YMMV / Dragon Ball: The Breakers

• Broken Base:
  • The introduction of the knockback system for Raiders in Season 3. Some think it is a good mechanic that was introduced due to the increase of matches ending incredibly early thanks to Survivors all ganging up on the Raider, as well as the infamous battles where the Raider is targeted not because it is at a time where its logical to so, but simply because they happen to have one of the Dragonballs and the increasing Power Creep the Survivors have thanks to the new skills introduced in each season. However, those against this new mechanic state that this is a poor attempt at balancing the game as several Survivor skills and super attacks are nerfed while Raiders are given buffs.
  • The implementation of the ranking system. While many saw potential in it when it was first announced, it became contested once it was active. Some think it is a good way of dividing players into rooms with similar skill levels, others dislike it for essentially becoming a "premade" generator once your rank was high enough. Some take a middle ground stating that the ranking system is fine as long as ranked is optional and not forced on players as it was for season 4.
• Complacent Gaming Syndrome:
  • Active Skills
    • Oolong's Change skill is used rather often as it provides anyone who learns it the ability to hide from the Raider by transforming into an item on the map. The only downsides this skill has are the fact that what you turn into is completely random (and turning into a chair almost guarantees death) and the fact that Raiders that can use the "Ki Detection" passive skill like Cell and Majin Buu (in his Super Buu and Kid Buu forms at least) can still sense you even when you’re transformed.
    • Kaioken Rush not only serves as an effective way to escape a Raider, but it also allows survivors to use said skill to damage them even without dragon change. The only drawback to this skill is that it takes a bit of time to charge the energy needed to escape. And should the Raider hit you while you’re using this skill, it ends up being cancelled.
    • Skills that specialize in immobilizing the Raider - such as Solar Flare, Krillin's Shoe, Trap Device, Go-Go Gum and Charming Pose - not only allow you to temporarily stun the Raider long enough to make a quick escape via Kaioken Rush or the Capsule Motorbike, but during the defense phase of the game, it can prove quite useful in stalling the Raider until the Super Time Machine can be activated.
    • The Zipline Device is used often and for good reason. Do you need a way to escape to a safe distance even when the Raider is right next to you? This device can do just that. Not only is its range incredibly far, but using it causes you to rapidly move to that area at a speed faster than the Raider can ever fly to. A drawback is that this skill does have a large cooldown time and can't be upgraded in the training skills menu.
    • Energy Field, the skill learned from Android 17's Transphere, is quite useful as it allows Survivors to protect themselves from the Raider’s attacks long enough to escape and can even be used in battle to prevent someone from being downed by rapid fire Ki blasts. Unfortunately, the skill has a 200 second cooldown time in exchange for such protection.
    • Instant Transmission is undoubtedly a very useful and effective skill. Using it allows you to get an easy escape from any harm as you can use it to instantly teleport to another survivor's location. It also helps speed up the use of the Dragonballs as you can deliver or obtain them from an ally and even teleport to get as far away from the Raider as you can to summon Shenlong and get your wish.
  • Passive Skills
    • "Emergency Transformation Device" is generally considered one of the best passive skills to equip as it prevents Survivors from being downed before they can even fight back or escape as a skill, should a player have a barrier and a full Dragon Change meter, the skill instantly transforms them upon the barrier being destroyed.
    • "Emergency Escape Device" is recommended for most players to use to avoid being downed. Should you fail to escape the targeted area of the raider's destruction, rather than being downed and struggling to find someone to revive you, you’re instead safely warped out of the area and the most that happens is that you lose your barrier.
    • "On Guard" is an effective tool in alerting you to evacuating in time as it increases the range you can hear the heartbeat of the Raider, thus giving a Survivor more time to plan their escape before being spotted.
    • "S.O.S.", the skill learned from Future Trunks' Transphere, has become one of the most used passive skills by Survivors due to the Power Creep the Raiders get as they level up. The skill speeds up the waiting time for calling the Emergency Time Machine, allowing Survivors to have a much better chance of escaping should things become dire for them.
    • "World Champion's Daughter", the skill learned from Videl's Transphere, can turn vending machines from things you'd ignore until later in the game when people have collected money to something incredibly exploitable. Not only do you start off with money right from the get go, but when the skill is maxed out, you can have a total of 9000 Zeni from the start, allowing you to avoid being downed early on.
