The entire Dragon Ball franchise is known for its intense fight scenes. Every time a new villain is introduced to the series, the Z Warriors spring into action to protect the planet and quickly eradicate the enemy. Despite how strong Goku and his friends are, it seems the villains get deadlier and increasingly powerful as the series progresses.
For some of the people on this list, not even death was enough to keep their power subdued, as many of them roared back to life bigger and badder than ever before.
Of course, for every A-list, god-tier villain Goku has to fight there is a dud with dreams of world domination. The true villains don't worry about plans and mess about, they just take matters into their own hands and attack the Z-Warriors head on. Not all these villains are made equally, but they all share a hatred on the Z-Warriors and yearn to take them down in order to achieve their goals.
In Dragon Ball, only the strongest survive, so these villains better get in shape if they hope to succeed!
Read on to discover our official ranking of the 10 Strongest (And 5 Weakest) Villains In Dragon Ball.
Strongest - Broly
The buffest of all the Saiyans, Broly appeared in two of the Dragon Ball Z movies and a few of the games. A legendary super Saiyan who only appears every thousand years, when he taps into his full power his body bulks up and his pupils even disappear.
During his first appearance, he easily swatted down super saiyan versions of Goku, Vegeta, and Trunks when the three teamed up to take him down. Even Gohan, one of the strongest warriors of all time, couldn't take him down by himself. At the end of the day, it took a combined Kamehameha wave from multiple Z warriors to send Broly barrelling towards the sun and his doom.
Even death wasn't enough to stop this legendary warrior, though, as the Grand Kai had to send Goku and Pikkon to stop him from rampaging too much in hell.
Strongest - Frost
Frost is essentially the Universe 6 version of Frieza. He is an emperor on his homeworld and is even loved by his people due to their perception of him as a pacifist. A tough warrior, he presents himself as someone who only stops war and fights criminals after they perform an evil act. In reality, Frost acts behind the scenes, sowing conflict so he can later come in, take down people he doesn't like and then buy the war-torn lands at an extreme discount.
A fighter in the Tournament of Destroyers, Frost is one to hold back his true power so he can understand his opponent's true abilities. Frost is a sadistic fighter who loves toying with his enemies as he guides them to their defeat.
Weakest - Emperor Pilaf
Emperor Pilaf, a tiny blue man who lives in a castle in the Mushroom Forest, has eyes are much bigger than his stomach. A cruel monarch, Pilaf doesn't have any abilities of his own and has to keep his goons in line through various methods of torture. Essentially a slapstick villain, Pilaf is a cry baby if he doesn't get his way. He may lead people who are killers, but he most likely wouldn't classify himself using that term.
He may want to collect all the Dragon Balls in order to take over the world, but he's no pervert. After he kidnaps Bulma in the hopes to steal the final Dragon Ball, he is disgusted by her comment that she assumed he would take advantage of her in her defenseless state.
Strongest - Hirudegarn
A monster who feels nothing but rage, Hirudegarn destroys everything its path.
Hirudegarn was nothing more than a statue who watched over the Planet Konats, but Kashvar sorcerers ultimately reverted him back into his monster form. Like Cell, Hirudegarn absorbs the life-force of others to continually expand his own power. With various wave energy attacks and a giant tail at his disposal, this monster has no problem quickly killing anything in his way.
Even capable of causing mass havoc when his body is separated into two halves, he is nearly unstoppable when he is fighting as a single unit. Tearing through Gotenks, Goku, and Gohan like it was nothing, the Z Warriors ultimately have to turn the monster back into stone before they are finally able to kill him once and for all.
Strongest - Janemba
Described as the living embodiment of evil in the Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2 game, Janemba is an incredibly powerful demon who was the villain in the Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn film. When Goku first became aware of his presence, and this was when Janemba was in his first form, Goku said it was the most powerful foe he ever sensed.
He has no motivation except seeking destruction and anarchy. His abilities even allow him to change reality to his liking, a symbol of his desire for control. Thanks to his mighty sword and ability to manipulate matter, he easily takes down Super Saiyan 3 Goku. It's only when Goku and Vegeta fuse into Gogeta that the Z-Warriors are able to overpower and take him down.
Weakest - Giran
Giran is essentially the embodiment of the phrase "don't judge a book by its cover." This winged creature is capable of flight and can even spit out a sticky substance that holds his opponents still.
A bully who is overconfident in his abilities, Giran enters the World Martial Arts Tournament thinking he will be able to overpower all of his competition. Although he is able to outsmart the child Goku in their battle, this beast eventually surrenders the fight when he realizes just how strong the young warrior is.
Eventually, this dinosaur changes his ways out of his respect for Goku. While he never becomes a full-fledged hero, he helps him out a few times as Dragon Ball progressed.
Strongest - Perfect Cell
The final creation of Dr. Gero, the inventor of the Androids, Cell was designed to absorb fighters and learn their abilities. A monster that grows stronger with each villain he defeats, Perfect Cell is the creature's final form. Capable of healing himself from intense damage, Cell survived a full powered Kamehameha wave from Goku from just inches away.
An extremely cocky warrior, Cell holds off on his plans to destroy the planet in order to host a tournament. The Cell Games, designed to bring the strongest fighters to his doorstep, gave the Z Warriors enough time to train and figure out how to beat the monster. His self-destruct attack is powerful enough to kill Goku himself, and it's only when Gohan unleashes his full potential and achieves Super Saiyan 2 (the first of the Z-Warriors to hit that mark) is Cell taken down.
