Who Are the Yonkō in One Piece? (& How Strong Are They?)

Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece series is known for introducing us to a variety of amazing characters. Most of them have been grouped in one way or the other, usually belonging to some organizations rather than smaller groups, or pirate crews. Some of these groups are more famous while others are less famous. Some are stronger, whereas others are weaker. In this article, we are going to talk about one of the most famous and most important groups from the series – the Four Emperors, also known as the Yonkō.

The Four Emperors, or the Yonkō, are the four most notorious and powerful pirate captains in the world, but are neither allies nor enemies of each other, preferring to remain autonomous in most circumstances. They reside on the second half of the Grand Line known as the New World, wielding impressive influence. The current Four Emperors are Shanks, Blackbeard, Monkey D. Luffy, and Buggy the Clown.

The rest of our article is going to be divided into two sections. The first one is going to tell you more about the Yonkō and their shared history, as well as the group’s former members. The second section is going to tell you just how strong each of the current Emperors is. If you’re not fully up to date with the events of One Piece, there might be some spoilers ahead.

Who are the Yonkō in One Piece?

As an entity, the Four Emperors form part of the Three Great Powers of the world, along with the Seven Warlords of the Sea and the Marines. Their power and influence are such that they literally live like emperors doing as they please. Individually, they are considered the most powerful pirates in the world, with insanely powerful and versatile Devil Fruit abilities, immense physical strength and endurance, and/or complete mastery of Haki.

Whitebeard was the first of the Four Emperors to show his power in battle and even in his old age he was considered “the strongest man in the world”. He possessed the powers of the Gura Gura fruit, considered the most powerful devil fruit of the paramecia type, and mastered all three types of Haki. Although, finally, he was killed during the Battle of Marineford after receiving around five hundred grievous wounds, and even after that, he died on his feet as a testament to his inhuman strength and tenacity.

Blackbeard who killed Whitebeard with the help of his crew, got the late Emperor’s powers somehow, thus becoming the first individual with two Devil Fruit abilities; over the course of the following year, with the help of his newfound powers, he usurped Whitebeard’s position as one of the Four Emperors. Kaidou and Big Mom have stood out for their bodies’ immunity to conventional weapons. Still, the two of them have also been defeated during the raid on Onagishima, after which they have been replaced by Monkey D. Luffy and Buggy the Clown.

How strong are the Yonkō?

In this section, we are going to give you a basic overview of the powers and abilities of each of the four Yonkō.

Shanks

Shanks’ true abilities remain unknown, as he has yet to be seen seriously engaged in battle. However, as a member of the Four Emperors of the New World, his raw physical power is believed to be immense, and he is known to be one of the four most powerful pirates in the world. Shanks did not fear Whitebeard, the strongest man in the world, and even had enough strength to oppose him, while some pirate captains trembled at the mere mention of the latter’s name.

According to Buggy, Shanks was a powerful fighter at a young age, and if he hadn’t been “naive”, Buggy would have taken him on his crew. As a member of the Four Emperors, Shanks is not only a key figure in piracy but also one of the most feared in the New World: his mere name exudes great power, as Buggy himself has proven; his assertion that he previously had a “brotherly bond” with Shanks was one of the many things that earned him the respect of ex-convicts at Impel Down.

Shanks is powerful enough to end the war in Marineford with just words; when he said there should be no more fighting, no one stood up to challenge him. When Shanks offered Blackbeard a fight, the latter declined and decided to leave, as it was too soon for him and his crew to fight Shanks.

Furthermore, when Shanks demanded that the dignity of Whitebeard and Portgas D. Ace not be violated following their deaths, Sengoku himself also decided to end the war and took responsibility for it, showing that despite his rank as a pirate, Shanks is highly respected by Sengoku. Another testament to his influence: he managed to land a special interview with the Council of Five Elders, despite his status; it nevertheless shows that he knows how to distinguish himself among his peers as someone who is reasoned and cooperative.

Blackbeard

Blackbeard is a powerful man even before he possessed his Devil Fruit abilities. Indeed, he managed to injure Shanks, one of the Four Emperors, leaving him with three scars on the face at the level of the left eye. He is also endowed with great physical resistance, as he held on after taking several point-blank attacks from a Logia-like Ace.

