Since his start, Luffy has made a name for himself and become one of the strongest pirates in the New World, but this doesn’t make him invincible.

One Piece stars the beloved shonen hero Monkey D. Luffy, the rubbery young man who has vowed to become king of the pirates someday, just like Gol D. Roger before him. To achieve this goal and navigate the deadly Grand Line, Luffy has plenty of strengths and tricks up his sleeve, from his stretchy combat moves and indomitable willpower to his charismatic ability to attract new crewmates. By now, Luffy has become a true powerhouse as a young Emperor, but even so, he’s got some weaknesses, flaws, and deficiencies that hold him back a bit.

At various points in One Piece‘s story, Monkey D. Luffy was kept in check and even humbled with his various weaknesses, all to make him a balanced and sympathetic hero. Over time, Luffy overcame some of his worst weaknesses as he grew stronger, but other weaknesses and vulnerabilities remain as Luffy leaps into the fray of the Final Saga. Some of his weaknesses, some are physical, and some are just downright silly.

As the hero of One Piece, Monkey D. Luffy was unsurprisingly the star of many of the hit anime’s most hype moments and fights.

10.Gear 2 Shortens Luffy’s Natural Lifespan

Luffy developed his own fighting style, the Gears, sometime before the Water 7 saga began. That helped Luffy turn the tables on CP9’s members, such as when he first used Gear 2 against Blueno. It was impressive to watch, but Luffy’s power at a cost, as most shonen powers tend to do.

Luffy’s Gear 2 strained his body, and repeated use of it will shorten his lifespan and exhaust his body over time. That fact led to a fan theory that Luffy will die young, but evidently, Luffy doesn’t care that much about Gear 2’s worst drawback. Luffy only cares about his freedom and happiness, not how many years he will live, so this ranks as Luffy’s least serious weakness in One Piece.

9.Gear 3 Used to Leave Luffy Small and Weak After Its Use

How do Luffy’s Gears in One Piece rank when considering their strength?

Another of Luffy’s Gears, the mighty Gear 3, has a weakness just like its Gear 2 counterpart. When Luffy uses Gear 3, he can inflate one of his arms to a massive size, allowing him to demolish his foes with moves like the Elephant Gun. Luffy needed that power to take on CP9 and other foes in the story arcs leading up to his debut of Gear 4, which was much stronger.

Gear 3 is quite useful, but it comes at a drawback that not even a reckless fighter Luffy can afford to ignore. For a time, whenever Luffy used Gear 3, he would shrink down into a chibi and become weak and vulnerable, which meant he needed to defeat his foe quickly with Gear 3 or pay the price. That happened in the Impel Down arc, for example, but at least Luffy had allies to protect him at the time.

8.Luffy is Vulnerable to Blade Attacks

Luffy’s vulnerability to cutting and slashing attacks doesn’t actually come up that often in One Piece‘s story, but in theory, this is a pretty serious weakness of his. Plenty of pirates and Marines alike use blades to fight, such as the hero/villain Dracule Mihawk, who famously wields the giant sword Yoru in battle. Other notable sword/blade users include Shanks, Kin’emon, and Mr. 1, the latter of whom could turn his entire body into a steely blade.

Luffy’s rubbery body can stretch to resist blunt physical attacks such as punches, bullets, and even cannonballs, which came in handy in the pre-Haki days. However, Luffy had no defense against blades except dodging, and Luffy only has moderate agility at best by One Piece standards. Fortunately for Luffy, this obvious weakness is moot because it’s usually Roronoa Zoro who fights hostile blade users.

7.Luffy Can’t Handle the Sea Prism Stone

The intrinsic weaknesses of Devil Fruits were common knowledge, mainly a Devil Fruit user’s weakness to seawater. A Devil Fruit user’s enemies couldn’t always use the open sea to their advantage, so on dry land, characters like Captain Smoker used the sea prism stone to exploit a Devil Fruit user’s vulnerability to seawater.

The sea prism stone only comes up a few times so far in One Piece‘s story, but whenever it does, the stone’s tactical applications are impressive. Smoker easily subdued Luffy at Loguetown, for example, with his sea prism staff, and he didn’t even have to bludgeon Luffy with it to make use of it. One touch was all it took, which is why Luffy needed Dragon to bail him out.

6.Luffy is Weak When He’s Hungry

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Where Did the Big Eater Trope in Anime Come From?

Between the likes of Son Goku and Monkey D. Luffy, it’s not unusual for anime heroes to have a big appetite, but where did the unique trope come from?

