Roronoa Zoro/Abilities and Powers

Overview
Zoro has devoted his life to becoming the world's strongest swordsman. Even before joining the crew, he was well-renowned for his outstanding abilities and accomplishments in battle. His skills drastically improved after becoming the combatant of the Straw Hat Pirates and entering a two-year training period under the "Strongest Swordsman in the World", Dracule Mihawk.

By the time he met Luffy, Zoro had established himself as a fearsome bounty hunter in the East Blue, so much so that Koby had heard he was a "demon in the form of a man". His accomplishments in hunting pirates were significant enough to earn him the epithet of "Pirate Hunter", which he remains known for even after becoming a pirate. After his crushing loss to Dracule Mihawk, he vowed never to lose again. Since joining the crew, Zoro has defeated several mighty adversaries (most of whom are fellow swordsmen).

Alongside Luffy and Sanji, Zoro is considered one of the Monster Trio (怪物三人組) of the Straw Hats due to his strength. In some instances, he has even been mistaken as the leader of the Straw Hats due to his more extensive reputation; onlookers have also wondered how he could not be the captain after seeing demonstrations of his power. During the crew's journey, Zoro has come to possess some of the most legendary swords in history and has used them to both improve his skills and develop the most devastating attacks.

Zoro was the second Straw Hat to receive a bounty, and for much of the crew's existence, his bounty has been the second highest. Zoro was identified as a Super Rookie after obtaining a bounty of over 100,000,000 before reaching the Sabaody Archipelago; he was only one of two non-pirate captains (alongside Killer) of the Worst Generation to have that distinction.

Weaker people are easily intimidated by Zoro, as Koby remarked that he had a "demonic aura" at Shells Town even as he was tied up and starved of food for over a week. This ability has held even in the New World, as when Monet came to suddenly realize the degree of power and killing intent Zoro had, she froze in place as Zoro charged her. After Zoro intentionally performed a harmless attack, she then became seized by fear to such a degree that she was unable to reform her Logia body to its normal state. When Zoro gets serious in a battle, he usually dons his black bandanna on his head.

Ever since entering the New World, he has rarely been wounded or given a serious challenge, defeating Monet with his sheer strength alone without Haki, frightening her to the point of being unable to control her elemental form. His first genuine challenge was a short confrontation with one of the Admirals, Fujitora, who described his slash attack as ferocious despite being held down by gravitational force. As the first showcase of his greatly improved strength and skills, Zoro defeated Pica, one of the Warlord Donquixote Doflamingo's top three elite officers, in a couple of moves after slicing apart his colossal stone body and figuring out the nature of his Devil Fruit abilities.

Zoro suffered his first serious wound in Wano against Kamazo the Manslayer, albeit because he avoided a surprise assault from Gyukimaru, while still managing to defeat the assassin using a single attack (without Shusui at the time). During the Raid on Onigashima, he faced off against the Emperor Kaidou, famed as the world's strongest Creature, in both his Beast and Human-Beast Forms; wounding him despite the tremendous toughness of his body, then giving him his second scar since Kozuki Oden, earning his acknowledgment. In his battle against King, Kaidou's right-hand man and the Beasts Pirates' head All-Star, Zoro was able to apply advanced Haoshoku Haki and Busoshoku Haki to his three swords, defeating the Lunarian in top condition, despite grievous wounds. Due to these events, his bounty was raised to 1,111,000,000; the second highest among the Straw Hat Pirates, ranking just below his captain, Monkey D. Luffy, who was recognized as an Emperor.

Tactical Skills
Zoro typically does not plan out actions and strategies ahead of time. Still, Zoro has fought smartly on multiple occasions; he is shrewd and observant, which greatly aid him in his battles against fearsome enemies, learn all the strengths and weaknesses of an enemy in a short time, and use it to his advantage and can formulate plans that give his friends and allies a fighting chance.

He is also a capable leader, being able to take the lead when Luffy is otherwise preoccupied, can adapt to just about any situation. During his fight with the bounty hunters of Whisky Peak, Zoro utilized his environment to his advantage by shielding himself with a table and cutting a hole in the floor right at the spot where several hunters attempted to strike from above.

Zoro's on-the-spot tactical abilities were also shown to a significant degree when he fought Pica on Dressrosa. When Pica inhabited a giant stone golem and moved several kilometers in minutes to attack Zoro's allies, the swordsman quickly came up with five potential strategies to stop him, and as he was on the move, he easily deduced the strengths and weaknesses of each approach until settling on one that worked.

During the raid on Onigashima, it was perhaps shown most in his battle against King, as he struggled to break through his exceptional durability, paying attention to the flames on his back and noting that his Devil Fruit powers did not appear to be the cause of it, while ruling out him being a fish-man or having giant blood. After numerous clashes, Zoro managed to figure out and exploit the main weakness of the lunarian - his reliance on his back flames to increase durability or speed, which became a crucial factor in defeating him.

