All of Luffy's Transformations, Ranked!

Monkey D. Luffy is the main protagonist of One Piece and became well-known for his elastic powers, granted to him by a Devil Fruit, which are mysterious fruits that grant powers to those who devour them. However, over the years, Luffy has improved not only his powers, but also his forms. How about getting to know all of Luffy's transformations?

This article will teach you all about Luffy's best forms, considering his power level and character development with each new transformation he performs. Check out all of Luffy's transformations below, from weakest to strongest!

Gomu Gomu no Mi

Image showing Luffy fighting a sea dragon
Illustrative Image: Gomu Gomu no Mi / Source: Toei Animation

As previously stated, Luffy is one of the many Devil Fruit users, having eaten the Gomu Gomu no Mi as a child. Like the others, it also gives its users abilities and, thus, Luffy gained the ability to stretch and deform his body, which became something similar to rubber.

At the beginning of the anime, Luffy was unable to perform transformations, but his basic form was already enough to resolve fights and the like. Of all Luffy's transformations, this is the weakest, but the protagonist managed to improve his attacks with Haki, facilitating direct attacks.

Mizu Luffy

Image showing chubby Luffy in one of his transformations
Illustrative Image: Mizu Luffy / Source: Toei Animation

Despite being the funniest of all Luffy's transformations, it ended up being quite useful in his fight against the villain Crocodile, one of the most iconic antagonists from the classic phase of the anime. Luffy ends up assuming this chubby form by filling his body with water, aided by his elastic ability.

Thus, the accumulated water becomes a resource, as he spat it all out at the villain and thus defeated the Desert King who had incredible sand powers.

Gear 2

Image showing Luffy in attack position
Illustrative Image: Gear 2 / Source: Toei Animation

And so begins the great journey of all Luffy's transformations, with Gear 2! This powerful transformation is achieved when Luffy accelerates his blood flow so much that his body, composed of rubber components, gains so much agility and strength that the visual impression is that the character is smoking and releasing smoke from his pores.

This transformation drove fans crazy and started the wait for the next Gears! It occurred in episode 272, during the Ennies Lobby arc, where the protagonist faces the character Blueno.

Gear 3

Image showing Luffy in attack position
Illustrative Image: Gear 3 / Source: Toei Animation

Of all of Luffy's transformations, this is the one that deforms only a part of his body: in this technique, Luffy concentrates all his power to inflate his bones and muscles, to deliver punches and kicks with power and strength above the ordinary.

However, Luffy had to undergo specific training to achieve this form, differentiating it from the others, in which the heat of battle is responsible for such evolution. And, throughout the anime, we see the protagonist use Gear 3 in the following ways: full force with his giant fist, as if it were a machine gun attack with his elastic feet and double punch.

Nightmare Luffy

Image showing Luffy in a stronger, zombie-like version
Illustrative Image: Nightmare Luffy / Source: Toei Animation

Of all of Luffy's transformations, this one most resembles a zombie and a lot of that has to do with the Thriller Bark arc, which is already dark in itself. However, despite being quite eye-catching, we only see this form once throughout the entire anime!

Luffy takes on this appearance after feeding on 100 shadows in order to fight the antagonists Oars and Moria. In this new form, Luffy's size doubles, as does his strength and agility, in addition to the bluish tone to his skin.

Gear 4

Image showing Luffy in attack position
Illustrative Image: Gear 4 / Source: Toei Animation

With Gear 4, it's clear that Luffy has gained in strength and speed, but that's not all. Luffy can combine Gear 4 and Haki to inflate parts of his body while making his skin hard and resistant, further increasing the power of his elastic blows!

Of all of Luffy's transformations throughout the anime, it can be noted that Gear 4 was used in 3 different ways, namely: brute force, also called Boundman; extreme speed when executing unpredictable blows, called Snakeman; and total defense like a war tank, called Tankman.

Gear 5

Image showing Luffy's new transformation, where he turns completely white
Illustrative Image: Gear 5 / Source: Toei Animation

We've reached the top 1 on our list of all of Luffy's transformations, the most powerful of them all, Gear 5! Fans have always created theories about this form and it finally became canon during the Kaido arc.

In this form, Luffy not only becomes stronger, but also changes his appearance, becoming completely white. Now reality is a sea of possibilities for the protagonist, where he can mold not only his own body the way he wants, but he can also turn everything he touches into rubber!

Conclusion

And these are all of Luffy's transformations throughout the episodes of One Piece, each with its own main characteristics in terms of strength and physicality. In addition, each of the new forms follows the character's phase, being not only an added power, but also an even more fun way to explore Luffy as the protagonist.

And you, do you like content about anime? Then you can't miss out and also check out our other articles like Top 10 Sports Anime, Ranked!

Flavia Pedro
Flavia Pedro

Historian graduated from UFF - Universidade Federal Fluminense, is a member of the Anime Dicria project, in Rio de Janeiro and works as an SEO Writer on the portal Nerd Popular, with texts published in several blogs, inside and outside Brazil. In addition, he creates content about anime and manga in his spare time.

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