Monkey D. Luffy/Abilities and Powers

Abilities and Powers
As captain of the Straw Hat Pirates, Monkey D. Luffy has immense strength, capable of breaking stone and shattering steel with his bare hands Additionally, Luffy has always fought the strongest villain of the story arc. Luffy's sheer physical strength and dexterity is a result of his grandfather's unorthodox training methods (thrown into a bottomless ravine, tied to a balloon, thrown into a forest at night, etc.) and he claimed he had a punch as powerful as a pistol even at seven years of age. Luffy's greatest feat of strength is seen when he is trapped between two enormous buildings and escapes by pushing them away.

He also possesses extraordinary jaw strength, as seen in the Buggy arc in the manga, where he had almost chewed through the metal bars of the cage Buggy put him in. He also ate the cage in which Moria put him in, and managed to give Rob Lucci a small bite wound.

He is also capable of amazing feats of agility and possesses great endurance and reflexes to match his strength. In fact, on more than one occasion, Luffy was able to anticipate attacks and counter attacks that would normally be beyond his field of vision due to his sharp reflexes. On one or more occasions, he is also shown to increase in his strength quite dramatically in a short period of time, most noticeably being the fight against Minotaurus, where the first time took the combined efforts of Mr. 2, Mr. 3 and Buggy just to beat him, but the next time, Luffy defeated him with a single Gomu Gomu no Jet Pistol.

His vast strength is only exceeded by his enormous willpower, as demonstrated on several occasions throughout the series, most noted of all in the Thriller Bark Arc when he manages to take in 100 shadows without passing out, compared to normal humans, who can only take in 2 or 3. This willpower even lets him survive far beyond what normal people are capable of, as demonstrated recently when he was poisoned very far beyond what a human is capable of surviving, only living on despite his critical condition through sheer willpower. This is also shown when he survives through Emporio Ivankov's "Healing Hormones" ability, which even with a slim chance of surviving had not only survived the endeavor, but made a recovery in twenty hours when the normal time for the healing procedure is two days. This was later shown with Basil Hawkins' fortune telling, as despite doing it numerous times, he could never get Luffy's chance of survival to reach zero.

Unlike Zoro or Sanji, Luffy's fighting style is freestyle and improvised; it follows no particular code of honor at all, and so if necessary, he will actually attack women or animals, hit below the belt, attack even if his enemies have their backs turned on him or are otherwise unprepared or unsuspecting, use enemies as human shields or even bite his opponents. While fighting, Luffy can also think on the spot, and come up with creative counterattacks against his enemies. This however leads both enemies and allies alike to wonder if Luffy is taking the fight seriously, especially when he comes up with ridiculous moves (like Crocodile when Luffy became Mizu Luffy), which prompts Luffy to respond that he's always serious.

He also appears to be intelligent enough to at least understand fundamental concepts, such as rubber being a natural insulator, which might be why he did not bother ducking out of the way of Enel's lightning attacks as it would have been pointless to do so since he is immune to such attacks. While easily noticeable as the least strategic member of his own crew, due to his tendency to simply barge in head-first into battle (often without any kind of battle plan or even any knowledge of his opponent's abilities), Luffy is a highly adaptive combatant. He is constantly coming up with ways to keep ahead of his foes, either by taking advantage of his own strength and Devil Fruit powers or utilizing the opponent's own strengths (along with their weaknesses) against them. This causes even warriors long considered unbeatable to have trouble keeping up.

He is heavily susceptible to any form of hypnotism and doesn't have the sense to turn away, such as Jango's powers of hypnosis or Miss Goldenweek's Colors trap. He is also easily distracted when he sees something that's "just too cool", like seeing Chopper's transformations for the first time, the Thousand Sunny's Gaon Cannon, a energy beam from a Pacifista or his wax armor made from Mr. 3's Doru Doru no Mi powers, ignoring everything around him.

Luffy also has the mysterious and uncanny ability to, while completely asleep, eat as if he were awake, even able to know when more food has been placed on the table. This is probably purely based on muscle memory since what Luffy does best is fighting and eating.



Another running gag in the series is Luffy's inability to draw. At the start of the Arlong arc, imagining how a fishman would look, Luffy drew a fish with tentacle-like paws and an anthropomorphic fish with arms, legs and hair. Before the Strawhats arrived at Water Seven, Luffy drew a childish picture of what he wanted the future shipwright to look like (ironically, it looked a lot like Franky). This inability 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 in the Davy Back Fight arc.

Though not exactly a skill or ability, Luffy is said to have incredible luck. His luck is so great that people around him, like Ivankov, Elder Nyon and even his own crew, think that they were miracles, or even divine intervention. Examples would be when:
 * Luffy survived his execution with Buggy and managing to escape the Marines in Loguetown thanks to a freak storm; though this might not actually been luck as it is hinted that Monkey D. Dragon, Luffy's father, had something to do with it;
 * Picking out a safe apple in a basket full of exploding apples;
 * Accidentally making the man-hating Boa Hancock fall in love with him;
 * Managing to infiltrate and escape Impel Down;
 * Participating in the Marineford War and surviving.

