Summary
The protagonist ofOne Piece,Monkey D. Luffy, is a man who acts first and thinks later. He is the type of person who trusts his instincts and dives headfirst into danger. He has a clear vision of what he wants to achieve, and he surrounds himself with people who can help him make those visions come true.
Once in a while, however, Luffy shows his ability to come up with brilliant strategies that not only help him defeat the bad guys but also help his crew get out of a bad spot. So, with that in mind, here are the most clever strategies Luffy has used inOne Piece, ranked based on how interesting they are.
7Using The Mirror Against Foxy
A Simple Yet Effective Counter to the Slow Beam
Foxy the Silver Fox, the Captain of the Foxy Pirates, is not a particularly strong opponent. His Devil Fruit power, however, is incredibly annoying and quite challenging to deal with.Foxy ate the Slow Slow Fruit,which allows him to shoot a beam that will make anything it touches move in slow motion. Since Luffy’s fighting style relies on speed and momentum, getting hit by this beam is akin to nullifying his attacks. This is why Foxy manages to land so many devastating punches on Luffy.
When Foxy shoots his Slow Beam for the final blow, Luffy uses a piece of mirror that he found earlier in the fight and reflects the beam back to its shooter. Even Foxy, the user of this power, is not immune to the Slow Beam. After that, all Luffy needs to do is land a full-powered punch on Foxy’s face. Since he is moving in slow motion, the knock-back effect takes way longer than usual, which makes the punch feel even more painful than it is.
6Using Water Against Crocodile
Exploiting the Enemy’s Weakness
Crocodile’s Devil Fruit powerallows him to transform his body into grains of sand. This means it is virtually impossible to physically hurt him. Haki may do the job, but Luffy and his crew know nothing about Haki at this point in the story, so he can only rely on his Gum-Gum attacks.
Fortunately, Luffy realizes that Crocodile’s sand will clump up when it comes in contact with liquid, just like normal sand. So he makes sure to bring a barrel of water in his final confrontation with Crocodile, which allows Luffy to negate Crocodile’s power and makes him bleed.
5Using Wax Gloves To Protect Himself From Magellan
A Decent Protection Against Poison
Magellan, the warden ofthe infamous Impel Down prison,has the power to generate all kinds of poisons. This power is not only an effective offensive move, but it is also the perfect defense. All Magellan has to do is cover his body with poison, and anyone who touches his body will experience a world of hurt. Unfortunately for Luffy, he has no choice but to fight Magellan if he wants to save his brother, Ace.
Luffy has gone against Magellan several times since he infiltrated Impel Down, and all have resulted in losses for the Straw Hat Captain. Fortunately, Mr. 3 and his Candle ability are there to help Luffy in his final confrontation against Magellan. Luffy asks Mr. 3 to create boxing gloves and boots out of hardened candles. These gloves and boots protect Luffy’s hands and feet from Magellan’s poisons and allow him to land critical punches on the warden.
4Using Ricochet Attacks Against Enel
Unpredictable Barrage of Attacks
Enel’s electricity may not work on Luffy’s rubber body, but his Observation Haki — also known as Mantra — certainly does. Thanks to that, Enel can predict Luffy’s movements, which allows him to delivera perfect counter. To prevent Enel from reading his mind, Luffy decides to think about nothing at all.
While this tactic allows Luffy to evade Enel’s attacks, he still can’t land any meaningful attack on the self-proclaimed God. That’s when Luffy comes up with the idea of throwing torrents of punches onto the nearby golden wall. His punches ricochet from the wall and end up hitting everything around him, including Enel. Since Luffy himself doesn’t know where his punches may land, Enel can’t use Mantra to predict the rubber man’s attack. Thanks to that, Luffy manages to knock Enel down to the ground.
3Stalling For Time Against Katakuri
Retreat and Recharge
When Luffy is stuck fighting Katakuri in the Mirror World, their battle lasts about ten hours. Luffy manages to land some damage on Katakuri, but for the most part, he is the one who gets battered byBig Mom’s second child.Gear 4 is the only thing that seems to be effective against Katakuri, but even that form has its time limit. Luffy knows that once Gear 4 reaches its limit, he won’t be able to use Haki for 10 minutes. And there’s no way he could survive fighting with Katakuri without Haki.
That’s why, once he sees a window of opportunity, Luffy immediately retreats from the battlefield. To ensure Katakuri won’t be able to follow him, Luffy grabs Brulee — the creator of the Mirror World and Katakuri’s little sister — and jumps into a nearby mirror and onto the real world, leaving Katakuri behind. He uses this time to rest and recuperate while thinking of ways to counter Katakuri’s unstoppable offensive power. This decision to retreat is possibly the reason why he is eventually able to defeat Katakuri.
2Separating Katakuri from the Straw Hat Crew
Fighting the Enemy to Save the Crew
During Big Mom’s hunger pangs, she chases Luffy, Nami, Sanji, Jinbe, Pedro, and Carrot, thinking they have stolen her delicious wedding cake. Luffy and the gang try to reach their ship, the Thousand Sunny, so that they can get away from the rampaging Big Mom. Unfortunately, Charlotte Katakuri has already seized the Straw Hats’ ship. He infiltrated the Sunny through his sister’s Mirror World and successfully captured Brook and Chopper.
The moment Luffy and the other Straw Hats jump onto the Sunny, he exchanges punches with Katakuri immediately. That brief contact is all he needed to know thatKatakuri won’t be easy to defeat.He also realizes that his crew won’t be able to escape from Big Mom’s wrath as long as Katakuri is still on board. Without wasting any more time, Luffy restrains Katakuri, tells his crew to go on without him, and then forces Katakuri to dive into the Mirror World with him. Thanks to Luffy’s quick thinking, the rest of the crew is able to use Coup de Burst to escape from Big Mom.
1Different Versions of Gear 4
Different Modes for Different Occasions
Great strategies come from proper preparation. That’s why the most clever strategy that Luffy has come up with thus far is to create an adjustable battle technique in the form of Gear 4. Luffy’s base mode of Gum-Gum attacks is not strong enough nor fast enough for powerful enemies beyond the Grand Line, which is why he came up with the Gear system. Gear 2 gives him speed, but it lacks power. Gear 3 gives him strength, but it lacks speed. Gear 4 is the perfect combination of both.
What makesGear 4 even better is the fact that it has three different modes.The base one is called the Boundman, and offers the biggest boost in strength. The second mode is called Tankman, which is perfect for defense. The last one is Snakeman, which boasts enough speed to knock down Katakuri, the man who can use Haki to peek into the future.
Luffy may appear to be a musclehead who never thinks before he acts, but it takes a lot of insight to create such an adaptive technique like the Gear 4 to ensure he can deal with all sorts of enemies. The captain of the Straw Hats Pirates does have the capacity to come up with clever strategies once in a while.