Blackbeard considers himself “The Most Powerful Man on Earth” after gaining the power of the Gura Gura no Mi. He ate the Yami Yami no Mi, a Logia-type Devil Fruit. This fruit allows becoming, mastering darkness, and absorbing anything the user wishes. It is a very powerful fruit that allows you to cancel the power of another Devil Fruit, a bit like Sea Granite.

He can lure any Devil Fruit possessor with a vortex, allowing him to hit them even if the enemy fruit is a Logia type. We therefore understand why Shanks, one of the Four Emperors, came to see Whitebeard to tell him that Ace should not go looking for Blackbeard. After the events of Impel Down, Blackbeard goes to Marine Ford and finishes off Whitebeard, already badly injured.

After killing Whitebeard, he hides himself and Whitebeard’s body under a sheet. He emerges with the power of tremor, making him the holder of two Devil Fruit powers, a fact that was described as impossible. How he went about stealing it is still unknown, nor do we know how Teach can handle these two powers. According to Marco, this is due to a particular and abnormal structure of his body.

Monkey D. Luffy

Being the hero of the manga, he has often demonstrated that he can break rocks with his fists and even break sword blades with his teeth. Luffy has proven that in addition to physical strength, he has sheer determination, willpower, and stamina on many occasions. One of them is having climbed the 5,000-meter-high Drum Rockies with an ailing Nami on her back and a passed-out Sanji in his mouth, coatless in freezing temperatures.

Not to mention the times he endured having a hundred shadows inserted into him on Thriller Bark when an ordinary man even trained could only endure three or five. He also survived Emporio Ivankov’s hormone healing treatment, which is already a feat in itself, but he came out of it in 20 hours instead of two days, which, according to Ivankov, reflects the greatness of his will and his determination.

After the timeskip, Luffy is shown to be immune to poison since his fight against Magellan. Luffy doesn’t seem to practice any martial arts like Zoro and Sanji do. He fights with all the parts of his body as he sees fit (For example: When he bit Rob Lucci, or even spat water on Crocodile).

His style is improvisational and quite unpredictable, making him able to surprise his enemies like he did against Crocodile by altering his use of the Gomu Gomu no Pistol. He will not hesitate, in a fight against Marines without values, of course, to use one of them as a human shield. Luffy has a thinking ability during a fight which is quite surprising considering he is supposed to be very dumb, at least his general demeanor shows that.

Buggy the Clown

Although not as powerful as other former Roger Pirates, Buggy is a very capable fighter, as he was strong enough to survive all the battles against Whitebeard’s crew and the extreme dangers of the Grand Line. His arrogance and greed are what encourage him to continue fighting and taking every opportunity to build a good reputation.

Buggy has very high toughness, as he survived the blast of a Muggy Bullet redirected at him, with hardly any resulting injuries (although his Devil Fruit might have helped him somewhat), while a Muggy Bullet seriously damaged the Minotaurus, one of the Demon Guards at Impel Down. He also possesses great physical strength, as he was able to lift and strangle one of his subordinates single-handedly, pick up a Blugori easily and throw it to the ground (although he got up again with minimal injury), and hold the weight of both Luffy and Jinbe while floating his upper body (although this can be attributed to his Devil Fruit ability).

Buggy accidentally consumed the Bara Bara no Mi, a paramecia-type Devil Fruit that allows him to separate his body parts and fight with them independent of each other, but it robbed him of his ability to swim; according to Shanks (when they were both cabin boys), Buggy was an excellent swimmer.

The abilities gained from this fruit also make Buggy immune to stabbing, slashing, and slashing attacks, the attack only separating him from his body. Additionally, most of his body is capable of flight through the air, with enough force to send a man flying through a wall with the major exception of his feet.

The main flaw of the Devil Fruit ability is focused on the feet. They can’t leave the ground like the rest of his body. Buggy also cannot, despite feeling them at all times, lose pieces of his body, he cannot join completely if a part of his body is outside a certain area, and by his own means, he must get closer to the part of the body. missing body.