Haki Development

[Jade]

Welcome to Haki Development! If you have a character who is ready to awaken their Haki, or if you have a character who is ready to take the next step toward mastering their Haki, or if you’re just curious about how our Haki systems work, you’re in the right place. When you’re ready to apply for Haki, you’ll need to make sure that you have a thread in our Haki Development Board with an appropriate name (e.g. “(Username)’s Haki Requests).

Any and all posts you make in your Haki Requests thread should start off with the following template filled in:

[b]Character’s Name:[/b]
[b]Profile:[/b]
[b]Total X-Poinz:[/b]

This template serves as a header for your Haki applications, giving the staff key information such as up-to-date XPz totals and ready access to the associated character’s most recent profile. There may be times when a character will be denied the ability to learn or train their Haki, but we will explain why and point out what you’re missing. As a reminder, Robots cannot develop Haki, as they are not living beings!

Once a character has acquired Haki, you’ll need to add it to the character’s profile. In case you were wondering how to format these additions and where to put Haki in the profile, you can include the following template between the Traits and Fighting Styles sections in the profile:

[font size="2"][b]Haki[/b][/font]
[u](Name of Haki)[/u]
(Description of Haki.)
[ul type="disc"][li][b](Advancement Name:)[/b] (Advancement Description.)[/li][/ul]

What Is Haki?
Haki is a mysterious force found in all living things, capable of drastically turning the tides of battle through sheer force of will. The name Haki can be translated as “Ambition”, “Willpower”, and “Vigor”, among other translations, and is most closely comparable to the concept of “ki”. All characters (with the sole exception of Robots) are capable of developing this unusual power and harnessing it.

Haki comes in three categories, or “Colors”, each of which has their own special uses. They are as follows:

• ^{Kenbunshoku Haki: “The Color of Observation”
  The ability to sense the presence of other creatures in the area (regardless of whether or not you are able to sense them with your usual senses, such as sight or hearing) and to predict imminent future events based on what you can sense. It can also be used to measure the power of a being’s ‘Voice’, thus allowing one to estimate how big of a threat an opponent might be, or to sense the emotions of others. To the Skypieans, this power is known as “Mantra”.}
• ^{Busōshoku Haki: “The Color of Arms”
  A manifestation of will and fighting spirit, coating your body and weapons in an invisible armor and amplifying the effectiveness of your attacks. It even allows somebody to ignore the inherent defences of the shapeshifting Logia and certain Paramecia users. It offers a potent means of both offence and defence.}
• ^{Haōshoku Haki: “The Color of the Conquering King”
  The third and most unique form of Haki, which only a select number of charismatic ‘Chosen Ones’ can develop. It allows one to radiate power, incapacitating and subjugating those of weaker will. Unlike the other forms of Haki, ‘Conqueror’s Haki’ cannot be trained, but must rather be controlled by the user, and grows more powerful as they do.}

Table of Contents
If you’re looking for specific information regarding one facet of our Haki system, this table of contents contains links to each section for easy access to each section of this system!

1. Awakening Haki
2. Trained Haki
3. Haki Advancements

[Jade]

How Do I Awaken Haki?
The first step on the road to developing one’s Haki is the awakening of your innate ability to use it. As the series has shown, it is often a combination of perseverance, effort, and adversity that eventually brings to light one’s inner strength. It has been stated that Haki is comparable to a flower — one that only truly blossoms in the most difficult of battles, where one’s strength and will are put to the test. To represent this, and the fact that Haki is mostly unknown to all but those who can wield it, Raw Haki is not something you need to spend your X-Poinz to develop! Instead, you will need to meet the following two requirements:

• ^{You must have accrued a total of 2,500 X-Poinz with the character in question. It doesn’t matter whether or not you’ve spent this amount, as the only important factor is whether you’ve earned it or not. Remember, it took Luffy up until a short while before the Summit War to awaken his Haki — if anything, we’re making this easy on you guys!}
• ^{The next thing you’ll need is evidence (a link to posts from graded threads) of the character having been through a few extremely stressful situations; two or three of these should do nicely. This requirement is really just to see if the character has been noticeably overwhelmed, which is always nice to see anyway. If you look at Coby, you’ll notice he suffered as a cabin boy on Alvida’s crew before being enlisted in the Marines. Hard training under Garp brought him up more than just a notch, and his Haki finally awakened during the Summit War, where the death and destruction of so many drew out his Observation Haki. Think about which of the three types is the better fit for the character at the time of awakening, and consider what kind of situations might be likely to draw it out! Empathic characters are more likely to awaken their Observation first, while aggressive characters who like to tackle a situation head on would probably awaken their Armament instead.}

If you’re aiming to awaken Conqueror’s Haki, there is an additional requirement that you’ll need to meet!

