Gear 5 Luffy has been the talk of the One Piece community ever since its introduction. This ultimate form of the Pirate King boasts immense strength and power, but the question remains: who can stand up to it? In this blog post, we’ll answer the question : Who can beat Gear 5 Luffy ? In exploring opponents who could potentially take down Gear 5 Luffy. Join us as we analyze their strengths and weaknesses and imagine a hypothetical battle between these powerhouses of the One Piece world.
Understanding Gear 5 Luffy
One thing must be understood regarding Gear 5 and it’s that it is the awakened form of the Paramecian Gomu Gomu no Mi fruit, which is in reality the Mythical Zoan Hito Hito no Mi: Model Nika Devil Fruit and probably one of the strongest Gears that Luffy can use in his moveset arsenal.
Regarding the strength of this Devil Fruit, it grants Luffy complete freedom in his use of powers and great physical strength, limited only by his imagination. The only weakness this Devil Fruit has, which is concurrent with almost every single Devil Fruit, is that once the user comes into contact with water, it renders them useless, fatigued as well as immobile if submerged.
Potential Opponents who can beat Gear 5 Luffy
With Gear 5 being the pinnacle of Luffy’s Strength and power, this makes him in league with the big players of the One Piece world with very few people being able to even hold a fight against him.
Here, we will be putting together “Potential Opponents” that have a chance of putting up a good fight against Luffy and are arranged from the weakest to the strongest opponents the future Pirate King may face.
7) Kizaru
Kizaru, real name Borsalino, is the infamous slow-talking and absent-minded Admiral of the Marines who has the power of the Pika Pika no Mi, a Logia-type Devil Fruit that allows the user to control as well as transform into light.
His characteristic feature is his faster-than-light speed, making him the fastest admiral in the Marine force since he can react to his own lightspeed movement and can trade blow for blow with Marco, the former Whitebeard Pirates 1st Division Captain.
His weakness consists of the Standard Devil Fruit weaknesses and the fact that he can only attack when in physical form, which can take a few seconds for him to revert back to the light state, providing an opening for expert fighters.
He would definitely give Luffy a tough time in his Gear 5 form as both of the combatants have similar speed as well as the same strength and durability although the Marine Admiral might have a bit of an edge over him since he can tire out Luffy pretty easily due to his speed and this can put Luffy on a disadvantage against him.
To read the full fight between the two, click here!
6) Akainu
The current Fleet Admiral of the Marines and the hard-lined “Red Dog” of the Marines, he, too, is a Logia-type Devil Fruit user who has the power of Magu Magu no Mi, allowing the user to transform and manipulate Magma.
His Devil Fruit power is stated to have the HIGHEST offensive power of all the Devil Fruits, which is proven by burning a hole in Whitebeard’s Chest, vaporizing part of Whitebeard’s head and killing Ace.
He can negate other people’s durability factors but can withstand his own, such as when he fought Kuzan, nicknamed, Aokiji, for several days consecutively. His weakness only consists of standard Devil Fruit weaknesses and can only regenerate in his Logia form.
Being one of the most aggressive characters in One Piece, he would definitely put Gear 5 Luffy to a challenge as his Devil Fruit has the highest damage compared to the rest.
Even if Gear 5 Luffy would have high durability, the damage given to him would be tremendous.
To follow a thorough analysis of the fight between the two, read on here!
5) Rayleigh
The Dark King, Right Hand of the Pirate King and mentor of Luffy utilizing the use of Haki, Silvers Rayleigh is another formidable opponent that saved the Straw Hat crew in Sabaody from Kizaru and as the former First Mate of the Roger Pirates, he is a living legend in his own right!
With no Devil Fruit in his arsenal, he strictly uses Haki and his sword, capable of overpowering many enemies such as when fighting against Kizaru to a near stalemate in Sabaody.
He is also known to have a high level of stamina which is shown when he swam all the way towards Amazon Lily from another ocean (which is thousands of kilometers) and killed all the Sea Kings in the process.
He has no notable weaknesses but his old age has limited and hindered his abilities compared to when he was in his prime.
Since he taught Luffy everything he had to know about Haki, it would be pretty clear that he would definitely give a tough time to Luffy, even in his Gear 5 form.
And since Rayleigh is the master of all three forms of Haki, Luffy would be in trouble trying to overcome his former master. Who knows? He might learn a new lesson from him!
4) Shanks
The mentor, idol, and the man who saved Luffy’s life from a Sea King in East Blue resulting in the loss of his right arm, Shanks is the captain of the Red-Haired Pirates, a former member of the Roger Pirates and one of the “Four Emperors” of the sea, a title which he still holds today.
A master of utilizing Conqueror’s Haki, he is a force to be reckoned with as he casually stopped Akainu’s magma punch in the Marineford War.
Equally clashed with Whitebeard before the Marineford War, one of the few people who can actually take on Blackbeard and with Kaido acknowledging the fact that Shanks is one of the few people who are capable of fighting him. His weakness was his missing right arm at some point, but he adapted to it perfectly, so it shouldn’t even be considered a handicap at this point.