Luck
However, given that Zoro still has a rash attitude in almost all situations, he has also heavily relied on and frequently benefited from luck and fortune. This was seen to its most extreme degree at Ipponmatsu's shop in Loguetown, where Zoro decided to test Sandai Kitetsu's "curse" on himself by throwing the blade up in a vertical spinning motion and holding his arm in the path of its descent. Miraculously, Sandai Kitetsu spun perfectly around his arm, missing it entirely; Ipponmatsu was left speechless at Zoro's incredible fortune.

Lack of Orientation
One of Zoro's most prominent weaknesses is his utter inability to follow directions, resulting in him frequently getting lost. He only became a bounty hunter after leaving Shimotsuki Village because he lost his way while out at sea looking for Mihawk. He has no knowledge of how to identify cardinal directions and frequently misinterprets them as either right or left; when traveling alone, he tends to frequently change direction without realizing and follow arbitrary indicators of direction like animals. In Arabasta, he even confused the cardinal directions with vertical ones, causing him to scale up Alubarna's clock tower when told to head north.

Generally, the only way to get Zoro to reach a destination is for another person to lead him there; if he is left unattended even briefly, he is extremely likely to wander off regardless of how obvious his path is. In Enies Lobby, Zoro could not even understand directions when going to the courthouse roof; even when Nami guided him and the others up a set of stairs, Zoro ended up going up a different set instead. He was eventually able to make it to the roof by simply moving upwards and cutting through the floors above him, rather than traversing the building's hallways. While traveling to Oden Castle in Wano, Zoro only had to sit and ride on the steed Komachiyo to get there, but still somehow ended up wandering off on his own.

Strength


Zoro possesses immense physical strength and frequently spends his time at sea lifting incredibly large and heavy weights to keep growing stronger. Zoro's strength plays a large role in his abilities as a swordsman, as his strikes possess a great amount of power and range in their cutting ability. Thanks to his strength, Zoro is capable of clashing equally with superhumanly large and powerful opponents and can send normal-sized opponents flying away with ease. Although he initially had trouble cutting Mr. 1's skin due to the latter's Devil Fruit, Zoro's strikes had enough power to knock the powerful martial artist to the ground. Zoro could clash with the likes of Kaku, a superhuman assassin whose strength and weight were both dramatically increased by his Zoan powers, and even managed to overpower him after flexing his biceps and performing his Nigori-Zake attack.



Zoro's strength is such that he has picked up, carried, and thrown people and objects that rival him in size multiple times with relative ease, with such instances including carrying a large stone cage on his shoulder with Luffy inside it, throwing the fish-man Hatchan over his shoulder while heavily wounded, and lifting Usopp off the ground with one hand and wielding him like a sword. In Whisky Peak, Zoro easily overpowered Miss Monday, a fighter with considerably above-average physical power, in a match of strength, and when he was tied up by Mr. 9's iron rope, he was able to use the rope to pull Mr. 9 into the path of his other opponents and their attacks. During the Davy Back Fight, Zoro picked up the very large Pickles by his ankles and spun him around before launching him a great distance forward, and later he was able to flip Big Pan backwards in midair by grabbing the wotan's upper jaw. One of his most notable displays of raw strength was in Arabasta, when he picked up an entire collapsed building and held it over his head while injured before throwing it toward Mr. 1.

When Zoro attempts to use non-lethal force against opponents he will attack with the hilts of his swords instead, though his strength makes these blows extremely powerful regardless. In Orange Town, he used two of his sheathed swords to simultaneously hit the Acrobatic Fuwas and keep them away from Nami. In Arabasta, he positioned two of his sword hilts under Chopper and Vivi while they were in midair and used them to successfully propel the duo up all the way to the clocktower many meters above him. Zoro also used his sword blades in an unusual manner on Thriller Bark, when he used them to lift the Heavy Nunchaku in order to use them against Oars. Zoro rarely engages in hand-to-hand combat, but his strength makes him quite capable at it, as shown when he easily knocked one of Wapol's guards to the ground with a punch. simultaneously launched Luffy, Mr. 5, and Miss Valentine into a faraway building with a single kick, and redirected Pickles' sword swing and body with his No Sword Style. During the Davy Back Fight before going against the Groggy Monsters, Zoro has shown skilled enough to fight against Sanji, relying on kicks and blocks.

Zoro also clashed evenly with Hatchan, who as a fish-man is ten times stronger than a normal human, even while being severely injured, and also equally dueled with Neptune and Pica, two gigantic and mighty warriors whose weapons even dwarf him in size. At Whisky Peak, Zoro was able to equally match the blows of his captain Luffy, who himself is extremely strong, with their clashes causing considerable collateral damage. When he first clashed with Marine Admiral Fujitora on Dressrosa, he resisted Fujitora's overwhelming gravitational force just enough to unleash a flying slash toward the admiral to disrupt the force from underground.