• ^{Link us to a post or two of yours, just as with the other two Colors, that demonstrate moments of charisma, leadership, bravery, and indomitable will. These are the things that make a ‘True King’, and thus the qualities someone needs to inherently show to be able to draw upon the rarest of Haki’s Colors!}

Once you’ve obtained a character’s Raw Haki, you’ll be able to add it to their profile as a unique Haki Trait! Unlike a regular Trait, this Haki Trait is able to be further improved upon and advanced as your character develops, altering in the way it functions, rather than simply being a static, passive representation of their physical capabilities!

Acquiring Raw Haki
Once a character has met the requirements to awaken to their Haki and has applied for it appropriately, they will gain the appropriate Haki Trait for one of the three Colors. In general, a character will likely only gain one, or maybe two, of these Haki Traits, depending on which type of Haki they are best suited toward — but this does not prevent them from awakening to or training the other Colors of Haki later!

The Raw Haki Traits are as follows, though you may alter their descriptions a little to suit the specific character, so long as the basics stay the same:

• ^{Raw Observation Haki
  Recently awakened to their Haki, the character will receive uncontrollable flashes of feeling, allowing them to inexplicably sense an oncoming deadly blow, feel the overwhelming emotions of those around them, or potentially see an individual aura far beyond their usual senses in a moment of pressure.}
• ^{Raw Armament Haki
  Recently awakened to their Haki, the character will manifest uncontrollable bursts of solidified willpower, temporarily empowering their blows or allowing them to miraculously mitigate deadly blows against them.}
• ^{Raw Conqueror’s Haki
  Recently awakened to their Haki, the character will occasionally find themselves sending out overwhelming waves of will, causing those of weak will in the area around them to pass out in a most peculiar fashion, or cause animals to cower in fear.}

At this stage, a character has no conscious control nor understanding of this newly-awakened power, and cannot activate it at will. Their Raw Haki may go off at seemingly random times when they are under extreme mental pressure, but should activate no more than once per thread, or once per in-character day at best. After using Raw Haki, your Haki stores are depleted temporarily, typically requiring a period of good rest to recover, thus preventing continued bursts of one’s Raw Haki in a short period of time.

When you’ve met the 2,500 X-Poinz benchmark and have the requisite evidence of high-stress situations (and evidence of moments of true leadership, if you’re wanting to apply for Conqueror’s Haki), you’ll need to fill out the following template for the character who is awakening to their Haki:

[b]Raw Haki Being Awoken:[/b] (Include which of the three Colors the character is awakening.)
[b]Evidence of Stress:[/b]
[b]Evidence of Leadership:[/b] (If you are not applying for Haōshoku, you can delete this part.)

[Jade]

Training Haki
Haki itself is difficult to develop, especially alone. Without the necessary knowledge and understanding of it, most are completely oblivious to the true nature of this newfound, uncontrollable power, and so never even consider honing it into something more reliable. To gain control over your Haki, you’ll need to be tutored by a viable teacher — someone who has enough of an understanding of Haki to instruct another.

Once a character has earned a total of 3,000 X-Poinz, they are able to apply for the trained versions of Haki. Unlike Raw Haki, which does not have an associated cost, these improvements cost 250 X-Poinz per Color! For instance, if a character is training both their Observation and Armament, they would need to pay a total of 500 X-Poinz, while a character who is training all three Colors would need to pay a total of 750 X-Poinz! Additionally, each Color trained provides 125 Rebate to the character.

The trained versions of Haki replace their Raw versions; once a character is capable of properly harnessing their Haki, there is very little worry about their Haki flaring up uncontrollably anymore. It’s a little like riding a bike — when you first get on the bike, it’s very hard to maintain your balance, but once you know what you’re doing, maintaining your balance becomes second nature!

