Given the amount of characters in the game, there will always be a card that players will look down on, whether it be poor design, wonky mechanics or simply fail to reach the expected numbers relative to their year of release.
Note that due to the ever-present Power Creep, many cards inevitably become outdated as newer and stronger units appear, as a result this page instead will cover cards that have been looked down even when they first came out.
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Types/Categories in General
- Extreme TEQ having the fewest units out of all the Types in the game, bar none. As of writing this, a year has passed ever since the introduction of 200% Leader Skill (7th Anniversary), Extreme TEQ is the sole Type that lacks both 200% Leader Skill and Dokkanfest Exclusive unit, with the last one being [Game of Death] Androids #17 (Future) & #18 (Future), one of the last Dokkanfest Exclusive unit to be released few months before the start of 200% Leader Skill era. Not to mention Extreme TEQ is infamous for putting out a numbers amount of very flawed units such as [Mythic Evolution] Super Saiyan 3 Broly and [Icy Malice and Fiery Pride] Eis Shenron & Nuova Shenron listed below. Added salt to the wound, Extreme TEQ is also the only Type (and soon to be the last Type) to not having any Dokkanfest Exclusive LR. It's no surprise why Extreme TEQ has often being mocked by many in the Dokkan Community.
- GT Bosses is a rather odd category, with its flaws being more and more exposed as time went on. Having been introduced with the Free to Play LR [Destroyers Born of Dragon Balls] Legion of Shadow Dragons, followed by the slight letdown of a LR unit [Ceremony of Destruction] Super #17, the category had been seen as really underwhelming. However, it wasn't until a new Carnival LR, [The Ultimate Shadow Dragon] Omega Shenron, released with a 200% Leader Skill for GT Bosses that the category's flaws were fully exposed. With below-mentioned units like [Icy Malice and Fiery Pride] Eis Shenron & Nuova Shenron and [Evil-Stained Androids] Android #17 & Hell Fighter #17 serving more as a detriment to the team, and other GT Bosses units being heavily outdated, it's not uncommon for any of these units to get you killed while the LR Omega Shenron has to carry the whole team.
Dokkan Fest Units
- [Mythic Evolution] SSJ3 Broly, the 120% Extreme TEQ leader, turns him back into a Glass Cannon. He starts each turn with a 100% attack boost, and can increase his power even more by 12% for every Ki sphere gained... at the cost of losing 10% DEF each time so if you gain 10 Ki spheres, you would get a massive 220% attack boost but you defense will be reduced to zero so if the enemy supers your SSJ3 Broly after gaining lots of spheres, then kiss your Dragon Stones goodbye. He doesn't even have the "Over In A Flash" Ki link that most other Super Saiyan 3's have which makes building up Ki for him incredibly difficult. To add further insult to injury, unlike other 120 leaders, Broly's EZA still retains the DEF debuff causing him to lose much of his initial DEF boost. All this downside single-handedly made Extreme TEQ not only the worst typing in the game but also made it the hardest Mono Team to compete against Super Battle Road.
- [Confronting Despair] Super Saiyan Gohan (Future) is a unit that tries to be the Jack of All Trades but ends up being a Master of None. Basically, his passive gives him a +100% ATK boost and additional DEF boost the lower the health he gets and over time, he begins to reduce more damage the longer the event goes. The problem is, he can't really hit hard as his ATK stats does not even reach the 10,000 threshold that other Dokkan Festival units have. He only becomes a tank later on in the event so using him to tank enemy hits early on is unwise which sorta makes him rather useless in EZA and SBR due to the fast pacing of the events. Oh sure his leader skill gives a 170% ATK boost to all the Future arc categories but the main stars of the category (Vegito Blue, Rose Black and LR Zamasu) are already in two better and more useful categories leaving it as just another Vegito Blue + Zamasu but with Future Trunks added to the mix. Indeed, as soon as Future Saga gets another category leader in the form of [Resilient Will to Protect the Future] Trunks (Teen) (Future), he quickly gets kicked out of the category, both as a unit and leader.
- [Shocking Absorption Abilities] Super Buu is unique transforming unit where the fighter he will absorb depends on how much HP you have left. But unfortunately in an era of powerful category leads with powerful transformations, Super Buu himself has a rather bad case of being Overshadowed by Awesome by other even older non-special category leads. Basically his passive gives him a +80% ATK and DEF boost and after 5 turns he transforms depending how much health you have left. Ironically, despite being the strongest Buu in the anime, Buuhannote is actually considered the worst Buu to transform as his passive gives him 10% health and a 120% ATK & DEF boost and not much else than that aside from getting Big Bad Bosses. Granted his two other forms does have more uses but in-between that time, you are stuck with a subpar unit with a less than average boost where five turns is like a lifetime for Dokkan standards. Which is a great shame as his category (which comprises of Frieza, Cell, and Buu along with characters with a transformation mechanic such as Super Saiyan Gogeta, SSBE Vegeta, Super Saiyan Broly and transforming Goku) is actually fun to play as but due horrible synergy with the team (links really poorly with most other non-Majins and he doesn't even have Big Bad Bosses unless he transforms into Buuhan), the category is widely unpopular because of it. Much like what happened with [Confronting Despair] Super Saiyan Gohan (Future), once [Extreme Ultimate Power] Cooler stepped onto the stage, [Shocking Absorption Abilities] Super Buu lost all relevancy in the category he once lead.
