Monkey D. Luffy

**Monkey D. Luffy** is the nineteen year-old captain and founder of the Straw Hat Pirates, wherein he is one of the crew's top four fighters dubbed the "**Monster Quartet**". He is the son of Monkey D. Dragon and Star, grandson of Monkey D. Garp, foster son of Curly Dadan, adoptive younger brother of Sabo and Portgas D. Ace, older half-brother of Monkey D. Aika, and boyfriend/fiancé of Nami. A pirate hailing from the East Blue, Luffy has traveled through half the Grand Line alongside 11 other crew members, and is currently sailing in the New World. His dream is to find One Piece and become the Pirate King, who he believes has the most freedom over the seas rather than ruling. He is also one of the eleven Supernovas (better known as the Worst Generation), and is the main male protagonist of the *One Piece* series. His bounty is **1.500,000,000 Beli**.

## Profile and Stats

**Name**: Monkey D. Luffy

**Alias**: Straw Hat

**Origin**: One Piece

**Age**: 19

**Classification**: Human, Straw Hat Pirates Captain, Supernova, Paramecia Devil Fruit User

**Gender**: Male

**Height**: 174 cm (5'8½")

**Weight**: 64 kg (141 lbs)

**Eye Color**: Black

**Hair Color**: Black

**Status**: Active

**Powers and Abilities**: Devil Fruit: Gum Gum

**Attack Potency**: **Large Town level** with Armament Haki, higher with Rapid-Fire Attacks or Third Gear | **City level**, likely **Mountain level** | At least **City level**, likely much higher

**Speed**: **Hypersonic+** with **High Hypersonic** reaction speed | **High Hypersonic**, possibly higher | At least **High Hypersonic**

**Lifting Strength**: **Class G**

**Striking Strength**: At least **Class TJ** | **Class PJ** | At least **Class PJ**

**Durability**: **Town level**, at least **Large Town level** to **Small City level** when dealing with blunt force

**Stamina**: **Superhuman**

**Range**: Can stretch for a few **Kilometers**. His Conqueror's Haki has a range of Several **Kilometers**.

**Intelligence**: **Bright** normally, **Gifted** in combat

**Key**: **Base** | **Second Gear** | **Second Gear w/ Third Gear | Fourth Gear**

## Appearance

Luffy is renowned for his trademark straw hat (from which he gets his nickname "Straw Hat Luffy"), which was lent to him when he was young by the legendary pirate captain, "Red-Haired" Shanks, who in turn received it from Gol D. Roger. Luffy also has a scar with two stitches underneath his left eye (which he earned by stabbing a knife under his eye to show Shanks that he was tough), black eyes, and short, messy black hair. He is also an average tall young man, with a surprisingly well-built, muscular physique, coupled with a slightly thicker neck, more pronounced deltoids, and better-defined chest. He has a large X-shaped scar on his chest, left after being gravely wounded by Akainu following the Battle of Marineford.

Luffy's main attire consists of an open, long-sleeved red cardigan with four golden buttons (which shows the **X**-shaped scar covering most of his chest he received by then-Admiral Akainu), a yellow sash tied around his waist, blue knee-length trousers with cuffs and light-colored sandals.

## Personality

Luffy is a carefree, exuberant and happy-go-lucky individual, with great ambitions and a huge appetite, which in fact makes him a glutton when it comes to food. He often thinks with his stomach and gorges himself to comical levels. He is caring and generally good hearted, but never good at lying and keeping secrets. However, he is not as naïve as many people believe him to be, showing more understanding in situations than people often expect. Knowing the dangers ahead, he is willing to risk his life to reach his goal to become the King of the Pirates, and protect his crew. He might not be as stupid as he appears, an example of when he does something intelligent would be when he attempted to use Newton's third law by using a ship's cannon to try and stop the ship. Moreover, Smoker (a Marine captain at the time before he became a vice admiral) comments that Luffy "*enjoys playing stupid*", to which Luffy responds with nothing more than a mysterious smile. He also has a distinctive laugh (shishishi).

Luffy's two dominant traits are his apparent lack of intelligence and his utter fearlessness. Luffy can easily be amazed by the simplest things, such as hermit crabs, and can be confused by concepts such as that by digging a hole right next to another he may be unintentionally filling the other hole. He likes monsters and will ask weird creatures to join his crew (as seen when asking a talking tree to join his crew in Thriller Bark). He also has no knowledge of medicine; when Nami had a high fever he told her to eat cold food and later tried to make Roronoa Zoro better (after battling Bartholomew Kuma) by pouring sake onto him because Zoro likes sake. When attempting to think up a plan to get off of Amazon Lily, while he managed to make some logical sense of where to look, he is seen to strain himself and notes that he is going to feel sick from too much thinking. He is rarely disturbed by violence or blood as he has fought his whole life. Even the worst battlefields rarely disturb him except when it involves a friend or relative as in the case of Ace or Aika. He is seemingly unphased by the most horrifying sights such as headless men left after Law's attacks or the extreme violence of Kid.

