A lot of characters in Attack on Titan are physically strong and excel in battle. There are some, however, that are strong in other ways. Armin is one of the main characters in the franchise and has very different skills than most of the people around him, but is just as important. He is a natural leader and one of the smartest members of the Survey Corps.
He has helped them get out of dangerous situations and figured out the identities of some of their enemies. Despite not being as great of a fighter as characters like Levi, Eren, Mikasa, or Zeke, Armin has won his fair share of battles and assisted in others when he absolutely needs to.
10 Armin Helped Out In The Battle Against Rod Reiss
When the Survey Corps found out that Historia was the princess of Paradis and that her father, Rod, was the true king, the Military Police Brigade fought them. Rod tried to convince his daughter to join him and inherit the Founding Titan, but she refused to and joined her friends.
Becoming a titan himself, he tried to attack his own nation. Armin, Historia, and the other Survey Corps members tried to prevent the tragedy that Armin had faced years prior. Though he didn't participate much in this battle, Armin was able to make sure that no child would feel the way he did when Shiganshina was attacked by aiding his comrades.
9 Armin Saved The Cadet Corps In Trost
Armin has saved his friends for as long as they've known him by strategizing ways to solve their problems. When the titans attacked Trost, Armin saved their lives with one of his plans. He used his comrades as bait to lure the titans towards them until they were close enough to be blinded by shooting them in the face.
His seven strongest friends killed them once the titans couldn't see. Though the plan didn't work as smoothly as Armin had hoped, the titans were defeated and Armin showed how he could win a fight by being a tactician.
8 Not Fighting Can Be A Way To Beat An Enemy Too
Sometimes, the best way to win a fight is to not attack. Armin always knew this and was able to solve problems with words. When they were kids, Eren would get into a lot of fights with the people around him and Armin saved him before the situation could escalate.
For example, after they had to go to Wall Rose, Eren was getting beaten up by two soldiers. To save his friend, Armin convinced them to let Eren go. For a long time, Armin's greatest weapon was his voice, and who knows how bad things would have gotten if he never used it.
7 Armin Killed An MP
When the Survey Corps and Military Police Brigade became each other's enemies, Armin was forced to kill for the first time. Rather than defeating a titan like he would have thought, he took the life of another human. Jean was nearly killed in the fight and hesitated to attack.
Armin saved him, but lost a part of himself. He never liked the terms "good" and "bad" when talking about people, knowing that someone can have a different perspective than him. As Armin didn't hesitate to attack, he knew that he could be considered a "bad" person more than ever.
6 Armin Learned Who The Female Titan Was
If it weren't for Armin, the people of Paradis may have never found out that the Female Titan was actually Annie. After putting a few pieces of the puzzle together, such as Marco's death and the murders of the Hange's titans, Armin figured out that Annie was his enemy. He asked her for help, only to surround her and confirm his suspicions.
Eren and Mikasa may have been the ones to fight the Female Titan before she used her hardening abilities to create a crystal around her body, but they wouldn't have even known who she was if it weren't for Armin's skills. Learning about Annie also helped them realize that Reiner and Bertholdt were the Armored and Colossal Titans.
5 Armin's True Strength In Battle
Armin's greatest struggle in the beginning of the series was understanding his purpose. He underestimated his abilities and thought that he was worthless. With this mentality, he faced a lot of self esteem problems and survivor's guilt when his squad died.
However, when Eren being a titan was revealed, soldiers nearly killed the three of them. Eren and Mikasa put their faith in Armin to convince the soldiers not to attack, letting him know that they always saw his a reliable comrade and that his skills were just as important in battle as his.
4 Armin's Role In The Rumbling
Though he hasn't made any major contribution in this battle yet, Armin is one of the few members of the Survey Corps to survive long enough to be in the manga's final battle. Teaming up with Marley's Warrior Unit, his comrades are currently fighting against Eren and all of the titans in his control.
During the fight, Armin was preparing to blow Eren's titan up but was eaten by another titan and taken to the Path. As of chapter 136, he is still in there and met with Zeke. As Armin will surely get out of the Path somehow, the fight probably won't end for him here.
3 Bertholdt Became A Snack
When the Survey Corps returned to Shiganshina, the Armored, Beast, and Colossal Titans attacked them. Eren and Armin worked together to defeat Bertholdt. Armin's plan was to serve as a distraction while Eren pretended to have been defeated. When Bertholdt only concentrated on Armin, he was shocked that Eren had snuck around him.
Unfortunately, Armin was nearly burnt to death by the Colossal Titan's abilities. As Erwin was also at his final breath after being hit with a rock thrown by the Beast Titan, Levi made the tough decision to save Armin. He gave him a serum that turned him into a titan and ate Bertholdt, inheriting the Colossal.
2 Attack On Marley
Now having the Colossal Titan's power, Armin is a much better fighter. While Eren and the Survey Corps attacked Marley's Warrior Unit and the War Hammer Titan, Armin killed Marleyans and destroyed their warships. This was the most damage that Armin had ever caused and he hated having to do it.
Luckily, he quickly joined Hange and was able to save mostly everyone. Because he, nor anyone else, didn't think that an enemy would follow them, Gabi killed Sasha.
1 Armin Fought The Yeagerists & Became The Commander Of The Survey Corps
On their way to stop Eren and the Rumbling, the Survey Corps and Warrior Unit had to fight the Yeagerists. As Armin used to be friends with some of Eren's worshippers, he didn't want to attack them. In an attempt to get out of it, he and Connie tried to trick Daz and Samuel into thinking they were fighting the Warrior Unit so that they would give them access to the ship they needed to catch up to Eren. Once they failed, they had to kill the Yeagerists but were able to get the ship. However, Floch delayed them even further as they got closer to the Rumbling.
Bravely, Armin was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to buy his friends more time. Instead, Hange took the blow and made Armin the next commander of the Survey Corps. If he survives the ending of the series, these may be the first of many plans he comes up with to help the Survey Corps in their fight.