Most clashes in Dragon Ball are decided by final attacks that immediately earn a character the victory. From the planet-collecting energy of the Spirit Bomb to the devastating, focused pierce of Piccolo’s Special Beam Cannon, to Vegeta’s Final Flash to Goku’s Dragon Fist, these moves represent the absolute peak of ki control. As power levels go from the thousands into the millions, Dragon Ball‘s most powerful attacks often require several tweaks.
Not all attacks and moves need to reach the heights of Ultra Instinct. Some are so fundamentally broken that they threaten to break the game entirely if they’re used more often.
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Frieza’s Death Beam
Desubīmu Used To Be A One-Shot Attack
Frieza’s Death Beam is a thin, concentrated piercing beam fired with pinpoint accuracy from the villain’s fingertip. In the Namek Saga, it’s portrayed as the ultimate Z-Fighter killer, famously used to execute Dende and Vegeta. Its power lies in its sheer speed and penetrative force, which basically allows Frieza to almost finger-point his enemies to death.
The Death Beam is also part of Cell’s repertoire given his biological ties to Frieza.
During Dragon Ball Z‘s original Frieza fight, every Death Beam is a potential death sentence, but as the power scales progress, the attack loses efficiency. Goku himself in his newer forms begins tanking these beams as if they were minor stings. While it occasionally regains its lethality in Frieza’s most recent appearances, the Death Beam has largely lost its status as a terrifying one-hit kill.
7
Super Buu’s Human Extinction Attack
Assault Rain Is Nearly Impossible To Dodge
When Super Buu grows tired of waiting for a challenger at Kami’s Lookout, he unleashes the Human Extinction Attack. Buu fires a single burst of energy that splits into billions of homing ki blasts, each one seeking out and incinerating a specific human life across the entire planet. Within minutes, the Earth’s population is reduced to a handful of survivors. This feat overshadows any accomplished by Frieza or Cell, who rely on bigger, more focused attacks.
Buu’s most lethal technique is so broken in its efficiency that it couldn’t be used twice. To nerf the impact of Super Buu’s Assault Rain, subsequent versions of Buu revert to brute force and regular energy attacks, which are much easier for the heroes to deflect or escape. Super Buu’s Human Extinction Attack hasn’t returned in canon, and few Dragon Ball techniques have replicated its mechanics.
10 Best Non-Canon Dragon Ball Battles, Ranked
Many of Dragon Ball’s most epic battles, attacks, and forms happen outside of canon, and they may never be integrated into the official story.
Super Buu’s Human Extinction Attack is so absurdly overpowered that its infamy bleeds over to the Dragon Ball video games. In most of its game appearances, the Assault Rain is a brutal, easily spammable move that deals an extensive amount of damage. This happens in the Budokai Tenkaichi series, Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero!, and Dragon Ball: The Breakers, among others.
6
Omega Heat Magnetron
Jiren Only Uses His Most Powerful Energy Blast Once
Jiren’s Omega Heat Magnetron is the ultimate manifestation of the Universe 11 champion’s immense power. When Jiren breaks his own internal limits, his ki literally catches fire and turns the World of Void into a cosmic furnace that incinerates everything in his proximity. This technique involves Jiren gathering this burning energy into a massive, sun-like orb in his right hand before thrusting it forward as a gargantuan wave of orange-hot destruction. Its most impressive feat occurs during the climax of the Tournament of Power, where it briefly overwhelms Goku’s equally powerful Supreme Kamehameha.
Despite its status as perhaps the most powerful mortal attack in the multiverse at the time, Jiren’s Omega Heat Magnetron is nerfed almost as soon as the tournament ends. Once Jiren’s composure crumbles under Goku’s pressure, the attack’s unbeatable heat evaporates. However, the most significant nerf came in the Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero era, where Vegeta explicitly states that Jiren’s dominance isn’t due to a massive gap in power, but rather to perfect ki control.
5
Hakai
Hakai Is Dragon Ball’s Ultimate Overpowered Technique
Introduced as the ultimate power of the Gods of Destruction, Hakai literally erases matter and soul from existence. Unlike a standard ki blast that causes an explosion, Hakai disintegrates its target into purple dust. Beerus uses it to famously delete Zamasu despite the latter’s divine nature. Hakai is established as the unbeatable delete button of the Dragon Ball multiverse, only able to be accessed by the franchise’s crème de la crème.
