Instances of Power Creep in Dragon Ball

[Almighty Majin]

Power creep is almost universal in any long running action series. Sometimes characters must become irrelevant in terms of the overall power scale and as a result, some characters might end up catching up as the narrative wills it so. In Dragon Ball specifically, there is a lot of power creep that occurs in the series and franchise in general. How many instances of power creep are there? Let us find out...

1. 21st Tenkaichi Budokai: This is the first instance of power creep. In the first arc, Yamcha was pretty much comparable to Goku and even managed to defeat him in combat (albeit, he was hungry, but he still managed to win). Basically, Yamcha was a top tier in the first arc. In this arc, Yamcha has trained for this tournament so he is already stronger than what he was in the first arc so he already surpasses the top tiers of the first arc. Not only that, but despite being stronger than his previous first arc self, he was pretty much outclassed by most of the relevant fighters in the tournament. Krillin and Goku were much stronger than him as a result of Roshi's training and Giran and Nam are definitely much stronger than Yamcha here based on their performances against Goku. Pretty much every relevant fighter in this arc can solo the entirety of the first arc easily (Monster Carrot magic touch aside).

2. 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai: In the RR Army arc, most of the relevant fighters were basically 21st tournament levels of power until we get to Tao Pai Pai who is comparable to, if not arguably above 21st tournament Jackie Chun. Three years later, we get to the 22nd tournament where everyone has done plenty of training in preparation as well as new strong opponents appearing like Tien and Chiaotzu. Goku, Tien, and Jackie Chun are the top tiers here, I'd say they're all comparable to each other in power and definitely above Tao by a good margin. The crazy thing is though, Krillin and Yamcha are relative to Goku and Tien's casual "tournament" level of power. Based on their performances against their opponents, even if it's just their non-serious power, seeing how a weaker Goku thrashed Tao in the previous arc while also being non-serious, I think Krillin and Yamcha should at least be comparable. This probably extends to Chiaotzu and Crane Hermit as well. Every relevant fighter in this arc could probably solo the RR Army, bar Tao.

3. King Piccolo: Every relevant fighter in this arc is at the bare minimum comparable to Goku and Tien in the previous arc with Goku (Ultra Divine Water) and King Piccolo (Prime) are far above everyone else.

4. 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai: Starting off, Kami is already beyond prime King Piccolo. Piccolo is also far beyond King Piccolo and is above Kami as well. Goku after his training is about the same as Piccolo in power. Tien is strong enough to make Goku take off his weighted clothing and get serious so he is likely above King Piccolo as well. Based on Krillin and Yamcha's performances against Piccolo and Kami respectively, they must be at least stronger than old King Piccolo. Pretty much every relevant fighter in this arc is either comparable to or above King Piccolo.

5. Saiyans: Raditz appears and he is already above every other character seen so far. Then, the humans and Piccolo train in preparation for the Saiyans and surpass Raditz within a year (sans Chiaotzu and Yajirobe) and by extension, they surpass every previous DB arc. Even fodder like Saibaimen are relative to Raditz in power at this point.

6. Namek 1: There are 2 instances of power creep in the Namek arc. This first instance is once Vegeta gains his recovery boost. From here, Vegeta instantly defeats Cui and Dodoria, the former being the same level as Saiyan arc Vegeta and the latter being stronger than that. Pretty much all of Freeza's elite soldiers are stronger than the main antagonist of the previous arc (not including Oozaru Vegeta of course).

7. Namek 2: By the time the Freeza fight rolls around, every relevant fighter here surpasses the Ginyu Force. Even Krillin manages to surpass them with the exception of Ginyu.

8. Androids 1: The Androids power creep Freeza and basic untrained Super Saiyans.

9. Androids 2: By the time of the Cell Games every relevant fighter has surpassed the Androids and Cell's Imperfect and Semi-Perfect forms.

10. Buu 1: Cell and Cell Games SSJ2 Gohan are basically nothing considering how Dabura is treated as something trivial by the likes of Goku and Vegeta (they even admit to surpassing Gohan already). Dabura gets flattened by Majin Buu and Goku later shows off SSJ3. It's pretty clear that most of the relevant fighters are high-end Cell Games level, if not above that.

11. Buu 2: Super Buu, Gotenks, and Gohan pretty much power creep the levels of power showcased by Majin Buu and SSJ3 Goku which were considered the peak of power previously.

