The Walking Dead: Every Main Group, Ranked By Power

The main band of characters on The Walking Dead has come across a number of different groups through its travels, from villains to ones that turned out to be friends and allies. Each survivor community on The Walking Dead has people who live by a specific code, with some of them coming across as less menacing than others.

From the claimers who make a living stealing from everyone else but won’t steal from each other to the Whisperers who wear the skinned faces of the dead to disguise themselves as walkers, it has been a wild ride. With The Commonwealth being one of the next big groups, it’s time to remember all those with whom Daryl and the gang have come in contact.

Updated on February 10th, 2022 by Christine Persaud: Every season, the main characters face a new group of Walking Dead villain groups that proves more of a threat to them than even the walking undead. They have managed to persist, though not without tremendous loss with each encounter with a new group on Walking Dead. As the series comes to a close, there are new groups entering the mix that present a brand new set of challenges and ways of life that threaten the safety of favourite characters.

13 The Scavengers

Residing in a junkyard, The Scavengers took what other people didn’t want and made something useful of it. Leader Jadis became crucial to Rick’s survival and secretly had a deal with the folks at the Civic Republic Military (CRM) that has been fully explained in the spin-off series Walking Dead: World Beyond in which she appeared.

But on The Walking Dead, the mystery around Jadis’ relationship with the CRM meant she personally had more power than she let on. But, as a group, The Scavengers preferred to sit back, do their part, and participate only when there was something in it for them. If not, they’d happily decline to help and continue with their simple existence, uninterested in rocking the boat. The Scavengers are low on the list when it comes to ranking all the survivor communities on The Walking Dead.

12 Grady Memorial Hospital

A big part of season 5 was Beth and her time spent at the Grady Memorial Hospital where she met Noah during her time as a captive. Led by members of the Atlanta Police Department, the group that formed there ran a tight ship.

At the helm was Lieutenant Dawn Lerner, who ranks among the least menacing villain on The Walking Dead thus far. She agreed to help those in medical need, but, once patients were fully recovered, they were forced into servitude, paying off the debt with manual labor, and, in some cases, acting as sexual slaves. However, the group didn’t have much power beyond its four walls.

11 The Wolves

Unhinged? Yes. Disturbed? Yes. Powerful? Somewhat, but not as powerful as some of the other groups on the show. The hostile group had an interesting set-up; they would lure survivors into traps, take their belongings, then use the person as bait to get the next victim once they have turned. Like serial killers, they leave a signature on each kill: a “W” carved into the foreheads as a sort of warning.

There wasn’t much planning and foresight that went into their plans. It was savage, which makes the group powerful physically, but they were no match for the wits of many other groups.

10 The Ferals

Introduced in season 11, The Ferals came right out of a horror movie. Hunched over and crawling on all fours, the unkempt, animalistic killers had completely lost all sense of their humanity. They resorted to behaving like the undead, attacking and feasting on humans, even though they were still technically alive themselves.

They were incredibly dangerous due to their predatory and savage nature. But they were also fairly smart, able to set traps to capture people in a way that proved they still had some wits about them. Their primary and sole focus on taking down anyone that came in their path as though they were hunting made them ferocious creatures. But they were small in numbers and taken out fairly quickly.

9 Oceanside

Oceanside, made up entirely of women, were dangerous in that they swore to kill anyone who dared come near them for fear of reliving the same fate that happened before when Simon and The Saviors took out all the men.

While chances are Oceanside will have a big role in the final episodes of the show, as it stands, the group has offered assistance when needed but hasn’t demonstrated any real power. With that said, the fact that they have situated themselves so remotely, out of harm’s way of most attacks, proves them to be more powerful than people give them credit for.

8 Hilltop Colony

The former leader, Gregory, ran the community as a coward, making bad decisions left, right, and center. Once Maggie—and later Tara—took over, however, the group’s status began to rise.

The farming community had all the resources to be successful and self-fulfilling, which is precisely why they were near the top of the list of Negan’s targets. Their main power, then, was in negotiating for resources, of which they had plenty. With that said, since the Hilltop Colony has all but been obliterated, it ranks low on the list.