We don’t know much about Shanks’s abilities, apart from One Piece Film Red (which is considered non-canon), but given what we have witnessed until the current chapters, his mastery of all forms of Haki and the usage of his sword “Gryphon” would really give Gear 5 Luffy a tougher time than the rest!
What really stands out Shanks from the rest is that he has the most powerful Conqueror’s Haki in the One Piece verse and this would prove troublesome for Luffy as well, should the two duke it out.
3) Mihawk
The World’s Strongest Swordsman, the Mentor of Zoro, former Shichibukai, and Chief Officer of Cross Guild, Mihawk possesses a massive black sword called Yoru and is one of the 12 “Supreme Grade” swords in existence.
What makes him a formidable enemy is the fact that he has not shown his full power to any of the opponents that he has faced and his true striking power is to such an extent that it is much stronger than Shanks as well as Old Rayleigh. He is simply waiting for an opponent that could surpass the two of them.
It is not known if he possesses Conqueror’s Haki but is a master in using the Armament and Observation Haki.
His strength is so great that he casually toyed with everyone, including Luffy, in the Marineford War and walked back without a scratch. Like Shanks, we haven’t seen any weakness related to Mihawk.
Should Gear 5 Luffy come into battle with Mihawk, the latter would definitely give the former a tough time as his cuts are amongst the most lethal in the world and can cut Luffy’s limb easily, despite him being in Gear 5 form.
2) Blackbeard
The infamous admiral of the Blackbeard Pirates and the arch-nemesis of Monkey D. Luffy, Marshall D. Teach, known as Blackbeard was formerly a member of the Whitebeard Pirates who he betrayed and ultimately became one of the “Four Emperors” of the Sea.
He is the only known person in One Piece to be a user of two Devil Fruits, namely the Yami Yami no Mi, a Logia-based Devil Fruit that utilizes the power of Darkness and the Gura Gura no Mi, a Paramecia-based Devil Fruit which was stolen after Whitebeard’s death from his body.
His Strength goes to such an extent that even Old Rayleigh and Marco have no hopes of defeating him. Capable of engulfing several towns and mountains in darkness during his clash with Ace and being able to clash with Sengoku the “Buddha” and the former Fleet Admiral of the Marines, he is definitely a menace.
There haven’t been any known physical weaknesses in Blackbeard but his overconfidence leads him to underestimate his opponents, which could prove to be a source of his downfall.
Should the two ever come in contact again in their current state (I have a strong feeling that they will), they will fight to the bitter end and the match would result in a stalemate unless either of the two pulls out a trump card. Blackbeard does have an edge over Luffy in the fact that once the opponent comes into contact with Blackbeard, the latter’s Devil Fruit Powers stop working, similarly to how we saw Boa Hancock’s power not working in front of Blackbeard.
1) Sengoku
Last but not the least, we have the former Fleet Admiral Sengoku, a colleague of Monkey D. Garp who is a legend in his own right!
He is a user of the Mythical Zoan fruit Hito Hito no Mi: Model Daibutsu where he can transform into a Golden Buddha at will. His power is so massive that he traded blows with Blackbeard in his Two Devil Fruit possession mode and is also a master of all three forms of Haki. His weakness only consists of the standard Devil Fruit powers and no others are known so far.
Since Sengoku possesses a Mythical Zoan Devil fruit, which is the same as Luffy’s, he can go toe-to-toe with him in his Gear 5 form and is probably the only one to do so!
Sengoku’s Devil Fruit is that of a literal god and the same can be said of Luffy. Both of them might prove out to be an equal match!
Dragon (Special Mention)
Another character that I forgot to mention is Monkey D. Dragon, Luffy’s father and the Supreme Commander of the Revolutionary Army, who would also prove to be a deadly force to be reckoned with.
The only time we saw him in action was back in Loguetown when he helped the Straw Hat pirate crew escape from the clutches of the Vice-Admiral Smoker. Other than that, we have only seen him interact with major key characters such as Sabo, Ivankov, Kuma and Dr.Vegapunk.
Despite being shrouded in mystery, we have yet to see his full potential and I believe that he can be at par with Gear 5 Luffy!
Garp (Special Mention)
Another character worth mentioning is none other than Luffy’s grandfather, the navy hero, Monkey D. Garp.
He was Roger’s equal, defeated Xebec, has one of the most powerful haki of kings in One Piece, and a great experience in combat. What more do you need?
Conclusion
And that’s about it with the article! The only people who can even hold a candle against Gear 5 Luffy would be Kizaru, Akainu and Sengoku from the Marines side, Rayleigh, Shanks, Mihawk and Blackbeard from the Pirate’s side! and probably, Dragon and garp in his family’s side !
Since Luffy’s Gear 5 works in coherence with Luffy’s imagination, it can be said that this might be the most broken ability in the One Piece verse, with finding opponents to be on par with him in this form all the more difficult.
I’d love to know who YOU would think could beat Luffy in his Gear 5 form! Who knows? We might find some new info regarding potential opponents from you guys!