• Game-Breaker:
  • Majin Buu's Level 3 form’s passive skill, "Total Absorption", not only absorbs all Survivors currently playing to be trapped inside of Super Buu’s body, but should the startup system be currently activated, it gets suspended until the Survivors free Innocent Buu from Super Buu's body. This skill alone allows Majin Buu to effectively win every time he reaches his Level 3 form because he can essentially camp his good self from being freed while being given all the time he needs to wear down all the Survivors until their Dragon Change forms wear off, making them easy pickings.
  • Capsule (Single-Wheel Motorbike), the active skill learned from Bulma, is easily the best escape tool for a survivor to use. Not only is incredibly easy to learn as Bulma is a free character after completing the prologue, but by leveling up the skill to Level 10, you can make it so that anyone can use it. Not only that, but it’s so incredibly fast and easy to speed up (unlike other active skills like Flying Nimbus or Kaioken Rush) that not even the Raiders can hope to compete with the motorbike in terms of speed. And to top it all off, it lasts until you dismount from it. Meaning that a Survivor can stay on the motorbike until they’re safely away and wait 1 minute before using it again.
  • Freeza's passive skill, "Make Me Immortal", is rather impressive. Should Freeza collect all 7 Dragon Balls and select this as his wish, he becomes an Invincible Villain with unlimited HP, making it hopeless to even think about fighting him. Even if the Survivors are the ones that get to make the wish, he gets evolution energy that can advance him to his next level form, especially when the skill is maxed out.
  • Two of Guldo’s active skills, Time Freeze & Paralysis not only freezes Survivors in place, but interrupts them in the middle of any of their actions such as Energy Field, which up until this point guaranteed protection, can now be bypassed by this skill. Not only that, but should he survive to advance into the next evolution level, his "Solo Mission" passive skill also turns him into a permanent radar that can even occasionally freeze opponents during battle for The Ginyu Force.
  • Captain Ginyu's Body Change active skill allows him to instantly incapacitate any Survivor should it land. Even if the Raider fails to stop a Survivor from making a wish, Ginyu can make all that effort for naught as he can swap bodies with the level 4 Survivor and render them downed in an instant.
• High-Tier Scrappy:
  • Raiders:
    • Cell has become the most reviled Raider to face for a good reason. While originally Cell was the Low-Tier Letdown of the starting trio of raiders, lacking Majin Buu's Superpower Lottery or Freeza's Strong and Skilled abilities, a balance update significantly buffed him. The result is a raider than can quickly reach his level 4 form within a few minutes due to his Magikarp Power active skills and passive skills. Not only does Cell contain the passive skill "Auto-Evolve" in his Level 1 larval form that accelerates him to his Level 2 form, Imperfect Cell, but as soon as he reaches said form, he can learn the "Ki Detection" passive skill, which lets him track down Survivors no matter how hard they try to run. Ki Tracking also extends the effects of this skill to sense other people making it difficult for them to escape and thanks to his buffs he now gets more energy in his Level 3 form, Semi-Perfect Cell, allowing him to quickly reach Level 4, Perfect Cell, without needing to eliminate several Survivors prior to that phase. On top of that, he has active skills such as Afterimage and Solar Flare, allowing him to stun nearby survivors and evade their attacks with ease and his Perfect form contains the Energy Barrier active skill, which protects him and harms any nearby enemies in the process, making it very hard to beat him even if you somehow collected the Dragonballs.
    • Freeza also garners a lot of dislike as mentioned for being Strong and Skilled, since he can do a lot of things and do them well and he has numerous ways to boost how he gets evolution energy. In addition to downing Civilians and Survivors, he gets more energy from downing Namekian civilians who do not have Dragonballs, thus incentivizing him to hunt them down, which gets him either more evolution energy or more Dragonballs. He also gets evolution energy from taking damage, which makes fighting him a dicey proposition if he's close to reaching another level. His Third Form's Death Beam active skill has incredible range and damage, on top of being very hard to avoid and having two assist characters that have a relatively short cooldown time in Zarbon and Dodoria, makes it easier for Freeza to lock down ETM spawns, especially if his player is smart about how he uses Area Destruction. There are few ways to directly engage Freeza where he won't be able to gain an advantage, unless the Survivors swarm him early on before he can really get going. About the only major weakness he does have is lacking a true "Ki Detection" passive skill like Cell and Buu (in his Super Buu and Kid Buu forms at least) have, but his Scouter in his first form and then Zarbon and Dodoria cover that gap quite nicely by pinging any Survivors in their field of vision (and launching an attack if they can) and all three have short cooldown time even before points are invested in them, making it a trivial weakness at best, especially as the arena becomes more and more restricted.
