Summary
Devil Fruitsare an essential part ofOne Piece.Most crews who are power players in the seriestend to possess at least a few in their arsenal. In exchange for the ability to swim, a consumer of this fruit can gain one of many awesome powers. On rare occasions,a user can even awaken their Devil Fruit into a stronger state.
However, while there’s technically no such thing as a weak or useless Devil Fruit,some are less practical than others.Whether being a definitively less useful counterpart of another fruit, or merely limited in its utility, these arethe least practical devil fruits.
5Ton Ton no Mi
User: Machvise
The powerful Doflamingo’shenchmen tended to have stronger versions of the Devil Fruits that Crocodile’s henchmen possessed.Machvise and his Ton Ton no Miwere no exception. A stronger version of Mikita/Miss Valentine’s Kiro Kiro no Mi, Machvise could similarly float through the air and slam into the ground with the strength of 10,000 tons, a much greater weight than 10,000 kilograms.
However, there is one key distinction that inhibits the potential of this attack: the damage upon impact. Miss Valentine could miss an intended target, fall onto solid ground, and get up with a few scrapes, seemingly not affected by the impact. Machvise, however, showed signs that he may be hurt by a harsher impact. He tried to directly crush Franky with his belly during a 10-ton attack, but managed to miss him and hurt his stomach in the process.
When he performed attacks that made use of more tons, he didn’t even think the risk was worth it, and used a shield to land on/augment his damage instead. While Machvise was smart enough to modify his glaring weakness into a power-up, the natural state of his Devil Fruit is more damaging to both the user, and their foes, than its weaker counterpart.
4Beri Beri no Mi
User: Very Good
During the Buster Call at Enies Lobby,a number of marineswere dispatched to capture the Straw Hat Pirates. One such marine who answered the call wasCaptain Very Good. With his fruit, theBeri Beri no Mi,Good could disassemble himself into several berry-like balls and then launch himself at foes.
At first, the Beri Beri no Mi seems effective. It can render the user effectively immune to blunt-force attacks, and give the user a few solid attacks of their own as well. However, they can be blocked by stronger fighters such as Franky, making use of his arms, or Zoro, with his swords.
Additionally, the user needs to keep track of their body, as the balls it is turned into cannot naturally retract upon being grabbed. Good discovered as much when Cipher Pol 9 attacked him, leaving him alive, but disassembled, on an island.
3Hito Hito no Mi
User: Tony Tony Chopper
Chopper’sfruit is very useful for him. It allowed him to gain human intelligence and effectively assimilate into humankind, whilst still retaining valuable animal qualities. It gave him the awareness to leave his red-nosed herd of reindeer, who ostracized him for his blue nose. The only issue? Chopper is an animal; most known Devil Fruit users are not. With a few exceptions (such as objects and other animals), a majority of users would gain absolutely nothing out of the Hito Hito no Mi. Eichiro Oda confirmed that an actual human eating this fruit would merely lose the ability to swim.
It is worth noting, however, that this subset of Devil Fruit seems to possess some types with incredible powers.Sengoku’s Model: Buddha fruit and Luffy’s Model: Nika fruitare both different types of Hito Hito no Mi. Perhaps, Chopper could unleash something more than simply human-like traits if he awakens his fruit.
2Jake Jake no Mi
User: Kelly Funk
The Funk brothers are fairly minor characters inthe Dressrosa arc. Nonetheless, they were able to make use ofKelly’sJake Jake no Mito combine their physical strength. When utilized, Bobby “wore” Kelly in his jacket form. This combined the pair’s physical strength into one fighter. However, this ended up doing little to help them in the long run, as Doflamingo cut the two down, even after they baited Luffy and Law for him.
Ultimately, what makes this fruit so impractical is the need of another, presumably willing, strong person to be present. Otherwise, the user merely turns into a sentient, fleshy article of clothing. While perhaps a stronger pair of fighters could’ve worn this fruit all the way to the One Piece, it’s been shown thus far to have limited utility, and implied to have even less if another person is not present.
1Gocha Gocha no Mi
User: Charlotte Newshi
When it comes to utilizing maximum power, this fruit is five times less practical than the last. The Charlotte family, as well as the Big Mom Pirates in general,tend to have fairly strong Devil Fruits. Arguably,Newshiis no exception. HisGocha Gocha no Miallows him to merge with four of his brothers and five of his sisters to fuse into a single, stronger fighter.
However, in terms of practicality, this fruit seems hard to defend. Maximum optimization appears to require nine extra willing participants in addition to the user. This seems much less practical than Cracker’s Bisu Bisu no Mi, which can be used to conjure an army of hard biscuit men out of thin air, at the will of the user. While Newshi achieved the rank of officer within his crew, he is still not as highly-ranked as some of his other siblings, such as the Three Sweet Commanders, who seem much more capable of taking on foes independently.
