Gum-Gum Fruit

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The **Gum-Gum Fruit** is a violet, spherical shaped fruit with a stem sprouting out of the top, with swirls that go in a curly "S" like-pattern. Its overall appearance greatly resembles a Yubari King.

## Strengths and Weaknesses

The fruit's major strength, as demonstrated by Luffy, is that the person's body can stretch like rubber even when the ability user himself is nullified (for instance, when Nojiko pulls Luffy's head out of the water at Arlong Park). It also makes them almost entirely immune to blunt attacks, including hand-to-hand combat, bullets or even cannonballs, an ability which can be further reinforced with the application of Armament Haki. Thanks to Luffy's own creativity both in and out of combat, this fruit has consistently proven itself to be among the most formidable, versatile, and unpredictable within the Paramecia class. The user's rubber-like body also allows the user to survive falls from heights and collisions that would kill a normal person.

The user's ability to stretch and twist like rubber to extreme lengths not only makes him immune to injuries that originate from such, but it also allows him to even rebound, that can give him a great advantage in or out of battle. Stretching also allows the user to drastically increase the range of what would otherwise be considered a powerful close-range attack, turning it into a devastating mid-range or long-range attack. A stretched limb can also be used to store potential energy like a stretched spring, increasing the velocity by stretching his arm back resulting in increased power. Combined with Haki, their power is increased even more. Owing to rubber-like natural insulating properties, the user ire devastating attack. Luffy can even inflate his bones to increase the volume of his body and significantly increase his attacks, at the cost of his body becoming smaller for a short period of time (although after the timeskip Luffy has seemingly been able to overcome this weakness as after he used "**Gum-Gum Elephant Gun**" on the Kraken and he did not revert to his smaller size afterwards).

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Despite all the great advantages Luffy gets by using his fruit, he can however still be hurt by cutting or stabbing attacks, as well as non-physical attacks such as fire or ice. One major risk of Luffy's powers is that he is vulnerable to attacks in the moments when his limbs are stretched to their limit, as Buggy and Kuro both demonstrated early on in the series. Luffy, however, has adapted his fighting style to minimize this risk as shown when Buggy attempted to exploit this weakness of Luffy.

Luffy has also shown a limited ability of moving in mid-air, by grabbing onto something with an extended limb and propelling away from what could have been a fatal attack. This gives Luffy the option of several jumping and mid-air attacks that would have been disadvantageous to most other people as it would have left them vulnerable.

In his youth, Luffy had a problem controlling his own abilities. Though he had an idea of how they would work, Luffy had trouble with aiming and the timing of his attacks, and he was continuously sent spinning by the recoil. However, he managed to counter these weaknesses with his continuous training in the jungle by the time he left to be a pirate.

Luffy has even used his stretching abilities to inhale great amounts of air to thus exhale a big gust of wind; this application of his powers was used to blow away Marigold's poisonous vapor from her venom spit and Magellan's poison breath.

Given Luffy's elastic properties he is shown to be able to withstand great pressure, as shown near Fishman Island when fighting Hody. Though he was still weakened by the sea water around him, he was seemingly unaffected by the intense underwater pressure.

Luffy, of course, also suffers the same weaknesses to water, like Fishman Karate and Seastone, as other Devil Fruit users. However, he sometimes appears to forget about his weakness to water, as he always wants to try some type of water sport in the sea and will often dive into the ocean when he sees someone drowning (only to end up drowning himself). And while contact with water and Seastone does drain Luffy of his energy and nullify his rubber-like ability to absorb blunt attacks (as with Smoker's jutte), his actual body still maintains its rubber-like make, allowing a third party to stretch his body for him.

The Gum-Gum Fruit user is also susceptible to Armament Haki. Similar to water's effects, the usage of Haki only nullifies Luffy's ability to absorb blunt attacks. It does not however, revert Luffy's body to unstretchable flesh. Through the use of Armament Haki, Luffy's grandfather was able to hurt him using only his fist (though Garp attributed this to "love").

When Luffy's crewmates (usually Nami) get angry at him, their punches are able to bypass Luffy's immunity to blunt attacks, although this is purely for comedic effect. Later on, Nami's Haki punches can bypass Luffy's blunt immunity, make the effect more permanent.

Another weakness noted by Doflamingo is that when Armament Haki is applied to a part of Luffy's body, it is not rubbery anymore. This is proven with Luffy's **Gum-Gum Thor Elephant Gun**, where despite rubber being a natural insulator of electricity, the Armament Haki-enhanced attack itself negates the rubber and discharges electricity.

## Usage

*Main Article: Gum-Gum Fruit/Techniques*

The powers of the fruit have been used by Luffy in a variety of ways. These range from simply moving from one place to another in a rather reckless manner, to attacking an enemy with a barrage of fast and strong punches. He has also developed several peculiar methods of combat as time passed, adapting new forms by manipulating his elastic body, most prominent his "**Second Gear**" and "**Third Gear**" forms, allowing him to momentarily increase his strength in combat. After the timeskip, he has learned to use Haki in conjunction with the fruit's powers, as well as having more control over his forms.

Of course Luffy, being who he is, does not only use his ability for battle. When with his crew, or even when partying with others, Luffy tends to use his elastic properties for the humor and joy of others, such as making funny faces, or using his elastic body to play around. Often throughout the series he would stretch his arm and steal food from others, much to their annoyance. He also uses his powers for transportation purposes, a primary example being his "**Gum-Gum Fruit**", which has him grab something with his arms and fire himself like a slingshot, which helps him travel great distances quickly. Luffy also has no problem letting other people play with his stretching body, which people tend to take advantage of.