Devil Fruit

The Devil Fruit, also called “The Treasure of the Seas”, grants a unique ability to those who eat it. In the original Japanese, their name is 悪魔の実 (Akuma no Mi), which also means nothing more than “fruit of the devil” or just “devil fruit”. Unlike most translations, the name in Japanese consists of a two-syllable word, which is repeated, and the suffix “no Mi” (such as Gomu Gomu no Mi). In an SBS, Oda said that he had heard rumors that there were over 100 different devil fruits. In fact, there are already over 210 different devil powers known. Since these fruits are highly sought after in the world of One Piece, you have to pay around 100,000,000 berries for one of them, if they are sold at all. The particularly valuable ones can even fetch a price of up to five billion berries on the black market.

Features and abilities

Each devil fruit exists only once in the world and if you take a bite of one of the fruits, the rest of the devil fruit turns into an ordinary fruit. Thus, no two people can get their abilities either. Devil powers are also not hereditary, which was first confirmed by Charlotte Linlin and her many children. Since devil fruits are mysterious even in the world of One Piece, they provide all sorts of material for various theories there as well. According to Blueno, if you eat two Devil Fruits, your body dissolves, and Jabra panicked when he saw the fruit Kaku and Kalifa were about to eat because he believes that inside each Devil Fruit lives a devil who could come out of the fruit and attack the devil who has been living inside him since he ate a Devil Fruit. Since the Battle of Marine Ford, Blackbeard also possesses Whitebeard’s Earthquake Fruit abilities. Thus, he is the first known person with two devil powers. How he acquired them from the dead Edward Newgate is as yet unknown. According to Kaku and Kalifa, the fruit tastes vile and only reveals the power it contained some time after eating.

The devil powers can eliminate or weaken each other in fights. For this reason, Enel, the user of the Thunder Fruit, could not harm Luffy with his devil power due to the latter’s gum-gum fruit, as gum does not conduct electricity.

The clothing of people with devil powers is a very touchy subject. When their ability is enacted, the person’s clothing adapts to the new conditions and thus behaves like the rest of their body. For example, Logian users always transform into their element along with their clothing, and are later reassembled from it fully clothed. Similarly, the clothing of users of a Zoan devil power adapts to any body shape without any problems. When asked how it was possible for Miss Doublefinger’s clothing not to tear despite the extreme strain of the devil power, Oda once replied in an SBS that One Piece was not porn.

Some Devil Fruits are very similar in how they work. A good example of this is Miss Valentine’s “poof fruit” (jap. “Kilo Kilo no Mi) compared to Machvise’s “ton fruit” (jap. “Ton Ton no Mi”). Both can change the weight of their owner, but considering their Japanese names alone in these examples, it can be concluded that the fruit of Machvise is superior to that of Miss Valentine, as it is known that there are 1000 kilograms in a ton. The following strength ratios of similar devil fruits have already been confirmed by Oda:

Freeze Fruit > Snow Fruit
Barrel Fruit > Whoosh Fruit
Magma Fruit > Fire Fruit
Weapon Fruit > Iron Blade Fruit.

So devil fruits have a certain base strength, however that alone does not necessarily make the user stronger than someone who has a lower value devil fruit. What matters here is how well the user handles their powers and how well they have trained them. Also, weaker devil powers can have an advantage over stronger ones in combat and reveal a special effect, as noted by Crocodile when Gal warded off Dino Magellan’s poison with his wax. Another example of this would again be Luffy’s resistance to Enel’s thunder attacks.

Training the Devil’s Powers

Even though devil fruits reveal their powers shortly after being consumed, it can take varying amounts of time for the user to master their powers reasonably well. For example, Kaku intended to transform into his hybrid form during his fight against Zoro, but then unintentionally transformed into his animal form. Despite this, in only a short time, he and Kalifa had already mastered their powers well enough to use them effectively in battle. Luffy and Tashigi, who was trapped in Smoker’s body, on the other hand, had considerably more difficulty controlling their powers in their first attempts. Teach also, by his own admission, had not yet been able to use the full potential of his earthquake powers.

It is only through training that devil power users develop different attacks and uses for their powers and learn to control them better. Crocodile mentioned to Luffy that he had trained his devil powers to perfection for years, after using his sand to form a blade of sorts and split the ground beneath his feet. Apparently, even long-time devil fruit users discover new properties of their powers during their training. Brook, for example, has been eating from the Dead Realm Fruit for over 50 years and believed its only special power was to give the user a second life after his demise. However, he has since learned that thanks to it, he can separate his soul from his body and also reunite it later.