    • The Ginyu Force finally debut in season 3 and from the experience most players have gotten from facing them in the beta test, it feels practically impossible to win thanks to the Raider's abilities using The Power of Friendship and being an Anti-Metagame Character. A common tactic that survivors use to ensure an early victory is quickly gathering the Dragonballs to overwhelm the Raider, but doing that tactic will backfire massively thanks to The Ginyu Force being the only Raider to guarantee their evolution to the 4th level regardless of how well the Raider does. Guldo, the Level 1 form, is a case of a Lethal Joke Character who not only seems specifically designed to counter early jumping as he has many active skills such as Time Freeze & Paralysis to immobilize his foes, full power energy blast volley that can apply pressure to multiple enemies attacking him and most importantly he is the only raider that can defend against close range attacks since he can use his Time Freeze while being attacked. Should he survive, it applies a ton of pressure on the survivors thanks to his "Solo Mission" passive skill that turns him a permanent radar that can also occasionally immobilize Survivors and help the Raider find their location, in addition to giving Captain Ginyu a massive HP boost thanks to his "Teamwork" passive skill. Then there's Recoome who isn't too tough of an opponent to face as he is very standard for a level 2 Raider, but contains a scouter that can track foes and overwhelm them with his melee attacks. His survival is deadly as well since his "Teamwork" passive skill increases the attack power of both Jeice & Burter and Captain Ginyu while also occasionally blocking attacks. Jeice and Burter are quite powerful with attacks like Purple Comet Crash and Crusher Ball. Fortunately their survival doesn't give much boost to Captain Ginyu as he only gets an increase of speed from the pair’s "Teamwork" passive skill, which isn't as powerful as the boosts gained from the previous two’s "Teamwork" passive skill. Finally Captain Ginyu himself debuts, but with all the boosts he's received and the fact that regardless of what the Survivors do his appearance is guaranteed, by then the match is completely lost. There's only so many resources that can be used to continuously fight him and even with the Dragonballs it will be incredibly difficult. To make matters worse, he can use the Body Change active skill to swap bodies and instantly down an opponent even powered by the Dragonballs. The final nail in the coffin for Survivors is the passive skill "This Should Be Interesting", which slowly but passively increases evolution energy for The Ginyu Force’s level 1-3 forms, this is such a powerful passive skill that it makes Cell's "auto-evolve" and Frieza's passive skills seem tame by comparison. The nerfs they received prior to finally debuting in season 3 did nothing to hinder the team as they became one of the most difficult Raider to face regardless.
  • Transhpheres:
    • From a Raider’s perspective, the most hated Transphere for them to face is Android 17's. Not only does the transphere come with the incredibly useful active skill Energy Field, which blocks a raider's ki blasts, but one of his attacks is rather difficult to evade. The Super Electric Strike active skill is incredibly effective in not only being hard to dodge, but once it hits it can tear through a Raider's hit points like butter. Good luck if someone with that form is the one to use the Dragonballs and his allies distract you while he slowly takes you down.
  • Active Skills:
    • Instant Transmission has become widely loathed by Raiders everywhere. The skill is undoubtedly useful and it essentially gives a Survivor a perfect escape from any danger by teleporting to another player's location. Even the high cooldown time does nothing to hinder this skill as it is incredibly easy to avoid the Raider long enough for the cooldown time to expire. What makes matters worse, is that it can be used while Energy Field is active, meaning unless the Raider just happens to be Guldo or have the "Ki Detection" passive skill, it is impossible to stop them from escaping, let alone finding them.
