One Piece: The Next Evolution Of Luffy’s Gear 5, Explained

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As the story of One Piece reaches its climax, Luffy has become one of the most powerful characters around. He started as a relatively unknown pirate with a small bounty of 30 million berries, but through hard work and determination, he’s risen to become one of the Four Emperors, now boasting a bounty of 3 billion berries.

During the Wano Country arc, Luffy dramatically improved his Haki skills, mastering all three advanced forms. More significantly, he unlocked Gear 5, which is the awakened form of his Devil Fruit power. While Gear 5 is incredibly strong in One Piece, it’s not Luffy’s ultimate form. Considering the powerful opponents he’ll face in the future, Luffy’s Gear 5 will need to continue evolving if he hopes to defeat them and achieve his dream of becoming the Pirate King.

What Is Luffy’s Gear 5?

The Devil Fruit Awakening Of Hito Hito no Mi, Model: Nika

Image by Toei Animation

Gear 5 is Luffy’s most powerful form. To truly understand it, it’s helpful to look back at how he developed his ‘Gears’. During the Enies Lobby arc, Luffy found ways to push his body beyond its limits. He first did this with Gear Second, which involved speeding up his blood flow to become stronger and faster. Then, in the same arc, he discovered Gear Third, allowing him to dramatically increase his attack power by inflating his bones with air, effectively creating giant-like limbs.

During the two-year timeskip, Luffy trained with Silvers Rayleigh, who taught him about Haki. Through this training, Luffy developed Gear 4 – a technique where he inflates his muscles with air to gain immense size and power. By combining this with his Haki, he pushed his body’s elasticity to its absolute limit, allowing him to create different forms of Gear 4.

Luffy’s Devil Fruit, revealed to be the Hito Hito no Mi, Model: Nika, reached its full potential during the Wano Country Arc when Luffy awakened its powers. This awakening is what he calls Gear 5. Gear 5 transforms Luffy, giving him a completely white appearance and turning him into the ‘Warrior of Liberation’ Nika. It drastically increases his strength, elasticity, and freedom of movement, allowing for incredibly dynamic and unpredictable fighting. Most significantly, Gear 5 unlocks the power of limitless imagination – Luffy can essentially make anything he envisions a reality using Nika’s power, and that’s the core of what Gear 5 truly is.

This is my peak! This is Gear 5! — Luffy

Gear 5 is currently Luffy’s strongest form, and he confirmed this during the Wano Arc. However, even this powerful form could still evolve. As it stands now, Gear 5 isn’t quite strong enough for Luffy to defeat the most powerful characters in the One Piece world, making further development necessary.

Why Gear 5 Can Still Evolve Further in One Piece

The Sun God Has Yet To Truly Arrive

Image by Toei Animation

Gear 5 has the potential to continue developing in One Piece for a couple of key reasons. First, Luffy still needs to become more powerful. While he’s mastered all three Haki types and awakened his Devil Fruit, he isn’t strong enough yet to face opponents like Imu, Shanks, or Blackbeard. Imu, in particular, is incredibly powerful – even the legendary Rocks Pirates couldn’t significantly harm them. It took the combined strength of Garp and Roger to defeat someone as strong as Domi Reversi’d Rocks, and Imu is far more formidable. So, while Gear 5 is already a powerful form, it’s not yet at the level needed to defeat Imu.

Luffy, why are you turning into an old man? — Chopper seeing Gear 5 drawbacks

Another reason Gear 5 needs to grow is because of Luffy’s current limitations. While the form is incredibly powerful, he can’t stay in Gear 5 for very long, which is a significant drawback. Beyond that, considering Luffy is known as the Sun God, it’s surprising he doesn’t actually demonstrate any sun-based abilities in this form. This implies there’s another level to the Sun God Nika’s power that Luffy hasn’t unlocked yet.

Luffy Has Yet To Become The True Sun God

The Power Of The Sun Is Key To Gear 5 Evolution

Image by Toei Animation

It’s ironic that when Luffy awakened as the Sun God Nika, the background featured the moon. Despite being a sun-based deity, Luffy hasn’t yet been shown with the sun itself, nor has he demonstrated powers directly related to it. The sun holds significant importance in the One Piece world – it’s the source of fire and, as Vegapunk explained, a potentially limitless energy source. The ‘motherflame’ is even described as an artificial sun, making Luffy’s connection to this power particularly meaningful.

During the Egghead arc, Vegapunk revealed that the Ancient Iron Giant, Emeth, can be energized by the sun – or, specifically, the Mother Flame, which Vegapunk thinks was the power source used by the ancient kingdom. Interestingly, Luffy’s Gear 5 also managed to power up Emeth, suggesting that the energy Gear 5 produces is somehow similar to solar energy. This implies Luffy hasn’t fully mastered this power yet, and that’s the core of what Gear 5 truly is.

Interestingly, Luffy has occasionally demonstrated fire-based abilities. We’ve seen this with moves like Red Hawk in Gear 2, Red Roc in Gear 3, and certain attacks in Gear 4, all of which create flames. While these are often explained as being caused by friction, it’s possible there’s a deeper reason – perhaps Luffy is unknowingly accessing the power of the Sun God, foreshadowing the full potential of his Gear 5 form that’s still to come.

Luffy Will Create Gear 6 In The Future

Gear 6 Is Needed For One Piece’s Final Fight

Image by Toei Animation

Gear 5 will inevitably need to become more powerful in the future of One Piece if Luffy hopes to defeat even stronger opponents. This could happen in one of two ways: either through harnessing the full power of the Mother Flame – a source connected to the sun – or by Luffy learning to truly tap into the power of the Sun God, granting him the ability to control flames alongside his existing abilities. This would clarify why Luffy’s transformation is linked to the Sun God and explain how he can transfer energy to beings like the Ancient Giant.

Luffy could potentially achieve Vegapunk’s goal of providing clean, limitless energy for the entire world. This might happen through a further development of his Gear 5, possibly even becoming what he calls Gear 6. While it’s too soon for Gear 6 to appear in the story, Luffy will likely need to evolve his abilities before the upcoming Great War, or he risks losing to Imu.

One Piece is available to read via Viz Media on MangaPlus.

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2026-02-10 14:36