Devil Fruit users do not reach the zenith of their training until the “awakening” of their devil powers. Now they can also transfer their powers to objects around them. However, not much is known about it until now. Awakened devil powers first appeared in Impel Down in the form of the Guardian Beasts. Many questions remain about them as well, such as how they came to be and became what they are today. Later in Dress Rosa, Donquixote Doflamingo revealed in battle against Luffy that he too could cause his powers to awaken. This caused him to turn the buildings around him into thread-like objects.

Suppression of Devil Powers

One of the most important tools for suppressing devil powers is water. Anyone who has eaten a devil fruit loses not only the ability to swim, but also the ability to move underwater (whether fresh or salt water) without assistance or use their devil powers on their own. This is because the sea curses anyone who eats of a devil fruit. The degree to which the water affects the body is proportional to the amount of water. Accordingly, partial immersion only weakens a little, and splashing water or rain usually have no effect. Sea stones, however, completely paralyze the body on contact and have the same effect as if the body in question were completely submerged in water, even if only part of the body comes into contact with it. Unlike the sea stone, however, the water does not remove the powers. For example, Luffy’s body is still made of rubber underwater, he just can’t move it himself. This is also why Nojiko and Genzo managed to save Luffy when he was in danger of drowning underwater while fighting Arlong, by stretching his neck enough to bring his head back to the surface. Whereas Enel’s powers were completely shut down and he stopped dissolving into lightning when he was pinned down and fatally struck by Wyper with his sea stone shoes.

Certain devil fruits have their own vulnerabilities, which are often sea-related as well. For example, Crocodile cannot dissolve into sand after being hit by even a drop of water, and Gecko Moria’s zombies, created by his powers, can be defeated with salt.

A particularly important ability when fighting Devil Fruit users is Busoushokua form of Haki that surrounds the body with an invisible armor, making even attacks on Logia users possible. Thus, an attack laced with Haki hits an opponent’s body in such a way that they cannot escape the attack by using their Devil powers. This fact makes Haki users a match especially for the previously so superior Logia users. The concentration of Haki on body parts can be used not only for attacks but also for defense, so that the otherwise so dangerous devil powers lose their effect extremely.

The Fishmen Karate is another way to fight devil power users effectively. With this technique, the user controls the water in the environment and in the body of the opponent, whereby his devil power is also bypassed.

Blackbeard is also able to suppress the devil powers of anyone he touches, thanks to the powers of his Dark Fruit, as he did in the fight against Ace. Some permanent effects of devil powers can also be interrupted by the devil power user being unconscious, which has also been seen with various devil power effects. For example, Moria released all shadows when he was defeated by the Straw Hat Pirates and fainted. But also Caribou, who has the ability to store things in his swamp body and stole the treasure of Fishmen Island, released all treasures after being knocked out by Luffy.

Identify

Devil fruits can be divided into three categories: Logia, Paramecia, and Zoan. However, the different categories cannot be identified by the shape, color, or pattern of the fruit. Since each devil fruit exists only once, it is very difficult to figure out what power a fruit contains. However, there is abook of devil fruits that contains information about the shape and ability of devil fruits.

This book has only been mentioned by name by Blackbeard and Sanji, who learned of the existence of their Dream Fruit from it. Nevertheless, in addition to these two, Shanks’ gang and the Rumba Pirates already knew of a particular fruit’s ability before it was consumed, and thus seem to have been in possession of this book as well. Oda confirmed that the book contains information on all types of Devil Fruit, their names, and effects, but that only a few fruits could be identified by their shape.

Research

Dr. Vegapunk, the “Genius of World Government” and chief scientist of the Navy Headquarters, has long been researching the Devil Fruit and Seastone. Specifically, how they transfer their power to the one who eats them. As such, he managed to develop a process to transfer the power of a Devil Fruit to objects as well. How exactly he accomplished what he created with Lassoo and Funkfreed, however, is unknown. He also studied Admiral Kizaru’s devil powers and managed to archive them, recreate them, and then incorporate them into the Pacifista as “laser cannons”.

But Chopper also found a way to enhance his devil powers. He has developed so-called Rumble Balls, which allow him additional mutation levels. Since he is the only one to eat such a Rumble Ball so far, it is unknown how their effect would affect other Devil Fruit possessors. In addition to Chopper, Black Maria from the Beasts Pirates has also had her Devil Fruit mutation altered. Since her spider hybrid form was too unsightly for her, she used drugs to manipulate her shape, which now makes her visually appear to be a Smile user, even though she isn’t. Whether this manipulation has any effect on her abilities and strength, however, is unknown.

