One Piece Anime Haki Types: Explained (2022)

Spoiler Warning: This article contains spoilers about Haki and its types. We suggest you watch the One Piece anime or read the manga first to avoid ruining your experience.

What is Haki in One Piece?

Haki is a special power that lies dormant within all living creatures of the One Piece universe. However, not everyone acknowledges their innate abilities and realizes their full potential. Haki is extremely tough to master, and only the strongest humans, who have tremendous willpower, succeed in awakening haki and using it.
Haki provides the user with a myriad of capabilities and talents to utilize in battle, such as hardening their body, sensing the presence of others, and so on. We suggest you check out this article to understand the exact meaning behind haki before we move on and learn about its types and subforms here.

One Piece: Types of Haki

There are three primary types of haki we have been introduced to in the world of One Piece. They are Kenbunshoku Haki (Observation Haki), Busoshoku Haki (Armament Haki), and Haoshoku Haki (Conqueror’s Haki). Further, each type has its own subforms as well as advanced forms, which we have detailed below. So without wasting more time, let’s look at the three different types of haki:

Observation Haki (Kenbunshoku Haki)

Observation Haki or “Color of Observation Haki” is the kind of Haki that offers the user a variety of ways to sense and comprehend what’s going on around them. The user develops an extra set of sensations beyond their regular five (namely sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing). In the Skypiea arc, observation haki was called “Mantra” by the Skypiean people. The basic forms/ techniques of observation haki are:
Observation Haki users can feel and see the presence of others around them or even people who are far away easily. For example, Fujitora, who is completely blind, was able to sense the presence of people around him back in the Dressrosa arc.
There are Observation haki users who can also see the spirits of those who are out of sight. For example, Usopp was able to see the spirits of Luffy, Sugar, and Law when they were concealed behind a wall far away.
Another basic form of observation haki enables the user to predict and sense the intent of another person. Now, this doesn’t mean they can foresee the future, which is an advanced form of this technique (explained below). This ability helps the user in battles as they can pay close attention to how the adversary moves in order to foresee their assaults and evade them. For example, Luffy was able to dodge the attacks of pacifists after his haki training with Rayleigh.
Additionally, the user can also sense the power and strength of the people around them without even fighting or anything. The user can detect the powerful aura of a person and estimate their strength and even the haki they possess. For example, during the battle between Luffy and Blackbeard in Impel Down, Blackbeard was able to determine Luffy’s haki was stronger than before. Emotion Sensing enables the user to perceive other people’s emotions and understand how they are feeling within their hearts. This allows the user to perceive others’ presence and experience their emotions over a massive area. For example, Queen Otohime could sense and understand the people’s feelings in the Fishman island arc. Also, a well-known user of this technique is our protagonist Luffy. He can easily understand the personality of the people he wants to. He did it with Yamato recently when they met for the first time.
Further, building on these basics, we have some advanced observation haki techniques as well. We have discussed them right here:
For a brief period of time, the person can predict/ foresee the future using this advanced observation haki. It’s useful during battles as the user can predict the attacks and counter them. For example, in episode 865, Luffy unlocks the ability to use advanced observation haki to foresee the future like Katakuri does against him in their battle.
Only a handful of individuals possess the ability to hear the voices of sea kings, Zunesha, and even objects like Poneglyphs. For example, in anime episode 567, Luffy was able to hear the voices of the sea kings on Fishman island, just like Roger was able to. Currently, we only know that Luffy, Roger, Oden, and Momonosuke are the ones who can use this unique technique.

Armament Haki (Busoshoku Haki)

This type of haki allows the user to create an armor-like defense with their bodies. This technique comes in handy when there is a need to skip past the devil-fruit defenses, especially Logia Intangibility. This was seen in the battle between Rayleigh and Kizaru. Armament haki has basic forms like observation haki, and it can be used in many ways for both offense and defense purposes. The basic techniques are: Hardening is the first and most common form of armament haki. The user can harden certain parts of their body or even completely coat their body with armament haki. The hardened parts highly boost the physical attacks and also act as a tank-like defense, which reduces incoming damage.

The user can coat certain body parts with this haki. For example, Luffy hardens his hands and different parts of his body when he uses different gears (an explanation for all 5 gears coming soon).

Another way to use this technique is to coat the body completely with armament haki. However, it should be noted that the more the body is coated, the faster the haki gets depleted. For example, Pica uses full-body armament haki in his battle against Zoro.