- [Epitome of Sublime Beauty] Goku Black, the category leader for Time Travelers is hyped up as an incredibly great card along with having superb visual animations and an excellent banner note but when he is brought forward for demonstration, Goku Black himself proved to be a complete letdown due to trying, and failing to convey a Magikarp Power unit that gets stronger over time. Basically, he gets a +40% ATK boost every time he appears, he gets additional chance of a critical hit for each attack he receives while his Super Attack gives a permanent boost to his DEF in order to compensate for his zero DEF boost. All that's good, but due to the fact the he has no initial boosts at all, it'll take way too much time before he gets respectable boosts not to mention that at the first turn he appears, he is basically a sitting duck who couldn't hit hard and could easily get smashed to pieces by the enemy which makes him a complete liability in Super Battle Road. But it's his transformation condition that truly lands him on this trope. At his Super Saiyan Rose state, he gets a +150% ATK boost, a high (50%) chance for a critical hit and +3 Ki for Extreme-Class allies. That's a great passive to have so what's the catch? You have to wait for at least six turns and your HP must be 80% or above to transform into his Rose form. Even ignoring that it's way too long for such a payoff, there's the issue that having such high HP remaining requires that you either have recovery items, or have a unit who can heal HP as it's very unlikely that you could even maintain such high HP for him to transform. In short, Goku Black offers too much downsides for too little payoff that happens too late for you to benefit from it and he is widely considered to be one of the biggest disappointments among the 2018 category leads.
- On paper [Assasin's Ultimate Technique] Hit's passive looks good; he gets +120% when performing a Super Attack, debuffs the target enemy's ATK & DEF while also having a chance to stun the enemy, furthermore if the target enemy is stunned, then he will have another +80% ATK boost along with a Gogeta effect where his attacks are effective against all types. But in practice, Hit proves to be a rather sub-par unit against many events due to the various immunities and downsides he has. First, unlike most Dokkan Fest units, he lacks any DEF boost or a way to reduce damage received from enemy attacks and in the state where DEF becomes more important in harder events, this becomes detrimental as he won't be able to tank enemy attacks at all. Furthermore, much of his passive is entirely dependent on being able to stun the target enemy but the problem is, almost every single event are complete immune to being stunned which locks out this part of the passive. Even if he can stun the enemy, there's the fact that there is virtually no partner who can stun in his stead and link with him at the same time with the sole exception of Jiren who can stun all enemies with an unreliable 25% chance. So pretty much the only event where he can be utilized to his full potential is Super Battle Road but there, his Glass Cannon is very prevalent where one unlucky Super Attack on him pretty much spells instant death regardless any defensive items you use. In short, Hit's Glass Cannon status and much of his passive being locked to stunned enemies pretty much hinders what could have been a really good card for the strongest fighter of Universe 6.
- [Otherworld in Collapse] Janemba isn't a exactly a bad unit but when compared to other units released in 2020, he's derided for being one of the most poorly designed unit in the game. His initial passive gives himself +120% ATK & DEF as well as having an unconditional guard (which itself is amazing). Additionally, he also gives Extreme Class allies +2 Ki and +30% ATK & DEF after collecting 4 non-Rainbow Spheres while reducing damage by -30% if he collects 2 Rainbow Spheres. However, this is far easier said than done as Janemba himself cannot change Ki Spheres and to add further insult to injury, he has no Ki links at all so he's gonna struggle to consistently launch a Super Attack, something no other units from the same era have problems with. Even his transformation into Super Janemba can be considered to be worse as he exchanges his strong defensive capabilities and support in favor of being a standard hard-hitting unitnote without anything to distinguish himself from the others besides his evasion chance especially because he actually loses his guaranteed Guard upon transforming so in effect he becomes far squishier and render him defenseless against INT enemies. Even attempting to link with his untransformed counterpart to support the former isn't really a good idea as 3 of his links change upon transforming, 2 of which became Ki links. All this made players consider Janemba to be among the most disappointing units to be released in 2020 with Paikuhan, his Super Class counterpart being significantly better than him.
- [Unveiling of Power] Raditz is the prime example of how Dokkan overvalues the effect of being able damage all enemies to the point of throwing loads of unnecessary restrictions on it. On his own he's a rather decent card, with a rather effective "Greatly Raise ATK & DEF for 1 turn" Super Attack effect that hits all enemies... However, his passive skill left A LOT to be desired from a 2022 era unit, applying the worst of both Awesome, but Impractical and Boring, but Practical to his abilities. He gets a rather alright 150% ATK and DEF boost by default, and an extra 50% ATK when using a Super Attack on a single enemy. But the caveat is that he also gets 100% ATK if the opponent is at 50% or lower HP, which means if the opponent is above that threshold, Raditz will be hitting like the equivalent of a wet noodle no thanks to his Super Attack multiplier being nerfed from immense to supreme to compensate for his AoE even though Great Ape Vegeta before him deals mega-colossal AoE damage. Even his intended role as a Super Battle Road unit falls flat due to the fact that his boost against multiple enemies isn't multiplied at all meaning that he deals an extremely low amount of damage even compared to other AoE units unless he gets a guaranteed critical hit upon receiving an attack but due to the fact that he only has a raw DEF boost unlike his TEQ counterpart's damage reduction, this means that if he receives a Super Attack before he gets the chance to attack, Raditz will get you killed anyway. Compared to the other units (including banner units) in 2022 or even 2021, Raditz' damage potential is much lower on a conditional basis, and his kit offers very little to work with outside of just damage, especially in comparison to his TEQ Banner Unit counterpart from the 2020 Bardock banner that has a guaranteed stun and damage reduction against multiple enemies. Meanwhile, in relation to his 200% Leader Skill, the 30% bonus being applied to Space-Traveling Warriors ends up drastically limiting the amount of Pure Saiyans that can be used to just the Vegeta, Nappa, and Raditz units that are in the Saiyan Saga (Which he also leads), along with Turles and Team Bardock units, which aside from latter, were already covered under [Captain's Ace in the Hole] Captain Ginyu leader skills while the Goku units from the Saiyan Saga are left out of the bonus damage potential. It says a lot when people praise the Banner Unit Nappa more than the Dokkan Festival Unit that he came with.
