Which Saga Had the Most Ridiculous Power Ups?

[TheUltimateVegito]

Which DBZ saga (Frieza/Cell/Buu) would you say had the most ridiculous or contrived power ups?

Personally, I would say the Frieza saga. The Zenkai boosts in that saga were pretty ridiculous with Vegeta going from 30,000 to around 500,000 and Goku having a base power level of around 60,000 - 80,000 to over 1 million from a single Zenkai boost. It's a good thing the Cell/Buu sagas died down the Zenkai boosts if you ask me.

[KentalSSJ6]

Namek, easily.

Goku goes from 90k base on arrival to a whopping 3 million after a X33 Zenkai after his battle with Ginyu.

[TheUltimateVegito]

Goku goes from 90k base on arrival

90k? Didn't Ginyu say that he doubted Goku's power level going any higher than 85,000 just before Goku went Kaioken? Or was Goku holding back in base form?

[KentalSSJ6]

Goku goes from 90k base on arrival

90k? Didn't Ginyu say that he doubted Goku's power level going any higher than 85,000 just before Goku went Kaioken? Or was Goku holding back in base form?

[TheUltimateVegito]

Goku goes from 90k base on arrival

90k? Didn't Ginyu say that he doubted Goku's power level going any higher than 85,000 just before Goku went Kaioken? Or was Goku holding back in base form?

Thanks. Do they have guides like this for the later arcs?

[VegettoEX]

Thanks. Do they have guides like this for the later arcs?

Not really. You may wish to check out our "Battle Power Guide" here on the site.

[Tyro]

90k? Didn't Ginyu say that he doubted Goku's power level going any higher than 85,000 just before Goku went Kaioken? Or was Goku holding back in base form

Please allow me to explain Ginyu's comment. This will be a much better conversation starter than simply posting a picture out of a guidebook without any context and being like "here, many facts, must accept."

Right, so:

Chapter: 284 (DBZ 90), P14.1
Context: after Goku tells Ginyu to watch his scouter
Ginyu: "Kukkukku... I don't have to look at my scouter. You should most likely be able to raise it up to 85,000."

This is Ginyu's second estimation of Goku's true battle capabilities just after fighting him. As you can see, it's just an educated guess and not an end-all-be-all statement. A few moments later Goku fires up a standard Kaioken that pushes his battle power to 180,000. Since the regular Kaioken double's the user's battle power we can deduce Goku's real battle power mathematically. 180,000/2 = 90,000. That's right in line with Ginyu's second estimation and it's what the Daizenshuu ultimately went with.

[DragonBallFan8001]

The Namek Arc has a lot of huge power boosts. Goku's power level went from 8,000 at the start of the arc, to 150,000,000 at the end of the arc, due to training, a Zenkai boost, and a transformation. Goku became almost 10,000 times as strong in that Arc.

In the Android/Cell Arc, Goku goes from a power level of 150,000,000 to a power level of approximately 2,800,000,000 (I think that's what Goku's power level is during his fight against Cell, but since it's just speculation, it's not an official power level). Goku's power level increased almost 20 times in the Android/Cell Arc.

While the Fusion Dance and Potara Fusion in the Boo Arc are huge power boosts, they're just temporary (although the Potara Fusion was supposed to be permanent).

The Namek Arc has the biggest power boosts in the series, I think.

[FoolsGil]

Buu Saga. Because the Old Kai powerup was absolutely worthless in the end. Such a letdown.

[trick007z]

One thing you have to realize about the Freeza arc is that it's ridiculously inconsistent and Goku was supposedly using Kaio Ken x20 for most of the fight. So divide whatever you think he would be after he heals from Ginyu and that's his actual base power level.

I'd say the Android arc.

Vegeta trains enough in 3 years to hit Super Saiyan. Then surpasses it into second and third grade with another year of training.

Likewise Trunks learns to go up 2 grades.

Goku also learns the grades, but also learns a mastered Super Saiyan form that enables him to have a decently competitive fight with Perfect Cell.

Gohan goes from just learning Super Saiyan to Super Saiyan 2 in a year span.

Piccolo goes from not even touching Freeza's third form to competing with 20, to fusing with Kami and being able to fight Imperfect Cell.

Even though a good chunk of it probably occurred when he trained with Kaio-sama in the last arc, Tenshinhan went from dying against Nappa to being able to hold back Cell with a similar style attack.

And with the exception of Piccolo's fusion, most of these are just chalked up to pure training. Atleast in the Freeza arc it was zenkai's, a fusion, and Guru's power up, and the Buu arc was really just fusions and Elder Kai's power up. Here it was guys just training and making absurd gains. Not for nothing but Gohan and Vegeta got more powerful from 1 year in the chamber than 3 years of regular training.

[Son Edo]

Those damn Potara... But still cool though, And Evil Boo's power up. So Boo saga, in my opinion.

[Low Tone G]

If we count Battle of Gods as first part of the Gods saga(as having a Battle of Gods sequel in the next year(s)), then I must say the most ridiculous power up was made in that movie. The second should be Namek saga.

[Kamiccolo9]

Do we mean ridiculous as in huge, or ridiculous as in wacky or contrived? Because if it's the latter, I'd say the Super Ultra Divine Whatever God Water from the Piccolo Arc would take this.

[IDreamtIWasABee]

The Cell saga has the most ridiculously lazy power-ups, that's for sure. SSJ Grades? SSJ2? Namekian fusion? Not to say all of it was boring, but boy was every bit of it unimaginative.

