Monkey D. Luffy

**Monkey D. Luffy**, also known as **"Straw Hat Luffy"** and commonly as **"Straw Hat"**, is the main protagonist of the manga and anime, *One Piece*. He is the founder and captain of the increasingly infamous and powerful Straw Hat Pirates, as well as the most powerful of its top fighters. He desires to find the legendary treasure left behind by the late Gol D. Roger and thereby become the Pirate King, which would help facilitate an unknown dream of his that he has told only to Shanks, his brothers and crew.  He believes that being the Pirate King means having the most freedom in the world.

Born in Foosha Village, Luffy is the son of Monkey D. Dragon, the leader of the Revolutionary Army, and the grandson of the Marine hero Monkey D. Garp, and their family carries the initial and Will of D. Luffy met "Red-Haired" Shanks, who gave Luffy the very straw hat that has become Luffy's signature accessory, having gifted it to the boy as part of a promise for them to meet again someday after he became a great pirate. Growing up on Dawn Island, Luffy befriended and became sworn brothers of the late "Fire Fist" Portgas D. Ace and Revolutionary Chief-of-Staff Sabo, as well as being raised under the care of Curly Dadan.

Luffy accidentally ate the Gomu Gomu no Mi at age 7, which turned his body into rubber. Thanks to his strong imagination, Luffy is able to wield the seemingly unthreatening abilities of his Devil Fruit to act as an incredibly competent fighter, often manipulating his own rubbery body into a variety of powerful forms. He is one of few individuals known to have awakened his Devil Fruit, which bestows him with mythical power. In addition to his Devil Fruit abilities, Luffy is one of few individuals capable of wielding all three forms of Haki and has mastered them to the point that he has developed advanced abilities.

Luffy has gone up against numerous global powers around him, starting with fighting the most powerful pirates in the East Blue and moving to clashes against the Marines, Seven Warlords of the Sea, Cipher Pol, World Nobles, and even the Four Emperors of the Grand Line, emerging victorious in a majority of these battles. He invaded and indirectly caused the annihilation of Enies Lobby, escaped the impregnable Impel Down, and was a focal figure in the Summit War of Marineford. He has also either defeated or befriended seven of the eleven known past or present Warlords prior to the organization's dissolution. Furthermore, Luffy has invaded the territory of the Four Emperors on multiple occasions, and eventually managed to defeat one. Luffy's accomplishments and heritage have caused him to be labeled as a "Dangerous Future Element" while in the process gaining a reputation for being "reckless" and, in some cases, "insane," earning the wrath of Fleet Admiral Sakazuki, the Marine Headquarters, and even the World Government.

## Physical Abilities

Contrary to what his size would suggest, and even without his Devil Fruit powers or Haki, Luffy has strength, speed, agility, durability, endurance and vitality that are the stuff of legends; ranging from accomplishing feats that would be physically impossible for a normal human to achieve and surviving dangers that most would think impossible to survive.

### Strength

His grandfather Garp used harsh and unorthodox training methods to make him grow stronger, such as leaving him alone in the wilderness as a young child, tying him to balloons so he would float away, or throwing him into a bottomless pit, as well as several years of further rigorous training in the extremely harsh environments of Mt. Colubo and Rusukaina. By the time he began his quest to become Pirate King, Luffy had attained incredible physical strength, which he demonstrated by knocking out the Lord of the Coast with a single punch. 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 apart to free himself. Even in a severely weakened state after his calamitous battles at Impel Down and Marineford, Luffy was still able to cause massive destruction on Amazon Lily and hurl a boulder several times larger than himself with enough force to destroy a nearby rock formation. Despite these feats, however, his strength still paled in comparison to certain other powerful characters at the time, such as several participants in the Summit War of Marineford.

After training with Rayleigh in Rusukaina for two years, Luffy's strength seemed to have increased dramatically. Initially, he was at the mercy of every animal on the island, but then he became their official boss after serval months of training. Other examples are when he effortlessly defeated a Pacifista in a single punch, wheras it took him and his whole crew to defeat two years prior. On Dressrosa, he easily flipped over the massive gladiator Spartan, and 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.

Luffy has utilized his Gears, transformation techniques made possible by his Devil Fruit powers, 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 3 punch, and two years later, he defeated the powerful giant Hajrudin with a single Gear 2 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. With a single, enhanced Gear 4 punch, Luffy was capable of obliterating an entire town.

