Dean Winchester/Abilities and Weaknesses

Demonic abilities
Dean was transformed into a Knight of Hell by the Mark of Cain and possessed powers that far surpass that of low and mid-tier demons. Since then he has been cured of both being a demon and the Mark.


 * Possession - Dean was resurrected as a demon in his own body, but it is likely that he has the ability to leave his own body, and possess the bodies of others, and take control of them.
 * Immunity - Dean, as a Knight of Hell and the bearer of the Mark of Cain is much more resilient than most demons. While vulnerable to holy water, he was shown to recover quickly from it. He also retains his demon mannerisms for a longer period of time while being cured than other demons. He also became immune to a Devil's Trap briefly due to his humanity being restored.
 * Super Senses/Astral Perception - As a demon, Dean's senses were heightened and expanded. He was able to detect when other demons were nearby as shown when he was stalked by an Abaddon loyalist and instantly recognized him as a demon.
 * Super Strength - As a Knight of Hell, Dean is significantly stronger than common demons: he was able to easily shove Crowley, the King of Hell, to the ground and quickly overpower Cole during their fight after toying with him. He was also easily able to overpower lower demons. However, Castiel was able to restrain him, albeit while Dean was being cured and was in the process of having his humanity restored.
 * Immortality - Unless he transfers the mark to someone else, and is killed by The First Blade, Dean will never die by neither natural or superficial means. It is highly implied that he cannot kill himself with the blade, as it had no effect on him when he slit open his hand.
 * Regeneration - After being reborn, Dean's wounds, including the stab wound from an angel blade, were completely healed. Dean also healed near-instantly from a knife cut to the face, and a cut from the First Blade that he made in his hand healed within seconds.
 * Self-Resurrection - As a Knight of Hell, since he is the host of the Mark of Cain, he cannot die, not even by the best of Death's efforts.
 * Invulnerability - Knights of Hell are little affected by damage dealt to their hosts, even injuries as severe as being stabbed, gunshot wounds, decapitation, and dismemberment.
 * Super Stamina - Demons do not require food, water, or sleep to maintain themselves. Dean, as a demon, can consume vast amounts of alcohol without dying and very little effect. He was also unaffected by tear gas.
 * Electromagnetic Interference - Dean's presence caused interference in a gas station's security cameras.
 * Uncontrollable Bloodlust - While Dean had the Mark of Cain, even in human form, his bloodlust was very high as slaughtering people provided him with mental and emotional satisfaction.
 * Wielding the First Blade - As the bearer of the Mark of Cain, Dean was able to wield the First Blade against all types of enemies who would otherwise be invulnerable to harm such as other Knights of Hell.

Abilities with the title of Death
Dean gained the following abilities while wearing Death's ring for a day:
 * Intangibility - While wearing Death's ring, Dean could phase and walk through physical barriers.
 * Invisibility - While wearing Death's ring, Dean could turn himself invisible.
 * Teleportation - While wearing Death's ring, Dean could teleport from once place to another in the blink of an eye. He teleported from the street the man crashed his car to Bobby's bunker.
 * Killing touch - While wearing Death's ring, Dean could kill anything he touched.

Abilities with the Mark of Cain
Dean demonstrated the following abilities while wielding the Mark of Cain:
 * Super Strength - When under the influence of the Mark of Cain or using its powers, Dean displayed superhuman strength at times. He was able to overpower and kill the vampire Connor, while killing Abaddon, Dean lifted her off of her feet and into the air, while under the influence of the Mark's rage he was able to beat a group of human criminals while outnumbered and he was able to break out of the Styne Family restraints and later beat the Seraph Castiel into submission with ease.
 * Immunity - While battling Abaddon, Dean was able to resist her powers with great concentration. After recovering the First Blade, Dean became completely immune to her powers. The Mark of Cain later rendered him immune to the spell Rowena tried to use to kill him.
 * Telekinesis - On two occasions, Dean displayed a telekinetic control of the First Blade. After losing the First Blade during his fight with Abaddon, Dean was able to use telekinesis to summon the First Blade into his hand, albeit with great concentration. After being badly beaten by Metatron, Dean used telekinesis to pull the First Blade into his hand from across the room in a last-ditch effort to defeat Metatron.
 * Self-Resurrection - Due to the nature of the Mark, Dean would be resurrected as a demon and a Knight of Hell if he ever died as when Metatron killed him.
 * Precognition - In The Things We Left Behind, the Mark gives Dean visions of his coming slaughter of a group of human criminals in the form of a nightmare.
 * Uncontrollable Bloodlust - The Mark would at times cause uncontrollable rage and bloodlust in Dean.
 * Wielding the First Blade - With the Mark of Cain, Dean had the ability to power and wield the First Blade, enabling him to kill beings that normal weapons couldn't kill such as Abaddon and Cain.