He is, however, a genius when it comes to fighting, such as when he figured out how to defeat Crocodile's Devil Fruit power on the verge of death, how to use Soru from sight, developed a number of effective counters to Eneru's "Mantra" ability and, most recently, learning everything Silvers Rayleigh had to teach him about Haki in a year and a half (even though Rayleigh mentioned that two years were too short a time to learn about Haki). He does have a habit of holding a grudge even in dire situations, such as calling Franky a "*bastard*" in the middle of his fight with Rob Lucci, causing Franky to retort back at the Straw Hat captain, and refusing to let Crocodile help him escape Impel Down (even when there was no alternative). However he tries not to hurt civilians and the people he likes, even if they intend to do harm to him, preferring to run from them than fight.

He invites several species, such as Chopper, Blizzard and Brook, onto his crew generally for their personality but also because of his instinctual ability to be able to read people. His main reason has been stated a few times; he needs several key jobs filled in his crew (i.e., cook, navigator, doctor, guard dog, musician, shipwright, and so on) that each individual crew member fulfills (in the respective cases, Sanji, Nami, Chopper, Blizzard, Brook and Franky). Luffy stated that he wants at least 12 crew members, each with abilities that he feels necessary for his goal. Each members of the crew respect him in their own way despite his carefree personality. He is rarely concerned with the consequences of his actions, doing what he feels even if it leads to retaliation by a powerful force. However, he is an extremely loyal and dedicated captain, who has demonstrated at many points that he is willing to risk his life for the well-being of his crew and the network of friends he's made throughout his adventures. Whenever Luffy is seriously injured he always requests his friends or allies get treated first, even when he needs it the most.

To compliment Luffy's naïveté and straightforward attitude, there is a running gag where Luffy can identify similarities on things that have little resemblance (like being able to see the resemblance between Sanji and his Wanted Poster, or being able to see Spoil as an old man with major wounds rather than a zombie), but is unable to see similarities with things with obvious connections (like being unable to tell that Sogeking is Usopp or not seeing through Foxy's pathetic disguises).

Luffy's simple attitude and naïve comments during fights are often mistaken by his opponents as poking fun at them. Due to this, many of his opponents lose their cool and charge at him in anger. While he is goofy and reckless, he gets quite serious when anyone is in serious danger, notably his crew, whom he considers his family. Luffy also has the tendency to unwittingly poke fun at an opponent's most sensitive trait, like calling Buggy "*big nose*", Alvida "*the fat lady*", and Kureha "*old hag*". In many cases, the opponents fail to understand whether Luffy is serious or just playing during fights due to his bizarre actions like drinking too much water in his fight with Crocodile or punching out Arlong's teeth and using it as a weapon to bite him. Luffy, however, has maintained that he is always serious during fights. In most cases, once he starts to fight he maintains a serious and clear-minded attitude, and is only seen laughing once he defeats the enemy or is certain the enemy will be defeated, like in Buggy's case when he laughed before sending Buggy flying in the air.

Luffy also shows significant leadership skills, which at other times he usually lacks and therefore has his captain duties done by another crew member. An example of his leadership is usually present at the most dire and serious times, such as in which a portion of the Straw Hats, some Galley-La foremen, and the Franky Family are present. Luffy brings the three together by pointing out that they now have a common enemy and should form an alliance to take back what the enemy has taken. Another time could be when he takes on the burden of being a Captain and does not hold back when dueling Usopp, and restrains himself from calling Usopp back afterwards. His crew members also listen to his orders without question when he is serious, all respecting his position. Jewelry Bonney comments on how not just anyone could order Zoro around, since Zoro seemed to be so independent and ruthless; yet he respects Luffy's commands when the time calls for it.