- [Awakened Super Hero] Ultimate Gohan had the potential to be the most amazing unit to cap off 2022 alongside [Exploding Latent Power] Piccolo (Power Awakening), and was met with ton of speculation upon release... but said speculation mostly boils down to how did Gohan release in such a sorry state. One of the glaring issues is that he has a base DEF stat of only 7K (which is somehow lower than the F2P LR [Extraordinary Friendship] Hercule from '2017), and it only gets worse from there. He has no ways of infinitely stacking his DEF (or even ATK for his Active Skill), struggles to gain Ki due having no built-in Ki besides 1 additional Ki per orbs or any other Ki links besides Shocking Speed (which really hurts the build-up mechanic since it only triggers with each Super Attack launched that by the way, has a 70% chance to be a Super when the 7th Anniversary LRs released almost a year before has it guaranteed with the same conditions), has no relevant partners that can link well and tank before attacking at the same time note and his Entrance Animation boosts doesn't last very long which can also be a detriment to his performance. And then there's the elephant in the room regarding his (unplayable) Beast Gohan form, which is restricted to only his Special Beam Cannon Active Skill and nothing else. Many has investigated things like the weird cuts in his animations and lackluster Ultimate Form's passive skill and has made theories suggesting that Beast Gohan maybe was supposed to be playable, but assumed that some form of Executive Meddling happened which caused the card to be radically different upon release. All of this is in stark contrast to Piccolo (Power Awakening), who served as the perfect card for the current meta being both an amazing tank and attacker along with having the powerful STR Piccolo banner unit as his partner while also having Orange Piccolo as a really powerful Active Skill Giant Form transformation, while Ultimate Gohan was effectively a Glass Cannon who didn't fit into the meta as much outside of his raw attack power. In fact, the contrast between Gohan and Piccolo might be one of the biggest gap in viability between Dual Dokkan Festival units. Regardless, Ultimate Gohan was quickly written off as a weird letdown of a card, with many giving him the nicknames of "Least Gohan" or "Scamhan".
- [Evil-Stained Androids] Android #17 & Hell Fighter #17 has the potential of being able to get a top-tier Androids unit to support the team (as well as making up for [Ceremony of Revenge] Super #17's poor performance) but instead ends up being having the most unnecessarily restricted kit that severely hampers their potential. While Super #17 himself is actually a strong unit, it is everything else that really holds him back. Firstly, while their fused state allows them to tank before attacking (a really valuable role to have in a team that lacks them), their unfused state could not as their additional DEF and evasion boost only triggers when attacking. While such downside can seemingly be covered up by pairing them with [Imperturbable Hero] Gamma 1, Android #17 and Hell Fighter #17 has their boosts weakened if there's a Super Class which wouldn't be as bad if it weren't for the fact that one of their two Category leader skills is Joined Forces where the best units there are Super Class. Besides being able to run [Game of Death] Androids #17 (Future) & #18 (Future) and [Avengers From Hell] Dr. Myuu & Dr. Gero (which is already covered under their Target: Goku leader skill), said leader skill ended up being one of the worst Categories they can lead especially considering that their fused state isn't even part of it. This leaves their only ideal partner being [The Ultimate Android] Super #17, a unit released almost 6 (3 if one considers EZA only) years ago or the afromented TEQ Future Androids. And that's not to mention the condition needed for them to fuse into Super #17 which can only happen at turn 5 and get below 70% HP (which incidentally is the HP needed for Super #17 to be able to absorb Ki Blast Super Attacks, nevermind that Dr. Gero and Android #19 released a year and half ago has absolutely no such restrictions and given that Super #17 has damage reduction, you won't even get much healing from it) which really hurts his defensive potential as he also needed to get hit 10 times before becoming one of the best tanks in the game. To add further insult to injury, none of the units released in the celebration complement them in any way besides Dr. Myuu & Dr. Gero (a banner unit that suffers from Crippling Overspecialization by being ineffective against any enemies not named Goku) as all the other units that were added are Super Class including the EZA for the Super PHY [Last-Ditch Battle] Android #17 instead of AGL Android #13. When you compare this to the next DFE released immediately after this celebration, aka [Fighter Entrusted with Allies' Wishes] Super Saiyan God Goku whose kit perfectly complements each other as well having far less restrictions along with having one of the best banner unit in the game that has far more uses beyond being Godku's partner, you begin to wonder why they released a unit as restrictive as them especially one in 2023 at all.
Summonable LR
- [Hopes and Promises for the Future] Trunks (Future)(Teen) & Mai (Future) is a perfect example of what happens when you make a card too gimmicky, as their passive grants an additional ATK & DEF boost on top of their base 70% boost for every "Time Traveler" category on the team, and can gain more Ki as well as a 50% dodge chance when fighting an enemy from the "Future Saga" category. The main problem with this is that this card will never reach its full potential in any other team, and even then, they're detrimental in their own "Time Traveler" team because of how poorly they link with everyone else.