Even more notably, Zoro demonstrated enough power to redirect a punch from Oars capable of causing massive structural damage, and two years later could use his swords to withstand the teeth of Dragon Number Thirteen, a giant dragon with extreme physical might. Perhaps his most notable feat of strength yet, Zoro used his swords to block a combined, Hakai attack from Kaidou and Big Mom, two Emperors who are among the strongest people in the world, long enough to allow his allies to dodge Hakai's otherwise inescapable attack radius. Despite sustaining heavy injuries from that attack, Zoro mustered enough strength to momentarily clash with and cut deeply into Kaidou's nigh-indestructible body, to the point of leaving a scar, becoming the second swordsman after Kozuki Oden to do so, earning the Emperor's respect. Having recovered, because of Miyagi's healing medicine, Zoro could momentarily knock down King immediately after recovering; then proceeded to fight him, transformed or not, for an extended period. However, he could not bypass the lunarian's inhuman resilience until he figured out King's biology. He later blocked Kaku's Amane Dachi using one sword, having woken up from a nap, then fought against him in his Awakened Form, even knocking him downward without much effort. He could even clash evenly with S-Hawk, a Seraphim with King's Lunarian abilities, Daz Bonez's Devil Fruit powers as well as being modelled after a young Dracule Mihawk, presumably having the latter's powerful swordsmanship and physical abilities, without backing down or flinching while clashing.

No Sword Style


When he lacked his swords during the Groggy Ring event in the Davy Back Fight, Zoro used an ability known as No Sword Style in which he was able to use his body's physical power to emit shockwaves resembling his sword slashes. By throwing his arms forward, he created a whirlwind force sending Pickles spinning into his teammate Big Pan. Since Pickles was wielding swords, the attack caused him to cut Big Pan numerous times.

Speed and Agility
Zoro has demonstrated tremendous speed and agility to pursue opponents and avoid their attacks. Similar to his crewmate Brook, he can cut opponents in the blink of an eye and even unsheathe and re-sheathe the sword before opponents can react. In his duel with the zombie master swordsman Ryuma, the two of them were able to parry the other's attacks before the onlookers even registered that they had performed attacks, only noticing once the strikes took effect on their surroundings. At Whisky Peak, he overwhelmed a hundred bounty hunters at once with his speed and was capable of dodging the many bullets they fired at him.

Zoro has excellent jumping and climbing power, notably leaping a great distance from one roof to another using a falling ladder as a steppingstone in Whisky Peak. While fighting Braham on Upper Yard, Zoro ran up the trunk of a large tree before propelling himself into the air with his legs to attack his opponent. On Thriller Bark, Zoro escaped from a collapsing tower and quickly adapted to dueling Ryuma on the steep side of said tower. In the Enies Lobby Courthouse, he got up to the roof by cutting through the ceilings and jumping from level to level, while on Dressrosa he was able to keep up with and eventually catch up to the dwarf Wicca despite having to run across and jump between multiple roofs; later, after being sent plummeting into a deep hole by Fujitora's gravity, Zoro easily jumped out of it once the gravity stopped.

Zoro possesses extraordinarily quick reflexes, as shown in Whisky Peak when he dodged a large variety of attacks used against him by the Baroque Works agents, including gunfire, melee weapons, blinding gas, and even a bazooka, despite numerous attempts by the agents to surround and trap him. In his fight with Braham, Zoro dodged much of the warrior's shots despite Braham using Flash Dials to obstruct his vision with flashing light, and when he encountered Saint Charlos on Sabaody, Zoro easily dodged the World Noble's attempt to quickly draw his gun and shoot him. Zoro showed the ability to keep up with Mr. 1, a martial arts master whose Devil Fruit allowed him to turn any part of his body into a blade, parrying and dodging the majority of his highly varied techniques. Even without Kenbunshoku Haki, Zoro was able to quickly recognize what the CP9 agents' Rankyaku attacks would do right as they were performing them and shout at Nami and Chopper to get down to avoid them. Later, Zoro was able to counter Kaku's attempted strike without issue despite the agent using Soru to move at blinding speed. After the timeskip, with the aid of his Haki, Zoro was quick enough to intercept Batman's sudden arrow shot with his sword mere centimeters away from the face of Batman's target Tsurujo.

After the timeskip, Zoro has demonstrated tremendous speed swimming underwater, being able to traverse through the depths of the ocean in a small bubble and easily perform a powerful attack against the giant kraken, Surume. Notably, he was able to easily move past Hody Jones and strike him down while underwater, despite Hody being exponentially more powerful underwater as a fish-man. On Punk Hazard, Zoro was able to fight off multiple sharks despite being submerged in the freezing cold center of the lake.