When he was imprisoned in Wano Country, he wore Seastone handcuffs that significantly weakened him and prevented him from using his Devil Fruit powers, 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. A few days later, he was able to break through the helmet of the vice warden Daifugo and injure him with a simple kick.

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 stem and figurehead off their ship. During the Davy Back Fight battle against Foxy, Luffy attempted to increase his fighting prowess by donning an afro.

### Speed and Agility

Luffy possesses tremendous speed, agility, and reflexes. While knocked on his back, he was quickly able to escape from a point-blank explosion during his fight with Foxy, jumping onto a nearby mast before he was caught up in the blast. When he fought Blueno and Rob Lucci on Enies Lobby, Luffy was able to keep up with their incredibly fast Soru movements even without using the massive speed boost of his Gear 2 form. When battling Dracule Mihawk during the Summit War 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 3. 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 being able to see into the future with his Kenbunshoku Haki aids his dodging ability considerably, and during his fight with Kaidou on Onigashima, Luffy managed to partially dodge Kaidou's **Raimei Hakke** attack despite the Emperor being capable of moving at near-blinding speed; earlier, Luffy had been powerless to avoid that strike.

### Durability

Luffy has shown the ability to take massive amounts of physical punishment but still 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 in Arabasta Kingdom by Crocodile's poison hook but remained conscious long enough to defeat the Warlord. He took multiple blows from Foxy's spiked gloves but did not fall. On Upper Yard, Luffy was directly hit by Wyper's Burn Bazooka, which disintegrated a massive hole in a giant tree, but he only started bleeding as a result. 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 trident Mogura, but he was able to keep standing up until Katakuri went down. During his first encounter with Kaidou, the Emperor's might was so immense that he could knock out Luffy with a single strike of his mace; however, after training in the Prisoner Mine and confronting Kaidou again, Luffy managed to emerge conscious and without serious injury after being partially struck by the same attack. Eventually, he becomes able to take hits from Kaidou without being knocked out.

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. Despite that incident, he seems to be quite proud of his immunity. When he witnessed Queen's Excite Bullets, he claimed they would not work on him. However, Chopper needed to treat him later on.

### 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 2 and Gear 3, 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 4 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. Another testament to his endurance was that he was stabbed by Charlotte Katakuri's trident in their fight but still got back on his feet to continue the battle. At Udon, Luffy was able to continue fighting while he was infected with Queen's Mummy virus. Even after being knocked out by Kaidou's (who had assumed his Human-Beast Form) **Kosanze Ragnaraku**, he got back up after a few moments. Later, when struck by the more powerful **Warai Jogo Ragnaraku**, Luffy although injured, retained consciousness.

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 foreseeing 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 Warlord. 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

Luffy possesses a notable ability to recruit allies to his side everywhere he goes, which Dracule Mihawk describes as the most dangerous ability in the world. 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 Jinbe met Luffy, he 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 and soon after fell in love with 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 Warlord 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. When the prisoners inside Udon's Prisoner Mine had doubts about defeating Kaidou even after Raizo and Kikunojo revealed themselves, Luffy managed to win them over.

After his exploits at Marineford, Luffy became incredibly popular to the pirates of both halves of the Grand Line. The trickster, Demaro Black, was able to take advantage of this popularity to gather many powerful pirates under his supposed leadership by posing as Luffy.

## Devil Fruit

When he was 7 years old, Luffy unwittingly ate the Gomu Gomu no Mi, a Paramecia-type Devil Fruit, after finding it in a chest owned by the Red Hair Pirates. It gives his body the properties of rubber, allowing him to stretch, bounce, bend, twist, and inflate any part of his body. Initially, Luffy was unable to control his stretching, but was able to master it after ten years of training on Dawn Island, and further master it during the two years he spent training with Silvers Rayleigh on Rusukaina.

During the Wano Country Arc, it was revealed that it is actually a Mythical Zoan-type Devil Fruit, the **Hito Hito no Mi, Model: Nika**, which allows the user to become an incarnation of Nika, an ever playful Sun God known for liberating slaves and bringing smiles to peoples faces. This grants Luffy's body a rubber physiology and allows him to fight however he pleases, just as long as he can imagine it. According to the Five Elders, because of the smiles Nika can put on the faces of others, he is known as the "**Warrior of Liberation**", and that "there is no power more ridiculous in all the world".

