Usopp/Abilities and Powers

Abilities and Powers
According to Oda in a discussion with Tanaka Mayumi, Luffy's voice actress, 'no matter who joins, he always wants Usopp to be the weakest' since otherwise it might upset the balance of the story. Oda also states that this is because Usopp is the closest in strength to a regular human compared to the others and thus this portrayal can be easily related to by the average person's own strength (though it is implied that both his physical and mental strength have increased during the two years away from the crew). His attributes mainly lie in his ability to hit nearly everything he sets his eyes on with his slingshot.

Usopp's role in the crew is that of the marksman, and also a jack-of-all-trades craftsman. Since early in the series, he was shown to have inherited much of his father's exceptional marksman skills. In a challenge to shoot a weathervane shaped as a whale that was far off in the distance, he managed to shoot the center of a jewel on the whale's crown, which amazed a bounty hunter named Daddy the Father, an ex-Marine Sniper. His abilities mainly rely on his resourcefulness and understanding towards engineering (such as easily analyzing the tunnel networks made by Miss Merry Christmas), and using the cannons of the ship with great ease. His marksmanship is nearly unmatched, hitting Spandam and some marines from a distance of over a mile with the wind against him. Another one of Usopp's attributes is that he is a fast runner. In battle, Usopp uses hit-and-run tactics, and works best as part of a team where there are more physical fighters to watch his back. This is due to the fact that he is so high-strung and jumpy, and he often gives into his basic instincts of survival: fight or flight (usually choosing flight), although this seems to have changed after the timeskip where he's shown to be more confident in his abilities. Usopp was able to run faster than the Pacifista when carrying Zoro. Usopp also has impeccable eyesight, and has on more than one occasion seen or noticed things before his crewmates. Examples of this include being the first one to see Gecko Moria inside the stomach of gargantuan zombie Oars, and being the only one to see the harpy Monet watching the Straw Hats on Punk Hazard.

Prior to the introduction of Franky, Usopp served as the Straw Hat's sole unofficial gadgets and mechanics specialist. His creative engineering has resulted in the creation of both the Clima-Tact and Kabuto. He also appears to have some knowledge concerning chemistry, being solely responsible for manufacturing the highly innovative slingshot pellets, or "stars", that he uses for ammunition. For other more complex activities, such as acting as the shipwright for the Going Merry, he is largely inexperienced, as he was barely able to keep the Going Merry going using patchwork repairs. As Franky pointed out, his skills are amateur and he barely knows how to use a hammer correctly for such jobs. After Franky joined the crew, Usopp gladly let him take over the reins of maintaining the ship, even agreeing to Franky's request to assist him. In return Franky provided a workshop for Usopp to work on his gadgets and creations, something he's more at home with. Even Franky admitted that his skills in gadgets are considerable.

Usopp's endurance and will power is considerable as well. After a major battle, Usopp tends to have severe injuries often caused by his determination to reach his goal. He will attempt to continue even with his injuries. A prominent example of his incredible durability can be observed when Usopp was hit in the face by Mr. 4's 4-ton bat, and smashed repeatedly through walls by Miss Merry Christmas, and not only survived, but was able to continue fighting. This has been seen more recently with their fight against the legendary Golden Lion Shiki where he was the only Straw Hat that managed to remain conscious after the battle. Usopp's endurance after the timeskip was once again displayed when he was attacked by a drug enhanced giant child from Punk Hazard and almost immediately got back up ready to attack. He was then suffocated by Caesar Clown with his Gasu Gasu no Mi abilities before taking a direct Gastanet attack only to come out of it with a few bruises. This emphasises the fact that his training and new found body is not just for show.

Usopp is also a great artist, as he proved in the beginning of the series when he made his and the Straw Hat's Jolly Rogers in response to Luffy's poor art skills. A running gag involves Luffy and Chopper building simple snowmen or sand castles only for Usopp to show off his vastly superior skills with a professional work of his own. He also boasted, just like Luffy and Sanji, that he has never been ill during his life (which impressed Vivi). Usopp used to make spiders fight when he was young and knows how to handle them without being bitten by their fangs or being poisoned in the process.

Weapons
Usopp has outstanding marksmanship abilities with his weapon of choice, the slingshot which is the primary reason why he serves as the Straw Hat's Sniper and is often tasked with anything that needs precision at a distance, most notably the Thousand Sunny's Gaon Cannon. His slingshot is his primary form of combat, and he has many different types of ammunition which he carries in a large shoulder bag. He uses eggs to blind opponents and rocks when he runs out of ammunition.

Usopp has other attacks unrelated to projectiles, though they are mainly jokes. These include the 5 Ton Hammer and others. After the Skypiea arc, he has started using dials for attacks such as using the Breath Dial to house explosive gas, using the Flash Dial to blind his foes, and using the Impact Dial to absorb and reflect blows.

Usopp improves his sight and/or focus with special goggles. He purchased an upgraded pair in Loguetown, but the actual scene of him purchasing them was cut out in the 4Kids dub. The scene was also absent in the original manga due to a lack of room. Since the timeskip, he has discarded those goggles, and gained a new pair which he typically wears around his neck.

Kabuto
In the Enies Lobby arc, Usopp introduced a new weapon, the "Kabuto", a slingshot with five bands connected to a long staff. It has much greater power than his normal slingshot because it is powered by Skypiean Dials. Its range is enormous, and Usopp can use it to strike individual targets quite accurately from seemingly impossible distances.

The exact workings of the Kabuto are unknown, except that the five bands increase stability (and thus range), and the Dials in the instrument add spin to the ammunition similar to rifling to increase damage and accuracy, as well as allowing Usopp to choose a variety of different Dial effects to add to each shot. Usopp explained some of the workings of Kabuto to Perona during their fight, but was interrupted before he could finish.

After the timeskip, he uses a new slingshot called "Black Kabuto", which retains the five band design of the original "Kabuto", the only difference is it's colored black and has a smaller size (wheres the original was a staff, the new one is somewhat bigger than a regular slingshot).

Pop Greens
After the timeskip, Usopp is shown to be quite adept with using Pop Greens as shown when he defeated some of the Impostor Straw Hat Pirates by creating a carnivorous plant that resembled a monstrous venus flytrap with tendrils. During the Fishman Island arc, he also manages to save the crew and the Thousand Sunny from being crushed by boulders by using pop greens to grow sea weed like plants to trap the boulders, and again, when they encountered the New Fishman Pirates in the Ryugu Palace he used a giant flower with a terrible smell to deter them. In another battle with some of the New Fishman Pirate lackeys, Usopp is also seen using a particular type of pop green that makes bamboo shoots erupt from the ground, impaling or gouging his enemies. Later in a fight with Daruma he shoots a special exploding pop green into the tunnels made by Daruma's teeth and it explodes in the shape of a skull.