but by impact, toughness, legacy, and sheer “don’t mess with me” energy.
This is a reverse countdown, starting at #10 and building to the undisputed queen of gaming badassery.
10. Jesse Faden (Control)
Jesse Faden doesn’t kick down the door — she walks into the impossible and bends it to her will.
As the protagonist of Control, Jesse becomes the director of the Federal Bureau of Control, a secret agency that studies paranormal phenomena. Armed with a shape-shifting gun and reality-warping psychic abilities, she navigates a brutalist nightmare filled with possessed agents and cosmic horror.
What makes Jesse badass isn’t just her powers — it’s her calm determination. She never panics. She adapts. She pushes forward while uncovering the truth behind her past and the strange forces surrounding her.
She’s smart, relentless, and terrifyingly composed in a world that makes no sense.
9. Amicia de Rune (A Plague Tale)
Amicia de Rune starts as a noble teenager and ends up one of the most hardened survivors in modern gaming.
Across A Plague Tale: Innocence and Requiem, Amicia fights against medieval brutality, religious zealots, and literal oceans of flesh-eating rats. She doesn’t have superpowers — just a sling, alchemy tools, and an iron will forged through loss.
Her journey is raw and emotional, and that’s what makes her terrifying. Amicia is willing to do whatever it takes to protect her brother, even when it costs her humanity.
Badass doesn’t always mean invincible — sometimes it means enduring hell and refusing to break.
8. Faith Connors (Mirror’s Edge)
Faith Connors proves you don’t need guns to be lethal.
As the parkour-running courier of Mirror’s Edge, Faith survives in a surveillance-controlled dystopia by relying on speed, agility, and instinct. She outpaces armed soldiers, disarms enemies mid-motion, and turns the city itself into a weapon.
Faith is badass because she’s always moving forward. She doesn’t fight the system head-on — she outruns it. Her minimalistic design, silent intensity, and physical dominance made her instantly iconic.
She turned momentum into a combat style and changed how first-person games approached movement forever.
7. Jill Valentine (Resident Evil)
Jill Valentine is survival horror royalty.
A founding member of S.T.A.R.S. and one of the earliest female protagonists in mainstream gaming, Jill survived the Spencer Mansion, Raccoon City, bioweapons, cults, and global outbreaks.
She’s not just a survivor — she’s a trained operative who remains composed while the world collapses around her. Whether dodging Nemesis or dismantling Umbrella’s legacy, Jill consistently proves she belongs in the conversation with the toughest characters in gaming history.
Her endurance across decades of Resident Evil cemented her as a genre-defining icon.
6. Commander Shepard (Mass Effect – Female)
FemShep isn’t just a version — she’s the definitive Shepard for many players.
As commander of the Normandy, Shepard faces extinction-level threats, political collapse, and galactic warfare. Female Shepard delivers leadership with authority, intelligence, and emotional depth rarely matched in RPG protagonists.
She negotiates peace, makes impossible moral choices, and leads squads into unwinnable battles — all while carrying the weight of an entire galaxy’s survival.
What makes FemShep truly badass is her command presence. When she speaks, people listen. When she fights, civilizations follow.
5. Clementine (The Walking Dead)
Clementine’s evolution might be the most brutal character arc in gaming.
Introduced as a frightened child in The Walking Dead: Season One, Clementine grows into a hardened survivor capable of leading others, making lethal decisions, and carrying the scars of a broken world.
She doesn’t lose her humanity — she learns how to protect it.
By the final season, Clementine isn’t just surviving the apocalypse — she’s shaping it. Few characters earn their strength the way she does, and fewer still feel as real.
4. Aloy (Horizon Series)
Aloy doesn’t just hunt machines — she outsmarts a dead civilization.
Raised as an outcast, Aloy becomes one of gaming’s most intelligent and capable protagonists. She blends ancient survival skills with advanced technology, taking down towering robotic beasts while uncovering the secrets of humanity’s collapse.
Aloy’s strength comes from her mind as much as her bow. She questions everything, challenges authority, and refuses to accept a world built on lies.
In a genre full of brute force heroes, Aloy stands out as a tactician, explorer, and warrior rolled into one.
3. Bayonetta (Bayonetta Series)
Bayonetta doesn’t fight — she performs.
Every battle is a dance of bullets, magic, and absurd confidence. She doesn’t just defeat angels and demons — she humiliates them. Bayonetta owns every room she enters with unmatched swagger and power.
Her over-the-top combat style, razor-sharp wit, and refusal to be intimidated by gods themselves make her one of gaming’s most unforgettable protagonists.
She’s unapologetically powerful, stylish, and dominant — and that confidence is her greatest weapon.
2. Lara Croft (Tomb Raider)
Before Lara Croft, female protagonists were rare. After her, they were unavoidable.
From the original Tomb Raider to her modern reimagining, Lara evolved from an action icon into a fully realized survivor. She’s an archaeologist, explorer, and lethal combatant who thrives in ancient ruins and hostile environments.
Modern Lara’s journey from vulnerability to mastery made her more relatable — and more dangerous.
She didn’t just survive the wild — she conquered it, and changed gaming history along the way.
1. Samus Aran (Metroid)
The original badass.
Samus Aran shattered expectations before most players even knew she was a woman. Alone on hostile alien worlds, she hunted space pirates, wiped out planet-ending threats, and explored the unknown with zero backup.
She doesn’t speak much. She doesn’t need to.
Samus defined atmospheric storytelling, non-linear exploration, and solitary heroism. Her strength is absolute, her presence commanding, and her legacy untouchable.
Without Samus, modern action-adventure games — and female protagonists — would not exist as we know them.
These women didn’t just fight monsters or villains — they redefined what a protagonist could be. They showed that strength comes in many forms: intelligence, resilience, leadership, adaptability, and raw power.
They weren’t written to check a box. They were written to endure, dominate, and leave a mark.
Fantastic Nerdom 