The Trained Haki Traits are as follows:

• ^{Observation Haki
  Having trained, this character is now able to consciously utilize their Color of Observation. At this stage, they are capable of sensing presences in the area around them and the “intent” of incoming attacks, granting them a weak sort of precognition.}
• ^{Armament Haki
  Having trained, this character is now able to consciously call upon their Color of Arms. At this stage, applying their Busōshoku Haki can be done to parts of their body or weapons, empowering their techniques or providing them with a sturdy defense via a process called hardening. This even allows them to bypass the natural defences of Devil Fruit users whose bodies would normally have some kind of intangibility, such as Logia.}
• ^{Conqueror’s Haki
  Having trained, this character is now able to consciously call upon their Color of the Conquering King. At this stage, they are capable of releasing waves or bursts of willpower in order to knock out those of weaker will around them, though still tend to do so indiscriminately.}

When you have reached the 3,000 X-Poinz benchmark and are ready to upgrade from Raw Haki to Trained Haki, you’ll need to fill out the following template:

[b]Haki Being Trained:[/b]
[b]Total Cost:[/b] (Include the total XPz cost for your Haki training request here. As a reminder, for each Color that is being trained, you’ll need to pay 250 XPz!)

[Jade]

What’s Next?
Haki, once trained, can be further upgraded, representing the way a character develops their Haki beyond simply training it into a more reliably usable state, through the use of the Advancement system! Advancements are powerful new ways of harnessing one’s Haki, granting a character powerful new abilities!

Advancements have their own requirements for development, however. Developing such rare, powerful abilities are a lot more demanding — only the most intense training can hope to hone your potential, and developing your skills beyond that requires battles and events where the stakes are sky high and the odds overwhelming!

That said, a character is mostly free to develop their Haki as they see fit. Whether they want to simply hone in on one of the Colors as their specialty, or if they wish to upgrade all of the Colors available to them in order to be a more well-rounded jack of all trades, or take some other approach, you are free to do so! Each Color of Haki must be levelled up individually, allowing for characters to pick and choose which of the Colors they will develop further as they advance. Whatever your decision, rest assured that you can balance your character’s Haki however you like!

Haki Advancements
After meeting certain earned X-Poinz benchmarks, a character is able to purchase Advancements for their Haki, representing their increasing mastery over the three Colors. These Advancements are rather similar to Aspects, the upgrades that one applies to their Fighting Styles when increasing the Fighting Style’s class; they expand upon what one can do with their Haki!

The earned X-Poinz benchmarks for obtaining Advancements are as follows:

• First Advancement: 6,000 X-Poinz
• Second Advancement: 10,000 X-Poinz
• Further Advancements: 15,000 X-Poinz

However, even once a character has accumulated this total earned amount of X-Poinz, there is still the matter of actually paying for the Advancements you want to develop! The associated cost for each Advancement is as follows:

Advancement	X-Poinz Cost	Rebate Gained
First	375	200
Second	500	275
Third	625	350
Fourth	750	425

Haki Advancements for each individual Color are cumulative, meaning that you’ll always be paying the amounts listed above for an Advancement, and that a fully upgraded Color would always cost 2,500 X-Poinz. For example, if your Armament Haki was being given a second Advancement after already receiving the first, you’d be paying an additional 500 X-Poinz, bringing the total spent on that one Color to 1,125 X-Poinz — the 250 X-Poinz for training, plus the two Advancements. You’ll also gain Rebate for each purchase, for a maximum total of 1,375 Rebate.

Once your character has reached the point where they can begin applying for Advancements, you’ll need to fill out the following template to do so:

[b]Haki:[/b] (Which of the three Colors is your character advancing at this time?)
[b]Advancement:[/b] (Include the name of the Advancement(s) being applied for.)
[b]Total Cost:[/b] (Include the total XPz price required for the Advancements you’re applying for at this time!)

Each Color of Haki has its own set of Advancements, as shown below. Each has three options that can be chosen in any order you wish, and one additional option that represents the pinnacle of that specific type. These additional options require you have at least two other Advancements before you can purchase it, one of which is always set.

