Monkey D. Luffy is the protagonist of Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece. Luffy set out on the journey to becoming the Pirate King over two years ago and has, since then, become an incredible pirate. With the power of the Gomu Gomu no Mi, combined with his keen mind when it comes to combat, Luffy is nigh unstoppable in combat.
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Over the years, he’s faced adversity in many forms and overcome them with his many power-ups. Currently, Luffy is strong enough to fight the strongest of the Yonko in a one-on-one battle, making him extremely capable.
Luffy Power-ups
Updated on February 21, 2023, by Rei Penber: Luffy is an incredibly powerful pirate in the world of One Piece currently. After the events of the Wano Country arc, which recently concluded in the manga, Luffy has now ascended to the throne of the Yonko, replacing the man who he beat, the King of Beasts, Kaido. To defeat Kaido, Luffy had to surpass all his limits and learn to use all his powers in the best possible manner. As such, Luffy gained a string of power-ups during the Wano Country arc. While this list already goes over some of the strongest power-ups of Luffy over the years, there are some others that deserve to be mentioned. With that in mind, this list has now been updated.
15 Gear Second
Gear Second is the first big power-up that Monkey D. Luffy received in the story. After losing to Aokiji, Luffy realized that he needed to become stronger. His loss to the CP9 in Enies Lobby only increased his desire to gain further strength. Interestingly, Luffy managed to notice the trick behind the CP9’s Soru technique and combined it with his Devil Fruit power to create Gear Second.
By pumping blood faster throughout his body, Luffy is able to take his physical capabilities to the next level. Gear Second makes him stronger, faster and allows him to react to any incoming attack much faster than he normally would.
14 Gear Third
Luffy invented Gear Third alongside Gear Second. This power was first used to break down the giant metal door in Enies Lobby but a true glimpse of this power was given to the fans when he fought against Rob Lucci. Gear Third sees Luffy bite his thumb and blow large amounts of air into his bones, giving him the body of a giant.
As expected, Gear Third is much stronger than Gear Second, however, it was very difficult for him to use before timeskip. Currently, Luffy has a perfect mastery of Gear Third and can easily take on some strong foes with its power.
13 Nightmare Luffy
The Thriller Bark arc of One Piece saw Luffy use a unique power-up made possible by those who had their shadows stolen by Gecko Moria. By stuffing 100 shadows inside Luffy, he was granted tremendous power.
Nightmare Luffy was strong enough to block Oars’ punch with his palm effortlessly. He managed to completely overpower Oars in this form and even had great skills as a swordsman. Sadly, Nightmare Luffy has never appeared in the story ever since.
12 Gear Second (Post-Timeskip)
After the timeskip, Luffy massively improved his control over his many gears, starting with Gear Second. Before his training under Rayleigh, it was quite clear that Gear Second exhausted him a lot, and during the Thriller Bark arc, it was also established that it affected his vitality adversely.
However, after the timeskip, Luffy has learned to use Gear Second in a controlled manner, where he only activates it in certain parts of his body. This lets him conserve energy and fight with ferocity at the same time. Against the Pacifista, fans got a display of how strong Luffy has become after his training.
11 The Three Haki Types
After the events of the Paramount War, Luffy was trained by the Dark King, Silvers Rayleigh. Under his guidance, Luffy trained in the ways of Haki for a year and a half and managed to grasp the basics of this power pretty well. Luffy could easily evade most threats with Observation Haki and use his Armament Haki to strengthen his attacks as well as his defense.
Most importantly, Luffy also learned to use Conqueror’s Haki, which allows him to overwhelm those with weaker willpower than him. Haki has allowed Luffy to fight the strong enemies of the New World and this power has continued to grow over the years.
10 Gear Third (Post-Timeskip)
Just like he did with Gear Second, Luffy also worked on an improved Gear Third during the two-year timeskip. Thanks to all the giant beasts on Ruskaina, Luffy was able to take his strength to the next level by increasing the power of Gear Third.
Unlike before, Luffy’s Gear Third became much more compact after the time-skip, and is now used in just his forelimbs. Thanks to this, Luffy has also gotten around the side effects of the gear that caused him to shrink. By coating himself in Haki, he’s now much stronger than before.
9 Gear Fourth
During the two-year timeskip, Monkey D. Luffy fought against the mighty animals that lived on Ruskaina. To defeat them, he needed an incredible amount of strength and body that was tough enough to take lots of damage. Smart as Luffy is, he came up with Gear Fourth.
By pumping air into his muscles and using the maximum output of his Haki to increase elasticity, Luffy managed to achieve both of his goals. Gear Fourth relies on the power of elasticity to grant him incredible offensive output and defensive ability. Luffy overwhelmed the likes of Doflamingo, Cracker, and even Charlotte Katakuri with this power.
8 Gear Fourth: Tankman – Full Version
Luffy debuted Gear Fourth: Bounceman against Donquixote Doflamingo, but a stronger adversary followed shortly after: Cracker. Although Gear Fourth was strong enough to take on the former, Luffy needed a different strategy to defeat his new enemy, and hence he relied on Tankman.
