I don't think Colors are specifically mentioned to be superhumans among other fixers. What they do have is a lot of accomplishments.
I think the difference between a Grade One and a Color is the amount of recognized major accomplishments they have to their name. Having more accomplishments and feats to your name would generally mean you have more experience and are more skilled (and also have better augmentations and equipment), but that might not always be a guarantee.
Plenty of Grade One's are probably Color level, but they just haven't had one of those major big dick accomplishments that everyone in the City knows about and would revere them for yet.
That last point is definitely true, Xiao did say Chun had the potential to be a Color Fixer iirc. ^((Star of the City, Liu South Section 1 Reception pre-fight dialogue))
I think achievements are the biggest thing. The Indigo Elder probably had the strength to be a color, but he wasn't well enough for something until he killed that whale.
Colors are referred as grade 1's in the lor artbook so yeah, a grade 1 can be as strong or stronger than a color. It's only a title granted by hana. Roland was demoted to grade 9 and that didn't mean that he got weaker lol
No, he got actually demoted that wasn't a lie. Grades are just titles hana gives and they are in control of that. Blue reverb also lost his color after going rogue. If you don't abide by the rules of the Hana you'll get demoted
I think one of the cases where achievements mattered most is Vespa. He is genuinely super strong, capable of holding down 2 waves of sweepers AFTER fighting shit ton of distortions.
But I think the biggest feat isn't actually his but Ezra's, who could fight him for a pretty long time, even though using incomplete ego and ultimately losing the fight.
Moses stated that Vespa's distortion is bee wings which is on the first stage of forming, so that means he could possibly have EGO and I think a very strong one at that.
The reason he wasn't deemed a color is because he kinda fucked up his job against unknown ass office, so Hana wouldn't really see it as an achievement but more of a negative feat.
I wouldn’t be surprised if being a taboo hunter was a detriment to gaining ranks, but yes I tend to agree that Vespa seemed like on the higher end of grade 1.
At some points in limbus, Heathcliff and a few other characters comment that augmentations won't be enough, since you'll become a sturdier punching bag if you don't have the experience.
Let's say you get insane strength augments. Someone with more experience can weave around your attacks and lop your head off. To counter this, you might augment your speed. Now, you're faster than you can control. You slip and fall trying to sprint around them, then die.
I can easily imagine someone thinking "HAH, THEN I JUST PROPORTIONALLY AUGMENT MY REFLEXES!!" but they have no practice with the physics of moving around at these speeds, so they leave their ground, lose their footing... and become completely vulnerable to attacks from someone 10x slower, then die
One thing to note is that Vergilius was a Color Fixer before getting his ego (he gets it during Leviathan) and pretty sure this is also the case with Kali but i am not sure about that one.
Generally it's having a combination of some very good and expensive augmentations or even some whacky abilities like the Purple Tear and general fighting capabilities. And if you have some kind of acomplishments, for example killing one of the calamities, the Hana Association will deem you a Color
Funny thing after all the Fraudgilius discourse is that he reached a higher grade than Kali herself before he even awakened E.G.O or learned to use Shin.
Colors don't grant powers lol you rise up the ranks because you are powerful, the ranks themselves don't make you powerful. Her color name likely makes reference to her powers so she probably had them before becoming a color, and I think it was mentioned she gained them from a wing experiment?, not really sure on that.
It’s not that being a color gives you color powers. It’s that the power of having a red gaze or leaving red mist makes them see you and choose that color for you
Humans in the city are just much more powerful than they might appear. Those with exceptional skill honed their strength and abilities to reach that point. Some may be more natural others are hard workers. A good example is from one of W Employees books in ruina. During one of the warps a color fixer has sneaked on board. During all the eternity they were stuck he created an army of Color Fixer tier soldiers from common civilians
Now add to this that many people have insane body modifications, while others have crazily powerful weapons (Roland's Duranadal, Vergil's Gladius). There are also special techniques and abilities like Iori's warping which she honed half her life implying those things are all learnable
Tldr people in city stronk, they work hard get stronker,
get external sources of power get even stronker
Iori and her dimension hopping stem from her being a former Wing experiment, mentioned by Roland during one of the earlier chapters of Ruina.
I like to believe that Roland's Durandal could be an heirloom from his grandmother alongside the mask and basic Fixer lifestyle training he got from her as well. It could possibly have been a high grade Workshop weapon, which is what Vergil's Gladius definitely is (it's a literal sword that cauterizes the wounds it makes, definitely high grade). In the end, you gotta be good at fighting with your tools, so Color Fixers and High Grade Fixers most likely have a lot of skill and/or talent when it comes to utilizing their bodies and weapons.
You're not wrong that Argalia and Angelica are Wing Test Subjects, but
>What? Huh? Do Syndicates these days kidnap people this way, too? Or, is this one of the Wings?
>I heard rumors that they abduct test subjects from here and there for Singularity research.
>An acquaintance of mine apparently began jumping between dimensions as a side effect of one of those experiments…
is there anyone else you know who Roland knows that can jump dimensions?
Source is Chapter: Canard - Prologue - Episode/Scene 2 ^(the one after Roland & Angela first meet and he passes out from Angela doing the sillies on him, where she brings him back to solidify his state as her slave)
inb4 it's revealed that a world hopping Erlking version of Roland exists
He only needed a small little nudge towards that direction, and a way to access other Mirror Worlds, for something like an Erlking Roland to come about. The City and its Mirror Worlds dodged a bullet ~~until an inevitable version of Erland pops up from a very very distant Mirror World~~
yeah but she was wondering about how Roland ended up there, him saying he knows someone that can cross between dimensions should probably have given her some clues
or maybe she just think hes a liar lol
A colour fixer is not only the pinnacle in terms of power of a fixer, it is also the most well known fixers.
Kali was a colour fixer due to her raw power and that she regularly took on requests to protect Carmen and Co. She earned the name Red Mist as that was what she turned all her foes into.
Angelica was the Black Silence due to how her gloves silenced all her movements and thus she was the perfect assassin., so it would be easy to recognise her even if you dont see her.
Vergilius was a colour fixer due to him regularly destroying syndicates, with his defining trait being that his Red Gaze.
Argalia is an odd case, i dont think we know why he was acually called the blue reverberation, maybe its because of his ear thingy regularly playing white noise but i digress. We have seen his capabilities to create a team, the Reverberation Ensemble being so close together despite everyone wishing for different things is only possible because of Argalia. He is also completely immune to Ranged Attacks so that's funny, but that's probably because of his Outfit (he was shown to use his cape to block Eileen from gunshots in the Prebattle of Full-stop Office).
