Monkey D. Luffy/Abilities and Powers

Overview
As captain of the Straw Hat Pirates, Luffy has the greatest authority over a powerful and diverse crew consisting of several infamous members, many of whom are extremely powerful in their own right. Luffy has a great amount of influence over his crew despite his personality and recklessness, so much so that the members of his crew all trust him with their lives, in spite of his reckless behavior, and in some cases; even because of it.

He is also one of twelve pirates who have been dubbed as the "Worst Generation", a group of individuals who have become famous for the bold actions and major conflicts they committed against the World Government and all have bounties of over 100,000,000. Indirectly, he also has claim over the Straw Hat Grand Fleet, a massive fleet consisting of eight powerful New World crews numbering 5600 people in total, who all swore to serve under him of their own will and come to assist him whenever he may need them. The scope of Luffy's authority is considered by the World Government to be close to on par with the Yonko, the four most powerful and influential pirates in the world, and Luffy has unofficially been considered by the press to be the "Fifth Emperor" among the Yonko as a result.

This is one of the reasons Luffy is considered by the World Government to be extremely dangerous, and currently has a bounty of 1,500,000,000 which is rivaled by few. Luffy has exhibited his threat most notably by invading all three of the World Government's main strongholds in Paradise: he single-handedly beat hundreds of Marines on Enies Lobby and took out two CP9 agents, with the invasion ultimately resulting in the destruction of Enies Lobby via Buster Call; he infiltrated the great prison Impel Down and orchestrated the only mass breakout in its history; he invaded Marineford during the Battle of Marineford and greatly aided the Whitebeard Pirates in their ultimately unsuccessful effort to rescue Portgas D. Ace from execution. Luffy has also significantly threatened the balance of the Three Great Powers by defeating three members of the Shichibukai, and allying with two others, causing Jinbe to defect from his position and Law to lose it. The World Government also views Luffy to be a grave threat simply because he is the son of Monkey D. Dragon, the world's most wanted man.

Despite his ever-growing list of accomplishments in battle, Luffy continues to be frequently underestimated by opponents due to his appearance and disposition. This oftentimes has ultimately proved to be an advantage for him, as it gives him leeway toward options opponents would not expect. Crocodile left Luffy for dead twice, only for Luffy to recover from his defeats and ultimately claim victory. Donquixote Doflamingo attempted to trap Luffy in the Corrida Colosseum, expecting that he would fall victim in it, only for Luffy to escape and win over the gladiators there to his side. With constantly improving skill in battle combined with his almost unbreakable willpower, Luffy has found ways to defeat increasingly powerful opponents that have come in his path, all while having been out at sea for less than a year, not including his two-year training on Rusukaina. Currently, in the New World, he has contended with the Yonko's top commanders, having defeated Big Mom Pirates Sweet Commanders Charlotte Cracker and Charlotte Katakuri, and he seeks to aim further by taking down the Yonko themselves as well as the Marine Admirals.

Strength
Despite his relatively small physical stature compared to most of the world's powerful fighters, Luffy has developed significant physical strength to match them. His grandfather Garp used harsh and unorthodox training methods such as leaving him alone in the wilderness as a young child to grow stronger, as well as several years of further rigorous training in the extremely harsh environment in Mt. Colubo and Rusukaina. A notable example of this strength was on Dressrosa when he used his foot to block a stomp by Donquixote Doflamingo, a man nearly twice his height with immense physical power of his own, without any leverage. Earlier that day, he had effortlessly flipped over the massive gladiator Spartan, defeating him. In Skypiea, he was capable of moving around during his fight against Enel despite having a massive golden ball molded around his hand, and even climbed up a massive beanstalk with it. When caught between two large brick buildings in Water 7, he was eventually able to push them down to free himself.

Luffy has utilized his Devil Fruit Gears to tremendously increase his physical strength and subdue powerful opponents like Blueno, Rob Lucci, and Donquixote Doflamingo. He took out a member of the Marines' Giant Squad with a single Gear Third punch, and two years later, he defeated the powerful giant Hajrudin with a single Gear Second punch to the face. On Fish-Man Island, the Sea Kings believed he would have completely destroyed the gigantic ship Noah before it would have landed had they not stopped him. When he was imprisoned in Wano Country, he wore Seastone handcuffs that significantly weakened him and prevented him from using his Devil Fruit, and he exploited his prison labor as a new training method to get stronger in his weakened state, being able to lift and carry hundreds of blocks several times his size, and a few days later was able to break through the helmet of the vice warden Daifugo and injure him with a simple kick.

