Dragon Ball 10 Techniques the Main Characters Never Use (Because Theyre Useless)

Some of them are introduced and very quickly either made out dated, or revealed to be inferior as greater techniques are introduced later on.

With a series that's run as long as Dragon Ball Z, there's no way every idea is going to be good. Even when it comes to fight scenes, when there's so many characters that all need special techniques, it doesn't make sense that every technique is going to be a great one. Some of them are introduced and very quickly either made out dated, or revealed to be inferior as greater techniques are introduced later on.

In a lot of cases, this isn't even about power creep--a lot of these moves were bad when they were introduced, and got worse as the show went on. While the inventor of the move might have stuck with it, the more important characters like Goku, Piccolo, Vegeta, and Gohan deemed them useless after seeing people use them to no effect.

10 Multi-Form

This technique was used in Dragon Ball Z all of one time: by Piccolo and Krillin when they were fighting Nappa. They used the Tri-Form, which split them into three, though it’s based off Tien’s Multi-Form, which divides him into four.

It seems like a terrifying technique at first, except there’s only one problem—the fighter’s strength is split into fourths as well. Essentially, each version is a fourth as fast or as strong, meaning it’s about as useful as the Shadow Clones from Naruto. They never show this again, and it’s for a reason.

9 Four Witches Technique

This technique made no sense. It was something that supposedly Tien was only able to do, where he grew an extra pair of arms from his back which allowed him to attack twice as hard as normally. This was supposed to be Tien’s ace in the hole against Goku alongside the Multi-Form, but it was dismissed rather easily.

The next time we see it, it’s when Tien is using it to help him farm crops, which explains how useful it is.

8 Dodonpa

The Dodon Ray was basically the energy attack of the Crane School. It was shot from the finger and was actually noted as superior to the Kamehameha.

It’s shown to be stronger than a base Kamehameha, particularly because it can be fired without the need to charge it much, but ultimately the Kamehameha wave is used by everyone else in the show eventually aside from Piccolo and Vegeta, while the Dodon Ray is only used by Tien and Chiaotzu.

7 Dynamite Kick

The Dynamite Kick was Hercules’ technique, where he launched himself into the air for a flying kick aimed at the enemy’s face. Of course, Hercule being himself, it did no damage against Cell and was quickly dismissed.

Later still, Gotenks attempted to use it against Super Buu...and it was about as useful there as it was when Hercule used it. Notably, no one else noteworthy has ever tried to use this ability.

6 Telekinesis

Telekinesis is one of those fascinating abilities that made it’s way into Dragon Ball Z, but it’s never used in any fight scene worth talking about, even though in most anime it’d be considered overpowered.

It’s shown periodically as an ability pretty much everyone has, but the only person who ever used it to any real effect was Guldo, and everyone just looked down on him when he did it. Goku, Vegeta, and Gohan haven’t ever really used it in combat, and other than Frieza no one uses it in Super.

5 Tornado

Goku came up with a technique known as Tornado during the 21st Budokai Tenkaichi. It turns out this wasn’t the smartest move, as while he nearly knocks Nam out of the ring with it, ultimately he just winds up dizzy and with his guard down.

This lets Nam get off his best move against Goku, nearly eliminating him. We see Goku use it again during the 23rd Budokai Tenkaichi with Tien, but afterwards that’s the last time he bothers to try it. Probably for the best, as Z wouldn’t have fit with him using techniques like this.

4 Down Burst

Down Burst was the technique Future Gohan was using against the androids during his last fight against them. This was meant to both distract the Androids and give him a start in his battle against them.

It can be performed with a single arm, which is useful, but no one ever tried to use a technique like this in the main timeline, and it remains a technique that only Future Gohan uses.

3 Eight-Arm Fist

One of the many techniques used in Dragon Ball and basically never seen again. This was first used by King Chappa, a martial arts master. It allows its user to move their arms so fast they seem like they have eight arms. It’s more of an optical illusion than anything else, but we see Goku show off his fantastic copying ability to use it against Tien as a counter to the Four Witches technique.

After using it with Tien, we see the Eight-Arm Fist topped by Tambourine with the One Hundred Arms technique, and by the time of Dragon Ball Z no one’s using it anymore.

2 Super Saiyan Third Stage

This was the form originally introduced when Trunks battled against Cell. He’d hidden it from Vegeta because he believed he’d obtained a more powerful Super Saiyan form, but was quickly shown that this wasn’t even close to true after he was dominated in combat by Cell.

The weakness of this ability is that it makes its user too slow by increasing the size of the muscles too much. Goku would reach this ability and immediately notice its flaw, as would Caulifla in Super.

1 Wolf Fang Fist

This is Yamcha’s signature technique, and he continues to use it throughout the series up into Dragon Ball Z. It’s a flurry of specific attacks that mimic the attack patterns of a wolf. The problem is that no one else ever bothers to take the technique on himself. In a series where characters constantly steal techniques from one another, no one bothered to take Yamcha’s Wolf Fang Fist because it’s so useless.

Its claim to fame is damaging Goku...like once, and afterwards Goku was so much stronger this technique lacked the same punch.