Ruby Rose is one of the four titular main protagonists of RWBY. She is a Huntress, having been trained at the now defunct Beacon Academy. Her weapon of choice is her High-Caliber Sniper-Scythe known as Crescent Rose, which she designed herself.[14]

Ruby first appeared in the "Red" Trailer, visiting the grave of her mother, Summer Rose. After an invitation from Professor Ozpin following a short battle with Roman Torchwick, Ruby attends Beacon Academy in order to become a Huntress. During her time at Beacon, Ruby became a member and the leader of Team RWBY, consisting of herself, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and her older half-sister, Yang Xiao Long.[15]

However, after the disbandment of her team following the Fall of Beacon, Ruby travels to Haven Academy as a member of Team RNJR with the remaining members of Team JNPR. After the Battle of Haven, Team RWBY is reunited again, and they alongside their friends continue to fight in the war against Salem and her forces.

Following a battle with Neopolitan in the Central Location, Ruby was dropped into the void by Cinder Fall and ended up in another realm, the Ever After, along with the rest of Team RWBY and Jaune.

In “The Perils of Paper Houses”, she ran away from her team due to stress taking a heavy toll on her psyche, later finding herself in a trap set by Neo in "Tea Amidst Terrible Trouble". The ensuing confrontation broke Ruby's spirit, eventually causing her to ascend. However, in “Of Solitude and Self”, she eventually accepted herself and returned to help her team defeat the Curious Cat and return to Remnant.

Ruby is a pale white skinned young girl with silver eyes and neck-length black hair with red tips.

During her time attending Beacon Academy, she wears a black dress consisting of a long-sleeved blouse with a high collar and red trim on the sleeves, over which is a black waist cincher with red lacing up the front, and a matching skirt with red lining and a red petticoat. She also wears a pair of thick black tights that fade to red near the bottom, and black combat boots with red laces, red trims around the top, and red soles.

Her outfit is topped by a red hooded cloak fastened to her shoulders by cross-shaped pins. Her emblem appears as a large silver buckle on her wide black belt, which is slung around her hips on an angle. Attached to her belt are a pocket and a row of bullets.

In the "Red" Trailer, Ruby's cloak was fastened at her throat and a large silver cross is pinned to her belt in place of her emblem.

In Ice Queendom, she wears light pink lipstick.

In order to become a Huntress, Ruby trained at Signal Academy, where her skills and abilities far surpassed her peers. Wielding a dangerous weapon like Crescent Rose required strength, balance and adaptability, all of which she demonstrated the night she stopped the robbery of From Dust Till Dawn, a Dust shop in Vale. This led Ozpin to accept her into Beacon Academy two years before the usual age of admittance.

While at Beacon, Ruby developed skills as a decisive leader, being able to formulate and execute tactical plans with others in order to take down tougher foes, such as the giant Nevermore the team encountered during initiation, and later in coordinated attacks against Roman in an Atlesian Paladin-290. However, perhaps Ruby's greatest strength is her ability to give hope when it is needed most- something Ozpin described as "Something unquantifiable... a spark." She always sees the best in people, and has a knack for finding the right words in the right situation, whether when rallying her teammates, comforting demoralized or suffering allies, or trying to sway enemies to her side. While Ruby's willingness to negotiate has occasionally backfired (such as with Raven in "The More the Merrier" and Ironwood in "Gravity") she has inspired many with her words, actions and perseverance as a leader and Huntress.

Ruby's sense of balance stands out, particularly in precarious situations like perching on a taut ribbon in "Players and Pieces" or running off an exploding airship in "Heroes and Monsters". Despite her small size, Ruby's physical strength is considerable, given how skillfully she wields the large and bulky Crescent Rose. Perhaps one of the best demonstrations of her strength was during her initiation, when she used Crescent Rose to drag a Giant Nevermore vertically up a cliff, at high speed (although she was assisted by Weiss' glyphs and Crescent Rose's recoil).

Ruby's fighting style relies heavily on her creative uses of and methods for achieving momentum, relying on a combination of her Semblance and Crescent Rose's recoil to allow her to achieve massive impact force, then speeding away to avoid counterattacks and prepare her next strike. She can also throw her opponents off by creating slipstreams and even small whirlwinds using her Semblance. At closer quarters, she will attempt to overwhelm her opponent with a barrage of lightning-quick slashes, often not allowing them time to dodge or check her attack.