    • Energy Field is easily one of the most hated skills in the game. The skill has it all, impressive protection from attacks, including super ones that hit the whole field like Majin Buu's Assault Rain or Broly's Blaster Meteor with ease. It also can be used to interrupt the Raider in various attacks thanks to its protection. Not to mention during the defense phase it can essentially force Raiders off the startup system with no issues at all. The worst part of it all is that its often paired with Instant Transmission which guarantees the Survivor to have a perfect escape with few Raiders having any counters to such a powerful combo.
    • Time Patroller's Duty became a loathed skill by season 3. While it never saw much use early on, several skills were boosted to encourage variety due to the Complacent Gaming Syndrome that plagued the meta. As a result its used quite often after getting buffed as a necessity for the notorious key rushing strategy. While key camping was problematic, the devs failed to understand it occurred mainly due to the increased popularity of Survivors rushing the Raider and with this skill it makes them powerless to stop the key rush unless by some luck they can guard two areas. That is because it can set the final key in a few seconds.
  • Passive Skills:
    • Upon the release of season 4, new survivor skins were distributed with new skills, but none come close to garnering the annoyance as much as "Immortal Champion" that comes with Mr. Satan. That skill upon being equipped and maxed out has become the bane of Raider's everywhere since it prevents one from being downed and sends them quite a distance a way. Sure it works only once, but it makes it incredibly difficult for anyone to get a Survivor since they will fly far away and then use active skills such as Instant transmission or Change Missile to avoid detection. What makes matters worse is unlike other skills listed here, anyone can access it if their level is 50 in Dragon Tier or simply buy it.
• Low-Tier Letdown:
  • While Vegeta was highly anticipated prior to release, he unfortunately suffers from being the least threatening Raider for various reasons. Like Majin Buu, he’s a Mechanically Unusual Fighter, but it’s done in a such a way that it works against him. His Level 1 form is a Saibaman, which, unlike Cell's larva form, must consume way more energy from civilians prior to Level 2 and given how Survivors have gotten better at running from Raiders, it usually takes a while to pin one down. His Level 2 form, Nappa, will lose part of his moveset that he needs to take down other Survivors unless the Saibaman got enough energy in time. And should Nappa be downed, it leaves Vegeta with only Explosive Wave to fend for himself with. Also, unlike the other Raiders, Vegeta needs to wait to use Power Ball to reach Level 4, meaning he has to wait for a time limit to evolve further into Great Ape Vegeta. While Great Ape Vegeta can be a very formidable opponent to deal with, an item specifically designed to deal massive damage to him, Yajirobe's Katana, spawns on the map. Also, once he reaches Level 4, he loses the ability to use his Scouter to track down Survivors who try to escape. In additon, given the fact that his moveset is divided between 3 separate characters, it’s difficult to invest points into all of his forms. With all of these factors, Genre Savvy Survivors can exploit Vegeta’s weaknesses and prevent him from having much in his arsenal.
  • Majin Buu was originally considered the best Raider when the game first launched, but that has changed as the game progressed. While his Level 3 and Level 4 forms - Super Buu and Kid Buu, respectively- are still considered very strong and some of the best forms a Raider can receive, what makes him less desirable to play compared to Frieza or Cell is his Fatal Flaw in his first two forms. Spopovich possesses a decent arsenal for a Level 1 Raider, but he must return to his starting location to get to Level 2 by freeing Innocent Buu from his pod. Survivors have quickly made note of this weakness and have resorted to jumping Spopovich to prevent him from getting to the pod. Even if you somehow manage to fend of a horde of Survivors, Innocent Buu is easily the worst form of all the current Raiders. There’s no way for him to track down any Survivors since he has no methods to do so in his arsenal until he reaches Level 3 and becomes Super Buu. As a result, it’s very easy to hide from his field of view long enough to set up all the Power Keys and overwhelm him with a combination of using the Dragonballs and Trunks’ supplies, with the addition of all the previous damage he's taken.