Durability and Endurance
Zoro possesses immense levels of durability and endurance, having survived numerous serious injuries and oftentimes continuing to fight and move around while afflicted with them. One of his greatest assets as a warrior is his inexplicable pain tolerance. This was first shown in Orange Town when he kept fighting after being stabbed in the torso by Buggy, even lifting and carrying a large and heavy cage with Luffy in it. After briefly resting, he fought and defeated Buggy's top henchman Cabaji; despite Cabaji deliberately trying to target his wound, Zoro one-upped him by cutting his wound open more and remaining steadfast despite the blood loss. During his battle against Mr. 1, Zoro received a rapid series of cuts so powerful that they tore apart the pillar behind him and caused it to collapse. Although Zoro lost a tremendous amount of blood from these strikes, he was not only able to quickly get back up and defeat Mr. 1, but also maintained enough mental clarity to predict where the debris from the destroyed pillar would not fall. Following this battle, Zoro was able to continue fighting against the Baroque Works forces without receiving medical attention.

Although Mihawk deliberately left him alive during their duel, Zoro still sustained wounds so severe that they put him on the brink of death, with Johnny noting that such wounds should normally disable a typical man for half a year, if not kill him, and the doctor Nako stating that it would normally take someone two years to fully recover from them. In spite of this, Zoro began walking around very quickly afterwards with only rudimentary treatment, and fought and easily defeated several members of the Arlong Pirates, When fighting the powerful six-sword wielding Hatchan, Zoro was in constant pain and on the brink of fainting, but despite even taking a headbutt to his wounded area, he was able to muster enough strength to counter Hatchan's six-sword barrage and defeat the fish-man. After receiving proper treatment in Cocoyasi Village, Zoro was not shown to be affected by Mihawk's wounds.

He took hits from that giant and he's still standing?!! I don't know who's more undead - you or the zombie!!



Zoro's most extreme display of endurance came on Thriller Bark, which began when he was able to get up after being struck by the attacks of Oars, an ancient giant zombie with the power to destroy entire buildings; this caused Lola to compare him to a zombie. Following the fights against Oars and Gecko Moria, Zoro suffered multiple powerful blows from the Warlord Bartholomew Kuma, including a Pacifista laser blast and a massive shockwave, the latter of which knocked out everyone except him, Sanji, and Brook.

Zoro remained conscious following this and continued attacking Kuma, but then proceeded to make a deal with the Warlord to receive the pain and suffering Luffy had endured in exchange for Kuma letting the rest of his crew live. At that point, Luffy had taxed his body while fighting Oars and Moria to the point that he had fallen unconscious, and both Kuma and Zoro believed that Zoro receiving Luffy's fatigue in addition to his own would undoubtedly kill him. Upon receiving Luffy's suffering, Zoro bled profusely to the point where his entire body and many of the rocks around him became covered in his blood. However, Zoro not only survived this, but managed to remain conscious until his crewmates came to, where he claimed to them that nothing had happened. Zoro managed to recover after being in a comatose state for three days and receiving medical treatment from Chopper, although it took him a while longer before returning to full strength, as shown during the fight against the Flying Fish Riders and later against the Pacifista on Sabaody.

In Dressrosa, despite taking a direct punch from Pica's gigantic stone statue, a blow that cracked the second step of a massive plateau and destroyed several buildings, Zoro was able to quickly retaliate and appeared virtually unharmed by the attack. Another more recent display of his endurance came during his fight on the rooftop of the Skull Dome in Onigashima, as he not only withstood the brunt of a combined attack from Kaidou and Big Mom, an attack that encompassed the majority of Onigashima, but did so long enough to allow his fellow Worst Generation members fighting to escape from the attack, despite sustaining serious injuries as a result. Even after being heavily injured by the attack, Zoro managed to continue fighting long enough to help separate Big Mom from her special Homie, Prometheus, continue battling Kaidou, and finally muster the last of his strength to save his captain from Kaidou and even injure him to the point where Kaidou himself said that his attack would leave a scar.

Zoro has fallen from rooftops and various other high places multiple times, but has never been seriously affected by such falls, even in Arlong Park where he was flung into the air by Luffy and landed on a hard platform while severely injured. In Skypiea, Zoro fell many meters from the Upper Ruins onto the hard streets of Shandora and had large pieces of rubble fall onto him, but quickly lifted the rubble off him and emerged with little injury. He remarked that he almost died, and Robin replied that a normal person would have. Due to the lack of serious effect of these falls, they are often portrayed comedically.

