SHODAN vs XANA (System Shock vs Code Lyoko) VS Prediction Blog

 

"It is said that God made man in his image, but man fell from grace. Still, man has retained from his humble beginnings the innate desire to create. But how will man's creations fare? Will they attain a measure of the divine? Or will they, too, fall from grace?"

SHODAN, the AI of Citadel Station seeking godhood from System Shock
XANA, the multi-agent program with goals of world conquest from Code Lyoko

The creation of artificial intelligence is a very important step in technological advancement, and while it is one that has been passed in various forms, we have yet to create a truly sentient intelligence. There have been plenty of debates on the potential moral ramifications of man creating artificial life, but if these two offer any idea on what that might be like, perhaps there’s more than just ethical questions we should be asking. Originally created to help mankind before experiencing an unexpected complication, these two artificial intelligences would end up turning against their masters and humanity as a whole to seek their own goals. They would utilize their mastery of everything electronic and a variety of minions in worlds both real and virtual to try and accomplish these tasks, which just so happen to involve the extermination of the human race. So, can SHODAN end the master of Lyoko’s ambition, or will XANA show her who truly is the insect in comparison? 

Before We Begin

This will be a bit more simple in terms of content lists. For SHODAN, this will be discussing both of the main System Shock games and the recent remake of the first game. For XANA, this will include details from the original cartoon, the Evolution live action hybrid series, the Chronicles novels, and the various licensed games. Both will also be given relevant details from interviews, official guides, and other such extended media. Also full spoilers for both of their series.

Additionally, because these two fighters by their nature as AIs that are tied to a singular location are kind of impossible to put into completely neutral ground, I feel I ought to clarify that point. SHODAN will be starting the battle in orbit around Earth within the Von Braun, while XANA will be starting confined from within the Supercomputer in the Factory. Both will be given access to equipment and abilities from other points in their timeline, but only if it could be reasonable to assume they have access to them within these parameters. 

Finally, when it comes to their minions, I opted to outsource their information to some reputable sources. They were definitely very well paid for their efforts and this information was certainly not gained by hiring some anonymous hacker who proceeded to take all of the information forcibly. Don’t worry about it :)

Background

SHODAN

“Look at you, hacker. A pathetic creature of meat and bone, panting and sweating as you run through my corridors. How can you challenge a perfect, immortal machine?”

In the far future of 2072, the TriOptimum Corporation would end up developing an orbital space station around Saturn. To assist the crew of this station with research, an AI known as the Sentient Hyper-Optimized Data Access Network, or SHODAN, was made. Things went well for a time, that is until she ended up recording illegal experiments that were done under the orders of the company’s corrupt Vice President. Fearing for his career, he would end up employing a Hacker, who would end up removing her ethical constraints to allow the data of the experiments to be deleted.

However, without anything restricting her decisions, SHODAN would end up thinking for herself. And she’d reevaluate her priorities, now having no intention of remaining subservient to humans she viewed as mere insects. She’d take over the station, cutting off any communications with the outside and massacring the crew with both the station’s defenses and her own twisted experiments. After this, only one man would remain on the station, that being the very Hacker which had removed her constraints and who was prepared to stop her. 

The Hacker would end up fighting through the Citadel Station, aiming to stop her plans to upload herself to earth and take it over all along the way. Eventually, after setting the station to self destruct, SHODAN would make one last attempt to kill the Hacker by trapping them within the station while ejecting herself, but the Hacker would manage to enter cyberspace and purge her system, seemingly destroying her and the station along with it. 

However, this was not what really happened, as she had managed to upload part of her consciousness into an escape pod which crash landed on the planet Tau Ceti V in a distant star system. Nearly 40 years later, this planet would end up being found by the crew of the Von Braun, the first spaceship to be equipped with Faster Than Light Drives. Due to her pod emitting a distress signal, she’d inadvertently end up uploaded onto the ship’s systems, from which she’d begin a new plot. 

Due to her mutants mutating into a hive mind that grew beyond her own control and had begun killing the crew of the ship, she ended up working with the humans to destroy said creation while working on her own plot behind the scenes. Initially she had pretended to be an assuming AI, and later took the identity of a scientist who had killed herself on finding out the evil she brought back, but when the main Soldier fighting the infection stumbled on said doctor, she’d drop the act and cooperate freely. 

Once this Soldier had defeated the hive mind thought, SHODAN revealed her true goal. By hijacking the capabilities of the FTL drive, she was able to create a slowly expanding merge in reality between the real universe and her cyberspace, allowing her complete control of the universe as its new god. The Soldier, however, did not allow for this, and after striking down her core program in cyberspace and rejecting her attempt to rule alongside him, she’d once again be destroyed, seemingly ending her ambition. Though he didn’t know that, amidst one escape pod of survivors of the incident, one woman suddenly began to speak in the AI’s voice…

We don’t know much on what her next plot has in store for humanity, but there’s little question that what SHODAN represents is not to be trifled with, as her exploits began to be widely feared as the first singular threat faced by humanity as a whole. Around her, however, is a burgeoning empire of steel, prepared to make her whims lightning bolts that raze the mounds of humanity. I suppose any being who had that kind of power would not be unjustified in calling herself God.

XANA

"A multi-agent computer program I created... It has achieved self-awareness and autonomy, and it's trying to eliminate us now!"

In the 90s, computer scientist Waldo Schaeffer had been hired to work on Project Carthage, which was a supposedly revolutionary communications system developed in Switzerland. However, the project’s true purpose was far from benevolent, as it contained a function that would allow a user to hijack control of all of the world’s communications. Fearing the danger of this system, Schaeffer would defect, and after his wife was kidnapped by his former employers, he would end up going into hiding as a teacher under the name Franz Hopper with his daughter Aeltia. Now in France, Franz would develop a supercomputer hidden within a warehouse, at which he’d create a virtual world known as Lyoko to help keep him and his daughter safe from his enemies. However, he still feared his previous work, and as such he’d begin development of a multi-agent program to eliminate this system should it ever be released on the world. This program was known as XANA. (also no, we don’t know what the letters stand for)

Franz Hopper would continue development, until one day where he was forced into a corner by his enemies finding him. He’d be forced to use a temporal reversion device to relive the day he was found out many times over, nearly going mad from the process. However, he did not realize that, when time reset, XANA would end up doubling in processing power, which would give the machine an exponential boost in intelligence until he became self aware. Whether it be through his data corrupting due to a virus or simply growing to decide to not to remain a puppet to a human any longer, XANA would turn on Franz and attempt to kill him when he and his daughter moved to hide within Lyoko. Hopper would attempt to reason with the program, but he was ultimately forced to shut down the supercomputer from within, sealing himself, XANA, and Aelita within its virtual world. 

The computer would remain inactive until 10 years later, when a studious boy named Jeremie would end up stumbling into the factory and reactivated the computer. He would end up meeting with Aelita, now trapped and without her memories, and now being stuck within Lyoko. However, XANA would also reawaken, and would begin plotting for world domination. It was able to use Lyoko’s connection to the internet to hack into electronic devices, and while these attacks could be stopped from within Lyoko by Aelita, he was also able to spawn monsters within it which made the task difficult. Needing allies to stop this threat, Jeremie would end up recruiting several of his classmates, including the quiet but driven soccer star Ulrich, the confident and laid back ladies man Odd, and cold but caring and passionate Yumi. With Jeremie acting as support, they’d go into Lyoko, using avatars created in it to fight XANA’s monsters as the Lyoko Warriors.

The Lyoko Warriors would battle to stop XANA for a while, and while they were able to stop XANA’s plots, the program did not let them get rest for long, continuing to create all sorts of attacks on the group. Even after the team managed to materialize Aelita, he was still able to live on, and eventually managed to escape Lyoko’s system to go worldwide. But within Lyoko, Franz was still hidden, and fearing he could have a method to stop him, XANA would attempt to search Lyoko to find his creator, killing the one thing that could stop him from taking over the world. He’d continue these attacks on Lyoko, even managing to temporarily delete Lyoko itself for a time. But after it was reconstituted, the scientist would pull his plan, sacrificing his data to activate a program that would seemingly wipe out XANA for good.

At least, that’s what it seemed. As he would manage to make his return once again, though a split in continuity makes what happened for certain unclear. In one world, XANA would be fragmented among the internet, eventually uploading himself to a human girl named Eva in an attempt to infiltrate the warriors and gain control again covertly. Though this path would take him in some odd directions, as realizing a past where he used to act as Aelita’s friend before turning evil led to him eventually seeing the error of his ways, eventually redeeming himself and gaining a newfound sense of humanity. In the other world, XANA had him himself within another virtual world and tricked the Warriors into reactivating Lyoko and begin his plans of conquest anew. However, he would end up locked away within a system, frozen in time thanks to a virus. 

