Highlights

Nico Robin's importance to the story is centered around her role in the void century and being integral to the plot.
Despite her focus on uncovering the world's true history, Robin recognizes the importance of strengthening herself to protect her dreams.
Robin's recent fight against Black Maria showcased her true strength and resulted in a massive increase in her bounty, signifying her power and threat level.

Nico Robin is an extremely important character in the story, given that the entire story arc pertaining to the void century revolves around her character and that it is the overarching plot of One Piece in many ways. Robin herself joined Luffy on his journey to find the One Piece after the events of the Arabasta arc, and ever since then, she has been integral to the plot.

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While Robin is a character who is mostly concerned with finding out the true history of the world, she knows that to get her dream, she has to be strong enough to protect it. Of course, Robin knows that her friends are going to aid her when she can't protect herself, however, that is no excuse for her to not strengthen herself. Robin realizes this and that is why she is one of the strongest members of the crew at the moment.

Nico Robin's Current Level Of Strength

Close up of Nico Robin during One Piece Episode 1000

Nico Robin has always been very powerful, and in the Wano arc, she gave fans a proper demonstration of what she can do in battle. Robin is a character that was largely neglected in major fights in One Piece and that certainly left a sour taste in the mouths of the fans. The last fight that Robin got before Wano was against Hammond in Fishman Island and that was barely a test of what she could do in battle. It was not a proper fight for Robin by any means. Ever since Skypiea, Robin got her first proper fight in One Piece in the Wanted arc, where she fought against Black Maria of the Tobi Roppo.

Fans know Tobiroppo to be the six strongest headliners of the Beast Pirates and individuals with massive bounties on their heads. In the case of Black Maria, this bounty was 480 million berries, which is nothing short of extraordinary. Robin was up against Black Maria after she rescued Sanji and she certainly did a great job at taking her down in combat. Robin explored her Devil Fruit to the utmost limit in order to bring her down. She managed to use abilities such as Gigante Fleur, which allowed her to manifest giant versions of herself, and she combined these powers with fishman karate as well, something that she learned during the timeskip.

However, none of this was enough for Robin to actually best a pirate as strong as Black Maria. To defeat her, Robin had to tap into the true potential of a Devil Fruit and manifest Demonio Fleur. Robin embraced her demonic side and manifested a giant demonic version of herself to crush Black Maria, and with the power that she attained, she did that within the blink of an eye.

Nico Robin's Bounty

Shortly after Robin triumphed over Black Maria and Luffy crushed Kaido, the war on Onigashima came to an end, and from there onwards, new bounties were issued for the Straw Hat Pirates. Luffy was made an Emperor of the Sea and given a 3 billion berry bounty, which some would argue was far too less for what he achieved in Wano. In the case of Nico Robin, she was also given a massive rise. Robin's bounty was increased from 130 million berries to 930 million berries, which is a massive rise of 800 million berries.

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When it comes to bounties, fans know that they are a reflection of the level of threat that an individual poses to the World Government. This level of threat can be through their strength, or it can be through their knowledge. In the case of Robin, it is a combination of both. Robin has quite a lot of power up her sleeve but she also holds the ability to decipher the Poneglyphs and figure out the true history of the world. These two factors combined to give her a massive bounty. While one might think that bounty is not important in figuring out how strong Robin can or should be in One Piece, they would be wrong.

Canonically, all individuals in One Piece with bounties close to or higher than 1 billion berries are powerful, with Buggy being an outlier due to a gag surrounding his character. Every other individual in One Piece who has had a bounty of a billion is at least as strong as a Yonko's top official. The same logic needs to be applied to Robin as well.

While Robin might not be as strong as the strongest Yonko Commanders, she has to rise to that level now, given that her county is 930 million berries.

Robin's Potential In The Final Saga

The Straw Hat Pirates will continue sailing towards the One Piece in the final saga and they will get stronger as they encounter more enemies. This would mean that Luffy will have to fight against stronger opponents and surpass them and the same logic applies to every other member of the crew as well. This is especially true for those who do the heavy lifting when it comes to fighting. Robin certainly is one of them and fans expect great things from her in combat in the final saga. Robin will have her opportunities to shine, and when they arrive, she will have to get stronger. There are two ways for Robin to grow significantly in terms of strength. These are through Devil Fruit Awakening, and of course, through awakening Haki. Given how things are at the moment, Robin is much closer to awakening her Devil Fruit. She has mastered every single aspect of it and taken it beyond regular capabilities as well. Robin might awaken her Devil Fruit at any point in the story now.

At the same time, one also needs to keep in mind that Robin needs Haki. For any pirate worth 930 million berries to not have at least two basic types of Haki is inexplicable. Robin elite pirates of the One Piece world now and she has to awaken Haki if she is to maintain that status. Robin will have to awaken Haki in the final saga of One Piece and this will allow her to grow significantly in terms of power. Her potential as a fighter in One Piece is not going to be equal to Luffy, for instance.

However, it certainly needs to be as high as the likes of the Yonko Commanders. At the very least, Robin has to be as strong as the pirates having 1 to 1.3 billion berries bounties. The fact that Robin has come so far without even awakening her Devil Fruit and utilizing Haki even once means that she still has a lot of potential as a fighter. Added to that is the fact that she's a user of fishman karate and an application of the Ryusoken, and when one combines all those, it gives rise to an impeccable fighter with the potential to be as strong as the Yonko Commanders.

One Piece is available to read via Viz Media. The series can be read by the fans officially and for free on the Shonen Jump and the Manga Plus app. Since One Piece is going to be on break, the release date for the next chapter of One Piece, One Piece 1104, is set to be January 21, 2024.