Devil Fruits are known to be the treasure of the sea in the One Piece world and they're one of the biggest power sources in the series, if not the biggest. Introduced quite early into the story, Devil Fruits only got more complex with time. While Luffy's Gomu Gomu no Mi was thought to be one of the very few of these powers, with time, a whole new world of abilities opened up. By the time the Straw Hat Pirates entered the Grand Line, it was quite clear that there was more than just one class of Devil Fruit.
By the Alabasta arc, it was already established that Devil Fruits are divided into three main types – Paramecia, Zoan, and Logia. While all the Devil Fruit classes are special in their own way, none of them show as much diversity as the Zoan class, the powers of which are based around transformation into animals.
The Zoan Sub-Types
The Zoan class was first introduced in the Drum Island arc of One Piece, with Dalton and Tony Tony Chopper being the very first two users of these Devil Fruit. As evident from their powers, these Devil Fruits allow the users to transform into an animal at will and, as such, Zoan-type Devil Fruits grant great strength, power, speed, recovery rate, and every other type of physical boost that one can think of. A special ability of the Zoans is to be able to switch to a Hybrid or a Man-Beast form. As the name suggests, this form allows the user to retain their human body but with the animalistic features and powers offered by their Devil Fruits.
When compared to the other Devil Fruits, the Zoan class is quite unique in that there are special subtypes of this class which were slowly introduced as the story went on. In the Sabaody Archipelago arc, fans were introduced to the very first subclass, called Ancient Zoan, through none other than X Drake, one of the members of the 11 Supernovas.
What Are Ancient Zoan Devil Fruits?
Ancient Zoans are special Zoan Devil Fruits that work just like regular Zoans, however, instead of offering powers of just any animal, they offer powers of ancient beasts. Ancient Zoans are quite rare in the world of One Piece and are known to be much stronger than the regular Zoans. As expected, these Devil Fruits offer much greater strength in battle, and even more surprisingly, their recovery rate is known to be off the charts. Ancient Zoans can recover from any injury quite quickly and their incredible stamina helps them continue fighting for longer. X Drake's Ryu Ryu no Mi, Model: Allosaurus was the first Ancient Zoan to be introduced in the story. In the Wano Country arc, fans got to see a lot of other Ancient Zoans among Kaido's Beasts Pirates. The All-Stars and the Tobiroppo were both strictly made up of Ancient Zoan Devil Fruit users.
What Are The Mythical Zoan Devil Fruits?
Known to be the rarest type of Devil Fruit in the entire world of One Piece, the Mythical Zoan is up there with the strongest powers to exist in the story. As the name suggests, these Zoan Devil Fruits offer the powers of mythical creatures, which is what makes them incredibly unique. Fans first got to see them in action during the Marineford arc where Marco showed off the power of his Tori Tori no Mi, Model: Phoenix, a Devil Fruit that allows him to transform into a Phoenix and its hybrid at will. The arc also showed the fans a glimpse of yet another Mythical Zoan user in Sengoku, the Fleet Admiral of the Navy. His power, called the Hito Hito no Mi, Model: Daibutsu allows him to become a giant golden Buddha at will.
On top of having every single physical attribute of theirs boosted to sky-high levels, the Mythical Zoans also offer a unique ability to their users. Marco's Phoenix powers give him the ability to use the blue flames of regeneration using which he can heal himself from every single injury. Similarly, Sengoku's Buddha holds the ability to produce shockwaves from its palms. There are only a few other Mythical Zoan users in the story and they include Kaido, Yamato, Orochi, Catarina Devon, all of which also have special powers gifted to them.
What Are The Artificial Zoan Devil Fruits?
On top of having two overpowered subclasses, Zoans have yet another subclass that was created by man, hence the name "Artificial Zoan Devil Fruits." So far, the attempt to create Artificial Zoan Devil Fruits has been made on two occasions. Vegapunk, the genius Navy scientist, created an Artificial Zoan Devil Fruit by using Kaido's Lineage Factor. By making its use, he was able to create an Artificial Zoan Devil Fruit with the exact same powers as Kaido's Uo Uo no Mi, Model: Seiryu (the only difference being the color of the dragon). Surprisingly, Vegapunk labelled this Devil Fruit a failure, however, Momonosuke seems to be able to make good use of all of its powers.
The second attempt to create Artificial Zoan Devil Fruits was made by Caesar Clown. By using a chemical called SAD, Caesar was able to mass-produce these fruits, called SMILEs, with the powers of various animals. However, the powers offered by them are much different from regular Zoans. Instead of allowing the users to turn into animals and animal hybrids, these fruits turn their bodies into animals or parts of animals. For instance, Holdem of the Beasts Pirates has a lion's head on his stomach that thinks independently, and he can't turn it off. Others, such as Sheepshead, could transform his arms into horns of sheep instead of the sheep itself. Evidently, Caesar's Artificial Zoans are quite a risk, which is why Kaido only uses it on the lower class members of his crew.
Furthermore, the SMILEs that Caesar created have only a 10% success rate, meaning only one out of every 10 eaters gain its power. The 9 who don't gain any powers are still affected by standard Devil Fruit weaknesses, such as not being able to swim and having a weakness to sea stone. On top of that, they are unable to express any emotion other than joy, meaning all they can do is laugh even when they don't want to.
Evidently, Zoans remain to be the most diverse and arguably the most underrated class of Devil Fruits in One Piece. With their incredible power being explored to the fullest in the Wano Country arc, fans are finally seeing what makes them truly special and why the very best of them are up there with the strongest of the Logia and the Paramecia.