In his introduction in Shells Town, Zoro had gone nine days without eating in an attempt to do this for an entire month to win back his freedom. However, he retained enough strength that once he freed himself, he was able to withstand an assault from a horde of Marines and battle them alongside Luffy. On the Winter Island Drum Island, Zoro trained his body by swimming in the freezing cold water and meditating. Zoro has an extremely high tolerance for alcohol, being capable of out-drinking 13 bounty hunters in Whisky Peak before pretending to faint in order to intercept a potential attack. When confronting the bounty hunters soon afterward, Zoro showed no sign of being inhibited by alcohol, indicating his true tolerance is far greater. After being struck by KYP gas and sent falling off a cliff by the Yeti Cool Brothers, Zoro was able to remain conscious just long enough to spot the icicle trap that his group was falling toward and destroy it with a sword slash. Despite the animals in Wano Country having powerful toxins in their body due to drinking contaminated water, Zoro ate them as he pleased for several days and only suffered from an upset stomach.

Swordsmanship
Zoro is an extremely skilled and talented swordsman; training at the Isshin Dojo in Shimotsuki Village from childhood, he was able to consistently defeat adult swordsmen in duels, while Kuina being the one person he could not beat. After reaching adulthood, he became a great master swordsman infamous for wielding three swords in battle. Since Zoro's goal is to become the World's Strongest Swordsman, he doveted himself to swordsmanship, becoming known across the East Blue. When confronting Dracule Mihawk, the World's Strongest Swordsman, two-years prior, he was utterly outclassed by Hawk-Eye wielding Kogatana before deciding to pull out Yoru. However, Mihawk was impressed by Zoro's conviction and let him live, believing he could reach the top and challenge him. Several months later, Zoro would train under Mihawk for two years and further increased his abilities exponentially. Also, despite the loss of sight in his left eye during the timeskip, it has not yet been shown to be a liability for Zoro in any of his battles.

Zoro has managed to fight off and defeat large groups of skilled opponents on his own, with his most notable accomplishment in this field being when he singlehandedly defeated a group of 100 bounty hunters from Baroque Works, a powerful criminal organization. Weeks later on Kuraigana Island, he managed to fight and eventually defeat a large horde of Humandrills, giant monkeys with advanced combat skills, adaptive learning, and inhuman durability, despite sustaining severe wounds prior to arriving there. Even Dracule Mihawk himself was stunned to learn that the Humandrills had been defeated. Despite adept at dealing with attacks from multiple opponents simultaneously, Zoro could not always keep it up, most so if said opponents are skilled in their own right. This was shown in Wano, when Gyukimaru's sudden attack distracted Zoro enough to allow Kamazo to strike him, though he still defeated him.



Although, Zoro is famous for wielding three swords, becoming known as the "Three Sword Style", he is proficient enough to wield either two swords and even one, the former being his original style. In the event that he either opts to not use Three Sword Style or does not have a third sword, Zoro would instead use Two Sword Style in fighting against an opponent, most often more than one or a strong opponent. However, surprising enough, several of Zoro's finishing moves involves using one sword despite once claiming that "not that good at one-sword techniques" against Sham. Having gotten used to One Sword Style, he could defeat multiple powerful opponents, one notable example being the time he decapitated the very large and tough, Dragon Number Thirteen proceeding the timeskip, with a single strike aimed at its neck.

His swordsmanship incorporates tremendous strength to overpower opponents and cause significant damage to opponents, however, this is aided by the swords' quality, as weaker ones would break. Zoro has enough strength to release flying slashes to cut and damage things beyond his usual range. During his duels, particularly when wielding all three of his swords, Zoro has frequently defeated his opponents by charging towards them and cutting them with a single attack, rather than managing to find openings to strike them in the midst of a duel; he's also used his strength to gain the upper-hand in deadlock clashes and strike down his opponent. In Thriller Bark, Zoro was noted as matching that of the legendary swordsman, Ryuma, whose corpse he matched in terms of destructive power. After the timeskip, he cut through a large galleon by himself, then later managed pushed through Fujitora's gravitaional pressure, releasing a flying slash despite being stuck in a hole, cutting through the ground to hit the Admiral. Zoro's strength and slashes cut cleave through entire buildings and other large structures, the most notable being Pica's giant stone golems, all of which towered Dressrosa.

Although, strength plays a large role in his swordsmanship, Zoro is capable of performing extremely precise cuts; as shown at Whisky Peak, he split Mr. 5's explosive boogers in midair, causing the two halves to fly right passed himself and Vivi, exploding without touching either of them. On their way to Enies Lobby, he perfleclty cut a Sea Train car lengthwise with a single cut. Zoro's precision allows him to use his swords to block projectiles, even a rapid series of them like Cabaji's spinning tops and Kaku's Rankyaku slashes. Zoro has cut even when in small confines, including cutting himself free from his rope bindings in Shells Town and cutting apart the chimney he was stuck in in Water 7. Zoro additionally shown enough skill to unleash cuts on opponents and objects while in midair, including defeating Ryuma and Pica while moving high above the ground at great speed. Notably, in Wano he was able to stop a flying arrow by intercepting it with the flat side of his sword blade, and later he used a sword to deflect bullets shot by Kurozumi Orochi.