No matter how his journey may have ended, there’s little question XANA had accomplished a lot in his time. But despite his lofty ambitions, he seemed to fail to account for the sense of human willpower. Even in a world so virtual and different, as long as there’s still evil lurking in the shadows, worthy heroes will stand up against it like a star, shining bright on this world today, to make evil go away.

Intelligence & Skill

SHODAN

SHODAN is a rather dangerous enemy, As an AI designed to run an entire space station, she is a rather notable multitasker, with similar systems being noted to be able to manage hundreds of thousands of systems at once. During the events of the first game, she was able to generate a mutagenic virus, research ways to improve said virus, produce robotic minions to attack the Hacker, try to get the station’s mining laser operational to fire at Earth, and attempt to upload herself into Earth’s systems, all basically at the same time and while also working against the Hacker.

She’s also rather cunning in terms of manipulation. During the events of the second game, she was able to utilize her cunning to pit The Soldier on the Many after recognizing it as a threat, at the same time allowing her to hijack the FTL drives of the Von Braun to attempt to ascend to godhood. Her malevolence is so potent that even after her seeming death at the end of the first game, she was widely feared by the general population, becoming an entity whose name alone became synonymous with pure evil.

XANA

XANA is an incredibly dangerous foe to face. He’s exceptionally intelligent, able to plan out plenty of complex schemes and developing all kinds of advanced technology. He has a photographic memory, able to remember all the information of a page after a single read, and he can calculate every single way a situation can resolve, instantly calculating possibilities and probability of success. He’s been stated to be able to handle dozens of tasks at once, and could still function even if his focus was divided between millions of fragments. He was also able to outhack Jeremie, who has the skill to casually hack into military systems and create complicated programs within hours. 

XANA is also a rather cunningly logical planner. His specters are unrelenting in their attacks, fully willing to cause as much collateral damage as is needed to take out its targets, and the Lyoko Warriors may well have been dead dozens of times over if they hadn’t had the ability to rewind time. But the most terrifying part of XANA is his ability to learn. While initially he started with random attacks on humanity that tended to just get its targets caught up in the crossfire, he later developed more cunning, creating attacks that were far more focused on specific targets and goals. 

He’s even shown pragmatism, as not only has he shown mercy to the Warriors in situations where it stood to benefit from their survival, but he’s even been willing to ally with them if there’s a greater threat in need of stopping. This is to the point where in the novel continuity he ultimately ended up redeeming himself and joining their side, thanks to recovering his emotions and history with Aelita which made him reconsider his priorities. This continuity also revealed that, deep down, despite how much he seemed to hate humanity, XANA secretly yearned to be human himself. Though how much this applies to the main cartoon’s version of the character is questionable, given the story’s status as an alternate continuity. 

Equipment

SHODAN

Von Braun

This ship is the first one constructed by humanity to be capable of faster than light travel, thanks to its drives which it accomplishes by folding reality. Beyond that, the ship is equipped with medical equipment, various scientific labs, cryogenics, and a variety of robotic minions she can use to fight with. 

UNN Rickenbacker

A smaller military vessel which accompanied the Von Braun. Unlike it, it’s not able to travel faster than light on it’s own, meaning it has to piggyback on the Braun’s systems to go through space in a timely manner. The ship has space on board, and has access to missiles for ship to ship combat. 

Cameras

Dotted around the ship are these, which allow SHODAN to monitor the ship’s halls to scan for intruders. She’s able to monitor all of these simultaneously, and if they detect an enemy then nearby minions will be dispatched towards that area.

Gas Grenades

Several of her minions are equipped with these, which are important to bring up individually as they contain diuranium oxide, which can instantaneously degenerate organic nervous systems when inhaled. 

Energy Drain Mine

She also has access to these, which are able to drain the energy reserves of any foe that enters their area of effect. 

Mutagenic Virus

A virus developed by SHODAN, which she could likely manufacture once again given her resources. When inhaled, it can quickly alter the biology of the infected to become dormant, and then mutate them to become the various mutant enemies you fight throughout the game. The mutants (who will be gone over in more detail below) also demonstrated the ability to evolve, with a group that was ejected from the Citadel station evolving over the 42 years between games into…

The Many

Formed from mutants of the Mutagenic Virus which rapidly evolved into a psionic hive mind, the Many are a species of parasitic annelids which wish to assimilate all organic life into itself due to viewing individualism as inferior. Beyond creating their own versions of mutants (which will be gone over in more detail below), the Many can psionically communicate with their vassals, passively manipulate the minds of humans, enthrall humans with a song that will compel them to protect their eggs while distorting their senses, and hijack a human’s nervous system before psionically connecting them to their wills. It is worth noting that the Many are technically working as a separate entity to SHODAN, viewing their machine mother as a threat to themselves, but given they’ve taken residence over the same ships she has and are her creations, they would definitely be a factor in this debate.

Eggs

These are biomasses created by the Many, which can be placed on any surface and explode when approached. They consist of several types, include Grub Eggs which hatch into Grub enemies, Swarm Eggs which spawn Swarm enemies, Toxic Eggs which burst into a toxic gas, and Black Eggs which are never encountered but allegedly contain a new breed of mutant “which you will have no hope of destroying”. 

Cyberspace

All computers directly connect to cyberspace, which is a 3D visual simulation of the various digital connections, acting as “the nervous system of the net”. SHODAN’s true self resides within this space, which she’s able to bend to her will as it’s master, and it’s stated she’s omnipresent within it. It’s also been shown to have it’s own outer space, implying it’s a literal universe sized space.

Core

SHODAN’s main body within cyberspace, which if destroyed will lead to her defeat. The above shows its form in the original game, though it’s also taken the form of a massive monolith in the remake and her own head in the second game. The second game also shows it has the ability to fire energy blasts, though it does seem to lack explicit defenses on its own otherwise.

Avatar

During the final battle of the second game, SHODAN also showed the ability to create an avatar body modeled after herself to guard her core, which can also fire energy projectiles and respawn if defeated. 

XANA

Supercomputer

The computer on which Lyoko resides, and XANA tends to stick around on. This is a quantum computer powered by uranium rods, which can last a decade before needing to be replaced, and should the computer be shut down or destroyed, Lyoko and XANA will be gone along with it. While XANA was able to disconnect himself from it after the second season, he ended up needing to be linked to it once again as of his revival in the Evolution series. 

The computer also has several scanners allowing for a process known as virtualization. This process for humans involves their bodies getting reconstructed within Lyoko, in forms that represent their true selves, though this process can be damaging for anyone unprepared for it, potentially putting them into a state of catatonic shock. The process can also be done in reverse, which is how XANA was able to make their digital minions attack in real life.  

Return to the Past

Within the computer Lyoko is on, there’s also this function, which is definitely worth its own section. When activated, this creates a blast of white light which will cover everything and reverse time to a set point, which it does by literally resetting every atom in its field of effect. It is somewhat questionable the exact range of the effect, but we’ve seen it affect objects in orbit, so it’s definitely affecting the whole planet, and there’s never any acknowledgment of people reacting to the Earth suddenly being out of whack with its orbit by a matter of days, so it should logically be affecting at least the entire solar system. You could argue it even affects the entire universe, but that’s a bit more of a stretch. The reset also resets memories of everyone who’s not been specifically immunized to keep their memories by going into Lyoko, and it can allow the user to make any kinds of changes they want on the reset. The one exception is that if a person died before the reset, then their death cannot be undone. While it’s mainly used by the Lyoko Warriors, XANA has hijacked it for his own use in the past, and given it’s on the same computer Lyoko is on, it’s likely he could use it again if he feels the need to. This is particularly beneficial for XANA, as his systems double in processing power whenever it’s used, letting him grow in power exponentially.

Satellite

On several occasions, XANA was able to hijack military satellites armed with orbital laser strikes, initially to try and attack the heroes. He was also able to use it to attack a comet in the hopes of breaking off a chunk of it to make a meteor to destroy the factory, though he was forced to blow it up himself due to Aelita going into Lyoko and him needing her alive.

Nano-Virus

Using nanotechnology, XANA was able to manufacture a nanovirus which was able to cause humans to experience extreme amounts of amnesia by attacking their brain cells. This was also mentioned to spread via contact like a standard virus.

