Destructibility of the Dragon Balls

[Zephyr]

If I remember correctly, in the Buu arc, Piccolo yells at Gotenks to hold back some of his power, as he is blasting Buu into the ground, because one of the Dragon Balls may be destroyed.

At this point in time they should be stones, correct? So is Piccolo worried about them because they are stones, or because in general they are susceptible to being destroyed by power on the level of SSj3 Gotenks?

[Kamiccolo9]

Vegeta's worried about Nappa destroying them way back in the Saiyan arc. While you could argue that Vegeta wouldn't have any way of knowing how durable the balls are, I don't really see any reason for that line to be there if it wasn't true.

Also, wasn't one of them made into a necklace at some point? They would have had to pierce the ball to do that.

[TheZFighter]

Yeah, Yajirobe had his Dragon Ball tied around his neck.

[Diotor]

I think the balls themselves are just conduits from an external power source- i.e whomever made them Kami/Guru/Dende. As long as they survive it doesn't really matter how durable they are as they can always be remade by the creator.

At least that's what I recall after not reading the manga for some time.

[Tyro]

Vegeta told Kuririn to destroy one of the Dragon Balls on Namek.

[Marco Polo]

You thought the Dragon Balls were indestructible? Why would they be? Kami/Dende isn't omnipotent, Shenron isn't omnipotent, and even Katchin can be destroyed.

[mister yummy]

There's a line in the Red Ribon Army Saga where one of the henchmen buys a fake dragonball, smashes it, and says the real ones are indestructable. This is probably filler, and possibly dub only, but it may be where the idea comes from.

On another note, in GT, the Dragonballs survive a x10 Kamehameha from SSj4 Goku.

Finally, we never see one destroyed, despite Kurillin attempting to and the warnings that it may happen if someone isn't careful.

[Kamiccolo9]

There's a line in the Red Ribon Army Saga where one of the henchmen buys a fake dragonball, smashes it, and says the real ones are indestructable. This is probably filler, and possibly dub only, but it may be where the idea comes from.

On another note, in GT, the Dragonballs survive a x10 Kamehameha from SSj4 Goku.

Finally, we never see one destroyed, despite Kurillin attempting to and the warnings that it may happen if someone isn't careful.

Sure we do. Buu blew them up with the planet.

[Pantalones]

There's a line in the Red Ribon Army Saga where one of the henchmen buys a fake dragonball, smashes it, and says the real ones are indestructable. This is probably filler, and possibly dub only, but it may be where the idea comes from.

Of course, this is the Red Ribbon thugs we're talking about... it's entirely possible they believed the real Dragonballs to be indestructible just because they didn't have anyone strong enough to destroy them, while the fakes they'd found were much easier to break. Just because someone (who has no way of knowing) says something doesn't make it true. XD

But yeah, there's definitely points in the series where someone's worried that a reckless blasting attack might accidentally destroy a Dragonball (Nappa and Gotenks have already been mentioned), and in the case of Gotenks being warned to be careful, it was Piccolo doing the warning... and he should know exactly how Dragonballs work thanks to Kami (and probably Nail to a lesser extent.) Plus we know Yajirobe was able to punch a hole in one and make it into a necklace. So it's safe to say they can be destroyed, it just probably takes a lot more to pull it off than destroying an ordinary rock of the same size. And probably depends on the Dragonballs involved, too--I imagine the Namekian balls would be tougher than Earth's, and if you're going to go into GT the Black Star balls should be even tougher than that.

[Diotor]

Vegeta told Kuririn to destroy one of the Dragon Balls on Namek.

What insight would Vegeta have on the destructability of the Dragonballs? He'd only heard about them due to Piccolo telling Raditz on Earth, along with other legends- possibly anime filler?

[DBZGTKOSDH]

Toriyama has already answered the question:

I think they have the properties of a hard, natural resin. Even if a hole is drilled in them or they get damaged, after a wish is granted and they disperse, the damage disappears once they return to being orbs, and they become like new.