12. BoG: Super Saiyan God power creeps all of the previous Dragon Ball arcs.

13. RoF: Super Saiyan Blue power creeps God.

14. U6: In the anime at least, SSJB Kaioken and Hit completely power creep SSJB and Golden Freeza.

15. Goku Black: Goku Black and Merged Zamasu also power creep regular SSJB here requiring stuff like Kaioken, Completed Blue, or limit breaking power depending on which continuity you follow along with Potara fusion.

16. ToP: Goku getting the hang of SSJB Kaioken, Vegeta achieving SSJB Evolved, Toppo, Kefla, Aniraza, UI, Jiren, you name it. Above SSJB level characters are pretty common at this point and now you have guys like UI Goku and Jiren who are even above that.

17. Broly: Broly and Gogeta Blue debatably power creep UI Goku and Jiren.

18. Moro: Moro power creeps Jiren and Broly.

19. Granolah: The point of this arc is literally just power creep via those strongest in the universe wishes.

[Hero]

Power creep is almost universal in any long running action series. Sometimes characters must become irrelevant in terms of the overall power scale and as a result, some characters might end up catching up as the narrative wills it so. In Dragon Ball specifically, there is a lot of power creep that occurs in the series and franchise in general. How many instances of power creep are there? Let us find out...

1. 21st Tenkaichi Budokai: This is the first instance of power creep. In the first arc, Yamcha was pretty much comparable to Goku and even managed to defeat him in combat (albeit, he was hungry, but he still managed to win). Basically, Yamcha was a top tier in the first arc. In this arc, Yamcha has trained for this tournament so he is already stronger than what he was in the first arc so he already surpasses the top tiers of the first arc. Not only that, but despite being stronger than his previous first arc self, he was pretty much outclassed by most of the relevant fighters in the tournament. Krillin and Goku were much stronger than him as a result of Roshi's training and Giran and Nam are definitely much stronger than Yamcha here based on their performances against Goku. Pretty much every relevant fighter in this arc can solo the entirety of the first arc easily (Monster Carrot magic touch aside).

2. 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai: In the RR Army arc, most of the relevant fighters were basically 21st tournament levels of power until we get to Tao Pai Pai who is comparable to, if not arguably above 21st tournament Jackie Chun. Three years later, we get to the 22nd tournament where everyone has done plenty of training in preparation as well as new strong opponents appearing like Tien and Chiaotzu. Goku, Tien, and Jackie Chun are the top tiers here, I'd say they're all comparable to each other in power and definitely above Tao by a good margin. The crazy thing is though, Krillin and Yamcha are relative to Goku and Tien's casual "tournament" level of power. Based on their performances against their opponents, even if it's just their non-serious power, seeing how a weaker Goku thrashed Tao in the previous arc while also being non-serious, I think Krillin and Yamcha should at least be comparable. This probably extends to Chiaotzu and Crane Hermit as well. Every relevant fighter in this arc could probably solo the RR Army, bar Tao.

3. King Piccolo: Every relevant fighter in this arc is at the bare minimum comparable to Goku and Tien in the previous arc with Goku (Ultra Divine Water) and King Piccolo (Prime) are far above everyone else.

4. 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai: Starting off, Kami is already beyond prime King Piccolo. Piccolo is also far beyond King Piccolo and is above Kami as well. Goku after his training is about the same as Piccolo in power. Tien is strong enough to make Goku take off his weighted clothing and get serious so he is likely above King Piccolo as well. Based on Krillin and Yamcha's performances against Piccolo and Kami respectively, they must be at least stronger than old King Piccolo. Pretty much every relevant fighter in this arc is either comparable to or above King Piccolo.

5. Saiyans: Raditz appears and he is already above every other character seen so far. Then, the humans and Piccolo train in preparation for the Saiyans and surpass Raditz within a year (sans Chiaotzu and Yajirobe) and by extension, they surpass every previous DB arc. Even fodder like Saibaimen are relative to Raditz in power at this point.

6. Namek 1: There are 2 instances of power creep in the Namek arc. This first instance is once Vegeta gains his recovery boost. From here, Vegeta instantly defeats Cui and Dodoria, the former being the same level as Saiyan arc Vegeta and the latter being stronger than that. Pretty much all of Freeza's elite soldiers are stronger than the main antagonist of the previous arc (not including Oozaru Vegeta of course).

