This page covers characters in Dragon Ball FighterZ that have been disliked for being too powerful.
Due to the 3v3 Tag Team mechanics with unique synergies, assist mechanics, and the fact that Arc System Works patches the game frequently (with sweeping changes throughout the entire roster at the introduction of a new season), sometimes a character may change tiers multiple times over the course of subsequent patches. Thus, this page will focus on characters who were particularly infamous at points of the game's competitive history.
For characters who are or were seen as competitive laughing stocks: see here.
Terminology frequently used on this page:
- Cross/Mix-up: The ability to force an opponent to guess, where guessing wrong leads to damage or some other disadvantage.
- L/M/H: "Light", "Medium" and "Heavy" attacks.
- Numbers (1,2,3,4,5,etc.): Each number designates the direction on the joystick/control pad a player (standing on the left side of the screen) must press to execute a move (based on a keyboard's numberpad). For example, 1 is down-left, 5 is no direction, 6 is forward, and 7/8/9 are jumping.
- Oki/Okizeme: Forcing an opponent into a mix-up after being knocked down.
- Option Select: A move or technique that defeats two or more of an opponent's mix-up options, thus removing the need to guess between them.
- Rushdown: The ability to attack at close range frequently, with little chance for the opponent to fight back.
- Zoning/Keep-away: The ability to prevent an opponent from getting close enough to attack.
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Android 16
- Android 16 possesses more command grabs than any other character (especially since there is no normal throw technique for every character to use outside of a Dragon Rush), which sets up opponents for combos and, in Season 1, planted them with a hard knockdown that led into more mix-ups. Despite having a slower walk speed, the game system inherently has so many options for mobility that there's no way to keep him away, thus negating the standard weakness for grapplers in fighters, and even whiffing his air grab leads to an inherent mix-up since depending on button strength, he can wind up in front of or behind his opponent. In addition, his Assist is one of the best due to being an OTG note that can extend his teammates' combos, locks an opponent in place both on hit and on block (although not to the extent of SS Vegeta or Kid Buu's Assists), and reaches deceptively far. He also has the strongest Meteor Attack in the game (and the only one as of this writing that is a guaranteed kill without any prior setup required like Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta's), meaning that he's a powerful character no matter which order you face him. Unfortunately, he got hit with the nerfs hard especially by removing his hard knockdowns after grabs along with fuzzy potential against 16, relegating him to mid-to-low tier in Season 2.
Android 21 (Lab Coat)
- The human version of Android 21 caused initial surprise that she would be playable. But that surprise quickly turned sour once she was released. Lab Coat 21, simply put, is a Master of All. She has some of the fastest normals in the entire game, several of which are lows. She has extra command normals that add to her insane mixup game and absurd pressure. She has a virtually-instantaneous anti-air, and one of the fastest reversals in the whole game. Her meter gain is very good. She gets OTGs practically for free. All of her assists are great. Finally, one of her supers is an extremely fast command grab that not only buffs her own damage, but also debuffs whoever it touches for the entire match, with no way to remove it. Not only is Lab Coat 21 considered nearly mandatory, but she's the first character in a long time to be banned in tournaments. This picked up once CEO 2022 actually banned her
, and she was placed in her own "Broken" tier above everyone else. Even after she received a nerf to her command grab super (it’s less invincible and can only be comboed into from hard-knockdowns), she is still considered one of the best characters in the game, to the point that a later patch would later halve her meter gain in every single way to gain meter.
Bardock
- Bardock has remained one of the strongest post-release DLC characters since his debut. A very strong rushdown character, his combo potential is ridiculous, especially when considering that his Saiyan Spirit Super (which is a fully invincible reversal) can cancel into his Riot Javelin Super and can be easily looped back into another Saiyan Spirit with minimal effort (namely well-timed Assists followed by choice normals). His autocombo draws a lot of ire for its ability to suck in opponents thanks to its ridiculous hitbox. In addition, his mix-up game—one of the strongest factors in this game—is also strong especially after his Meteor Attack which had in an insane Okizeme that sets up a 50-50 mixup and his Assist is reliable. Overall he's a very strong character with a lot of good tools at his disposal including side switch without an assist or vanish with good timing in his aerial combos, until he was eventually nerfed, mainly by ending his Meteor Attack farther away from the opponent and heavily scaling double Super damage. In fact, the community speculated that the developers nerfed double Supers mainly to nerf Bardock, with other characters as collateral damage. Despite getting nothing but nerfs since his release, he was still viable in Season 3, further helped by his new B-assist being among the best in the game.
