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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 December 27, 2021, by Rei Penber:Luffy is one of the most accomplished fighters in the world of One Piece, and his control over his powers has improved drastically over the years. During the two-year timeskip, Luffy has developed several new powers that have made him much stronger. At the same time, Luffy’s abilitiesthat he had acquired earlier have been trained to become even more powerful. As such, we’ve added some more of Luffy’s powers to the list.
12 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.
11 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.
10 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.
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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.
9 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.
8 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.
7 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.
6 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.
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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.
5 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.
4 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.
3 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.
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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.
2 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.
1 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.
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