The one thing that Luffy does not allow is someone or something getting involved in another person's fight. At these times Luffy shows both remarkable restraint during the battles, and rage when something or someone outside the battle is involved, especially if it is a person he considers a friend. Luffy first showed this when Zoro fought Mihawk, and managed to hold himself (and Johnny and Yosaku) back until Zoro was defeated. Since then he has shown it several times, like when Baroque Works sabotaged the giants' duel on Little Garden; when Crocodile attacked Yuba with a sandstorm in the middle of their fight; when he challenged Aokiji to a 1-on-1 fight; when he fought Lucci and insisted that Franky does not get involved in their battle; when the Boa sisters threatened to break the petrified form of his saviors; and when he was visibly enraged with Hody Jones who attacked some civilians who tried to halt Noah. He even went so far as to cover Sandersonia's back from the citizens of Kuja while it was still burning, even though they were trying to kill him, claiming it has nothing to do with their fight. Sometimes, Luffy had displayed a side to himself where he occasionally gets into fights with others over needless issues (i.e. he nearly got into one with Blackbeard in Mock Town over a matter of quality of the pies that the tavern served to their patrons). However when Luffy is told to keep a low profile or to restrain himself, he will resist his urges to pick fights over small matters. After meeting Fairy Tail and adapting to the guild's customs, he tends to get into many mindless, comical brawls with his friends, as such with Natsu, Blizzard (sometimes), Zoro, Gray, Sanji, and/or Franky, depending on who started it.

Luffy also has an extreme thirst for adventure, which he has stated is the main reason he wants to become the Pirate King, having the belief that the Pirate King would be the one on the entire ocean with the most freedom for adventuring. Because of this adventurous nature, he tends to avoid taking 'the easy way out' at times, such as when he destroyed the Eternal Pose to Nanimonai Island given to him by Robin (Miss All-Sunday at the time), stating that he did not want an enemy to decide his destination. He also has no intention of trying to learn what or where One Piece actually is until he finds it himself, and once stated he would quit being a pirate if his crew tried to find out, not wanting to "*go on a boring adventure*". Luffy has no actual sense of caution and in fact, has been known to literally laugh in the face of danger and walk into potentially harmful situations with a massive grin. For example, when the Straw Hats approached the Knock-Up Stream and when they decided to board the Rumbar Pirates ghost ship. Also when entering Thriller Bark and while descending to Fishman Island, Luffy never says goodbye to those he considers friends, in hopes of seeing them again.

As a person with the middle initial D., Luffy shares the common trait of not fearing death. He will often state that if he reaches his goal, that's fine, but if he dies on the way, that's fine too. He even smiled when he was nearly executed by Buggy in Loguetown, although he did have a look of shock and surprise in his eyes before this happened when Sanji and Zoro tried to rescue him. Throughout the *One Piece* series, several characters have stated similarities between Luffy and other D. carriers, whether in personality, words, actions or presence. So far he is thought to be similar to Jaguar D. Saul by Nico Robin; to Monkey D. Garp by Aokiji, by at least one of the Gorosei, and by his own crew; to Monkey D. Dragon by Emporio Ivankov; and to Gol D. Roger himself by Smoker, Crocus, Kureha, Gan Fall, Shanks, Rayleigh and Kokoro.

Luffy's interest in women is a complex matter: the only reason Luffy acted in an aroused manner when Nami stripped, yet remained neutral when Hancock did so, was that he was with Usopp at the time Nami did so, as Usopp is his age and a bad influence on his behavior. He also hasn't yet displayed any romantic inclinations, having nonchalantly refused to marry Hancock without a second thought. Ironically, despite his lack of interest in all things love related, Luffy has earned the affections of many women along his travels (such as Alvida's admiration, the love of Boa Hancock, etc.), quite a few of whom are royalty. However, his relationship with Nami has proven extremely strong since they began dating and later engaged in the timeskip, and only considers her the "one girl he wants to be with till the day he dies".

Luffy has gained a reputation for being extremely reckless, and in some cases, insane. However unlike other pirates who gained a reputation for being psychotic (like the Marine-killer Caribou, or Bellamy) through needless and random acts of violence against civilians or the authorities, Luffy's reputation comes from him trying to help or save others, especially in the face of authority (though he does tend to go overboard like Natsu would).

However, despite all his peculiar traits and habits (with his trademark dimwitted behavior), Luffy's most defining part of his personality is the ability to make allies out of absolutely anyone (including former enemies, villains and even Whitebeard himself), which is said by Mihawk to be the most dangerous ability in the world.

When his adoptive brother Ace was killed at Marineford, the mental strain of watching Ace die in his arms caused him to fall into a catatonic state. After waking from this state, Luffy flew into a rage and went on a destructive rampage to vent his grief and anger. Afterwards, Luffy re-evaluated himself and came to the conclusion that he had been too naïve, and was weak and unworthy of becoming Pirate King, falling into a state of depression and self-pity. Some encouragement from Jinbe and Rayleigh gave Luffy some renewed courage to continue pursuing his dream. After the timeskip, he tells Rayleigh that he will be Pirate King, having regained his confidence to fight for his dream. Even after getting over Ace's death, he still suffers post-traumatic stress disorder from either nightmares in his sleep or the mention of Ace dying sends him in a mindless rage.