Broly
- When he was first put in the game, Broly was considered fairly average at best. However thanks to a series of buffs and people uncovering his true potential, he has quickly shot up the tier lists and is now considered to be one of the best characters in the game. As a grappler, he has excellent close-range mixups thanks to his Gigantic Claw command grab, which is fast and very easy to tick into from any of his normals, and can combo into both of his supers for good damage. It’s also armored, so mashing out of it is not an option for the opponent. His Ki Blasts are considered to be the best in the game; they’re large, can be rapid-fired and angled to hit jumping opponents, and beat all other Ki Blasts. This, combined with his far-reaching and armored normals give him among the best neutral in the entire cast, meaning in almost all matchups Broly doesn’t have to approach the opponent at all; he can make them come to him! Oh, and if the opponents thinks they can jump to try to get in on Broly or avoid his terrific ground game, they’ll be in for a rude awakening when they get snatched by his Gigantic Strike, a damaging, armored anti-air grab that covers a huge portion of air space. The alternative version of his Meteor Attack, Gigantic Meteor, can be comboed after, enabling highly damaging loops in the corner. His assists are also excellent, and with his great team synergy can fit into just about any position on a team. His only real weakness is the harsh scaling on his armored normals, giving him overall lower damage than the rest of the cast, though this is rectified with meter, Sparking Blast and Limit Break.
Cell
- Cell possesses corner loops that can take a character from full health to death incredibly quickly. Against a good Cell player, one must avoid getting hit at all costs lest they never get a chance to play. Cell is also considered the best overall character, able to fight evenly in any area. He has a decent Assist, since it's relatively safe and hits almost full screen. Its only weakness is that it's very difficult to combo with. He also has strong mix-ups and pressure with his teleports and long reach, excellent zoning tools, and extremely powerful Super and Meteor Attacks. He did fall a bit out of favor in season 2 after the developers nerfed his damage potential and the discoveries of fuzzies against tall character, but he was still a very solid pick.
Gohan (Adult)
- Adult Gohan can easily lock his opponent down in the corner with a standard string into an overhead into Machine Gun Kick special from midair, land and repeat ad nauseam. The opponent can try to deflect or vanish in the few gaps the string has (such as during the overhead) but most of the time an Assist stops them from leaving the corner, letting Gohan continue his near endless pressure. Oh, and pushing the opponent to the corner is not very hard in the first place for Gohan, who can easily perform a hard knockdown anywhere on the screen with his Ultimate Back Attack (which gains tracking properties at Level 1 of Potential Unleashed, the same level that grants him Machine Gun Punch, another good tool for pressuring opponents), and then push the opponent on wakeup further back with help from any beam Assist. It must be noted that none of this takes into account how much more difficult it becomes to escape should Gohan ever get a chance to pour all seven bars of meter into Potential Unleashed, granting him combos that would be downright impossible for anyone else due to the Reverse Beat mechanic. His autocombo is the only one that always starts off with a low hit, which turns him into a human blender in terms of high-low mix-ups, and he can side switch without an assist or vanish with good timing in his aerial combos. Season 2 got rid of his hard knockdown after Ultimate Back Attack, but all his other strengths remained.
Gohan (Teen)
- Teen Gohan is one of the most damaging characters in the game, so once he lands a hit on any opponent, he can beat them to death in only a combo or two. But the problem is, his limbs are so short that finding that hit is going to be tricky and requires that Gohan take risks. Furthermore, Gohan has a very "meh" Assist-in the beta, it was an invincible Dragon Punch that vied for being considered the best Assist in the game, but after the invincibility was nerfed in the launch version, it became nowhere near as useful. Eventually he was buffed significantly in Season 2 and was seen as even better than his adult version, since he boasts many of the same benefits while being significantly easier to use and master, and without needing to invest a bar of ki to unlock his best moves. He has an autocombo with insane tracking that follows into the same leg-loops Adult Gohan has with great mix-up potential, a special that allows him to close the distance in an instant, a small hitbox, a level 5 Meteor, great ki blasts both in the air and on ground, and insane damage potential especially if you start a combo with a medium hit or heavy Legs. His detractors like to refer to him as braindead for how he easy he is to use at a high level, and some speculated that he was even better than Bardock.
