10 Strongest Non-Canon Dragon Ball Forms, Ranked (2024)

Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball continually raises its stakes through rewarding character development, stronger challenges, and an ever-expanding universe. Progress in Dragon Ball is demonstrated in many different ways, but an intimidating transformation is usually the simplest way to visualize a character’s growth. Transformations are one of Dragon Ball’s most popular traditions, and some of these metamorphoses, like Super Saiyan ascensions, have practically become synonymous with the series.

New Super Saiyan transformations complement each of Dragon Ball Z’s major story arcs, and this trend has continued in Dragon Ball Super with Super Saiyan God, Super Saiyan Blue, and beyond. Dragon Ball has no shortage of canonical transformations, but part of what makes this franchise so much fun is that there’s endless expanded universe material to explore in Dragon Ball video games, movies, and promotional anime and manga. This extra content also introduces a wide range of transformations and new forms that may not necessarily be official Dragon Ball canon, but are still lots of fun to explore.

10 Pseudo Super Saiyan Is A False-Like Super Saiyan State

Dragon Ball Z’s feature films are a great source of non-canonical transformations that strive to take characters like Goku to new heights without bucking the manga and anime series’ status quo. The first three Dragon Ball Z movies feature grandiose finales that celebrate Goku’s Kaio-Ken Attack and Spirit Bomb. However, Dragon Ball Z: Lord Slug opts for a Super Saiyan finish, yet faces some difficulty due to the film’s release predating the anime’s introduction of this momentous transformation by several months. It’s very likely that Goku’s Pseudo Super Saiyan transformation in Lord Slug was meant to be the official Super Saiyan state, yet the movie’s production team was just unsure of what this transformation would look like when it made its anime debut during Goku’s fight against Frieza.

Pseudo Super Saiyan seems to have comparable power to the traditional transformation with an aura that seems to be a hybrid between Kaio-Ken and Super Saiyan strength. Goku’s eyes are also whited out in an intimidating design decision that’s reminiscent of Broly’s Legendary Super Saiyan transformation. Pseudo Super Saiyan only appears in Lord Slug, but it still makes for a memorable movie finale. Dragon Ball Heroes has also explored the Evil Saiyan form that corrupts individuals, not unlike the Majin transformation, through an evil aura. Cumber is the first to become an Evil Saiyan in Dragon Ball Heroes, but it’s a state that’s applied to many characters at their various Super Saiyan stages.

9 Cooler's Fifth Form Adds An Intimidating New Transformation To Frieza’s Species

Dragon Ball has developed a bit of a formula where most of the villains that the heroes encounter cycle through multiple transformations before they reach peak power. Frieza helps popularize this pattern and he triggers three separate transformations before he’s finally in his fourth and final true form. Dragon Ball Z: Cooler’s Revenge introduces Frieza’s older brother, Cooler, who evidently has an extra transformation that exposes Goku to an even stronger fifth form. Cooler’s fifth form is more battle-oriented and aggressive than his species’ fourth form and it looks like a proper evolution from his previous transformations.

This form is aesthetically pleasing, but it’s quite curious that other members of Cooler’s family and race – such as King Cold, Frost, Chilled, and Frieza – have never made use of this transformation. Dragon Ball Super showcases powerful new transformations for Frieza that include Golden Frieza and Black Frieza, but even then, he appears to skip right past Cooler’s fifth form. Alternatively, Super Dragon Ball Heroes has featured Golden Cooler, in his fifth form no less, as well as Golden Meta-Cooler, too.

8 Spirit Bomb Super Saiyan Is A Unique Combination Of Goku’s Extreme Skills

Goku has a number of abilities that aren’t necessarily used in conjunction with each other, which has prompted discussions on whether Goku just chooses not to stack these skills on top of each other or if he physically can’t. The Spirit Bomb was Goku’s most effective ability before he ascended to Super Saiyan status and Dragon Ball Z’s seventh feature film, Super Android 13!, finally attempts to answer what happens when Goku tries to conjure a Spirit Bomb as a Super Saiyan. Goku, lacking the power that’s necessary to destroy the fused Android, Super Android 13, engages in this process.

Rather than generate a giant energy attack that can then be launched at his target, Super Saiyan Goku instead absorbs the Spirit Bomb’s energy because of the naturally impure nature of a Super Saiyan’s heart. This results in Goku’s transformation into the more powerful Spirit Bomb Super Saiyan. Goku essentially enters a fugue state as a Spirit Bomb Super Saiyan and operates unconsciously as he channels this immense energy. Goku punches through Super Android 13’s chest and destroys him with his Final Strike attack, but Super Android 13 also struggles to even make contact with Goku because of the powerful intensity of his aura. His fist crumbles from the aura’s raw power.

