Generally speaking, superpower systems are always fun to think about because they serve as things that we want to do which makes great hypothetical discussions. However, it's very rare for any of these powers to be exposited enough to get a good discussion of their mechanics out.
However, Hunter X Hunter has provided enough of a guideline for Nen without too much structure that one can utilize Nen in arguably any way they see fit. So right now, I'm going to go over every single aspect of Nen so we can go over what may be possible with it.
There are, in total, Four Basic Principles, 7 Advanced Applications, and 6 Aura Categories.
The Principles are Ten, Zetsu, Ren, and Hatsu.
Ten is the first of these principles introduced and the first one that's ever taught to someone learning aura. It is the ability to take your aura and have it flow through and around you to reduce the effects of aging and reinforce your body.
Right now, I want to tackle something that Wing said about Ten that has confused me for a while and likely many others as well. Wing states that Ten will protect you against Aura but will not protect you from physical attacks. However, if we take this statement at face value, several things in the series don't make much sense.
Probably the biggest offender is Uvogin, who violates this rule the hardest. We do actually see Uvogin use the three Ten-based Applications so we know what we're dealing with. While he's bound to a table he's using Ten, that's it. He does use Ken but not until later when he's fighting Kurapika. And he also uses Ko, both during his fight with Kurapika, and against the Shadow Beasts. And, while these applications do show their own differences in strength, what is noteworthy is that Uvo's Ten alone is able to completely block a sword stab so well that the sword breaks in half on contact. And, when we look at his fight with Kurapika where he clearly is using Ken, we can see that it looks quite a bit bigger than the amount of aura he used to block this attack, just like the Ken used by other characters, suggesting he was only using Ten.
Something else to consider about that, though, is the existence of the technique Ken in the first place. Ken actually does make your body resistant to physical attacks, so much so that anybody not using Aura would be unable to damage you at all. The fact that Ken is made up of Ten and Ren is suspicious because of how Ren works. Ten is an aura cloak, but Ren is simply the ability to generate more aura, so if Ten didn't augment your durability, Ken wouldn't be able to, either, it just doesn't follow.
And thirdly is Zushi. We do see in Zushi's fight with Killua that he is quite durable. Now, it is true that Zushi had been training his body but we do see that Killua was still far stronger in terms of physical power, without Nen. Also, Killua makes the comment that Zushi's durability is something that should not be possible with a regular body and, though we do not see Zushi use Ten, it is at a time when Gon and Killua are unable to see Aura in the first place, which is why Killua was scared by his Ren. So it stands to reason that Zushi's Ten, which he was allowed to use by Wing, was what was amplifying his durability so much.
Bearing in mind, at that time in the manga, Killua was able to push the first three testing gates, which is 16 tons. Killua is not a physically weak character, there's no reason to suggest that he was not able to deal damage and there's no reason to suggest that someone as inexperienced and less conditioned as Zushi would be able to take those blows without a buffer.
What I think is going on there is that, yes, Ten does amplify your physical body but, for most people, aura capacity without Ren is only enough to protect you from aura by itself. When Gon fights Gido, Gido amplifies the durability of his tops and manipulates them. Gon's Ten would be enough to block the aura in the tops but not the tops themselves, he would have to take the brunt of that with his body.
The second principle is Zetsu. Zetsu is the ability to shut off aura flow to hide your presence and rebuild stamina at the cost of losing your attack and defensive power. This principle is used by several applications but generally, it's used by the smallest number of them, with only 2 of the 7 applications actually using it, those being In and Ko.
The third principle, Ren, is the ability to generate more Aura. It's similar to Ki charging in Dragon Ball Z fighting games if that gives you an idea of how it works. Your base aura level is how much you start with and have at any given time, but Ren can be used to increase it up to a certain point. What that point is will vary from character to character but, suffice it to say, that's how it works.
And finally, the fourth Principle, Hatsu, is the ability to project your aura from your body and have it have some effect on the world around you. Hatsu is the most complicated of the principles because it ties directly into the six aura categories so we'll circle back to it in a while.
