Multiform Balance occurs when creators take care to make each multiple form of a Shapeshifter, such as a Henshin Hero, a Swiss Army Hero or a Morph Weapon-type Swiss Army Weapon, useful in its own way. The easiest way to do this is to make each one suited for a certain tactical situation or to use certain tactics. For example, a werewolf doing a Partial Transformation to a Wolf Man may not be able to talk, but can still use weapons and has greater strength than a man, but isn't as fast as a wolf.
In essence, it's applying Competitive Balance between each of the character (or weapon)'s forms. In fact, the character types laid out in Competitive Balance or other power balancing tropes can be quite useful in describing the character's forms. To be precise, the "balance" usually only applies to "basic" forms, with a Joke Character form only being used when the character doesn't have access to the basic forms. Lightning Bruiser and Super Mode are mostly a Mid-Season Upgrade and superior to basic forms in every aspect; if the balance also applies to these forms, it's usually by making them a Deadly Upgrade, Limit Break, Hour of Power, or otherwise Awesome, but Impractical.
Related to Stance System, with each form being considered as different "stances". May overlap with Evolution Powerup, especially if new forms are gained/discovered as the plot demands, although Multiform Balance can switch back and forth. When Humongous Mecha use this trope, it's usually done with Mecha Expansion Pack or Transforming Mecha. May also be done with Shed Armor, Gain Speed.
Examples:
- Kamen Rider BLACK RX actually kicked off the trope. Black RX has three forms:
- Black RX: The default form and a Jack-of-All-Stats.note
- Robo Rider: The Mighty Glacier with high defense and armed with a powerful Vortech Shooter, but his robotic movement is sluggish.
- Bio Rider: A combination of Fragile Speedster and Stone Wall, with nimble movement and ability to transform into gel which makes him almost invincible. But his Bio Blade is weak, the armor is thin, and it's hinted that he's weak against heat while in gel state.note
- Kamen Rider Kuuga acts as the franchise's Trope Codifier, setting the pattern for future series:
- Growing Form: The weakest form, only used when he doesn't get access to other forms.note Usually regarded as useless but proven to be capable of fighting, just not being good at it.
- Mighty Form: The balanced form.
- Dragon Form: Fast and can jump very high but has the least protective armor, and is so weak that he needs a Dragon Staff to injure an enemy.
- Pegasus Form: Has Super Senses capable of perceiving ultraviolet light and ultrasonic sound, but even with focus training Kuuga can only use this form for 2 minutes before suffering from Sensory Overload. It's armed with a Pegasus Bowgun which shoots out a powerful air blast but has to be reloaded after every shot.
- Titan Form: Mighty Glacier, with high strength to wield the Titan Sword and strong protection from Armor of Invincibility, but the sword and armor are so heavy that it's the slowest form. Despite its high defense, the armor still leaves some areas exposed so the enemy can exploit Attack Its Weak Point.
- All four of the basic forms later get a Mid-Season Upgrade as Rising forms that boost their statsnote but they're more of a Limit Break that only lasts for 30 seconds, and the power can cause serious collateral damage to civilians.
- Amazing Mighty Form: Lightning Bruiser, with an overall stat boost from Rising Mighty Form.
- Ultimate Form: Used in the last battle, superior to everything before it in every respect, but he must have a pure heart when he uses it, or it becomes a Superpowered Evil Side that corrupts him into an evil being. (Kuugas Transformation Trinket imitates the Grongis ability to transform into monsters, and Ultimate Form specifically imitates the Big Bad.)
- It's also turned around when a few Grongi from the high-level Go Tribe develop their own alternate forms, which are analogous to Kuuga's in terms of performance: Grapple Form (Mighty), Nimble Form (Dragon), Shooting Form (Pegasus), Herculean Form (Titan), and Blitz Form (Amazing Mighty). While most use the same Weapon of Choice, a few go in their own direction, like Go-Baberu-Da (the Buffalo Grongi) wielding a hammer in his Herculean Form.
- An Alternate Universe version of Kuuga appears in Kamen Rider Decade; while he never achieves the Rising upgrades or Amazing Mighty form that the original did, he can take Ultimate form Up to Eleven with the even more powerful Rising Ultimate Form. Then the hobby magazine story S.I.C. Hero Saga took it even further and introduced Super Rising Ultimate Form as a result of being supercharged with electricity, which makes him potentially the strongest Kamen Rider ever to exist.
- Kamen Rider Agito:
- Ground Form: Word of God labels it as the "Balance" form, but official stats indicate it has the lowest defense but high attack power.
- Storm Form: Faster and has better armor than the Ground form, but has a weaker attack.
- Fire Form: Has Super Senses and the best defense among basic forms, but is also slower. Its attack power is in the middle between Storm and Ground Forms.
- Trinity Form: The Lightning Bruiser that combines the advantages of the basic forms.
- Burning Form: Stronger and has better defense than Trinity Form but is much slower.
- Shining Form: Super Mode. Is as strong as Burning Form but is also the fastest. The downside is that he usually has to activate this form by exposing the Burning Form to sunlight to Shed Armor, Gain Speed.
- Kamen Rider Kabuto:
- Most of the Riders have two forms:
- Masked Form: Technically a Mighty Glacier with heavy armor and high strength, but is slow. However, since Worms can move with Super Speed, in practice Masked Form is useless against anything stronger than Mooks.
- Rider Form: Technically a Fragile Speedster, made by removing much of the armor of the Masked Form and adding Super Speed capability. As noted, since Super Speed is needed to fight Worms effectively, this is their main form in practice.
- Most of the Riders have two forms:
- Kabuto also gets a Hyper Form that is more powerful and even faster than Rider Form, but it requires Mid-Season Upgrade Hyper Zecter to activate. Gatack later gets his own Hyper Form in a DVD, but it may or may not be canon to the series.
- Kamen Rider Den-O:
- Den-O's forms are tied to which allied Imagin is possessing him at the moment:
- Plat Form (geddit?): The base form of the Aura Armor, used when Ryotaro is acting on his own without any Imagin. Almost useless in a fight (but it doesn't stop Ryotaro from trying and get his ass kicked though).
- Sword Form: Possessed by Momotaros. This is the balanced form.
- Rod Form: Possessed by Urataros. Has high defense but low offense. This form is good for aquatic combat, and the DenGasher rod mode has the power of capturing an escaping enemy.
- Ax Form: Possessed by Kintaros. Slow but strong, and has the best defense.
- Gun Form: Possessed by Ryutaros. Faster than Sword Form and armed with a powerful DenGasher gun mode. Ryutaros also incorporates break dancing into his fighting style, making it hard to predict. However, Ryutaros's trigger-happy carelessness tends to cause serious collateral damage.
- Wing Form: Possessed by Sieg. Even faster than Gun Form and armed with a combination of a boomerang and a handaxe. But Sieg is the Sixth Ranger of the group, often not available, and the team loathe him. His arrogant attitude also makes him prone to making mistakes in battle. It makes only one notable appearance in the series, and is otherwise exclusive to tie-in movies.
- Climax Form: Combines powers of the four Taros into one Super Mode. This form requires a Climax Cellphone K-Taros, and all four Taros need to work together controlling a single body.
- Liner Form: When the Imagin start to have trouble possessing Ryotaro while time-traveling, they build him the DenKamen Sword to stay in contact. It creates Liner Form, a second Super Mode with less strength than Climax Form, but more speed. While Ryotaro can use this form without being possessed, it also means he has to rely on his own rather low combat skill; but he can competently mimic the Imagins' fighting styles.
- Super Climax Form: An upgrade to Climax Form, done by adding Sieg to the group. It augments Climax Form's strength with additional agility. Like with Seig and his Wing Form, this one only appears in spinoff movies.
- Zeronos:
- Altair Form: His default balance form. Also, his own Imagin partner Deneb is independent from Zeronos in this form and can assist him directly.
- Vega Form: Possessed by Deneb. Becomes slower but stronger as well as gaining improved defense and being equipped with a powerful set of Shoulder Cannons.
- Zero Form: Initially replacing the Altair and Vega Forms when they became unavailable, but spinoffs allow all three to coexist. Takes Altair Form's balanced stats and raises them highernote and Deneb becomes a powerful Denebick Buster gun (which qualifies as both BFG and Gatling Good).
- Den-O's forms are tied to which allied Imagin is possessing him at the moment:
- Kamen Rider Kiva
- Kiva:
- Kiva: The default Vampire-themed form with balanced stats and high jump power that makes him good with an acrobatic aerial fighting style.
- Garulunote : A Werewolf-themed form transformed by using the Garulu Saber. Has the fastest land speed and a stronger kick in exchange for lower arm strength.
- Basshaanote : A Gillman-themed form transformed by using the Basshaa Magum and has sharp vision to make better use of it; plus it can create and maneuver on pools of water (though Kiva is never shown going underwater). Marginally faster than Kiva Form but weaker in everything else.
