In the world of One Piece, people who manage to harness the power of the devil fruits stand above the rest of the common folks. After all, these people can easily perform incredible feats such as instantly freezing the ocean or causing an earthquake. It’s only natural that almost every person that stands at the pinnacle of the world, be it good or evil, are those who have the power of devil fruits, such as the Three Admirals or the Four Emperors of the Sea.
That being said, it doesn’t mean these people are immortal Gods that cannot be beaten. On the contrary, there are quite a few ways that can be done in order to negate their powers. Weaknesses that allowed regular people who never eat a devil fruit before to beat, and even slay, these monsters. And some of these weaknesses are actually a lot simpler than you might think.
The Ocean
It is said that those who eat a devil fruit and gain a tremendous amount of power from it are considered by the ocean, the mother of the world, to be no longer human, and thus unworthy of her love and kindness. That is why every single devil fruit user is rejected by the sea. No matter how powerful they might be, once they touch the sea, they will lose their power temporarily. Not only that, their energy will be rapidly drained out of their body as well, which often leads to loss of consciousness.
That being said, there are several caveats to this weakness, such as the duration and how much of their body is actually in contact with the sea. Touching the sea with their hands for a couple of seconds doesn’t seem to cause any adverse effect for a devil fruit user, which is why Luffy can punch Kraken when they are submerged on the ocean floor. Nevertheless, if the body is fully submerged, then the effect will happen instantly. Since the majority of the planet is covered by the ocean, this proves to be quite a fatal weakness indeed.
Sea Stone
Sea Stone is a special type of mineral that is said to embody the ocean itself. It is way harder and durable than average stones or even irons. What makes it dangerous for every devil fruit user, however, is the aforementioned nature of being the embodiment of the ocean itself. This means Sea stone is practically the ocean in a solid and condensed form. Therefore, it can also cause the same adverse effect to every devil fruit user, just like the actual ocean.
This is the reason why Sea stone is the preferred weapon for people who want to go against devil fruit users. These kinds of people will make their weapon out of sea stone, and use it to nullify the power of a devil fruit’s user, such as Smoker’s Jitte or Hawkins’ Cursed Nails. The World Government also makes handcuffs out of Sea stones. This is one of the tools that allowed them to capture extremely strong devil fruit’s users, such as Crocodile and Doflamingo. That being said, Sea stone is an extremely rare and precious mineral, so there’s not many people who can afford to use it as weapons.
Haki
Haki is a power that comes from within oneself, which is why every living being should have the potential to use it. Haki comes in three different colors. The Armament Haki allows its users to enhance their body to be harder than steel. The Observation Haki allows its users to enhance their senses to the point of predicting the movement of their opponents. And finally, the Conquerors Haki allowed its users to forcefully exert their will power to those around them to the point of overwhelming their consciousness.
The kind of Haki that is particularly useful against a devil fruit user is the Armament Haki. Because this Haki allows its users to grasp the real body of a devil fruit user, even if they are a logia type who usually can turn themselves into their base elements, such as ice, fire, light, etc. This means somebody who is particularly adept at using Armament Haki can pretty much ignore the devil fruit’s power of their opponent, and beat them within an inch of their life. Not to mention some Armament Haki users can also infuse their Haki into their weapons, which makes it possible to directly hurt the real body of a devil fruit user with any kind of weapons.
How To Overcome These Weaknesses
There’s only one thing that devil fruit users can use to overcome their universal weaknesses, particularly Sea Stones and Haki. And that is to acquire an even stronger Haki. It’s true that Haki can nullify the power of a devil fruit, but that is only true if the attacker has a stronger level of Haki than their target. When two people who have the same level of Haki fight, they only end up hurting each other, or at least come to a stalemate. On the other hand, when somebody with a weaker Haki tries to attack somebody with a stronger Haki, the weaker one won’t be able to cancel the stronger one’s devil fruit power, and will end up getting overpowered instead.
The same thing is true for a sea stone. A Haki user who is particularly adept at Observation Haki should be able to easily evade attacks that come from any kind of weapons, including sea stones. With Armament Haki, they can enhance themselves to reduce the effect of the sea stones that touch them. And for those who have mastered the rare Conqueror’s Haki, well, they can practically attack something without even touching it. That means if you put a handcuff on somebody who has a strong level of Haki, and happens to master all three kinds of Haki, then they will be able to easily slip out of the cuff, or even destroy it entirely.
As for the Ocean, well, there’s really no other solution for that particular weakness other than trying their best to not fall into the ocean. At the very least, every devil fruit user should travel with somebody who has never eaten a devil fruit before. That way, if they do fall into the ocean, there will be people who can jump and save them, which is basically the case of Luffy and his crew.