The Dragon Ball franchise has many memorable characters, but no one leaves more of a lasting impact on the series than the villain. Over the years, the show has introduced some of the most powerful bad guys in the universe, each more dangerous than the next. Easily the most popular villain of Dragon Ball is Frieza, and at least part of it has to do with how powerful he truly is. While each new villain in the series is far stronger than the next, Frieza is the only one given the opportunity to improve, and given the opportunity, he becomes one of the strongest fighters in the universe.
From the time he showed up during the Frieza Saga, he has been the most feared and hated villain in the entire franchise. At every step of the way, Frieza has proven that he can keep up with the likes of Goku and Vegeta, and at times has proven to be the superior fighter. His popularity as a character has kept him coming back to life over and over again, but it’s his incredible power that keeps him in the conversation. It’s why his soldiers brought him back to life in Resurrection F, and why Goku recruited him in Dragon Ball Super to join the Tournament of Power.
While Cell and Majin Buu played their roles and were fearsome in their own right, only Frieza keeps coming back for more. Here are 25 secrets that make Frieza from Dragon Ball too powerful.
25 How Many Forms Does He Have, Anyway?
It would seem that Frieza has an infinite amount of reserve power hiding behind all his different transformations. In Dragon Ball Z, he has four different forms of increasing strength, and yet it would seem his base form is powerful enough to wipe out an entire planet. Though he’s finally challenged by Vegeta and Piccolo, by the time he gets around to his third transformation, he’s strong enough to take them all out without much effort. Frieza wanted to reach his final form just to rub it in that he’s so much stronger than them.
On top of that, he even seems to be holding back against Goku until he reaches 100%.
When Frieza finally returns in Resurrection F, the creators had to make him a realistic threat to the far more powerful Z Fighters. It’s been 14 years in the afterlife, after all, so he needs to find a way change things in his favor. What does he do then? Frieza gains a new transformation state known as Golden Frieza. It’s far more powerful than anyone can even imagine, and it very nearly gave him the victory. If the Dragon Ball franchise continues past Super, there’s no telling what power-ups Frieza will come up with next.
24 There’s No One Quite Like Him
We know practically nothing about the race of people Frieza comes from, but it can be assured that there’s no one else out there quite like him. Frieza is considered to be something of a mutant in comparison to the rest of his race. This mutation has allowed his power level to increase disproportionately to anyone else from his species. So don’t worry about an entire planet being filled with villainous aliens as strong as Frieza, he’s something of an anomaly. For all we know, the actual race is made up of kindhearted pacifists who don’t involve themselves with fighting.
Come to think of it, we actually have no idea what his species is even supposed to look like. The only other members of Frieza’s race that we know about are his father King Cold, his brother Cooler, and his ancestor Chilled. For all we know, the rest of his race looks completely different. Perhaps there’s something in his bloodline that has allowed each of these aliens to be considered among the strongest fighters in the entire universe. Given enough time to train, Frieza has successfully surpassed every other member of his family, meaning he is likely the strongest of his entire race, wherever they are supposed to be in the Dragon Ball franchise.
23 This Was No Easy Task
Before their near extinction, the Saiyan race were remembered for being incredibly strong warriors who put their skills for fighting to good use as world conquerors. It is explained that Planet Vegeta is not the original Saiyan home world, and that they had actually eliminated the entire Tuffle race in order to seize the planet for their own. Even under the control of Frieza’s empire, they proved to be extremely difficult to control, yet they remained an effective tool for invading and conquering new planets. If even their newborn babies can be trusted to wipe out entire races, it’s amazing that Frieza was ever able to take control.
Saiyans have the unique ability to increase in strength after they have recovered from wounds suffered in battle.
Considering they were used by Frieza’s forces as grunt soldiers on the front lines, it’s likely that there were many Saiyans injured in the line of duty. This would have made their forces increasingly stronger, and as a result harder to control. Even despite this fact, when it came time to do the dastardly deed, he was able to take out King Vegeta with a single punch. It’s kind of amazing that he held that much power over such a strong race.
22 An Entire Planet, Gone In An Instant
Characters use their fair share of energy attacks that prove to cause utter devastation in their wake, but it was Frieza who first blew up an entire planet in Dragon Ball Z. Needing a way to escalate the stakes for his new villains, Akira Toriyama established that it was Frieza who destroyed Planet Vegeta and wiped out most of the Saiyan race. The really scary part, though, is how utterly easy it was for him to actually do such a thing. It’s like he wasn’t even trying.