Ruby also has some skills as a seamstress. According to RWBY: After the Fall, she made her original outfit herself.[20]

Ruby's weapon of choice is Crescent Rose. Ruby is self-admittedly obsessed when it comes to weapons, which shows in her complex design and craftsmanship of her weapon, a High-Caliber Sniper-Scythe which she designed herself at Signal, as well as her eye for detail when observing other people's weapons and tools. This weapon can transform between a scythe and a sniper rifle and can fire Dust rounds in either form with massive force. Ruby has proven to have excellent marksmanship, making a perfect headshot on a fleeing Geist in "The Next Step" and shooting down a missile in "The Lady in the Shoe".

After arriving in Atlas, Crescent Rose was upgraded, with the blade now capable of rotation, allowing Ruby to swing her weapon more freely when in cramped spaces such as caves.

In Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes and Huntsmen, Part Two, Ruby uses a wooden scythe belonging to Scarecrow after losing Crescent Rose.

Ruby's Semblance, Petal Burst (also known as Speed), allows her to dash with an inhuman speed in whatever direction she chooses, often leaving trails of rose petals in her wake.[21] In "Best Day Ever", Ruby is shown to be capable of creating powerful tailwinds with her Semblance; if she gathers enough momentum, the resulting turbulence is capable of lifting people off the ground.

Within the episode "Ace Operatives", it was stated by Harriet Bree that Ruby's Semblance is not like other speed-type Semblances, though she does not elaborate.

It is later revealed by Penny in "Strings" that Ruby's Semblance allows her to disassemble herself at a molecular level and reassemble at a chosen location, negating her mass. With practice, she has proven able to do the same with anyone she is in contact with, similar to Ren's Semblance; she can carry at least four people along with her. This allows her to go around obstacles or through paths that she would not otherwise fit. She has also proven able to negate gravity while using her Semblance; in "The Final Word", she uses her Semblance mid-fall to circle up and around Neopolitan, attacking her from behind. However, as shown by her battle with Mercury in "PvP", if her path is blocked by an unexpected obstacle mid-flight, her Semblance can be disrupted, forcing her to stop.

Through her mother, Summer, Ruby comes from a line of legendary warriors who possessed powerful abilities related to their Silver Eyes, said to be an extremely rare trait. Upon seeing Pyrrha Nikos die in "End of the Beginning", Ruby accidentally uses this power in her grief and petrifies the Wyvern. However, she has no memory of doing this other than her head hurting. Later in the episode, Qrow describes a fairy tale about warriors with Silver Eyes who are so powerful that even the Grimm fear them.

In "The Next Step", it is revealed that Ruby's powers injured Cinder Fall greatly, causing her to lose her left eye and arm, and making it difficult for her to speak for a period of time. Salem states that this is due to Cinder's possession of the Fall Maiden powers but does not explain why this is the case. However, when Ruby uses her powers once again in "The More the Merrier", Raven Branwen, who possesses the Spring Maiden powers, is not affected despite being in the vicinity, indicating that the Maiden powers themselves do not cause an individual to be affected by the Silver Eye. This indicates that the reason Cinder was affected was due to her usage of the Grimm, through a Grimm beetle glove and later a Shadow Hand.

In "Alone in the Woods", Ruby has managed to activate her power intentionally after Maria Calavera tells her to concentrate on her loved ones, turning a group of Apathy to dust. Through Maria's guidance, Ruby was able to petrify the Leviathan in the episode "Our Way", but the massive Grimm was able to partially destroy the stone encasing its body before it was destroyed by Caroline Cordovin.

Despite Maria's guidance, Ruby still hasn't fully mastered the activation of her powers. In "Out in the Open", Ruby attempts to activate her eyes while fighting an Alpha Megoliath but is unable to concentrate with all the chaos. However, in "The Enemy of Trust", she quickly and easily activates her Silver Eyes upon seeing Cinder.

In “Light in Shadows” from RWBY: Ice Queendom, her powers can be activate in dreamscapes. She unknowingly uses it for the first time on a Nightmare to weaken it.