Weakest - Babidi
Babidi is an intelligent, ruthless individual who has no problem killing his own henchmen when they've served their purpose. He may be a powerful wizard who can take over peoples' minds, but on the battlefield, he is pretty worthless by himself.
He took over some powerful fighters like Vegeta and Dabura, the King of the Demon Realm, and even reawakened Majin Buu in his quest for world domination. When he's next to one of his mind-controlled fighters he is extremely cocky, he even mocks his opponents; however, if Babidi is alone and threatened, he turns into a sniveling coward.
Still, this powerful wizard was unable to control his own weapon, marking him as an extremely incapable individual who has bigger ideas than he can actually execute.
Strongest - Kid Buu
Majin Buu, another villain who transforms and becomes more powerful as his story arc progresses, is the biggest threat the Z-Warriors face in the Dragon Ball Z series. While his older forms were relatively slow and naive, Kid Buu is the most ruthless and unpredictable version of this living weapon. His sadism knows no bounds and he literally killed everyone on Earth just to satisfy his boredom. Even if it means he will die in the process, his lust for destruction on a major scale trumps everything else.
After already defeating Gotenks and Gohan, Kid Buu seems unbeatable. He has nearly unlimited endurance and attacks ranging from ki blasts to tentacle movements that subdue his opponents. If it wasn't for Goku regaining all his strength due to Dende making a wish, Kid Buu would have killed Goku and Vegeta and destroyed the planet once and for all.
Weakest - Colonel Silver
A colonel in the Red Ribbon army, Colonel Silver is the first villain Goku defeats in the original Dragon Ball series. Silver is human but he's an incredibly strong fighter who just happens to be a talented marksman. While he was shown using a gun, he prefers his rocket launcher - a weapon he also uses to smack his opponents if he needs to.
Silver was shown knocking out four boxers with a single punch in the anime. Despite his strength, Goku's raw, untrained power quickly took him down.
His role was expanded in the anime series as the animators created filler episodes to give the manga enough time to continue. Regardless of where the character is presented, he's always willing to ask questions and try to gather information peacefully before resorting to violence.
Strongest - Black Goku
The primary villain in the Future Trunks saga of Dragon Ball Super, Goku Black is one of the toughest warriors the Z-Fighters ever had to face. Zamusa, an apprentice of the Supreme Kai and likely the strongest Kai to ever live, stole Goku's body from an alternate timeline and used his power to destroy all life. Despite his strength, he continues to grow stronger between each fight, showing that there may be no limits to his power.
A killer with a dark sense of justice, Goku Black seems to get a sick type of pleasure from his own pain when he fights the real Goku. He's incredibly powerful, capable of taking down Future Trunks without breaking a sweat, but he's no match for Vegeta's Super Saiyan Blue form.
Weakest - Saibamen
A biotech weapon developed by Saiyan scientists, the Saibamen grow from seeds and turn into brainless minions to attack foes on the battlefield. Eventually, they grew to understand how to take orders and became a part of Frieza's army as he attacked Earth.
Capable of flight, spewing deadly acid from their heads, and basic ki blasts, the Saibamen would make an effective army if an evil warlord had an infinite amount of them at his disposal, but the six that Frieza brought were easily taken care of.
Supposedly these feisty warriors were built with a power level to equal Raditz's, Goku's evil brother, but that seems unlikely. Krillin, easily the weakest of the Z Warriors, is able to kill three of them simultaneously with a single attack.
Strongest - Frieza
Sorry, Joker, but Frieza is probably the deadliest, purple villain in all of fiction.
The leader of his own army, Frieza transforms numerous times throughout his time in the series as he grows in power. With his sights set on destroying Earth, he is almost successful until he discovers that Goku has the ability to turn into a Super Saiyan and overpower him. Ironically, it was Frieza's own attack and his cockiness that ultimately did him in.
After his death, his soul remained cocooned in hell, stewing in rage over his defeat. Roughly 14 years after his defeat, he is wished back to life by his old gang and is more powerful than ever before. He's been lusting over his revenge for years and he was even successful in blowing up all of Earth and everyone on it. But, since this is an anime, Goku was able to save the day retroactively and send the baddie back to hell.
Strongest - Quitela
The God of Destruction from Universe 4, Quitela is a lazy, incredibly childish warrior. Though capable of destroying whole planets with a snap of his fingers, he would rather play video games and eat junk food than train.
A manipulative god, Quitela attempts to take out both Frieza and Beerus before the Tournament of Power to increase his own chances at victory.
Like most fighters on the show, Quitela can fly and shoot ki blasts, but the Gods of Destruction have a special ability exclusive to them. Quitela can destroy anything, including gods and souls. Sometimes it takes a bit of effort, but more often than not Quitela just needs to look at someone and they will fade out of existince.
Strongest - Beerus
Universe Seven's God of destruction, Beerus is a feline who has no problem watching people die. Between his cat naps, he's an extremely hotheaded individual who is often pushed to violence and anger over extremely tiny problems. He's not necessarily a villain, but he has no problem teaming up with villains and performing vile acts to accomplish his goals.
Beerus is the figure who first told Frieza to destroy Planet Vegeta, leading to the Saiyan genocide that audiences learn about at the beginning of Dragon Ball Z. He's able to easily beat Goku and Vegeta and states that he anticipates the day they are strong enough to truly challenge him.
Quitela does beat him at an arm wrestling match in the manga, but Beerus insists that if the two ever truly fought he would come out on top.
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