The entire point of Frieza’s forms are to suppress his incredible power levels and keep himself stabilized. In this case, it should be noted that he would not have been able to access 100% of his full power in his base form, yet he still managed to wipe out the planet without much effort. He is then shown to be able to control the power of his Death Ball so absolutely that he delays Namek’s destruction by five minutes. Even much later on during his attack on Earth in Resurrection F, he has the opportunity to cause incredible devastation. Seeing that he has no hope to win, Frieza uses his power to blow up the planet, until Whis uses his power to reverse time.
21 The Last Man Standing
Out of every character in the Dragon Ball franchise, Frieza may have the distinction of wiping out just about every major character in the series at one point or another. Not only does he eliminate the Saiyans, but he also does an incredible amount of damage to the Namekians as well. Frieza has the distinction of taking out both Goku and Vegeta’s fathers in King Vegeta and Bardock. By the end of the Frieza Saga, he had also taken out Vegeta, Dende, and Krillin.
If you’re into conspiracies, there’s an argument for saying that he also briefly offed Goku as well.
After his return in Resurrection F, Frieza received an opportunity to up those numbers of his. He very briefly eliminated Gohan, before he was revived, and he actually knocked off Piccolo too. Faced with certain defeat against Vegeta, he launched one last desperate attack that completely destroyed Earth. While Whis was able to protect a handful of those living on the planet, Frieza got everyone else. That includes the likes of Yamcha, Chiaotzu, Yajirobe, Trunks, Goten, Hercule, and Majin Buu. Based on the group of heroes that were spared by Whis, the only major characters Frieza has failed to take out are Master Roshi, Tien Shinhan, Bulma, and (probably) Goku.
20 The Master Of Unstoppable Energy
Frieza has managed to gain so much power in his lifetime that he proves himself to be something of a master at manipulating his ki. In Dragon Ball Z, everyone has their own energy attacks, but Frieza seems to have an endless supply of them that he uses in combat against anyone who gets in his way. In his first form, he is shown to be able to shoot lasers out of his eyes and emit pure destructive energy from his form. Other attacks he uses are the Death Cannon, the Nova Strike, and the infamous Death Saucer attack.
One of his most well-known attacks is the Death Beam, a type of finger beam attack he uses to finish off his foes. It’s this technique that he uses to finally take out Vegeta on Namek. He also has variations on the attack, like Barrage Death Beam and Death Laser. Also among his repertoire are different versions of the Death Ball technique. Whether it’s the Supernova or Destroy the Planet, this is what he uses to destroy entire planets. In his Golden Frieza form, he can unleash even more powerful versions of his normal attacks. The Golden Death Beam, Golden Death Ball, and Emperor’s Edge make up his most powerful techniques.
19 No Hands Needed Here
Just when you thought Frieza was powerful enough from his incredible combination of energy blasts and martial arts attacks, he surprises us with even more latent power. It turns out that Frieza is actually telekinetic, a recurring power within the franchise that several characters have used over the years. Frieza’s version of the technique, known as Psychokinesis, is far more deadly because not only can he move objects with his mind, he can actually manipulate his ki with it as well. He used these moves against Goku on Namek and in the Tournament of Power to torture his opponents. They also serve as a major part of his arsenal in the Dragon Ball Z video games.
Using his Imprisonment Ball, he can surround an enemy with ki energy and harm them without touching anyone.
He uses this technique against Goku and Toppo. His Psychic Move allows him to manipulate his ki into razor-sharp waves of attack, which he uses to swat at Goku on Namek. Likely his most popular usage of his psychokinesis is the Psycho Death Bomb, where he alters the ki within an opponent and manages to blow them up. This is the technique he used on Krillin that sent him flying through the air before he was blown up.
18 He Was So Close To Winning
Frieza spent so much time and effort fearing the rise of the Saiyan race that he finally decided to eliminate the whole planet. Not only did they show the ability to improve their strength after each battle, but the legend of the Super Saiyan made it sound like the most powerful warrior in the universe was coming. While Frieza is powerful, he’s not invincible, so in order to avoid having to deal with this problem one day, he just decided to wipe out the entire race of people to ensure that he is never challenged by them.
