Prior to the Straw Hats arriving in Skypiea (which as its name implies is an island in the sky), Enel ruled over it as a tyrant, having usurped the position of Kami from the previous holder, Gan Fall. During the arc, he seeks something called Fairy Vearth (revealed later to be the Moon itself), and is willing to destroy all of Skypiea with his powers (conducted by a giant gold ship) to do so.
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Enel’s Strength
What can be definitively stated is the Enel’s power is massive, and that initially he appeared almost invincible. Enel ate the Goro Goro no Mi and is consequently living lightning. This ability is as devastating as it sounds. With a known maximum output of 200 million volts, Enel can incinerate most opponents with ease. His nature as a lightning man also gives him frightening speed, and renders him intangible in the face of most physical attacks.
Enel is also one the first confirmed major villain to use Haki, or Mantra as it’s called in Skypiea, which, amplified by his Devil Fruit powers grants him near-omnipotence. And as if all of that wasn’t enough, Enel’s powers also act as a sort of defibrillator, literally jump-starting his heart again should it stop beating.
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Indeed, Enel was so powerful that he defeated nearly everyone he faced in the story without taking any damage, including Sanji, Zoro, and Nico Robin. Enel was damaged only twice. Firstly, he allowed the Shandoran warrior Wyper to use a weapon called a reject dial on him, which did succeed in temporarily stopping his heart, only for him to revive and defeat Wyper in short order.
Next, Enel was defeated by Luffy primarily due to dumb luck. Luffy’s Gomu-Gomu no Mi makes him a rubber man, which allowed him to strike Enel despite not mastering Armament Haki at that point (which would be the only other option), and rendered him completely invulnerable to Enel’s lightning.
So How Strong is Enel?
By the standards of pre time-skip One Piece, Enel’s power is monstrous. The best measurement of his power comes from Oda himself, answering a fan’s question in Volume 43. Oda estimated that if Enel were known on the Blue Sea, his bounty would reach 500 million Berry.
For context, this bounty is greater than every Straw Hat except Luffy himself even at the current point in the story (although Jinbe may well exceed it soon). Furthermore, Luffy’s bounty was only 100 million Berry when he faced Enel. By all indications, this is a massive number for a villain introduced relatively early in the series. Oda, however, was quick to emphasize that Enel would not rule the Blue Sea the way he did the sky. Some of the series’ strongest pirates have bounties in the billions, and the ubiquity of Haki post time-skip does make him weaker in context, as it does for all Logia Devil Fruit users.
That said, one can reasonably argue that Enel is stronger than the main villains of both arcs which succeed Skypiea. Water 7/Enies Lobby’s main villain, Rob Lucci, is a Zoan Fruit user who can turn into a leopard, and doesn’t seem to have much protection against the sheer power of Enel’s lightning. The battle may be a bit closer between Enel and Thriller Bark’s antagonist, the warlord Gecko Moria, who controls shadows, but even Moria seems weaker than Enel. The first opponent introduced in One Piece that seems almost certain to overpower Enel is the similarly-powered Navy Admiral Kizaru (real name Borsalino).
Kizaru’s Pika Pika no Mi means he is living light, and thus can move even faster than Enel, and shares his immunity to most physical attacks. That said, even by the current standards of One Piece, it’s clear that the now-former Kami is no slouch, and if he were to return from the Moon (where he ended up after Luffy defeated him, fulfilling his desire), he could still do a lot of damage.
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