Highlights

  • Luffy's bounty demonstrates his importance to the plot and tracks his progress over the years.
  • Bounties in One Piece are determined by both a character's strength and their threat to the World Government.
  • Luffy's bounty has grown significantly throughout the series, reaching a current bounty of 3 billion berries, with the expectation that it will continue to increase.

Bounties are an incredibly important part of One Piece and, from the very beginning of the story, this concept has had the fans excited, simply because it goes to show the level of importance a particular character has to the plot and, at the same time, tracks their progress over the years as well. When it comes to Luffy's bounty, fans have been fascinated by his incredible growth over the years and, currently, he is among the Four Emperors of the Sea with a massive bounty on his head.

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Of course, this high position doesn't mean that Luffy's bounty is going to stagnate. In fact, he is on the path to even further greatness and that only means that he will get higher bounties in the story, with his final bounty being the most incredible one.

How Bounties Grow In One Piece

Straw hat new bounties after egghead one piece

Oda introduced the bounty system very early in One Piece, and from the very beginning, it was clear for the fans to see that only the most dangerous criminals in the story were able to receive massive bounties. As the Straw Hat Pirates continued their adventures throughout the East Blue, they became more infamous and, with time, Luffy ended up receiving a bounty of 30 million berries. This was simply down to the level of threat that Luffy posed to the Government. Often, fans misconstrue the meaning of a bounty with the level of strength of a particular individual. Of course, the level of strength of an individual is a major factor in deciding someone's bounty.

However, it is certainly not the only factor. A person's bounty is determined by how dangerous they are to the World Government as well as the level of strength that they possess. In fact, someone who is dangerous to the World Government without even being strong can have an incredibly high bounty, more than someone who is actually very strong. The people who have the highest bounties and One Piece are those who check both these criteria as they are the ones to be watchful for when it comes to the World Government. To the World Government, those who took part in forbidden actions, such as diving deep into the history of the world, among other things, or the ones who get the highest bounties attached to their names and, of course, those who possess the articles required to reach the Final Island and find out the truth of the world are awarded high bounties as well.

Luffy's Bounty Growth Over The Years

Monkey D Luffy in One Piece: Stampede

When it comes to Luffy, he has received many incredible bounties over the years. Luffy started his journey from the East Blue, where he was born. He started being noticed after he raided Shellstown and, from there onwards, his infamy kept growing significantly. After Luffy took down Buggy, Don Krieg, and, eventually, even the likes of Arlong, his threat could no longer be ignored. This is precisely when Luffy became the most wanted man in the East Blue and got a bounty of 30 million berries.

As soon as Luffy moved into the Grand Line, he became even more infamous by taking on stronger enemies. Luffy fought against Crocodile and defeated him, earning himself a bounty of 100 million berries. Soon after, he attacked the judicial stronghold of the World Government, Enies Lobby, in an attempt to free Nico Robin and successfully managed to do so. Eventually, the entire city on the island was torched and the blame was pinned on Luffy, earning him a bounty of 300 million berries, which was absolutely staggering. Luffy's bounty could have been even higher had the incidents regarding him taking down one of the Warlords of the Sea, Moria, were not hidden. However, that was certainly not all.

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Luffy then rushed into Impel Down which led to the greatest prisoner outbreak in the history of the stronghold. He soon attacked the Marine Headquarters in an attempt to save Ace and cause great chaos there as well. These actions earned Luffy a 400 million berry bounty, which is what he stepped into the New World with.

In the New World, Luffy made a great name for himself, once again. On Punk Hazard, Luffy's actions were rather low key and, as a result, he did not get any massive bounty increase. However, on Dressrosa, he, once again, took down another Warlord of the Sea, this time, Doflamingo. With Doflamingo’s fall, Luffy gained a bounty of 500 million berries, which increased even further when he visited Whole Cake Island and challenged Big Mom. By messing up her Tea Party and causing all sorts of damage, along with taking down two or three Commanders, Luffy earned himself another great bounty of 1.5 billion varies, which was triple the amount that he held previously. This was proof that Luffy was progressing at lightning speed and the fact that his power far surpassed anything that the world had expected.

While this bounty was already high enough, it doubled after Luffy's adventures in the land of Wano, where he challenged Emperor Kaido and played a massive role in defeating him. Luffy was the one who beat him in a one-on-one battle in the end, this crushing defeat of the Emperor was what liberated the land of Wano.

Luffy's Bounty After Egghead

featured one piece when does egghead arc start in anime luffy vegapunk

After the events of Wano, Luffy was officially recognized as one of the Emperors of the Sea and was given a 3 billion berry bounty. Out of the New Emperors, Luffy had the lowest bounty, however, his strength certainly isn't the lowest. Luffy is incredibly powerful right now and his 3 billion berry bounty goes to show how much of a threat he poses to the World Government. This is especially true because he is Nika, the Warrior of Liberation, and to the World Government, there is no greater threat. Of course, this makes one wonder as to why Luffy's bounty isn't even higher, given that he is a massive threat. The answer to this question is that the World Government is desperately trying to curtail any information about Nika spreading to the outside world. This is evident from the fact that they did not want his picture in Gear 5 being released to the outside world.

The world government is trying to keep Luffy's secret under wraps and, as a result, giving him a bounty that is too high would be rather suspicious. Regardless, Luffy's bounty is going to increase significantly as the story continues. After the events of Egghead Island, where Luffy will most definitely crush the navy siege, which even includes one Admiral and one of the members of the Five Elders, he will be declared the biggest enemy of the World Government and, as a result, receive a higher bounty. Luffy's bounty should be closer to 4 billion berries after this major incident.

Luffy's Final Bounty In One Piece

Luffy Nika Gear 5 Oda Freedom One Piece 1103

Luffy getting a major bounty after the events of Egghead only means that greater things are to come for him in the future. Eventually, Luffy will find his way to the One Piece and become the Pirate King. He is the man who will take down the Celestial Dragons and, as a result, become the greatest threat that the World Government has known in around 800 years. This means that Luffy, as a threat, which includes both his knowledge about the Ancient Kingdom as well as his level of strength, will far surpass anyone before him.

Roger had the highest known bounty of 5.56 billion berries. At the very least, fans can expect Luffy's bounty to be higher than that. In the case of Roger, the bounty was 5.5648 billion berries. In the case of Luffy, the bounty could be 5.6 billion berries to be precise, given that it is the number associated with his Devil Fruit.

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

One Piece-9
One Piece (1999)

Creator
Eiichiro Oda
Studio
Toei Animation
Number of Episodes
1082+
Streaming Service(s)
Crunchyroll , Netflix , Hulu

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