7 Super Kaio-Ken Is The Synthesis Of Two Powerful Upgrades

Goku’s Kaio-Ken Attack is an essential skill that multiplies his strength and speed, albeit at the expense of a significant strain being put on his body. Goku’s ascension to Super Saiyan status essentially replaced the use of his Kaio-Ken Attack and there was a common belief in the fandom that these two power multipliers couldn’t be used in conjunction with each other. This has since been proven to not be the case after Goku’s ability to combine Kaio-Ken and Super Saiyan Blue together into a deadly combination. There’s also a non-canonical instance of these skills being combined during Dragon Ball Z’s Other World Tournament filler.

Goku is eventually able to hold his own against the West Galaxy’s Pikkon through the use of his Super Kaio-Ken skill. The Super Kaio-Ken involves Goku activating the Kaio-Ken Attack after he’s already become a Super Saiyan or Super Saiyan Second Grade. The Super Kaio-Ken is supposed to double his Super Saiyan strength and it doesn’t look that different from his standard Kaio-Ken form, other than his hair sticking upward. Another non-canonical Kaio-Ken experiment that Dragon Ball Z explores is in Dragon Ball Z: Lord Slug. Kaio-Ken x20 is the maximum that Goku reaches during the manga and anime, yet in this movie he somehow pushes his limits to Kaio-Ken x100.

6 Overloaded Cell Pushes The Villain Beyond His Super Perfect Strength

Cell is one of Dragon Ball’s most memorable villains and someone who successfully builds upon the series’ transformation tradition. Cell can’t willfully trigger his new forms like Frieza, but rather, they’re the result of him absorbing essential fuel sources – Androids 17 and 18. Imperfect Cell evolves into Semi-Perfect and Perfect Cell. He then reaches Super Saiyan 2-like heights after he self-destructs and absorbs more of Goku’s DNA and benefits from the Saiyans’ helpful zenkai boosts. Dragon Ball GT’s Super 17 Saga features a cataclysmic epidemic where hundreds of deceased villains escape from Hell and terrorize Earth. Frieza and Cell opt to stay in Other World in order to get revenge on Goku, who’s traveled down to their depths.

Cell’s iconic tail appears to be fairly vestigial in his Perfect and Super Perfect forms. However, Dragon Ball GT demonstrates that it can still be fully functional when it needs to be. Super Perfect Cell manages to absorb Goku, which turns him into Overloaded Cell. Overloaded Cell gains boosted muscle mass and additional electricity to his already golden aura. Overloaded Cell doesn’t last particularly long because Goku is actually able to crawl out of Cell’s tail and reverse the process. Overloaded Cell doesn’t appear in any Dragon Ball video games, but it does receive representation in Dragon Ball Z: The Collectible Card Game.

5 Super Mira & Super Fu Are Demons Who Attain Super Saiyan Status

There have been some fascinating figures that have been introduced in Dragon Ball video games, several of whom are actually designed by Akira Toriyama himself. Mira, Dabura's Demon King successor, is a Bio-Android from the Demon Realm who is created by Towa in Dragon Ball Online who goes on to play a crucial role as Dragon Ball Xenoverse’s antagonist. Mira's goal is to become the universe's strongest creation, which is aided by the fact that he's made up of a curious DNA co*cktail that contains Demon, Earthling, Android, Saiyan, Namekian, and Frieza's genetic information.

Mira's access to Saiyan DNA means that he's able to experience his own Demonic Super Saiyan equivalent. Mira, as well as Fu, another powerful Demon-Saiyan hybrid, are the only two of their kind that can transform into this superior state. Super Mira and Super Fu are activated when they experience incredible anger, which isn't difficult for Demon Realm inhabitants.

4 Legendary Super Saiyan 3 Broly Represents True Super Saiyan Excellence

Broly's Legendary Super Saiyan transformation used to technically be a non-canonical form until Kale, Universe 6's Legendary Super Saiyan, showed up in the Tournament of Power. Broly himself later finds his way into the franchise in Dragon Ball Super: Broly where he showcases his Wrathful and Legendary Super Saiyan forms. However, there are several video games that have pushed this transformation to stronger places and treated it like a baseline for greater power instead of a character's ultimate form. Legendary Super Saiyan 3 is the most extreme of these upgrades, and it combines the heightened power -- and hair -- of Super Saiyan 3 with the Legendary Super Saiyan structure.

Legendary Super Saiyan 3 Broly makes his debut in Dragon Ball Z: Dragon Battlers, a card-based arcade game, but it’s also made appearances in Dragon Ball: Raging Blast, Dragon Ball Fusions, and Dragon Ball Heroes. These games try to rationalize this totemic transformation through Broly's exodus into the sun during Broly - Second Coming's finale. This grim fate actually imbued the Saiyan with a tremendous power boost, and it's viewed as the pinnacle and truest expression of Super Saiyan strength.