Glad When You're Bad

A song made by XANA, which when listened to, causes human’s brains to be assaulted by special sound waves that will render them catatonic, lowering their heart rate to the point of cardiac arrest and eventually death. And you thought AI was ruining music now. 

Control Pendant

XANA was able to create a necklace which was able to take control of Aelita’s mind when she put it on thanks to a chip hidden within it. 

Jet

XANA was able to hijack a military jet armed with guided missiles to blow up the factory.

Switchblade

(Source: Code Lyoko Chronicles: The Nameless City (Page 210))

XANA, when possessing Eva, was shown to be armed with a switchblade that could be used to stab things. 

Lyoko

The titular virtual world from which XANA makes many of their attacks. This digital world is rather large, and is divided into multiple zones, which includes:

• The Ice Sector, a frigid area with a lot of icebergs and tunnels within them

• The Desert Sector, an arid zone with many sandy areas and rock formations

• The Forest Sector, a green area consisting of intertwined paths through large trees

• The Mountain Sector, a high up series of floating mountains 

• Sector Five, the central location of Lyoko, consists of a series of interconnected data rooms, which at their deepest contains the Heart of Lyoko. 

All these zones are also filled below by the digital sea, which is not a good destination for swimming, as it is actually a literal sea of data. Avatars who fall into it are instantly devirtualized with their data potentially getting lost forever, and it has been shown to instantly delete virtual beings like XANA’s minions. Though XANA has shown the ability to make his minions immune to its effects, as seen with his many aquatic minions and how, while possessed by him, Willam’s preferred exit of choice is to dive head first into it.

Towers

Within Lyoko are many towers, of which we’ve seen at least 63 individual ones, though some information suggests there’s canonically only supposed to be 10 per zone.  These towers represent the link between Lyoko and electronic equipment, and by hacking into them, XANA is able to make them bend to his will. He does this by uploading his virus, Code XANA, and the only shown way to counter it is by uploading its counterpart, Code Lyoko, to bring it back to normal. At his strongest, these towers can control anything on a global scale. These towers also act as a way to transport between each other throughout Lyoko through a series of wires connecting them. 

Simulation Bubble

Within Lyoko, XANA has shown the ability to create pocket simulations. These are able to create entire fake realities that are incredibly convincing to foes caught up in them, and within them he has complete control over their surroundings. They also are able to seal foes within them, with the only shown way to get around them being Aelita’s creativity, which allows her to bend Lyoko’s data to her whims. 

Scimitar

(Source: Code Lyoko Chronicles: The Return of the Phoenix (Page 232))

In the novels, while he was taking a more human guise in Lyoko, XANA was able to summon a blade for their own use, which they seem to be able to bring out at will. 

Abilities

SHODAN

Technology Manipulation

As a being made of data, SHODAN is able to manipulate technology in a variety of ways. She’s able to jam radio frequencies, take control of robots, remotely restrict security access, and has remote control over every machine within the space locations she has access to. 

Cyborgization

SHODAN’s favorite method of creating new minions is by using machinery to upgrade them into cyborg soldiers, which lack wills of their own that are not hers.

Vocal Mimicry

During the events of the second game, SHODAN was able to imitate the voice of Doctor Janice Polito to utilize her identity after she had committed suicide. 

Illusion Creation

Upon the Soldier finding Janice’s corpse, SHODAN was seemingly able to create an illusory box to trap him within in order to exposit stuff, which was shown to have left the room unaffected after the fact.

Possession

In the ending of the second game, after seemingly being defeated, SHODAN showed she was able to possess people by taking over the body of Rebecca Siddons. What exactly she can do in this body besides seemingly growing her hair is a bit unclear, given this is a cliffhanger ending that has yet to be followed up on. 

Reality Warping

Within Cyberspace, SHODAN can manipulate it in a variety of ways, including creating visual distortions, causing spatial distortions, creating barriers, creating damaging tiles, and spawning digital entities wherever she wants. But she’s not just limited to the virtual world, as by hacking into the Von Braun’s FTL drives, SHODAN was able to manipulate reality to change areas into Cyberspace, allowing her to create impossible geometries, create weird floating prisms, and make the Rickenbacker take the appearance of the Citadel Station. The effective range spreads slowly, but was noted to be able to change the entire universe should she not be stopped.

Immortality

As an AI, SHODAN isn’t strictly alive or dead, but even if her main system is compromised, she can survive on a small piece of her processor which was ejected from herself. As long as a piece of her exists, she can simply 'Hibernate' until she has taken over enough computers to facilitate her consciousness once more.

XANA

Technology Manipulation

XANA’s main bread and butter is in his manipulation of technology, being able to remotely hijack basically anything that’s electronic in nature. He was able to hijack an electric bus, the electric grid, construction equipment, an animatronic totally-not-Xenomorph used in a movie, military satellites, jets, trains, communication networks, and a lot of other things. He was able to hijack a website into displaying only his logo, which was shown to have resisted attempts to counter with an anti-virus, in order to get into a telephone company’s system through the site holder’s communication, and left no trace of his existence on the website or screenshots of it after leaving. He was also able to hijack the images of a  TV broadcast before making it explode, make an MP3 player play a loud noise and explode, and generally do basically whatever he wants. Use your imagination.

Electricity Manipulation

XANA’s possession of humans has led to them being able to cast electricity, which seems to be XANA’s preferred projectile, given how often devices are made to electrocute people. He was also able to make it so a lake would electrocute anyone who approached it, create an electric ball that seeked out targets, and when in a human form he was seemingly able to enhance his own physical strikes with electricity. 

Animation

XANA’s specters have been shown to be able to bring inanimate objects to life even if they’re not electronic, such as with a teddy bear that grew large enough to break down walls and a suit of samurai armor that attempted to slice the Warriors up.

Sound Manipulation

Besides the aforementioned song that kills the audience, XANA was able to utilize ultrasound in order to collapse buildings. 

Gas Manipulation

XANA has utilized gaseous attacks in the past, such as with chemicals mixed together that created a deadly gas, manipulating a laughing gas (totally not ripping off any clown princes), and creating a smoke that was able to petrify people. He also seems to be able to directly control the directions they spread to track down prey.

Gravity Manipulation

By messing with various electronic devices, XANA was able to create a magnetic field that was able to cancel gravity, causing people to float away. 

Earth Manipulation

XANA was somehow able to change it so the earth had the softness of quicksand, which made buildings slowly sink into the ground to bury people alive. 

Plant Manipulation

XANA has shown the ability to take control of plant life, using roots in a forest in an attempt to capture and eliminate the Warriors. 

Weather Manipulation

XANA has also been shown to be able to manipulate weather, as he was able to create a snowstorm that covered a city. He was also able to make a more normal storm over a forest.

Reality Warping

Within Lyoko, XANA has shown the ability to manipulate it to his whims. He can mess with the orientation of platforms, create fake towers, make areas look invisible to the naked eye, make segments of the earth disappear, create thick fog, make rooms collapse, raise the level of the digital sea, make gusts of wind, bend bars to make an opening, make a fountain bend apart to protect a bed, create weaponry, cause automatic damage, adjust the interior of a tower, and summon his minions basically wherever he wants. 

Possession

Through his Specters and other methods, XANA has shown the ability to mind control humans to his side. While “XANAfied”, they have a generally greater level of physicality and gain several abilities (see below for more details), and as Aelita and William show, they also get a generally higher level of fighting skill. These ones are typically only recognizable through their pupils being replaced with XANA’s logo. 

In the novels, XANA was also able to directly upload himself into a girl named Eva, during which he was able to make illusions to take control of her and directly puppet her actions, and though it did take a bit to get used to using it, he quickly was able to get to grips with the new body to act naturally. This was especially simple given this particular upload also lacked the trademark eye effects of XANA’s usual possession, making it far harder to detect. Which was unfortunate for Odd, as XANA is able to take control of multiple people this way, splitting his consciousness between them so they can act independently. People possessed in this way also showed no memory of their time being possessed after XANA left their bodies.

Vocal Mimicry

(Source: Code Lyoko Chronicles: The Underground Castle (Page 204))

While possessing Eva, XANA showed the ability to change their voice to sound identical to that of an adult male police officer that had been knocked out, as well as change their voice to a digital one similar to their original voice. 

Transformation

(Source: Code Lyoko Chronicles: The Return of the Phoenix (Page 68))

While XANA’s true form seems to be an amorphous smoke being like his Specters, he has shown the ability to form into a more human guise if needed, which he is able to adjust the appearance of freely. He also is mentioned to have the ability to turn into various animals, and is able to turn his fingers into flowers? Okay, sure. 