He is able to stretch any part of his body; he can stretch his arms to extend the reach of his punches, stretch his legs to extend the reach of his kicks, and stretch his neck to extend the reach of his headbutt. His stretching also allows him to reach faraway places, as he can stretch and grab onto something at that location and pull himself there. He can further enhance his attack power by twisting his body parts around each other and spinning them.

Defensively, Luffy, being made of rubber, is completely immune to lightning. He also cannot be harmed by blunt attacks not imbued with Busoshoku Haki, including punches, blunt weapons, and even being stepped on by gigantic opponents. If struck by blunt projectiles, such as bullets or cannonballs, he can bounce them back toward the place it came from, potentially threatening the one who launched it. He can also easily survive falling from great heights.

He can suck in a large amount of air to inflate his torso like a balloon. His inflated belly greatly enhances his rubbery defense and his ability to bounce things back. It also keeps him from sinking if he falls into the water.

Over the course of his voyage in the Grand Line, he developed techniques he calls Gears to utilize his Devil Fruit to combat stronger opponents, such as speeding up his own blood flow to increase his speed or enlarging his bones and muscles for more powerful strikes. During his training on Rukuskaina, he learned how to combine his Haki with his rubber abilities, making his already destructive attacks inconceivably faster and stronger.

In Wano Country, his fruit awakened after his apparent "death" and third loss against Kaidou, granting him immeasurably awesome powers that the World Government itself greatly fears. Among these astonishing abilities are strengthening his rubbery body and granting him even more freedom. In addition to this, Luffy is afforded the enhancements common among Zoan Devil Fruits, including greater strength, speed, and a faster recovery rate. He also displayed the ability to bestow the properties of rubber into the environment around him.

In Road To Laugh Tale, it is revealed that Luffy's true power isn't his rubbery physiology, and instead something much different. In truth his power allows him to bring forth whatever he can imagine into reality, however, this is only possible if the Devil Fruit awakens and is limited to Luffy's own imagination.

Gear 2

*Further information: Gomu Gomu no Mi/Gear 2 Techniques*
**Gear 2** was first seen on Enies Lobby. Luffy increases the speed of his blood flow, and thanks to the rubber nature of his blood vessels and organs, his body can withstand the pressure. This allows more oxygen and nutrients to be pumped throughout through his body. Gear 2 greatly increases Luffy's physical capabilities, allowing him to easily surpass the movement speed of Soru users and smash through the defensive power of Tekkai.

Initially, Luffy activated this by pumping blood through his legs to activate the effect across his entire body, but after the timeskip, he has shown to have more control over it and can activate it in any select part of his in his body. Before his two-year training, the usage of Gear 2 depleted his energy quickly and even threatened his lifespan, but in the present day, its effects appear to have been reduced.

By using a combination of Haki and Gear 2, Luffy is able to punch opponents at with such speed and force that it causes his fist to ignite into a shroud of flames, which Luffy calls **Red Hawk**. By the time of the Raid on Onigashima, his Red Hawk was strong enough that it forced Kaidou, one of the strongest pirates in the world who is renowned for his near-indestructible body, to actually dodge the attack.

### Gear 3

**Gear 3** was first seen on Enies Lobby. By blowing a massive amount of air into his thumb, Luffy can inflate the bones of a particular part of his body, making it gigantic. These inflated body parts are capable of inflicting damage on a massive scale, being able to destroy steel doors and large buildings with ease, and Gear 3's power became magnified when Luffy learned to use Busoshoku Haki during the timeskip, and Haoshoku Haki infusion during the Wano Country Arc.

Initially, Gear 3 would cause Luffy to shrink to the size of a child after its use, temporarily limiting his fighting capabilities until his body returned to normal. However, this no longer happens after Luffy's two years of training.

