How Strong Is Super Saiyan 4 Goku Really? Debunking the Biggest Dragon Ball GT Power Myths

Super Saiyan 4 was never officially stated to be 10 times stronger than Super Saiyan 3, and once you trace Goku's growth from the end of Dragon Ball Z through Dragon Ball GT, I believe the form ends up far stronger than that. There is a huge amount of misinformation out there about Super Saiyan 4 Goku and power scaling, so I want to give you as much accurate information as exists about this power Goku discovered in Dragon Ball GT.

Dragon Ball GT is not well liked or appreciated by a lot of people, but one thing I see almost across the board is how much people love Super Saiyan 4. That covers the unique design by Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru, the incredible feats Goku pulls off in the transformation, and how he reached the form in the first place. I have covered the history of the transformation before, so here the focus is purely on how strong it actually is.

The claim that Super Saiyan 4 is 10 times Super Saiyan 3 does not appear in GT or the Perfect Files

One of the myths that has circulated in the fandom for years was spread by ScrewAttack a few years ago. It is frustrating, because some of the people behind their Death Battles claim to do research, but it seems to fall by the wayside. In one of their pieces they said Super Saiyan 4 is 10 times stronger than Super Saiyan 3, but that is not stated anywhere in the series and it is not even in the GT Perfect Files, which I happen to own.

The GT Perfect Files are books released years ago that are basically guides specifically for GT, giving all kinds of extra information and behind the scenes data on the series. That multiplier is not in there. So there is no direct answer, and the power of the form is a bit unquantifiable. To get anywhere, you have to look at Goku's road from the end of Z going into Dragon Ball GT.

All of this research comes from the Japanese version of the Dragon Ball GT anime. The English dub of GT is, in my view, absolutely atrocious, and it takes so many liberties with the story and with Goku that even people who love the Z dub have criticised it for what was done there.

This analysis uses the 90s version of Goku and sets Dragon Ball Super aside

I am discussing Goku from the original 90s anime perspective. Dragon Ball Super has since added new context to Goku's powers at the end of Z, including his knowledge of Ultra Instinct and the various ways to use it. For this to make sense, that has to be ignored, because what Super added to the story does not fit with GT's story. The focus is only on what Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT gave us back in the day.

Dragon Ball GT takes place five years after the end of Dragon Ball Z, when Goku first meets Uub. During the 10 year time skip, which is when Super is supposed to take place even though it did not in the original anime, Goku got incredibly strong. Presumably he kept training with Uub for the five years after that before GT, and got even stronger. That means 15 years have passed since Goku fought Kid Buu by the start of GT, and it is worth remembering that Goku gains new forms and new power at a much faster rate than that across the series.

At the start of GT, Goku became a kid again. There has been debate about that, because it was discussed that kid Goku in GT is a little bit weaker than when he was a fully matured adult, and that his body has issues withstanding some of his power.

Base form Goku beating a general stronger than Majin Buu suggests GT Goku could one shot Buuhan

The first point I see come up constantly about how strong Goku is in GT comes from his fight with a general in the Baby arc, where Goku states that this general is more powerful than Majin Buu. It has been a decade and a half since Goku fought Majin Buu, and the show does not specify which version, Buuhan or Kid Buu. It does not really matter, because before GT Buu was the final boss, so to speak, of Dragon Ball Z. What the show is telling you is that a character who is not even the final boss of the Baby arc is more powerful than Buu.

Goku says that in his base form, and he still wins the fight. That means Goku, without transforming into Super Saiyan 3 or 4, has gone far above Majin Buu, whether you take that as Buuhan or Kid Buu. You would assume he means Buuhan, since Goku fought both versions. If this general is stronger than Buuhan and Goku can handle him without Super Saiyan 3 or 4, you then have to factor in that Baby is the final boss of the arc and he annihilates Super Saiyan 3 Goku.

To me it is a pretty safe bet that Goku in GT could probably one shot Buuhan. That might be "a hard pill for some to swallow", but the statement Goku makes during that fight kind of validates it.

Super Saiyan 4 Goku overpowering Super Baby 2 points to multipliers far beyond Super Saiyan 3

Baby has forms called Super Baby 1 and Super Baby 2, and even before tapping into Super Baby 2 he was handling Super Saiyan 3 Goku. Then Goku transformed, or more accurately mutated, from the Golden Great Ape into Super Saiyan 4, and Super Saiyan 4 Goku was slapping Super Baby 2 Vegeta around. We know for a fact that Super Saiyan 4 Goku is more powerful than the Golden Great Ape. Baby also uses the Great Ape form to gain its multiplier, which could be in the range of 50,000 times base, maybe a little more or a little less. Once Goku powers up to full power Super Saiyan 4, he rips through Baby and defeats him.