Luffy possesses tremendous speed, agility and reflexes. When battling Dracule Mihawk in the Battle of Marineford, he was able to dodge the strikes of the world's greatest swordsman, including ducking under one that completely cleaved through a faraway glacier. After his two-year training, he has been able to dodge attacks even while using Gear Third. He was able to avoid being attacked by Cavendish in the Corrida Colosseum by dodging the pirate's sword strikes and clasping the sword with his hands. Against Charlotte Katakuri, he showed the ability to dodge a considerable amount of the Sweet Commander's strikes, as well as all of Katakuri's attacks with his trident Mogura (barring one in which Luffy was impaired by Flampe's dart), despite Katakuri being able to foresee his movements.

Luffy is also capable of becoming physically stronger through psychology. When Jango accidentally hypnotized him to become stronger, Luffy went on a tear through the Black Cat Pirates and ripped the mast off their ship. During the Davy Back Fight battle against Foxy, Luffy attempted to increase his fighting prowess by donning an afro.

Durability
Luffy has shown the ability to take massive amounts of physical punishment but remain conscious and able to fight. As a child, Luffy was brutally beaten by Porchemy's spiked gloves to get information out of him, but Luffy took the beating without revealing anything. He was poisoned on Alabasta by Crocodile's poison hook, but remained conscious long enough to defeat the Shichibukai. He took multiple blows from Foxy's spiked gloves, but did not fall. Most notably, during his fight with Charlotte Katakuri in the Mirro-World, Luffy fought for over 9 hours and received significantly more blows than he gave, including being gruesomely pierced in the side by Katakuri's triden Mogura, but he was able to keep standing up until Katakuri went down. However, Luffy's durability is not infinite, as notably seen in his fight against Kaido, when he was knocked out with one hit from Kaido's mace.

After surviving being poisoned by Magellan, Luffy developed an immunity to most poisons, causing him to be unaffected when Caesar Clown attacked him with poisonous gases. However, he did later fall victim to poison after consuming the skin of the Armored Stonefish; though the skin normally causes instant death, Luffy's poison resistance merely put him in a coma.

Endurance
Luffy possesses immense endurance stemming from his great durability and willpower. As a child, he developed endurance when his grandfather put him through various training methods. When following Ace on a long and dangerous trek from Mt. Colubo to Gray Terminal, as he accompanied Ace and Sabo on their adventures through the wilderness.. By far his most noteworthy feat was surviving exposure to an incurable amount of poison after fighting Magellan in Impel Down. When brought before Emporio Ivankov, Luffy was given hormones to give him the chance to fight for his life for two and a half days at the cost of his lifespan. He not only successfully fought to stay alive, but returned to consciousness in just 20 hours. By doing this, he proved his connection to his father who has a similar will. With the help of Ivankov's Tension Hormones and his willpower, Luffy was able to keep fighting through Impel Down immediately after his near-death experience, and continued fighting at Marineford with little rest in between until his body eventually gave out after he failed to save Ace from death.

In Enies Lobby, Luffy pulled off another feat of endurance, as although he quickly pushed his limits by repeatedly using Gear Second and Gear Third, and was heavily injured by Lucci's Rokuogan attacks, he was able to keep fighting until he had defeated Lucci. Luffy also demonstrated his endurance at Whole Cake Island, as he battled Charlotte Cracker for 11 hours without resting, using Gear Fourth at least twice. He then proceeded to get heavily beaten by his crewmate Sanji, but when a Big Mom Pirates army arrived soon after to take him down, Luffy fought hard for a considerable period of time, before ultimately being knocked out. After being temporarily frozen in time in a book prison, Luffy singlehandedly made his way out of the Whole Cake Chateau and beat up every enemy he encountered, despite still being extremely weak from fatigue and hunger, the latter of which he refused to address until Sanji returned to him.

Luffy's immense willpower was also seen in Thriller Bark when his body was able to take in 100 shadows without issue, while a normal person could only take in two or three.

Instinct
Normally, Luffy can be prone to making bad decisions. However, while fighting, he possesses an uncanny instinct that has often resulted in him performing atypical actions that end up helping him. When confronted by multiple duplicates of Mr. 3 on Little Garden, Luffy was instantly able to find and attack the real one thanks entirely to instinct. When his arm got bitten while fighting Arlong, Luffy slammed the fish-man's head into the ground to dislodge his jaw instead of trying to pull his arm out, which allowed his arm to remain intact. To overcome Enel forseeing his attacks with Mantra, Luffy used moves such as shutting down his mind and throwing his punches off walls to ricochet them randomly, which ended up being successful. Against Cracker, Luffy taxed the Sweet Commander's power by eating his never-ending biscuit creations.

