The Biggest Power-Ups In Dragon Ball, Ranked

Summary

• Characters from the Dragon Ball franchise have gone through incredible and impressive power increases.
• Frieza’s power increases from 530,000 to 120 million; Super Saiyan Goku matches.
• Gohan’s Beast Form in Dragon Ball Super is comparable to Ultra Instinct Goku.

The Dragon Ball series has always been known for some of the most memorable fights in anime history. But what is it that makes these fights so special? Some of the best fights in the Dragon Ball series are the ones where the characters emerge significantly stronger than when they began the fight. The series originally has a concept that measures a character’s power level, but as these numbers get more and more ludicrous, it abandons it for arbitrary estimates based on their feats.

What makes Dragon Ball fights special are the incredible power-ups the characters undergo as they’re fighting. Especially the main characters, who defeat the odds by powering up to match their opponents. The best way to rank the power-ups in Dragon Ball would be to gauge how much stronger it is over the character’s base form.

10 Frieza – Base Form to Final Form

But This Isn’t Even His Final Form

When he’s originally introduced to the series, Frieza is depicted as an insurmountable opponent that should be avoided at all costs. He’s referred to as the “strongest being in the universe” and even Vegeta, who was such a huge threat to the Z warriors fears him. In his base form, Frieza’s power level is 530,000.

In his final form against Goku, Frieza’s power level is at a whopping 60 million. Goku, whose base power level is at 3 million isn’t able to do much even with a 20x Kaioken, boosting his power to match Frieza’s suppressed power level. After Goku turns Super Saiyan, Frieza powers up to 100% in his final form, which is at 120 million. The reason this isn’t higher is because Frieza already starts off strong at his base level.

9 Super Saiyan

The Legendary Saiyan Warrior

• Dragon Ball Z (Anime, 1989-1996)

Goku is the first of the Saiyans to achieve the legendary transformation, during his fight against Frieza. Official sources claim the Super Saiyan is a 50x boost in power level, propelling Goku’s base 3 million power level into the 150 million range. His power level as a Super Saiyan is enough to help him defeat Frieza on Namek.

Eventually, the Super Saiyan form becomes an even bigger power-up with Goku and Gohan training in the Room of Spirit and Time. Once Gohan achieves his Super Saiyan power-up, both of them train to Master the Super Saiyan form, as Goku believes it is more important to manage their energy levels in the Super Saiyan state than to find anything beyond this form.

8 Super Namekian Piccolo

Piccolo Absorbs Kami To Surpass the Super Saiyans

• Dragon Ball Z (Anime, 1989-1996)

After absorbing Kami, Piccolo receives another gigantic power-up. This time, he receives a power-up that makes him even stronger than all the three Super Saiyans in the series, making him the strongest Z warrior. This is a much bigger, more exponential power-up than the first time he absorbed a Namekian in the form of Nail.

After this power-up, Piccolo is able to comfortably defeat Android 20 (Dr. Gero in an Android body) and Imperfect Cell. He’s able to go toe to toe against Android 17 and fight him to a draw. It’s unrevealed at the time, but Android 16 is the only character stronger than Piccolo in the series at this point.

7 Super Perfect Cell

He Simply Refuses To Die

• Dragon Ball Z (Anime, 1989-1996)

The Cell Saga is the point in the series where it stops officially using power levels, so hereon, it’s ideal to gauge power-ups based on the feats they accomplish. But Super Perfect Cell is Cell at its strongest. He regenerates from a single cell after self-destructing near King Kai’s planet (Goku teleports him there). After regenerating, his feats are incredibly impressive.

He gains a Zenkai boost from his Saiyan biology, learns Goku’s Instant Transmission ability, and returns to Earth, killing Future Trunks with a stray beam. He even has the lightning effect around his aura, similar to Gohan’s Super Saiyan 2 transformation, indicating he’s potentially at that level in terms of power.

6 Super Saiyan 2

Gohan’s Magnum Opus

• Dragon Ball Z (Anime, 1989-1996)

Super Saiyan 2 is first introduced in the Cell Saga, with Gohan transforming into a ruthless warrior after Cell pushes him too hard. Official sources state that it is twice as powerful as the original Super Saiyan form, making it a 100x power-up over the base Saiyan’s form.

In this form, Gohan is able to defeat Super Perfect Cell despite having just one arm, with the help of motivation from Goku, destroying the Android once and for all with a Kamehameha wave.

5 Super Saiyan 3

When Goku Screams His Lungs Out

• Dragon Ball Z (Anime, 1989-1996)

Super Saiyan 3 is one of the most iconic transformations in the Dragon Ball series. Much to the point where the transformation has etched itself into anime folklore by turning into a meme on the internet, mainly because of Goku’s visceral scream while he transforms. Canonically, Goku is the only non-fused character to have achieved this form, with Vegeta completely skipping it to achieve a much stronger form.

According to official sources, the Super Saiyan 3 transformation is a 400x increase in power over the base Saiyan form, making it twice as powerful as the Super Saiyan 2 transformation. Unfortunately, it really doesn’t turn out to be very useful and is rendered obsolete very quickly.

4 Super Saiyan God

Goku Finally Becomes a God

• Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods (Anime, 2013)

This power-up is introduced after a major time skip, signifying the end of Dragon Ball Z and the beginning of Dragon Ball Super. First seen in the Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods film, it takes the power of six pure-hearted Saiyans to turn one of them into the Super Saiyan God.

This power-up is far beyond the scale of the previous Super Saiyan transformations. However, it still isn’t anywhere close to defeating Beerus, the God of Destruction.

3 Golden Frieza

Still Not His Final Form

• Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection F (Anime, 2015)

Turns out Frieza’s final form wasn’t his final form. In Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection F, Frieza trains and travels to the Earth and gets revenge on Goku for defeating him on Namek. The logic was that he was so powerful that he never had to train in his life. After training for a few months, he unlocks this new form calling it “Golden Frieza”.

In this form, he’s even stronger than Super Saiyan Blue, which is considered a form stronger than Super Saiyan God. The only reason he loses is because his stamina drains quicker in this form, leading to him losing to Vegeta in his Super Saiyan Blue form after defeating Goku. He still goes on to achieve yet another form in the Manga, in the form of Black Frieza.

2 Ultra Instinct

The One With Epic Theme Music

This one is pretty much the most popular power-up Goku receives in Dragon Ball Super. Unconventionally, this power-up is not referred to as a “transformation” but rather a state of being wherein Goku’s body functions autonomously without him having to think in battle.

During the Tournament of Power, Goku is defeated in this state by Jiren, because he has only partially achieved this power up initially. When he later manages to achieve this state in its entirety, he finally defeats Jiren, only for his body to give up on him right before he’s about to deliver the finishing blow.

1 Beast Gohan

Deja Vu Against Cell Max

The latest and greatest Dragon Ball transformation in the series goes to Gohan in Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. During his battle against Cell Max, Gohan unlocks this transformation. It’s not clear whether this form is stronger than Ultra Instinct Goku until the last chapter in the Dragon Ball Super Manga.

Gohan battles Goku in his Mastered Ultra Instinct state using the Beast Form and is able to keep up against Goku’s strongest form quite comfortably, implying that Gohan Beast is at least on par with Ultra Instinct if not stronger. What’s incredible about this is Gohan achieves this power-up from his Ultimate Gohan form, which is just stronger than Super Saiyan 3. He surpasses all of Goku’s power-ups in one single fight.