Abilities Of Edward Elric

Despite Edward's small stature and young age, he is a remarkable combatant. Having apprenticed under Izumi Curtis, Ed was taught to condition his body through regular workouts and sparring as part of her philosophy, "to train the spirit, first train the body." As such, his slight frame belies a compactly muscular build that, in addition to his naturally high energy level and endurance, fuels his considerable strength and agility. Due to Izumi's spartan training, Edward has become a particularly competent hand-to-hand fighter, able to hold his own against armed opponents and even skilled martial arts practitioners. Besides that, his steel right arm and left leg augment his fighting strength by adding to his defensive and offensive capabilities as well as his speed - after he is refitted with a lighter, cold-climate automail in Chapter 70 of the manga.

Edward using alchemy without a transmutation circle.

Added by Jjmart0714

As suggested by his unprecedented acceptance into the State Alchemist program at such a remarkably young age, Edward Elric is an alchemical prodigy of genius level intellect. From early childhood, he displayed a proficiency for alchemy, acquiring self-taught alchemy skills and comprehension from the advanced literature in his father's abandoned study at an age that shocked even his mother. Having incorporated alchemy into his life during his developmental stages, Edward sees the world alchemically and is therefore able to solve complicated codes, puzzles and mysteries much more easily than normal. He has also shown himself to be exceptionally adept at chemistry and reasonably competent with biology; indeed even his preparations for the failed attempt to resurrect his mother were indicative of these. Edward's near-encyclopedic knowledge of alchemical theory is astounding and contributed to his incredible success with emergency Soul Binding experimentation. He shows an uncanny level of focus that allows him to effectively shut out everything from his surroundings and devote all of his considerable mental power to whatever problem demands his attention, especially in the case of books.

Combat AlchemyEdit

As a result of having passed through The Gate and witnessing the Truth, Edward became one of the few alchemists who do not require a drawn Transmutation Circle to perform alchemical transmutations. By merely touching his palms together, he creates an energy circulation with his arms and transmutes by using his own will as a substitute for the necessary runes. This remarkable talent makes his transmutations both instantaneous and incredibly versatile, allowing him to use alchemy to its fullest potential in direct combat. In the 2003 anime, Edward was initially unaware of his new talent and continued to draw transmutation circles when performing alchemy, but after he accidentally used this ability to heat water to comfort the pregnant Gracia Hughes, he ended up using it regularly.
With this quick style, Edward becomes a master of his surroundings and uses the substances therein to supplement his physical prowess in battle - creating giant earthen hands to lift objects, columns of stone to gain himself the higher ground and ogre-faced battering rams with which to strike opponents. Ed also specializes in transmuting weapons with which to do battle and often crafts menacing-looking swords and ostentatious lances when necessary, but his primary weapon is his automail right arm, whose forearm plating he transmutes into various blades.
Of course, the true genius of Edward Elric's combat alchemy lies in his aptitude for incorporating the alchemy styles of others into his own after merely having once seen them in action, which makes him very adaptable to various situations. So far, he has adapted Scar's destruction alchemy, Alex Louis Armstrong's gauntlets and stone spikes as well as Greed's carbon armor hardening into his combat repertoire. In the 2003 anime, he also took on the tactic of repeatedly altering the chemical makeup of his automail in order to keep Scar from comprehending and therefore, destroying it.
In the manga and 2009 anime, Edward's alchemy mostly deals with the transmutation of inanimate solid objects. In the 2003 anime his alchemy is somewhat more diverse. In this series he has also shown the ability to transmute water in multiple ways, like boiling and freezing it, forming moving constructs from it and even changing its chemical composition to that of other fluids. Lastly he can use his alchemy to transmute plants; in one instance he used alchemy to grow flowers from the ground and in another he mentioned being able to transmute grass into bread.
For the more complex alchemy such as summoning The Gate or transmuting souls, Ed still requires the use of a transmutation circle for performing these difficult tasks, though this is more frequent in the 2003 anime compared to the original manga and 2009 series.