Travis is a very formidable assassin, being skilled in the art of swordplay and physical combat. After becoming acquainted with Randall Lovikov, the town drunk, Travis is able to rely on Lovikov to teach him special techniques that compliment his fighting and questing skills. These techniques named after the Killer7 include abilities such as running comically fast, extrasensory perception revealing enemies on the mini map, Pouncing on downed opponents from long distances to execute them, a special Beam Katana strike, a longer grab, Earning Bonus cash after assassin fights, and doubling the amount of time he can remain in Dark side mode.
He is able to activate "Dark Side" mode by lining up three symbols in a slot machine after executing a Death Blow or a Wrestling Throw. Travis calls out the name of the attack and activates whatever trance of Dark side the slots picked. Each trance of Dark Side Mode releases energy that fully recharges Travis' katana and imbues Travis with superhuman speed and invincibility as well as the specific powers of each Trance. These powers include slowing down time, entering a dark rage that induces fear and doubles his strength, Shooting yellow balls of pure energy similar to a Ki blast, Transforming into a Super Saiyan like state that turns his hair yellow and allows him to run extra fast while super-charging his katana to kill any opponent instantly with one blow, Raining down explosive blasts of pink energy all around him clearing the field of enemies, Shape shifting into a Tiger able to one shot opponents much like his Super Saiyan transformation, and releasing a massive wave of pink energy all around him that clears the field of enemies. He is also able to manually activate an unnamed Darkside sometimes known as Super Mode or Ecstasy by fans. Travis gains speeds so intense that he teleports all around his enemies slashing them in an unbroken infinite combo that follows targets even when they themselves teleport away. This is theorized to be the missing attack called Nut berry Milk Blancmange revealed to be the name of the signature move of Nutberry from the Bizarre Jelly 5 Anime in Travis Strikes Again.
By Desperate Struggle, Travis is able to produce high concentrations of Ki within his body whenever he gets excited (Represented by the Ecstasy Gauge). Being pumped with Ki energy allows Travis to flow seamlessly between combos and dodges, extend his combos, resist attacks which would normally knock him down, and perform Dark Beat attacks that dim the screen much like a Dark Step and stun opponents instantaneously. There is the possibility that Travis is constantly at max ecstasy during the events of No More Heroes 1 since he always has the ability to do Dark Beat attacks and his love for killing is at its peak during the plot of that game. All Dark side Modes set him back to low ecstasy due to the release of all his energy but Travis can begin passively producing Ki again as soon as its over and as a result he is never seen losing stamina during combat.
His preferred weapon is the Beam Katana, which he relies on the scientist Dr. Naomi to design for him, and to optimize the models he already owns. Throughout No More Heroes, Travis acquires the Blood Berry, followed by the more durable Tsubaki that serves as a direct upgrade for Blood Berry with a stronger beam and a more reliable battery, the heavily upgraded and empowered Tsubaki Mk-II which is comprised of five beams and requires 2 hands to wield, and finally the Tsubaki Mk-III, a receiver-less beam katana designed after the Beam Katana of his mentor, Thunder Ryu. The lack of a receiver allows it to extend for Deathblows. In Desperate Struggle, Travis gains Peony, a katana that harnesses his Ki to extend its blade but it strains him and forces him to swing it slowly due to the draining of his energy. He also gains a set of Dual katanas named Rose Nasty, These Katanas have a very long lasting battery and let Travis perform very fast attacks.
He has former experience in pro wrestling, training through the use of correspondence tapes and some experience in Calgary with a mysterious master who leaves him notes signed by M.S. before ranking fights (Possibly Mask de Smith from killer7). This experience allows him to use a great variety of Wrestling Moves to take down foes, Travis punctuates all of his Wrestling Moves by letting his Beam Katana land on his opponent to guarantee their death. He strikes his opponents so hard with his punches and kicks that they are left stunned and are sent flying on occasion. In Desperate Struggle Travis can reduce his opponent's health with his hand to hand strikes and can use wrestling moves in place of a deathblow even if his opponent isn't dazed. His Wrestling Moves slam hard enough to create shockwaves that push other enemies back.
Travis also has some resistance to firearms, Assassins like Dr. Peace, Helter-Skelter, Skelter Helter and Margaret Moonlight have riddled him with bullets, Margaret specifically used explosive rounds against him. Helter Skelter also hit him with missiles on top of the bullets. Aside from bullets, Travis also survived a potent electric shock and several powerful laser attacks from the assassin Destroyman as well as 4 Frag grenade explosions from the assassin Holly Summers while stuck in a hole that made the explosions focus upward all around him.
Travis is a master at blocking attacks. He is able to block lasers, bullets, and melee strikes from any direction extremely quickly. He can parry a lot of powerful attacks and counter using one of his charged slashes. By the time of Desperate Struggle the only attacks he has difficulty parrying are those of Jasper Batt Jr.'s second phase during his teleporting close range punch combo. In his super hero form Jasper is able to punch the air so hard he creates blasts of compressed air, He can parry those blasts but the punches themselves break his guard if he tries to parry them, he can only parry the last punch which is the weakest. Travis managed to block attacks from Alice Twilight who used 7 robotic appendages to swing beam katanas at Travis all at once. These include 6 arms and 1 tail that has a stronger strike. Travis can somewhat block Speed Buster's massive laser cannon and he has the strength to push back Assassins such as Henry Cooldown and Jasper Batt Jr. in a blade clash. His reflexes also let him dodge attacks such as Destroyman's beam and Captain Vladimir's orbital laser even when taken by surprise.