Power-wise, though, the Potara take the prize. Vegetto's introduction was the first legitimate "holy fuck" moment since Goku transformed on Namek.

[SingleFringe&Sparks]

The Namek Saga may have had some farfetched jumps at times but they werent as wide a gap as things got later in the series in my opinion. On namek everyone was relatively around the same tier if not only divided by a step or two in staircase fashion. Goku though still has that questionable unfair natural advantage over Vegeta that shouldnt have been logically likely.
My definition of "ridiculous power-ups" are the magical unexplained overbearing ones. Mostly easily in the Cell and Buu arc.

Gohan's SSJ2. Because of that BS hidden-power gimmick, he trains for a year - gets SSJ. Fine. Gets mad at seeing his friends attacked (nothing new) then SSJ2 surpasses Cell incomprehensibly.That must mean SSJ Gohan was stronger than C.17 - 18. Somehow.

Goten having Super Saiyan at birth and is totally nochalantly oblivious of it. Its meaningless to him yet he is be default stronger than Freeza. Stronger than Bardock who fought his whole life.

Gotenks. Super Saiyan 3 out of nowhere, somehow surpasses Goku and is mastered the instant he learns it if not far better than Goku ever had it.

Gohan's Mystic Power-up, surpasses All character in the arc from doing nothing.

Vegitto. Somehow far above Buu despite Buu logically should have been far above him. Correct me, but Buu was:
Evil Buu + Fat Buu + Piccolo + Goten + Trunks + Gohan. For whatever reason Buu didnt ever inheret Gohan's magical rage boost.
Vegito is just Goku's Max x Vegeta's max. Does the potara add power or does it just multiply fused characters into the sum of their powers? Regardless Vegitto seemed way too strong.

Do we mean ridiculous as in huge, or ridiculous as in wacky or contrived? Because if it's the latter, I'd say the Super Ultra Divine Whatever God Water from the Piccolo Arc would take this.

If we're talking about farfetched power-ups (not the forms themselves) then I'd just say:

- Gohan + Nothing = Ultimate Gohan.
- Gotenks + spontaneous convience = SSJ3 Gotenks.
- Good Buu + Evil Buu = Super Buu?

[ABED]

It always bothered me that Vegeta gets beaten up by a lackey (Reacoom), and yet can stand up to Freeza. Then there's Gohan who also could cause Freeza stage 3 to sweat. Even if you take a power up into account he still had a hard time with Guldo, but now he's taking on Freeza?

The Goku thing doesn't bother me as much. It's like Toriyama wrote this huge number for Freeza, and was had to get his characters strong enough to be able to fight him. That 90k just doesn't sound right to me given that he's the one who's going to defeat Freeza.

Since Goku has said "Kaio-ken" and "Kaio-ken times 2" that leads me to believe they are different.

SSJ2 surpasses Cell incomprehensibly. That must mean SSJ Gohan was stronger than C.17 - 18. Somehow.

Not sure what the controversy is.

Vegitto. Somehow far above Buu despite Buu logically should have been far above him. Correct me, but Buu was:
Evil Buu + Fat Buu + Piccolo + Goten + Trunks + Gohan. For whatever reason Buu didnt ever inheret Gohan's magical rage boost.
Vegito is just Goku's Max x Vegeta's max. Does the potara add power or does it just multiply fused characters into the sum of their powers? Regardless Vegitto seemed way too strong.

Goku and Vegeta are insanely strong on their own and fusion doesn't just add power, it multiplies it.

Namekian fusion? Not to say all of it was boring, but boy was every bit of it unimaginative.

How was Namekian fusion unimaginative?

[Cursed Lemon]

Gohan's and Krillin's Guru powerups are by far the worst perpetrators of this.

[DBZAOTA482]

- Goku + Krillin Dying = SSJ

It was more than just Kuririn dying. Freeza was killing everyone near him knowing that he was powerless to stop it just to spite him.

As for the topic, I also will say the Namek Saga... at least in terms of gains. Goku went from being less than half Vegeta's power to dominating 4/5 of the Ginyu Tokusentai almost effortlessly and being able to go toe-to-toe with Captain Ginyu once he arrives at Namek then he gets a ridiculously huge gain from zenkai and is barely Final Form Freeza's equal with considerably less effort than with his first gain. Vegeta gets two zenkais with relatively minimal gains but can't do shit to Recoome yet a third one makes him being to destroy Jheese and be barely even with First Form Freeza then the fourth one which makes him not enough to even touch Final Form Freeza.

[ABED]

mild training all the way to Ginyu Tier.

How was that mild training? Multiple time gravity is torturous.

[Hitiro]

How was that mild training? Multiple time gravity is torturous.

I agree, Kaio said that training under 10x Earth's gravity would be the equivalent of several thousand years of training on Earth.

Chapter: 211 (DBZ 17), P2.4
Kaio: “Training here on this planet with me for 158 days…is as valuable as you training several thousand years on Earth.”

Given that 100x Earth's gravity would be several hundred thousand years of training on Earth? I mean sure Kaio was probably factoring in his training as well as the planetary gravity and Goku did train for 158 days then, not 6 days(?) like he did travelling to Namek. But I think it still counts that Goku pushed his body to the limits within those couple of days. It was hardly mild. Even the Narrator says that Goku put his body through hell and began to notice the great trait Saiyan's have for treating their bodies like that.