Polearm

Whenever a weapon fixes its working head to a lengthy pole, it qualifies as a polearm, sometimes just called a pole weapon. Setting the point or blade well away from the grip stretches a fighter's effective range and, on a swing, lets the arc build extra force. Glaives, poleaxes, halberds, spears, and bardiches all sit within this wide grouping.

Every example gets sorted under five headers keyed to whatever tops the shaft. Those groups are the staff, which may carry no tip whatsoever, the spear, the halberd, the maul, and the scythe. Forms run from a bare fighting stick up to a halberd's intricate head, and each subtype answers a different need in a fight.

Since the edge or point rides at the pole's far end, a wielder usually presses forward, hoping to fell an enemy before that enemy can close in. That forward bias doubles as the weapon's flaw, because switching stance grows awkward in tight spaces, and only the staff branch dodges that limitation. Set against a shorter arm like the sword, though, the added reach proves decisive.

The subtypes look nothing alike. A bo is just a long staff, whereas a jitte adds a disarming side prong and a khakkhara ends in a cluster of metal rings. Spears fan out into harpoons, lances, tridents, partisans, pikes, and the long-tipped trishula. Halberds branch toward the heavy bisento, the curved naginata, and the broader-bladed guandao. A scythe swings a side-set curved blade meant only to cut, while mauls and warhammers smash armor with a weighted head.

Nami originally fought with a bo before switching to her Clima-Tact, which still counts as one by classification. Enel carried the golden Nonosama Bo and, drawing on the Goro Goro no Mi, could reshape it as a trident, while Smoker's seastone jitte and Kumadori's ringed khakkhara round out the staff line. Spear and trident users are many, including Kamakiri, a bomb-tipped Daisenso in Krieg's hands, Neptune, Hody Jones, Katakuri, and the Impel Down guards.

Whitebeard's Murakumogiri, one of the Supreme Grade blades, is a naginata whose legacy passed to Edward Weevil. Sai prefers a guandao, Doc Q a twin-bladed scythe, and Loki the warhammer Ragnir. Within the Straw Hats, confirmation has come for Luffy, Nami, and Jinbe as polearm fighters, yet only Nami still leans on one today.