Furthermore, Dr. Vegapunk managed to extract the blueprint of life, called stem genes. Thus, he successfully managed to replicate Kaidou’s devil fruit with the help of its stem genes. However, he himself called it a failure, which is why it was not handed over to the world government. Caesar Clown is also researching the synthetic production of Devil Fruit. On Punk Hazard, he produced what was known as “SAD”, a mixture of animal strain genes, until his capture by the Straw Hats. This mixture was sucked up by the trees in the Smile factory on Dress Rosa, which then produced the Smile fruit. Donquixote Doflamingo sold these mainly to Kaidou, one of the Four Emperors. Thus, he distributed them to his subordinates and created a pirate gang consisting of 500 Smile users. However, since stem genes can only be extracted from existing organisms, there are also only normal Zoan Smile Fruits and no synthetic Cryptid Zoans or Paramecia as well as Logia Fruits. This is Caesar’s limit as a scientist. In the SBS to Volume 99, Oda hinted that Vegapunk, on the other hand, might have managed to overcome this limit.

The Smile fruits also have other differences to normal devil fruits, so they do not have the usual pattern of devil fruits, but several round squiggles. Furthermore, according to Shinobu, there is only a ten percent chance of obtaining abilities by eating a Smile Fruit, and they don’t seem to be able to access the full potential of real Devil Fruit users. For example, unlike the normal Zoan Devil Fruit user, these cannot completely transform into the beast, only certain body parts. Others, on the other hand, don’t seem to be able to control the transformation at all, so their appearance has changed since they ate it, for example by forming body parts of an animal on random parts of their body. Another drawback, however, is the chance of success in obtaining an ability by eating a Smile fruit. Only ten percent will be “blessed” with receiving an ability, the remaining 90 percent will not receive any abilities by eating it, and they will instead be deprived of their emotion expressions for anger and sadness.

Animal Devil Fruit (Zoan).

The zoan fruits (動物（ゾオン）系, Doubutsu (Zoon) Kei ~ Animal child) confer the ability to mutate one’s body to take on the physical characteristics of another species. Three different forms of transformation are usually possible here, namely animal, animal-human, and human. The physical performance is increased to a great extent in this process. The more one trains, the more one’s physical strength is increased. For this reason, zoan powers are the strongest type in close combat. So far, zoan fruits are the only type that has been proven to be transferred to objects by Dr. Vegapunk on the one hand, and artificially recreated by Caesar Clown in the form of the Smile fruits on the other.

There are several subcategories of zoan fruits. Devilpower users of carnivorous animals are enormously brutal, prone to rampaging, and are particularly strong. In addition, there exist so-called “Awakened Zoans” (覚醒した「動物系」, Kakusei Shita Zōn-kei), such as the Guardian Beasts from Impel Down, which are characterized by particular physical strength and rapid regeneration. The question here is whether a zoan user awakens due to an event or if it happens due to long training. Apart from the threatening toughness and regenerative power of “awakened Zoans”, nothing else is known so far.

In addition to the fruits that allow the user to transform into animals still living in the real world today, there are also the “pre-time” (古代種, Kodaishu) and “cryptid” (幻獣種, Genjuushu) zoan fruits.
A “prehistoric zoan fruit” allows the user to transform into an already extinct animal. In addition, as is common with zoans, it also comes in an animal-human form. These fruits are considered extremely rare. An example of such a fruit is that of X. Drake, who transformed into a giant predatory dinosaur.
A cryptid zoan fruit allows the user to transform into a cryptid, that is, a mythical creature or other animal whose existence has not been scientifically proven. In addition, as is common with zoans, there is also an animal-human form. These fruits are considered extremely rare. According to Kizaru, they are even rarer than logia fruits. An example of such a fruit is that of Marco, who can transform into a Japanese phoenix, the Hi No Tori (火の鳥, “Fire Bird”) or Fushichou (不死鳥, “Immortal Bird”).

Superhuman Devil Fruit (Paramecia)

The Paramecia Fruits (超人（パラミシア）系, Choujin (Paramishia) Kei ~ Superhuman child) represent the largest portion of all known Devil Fruits, as they combine multiple abilities under the collective term “superhuman Devil Fruits”.
Paramecia fruits grant a variety of possible abilities that affect and alter one’s body or environment. Some can also create and alter certain matter. The variety makes them difficult to gauge in combat, and some can be easily confused with the other categories. For example, some paramecia appear like logia fruits, but with certain differences. For example, Magellan, the possessor of the Poison Fruit powers, can produce poison at will and surround himself with it, but cannot transform into it as a Logia would.

Power of nature (Logia)

Logia fruits (自然（ロギア）系, Shizen (Rogia) Kei ~ Nature-type) are considered the strongest of all devil fruits.
They grant the ability to completely transform one’s body into an element and control it at will. This usually allows the user of a Logia power to escape all physical attacks by having his body transform into its corresponding element at the point hit. He can only be hit if his opponent knows his individual weakness or if the latter enhances his attacks with the armor haki. The dark fruit is a special form among all logia powers. Its owner can suppress other devil powers and thus easily injure other Logia users, but is himself unable to transform and escape attacks.