Summary
Akin to his personality, Katsuki Bakugo’s quirk ‘Explosion’ is a crude and aggressive power, turning him into a powerhouse of explosives. The nature of Bakugo’s quirk can be considered slightly generic compared to the rest ofhis peers in Class 1-A, yet he makes up for it with his raw power and unhinged explosive antics. This pegs his quirk as one of the strongest in his class as only a few can rival his absurd firepower.
Due to Bakugo’s own arrogance, Explosion initially remained a heavily underdeveloped quirk, with much of its potential locked behind utilizing the versatility of its explosive nature. With the right training, however,Bakugo has mastered Explosionand its intricate workings, turning him into a powerhouse that not many can compete against.
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Bakugo’s Quirk: Explosion
In essence,Bakugo’s quirk ‘Explosion’turns his sweat into a nitroglycerin excretion, a substance that is highly combustible. Through his palms, Bakugo can combust this excretion to create destructive explosions. While these fiery explosions can be lethal and catastrophic for his opponents, Bakugo himself remains immune to these blasts.
Since Bakugo’s power is dependent on his sweat, the longer the battle continues, the stronger he gets. Another way for his power to scale is for his sweat glands to enlarge, in-turn producing more sweat with minimal physical activity. For this very purpose, Bakugo trained by keeping his hands submerged in boiling water, resulting in his sweat glands expanding. The training allowed him to utilize chain attacks more often due to his increased sweat production.
Bakugo’s understanding of his power is quite remarkable, as noted by hisHero Internship supervisor Best Jeanist. Explosion may seem like an offensive quirk at first, but Bakugo has found a way to double his attack-heavy power into a defensive technique. He is able to use the shockwave of his blasts as a shield against attacks, along with evading incoming attacks by propelling himself in the air through chained explosives.
The Key to Explosion: Grenadier Bracers
While Bakugo himself has attained a decent mastery over his quirk, most of this proficiency can beattributed to his support item‘Grenadier Bracers.’ These bracers serve as gauntlets that store Bakugo’s sweat overtime, allowing him to release the stored power all at once in the form of a massive blast. The resulting explosion is said to take a toll on the user’s shoulders, yet Bakugo seems to exhibit no side effects owing to his physical endurance and enhanced strength.
The bracers also serve the purpose of reducing the physical strain of overusing this quirk. Since constant use of Explosion can strain the user’s forearms, these bracers take on much of the impact, thereby reducing the recoil effect on Bakugo’s arms and shoulders.
Explosion’s Weaknesses
Explosion thrives in warm environments that stimulate Bakugo’s sweat, meaning the contrary will naturally become the quirk’s weakness. In colder environments, the nitroglycerin excretion sweat takes longer to excrete out of Bakugo’s body, significantly hindering his overall firepower. The nitroglycerin’s ignition suffers similar drawbacks as it takes much longer to detonate.
Explosion’s physical strain on Bakugo’s body is another one of its major limitations. While he remains immune to his own explosions, Bakugo can still experience pulsating pain in his arms and shoulders after prolonged usage of his quirk. This effect is stronger if he opts to use one arm for his explosions as opposed to using both at the same time. However, using both sides simultaneously diminishes the overall firepower, resulting in weaker explosions.
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Lastly, Explosion is limited to Bakugo’s arms where his quirk factor lies. Since he cannot produce the same explosions from other parts of his body, losing his arms will result in Bakugoessentially becoming quirkless. While the same could be said for other quirks, it’s a much greater liability for Bakugo since his palms are the only activating factor for his power.
Bakugo’s Signature Abilities
The versatility of Explosionlends Bakugo all sorts of techniques, resulting in signature abilities for various purposes. In terms of mobility, one of his most common techniques is Explosive Speed, a technique that utilizes Bakugo’s explosive palms to act as thrusters to give him enhanced speed. He has been shown to use a similar technique for flight, although that ability remains unnamed.
Stun Grenade is a common offense ability that utilizes Explosion’s blinding light to momentarily stun opponents. AP Shot is one of Bakugo’s stronger offensive techniques, allowing him to concentrate his explosion at the center of his palm, resulting in a laser-like beam capable of cutting through solid concrete. AP Shot: Auto-Cannon and AP Machine-Gun are variations of this very technique, utilizing the same concept but replacing a single beam with multiple fragmented explosions.
Since almost all of Bakugo’s abilities are inherently strong, it’s rather difficult to pin down an ultimate move. However, one technique remains at the top of arsenal in terms of sheer firepower – Howitzer Impact. With this move,Bakugo forms an explosive tornadoby jumping into the air and spinning violently with explosions in both hands. The result is a devastating explosive tornado capable of annihilating anyone in its wake.