  • Despite the promise of a Raider with overwhelming power, Broly unfortunate suffers from being Unskilled Yet Strong. There is no doubt he was designed to be an Anti-Metagame Character given his Raider design. Not only does he start at level 2 unlike other Raiders, he can draw opponents in using one of his active skills that prevents the infamous Energy Field and Instant Transmission combo and gain energy by using his super skills in the right spot. Not to mention the dragon balls do not spawn whenever he is on the map thanks to Freeza. You'd expect that would make him easily a threat, but unfortunately there's a glaring problem with him. All of his attacks are notably slower than the other Raiders, while also having no attacks that can outright handle a group of Survivors. As a result, thanks to his slower leveling up and the fact that his attacks can be easily dodged, it doesn't take much effort to beat him. To make matters even worse, far more cooldown drinks and energy appear on the maps to compensate with his early start. In addition, the trio of super transpheres can effectively be used to take him down with his notoriously low health bar even with his occasional heals. If you want to level him up to 100 and unlock his golden skin, it's gonna be a painful ride.
  • Fake Death, the skill learned by Yamcha's Transphere, is notoriously one of the worst active skills in the game. The skill on paper is supposed to let you fake your death so the raider will leave you alone. The problem is that despite using this skill, you’re still registered as alive. Not to mention the fact that Raiders almost always attempt to finish off a Survivor to acquire more energy to accelerate to their next level forms to be more formidable.
• Memetic Loser: Raiders in general have become this despite them serving as the Big Bad of the game, due to how they can be regularly defeated by Survivors, sometimes without the need to start up the super time machine. These are some of the more notable examples:
  • Spopovich is infamous for this treatment due to how, unlike other Raiders that use multiple characters in their forms, him being defeated makes the Raider automatically lose and even should he survive the damage he takes, all of that damage will carry on to the Raider’s level 2 form putting him at a severe disadvantage, at least until he received buffs later on that separated his health bar from Majin Buu. Then there's the issue with him being the only Raider required to return to his starting location to even make it to level 2 at all. To make matters worse, he's cited as the main reason that Majin Buu, despite how strong his last two forms are, is considered not worth the risk of using because of him.
  • Vegeta is another notable example of this due to prior to his buffs, not only was considered the weakest level 3 form, but is generally considered a Power Up Letdown to his much more impressive level 2 form Nappa. Vegeta’s attacks, unlike most Raiders, could be easily nullified by a Survivor's Ki blasts, including one of his super attacks, this and his low HP bar makes him near helpless in battle without Nappa. Also, with the increase in key rushing, his level 4 form Great Ape Vegeta would rarely be seen, making it near impossible for him to win matches. Fortunately for him, he received many buffs that eventually made him a stronger form than Nappa.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • The game's basic premise. The classic villains are pursuing the survivors. And the Survivors in question? The average person that comprises the populace of the planet rather than any of the traditional powerful heroes that can handle these villains like Goku, Gohan, Trunks, etc.. It's less about trying to overwhelm them with power but actually trying to survive as the enemy gradually gets more and more powerful as they exert more power. It's not a power struggle- it's a vicious cat-and-mouse game- with the cat being capable of wiping out planets and the mice having no means of fighting back properly. And even when they do, it's temporary stalling at best.
  • The game doesn't pull any punches on how devastating the Raiders' attacks can be on the planet unlike other games that feature them. Often the raider just charges an attack and the resulting blast will always turn that section of the planet into a fiery molten magma pit where the spot used to be. And when the Raider finally succeeds, they get a prep shot to bust the planet, stopping mercifully mid-motion to show the winning card before they show the destruction.
  • The game also doesn't pull any punches on the villains dealing with the survivors. There's no cut-away from the death, it's all shown in its violent glory. The survivors get to die in the same horrific manners that the raiders iconically inflict on other victims - Freeza death beaming one to death, Cell absorbing the target with his tail, or Majin Buu straight up turning the victim into chocolate to eat you.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • The location of the items on each map are not random but actually placed in a set pattern for each match. This effectively makes the game incredibly difficult for the Raider, as Survivors who learn the patterns can set up all the Power Keys and/or collect all the Dragonballs in an incredibly short amount of time, making it difficult if not impossible for the Raider to stand a chance at winning.
  • After some time in the defense phase, Trunks sends supplies to assist the team of survivors in battling the Raider. The problem lies in the fact that the supplies are always placed near the Raider in their field of view. As a result, the supplies become very difficult to access as the Raider will guard the two capsules, not to mention should you open one, a large noise will be made that instantly alerts the Raider of someone attempting to use the contents in the capsule.
