What is "base" power?

[Cursed Lemon]

We talk about base power levels in terms of the multipliers for SSJ transformations, but...what is a saiyan's "base" power level?

Is it their resting power level? Is it the maximum amount he can power up before he transforms? What?

[dbgtFO]

It's just their natural state.
They transform, when their power surpasses the limitations of that state.
Ultimate Gohan(outside of BoG) does not transform, as those limitations don't apply to him any longer, thanks to Elder Kaioshin's cheat codes.
Theoretically I'd think they could become ultimate like Gohan, but it would obviously take much longer than ~25 hours.
As an example it took Goku less than a year for his Super Saiyan form to equal/surpass his musclebound forms. At least that much time and perhaps a lot longer than that.
But now they have SSG and don't have to worry about that anymore.

[Cursed Lemon]

But it becomes a problem when we use that number as the foundation for SSJ multipliers.

Goku's resting power was 5,000 according to Vegeta's scouter, and then according to the scouter Bulma used their mutual power levels were over 20,000 during the beam struggle.

So if Goku magically turned SSJ during that battle, does his power become 250,000, or 1,000,000?

[RancorSnp]

Remember Goku can rise and lower his power level at will, so when he becomes super sayan, he can have any Power level between Lowest number he can surpress to x50 and Highest number he can power up to x50.

And without these x50 this is his base power, though gotta say, most often it's just used as "Max power he can reach without any transformations / techniques"

[Cursed Lemon]

Is there any precedent set that SSJs can raise and lower their power levels like they can in base? Never thought about that.

[Kamiccolo9]

Is there any precedent set that SSJs can raise and lower their power levels like they can in base? Never thought about that.

Goku and Gohan powering up at the Cell Games.

[dbgtFO]

But it becomes a problem when we use that number as the foundation for SSJ multipliers.

Goku's resting power was 5,000 according to Vegeta's scouter, and then according to the scouter Bulma used their mutual power levels were over 20,000 during the beam struggle.

So if Goku magically turned SSJ during that battle, does his power become 250,000, or 1,000,000?

First of all I've moved away from thinking of Super Saiyan transformations with strict multipliers.

Bulma only scanned Goku's power as he entered Kaio-ken x3, and he has never been shown capable of using Kaio-ken in conjunction with Super Saiyan outside that Paikuhan filler, so it would be based on his over 8,000 figure, which would make it 400,000 with the 50x multiplier.

I myself think of it as transformations being a side-effect of tapping into your hidden power, that surpasses the threshold of the natural state. I don't know, if we should think of Kaio-ken the same way, as a convenient way of explaining why it can't be combined with Super Saiyan in the manga proper.
There's also the question if people with such low power can even become Super Saiyan in the first place or if there's a battle power limit you have to reach before your body is "ready", so to speak.

Is there any precedent set that SSJs can raise and lower their power levels like they can in base? Never thought about that.

Goku and Gohan do it in the Room of Spirit and Time. They got used to the form as if it was their natural state and thus could fight more efficiently, unlike previously, where they just went straight to full power and lowering the power is implied to result in going out of SS.
When they powered up to full power, they did so without hulking out, but still went to the limit of their SS power(or at least that's my take).

[Kaboom]

Generally the term "base" refers to a Saiyan's MAXIMUM power in their normal, non-transformed states. The Super Saiyan transformations just increase that maximum.

So if Namek-arc Goku was at his relaxed 5,000 level and then went Super Saiyan, he may be only at 250,000 at first... But he wouldn't be "stuck" there. His base state's maximum is still 90,000, and so as a Super Saiyan he'd be able to rev up to a power level of about 4.5 million.

[shonenhikada]

PL of a person without any transformations.

[supercat]

I always saw it as the battle power they wield when they are not leveraging any transformations.

[Lord Beerus]

Base power is just their absolute strength in their relaxed and normal state.