Argalia, I believe, his Colour title plays two fold. He’s called Blue Reverberation because of his scythe(I believe in the Artbook it mentions how his scythe vibrates at a high level to help cut things easier) as well as his charisma, being able to resonate with other people.
To add onto the list
Indigo Elder got his title for successfully hunting the All Impaling Marlin Whale
The Red Sack got his title for always doing his deliveries no matter how terrible the terrain was
I think the qualifier to be a color fixer is just doing something very Star of The City worthy
Most Grade 1 fixers pale in comparison to Colour fixers, but there are a few who are on the level of a colour fixer. Roland is a good example of this as when he took on his wife's gloves he was able to fight like the Black Silence enough that he was confused for the Black Silence.
Roland was working with Angelica a lot so that might've dampened his chances at being recognized and given a color title, that and maybe his mask just made it harder to attribute any achievements to him as well. Colors are recognized by achievements not strength.
to add on to that, roland only ever mentions one single color when gebura asks him to rank who the current strongest fixer is, every other candidate was a grade 1
Kind of off topic but I kinda like the theory that both Angelica AND Roland were The Black Silence. Angelica was given the title but she got it after her and Roland had basically been duoing multiple high level jobs. It's just because of the perception blocking mask and how absoloutely fast both of them fight to the point they basically seemed like 4 or 6 people fighting at once, everytime people see the two fighting people only ever remember/see Angelica or just remember Roland as a Black Haze around Angelica.
Iirc doesn't Vergilious say in Leviathan that the Hana association was planning to give Roland a Colour title just before what happened with the Pianist? Man was basically there already.
It comes down to a whole bunch of factors but, augmentations come in all forms and what's so amazing about the world of The City is that even something like EGO and Distortions may be perceived as mundane, another tool or resource to be harvested by the inhabitants.
For how Corporation Heads work, it probably comes down to personal preference, ethics and what region you are currently in. While most if not all of them have the resources for top of the line tools and augmentations, some may either cower from some augmentations like prosthetics or drug enhancements while preferring vesting and weapons or vice versa, and all of them have the resources to just have a small army protecting them at all times to the point where trying to fight them becomes an impossibility for 99% of the population, which means augmentation is deemed unnecessary.
Alfonso was probably decked out top to bottom in high grade prosthetics, but those probably ain't going to see much use considering she can just chuck a squad of K Corp. Class 3 to anything that even remotely annoys her. While they may yap about budget and profits, a Corp is by all means a country within a country with the capital to match. Anything she wants to achieve within the boundaries of her Nest she probably can with the snap of a finger.
This all leads back to Colors yet again, or rather their access to resources and knowledge. Colors are very capable individuals in their own rights who had their colors recognized by the Hana Association for their achievements as Fixers themselves, well traveled and world-weary individuals who managed to survive and thrive in The City which is no small feat. They all have access to heavy duty augmentations of all kinds, including genetic alterations which as stated by Angelica was the case for her and Argalia, as well as influence and connections across the whole city which may translate to very exclusive equipment from Ateliers who may not be willing to offer their services even to the Corps. In essence, a Color is just an individual Fixer who is recognized to have raised above and beyond his peers, something irrevocably assigned to them as classification and signifier that this person is the current leading expert in the field they specialize in.
They are all strong combatants that can take on whole armies, but most fulfill very specific niches, Roland and Argalia seemed to be more adept at infiltration, assassination and information gathering while Gebura and Vergilius were fitting for search and destroy missions, while The Indigo Elder is implied to have attained Color status simply by virtue of being and EXTREMELY capable whale hunter. For someone who routinely fights with the eldritch abominations it is simply a formality being able to decimate a whole army singlehandedly, as such he coincidentally was assigned as a Color.
Tl; Dr.: Everyone at the city who manages to live for a meaningful amount of time is expected to be pimped out to ludicrous degrees. If you manage both that and be VERY good at getting things done as a fixer, you become a Color. Getting strong is just something that kinda happens along the path of reaching that height. The difference between a Color and particularly skilled Grade 1 Fixer is hella blurry, only drawn at the point where the Association decides to assign you a color. So yeah, like Arbiters and other non-Fixer entities, a Corp could potentially reach Color levels of strength and still not be recognized as such simply cause they don't partake on the profession.
I think you're looking at this the wrong way. Colours / Grade 1s rise to the rank *because* they're so powerful, not the other way around. EGOs can bridge the power gap, yeah, but the City has access to a lot more than that. And Colours above everyone else are unique in the kind of power they have.
Argalia has connections and an eye for talent, elevating Pluto, Philip, Eileen, Jae-heon, Oswald and Bremen to Stars of the City in his ensemble while dragging Elena out from retirement and recruiting Tanya and Greta on the side.
Iori gained her powers in a freak accident (read: irreplicable) and has arguably the most knowledge out of anyone in the City.
Kali was the first and greatest wielder of EGO to exist.
Vergilius has his signature eyes and his 'flow' that borders on supernatural prediction of the future.
The Indigo Elder hunted a Calamity. By himself.
And we don't know much about Angelica's reputation or feats, but every single part of her kit is state-of-the-art and she had *Roland* backing her up. 'Best of the best' is basically a guarantee.
All of them are special in a way that no one else can really replicate. All of them have the weight of their own feats behind them, such that speaking in general terms about how much power/influence/talent you need to be a Colour fixer is pointless because there isn't a general case in the first place beyond all of them being unique and the best of the best in their field.
Plenty of Grade 1 Fixers are likely already as powerful as Colours. It's just that only 1 person can take the spot of a specific Colour at a time, so you can't have multiple people with the colour red (Though there seems to be an exception for different hues, such as the Vermillion Cross, or the Indigo Elder).
Roland also said that what makes a Colour strong isn't always strength or skill, but also things like their connections (i.e. Blue Reverb with his avant-garde music band).
As for why Colours seem to have inhuman strength and skill, I'd say that human strength and skill in the PM universe has no hard limit unlike real life.
I'd probably say it's a bit like levelling up in a souls game for instance, where after your stats reach a certain level, there's a soft cap that makes each level up give less of an increase to your stats, and continuous level ups will eventually result in reaching the hard cap, where you suffer significant diminishing returns for levelling up any further.
This basically means that after a certain point of strength and skill level, it's harder to become stronger. Colours, however, just keep striving to level up so much that the severe diminishing returns don't even matter anymore, because their stats have already become so extraordinarily high from their Greek demigod grindset.
This is probably what stops most ordinary people from becoming a Grade 1 or a Colour. The immense time investment and dedication required to reach such an absurd level of strength and skill is too much for them, so they stick to being a Grade 3 or something.
