Dragon Ball Z is an absolutely ridiculous show in the best possible way, living on spectacle, offering up a chance to take part in what essentially amounts to a soap opera with aliens. It is crazy how many people watch it just to see how ridiculous it will manage to get. One of the crazy things about it is the way that it continues to up the power of the characters, throwing newer and newer transformations at them, trying to see how many they can put in front of the audience before they get bored of what they're being shown.

What we did was take a look at one of the most powerful transformations in the game, the ability for the Saiyan race to use every ounce of power they have within their blood and build up their levels of strength, otherwise known as going Super Saiyan. However, there isn't just one basic transformation! The writers have come up with a whole host of ways that the Saiyan race can power up their bodies to take on the various enemies that attempt to take them out.

We decided that we wanted to take a look at the numerous forms of the Super Saiyan Transformation that have been seen at various times throughout the Dragon Ball Universe. It'll be interesting to see just how the writers have been constantly upping the ante and attempting to come up with new ways to power up their already particularly powerful characters!

13 Powerful: Super Saiyan 3

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When Gohan went Super Saiyan 2 to take down Cell, it was a major event, something that people didn't think they'd ever see the likes of again. However, in an attempt to take down Buu, Goku showed everyone what he was now able to do after a long time training in the afterlife, and that was to go beyond Super Saiyan 2, moving right onto Super Saiyan 3! The main problem with this form is the huge toll it takes on the body. Goku may have been stronger than Majin Buu in their final showdown, but the stamina drain was too much and he was left unable to defeat the Djinn.

12 Powerful: Super Saiyan Rage

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Super Saiyan Rage is a bit of a controversial form, in large part due to how Future Trunks obtains it. After an entire arc of being definitively weaker than Super Saiyan 3 Goku, Trunks is able to tap into some mix of God Ki and go head to head with Goku Black, a character with God level power. This is an enormous jump, arguably more so than Goku's jump from SSJ3 to Super Saiyan God in Battle of Gods. Naturally, this makes Super Saiyan Rage one of the stronger forms in the franchise.

11 Weak: Super Saiyan

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Goku turning Super Saiyan for the first time at the tail end of the Namek arc was a huge deal. Not only was a saga long prophecy brought to fulfillment, but the tables were definitively turned on Frieza who had used transformations to his advantage. Form there, however, the form started to lose its luster as more and more characters triggered the form. If one of the main characters gets into a fight in the later episodes and they don't at least go Super Saiyan then the audience is going to end up being pretty annoyed to be honest, so it is one of the weaker transformations at this point!

10 Powerful: Golden Oozaru

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We all know about the concept of a werewolf, but we can't believe that the writers of the Dragon Ball universe decided to use this with the Saiyan race, but rather than have them turn into wolves, they can utilize the energy of a full moon to turn into an Oozaru, a giant ape. Not only does this increase their strength hugely, but they can then build on top of that by going Super Saiyan while in this form (in GT at least,) giving them a huge amount of power within a massive frame, making them quite a formidable opponent to anyone that moves against them.

9 Powerful: Super Saiyan 4

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Believe it or not, but the Golden Oozaru is not the most powerful step from the Oozaru transformation. While in their Golden Oozaru form, the strongest members of the Saiyan race can move up to the next level of transformation, Super Saiyan 4, While they are an Oozaru, the Saiyan is unable to control his power, instead overcome with a sort of rage that can see them attack and hurt people that they did not mean to. As a Super Saiyan 4, they retain all of the power, but are able to see things with a clear human mind.

8 Weak: Ascended Super Saiyan

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After the characters were able to go Super Saiyan through training, the Saiyan race realized that they were able to keep training while in that form, increasing their ability as a Super Saiyan! This means that the ki contained within their bodies starts to infect every single nerve ending, causing their muscles to grow. Even though this gives them heightened strength and agility over those that have only achieved Super Saiyan status, it still has nothing on the other transformations we have on this list!

7 Powerful: Super Saiyan God

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Rather than just using standard ki to transform the body, this gives the user godly ki in order to bring up their strength and agility beyond even the power found in Super Saiyan 3. Despite the fact that it makes the character look leaner, they are in control of so much more strength than any transformation that came before it. The character must either go through a divine training or perform a ritual with six righteous Saiyans to get to this level of power, so it's not as easy to achieve as the other transformations found on this list!

6 Powerful: Super Saiyan Blue

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Super Saiyan Gods are hugely powerful, taking on godly ki that wouldn't otherwise be open to the Saiyan race, but that doesn't change the fact that they're still able to dip into their standard original reserves. Yes, this is what a Saiyan looks like when they not only when they take on godly ki, but then go Super Saiyan while in the Super Saiyan God transformation! Rather than gold, their hair turns blue, giving off an aura that had yet to be seen from a Super Saiyan at this point in the Dragon Ball universe!

5 Weak: Ultra Super Saiyan

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Yes, we don't think it should take much to guess that this is the form that Super Saiyans take on when they push up their training and make it past the Ascended Super Saiyan stage. Originally called Super Saiyan Grade III back in the day, the form increases a user's strength exponentially. However, there is a problem with this transformation, as Trunks found out when he used it against Perfect Cell. When a Saiyan allows the ki to fill out their muscles in this state, it fills them with an incredible power, but it also slows their body down to the point where their agility is essentially non-existent...

4 Powerful: Super Saiyan Rosé

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Super Saiyan Rosé is more or less Super Saiyan Blue tainted with Kaioshin ki. Used by Goku Black, a being with Saiyan ki, God ki, and Kaioshin ki, the transformation takes on a pink aura rather than its typical blue. It's actually debatable whether or not Rosé is stronger than Super Saiyan Blue as a rule, but Goku Black's use of Zenkais does mean that, on a base level, Goku Black's Super Saiyan Rosé has more potential than Goku's Super Saiyan Blue, putting the transformation on a higher tier.

3 Weak: Full Power Super Saiyan

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One of the main things that has to be remembered about these various transformations is that they take a lot of energy consumption to do, meaning that they're often only pulled out at the last minute by a character that needs to do some quick damage to a major enemy! However, this is what happens when somebody manages maintain and train in Super Saiyan mode, proving that they have truly mastered it. Despite the fact that this is an insanely powerful ability that was once impressive, it's no longer the most impressive Super Saiyan form!

2 Weak: Super Saiyan 2

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When Gohan first managed to go Super Saiyan 2 in front of everyone when up against Cell, it was an amazing moment both for the characters in universe and for the audience watching at home. With the massive reserves of power within him, as well as the rage and grief brought on by Cell taking out his father, he was able to push himself to a level of power that had never yet been known. In this state, he was finally able to defeat Cell, something that even his father, the strongest warrior on the planet Earth, had failed to do.

1 Powerful: Legendary Super Saiyan

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Out of all the Saiyan transformations out there, this is the strongest. Whenever it has been shown in the Dragon Ball Universe, it has seemed that the Legendary Super Saiyan has a well of power, one that never ends, that they can continuously draw on to destroy whatever they want within their path. Compared to every character that has ever appeared within the world of Dragon Ball, this transformation is the one that nobody can really beat, that has more power than anything else and will always be able to destroy whatever it wants to...