## Powers and Abilities

**Gum-Gum Fruit**: A Paramecia-type Devil Fruit that turns the user’s body into rubber. The fruit’s major strength, as demonstrated by Luffy, is that the person can stretch their body like rubber at will, and makes them almost entirely immune to blunt attacks. The user’s ability to stretch and twist like rubber to extreme lengths not only makes them immune to injuries that originate from such, but it also allows the user to drastically increase the range of what would otherwise be a powerful close range attack, turning it into a devastating mid range attack. A stretched limb can also be used to store potential energy like a stretched spring, increasing the power of an attack. Owing to rubber’s insulating properties, the user is also highly resistant to electrical attacks, such as Eneru's Rumble-Rumble Fruit.

* **Offensive Techniques**:
	+ **Gum-Gum Pistol**: Luffy’s signature attack. A standard straight punch, augmented with stretching. This attack can be used from short to long range.
	+ **Gum-Gum Twin Pistol**: Luffy punches with both arms simultaneously.
	+ **Gum-Gum Bullet**: Luffy stretches one arm, far behind him while running, then snaps it back to deliver a short-distance, one-fisted powerful blow to an opponent.
	+ **Gum-Gum Rifle**: Similar to the Gum-Gum Bullet, but Luffy twists his arm around as he stretches it behind him and hits the opponent at close range, putting a spin on them.
	+ **Gum-Gum Bazooka**: Luffy stretches both his arms far back, and then hurls them forward, striking his opponent with both simultaneously.
	+ **Gum-Gum Cannon**: Luffy builds up speed with a series of quick jabs, but with none of the punches actually making contact with the target(s) at first, and finishes with a single double-fisted blow similar to Gum-Gum Bazooka.
	+ **Gum-Gum Stamp**: Luffy stretches his leg out and hits his opponent with the bottom of his foot.
	+ **Gum-Gum Battle Axe**: Luffy stretches one leg high into the air, then brings it crashing down on an opponent or structure, for massive damage, strong enough to destroy large buildings and ships in a single hit.
	+ **Gum-Gum Lance**: Luffy holds his feet together (with the bottoms of each touching each other) and kicks with both simultaneously.
	+ **Gum-Gum Whip**: Luffy stretches his leg and kicks in a wide circle, striking multiple foes.
	+ **Gum-Gum Mallet**: Luffy stretches out his arms while twisting them, then takes hold of his opponent. He then untwists them, rapidly spinning his opponent, while bringing him crashing to the floor.
	+ **Gum-Gum Bow Gun**: Luffy takes hold of his opponent, then repeatedly twists his torso vertically around his waist. The resulting snapback sends his opponent flying upwards.
	+ **Gum-Gum Scythe**: Luffy grabs an object behind his opponent and pulls himself towards them. He then stretches out his other arm and clotheslines his opponent.
	+ **Gum-Gum Bell**: Luffy stretches his head back, and then snaps back in a brutal headbutt.
	+ **Gum-Gum Snake Shot**: Luffy moves his arm in a snake-like fashion and grips the enemy, possibly inflicting piercing damage.
* **Rapid-Fire Attacks**: Attacks which encompasses consecutive punches or kicks.
	+ **Gum-Gum Gatling**: Using his stretching capacity to drastically augment the speed at which he brings his fists back and forth, Luffy launches torrent of consecutive punches at super high speeds. The hits land so fast that dozens of punches appear to connect simultaneously.
	+ **Gum-Gum Storm**: Luffy first uses Gum-Gum Balloon and twist his body around tightly, then blows the air out behind him while untwisting to fly in forward while spinning towards an opponent, where he delivers a continuous barrage of super fast punches, similar to Gum-Gum Gatling, with power greatly enhanced by the momentum of his launch.
	+ **Gum-Gum Rain**: Luffy jumps into the air and performs a strong, rapid-fire punching attack while spinning. Similar to Gum-Gum Storm, except without inflating himself beforehand, and he punches while descending like rain.
	+ **Gum-Gum UFO**: Luffy twists back his legs midair, and lets them go, causing them to spin around and around horizontally similar to a discus, occasionally lashing out with his legs and kicking anyone within reach, while hovering a few feet off the ground.
* **Defensive & Utility Techniques**: Various techniques Luffy have developed in order to augment his defense, mobility etc.
	+ **Gum-Gum Rocket**: Luffy’s main method of traveling long distances fast. He stretches out one of his arms or both and grabs a handhold, then retracts them, projecting himself high into the air at high speeds, over great distances, or even into an opponent.
	+ **Gum-Gum Balloon**: A defensive technique wherein Luffy inflates himself rapidly through his mouth, further increasing his resistance to blunt attacks. With his inflated body, Luffy is capable of deflecting projectile attacks back at his attackers.
		- **Gum-Gum Salute Fire**: Luffy first absorbs the projectiles the way he does normally and then accurately rebounds the projectiles at an enemy with twice the power as when they hit him.
	+ **Gum-Gum Grab**: A technique wherein Luffy stretches his arm out to catch something.
	+ **Gum-Gum Shield**: Luffy grabs the fingers of one hand with the other, and stretches them before his face to block blades that pass between the fingers.
	+ **Gum-Gum Net**: Luffy entwines his fingers making a net like shape and then stretches out his fingers making a larger net in an attempt to trap his opponents.
	+ **Gum-Gum Slingshot**: Luffy grabs hand and foot holds, then intercepts a projectile, stretching back and firing the projectile back at its origin.
	+ **Gum-Gum White Arrow**: A team attack Luffy uses alongside Blizzard. He stretches his arms back, like he's about to use Gum-Gum Bazooka, but then grabs Blizzard by the scruff of his neck and then sends him flying forward.
	+ **Gum-Gum Suspension Bridge**: Luffy turns himself into a make-shift bridge by laying his rubber body across a gap.
	+ **Gum-Gum Human Shield**: Luffy avoids getting hurt from his opponent by grabbing someone else around him and use them as a human shield.