By creating a bigger and bulkier form of Bounceman, Luffy is able to tank an incredible number of blows without much trouble whatsoever. He debuted the Full Version form against Cracker and managed to defeat him in a single hit.
7 Gear Fourth: Snakeman
Snakeman is yet another form of Luffy’s Gear Fourth that debuted during the fight against Charlotte Katakuri. He developed this power during the two-year timeskip as a countermeasure for those who rely more on speed in combat.
By using his fist, called “Python” in this form, Luffy is able to hit his rivals with an incredibly high-speed punch that keeps on accelerating with time. Snakeman, when coupled with Future Sight Observation Haki makes Luffy almost unbeatable in combat. Thanks to his technique, he was able to take Katakuri down.
6 Future Sight Observation Haki
In his fight against Charlotte Katakuri, the strongest of Big Mom’s Sweet Commanders, Luffy found himself being outclassed due to the latter’s incredible usage of Observation Haki. Katakuri had trained his Observation Haki to a level where he could see seconds into the future.
This, when combined with his Devil Fruit ability, made him an unstoppable force in combat. To counter this, Luffy had to level up his Observation Haki to the same level. He managed to do so slowly throughout the fight and by its end, Luffy had a decent grasp over Future Sight as well.
5 The Ability To Switch Gears Instantly
As the Wano Country arc continued, Luffy grew stronger and stronger. On the fateful night of the Raid of Onigashima, Luffy fought against Kaido and lost to him two times. During this fight, Luffy’s control over his Devil Fruit powers grew better and better. Whereas once he needed some time after using Gear Fourth, that time limit did not seem to affect him any longer. In fact, Luffy was seen freely switching between his Gear Fourth forms as the fight went on.
Shortly before Luffy was killed by Kaido, he was seen switching between Bounceman and Snakeman freely, which is something that he had never done before. This power-up is very minute and one that not many fans even noticed. However, when taking into consideration the fact that Gear 4th once took a massive toll on his body, this is a power-up that deserves to be mentioned. Now that he has grown even stronger, Luffy can certainly use these Gear forms even more.
4 Ryou
Ryou is a concept of Haki that was introduced in the Wano Country arc of One Piece. To the people of Wano, Ryou is simply what Armament Haki is to the rest of the world, however, the application of this power is very different. Unlike Armament Haki, Ryou focuses on making Haki flow from one point in the body without making direct contact with the target.
This prevents wastage of Haki and allows the user to pierce anything that they want, even the tough scales of Yonko Kaido. Luffy managed to take this skill even further when he was able to send his Haki directly inside the body of the target and cause internal damage without needing to pierce the exterior of the enemy.
3 Internal Destruction Ryuo
Luffy learned the concept of Ryuo during the Wano Country arc when he was imprisoned in the Udon Mine. There, Hyogoro, the old leader of the Yakuza of Wano, taught him how to use this form of Haki. While the standard form of Ryuo allows for Haki to flow from one point in the body, making sure there was no wastage, there was revealed to be a level beyond that that only a few in the world can use. Luffy had already advanced his Haki to this level during his time in Udon Prison.
However, he just didn’t know how to bring out this power from within. Thanks to the guidance of the old Yakuza boss, Luffy was able to master this technique and make his Haki enter the body of his enemies and destroy them from the inside out. This form of Haki is very special and Luffy demonstrated its usage on several occasions as the story went on. That said, it proved to be somewhat ineffective against Kaido. Despite making him cough up blood, it was not enough to substantially injure the Yonko.
2 Conqueror’s Haki Coating
Luffy’s greatest power-up to date is, undoubtedly, Conqueror’s Haki coating. During his fight against Kaido, Luffy observed Kaido coating his weapon in Conqueror’s Haki. After this realization hit him, he was able to use a crude version of this technique himself and could coat his fists in Conqueror’s Haki.
In his final fight against Kaido, Luffy appears to have a better grasp over this power and proved to be strong enough to split the heavens using Conqueror’s Haki when he clashed against Kaido. Luffy is far stronger now than ever before.
1 Gear 5
Gear Fifth is a unique power-up that Luffy finally tapped into towards the end of his fight against Kaido. To achieve this power up, Luffy actually had to die at the hands of the Yonko, following the interruption in their battle from Guernica, one of the members of the CP0. As Luffy continued his fight against Kaido, it was revealed by the Gorosei that his Devil Fruit is actually not the Gomu Gomu no Mi but a Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit called the Hito Hito no Mi, Model: Nika.
This Devil Fruit is known to have evaded the World Government for centuries and, just like all other Zoan Devil Fruits, it has a will of its own. That is precisely why it chose Luffy as its consumer. The true power of this Devil Fruit can only be brought forward after it awakens. Following his death, Luffy awakened this fruit and he gained enough power to topple even Kaido, the strongest pirate alive at this point in time. Once awakened, it gives Luffy an all-white transformation and allows him to fight with immense freedom. At the same time, it also allows him to spread joy and laughter wherever he goes, liberating people from oppression all the while. Awakening also grants this body of his additional toughness, along with the ability to fight in any way the human mind can think of. His powers are only limited by his imagination. Gear 5 is the ultimate power-up for Monkey D. Luffy and one that suits his character perfectly.