The 7 known Applications of Nen all use these four principles to some extent. In order, these applications are In, Gyo, Shu, En, Ken, Ko, and Ryu.
In is the ability to hide your aura while it's in use. The way this is described as using Zetsu made no sense to me initially because Zetsu cuts off aura flow rather than simply concealing it. The way I think about this, though, is that In is the opposite of Gyo. Namely, that In disperses aura enough that it becomes invisible to most people. In this way, it's sort of like thinking of something's density. Aura is visible to people at the solid level, then liquid makes it harder to see, and gas disperses it enough that it becomes entirely invisible. That's how I made sense of it, at least.
Gyo is the ability to concentrate a large amount of aura into a single body part. Usually, this is the eyes so they see through an In but it can also be used as a sort of weaker but faster version of Ko, which we'll cover in more detail as we get to Ryu. Gyo is stated to be an advanced application of Ren.
Shu is an advanced application of Ten. When used, you coat your aura around stuff you're holding, such as a sword or a shovel, both of which are done in the series. Not much to say because I already covered it in detail earlier. It's also more proof that Ten does amplify durability.
En is an application that combines Ten with Ren. Use Ren to boost your aura, and Ten to cover an area so you can detect anything that passes into it. This application is used to detect things that are hidden by Zetsu or to find things that are out of view. It's similar to the Byakugan in Naruto, only instead of 360 Degree Vision, you simply feel the area around you to the extent your aura goes. This move is described as taxing because of how much aura it uses during its duration.
Ken is also a combination of Ten and Ren. Use Ten to reinforce your body and Ren to boost the aura you have to make your body significantly more durable. This is described by Killua as "Ko on your entire body" but this is not entirely accurate because the two moves are somewhat distinct from each other.
Ko is an application that combines Ten, Ren, Zetsu, Hatsu, and Gyo together to put all of your aura into a single point. Ten to place your aura, Ren to boost it, Gyo to focus it, Zetsu to cut off aura in other areas to boost where it's going, and Hatsu to release it as an attack.
And finally, Ryu is real-time use of Gyo. Namely, you focus as much aura as you need in the needed body parts as you're using them to boost your effectiveness in the most vital areas.
These applications can also be combined. Use Ko and Shu together to amplify the power of a weapon dramatically. Combine Ken and Shu to increase the power of armor you're wearing. Use Ko and Ryu together to maximize damage output and defense where ever necessary. Not all of these applications have been used but that's not the point. The point is, they can be for great effectiveness.
Finally, Hatsu has 6 distinct categories. Enhancement, Transmutation, Conjuring, Emission, Manipulation, and Specialization.
Enhancement is the ability to amplify something's power. Enhancers are often described as having a balance of attack and defense, making them pretty balanced overall. The downside, is that there are very few abilities an enhancer can come up with that are not just some super powered variant of one of the previously mentioned abilities. Though an Enhancer might be able to heal themselves, it is worth noting that most Hatsu developed by Enhancers are some variation on Ko. Gon's Jajanken Rock, Uvogin's Big Bang Impact, Wing's Shockwave, Phink's Ripper Cyclotron. The only effort to be different was Phinks, whose Ripper Cyclotron gets stronger the more he winds his arm, combining Ko with a Restriction to make it stronger.
The second type, Transmutation, is the ability to alter the properties of your aura for different effects. So far, a number of Transmuters have used it to generate elemental properties, particularly Fire and Electricity, though others have used it to give their aura specific properties, such as Hisoka's Bungee Gum, or Machi's Nen Threads. Transmutation has the potential to have the widest variety of Aura abilities, since it can take properties from completely unrelated substances and combine them to make something truly unique but so far none have done so. The only one that has is Zeno Zoldyck who combines Electricity with the shape of a dragon but, YuYu Hakusho, Dragon Ball Z: Wrath of the Dragon, Devil May Cry, and other series have done this as well, making it less unique to the audience viewing him.