According to Dracule Mihawk, Luffy has the most dangerous ability in the world; that of turning anyone around him into his allies, including former enemies.

During the two-year absence, with his bounty raised, he earned an infamous reputation which was taken advantage of by Demalo Black to bring fear to the hearts of people in Saboady Archipelago as well as recruiting powerful members.

After the time-skip, Luffy has grown immensely in power and skill. He has shown new mastery over his Gear Second and Third along with his Haki, and easily destroyed a Pacifista with a single punch in conjunction with his Gear Second and Busōshoku Haki, a feat which has been shown to be amazingly difficult, then later defeated the Kraken with one hit from Gear Third imbued with Haki in a similar manner, and managed to defeat Vander Decken IX while he was tied up.

He has also gained powerful antitoxins in his blood stream from his fight with Magellan in Impel Down, which grant him a high resistance against poison. Hyozo, a poisonous blue-ringed octopus merman in the New Fishmen Pirates poisoned Luffy during their fight and Luffy would not have taken any notice to it if Chopper had not seen the entry point in his arm.

Like all Devil Fruit users, Luffy cannot swim. However, unlike other Devil Fruit users, he doesn't avoid water sports, and sometimes will jump into the ocean to save someone from drowning (though will drown himself as well). Luffy could not swim before eating his Devil Fruit so this has made little difference in this capacity. At the time Shanks visited Luffy's hometown, Luffy had decided he would learn how to swim by the time Shanks left so he could leave with them, indicating Luffy was learning how to swim previously.

Devil Fruit


Luffy has gained extraordinary stretching powers from eating the Gomu Gomu no Mi (lit. Rubber Rubber Fruit, Gum-Gum Fruit in the English dub), which is one of the rare and legendary Devil Fruits. After consuming the Gomu Gomu no Mi, Luffy's body became like rubber, giving him the ability to stretch long distances. Having trained hard for ten years, Luffy is able to supplement his stretching powers with immense strength, agility, and creativity in combat. His fighting style is largely improvised, and heavily reliant on his Devil Fruit. It should be noted, Luffy can't automatically stretch his limbs (like superheroes with stretching powers, i.e: Mr. Fantastic or Plastic Man) since his body acts more like a rubber band, thus has to throw some force into it in order for his limbs to stretch out. However, he can hold his limbs outstretched for a long time, as seen when he reaches his arm out about half a mile to retrieve Usopp from Water 7.

Luffy uses his stretching power in ingenious ways. He is able to use the malleable stretchiness of his limbs to gain tremendous velocity and hit enemies with devastating impact. His rubber body is also extremely durable and virtually immune to blunt objects such as bullets (in One Piece, bullets are still round pellets), punches and electricity, bouncing off his body harmlessly or cancelling out attacks. It's even become a running gag that people find out the hard way Luffy is made of rubber when they shoot at him, only to have the bullets bounce right back. Another running joke is that whenever Luffy's body is in peril that would kill a normal human, he says that he's made of rubber, so it's okay, or acts like something was a small problem despite the person trying to kill him, such as being shot in the heart. However, he is still normally susceptible to sharp objects such as swords and knives as well as nonphysical attacks like heat, poison, cold, and dehydration. Not only can he use his ability to increase the range and strength of his attacks, but he can also use it to restrain and even control foes like puppets.

Gears
Gear Second (ギア･セカンド, Gia Sekando) is where Luffy uses his legs to pump blood around his body at a much faster rate. Activating Gear Second also uses a lot of stored food in his body. Leaving his body exhausted, his heart rate also increases to levels that are normally impossible. His veins are able to withstand this, thanks to the Gomu Gomu no Mi. In this form, Luffy gains a considerable boost in strength.



During the Enies Lobby Arc, Rob Lucci mentions that this is just like steroids because his muscles are receiving enough blood to do things otherwise impossible. Rob Lucci also noted that Gear Second does damage to Luffy's own body and in turn drastically reduces his stamina and his lifespan begins to diminish.

Luffy first discovers this Gear unofficially in the 7th One Piece Movie, where he has a large mechanical arm falling on him, he catches it, and the impact exerts extreme force on Luffy's legs, causing him to unintentionally pump blood at an accelerated rate to perform Gear Second and use the Gomu Gomu no Jet Bazooka (though he simply refers to is as a normal Gomu Gomu no Bazooka) to defeat a giant Mecha.

After the time skip, it appears that Luffy has gained enough control over his Gear Second form, in that he is able to control his targeted area rather than the whole body. This in conjunction with his Busōshoku Haki was able to take out a Pacifista with a single punch, something that took the entire Straw Hat crew to do before the time skip.