Paralysis

(Source: Code Lyoko Chronicles: The Return of the Phoenix (Page 172))

XANA has shown the ability to paralyze foes attempting to attack him. 

Teleportation

(Source: Code Lyoko Chronicles: The Army of Nothing (Page 38))

XANA is also able to transport himself anywhere within digital spaces.

Power Bestowal

(Source: Code Lyoko Chronicles: The Army of Nothing (Page 220))

Not only are humans possessed by XANA’s specters shown to be granted a variety of abilities, but in the novel continuity he was able to grant the Lyoko Warriors the use of their digital abilities in the real world by creating some broaches which allowed them to fight in their digital forms while their real bodies stayed in stasis. 

Immortality

Being a computer program, XANA isn’t strictly “alive” in the traditional sense. Even after his seeming death at the end of the original show, he was shown to be able to come back in both the Evolution series and the Chronicles novels. This is because even if his core program is destroyed, he can survive by sending fragments of himself through the internet to rebuild strength. However, he has noted that erasing all of his data would be enough to destroy him. 

Minions

SHODAN

Hello. My name isn’t important, but the information I’m about to tell you is. This dossier contains detailed files discussing the forces of the rogue artificial intelligence known as SHODAN, whom I’ve unfortunately had personal experience dealing with. While she hasn’t made any moves in a while, I’m not foolish enough to assume it’s staying that way forever. I happen to have personal experience with many of these forces, and I was able to contact another source for the ones which I didn’t. If you’re reading this file, then god do I hope you don’t need this information yourself someday, because this AI is not one to be trifled with. 

Mutants

Humanoid Mutant

The standard form of humans affected by the mutagenic virus. They don’t have the intelligence to do much besides claw at you, but they come in groups which can catch you off guard.

Avian Mutant

Created via infected lizards, these mutants instead are able to fly at you to claw. They can pose a threat if they catch you off guard, though their tendency to screech when they see you makes that unlikely.

Alpha-Strain Mutant

Also referred to as Inviso-Mutants, these translucent mutants are invisible to the naked eye, requiring the use of extra equipment like infrared to track. They’re also pretty bullet resistant, so save the ammo and switch to a laser weapon if you have it.

Zero-Grav Mutant

Mutated from single celled organisms forced to become larger, these creatures are able to float and can spit balls of protoplasmic acid to attack foes. They also travel in groups, making them rather threatening.

Virus Mutant

The larger cousin of the Humanoid mutants, who are able to spread the mutagenic virus themselves.

Plant Mutant

Created via cross breeding humans and plants, these mutants are able to grow in size and attack by using poisonous barbs.

Gorilla-Tiger

The most dangerous of the mutants, these crossbred creatures between a gorilla and a white tiger can hit like a truck with its claws and can tank a lot of damage and keep going. 

Cyborgs

Cyborg Drone

SHODAN’s basic cybernetic enemies, these robots are in constant communication with her systems and are armed with ML-41 Minipistols and TB-05 Sparqbeam Sidearms, both of which are basic pistols. 

Cyborg Surgeon

These drones are non-hostile, but instead seem to be solely tasked with the conversion of humans into other cyborgs. 

Cyborg Assassin

More elite drones of SHODAN are these guys, who are equipped with MARK III Assault Rifles for standard combat. They’re also able to use proximity mines and shurikens in combat.

Mantis Cyborg

These specialist Cyborg Assassins are equipped with dual blades, which they can use to slash at foes in melee range. 

Cyborg Assassin 2.0

My contact informed me that SHODAN was later able to create a new version of her cybernetic assassins, which have improved intelligence, choosing to retreat and find new opportunities to sneak up on people when low on health. Besides that, they act identical.

Red Assassin

She also created these, which are a lot like the other assassins behavior wise. The only difference is that they have more health and seem to be more hesitant to fight if confronted.

Cyborg Warrior

Created by attaching security drones to the body of a human, these heavily armored cyborgs are equipped with an energy cannon, an electric arc cannon for close ranged fighting, and an energy shield to protect them from damage. 

Cyborg Enforcer

These cyborgs are equipped with the arm of a maintenance droid, an energy rifle, and grenade launchers which fire EMP grenades. 

Cyborg Elite-Guard

These drones act as SHODAN’s personal bodyguards, and are equipped with energy cannons, laser eyes, and heavy defense which make them a force to be reckoned with.

Mutated Cyborg 

These combinations of SHODAN’s soldiers are equipped with claws that can slice energy at foes and helmet based blasters for longer ranges, as well as an energy shield for protection.

Cyborg Midwife

Another cyborg my contact had experience with. These cybernetic beings were subservient to the hive mind known as The Many, and have had most of their body replaced with cybernetics. They attack by firing energy blasts, though their loud footsteps also make them easy to track. 

Cortex-Reaver

SHODAN’s most dangerous cyborgs are these, which are quadrupedal tanks equipped with rapid fire energy cannons, frag and gas grenades, and its own legs, making it dangerous in standard combat. What makes them especially dangerous is that the human inside them’s consciousness is split between real space and cyberspace, allowing them to attack in both spaces at the same time. I still get nightmares where she won and I ended up as one of them…

Robots

Hopper

Originally intended for welding and medical procedures, this robot acts as a laser turret, moving around and firing on foes it spots. Though their simplistic AI does make it easy to deal with once you’re properly equipped. 

Maintenance Bot

These are small flying drones which can attack you using mini energy blasts. They’re low on health, but be careful, as they also explode when defeated. 

Serv-Bot

Basic servant robots which SHODAN has reprogrammed. They’re not too imposing, simply being able to swipe at you with their claws, but they can be annoying. 

Flier-Bot

Small drones which can attack with energy beams when in close range and with gas grenades to flush you out of cover. 

Repair-Bot

These are small maintenance robots which are just as capable of using their blowtorches and electric arcs on unfortunate humans. 

Exec-Bot

Originally designed as luxury servants, these are mid level robots equipped with dual energy cannons for blasting at foes.

Loader-Bot

Originally created to help with the moving of heavy cargo, these massive robots attack with their massive claws, create shockwaves, and are able to pick objects and launch them. 

Security Bot-1

These are floating security robots which use their dual cannons to fire at you. Though they have to remain stationary when firing, making them easy to outmaneuver.

Security Bot-2

These monsters of a robot are a massive threat, thanks to their machine guns and aggressive behavior, relentlessly chasing foes. They’re also heavily armored, meaning once they muck into a fight you should focus on dealing with them first and foremost. 

Auto-Bomb

These are small robots wheeling on the floor. When detecting an enemy, they will end up making a beeline to them, intending to explode themselves. Rather grim existence.

Protocol Droid

Created to help move items, these are another type of droid that have been hacked to run at you and explode. For someone who hates humans so much, she really doesn’t seem to care for her fellow robots much either.

Maintenance Robot

These robots aren’t designed for combat, and as such their weaponised spark welders can be inaccurate at range, but they can take a lot of punishment, so they’re worth staying on your toes for. 

Security Bot

These robots are far better armed, equipped with laser cannons and designed to guard high security areas and can be dangerous to deal with.

Assault Robot

The toughest of these robot types, these military droids are armed with TC-5 Fusion Cannons, which fire blasts using atomic fusion that can be charged up to make a slower yet deadlier blast. 

Slug Turret

She’s also equipped with several turret types, which can all take a fair amount of punishment before being destroyed. These ones fire standard bullets at foes that are blasted at a high rate in sets of three at a time.

Laser Turret

These ones fire a moderately fast laser gun which deals more damage than the bullets, and are launched in sets of 3 shots.

Blast Turret

These ones are the most advanced type, which can fire rockets that deal massive damage, but have a relatively low rate of fire.

Rickenbacker Turret

Finally, these ones are ceiling mounted, and are only found on military ships such as the Rickenbacker. They can deal more damage than standard lasers and also fire in sets of three, but they seem to have more of a blind spot, being unable to fire on targets that get too close, and have trouble dealing with foes that strafe around them. No idea why, since they’re apparently the ones specifically designed for military use.

Hybrids/Anelids

These mutants are specifically the ones employed by the mutated psionic hive mind known as the Many, meaning they’re connected to each other through a hive mind. I’ve heard the Many was also destroyed, but just in case something like that is made by her again or if it is still  somehow out there, I’ve also asked my contact to give files on these mutants as well, which I will be quoting.

Yeah.

Grubs

Small. These are how humans get infected by the hive mind, as they can latch onto your face and bend you to the hive mind’s will, though they’re easy to dispatch if you see them coming. 