- Despite being Summonable LR, [Rampaging Vicious Saiyans] Nappa/Vegeta is widely looked down by many players due to having several downsides that massively hampers them. For starters as Nappa, he gets ATK & DEF +78%, Ki +5 when his HP is 78% or more, gets an additional ATK +78% after evading an attack along with an additional ATK & DEF +7800 (a flat boost despite being released in 2020) per existing enemy and he also gets a guaranteed evasion with his Active Skill which can be triggered as early as the 3rd turn. However, his Active Skill also debuffs his own ATK by -50% (and since Active Skills are calculated separately, he'll actually lose -11% of his damage output unless he evades in the first slot which his reduced to 58%) which hinders his potential to finish them off before he loses this guaranteed evasion. Furthermore, his links are straight up horrible; aside from Saiyan Warrior Race and Brutal Beatdown, all his links are very situational with only Shattering the Limit as his sole Ki link. While the card does improve upon Exchanging with Vegeta note , doing so require that you wait till 4 turns and your HP is 50% or less which is difficult to achieve and in the mean time, you're stuck with a virtual dead-weight whose only effectiveness is his guaranteed evasion along with an AoE Super Attack for World Tournaments. To add further insult to injury, a few days later they released another Extreme AGL LR in the form of Babidi & Dabura and despite being a F2P unit, somehow ended up getting a far better card than a summonable LR of Nappa/Vegeta.
- [Furious Last Resort] Vegeta (Giant Ape) is meant to be the defensive counterpart to [Battle Against Limits] Goku (Kaioken) and while his kit works well on paper thanks to having an unconditional ability to guard, a Giant Form Active Skill and the ability to deal mega-colossal damage to all enemies, it ended up being poorly executed due to having multiple wonky mechanics that severely hampers him. While his guard does allow him to take enemy hits, Vegeta's additional DEF boost only works after attacking but part of his passive also has him gain Ki (which allows him to get his Ultra Super Attack needed for his full DEF boost) and ATK after getting hit in the same turn which meant that even though he's meant to be a slot 1 tank, he can only properly take hits after he attacks so against enemies that attacked beforehand, Vegeta will take significant damage, potentially enough to get you killed. To add further insult to injury, due his horrid links (inherited from his AGL counterpart, except just switch Big Bad Bosses for Legendary Power), Vegeta has zero relevant partners that can help himnote so there is even less incentive to run him in almost any other Categories that he's on and even as floater, he struggles to attain Ki needed to consistently launch his Ultra Super Attack if he's not fighting a Goku enemy leaving him outclassed in even the most remotely competent teams. While Vegeta's not a bad unit and can actually perform well under the idea conditions, his wonky passive and horrid links makes Vegeta among the worst performing summonable LR of 2022, with his STR Goku (Kaioken) counterpart, while not the best LR either, performs very well as a floater due to being very self-sustainable in addition to being able to hit incredibly hard without any setups needed.
Banner Units
In the early days of Dokkan, the regular banner units that were released alongside their Dokkan Festival counterparts are almost always looked down upon thus listing cards in the early era in this entry being rather redundant. However with the advent of power creep, banner units that were released in later eras eventually manage to hold well on their own, have powerful utility or have strong support buffs. Nevertheless there's still a couple of units released in those eras were either badly designed or they're simply overshadowed compared to other units released both before and after them within the same year.
- [Newly Acquired Chance] Android #16 was released as the side unit for [Awakened True Power] Super Saiyan Gohan (Youth)'s banner ostensibly to run alongside Gohan as he fulfills the latter's restrictive Transformation Conditionnote while #16 himself provides a massive support boost if they're on the same rotation. However the biggest problem with this unit is that Gohan's leader skill does not support this unit at all as he leads Kamehameha as well as Super AGL but he himself is Super INT. In fact the only category where the two can be ran together is in Android/Cell Saga under [The True Value of Perfect Form] Cell (Perfect Form) but Cell himself links poorly with either of them which further drags the team down but even then, #16 links horribly with Gohan and every one else, only sharing the common Fierce Battle link. All in all, the inability to run the two together as well as having a horrible linkset made INT Android #16 among the most poorly designed unit in the game whose ideal role is to literally run him without receiving any leader skill boosts in teams where AGL Gohan can be rannote just for the sake of getting Gohan to transform in the first place.
- [Flaming Avenger] Nuova Shenron was released as the side unit for [Peerless Super Power] Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta's banner and is built to counter Extreme and Shadow Dragon Saga enemies as well as providing support for the team which does make him useful for Shadow Dragon Saga Super Battle Road/Infinite Dragon Ball History but outside of those events, you won't find any other SDS enemies and even then, the buff is so negligible that it's not hard to forget that he even gets a boost in the first place. His support is also unnecessarily restricted as not only does it merely encompasses Super Class allies in a very limited category that has a good number of Extreme Class units but it's merely a defensive one at that even though Tien and Majin Buu (Piccolo) who were released before him has both offensive and defensive buffs to their respective teams. Additionally, even though he's meant to pair up with Super Class allies, his links does nothing to complement this with only GT, Shocking Speed and Fierce Battle to link with them while his Shadow Dragon link can only be paired with Extreme Class allies. And to add the final nail in the coffin even though this unit is based on his fight against Omega Shenron which is depicted by his Super Class alignment, Nuova was somehow added to GT Bosses instead of GT Heroes where his support is completely useless. All in all, Nuova ended up getting overshadowed pretty quickly even within the Shadow Dragon Saga category where he's meant to be ran as Super Class has far better options such as the SS4s while being completely useless within the Extreme Class team with his TEQ EZA counterpart being better than him in almost every way.