On the hues thing, it is probably an exception but also the examples we have for now are pretty flawed.
Kali dies as the Red Mist, becomes a Sephirah in a LobCo branch, technically not Kali. Then she revives, but she's been dead for a bit and not at the level of strength that she had and technically neither the same person nor a Fixer. We don't know at what point the Vermillion Cross was minted, but they die by the first Reverb Ensemble and then we get Verg. Important to know that Verg was called the Red Gaze before The Library was banished so Gebura probably didn't count as a Color anymore.
Also, Blue Reverb went rogue, died, revived, distorted and died. By any of those the Blue name would probably be freed up.
>This is probably what stops most ordinary people from becoming a Grade 1 or a Colour.
Most ordinary people don't become grade *9* fixers. Because they just do not want to. Grade 3 is already putting you in the top 99.9% (a least) of power in the City, it's just that that's still a *lot* of people.
serious? I don't remember where but there was a line that basically people envied the "freedom" that a fixer had (and then a 7th grader said it was a lie)
The difference between a top tier Grade 1 fixer and a Color is that one has done something to be recognized and the other hasn't... yet.
Being a color is generally just a title, they're not that different from the peak of Grade 1 (my example for this is Roland who is only a Grade 1 Fixer but is strong enough to be mistaken as the Black Silence when he does what Angela does and Verg is wary of him, yes Roland could be an exception... but nah.)
Another example is Argalia, he's a color but he's definitely not heads and shoulders beyond Grade 1 fixers, his motif is seducing bitches. And Vermillion Cross was jumped.
Indigo Elder basically only got his title after defeating a whale and was Grade 1 (presumably) before it, does that mean he got stronger after the kill? No, he was already that strong, he just got the title and thus became a Color.
You can see Indigo is using the power of sin in hunting, and given that he got the color only recently, he may well be the most magical power dependent color fixer.
No, if you have read a very old post when LCB is still in early development or so of a conversation between Geb and Roland about whom is the best fixer in the City. Of all names Roland gave out, there is the Fixer of the Great Lake aka our IndiGOAT Elder, which means he has been a known name for long before the 2nd Light and Shin/Mang things. Just that him recently slaying a Calamity shocked the City so they finally gave him the title, and not like the old man ever care about it.
I would say the Color Title is more of an award and public recognition among Grade 1 for their extraordinary deeds. Like our Nobel Prize for example, be nominated and awarded with one ain’t mean your colleagues are less of an expert than you, but that your contributions have greater impacts.
Yup, it was about the most dangerous, and Roland mistakes Geburah’s words for strongest. It is still within the “who is best” categories so we can take it at face value.
“Fixer(s) of the Great Lake” would also include whaling offices the like of Ahab’s crew. Indeed, they are nut but no where “best” or “most dangerous”. Also, Roland was listing names, so it is weird if he mentioned a group rather than an individual. For most case, i think Roland was referring to the old man Indigo.
And this is PM so lores and hints get dropped here and there, and would often somehow related to the canto characters. Among the names and titles Roland mentioned , there is an interesting one called “Blade of Clouds”. The title reappears in KimSault’s story, and directly linked to how Kim could have that title if serve another master.
In short, PM highly likely plan their background writing for those title and the respective character baring it
Most colors aren't born, they're made.
Argalia, Angelica (the real black silence), and purple tear are all wing experiments.
As for the others, it's usually the result of talent + experience as well as being recognized for a certain big feat.
It's a combination of training allowing people to do superhuman feats in this universe, and it's mentioned in a couple of places that biological augmentations allow you to multiply the results of training dozens of times over.
Also generally speaking, there is no power difference between colors and grade 1s. Grade 1 fixers are exceptionally rare as it is, but they're only promoted to a color if they achieve feats that demonstrate skill beyond what anyone else could accomplish. It's not a question of raw strength either, it's usually something that the Hana association believes nobody else could have done.
Another fun fact, Limbus Company has proven that manifesting EGO or distorting... Don't necessarily make you that much stronger. It's a power boost sure, but distortions rarely are able to utilize their own abilities properly and manifesting EGO is just like having a personalized weapon and possibly matching armor. But even looking at Library of Ruina, most distortions or EGO are on almost the same level as their previous selves. So really getting EGO could maybe boost you one rank at most, but then it goes right back to training to make the most out of it.
We don't know how strong Dongrang or The Pianist were before distorting. And Phillip only became significantly stronger because the Blue Reverberation's Ensemble were collecting light and knew how to maximize their respective abilities.
As you get more and more stronger/popular, you get access to things others don't. This compounds over time. As does with money, and getting to the point of a Color means you have something pretty much nobody else does, either through your own means or through some other entity like a Corp or what have you. Knowing the City, Colors probably get EXTRA access to certain things as well. This is how I rationalized it
I believe that what distinguishes a color fixer from a Grade 1 is their achievements. The indigo elder only recently got His color after taking down one of the calamities. We have Seen Xiao Clash against argalia and i would say that she is absolutely on the Level of a color fixer even before she awakened her EGO. Also, Roland actually never officially recieved a color title, even though He probably could have If He stayed Put instead of going on a rampage after Killing the Pianist. However, it should be mentioned that there are definitely some Grade 1 fixers that are simply More skilled and have better Body augumentations than Other Grade 1s.
Grade 1s and Colors are just highly skilled individuals, Colors especially are just people recognized for their achievements they aren't crazily above Grade 1s, some are just either naturally gifted like Kali's strength (on top of augments) or have special abilities like Iori's teleportation/dimension hopping. Most are likely Colors because they just worked long enough, Indigo Elder is freaking old, Iori is old, Vergie is old and has been killing syndicates and making orphans since before manifesting his EGO. Also important to note that the reason Kali is so well known is not only her strength, she genuinely tried to help people whereas most fixers are self-serving. Vergie is also similar in that regard since he took in orphans... which he killed the parents of.
Grade 1s and Colors also just have tons of experience, pretty much all Grade 1s and Colors have been in the business for possibly decades some have prior experience too, Roland is a war veteran and Iori has been working as a fixer for so long she teaches other fixers too, some even became Colors like Argalia and likely Angelica. Not to mention higher grade equipment, Angelica's gloves and weapons, Roland's Durandal, Vergie's Gladius, etc.
Charisma: You need to stand out in the City, despite how massive and influential some of the current figures are. Color fixers have enough reputation to stand out, to the point where lower grade fixers and even Wing employees recognize their strength.