Another great technique that comes with armament haki is that it can be imbued into any weapon such as swords, arrows, and more to increase the potency of their attack. Like physical attacks getting boosted by hardening, imbuement allows the user to use their weapons to create devastating and powerful attacks. For example, Zoro imbues all of his three swords with armament haki in his fight against Pica.
This form of armament haki is also referred to as Tribal Haki or Swirl Haki by the fans. This also allows the user to combine their devil fruit properties with armament haki. The user also gets swirl-like patterns on their body. The conditions for using this form of haki are currently unknown.
We hope to see an explanation for how to awaken and use the devil fruit armament haki in the near future. For example, Luffy applies his rubber properties coated with armament haki when using his fourth gear and has this tribal swirl pattern on his body too.
Furthermore, there are a few advanced forms of armament haki that you should know about. We have discussed them right below: This advanced emission technique for Armament haki is called Ryuo by Hyogoro in Wano. This gives the user the ability to detach the haki from his body and utilize it to unleash an attack similar to a shockwave. The ability to attack enemies without touching them makes this move incredibly effective.
Luffy first learns about Ryuo from Rayleigh in their haki training and later learns in depth about this technique from Hyogoro of the flower when he was in the Udon prison. For example, when Rayleigh was teaching Luffy about haki on the Rusukaina Island, he used the emission technique to defeat an elephant.
This is a more advanced type of armament haki that allows the user to emit haki (Ryuo) towards an opponent’s body, let it flow through their body, and destroy them from the inside without touching them. For example, In episode 956, Luffy destroys the tree from its inside by applying this technique.

Conqueror’s Haki (Haoshoku Haki)

Conqueror’s haki or “The color of the supreme king” is an extremely rare haki, as only one in a million is born with this superhuman power. This enables the user to project their energy or willpower to overwhelm the willpower of others around them, effectively freezing their opponents. Those with less willpower are more likely to lose consciousness and faint.

This type of haki can also be used to tame or frighten wild animals. For example, in the very first manga chapter (or anime Episode 4), we saw Shanks use conqueror’s haki to scare off the sea king and save Luffy from drowning.

When two conquerors’ haki users collide, tremendous shockwaves will be released that push over the people surrounding them and can even destroy items around them. This power also causes the skies to split away. For example, it can be seen in use when Shanks and Whitebeards clash back in the Water Seven arc.

Like the other two haki types, Conqueror’s haki also has a few advanced forms, and we have described them in detail here: Similar to armament haki, users can imbue conqueror’s haki into physical attacks and weaponry for a more powerful attack. This technique can be combined with armament haki as well. But, only a few people are capable of using this technique like Luffy, Kaido, Roger, Whitebeard, and a few others. For example, In episode 966, Roger and Whitebeard clash against each other by infusing their haki into their weapons.
This advanced form of conqueror’s haki allows the user to stop their opponents from using observation haki by unsettling them with their overpowered haki first. So far, only Shanks has been able to use this technique. He’s currently called the “Killer of Observation Haki”.
This technique provides a huge upper hand in battles as the user can negate the future sight ability of opponents and crush them with their attacks. We will get to see more of this ability in the future, as it has been confirmed only recently in One Piece Volume: Four Billion.
The conqueror’s coating can be combined with armament coating, armament flow (Ryou), and even Internal Destruction to make insanely strong attacks. For example, in One Piece episode 1028, Luffy learns about the infusion technique from Kaidou and then combines it with his Ryou and internal destruction technique to land a mighty attack against him.
What type of Haki does Luffy have? Monkey D. Luffy has mastered all three types of haki, including Kenbunshoku Haki (Observation Haki), Busoshoku Haki (Armament Haki), and Haoshoku Haki (Conqueror’s Haki). He can even use several subforms of the hakis, which makes him one of the most powerful haki users in the One Piece world.
What is Ryou Haki? Ryou is an advanced form of Armament haki in One Piece, and it allows the user to detach the haki from his body and utilize it to unleash an attack similar to a shockwave. Ryou also has an advanced form (Internal Destruction), which further allows the user to have their haki flow through their opponent’s body and destroy them from the inside.
What is the rarest Haki? Conqueror’s Haki is the rarest among the three haki types and only one in a million in the One Piece world is born with this superhuman power. This haki enables the user to project their energy to overwhelm the willpower of others around them. Who had the first Haki? The very first haki user has not been mentioned yet. However, if we were to travel back in time, then the first time we saw haki being used by someone was in anime Episode 4 and manga Chapter 1. The ability didn’t have a name back then, but Shanks utilized Conqueror’s haki against the sea king to save Luffy.
Does Haki have a limit? Haki does come with a limit. The overuse of haki results in depletion, and the user has to wait before it regenerates.

Explaining All Types of Haki in One Piece

That concludes our explanation of the many types of haki. The notion of haki has grown over time as new powers have been introduced in the One Piece series. All the haki kinds and subtypes that have been shown in the manga and anime to date are covered here. We hope we were able to accurately describe haki through suitable examples. Additionally, we will make sure to update this guide to include new haki types that are introduced in the future. So, stay tuned for more One Piece updates, and in the meantime, tell us your thoughts on the haki subtypes in the comments below.