One Piece chapter 1129 confirms that Luffy mastered Gear 4

One Piece chapter 1129 will officially release on October 14, 2024 on Shueisha’s MANGA Plus app and website. The installment’s confirmed spoilers reveal a new achievement on the horizon for Monkey D. Luffy, the franchise's protagonist. At the beginning of the One Piece story, Luffy ate the Gum-Gum Fruit, which gave him the ability to stretch, bounce, and inflate his body as if it were made of rubber.

As the Gum-Gum Fruit was revealed to be the Mythical Zoan Human-Human Fruit Model: Nika, Luffy was given a new form called Gear 5. This special transformation blesses him with reality-warping powers, allowing him to fight following his imagination. It also grants him a power boost superior to any of his previous Gear forms, including Gear 4, another transformation that featured prominently in Luffy’s post-timeskip fights.

In this form, Luffy increases his power output by covering his entire body with Armament Haki and retracting his limbs to suddenly discharge them. Due to its major drawbacks, Luffy never really mastered Gear 4 until recently. One Piece chapter 1129 shows Luffy using Gear 4 on selected body parts without transforming his whole body, which indicates that he has finally mastered the transformation.

Disclaimer: This article contains major spoilers from the One Piece manga up to chapter 1129.

Elbaf Arc Luffy has complete mastery over Gear 4, and the proof is in One Piece chapter 1129

Luffy’s Gear 4 transformation explained

Luffy using Gear 4 Boundman (Image via Toei Animation)

Gear 4 is a transformation that Luffy developed during his two-year timeskip training under the tutelage of “Dark King” Silvers Rayleigh, the former right-hand man of One Piece’s legendary Pirate King. A highly effective trump card based on the rubber-like elasticity of Luffy’s Armament Haki-covered body, the Gear 4 form includes three variations, each of which maximizes a different aspect.

Gear 4 Boundman perfectly balances attack, defense, and speed. Unsurprisingly, it is the Gear 4 variation that Luffy uses the most. As the name suggests, the Boundman transformation allows Luffy to change into a sort of rubber ball that bounces constantly. Bouncing in the air at speed, Luffy can freely mode in mid-air, performing a Geppo-like technique.

Luffy using Gear 4 Snakeman (Image via Toei Animation)

The combination of rubber and Armament Haki significantly increases Luffy’s defensive ability, allowing him to let most incoming attacks bounce off his body simply. He can move at increased speed by retracting and suddenly discharging his inflated limbs and unleashing incredibly powerful strikes.

Gear 4 Snakeman sacrifices defense to maximize attack and, above all, speed. When in this form, Luffy can’t make attacks bounce off his body, but he gains the ability to speed up his movements continuously. This allows him to increase his attacking speed to the highest level, becoming extremely quick, agile, and unpredictable.

Finally, Gear 4 Tankman focuses on defense and attack at the expense of speed. When using Tankman, Luffy inflates his Armament Haki-covered muscles to make his body impenetrable. This gives him exceptional durability and the ability to perform Gum-Gum Cannonball. This technique blasts Luffy’s enemies away by exploiting the recoil from their own attacks.

Luffy using Gear 4 against Charlotte Katakuri (Image via Toei Animation)

Despite its remarkable power and effectiveness, Gear 4 has its fair share of drawbacks. The transformation can only be used for a limited period, as it quickly depletes Luffy’s Haki reserves. Once those reserves are consumed, Gear 4 automatically deactivates. This leaves Luffy particularly tired and unable to use any form of Haki for about ten minutes.

During the Wano Arc, Luffy partially improved his mastery over Gear 4 by learning to deactivate the transformation before reaching the limit. However, it’s only now that his expertise with Gear 4 has reached the point where he can use it as he wishes.

One Piece chapter 1129 shows Luffy's new improvement

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In anticipation of the official release of One Piece chapter 1129, the installment’s spoilers and raw scans allow readers to enjoy a pleasant surprise as Luffy demonstrates his now complete mastery over the Gear 4 transformation. According to the leaks, the Straw Hat Pirates met and easily overpowered Elbaf’s self-proclaimed Sun God, who was revealed to be a Giant named Road.

Previously, Road had tried to capture the Straw Hats and keep them as pets in a diorama-like realm, but this only fuelled their rage. After Nami used Zeus to strike Road with a ravaging thunderstorm, Luffy activated his Gear 4 Boundman and performed Gum-Gum Kong Gun to destroy the surrounding wall and break out of the fake Sun God’s world.

Interestingly, instead of transforming his entire body into Gear 4, Luffy only activated the transformation on the arm he used for the attack, eliminating or at least reducing the form’s energy consumption. This implies that Luffy has now learned to use Gear 4 in short, controlled bursts through selected parts of his body.

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It’s safe to say that Luffy has finally mastered Gear 4, just like he did with Gear 2 and Gear 3 before. After the timeskip, the Gear 2’s increased metabolic rate doesn’t put much of a strain on Luffy’s body anymore. Likewise, Luffy’s body won’t shrink anymore in exchange for the Gear 3’s brute strength boost. This is because he has learned to use these forms more accurately, just as he can now do with Gear 4.

To be fair, the previous One Piece chapters already proved this. In One Piece chapter 1127 Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji arrived in the nick of time to protect Nami and Usopp from a monstrous cat-turned-lion. They struck the beast with a formidable combo attack, instantly defeating it. Sanji unleashed an Ifrit Jambe attack, while Zoro used a Three-Sword Style technique, and Luffy performed the Gear 4’s Gum-Gum Elephant Whip.

Luffy using Gear 4 against Kaido (Image via Toei Animation)

Luffy didn’t transform his entire body despite using a Gear 4 technique on this occasion. Many fans assumed that this was an oversight on One Piece author Eiichiro Oda’s part and that he had made a typo when writing the name of Luffy’s attack. It’s now clear that it wasn’t a mistake on Oda’s part.

With the newfound ability to activate Gear 4 in certain selected body parts, Luffy has significantly increased his versatility. He should be able to use the Gear 4 Snakeman’s unpredictable attack speed one limb at a time, turn a single body part into Gear 4 Tankman, and possibly even combine Gear 2, Gear 3, and Gear 4 techniques simultaneously without transforming his body.

A very creative fighter who has managed to evolve his Devil Fruit abilities in unexpected and interesting ways throughout the entire One Piece story, Luffy keeps getting stronger. Perhaps, over time, he will also master Gear 5, whose overwhelming power is offset by the form’s short duration and incredibly high energy consumption.

When he eliminates these drawbacks just like he did with the Gear 4’s, Luffy can use the Gear 5’s unreal might to get the better of almost any other One Piece character.