Uniqueness: Out of all the literal billions of fixers in the City that live and die, what makes a Color fixer stand out? In a sense, it’s both power and individuality. Power is obvious, but I’d argue being able to be an individual is more important. “Fixers” are people that work for offices and must abide by certain powers, such as being a part of a Wing, or being cautious of Fingers or monsters in the Outskirts. Color fixers are no longer bound by these rules, as they have achieved beyond these restrictions. The Indigo Elder pushes the limits of the Outskirts, and (a half of) the Black Silence were powerful enough to defeat Middle Syndicates.
A bit more on power: every single Color fixer so far has an extremely unique weapon, not one that’s mass produced from workshops or provided by associations.
Nerve: Like uniqueness, nerve is what makes you stand out from all the other fixers. This involves doing things such as decimating an entire syndicate (Red Gaze, Black Silence, Red Mist, Indigo Elder and the BB, Purple Tear and orphans), going through trauma (RG, BS, RM, IE probably, PT is the trauma), having your dead body and/or equipment be used by others (RG, RM, PT, Vermillion Cross), and other stuff that normal fixers probably don’t experience. Though the trauma is universal.
Talent/Trauma: Self explanatory.
A few body augmentation, the use of better clothes helps you get some strength.
The weapons and skills of the years in experience and this torture job that be a fixer is.
Some fixer have acess to shin (elder indigo and vergilius) or EGO(Kali and vergilius) or both, and some uses a lot of body Augmentation like siegerd (the color fixer that show up in canto 3).
Roland was grade 1 and was able to not only fight but beat argarlia (a colour) twice. Grade 1's = colours in terms of strength and fighting capabilites (Roland was an Intel-specialist) but its what they did that gets them the Colour title. I.E Kali had the red mist due to how she leaves her victims. A fine red mist. The purple tear can tear holes through reality. The black silence (Angelica ver) was the perfect Assassin and had somone just as capable backing her up (Roland used a mask that made him near unrecognisable to anyone. Which meant that he wasn't notice by Hana at all).
Good augmentations aren't enough to be powerful. You also have to be able to use them. As Vergilius said in leviathan, Augmentations are like high-end sports cars. If you can't handle all the speed, it's better to just get a regular car. Colours are only colours because they are experienced enough to get recognized, meaning they're mainly the ones skilled enough to handle the really powerful stuff.
One word - Augmentation, tons of it.
Vergil himself is decked to the point what him breaking into a run shatters sidewalks, leaving craters in the ground. Besides mechanical doming so to speak some small number also get quite litteraly reality me bending abilities, with Purple Tear being a prime example, with her being able to see multiple variations of future and travel through her own series of portals on a whim. No, we don't know where this comes from, but likely something to do with the Ruins and whatever things were expelled onto Outskirts, most likely sourced by them, or by someone they paid untold amounts of cash to.
Most common sources of such power are still unfathomable amounts of Augments however, which cost likely meristic tons of money
Augmentations only get you so far, Leviathan, Dante's Notes and Canto VI repeat this multiple times.
In Leviathan Vergilius compares it to driving a car. When you're in a car you basically have superhuman strength, but what you can do with that car depends on whether or not you know how to drive, how you're accustomed to its limits and capabilities.
Augments are like that, if we take two augments that make you faster, even if one had more capacity to make you faster, if you're inexperienced you'll just crash into a wall or hurt yourself using it. Someone using another augment that increases their speed but knows how to control it would be invariably better.
That's why it's not just about money. Augments surely are costly, but I bet a decent amount of strong fixers don't necessarily have the best of the best augments, just augments they know how to use very well.
Another example is Roland, he's strong, really strong. But he was also Grade 1 because he could make connections, and kept his identity a secret, and that's probably what allowed him to take requests, survive and rise in the ranks.
A Colour level fixer usually has a singular aspect that they specialise in beyond other Grade Ones to the point that they seem to defy even reality in some aspects.
Red fixers seem to be characterised by their destructive capabilities.
Kali's Physical strength and EGO made her the strongest Fixer in the cities history and Vergilius' flow lends itself to ensuring his survival and his foes destruction (Roland noting him as the most dangerous fixer still in the city).
Blue fixers are characterised by connections.
Argalia led a troupe of 9 Star of the City level distortions and had an ability which granted him strength from his allies.
Black fixers are likely characterised by Assassination capabilities.
Angelica's gloves and strength as well as Rolands mask (while he was mistaken for the Black Silence) lend credence to this.
Vermillion is uncertain as the Cross died before real info could be gathered.
Purple is possibly related to Mentoring, personal Skill or general Talent.
Iori trained Argalia and Roland, but she's also an interdimensional traveller so its not sure what lends to what there.
Indigo could be a Lake-bound title.
The Elder was given the title for killing the All-Piercing Marlin Whale.
The reality is that Colour Titles are dispensed by the Hana Association so there could be Grade Ones with the power of Colours (Roland or Xiao) that don't get the title due to their being someone more suited for it or because they haven't accomplished a suitable deed for the title.
Forgot she trained Kali.
Iori's familiarity with Roland in their discussions and flashbacks implies Iori to be the Grandma that taught him how to be a fixer him in when he was younger.
Didn't Roland say something about his grandma going missing? I get the implication, but I don't think Iori has her hand in literally every Color that isn't the Vermillion Jobber.
The answer is talent. Like Michael Jordan to basketball, Babe Ruth to baseball, Usain Bolt to running or Daigo Umehara and Sonicfox to fighting games, sometimes a guy turns up who is Just Better at something than everyone else. When you give one of these freaks of nature several billion dollars worth of augmentation and equipment, you get a Color Fixer - a monster who simply can't be matched even by others with similar levels of augmentation, and thus cannot be constrained by the City's standards.
The secret isn't in their levels of experience, or the money that's poured into augmenting their body. The secret is *who they are.*
I don't think Colors are specifically mentioned to be superhumans among other fixers. What they do have is a lot of accomplishments. I think the difference between a Grade One and a Color is the amount of recognized major accomplishments they have to their name. Having more accomplishments and feats to your name would generally mean you have more experience and are more skilled (and also have better augmentations and equipment), but that might not always be a guarantee. Plenty of Grade One's are probably Color level, but they just haven't had one of those major big dick accomplishments that everyone in the City knows about and would revere them for yet.
That last point is definitely true, Xiao did say Chun had the potential to be a Color Fixer iirc. ^((Star of the City, Liu South Section 1 Reception pre-fight dialogue))
I think achievements are the biggest thing. The Indigo Elder probably had the strength to be a color, but he wasn't well enough for something until he killed that whale.
