LUFFY POWERS

The most fundamental component of any Shonen anime has always been its main character and even then, what actually makes people watch any specific shonen anime is the strength and capabilities of the main character.

Your criteria for judging a Shonen may vary but we are only talking about the majority here and as you can already guess from the title, today’s post is about “How strong is Luffy”. We don’t know about Luffy’s true power yet, because the manga, as well as the anime, are nowhere near the climax of the series. Still, it’s not like we can’t answer this question either.

So let’s just dive into the facts we have and see just :

How powerful is Luffy ?

Monkey D. Luffy (Origin)

To start things off let’s talk about how far has Luffy come since the first chapter of the manga, that was released more than two decades ago (1999).

Luffy was only about 7 years old when he stabbed himself under his eye just to prove to Shanks that he has what it takes to be a pirate.

Even after that, he continued to convince Shanks to let him join the Red Hair Pirates, but then he ate the Gomu Gomu No Mi left by Shanks mistakenly in front of him without having any idea what the fruit actually was.

How did Luffy get his powers ?

Well, that’s basically it. He ate a paramecia type devil fruit that allowed him to move and act like rubber. When this happened, Luffy and the Red-Haired Pirates were at the Partys Bar.

They were all drinking Sake like there will be no tomorrow but then a mountain bandit named Higuma enters and realizes that the pirates have finished all of the Sake.

Shanks tries to offer him the last bottle but the bandit shoves him away. The bandit left, but Luffy didn’t like what just happened. He tried to go after the bandit, but Shanks grabbed him by his arm. IT STRETCHED !

Bandit Thugs vs Red Hair Pirates – Luffy ate Gum Gum Fruit

And everyone realized that Luffy had eaten a devil fruit and now he wouldn’t be able to swim ever again. At another instance, Luffy tries to pick a fight with the mountain bandits again but they easily beat him…

The Red Hair Pirates arrive…Higuma grabs Luffy and escapes to the sea. The sea king eats Higum and then before the Sea King could eat Luffy, Shanks saves him, but he also loses one of his arms.

This made Luffy feel very defeated, as he was the reason why Shanks lost his arm. When its finally time for the Red pirates to leave, Luffy tells Shanks that he would form a stronger crew than his. In reply, Shanks gives Luffy his emblematic straw hat and tells him to return it once they meet again.

So, that was the origin of the future Pirate King, now let’s talk about his powers and how he evolved over time

Monkey D. Luffy Powers – Influence

We know that it’s been almost 12 or 13 years since the day, Luffy ate that devil fruit. Over the years he has gone through many near-death experiences and tough situations which obviously made him stronger.

He is the captain of one of the most influential crews out there. In his crew, there are many notorious pirates such as the Pirate Hunter Zoro or the Knight of the Sea : Jinbei.

Luffy Is also one of the twelve pirates of the Worst Generation. All of these twelve pirates have done some significant damage to the World Government in one way or another. That’s why they are all very renowned.

In addition to that, Luffy’s strength also includes his claim over the Straw Hat Grand Fleet, it is an enormous fleet with over 5600 members. All of them support Luffy and they’ll come to assist him whenever he needs them. The significance of Luffy’s followers have already been acknowledged by the World Government, and they consider him as big a threat as the four Yonko.

Straw Hat Grand Fleet members

And if we consider what happened in the 878th episode :

« The World is Stunned – The Fifth Emperor of the Sea Emerges ! »

Then Luffy has been officially recognized as one of the Yonko. He now has a bounty of 1.5 BILLION BERRYS !!!

Which is incredible because there are only a handful of people who have a higher bounty than him :

Gol D Roger, Whitebeard, Kaido, Big Mom, Shanks and Blackbeard.

Now let’s talk about Luffy powers.

Physical Strenght

Even though Luffy looks small in comparison with other powerful One Piece characters, his physical strength still seems to be close to theirs. One of the reasons why Luffy is so strong is because his Grandfather Garp has always used the most ridiculous and harsh training methods to make Luffy power up.

On top of that, Luffy’s devil fruit has almost always been an advantage for him. He used his devil fruit to drastically increase his physical strength while facing powerful opponents like Doflamingo, who also happens to be a former celestial dragon.

In the country of Wano, when Luffy was handcuffed and his devil fruit had become significantly weaker because of that, Luffy still continued to train his body even in the weakened state, which immensely increased the scope of Luffy powers.

Hyogoro admires Luffy’s Physical Strenght

Nevertheless, Luffy also has gear transformations that exponentially increase Luffy power level so that Luffy can take on more powerful and intimidating opponents. It’s like whenever Luffy is in a do or die situation, there’s always something that can give him the edge he needs to get out of that situation.

Transformations

Before we start, we’ve already talked about Luffy’s transformations in detail in a previous article so make sure to have a look at it.

If there is one thing that makes Luffy stand out then it’s Luffy max power, or in other words, his gear transformations. Depending on what situation he is in, he can use one of his gear transformations to get out of that situation.

Let’s just go through these transformations and see what exactly are these and when did they make their debut in the series, because Luffy powers are mostly about his transformations after all.