Observation Advancements

• ^{Range
  Observation Haki is usually limited to a character’s vicinity, with it often being ineffective at long distances, but this Advancement greatly extends the user’s radius. Proficient users who have developed this gift may be able to sense the intent of an incoming attack from across an entire city, perhaps an entirely island, or otherwise detect strong presences at a similar range.}
• ^{Advanced Empathy
  Sensing the emotional states and intentions of other beings is a natural part of Observation Haki, but some people are especially well tuned to it, developing the ability to accurately read people’s intent or emotion when they are doing their utmost to conceal it from view.}
• ^{Precision
  While Observation Haki allows users to detect auras, some users have honed this to greater extremes, allowing them to accurately locate certain individuals even amongst crowds of individual, but similar presences. This ability to accurately discern a person’s aura can help some fighters locate their target even when their standard senses are being fooled or inhibited in some way.}
• <sup>Future Sight
  Requires: Advanced Empathy + One Other Advancement
  The most proficient users of Observation Haki have developed their sixth sense to the point of being able to accurately see the imminent future, not just glimpses of intent. By directly seeing what is about to happen, the user can react appropriately even in advance of the events they’ve witnessed, though they may still be limited by the range of their standard senses when doing so. It is not perfect, as futures can change suddenly, so a vision of what is to come might be inaccurate depending on how far you glimpsed.
  
  Note: The ability should not be used to facilitate god-modding or power-playing. Any abuse of this power may result in it being taken away from you. Correspondence with your writing partners is ideal to prevent exploitation.</sup>
  

Armament Advancements

• ^{Full-Body Hardening
  While the hardening process is natural to trained users of Armament, most users can only harden individual parts of their body, such as their arms or legs, at any one given time. For others, developing their Armament allows them to apply this dense coating to their entire physical form in one go, granting them a supreme defense against attackers whose own abilities just aren’t strong enough to break through.}
• ^{Emission
  When using Armament, excess Haki is often wasted during the process, but skilled practitioners can harness this weak flow to further enhance their offense and defense. By directing the flow, Armament users can strike without making direct contact with their target, projecting their Haki a short distance in front of them to create a sort of force field that can be used to negate attacks or damage foes with lessened risk. In the country of Wano, this technique is known as Ryūō (“Flowing Sakura”), and is based on the concept of inner flow.}
• ^{Permeation
  In most instances, Armament Hardening is used to create a coating of Haki to enhance and protect the user. However, some users are capable of imbuing their Haki into their weapon or body, rather than just serving as a layer of will, further enhancing its effectiveness as the cost of being at least a little more draining on their Haki. For regular users, this is a potent ability that can make their Haki superior to other Armament. For Devil Fruit users whose powers directly affect their body’s constitution, this permeating power allows them to maintain their supernatural qualities while still gaining the benefits of Haki, such as how Luffy’s Gear Fourth is somehow both bouncy and hard at the same time.}
• ^{Internal Destruction
  Requires: Emission + One Other Advancement
  The most skilled users of Armament are not only able to project their Haki, but are also able to direct it into opponents and objects to ravage them from the inside, allowing the user to bypass seemingly overwhelming defenses. Such an ability can be used to shatter objects that would otherwise be too risky to break through conventional means, or otherwise deal significant damage that travels through an opponent’s body.}

Conqueror’s Advancements

• ^{Control
  While those who have learned to use their conquering spirit release it in powerful bursts or waves that act indiscriminately, those that have honed their understanding can unleash controlled bursts of Haki that target specific individuals within their vicinity, are otherwise focused in a certain direction, or even maintained for short periods.}
• ^{Authority
  Those who possess Conqueror’s Haki have the ability to incapacitate when unleashing their Haki, but some are capable of a refined release that is far less intense than a regular burst, allowing them to prevent knocking people out, and even subjugating animals that might otherwise be exceptionally ferocious, including Sea Kings. Those of a weaker will tend to be dominated by this effect, as if intimidated into obeying the user’s command.}
• ^{Pressure
  Bursts of conquering spirit typically only affect living creatures in their vicinity, but those who have developed their gift further can create an almost physical effect upon their surroundings. A burst of Conqueror’s Haki may cause the ground to crack slightly and even force back living creatures, while a maintained release can cause ongoing damage to ships and structures in the vicinity, with some of the strongest users even influencing the weather.}
• ^{Infusion
  Requires: Control + One Other Advancement
  An ability that supposedly only a handful of individuals can use, this mastered form of Haōshoku Haki can be channelled through the wielder’s body and weapons to further amplify their attacks in a way that is somewhat similar to Armament Haki. It even seems that it can be combined with emitted Armament to strike indirectly, and is substantially more powerful. It’s usual representation is in the form of bolts of dark, spiritual lightning, which arc out from the point of impact, and any attacks empowered with this effect can bypass some of the strongest defenses the world can offer.}

[Fox]

Time to retire dis one.