Goku (GT)
- In the game's Season 2, GT Goku was considered undisputedly the best character in the game: Great rushdown including an autocombo that beats everyone else's in a clash save Vegito's, relentless pressure which is improved even more with assists, assist and ki free side switch aerial combo, smallest hitbox in the game making him the hardest character to mix-up in a mix-up heavy game, one of the best assists in the game and long yet very damaging combos that can lead to not just insane meter gain, but bonkers mix-up potential that can switch from ground to aerial and vice-versa in an instant after the universally considered best Level 3 in the game. The absurd thing is that he can still combo after his Level 3 Spirit Bomb without the double super damage scaling. He is by far the most hated character in the game and plenty of players consider him a Season 1 character in a Season 2 meta and that is not a compliment. Season 3 got rid of his Spirit Bomb Oki after nearly a year's worth of complete dominance.
Goku (Super Saiyan)
- Super Saiyan Goku was one of the most ubiquitous characters on the roster from the game's launch through Season 2, owed to him being easy to pick up and play, having a balanced yet solid moveset, and having an extremely useful horizontal beam Assist that only Goku Black had an equivalent to. However this ubiquity also caused many players to grow fatigued with seeing the Super Saiyan so often both online and in tournaments. For better or worse, this status would shift with the Season 3 patch. The Assist change mechanic disrupted the niche Super Saiyan Goku once occupied with his Kamehameha Assist, as many characters would receive Assists that fulfilled the same role. But the most unsuspecting, yet damning change came in the form of his reworked Down Medium (2M) Attack: being severely slowed down in exchange for greater range and active frames. Though initially seeming minor, making the move slow and unsafe on block dealt a significant blow to his mixup and stagger game, especially since his 2M was his only low-hitting attack. Its former speed and ability to lead into high-damaging combos was so prominent that it was infamously known to many as "The Protagonist Button," and having it nerfed to such a degree meant that Goku lost one of his strongest tools. This would highlight his downfalls as a Jack of All Trades and master of none to many, and consequently, he fell off rather hard in usage and many player's tier lists. Despite the previous fatigue, many players bemoaned how he felt so much less effective and fun to play; even some of his detractors felt that the change was unnecessary. Patch 1.25 would attempt to alleviate this by slightly reducing the start-up of the 2M while retaining the increased range, but it was still slower than its pre-Season 3 self, and the increased recovery remained. While Super Saiyan Goku would still see some play and success, his status in the meta was still a shadow of its former self throughout Season 3.
Goku (Ultra Instinct)
- Ultra Instinct Goku is designed to be a defensive based character who has access to many counters and options on guard, but he can also function as a rushdown character thanks to other exclusive privileges. The first hit of his Light autocombo is the biggest offender of Hitbox Dissonance in this game, which has ridiculous reach and pushes him back so he can't be punished despite its long recovery time. The second hit functions like Bardock's as it brings down airborne opponents, but it also dodges the enemy's low attacks and command throws since UI Goku automatically jumps when he uses it and it has a huge horizontal range that can catch opponents backdashing. He has a normal DP named Rising Heat that hits both sides and above him, and its input (down down Special) means the game won't be confused if the opponent crosses you as you press the button (meaning you do a quarter circle forward or backward, but the characters switches at the same time, so the game thinks you inputted the other way). Rising Heat is his A assist, and it's also invincible after UI Goku touches down, and its infinite vertical hitbox and insane hitstun makes it both a good defensive assist and an offensive one that you can combo easily off of.His Unencumbered Mind special can link to a move that's plus on block, a command throw, a Kamehameha, or the pseudo DP Transcendence that's invincible from frame 4. And if you think you can punish the pseudo DP like regular ones, you'll get another surprise because it can combo into itself even if the first time didn't touch anything. Unencumbered Mind itself is no joke as its projectile invincible including Supers and Meteors, and he will always jump around and cross up to three times, and cancel into any of the four follow ups whenever he wants, and there's no way to guess which one he chose until the move hits you. On top of Rising Heat, he has another DP that can only be used on wakeup. If you think you can punish it by guarding against it then attacking during its recovery frames, he can mix you up by linking it into a counter Super that's active from frame one, Vanishing, or just not doing anything to screw with your expectations. This limits okizeme against UI Goku because he has so many wakeup options that it's near impossible to guess what he's going to do next. Most of his weaknesses such as poor okizeme on his Supers and his poor frame data with slow startup and recovery on most of his moves barely matter because he has so many ways to mix up the enemy. And the kicker is he hits like a truck to boot, meaning any stray hit will lead to him deleting large portions of their healthbars. He's generally regarded as Top 3 to 5 in the game because he has so many options and tools to work with.