Luffy has excellent situational awareness during battle. While fighting Mihawk on Marineford, he noticed Buggy nearby and used him as a human shield, allowing him to run away from Mihawk. When he fought Katakuri on the Thousand Sunny in Totto Land, he noticed Charlotte Brûlée watching from the Mirro-World and managed to grab onto her by surprise, allowing him to pull himself and Katakuri into the Mirro-World and prevent Katakuri from threatening his crew.

Luffy also possesses tremendous creativity, and frequently comes up with unusual methods to get ahead in a fight. In his first fight with Crocodile, Luffy noticed that he could make his opponent's body tangible with liquid, and before their second fight he consumed large quantities of water to use against the Shichibukai. He took it a step further in their third and final fight by using his blood as the liquid. When possible, Luffy likes to power himself up with outside objects, and often uses things from the enemy against them. He knocked out sets of Arlong's teeth and tried to use them, although was not particularly successful. When Mr. 3 bound his arms and legs with candle-shaped wax bindings, Luffy immediately began using these bindings as powerful blunt weapons to demolish Mr. 3's other wax creations. When he became allies with Mr. 3 in Impel Down, Luffy requested that he be powered up with the wax once again to fight Magellan, and he was successfully able to hit the warden without being poisoned.

Charisma
According to Dracule Mihawk, Luffy possesses the most dangerous ability in the world: the ability to recruit allies to his side everywhere he goes. Luffy is capable of making friends rather quickly, and people typically have to do little for Luffy to consider them as a friend, such as Rebecca, who earned Luffy's friendship by buying him food. Although Luffy does not fancy himself a hero, he will do anything to help his friends, which can earn him the respect of people around him, as seen with the Whitebeard Pirates being impressed with his desire to save Ace on Marineford. Luffy is not afraid to take audacious actions to help himself and his friends, and this fearlessness is another key to gaining allies.

Before he met Luffy, Jinbe initially had no intention of building a relationship with him, only wanting to accompany him through Impel Down and Marineford to appease Ace's wishes. However, after getting to know Luffy, Jinbe quickly developed a deep respect for him, and risked his life to get Luffy out of Marineford safely; two years later, he would join Luffy's crew. Boa Hancock, who hates all men, took a liking to Luffy after finding out that he had attacked a World Noble. On Dressrosa, once the Corrida Colosseum gladiators were liberated from Doflamingo and Sugar's enslavement, they rallied behind Luffy's crusade against Doflamingo, and Luffy's determination to bring down the Shichibukai eventually earned him the support of everyone on Dressrosa as they wished to be freed from Doflamingo's tyranny. Luffy curried enough favor in this effort that the allies he made went far beyond Dressrosa; seven of the groups who fought with him pledged to serve him whenever he needs them, forming the massive Straw Hat Grand Fleet; even people like Cavendish and Chinjao who once wished to kill him declared their servitude.

Gluttony
Notably, Luffy possesses massive jaw strength and a large appetite. Before being freed from the Buggy Pirates' cage, he made considerable progress in biting through the iron bars, and he also caught and destroyed one of Buggy's daggers with only his mouth. He was also able to cause Jinbe, a strong fish-man with a high pain tolerance, great pain by biting him. His extreme gluttony also proved useful in battle during Totto Land, as with the help of Nami's rain, he was able to eat Cracker's Biscuit Soldiers to render them unusable, and his stomach was able to handle ingesting these biscuits for 11 hours. He also escaped from being suffocated in a massive pile of Katakuri's mochi by eating through the mochi. Luffy can also rapidly heal from his wounds and exhaustion by eating massive amounts of food, and he was able to regrow a missing tooth simply by drinking milk. He can also quickly heal himself by sleeping, and at Water 7, he became able to eat and sleep at the same time.

Luffy has, on multiple accounts, shown to be capable of metabolising and absorbing colossal amounts of food into his body in a similar manner to the Life Return technique used by CP9 members Kumadori and Rob Lucci. For example, when Luffy finished his recovery at Newkama Land after losing to Magellan, he ate a large portion of their food supply and absorbed the calories almost instantly.

Despite his gluttony, however, Luffy cannot cook. While on the way to Whole Cake Island, he squandered the ship's entire week's worth of rations due to repeated mistakes, and the end result was a huge pot of inedible substance that tasted so horrible that he himself called it disgusting and also led the people on board to badly starve as a result. Nonetheless, due to the intense survival training of his youth, Luffy is capable of roasting meat, and has limited knowledge on edible flora as seen when left alone on Amazon Lily and Rusukaina.