Gear 2

The first time that Luffy used this transformation was at the Ennies Lobby. He used it against one of the CP9 members named Blueno and the episode in which it happened is the 272nd, at that time he was 17 years old.

What happens is that Luffy increases the size of his blood vessels, which helps him inhale more oxygen as well as nutrients into his body. This process increases his overall speed and strength.

Luffy Gear 2 first use

When Luffy initially learned how to activate this gear, his scope was only his legs, but after the time skip, he has been shown to have a more significant sense of his own abilities. Back then, it was also assumed that this particular transformation could decrease Luffy’s life span but right now, there aren’t many major drawbacks to this transformation.

It just shows that Luffy has grown a lot, in the two years of training that he did with Rayleigh.

Gear 3

Luffy Gear 3 also happened at Ennies Lobby during his fight against Rob Lucci, he was beaten half to death and Rob Lucci was almost too sure of his victory. But then, in the 288th episode, Luffy blows some air in his thumb and by doing so, he inflates a certain part of his body. I’d say, inflating is an understatement because what Luffy did was way more powerful than any mere inflation could have accomplished.

Luffy Gear 3 first time use 

After the time skip, Luffy also learned how to endorse his Gear 3rd transformation by using Armament Haki.

Gear 4

Now this transformation was something that Luffy must’ve learned during his two years of training at Rusukaina. It first happened at Dressrosa, the episode was 726th . Just like the third gear, Luffy blows some air into his thumb, only this time, his whole body inflates, and as he does that, he also covers his entire body with Armament Haki.

There are three forms or rather ways, Luffy uses this gear.

• Gear 4 Bounce Man : The Boundman is the first one to appear in the series and it is just as its name says, Luffy becomes bigger and many times stronger, but he bounces all the time.

• Gear 4 Tankman : The 2nd one Tankman was the form that happened when Luffy ate too much, it also increases his overall defense.

• Gear 4 Snakeman : The third one is the form that Luffy used against Katakuri (Probably the best One Piece fight yet) The name of this form is Snakeman, it is comparatively slimmer than the other two and it tends to focus more on the offense. His overall speed and agility also increases.

So this was a brief overview of Luffy’s transformations. Now, let’s talk about his natural speed and agility.

Speed, Agility and Durability

As obvious as it already is Luffy has some top tier agility and reflexes and there is not much to debate about, just look at what his devil fruit is. Take the great battle of Marineford for example, Luffy was able to dodge Mihawk’s strikes, who happens to be the world’s greatest swordsman.

And it seems that after thetime skip, both his speed and agility have drastically increased. He has been shown to do impossible feats, even while using his gear transformations.

As far as Durability goes, Luffy has always been a tough nut to crack, he never had a normal childhood. What he did have were countless moments that tested his grit but even so, Luffy still has his limits.

Remember how one hit from Kaido was enough to knock Luffy down ?

Sheer Endurance

Luffy’s grandfather used to put him in intense situations when he was just a kid, as discussed above. This not only increased his durability, but it also helped Luffy develop his endurance capabilities. Let’s talk about one specific instance where Luffy’s endurance came into play.

During the Thriller Bark arc, Luffy took in 100 shadows while a normal person can only take about one or two at most. Of course, those 100 shadows accumulated and ended up giving birth to the transformation we all call, Nightmare Luffy.

We wrote an article in detail about Nightmare Luffy transformation, make sure to have a look at it.

Animal Instinct

Whether it’s because Luffy spent a great deal of his time in the wild, or because he was always getting into fights. Regardless of the reason, Luffy has some sort of strange animal instinct that always helps him during combat. Not only that but this instinct also allows Luffy’s mind to sometimes go crazy.

There have been times when Luffy came up with the most unconventional and crazy methods to win fights. Remember his last moment against Rob Lucci ? Luffy used all of his stamina to defeat him after taking a finishing blow by Rob Lucci’s strongest attack just before.

Now, before we get to Luffy favorite and strongest attacks, let’s talk a little about his HAKI.

HAKI

Luffy is one of the only few people in the entire One Piece verse who can use all three types of Haki.

Haoshoku Haki – Conqueror’s Haki

This form of Haki is extremely rare, only one in several million people are born with it, and Luffy seems to have it. It is like the power of the king that can make other people stagnant. During the battle of Marineford, Luffy used this Haki to try and save his brother.

Kenbunshoku Haki – Observation Haki

Luffy learned this form of Haki during the two years of training that he did at the promised place (Rusukaina). Just like the name says, it allows him to observe the presence of others as well as their emotions and intent.

Busoshoku Haki – Armament Haki

Luffy also learned this form of Haki during the time skip and as the name implies, it allows him to create some sort of spiritual armor around him using his own spiritual energy. From what we have discussed so far, it is apparent that Luffy immensely improved during the two years of training that he did with Rayleigh at Rusukaina Island.

Luffy uses both Armament and Observation Haki vs Hody Jones

This happened in the 516th episode (In case, anyone wants to see that episode again) Whether or not, we will get another time skip like this one, is still improbable.

Anyways, let’s talk a little more about Luffy powers or in other words, his favorite and most powerful attack.

Luffy’s most powerful attack

Now this question can be answered in two ways.