Gear Third (ギア･サード, Gia Sādo) is where Luffy pumps air through his bones to make them literally gigantic. Obviously, only Luffy can do such a thing by using the Gomu Gomu no Mi. Used with his already-strong physiology, this apparently gives his arm more mass and a larger area to attack with far greater strength, but he sacrifices mobility for this strength, as his limbs are now so large that Luffy has extreme trouble moving unless he is in his Fuusen form. Another after effect of this is that Luffy is reduced to child-sized proportions, the duration of which is equal to the time he spent in Gear Third. Also, he is able to use both gears at the same time which he uses to defeat Gecko Moria. This technique is first hinted at during Luffy's fight with Blueno, and first used, but not shown when Luffy is chasing Rob Lucci and Spandam, but is not seen until a later battle with Rob Lucci.



After the time skip, Luffy's Gear Third is vastly improved upon. Previously, Gear Third would increase the size of the majority of Luffy's arm, thus reducing the speed of the attack in exchange for a powerful impact. However post-timeskip Luffy can seemingly control where the air is allowed to "sit" within his limbs, where his fist becomes large but allows a large mass to form behind the fist as the equivalent of the mass he would have achieved having his arm fully inflated. This allows a majority of Luffy's arm to remain as it is, allowing him to stretch it, thus allowing him to attack much faster than before the two-year absence.

Luffy is also shown using Gear Third at the same time as Busōshoku Haki causing his arm to turn black and harden (possibly undergoing vulcanization), with his arm in the ocean (which would normally drain a Devil Fruit user of their power). While he is affected by the ocean, he still lands a punch which knocks the Kraken out. After the attack (Gomu Gomu no Elephant Gun), Luffy appeared to remain the same size without shrinking temporarily, indicating than he may have overcome this side effect at some point during his training. Or like in the manga version of Marineford, Oda skipped it.

Haki
Luffy has awakened an ability known as "Haki," similar to one used by his hero Shanks. He is able to use Haōshoku Haki, a type of Haki possessed in one in a million people. Luffy used this ability several times in the series. This power first manifested itself when Luffy scared off Motobaro, Duval's bison steed, and made it faint. The first time that Luffy's possession of "Haōshoku" was recognized by others was when he made the warriors of the Kuja tribe faint just by yelling "I SAID STOP!." It was here that Boa Hancock, another user of "Haōshoku ," commented on how he had this level of Haki, but not the ability to control it. Luffy used this ability again in Level Five of Impel Down against the wolf unit to save Mr. 2 Bon Kurei.



Before training under Rayleigh, Luffy displayed limited to no control over this ability, and did not seem to realize he had it, but used it on instinct whenever it seemed to be most needed, and can still use it even when extremely injured. Luffy uses another burst of Haōshoku Haki when he sees Ace about to be killed and it is clear that he's knocked out quite a number of both Marines and Pirates.

During the Whitebeard War, he appears to have developed the ability to predict his opponent's moves, by instinct, during his skirmish with Mihawk. This is most likely because of Kenbunshoku Haki. Luffy stops his Gomu Gomu no Jet Bazooka in mid strike when he has a vision of his arm being cut off by Mihawk. Mihawk remarks that the move showed that Luffy was "surprisingly clear-headed."



Luffy managed to learn the basics of Haki within a year and a half, even though Rayleigh had intended to spend the entire two years teaching him, meaning that he either is a fast learner once he understands the concept, or he has an innate affinity for Haki. Rayleigh departed after a year and a half, leaving Luffy to train by himself for the remaining six months. Luffy is shown to have tamed the animals of Rusukaina Island, such that a simple glare is enough to silence them.

With this training, Luffy has demonstrated the ability to focus his Haōshoku Haki, knocking out a small group with a quick glare without affecting anyone else. A possibility of Luffy's Haoshoku Haki is that he can tame large animals as he was capable of taming all the animals of Rusukaina Island, and he even said that he was going to tame the Kraken, which he did with great success in a very short time. So far Luffy has only used Haoshoku Haki when he needs to get people out of the way with minimum damage.

He was also able to dodge a bullet point-blank and a beam shot from a Pacifista's arm, but whether it was because of his Haki or simply his incredible reflexes is unknown. He did describe the Pacifista's attacks as being, "slow" and was also able to sense Rayleigh a great distance away. Luffy later exhibited his Kenbunshoku Haki by predicting the arrival of an airborne axe thrown by Vander Decken, and was able to catch it in time. He seems to have also mastered Busōshoku Haki, as shown when he defeated a Pacifista with a single Haki imbued punch used in conjunction with his Gear Second.



Luffy can now also use his Gear Third in conjunction with his Busoshoku Haki. This has shown to change his arm color into black and harden it. He was capable of knocking out a giant beast such as the Kraken easily, despite the great disadvantage of being under water (where his power was considerably weaker). After he used this, he did not turn into his chibi-like form, though it might have just been that Oda skipped it as in the manga version of Marineford. Luffy is also one of the few people who is able to use all three types of Haki.

Techniques

 * Busōshoku: Kōka (武装色 硬化): Luffy concentrates his Busōshoku Haki into his body (or parts of it) to harden it without in any way hindering the natural elasticity of his own body. It was seen used by Luffy in conjunction with Gear 2nd to make his attack more powerful and destroyed a Pacifista with a single punch and was used again against the Kraken in conjunction with Gear 3rd 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.

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