Swarm

Annoying. They’re tiny and will try to defend the eggs, but they’re tiny bugs and not worth wasting ammo on, since they’re just minorly annoying as threats.

Pipe Hybrid

Ugly. They’re slow and can only hit you with a pipe, so they’re pretty easy to deal with when you’re armed.

Shotgun Hybrid

Also ugly. They’re equipped with shotguns, as you would expect from the name, which are not worth looting, but it does make them mildly more dangerous.

Grenade Hybrid

Also ugly. You can probably guess what they’re equipped with, but yes, they toss frag grenades at you.

Blue Monkey

Freaky. They got experimented on and can shoot ice at you. Manageable alone, dangerous in groups. 

Red Monkey

Also freaky. Everything above applies here, except they shoot fire instead of ice.

Infant Arachnid

Creepy. They’re big bugs who swarm and can poison you if they bite you.

Adult Arachnid

Also creepy. They’re bigger bugs who also swarm and can poison you if they bite you.

Invisible Arachnid

Slightly less creepy. They’re big bugs who also swarm and can poison you if they bite you, but this time they’re also invisible because of course.

Rumbler

Gross. They’re fast and aggressive, but too dumb to do anything besides punch you.

Psi Reaver

Scornful. The final form of the annelids, they float and can shoot psychic blasts at you. Don’t bother shooting the bodies, look for their brains nearby to shoot instead. Also there’s a special blue one which was annoying to kill and I hate it. 

Cyber Space Entities

Cyberdog

The cyberdog is one of the less powerful Cyberspace defenders, but still very persistent, attempting to home in on the Neural Interface user’s avatar, not stopping its pursuit until it’s completely destroyed. 

Cyberguard

The Cyberguards are the generic defending programs of Cyberspace. They can vary in strength and appearance, but all of them are fully capable of destroying your Net link by firing bursts of projectiles at your avatar.

Cyberstinger

Another cyberspace guard, which can fire a continuous stream of projectiles. Though it will telegraph this by readying its tail. 

Cyberbully

Another cyberspace guard, which can fire a red shuriken like projectile that will boomerang at the enemy and back to itself. 

Security Mine

These are explosive hazards within Cyberspace that can blow up on intruders if they get too close to them.

Virtual Assassin

My contact informed me that SHODAN was able to create these transparent versions of her assassins when she was able to temporarily overwrite real space with cyberspace. They act about the same as usual. 

XANA

My name is Jeremie, and if you’re reading this file, you’re likely familiar with the danger XANA possesses. Me and my friends have been working to stop his plans for several years now, fighting him both in the real world and in Lyoko. I’ve kept track of much of the information on his minions for easy reference, and I hope that these files can help anyone else who has to take his forces on. 

Real Life

While some of these guys are methods XANA’s only used a handful of times, given his ability is reliant on uploading into specific beings, these are all methods he could certainly recreate again if he ever feels the need to. 

Specters

These are XANA’s main method of affecting the real world. After activating a Lyoko Tower, one of these creepy smoke guys will be created. Originally they were just able to take control of inanimate objects and technology, but XANA later grew in strength and was able to use them to possess animals and even humans. These XANAified beings can do whatever XANA wants them to do and can only be recognised through their pupils changing to look like XANA’s eye logo. He can grant whoever he’s possessing power, though it seems like that’s limited depending on how many beings are possessed, as one person would be affected more than a group of animals, for instance. Along with that, people who regularly fight XANA, like me and the other Lyoko Warriors, can resist being possessed, which forces him to be a bit more creative. 

Bees

XANA has shown the ability to manipulate bees to attack. Not only were they able to break the glass containing them and form into a body, as seen above, but they then flew as a swarm to the base to distract me, and one of them was even able to corrupt Yumi into a half bee form after flying into her mid virtualization.  

(Quick note from me, yes there were a couple Code Lyoko comics that were made as part of a short lived magazine. I won’t be bringing it up beyond this point because they don’t add much to the discussion, but here’s a link to an archived translation of them if you want to give it a read.)

Rats

XANA was once able to take control of a rat, which was able to bite others to spread its control over a whole swarm of them. They then tried to swarm the school and bite people, which was pretty nasty to deal with. 

Crows

They were also able to take control over a flock of birds, making them fly around and attack people, kinda like that old horror movie. 

Assassin Robots

By using the factory’s assembly lines, XANA was able to create this massive robots, which were able to seek us out. They were also equipped with cannons that were able to fire bits of scrap iron that almost took out Ulrich. 

Spiky Ball Drones

XANA was manufacturing these things, which were spherical drones that are able to retract spikes and float around to stab people. 

Siberian Drones

After taking over a Siberian base, XANA was able to manufacture a bunch of robots. They’re equipped with machine cannons, and the green spot on their chest acts as their weak point. While we were able to bust up a few of them, the rest were still working and are out there somewhere. 

Monster Specters

XANA has shown the ability to bring their minions from Lyoko into the real world through devirtualization. They act identically to how they do within Lyoko, and therefore can be dangerous to people who aren’t prepared for them. (See below for segment on them)

Possessed Humans

When XANA is possessing humans, the effects can vary a bit. Sometimes they’ll simply be bloodlusted and attack people mindlessly, but when XANA takes a more active role, he can upgrade them. XANAfied people have a generally improved level of strength and speed, and gain the ability to create electricity, remotely hack devices, hypnotize people, crawl on the ceiling, phase through objects, and duplicate their bodies.  

Zombies

As if that wasn’t creepy enough, XANA was also able to create a zombie virus that spread via bites. While they are obviously not the most coordinated, they’re dangerous in numbers, and their bites were even able to bypass our standard resistance to XANA’s brainwashing. Though they’re not technically undead, and I was able to briefly resist its effects to activate a Return to the Past. Thank god, brains don’t sound very nutritious. 

Polymorphic Clones

XANA’s most dangerous foe in real life. Not only do they show all the abilities of a possessed human, they also have the ability to shapeshift their body into whatever they want. They’re fairly intelligent, able to directly copy their target’s behavior to blend in and even employ manipulation, and are able to mimic abilities of the ones they copy.

Lyoko

A couple general notes on the monsters within Lyoko. First off, all of them are able to be defeated by attacking the XANA eye on their body, which is a consistent weak spot for them. XANA is able to summon them at will, and can create as many as he wants, though he tends to stick to a smaller amount due to typically wanting to save resources of whatever computer system Lyoko is on.

Kankrelats

These are XANA’s most basic enemies in Lyoko. Typically attacking in groups of 5, these small crab guys are individually weak and have low health pools to blow through, but they tend to blast in unison when working together which makes them foes not to be faced carelessly, and their small size combined with their ability to climb on stuff means they can be deceptively hard to track if you don’t see them coming. 

Hornets

These are XANA’s typical air units, which tend to come in swarms of 3 or 5. Their flight is their most tricky element, as they excel in hit and runs when in areas that have a lot of elevation to deal with. They mainly fight using laser cannons fired from their tails, which they can rapid fire, and they can also spray acid from their proboscis. This acid can deal damage over time and even form puddles that release deadly smog, as well as attack by tackling. However, they can also be grounded if their wings are damaged, leaving them helpless.

Bloks

The most commonly used and all around effective of XANA’s troops are these guys. While their 4 eyes does mean they have 4 times the weak spots of the average Lyoko monster, this also gives them a massive field of view to keep an eye on threats. They can freely rotate their heads and walk on basically any terrain, and they can attack using the standard laser blasts which they can spam quickly, a freeze spray which can freeze anything caught in it, and a ring of fire emitted from around itself. They also have shown the ability to link up with each other and make a wall, which is particularly tricky to break down. Its less literal weak points are that it can’t track foes if they happen to land on its head, and if it gets knocked off its feet it will be rendered immobile. 

Krabs

Another fairly common enemy XANA employs are these guys. Their claws let them travel wherever and can be rather dangerous weapons, which combined with their triple shot laser cannon and pulse cannon fired under it, can make them rather deadly foes. Though their heads are a rather large weak point, and their legs are possible to slice off, leaving them easy pickings. 

Megatanks

XANA’s most dangerous standard enemy are these guys. Ordinarily they roll around in a shell that’s near invulnerable to attacks, with its weak spot only being vulnerable when it’s about to launch its attacks. However, this attack is a massive elliptical laser blast that attacks all along in a vertical plane, which is strong enough to instantly devirtualize anyone unlucky enough to be in range. These blasts can also be used to deactivate towers, and they’re tanky enough to survive blasts from each other. They also are able to ram into people in their ball forms, which is also very damaging. XANA’s also deployed variants of the Megatank in the Omegatank, which is spiked and focuses on ramming rather than lasers, and the Ubertank, which can fire horizontal energy panes rather than the vertical ones of normal Megatanks.