### Gear 4

**Gear 4** was created during Luffy's two-year training on Rusukaina and was first seen on Dressrosa. By blowing into his arm, Luffy inflates the muscles in his entire body and covers it with Busoshoku Haki, taking one of three forms. The first form, **Boundman**, makes his composition akin to a rubber ball, causing him to bounce all the time. Luffy is capable of retracting his arms and legs inside of his body, unleashing blows of devastating power, as well as being able to 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 his body as a weapon via the recoil from attacks blasting opponents away. The third form, **Snakeman**, is slimmer and focuses on offense, lacking the defensive capabilities of the other two forms. 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, in addition to being weakened, he will be unable to use Haki for ten minutes until it recharges. Using Gear 4 multiple times in a short amount of time will take a toll on his body.

### Gear 5 (Awakening)

**Gear 5** was created during the climax of the Raid on Onigashima, as a result of Luffy awakening his Devil Fruit for the first time since the Void Century.

After awakening, Luffy gains even greater freedom and demonstrates many new abilities such as being able to freely manipulate the shape and size of his body; instead of focusing more on hardening himself using Busoshoku Haki, he takes on a more cartoonish fighting style, as well as being able to grant the environment around him the same properties as rubber, which allowed him to deflect a **Bolo Breath** by bouncing it back at Kaidou, as well as being able to stretch objects he touches like rubber, including living things and even lightning. As pointed out by Kaidou, Luffy's power now has the characteristics of both Paramecia and Zoan-types.

## Haki

Luffy is one of the few people in the world capable of using all three forms of Haki, so far only him and Kaidou have showcase the advanced application of each one. Most notably, Silvers Rayleigh, the former first mate and right-hand man of Gol D. Roger, instructed him during the two-year timeskip, and stated he has a noticeable talent for Haki, having mastered the basics of all forms of Haki in only a year and a half. Even before finding out what Haki was, Blackbeard noted that his Haki had grown stronger by the time of the mass breakout in Impel Down compared to their first meeting on Jaya. Through fighting against and training with powerful Haki users in the New World, in particular, those related to the Four Emperors, in addition to the Emperorsthemselves, Luffy strengthened his skill with each form of Haki to a much greater degree and learned how to use their advanced applications.

### Haoshoku Haki

Luffy is an immensely skilled user of Haoshoku Haki, a very rare type of Haki whose users are said to have the qualities of a king. It remained latent within him, until he used it unintentionally multiple times: first, stopping Motobaro, the Rosy Life Riders' bison; at Amazon Lily's arena to stop Sandersoniafrom killing a petrified Marguerite, as well as knocking out multiple Kuja warriors; on Level 5 of Impel Down, knocking out attacking wolves; and at Marineford, knocking out Galdino and an executioner, along with several elite Marines and New World pirates.

Over the two-year timeskip, Rayleigh taught him about Haoshoku Haki, thus gaining conscious control over it, becoming his expertise concerning Haki.Afterwards, he knocked out members of the Fake Straw Hat Crew, without affecting innocent civilians. On Fish-Man Island, he knocked out 50,000 members of the New Fish-Man Pirates in an instant, however, he could've knocked out all 100,000.When he fought against fellow Haoshoku Haki users Chinjao, Donquixote Doflamingo, and Charlotte Katakuri, their clashes created a notable effect similar to lightning. His exceptional expertise is further proven, as Luffy used Haoshoku Haki when unconscious, as after Kaidou knocked him out, knocking out the Beasts Pirates' members who tried taking him into custody.

During the Raid on Onigashima, while fighting Kaidou, Luffy came to realize that he could infuse himself with Haoshoku Haki, doing so on his arms and legs, which dramatically increases his attack power; thus, becoming one of the small "handful" of Haoshoku Haki users known to achieve this advanced application. Using this, combined with his upper advanced Busoshoku Haki, he could deal immensely powerful blows against Kaidou, whereas his previous attacks were "too shallow". Much like other users, a sign of this advanced application is the black lightning emanating from his arms and legs when infused with this Haki. However, having only discovered it a few moments prior, his control over this application was stated to be "crude" and "clumsy" by Kaidou, leading to him being swiftly knocked down by the Emperor, after managing to briefly clash on equal ground with him.

Not long after, when Luffy and Kaidou clashed for a third time, their imbued Haoshoku Haki attacks, resulted in the "heavens being split" in half, causing the clouds to part, something that occurred whenever two Emperors collided, in addition to Roger himself fought. As such, this might indicate that Luffy's Haki has ascended to the same level as that of the strongest pirates in the world.