**Second Gear**: Luffy pumps his blood rapidly with his legs to kick start the process which in turn, increases the speed of his blood flow, thus providing more oxygen and nutrients to various parts of his body which makes him faster and much stronger. It uses even more oxygen and energy, hence using up more food and he has to breathe harder. The increase in his metabolism causes him to be hungrier than usual or even a paralytic type effect after a long usage of it. Can be used to achieve a full body effect, or an effect on any single area of his body (e.g. the arm). The techniques in this mode are basically the same as the regular attacks, but greatly augmented by his enhanced attack speed and, consequently, attack power.

* **Gum-Gum Jet Pistol**: Luffy delivers a Gum-Gum Pistol so fast that the fist's movement is invisible, and it truly seems like he shoots his opponent, except that the resulting impact is not akin to an actual pistol, but to a small hand-held cannon and powerful enough to propel the unlucky recipient several meters away. The incredible speed both makes the strike far more powerful, and harder to dodge. When using this technique, he points his other hand out to aim at his target.
* **Gum-Gum Jet Stamp**: Luffy delivers a Gum-Gum Stamp, with the same effect as the Jet Pistol.
	+ **Gum-Gum Red Hawk Stamp**: A Haki-enhanced version of **Gum-Gum Jet Stamp**​. Luffy ignites his leg with **​Armament Haki**​, and then assaults his opponent with a fire-enhanced kick.
* **Gum-Gum Jet Bazooka**: Luffy charges at his opponent at high speed, and delivers an incredibly fast and strong Gum-Gum Bazooka.
	+ **Gum-Gum Red Hawk Bazooka**: A Haki-enhanced version of **Gum-Gum Jet Bazooka**​. Igniting his fists in flames and hardening them with **​Armament Haki**​, Luffy delivers a high speed, powerful attack that also covers the opponent in scorch marks.
* **Gum-Gum Jet Whip**: Luffy delivers a Gum-Gum Whip, so fast, that only the slipstream is visible.
	+ **Gum-Gum Hawk Whip**: A Haki-enhanced version of **Gum-Gum Jet Whip**. Luffy imbues his entire leg with **Armament Haki**, and then swipes it towards the target as an elongated kick.
* **Gum-Gum Jet Bullet**: An extremely fast, close-range punch with very great force. When attacking head-on, the stretching of the original Bullet along with the resulting snapback seem to occur almost simultaneously at once, making it virtually inescapable.
	+ **Gum-Gum Red Hawk Bullet**: A Haki-enhanced version of **Gum-Gum Jet Bullet**. Luffy engulfs his hardened black fist with flames, with the same effects as the Jet Bullet version, but also generates an explosion of flames once his fist is in contact with the target.
* **Gum-Gum Jet Rifle**: A Second Gear version of Gum-Gum Rifle. The winding of the original Rifle along with its snapback happening almost at the same time as Luffy speeds towards the target makes this move impossible to evade.
	+ **Gum-Gum Hawk Rifle**: A Haki enhanced version of **Gum-Gum Jet Rifle**. After entering Gear Second, Luffy uses **Armament Haki** to harden his arm while igniting it at the same time. He twists his arm to create a spinning, fire-enhanced punch and increase the power.
* **Gum-Gum Jet Axe**: A Second Gear version of Gum-Gum Battle Axe. Luffy stretches his leg vertically and then crashes it down on his opponent, unlike the usual version, this move strikes several meters in length, thus increasing its range.
* **Gum-Gum Jet Gatling**: Luffy's strongest technique in Second Gear. Like the original Gatling, he unleashes a torrent of punches moving at high-speed so fast, after a volley, they seemingly connect simultaneously. The circles of air bursts from the punches surrounding Luffy, resemble the many barrels of an actual Gatling gun.
	+ **Gum-Gum Hawk Gatling**: A Haki-enhanced version of **Gum-Gum Jet Gatling**. Luffy uses Gum-Gum Jet Gatling while using **Armament: Hardening** on his arms to enhance the power of his punches.
* **Gum-Gum Jet Rocket**: After grabbing onto something with stretched out arms, Luffy instantly propels himself forward with blinding speed, proving far more enhanced than the original Gum-Gum Rocket.
* **Gum-Gum Red Hawk**: Luffy uses his Armament Haki in conjunction with Second Gear to ignite his arm and strike his opponent with great force, creating a fiery explosion upon contact.

