There are a lot of misconceptions about how bounties work in One Piece. Lately, I’ve seen people suggest that Luffy’s new bounty will only increase a few hundred million or even worse, not surpass Sabo’s. This all stems from a misconception from Dressrosa’s bounties.
The main one I’ve seen people argue is that Luffy beating Doflamingo was worth a “100 million increase” which is absolutely ridiculous. Let’s look at Zoro’s bounty:
Pre-Dressrosa: 120 million
Post-Dressrosa: 320 million
So beating Pica is worth 200 million, but beating Doflamingo is worth 100 million? Even if you add up Law’s increase, it means beating Pica is worth 200 million, while beating Doflamingo is worth 160 million? If pre-TS Blackbeard came and defeated Doflamingo, his bounty would go to 100-160 million? That’s nonsense.
It’s true that Oda follows patterns in his increments, but what matters most is the ABSOLUTE bounty, not relative increases. Beating 10 guys of Pica’s level is not going give you a 2 billion bounty.
What happened in Dressrosa was that Luffy and Law were given equal credit for the takedown of Doflamingo, and someone contributing 50% to the takedown of Doflamingo is worth 500 million, meaning Doflamingo himself would be worth 1 billion.
Now let’s not start making comparisons to Katakuri yet, as above it’s probably very hard to go PAST 1 billion (which Katakuri has achieved), and Doflamingo had much more power in the underground which Katakuri didn’t have. Compared to Smoothie, Cracker, and Perospero, 1 billion is a good figure for him, considering how quickly he defeated Sanji who is around Pero’s level with 700 million bounty.
Going back to the title, bounties are simply hype tools. That’s it. Sure there’s a mechanism to HOW they work, but that has nothing to do with WHY they’re used. When Luffy beat Crocodile, his bounty went higher. When Luffy beat Moriah, it went higher (though after MF when Moriah was kicked out). There has never been an instance of Luffy beating a dude, and his bounty being remaining lower, because that would ruin the whole point of bounties. The difference between Whole Cake Island and Dressrosa is that Luffy will not contribute 50% to Katakuri’s takedown, he will contribute 100%.
*Theory by Kai_D_Ou