  • Raider points are an important part of strengthening your Raiders, but it has one major problem. Currently there is no way to redistribute points if you already used them. This means should you make a mistake in your point investment, you have no way of fixing it. Thankfully this problem was finally addressed in season 4.
  • While the game is generous to provide some decent starting skills for Survivors, in order to obtain the most valuable active and passive skills, requires you to go through the gatcha system to get them. While you aren't outright required to spend money in order to summon transpheres, it takes multiple attempts before you get any skill that's decent.
• Scrappy Weapon: Senzu Beans are rather disliked for how they are implemented in the game. At face value, they seem rather useful since they can instantly revive your or a teammate when a Raider downs you. The problem is that it’s rather useless to use except in specific situations. If a Raider finishes you off, you can't use it and will have to wait for an ally to revive you. Worst of all is in a situation where you attempt to use it on yourself. A lot of players fail to realize that doing so is the worst thing they can do. Once the raider downs you a second time after you use the Senzu Bean right in front of them, you get removed from the game, meaning that you just wasted an item that could have been used more effectively. Even worse is some people intentionally use them to feed the Raider so they can get the Raider role faster.
• That One Achievement: To obtain the trophy "You're Going Down!" for the game, it requires a person to defeat a Raider in Ultimate Dragon Change form. It seems simple enough at first glance, but it’s actually rather difficult. For one thing, you have to be the one to summon Shenron in order to reach that form and every player covets the Dragonballs. Another is that defeating a Raider is very difficult, unless you have your allies distract them long enough to hit them repeatedly with Ki blasts. Not only that, but the Raider can rapid fire Ki blasts to wear off your transformation early. Or someone else can deliver the final blow to the Raider, making your efforts to obtain the trophy pointless.
• That One Attack:
  • Full Power Energy Blast Volley, an attack that can be used by several Transpheres such as Goten, Videl and Kid Trunks, can be deadly to any Raider hit by it. The attack in question fires multiple ki blasts to generate a small explosion that can hit the Raider. The problem for the Raider comes from the fact that said attack prevents them from taking any actions for a while while being hit by it and the damage they take grows with each Dragon Change level a Survivor uses. If used while in a cave with a Raider, a Survivor can shave off most, if not all, of the health points a Raider has.
  • Vegeta’s Level 4 form (Great Ape Vegeta) attack, "Running Won't Save You", is a nightmare for anyone playing against him. The attack has a very large range and when Great Ape Vegeta uses the attack while a Survivor is in range, their Dragon Change level will instantly expire, even if they used the wish from the Dragonballs, plus they lose their barrier to boot. In other words, get caught in the range of his stomp and its Game Over.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Season 2 made several adjustments to the game, most notably the matchmaking system. Now the system has changed to matchmaking, including a way to select a Raider, only match or priority for Raider and Survivors. The problem with this is the priority system appears to be heavily flawed and many players can play over 30 matches before being selected as a Raider. Not to mention the removal of being able to play as the Raider with your friends, the removal of preferred map selection, and the Raider only matches can have people waiting for hours just for a match to play. Fortunately, the developers have noticed some of these issues and adjusted the priority system close to how it was in Season 1... and then they removed Raider only matches again not even a month after Season 4 launched, who would've guessed?
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The prologue for the game prior to you playing the multiplayer online has you the player meet Xenoverse Trunks and investigate after you fell unconscious during a temporal seam and meet several characters while trying to escape Cell. You'd then expect for a story mode to be implemented to see what the cause of these temporal seams as well as what sinister force lurks behind the presence of the Raiders. Instead, it ends right there without explaining anything of what's really going on. Replaying the prologue is listed under "Episodes", though, so more story missions may be added in the future, which was confirmed when Season 2 added a second chapter that introduces new characters, Raiders and maps.
• Win Back the Crowd: While Season 1 was generally well liked, the next two seasons would introduce and change elements of the game with mixed reception. In the Season 4 anniversary stream, not only did the developers reveal a ton of rewards and new events for the game, but Broly's introduction was incredibly well received. Not to mention they addressed several common concerns for the game such as adjusting Raider points, Raider only queues and even crossplay for the game is finally being worked on.