13 Of Goku's Most Powerful Forms In 'Dragon Ball,' Ranked By True Fans (2024)

Debut Episode:Dragon Ball Super, Season 1, Episode 1

Visual Characteristics:The biggest change from Ultra Instinct is the hair color goes from black with silver highlights to fully silver.

Why It’s Powerful: In this form, Goku is one of the strongest beings in the multiverse, surpassing even the gods. He's about three times stronger than he was in his previous form, and his already lightning-fast reflexes have somehow gotten even better. Despite its awe-inspiring power, it does have a major drawback - one must achieve a perfectly calm emotional balance on par with the angels in order to maintain it and not be overtaken by it. This is emphasized more in the manga than in the anime, but it's a risk in both.

Debut Episode:Dragon Ball GT, Baby Saga, Episode 34

Visual Characteristics:If a Super Saiyan form embraced emo culture, it would be Super Saiyan 4. In this form, Goku has long black hair, and trim around his eyes that looks like eyeliner. His aura is smooth and relaxed.He also has magenta fur coming out of his body that looks more like a shirt than like fur, plus a magenta tail.

Why It’s Powerful: Despite the name, this form is not an expansion of the Super Saiyan branch of forms. Instead, it's an enhancement of the Golden Oozaru form. In order to achieve it, the user must master their inner ape. While in this form, Goku can absorb other peoples' energy, and use it to power his own attacks, such as 10x Kamehameha, which is exactly what it sounds like. Unlike Super Saiyan 3, it doesn't cost the user much energy to use. Despite its power, the form is no longer considered canon.

Debut Episode:Dragon Ball Super, Season 1, Episode 39

Visual Characteristics:Goku's Super Saiyan Blue form gets a red Kaio-ken over-lay. This creates a jagged double red and blue aura. It also alters his clothing and hair colors.

Why It’s Powerful: This form is achieved by using Kaio-ken techniques while already transformed into Super Saiyan Blue. Goku developed this form on his own, despite the fact that at first it had a 90% chance of failure and risked ending his life. He created it in the hopes of using it to defeat Beerus, an actual god.

Debut Episode:Dragon Ball Super, Season 2, Episode 110

Visual Characteristics:When entering his Ultra Instinct form, Goku's hair gains silver highlights and becomes more solid. His expression appears a lot more serious, and he's surrounded by a complicated shining purple and silver aura.

Why It’s Powerful: Ultra Instinct is achieved when the user breaks what they believe to be their limitations and draws on a reservoir of power within. That's difficult for anyone, even someone as strong as Goku, but the end result is fantastic. Not only does Goku possess significantly advanced versions of all of the powers of his earlier forms, he also has the ability to react to his foes automatically - meaning, before he's conscious of it himself.

Debut Episode:Dragon Ball GT, Baby Saga, Episode 33

Visual Characteristics:Golden Oozaru, or Golden Great Ape, has golden fur that stands on end. It also known to emit a golden, crackling aura.

Why It’s Powerful: This is basically a combination of Oozaru and Super Saiyan. In this form, Goku's overall abilities increase dramatically, making him far stronger than he ever was in his in his original Oozaru form. Unfortunately, the berserker mode is even harder to manage - he essentially has no control over his own actions. It's a dangerous and unpredictable form - but it probably won't cause problems in the future, because it's no longer considered canon.

Debut Episode:Dragon Ball Z, Majin Buu Saga, Episode 245

Visual Characteristics:In this form, Goku's muscles and brow ridge become larger and more defined. His hair gets longer and darker. His aura remains golden, but gets spikier and more erratic.

Why It’s Powerful: Despite the more noteworthy changes in appearance, Super Saiyan 3 is pretty much just an enhanced version of Super Saiyan 2. The form multiplies 2's strength by four, which means that it's an eightfold increase over the original form. But because it uses ki, it requires huge amounts of energy to use, so it requires a lot of training to master.