Monkey D. Luffy wields one of the most versatile Devil Fruits. one pieceAnd it has brought him many unique forms or variations. However, with the release of Gear 5, Luffy has become the most trusted form. Like this, many things, including Gear 4, have been forgotten, but one piece Elbaf arc did an amazing job to solve this problem. This issue not only revives the Gear 4's performance, but also significantly upgrades it in many ways to make it usable once again. Despite having Gear 5, Luffy now has a new advanced form of Gear 4 that Oda can use more often in future battles.
One Piece: Luffy's 5 Powerful Attacks to Beat Yonko, Ranked
Luffy is powerful and his overwhelming attacks can take down even the Yonko from One Piece.
How the latest Arc improves Gear Four with small upgrades
One Piece's Elbaf Arc gave fans a huge surprise when Luffy first harnessed the power of Gear 4th. When the Elbaf Arc began, Luffy and the East Blue Straw Hats appeared in the diorama of the Road along with Chopper. Believing it to be the real Elbaf, the group was unable to find a way out until Luffy destroyed the wall with an improved version of Gear 4. Luffy dubbed the upgraded Gear 4 'Mini Gear 4', and harnessed its power without even fully transforming, making it incredibly useful and less burdensome. This fixes one of the biggest flaws the Gear 4 has had since the Gear 5 launched.
Why the sun god Nika made gear useless for the 4th time
When Gear 5 was introduced in the Wano Country Arc, Gear Four automatically became obsolete due to its incredibly taxing stamina drain and lack of firepower. Gears 2 and 3 are not that powerful, but they don't drain Luffy's stamina much. It's still usable, as it'll keep it usable in battle for a long time, but Gear 4 was a completely different question.
It required too much hokeyness to keep it going, and worst of all, it couldn't even compare to the Gear 5 in terms of overall power. So utilizing Gear 4 wasn't necessary for Luffy at all, and Gear 5 essentially killed it. But now it has appeared once again.
Unique applications of Luffy's upgraded abilities
When Luffy utilized the fourth Gear on Egghead, it was clearly lacking, but Elbaf completely corrected this by introducing Mini Gear 4. This small upgrade is important because now Luffy can utilize it using only part of his body. For example, Luffy can use Konggun's power without having Gear 4 on his entire body. Instead, only the arm transforms into Gear 4. He can similarly use powers like the King Kong Gun or other abilities without having to spread the use of Gear 4 throughout his body.
3 Yonko level female characters from One Piece
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I did it… It's called Mini Gear 4! — Luffy, Elbaf
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This eliminates the stamina drain issue and allows you to maintain this power in extended combat beyond that, giving you greater access to more abilities in your base form. Mini Gear 4 has completely resurrected this transformation, making it one of the most versatile transformations in the story.
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Evaluation of Straw Hat Yonko's overall power level
At this point, Luffy uses Hito Hito no Mi, Model: Nika much better than before. His control over Gear 2 and Gear 3 is truly amazing. As of now, he doesn't suffer from any weaknesses in either of these gears. Now Gear 4 has been mastered so well that you can use just a portion of your body in the blink of an eye. Gear 5 still suffers from some stamina drain, but Elbaf is gradually phasing it out, and Luffy hasn't had any drain issues at all so far.
Plus, Luffy is also currently upgrading his Haki significantly. He finally learns the secret to hurting the immortals of the One Piece universe, and by the end of this arc, he's also trading blows with Imu, making him stronger than before. It may not be noticeable on the surface, but Luffy is slowly making progress in utilizing his Devil Fruit.
His body is also adjusting to the arousal, and you can see that he is now much stronger than before. Following Elbaf, Luffy may be ready for bigger challenges like Shanks, and fans want to see that happen.
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
- move
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Hiroaki Miyamoto, Konosuke Uda, Junji Shimizu, Satoshi Ito, Munehisa Sakai, Katsumi Tokoro, Yutaka Nakajima, Yoshihiro Ueda, Kenichi Takeshita, Yoko Ikeda, Ryota Nakamura, Hiroyuki Kakudo, Takahiro Imamura, Toshihiro Maeya, Yuji Endo, Nozomu Shishido, Hidehiko Kadota, Sumio Watanabe, Harume Kosaka, Yasuhiro Tanabe, Yukihiko Nakao, Keisuke Onishi, Junichi Fujise, Hiroyuki Sato
- author
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Jin Tanaka, Akiko Inoue, Junki Takegami, Shinzo Fujita, Shoji 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)