**Third Gear**: Luffy pumps air through his bones to make them gigantic. This gives his arm more mass and a larger area to attack with far greater strength. Previously Luffy turned into a chibi form after canceling the technique but after the two year timeskip he no longer shrinks in size. The techniques in this mode are basically the same as the regular attacks, but greatly augmented by his increased mass and power.

* **Bone Balloon**: Luffy inflates his body by blowing air into his bones. This is done by biting into his right thumb, presumably cutting it open down to the bone, and then blowing air directly into the opened bone. This technique seems to give Luffy a sturdier defense than the regular balloon, since bullets now ricochet off of him instead of bouncing off of him. Due to this form having a disadvantage of moving about, he can transfer his air into his torso, and then launch himself with his "Gum-Gum Rocket" technique.
* **Gum-Gum Giant Pistol**: Luffy delivers a Gum-Gum Pistol with extreme force due to the larger size of his fist.
* **Gum-Gum Giant Rocket**: A Third Gear version of Luffy's Gum-Gum Rocket. While using this move, Luffy's chest bones are inflated, and bullets ricochet off his body.
* **Gum-Gum Giant Stamp**: Luffy activates Third Gear and expands his foot to deliver a giant version of Gum-Gum Stamp with greater force. He can also use **Armament: Hardening** to increase the strength of the attack.
* **Gum-Gum Grizzly Magnum**: Luffy gets distance away from his opponent and activates Gear Third on both his arms simultaneously. He then runs towards the target with both his arms still static behind him before leaping in the air. While flying toward the enemy at a great speed he implements **Armament: Hardening** into his arms, turning them black. He retracts his arms, and launches his attack with a great destructive power.
* **Gum-Gum Giant Balloon**: Luffy activates Third Gear and expands his torso to create a giant version of his traditional Gum-Gum Balloon, with a much sturdier defense.
* **Gum-Gum Elephant Gun**: After pumping air into his fist to drastically increase its mass, Luffy uses his Armament Haki to harden it (appearing to be significantly harder than his regular Third Gear which has been likened to steel in the sense bullets ricochet off his Third Gear limbs instead of bouncing off), turning his arm black in the process. Luffy then attacks in a similar motion to when he uses his Giant Pistol, launching his fist towards his opponent. This attack seems to be more densely pumped with air at the tip compared to the Giant Pistol, forming a large round ball at his forearm, whilst the rest of his arm remains at the same size, although stretched.
* **Gum-Gum Elephant Gatling**: After enlarging and imbuing both his arms with Armament Haki in a similar manner as Gum-Gum Elephant Gun, Luffy uses his stretching ability to bring his fists forward repeatedly in a blurry, rapid barrage of strong punches that creates the illusion of him having multiple arms.

**Gear Stacking**: While he is still in Second Gear, Luffy goes into Third Gear with **Bone Balloon**, combining the enhanced speed of Second Gear with the augmented attack power of Third Gear.

* **Gum-Gum Jet Elephant Gun**: With the combination of Second Gear's speed and the drastically increase in mass of Third Gear, Luffy uses Elephant Gun with the increased oxygen to assault his opponent with a powerful, Haki-enhanced large fist.