Numerous times, Zoro has incorporated animal-like spirits, which often manifests around him whenever readying an attack, including when using No Sword Style. This aura, however, has no indiciations of being related to Haki, before or after the timeskip, being the possible manifestation of Zoro's killing intent or spirit. Even Kaku, a CP9 agent with superhuman prowess, who acquired a Zoan, described this as an ominous beast-like spirit. during his duel with the zombified Ryuma, Zoro's finishing move manifested the aura of a dragon, and after the cut landed, the wound caught on fire. How, this happened is uncertain, however, this could have been due to him using friction, same as Sanji's Diable Jambe.

Zoro gained the ability to cut through steel, having been heavily wounded by Mr. 1 in Arabasta, where he began hearing the "breath" of things: hearing the breath of rocks, trees, the earth, and steel. Acquring this affinity for it, letting him control his swords' cutting power, not cutting through tree leaves, while cutting through stone. Using this allowed Zoro to cut through Mr. 1's steel body and defeated him using a single strike. Against the Franky Family, he could cut through, at least seven iron cannonballs, beofre cutting the entire canon, bisecting the car of a Sea Train, and leave slight nicks on the Pacifista's special metal exoskeleton. After the timeskip, Zoro cut through a Pacifista with one attack, cleaved through two of Hyouzou's swords, slicing through a giant iron shutter immune to bazookas leading into Caesar Clown's lab, alongside Kin'emon, and then cut through Goki's enormous metal club with ease.



After the timeskip, Zoro has demonstrated the ability to use other kinds of blades to compensate for losing one of his swords and execute his attacks. In Wano, as a Ronin, he sliced through part of an entire building from several meters aways from him with a hitless, tanto intended meant to commit seppuku. Later, after losing Shusui, he incorporated a large scythe into his Three Sword Style and then used it to defeat Kamazo. After receiving the powerful Meito, Enma, Zoro unwittingly cut off an entire chunk of a coastal cliff, while attempting to cut through a tree.

During the Raid on Onigashima, Zoro has demonstrated the ability to replicate and incorporate the sword styles of other swordsman through observation alone, almost perfectly replicate Foxfire Style without prior instruction in it.

Three Sword Style


Three Sword Style is Zoro's main style of sword fighting. Unusual for a human, he wields three swords simultaneously, holding one in each hand and one in his mouth. Many of Zoro's Three Sword Style attacks use all three of the blades to strike opponents, cutting them numerous times or cutting multiple opponents at the same time. When performing flying slashes with Three Sword Style, Zoro can create whirlwind-like attacks that have shown the ability to catch and strike dozens of opponents at once. He is also able to effectively use all three of his swords to parry attacks and can even counter attacks performed by multiple opponents at once. Zoro has shown little issue dueling against opponents wielding more swords than him, particularly the six sword-wielding Hatchan and the eight sword-wielding Hyouzou, viewing the latter as not even worth his time.

King of Hell Three Sword Style
During the Wano Country Arc, Zoro developed the King of Hell Three Sword Style (閻王三刀流), a vastly enhanced version of Three Sword Style, where he goes all out using Busoshoku Haki and Haoshoku Haki; significantly increasing his techniques' power and range more than either of his prior styles, which could wound and defeat one of the last surviving Lunarians, King, whereas before he shrugged off his strongest techniques thus far. However, because using the King of Hell Three Style Sword is based on Zoro allowing Enma to drain his Haki reserves, he is not able to maintain this for that long before running out of Haki and would need time to recover it.

Two Sword Style


Two Sword Style is Zoro's original fighting style in his childhood before he started practicing Three Sword Style. Like Three Sword Style, Zoro has immense mastery of this style of sword fighting, dual-wielding two of his swords in battle with great power and skill, even incorporating unsheathing and re-sheathing techniques as well as flying slashes. On Thriller Bark, before he acquired Shusui as a replacement for the destroyed Yubashiri, Zoro could dual wield both Wado Ichimonji and Sandai Kitetsu with incredible power and precision, able to fight equivalently with Ryuma, an extremely powerful samurai zombie imbued with Brook's swordsmanship skills through the Kage Kage no Mi for a majority of their battle before switching to use One Sword Style to finish off the undead warrior. Using Two Sword Style, he was able to fight Monet, a Logia user and an officer of the Donquixote Pirates who he finished off using One Sword Style as well as Gyukimaru, an extremely powerful warrior monk, without using his full strength. He was also able to defeat several members of the Orochi Oniwabanshu, the strongest ninja of Wano Country, with ease despite only having two swords at the time. With two swords, he could block and repel a charging beak attack from King after the All-Star assumed his massive Beast Form.