- Dogganote : A Frankenstein's Monster-themed form transformed by using the Dogga Hammer. He gains Super Strength to wield it and heavy armor. Naturally, this costs him speed.
- DoGaBaKinote : A one-time form transformed by using all three Arms Monsters at once and can use all three weapons at once. It's a good all-around Lightning Bruiser, while not being as strong as the base forms are in their specialties. Word of God also states that the form causes high physical stress, so it can only safely activate it for 5 minutes; but as it's only used once this is never stated or demonstrated in the show.
- Emperor: The Super Mode activated by having Tatsulot remove his Power Limiter. Superior to the basic forms in almost every respect and can use the Arms Monsters without transforming as well as the new Zanvat Sword. In this form, Kiva can also transform into a bat-wyvern monster, called Emperor Bat or Flight Style, which he uses to combat giant "Sabbat" kaiju.
- DoGaBaKi Emperor: A non-canon form only seen in a DVD. Activated by transforming into Emperor Form while in DoGaBaKi Form. Supposedly it's DoGaBaKi Form with Emperor Form's combat abilities.
- Technically, Kamen Rider IXA can switch between Save Mode and Burst Mode in 2008, with Save Mode being weaker but more stable. However, Burst Mode is reliable enough by then to not need the fail-safe, so Save Mode is almost never used in '08; instead it mainly appears in the 1986 timeline when IXA was still being developed and only had Save Mode available. IXA also gets a Super Mode in '08, named Rising IXA.
- Kiva:
- Kamen Rider Decade is loaded thanks to Power Copying other riders, primarily the nine preceding him, and most of their forms (he doesn't get their upgraded Lightning Bruiser or Super Mode forms, with one exception, but he doesn't get their Joke Character forms either). As the stats and abilities of Riders differ from series to series, here are some notable ones:
- Faiz Axel form functions as a substitute for Kabuto's Super Speed and is the only upgrade form that Decade is shown using.
- Den-O's four basic forms are Joke Characters at first. All they do is cause Decade to strike a pose and say their Catchphrase.
- Decade also has two Super Modes:
- Complete: In addition to the usual stat boost, it also has the ability to summon previous Riders' Super Modes to assist him in attacking.
- Violent Emotion: A Superpowered Evil Side that's used when Decade fulfills his role as the destroyer of worlds. It allows him to use the powers and tools of other riders without changing to other forms.
- Kamen Rider Double
- Double: A little more complicated than usual, due to being a Fusion Dance with mix-and-match Combo Platter Powers of Shotaro's "body" Gaia Memory and Philip's "soul" Gaia Memory, with each side providing half the form's stats and abilities.
- Cyclone: One of the soul Gaia Memories. Fast and has the power to control air.
- Heat: One of the soul Gaia Memories. Increasing attack power and has the power to control fire.
- Luna: The soul Gaia Memories with illusion power. Has the power to change the shape of their body and attack, allowing Double to attack from an unusual angle.
- Joker: One of the body Gaia Memories. A balanced unarmed fighter.
- Metal: One of the body Gaia Memories. A Mighty Glacier with Super Toughness and Super Strength, but slower than Joker. Armed with a Metal Shaft.
- Trigger: One of the body Gaia Memories. The Gunslinger and a Long-Range Fighter with superior eyesight and stable feet, but does poorly in close combat.
- Beyond the basic combinations, there are the following extra forms:
- FangJoker: A combination of Philip's Fang Memory and Shotaro's Joker Memory. Stronger than the normal combinations. However, this form uses Philip's body instead of Shotaro's, and his weak physical body means it can't be used for long periods of time, and he might lose control of himself when using this form.note
- CycloneJokerXtreme: The Super Mode of CycloneJoker. Linked to the database of the Earth via Xtreme Memory, this form can analyze and counter the enemy with the best tactic. It has lower strength than FangJoker but armed with Prism Bicker, a combination of a Cool Sword and a shield that can utilize the power of four Gaia Memories to perform Maximum Drive.
- CycloneJokerGoldXtreme: Takes CycloneJokerXtreme Up to Eleven with flight ability. Only appears in The Movie.
- Late in the story, Shotaro can transform into Kamen Rider Joker using just the Joker Memory, although he's weaker than Double.
- Accel:
- Accel: The default form. A downplayed version of Mighty Glacier with high strength. While he isn't as nimble as his other forms, he is in no way sluggish and can morph into a motorcycle for speed.
- Accel Trial: Gains Super Speed — fast enough to dodge lightning — by removing much of the armor of the default form. Although his strength is greatly reduced, this is remedied by his rapid-overwhelming attacks. Naturally, his defense is low.
- Accel Booster: Uses Gaia Memory Enhancing Adapter to power-up the Accel Memory. Most of Accel Booster's stats are between the default form and Accel Trial. This form has jet boosters all over his body, making him incredibly nimble in air, and easily make up for lower strength with the boosters' acceleration.
- Double: A little more complicated than usual, due to being a Fusion Dance with mix-and-match Combo Platter Powers of Shotaro's "body" Gaia Memory and Philip's "soul" Gaia Memory, with each side providing half the form's stats and abilities.
- Kamen Rider OOO takes Double's Combo Platter Powers Up to Eleven, combining three different animal Medals at a time and having more options available for each than Double did. In this case, though, the options are divided into groups and OOO gets a Set Bonus for using three similar Medals at once:
- Random Combos: OOO usually uses mismatched combinations with two or three different types of Medals. They're not as strong as complete sets, but still fairly formidable and don't place as much of a strain on him. When not choosing Medals specifically to counter enemy abilities, he tends to use the TaToBanote Combo as his default.
- GataKiriBanote Combo: A Magic Knight that's more agile than TaToBa but slightly weaker; however, it has the ability to create a seemingly unlimited number of duplicates.note It tends to get used less often than the other Combos, with the In-Universe explanation that Eiji has a hard time getting back down to a single body (and the Real Life explanation that the duplication effect was prohibitively expensive).
- LaTorahTahnote Combo: A Fragile Speedster thanks to the Cheetah legs giving him incredible Super Speed at the cost of armor.
- SaGohZonote Combo: A Mighty Glacier able to deliver incredibly powerful strikes and even possessing a degree of gravity manipulation. As one might expect, its drawbacks are being incredibly slow and short-ranged (aside from its Rocket Punch attack).
- TaJaDolnote Combo: A Lightning Bruiser that's good in all areas and can fly. Despite being a Mid-Season Upgrade, TaJaDol is sometimes considered OOO's Super Mode since, unlike the more powerful PuToTyra Combo, Eiji can use it without becoming The Berserker (plus he's thematically tied to it since the Bird Greeed, Ankh, is his ally).
- ShaUTanote Combo: A Squishy Wizard, being physically weaker than the other combos but incredible within its element of underwater combat.
- PuToTyranote Combo: OOO's primary Super Mode, possessing power and speed beyond any other combo and the incredibly important ability to destroy Core Medals, meaning it's the only thing capable of destroying Greeeds permanently. However, it has major drawbacks like driving Eiji into a berserker frenzy and gradually turning him into a Greeed himself.
- OOO's movies introduce a number of exclusive forms that didn't turn up in the show, but occasionally pop up in crossovers.
- BuraKaWaninote Combo: A Stone Wall, with powerful Turtle shields on its forearms and the Cobra head capable of generating a Healing Potion-like substance.
- TaMaShiinote Combo: A somewhat ridiculous Fighting Clown, giving OOO the power of Momotaros and Shocker. It's technically more powerful than any of the combos aside from TaJaDol and PuToTyra, but OOO only launches a Kamehame Hadoken before the Imagin and Shocker Medals dissolved due to history being corrected.
- Super TaToBa Combo: A new Super Mode, an enhanced version of the original TaToBa. It's even more powerful than PuToTyra Combo in all regards except punching strength, and it grants OOO Super Speed that verges on Teleportation as a result of being time-displaced.
- When a collector's version of the Transformation Trinket was released years later, it took Medals that were programmed into the original toy and referenced (but not used by OOO) in canon and arranged them into five new Combos; however, rather than fitting a traditional multi-form structure these forms were designed with specific combat roles in mind. BiKaSonote Combo is a Close-Range Combatant, the ShiGazeShinote Combo is about equal to TaToBa Combo but more focused on ground combat, MukaChiRinote Combo was designed to perform assassinations, SeiShiroGuinnote Combo was made to operate in cold climates, SaRaMuionote Combo was made for underwater melee combat.
- Kamen Rider Fourze's form balance is affected by the fact that he can also equip a variety of Astroswitch weapons on his limbs:
- Base States: A Jack-of-All-Stats, being a basic no-frills form without any kind of specialization. It also has the advantage of being the only form able to use right-arm weapons, as form changes otherwise use up that equipment slot.
