Wild power-ups and intense transformations have been a staple of the Dragon Ball series for a long time, and their development shows no signs of stopping. Just before Super came to a close, the most powerful upgrade of them all was revealed: Ultra Instinct.
With that in mind, we wanted to take a look back and go over the many forms and power-ups that have appeared, talking about what made them interesting, or in some cases, pointless. For brevity sake, this feature only delves into the forms used by Goku and a few other primary cast members and villains. View the slideshow below for a summary of each form. These form descriptions are based on the anime run of the Dragon Ball franchise.Spoilers for the complete Dragon Ball series follow!Kaio-ken
This first entry isn't a form, but because of its significance to the series, we definitely couldn't skip it. Kaio-Ken is one of the first major power-ups that Goku unlocks. It's represented as a deep red aura that surrounds the user and boosts their abilities in several ways. This boost is multiplicative in nature, and often times we can hear Goku powering up by saying “Kaio-ken times 2” or “times 10”. It’s taught to him by King-Kai, although we see little of this training outside of a small flashback. It first appears during the Nappa fight, during episode 29 of Dragon Ball Z, although it’s most famous appearance is during Goku’s battle with Vegeta, later in that same saga.
Unlike many forms in this list, which with training can be improved upon and the costs negated, the Kaio-ken has remained risky to use. From its first reveal to the most recent sighting of it in Dragon Ball Super, Goku has always had to be careful or else risk injuring or even killing himself. We’ve repeatedly seen examples of the tolls it takes, such as Goku collapsing in pain, or his Ki being thrown out of sync. This high risk, high reward nature was enough to carry the Kaio-ken through much of Dragon Ball Z, but during Super it was also revealed that it can be layered on top of Super Saiyan, ensuring that even years after it’s debut, the Kaio-ken could continue to remain relevant.
Great Ape
The original Saiyan transformation, the Great Ape is limited to their race, like most entries on this list. It’s first witnessed in Dragon Ball, although seen far more often during the events of Dragon Ball Z, as both Gohan and Vegeta turn into a Great Ape. While in this form, the users power skyrockets, as does their body size. This form also has severe side effects on the users mental state, as that person often becomes beast like in nature. An improved version, the Golden Great Ape, was revealed in Dragon Ball GT, but like much of that series, it’s unclear whether the Golden Great Ape will remain canon due to GT and Super directly conflicting with one another.
To the average person, the Great Ape would appear nearly invulnerable, but a warrior who can match their incredible strength can do battle with them. They do have one glaring weakness, their tail. If a Great Ape has their tail cut off, they immediately revert back into their humanoid form.
It’s use in the series has often spurred on feelings of great fear and danger in our heroes, leading to the death, or near death of key characters. The Saiyan army also used Great Apes as weapons, so there are countless civilizations that have been razed to the ground by these gargantuan powerhouses.
Super Saiyan
The most iconic transformation in Dragon Ball, the Super Saiyan is a transformation exclusive to the Saiyan race. It’s easily spotted thanks to it’s bright golden glow, and the spiky yellow hair that the user receives while in this state. While powered up, the user gains increased speed and power, which is first demonstrated when Goku goes Super Saiyan during episode 95 of Dragon Ball Z, after witnessing the death of his lifelong friend Krillin.
While the users power and speed sharply increases, there are downsides. Super Saiyan takes a lot of energy to maintain and, over a long enough time, the user will run out and revert back to normal. Super Saiyan also causes the user to become more aggressive, a call back to the more primal nature of the Saiyan race and their other form, the Great Ape. Both the energy drain and loss of mental control can be overcome with enough training.
As the series went on, Super Saiyan would become the most widely used transformation. Several iterations of it would appear later in Dragon Ball Z, Super and GT, and the base form would become a staple of several characters, who didn’t quite train as much as Goku or Vegeta. While intense emotions would be the catalyst for transformation early on, these limits would be loosened with time, sometimes to the point of being comical.
Super Saiyan Rage
As Dragon Ball aged, Super Saiyan became less important due to the prevalence of other forms, which caused some staleness and predictability to arise when the heroes would use the same forms repeatedly. To counter this, the writers began allowing Goku, Vegeta and other Saiyans to tap into incredible strength during intense moments of emotional distress. These outbursts of powers would later be dubbed Super Saiyan Rage, or sometimes Super Saiyan Anger.
This form isn’t limited to any one color, and is instead most distinguished by the immense strength the character showcases. As we touched on, it’s only accessed during intense moments of emotional duress, which is not only a call back to the moment when Goku originally unlocked Super Saiyan after witnessing the death of Krillin, but also reflects real life and how great feats of strength are performed by those during a crisis.