The funniest part about this all is that even when he’s finally faced with a Super Saiyan during the battle on Namek, he’s basically just as strong as him. It’s clear that Goku is no match for the full-power Frieza, but when he finally transforms, it at least becomes a more even fight. While Goku ultimately proves to be able to defeat the evil tyrant, Frieza didn’t exactly go down without a fight. For most of the battle, they were evenly matched, which goes to show you just how powerful he really is if he can go toe-to-toe with this mythological godlike being.
17 He Can Take It
Out of all his abilities, Frieza’s most impressive feature is the fact that he can be literally cut to pieces and still get up and fight. This insane level of durability makes him a dangerous foe right to the bitter end, and even when you think he has been defeated, there’s still something left in the tank to fight you. That’s exactly what happened during Goku and Frieza’s battle on Namek, when his own Death Saucer accidentally cuts him in half.
Though he is gravely injured, he still clings to life and even attempts to take out Goku one last time.
Even when it is believed that he was finished off by Goku, we later discover that he actually survived the blast. Not only that, he even managed to live through the destruction of the planet somehow. His body is seriously damaged at this point, with half his face gone, but somehow he still lived. It almost feels like he refused to pass on out of sheer hatred for Goku, who he felt was beneath him, despite his superior strength. It is this hatred that fueled him to pursue revenge against Earth as Mecha Frieza. The level of determination shown here would be admirable, if it wasn’t for the fact that the villain was very, very evil.
16 A Champion Of Outer Space
Frieza makes a habit out of pretending he’s super weak and frail in order to keep his enemies off guard until he needs to attack. To the Saiyans, he looked like a little child in a hover chair who could easily be overpowered direct combat. Unfortunately, they all played into his game, and he proved to be too strong. In fact, even his own soldiers have no idea what he is capable of, considering now one has ever seen his true form before. It’s likely that no one had any idea that he is even able to survive in the void of space without the use of a spaceship or breathing mask.
The tyrant likes to show up in his big flying saucer, likely in order to look as menacing as possible, but the truth is he could travel through space to any planet he wanted, if he chose to. We finally see just what he is capable of when he is seen floating in space after the destruction of Namek. Even if the blast didn’t end him, the lack of oxygen (or whatever his race breathes) should have been enough to finish him off. When not even Goku can survive in space, it shows just how dangerous Frieza actually is, because there is nowhere that is safe from him.
15 Better, Faster, Stronger
Usually when people take the beating that Frieza took at the end of the Frieza Saga, they don’t come back from it even stronger than they were before. Unless you’re a Saiyan, you don’t get stronger from defeat, and from the fact that he loses the entire lower half of his body, a portion of his head, and one of his arms, it’s hard to imagine that he becomes more powerful as Mecha Frieza.
Yet when he showed up on Earth to exact his revenge against Goku and his friends, he is even more powerful than he was when he was all organic.
In a testament to the advanced technology of alien races, Frieza’s race uses cosmic suits to enhance their abilities and preserve their lives as they recover from horrific injuries. Unlike Earth-based android technology, where the cybernetic parts make them powerful, Mecha Frieza’s natural abilities are simply augmented, allowing him to come back stronger. If Future Trunks had not shown up, Mecha Frieza would have likely eliminated everyone on Earth. In fact, in the unaltered timeline, Goku uses his Instant Transmission to travel to Earth and fight Frieza in a rematch of their epic battle. Frieza was always destined to lose, but he did put up quite a fight, despite everything he had been through.
14 Could Have Easily Beaten Everyone
Frieza is so powerful that he actually had the potential to defeat Goku if things had only gone a little differently for him on Namek. The 2004 Game Boy Advance game Dragon Ball Z: Supersonic Warriors allows you to explore that possibility through its story mode. Playing as Frieza, the player can ultimately defeat Super Saiyan Goku and survive the destruction of Namek before heading off to seek revenge against all the other Z Fighters. It’s a brutal meditation on the power of plot devices, and how close we came to Frieza actually destroying everyone and everything.