**Haki**: There are normally two types of Haki regular people can tap into: the Observation Haki which allows individuals to sense the presence of others, and Armament Haki which allows individuals to create an invisible armor around them. There is however a third type of Haki, Conqueror's Haki, that only a few individuals can use. Luffy is one of these people.

* **Armament Haki**: A form of Haki that allows the user to create an “invisible armor” around themselves. With that, they can protect himself from attacks, and if trained well, use it to deliver stronger attacks. Besides the increase of strength, it is the only form of attack that doesn’t involve Seastone that can hit any Devil Fruit user, being able to hit the user’s original body even if it’s a Logia user. It can also be used in weapons.
	+ **Armament: Hardening**: This technique somehow uses Armament Haki to drastically harden any part of the user's body. When Luffy uses it, the arm he applies it on becomes black and shiny, much like vulcanized rubber.
	+ **Head Armament**: Luffy imbues his forehead with Armament Haki to harden it.
	+ **Second Gear Armament**: Luffy imbues his fist with Armament Haki while under the effect of Second Gear to harden it, which also seems to have the added effect of igniting it.
* **Observation Haki**: A form of Haki that allows the user to sense the presence of his opponents. A user of this type of Haki can predict an opponent’s moves before he gets hit. This works by showing the user an image or brief “premonition” of what the opponent will do, manifested as a mental image in the user’s mind’s eye, and the damage the user will take if the attack “hit” for real. It appears that the more killer intent the enemy has the easier they are to predict, though more efficient users can predict future moves regardless whether there are ambient murderous intents or not. Including the distance, location, and where the opponent may strike next.
* **Conqueror's Haki**: The ability to knock out someone else or a large group. While inexperienced users are restricted to intimidating one being or blindly knocking out any with weak wills around them, those with more expertise can pick out weak willed individuals in a large group to knock out. Can also be used as an AOE energy blast and to tame animals.

**Six Powers**: A special, superhuman martial arts style primarily used by the members of CP9.

* **Soru** (*Shave*): By kicking the ground at least 10 times in the blink of an eye, Luffy propels himself across short distances at enhanced speed.

**Master Hand-to-Hand Combatant**: Luffy is an exceptionally skilled unarmed combatant, often using the abilities of his Gum-Gum Fruit or physical prowess in combination with punches, kicks, elbows, and even headbutts, to fight his opponents with great effect; he uses Armament Haki to enhance the strength of his blows as well. Such skill allows him to hold his own against combat specialists like Rob Lucci, Vice Admiral-class Marines, and even Warlord melee specialists the likes of Doflamingo and Mihawk. Unlike Zoro, Sanji or Blizzard, Luffy's fighting style is completely improvised; it follows no particular code of honor, and so if necessary, he will attack women or animals, hit below the belt, attack his enemies even if they have their backs turned or are otherwise unprepared or unsuspecting, use enemies as human shields and even bite his opponents. While fighting, Luffy has been shown to be highly adept at improvising, and regularly comes up with creative counterattacks and unusual techniques to use 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 and over the top moves (like Crocodile when Luffy was coated in water), which prompts Luffy to respond that he's always serious.

* **Fighting Instincts**: When Luffy fights, he relies heavily on his instincts, which, interestingly enough, are mostly correct. Even as early as the Arlong Park Arc, after getting bitten he managed to escape with his arm still in one piece by slamming Arlong's head to loosen his jaw to get it out instead of simply pulling it. He picked out the real Mr. 3 from a bunch of wax look-a-likes on a hunch. He also destroyed Eneru's "**Raigo**" using the gold ball as a conductor. Before even learning Observation Haki, Luffy could easily dodge any attack by relying on his instinct as shown in his battle against Eneru and Rob Lucci.

**Immense Strength**: As captain of the Straw Hat Pirates, Monkey D. Luffy has immense physical strength, and is capable of lifting up large boulders, breaking stone, shattering steel with his bare hands, pushing apart large buildings and shoulder flipping a huge man; his strength was further proven when he effortlessly stopped a stomp from Donquixote Doflamingo, a tremendously strong man who is twice Luffy's size, with only one foot from an angle with no leverage. Luffy's sheer physical strength and dexterity is a result of his grandfather's unorthodox training methods (such as being 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.

* **Enhanced Jaw Strength**: Luffy also possesses extraordinary jaw strength, as he ate the cage that Gecko Moriah put him in, and managed to give Rob Lucci a small wound bite, as well as break the steel chain used to bind Nami (in Franky's body). His greatest feat in this area, however, was that he managed to make Jimbei, who is known to have an extremely high tolerance towards pain, yell out in pain when he bit the fishman's arm.

