Donatello's scientific knowledge and engineering skills

[victory_angel]

Originally Posted by The Great Saiyaman

AND the 2012 Donatello has an addition to his Bo-staff which makes him just as deadly as Leonardo with his swords.
https://thumbs.gfycat.com/AmusedLeanGrouper-mobile.jpg
A Naginata is quite the dangerous weapon, since it can be used as a spear but also as a sword.

He certainly wasn't the worst fighter of the team in this incarnation.

In many ways, Donatello's ninja skills have been a compliment to Leonardo's in the 2k12 incarnation.

Donnie and Leo are able to combine their skills together in a way that makes them rather devastating as a tandom force.

Each of the turtles are strong fighters individually. While Donnie may not be classified as the strongest fighter on the team, he is anything but weak. It's actually his intelligence that makes him more dangerous as a warrior, rather than his actual physical skills in ninjitsu.

He has proven that is still strong and capable on his own without his brothers. Even during the vision quest episode, Donnie faces off against Tiger Claw on his own. Tiger Claw is the Foot Clans second-in-command a role previous facing off against Karai. He was able to defeat Karai and was prepared to kill her if he absolutely had to in Target: April O'Neil.

Yes, you can make the "There was no one left" argument in the vision quest episode, but that isn't entirely true as Stockman also could have been an option. Tiger Claw tends to prefer going after Leo even though he claims vendetta against all four turtles, April, and Casey. So the fact Donnie is put against the Foot Second-in-Command sort of suggests that he had graduated to a second-in-command role as well.