It’s a running joke that Monkey D. Luffy embodies the “big eater” trope that evidently came from Son Goku in Dragon Ball, but it’s not always a total gag. At times, Luffy might get significantly stronger or weaker based on food and hunger, such as when he ate a vast quantity of food to recover from Megallan’s poisons.

Conversely, Luffy’s bottomless appetite can hold him back, because if he’s hungry enough, he will weaken and become sluggish. More than once in One Piece, Luffy was unable to fight or even stand up due to his intense hunger, so his crewmates had to rush off and get him some food, ideally meat, to get Luffy in fighting shape before all was lost.

5Luffy Gets Into Trouble With His Reckless Behavior

Like many shonen stars, Luffy is a brave, proactive young man who won’t hesitate to leap into battle or take on serious risks to save the day. This often works to Luffy’s advantage, since he can take cautious, calculating enemies by surprise, and Luffy can start a fight before the enemy is fully ready. However, this has worked against Luffy a few times, too.

Luffy recklessly challenged Sir Crocodile in Alabasta, for example, and was swiftly defeated twice. He might have died the first time if Nico Robin hadn’t graciously helped him. Later, Luffy brashly took on warden Magellan in the undersea prison Impel Down, even sacrificing his arms to deal a few blows. But Luffy failed to seal the deal, so Magellan launched a counterattack that nearly killed Luffy. Such a brash attitude definitely ranks in the middle among Luffy’s worst weaknesses, since Luffy is unlikely to change his reckless behavior anytime soon.

4.Luffy is a Terrible Navigator

It didn’t take long for Monkey D. Luffy to overcome this particular weakness, since he knew that as a captain, he had to delegate many jobs to his crew. But early on, Luffy proved himself a hopelessly inept navigator with his tiny ship, and his sole crewmate, Roronoa Zoro, was even worse at navigation.

In this early days, Luffy had no chance to reach any destination he had in mind, so he had to go wherever the tides and fates decided for him. At that rate, Luffy would never reach the Grand Line or the New World, and he would struggle to even find a proper harbor town to stock up on supplies. It’s fortunate that Luffy met the navigator Nami, who could chart a path across any ocean.

3.Luffy Is Vulnerable to Haki-Based Attacks

The world of One Piece features Haki, a mysterious force that is awakened by few. Here are all subtypes of the power, explained.

Once the Haki combat system became a regular feature in One Piece, it became a boon and a threat to Luffy. On the plus side, Luffy trained with Silvers Rayleigh to start using Haki, and Color of Arms Haki has served Luffy well ever since. Gears 2 and 3 benefited greatly from Haki, and Gear 4 makes even heavier use of Haki, as Luffy’s fight against Donquixote Doflamingo showed.

On the downside, Luffy’s enemies made good use of Haki as well, and as One Piece fans have learned, Haki is a serious equalizer for Devil Fruits. In fact, Haki has practically made the sea prism stone redundant when it comes to fighting Devil Fruit users, even those who use their Devil Fruits to resist enemy attacks. In Luffy’s case, an enemy can easily punch or kick him with Color of Arms Haki, bypassing Luffy’s rubbery defenses entirely.

2.Luffy Can’t Swim

One of Luffy’s greatest weaknesses was also the first one that the story ever showed. All Devil Fruit users, no matter their power or skill, are rendered helpless by seawater. Any Devil Fruit user who ends up in the sea will have their strength sapped away as they drown, unable to swim or use their Devil Fruits. There was even a time a Navy crew intended to push Sir Crocodile and Mr. 1 overboard to exploit this weakness.

Luffy hasn’t directly faced this problem in some time, since drowning would feel like a silly way to threaten Luffy with One Piece‘s current power standards. Still, the threat of drowning is a serious one for a pirate like Luffy, and in theory, he’s always in immenent danger because of it. In fact, red-haired Shanks lost an arm to a sea king because he had to save a drowning Luffy.

1.Luffy is Vulnerable to Elemental Attacks like Ice, Fire, and Poison

With or without Haki involved, some Devil Fruit users are highly vulnerable to certain types of attacks, and as Sir Crocodile once noted, there’s no telling how one Devil Fruit will stack up against another in battle. For Luffy’s part, his rubbery body is great against any bludgeoning attacks, but cutting attacks are a problem, and elemental attacks, even more so.

Some Devil Fruits, such as Paramecia and Logia types, allow the user to wield and even become certain elements, from Admiral Aokiji’s ice attacks to Admiral Akainu’s magma punches and certainly warden Magellan’s lethal poisons. Luffy was swiftly frozen solid when he fought Aokiji on Long Ring Long Land, for example, and Akainu’s magma punch would have killed him if Ace hadn’t intercepted that blow.