However, to keep fights interesting, the absolute erasure aspect of Hakai was softened into a resistible type of energy. In the Dragon Ball Super manga, characters like Gas and Granolah are able to manipulate Hakai-infused attacks, which has dilluted the concept. Sidra, Top, and Goku and Vegeta themselves have also wielded this power. If Dragon Ball didn’t do anything to slow it down, Hakai could destroy every character in the franchise.
4
Destructo Disc
The Kienzan Could End Battles Immediately By Slicing All Fighters Into Pieces
The Destructo Disc is arguably the most famous underdog move in Dragon Ball. Created by Krillin, this razor-sharp ki wheel possesses an incredible cutting power that seemingly bypasses the standard strength gap between fighters. Its most legendary feat occurred during the Saiyan Saga, where Krillin nearly decapitates Nappa, and later on Namek, where it successfully slices through Second Form Frieza’s tail. Dragon Ball lore suggests that the disc’s rotational speed and thin edge allow it to pierce almost any defense, which makes it the ultimate equalizer for a human fighter.
However, the Destructo Disc is so powerful that it became a problem: if it hits, the fight is over. To nerf it, Dragon Ball transitioned the move from a lethal finisher to a distraction. While an infamous (and non-canon) filler scene showed Perfect Cell tanking a disc with his neck, the canon nerf is more subtle. In Dragon Ball Super, top-tier antagonists like Jiren catch and destroy the discs, confirming they have a limit to their power. While it remains in Krillin and Goku’s arsenal, Kienzan is now primarily used for tactical utility.
3
Solar Flare
Taiyoken Is An Immediate Fight Stopper
Introduced by Tien, the Solar Flare is the ultimate tactical utility move. The user can temporarily incapacitate anyone in their line of sight by placing their hands near their eyes and projecting their ki as a blinding flash of white light. Taiyoken has saved the heroes’ lives countless times, from Goku using it to escape Great Ape Vegeta to Krillin using it to hide from Frieza’s henchmen. Since it targets the senses, it’s one of the few techniques that works just as well on a god as it does on a human.
The Solar Flare was nerfed by making it easier to counter. By Dragon Ball Z and Super, characters begin using Ki Sensing to fight with their eyes closed, or simply possessing fast enough reflexes to shield their eyes. Krillin eventually upgrades the move, but Taiyoken is still relegated to a defensive tool used to buy time instead of a significant attack. At the same time, the Z-Warriors have decreased the frequency of their Solar Flares, instead relying on more direct attacks.
2
Frieza’s Supernova
Frieza’s Supernova Attack Messed Up Dragon Ball’s Power Levels Before Goku Even Landed On Earth
The technique responsible for the genocide of the Saiyan race, Frieza’s Supernova is one of the most historically significant moves in Dragon Ball. This massive, sun-like orb of orange energy is capable of engulfing an entire planet in seconds, as seen when Frieza incinerates Planet Vegeta. It differs from the Death Ball in its sheer scale and heat, and it’s even more impressive considering Frieza performs the attack with the tip of his finger.
The Supernova has been used sparingly in Dragon Ball, and it has only been effective once. Meta-Cooler’s Supernova doesn’t kill Goku, Vegeta, or himself, and Mecha Frieza’s attempt at a Supernova is easily deflected by Future Trunks. After Dragon Ball Z, Frieza’s power set has continued to evolve to emphasize his physical strength and his wide variety of specialized attacks. Evidently, a planet-killing move that Frieza could summon in seconds isn’t something Dragon Ball could use too often.
1
Spike’s Devilmite Attack
Akumanaitokosen Could Technically Defeat Every Dragon Ball Villain
One of the most obscure but terrifying techniques in the franchise belongs to Spike the Devilman, a champion for Fortune Teller Baba. The Devilmite Attack is a beam that identifies even the smallest trace of evil or negative thought in a person’s heart and expands it until the victim’s heart literally explodes. In theory, Spike’s Devilmite Attack is the most powerful move in Dragon Ball, given that the heart of almost every major villain, from Frieza to Zamasu, is full of hatred.
The reason this move was essentially erased from the series is that it’s fundamentally game-breaking. All stakes would vanish if Spike were a part of the Z-Fighters’ circle, as he could simply one-shot any world-ending threat that stepped off a spaceship. The only reason it didn’t end the original Dragon Ball early was that Goku possesses a heart so pure that the beam had nothing to latch onto.
Which Dragon Ball technique do you think is overpowered?
- Created by
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Akira Toriyama
- Latest TV Show
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Super Dragon Ball Heroes
- First Episode Air Date
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April 26, 1989