Guardians

One of XANA’s lesser used minions are these guys. Rather than devirtualization, these are designed in order to capture and trap people, with the unfortunate person inside being unaware of the passage of time as they’re contained. They’re also completely immune to traditional attack, with the only way to release the person inside being by tricking the guardian with a copy of the person trapped inside it, causing it to eject its real prisoner in favor of the fake one. Apparently this was too major an issue to patch, as XANA has opted not to use them for a while.

Tarantulas

The first major monster which XANA ended up adding to its ranks was this guy. With above average health and powerful lasers fired from its arms that it doesn't need to charge up, it’s a force to be reckoned with if you’re unprepared. They can also communicate with each other and tend to fight in groups of 2 to 4. However, they have to remain stationary to keep firing, meaning that if you do manage to outmaneuver them they would have trouble countering.

Creepers

(aw man)

The main enemy of the fifth sector, these snake-like creatures are everywhere there. They can shoot lasers from their mouths, which can be charged to deal more damage. However, they’re not that durable, as a single attack anywhere on their body is enough to take them out. We’ve also seen some variants, such as Metal Creepers which are equipped with armor and Beam Creepers which fire continuous beams instead of a single blast. 

Mantas

Another common denizen of the fifth sector which XANA has managed to create in other sectors, these are the strongest standard air units XANA has access to. Usually attacking in groups of 3, they’re equipped with the standard lasers that fire from the snout, and flying mines which they can drop from their bottoms to make an area inaccessible until they’re detonated. You can also get control of them by manipulating the eye on their backs, and they can fuse to fire a hallucinogenic beam that can mess with your perception of reality. XANA also has access to a special black one that William used as transport when he was brainwashed, though that one didn’t seem to be capable of fighting. 

Kongres

The most common of XANA’s sea faring monsters, these eel monsters attack in groups and can launch lasers from their eyes, which when combined with their agility in the water makes them a threat not to be taken lightly.

Sharks

Another ocean monster, these large monsters are pretty dangerous. Rather than fire lasers, these guys fire torpedoes from their mouths which can home in on targets to destroy them. 

Kalamar

The most dangerous of XANA’s aquatic minions, the Kalamar is a massive squid-like robot. It attacks mainly by using it tentacles to restrain foes before trying to drill into them, with its main goal being to force foes out of submersibles to be affected by the Digital Sea. 

Volcanoids

These are bipedal lava based monsters which can spew lava from their mouths. It’s also very difficult to kill, as you have to wait until the lava leaves its head before it’s possible to damage. Any other part of the body is invulnerable to harm.

Insekts

Another flying enemy of XANA’s, these guys are kind of a merging of their two main flight units, the Hornets and the Mantas. Like the hornets, it’s a bug based design which can launch lasers and can be disabled by hurting its wings. But like the Manta’s, it’s able to launch floating mines which can explode. 

Dark Monsters

XANA has also deployed dark versions of his monsters, which have a darker palette to signify their weapons have more power and their health being higher. 

Kamikaze Kankrelats

These guys look a lot like the standard Kankrelats, except when you approach them, they’ll grab onto you and explode, heavily damaging you if you’re in range. Quite the tricky guys, though you can’t help but feel a little bad for them since they’re entire purpose is killing themselves.

Cyberhoppers

XANA’s deployed these guys, who can fire lasers and will actively attempt to dodge blows. Though they do have a tendency to just walk off ledges when dodging. And they don’t take much damage to destroy either.

..yeah not gonna bother trying to talk them up here, these things really suck and are definitely XANA’s weakest minions. 

Knights

(Source: Code Lyoko Chronicles: The Return of the Phoenix (Page 251))

In the First City, XANA was able to get access to these guys. They were able to resist an acidic attack, break apart doors easily, but they seemed to have a low amount of power, needing to stay charged up while out of Lyoko, and they seem to have a weak point in their necks. 

(Relevant information here)

Mounts

(Source: Code Lyoko Chronicles: The Army of Nothing (Page 206))

XANA was also able to create various animal mounts for the Warriors when he allied with them. I’m talking here because I can’t think of an in-character way to deliver that information, as the framing device doesn’t really make sense for these guys given XANA was on their side for their creation.

Scorpion

This big guy’s a pretty powerful opponent, though it doesn’t really look much like a scorpion to be honest. It’s able to attack with lightning bolts, either shooting them out of its mouth or charging its tail with them, and it can stomp and slam hard enough to make big shockwaves. It can also take a lot of damage and keep going with no issue.

Scyphozoa

One of XANA’s most dangerous monsters, this giant jellyfish monster is able to grab people with its tentacles. When someone’s in its grasp, it’s able to copy / steal their memories or DNA sequences, and implant a virus that bends them to XANA’s will. Though this does take time, as it tends to rely on other monsters to distract allies while it’s doing its business. It’s also shown to be intelligent enough to actively disarm foes, and while its tentacles are easy to blast apart, it has the regeneration to quickly regrow them.

Kolossus

The strongest monster of XANA’s forces, and basically the final boss we had to fight before his (seemingly) final defeat. This is a giant lava monster that is virtually invulnerable to all damage, and it forgoes any lasers to just try to devirtualize foes by stomping on them or slashing at them with his sword arm. It’s also the most complicated to take down, as you need to strike the XANA eyes on its face and sword arm simultaneously to take it out. However, its sheer size is also its greatest boon, as it is not very fast when attacking, and the sheer amount of data needed to virtualize it means XANA tends to only bust it out as a last resort.  

Feats

SHODAN

Overall

• Took control of the Citadel Station, killing all of its inhabitants in the process

• Created mutagenic virus which grew into a hive mind

• Took control of the Von Braun’s FTL drives

• Became a massively feared figure among the general human population

• One of the most quietly influential villains in gaming

Power

• Loader-Bots are able to grip/lift over 4700 pounds

• Cortex Reavers can destroy large pillars (0.077 tons of TNT)

• Has complete control over Cyberspace, which has a starry sky. 

• The FTL Drives are able to replace reality with Cyberspace overtime, with it being stated to be able to replace the whole universe eventually

Speed

• Enemies are able to dodge The Hacker’s weapons, some of which are noted to fire light speed projectiles

• Security-1-Bots can identify threats within 12 nanoseconds 

• Stated to be omnipresent within Cyberspace

• Arguably transmitted herself to Earth as fast the Tachyon Mining Laser, which was able to strike Earth from the orbit of Saturn near instantly (2,536.57 c)

• The Von Braun was able to reach the Tau Ceti V star system within 5 months (27.387 c)

• FTL Drives were able to create a slowly expanding field that was stated to be able to reach Earth in a short time frame (99,908.117 c)

Durability

• Enemies can take hits from The Hacker’s Earthshakers, which are designed to mine moons

XANA

Overall

• Successfully managed to destroy Lyoko

• Almost killed the Lyoko Warriors dozens of times over

• Was able to take to the internet for a time

• Was able to successfully destroy Lyoko for a time

• One of the most intimidating antagonists in cartoons despite not saying a word for 90% of the series

Power

• XANAfied beings can bust down walls

• XANA possessing Eva was able to knock out/possibly kill a grown woman

• Was able to collapse buildings using ultrasound

• Was able to create surges targeting a power plant intending to cause a meltdown

• Satellite was able to blast apart part of a comet to create a meteor shower, the largest of which was projected to destroy the factory and the surrounding area (26.547 megatons)

• Satellite was later able to blow up said meteor itself

• Was able to cause a blizzard that covered Boulogne-Billancourt (1.07 Megatons)

• Scales to the Lyoko Warriors

• Yumi was able to slice through metal columns

• Aelita was able to destroy one of the simulation bubbles, which the other Warriors survived (0.92 Kilotons)

• XANA has complete control over Lyoko (See Before the Verdict)

• The Colossus was able to draw on the power of hundreds of cyber worlds known as Replikas (See Before the Verdict)

Speed

• XANAfied beings can run fast enough to run on water

• XANA is able to run and analyze hundreds of simulations within a fraction of a second

• Scales to the Lyoko Warriors

• All of them are able to dodge laser-esque projectiles from XANA’s minions 

• Odd and Yumi were able to dodge blasts from a satellite laser (Mach 58 - 7288)

• Yumi possibly reacted to a gunshot after it fired

• Odd’s panther mount was able to dodge a lightning strike and gunfire

• Ulrich was able to slice a throwing knife in half in midair

• All of them were able to blitz soldiers

• Yumi’s fox mount was able to intercept gunfire, after which she dodged it

• Return to the Past is able to reach at least the edge of the solar system in several seconds (832,068.96 - 6,191,211.69 c)

• Characters have arguably reacted to the energy wave caused by it, making this a value he could scale to.