Voice of All Things
It has been implied that Luffy has the ability to hear the Voice of All Things, as the Sea Kings on Fish-Man Island sensed that he had picked up their voices, much like Gol D. Roger once did. Luffy was also one of only two people, along with Kozuki Momonosuke, to be able to hear the voice of the giant elephant Zunisha, although he was overwhelmed by Zunisha's voice and unable to communicate with him, unlike Momonosuke.

Luck
Luffy possesses a significant amount of luck. When offered an apple by Doc Q, he managed to pick the lone one that was a dud. During his second fight against Crocodile, he misfired a shot of water into the air, which ended up coming back down on him after he had been dehydrated and saved his life. During Big Mom's Tea Party, Luffy and his comrades were narrowly saved from execution when the Tamatebako, which Fish-Man Island had sent to Big Mom after being unable to provide her with candy as a result of the fight against the New Fish-Man Pirates, exploded and tipped over the entire Whole Cake Chateau. Most notably, he survived being executed by Buggy thanks to the execution platform being struck by a lightning bolt, which did not harm Luffy due to his Devil Fruit ability.

Artistic Skill
A running gag is Luffy's utter lack of artistic ability. Before reaching Arlong Park, imagining how a fish-man would look, Luffy drew a fish with tentacle-like paws and an anthropomorphic fish with arms, legs and hair. Before the Straw Hats arrived at Water 7, Luffy drew a childish picture of what he wanted the future shipwright to look like (coincidentally, it resembled Franky). This lack of skill also extends to Jolly Rogers; the first Jolly Roger of the Straw Hat Pirates was a bad drawing designed by Luffy himself (he later used a similarly bad drawn version of his Jolly Roger as a promise marker on the face of Laboon) while also drawing a bad version of Foxy's flag after taking it from him after winning the Davy Back Fight.

Devil Fruit


Luffy unwittingly ate the Gomu Gomu no Mi when he was 7 years old after finding it in a chest owned by the Red Hair Pirates. The fruit gives his body the properties of rubber, allowing him to stretch any part of his body in any direction before snapping back to his center of gravity like a rubber band.

Initially, Luffy was unable to control his stretching, but was able to master it after ten years of training on Dawn Island. The fruit is useful for allowing him to reach faraway places, as he can stretch and grab onto them, causing him to be pulled there. Offensively, he is capable of throwing punches, kicks, and headbutts at great distances and speeds, as well as twisting body parts around each other and spinning them to improve attack power. Defensively, Luffy cannot be harmed by blunt attacks, including punches not imbued with Busoshoku Haki as well as most bullets, and he can land from great heights and crash into structures without being harmed. If he is struck by a blunt projectile, it will bounce back toward the place it came from, potentially threatening the one who launched it. He can also balloon himself to repel larger projectiles such as cannonballs.

During his pirating adventure, Luffy has found new ways to utilize his Devil Fruit in combat, creating Gears.

Gear Second


Gear Second was first seen on Enies Lobby. Luffy increases the size of his blood vessels, pumping more oxygen and nutrients to his body. This increases his speed and power, as in this form, he is capable of keeping up with users of the Soru technique and overwhelming the Tekkai technique. Initially, Luffy activated this by pumping blood through his legs, but after the timeskip, he has shown more control over it and can activate it anywhere in his body. Before his two year training, the usage of Gear Second depleted his energy quickly and threaten his lifespan, but in the present day its effects appear to have been reduced.

Gear Third


Gear Third was first seen on Enies Lobby. By blowing into his thumb, Luffy can inflate the bones of a particular part of his body, making it massive. These inflated body parts are capable of inflicting damage on a massive scale, being able to break through walls and large structures with ease, and Gear Third's power became magnified when Luffy learned to use Busoshoku Haki during the timeskip. Initially, Gear Third would cause Luffy to shrink to the size of a child after use, limiting his fighting capabilities. However, this no longer happens after Luffy's two-year training.

Gear Fourth


Gear Fourth was created during Luffy's two-year training on Rusukaina and was first seen on Dressrosa. By blowing into his arm, Luffy inflates his entire body and covers it with Busoshoku Haki, taking one of three forms. The first form, Boundman, makes Luffy's composition similar to a bouncy ball, forcing him to bounce all the time. He is capable of retracting his arms and legs into his body, unleashing blows of devastating power, and he can change the direction of his attacks. His defense also increases, with most attacks bouncing off his body. The second form, Tankman, makes Luffy much bigger and increases his defensive abilities, allowing him to use them as a weapon via the recoil blasting opponents away. The third form, Snakeman, is slimmer and focuses on offense. Luffy is granted a tremendous increase in attack speed, and frequently changes the direction of his attacks to assault his opponents from every direction.