Abilities as a Vampire
Dean possessed all the typical abilities of a vampire after being transformed by Boris:
 * Super Strength - Vampires possess strength that is greater than humans. Young vampires experience a formidable increase in physical strength; able to lift heavy objects and overpower grown humans. Older vampires, however, can overpower their own makers and other creatures. As a vampire, Dean had much greater strength than he had as a human, but was still weaker than the over-600 year old Boris.
 * Fangs - Vampires possess a set of retractable fangs. Their teeth are superhumanly strong and can rip open a human's neck and leave huge bite marks on the corpse of the victim it has fed on.
 * Super Speed - Vampires speed is greater than humans.
 * Super Agility - Vampires possess amazing agility. They can climb up walls and jump off buildings without hurting themselves. Vampires also have greater reflexes than humans. While a vampire, Dean was able to jump from a balcony to the floor below without harm and continue fighting.
 * Super Senses - Vampires have extremely keen senses that are superior to those of humans. They can see in the dark, hear a human's heart beat, and possess enhanced sense of smell. A vampire can track a human's blood over long distances. Dean was able to use this ability to locate the nest of vampires responsible for turning him.
 * Immortality - Vampires can potentially live forever. They can't grow old and don't acquire conventional diseases that affect humans.
 * Invulnerability - Vampires can not be killed by conventional methods, such as stab wounds or gunshots. Vampires have an extreme durability to pain.
 * Regeneration - As long as they have enough human blood, vampires can quickly heal any wound that does not include amputation.
 * Super Stamina - Despite their hunger, vampires don't tire easily. Dean, although a new vampire who had yet to complete the transition, took on an entire nest of over twenty other vampires, in a fight to the death, and emerged almost unfazed.

Abilities granted by Michael
Dean displayed the following abilities while acting as the vessel of Michael but retaining control of himself:
 * Teleportation - Michael's presence gave Dean the power to teleport from the Men of Letters bunker to the church where Lucifer was located.
 * Astral Projection - While confronting Lucifer, Dean was able to display Michael's wings.
 * Highly Advanced Super Strength - Michael's presence granted Dean great enough strength to knock Lucifer, a super-charged archangel, across a church with great force with just a kick, grapple with him evenly and stagger and harm him with his punches.
 * Flight - Michael's presence granted Dean the power to levitate in mid-air and fly which Dean was able to use to fight Lucifer in the air.
 * Invulnerability - Michael's presence granted Dean enough durability that he was able to take blows from the super charged Lucifer that flung him with great force without suffering injury despite the blows normally being fatal. However, he suffered some injury from close range punches though they didn't cause him serious injury. He also survived an attempted smiting completely unharmed.
 * Regeneration - After mortally wounding Lucifer and falling to the ground, all of Dean's injuries from his fight with Lucifer instantly healed.
 * Archangel Blade Wielding - Michael's presence granted Dean the power to wield an archangel blade against Lucifer] to the point of killing him despite the fact that the blade can only be used to kill an archangel by another archangel.