3 God Broly Is A Furious New Form That Puts The Legendary Super Saiyan On Par With Dangerous Deities

There's a ton of extraneous Dragon Ball media out there and Dragon Ball Z: Super Tenkaichi Budokai is a particularly niche title. Super Tenkaichi Budokai is a 4-D experience that was exclusive to Universal Studios Japan and the successor to Dragon Ball Z: The Real 4-D. Super Tenkaichi Budokai focuses on an epic showdown between Super Saiyan Blue Goku and God Broly, the latter of which gets introduced in this OVA/4-D experience hybrid and only briefly appears in Super Dragon Ball Heroes as a non-playable character.

The circ*mstances behind God Broly's transformation are never explained and it's merely an excuse for the Legendary Super Saiyan to match the heights of Goku and Vegeta's godly abilities in their Super Saiyan Blue states. Curiously, God Broly looks quite similar to Legendary Super Saiyan 3 Broly and they both feature the same lengthy hair. God Broly retains his standard green-tinted aura, but it might have been more effective to give him a red or blue aura that further connects his transformation to Super Saiyan God or Super Saiyan Blue.

2 Super Saiyan Rosé 2, 3 & Full Power Are Extreme Upgrades To An Evil Saiyan’s Signature Transformation

Dragon Ball Super's Goku Black triggers his own malevolent variation on Super Saiyan Blue strength that he names Super Saiyan Rosé. It's an appealing transformation that the Dragon Ball Heroes franchise has further developed through its Crimson-Masked Saiyan character. The Crimson-Masked Saiyan, sometimes just known as Crimson, is an alternate version of Goku Black whose fate is altered by Fu's intervention. The Crimson-Masked Saiyan proves to be so powerful that he achieves Super Saiyan Rosé 2, Super Saiyan Rosé 3, and Super Saiyan Rosé Full Power. Each of these non-canonical forms builds upon Goku Black's Super Saiyan Rosé foundation.

Super Saiyan Rosé 2 acquires purple electricity for the user's aura and the next stage radically lengthens their hair, like in the traditional Super Saiyan 3 form. Super Saiyan Rosé Full Power retains most of its predecessor's elements, but it also incorporates several Super Saiyan 4 characteristics, like a regrown tail, additional muscle mass, and red, shadowed trim around the eyes. Super Saiyan Rosé Full Power Crimson manages to hold his own against Perfected Ultra Instinct Goku and is even superior to Super Saiyan Blue Gogeta. It takes the strength of Super Saiyan Blue Evolved Gogeta to finally take down this immense terror.

1 Super Full Power Saiyan 4 Limit Breaker Becomes Super Dragon Ball Heroes’ Deadliest Saiyan Transformation

Super Saiyan 4 becomes Dragon Ball GT's ultimate transformation and Goku and Vegeta both push it to an even more impressive, perfected place as Super Full Power Saiyan 4 fighters. Dragon Ball Heroes introduces one final stage to the Super Saiyan 4 spectacle that's known as Super Full Power Saiyan 4 Limit Breaker, that's experienced by Xeno Goku, Xeno Vegeta, and their fused forms, Xeno Vegito and Xeno Gogeta. Super Full Power Saiyan 4 Limit Breaker is initially accessed in a ki transfer ceremony with other Saiyans that's akin to the Super Saiyan God Ritual (although Broly is strong enough to tap into this form on his own).

Super Full Power Saiyan 4 Limit Breaker is treated like a viable alternative to Perfected Ultra Instinct, and it takes on certain elements from the godly transformation, like a purple aura. Xeno Goku uses this form to challenge Perfected Ultra Instinct Goku, while Xeno Vegeta uses it as a solution to Super Saiyan Blue Evolved Vegeta. Xeno Gogeta also becomes Super Full Power Saiyan 4 Limit Breaker to defeat Xeno Omega Shenron and Broly, too. It's one of Super Dragon Ball Heroes' most extreme non-canonical transformations until the series inevitably finds ways to push Ultra Instinct, Ultra Ego, and Gohan Beast to bigger, bolder places.

Dragon Ball

Dragon Ball tells the tale of a young warrior by the name of Son Goku, a young peculiar boy with a tail who embarks on a quest to become stronger and learns of the Dragon Balls, when, once all 7 are gathered, grant any wish of choice.

Created by

Akira Toriyama

First Film

Dragon Ball: Curse of the Blood Rubies

Latest Film

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero

First TV Show

Dragon Ball (1986)

Latest TV Show

Dragon Ball Super

Upcoming TV Shows

Dragon Ball DAIMA

First Episode Air Date

April 26, 1989

Cast

Sean Schemmel , Laura Bailey , Brian Drummond , Christopher Sabat , Scott McNeil

Current Series

Dragon Ball Super