Since debuting in 1999, One Piece has quickly earned a reputation as one of the most popular fictional works in the world. Monkey D. Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates have spent over 1,000 episodes sailing across the Grand Line in their search for Gol D. Roger’s long-lost treasure, and along the way, they have encountered a variety of fighters with devastatingly powerful abilities.
However, as is often the case with powerful attacks, many of One Piece‘s strongest techniques suffer from serious drawbacks. Whether they incapacitate their user, damage their user’s allies, or inspire some sort of unintended side effect, these drawbacks make their respective techniques a dangerous double-edged sword.
10 Gears 3 & 4
Given Monkey D. Luffy’s status as the protagonist of One Piece, it should come as no surprise that he wields some of the most overpowered abilities in the series. His patented Gear 3 and Gear 4 techniques are strong enough to take down the likes of Donquixote Doflamingo and Charlotte Katakuri. Still, unfortunately, they come at a high cost to their user.
After employing Gear 3, Luffy shrinks to the size of a child. After using Gear 4, he’s unable to use Haki for several minutes. Although neither of these drawbacks is a death sentence, they are a massive liability while sailing the Grand Line.
9 The Venom-Venom Fruit
Impel Down holds the most heinous criminals in One Piece history, so the prison needs a warden capable of wrangling its murderous inhabitants. Magellan fills this role pre-time skip and uses the powers of the Venom-Venom Fruit to keep Impel Down in check.
The Venom-Venom Fruit is easily one of the strongest Paramecia Devil Fruit in One Piece, minus one major flaw. If its user ingests any poison, their body will be unable to process it, leaving them attached to a toilet or garbage can like Magellan is for much of his time on-screen.
8 Hasshoken
With each passing arc, One Piece‘s Straw Hat Pirates add more members to their ever-growing group of followers, the Straw Hat Grand Fleet. Among its ranks is the Chinjao family, a group of towering pirates that wield Hasshoken — an ability unique to their family.
By controlling the vibrations around their limbs, Hasshoken users can create powerful shockwaves that decimate unsuspecting opponents. However, any attack with significant force dissipates these shockwaves, rendering them completely useless against many of the pirates that decorate the New World.
7 The Berry-Berry Fruit
Like Buggy the Clown’s Chop-Chop Fruit, the Berry-Berry Fruit allows its user, Very Good, to split his body into pieces to maneuver the battlefield. These pieces cannot be damaged by blunt attacks, which makes it a solid option against opponents that rely on brute strength.
Although Berry-Berry Fruit’s defensive capabilities are very useful in the right circumstances, they leave their user completely vulnerable to any attacks from sharp objects. The Grand Line is brimming with dangerous swordsmen, so this Devil Fruit’s abilities could easily prove to be a hindrance against certain opponents.
6 Tooth Attack
For the most part, Monkey D. Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates breeze through the East Blue without much serious opposition. However, when they meet Arlong and his crew of fish-men on the Conomi Islands, this finally changes. Arlong uses his shark-like abilities to great effect, eventually damaging the Straw Hat captain by placing his teeth on the end of his hands and using them to grab his opponent’s body.
Unfortunately for Arlong, in order to use his patented “Tooth Attack,” he must first do something that would halt most creatures in their tracks — rip out his own teeth. Arlong doesn’t seem to mind this task, but it can’t be good for his body’s resources and his pain receptors.
5 Pirates Docking 6
Once Franky joins the Straw Hat Pirates, he regularly plays an instrumental role in uniting the team. During the Thriller Bark arc, this habit is on clear display when Franky attempts to initiate one of his most ambitious plans to date: his Pirates Docking 6 and Pirates Docking 3 combinations.
By attaching five of the Straw Hat Pirates to his body, Franky and his crewmates assemble into a giant mecha with massive offensive potential. However, all it takes for this combination to falter is the refusal of one participant — a shortcoming that has rendered it a dud each time it appears on-screen.
4 The Sand-Sand Fruit
Every Devil Fruit user becomes completely powerless when in contact with ocean water — it’s a core tenant of the One Piece franchise. This goes one step further for the former leader of Baroque Works, Crocodile, thanks to the Sand-Sand Fruit’s natural weakness to any sort of water.
As shown by Monkey D. Luffy during the Alabasta arc, a little bit of water makes a ton of Crocodile’s strongest defense completely useless. Luckily, Crocodile’s ability to dehydrate his surroundings counteracts his weakness to some degree.
3 Conqueror’s Haki
Of the three forms of Haki, Conqueror’s Haki is easily the rarest. This ability is only usable by those with extreme ambition and domineering spirit; While it’s a fantastic tool for taking out hordes of opponents, it also poses a significant threat to one’s weaker allies.
On multiple occasions, Monkey D. Luffy and his opponents unleash bursts of Conqueror’s Haki that knock out their own subordinates. As strong as this form of Haki is, it can prove to be a bit risky when used in the wrong situation.
2 Monster Point
As an incredibly-talented medical doctor, Tony Tony Chopper is able to develop multiple forms of a drug that manipulate the transformation he undergoes when using his Devil Fruit. There are several kinds of these Rumble Balls, including some which allow Chopper to enter Monster Point — a monstrous form that provides the doctor with extreme strength and destructive capabilities.
The Monster Point transformation proves to be helpful to the Straw Hat Pirates’ efforts on several occasions, but it poses some unique risks to its user. When Chopper first assumes the form, he is unable to control his actions and enters a berserker state. Even after Chopper overcomes this issue during the timeskip, assuming Monster Point still leaves him completely useless for at least a couple of hours.
1 The Slow-Slow Fruit
Although the Long Ring Long Island arc was lukewarmly received by One Piece fans, its primary antagonist is clearly one of the most unique in the entire series. Foxy the Silver Fox isn’t as gifted in combat as many of the Straw Hat Pirates’ opponents, but thanks to his Slow-Slow Fruit, he is more than capable of getting the jump on unsuspecting opponents.
However, unlike many Devil Fruit, the Slow-Slow Fruit is also capable of affecting its user. The slow-motion rays that Foxy emits are capable of being reflected back at him, creating a massive Achilles’ heel for any quick-thinking pirate to exploit.