Abilities granted by spells
Dean displayed the following powerful abilities while using magic:
 * Dream Walking - After taking African Dream Root, Dean gains the ability to enter the dreams of the person whose hair is in the potion. However, unlike Sam and Jeremy Frost, Dean's ability to manipulate the events of the dream he enters is limited to interacting the dreaming person and getting them to change things as demonstrated with Bobby Singer and Charlie Bradbury.
 * Astral Projection - With the help of a spell cast by the psychic Pamela Barnes, Dean was briefly able to astral project and effectively become a ghost. With the help of witch James Frampton, Dean also astral projected briefly.
 * Invisibility - As a ghost through astral projection, Dean was naturally invisible.
 * Telekinesis - As a ghost through astral projection, Dean demonstrated a limited telekinetic ability, hampered by his inability to concentrate on an object well. However, despite this, he was able to drop a chandelier onto the floor by combining his telekinesis with Sam's.
 * Super Strength - As a ghost through astral projection, Dean was able to knock demons around with ease while using his invisibility to his advantage.
 * Teleportation - As a ghost through astral projection, Dean could teleport as demonstrated when he teleported out of a funeral home after being set free by the reaper Tessa.
 * Summoning and Banishing - Using various rituals, Dean has been able to summon angels, demons, reapers, pagan gods and Death. He was capable of performing a special spell to summon Lucifer alone. With the use of a sigil, Dean has proven to be highly proficient at banishing angels.
 * Warding - Over time, Dean has learned how to ward buildings against demons and angels. He has also displayed the ability to "power down" the wards of the Men of Letters bunker without removing them completely.
 * Binding - With the right spell, Dean has proven capable of binding beings to his will such as when he bound Death using a spell provided by Crowley.
 * Conjuration - Using Howard's Fear Manifestation Ritual, Dean was able to conjure Howard's greatest fear: the vengeful spirit of his brother.
 * Soul Absorption - Through a ritual, Dean has displayed the ability to store a monster soul in his arm.
 * Soul Bomb - As part of the soul bomb to kill the Darkness, Dean absorbed around 200,000 souls into himself. These souls were later removed by God when the soul bomb was not needed.
 * Gestalt Ritual (non-canon) - In the non-canon novel Supernatural: Bone Key, the demon Fedra used the Gestalt Ritual to empower Dean against the Last Calusa by imbuing him with all the ghosts of Key West and their spiritual energy. By channeling various emotions, Dean was able to weaponize the power he got from the ghosts within him.
 * Resurrection - Using a ritual, Dean was able to resurrect vampire Benny Lafitte.
 * Molecular Combustion - Through the use of the witch-killing spell, Dean is able to cause witches to combust as Spencer Wallis did when Sam and Dean cast the spell on him.
 * Monster Curing - Dean has occasionally been able to cure monsters and return them to their original human selves. Using the vampire cure, Dean has been able to cure Seth's Victim and Alex Jones. With the werewolf cure he was able to cure Claire Novak.
 * Tracking - Dean is capable of casting tracking spells such as the one he used to locate Cain.
 * Super Senses - Dean gained the senses of a dog while using the Human/animal mind meld spell.
 * Animal Communication - While using the Human/animal mind meld spell, Dean gained the ability to communicate with all animals. He was also able to summon a pack of dogs to his aid with just a whistle.
 * Spell Knowledge - Dean has displayed a knowledge and understanding of certain types of magic at times. When Lady Toni Bevell used the Chinese Mind-Control Technique to threaten his mother to get Dean to surrender, Dean possessed the knowledge to recognize the spell and the method to counter it, something Toni clearly didn't expect him to know.
 * Spell Breaking (non-canon) - In the non-canon novel Supernatural: Witch's Canyon, Dean was able to perform a counterspell from John Winchester's Journal to break the Forty Year.