- [Joint Struggle for Survival] Golden Frieza (Angel) & Ultimate Gohan is one of the two side units alongside Gohan & Piccolo that was released during the 6th Anniversary released in Super Saiyan God SS Evolved Vegeta's banner. In contrast to Gohan & Piccolo that was designed to hit hard, Golden Frieza (Angel) & Ultimate Gohan were built a utility-type unit where in exchange for having a low damage output, they have multiple debuffs against the enemy while also being a tanky slot 1 unit to pair with the latter given the fact that they also support the team with another Representatives of Universe 7 ally on the same turn. However at the time of their release, they were already derided for being poorly suited for said role; for instance their guard not only triggers on a Super Attack but also isn't guaranteed rendering them defenseless before they attack but even then, it has a 30% chance for the Guard to fail and you get hit for full damage anyway. Another example is the fact their ATK debuff only lasts for 1 turn as it's a passive-based skill and not a Super Attack effect so they won't help soften the blow for the next rotation. Additionally, due to them being team unit, their links by default are incredibly weak as aside from Shocking Speed, Tournament of Power or Fierce Battle, none of their links are widespread or shared with other top tier U7 units. The Dokkan Awakening and EZA of the freely obtainable U7 units ended scraping off whatever viability this unit has left as not only they can reach this unit's damage output in equal potential but they also have far stronger support effects. Tien & Roshi in particular not only has a bigger support buff but they also debuff the enemy's ATK for 3 turns while also sealing like Frieza & Gohan, completely outclassing a side unit in every way. Given the fact that every side units released after them has far better support buffs or even being just better overall, you'd wonder why they'd release such a mediocre unit in 2021 where even the side units post-Anniversary are incredibly powerful. Their Gohan & Piccolo counterpart while also overshadowed by the banner units released in the same year, can still hold well on their own due to being able to output a good amount of damage while also tanking incredibly well on a Super Attack.
- [Exceptional Wisdom] Piccolo is the Planet Namek Saga support banner unit released in conjunction with LR Super Saiyan Goku during the 350 Million Download Celebration but while he gives the team their much needed support, his Namekian-based linkset meant that he doesn't have proper synergy with any of the top tier units such as Super Saiyan Goku, Frieza or Ginyu and he can't even be ran under LR Super Saiyan Goku's leader skills. Additionally, his boosts require too much buildup as he needs to wait for at least 7 turns before it becomes fully active but even with his full passive, he couldn't properly tank enemy attacks as his Super Attack effect merely lower the enemy's ATK which while useful in Super Battle Road, is worthless in every other events. As an added insult to injury, he shares the same name with every other Piccolos in the game, rendering him worthless as a potential partner for PHY Piccolo until the latter Transforms in turn 4. Pretty much his only role is to become a linking partner partner for AGL Nail as well as a Rainbow Ki Changer which allows your team to heal but even this is squandered by the fact that the Ki-changing passive is not guaranteed for no reason. All in all, Piccolo easily ranks among the worst banner units of 2021 after the 6th Anniversary with his Extreme Class INT Frieza (3rd Form) counterpart being far better than this card in every way not only due to having a better team to support but also having better links and greater stat boosts to himself.
- [Strength Concentrated on the Fists] Krillin & Gohan (Youth) are widely considered to be the most unnecessary banner unit to be released. Making their appearance as the side unit for Super Saiyan Goku & Super Saiyan Vegeta's banner, Krillin and Gohan are designed to be the perfect linking partner for [Dilemma on the Battlefield] Krillin & Gohan (Kid), sharing 6 out of 7 links but the only category they share at the time of release is Joined Forces and unless you pulled Super Saiyan Goku & Super Saiyan Vegeta, you won't have a proper 170% lead for the category. Outside of that though, their role is limited to being a hard-hitting unit, with no other gimmick to their passive aside from a critical support for Movie Heroes. While this isn't the first time that a banner unit is designed to do nothing but hit hard (e.g. Syn Shenron, Broly and Super Saiyan Vegeta), Krillin & Gohan are furthered hampered by the fact that they only have 3 categories at the time of their release (Joined Forces, Movie Heroes and Battle of Wits with Earth-Bred Fighters being released later on) and their linkset meant that outside of the afromented LR released a year ago, they ended up having horrible synergy with the rest of team. They're not even good floater options either as their wonky links and lack of built-in Ki mechanic meant that they'll struggle to launch their Super Attacks most of the time. Even within the limited categories they have, there's simply far better options available to use. What makes this even more damning is the fact that said unit was released within the same celebration as another Piccolo banner unit and unlike last year's Piccolo, ended up becoming an incredibly valuable unit due to having guard, damage reduction, sealing and support for the team as well as the fact that they're another Super Class banner unit as opposed to a potential Cyclopian Guard/Metal Cooler Army unit as the Extreme Class counterpart to STR Piccolo.