- Elek States: Somewhere between a Stone Wall and a Magic Knight, possessing physical power equal to Base States but better defense and an electrified baton with a number of useful functions.
- Fire States: A Mighty Glacier, gaining power and a fireball-shooting gun but losing speed and mobility.
- Magnet States: The Mid-Season Upgrade, but where most Riders become Lightning Bruisers at this point, Fourze instead effectively becomes a walking turret, armed with armor and Shoulder Cannons but losing almost all mobility. It has the further disadvantage of taking up two equipment slots instead of one, limiting Fourze to leg weapons.
- Cosmic States: Fourze's Super Mode. Besides the stat boost, it possesses the power to combine two otherwise mutually-exclusive Astroswitches' powers, the ability to generate portals (allowing him to drag Monsters of the Week out to space to avoid collateral damage), and a Cool Sword that can be powered up with the right arm-based Astroswitches.
- Rocket States: A movie-feature form (though it does make one appearance in the series later) that's a purer Stone Wall, gaining punching power but with the increased weight making it the slowest of Fourze's forms. Its primary advantage is that it grants him Flight, but doing so takes up both of his arms.
- Rocket Drill States: A DVD exclusive variation on Rocket States, it has more agility than Rocket but exchanges its kick strength for a lot more punching power.
- Meteor Fusion States: A movie-exclusive alternate Super Mode, combining the power of Cosmic States with those of Kamen Rider Meteor. It's slightly stronger than Cosmic States but a little slower, but grants Gentaro the fighting skills of Meteor and his Meteor Galaxy gauntlet with its three planet-themed attacks.
- Meteor Nadeshiko Fusion States: An enhanced version of Meteor Fusion States in a later movie, which adds Gentaro's Love Interest Nadeshiko and the power of Rocket States (which she created) to the mix.
- Kamen Rider Wizard
- Wizard:
- Flame Style: The balanced form and has the power to control fire.
- Water Style: Physically weaker than Flame Style, but has higher magic power and the power to control water.
- Hurricane Style: Even weaker than Water Style, but is very fast and has the power to control air, including a flight ability.
- Land Style: A Mighty Glacier with high strength and defense, but is slow. Has the power to control earth.
- All of the basic forms later get a Mid-Season Upgrade as Dragon Style forms that strengthen their stats in almost every way except land speed.note All except Flame Dragon also add a new element under their control: ice for Water Dragon, thunder for Hurricane Dragon, and gravity for Land Dragon.
- All Dragon Style: Using all powers of the WizarDragon, this form combines the power of the four Dragon Styles. It is as fast as Hurricane Dragon but much stronger than everything before it.
- Infinity Style: Super Mode transformed by using the Infinity Wizard Ring. Although most of its stats are lower than All Dragon, it can manipulate time for Super Speed, is protected by armor harder than diamond, and is armed with a powerful AxCalibur.
- The following forms only appear in tie-in movies.
- Special Rush Style: A precursor to All Dragon, being a weaker Palette Swap of that form that only has power over the fire element.
- Infinity Dragon Style: Taking All Dragon and Infinity Style Up to Eleven by combining them together.
- Infinity Dragon Gold Style: Yet even more powerful version and Golden Super Mode of Infinity Dragon.
- Kamen Rider Beast generally doesn't do full form changes, but can instead equip Mantles that shift his stats around and offer unique abilities. Without one, he's a Jack-of-All-Stats.
- The Falco Mantle makes Beast faster and gives him the power of Flight, but is generally weaker and thus used more for mobility than battle.
- The Chameleo Mantle grants a few unique tricks like Invisibility, improved climbing, and a Multipurpose Tongue, but is slow and thus better suited to mopping up Mooks than fighting Monsters of the Week.
- The Buffa Mantle is the strongest, toughest, and consequently slowest of Beast's Mantles; it also uses up a lot of Mana so it can't be used too often.
- The Dolphi Mantle is Beast's fastest Mantle and grants improved swimming abilities, but is more noted for its ability to heal injuries and poisons. Since it doesn't come up often (and uses a fair bit of Mana), this Mantle doesn't get used very often.
- Beast Hyper is Beast's Super Mode that does give him a full form change. In exchange for the use of his Mantles, it doubles his attack strength.
- Wizard:
- Kamen Rider Gaim:
- Gaim's forms:
- Orange Arms is a Jack-of-All-Stats, the base level in all regards and armed with an orange slice-shaped Cool Sword. During a DVD-exclusive episode, it temporarily gets enhanced and becomes Fresh Orange Arms a Lightning Bruiser with strength similar to Jinba Arms (it has a little less attack power than Jinba, but is faster and can jump slightly higher).
- Pinenote Arms is a Mighty Glacier, gaining punching power and an Epic Flail in exchange for speed and mobility.
- Ichigonote Arms is a Fragile Speedster, losing power and gaining speed and agility plus kunai.
- Jinbanote Arms is a Lightning Bruiser that gives all of Gaim's stats a boost. It comes in four variations, each with the same stats but granting an additional superpower: Jinba Lemon is physically stronger, Jinba Cherry has Super Speed, and Jinba Peach has Super Senses (Jinba Melon only appeared as lineart and toys, so its specialty is unknown).
- Kachidokinote Arms is a mix of Mighty Glacier and Stone Wall, being incredibly slow but with higher power and exceptional armor. It's also armed with the DJ Gun, which can function like a machine gun, shotgun, or cannon.
- Kiwaminote Arms is a traditional Super Mode and portrayed as the Finesse to Kachidoki's Force, losing some of Kachidoki's armor but regaining normal levels of mobility. Its specialty is the power of Spontaneous Weapon Creation, letting him summon any of his or the other Riders' weapons either to fight as a Walking Armory or to fling them at an enemy as a sort of Flechette Storm.
- Baron's forms:
- Banana Arms is Baron's Jack-of-All-Stats, being the most balanced of his forms, but being more offensively-oriented than Gaim Orange Arms.
- Mango Arms is a mix of Mighty Glacier and Glass Cannon, gaining punching power and a rather nasty-looking mace, but being as slow as Gaim Pine Arms and having poor defense.
- Lemon Energy Arms is Baron's Lightning Bruiser form, stronger than Mango Arms and faster than Banana Arms, plus gaining a multipurpose bow with bladed limbs.
- Later in the series he gets a Super Mode, but not by gaining a new Rider form: he becomes an Overlord, labeled Lord Baron, which puts him on par with Gaim Kiwami Arms.
- Ryugen's forms:
- Budounote Arms is Ryugen's Jack-of-All-Stats, with statistics equal to Gaim Orange Arms; the main difference is that Budou Arms is a Long-Range Fighter with a handgun.
- Kiwi Arms is a Close-Range Combatant to Budou Arms' Long-Range Fighter, being a little physically stronger and equipped with paired wind-and-fire wheels, but not taking any significant hit to speed or mobility in the process.
- Ryugen's Lightning Bruiser form is... an interesting case. Instead of getting his own, he steals his brother's Melon Energy Arms Transformation Trinket and becomes the second Kamen Rider Zangetsu Shin, which is more powerful but a little slower than Budou Arms.
- Near the end of the series he gets Yomotsuhegurinote Arms, a Deadly Upgrade that's the strongest of his forms and gives him access to many weapons (his own and the Overlords'), but continuously drains his life. It ends up being a Power-Up Letdown that leaves him in such pain that Kouta can hold him off without transforming, and prolonged use would be fatal.
- Gaim's forms:
- Kamen Rider Drive
- Type Speed is a Jack-of-All-Stats that can, as its name implies, achieve bursts of incredible speed.
- In a DVD he gets a silver version of this form called Type High Speed. It turns out to be only a recolor and not any more or less powerful than the regular Type Speed; but thinking it was better served as a Magic Feather to boost Drive's confidence.
- Type Wild is a Mighty Glacier, being much stronger than Type Speed but also slower and less agile.
- Type Technic is a Magic Knight, being a balance between Speed and Wild but with incredible precision and computer-like analysis skills that let him multitask.
- Type Deadheat, which combines his powers with those of his ally Kamen Rider Mach, is a Glass Cannon, being stronger than his three basic forms in all regards but running the risk of going berserk if he redlines.
- Type Formula is a Lightning Bruiser, bring stronger than Type Deadheat and capable of running at the speed of sound (so fast that it actually gave Shinnosuke whiplash the first time he used the form). It also gains the Trailer Cannon BFG.
- Type Tridoron is Drive's Super Mode, stronger than the others in almost every regard (being a little slower than Type Formula) and possessing the ability to let Shinnosuke hand control of his body over to Mr. Belt. He retains the Trailer Cannon from Type Formula. It has a special ability to combine three Tire Exchange Shift Cars of a particular set into a singular Shift Tire with the unique powers and abilities of the chosen Shift Cars for immediate and simultaneous use.
