Monkey D. Luffy rules one of the most versatile Devil Fruits in One pieceand gave him many unique forms or transformations. However, with the introduction of Gear 5, it became Luffy's most reliable form. As such, the Gear 4 and many others were forgotten, but One Piece's The Elbaf arc did wonders to fix this. This arc not only brought back the power of the Gear 4, but also greatly improved them in many ways to make them reusable. Despite having Gear 5, Luffy now has new advanced forms of Gear 4, which Oda makes him use more often in battle from now on.
One Piece: Luffy's 5 Strongest Attacks That Can Defeat Yonko Ranked
Luffy is powerful and these overpowered attacks of his could destroy even a Yonko in one piece.
How the latest arc improves gear four with a small upgrade
One Piece's Elbaf Arc gave fans a huge surprise when Luffy used the power of Gear 4th at the very beginning. As the Elbaf arc began, Luffy and the East Blue Slaw Hats found themselves in Road's diorama along with Chopper. Believing it to be the real Elbaf, the group couldn't figure out the way until Luffy broke through the wall with an upgraded version of Gear 4. Luffy called his upgraded Gear 4 “Mini Gear 4” and saw him use this power without fully transforming, making it incredibly usable and less demanding. This fixed one of the biggest bugs that the Gear 4 suffered from after the launch of the Gear 5.
Why Sun God Nika made Gear Fourth obsolete
When Gear 5 was introduced in the Wano Country Arc, Gear Four automatically became obsolete due to its incredibly demanding stamina drain and lack of firepower. Equipment 2 and 3 may not be as powerful, but they don't use up too much of Luffy's stamina. He can use them in battle for a long time and thus they are still usable for him, but the Gear 4 was a different matter altogether.
It required too much Haki to use, and above all, it wasn't even remotely comparable to the Gear 5 in terms of overall performance. As such, using Gear 4 was absolutely pointless for Luffy, and Gear 5 basically killed him. But now she has reappeared.
Unique applications of Luffy's enhanced abilities
When Luffy used his fourth Gear in Egghead, it was clearly lacking, but Elbaf completely fixed this by introducing Mini Gear 4. This small improvement is significant because now Luffy can only interfere with it using his body parts. For example, Luffy can use the power of the Kong Gun without taking on Gear Four throughout his body. Instead, only his arms transform into Gear 4. He can similarly use powers like the King Kong Gun or any other ability without the Gear 4 spreading throughout his body.
3 female Yonko level characters in one piece
One Piece has a lot of powerful female characters, but only a handful of them are Yonko level.
I call it… Mini Gear 4! — Luffy, Elbaf
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This removes the stamina drain issue and also allows him to maintain this power for a longer battle, giving him more access to more abilities in his base form. Mini Gear 4 completely revitalized this transformation and made it one of the most versatile in the story.
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Judging the Straw Hat Yonko's overall power level
At this point, Luffy is a much better Hito Hito no Mi user, Model: Nika than ever before. His control over Gear 2 and Gear 3 is absolutely incredible. At this point, there are no weaknesses that he suffers from when it comes to these two gears. He has now completely mastered the Gear 4 to the point where he can tap only parts of his body into it in the blink of an eye. Gear 5 still suffers from a minor stamina drain, but it's clear that Elbaf is phasing it out, with Luffy suffering absolutely no drain issues so far.
In addition, Luffy is also greatly enhancing his Haki at this point. He finally learned the secret to wounding the immortals in the One Piece world, and at the end of this arc he will probably trade blows with Imu as well, making him stronger than ever. It may not be apparent at first glance, but Luffy is slowly progressing when it comes to using his Devil Fruit.
His body is also adjusting to waking up and it is clear to see that he is now much stronger than ever before. After Elbaf, Luffy may be ready for bigger challenges like Shanks and fans can't wait.
One Piece Chapter 1177 will be available to read on Manga Plus on March 22, 2026.
- Release date
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October 20, 1999
- Network
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Fuji TV
- directors
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Hiroaki Miyamoto, Konosuke Uda, Junji Shimizu, Satoshi Itō, Munehisa Sakai, Katsumi Tokoro, Yutaka Nakajima, Yoshihiro Ueda, Kenichi Takeshita, Yoko Ikeda, Ryota Nakamura, Hiroyuki Kakudou, Takahiro Imayomura, Yashiôhiro Mayuū Shishido, Hidehiko Kadota, Sumio Watanabe, Harume Kosaka, Yasuhiro Tanabe, Yukihiko Nakao, Keisuke Onishi, Junichi Fujise, Hiroyuki Satou
- Writers
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Jin Tanaka, Akiko Inoue, Junki Takegami, Shinzo Fujita, Shouji Yonemura, Yoshiyuki Suga, Atsuhiro Tomioka, Hirohiko Uesaka, Michiru Shimada, Isao Murayama, Takuya Masumoto, Yoichi Takahashi, Momoka Toyoda
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Mayumi Tanaka
Monkey D. Luffy (voice)
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Kazuya Nakai
Roronoa Zoro (voice)
