How Shanks Became The Youngest Conqueror’s Coating User, Explained 

In the world of One Piece, Oda has established quite a few ways for one to gain power, and undoubtedly, one of the most efficient ways to gain power is through awakening Haki and improving it with training. Of course, Haki is present in everyone, at least the basic types. However, there is one type of Haki that is only present within a select few in the One Piece world, known as Conqueror’s Haki.

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It is said that one in a million people are born with Conqueror’s Haki in the One Piece world and that’s what makes this ability special as it is. Right from the get-go, fans knew that Shanks was a genius of Haki, and might as well be the strongest Conqueror’s Haki user in the entirety of One Piece. While Shanks has the strongest Haki right now, he’s actually also the youngest user of Conqueror’s Haki Infusion which fans know in the entire story, making him doubly special. Oda has yet to give the fans a glimpse of how this came to be, but he’s already revealed bits and pieces about this in his Q&A session.

The Power Of Conqueror’s Haki And Its Advanced Form

• The Power To Intimidate
• Only A Handful Of The Strongest Can Coat Themselves In It

The power of Conqueror’s Haki was seen quite early in One Piece. In fact, the very first usage of Conqueror’s Haki came right at the very beginning, when Shanks saved Luffy’s life. Back then, fans had no idea about what Conqueror’s Haki truly was. With time, however, this ability was explained, especially when Rayleigh came into play. During Luffy’s training with the Dark King, Silvers Rayleigh, the concept of Haki was properly introduced to the fans. When it comes to Conqueror’s Haki, Rayleigh explained that this type of Haki was incredibly powerful, possessed only by a select few in the One Piece world.

Those with Conqueror’s Haki are known to have the qualities of a King. Conqueror’s Haki itself is a power to intimidate. This Haki allows the user to impose their willpower on others and weaken them. If the difference in willpower and strength is great enough, the user can knock them out without even lifting a finger. If the willpower is strong, then a tussle of Conqueror’s Haki decides who the superior one is in terms of having the qualities of a King. Conqueror’s Haki can do more than just knock people out and intimidate them. It can also be used to tame beings, as seen with Luffy on countless occasions.

But, all these forms are basic when it comes to Supreme King Haki usage. There is an advanced application of Conqueror’s Haki and it allows the user to infuse their entire body with it, wearing it like armor. This increases both the offensive and the defensive powers of the user, making them worthy of competing with the strongest in the world. Of course, not everyone in the One Piece world knows how to utilize Conqueror’s Haki Infusion. Even among those who possess this power, there are those who don’t know how to use it. Luffy himself learned this power just recently during his fight against Kaido. After being struck with his Kanabo three times coated in Conqueror’s Haki, he figured out the logic behind it and coated his own body in it as well. It was quite easy for the fans to see that the level of his techniques went up immediately. Since then, Luffy has learned how to use Conqueror’s Haki very well, however, he still pales in comparison to the Red-haired Emperor, Shanks.

The Youngest User Of Conqueror’s Haki Infusion — Shanks

Mastered Conqueror’s Haki Infusion Before 15

Shanks is one of the best users of Haki in One Piece. In fact, it can be said that Shanks is one of the strongest users of Haki in the whole story, including the old eras. Even before he released his advanced Haki, Shanks was praised by the likes of Whitebeard for possessing monstrously powerful Haki, which says quite a lot, especially knowing that Whitebeard was the strongest at the time.

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But, it was only much later in the story that the true power of Shanks’s Haki was shown. In the Wano Country arc, Shanks was seen unleashing a bolt of Conqueror’s Haki so powerful that he paralyzed Admiral Ryokugyu in an instant and actually caused him physical pain. This was a clear indication of the fact that his Haki was monstrous. It was also said by Jinbe and the Straw Hats that his Haki was immensely powerful at the time, although he most likely was still holding back.

In Egghead, Shanks unleashed his first named technique, called Kamusari, at Kid and Killer. The technique was so powerful that it knocked both Kid and Killer out, whose cumulative bounty should be close to 4 billion berries, at the very least, and potentially even higher. With Kamusari, Shanks made use of advanced Conqueror’s Haki, or Conqueror’s Haki Infusion. Undoubtedly, this was a tremendous Haki feat, but Oda only made Shanks more impressive when he went on to reveal that Shanks’s Haki is actually on a whole new level and that he had mastered the usage of Supreme King Haki before even hitting 15 years of age.

It must be remembered that Divine Departure, or Kamusari, is an advanced Conqueror’s Haki technique. This power sees the user coat their blade in Conqueror’s Haki and unleash the Haki as a powerful blow, almost akin to a shockwave but with pure compressed Haki power. This technique originally belonged to Roger, but Shanks observed it closely and despite having nobody to teach him, he learned it himself and eventually perfected it.

In other words, Shanks became the youngest Conqueror’s Haki Infusion user, which he must’ve learned before even 14, as that’s when the Roger Pirates disbanded. By the age of 13, Shanks likely knew how to utilize this power, which just makes him very special. Undoubtedly, the red-haired Emperor is tremendously powerful with quite easily the strongest Haki. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that he’s the strongest right now, and that he’ll continue to grow in the future of the story as well, given that One Piece is in the final arc now, where he’s more relevant than ever before.

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 apps. The release date for the next chapter of One Piece, One Piece 1141, is set to be March 2, 2025.

One Piece

Release Date

October 20, 1999

Network

Fuji TV

Directors

Hiroaki Miyamoto, Konosuke Uda, Junji Shimizu, Satoshi Itō, Munehisa Sakai, Katsumi Tokoro, Yutaka Nakajima, Yoshihiro Ueda, Kenichi Takeshita, Yoko Ikeda, Ryota Nakamura, Hiroyuki Kakudou, Takahiro Imamura, Toshihiro Maeya, Yûji Endô, Nozomu Shishido, Hidehiko Kadota, Sumio Watanabe, Harume Kosaka, Yasuhiro Tanabe, Yukihiko Nakao, Keisuke Onishi, Junichi Fujise, Hiroyuki Satou

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  Mayumi Tanaka

  Monkey D. Luffy (voice)

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  Kazuya Nakai

  Roronoa Zoro (voice)