How to play

Creating a character

A life begins with six choices: the sea you were born in, where you come from, your race, your fighting style, a Devil Fruit if you own one, and the dream you will chase. Each one weighs on your starting stats, and above all on the events you will run into afterwards.

The eleven races are not just dressing: each has its own strengths and weaknesses in figures, and some carry prejudices that shift your standing with the factions from the very first year. The seventy-eight Devil Fruits are unlocked over the course of your games.

Crossing the years

Your character is born at 8 and moves forward one year at a time. The great departure comes at 15: before that you lay the foundations of your story, after it you take to the sea.

Every year brings one event drawn from more than three hundred, picked according to your age, your position, your side and what you have already lived. You make a choice there. Some apply their effects straight away, others are trials: they ask for a stat threshold and they can fail. The chance of success is always shown to you before you commit.

What defines you

• Six stats scored out of 100: strength, speed, endurance, intelligence, charisma and navigation.
• Haki, on three paths (armament, observation, kings), from 0 to 3 each. The kings' path is not offered to everyone.
• Health and fatigue. Health down to zero ends the life. Fatigue, past a certain point, cuts into your chances of passing a trial.
• Fame and bounty. The more the world knows you, the more your head is worth, and the more trouble finds you.
• Reputation with the Marines, the Government, the Pirates and the Revolution. It opens doors and closes them.
• Five hidden traits: cruelty, loyalty, ambition, cunning and daring. You never see them climb, but when one of them crosses its threshold, you are told who you are becoming.

The end, and the next one

A life closes with death: in battle, on a bad choice, or of old age. The age of natural death is drawn at the start of every game, between 60 and 80, and it is never the same one.

The ending screen draws up the balance: the tier you reached, your epitaph, your great deeds, what became of your companions. You come away with coins and tokens that outlive death: they unlock races and Devil Fruits for the lives that follow, in the Collection or at the Loot Machine.

The world in brief

Three landmarks that come back in every life: who rules, what haki allows, and the dreams you can chase.

Factions

• Marines The armed hand of the World Government. Opens the career, the ranks and the Warlord status.
• World Government The supreme power of the world. Reachable only from a high Marine rank, a rare path.
• Pirates The outlaws of the seas. Territory, a crew, a road towards the title of Emperor.
• Revolutionary Army Those who mean to overthrow the Government and break the chains of the world.

Haki

• Armament Haki Harden and strike beyond the flesh. Cuts through the intangibility of Logia users.
• Observation Haki Sense presences and anticipate intentions. Opens choices closed to others, and never fails.
• Conqueror's Haki The presence that crushes. Rare, kept behind strong Charisma, a rare trait and fame.

Dreams

• Pirate King Reach Laugh Tale and find the One Piece. The path that can also lead to the Poneglyphs and the Void Century.
• Hero of the Marines Climb the Marines up to the Admiralty, and maybe higher still, to the heart of the World Government.
• Leader of the Revolution Join the Revolution and bring down the World Government to free the oppressed.

Worth knowing

• Everything can be played from the keyboard if you prefer: keys 1 to 9 to choose, Enter to continue.
• The ship's log keeps the trace of every choice made in the life under way.