- Drive's movies introduce a few exclusive forms: the Gaim-themed Type Fruits is a Fighting Clown, a little sillier than his other forms but more or less equal to Deadheat. Super Deadheat is a weaker Glass Cannon, being an incomplete form capable of fighting but not much else. Type Special is an alternate Super Mode. Zerodrive is a Master of None, since it's the prototype for Type Speed and is overall weaker.
- Type Speed is a Jack-of-All-Stats that can, as its name implies, achieve bursts of incredible speed.
- Kamen Rider Ghost is another series with a large variety of forms, specifically a pool of 15 historical figures shared among the Riders, meaning some are redundant in terms of stats but have their own specialized equipment and fighting styles.
- Ghost's forms:
- Ore Damashiinote is his Jack-of-All-Stats base form, while his early upgrade Toucon Boost Damashiinote is a more powerful version of the same. Both are used as the basis that other forms build off of.
- Musashi Damashii and Goemon Damashii are Glass Cannons, with excellent melee sword skills but little defense and no ranged options.
- Edison Damashii is a Magic Knight. Its stats are lower in general but not terrible, with the specialties of a Lightning Gun and the ability to absorb electricity in order to "spark" ideas.
- Newton Damashii and Benkei Damashii are Mighty Glaciers. Both are stronger but far slower; and Newton gains Gravity Master powers while Benkei wields a warhammer.
- Robin Hood Damashii and Billy the Kid Damashii are Fragile Speedsters, faster and more agile than normal forms and wielding ranged weapons (a bow and arrow and Guns Akimbo respectively).
- Beethoven Damashii and Himiko Damashii are Squishy Wizards, exchanging physical strength for magical powers (Magic Music for Beethoven and straight-up magic for Himiko).
- Ryoma Damashii is a Jack-of-All-Stats, giving only small stat gains over either Ore or Toucon Boost and being proficient with both sword and gun.
- Grateful Damashii is Ghost's Mid-Season Upgrade, channeling the powers of all 15 Damashii. Beyond general heightened stats, its main power is the ability to summon any of the 15 Heroes to aid him in battle; however, the Heroes have to work in harmony or Takeru can't use this form.note It also has the drawback that he's monopolizing the Damashii in this form, so his allies can't use them.
- Mugennote Damashii is Ghost's Super Mode, more powerful than Grateful Damashii, posessing incredible defense, and lacking Grateful's weaknesses. It is the only Damashii that can permanently destroy the Gammaizer.
- The movie-exclusive Tenkatoitsunote Damashii is even more powerful than Mugen Damashii and gives him access to Specter and Necrom's weapons in addition to his own.
- Specter's forms:
- His Specter Damashii base form is his Jack-of-All-Stats, with balanced stats.
- Tutankhamun Damashii is a Fragile Speedster, losing defenses but able to strike quickly with a scythe.
- Nobunaga Damashii is a Glass Cannon, having more physical strength and a powerful rifle, but lower defense and speed.
- Houdini Damashii is a Lightning Bruiser, superior to Specter in all regards as well as being capable of Flight, generating chains to attack and bind enemies, and other magic tricks.
- Specter also occasionally borrows Ghost's Edison Damashii, becoming a Magic Knight.
- Deep Specter is a Super Mode, stronger than all the others and roughly equivalent to Ghost's Grateful Damashii. It can also equip any of the 15 Damashii and gain their specialties, like the Riders' base forms can. Makoto can further empower this into Gekikounote Mode, unleashing his full potential and giving him wings.
- Sin Specter is a movie-exclusive even stronger Super Mode, even more powerful than Gekikou Deep Specter and his counterpart to Ghost Mugen Damashii.
- Necrom's forms:
- As with Specter, his Necrom Damashii base form is a Jack-of-All-Stats.
- Grimm Damashii is a Magic Knight, being slightly weaker than base Necrom but having mid-range offense thanks to the extending pens on his shoulders.
- Sanzo Damashii is a Mighty Glacier, being stronger but slower than his other forms and possessing the power to summon characters from Journey to the West (specifically Sun Wukong, Zhu Wuneng, and Sha Wujing) to aid him in battle.
- In Specter's movie, he gains a Super Mode called Yuujounote Burst, but only really gets to use it to perform a Finishing Move before getting knocked out by a surprise attack.
- Ghost's forms:
- Mostly averted in Kamen Rider Ex-Aid, which does have multiple forms but instead has a Next Tier Power-Up setup, with each Rider's various forms ranked at different Power Levels. It is however played straight with Kamen Rider Para-DX, who has two forms at Level 50 that contrast Force and Finesse; though both are incredibly powerful, Fighter Gamer is themed around direct combat while Puzzle Gamer is more supportive and has the ability to grant himself Status Buffs. He can later merge the two into his Level 99 Super Mode, Perfect Knockout Gamer.note
- Kamen Rider Build is similar to Double in that he combines the powers of two bottled essences, but Build possesses a much larger collection of Bottles with thirty for each half. Also, like OOO, he gets a Set Bonus for using certain Bottles together. Because this is more than the show can reasonably give proper focus to (many pairs only make one or two token appearances, and some are relegated to being All There in the Manual), we'll only give the highlights:
- RabbitTank Form is the Jack-of-All-Stats, being the best balanced of Build's forms but very few specialized weapons or abilities that other forms have (just a Spring Coil on one foot and tank treads on the other).
- GorillaMondnote Form is a Mighty Glacier, being incredibly powerful offensively and defensively but also incredibly slow.
- HawkGatling Form is a Magic Knight, being weaker than RabbitTank all around but still being useful thanks to its combination of Flight and the Hawk Gatlinger gatling gun. It ends up being one of Build's most-used forms after RabbitTank, as he switches to it whenever he wants to try and get air superiority over an opponent or when he needs to fight on the move.
- NinninComic Form is treated as a Squishy Wizard, relying most on a variety of ninja powers like Fire, Wind, Clone and Vanishing Jutsus. This form equips Build with the 4Koma Ninpoutou.
- PandaRocket Form is a Glass Cannon, being strong but slow (though not to the level of GorillaMond) and being able to fly thanks to his rocket arm. Unusually for Kamen Rider, this finds more use for utility than for combat, as Sento often switches to it when he needs to blast off and make a quick getaway.
- KeyDragon Form is a Deadly Upgrade, being incredibly powerful all around but effectively unusable because the Dragon Bottle overloads and injures Sento every time it's used. Eventually Sento retires it and gives the Dragon Bottle to The Lancer Ryuga permanently, who doesn't suffer the overloading issue and uses it to become Kamen Rider Cross-Z.
- KaizokuRessyanote Form is a Fragile Speedster, being one of Build's fastest forms and wielding a bow, the Kaizoku Hassyar, that gives him long-range capabilities.
- PhoenixRobo Form is a Lightning Bruiser movie form and another powerful combo on par with KeyDragon, and it doesn't even have the overloading issue that the Dragon half does. Unfortunately, Sento is only able to use it a couple times because he usually doesn't have those Bottles in his possession.
- RabbitTank Sparkling is Build's first major upgrade, being more powerful than any of his previous Best Matches and having free access to the Hawk Gatlinger, 4Koma Ninpoutou, and Kaizoku Hassyar in addition to his standard Drill Crusher weapon - or even more than one of those at once.
- Matching Bottles can be upgraded to Hazard forms (RabbitTank Hazard, HawkGatling Hazard et al.), which are Deadly Upgrades; increasing their power exponentially but also overriding Sento's mind and turning him into an emotionless killing machine. Even after getting stronger, more controllable forms, Sento will occasionally use Hazard instead because of the variety of powers and fighting styles it offers.
- RabbitRabbit Form and TankTank Form, upgrades to RabbitTank Hazard which each ramp some of that form's attributes even higher and more importantly, allow him to keep control. RabbitRabbit has enhanced speed and agility and giving Build the ability to stretch all of his limbs in long lengths, while TankTank instead has tough armor and offensive firepower.
- Genius Form is his Super Mode, combining the powers of all sixty regular Bottles. Its stats are an even balance between RabbitRabbit and TankTank, in addition to having its own features: bursts of Flash Step, the capability to analyze opponents for weaknesses, and the ability to neutralize the Nebula Gas that's the source of everyone's powers.
- Near the end of the series, the Rabbit and Dragon Bottles get supercharged and create two alternate RabbitDragon Super Modes: In the movie, they combine with the Genius Bottle and activate a Fusion Dance merging Sento and Ryuga together into Cross-ZBuild. In the series finale, the resulting form uses the normal Rabbit and Dragon halves only colored gold and silver; and this form is only used for the final Finishing Move.
- Downplayed in Kamen Rider Zi-O. Kamen Riders Zi-O and Geiz have an assortment of 20 Armors between them that have different stats and abilities (plus their base forms and upgrades),note but a rule of fighting the series' monsters is that it Takes One to Kill One. Rather than focusing on the Armors' specialties, the key instead is to acquire the specific one that corresponds to the monster they're fighting.