7 Alexandria Safe-Zone

Aside from being set up with solar panels which meant the group had luxuries like electricity, Congresswoman Denna Monroe, a character who didn’t exist in The Walking Dead comics, knew a thing or two about how to make a community run and lead people. She used that pre-apocalypse knowledge to build a town that looked like a picture-perfect suburban street from a movie set.

She provided, encouraged, and kept the community protected. Alexandrians could sustain themselves without having to rely on anyone else, and they had an airtight defense system to keep out both intruders and walkers. While Alexandria is suffering from limited resources following the attack from The Whisperers, the fact that it is still standing, housing survivors from three different communities, is a testament to the power of the space.

6 The Kingdom

What truly made the Kingdom one of the most powerful groups on the show was Shiva, Ezekiel’s ferocious pet tiger who served as the group’s personal bodyguard. It was also about confident leadership; Ezekiel used his prior training with Shiva and acting ability to create a false sense of status for himself that gave the group hope and encouraged their loyalty. Everyone called him King, and he acted as such, always leading with honor and dignity.

With that said, even with a predatory animal at his side, Ezekiel still found himself—and The Kingdom—at the mercy of the Saviors. His power was not as strong as some of the other groups because he also refused to stoop to their levels. The Kingdom is no more, but at its height, the community had so much power that the Saviors had to rely on its resources to survive.

5 Terminus

It was a brilliant yet terrifying idea, and one that viewers likely expect would happen somewhere should a real apocalypse hit. Once food resources became scarce, the folks at Terminus devised a genius plan: recruit humans, fatten them up, drain them, then cook and eat their meat.

What made Terminus so powerful was how they were able to set up reassuring signs to encourage survivors to seek out their community, believing it would provide them safety and salvation.

4 The Reapers

If ever there was a group that functioned like a cult on The Walking Dead, even more so than The Saviors, it is The Reapers. A group of highly trained hostiles, they represent outliers with extremist views that believe in building a new life that is centered on taking down everyone else who gets in their way.

The leader Pope preaches his own gospel, a warped version of Christianity, and his members dutifully follow his every command, without question. The group is one of the smallest of all The Walking Dead villains, but their military training, having all fought together in Afghanistan prior to the world coming to an end, along with their tight-knit familial-like bond, make them lethal to anyone who gets in their way.

3 The Saviors

Negan was one of the most evil villains on The Walking Dead. He wreaked the most havoc for the group and was responsible for killing two of their main members, Glenn and Abraham. He teased, taunted, and terrorized them for the longest period of time of any villain. What’s more, he controlled multiple groups in the apocalypse, who all had to provide for him, or else.

Much like a mafia boss, Negan had a system whereby he offered protection to everyone in exchange for contributions every month, whether that was food, weapons, vehicles, or other luxuries. Pay up, and it will be status quo. Don’t, and his wrath will come down upon the group. Negan proved himself unpredictable, as were many of his other loyal followers. But what made him especially dangerous was that he possessed the rare qualities of being clever, charming, cruel, and highly intelligent, all at the same time.

2 The Whisperers

If there was one group that could be considered more powerful than even the Saviors, it would be The Whisperers. While the Saviors wanted goods, the Whisperers were nomads who moved around as they liked and chose to live off the land. They were taught not to fear anything, not to care for anything, and never to get attached. But their leader Alpha was also fiercely smart.

The Whisperers, who acted in a similar cult-like fashion to the Saviors and The Reapers, both feared and respected Alpha. She only ever wanted to get rid of threats and exert her power in the most extreme way. She and Negan were two peas in a pod, but, where Negan proved he wasn’t beyond redemption, Alpha was too far gone. That, along with Beta by her side, even if he was one of the least intelligent villains on The Walking Dead, is precisely what made the group so powerful.

1 The Commonwealth

Any group that can function as if an apocalypse isn’t happening on the outside has more power than any other. And this precisely describes The Commonwealth, a new group on Walking Dead. While Alexandria functioned well with residents living in pretty little houses and food growing in abundance, The Commonwealth is on another level.

With its own government, military operatives, legal system, restaurants, shops, and even infomercials that promise a suburban life within its walls, it’s a community that appears idealistic on the outside. But on the inside, there is likely some serious danger happening. Fans can’t wait to find out how The Commonwealth will play into the end of the story.

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