One Sword Style


One Sword Style is a sword fighting style that Zoro began to perfect and then master. Like the previous styles, Zoro has exceptional skill in One Sword Style and has repeatedly used this style to perform finishing moves against a vast range of enemies. Similar to Two Sword Style, flying slashes and various unsheathing and re-sheathing techniques are used in this style, mainly to defeat or injure powerful opponents with a single strike. This style could hold off the Nyaban brothers of the Black Cat Pirates and take down several of the lower-ranked members of Arlong's crew. While journeying through the Grand Line, Zoro's prowess with One Sword Style has improved tremendously; he struck down Mr. 1, the strongest officer agent of Baroque Works, sliced through half of an enormous beanstalk, finished off Ryuma, a powerful samurai and zombie, incapacitated a fish-man such as Hody Jones underwater, decapitated a massive dragon, and even cut off one of the Skull Dome's right horn; in the anime, it scratched Kaidou's cheek. Using it, Zoro dispersed Kaku's Amane Dachi using a single attack from one sword, whereas before he needed the Nine Sword Style, a notable feat as the former CP9 agent soon joined CP0, consisting of Cipher Pol's Strongest Agents and an instant after waking up.

Nine Sword Style


Nine Sword Style is the most extreme application of Zoro's spirit projection abilities. With sufficient anger, a dark aura surrounds him and somehow managed to create a solid illusion of himself with multiple heads and arms that can actually slice though even the strongest of opponents, giving him the essence of nine swords. Despite its seemingly purely spiritual nature, Zoro's attack power increases threefold, letting him disperse Kaku's Amane Dachi, his strongest Rankyaku and cut him several times in an instant. This form is used very rarely in canon, having been shown first against Kaku on Enies Lobby and later against PX-4 at the Sabaody Archipelago.

It was used for the first time after the timeskip against Kaidou alongside Busoshoku Haki, which was powerful enough to inflict a permanent scar on him. According to the Emperor, Zoro also used Haoshoku Haki when performing the attack, though Zoro had no idea.

Foxfire Style


Originally, Zoro first developed an interest in the Foxfire Style, the unique sword style of Kin'emon, the Nine Red Scabbards' Leader, when he first saw Kin'emon use it against Smiley at Punk Hazard. Later during the battle against Kaidou and Big Mom at Onigashima, it was revealed that Zoro "stole", this technique. As such, he can cut through flames, as shown when he bisected the Sun Homie, Prometheus, hurting him. Despite being his first time using it, Zoro has proven himself quite adaptable in using it, slicing through Kaidou's Bolo Breath, then incorporating it into his sword styles without much difference between them. Zoro then sliced through King's strongest technique, Omori Karyudon, and then the lunarian himself, thus defeating him.

Haki
Zoro is one of the very few people in the world who is capable of using all three types of Haki.

Haoshoku Haki


Zoro possesses the ability to use Haoshoku Haki, a very rare form of Haki whose users are stated to have the qualities of a "king". This power has laid dormant within Zoro and he was unaware he possesses it. He was first noted to have it by Kaidou after the Emperor was struck by Zoro's Ashura Bakkei: Moja no Tawamure.

During Zoro's battle against King, in deciding to go all out using Haki, he ended up using it to knock out multiple low-ranked Beasts Pirates, causing him to acknowledge he possessed it. At the same time, he ended up using its advanced application, "infusing" it into his three swords, with all three emitted streams of black lightning signifying its infusion. As their battle continued on, Zoro managed to gain conscious control over the advanced technique, infusing it into all three swords, or infusing it into Sandai Kitetsu to deal significant damage to King.

Busoshoku Haki


Zoro is an extremely skilled user of Busoshoku Haki. It became his main expertise, having learned it from Dracule Mihawk, mastering both hardening and imbuement during the two-year timeskip, turning them black. Despite this, hardening is often used during serious battles, as well as using this Busoshoku Haki to harm Logia users, as seen when he imbued it into a flying slash, wounding Monet. At Dressrosa, against Pica, Zoro hardened all three of his swords, cutting apart the mountain-sized stone giant, surprising the members of the Nine Red Scabbards, Kin'emon and Kanjuro. He later cut through the Elite Officer, who had hardened himself using Busoshoku Haki, similar to Vergo, proving that his Busoshoku Haki mastery was suprior to his. Two of his hardened swords could hold back the Torikago's strings, which could slice up buildings and meteorites.

