Usopp

"God" Usopp is the sniper of the Straw Hat Pirates and the former captain of the Usopp Pirates. He was born in Syrup Village and was first mentioned by Yasopp, his father. Despite his normal cowardice, Usopp dreams of becoming a brave warrior of the sea just like his father and lives every day in pursuit of living up to this dream. Before joining the crew, he acts as the main ally of the Straw Hat Pirates during the Syrup Village Arc, joining at the end of the same arc, being officially the third (unofficially fourth) member of the crew, and the third to join. He left the crew during the Water 7 Arc, being after Nami, Chopper and Robin, the fourth to rejoin, doing so at the end of the Post-Enies Lobby Arc. His original bounty of Beli30,000,000 was credited to his alias and alter-ego "Sogeking". During the events in Dressrosa, Usopp awakened his Kenbunshoku Haki, making him the fourth member of the Straw Hat crew to demonstrate and use a form of Haki. His current bounty, Beli200,000,000, is a huge jump from his original, due to his role as "God" for saving all the toy slaves in Doflamingo's underground trades. At the time, this took him from the third lowest bounty of the crew to the third highest, jumping past the previous holder, Nico Robin. After the events of the Whole Cake Island Arc, he dropped to fifth place.

According to Oda in a discussion with Mayumi Tanaka, Luffy's voice actress, 'no matter who joins, he always wants Usopp to be the weakest' since it would upset the balance of the story. Oda also states that this is because Usopp is the only one in the entire crew who is the closest in strength as compared to a regular human. Since early in the series, he has struggled to match the physical feats of the stronger characters, and needed his weapons or ammunition to take out foes. He used to be a huge coward and often wanted to run away immediately, a trait he still carries to a lesser extent after his two years of training. This, coupled with him getting easily distracted or confused in battle have often made him less effective than his real potential as a sniper. So far, he appears to have moved past this after his training and takes better advantage of his wit and strategy. Both his physical and mental strength have all increased greatly during the two years timeskip, as he was able to quickly dispatch all of Caesar's men on his own.

While many of his attributes lie mainly in his ability to hit nearly anything he sets his sights on with his slingshot, he is now shown to be strong enough to keep both Robin, Luffy, and himself afloat in freezing water. Usopp is an extremely skilled sniper. Since early in the series, he was shown to have inherited much of his father Yasopp's exceptional marksman skills. Usopp has outstanding marksmanship abilities with the slingshot, his favorite weapon. His skills when used in conjuntion with unique ammunitions such as the Firebird Star, Usopp can deal devastating damage in long range combat. In addition to his slingshot, he also has great skill with cannons and other forms of Naval Artillery, enough that the crew views him not only as a sniper, but as their gunner, responsible for operating and maintaining their ship's cannons and artillery as well as using them. His skills include using the ship cannons and the Gaon Cannon of the Thousand Sunny. One of Usopp's prominent abilities is his resourcefulness and understanding towards engineering (such as easily understanding the tunnel networks made by Miss Merry Christmas). Prior to Franky joining the crew, Usopp served as the Straw Hat's sole unofficial gadgets and mechanics specialist.Usopp is also a highly analytical tactician with incredible ingenuity in battle, able to use deception and cunning strategies to fight and defeat enemies who are physically more powerful than him. In his battle against Chew, a fish-man and an officer of the Arlong Pirates, Usopp threw a bottle of rum at him catching him off guard before Usopp destroyed the bottle and ignited the alcohol with a Kaen Boshi, setting him aflame before exploiting the chance to hit him hard with his hammer multiple times, defeating him.

While not at the same level as Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, and Jinbe, Usopp's endurance and willpower is considerably strong. After a major battle, Usopp tends to have severe injuries often caused by his determination to reach his goal. He will attempt to continue even with his injuries. Prominent examples of his incredible durability can be observed when Usopp was hit in the face by Mr. 4's 4-ton bat, and smashed repeatedly through walls by Miss Merry Christmas, and not only survived, but was able to continue fighting. Usopp has awakened his Kenbunshoku Haki during the latter half of the Dressrosa revolt, as he was able to see auras of Luffy, Law, and Sugar, who were in the royal palace, from the old King's Plateau near the Corrida Colosseum. With this, he was able to pinpoint Sugar's location and snipe her down from such a distance. Usopp is also a great artist, as he proved in the beginning of the series when he designed the Straw Hat's Jolly Roger after seeing Luffy's poor art skills. A running gag involves Luffy and Chopper building simple snowmen or sand castles only for Usopp to show off his vastly superior skills with a professional work of his own, which ended up being destroyed in a comical way. Usopp is also an adept liar, which can be useful in certain situations. Although many of his lies are outrageous, they've been shown to be a useful distraction at times; especially against gullible opponents. At times, it even succeeds as a deterrence albeit for a short period of time until his enemies figure out his bluff. He often incorporates his bluffs into his arsenal with mixed results. Usopp's weapon of choice is a slingshot which he used in combination with a variety of pellets for long-range combat. Usopp has developed other attacks unrelated to projectiles, though they are mainly jokes. These include the 5 Ton Hammer and others. After the Skypiea Arc, he has started using Dials for attacks such as using the Breath Dial to house explosive gas, using the Flash Dial to blind his foes, and using the Impact Dial to absorb and return blows. His first slingshot also known as the "Ginga Pachinko", was his primary weapon for combat, and he had many different types of ammunition in which he carried inside a large shoulder bag of his. He also often uses eggs in order to blind his opponents and rocks whenever he runs out of ammunition (before the timeskip). After the timeskip, he uses a new slingshot called "Kuro Kabuto", which retains the five band design of the original "Kabuto". The only immediately clear difference is that it is colored black and has a smaller size (whereas the first Kabuto was a staff, the new one is nearly the same size as his original slingshot). His new Kabuto also has the ability to take on a more powerful and larger form that he calls "Kuro Kabuto Chomping Grass". After being given water, it eats up anything in the immediate area, such as rocks and boulders, to use as ammunition. This technique allowed Usopp to capture Caesar, along with Buffalo and Baby 5. He can expand it to an even larger size which he dubs "Super Grow Up Kuro Kabuto" which is useful for particularly long range attacks. After the timeskip, Usopp is shown to be very adept in using Pop Greens, as shown when he defeated some of the Fake Straw Hat Crew by creating a carnivorous plant that resembled a monstrous venus flytrap with tendrils. During the Fish-Man Island Arc, he also manages to save the crew and the Thousand Sunny from being crushed by boulders by using Pop Greens to grow sea weed like plants to trap the boulders, and again, when they encountered the New Fish-Man Pirates in the Ryugu Palace, he used a giant flower with a terrible smell to deter them.