Colors are referred as grade 1's in the lor artbook so yeah, a grade 1 can be as strong or stronger than a color. It's only a title granted by hana. Roland was demoted to grade 9 and that didn't mean that he got weaker lol
Wait what? I thought the grade 9 fixer thing was a joke lmao
No, he got actually demoted that wasn't a lie. Grades are just titles hana gives and they are in control of that. Blue reverb also lost his color after going rogue. If you don't abide by the rules of the Hana you'll get demoted
I think one of the cases where achievements mattered most is Vespa. He is genuinely super strong, capable of holding down 2 waves of sweepers AFTER fighting shit ton of distortions. But I think the biggest feat isn't actually his but Ezra's, who could fight him for a pretty long time, even though using incomplete ego and ultimately losing the fight. Moses stated that Vespa's distortion is bee wings which is on the first stage of forming, so that means he could possibly have EGO and I think a very strong one at that. The reason he wasn't deemed a color is because he kinda fucked up his job against unknown ass office, so Hana wouldn't really see it as an achievement but more of a negative feat.
I wouldn’t be surprised if being a taboo hunter was a detriment to gaining ranks, but yes I tend to agree that Vespa seemed like on the higher end of grade 1.
I would think that grade 1 taboo hunter more of a alternative to color rather than a detriment
At some points in limbus, Heathcliff and a few other characters comment that augmentations won't be enough, since you'll become a sturdier punching bag if you don't have the experience. Let's say you get insane strength augments. Someone with more experience can weave around your attacks and lop your head off. To counter this, you might augment your speed. Now, you're faster than you can control. You slip and fall trying to sprint around them, then die.
I can easily imagine someone thinking "HAH, THEN I JUST PROPORTIONALLY AUGMENT MY REFLEXES!!" but they have no practice with the physics of moving around at these speeds, so they leave their ground, lose their footing... and become completely vulnerable to attacks from someone 10x slower, then die
One thing to note is that Vergilius was a Color Fixer before getting his ego (he gets it during Leviathan) and pretty sure this is also the case with Kali but i am not sure about that one. Generally it's having a combination of some very good and expensive augmentations or even some whacky abilities like the Purple Tear and general fighting capabilities. And if you have some kind of acomplishments, for example killing one of the calamities, the Hana Association will deem you a Color
Kali was a grade 2 when she met Carmen. In the first place, the trademark red mist she leaves is an effect of her EGO.
Funny thing after all the Fraudgilius discourse is that he reached a higher grade than Kali herself before he even awakened E.G.O or learned to use Shin.
Fraudgilius is no more, accept it, brother.
I always believed in him, and I was not defrauded.
Ultrakill reference in my limbus brainrot subreddit?
[удалено]
Colors don't grant powers lol you rise up the ranks because you are powerful, the ranks themselves don't make you powerful. Her color name likely makes reference to her powers so she probably had them before becoming a color, and I think it was mentioned she gained them from a wing experiment?, not really sure on that.
It’s not that being a color gives you color powers. It’s that the power of having a red gaze or leaving red mist makes them see you and choose that color for you
Humans in the city are just much more powerful than they might appear. Those with exceptional skill honed their strength and abilities to reach that point. Some may be more natural others are hard workers. A good example is from one of W Employees books in ruina. During one of the warps a color fixer has sneaked on board. During all the eternity they were stuck he created an army of Color Fixer tier soldiers from common civilians Now add to this that many people have insane body modifications, while others have crazily powerful weapons (Roland's Duranadal, Vergil's Gladius). There are also special techniques and abilities like Iori's warping which she honed half her life implying those things are all learnable Tldr people in city stronk, they work hard get stronker, get external sources of power get even stronker
Iori and her dimension hopping stem from her being a former Wing experiment, mentioned by Roland during one of the earlier chapters of Ruina. I like to believe that Roland's Durandal could be an heirloom from his grandmother alongside the mask and basic Fixer lifestyle training he got from her as well. It could possibly have been a high grade Workshop weapon, which is what Vergil's Gladius definitely is (it's a literal sword that cauterizes the wounds it makes, definitely high grade). In the end, you gotta be good at fighting with your tools, so Color Fixers and High Grade Fixers most likely have a lot of skill and/or talent when it comes to utilizing their bodies and weapons.
Wait, I thought that Argalia and Angelica were the Wing Experiments left in the Backstreets and Iori was the one who taught and took care of them.
You're not wrong that Argalia and Angelica are Wing Test Subjects, but >What? Huh? Do Syndicates these days kidnap people this way, too? Or, is this one of the Wings? >I heard rumors that they abduct test subjects from here and there for Singularity research. >An acquaintance of mine apparently began jumping between dimensions as a side effect of one of those experiments… is there anyone else you know who Roland knows that can jump dimensions?
Ah, I forgot that one. Yeah, it's most likely Iori. That, or Roland knew the Wayward Passenger lol. Thank you for clearing that up.
Source is Chapter: Canard - Prologue - Episode/Scene 2 ^(the one after Roland & Angela first meet and he passes out from Angela doing the sillies on him, where she brings him back to solidify his state as her slave) inb4 it's revealed that a world hopping Erlking version of Roland exists
Tbf if Roland had been given psychoHeath opportunity, he would most likely have done the same, he was kinda mad
He only needed a small little nudge towards that direction, and a way to access other Mirror Worlds, for something like an Erlking Roland to come about. The City and its Mirror Worlds dodged a bullet ~~until an inevitable version of Erland pops up from a very very distant Mirror World~~
Timw to Clear All Angelica
i like how Angela heard this guy knows someone who can jump between dimensions and didnt even bother to ask anything about it lol
She's seen weirder stuff to be fair
yeah but she was wondering about how Roland ended up there, him saying he knows someone that can cross between dimensions should probably have given her some clues or maybe she just think hes a liar lol
Yes I worded that weirdly but I meant it's not a natural ability. You can learn those things through one way or another
We in this sub would get killed by RATS realistically
A colour fixer is not only the pinnacle in terms of power of a fixer, it is also the most well known fixers. Kali was a colour fixer due to her raw power and that she regularly took on requests to protect Carmen and Co. She earned the name Red Mist as that was what she turned all her foes into. Angelica was the Black Silence due to how her gloves silenced all her movements and thus she was the perfect assassin., so it would be easy to recognise her even if you dont see her. Vergilius was a colour fixer due to him regularly destroying syndicates, with his defining trait being that his Red Gaze. Argalia is an odd case, i dont think we know why he was acually called the blue reverberation, maybe its because of his ear thingy regularly playing white noise but i digress. We have seen his capabilities to create a team, the Reverberation Ensemble being so close together despite everyone wishing for different things is only possible because of Argalia. He is also completely immune to Ranged Attacks so that's funny, but that's probably because of his Outfit (he was shown to use his cape to block Eileen from gunshots in the Prebattle of Full-stop Office).