- Geiz Revive, Geiz' Mid-Season Upgrade, plays this trope straight with two modes: Goretsunote is heavily armored and physically powerful, while Shippunote unfolds the armor into a pair of wings and grants Super Speed.
- Downplayed with Woz' Super Mode, Woz Ginganote : It has three alternate versions in its default (aka Finaly), Taiyou,note and Wakuseinote forms; but there is no stat difference between them and they just have different special attacks.
- Kamen Rider Zero-One:
- Zero-One's forms:
- Rising Hoppernote : Zero-One's default Jack-of-All-Stats form.
- Biting Shark: A Magic Knight form; it's not as good as Rising Hopper in general but specializes in underwater combat note and in the use of arm and leg blades.
- Flying Falcon: A Fragile Speedster that specializes in high-speed Flight but not much else.
- Flaming Tiger: An attack-focused form capable of Playing with Fire.
- Freezing Bear: A form based on being An Ice Person.
- Shining Hopper: Zero-One's first major upgrade. It can analyze combat patterns and Flash Step to take the best angle of attack. He can also enhance the form with Vulcan's upgrade, becoming Shining Assault Hopper, which adds a set of combat drones.
- MetalCluster Hopper: The mid-stage Lightning Bruiser form. Initially a Deadly Upgrade that placed Zero-One under the control of an insane hostile AI and commanded a horrifically destructive swarm of locust drones. The heroes eventually created a countermeasure that not only neutralizes the AI's control over Zero-One but can reverse corrupted programming in the robotic Magia monsters; though in exchange Zero-One either can't or won't command the locust swarm as effectively.
- Kamen Rider Zero-Two: The Super Mode; a brand-new powerset created after the Zero-One system hit its limits. Besides being faster and stronger than any Zero-One form, it can foil the enemy's own predictive analysis.
- Kamen Rider Ark-One: An alternate Super Mode and Evil Costume Switch. It pales in comparison to Zero-Two, but still outpaces every other Rider on the show.
- Realizing Hopper: An 11th-Hour Superpower enhancement to Rising Hopper, boosting its strength to Super Mode levels (above Ark-One but below Zero-Two) and allowing Zero-One to go Back to Base Form in the finale without a major drop in power.
- Vulcan's forms:
- Shooting Wolf: Vulcan's default form, The Gunslinger and a Glass Cannon focused entirely on blowing enemies away.
- Punching Kong: A Mighty Glacier that has brute strength and tough armor, but is slow.
- Assault Wolf: Vulcan's initial upgrade, roughly equivalent to Zero-One Shining Hopper. But where Zero-One can calculate attack strategies, Vulcan's upgrade instead favors sheer brute force.
- Rampage Vulcan: Vulcan's Super Mode, combining the powers of all the Riders' basic forms except for Rising Hopper.
- Orthoros Vulcan: A one-time emergency form used when the others were disabled; stronger than Assault Wolf but not matching Rampage Vulcan. But the jury-rigged nature of the powers means the form is unstable, and the Transformation Trinket eventually explodes.
- Valkyrie's forms:
- Rushing Cheetah: Valkyrie's default form is a combination of Fragile Speedster and Glass Cannon; it's fast and makes Valkyrie the best melee fighter of the Riders, but defenses suffer.
- Lightning Hornet: A Magic Knight; instead of straight combat skill it grants Valkyrie Flight and lets her command a swarm of electrified hornet drones.
- Zero-One's forms:
- Downplayed in Kamen Rider Saber. The series uses a multi-part combination scheme with Set Bonuses like OOO and Build, but in this case the matching sets are all split up between different Riders. Saber's the only one who experiments with mismatches outside his designated set, and overall it's more of a Next Tier Powerup system where using more parts means more power than one where different combinations have noticable strengths and weaknesses.
- One Piece:
- Most users of Zoan-type devil fruits apply this, as they gain the power to shapeshift between three forms, their regular form, an animal form, and a Beast Man Partial Transformation.
- Tony Tony Chopper of the Straw Hat Pirates take this Up to Eleven, as he gained four additional forms called Points (plus a superpowered berserker form) through his Rumble Ball. And post-Time Skip, he now has control of his berserker form, albeit at the cost that he can only maintain it for three minutes, and is still too exhausted to move for several hours afterwards.
- Monkey D. Luffy's Gears: Gear Second is a Lightning Bruiser, while Gear Third is the Mighty Glacier. Gear Fourth takes them Up to Eleven, but has its drawbacks - it's extremely taxing on his body, and as with Chopper's controlled Monster Point, he can only use it for a short while and is exhausted afterward. When he forces himself to use it twice in one day, he falls unconscious for three days afterward.
- Even within Gear Fourth, he has multiple sub-forms that all qualify as Lightning Bruisers in their own right, but vary slightly relative to each other. Boundman is a Jack-of-All-Stats that allow him to fly and launch spring-powered punches, Tankman (or at least the Full version) is a Stone Wall that is immovable but can rebound attacks, and Snakeman is a Fragile Speedster without as much bulk but can punch so fast his arms are all but invisible, hit dozens of times a second, and can outspeed evasive targets.
- Most users of Zoan-type devil fruits apply this, as they gain the power to shapeshift between three forms, their regular form, an animal form, and a Beast Man Partial Transformation.
- Zoids: New Century Zero. In addition to its default form Liger Zero had different equipment modes that changed it into different types depending on the situation. "Panzer" mode became a Mighty Glacier, "Schneider" is a Glass Cannon and the "Jager" unit is a Fragile Speedster.
- Battle Story and other variants give us the Liger Zero X (an Empire version designed for electronic warfare) and various packs for the Berserk Fury that replace its iconic "eggbeaters" with high-powered boosters (Sturm Fury), hybrid particle cannons (Jagd Fury), or a high-output reactor and missile pods (the Tyran series).
- Also in Zoids Genesis, Murasame Liger, Hayate Liger and Mugen Liger.
- Gundam sometime use this along with Mecha Expansion Packs.
- The first animated example can be seen on Mobile Suit Victory Gundam's V2 Gundam. With Fragile Speedster (V2 Gundam), Jack-of-All-Stats (V2 Assault Gundam), Glass Cannon (V2 Buster Gundam), Mighty Glacier (V2 Assault Buster Gundam)
- Mobile Suit Gundam SEED has it in spades thanks to the abundance of Mecha Expansion Packs. Start with Strike Gundam, but Elite Mook from MSV and Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Astray can use them as well. And by the time of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny, even Mooks and Red Shirts have them.
- Strike Gundam: Joke Character (no Striker pack), Stone Wall (Aile Strikenote ), Jack-of-All-Stats (Sword Strikenote ), Glass Cannon (Launcher Strikenote ), Super Mode (Integrated Weapons Striker Pack), Squishy Wizard (Lightning Strikenote )
- Impulse Gundam: Joke Character (no Silhouette pack), Jack-of-All-Stats (Force Impulse), Mighty Glacier (Sword Impulse), Glass Cannon (Blast Impulse), Super Mode (Destiny Impulse).
- Mobile Suit Gundam AGE does this for the first generation of the eponymous mecha, with Normal, Titus, and Spallow modes. Averted in the second generation though, where AGE-2 Double Bullet is nothing but an improvement over the original AGE. AGE-3 return to this trope: the Normal, Fortress and Orbital.
- The manga Gundam EXA introduces the two Extreme Gundams; The Type-Leos possesses its base form, Eclipse Phase, Xenon Phase, and Aios Phase, with his Mid-Season Upgrade Type-Leos II Vs. being an All Your Powers Combined Super Mode. The villainous Ex-'s Extreme has analogous forms (Tachyon, Carnage, and Ignis respectively), as well as the later Mystic Phase.
- In the Macross franchise, many mecha are capable of transformation between three modes - Fighter, GERWALK (which functions like a VTOL aircraft and is also used for pulling off fancy maneuvers), and Battroid (for ground combat).
- The titular mecha of Super Dimension Century Orguss has four modes: humanoid robot, plane, plane with legs, and Tank Goodness.
- The Legioss of Genesis Climber MOSPEADA is a three-form transforming fighter jet. Additionally, the titular Mospeada is a small-scale variant of the trope, being a motorcycle that can transform into Powered Armor.
- The Spartas from Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, being land mecha, can switch between hover tank, walker cannon, and humanoid modes. Of course, the show also had transforming fighter jet mecha, including one model that could also become a helicopter.
- Getter Robo: The three forms of Getter are alway Jack-of-All-Stats, Fragile Speedster and Mighty Glacier. Each of them also specialize in different environments. Its Affectionate Parody, Gekiganger 3 and Geppy X, also follow same pattern.