However, Luffy will be forced out of this form after around 20 minutes. In addition to being weakened, he will be unable to use Haki for ten minutes until it recharges. Using Gear Fourth multiple times in a short amount of time will take a toll on his body.

Haki
Luffy is one of the very small number of people who can use all three forms of Haki.

Haoshoku Haki


Luffy possesses Haoshoku Haki, a very rare type of Haki whose users are said to have the qualities of a king. This power was latent within him, and was first seen used at the Flying Fish Riders' base to stop the bison Motobaro. Luffy then unintentionally used it in the arena at Amazon Lily to stop Marguerite's group from being killed, in Level 5 of Impel Down to knock out attacking wolves, and at Marineford to knock out the executioners who were about to kill Ace.

Silvers Rayleigh then taught him about this power on Rusukaina, and Luffy trained to use it at will. After the timeskip, Luffy used it to knock out the members of the Fake Straw Hat Crew, and at Fish-Man Island he was able to knock out 50,000 members of the New Fish-Man Pirates in an instant. When he fought against fellow Haoshoku Haki users Chinjao, Donquixote Doflamingo, and Charlotte Katakuri, their clashes created a notable effect similar to lightning.

Kenbunshoku Haki


Luffy learned to use Kenbunshoku Haki during the two-year timeskip. With it, he is capable of sensing the presence of others and greatly aiding his reflexes to dodge attacks such as bullets.

While in Totto Land, he strengthened this Haki by battling Charlotte Katakuri, who had mastered this Haki enough to enable him to see a little bit into the future. By the end of their battle, Luffy was able to visualize Katakuri's next moves extremely well, and develop his Haki enough to dodge many of Katakuri's attacks and prevent Katakuri from dodging his. After leaving Totto Land, Luffy has been able to dodge attacks with ease, as shown when he takes out a Beasts Pirates scout in Wano Country and soon afterwards dodges multiple strikes from the sumo master Urashima without displaying any effort. He can now see the future as fluid as Katakuri, as shown when he helps Hyogoro dodge multiple attacks from Alpacaman and Madilloman before they happen.

Busoshoku Haki


Luffy learned to use Busoshoku Haki during the two-year timeskip. He regularly uses it in combat in the New World to increase his defenses and attack power, and is now able to strike Logia users such as Caesar Clown and those with powers similar to Logia like Katakuri. His Gear Fourth form heavily uses Busoshoku Haki to the point of depleting it in a relatively short amount of time, and while in Gear Fourth, his Haki takes the shape of flames.

In the New World, Busoshoku Haki has been a great boon to Luffy's power, as he is quite noticeably weakened whenever he is unable to use it. He had no hope of injuring Doflamingo while his Haki was recharging, and while his Haki was recharging on Nuts Island, he was unable to punch through Charlotte Perospero's Candy Wall even with Gear Third. Luffy's Busoshoku Haki has the potential to be strengthened, as he has faced opponents with a stronger caliber of Haki than him such as Charlotte Cracker and Katakuri.

Luffy is currently attempting to learn an advanced application of Busoshoku that will allow him to emit his Haki a short distance without a medium.

Techniques



 * Busoshoku: Koka (武装色 硬化): Luffy uses Busoshoku Haki to harden his body (or parts of it). It was used for the first time against the Kraken in conjunction with Gear Third to harden his enlarged arm to the point of it attaining a completely dark and shiny appearance, in order to use his "Gomu Gomu no Elephant Gun". In the FUNimation subs and dub, it is called Armament; Hardening.
 * Atama Buso (頭武装): Luffy imbues his forehead with Busoshoku Haki to harden it. This is first used in preparation for a "Gomu Gomu no Kane" against the Iron Shell Squadron. In the FUNimation subs and dub, it is called Head; Hardening.
 * Gear Second Buso (ギア武装): Luffy imbues his fist with Busoshoku Haki while under the effect of Gear Second to harden it, which also seems to have the added effect of igniting it. It was first used in preparation for "Gomu Gomu no Red Hawk" against Hody Jones. In the FUNimation dub, it is called "Second Gear Armament".

Weapons
During his childhood, he wielded a metal pipe.

At Arlong Park, Luffy briefly tried to fight Arlong with swords. At Wano Country, he borrowed the cursed sword and Meito, Nidai Kitetsu.

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