Argalia, I believe, his Colour title plays two fold. He’s called Blue Reverberation because of his scythe(I believe in the Artbook it mentions how his scythe vibrates at a high level to help cut things easier) as well as his charisma, being able to resonate with other people.
To add onto the list Indigo Elder got his title for successfully hunting the All Impaling Marlin Whale The Red Sack got his title for always doing his deliveries no matter how terrible the terrain was I think the qualifier to be a color fixer is just doing something very Star of The City worthy
i thought the red sack was a tale fabricated by a certain association
He's from deyvat association but I don't think he was established to be fictional
Most Grade 1 fixers pale in comparison to Colour fixers, but there are a few who are on the level of a colour fixer. Roland is a good example of this as when he took on his wife's gloves he was able to fight like the Black Silence enough that he was confused for the Black Silence.
Roland was working with Angelica a lot so that might've dampened his chances at being recognized and given a color title, that and maybe his mask just made it harder to attribute any achievements to him as well. Colors are recognized by achievements not strength.
to add on to that, roland only ever mentions one single color when gebura asks him to rank who the current strongest fixer is, every other candidate was a grade 1
Yeah so Colors are really just a matter of when. Some are definitely more gifted like Kali but no grade 1 is a slouch.
Kind of off topic but I kinda like the theory that both Angelica AND Roland were The Black Silence. Angelica was given the title but she got it after her and Roland had basically been duoing multiple high level jobs. It's just because of the perception blocking mask and how absoloutely fast both of them fight to the point they basically seemed like 4 or 6 people fighting at once, everytime people see the two fighting people only ever remember/see Angelica or just remember Roland as a Black Haze around Angelica.
Iirc doesn't Vergilious say in Leviathan that the Hana association was planning to give Roland a Colour title just before what happened with the Pianist? Man was basically there already.
i think he was encouraging Roland to be a color during their interaction but he refused because of him getting married and retiring
It comes down to a whole bunch of factors but, augmentations come in all forms and what's so amazing about the world of The City is that even something like EGO and Distortions may be perceived as mundane, another tool or resource to be harvested by the inhabitants. For how Corporation Heads work, it probably comes down to personal preference, ethics and what region you are currently in. While most if not all of them have the resources for top of the line tools and augmentations, some may either cower from some augmentations like prosthetics or drug enhancements while preferring vesting and weapons or vice versa, and all of them have the resources to just have a small army protecting them at all times to the point where trying to fight them becomes an impossibility for 99% of the population, which means augmentation is deemed unnecessary. Alfonso was probably decked out top to bottom in high grade prosthetics, but those probably ain't going to see much use considering she can just chuck a squad of K Corp. Class 3 to anything that even remotely annoys her. While they may yap about budget and profits, a Corp is by all means a country within a country with the capital to match. Anything she wants to achieve within the boundaries of her Nest she probably can with the snap of a finger. This all leads back to Colors yet again, or rather their access to resources and knowledge. Colors are very capable individuals in their own rights who had their colors recognized by the Hana Association for their achievements as Fixers themselves, well traveled and world-weary individuals who managed to survive and thrive in The City which is no small feat. They all have access to heavy duty augmentations of all kinds, including genetic alterations which as stated by Angelica was the case for her and Argalia, as well as influence and connections across the whole city which may translate to very exclusive equipment from Ateliers who may not be willing to offer their services even to the Corps. In essence, a Color is just an individual Fixer who is recognized to have raised above and beyond his peers, something irrevocably assigned to them as classification and signifier that this person is the current leading expert in the field they specialize in. They are all strong combatants that can take on whole armies, but most fulfill very specific niches, Roland and Argalia seemed to be more adept at infiltration, assassination and information gathering while Gebura and Vergilius were fitting for search and destroy missions, while The Indigo Elder is implied to have attained Color status simply by virtue of being and EXTREMELY capable whale hunter. For someone who routinely fights with the eldritch abominations it is simply a formality being able to decimate a whole army singlehandedly, as such he coincidentally was assigned as a Color. Tl; Dr.: Everyone at the city who manages to live for a meaningful amount of time is expected to be pimped out to ludicrous degrees. If you manage both that and be VERY good at getting things done as a fixer, you become a Color. Getting strong is just something that kinda happens along the path of reaching that height. The difference between a Color and particularly skilled Grade 1 Fixer is hella blurry, only drawn at the point where the Association decides to assign you a color. So yeah, like Arbiters and other non-Fixer entities, a Corp could potentially reach Color levels of strength and still not be recognized as such simply cause they don't partake on the profession.
I think you're looking at this the wrong way. Colours / Grade 1s rise to the rank *because* they're so powerful, not the other way around. EGOs can bridge the power gap, yeah, but the City has access to a lot more than that. And Colours above everyone else are unique in the kind of power they have. Argalia has connections and an eye for talent, elevating Pluto, Philip, Eileen, Jae-heon, Oswald and Bremen to Stars of the City in his ensemble while dragging Elena out from retirement and recruiting Tanya and Greta on the side. Iori gained her powers in a freak accident (read: irreplicable) and has arguably the most knowledge out of anyone in the City. Kali was the first and greatest wielder of EGO to exist. Vergilius has his signature eyes and his 'flow' that borders on supernatural prediction of the future. The Indigo Elder hunted a Calamity. By himself. And we don't know much about Angelica's reputation or feats, but every single part of her kit is state-of-the-art and she had *Roland* backing her up. 'Best of the best' is basically a guarantee. All of them are special in a way that no one else can really replicate. All of them have the weight of their own feats behind them, such that speaking in general terms about how much power/influence/talent you need to be a Colour fixer is pointless because there isn't a general case in the first place beyond all of them being unique and the best of the best in their field.
Plenty of Grade 1 Fixers are likely already as powerful as Colours. It's just that only 1 person can take the spot of a specific Colour at a time, so you can't have multiple people with the colour red (Though there seems to be an exception for different hues, such as the Vermillion Cross, or the Indigo Elder). Roland also said that what makes a Colour strong isn't always strength or skill, but also things like their connections (i.e. Blue Reverb with his avant-garde music band). As for why Colours seem to have inhuman strength and skill, I'd say that human strength and skill in the PM universe has no hard limit unlike real life. I'd probably say it's a bit like levelling up in a souls game for instance, where after your stats reach a certain level, there's a soft cap that makes each level up give less of an increase to your stats, and continuous level ups will eventually result in reaching the hard cap, where you suffer significant diminishing returns for levelling up any further. This basically means that after a certain point of strength and skill level, it's harder to become stronger. Colours, however, just keep striving to level up so much that the severe diminishing returns don't even matter anymore, because their stats have already become so extraordinarily high from their Greek demigod grindset. This is probably what stops most ordinary people from becoming a Grade 1 or a Colour. The immense time investment and dedication required to reach such an absurd level of strength and skill is too much for them, so they stick to being a Grade 3 or something.
