Haki/Armament Haki

Armament Haki allows the user to use their spirit life force to create an essence of an invisible armor around themselves. Similar to Tekkai, this Haki allows the user to defend against attacks that would otherwise cause them harm. Significant physical force can still overcome this defense; for example, Luffy struck Boa Marigold hard enough with Second Gear techniques that it sent her reeling.

Background

It was used by Garp for the first time against Luffy to bypass his Devil Fruit power and hurt him in Water 7. Later, Sentomaru used a Haki-imbued attack against Luffy, which made the Straw Hats think he was a Devil Fruit user due to their lack of knowledge about the ability. Afterwards, Rayleigh used Haki to stop Kizaru and even touched his Logia body. The first time the Kujas named this ability "Haki", they were shown wielding Haki-imbued arrows. During the Marineford War, Haki was also used many times by marines and pirates alike. It was shown that Haki is very common in the New World, unlike in Paradise where Haki users are fairly rare and almost nobody knows about it. It is later explained by Rayleigh once he begins training Luffy.

Usage

Naturally this "invisible armor" can also be used as a weapon to strike others with. It can be used to augment the user's own physical attacks, projected ahead of the user as pure brute force, or imbued into weapons to increase their effectiveness. Any attack and/or weapon enhanced by Armament Haki hits immensely harder than it would normally without it. The Kuja's Haki-imbued arrows, for example, are capable of penetrating solid stone. Swordsmen tend to use Armament Haki to imbue their blades to prevent them from chipping.

This type of Haki also has the ability to bypass the powers of a Devil Fruit user whose body has been altered by their fruit in any way, touching the "substantial body" beneath whatever protection the fruit provides, such as the case of body-altering Devil Fruits such as Logia or Paramecia users. However, unlike Seastone, it does not actually nullify a user's Devil Fruit powers, so it still allows them to defend themselves, and continue fighting normally. By the same effect, this Haki can also be used as a higher level of offensive power, more so than just bypassing a foe's Devil Fruit powers.

A heavy concentration (or coating) of this Haki can be used to harden parts of one's body, turning the area black, thus making the user denser and more formidable, and giving their attacks greater power. As demonstrated with Vergo, it is possible for one to coat their entire body in Armament Haki. Although Luffy, the first in the mainstream storyline to demonstrate this effect, named the technique as Armament: Hardening, Donquixote Doflamingo and Roronoa Zoro are the only people to use this name for the technique. Also, an interesting phenomenon occurs when two people using hardened Armament Haki at approximately the same strength clashes: black lightning seems to spreads out from the point of impact.

Drawbacks

When two opponents using Armament Haki clash, the one with the stronger Armament Haki is more likely to be victorious. This can make it difficult to overcome an opponent's Haki in a brute force battle.

Armament Haki is subjected for depletion if used for long periods of time as Armament Haki is proportional to the amount of spirit life force an individual possesses. After the threshold is reached, the user will be unable to use it for a certain amount of time. It appears that the more Haki is used, the faster it will deplete.

Interactions with Devil Fruit Users

Devil Fruit Users are capable of using Haki themselves. This allows them to nullify lesser Haki-imbued attacks, yet it is still possible to pierce through their defense if the attack is stronger. For example, Akainu was able to take Haki-imbued attacks while maintaining his intangibility by extending his Haki through his body in order to nullify his opponents' bypass.

Armament Haki works independently of the user's Devil Fruit if they have one, as shown when Luffy uses it to enhance his Third Gear attack underwater. This type of Haki may not be equipped on attacks that are not from one's body except for weapons, or anything generated from one's own body (like Kizaru's laser beams. Marco's flames or any other energy/non-solid attacks based on Devil Fruits). So, those who attack with parts of their body can combine their Haki and Devil Fruit powers.

Using Armament Haki attacks on the element controlled by Logia type Devil Fruit Users will allow the attack to harm the "substantial body" of the opponent, since the element is essentially an extension of their body. However, this type of Haki will not harm the "substantial body" when used on elements controlled or produced by Paramecia type Devil Fruit users, since it is not actually part of their body. If the Paramecia type Devil Fruit affects the user's body itself (Luffy, for example is literally made of rubber) the user will also be harmed by a Armament Haki imbued attack.

Haki's capability to counter Devil Fruit Users extends past Logia types, and lets them defend against certain Paramecia effects. However, this is dependant on the strength of the Haki, as Law bypassed Vergo's Haki and bifurcated him easily by using his Devil Fruit technique, although it is unknown if Law used his own Haki to nullify Vergo's Haki but it is similar to how Akainu was able to nullify it.

While Haki can bypass the devil fruit's defence, it doesn't negate the devil fruit, like Sea-Prism Stone does. Instead it "forces the devil fruit user's body into solidarity".

Techniques

• Armament: Hardening:
  • Head Armament:
  • Second Gear Armament:

Trivia

• Armament Haki is similar to Tekkai. The difference between them is that Tekkai depends on the user's physical strength, but Armament Haki depends on the user's willpower and life force. Also, while Tekkai is more inclined to defense, with the user usually being immobile while tightening their bodies, Armament Haki does not have such a drawback.
• Armament Haki users can still utilize their Devil Fruit powers, despite Haki being able to negate Devil Fruit defenses. This is because Haki only allows the user to bypass defenses provided by other peoples' Devil Fruit powers. In fact, Devil Fruit users can use the two abilities together to make one or the other more effective.
• Armament Haki is the most used type of Haki in the series so far, as it is the most related attack and defense power in combat.