Human abilities
Dean is one of the most experienced and skilled hunters to exist, being able to fight Celestial beings and stop world ending threats. Despite all of this, he believes himself to be only a "grunt," but according to Sam, Dean is actually the best at lore (Sam refers to him as a "genius") and is a better hunter than anyone Sam has ever encountered including Sam himself and  John Winchester.
 * Expert Hunting Skills - Trained by his father from early childhood, Dean possesses excellent combat and hunting abilities; he is established throughout the series as an extremely dangerous individual, and he is more than capable of taking a stand against even the most formidable of opponents, such as demons, vampires and leviathans. By Trial and Error, Sam lists Dean as the best hunter he knows of beyond more experienced hunters such as Bobby Singer and their own father.
 * Expert Hand-to-Hand combat - Dean is adept with martial arts, and knife fighting as well; he has subdued several human assailants with ease in multiple episodes and bested physically more powerful creatures, often unarmed or equipped with only a blade. Dean has also beaten his younger brother Sam in a fight a few times. Due to his year-long stay in Purgatory and the realm's animal-like survival of the fittest environment, Dean greatly honed his hunting skills and instincts. Even when up against three demons, Dean was able to take them down single-handedly using only his hand-to-hand experience and the demon killing knife, something which impressed the powerful demon, and his ancestor, Cain greatly. Dean also effortlessly defeated 3 men under the influence of the Attack Dog Spell cast by Rowena. While empowered by the Mark of Cain, Dean was able to quite easily defeat, disarm and almost kill Castiel despite Castiel's seraphim strength and own fighting ability, although it should be noted that Castiel held back somewhat as he was not trying to harm Dean but only restrain him. He also held his own against and eventually defeated Arthur Ketch despite his knee being injured and he was distracted in the fight. When facing a super-charged Lucifer on relatively even ground thanks to Michael powering him, Dean was able to go toe-to-toe with the archangel, only losing due to Lucifer's superior strength.
 * Marksmanship - Dean is well-versed with multiple types of firearms and is an expert marksman, he seldom misses his intended target and can efficiently put down anything vulnerable to bullets. During an old-fashioned duel with Elias Finch, Dean won, killing Finch without being harmed in the process despite Finch getting a shot off. The same also happened in an impromptu duel with werewolf Joy.
 * Master knife wielder/Knife-thrower: Dean is highly skilled with knives. Dean has used a variety of knives on the show to successfully kill numerous counts of supernatural enemies. These include the Demon-Killing Knife, Angel Blades, machetes, and The First Blade. Dean is also a skilled knife thrower. He was able to throw a silver knife at Pat's heart from several feet away within seconds. Four seasons later Dean flung an angel blade like a throwing knife at Harrington to save the life of Donatello Redfield. The blade ended up in Harrington's neck. Dean's throw left Sam and Donatello highly impressed.
 * Tactician - Dean is also a proficient tracker and possesses prudent tactical skills. Highly resourceful, he frequently utilizes improvised weapons and explosive devices; in Croatoan, he demonstrated in constructing Molotov cocktails and improvised explosive devices. When fighting Cain and on the verge of defeat, Dean was able to turn the tables through a move come up with in seconds by using Cain's own knife to cut off his hand as he moved to kill Dean. While fighting Lucifer, Dean was smart enough to use the moment of distraction caused by Lucifer's failed smiting to stab Lucifer with an archangel blade while he was distracted and kill Lucifer.
 * High Level Intelligence - Dean possesses extensive knowledge of supernatural mythology. He is well-versed in how police, fire departments and various government agencies (FBI, CDC) typically operate and conduct investigations. He also knows how to both impersonate and evade them effectively. Dean is a virtuoso of escape, evasion, silent movement, and when the situation requires, subtlety and stealth. Lastly, he is also alarmingly skillful in many areas frowned upon by the law: lock picking, breaking into security systems (not so much computers, which often falls on Sam), car jacking and gaining an 'advantageous purchase' comes naturally to him. Dean states that he believes himself to be a simple grunt but according to Sam, he's a lot smarter than he gives himself credit for.
 * Leadership qualities - Dean has shown on several occasions to be a natural leader, when operating in groups, he commonly takes command, unless the group includes someone who he himself sees as a leader, such as his father or Bobby. Between him and Sam (and Castiel), he nearly always calls the shots, and acts as de facto leader. Dean also has a skill for motivation, and is a capable orator, being able to motivate others to remain strong and carry on, even in darkest moments, with mere words. This skill also allows him to inspire trust in others, something which comes in handy, when he has to explain the existence of the supernatural to non-believers.
 * Strategist - Dean is also shown to be quite a capable strategist, able to come up with many quite clever, and unorthodox methods of defeating his more powerful opponents, for example he defeated the mother of all, by swallowing Phoenix Ashes (her only weakness) and tricking her in to biting him, causing her to swallow the ashes. He also devised a way to trick Dick Roman so he, Sam and Castiel could not only sneak in, but so that he could catch Dick off-guard and kill him. This was quite a feat as Dick himself was a master strategist capable of developing very complex and long-term plans. Another show of his strategic abilities is when he manages to capture Crowley by luring him in with a deal and then slapping handcuffs on him when he least expects it painted with a Devil's Trap. Crowley, who is shown to be a cunning strategist himself, is caught completely off-guard by this and doesn't even realize what Dean has fully done until he tells him. However he will also rush into situations, particularly if he doesn't believe there's time to stop and plan. When faced with the threat of a super-charged Lucifer, Dean came up with a strategy where he would become the vessel of the Apocalypse World Michael in a situation where he'd remain in control, but Michael would give him the power to battle Lucifer after remembering how Zachariah and Gabriel had told him that he was Michael's one true vessel, the Michael Sword. Dean's brilliant strategy, which put him into an alliance with Michael who had been trying to kill him only minutes before, gave him the abilities he needed to finally defeat and kill Lucifer, a previously impossible task, particularly in Lucifer's super-charged state that Michael believed him to be unstoppable in.


 * Survival Expert - Dean is also a highly capable survivalist, as he was able to survive a year in Purgatory with limited resources.


