How Strong Was Future Cell?

[theherodjl]

Trunks does state that Future 17 & 18 were not as strong as they are in the present possibly meaning that Gero's future creations are not quite as powerful as well as the fact that Cell absorbed a vast, indefinite amount of humans prior to absorbing 17, just how strong would the Cell in the future have been?
Having hatched from his pupatation a comparatively short time prior to his attempt at stealing Trunks' time machine he no doubt wouldn't be anywhere close to the Cell that defeated Kamiccolo or even when he was first discovered in Gingertown, so how would he have fared against the present Z-senshi after they had trained for 3 years?
Also, would absorbing the Future Androids have made him big deal to the Present Z-senshi, if they are in fact not as strong as Trunks stated them to be? Would Gohan have needed to go SSJ2 against a hypothetical Future Cell?

[Crinchy]

Impossible to answer, as obviously trunks gained immense power in the past and was well aware of the creature, so anything beyond that point is headcanon, I would assume he would be weaker as the ones he would have been absorbing is apparently "weaker in the future," and that's my standpoint.

[Krillin1994]

Also since the androids killed a lot of the population, Cell wouldn't gain much power from absorbing people as he did in the present timeline.

[In Brightest Day]

Also since the androids killed a lot of the population, Cell wouldn't gain much power from absorbing people as he did in the present timeline.

I agree. The future timeline's population was vastly depleted thanks to 17 and 18, so it stands to reason that the future Imperfect Cell wouldn't be as powerful as his Imperfect counterpart from the past. Either way, even if Future Cell was as powerful as the Cell who kicked Piccolo's ass and fought 16, Trunks would have defeated it just as easily.

[Kamiccolo9]

Isn't the main Cell we see in the series already "future Cell?"

[Pantalones]

Hmm... good question.

The Cell we saw in the series had regressed to larval form, traveled back in the time machine, then grew back up to adult form over several years before we actually saw him. He was eating thousands of humans in a matter of days to increase his power, but was this something he did to boost his power beyond his normal level or was he just regaining the power he had before regressing to larval form so he could fit inside the time machine?

My guess: it was both. I figure "Future Cell" ate thousands of humans too, but he did so over a period of several years, picking off isolated survivors of the Android attacks as gradually he grew strong enough to overwhelm the Androids themselves. This would have gotten "Future Cell" (the one Trunks killed when he returned to his own timeline) to a level of power similar to what Cell showed off during his first encounter with Piccolo, which of course was nowhere near enough to take on post-Cell Games level Trunks.

As for "Present Cell"... the humans he ate before his first encounter with Piccolo probably were enough to approach (if not reach) his "normal" power from the future timeline he came from, returning him to the state he had been in before traveling back in time. But after his run-in with Piccolo, he realized that he'd need to grow even stronger because in his current state he wasn't strong enough to overpower Piccolo (and, although he didn't realize it at the time since he was probably expecting the Androids to only have the power levels of their future timeline versions, a power boost was also necessary for him to get strong enough to overpower the stronger main-timeline Androids so he could absorb them.)

Basically, in "who's stronger than who" terms:

Present Imperfect Cell (after many absorptions) >>> Piccolo >= Present Androids > Future Imperfect Cell (if he'd never regressed to larval state) = Present Imperfect Cell (when he first met Piccolo) >>> Future Androids

...which would also put the future Androids on a level not that much stronger than, say, Super Saiyan Vegeta. He'd probably do pretty well against Future #18 if he went all-out from the beginning; she wouldn't be able to just play around with him for so long like her stronger present alternate-self did.

[DanielSSJ]

While pinning down an exact figure is gonna be next to impossible, thanks to the vastly smaller population, Cell is definitely stronger than No. 17's or No. 18's future counterparts.

Chapter: 420 (DBZ 226), P2.3
Context: after Trunks tells Cell he’ll defeat him
Cell: “Trunks…All of your data has been scanned by the spy robot…With your power, you couldn’t possibly defeat No.17 or No.18, let alone me…”

[Marco Polo]

Stronger than base form Trunks, weaker than SSJ Trunks.

[Cipher]

Anywhere between Cell when Piccolo first fights him and when he arrives to absorb #17 in the main timeline.

It depends on whether he loses power when he reverts to his larval stage (such that he'd need to regain it by absorbing civilians again). If he doesn't lose power by doing that, he should be exactly as strong as his adult form before absorbing the people of Ginger Town. If he does lose power, who knows how much he'd gained by absorbing people in the future (though I doubt it was a lot).

Isn't the main Cell we see in the series already "future Cell?"

Yes. The main timeline's Cell is killed by Trunks and Kuririn before it finishes developing.

[Ozotto]

The way I understand it... there are 3 time lines...

The Present.
Trunk's Future.
The Future Cell came from, where he kills Trunks.

The Cell in Trunk's timeline got heat domed which was awesome...
He was probably weaker, less humans to absorb and no androids.

[Steven Bloodriver]

Trunks does state that Future 17 & 18 were not as strong as they are in the present possibly meaning that Gero's future creations are not quite as powerful as well as the fact that Cell absorbed a vast, indefinite amount of humans prior to absorbing 17, just how strong would the Cell in the future have been?
Having hatched from his pupatation a comparatively short time prior to his attempt at stealing Trunks' time machine he no doubt wouldn't be anywhere close to the Cell that defeated Kamiccolo or even when he was first discovered in Gingertown, so how would he have fared against the present Z-senshi after they had trained for 3 years?
Also, would absorbing the Future Androids have made him big deal to the Present Z-senshi, if they are in fact not as strong as Trunks stated them to be? Would Gohan have needed to go SSJ2 against a hypothetical Future Cell?

Imperfect Future Cell was weaker than both Future Android 17 and Future Android 18 since he had less Humans to absorb the Bio-Extract from.

[Super Saiyan Turlast x4]

He was stronger than the both of them. Like the other Future Cell, he went looking for the Androids and only decided to seek out Trunks when he couldn't find them.