Frieza upgrades his body with cybernetic implants, becoming even more powerful than he was during his battle with Goku. He goes on to eliminate Super Saiyan Vegeta, and then heads over to Earth in an attempt to annihilate all of Goku’s friends. After defeating Krillin, Goku is wished back to life and Frieza must fight both him and a Super Saiyan Gohan. After they are eliminated, Frieza then goes on to defeat Android 17, 18, and Dr. Gero before ultimately wishing for immortal life with the Dragon Balls. Frieza then conquers all of Earth and rebuilds his empire. In the end, Present Cell finally surfaces after 20 years, but Frieza takes him out too. It’s honestly not that unbelievable of a scenario.
13 You Might Consider Him Durable
We already know about Frieza’s incredible resilience, given his ability to continue fighting even after losing several limbs and survive in the vacuum of space. However, did you also know that he can survive even after he’s been put into pieces? Resurrection F confirms that when Future Trunks fought Mecha Frieza on Earth, he didn’t immediately finish the villain off by cutting him into tiny pieces. It was only after he blasted those pieces into dust that the life of Frieza was finally put to an end.
That means he actually watched himself end this way just before the final moment.
This fact makes Sorbet’s wish to return Frieza back to life a little more complicated than originally planned. Once the Dragon Balls are used, Frieza is brought back to the land of the living, but he is resurrected in the teeny, tiny pieces that Trunks had cut him into. You can even see his eyes moving around after all the pieces are gathered up. There’s no telling how long he could have survived in this state, but it’s a good thing we didn’t have to figure it out. Frieza’s army was able to regenerate their leader and transform him back into his fully organic form using the magic of science.
12 When He Gives Maximum Effort
The whole deal with Frieza is that he is so power he has never really needed to seriously train a day in his life. He is considered something of a prodigy, therefore martial arts, energy attacks and ki manipulation all come very naturally for him. Unfortunately, because he has never really trained himself, he lacks the necessary stamina to maintain his power levels in his fight against Super Saiyan Goku. When he is finally revived in Resurrection F, Frieza realizes that in the 14 years since his demise, Goku has become far stronger than he is at 100%. Because of this fact, he decides to actually train himself, and it didn’t take long for him to see his gains.
Deciding to train for just four whole months, Frieza manages to discover a new Golden Frieza form that increasing his overall power dramatically. With this new transformation, he decides to challenge Goku and Vegeta, and very nearly comes away victorious. However, the problem is that he didn’t take the time to master his new form, and he is ultimately unable to maintain his power levels long enough. When he returns for the Tournament of Power, he’s mastered his Golden Frieza form and proves himself to be one of the strongest fighters in the multiverse.
11 They Can’t Even Handle It
As much as he prides himself on the supremacy of his empire, Frieza doesn’t really seem to have much regard for the soldiers who serve under him. Over the years, we have seen the emperor of the universe eliminate his underlings for failing in their mission, or for even just cowering in front of their master. It’s hard to understand why so many people follow him, but when you see the way he treats enemies and friends alike, it’s clear that they are just too scared to stand up to him.
In the end, it doesn’t seem to matter, because we’re all nothing to him.
In Resurrection F, after his organization manages to bring him back to life, he brings his troops to Earth in order to conquer it. He now believes he has the power to finally defeat Goku because of the discovery of his Golden Frieza form. When he finally unleashes his true power on Earth, it proves to be so overwhelming that the soldiers around him are all disintegrated just from him powering up. This is a testament to how powerful Frieza has become, but also how little he thinks of his soldiers. He would destroy everyone who ever followed him if it meant finally getting his revenge on Goku.
10 He Has Work To Do
The afterlife plays a major role in the Dragon Ball franchise, but it seems that once warriors are sent off, their power levels become locked. No one has really been able to improve their fighting techniques in the afterlife, until Frieza proved it was possible. After he returned to life in Resurrection F, he trained enough to reach Golden Frieza transformation. The only problem was that he never took the time to learn how to regulate the vast increase in power, so he couldn’t maintain it for very long. All that changed by the time he resurfaced in Dragon Ball Super when it came time for the Tournament of Power.
Frieza tells Goku that during his time in the underworld, he underwent strenuous mental training in order to teach himself how to control his Golden Frieza form. This meant he finally possessed the stamina to control his incredible power and was now more dangerous than ever. Thankfully he would be on the side of the Z Fighters this time around, because that one weakness was the only reason they beat him the last time around. Frieza managed to use his transformation on multiple occasions during the Tournament of Power in order to take on some of the strongest fighters in the multiverse.
