One Piece: Zoro Needs To Perfect This Ability Before His Ultimate Battle With Mihawk

The relationship between Zoro and Mihawk is one of the most captivating in the entire One Piece franchise. What started as a duel between two swordsmen eventually blossomed into a rivalry between some of the most powerful characters in the setting over a title that means everything to both of them. This is one of the few fights in the Final War that fans have known will eventually take place since the early days of the franchise.

As such, Zoro needs to build up his arsenal far more to challenge Mihawk, who most believe is an equal to Shanks and one of the strongest characters in One Piece history. Though there are many ways for him to become more powerful, his proficiency with the different forms of Haki is the most important, so in this article, let’s go over the only ways for Zoro to get strong enough to be a challenge for Mihawk.

Zoro Needs To Build Up His Haki To Far Greater Levels

Proficiency In Haki Is What He Needs More Than Anything

Ever since the Wano arc, Haki has quickly risen in importance as the greatest power in One Piece. It’s no secret that many characters who have incredibly powerful Devil Fruit abilities, namely Kaido and Big Mom, have placed a huge amount of importance on Haki, with the former even stating that it is the only way for one to conquer the New World and Grand Line.

Due to the proper introduction of this power system within the story, Luffy eventually learned to rely less on his Devil Fruit and became even more proficient with Haki, which is what has led to some of his greatest victories since then. As such, seeing where the main characters are now, with the Final War inching ever closer, the need for every one of them to strengthen their Haki is apparent, most of all for Zoro. The Pirate Hunter had always been an exceptional swordsman since the beginning of his journey, but his clash with Mihawk showed just how far he has to go.

During the time skip, he spent two years under the tutelage of the World’s Strongest Swordsman, Dracule Mihawk, where he learned the basics of Haki. Since then, Zoro has only gotten better at using this power, and the Wano arc showed him mastering Advanced Armament Haki like Luffy did. Moreover, he was also revealed to be a Conqueror’s Haki user in this arc, which shouldn’t come as a surprise since his ambition is great and only those with such aspirations have been shown to use this power.

However, it’s clear that he still has a long way to go before he can battle Mihawk on equal footing. Mihawk holds the title of the World’s Strongest Swordsman, which is indicative of the fact that he is one of the strongest characters in the setting due to the abundance of swordsmen in the series. He is also stated to have been equal to Shanks, whom he viewed as a rival but eventually stopped fighting him once Red Hair lost his arm, stating that he has no wish to fight someone with a clear disadvantage.

Strive to surpass me, Roronoa Zoro!

This shows that Mihawk is clearly a top-tier fighter in the world, so Zoro has a long way to go before he can face him. The skill that Zoro needs most of all is powerful Observation Haki. Although he can use it, he has never been shown to do so often or with great skill, which shows that this may be the weakest of the three Haki types at his disposal. Observation Haki is a critical skill for him to develop since Mihawk is hinted to have mastered it.

One of the epithets of Mihawk is ‘The Clairvoyant’. This is relevant because Advanced Observation Haki has been revealed in the story in the form of Future Sight, which, as the name implies, allows the user to look into the future to perceive events before they happen. The word clairvoyant means someone who can do this, so it very clearly hints that Mihawk’s Advanced Observation Haki is so great that he needed an epithet for it, or, at the very least, is on the same level as Shanks’. This is further strengthened by Mihawk’s other name; Hawk Eyes.

It’s clear that Observation Haki is Zoro’s weak point in the inevitable battle between him and his former mentor, so it is also a power that he needs to perfect before their inevitable clash. However, the edge that Zoro currently has over Mihawk is his Conqueror’s Haki, which the World’s Strongest Swordsman hasn’t been explicitly stated to have, although it’s unlikely that he doesn’t.

In Wano, it was shown that Conqueror’s Haki can also be used to reinforce one’s attacks to be far more devastating, so Zoro will have to master his for it to be useful against Mihawk since he is still a novice who just unlocked this power. Once Zoro perfects the Advanced forms of both Observation and Conqueror’s Haki, he will likely then be on the level required to be a proper threat to the World’s Strongest Swordsman since, right now, he is likely still far below this power.

Zoro Also Needs To Upgrade His Weapons Against Yoru

Zoro Needs A Black Blade

• Aside from his obvious power-ups, Zoro’s swords need to become Black Blades to have a fighting chance against Mihawk’s Yoru.

In the current era of One Piece, Mihawk’s sword, Yoru, is the single strongest weapon that has ever been shown in the franchise. Firstly, Yoru is a Supreme Grade Weapon, which are armaments used only by the strongest and most important characters in the world, made of the highest quality and are easily able to overpower any weapon from a rank below them. Secondly, it is one of the only two ‘Black Blades’ in the series, which shows just how strong of a character Mihawk truly is.

Black Blades are swords that have seen so much battle and have been imbued with so much Haki over the years that the user’s Haki is permanently absorbed by their weapon. This allows the strikes of the weapon to be exceptionally powerful even without the user imbuing Armament or Advanced Conqueror’s Haki onto them. This is such an impressive feat that even powerhouses like Roger and Whitebeard were unable to turn their weapons into Black Blades despite both of them also having Supreme Grade Weapons.

It won’t bend one bit even if a dinosaur steps on it. Hardness is one of the special characteristics of the Black Blade.

This shows that Mihawk’s proficiency and dedication to becoming the World’s Strongest Swordsman allowed him to do something that even the two strongest pirates of all time couldn’t. Although Zoro has incredibly powerful swords, two of whom belong to the Great Grade category, they still have a long way to go in terms of even matching Yoru.

The sheer power difference was on full display during their first meeting, where Yoru reduced two of Zoro’s swords to smithereens upon contact with them. The only other Black Blade in the series was Ryuma’s Shusui, which belonged to a character widely regarded by fans as being on a similar level to Joyboy himself. This shows that a weapon doesn’t need to be a Supreme Grade to be the strongest, which opens the door for Zoro’s Enma, Wado Ichimonji, or Kitetsu to all reach this fabled state to take on Mihawk’s powerful sword.

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