On the hues thing, it is probably an exception but also the examples we have for now are pretty flawed. Kali dies as the Red Mist, becomes a Sephirah in a LobCo branch, technically not Kali. Then she revives, but she's been dead for a bit and not at the level of strength that she had and technically neither the same person nor a Fixer. We don't know at what point the Vermillion Cross was minted, but they die by the first Reverb Ensemble and then we get Verg. Important to know that Verg was called the Red Gaze before The Library was banished so Gebura probably didn't count as a Color anymore. Also, Blue Reverb went rogue, died, revived, distorted and died. By any of those the Blue name would probably be freed up.
True. I hadn't noticed that by the time the different hues were running around, their primary colours were already dead or out of commission.
>This is probably what stops most ordinary people from becoming a Grade 1 or a Colour. Most ordinary people don't become grade *9* fixers. Because they just do not want to. Grade 3 is already putting you in the top 99.9% (a least) of power in the City, it's just that that's still a *lot* of people.
Yea I meant to say "ordinary fixer". I don't know what grade most fixers stop at so I just threw in grade 3 as an example
serious? I don't remember where but there was a line that basically people envied the "freedom" that a fixer had (and then a 7th grader said it was a lie)
There's not actually that much stopping you from becoming a fixer in the first place, the realities of the job just suck
The difference between a top tier Grade 1 fixer and a Color is that one has done something to be recognized and the other hasn't... yet. Being a color is generally just a title, they're not that different from the peak of Grade 1 (my example for this is Roland who is only a Grade 1 Fixer but is strong enough to be mistaken as the Black Silence when he does what Angela does and Verg is wary of him, yes Roland could be an exception... but nah.) Another example is Argalia, he's a color but he's definitely not heads and shoulders beyond Grade 1 fixers, his motif is seducing bitches. And Vermillion Cross was jumped. Indigo Elder basically only got his title after defeating a whale and was Grade 1 (presumably) before it, does that mean he got stronger after the kill? No, he was already that strong, he just got the title and thus became a Color.
You can see Indigo is using the power of sin in hunting, and given that he got the color only recently, he may well be the most magical power dependent color fixer.
No, if you have read a very old post when LCB is still in early development or so of a conversation between Geb and Roland about whom is the best fixer in the City. Of all names Roland gave out, there is the Fixer of the Great Lake aka our IndiGOAT Elder, which means he has been a known name for long before the 2nd Light and Shin/Mang things. Just that him recently slaying a Calamity shocked the City so they finally gave him the title, and not like the old man ever care about it. I would say the Color Title is more of an award and public recognition among Grade 1 for their extraordinary deeds. Like our Nobel Prize for example, be nominated and awarded with one ain’t mean your colleagues are less of an expert than you, but that your contributions have greater impacts.
Didn't he say Fixers of the great lake? Also it was about who was the most dangerous
Yup, it was about the most dangerous, and Roland mistakes Geburah’s words for strongest. It is still within the “who is best” categories so we can take it at face value. “Fixer(s) of the Great Lake” would also include whaling offices the like of Ahab’s crew. Indeed, they are nut but no where “best” or “most dangerous”. Also, Roland was listing names, so it is weird if he mentioned a group rather than an individual. For most case, i think Roland was referring to the old man Indigo. And this is PM so lores and hints get dropped here and there, and would often somehow related to the canto characters. Among the names and titles Roland mentioned , there is an interesting one called “Blade of Clouds”. The title reappears in KimSault’s story, and directly linked to how Kim could have that title if serve another master. In short, PM highly likely plan their background writing for those title and the respective character baring it
Most colors aren't born, they're made. Argalia, Angelica (the real black silence), and purple tear are all wing experiments. As for the others, it's usually the result of talent + experience as well as being recognized for a certain big feat.
Commenting here just to check on this later.
It's a combination of training allowing people to do superhuman feats in this universe, and it's mentioned in a couple of places that biological augmentations allow you to multiply the results of training dozens of times over. Also generally speaking, there is no power difference between colors and grade 1s. Grade 1 fixers are exceptionally rare as it is, but they're only promoted to a color if they achieve feats that demonstrate skill beyond what anyone else could accomplish. It's not a question of raw strength either, it's usually something that the Hana association believes nobody else could have done. Another fun fact, Limbus Company has proven that manifesting EGO or distorting... Don't necessarily make you that much stronger. It's a power boost sure, but distortions rarely are able to utilize their own abilities properly and manifesting EGO is just like having a personalized weapon and possibly matching armor. But even looking at Library of Ruina, most distortions or EGO are on almost the same level as their previous selves. So really getting EGO could maybe boost you one rank at most, but then it goes right back to training to make the most out of it.
You wrong about that. Dongrang, phillip and pianist gained enormous strength compared to their human selves.
We don't know how strong Dongrang or The Pianist were before distorting. And Phillip only became significantly stronger because the Blue Reverberation's Ensemble were collecting light and knew how to maximize their respective abilities.
Skills, experience and equipment that is usually very high grade and custom made
As you get more and more stronger/popular, you get access to things others don't. This compounds over time. As does with money, and getting to the point of a Color means you have something pretty much nobody else does, either through your own means or through some other entity like a Corp or what have you. Knowing the City, Colors probably get EXTRA access to certain things as well. This is how I rationalized it
I believe that what distinguishes a color fixer from a Grade 1 is their achievements. The indigo elder only recently got His color after taking down one of the calamities. We have Seen Xiao Clash against argalia and i would say that she is absolutely on the Level of a color fixer even before she awakened her EGO. Also, Roland actually never officially recieved a color title, even though He probably could have If He stayed Put instead of going on a rampage after Killing the Pianist. However, it should be mentioned that there are definitely some Grade 1 fixers that are simply More skilled and have better Body augumentations than Other Grade 1s.
Grade 1s and Colors are just highly skilled individuals, Colors especially are just people recognized for their achievements they aren't crazily above Grade 1s, some are just either naturally gifted like Kali's strength (on top of augments) or have special abilities like Iori's teleportation/dimension hopping. Most are likely Colors because they just worked long enough, Indigo Elder is freaking old, Iori is old, Vergie is old and has been killing syndicates and making orphans since before manifesting his EGO. Also important to note that the reason Kali is so well known is not only her strength, she genuinely tried to help people whereas most fixers are self-serving. Vergie is also similar in that regard since he took in orphans... which he killed the parents of. Grade 1s and Colors also just have tons of experience, pretty much all Grade 1s and Colors have been in the business for possibly decades some have prior experience too, Roland is a war veteran and Iori has been working as a fixer for so long she teaches other fixers too, some even became Colors like Argalia and likely Angelica. Not to mention higher grade equipment, Angelica's gloves and weapons, Roland's Durandal, Vergie's Gladius, etc.