Super Baby 2 was said to be similar to Super Saiyan 3. Since Super Saiyan 3 is 400 times base, Baby could at that point be around 400 times base, and that is in the body of Vegeta, who has also been training for the past 15 years. I do not think Vegeta slacked off much, because it is not in his character. With all these boosts and power creep, and you may hate that I say this, you could make an argument that Super Saiyan 4 Goku is relatively near, maybe even in the same ballpark as, some of the Dragon Ball Super versions of Goku, because of that extra training time and how quickly these characters grow.

On top of that, the Elder Kai states that Super Saiyan 4 was not even using its max power when it was pushing around Super Baby 2 and that 400 times multiplier. Then comes the final battle of the Baby arc, Golden Great Ape Baby against Super Saiyan 4 Goku. If the Golden Great Ape is 40,000 to 60,000 times base, full power Super Saiyan 4 might be somewhere in the ballpark of 70,000 to 90,000 times base. Again, that is not actually stated, so it is up to you. It may seem like an insane multiplier, but Super Saiyan 4 is far higher than where Super Saiyan 3 was in Dragon Ball Z. This is open to debate, whether you want to highball or lowball it. "I am not a power scaler but I do love talking about Dragon Ball in every way that I can", and if you disagree, that is fine too.

The Blutz Waves unlock Super Saiyan 4 but do not raise power by themselves

I also want to debunk something about the Blutz Waves. When Goku and Baby Vegeta used the Blutz Waves from the full Earth to become their respective Great Ape forms, before Goku later became Super Saiyan 4, it was stated that this was the most condensed level of Blutz Waves ever used. But just because someone takes in a high amount of Blutz Waves does not mean they will get a higher multiplier.

This condensed moon energy, for lack of a better term, can let you unlock forms like the Golden Great Ape and later Super Saiyan 4. Ultimately, though, Goku's base form in GT on its own is already above his max power in Z, and I mean that both as a kid and as an adult. The Blutz Waves were able to help regenerate Baby Vegeta's power, and because those are Saiyan cells he may have gotten a Zenkai boost from that. But the waves do not increase your power when you absorb them. You transform, and the transformation is what increases your power.

Omega Shenron outclassed Super Saiyan 4 Goku and Vegeta until Gogeta arrived

Baby is not the final boss of GT. The evil Shadow Dragons are, and Omega Shenron was said to be the strongest villain in Dragon Ball history up to that point. When GT ended in 1997, there was nothing new until the Yo! Son Goku OVA in 2008 and later Battle of Gods in 2013, a stretch of almost two decades.

In the Omega Shenron fight, Goku is even stronger than he was in the Baby arc, and for a lot of it he gets demolished, especially once the dragon swallows all the Dragon Balls and powers himself up. Even Super Saiyan 4 Goku and Vegeta could not stop him. Everything covered earlier in this piece, the decade and a half of training, surpassing Super Saiyan 3 from Z even in base as kid Goku, Vegeta's own training, and the power Goku gained step by step against Baby, was all put to rest by this dragon, and that should tell you something.

At one point, though, Goku is beating Syn Shenron before he swallows the Dragon Balls, so Super Saiyan 4 Goku was able to power up to at least slightly above him, and I would say probably more than slightly because he does very well. Once he eats them and becomes Omega Shenron, and these are dub only names rather than the Japanese ones, there is no chance for Goku or Vegeta. They have to fuse into Gogeta, which is enough to embarrass the dragon.

If Goku had more time to train and figure out new ways to use Super Saiyan 4 beyond what we saw in GT, there is a chance he would eventually have become stronger than Omega Shenron. That never materialised in the series, but based on his growth across Dragon Ball Z and GT, I consider it unquestionable that it would have happened. Some people think the adult Goku who returns after the 100 year time skip in the final episode is ridiculously powerful, but we do not see him do anything except walk around and, at one point, talk to Goku Jr. in the Goku Jr. special. There is no way to quantify that power, although there are plenty of theories online.

My controversial estimate puts Super Saiyan 4 Goku at six or seven figures times base

Here is something controversial that I truly believe. By the end of the fight with Omega Shenron, or at least right before Goku and Vegeta formed Gogeta, I think Super Saiyan 4 Goku is likely, in my opinion, either six or seven figures multiplied stronger than base. That means something like 100,000, 500,000, or maybe even a million times base, depending on how you lowball or highball it.

I expect some pushback on that, but you have to keep in mind both Goku's growth throughout the series and how incredibly powerful Super Saiyan 4 was compared with the previous forms. As I see it, "it's night and day."

Where would you place full power Super Saiyan 4 Goku by the end of the Omega Shenron fight: closer to 90,000 times base, or all the way up to a million?