- Rave Master with Haru's sword, the Ten Powers. Eisenmeteor is the default form, having Mundane Beats Magic, Explosion is Glass Cannon, Silfarion is Fragile Speedster, Mel Force the Lightning Bruiser, Gravity Core the Mighty Glacier, Sacrifar The Berserker Deadly Upgrade, and Ravelt the Super Mode. Ditto for its Evil Counterpart.
- A popular gimmick for combiner teams in the Japanese Transformers series, particularly Transformers: Robots in Disguise, where the position of each limb component would dictate if the combined 'bot was in Balance, Speed, or Power forms.
- Highschool Dx D applies this to its Chess Motifs. When a Pawn promotes, a Queen isn't always the best option. While it does give a general boost, the specialties of a Rook, Knight or even Bishop can be more effective in cases. This is especially prevalent when Issei learns to apply his promotions to Boosted Gear Scale Mail and gets one later in Volume 9 when he gets access to his new powers named Illegal Trianna, aside from his default Balance Breaker state. His Welsh Sonic Boost Knight is the typical Fragile Speedster, his Welsh Blaster Bishop is the Glass Cannon, Welsh Draconic Rook being the Mighty Glacier, and finally his (incomplete) Cardinal Crimson Queen being the Lightning Bruiser.
- In Dragon Ball Z, after the Super Saiyan transformation starts being So Last Season, several new variants on it are introduced. The original form becomes a Jack-of-All-Stats, while the "3rd Grade" Super Saiyan becomes a Mighty Glacier (it actually enhances the strength of the user but NOT the speed that should come with it, making the form useless), while Super Saiyan 2 makes the user even more of a Lightning Bruiser than fighters in Dragon Ball Z usually are. Most of the other forms shown are Awesome, but Impractical for various reasons (usually that they consume too much energy to use for very long).
- Arbok is given this in Pokémon Adventures in the form of a special smoke used by Agatha that changes its belly pattern. There are patterns for increased attack, defense, self-healing and Nigh-Invulnerability.
- The Pieces Lie Where They Fell: omake-only character Reel, as Kamen Rider Skull the Second, has multiple Rider forms he can change between, but the omake chapters only show two: his default form, and his strongest. Word of God states that his fifth form is his Super Mode, Kamen Rider Skull Xtreme, and the form used for battle in the final omake is his sixth and final form, Kamen Rider Skull Gold Xtreme.
- Animorphs: While each of the kids have their own unique morphs, there are several occasions when they've morphed the same animal (sometimes to exploit the fact that the animal goes into a stupor when being acquired, long enough for them to escape, like the hammerhead shark or the T. rex). The inverse of the trope bites them in the ass when they attack the Yeerk pool all in polar bear morph and nearly die.
- The Ultra Series uses this trope from the start of the Heisei era.
- Ultraman Tiga: Tiga uses four forms in the series:
- Multi Type: The balanced Jack-of-All-Stats. His default form.
- Power Type: Strong but slow
- Sky Type: Weak but fast and good at fighting in the air.
- Glitter Tiga: His most powerful form that's only used in the last episode. He can only gain it through the power of others' hope in him.
- In the Final Odyssey movie, Daigo is forced to transform with Dark Spark Lens and become Tiga Dark, which is supposed to be the most powerful warrior among the Dark Giants. But since Daigo resists The Dark Side, it ends up as the weakest form instead. He later gets through the Next Tier Power-Up process as Tiga Tornado and Tiga Blast by purging away the power of darkness from himself, and finally assumes the Glitter Tiga form again.
- Ultraman Dyna: Follows in Tiga's footsteps but with more emphasis on each of the alternate forms.
- Flash Type: The balanced Jack-of-All-Stats; also his default form. Unlike Tiga, Dyna can only use one alternate form in each fight, and so Flash Type is the only form he always has access to.
- Strong Type: Slow but strong, and mostly focuses on physical attacks, with the only energy attack being the Finishing Move.
- Miracle Type: A mix of Fragile Speedster and Squishy Wizard. This form has low stamina and physical strength but has supernatural abilities such as telekinesis and Super Speed.
- Ultraman Cosmos: Cosmos has three forms in the series.
- Luna Mode: A Stone Wall focus on healing and purification but no offensive power. As a dedicated pacifist, Cosmos uses this as his default form.
- Corona Mode: His battle form. He uses this one when he chooses to kill the Monster of the Week.
- Eclipse Mode: His Super Mode and Mid-Season Upgrade. This form combines the powers of Corona Mode and Luna Mode but can used only for 1 minute.
- Cosmos also gets three more forms in The Movies: Space Corona Mode is a stronger version of Corona Mode, used when fighting in space. Future Mode takes the power of Eclipse Mode Up to Eleven. Ultraman Legend is his most powerful form, which is the result of his Fusion Dance with Ultraman Justice.
- Ultraman Orb gets his various forms by channelling the powers of previous Ultramen:
- Specium Zepellion: His balanced Jack-of-All-Stats form, based on Ultraman and Ultraman Tiga. It can channel bursts of speed and strength from Tiga's Power and Sky Types, respectively.
- Burnmite: His strength-based form from Ultraman Taro and Ultraman Mebius, capable of Playing with Fire.
- Hurricane Slash: His speed form drawing on Ultraman Jack and Ultraman Zero, which has the ability to teleport and can arm itself with the Orb Slugger Lance.
- Thunder Breaster: The Mid-Season Upgrade based on Ultraman Zoffy and Ultraman Belial, Thunder Breaster relies on immense brute force. However, the influence of Belial means that it's initially a Deadly Upgrade; making Orb prone to getting carried away and becoming The Berserker that brutalizes his opponents and ignores possible civilian casualties.
- Orb Origin: Orb's true form and Super Mode. In this form, he's equipped with the Orb Calibur, a sword with Elemental Powers.
- Trinity: An even more powerful form seen in the post-series movie, Trinity fuses the powers of the three Ultramen immediately preceding him: Ultraman Ginga, Ultraman Victory, and Ultraman X; and it can use all their special abilities.
- Ultraman Geed also channels pairs of Ultramen to get his different forms. He does have a personal, non-Power Copying form that's seen during the Transformation Sequence, but hasn't been able to access it himself:
- Primitive: Pairing Ultraman and Geed's father Ultraman Belial, Primitive is balanced but tends to be a wild fighter.
- Solid Burning: Ultraseven and his student Ultraman Leo provide the strength-focused form enhanced by Powered Armor.
- Acro Smasher: The peaceful Ultraman Hikari and Ultraman Cosmos are the basis of this form, which focuses on non-offensive techniques and precise strikes.
- Magnificent: Channels two of the most powerful Ultramen and Belial's bitterest enemies, Ultraman Zero and Father of Ultra, into a powerful Lightning Bruiser.
- Royal Mega-Master: This form uses Ultraman Belial just like Primitive, but its main power is that of the Big Good and Physical God Ultraman King for Geed's Super Mode.
- Ultimate Final: Seen in the movie, this brings out Geed's own powers and is his most powerful form.
- Ultraman R/B: Ultramen Rosso and Blu share the same arrangement of forms, which go on a sliding scale from fast-yet-vulnerable through balanced to tough-but-slow. From "fast" to "strong", they have Wind Form, Aqua Form, Flame Form, and Ground Form. For their shared Super Mode, they Fusion Dance into Ultraman Ruebe; and in their movie they further fuse with their little sister Ultrawoman Grigio to become Ultraman Gruebe.
- Ultraman Taiga: Rather than being host to an Ultraman with multiple forms, Hiroyuki is host to three different Ultramen:
- Ultraman Taiga: The most prominent of the three and the Jack-of-All-Stats.
- Ultraman Titas: A muscular heavyweight fighter and Mighty Glacier.
- Ultraman Fuma: The Fragile Speedster of the group who fights with Ninja techniques.
- Taiga Photon Earth: Taiga's Mid-Season Upgrade. Unlike the usual pattern that would make the middle-stage upgrade a Lightning Bruiser, this form is a Mighty Glacier that gains strength but loses speed thanks to wearing armor, though not to the same extremes as Titas.
- Taiga Tri-Strium: Taiga's Super Mode, achieved via Fusion Dance with Titas and Fuma.
- Ultraman Reiga: In the movie, Hiroyuki is host to a fourth Ultraman partner that's a Fusion Dance of six Super Mode Ultramen (Ginga Victory, Exceed X, and the above-mentioned Orb Trinity, Geed Ultimate Final, Gruebe, and Taiga Tri-Strium).
- Ultraman Z: Returns to Power Copying multiple Ultramen as Orb and Geed did, only Z channels three at once:
- Original: Z's regular form, a Master of None described as "a third of a real hero". After gaining his other forms, the show treats it as a "civilian" form that he returns to when not in combat.