9 Unleash Your Inner Villain
Frieza is incredibly powerful on his own, but in the Dragon Ball Xenoverse video game universe, we see just what kind of evil he could do if given just a little bit of help. As many other Dragon Ball video games have done, Xenoverse plays around with what-if scenarios and altered timelines. The evil Towa changes key plot points from the anime and powers Frieza up with incredible dark energy. In his new Villainous Mode, Frieza has the power to defeat everyone on Namek. In the altered timeline, he manages to finish off Vegeta, Krillin, and Gohan before an injured Goku is forced into battle far too soon.
It becomes the job of the Future Warrior to defend Goku and protect the original timeline of the series.
In Villainous Mode, characters are put under the control of dark magic, which ultimately makes them far stronger than their original selves. It also gifts them with all-new energy attacks that they were never able to perform in their original forms. In the Demon God Demigra Saga form Xenoverse, Frieza is resurrected, along with Cell and Kid Buu, and all three enter the Villainous Mode powerup. Goku and the Future Warrior must defeat them all before victory can be claimed.
8 Super Saiyan’s Got Nothing On Him
It’s likely that Frieza may be the single strongest warrior in Dragon Ball’s Universe 7 that is not also a Super Saiyan. Though Frieza has his own Golden Frieza transformation, Goku and Vegeta has surpassed even what a Super Saiyan is capable of doing. By summoning the power of a god, they can go beyond Super Saiyan and unlock the even more powerful Super Saiyan Blue transformation. Over the course of Dragon Ball Super, this new power helps them become even stronger than a god, which makes Frieza’s ability to keep up with them all the more surprising when he shows up in Resurrection F.
Determined to get his revenge on Goku, he goes head-to-head with the man who originally defeated him 14 years earlier. Despite all the improvement Goku has made in his power levels, Frieza needed just four months of training to very nearly defeat him. In the battle between Golden Frieza and Super Saiyan Blue Goku, the two are evenly matched, but Frieza eventually gets the upper hand. It’s clear that Goku won’t be able to keep up for much longer. Frieza even comes close to finishing him off if not for the interference of Vegeta. Now that Frieza has better control of the form, he doesn’t have to worry about losing power during the rematch.
7 The Gods Respect His Power
Just because the Z Fighters didn’t know about the God of Destruction Beerus until Dragon Ball Super, doesn’t mean other characters from Universe 7 weren’t aware of him. Frieza says he was warned of the god’s great power and was told by King Cold to never cross him. Just as Frieza knew of Beerus, the God of Destruction also knew about the villainous tyrant. Both obsessed with carrying out the destruction of the universe, Beerus took an interest in a young Frieza. When Frieza decided to destroy Planet Vegeta, it was apparently Beerus who suggested it and authorized him to carry out the deed.
After years spent sleeping, Beerus immediately asks about Frieza and what he has missed in the time he was away. His surprise that someone managed to take out someone as powerful as Frieza is what motivates the God of Destruction to head for Earth and challenge whoever this legendary Super Saiyan God is supposed to be. Beerus may not ultimately like Frieza, because in the end he’s just a crazed villain, but he does actually respect him and his power a great deal. When Team Universe 7 needs another fighter, he is perfectly fine with Goku’s choice to recruit Frieza, knowing full well that he can carry his own weight. It’s incredible to see a god respect him like that.
6 His Power Levels Are Infinite
It would appear that Frieza has something close to a bottomless pit of energy, because he always seems to be holding back some unfathomable power level. If his multiple transformations weren’t enough, when he initially transforms into his final form, he is said to only be using 1% of his power. That means regardless of how strong he was in his other forms, that was just a fraction of his total energy. Considering where Dragon Ball Z was at the time, this was a first for the franchise. He was indeed the strongest villain that had ever appeared on the show, and he changed it forever.
By using just 50% of his power, Frieza proves to be more than a match for Goku. The Saiyan has no hope of keeping up, even after using the Kaio-ken x20. It’s only after Goku transforms into a Super Saiyan that the battle starts to turn. He finally overcomes Frieza at 50% of his total power, but then requests to fight him at 100%. In the end, this proves to be even more powerful than the Super Saiyan can handle, and it looks like Frieza could ultimately win. The only reason Goku won was because the tyrant’s stamina could not hold up over the length of the battle.