- [Icy Malice and Fiery Pride] Eis Shenron & Nuova Shenron is a banner unit released alongside [Miracle-Making Final Showdown] Goku (GT) & Super Saiyan 4 Vegeta for the 8th year anniversary, but many players find them to be incredibly underwhelming. On paper, they seem alright: they turn AGL and STR Ki spheres into TEQ spheres, they gain 134% ATK and DEF at the start of turn, and then get an additional 134% ATK and DEF, does an additional super attack, and are effective against all types. Their restrictions is where the card suffers: for them to be effective against all types, their target enemy needs to be stunned, when most Dokkan events or bosses are immune to all status effects in general, and their additional percentage boost and super attack requires them to get up to 7 TEQ spheres to activate everything, which can be harder than it looks without luck on your side. Even with luck, however, their stats don't necessarily make them hit like a truck, only doing decent damage unless they get all the spheres they need and to make things worse, they directly steal Ki Spheres from other characters who needed it more unless they're placed at the 3rd attacker at which point they won't get the bonus. To add insult to injury, they're incredibly limited in terms of categories, having only GT Bosses, Joined Forces, and Shadow Dragons Saga, which coupled with a wonky linkset (Gentleman, Brutal Beatdown, Cold Judgement, Shocking Speed, GT, Shadow Dragons, Fierce Battle) means that it'll be difficult to get them to their full potential unless the team is built around them. It says a lot when a banner unit released exactly 1 year ago with similar passive and Categories completely outperforms this unit in every way.
- [Fighter's Self-Awareness] Super Saiyan Gohan (Youth) is the epitome of how not to do side units that focuses purely on offense at the expense of defense. As a banner unit counterpart to Super Trunks, Gohan is meant to be an offensive side character that grows stronger over time due to greatly raising ATK infinitely and he also has a great chance to launch another Super Attack. However defensive-wise he's terrible even for banner unit standards due to lacking any sort DEF raise on his Super Attack. While most other banner units also lack this, they have other defensive components to make up for it such as guard, damage reduction or evasion. Gohan lacks any of those three (in fact, his ATK & DEF stats are terrible even for banner unit standards, having only 5964 & 3705 respectively in exchange for having extremely bloated HP stats at 19227) and to make things even worse, his additional DEF boost require Gohan to be receiving attacks and given his pitifully low DEF even after supering, he's probably going to take significant damage beforehand even before being supered by the enemy. Overall Gohan is ultimately defined as a "Glass Cannon" unit but without the Cannon being good enough to compensate for any of it compared to the likes of Vegeta or Baby. And to put the cherry on top of this, Gohan's level 1 stats is only barely different compared to his max level which means that if he ever gets an EZA in the future, he won't benefit much from the 20 levels as shown what happened to PHY LSS Broly, ensuring that unless he gets a really good passive upgrade, he'll likely never be able to climb up from his role of obscurity.
- [Brutal Devil's Battle Instinct] Super Full Power Saiyan 4 Limit Breaker Broly is a peculiar unit, having been released alongside several other Dragon Ball Heroes collaboration units in 2023, most of which were highly acclaimed for unique and helpful toolkits and/or being able to deliver tons of damage, with [Fused Fighter Who Surpasses All] Super Full Power Saiyan 4 Limit Breaker Vegito (Xeno) in particular being a full-blown Game-Breaker that shined amongst the crowd. Broly... Does none of those things. He raises his ATK and DEF by 200% at start of turn, and by an additional 100% when delivering a Super Attack, which would be pretty great... If it weren't for the fact his base stats are extremely low like other Heroes units released with him, meaning these extra stats don't do too much. So surely, he has extra effects to work with, correct? He can make additional attacks with a chance to become a Super Attack with certain conditions... And that's it. No guard, no damage reduction, no way to compensate for his low stats outside of his Super Attack raising his DEF. So in comparison to other Heroes units, Broly won't be doing much damage, nor will he be able to take much damage, ESPECIALLY if he gets hit before he attacks, with players mainly using him just as a link partner for [Brutal Berserker] Super Saiyan 4 Broly, whose Extreme Z-Awakening had recently released as well.
Extreme Z-Awakenings
Extreme Z-Awakening is a concept released late 2017 where old units that aged out of the metagame have their stats buffed to make them strong with the tier of units released during that time with [Mystery Technique] Super Saiyan 3 Goku being the first one. Most of the time, the improvements were positively received as it allows old units that most player would have already maxed out to contend with difficult Events. Despite this however, some of the EZA were poorly received either because the units weren't improved enough or that their glaring weakness still remains intact.
- [Unparalleled Golden Ki] Super Vegito was one of the most anticipated EZA due to the fact that his counter-based passive and his massive damage reduction against normal attacks allow him to age well even if his damage output aged considerably with the biggest weakness is him being completely vulnerable to Super Attacks. However, while his Extreme Z-Awakening improves his damage output, he doesn't receive any boosts in the defensive compartment as he only gets a 40% boost in his ATK & DEF which still doesn't allow him to tank enemy Super Attacks at all. Even worse, his added passive has him being able to Foresee Super Attacks which would have made him an incredibly useful unit but it only works when your HP is 40% or less, the state where you don't want to tank Super Attacks anyway regardless of whom they're attacking against.
- [Mythic Evolution] Super Saiyan 3 Broly was already criticized as stated above due to the fact that he debuffs how own DEF with each Ki Sphere he obtained so when he was announced as the first 120 lead to get an Extreme Z-Awakening, players were hyped due to the fact that his debuff could potentially be removed much like [Super Warrior of Destruction] Legendary Super Saiyan Broly. But come his Extreme Z-Awakening while he now gets a DEF boost in his passive, he still retains the DEF debuff albet a bit less and to make things worse, because his Super Attack merely improves it to "Massively Lowering DEF" without any DEF raise, it still renders him completely frail and leaves him unable to tank enemy attacks. The only other trait that was added to his passive was a chance to launch another Super Attack but to do so, you are required to collect 3 specific TEQ orbs for a 30% chance of an additional Super. Other characters already have a similar type of passive without any conditions making it not only restrictive but also mediocre. While he was presumably intended to be an "All-out" type of character where he has a tremendous damage output in exchange for tankiness, this falls flat as other 120 leads can output even greater amounts of damage while also being far better in defensive capability. All in all, Broly easily ranks among the worst 120 EZA in the game which also raises the stigma of Extreme TEQ being the most shafted typing in the game.