Gotenks
- Gotenks in Season 1 he was top tier for one very good reason: Ghost Oki, which functions exactly like Piccolo's Hellzone loops. Gotenks has an alternate Super attack that generates four ghosts, but unlike the normal version he can launch any of them at any time he wants. The uncertainty of when the ghosts would come and the obscuring dust cloud they made upon contact lets Gotenks set up disgusting mixups that the opponent has no way of guarding against. Combine that with the snapback meta Gotenks will generate enough meter to keep it going forever with no hope of escape. Like Piccolo, the meter gain scaling in season 2 after using a Super was meant to cripple Ghost oki loops from continuing forever, but Gotenks is still dangerous if he has a lot of meter on hand.
Kid Buu
- Kid Buu is dangerous at any range due to his elastic limbs and a full screen beam that transforms the enemy into candy (and can be followed up with a Super/Meteor Attack), while still being more than capable of rushing an opponent down. He has an aerial down heavy followed by superdash that lets him switch sides with lax timing, all his normals are lightning fast, and he really likes abusing the variations of his Mystic Ball (especially the heavy version which is ridiculously fast, has great damage scaling, and can always be followed up by more attacks) in order to generate mixups you have barely have time to react to, and he can chain multiple overhead attacks in a row, forcing the defender to have extremely strict timing and good reads in switching from high to low blocks as Buu can cancel his blockstring and drop to the ground in an instant. In Season 1, his medium range down medium attack (or 2M for short) was ridiculously fast and had medium scaling, basically turning the floor into lava for the enemy, as Buu could start a massive damage combo in an instant if the opponent slacked off on their crouch guard for even an instant. His Mystic Ball could crossup an opponent as well, making his mixups even more terrifying depending on Buu's setups. Season 2 slowed down his 2M attack and increased the damage scaling, while Mystic Ball can no longer crossup and always remains on the same side as activation. In addition to this, Kid Buu has the longest lockdown ability in the game in his Assist. No matter if on hit or on block, once Kid Buu's Assist activates, the opponent is completely at his teammate's mercy. Some players abuse his assist to generate true 50-50 mixups, turning reads into a guessing game of chance. Also, his Meteor Attack bypasses Sparking healing, a gimmick only two other characters have since Hit freezes time while using his Meteor Attack while Frieza deals all his damage in one blow instantly after activation. Kid Buu on the other hand has no excuse for freezing Sparking healing while he's busy screaming. It's telling that despite the developers' attempts to nerf him to hell, Kid Buu has stubbornly remained at the top of everyone's tier lists since the beginning of the game.
Piccolo
- Piccolo in Season 1 enjoyed a brief period at the top of the tier list next to Gotenks thanks to his Hellzone loops. By using the snapback meta, Piccolo would snap an opponent up and then set up a Hellzone Grenade Super. The Super would force the incoming character to block, and the Super also creates a massive cloud of smoke that obscures the defender. With proper timing it's possible for Piccolo to attack them just as they're landing, further complicated the high-low mixup already obscured by the cloud of smoke since he might go for an aerial or crouching attack at any time. Combine that with the snapback meta for infinite meter gain, and Piccolo can Hellzone loop an entire team to death. Season 2 nerfed this and Gotenks's Ghost oki by scaling meter gain after using a Super, but if Piccolo is loaded with meter, watch out.
Vegeta (Super Saiyan)
- Super Saiyan Vegeta was indisputably considered to have the single best Assist in the game at launch. Not only does the Assist come out quickly, SS Vegeta is in the air which prevents him from being caught in most attacks. It reaches full screen, does decent amounts of damage, holds the enemy in place both on block and on hit, and can be used to extend combos; this is a primary example of braindead Assists that can be used to make any blockstring safe and/or punishable at nearly any time. Vegeta on his own was seen as mediocre with his Crusher Knee Kick being among the few invincible meter less reversals being his sole standout strength, but his assist was so good people put up with using him anyways. His assist got nerfed mid Season 1 as you can now superdash out of blocking it, whereas before you were forced to block and helpless to do anything about it as your opponent sets up a mixup. It's still a very good assist, just not "must-have" good as it once was before, leading to SS Vegeta phasing out of the meta as others take his place as the anchor in the team.