Next is Emission, which is the ability to project your aura at long distance. This generally comes in the form of firing something at long range like a bullet or arrow or taking something at close range and teleporting it like a hitscan attack in video games or like a spell in a lot of RPG's. Not much can be said about this because there are so few Emitters in the series and all of them have relatively similar abilities. The most distinct ability that has been used in this category is Leorio's Teleported Punch, which takes the force of his blow and teleports it to the target he chooses.
Next is Conjuring, which is similar to Transmuting but somewhat distinct. Namely that Transmuters convert the properties of their aura while Conjurers convert their aura entirely. The benefit to this is that a Conjurer can spawn substances or creatures that do not exist in the world, meaning that they are only limited by imagination. This would have been Kurapika's Achilles Heel had he not possessed Emperor Time but he got around it that way.
Manipulators can put their aura into a substance and then give that substance a command to follow. What they're doing here is giving a command to their aura, putting it in the substance, then the command is transferred from the aura into the substance itself. So far, there have been three ways this has been done that are distinct from each other: the first is Shalnark's ability to manipulate someone through the antennas he puts into people.The second is Illumi's ability to manipulate body parts that his needles get stuck in. And the third is Hisoka's aura restarting his heart after he died.
And finally, a Specialist ability is any aura ability that does not fall under the other five categories. If we give you the aura chart and how they're related, it will look like this:
Pick any point on the chart as your Aura category. Your efficiency in that type will be 100%. The two adjacent categories will be 80%, the two categories past those will be 60% and the one on the opposite side will be 40%. At least, that's how it is in theory but the way the specialist category works kind of throws a wrench into that.
You see, Specialization is so far removed from every other category that the two adjacent categories Conjuring and Manipulation has a 1% efficiency in specialization if either of those is your aura type. The other three will have 0%.
In a lot of cases, this can even work against you if you are a specialist. Unless you get really lucky, a specialist will have 100% efficiency with the specialist ability they develop and 0% in every other category.
The reason I say really lucky in that regard is because, Specialization is a catch all class for any ability. So, for example, a specialist could have an ability like Kurapika's Emperor Time, which gives him 100% efficiency in the other 5 types. This means that, even though he's a Specialist, his specialist ability is to max out the other categories.
An alternative ability, which has not been seen before but is within the realm of possibility is for a Specialist to be able to alter the aura category they fall under at will in order to learn the other types quickly. In theory, this would expend aura while active but it would make learning aura a lot more useful.
However, not every specialist ability is like this so the chances of developing something like that are pretty rare, making Kurapika's Emperor Time a bit of a Clan Ex Machina.
Now, Netero, Ging, and Bisky have proven that it is possible to master all, or at least the 5 of the 6 aura types that are not specialization, but it's worth noting that using multiple aura types at once for a single move is rather difficult.
Probably the biggest example is Kastro's Doppelganger technique. His Tiger Bite Fist is an Enhancement Skill and had he worked on that, he would've been quite formidable even to Hisoka. However, his Doppelganger required him to use two Aura categories at the same time, Conjuring to spawn it, and Manipulation to make it do things. And because he was using the Tiger Bite Fist during it, he used 3 Aura categories at the same time and all of them were relatively far from each other. So much so that all Hisoka needed to do was throw Kastro off of his game just slightly in order to render him completely unable to fight.
However, individual techniques that use one aura type that are then combined into a system works just fine. An example of this is Gon's Jajanken, which is comprised of Enhancement, Transmutation, and Emission. Enhancement is used in Jajanken Rock, which is a full power punch, Transmutation is used in Jajanken Scissors, which creates a blade he can cut things with, and Emission is used in Jajanken Paper, which is effectively just a Ki blast.