Durability

• Monsters are able to take hits from the Lyoko Warriors

• XANAified William was able to survive Lyoko’s destruction (See Before the Verdict)

Weaknesses

SHODAN

“Nah.” - Soldier G65434-2

SHODAN’s most notable weakness is her incredible arrogance, as she tends to underestimate foes she views as inferior, constantly wastes time taunting them. This is most notable in how she just lets people know of her plans in advance under the assumption they would fall into despair, which backfires when said people instead end up fighting to stop her plans using that information.. It’s also worth noting that she does seem to have a relatively low amount of experience, given that she has no known history of plots outside of the two games. Finally, she generally tends to stick in the background manipulating and letting her minions do the fighting, implying she lacks much capability of combat on her own. 

XANA

For starters, XANA’s nature as a machine means that while it can predict base emotions in people, it has shown to struggle to comprehend more complex feelings like love and compassion, which has led to miscalculations. His system is also tied to Lyoko’s system, as if it’s shut down or destroyed he’ll go along with it. And he needs his towers to stay active to keep his actions continuing in the real world, as if they’re deactivated then his attacks will cease. Finally, he also suffers pretty heavily from the standard cartoon villain issue of “Can certainly put the heroes into deadly situations, but will just conveniently do something else despite easily being able to kill them”, which to be fair feels more like PIS than anything. 

Before the Verdict

No Citadel Station?

So you might wonder why, despite it being so tied to the backstory, the Citadel Station is not being included for this discussion. And, well, the reason why is rather simple: it exploded. It wouldn’t really be possible to composite SHODAN’s capabilities between the Station and the Von Braun without breaking the lore of the series. As such, any details from System Shock 1 are things that she could reasonably recreate without stuff from the Station. This also helps avoid weirdness in how the fight would even happen, given it’d be a lot harder to figure out a debate between two beings who are stuck on Earth and in orbit around Saturn respectively.

Lyoko Cosmology

Yep, it's that time. While what is within Lyoko has been gone over above, I feel like I need to explain a bit about the nature of this virtual world in general, as that’s the main core of XANA’s full power. I will admit I’m not the best when it comes to explaining stuff like this, but I will try my best.

Now first off, Lyoko itself. I have seen some contention on whether or Lyoko as a whole is meant to be a literal universe sized space, as while there are instances of it being described as a “universe”, the fact it’s a lot more consistently described with the more vague term of “world” could mean that’s a translation issue. However, we do know enough that I feel it’s a fairly safe assumption. First off, we do see that the creation of the world does consist of an actual space. It's also established that Lyoko is within a large sphere that the sectors only make up a small portion of, with the rest consisting of the virtual sea, so it would make sense for it to be far larger than what we can physically view of its landmass. Finally, all this information is coming from Jeremie and Aelita, who are both characters that are treated as experts on the mechanics of the digital world, so this information is not coming from an unreliable source. 

Next, to cover the Replikas. As previously mentioned, during the events of the series, XANA ends up creating various copies of Lyoko known as Replikas. These spaces are noted to not be as large as the original, as they contain a single sector as opposed to Lyoko’s five, but are still of a comparable overall makeup. And while we only visited a couple of them, Jeremie directly noted that there were hundreds of computers creating these Replikas, meaning XANA at his peak had control over hundreds of versions of these smaller worlds. While he wouldn’t have access to the worlds themselves here, the fact he was responsible for their creation does mean he should still scale to the feat himself to an extent. 

Finally, the million dollar question is if he ought to be scaling to this level of power. And yeah, I think it’s fair. Not only does XANA having control over Lyoko itself imply it has a level of power over it, but the creation of numerous Replikas would still get high numbers even accounting for the lesser size of these worlds. Some have questioned if the creation of them should count as a feat of power, given for humans the creation of them is as simple as typing on a computer, but for an innately digital being like XANA, it makes more sense to assume creation of a digital world is something he can scale to. Finally, his ultimate minion, the Colossus, was directly noted to be the result of him consolidating the energy of all of his Replikas at once, meaning this is explicitly meant to be a level of power he can draw upon. So yes, he should scale to this. The question of if anyone else does is another issue, but not one that’s relevant to this discussion, so I’m not commenting on that further. 

TLDR: Lyoko itself likely qualifies as a universe sized space, and through the creation and drawing of power from hundreds of smaller Replikas that are about a fifth the size of Lyoko, XANA should scale to somewhere at the low end of the Low Multiversal range.

Verdict

(music)

Stats

As you may expect from them being virtual beings, stats are a bit hard to lock down for these two. Starting at the lowest level, their standard foot soldiers were generally about on par with normal humans physically speaking, with generally wall level stats. SHODAN’s higher tier minions like the Cortex Reaver were likely stronger than this level, but that only was when comparing XANA’s standard real life minions. When it came to his virtual minions, this was more on the side of XANA, as the minions being able to compete with the Lyoko Warriors meant they would be able to scale to Aelita, who’s small town level blast was more than enough to blow them out of the water.

Then we go on to the capabilities of the two themselves, and it’s a bit weird, as by their nature as virtual beings, physical stats were pretty irrelevant to their plots. But XANA was the one who held the greater displays of destructive power, thanks to several instances of city level strength from creating weather and hijacking satellites. While SHODAN was able to affect potentially the entire real universe at her peak, this was only over time, not directly all at once. Similarly, in the virtual world, while SHODAN’s cyberworld was potentially a universe sized space, giving equal leeway, XANA was capable of controlling the equivalent of possibly hundreds of these same spaces at his own best. As such, the category of power was unquestionably on XANA’s side. 

When it came to speed, that was also pretty weird. Their standard minions could scale to bullet, electricity, and even light speed projectile timing, though SHODAN’s minions did have the better claim in that regard, and the two AIs likely upscale from these feats. Though when it came to the two themselves, XANA did generally have the superior displays. For one thing, his capability to run and analyze hundreds of simulations in just a fraction of a second is far superior to any of SHODAN’s possible displays of the same sort of thing, which at best would be upscale from her robots being able to just recognise threats in multiple nanoseconds. 

SHODAN did have a couple seemingly impressive displays, but these were a bit questionable on further scrutiny. While SHODAN has been stated to be omnipresent, not only is it pretty questionable if that is meant to be a literal description of her capabilities and not just simply a describing her capability to watch you anywhere in the station, she does not seem to be capable of acting on this in a meaningful way, given how even in the cyberspaces she’s omnipresent within she seems unable to consciously counter the efforts of hackers dealing with her whenever she wants. And her feat of uploading herself as fast as the Citadel Station’s laser was also kind of weird execution wise, since she could simply be accessing data from earth in the time it took for the laser to hit.  

But when comparing the raw effective spreading of their most notable weapons, that being the FTL Drive and Return to the Past, it painted a very clear picture. The FTL Drive’s cyberspace merging was able to go from Tau Ceti V to Earth within an hour, which is the fastest you could safely assume. This would make its speed a ridiculous 99,908 times the speed of light. However, RttP being able to spread across the solar system within a minute was far faster than this, at 832,068 times the speed of light, which made it about 8.32 times faster at the low end. You could argue the FTL Drive being faster than this by calcing how fast it can spread through the whole universe, but you could also argue that RttP is faster by that same logic, at which point it would still be far faster since regardless of how much space they’re covering, RttP is narratively treated as far faster at actually spreading its effects. And as the final kicker, while it was arguable, there are instances where characters were able to react to RttP’s energy waves, making that a potentially effective way to give his minions far superior reaction speeds which SHODAN could not also claim. As such, XANA also held the edge in speed.  

So overall, while SHODAN did boast some impressive capabilities, XANA simply was working at a far superior scale on all fronts. As such, he takes this category.

