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Out of the three types of devil fruits inOne Piece—Logia, Paramecia, and Zoan—the logia is by far the most challenging to deal with in a battle. The reason is simply becauselogia users can alter their bodies to follow the nature of their devil fruit powers.That’s why Kizaru can turn into light, Smoker can turn into smoke, and Crocodile can turn his body into sand.
As you can see, it’s hard to beat someone when you can’t even touch them. Luffy can punch Kizaru as hard as he can, but that punch will only slip through his body and won’t cause any damage at all. That being said, it doesn’t mean that Logia users are invincible. As we’ve seen throughout the series thus far, they are certainly beatable. Here are some of the ways to defeat Logia Devil Fruit Users.
Throw Them to the Sea
The Enemy of Nature
No matter what type of devil fruit somebody has eaten, no matter how strong it makes them, every devil fruit user has the same weakness: the sea. Devil fruit users are considered creatures that defy the law of nature and disrupt the balance of the world. Therefore, the mother of natural elements, i.e. the sea, rejects them completely. This meansthe moment a devil fruit user comes in contact with the sea,they will lose their devil fruit power. Not only that, their energy will be drained out completely, rendering them unable to move a muscle.
That’s why one of the best tactics for fighting a logia user, or even devil fruit users in general, is to find ways to throw them into the sea. If that’s not feasible, throwing a bucket of seawater at their body should render them useless for at least a couple of seconds. When done correctly, this simple tactic should be enough to incapacitate a fairly strong devil fruit user.
“All of those powers represent the many branches of the future of humanity. But that unnatural status is loathed by the sea, the mother of nature.”
—Vegapunk, Chapter 1069
Using Seastone
As big as the ocean might be, a battle can, and will, happen in a place with no access to seawater. So does that mean you can’t use seawater to deal withthose pesky devil fruit users?Not really. There is still a way to harness the effect of the sea even if you are physically far away from the sea itself. The one thing that allows you to do so is the season.
What is a Seastone?
Seastone is an ultra-rare natural material that naturally occurs deep in the ocean—though only in a single place. It is one of the hardest materials on the planet. It is even said that a pure seastone can be as hard as a diamond. But the most important aspect of a seastone is the fact that it is basicallythe embodiment of the sea itself.This means to devil fruit users, touching a seastone is akin to touching the sea itself. As a result, a seastone can easily weaken every devil fruit user.
Seastone as Tools and Weapons
Since seastone is so effective against devil fruit users, there are quite a few people in the series who use weapons made out of seastone. The most notable among them is Smoker and his infamous Jitte. He has used this weapon to catch so many devil fruit users. Since Smoker himself is actually a logia user, he is undoubtedly affected by the seastone as well. That’s why he uses a special glove to touch the Jitte.
Other than weapons, the World Government has been shown to use seastone as a tool, specifically as a handcuff. Once a devil fruit user is restrained with a seastone handcuff, they are basically no different from a regular human. This special handcuff allows the World Government to keep some of the most powerful and dangerous criminals inthe Impel Down prison.
Matching the Nature of the Logia
While the first two methods mentioned above are rather straightforward, these last two methods are not so much. They require a high-level skill and a bit of luck to pull off. The first one uses the law of nature itself againstthose pesky logia users,while the second one is highly difficult to learn.
Following the Law of Nature
As mentioned in the previous section, a logia user can alter their body to follow the nature of the devil fruits that they’ve consumed. A light man becomes light, and anice man becomes ice.Needless to say, when they turn into their respective elements, they also inherit the properties of that element itself. Fire will produce heat, and ice will lower the temperature of its surroundings.
This is what makes logia users so powerful, but this is also the very thing that can be used against them. You see, every element has its counter: water extinguishes fire, and wind blows smoke away. So in a battle against a logia user, try to find the natural counter to their element. Luffy had used this tactic to his advantage a couple of times throughout the series.
Crocodile and Enel
The two biggest examples of this tactic in action arewhen Luffy goes against Crocodile and Enel.Since Crocodile is made out of sand, he is extremely weak against water. After all, when you pour water into a pile of sand, it will immediately absorb the water and clump up. So when Luffy pours water onto his hands, he can easily punch Crocodile.
As for Enel, he is basically electricity in human form. Electricity can shock every living and nonliving thing, which makes Enel superior to almost everyone on the planet. Unfortunately for him, he fights somebody who is the embodiment of rubber, the one material that can’t conduct electricity. It’s more luck than a tactic, but as you can see, the principle still stands.
Haki-imbued Attacks
Attacking the Devil Fruit Users’ “True” Body
As we’ve discussed earlier, what makes fighting a logia user so challenging is because you can’t touch them. Apart from special and ultra-rare materials like the aforementioned seastone, there’s basically nothing in this world that can be used to touch them. However, there is a skill that can be learned that allows one to touch a logia user’s true body. The name of that skill is Haki.To be more specific, Armament Haki.
Most people think that Armament Haki can only harden and strengthen your limbs or your weapons. That is not true at all. Armament Haki also allows its user to touch a devil fruit user’s true body. This means it doesn’t matter what sort of elements the logia users turn into, an Armament Haki user can always attack its true body. As if that’s not amazing enough, this principle also works when you coat your weapons with Armament Haki. This is the reason why the “Dark King” Silvers Rayleigh can easily counter Kizaru’s light kick with his sandal and parry Kizaru’s light sword with a regular sword.
“So that’s the Dark King. I’ve never seen anyone able to stop Kizaru!”
–Sentomaru, Chapter 512
The fact that powerful abilities, like the Logia-type Devil Fruits, can be overcome using various methods is a testament to the fairness ofOne Piece’spower system.No matter how powerful a character might be, they can always be beaten with the right tools, the right techniques, and the right tactics.
One Pieceis available to stream onCrunchyroll.
One Piece
One Piece is a Japanese manga written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. The series follows protagonist Monkey D. Luffy and his Straw Hat Pirate crew as they explore the Grand Line to find the King of the Pirates' ultimate treasure, the One Piece, in order to become the next king. The manga’s popularity helped it spin off into a larger media franchise, including an anime with more than 1,000 episodes.