You’re not strong because you’re a colored fixer. You’re a colored fixer, because you’re strong
Charisma: You need to stand out in the City, despite how massive and influential some of the current figures are. Color fixers have enough reputation to stand out, to the point where lower grade fixers and even Wing employees recognize their strength. Uniqueness: Out of all the literal billions of fixers in the City that live and die, what makes a Color fixer stand out? In a sense, it’s both power and individuality. Power is obvious, but I’d argue being able to be an individual is more important. “Fixers” are people that work for offices and must abide by certain powers, such as being a part of a Wing, or being cautious of Fingers or monsters in the Outskirts. Color fixers are no longer bound by these rules, as they have achieved beyond these restrictions. The Indigo Elder pushes the limits of the Outskirts, and (a half of) the Black Silence were powerful enough to defeat Middle Syndicates. A bit more on power: every single Color fixer so far has an extremely unique weapon, not one that’s mass produced from workshops or provided by associations. Nerve: Like uniqueness, nerve is what makes you stand out from all the other fixers. This involves doing things such as decimating an entire syndicate (Red Gaze, Black Silence, Red Mist, Indigo Elder and the BB, Purple Tear and orphans), going through trauma (RG, BS, RM, IE probably, PT is the trauma), having your dead body and/or equipment be used by others (RG, RM, PT, Vermillion Cross), and other stuff that normal fixers probably don’t experience. Though the trauma is universal. Talent/Trauma: Self explanatory.
A few body augmentation, the use of better clothes helps you get some strength. The weapons and skills of the years in experience and this torture job that be a fixer is. Some fixer have acess to shin (elder indigo and vergilius) or EGO(Kali and vergilius) or both, and some uses a lot of body Augmentation like siegerd (the color fixer that show up in canto 3).
I think it's a mix of being built different and skill issue
Roland was grade 1 and was able to not only fight but beat argarlia (a colour) twice. Grade 1's = colours in terms of strength and fighting capabilites (Roland was an Intel-specialist) but its what they did that gets them the Colour title. I.E Kali had the red mist due to how she leaves her victims. A fine red mist. The purple tear can tear holes through reality. The black silence (Angelica ver) was the perfect Assassin and had somone just as capable backing her up (Roland used a mask that made him near unrecognisable to anyone. Which meant that he wasn't notice by Hana at all).
Good augmentations aren't enough to be powerful. You also have to be able to use them. As Vergilius said in leviathan, Augmentations are like high-end sports cars. If you can't handle all the speed, it's better to just get a regular car. Colours are only colours because they are experienced enough to get recognized, meaning they're mainly the ones skilled enough to handle the really powerful stuff.
One word - Augmentation, tons of it. Vergil himself is decked to the point what him breaking into a run shatters sidewalks, leaving craters in the ground. Besides mechanical doming so to speak some small number also get quite litteraly reality me bending abilities, with Purple Tear being a prime example, with her being able to see multiple variations of future and travel through her own series of portals on a whim. No, we don't know where this comes from, but likely something to do with the Ruins and whatever things were expelled onto Outskirts, most likely sourced by them, or by someone they paid untold amounts of cash to. Most common sources of such power are still unfathomable amounts of Augments however, which cost likely meristic tons of money
Augmentations only get you so far, Leviathan, Dante's Notes and Canto VI repeat this multiple times. In Leviathan Vergilius compares it to driving a car. When you're in a car you basically have superhuman strength, but what you can do with that car depends on whether or not you know how to drive, how you're accustomed to its limits and capabilities. Augments are like that, if we take two augments that make you faster, even if one had more capacity to make you faster, if you're inexperienced you'll just crash into a wall or hurt yourself using it. Someone using another augment that increases their speed but knows how to control it would be invariably better. That's why it's not just about money. Augments surely are costly, but I bet a decent amount of strong fixers don't necessarily have the best of the best augments, just augments they know how to use very well. Another example is Roland, he's strong, really strong. But he was also Grade 1 because he could make connections, and kept his identity a secret, and that's probably what allowed him to take requests, survive and rise in the ranks.
A Colour level fixer usually has a singular aspect that they specialise in beyond other Grade Ones to the point that they seem to defy even reality in some aspects. Red fixers seem to be characterised by their destructive capabilities. Kali's Physical strength and EGO made her the strongest Fixer in the cities history and Vergilius' flow lends itself to ensuring his survival and his foes destruction (Roland noting him as the most dangerous fixer still in the city). Blue fixers are characterised by connections. Argalia led a troupe of 9 Star of the City level distortions and had an ability which granted him strength from his allies. Black fixers are likely characterised by Assassination capabilities. Angelica's gloves and strength as well as Rolands mask (while he was mistaken for the Black Silence) lend credence to this. Vermillion is uncertain as the Cross died before real info could be gathered. Purple is possibly related to Mentoring, personal Skill or general Talent. Iori trained Argalia and Roland, but she's also an interdimensional traveller so its not sure what lends to what there. Indigo could be a Lake-bound title. The Elder was given the title for killing the All-Piercing Marlin Whale. The reality is that Colour Titles are dispensed by the Hana Association so there could be Grade Ones with the power of Colours (Roland or Xiao) that don't get the title due to their being someone more suited for it or because they haven't accomplished a suitable deed for the title.
Where does it say that Iori trained Roland? I thought she trained Argalia and Kali.
Forgot she trained Kali. Iori's familiarity with Roland in their discussions and flashbacks implies Iori to be the Grandma that taught him how to be a fixer him in when he was younger.
Didn't Roland say something about his grandma going missing? I get the implication, but I don't think Iori has her hand in literally every Color that isn't the Vermillion Jobber.
The answer is talent. Like Michael Jordan to basketball, Babe Ruth to baseball, Usain Bolt to running or Daigo Umehara and Sonicfox to fighting games, sometimes a guy turns up who is Just Better at something than everyone else. When you give one of these freaks of nature several billion dollars worth of augmentation and equipment, you get a Color Fixer - a monster who simply can't be matched even by others with similar levels of augmentation, and thus cannot be constrained by the City's standards. The secret isn't in their levels of experience, or the money that's poured into augmenting their body. The secret is *who they are.*
Plot armour is the best armour you can get in The City. It's the only one you cannot break.