**Enhanced Speed and Reflexes**: Luffy also possesses tremendous speed and reflexes to match his strength and endurance. In fact, on more than one occasion, Luffy was able to anticipate moves and counter attacks that would normally be beyond his field of vision due to his sharp reflexes.

**Enhanced Agility**: Luffy is also shown to be extremely agile to the point where he can perform flips, rolls and dodges, as well as perform acrobatic feats with ease. In many fights, Luffy is seen being able to react to foes faster than him, like Kuro, Arlong, Bellamy, and Eneru. Even when using Third Gear to increase his attack force he is still quick to move, being able to dodge attacks, and even creating enough friction while running at full speed to set the ground on fire.

**Immense Endurance and Durability**: His endurance and durability is incredible; taking continuous, deadly assaults from powerful opponents that would have killed a normal person easily in most of his fights, yet still being able to stand up and continue fighting effectively.

**Supernatural Survivability**: This willpower even lets him survive far beyond what normal people are capable of, as demonstrated 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.

**Indomitable Will**: His vast strength is only exceeded by his enormous willpower, as demonstrated on several occasions, 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.

**Poison Resistance**: 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. Hyouzou, a poisonous blue-ringed octopus merman of the New Fishman Pirates, poisoned Luffy during their fight and Luffy would not have taken any notice, if Chopper had not seen the entry point in his arm. The blue-ringed octopus possesses one of the real world's deadliest poisons and the fact that Luffy could shrug it off like it was nothing is a testament to the strength of his immune system. He is also able to counter against Caesar's own poisonous gases. He is able to completely resist the H2S (a gas that petrified people with a touch) in Caesar's enhanced form without any sign of being poisoned. However, extremely powerful poison normally capable of instant death may still be able to incapacitate him.

**Gifted Intellect**: While he may be simple-minded and idiotic, it doesn't hide the fact that 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 Eneru's lightning attacks as it would have been pointless because of his immunity. He also was able to develop new techniques such as "Second Gear" and "Third Gear", using logical concepts and knowledge of rubber and its properties. While easily noticeable as the least strategic member of his own crew, largely 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. Also, even if most of the time he acts instinctively, in some cases Luffy has shown to be intelligent enough to give some orders to his crewmates in the wake of making a strategy or simply making things go as he prefers. This usually ends up being an advantage for the crew.

**Enhanced Charisma**: 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. Luffy's powerful charisma has earned him many powerful friends and allies in times of need, allowing him to escape the tightest situations. In a conversation between Ace and Vivi, it is shown that Ace is somewhat aware of this ability, as he mentions that Luffy has a strange charm that causes people to gather around him. In fact his charm is great enough that he earned the respect of Whitebeard after talking with him for a few seconds and later on he earned his complete faith to save Ace as Whitebeard ordered his crew and allies to back up Luffy, what more is that he achieve this in one day.

## Weaknesses

* Luffy cannot swim and becomes immobilized if more than half of his body is covered up in water.
* Armament Haki, Fishman Karate, and Seastone nullifies his Devil Fruit powers and his resistance to blunt impact, thus making him vulnerable like regular people.
* Lacks intelligence in education.
* Very reckless and obstinate; not bright outside of combat.
* Is apparently vulnerable to bladed weaponry.

## Equipment

**Luffy's Straw Hat**: Luffy's trademark item is the straw hat he received from "Red-Haired" Shanks 12 years ago. It is made out of woven straw with a red band around the bowl.

## Trivia

* He is the first person in *One Piece* seen to have eaten a Devil Fruit.
* Like many characters, Luffy has a distinct laugh (shishishi).
* Luffy is very similar to Son Goku from *Dragon Ball*, being the main character, being very childish and naive, having messy black hair and eating too much food. These similarities are fitting since Oda was inspired by Dragon Ball while creating One Piece.
* At age 19, Luffy is the youngest of all 12 members from the Worst Generation.
* Luffy's blood-type is type F, the same as Jinbe's and Vivi's.
* Luffy often recalls his crew members in the order of them joining the crew: "Zoro, Nami, Usopp, Sanji, Chopper, Robin, Franky, Blizzard, Brook, Aika and Kumi".
* Luffy's favorite food is meat.
* Luffy's least favorite food is sweets.
* Luffy bathes once a week.
* Luffy typically gets 5 hours of sleep.
* Luffy's hobbies are adventures and banquets.
* Luffy gets stomachaches from eating sweets like candy.
* Luffy likes to get belly rubs, mostly from Nami.