 * Expert Mechanic - An accomplished mechanic, he maintains his Impala in tip-top condition (and once rebuilt the vehicle entirely from being severely disfigured) and has maintained an intimate knowledge of automobiles and engines since childhood. He is also very talented at making electronic devices, most notably his EMF meter which he made using an old Walkman and an electromagnet powerful to wipe out an entire room full of computers in "Ghostfacers".
 * Torture - Due to his time spent in Hell as Alastair's "student", Dean has an in-depth knowledge of torture, able to inflict the maximum amount of pain and agony on a victim while keeping them alive as long as possible. In On The Head Of A Pin, the angels believed Dean's skills to be good enough to break Alastair himself who held up under angelic torture.
 * High Pain Tolerance - Dean has a high pain tolerance. Dean was able to withstand 40 years of torture at the hands of Alastair before breaking. When Zachariah tortured Dean by giving Dean stage 4 stomach cancer Dean withstood the pain and did not break. Dean did not break when Lady Toni Bevell tortured him. In Bring 'em Back Alive after getting shot with a poisonous bullet Dean was able to keep moving despite its effects before collapsing. After getting healed of the poison Dean was still able to keep moving despite the gunshot not being healed.
 * Cooking - As shown in Trial and Error, Dean is an adept cook. He makes burgers and they are apparently (according to Sam) delicious. Death also has shown to be a fan of Dean's cooking.
 * Fairy Awareness - Having been abducted to Avalon, Dean can since perceive fairies that may appear invisible or just like normal humans on Earth.
 * Link to The Darkness - Due to being responsible for unleashing the Darkness, Dean developed the ability to sense her, but also the inability to kill her. The Darkness claims they are "bound" to each other. The Darkness also granted Dean immunity to her fog.
 * Exorcism - Over time, Dean has gotten somewhat proficient at performing exorcisms on demons. However, he is not as proficient as Sam and usually leaves exorcising demons up to his brother.

Human Weaknesses
As a male human, Dean possesses common weaknesses of human.
 * Teleportation - Whenever a being teleports Dean to a place, he feels a stomachache. When Castiel teleported him, he couldn't poop for a week and when God apported Dean he felt a stomachache.


 * Mortality - Since Dean is a human, he is vulnerable to diseases and any form of physical harm and has a limited life span.
 * Magic  - Dean is susceptible to the influences of magic and witchcraft.

Demonic Weaknesses
After becoming a Knight of Hell, Dean possessed these weaknesses.
 * Devil's Trap - Dean could be trapped by a devil's trap and supernatural handcuffs.
 * Holy water - Contacting with holy water caused pain to Dean.
 * Purified blood - Purified blood caused great pain to Dean.
 * Demon Curing Ritual - He could be cured by the ritual.
 * Angels - An angel was able restrain Dean.
 * The First Blade - The First Blade was the only weapon that could kill Dean.

Weapons
Dean has been seen using a variety of weapons over the course of the series, and is very inventive while improvising weapons from his surroundings, but there are some particular armaments he seems to prefer. Dean tends to use a brushed stainless steel Colt 1911 with pearl grips, which John is seen using in a flashback, and also uses a Baikal sawed-off double barrel shotgun when he needs extra firepower. However lately he has used a lever action Winchester 1887 shotgun (given to him by Jo before she died) on a more regular basis than his usual shotgun.

He has also been seen with an G3 SG1 marksman rifle in "Simon Said" and "All Dogs Go To Heaven" and was proficient enough with the weapon to act as a sniper and kill several skinwalkers. Dean is shown to possess a large machete in "Dead Man's Blood", and among other regular hunting items. Also, both Dean and Sam have acquired angelic blades which Dean has successfully used. Dean uses one to kill Zachariah, becoming the first known non-angel to kill an angel in the series. After emerging from Purgatory, Dean started using a large, machete-like blade from the monster realm. The blade is crude in design, featuring a large bone hilt and a stone-like blade. The blade is powerful as Dean used it to behead a Leviathan and later a group of vampires.

The trunk of the Chevy Impala contains numerous weapons which are implied as having been needed in the past, notable examples sheath knives and an DefTech 37mm grenade launcher.

Since moving in to the Men of Letters Bunker, Dean has kept many of his weapons hanging up on his wall.

The First Blade is another one of Dean's weapons that can kill any demon no matter their age or power. Because it draws its power from the mark, which has the power of The Darkness, it can kill any supernatural being. The First Blade can only be used if the user has the Mark of Cain which means only Dean could use it and make it powerful to kill anyone. The Mark of Cain gives him incredible strength, telekinesis (only in the presence of the blade) and immunity to all demonic powers, as seen in King of the Damned.

Dean has also wielded a few supernatural weapons such as the Colt, the Bone of Righteous Mortal Washed in the Three Bloods of Fallen and Death's Scythe successfully, killing powerful enemies with them.

In Let the Good Times Roll, while acting as the vessel to and powered by the archangel Michael, Dean was able to wield an archangel blade, a weapon that could only kill an archangel in the hands of another archangel. Due to his status at the time, Dean was able to wield the weapon against the archangel Lucifer and kill Lucifer with it.