- [Full Tilt Kamehameha] Super Saiyan 2 Gohan's Extreme Z-Awakening exemplifies what happens when one takes the "All he needs is defense" statement literally. Being one of the first summonable LR, Gohan was among the most anticipated EZA in the game and with two previous EZA making the units very strong, players were hoping that the same will happen to Gohan. Then come his EZA and all Gohan gets is a DEF boost. That's it, his nuking passive stays the same nor did he have any other components added to help with his nuking such as the ability to change Ki Spheres. While it did make Gohan runnable in difficult events, his damage output doesn't change at all save for a bigger SA multiplier, which leaves Gohan far behind in comparison to other LR EZAs with even subsequent banner units getting a better EZA than this guy. Overall, Gohan easily ranks among the most disappointing EZA in the game and stands as a cautionary tale as to what happens when giving DEF boost without giving any other boost entails.
- [Destruction Descending] Buu (Super)'s EZA is what happens when Dokkan values the ability to heal with damage way too much. His EZA barely improves his damage output besides a 30% crit chance and while that seemed understandable that they don't want to raise his damage output, he has absolutely no defensive upgrade to make up for this, with only a 130% DEF boost, a 30% dodge chance and nothing else. This meant that if Super Buu so much as to get scratched by the enemy (which is pretty easy for it to happen given his abysmal DEF), then whatever healing you get will be negated, sometimes to the point of instant death. And given that Majin Power allies are well-known for their healing, there is absolutely no reason one would even run this guy in the first place especially considering that he's released at the same time as [Majin of Destruction] Buu (Kid) whom besides having far better defense, is capable of healing a tremendous 20% HP at the end of turn after taking a hit, far more than whatever healing that Super Buu can achieve.
- [Magnificent Squadron] Thouser (Cooler's Armored Squad) might be a contender for having one of the most useless EZA for all time. His passive severely restricts him to a Cooler-led Terrifying Conquerors team and while he does have the ability to debuff enemy's ATK, he doesn't have any other utility in his passive that makes him a splashable filler option and he links horribly with everyone on the team. Then come his EZA in the 2022 WWC, all Thouser got was an increased passive boost, a 1-turn 30% raise to his SA Multiplier for his Super, his chance of Super upgraded from rare to medium and a medium chance of evasion & guard against a Goku enemy. That's literally all he got. None of said upgrades mitigate his downsides or even improve him beyond his original viability in any way and given how many better options are there available even in a team where he can be fully utilized, he ends up being in the same position of being overshadowed into obscurity. Even in the featured Challenge event where characters from the Cooler movie are effective, running a full Cooler team (yes that includes F2P the Type Metal Cooler units) is far better to fulfill all the missions especially compared to his sub-EZA counterparts that are useful to the event in some way or STR Cooler that got a really good EZA to complement the featured Extreme Class DFE LR of the 2022 Worldwide Celebration.
- [Limitless Radiance] Super Vegito was an Extreme Z-Awakening many people had high hopes for, given his age as one of the oldest Category leads and has the potential to surpass his AGL and possibly his LR INT and STR counterparts, as well as the fact this was an EZA being delivered during the 8th Anniversary, and following the extremely powerful Extreme Z-Awakenings for LR Super Saiyan 2 Gohan and Cell, as well as AGL Gogeta in terms of TU Rs. Unfortunately, the updated kit he was given left a lot to be desired. While he starts with a 150% DEF boost on top of -80% damage reduction against normal attacks, and can gain an additional DEF boost up to 90%, he still has no means of defending himself against Super Attacks, and given the upped frequency in which bosses can unleash them in a single turn makes Vegito a detriment on your team as opposed to a necessity. His damage is sub-par as well, having no ATK boost at the start and requires you to take a lot of risk just to get him up to a paltry 120% as he can still only raise it with every attack received. And that additional 90% DEF boost mentioned earlier? He only gets that after getting hit nine times in battle. And to make matters worse, unlike his AGL and LR STR variants who have Scouter abilities (even if the HP restriction gets in the way), this Vegito cannot sense any upcoming enemy Super Attacks, tactically making him the lowest performing Super Vegito out of them all.
- [Outburst of Emotions] Super Saiyan 2 Vegeta & Bulma's EZA showed that apparently the people working on these haven't learned too much from [Limitless Radiance] Super Vegito. At first, it seems they do have a pretty nice starting 122% ATK and DEF buff, as well as an extra 122% DEF if there's another Vegeta's Family unit in the turn. However, the caveat in this unit is their oddly low base stats, even when fully EZA'd and with their Hidden Potential at 100%, with their DEF maxing out at 11709, meaning these extra buffs don't do too much in the long run. But the real kicker is their defensive mechanics, countering every normal attack thrown at them, boosting their DEF by 80% for 4 turns after taking a hit, as well as allowing them to reduce damage by 40%... from only normal attacks. Sound familiar? If so, then one would be painfully aware that if a Super Attack is thrown their way turn 1, which is very common nowadays in harder content, it's basically an instant game over thanks to the unit's lower-than-average defense, and thus making this unit riskily counterintuitive. If you want to activate Furious Vegeta (HP has to be 40% or less) or activate the defensive buff and get a bunch of counters in, you have to risk getting Vegeta & Bulma into several attacks, and considering the most recent difficult bosses love to throw Super Attacks quite frequently nowadays, it's very likely you'll end up getting sniped and wiped out by a Super Attack.