7. Namek 2: By the time the Freeza fight rolls around, every relevant fighter here surpasses the Ginyu Force. Even Krillin manages to surpass them with the exception of Ginyu.

8. Androids 1: The Androids power creep Freeza and basic untrained Super Saiyans.

9. Androids 2: By the time of the Cell Games every relevant fighter has surpassed the Androids and Cell's Imperfect and Semi-Perfect forms.

10. Buu 1: Cell and Cell Games SSJ2 Gohan are basically nothing considering how Dabura is treated as something trivial by the likes of Goku and Vegeta (they even admit to surpassing Gohan already). Dabura gets flattened by Majin Buu and Goku later shows off SSJ3. It's pretty clear that most of the relevant fighters are high-end Cell Games level, if not above that.

11. Buu 2: Super Buu, Gotenks, and Gohan pretty much power creep the levels of power showcased by Majin Buu and SSJ3 Goku which were considered the peak of power previously.

12. BoG: Super Saiyan God power creeps all of the previous Dragon Ball arcs.

13. RoF: Super Saiyan Blue power creeps God.

14. U6: In the anime at least, SSJB Kaioken and Hit completely power creep SSJB and Golden Freeza.

15. Goku Black: Goku Black and Merged Zamasu also power creep regular SSJB here requiring stuff like Kaioken, Completed Blue, or limit breaking power depending on which continuity you follow along with Potara fusion.

16. ToP: Goku getting the hang of SSJB Kaioken, Vegeta achieving SSJB Evolved, Toppo, Kefla, Aniraza, UI, Jiren, you name it. Above SSJB level characters are pretty common at this point and now you have guys like UI Goku and Jiren who are even above that.

17. Broly: Broly and Gogeta Blue debatably power creep UI Goku and Jiren.

18. Moro: Moro power creeps Jiren and Broly.

19. Granolah: The point of this arc is literally just power creep via those strongest in the universe wishes.

Mathematically, the power creep that always sticks out to me is Goku at 90,000 on Namek and him guessing he can do KKx10 now. This completely broke the numbers, and led to Goku's eventual zenkai needing to be 3,000,000 and Frieza's 120,000,000 number.

Kaioken was introduced as a way for Goku to complete with Saiyan Saga Vegeta, meaning it was meant for a Goku whose base was weaker than Vegeta's. So when Goku appears on Namek not only stronger than Vegeta, but three times stronger, it causes the gap between Goku and Vegeta to become insane. Because not only can Goku do his kaioken, KKx3, and KKx4, but they've now established he can increase his kaioken numbers as well!

As a result of the decision to make Goku's base higher than Vegeta's, Goku now has to be stronger again when he arrives against Frieza. At least they kept it a small gap at 3,000,000 versus 2,000,000 or so. But of course, that means his KKx10 is 30,000,000. And because Goku's zenkais somehow improve his kaioken ability, which was established when he first arrived on Namek at 90,000, he can do KKx20. Great, so Goku has now forced Frieza to be 120,000,000 since the fans were waiting for the SSJ to appear and defeat Frieza.

Frieza didn't have to be 120 million, but he had to be over 60 million now. So because Goku showed up stronger than Vegeta at 90,000 initially, and because it also established the kaioken numbers can increase, it forced the power levels to balloon towards 100,000,000.

[Lionel]

Power levels are constantly in flux shifting upward for everyone relevant that's participating. Dragon Ball's mechanics operate like that. It isn't exactly a multifarious system that allows for variety in how one confronts an antagonist. You're either strong enough to defeat them or you're not. If you want to even make an impression you have to improve enough for your opponent to give you a complement for your efforts before inevitably you're put into the dirt (think Yamcha vs Hero, Vegeta vs Recoome or Vegeta against Perfect Cell)

[Champa The Destroyer]

One instance that sticks out to me is the arrival of Raditz. In the context of dragon ball, we had seen goku surpass God, play by the rules and still beat the reincarnation of the demon king, and he seemed to be on another level

And then out of nowhere Raditz shows up, one shots goku, dominates goku and Piccolo at the same time, and it takes help from Gohan, a busted new attack, and goku's sacrifice just to beat him.