- Alpha Edge: Following the Master-Apprentice Chain of Ultraseven, Ultraman Leo, and Ultraman Zero; Alpha Edge is a Jack-of-All-Stats and skilled martial artist. Z's host Haruki comments that as a martial artist himself, Alpha Edge is the easiest form for him to use.
- Beta Smash: Channeling some of the original "Ultra Brothers" from the 60s and 70s (Ultraman, Ultraman Ace, and Ultraman Taro), Beta Smash is a Mighty Glacier and themed like a pro wrestler .
- Gamma Future: Drawing on Ultraman Tiga, Ultraman Dyna, and Ultraman Gaia from the series' 90s era; Gamma Future is a Squishy Wizard whose powers resemble sorcery.
- Delta Rise Claw: Featuring the main characters of Ultraman Geed (Geed himself, and Zero and Belial in their Super Modes from that series), Delta Rise Claw is Z's Super Mode with incredible power. The form is also associated with a sentient sword of darkness, though it's not actually part of the Delta Rise Claw powerset and doesn't always agree to let Z wield it.
- Ultraman Tiga: Tiga uses four forms in the series:
- While Multiform Balance with Super Sentai (and Power Rangers) mecha is usually achieved through Mecha Expansion Packs, a couple of Sentai mecha have multiple configurations that serve different purposes. Choujin Sentai Jetman and Mirai Sentai Timeranger have five jet mecha that can either combine into a larger jet or a humanoid robot.
- Additionally, Timeranger's TimeRobo had two modes: The close combat oriented TimeRobo Alpha and the agile ranged TimeRobo Beta. Impressively, TimeRobo multi-form balance extends to its Super Mode when combined with TimeShadow. Alpha and Beta each have their own combination.
- Both individually and as a team, the Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger take this way past any logical level. With the ability to swap between the forms of two hundred previous rangers the Gokaigers can in theory match their combat needs to just about any conceivable situation plus, from heavy hitting close quarter fighters with Dynaman to swift and deadly ninjas with Kakuranger and just about everything in between. The same holds true for Gokai-oh with the assorted Greater Powers granted by previous teams giving it a variety of combat modes. The movies show they can borrow the powers of Kamen Riders and Metal Heroes as well.
- In Doubutsu Sentai Zyuohger, Yamato can switch powers between the agile Zyuoh Eagle and the strong Zyuoh Gorilla, and later on the Zyuoh Whale Super Mode. Sixth Ranger Zyuoh TheWorld also has multiple modes, with the balanced rhino, speedy wolf, and powerful crocodile.
- In Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger VS Keisatsu Sentai Patranger, the two main Humongous Mecha have two forms each depending on which team they're associated with at the moment. The Lupinrangers' mecha, Lupin Kaiser and X Emperor Slash, are faster and more agile; while the Patrangers' versions, Pat Kaiser and X Emperor Gunner, are tougher and hit harder. This also applies to the Sixth Ranger, who is a member of both teams; though he has reversed stats as his Lupin X form is the armored one and Patren X is more nimble.
- It's at least Older Than Feudalism. Goddess Parvati from Hindu Mythology is usually The Chick, but she may take form of Durga or Kali as well.
- Werewolf: The Forsaken. Each of a Uratha's five forms has its uses and weaknesses.
- The Hishu (human) form is most likely to pass among mortals and best suited for social dealings.
- The Dalu (wolf-man) form allows added strength and enhanced senses while retaining human form, but still pings Lunacy a little.
- The Gauru (monster two-legged wolf) form is the strongest, most damaging form, but can only be used for a limited time and is locked in a state of rage that makes any action but attacking something a failure.
- The Urshul (dire wolf) form is fastest of all and quite strong, but will still ping Lunacy heavily.
- The Urhan (wolf) form will blend in most easily in nature and could maybe pass for a wolfdog in urban environments.
- The four bestial forms can also be seen as references to different archetypes of werewolf transformation. Urhan clearly owes its lineage to most forms of actual mythological depictions of the werewolf. Dalu is based on the iconic "wolfman" form of film, first seen in Universal Horror's The Wolf Man (1941). Urshul arguably has some mythological basis, but can most easily be connected to the werewolf as depicted in An American Werewolf in London. Finally, Gauru resembles the now-iconic "manwolf" that has become heavily associated with werewolves in modern culture and which can be arguably traced back to film via The Howling.
- The Naturalist's Form ongoings in Sentinels of the Multiverse each have their own mechanical benefits: Crocodile deals more damage and buffs a lot of damaging effects, Gazelle has a lot of recovery and control options, and Rhinoceros is durable and has access to card draw. Naturalist gameplay relies heavily on shifting between these forms to get whatever effects online that are most useful in the current situation (although the Hunted Naturalist is able to stack the symbols, just not the Forms).
- In Pathfinder the shifter class gains access to a selection of animal aspects as they level, each of which has a minor form, where they mostly retain their original appearance but gain some kind of bonus based on the aspect chosen, and a major form, where they transform entirely into that animal. While they can eventually keep multiple minor forms active at once, it's expected a shifter will choose some aspects based on the different roles their major forms are suited to, such as turning into a tiger for combat, a mouse for stealth, and a falcon for flight.
- Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap features this as its central hook, with the hero spent virtually the entire game involuntarily transformed into various animal-like creatures, each featuring unique abilities.
- The old Electronic Arts game Shadowcaster features a lead that could form pacts with various creatures to "accept the form of X", each form having its own uses.
- A Boy and His Blob allows the boy control over his Mons forms with jellybeans.
- The gameplay of Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams is pretty much built around this trope. Switching back and forth between Giana's cute and punk forms at exactly the right moment is the key to solving many puzzles.
- Pokémon
- The Legendary Deoxys has various forms with differing distributions of stats. Normal Forme is the Jack-of-All-Stats form (although in terms of in-game stats, it's more of a slightly less extreme Attack Forme), Attack Forme is the Glass Cannon form, Defense Forme is the Stone Wall form, and Speed Forme is the Fragile Speedster form (although in terms of in-game stats, it's actually more balanced and defensive than Normal Forme).
- Generation V's Darmanitan has a normal form that is a Glass Cannon, but when certain Darmanitans' Hit Points go below half they automatically switch to Zen Mode, which is a Mighty Glacier. This was a poorly-done attempt, though - all the damage is received before the switch, and getting knocked out in one hit is not too unlikely in the glass cannon form. Even if they do survive, the higher defensive stats are not very useful with less than half Hit Points left.
- Generation VI introduces the Steel/Ghost sword Aegislash. Its Shield Forme is a Stone Wall. As soon as it uses an attack, it turns into the Glass Cannon Sword Forme. Using its Signature Move King's Shield turns it back into Shield Forme.
- A Zygarde with all 100 of its Cells and Cores is capable of switching between 10% Forme, a fast but frail canine, or the bulkier and slower serpentine 50% Forme. Either forme will have the Power Construct ability, which tranforms Zygarde into the even bulkier Complete Forme once it Turns Red.
- Rotom has 5 alternate forms, each with a different typing based on appliances: Normal Rotom (Electric/Ghost), Heat Rotom (Electric/Fire), Wash Rotom (Electric/Water), Fridge Rotom (Electric/Ice), Fan Rotom (Electric/Flying) and Mow Rotom (Electric/Grass).
- Both Arceus and Silvally can have different forms for ALL typings in the game.
- Kingdom Hearts II has its Valor and Wisdom Forms spiking the player's physical and magical stats (respectively) at the cost of the other. Then comes Master Form and Final Form, which balance melee attacks and magic by making both of them highly effective.
- Mega Man (Classic): Mega Man's ability to fuse with Rush in Mega Man 6, creating the Power and Jet Adapters. In Mega Man 7, the abilities of both adapters are compressed into a single, Super adapter.
- Mega Man X's ability to switch between different armors in some of his games. The armors vary between each game, but Ultimate Armor would be consistent.
- X5: Jack-of-All-Stats (Force), Fragile Speedster (Falcon), Mighty Glacier (Gaea)
- X6: Jack-of-All-Stats (Falcon, a nerf version of the above), Lightning Bruiser (Blade), Glass Cannon (Shadow)
- X8: Master of None (Neutral), Fragile Speedster (Hermes, turns into Lightning Bruiser when X-Drive is activated), Mighty Glacier (Icarus)
- Mega Man Zero 2, Zero starts out as a Master of None (Normal), but fulfilling certain conditions in a mission unlocks specialized upgrades: Fragile Speedster (Active), Mighty Glacier (Energy and Power), Stone Wall (Defense and Erase), Lightning Bruiser (Rise and X), Glass Cannon (Proto) and finally, Super Mode (Ultimate).
