Is Potara guaranteed to give a large power boost?

[TheUltimateNinja]

If Goku were to fuse with the farmer with a shotgun would he receive a substantial boost or would it just be addition of their power levels?

[RehBeh]

If Goku were to fuse with the farmer with a shotgun would he receive a substantial boost or would it just be addition of their power levels?

Nope, it's confirmed in the series when Goku dismissed Mr. Satan as a possible fusion partner.

[TheUltimateNinja]

If Goku were to fuse with the farmer with a shotgun would he receive a substantial boost or would it just be addition of their power levels?

Nope, it's confirmed in the series when Goku dismissed Mr. Satan as a possible fusion partner.

But he was still going to do it, he was about to give Satan the potara when Vegeta showed up. This suggests that he was at least expecting it to do something.

[ekrolo2]

Depends on who's fusing. Dende is most certainly more powerful than Mister Satan but he's not a fighter, making him a worse choice than Satan as a fusion partner in Goku's eyes. Kaioshin and Kibito are also fairly strong, the former probably Cell Games Goku tier and the latter probably somewhere in the mid range of Freeza's power if not more and he isn't considered a viable fighter against even Kid Boo.

[Cetra]

Elder Kaoushin could do like nothing but he had the witch's magic so no.

[TheUltimateNinja]

Depends on who's fusing. Dende is most certainly more powerful than Mister Satan but he's not a fighter, making him a worse choice than Satan as a fusion partner in Goku's eyes. Kaioshin and Kibito are also fairly strong, the former probably Cell Games Goku tier and the latter probably somewhere in the mid range of Freeza's power if not more and he isn't considered a viable fighter against even Kid Boo.

There's a pretty substantial gap between Kaioshin and Kibito, though, in the 50x range. The potara still gave Kaioshin a pretty huge boost, probably in the range of 3-4x putting him at the high end of SSJ2 tier.

[ekrolo2]

Depends on who's fusing. Dende is most certainly more powerful than Mister Satan but he's not a fighter, making him a worse choice than Satan as a fusion partner in Goku's eyes. Kaioshin and Kibito are also fairly strong, the former probably Cell Games Goku tier and the latter probably somewhere in the mid range of Freeza's power if not more and he isn't considered a viable fighter against even Kid Boo.

There's a pretty substantial gap between Kaioshin and Kibito, though, in the 50x range. The potara still gave Kaioshin a pretty huge boost, probably in the range of 3-4x putting him at the high end of SSJ2 tier.

It makes him probably on par with Fat Boo so you're about right on the high SSJ2 tier thing but it is very telling that he's not a viable opponent for Kid Boo who's only SS3 Goku tier.

[RehBeh]

If Goku were to fuse with the farmer with a shotgun would he receive a substantial boost or would it just be addition of their power levels?

Nope, it's confirmed in the series when Goku dismissed Mr. Satan as a possible fusion partner.

But he was still going to do it, he was about to give Satan the potara when Vegeta showed up. This suggests that he was at least expecting it to do something.

He didn't have any other choice. He had to choose between Satan or death.

[nickzambuto]

When Kaioshin marvels at the power of Potara while watching Vegetto fight, Elder's own words specifically contradict him and credit Vegetto's power to Goku and Vegeta themselves, not the method of fusion.

I personally believe there is no set fusion multiplier. It's all about how compatible to two partners are. Perfect rivals like Goku and Vegeta, perfect opposites who fill in each other's gaps, yin and yang, setting aside their differences and agreeing on a common goal that both can put their passion towards? It's not surprising Vegetto was so perfect.

Kaioshin and Kibito, who are both pretty powerful neither possess any particular traits that could improve the other? For example, we learn in RF that Goku's weakness as a fighter is basically taking things too lightly and getting caught by surprise. While Vegeta's weakness is getting too worked up and taking too long to act. These weaknesses cancel each other out. Kaioshin and Kibito do not have traits like these, nor is it a joining of bitter rivals towards a common goal, so while their merging certainly made them stronger, it wasn't an absurd boost or anything. It probably wasn't even particularly worth it. That's why Potara isn't overpowered, it's very selective. Only special pairs of people with a lot of passion can use the earrings to their full potential.

Same with Elder and the witch. In fact, he might have gotten weaker as a result of that fusion, which makes sense because the witch wasn't a fighter and Goku had the same worries when considering fusion with Dende or Mr. Satan. Elder is astronomically weaker than Kaioshin, Kaioshin was comfortably stronger than base Goku whereas Goku almost killed Elder by accident. So his fusion likely made him weaker. However, I do picture his and the witches mental abilities as having been amplified by each other. A holy god and a cunning witch? We don't know much about either of them pre fusion, but it sounds like they had a lot to gain from each other, which explains why Elder is by far the wisest character in the series despite spending 75 million years trapped in the Z Sword.