These uncharacteristic outbursts of strength have been witnessed several times. Although Goku has had his moments it’s Vegeta and Trunks who are most remembered for using these forms. Early in Dragon Ball Super, Vegeta would tap into an incredible level of strength when Bulma was struck by Beerus. Future Trunks, during his fight with Goku Black and Zamasu, would also tap into incredible power, which for a few brief seconds, skyrocketed him to near Super Saiyan Blue levels of strength.
Super Saiyan 2
The true evolution of Super Saiyan, Super Saiyan 2 drastically increases the users strength and speed far beyond what even Super Saiyan can achieve. While similar in appearance to the base form, Super Saiyan 2 can be easily spotted thanks to the electricity that arcs around the users body.
What makes Super Saiyan 2 truly unique, is the nature of its first appearance. Gohan, not Goku, was the first character to access it, and it was, like many things, spurred on by intense anger. This was caused by his battle with Cell, specifically when Cell killed Android 16, who had become Gohan’s friend. Super Saiyan 2 would be use several times after this battle, although to much less fanfare from our heroes.
Super Saiyan 3
To go further beyond, a warrior can also achieve Super Saiyan 3. This is the next evolution of Super Saiyan, and is most clearly distinguished by the extreme hair growth that is featured with it. Like the forms before it, Super Saiyan 3 radically increases strength and speed, at the expense of energy consumption. For this reason, it’s used rarely, as even Goku can’t maintain this form for long.
While it’s initial reveal is quite dramatic, Super Saiyan 3 would quickly be learned by Gotenks as well, making it one of the faster forms of Super Saiyan to be passed from one warrior to the next. Dragon Ball Z also suffered from rapid power progression towards the end of the series, which caused Super Saiyan 3 to quickly be outclassed by Ultimate Gohan and the Fusion technique. These two things, along with the rise of Dragon Ball Super, would contribute to Super Saiyan 3 being pushed to the sidelines fairly quickly.
Ultimate Gohan (Potential Unlocked)
Although unique to one character, this state is so powerful that it deserved an entry. Ultimate Gohan (sometimes referred to as Mystic Gohan), doesn’t have a drastic appearance change, allowing Gohan to appear in what is essentially his base form. The lack of flair is made up for by the near infinite potential that Ultimate Gohan has.This form is granted to Gohan after going through oddly specific training with Elder Kai. Once completed, the Elder Kai exclaims that Gohan’s full potential is now unlocked, thus granting him the Ultimate status. This new power allows him to tap into a boundless energy, only limited by the amount of training that Gohan puts into it. For this reason, we’ve seen Gohan match or even surpass Goku in strength. Since this form isn’t an actual transformation, and is simply Gohan utilizing his full, inner power, it also doesn’t have any negative side effects, which allows him to use it far more frequently than the Super Saiyan transformation.
The only downside of the form, is one that is tied directly into Gohan as a character: his reluctance to train. It’s due to this that, even though he could in theory be the strongest character in the series, he’s often depicted as being one of the weakest. It’s only thanks to the recent Tournament of Power in Dragon Ball Super do we see Gohan slowly beginning to rise in power again.
Fusion (Potara Earring)
The Potara Earrings are gifts from the Kais and when worn, merge the bodies of two people together. The resulting fusion forms a new person who is many times stronger than the two entities could hope to be separately.
The most notable users of the earrings are Goku and Vegeta, who first used them during the Buu Saga to turn into Vegito. As expected, Vegito’s strength was such that he could easily beat Buu, but was overly co*cky during the fight, which resulted in him being tricked and absorbed into Buu’s body. Since the fusion was between two Saiyans, one of which is arguably always quite arrogant, it’s easy to see how this slip up could of happened.
When first revealed, the earrings are stated as being a permanent fusion, however this restriction was lifted during the events of Dragon Ball Super, when Vegito once again made an appearance during the fight with Zamasu.
Fusion (Fusion Dance)
The Fusion Dance is an alternative method of fusing that is used during the Buu Saga, before the Potara Earrings became an option. As the name implies, the two users of this skill must perform an elaborate dance, all while having their power levels be virtually identical. If they manage to pull it off, the fusion will trigger, forming an entirely new person from the merged entities.
The first users of the Fusion Dance are Goten and Trunks, during the Buu Saga of Dragon Ball Z. Since they're kids, they do mess it up a few times, which results in the fused entity being far weaker than normal. Unlike Potara Fusion however, this one is not permanent, so once it wears off the users can try again.
Goku and Vegeta would later go on to use the Fusion Dance, in both a movie (Fusion Reborn) and in Dragon Ball GT. When they fuse through this method, they form Gogeta, a character entirely different from Vegito. Gogeta is incredibly powerful as you would expect, and unlike Vegito, has a more balanced personality, clearly displaying aspects of both Goku and Vegeta.
Super Saiyan 4
Dragon Ball GT had many interesting additions to the series, one of which was Super Saiyan 4. Although denoted by a 4, this form is not a direct progression from Super Saiyan 3, and instead is more closely related to the Great Ape. It’s easily spotted, as this form requires the user to have their tail, and they'll have grown hair all over their bodies.