- Mega Man ZX Advent: This game allows you to take on the boss' forms after you defeat them. Your normal untransformed form and the bonus form "Model a" are Joke Characters (armed only with a non-chargeable buster and cannot dash), Mega Man forms are Jack-of-All-Stats, Bifrost form is a Mighty Glacier, Argoyle and Hedgeshock forms are Fragile Speedsters, Buckfire form is a Lightning Bruiser, Queenbee and Vulturon forms are Stone Walls (with their weak attacks and ability to fly, Queenbee is longer-ranged while Vulturon is shorter-ranged), and Chronoforce and Rospark are gimmickynote .
- Druid shapeshifting in World of Warcraft could be considered this, with forms tailored to each of their four talent specialisations plus a couple of utility forms. The default form (AKA "caster" form) is for the Combat Medic and specialization adds a temporary Tree Form with even more enhanced healing. Cat form is a Fragile Speedster that deals damage. Bear form is a Stone Wall specializing in getting attention of enemies from more squishy members of the group. Moonkin form (available via talent specialization; caster form suffices before that) is a Magic Knight, with the same armor as a bear, but no way to hold aggro other than damage output, with the ability to both toast foes from range, and when out of mana, to (less effectively) crack noggins with melee weapons. While all Druids have access to Bear Form and Cat Form, they don't work very well for non-Feral or Guardian Druids. The travel forms of a bird in the air, a stag on land or a seal in the water, give increased mobility at the cost of very weak or no attacks.
- Kheldians in City of Heroes are another example, though they don't start out with all the forms. Nova form is a Glass Cannon, Dwarf form is a Stone Wall, and with the basic human form being somewhere in between, and having a much greater choice of attacks, including the ability to deal decent damage at close range. Some players try to specialise in only one form, but by most accounts the best choice is to make use of all three forms, swapping as necessary.
- Unfortunately due to the way powers and slots worked actually using all three forms for combat wasn't practical. Instead most Kheldians were built to fight using only the Nova and Dwarf forms while occasionally dropping into Human form to apply buffs. The exceptions to this tends to eschew forms entirely, simply sticking with the basic human form.
- One of the weapons in Monster Hunter a player can wield is the Charge Blade, a sword and a shield with good attack, good defence and average mobility. This duo can combine on fly into a big axe with slow, hard hitting attacks and no defensive capabilities. The Charge Blade is quite well rounded but rather difficult to learn.
- The various offensive shapeshifting powers in [PROTOTYPE] are balanced like this. Claws are quite fast and have a slow ranged attack composed of spikes erupting from the ground and impaling the target from below, Musclemass is only useful for making long ranged attacks so it is almost wothless in close-combat, Hammerfist gives massively devastating splash damage attacks with really slow speed, the Whipfist has awesome range, anti-air attacks and crowd control capabilities in exchange for power and the Blade is similar to the Claws but replaces the latter's impalement attack with a brutally powerful aerial attack that can One-Hit Kill tanks.
- Breath of Fire IV: When Ryu transforms, whichever form he chooses provides a percentage boost to his stats, resulting in the following arrangements: Master of None (Aura), Jack-of-All-Stats (Wyvern/Weyr), Mighty Glacier (Behemoth/Mammoth), Lightning Bruiser (Myrmidon/Knight), Glass Cannon (Mutant/Punk) and Super Mode (Kaiser). Fou-lu's dragons roughly follow the same percentage boosts as Ryu's; just replace Aura, Wyvern and Kaiser with Astral, Serpent and Tyrant (Fou-lu doesn't have Myrmidon or Mutant, and he has a Behemoth like Ryu), respectively.
- Marvel: Avengers Alliance
- The player character Agent starts as a Master of None (Generalist) and can switch to any of five other classes — Glass Cannon (Blaster), Lightning Bruiser (Scrapper), Mighty Glacier (Bruiser), Jack-of-All-Stats (Tactician), Fragile Speedster (Infiltrator) — by buying and equipping the appropriate uniform. Tactical RockPaperScissors is in play, so each of those classes has an advantage over one class and a disadvantage against a second. The Agent can also remain as a Generalist, neither weak nor strong against any class.
- Several heroes have alternate costumes, and a change in costume also means a change in class. (ex.: Spider-Man, an Infiltrator by default, can also become either a Scrapper with his Future Foundation outfit, or don the Black Suit, turning into a Bruiser.)
- Punisher has the ability to switch classes at will, each class has its own attack unique from the other and can be either target single or group enemies.
- Super Smash Bros. Wii U/3DS has Shulk. He's a Mechanically Unusual Fighter whose playstyle centers around a Stance System composed of 5 Monado Arts. Each of those arts boost one of his stats for a few seconds at the cost of reducing others. For example, "Jump" increases his jump distance while lowering his defense, and "Smash" increases his launch ability at the cost of weaker attacks and lower defense against launching.
- Pyra and Mythra are a Tag Team "transformation" character share the same normals, with Mythra being the faster one and Pyra being the stronger one. Their main differences are in their special moves.
- Robotech: Battlecry features Transforming Mecha like the rest of the franchise, though it boils down the transformations to a few basic points.
- The offensively-minded Fighter is the fastest of the three forms and packs the most raw firepower since it uses the largest missiles, but is the least agile due to requiring a large turning circle and has a very limited ability to use cover, relying on pure speed instead.
- The defensive Battloid form is the slowest in terms of movement and is unable to use missiles, but is the most agile form due to its ability to put cover between itself and enemies and possesses both the best anti-missile defense and the most accurate ranged attack.
- The middle of the road Gerwalker mode can both use cover and fire missiles while being faster than the Battloid and more nimble than the Fighter, but it lacks the defenses of the former and the speed of the latter, making it the form most vulnerable to enemy attacks.
- Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time has two examples:
- The Red Stinger changes its form depending on its position on the lawn. When it's near the house, it will be a Glass Cannon. Near the middle, it gains extra defense but fires half as fast as a Jack-of-All-Stats. When it's far from the house, it will become a Stone Wall unable to attack. However, it's quite bad at defending, as it's unable to take as much damage as a proper wall.
- The Nightshade has two modes of attack depending on whether there's a Moonflower nearby to power it up. When uncharged, it's a Close-Range Combatant that slaps zombies for heavy damage, using up one of its three petals in the process. When it's charged, it becomes a Long-Range Fighter that will fire out and regenerate these petals, at the cost of dealing halved damage.
- Heroes of the Storm: This is Varian's entire gimmick. He starts out as a Master of None for the first 9 levels, but once he hits 10, he can choose between one of three Heroics to specialize. Taunt increases his health but lowers his attack speed and gives him a brief stun ability, Colossus Smash increases his attack damage but lowers his health and gives him an armour-weakening leap, and Twin Blades of Fury increases his attack speed but lowers attack damage and gives him extra movement speed after he hits a basic attack. Each of them are watered-down versions of the archetypal character of that role, and Varian's strength comes from his ability to fill any slot his team needs.
- Final Fantasy X-2's version of the series' Job System allows the three playable characters to switch jobs (in this game, called dresspheres) even in the midst of battle as the situation calls for it, courtesy of the Garment Grid system.
- Morphling in Dota 2 has Attribute Shift, which lets him exchange Strength for Agility and vice-versa over time. Since Strength gives HP and Agility increases his damage and attack speed, this means he can change between Stone Wall and Glass Cannon whenever the situation arises. The only catch is that he can't convert attributes from items or temporary effects. One of his other ability, Adaptive Strike, has more stun duration and knockback the more Strength he has than Agility, and a higher damage multiplier the more Agility he has than Strength.
- The Were
race in Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures. They have three forms, human, normal and 'primal' (animal), which basically form a Sliding Scale of Magicalness. As humans, they're immune to magic; in their normal form, they're Muggles with some minor bonuses; and as animals, their magical power is increased.
- In El Goonish Shive, some of Grace's pure forms have positive and negative attributes the other pure forms or combination forms don't. Her full squirrel form is small but doesn't allow her to speak
and her omega form is powerful and allows her to fly but its 3 tails can complicate things
.
- Ben 10 has this as its core concept. The protagonist, Ben Tennyson, wears an alien watch-like device which he can use to shapeshift into a large variety of aliens beings, each with its own super-power (one has Super Speed, another is Playing with Fire, and so on). He started out with only ten, but got new forms as the series progressed, and it was explicitly stated he could potentially have more than one million.
- The Nemetrix from Omniverse is an even more specialized variation. It's designed to specifically counteract the Omnitrix's aliens with their natural predators. Whatever power or weakness an alien has, the Nemetrix's aliens are either counters or exploiters to/of those powers/weaknesses.
- In Generator Rex, Rex can create a variety of mechanical constructs that include the Smack Hands, the Boogie Pack, the Slam Cannon, the Block Party and the Blast Caster. Balance is mostly kept by making Rex only able to build one type of machine at a time (And even with a few season upgrades he can only create two by the end of the series) and making every machine have a secondary mode (The Smack hands can spin to create a stronger attack, the Blast Caster can generate electricity, the Boogie Pack can launch a few projectiles to grab enemies, and so on).