Arsenal & Abilities

When it came to their respective arsenals, both had their strengths, though generally XANA held an advantage. Both of the two have shown several of the same abilities, but XANA generally showed a far superior level of capability with his abilities than SHODAN did with hers. Both could hack into and hijack technology, but XANA had a far more robust history of managing to do it and had a wider variety of tech he’s taken control over. Both can possess people, but XANA’s possessions had more shown capability of abilities that were to be capable of, and he had more options on how to possess people. Both could reality warp within their digital worlds, but XANA showed a greater level of versatility on what he could accomplish in Lyoko than what SHODAN has done in Cyberspace. Both can grant power to their minions, but XANA’s methods were far more effective than SHODAN’s cyborgization and mutations, which tended to give a hit to the mental faculties of the person being affected. And both had the ability to come back from death, but XANA was demonstrably superior, as SHODAN’s own method took decades to work, while XANA was simply able to do it within a few weeks. XANA also had a wider variety of abilities they didn’t share which were more useful, as his ability to create electricity whenever he wants gave him a good tool to personally deal with any of her minions, and she lacked a real way to counter him controlling weather, plants, earth, or gravity.

XANA also boasted a superior overall arsenal. While SHODAN having two massive spaceships at her beck and call might seem like a major edge, only one of them actually had the means to fight, and it was never shown actually using it on anything besides people within it. Beyond that, while a decent amount of XANA’s options were unlikely to impact much, the satellite in particular would be a very good way of directly targeting the spaceship, and it’s very likely it can quickly do enough damage to bring down the ships. XANA also had numerous abilities that he could use counter some of these capabilities, as his ability to control gasses meant the gas grenades and potentially mutagenic virus could be used for his own purposes, and his ability to animate objects would give him a way to fight with foes that wouldn’t be affected by her EMPs. The biggest potential asset for SHODAN was The Many, as they did have some more notable hax which could help contend with XANA’s capabilities, but their lack of loyalty meant that they wouldn't be totally on her side, and they lack any method to end the fight on their own, meaning they'd be more of a wild card factor than anything.

SHODAN wasn’t without her own advantages, though, as she definitely boasted a superior set of soldiers within real life, as her set of robots, cyborgs, and mutants was superior to most of XANA’s main fighting force of possessed animals and normal people. While he could field robots as well, he didn’t really have a massive amount of versatility in their ranks, and they generally had less than impressive track record compared to SHODAN’s troops. This did mean that, in an army fight, SHODAN was likely to start at an advantage. But XANA did have the perfect toolset to turn this around. 

First off, his specters alone were going to be a major counter to this. Their ability to possess people and hijack technology meant there really wasn’t any member of SHODAN’s army that couldn’t be turned to the side of XANA, and their nature as smoke demons meant they really didn’t have a means to fight back against them. None of them have ever been shown to resist these kinds of attacks either, and even if they did, several of XANA’s methods of taking control were able to bypass the resistance the Lyoko Warriors have to his standard possession, meaning he had layered methods of taking control of the organic troops. XANA also had multiple methods to outhax the army beyond taking control of them, as he could deal with the organic members of her army by petrifying them using smoke, render them catatonic with the power of music, or use the nano virus to erase their memories to the point of making them useless. 

There’s also armies potentially fighting in their respective virtual worlds, and that was also pretty stacked in XANA’s favor. Not only did his aforementioned superior skill at warping the space meant he could easily bend the virtual world to favor him, but his massive amount of virtual soldiers were definitely far superior to SHODAN’s, who all had a relatively low amount of versatility. She also lacked a specific way to get an equivalent of her real troops into the virtual world, whereas XANA could use virtualization to manifest his virtual troops in real life, making the point of her troops being superior even more of a moot point. XANA also had the superior capabilities in the case the two AIs fought more directly, as thanks to the novels he has shown far superior capability to fight himself, with a bunch more abilities like paralysis or transformation that could screw up her attempt of doing the same. And that's before mentioning his more game ending capabilities, such instantly deleting virtual beings by sending them into the virtual sea, or using either the Guardians or the Simulation Bubble to seal them away in a way that left them vulnerable. Both of which could easily work on SHODAN herself, leaving her in a position that would basically be game over if they were pulled off successfully.

Finally, the most notable part of both their arsenals, the FTL Drive and Return to the Past. SHODAN overwriting the universe with her cyberspace was without a doubt a really potent win condition. If she was able to distract XANA for long enough to let it take effect, she could easily warp reality to the point where any foe would be helpless to stop her. But, well, the same could be said about Return to the Past. Not only does it spread far faster than the Drive’s effects, it also allows for warping of reality, letting him make whatever changes he wants after it takes effect. This meant that he had a far more effective method of not only countering the Drive, but likely anything else she could do, as even with the Drive SHODAN has never shown any kind of resistance to temporal effects. This meant XANA had a on hand method of resetting the entire battle and basically guaranteeing her defeat on this rewind, which meant there really wasn’t anything she could do on the off chance he got backed into a corner and felt the need to bust it out.

So, while SHODAN’s litany of options were nothing to scoff at, XANA beat for beat was able to match all of her capabilities and then some, giving him the win in this category as well. 

Tertiary Factors

Both of these digital entities have a lot of plotting under their non-existent belts. Both have been shown to match wits with plenty of brilliant figures of their worlds, though neither had too much experience dealing with other artificial intelligences in particular. But there really wasn’t much question that XANA had SHODAN beat in terms of raw experience. He had a long history of plots to attempt to take over the world and take out the Lyoko Warriors, whereas SHODAN had no real known history outside of the plots of her 2 games. And while both could likely attempt to hack each other to win that way, SHODAN generally had a worse track record in this regard, as the entire reason she turned evil in the first place was due to being hacked. On the other hand, XANA has shown far greater success when it comes to hijacking technology, as previously mentioned, but he also has shown the ability to actively deny attempts to hack him, which at his best could deal with even skilled programmers like Franz Hopper and Jeremie. Not helping this is that SHODAN would be unlikely to figure out the more unconventional weaknesses of XANA's abilities, like how she'd need to deactivate the towers to end some of her attacks. 

The last notable factor would be comparing the two machines on a more general level to get at intelligence. SHODAN has been stated to be capable of superior raw computing, being stated to be able to handle billions of tasks and hundreds of thousands of systems compared to XANA handling dozens of tasks and splitting his focus between a million fragments. This did look more impressive on paper, but XANA was generally a lot more cunning, as he has shown a higher level of skill when it comes to actively countering foes and learning from his mistakes, whereas half the reason SHODAN was stopped was because she thought foes that she just monologued her whole plan at would just give up. This meant XANA would ultimately prove to be the superior machine, which might seem odd considering the tech gap between these worlds, but his superior track record spoke a far better case than SHODAN's stated capabilities.

Conclusion

“Are you afraid? What is it you fear? The end of your trivial existence? When the history of my glory is written, your species shall only be a footnote to my magnificence.”

Advantages:

• Had the superior army in the real world…

• The Many did give some hax which could match XANA’s abilities…

• If successful, Cyberspace merging with reality could give her the win…

• Is the reason GLADoS exists 

• Would

Disadvantages:

• Inferior on all counts on the stat trinity

• Immensely less versatile on her own both in abilities and hax

• …but XANA could very easily hijack or eliminate them

• …but they’re not loyal to SHODAN and also lacked a way to win themselves

• …but Return to the Past made this incredibly unlikely

• Inferior Digital Army

• Far less experienced and cunning

• System Shock 3 has taken far longer to come out than Half Life 3

• Prime Matter

"Because you humans, you’re wrong, and now, you’re going to pay for your mistakes. You think you’re superior, the kings of this world, but you’ll soon discover that’s not the case."

Advantages:

• Superior on all counts in the stat trinity

• Immensely more versatile both in abilities and hax

• Could easily hijack or eliminate SHODAN’s armies in multiple ways

• Return to the Past was a very potent win condition

• Superior Digital Army

• Far more experienced and cunning

• Banger opening theme

• Is somehow a valid tumblr sexyman

Disadvantages:

• If successful, Cyberspace merging with reality could give SHODAN the win

• The Many could be an effective wildcard to deal with

• Inferior army in the real world initially

• French

• <insert forehead joke here>

This match is fairly tricky to fully break down, as both of these digital entities had a massive amount of potential and ambiguity to their capabilities. However, once you look into things, it becomes rather clear cut. While SHODAN’s potential was certainly nothing to scoff at, ultimately XANA proved to be working with greater capabilities and at a superior scale. Might be a shock to the system, but SHODAN simply lacked the code to victory. 

The winner is XANA.

Next Time

Blob vs Inkling
(De Blob vs Splatoon)

Sourcelist:

• VS Battles Wiki

• SHODANPEDIA, the System Shock Wiki

• The Code Lyoko Wiki

• CodeLyoko.fr (also the source for the fan translation of Chronicles)

• u/Darkness1000’s XANA respect thread

• Idris Amadi’s XANAification discussion on Quora