1. Luffy most powerful attack without his gear transformation

1. Luffy most powerful attack with his gear transformation

Luffy’s strongest attack without his gear transformation is undoubtedly Gomu Gomu no Bazooka, it is his signature move, he pulls his fist back and then throws both of them to the ennemy. Depending on the situation that Luffy is in, he likes to use this attack creatively.

As for Luffy most powerful attack when he is in gear transformation… that attack is without a doubt :

Gomu Gomu No King Kong Gun

Obviously, Oda had the movie King Kong in mind when he named this move. Anyways, this attack was the one that brought Doflamingo’s demise.

Luffy compresses his fist into his forearm and then unleashes a short ranged massive attack that is not much different from an actual cannon. This attack was strong enough to break through Doflamingo’s own barrier so there’s no doubt about it, this attack can be considered as Luffy most powerful attack.

We just went through a great deal of material regarding Luffy, didn’t we ? It’s finally time to define where Luffy currently stands compared to the rest of the One Piece world. Let’s see, if we take his fight against Katakuri into account and also the fact that he has obviously grown a lot stronger ever since that fight then it is safe to say that right now, Luffy is at Yonko first commander Level.

So there are only a handful of people that are more powerful than him. These people include the other Yonko, the commanders and the admirals.

Also, before we move onto the last section of this post, let’s try comparing Luffy to other shonen anime protagonists like Goku, Naruto, Gon… Don’t worry, we’ll keep it short and sweet.

Luffy in comparison with other Shonen main characters

At first, let’s compare him with Goku who also happens to be similar to Luffy in a lot of ways. In fact, there have been many instances where Oda mentioned that he got inspired by Dragon Ball.

Goku vs Luffy

If we take a look at the current Goku who is at a universe level, there’s no way we can compare Luffy to something like that, it’s just not fair.

What we can say is that Luffy’s current power is much like what Goku’s was when he fought Vegeta for the very first time while using Kaioken. That’s right, it is still over 9000 !!!

Other than that, the carefree attitude and the fact that both of them eat a lot already makes them long distance brothers.

Luffy vs Naruto

This one might actually work. Naruto also went through a lot of evolutions and training to get to where he is at right now, he is at the level where he can easily destroy a village or two, without even breaking a sweat.

As for Luffy, Luffy’s transformations don’t sustain for that long and he also doesn’t have any kind of beast inside of him that can make things easier.

So, Luffy could be as powerful as Naruto but he doesn’t have the kind of sustainability that he needs to win against Naruto. Also Naruto jutsus are just too powerful for Luffy.

Luffy vs Gon

Gon ended up using all of the Nen he would ever have on Pitou, even so, he didn’t deploy much damage (We’re not bashing Hunter x Hunter here).

Luffy and Gon would never end up in that kind of battle because Luffy just isn’t the kind of guy who would hurt anyone’s friends, that’s why Gon would never make a forbidden contract either and Luffy would win JUST LIKE THAT !

DBZMacky made a video about this fight, we don’t agree with all of it but it’s still interesting to watch.

Luffy vs Gon – Power levels

Anyways, the reason why Luffy’s strength isn’t on par with Goku is because Oda has put a lot of effort into thinking and defining the One Piece universe. That’s why One Piece is so interesting and well defined compared to those other series. Seems like, we are in the last section of this post and that is : Luffy’s true power.

Luffy’s True Power

Remember what Mihawk said at the battle of the Marineford ?

“ It’s not his powers or techniques. He possesses some quality that makes people want to help him.

And on these waters, that is the most formidable power of all ! ”

Mihawk made it loud and clear that Luffy’s true power lies in his ability to make friends wherever he goes. He is the type of guy who seeks adventure and friendship above all things. That is the reason why he was able to gain a massive following at such a young age.

Maybe it’s because Luffy knows that being alone hurts more than getting hurt or maybe it’s because he just wants to have the most freedom in the entire ocean. Or maybe both.

Mihawk knows Luffy’s true power

But at the end of the day, if you mess with his friends, you’ve got to pay. Consider what Luffy said to a zombie about Moria during the Thriller Bark arc,

“ Tell that idiot Moria… If anything happens to my crew… I’ll blast your island until there’s nothing left of it ! ”

And it’s because Luffy is such a straight forward and selfless captain that his comrades are willing to give their lives for him. Every last one of them is someone that Luffy considers to be a friend.

Also, Mihawk isn’t the only one who recognized this power, even Bartholomew Kuma who used to be an acquaintance of Dragon, said the following words :

“ To find such loyal companions… your son is indeed amazing… Dragon. ”

And last but not the least, the reason why so many people resonate with Luffy, is his adventurous spirit.

Usopp asks Rayleigh about the One Piece

Expand your collection

Here you go ! Now you know more about Monkey D Luffy powers. If like us you are a fan of the main protagonist of One Piece, we have reserved for you a whole set of goodies bearing the image of the future pirate king.

Discover our collection of One Piece merchandise, hoodies and figures at the effigy of Luffy without further delay and immerse yourself in the world of piracy on Grand Line alongside the captain of the Straw Hat Pirates !