- [God-Guided Path] Kami's EZA was met with instant ridicule the moment it was revealed and especially when it released. This Kami unit's purpose is to be a support unit, supporting all units and giving an extra bonus to Earth-Bred Fighters and Gifted Warriors as well, and also healing 50% HP if the party's HP drops below 30%. He even has a medium chance (30% chance fore reference) to dodge attacks overall, and gets an additional 30% chance increase before attacking, making him a peculiar risk & reward slot 1 styled support unit. The problem however is that he has no defense whatsoever, merely getting a 100% Defense boost on top of the 35% support, meaning he could potentially have defense below the 100,000 mark if he doesn't have excessive support, which won't fly ANYWHERE in even moderately difficult modern day Dokkan content. This means that if any attack hits Kami, it's very likely game over. And even if one does put him in the first slot for that 60% total dodge chance at the start, if he's set to take attacks after he attacks (which is also very likely with how frequently enemies attack), it's also game over. To sum it up, Kami's problem is that he's a counterintuitive support unit that has NO way to defend himself other than literal pure chance, and will ultimately drag the team down to a swift end rather than help them.
- [Princess Oto's Scorn] Oceanus Shenron (Princess Oto) EZA proved to be yet another example of how GT Bosses ended up being the most shafted Category in the game. All her EZA did is to increase her initial boost from 120 to 150 and additional boost on a debuffed enemy from 60 to 100. She doesn't even have any new line of text in her passive and given that she's released in 2023 where an overwhelming majority of the enemies are immune to debuffs, most of the time she only gets the 150 boost and nothing else which is completely insufficient to tank attacks from even the weakest enemies.
- Just about the only good thing that can be said about [Epitome of Sublime Beauty] Goku Black's EZA is that they lowered the transformation requirements so that he only needs to wait 4 turns and be above 60% HP as opposed to needing to wait 6 turns and be above 80% HP. Unfortunately, nothing else about his kit was improved. His stats are way too low even by EZA standards, his ATK boosts are pitiful and still take way too long to build up, he's still a Glass Cannon even with the added DEF boosts, and while the 2 additional attacks might sound useful, it's negated by the fact that they only have 50% chances to become Super Attacks and it only goes off against Super Class enemies, making him worthless in the Ultimate Red Zones and Shadow Dragon events. His transformed Super Saiyan Rose form isn't any better either, still retaining the low DEF boosts and RNG and Super Class dependent additional attacks. Not only are both Global and Japanese users upset by his predicament, but he's also been Damned by Faint Praise with people saying that the "Corroded Body And Mind" mission for the Fighting Legend: Goku [GT Edition] stage is now somewhat doable.
- [Absolute Power] Jiren is another unit that's a victim of Crippling Overspecialization, but one as a result of the developers trying way to hard to make him functionally similar as he was 5 years ago rather than accept that Super Battle Road is no longer the pinnacle of Dokkan Battle challenges. He's way too restrictive as his Type-ignoring abilities are only active against a single enemy, and his somewhat-useful damage reduction only goes off if there's more than two enemies involved (which almost never happens as Red Zone and WWC challenge towers only have you fight one boss character at a time), and that extra +111% Attack and Defense boost only occurs when fighting the very specific "Universe Survival Saga" or "Tournament Participants" Categories. Let's not forget how he's still Stun-dependent, which is useless given that every end-game boss has immunity to it as early as Phase 1.
- [Raging Counterattack] Bardock's EZA feels like a unit whose passive is meant for bosses released a year or two ago such as the 7th Anniversary Red Zone rather than those released after the 9th Anniversary. His Base Form, if all the conditions are met gives himself a 50% damage reduction as well as being able to stack DEF infinitely just like [Epitome of Sublime Beauty] Goku Black and he has a 50% chance of launching another additional Super to build up his DEF faster. However much like the afromented Goku Black, his DEF boost is entirely on start of turn so he stacks too slowly for it to be any meaningful and in order to get his damage reduction and additionals, he needs to run at least 4 other Low-Class Warriors (which his Super Saiyan form don't belong to so he won't be able to activate his links after he transforms nor can he be paired up with his fellow Bardock or Revenge Category allies), a Category where every ally besides [Showdown for the World's Strongest] Goku have already been outdated even before considering the massive Power Creep that is the Battle Spectacle events. So in another more competent team you want to run him, you pretty much have to Transform him into his Super Saiyan state as soon as possible where he gets a 36% damage reduction and a 48% dodge chance, but only for 5 turns and much like his Base Form, his DEF boost is entirely at start of turn (and not even meaningful at that with only at 180% boost compared to his untransformed 150%) so even with the DR, if he so much as to get touched by the enemy's normal attacks, then you pretty much kiss your run goodbye and get sent to the event screen right away. Even his damage output alone isn't enough for him to be worth running as a filler slot 3 unit as unless he's against a Wicked Bloodline enemy he can't deal any meaningful damage numbers relative to the year he's in (especially when one consider the Global-First Kefla EZA who can output 10x the damage that he does) to contribute to the team and his presence will only spell an early grave for the rest of your fellow allies.