Travis Touchdown is shown to have a high degree of durability to a sort of cartoonish level, this allows for a ton of slapstick humor whenever Travis is in a fight. Travis is extremely resistant to firearms as mentioned above. He is also extremely resistant to poison as shown when he does not die and recovers quickly upon inhaling Cloe Walsh's mist of poison which is strong enough to melt concrete. In addition to that, Cloe is able to pin him down and kiss him, flooding his body with her corrosive poison. This causes Travis to spit out a ton of blood but it doesn't kill him. He is able to withstand all attacks that common enemies or bosses deal to him. He is able to withstand the devastating blades of a chainsaw, beam katanas, and the massive earthquake that Dr. Letz Shake created during his duel with him. In fact, he is able to withstand Jeane's punch through his chest and still stand on his two feet showing no signs of feeling pain, endure Bad Girl's barrage of hits when she's dying and even Alice Twilight's attack in which her scorpion tail stabs him through his hips and slams him down on the ground as well as any other special moves that assassins in Desperate Struggle use when they win a blade clash. He can survive getting pile-drived by Jasper Batt's super hero form that can punch with enough strength to created blasts of compressed air and even getting punched, shot and crushed by Jasper's giant 3rd from that casually slapped away the top layer of Pizza Batt Tower to get a good view of Travis inside of Batt's office. He even survived the explosion of prison island when he was a few meters away from it's epicenter stemming from Cloe Walsh's body. Travis can also withstand a Soviet orbital laser fired from a satellite. Travis can also pull himself away from the brink of death through sheer will about 9 times when the player shakes the controller in No More Heroes 2 after losing all of their health. Travis also survives the attacks of White Sheep man (Dr. Juvenile) who had full control over the worlds of the Death Drive. Her unavoidable Dendrobium ball attack is the strongest in the game but at max level Travis can tank it without dying. Travis at a max level of 20 has Tripled his attributes from the start of the game letting him easily stand up to the bosses in the Death Drive who are far stronger than any Assassin Travis has faced before. Bosses like Eight Hearts, Garcia Hotspur's gun who killed the lord of hell in Shadows of the Damned.
Travis also has a vast amount of mental fortitude, He is able to withstand Margaret Moonlight's singing which was able to put Sylvia into a week long coma when she heard it from a 100 yards away and Cloe Walsh's insane screaming that makes the birds flying around prison island commit suicide by drowning themselves, these screams are also strong enough to create and earthquake on the island. On top of this, Travis resists her attempt to paralyze him at the beginning of the fight where he complains about not being able to move his body only to then find the strength to stab Cloe and save himself. Both Margaret and Cloe have supernatural powers stemming from Akashic points. (Margaret is Alice Twilight's sister and you find Alice inside of an Akashic point, Alice can be seen burning a picture of her and Margaret before her fight as well as a picture containing only Margaret.) He also withstood the effects of the Death Drive MK-2 which is said to cause madness and mental deterioration.
Travis is a genius who can adapt to any situation, only being tricked by assassins who are equally as cunning. People get the impression that Travis is easy to fool from his encounter with Destroyman. Destroyman however, is a silver tongued cheater who appeals to Travis' sense of honor and changes personalities in an instant to manipulate his opponents, giving off an honorable and polite aura until he shocks Travis and reveals his true personality, He never actually expected Travis to survive his special attack combo and simply stand back up. He goes as far as to prepare decoys for his desperation move where he uses a crane to lift himself out of reach to spam powerful ranged attacks. Travis cleverly uses these blasts and knocks them back at Destroy man with his beam katana to stun him, (just like when he sends lasers flying back in Desperate Struggle). Once the fight is over, Travis stabs Destroyman in the back knowing he can't shoot any beams from his back (the only time Travis has killed an assassin from behind). Destroyman tries to trick Travis one last time by pleading for help while impaled, and when Travis removes his beam katana from his chest, he fires his nipple turrets at Travis, but Travis pretends to fall for it, and splits him in half effortlessly in one swift motion, showing that Travis had him all figured out.
Many other Assassins try to set up traps for Travis to make their fights with him difficult and challenging, such as Holly Summers, whose entire stage is full of minefields and barbed wire, and uses pitfall traps and other guerilla tactics to try and kill Travis at a distance, even employing tricks like tossing sand at his face with her shovel. In No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle, he bests Nathan Copeland in his office full of turrets and bombs and conveyor belts as well as a chandelier that makes the center of the room unavailable. He beats Dr. Letz Shake in an Arena personally designed by him to facilitate his earthquake attack that launches giant pillars out of the ground. To avoid it, Travis stands on key support pillars made of steel that exist to make the field structurally sound and don't rise up like every other pillar. Travis can keep up with assassins who teleport and have strange abilities like Harvey Volodarskii, Margaret Moonlight, and Jasper Batt Jr. He can also keep up with the crazy patterns and attacks of the enemies inside of the Death Drive Mk II. He even beat White Sheepman who could create black hole vortexes and checker the field with blasts of light.