In Wano, Zoro once again showed his mastery through Enma's test, a Meito notorious for draining the "Ryuo", their term for Busoshoku Haki from weaker swordsman, turning them into a husk. It, in fact, drained the Haki from him, emaciating his right arm, however, Zoro retook all the drained Haki seconds later. During the Raid on Onigashima, he managed to gain some control over Enma, emanating a flame-like aura, and to wound Kaidou's dragon form, same as Kozuki Oden, the Nine Red Scabbards, and Luffy. It was not until Zoro wielded his Busoshoku and Haoshoku Haki together, strengthening his Nine Sword Style, that he was able to permanently scar Kaidou in his Human-Beast Form. Against King, Zoro used Busoshoku Haki to defend himself from a point-blank fiery explosion that covered a section of the Skull Dome.

Kenbunshoku Haki
Zoro is a very skilled user of Kenbunshoku Haki, as shown when he was asked by Luffy if he could sense a "wild beast" in the Ryugu Palace, which he stated he could. Zoro also detected Batman attempting to kill Tsurujo with an arrow fired from a far distance in the air.

Weapons


Currently, Zoro is known to have owned seven swords, all of them katanas and has briefly borrowed multiple other swords and weapons when necessary. Due to his Three Sword Style, he usually owns three swords at a time.

Current Swords
These are the swords that Zoro currently owns.


 * 1) Wado Ichimonji: One of the 21 Great Grade Meito. Forged by the legendary Wano swordsmith Shimotsuki Kozaburo and previously owned by his granddaughter and Zoro's friend Kuina; given to Zoro 11 years ago by Kuina's father Koushirou after her untimely death. The only one of Zoro's swords that did not shatter when Zoro first clashed with Mihawk's Supreme Grade sword Yoru.
 * 2) Sandai Kitetsu: A Grade Meito; it is said to be "cursed" and will bring great misfortune upon its owner. Forged by the great Wano swordsmith Kozuki Sukiyaki and given to Zoro two years ago in Loguetown by the arms dealer Ipponmatsu.
 * 3) Enma: One of the 21 Great Grade Meito. Also forged by Shimotsuki Kozaburo and was originally wielded by the legendary samurai, Kozuki Oden. Oden's daughter, Kozuki Hiyori who inherited Enma bestowed it to Zoro under the promise that he returned Shusui to Ryuma's grave. Until the Raid on Onigashima in the Wano Country Arc, it was one of the two swords to cut Kaidou of the Four Emperors and give him his one scar. Enma has the special trait of drawing out large amounts of the wielder's Busoshoku Haki.

Former Swords
These swords were once owned by Zoro, but were either destroyed or removed from his possession.


 * 1) Two unnamed katanas that were given to him as a child from Shimotsuki Kozaburo. They were used alongside Wado Ichimonji for an unknown period of time until they were shattered during Zoro's first duel with Dracule Mihawk.
 * 2) Yubashiri: One of the 50 Skillful Grade Meito. Formerly an heirloom of Ipponmatsu's family, he gave it to Zoro after witnessing the swordsman's great fortune. While handcuffed to Usopp on Enies Lobby, Zoro had him hold Yubashiri while he held his crewmate like a sword hilt, calling this situational weapon "Hana Arashi". It was then destroyed by Shu, who rusted it to the point of crumbling on Enies Lobby, and was put to rest at the Rumbar Pirates' gravesite on Thriller Bark.
 * 3) Shusui: One of the 21 Great Grade Meito and a powerful Black Blade. Famously wielded by the legendary samurai Ryuma and a treasured heirloom in all of Wano Country, it was stolen along with Ryuma's body by Gecko Moria and used by Ryuma's corpse when it became animated into a zombie. Ryuma bestowed it to Zoro after being defeated by the swordsman on Thriller Bark two years ago, and Zoro utilized it as a replacement for Yubashiri. The sword was stolen by Gyukimaru in Wano Country two years later and returned to Ryuma's grave, where Zoro let it remain in exchange for Enma at Hiyori's behest.

Situational Weapons
These weapons were used by Zoro for extremely brief periods, usually to allow him to use Three Sword Style when he lacked one or two of his swords.
 * 1) Johnny's and Yosaku's Nakiri Swords, which were borrowed by Zoro during his fight against Hatchan in Arlong Park while he only possessed Wado Ichimonji. He returned the swords to them after the fight concluded.
 * 2) A pair of cutlasses from Wapol's vassals on Drum Island. He discarded the weapons after defeating all of the men.
 * 3) A Marine cutlass to replace Yubashiri in the remainder of the battle on Enies Lobby, which was also destroyed by Shu.
 * 4) A tanto meant for him to perform seppuku, which he instead used to cut down Toyama Tsujigiro.
 * 5) A scythe wielded by Kamazo, which Zoro seized after it pierced him and used in place of the missing Shusui to cut down Kamazo.