Arguably, Gon's weakest ability was Jajanken Paper but I think that's simply due to the nature of the attack itself. You see, Jajanken Scissors is a blade, kind of like a sword, so it will deal damage differently than a blunt attack like Jajanken Rock. Because it's a blade, it only needs enough Aura to keep the blade strong and then enough force to cut with, which an enhancer would have in spades. However, Paper was an Emission ability that is blunt like Rock, which effectively means that its power is dependent on the strength of Gon's aura by itself and how powerful it remains will vary depending on the maximum distance he can throw it.
Finally, this leads us into how Aura types are categorized in terms of strength. The aura types are divided into levels. Ranging from Level 1-10. From what I've seen, each of these aura levels has an efficiency range. If your efficiency with your aura is between 1-10%, you are a level 1, 11-20% is level 2, etc.
Though others have stated that the levels themselves are the techniques you know, this interpretation makes more sense to me because of Knuckle and how he describes Gon's efficiency in Emission. He states that Gon's Jajanken Paper is an ability that used 4000 Aura Points but only 500 managed to do any damage. An Emitter of the same skill level would've hit with the full force, giving him a 100% efficiency. Gon's efficiency, however, was less than 13%, suggesting that he may very well be a level 2 emitter.
At this moment, we're not entirely sure why, though Bisky's training may have had something to do with that. Bisky got Gon up to Emitter Level 2 and wanted to grow him exponentially, so she took a gamble. Instead of giving him Level 3 Emitter training, she gave him Level 5 Emitter training. What this would mean is one of two things: if it failed, Gon would be stuck at Level 2 and not even reach level 3. If it succeeded, Gon would be at Level 5 without needing to train at level 3 or 4. And, considering how that week went, and Knuckle's analysis of Gon's efficiency, it would seem that the gamble failed and Gon remained at level 2. And, remember, his efficiency was at 12.5%, suggesting that he was barely a level 2. He's only slightly stronger than a level 1.
However, using multiple Aura types together can still work. For example, Killua's Godspeed makes use of Enhancement and Transmutation abilities at the same time, to give his aura lightning effects, and to amplify his reaction time.
Feitan, likewise, uses Transmutation, Conjuring, and Emission together to use Pain Packer together with Rising Sun. Likely, using Pain Packer was a conscious choice to protect himself from Rising Sun, since many have stated that a Transmuter is not invulnerable toward their own aura, meaning that if he didn't have Pain Packer on Rising Sun would have damaged him significantly.
Machi's Nen Threads use Transmutation together with Enhancement as a form of healing ability, though she doesn't seem to be competent in the other abilities, except arguably Emission, since she can keep her Nen Threads separated from her body while a patient is healing.
Netero's Guanyin Bodhisattva uses Conjuring, Manipulation, and Emission all at the same time, even though Netero is an Enhancer.
Bisky's primary type is unknown but she seems to be primarily a Conjurer and a Manipulator with her abilities. Conjuring a person to heal her aches and pains when she's stressed out, and Manipulating her own body to go from large, muscular, and macho, to a loli. Granted, her Conjuring ability also uses Transmutation and Emission, and she is more than likely skilled in Enhancement given her training and physical form.
Other than that, though, most Nen users seem to be one of two types: either learn just enough of multiple categories to build the abilities you want, or learn your own aura type and master it to the point that you cannot be beaten with it.
Nowhere is this clearer than the Phantom Troupe: Uvogin, Phinks, and Nobunaga are just Enhancers, Shizuku, Bonolenov, and Kortopi are Conjurers, Shalnark is a Manipulator, and Franklin is an Emitter. But then you have Pakunoda, who combines Specialization with Emission and Conjuring, you have Machi, who uses Enhancement, Transmutation, and Emission, you have Feitan, who uses Transmutation, Emission, Conjuring, and Enhancement, you have Hisoka, who uses Transmutation, Enhancement, Conjuring, Emission, and Manipulation, and Chrollo is a Conjurer who also uses Specialist abilities.
I didn't put these thoughts in the order I wanted but this is the most complete set of thoughts on the subject that I've come to since writing this.
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