Unlike the other forms of Super Saiyan, which can be trained to achieve after you initially unlock the base Super Saiyan, Super Saiyan 4 has an elaborate series of checks the user must meet in order to achieve it. The most critical of these, is that the user becomes a Great Ape, but instead of losing control, they must focus their mind and body, regaining control of themselves and channeling the Great Ape energy inside themselves, thus unlocking Super Saiyan 4. Goku and Vegeta are the only two to reach this state, and Vegeta only does so with some extra help.
Due to the conflicts found between Dragon Ball GT and Super, it’s unclear if Super Saiyan 4 will ever be seen in the franchise again.
Super Saiyan God
Dropping the number and the traditional gold coloring, Super Saiyan God is a major leap forward in terms of strength and capability. Super Saiyan God doesn’t use normal Ki and is instead charged with Godly Ki, a much stronger power source than most mortals would never be able to tap in to.
Super Saiyan God is most easily recognized by its fiery red glow and the red hair it bestows. It’s leaps and bounds stronger than even Super Saiyan 3. While it's originally obtained by Goku through the use of a ritual, a brief scene in the anime suggests Vegeta was able to tap into Godly Ki through his training with Whis.
Along with the radical change in color, the most interesting aspect of this form is that Super Saiyan God is a permanent powerup for the user. Even after it wears off, the warrior can still access new levels of strength, thanks to the Godly Ki that they are now in possession of. This is most clearly witnessed during the Battle of Gods movie, where Goku reverts back to his Super Saiyan form, but is still able to do battle with Beerus.
Super Saiyan Blue
Just like how Super Saiyan was improved upon several times, so too was Super Saiyan God. After extensive training, a warrior can enter the Super Saiyan Blue state. As the name implies, this powerup is blue, making it easily stand out among the more traditional yellow and gold lineup of Super Saiyans.
Super Saiyan Blue has only been achieved by Goku and Vegeta, and it’s in thanks to their extensive training with Beerus and Whis. They use it quite frequently throughout the entire run of Dragon Ball Super, which caused Super Saiyan Blue to become the staple transformation for that series. Like all transformations, it’s long term use cannot be maintained, as it does slowly drain the user of stamina.
Just like the normal Super Saiyan, there’ve been examples of Super Saiyan Blue being further improved upon. Goku will use the Kaio-Ken with it, which layers the benefits of both techniques on top of each other, while Vegeta was able to improve upon Super Saiyan Blue during the Tournament of Power, essentially unlocking Super Saiyan Blue v2, which for a time, increased his strength to match Gokus.
Ultra Instinct
Ultra Instinct is the most recent and by far the greatest powerup to be unlocked in Dragon Ball. It looks slightly different depending on the state reached, but once a fighter taps into the full Ultra Instinct, an aura of white and blue surrounds them while their hair and eyes turn grey. It’s also said several times that Ultra Instinct radiates noticeable amounts of heat.
Like all other forms, Ultra Instinct is a giant boost to the users power and speed, but that’s not it’s primary benefit. Instead, Ultra Instinct drastically changes how a warrior fights. It allows them to react instinctually, causing their movements and attacks to happen so fast that almost no one can see them happening.
This great strength comes at a cost though. First, it’s nearly impossible to trigger unless the warrior is virtually about to die. Even if it does activate, if the warrior hasn’t won the fight before it wears off, they will be immediately crippled by incredible pain and a sudden loss of energy, something we see happen to Goku while he battles Jiren.
Legendary Super Saiyan
This is one of the few transformations that for a long time was exclusive to an enemy. Although still called Super Saiyan, the Legendary prefix means that this isn’t the same as the normal form, and this can be seen by the fact people who use it have a greenish aura around them and have their hair hued in a green color.
The original user of this form was Broly, a movie-specific enemy. He was called the Legendary Super Saiyan due to his immense strength that he didn’t even need to train to achieve, he was simply born with it. Many years later, we see Kale in Dragon Ball Super use a form similar to this during the events of the Tournament of Power. Both of them become overly aggressive while using this form, although Kale is eventually shown overcoming this thanks to her bond with Caulifla.
With the upcoming Broly movie teasing the form again, it’s unclear if any changes will be made to how it works, or if a better explanation of what the form is will be revealed.
While already long, this list only begins to scratch the surface of forms in the Dragon Ball franchise – many side characters and villains have several transformations of their own (looking at you, Frieza). Are there any we missed you felt should be included? Let us know down below, and if you want more Dragon Ball in your life, why not read our article about the 13 Best Moments in Dragon Ball Super, and be sure to check out our analysis of how the new Dragon Ball Super: Broly trailer hints at a major change to Broly’s backstory.
Shawn Saris is a freelancer who is into all things Dragon Ball. You can check him out over on Twitter @MrTheVestman.
