The power multipliers of the Saiyan forms

Power “multipliers” for Super Saiyan forms are a practical (and slightly videogame-like) way fans—and some guidebooks—use to compare transformations in Dragon Ball, but they aren’t always consistent across the anime and manga. So treat them as a rough reference, not a strict rule.

Most commonly cited multipliers (classic line)

• Super Saiyan (SSJ / Form 1): ~50x
  The most famous number: the “base” transformation that massively boosts a Saiyan’s power.

• Super Saiyan 2 (SSJ2): ~100x (or 2x SSJ)
  Usually described as “double SSJ,” with a sharper aura, more speed, and lightning sparks.

• Super Saiyan 3 (SSJ3): ~400x (or 4x SSJ2)
  A huge jump, but with a heavy cost: extreme energy drain and difficulty maintaining the form.

What about “Super Saiyan 1.5” (Grades 2/3)?

In the Cell saga, muscular variants appear (often called Ascended Super Saiyan and Ultra Super Saiyan), also called Super Saiyan Dai Ni-dankai (grade 2) and Super Saiyan Dai San-dankai (grade 3). The point of these forms is: they increase raw strength, but can lose overall efficiency due to reduced speed and higher energy use. That’s why—even if they seem like a bigger multiplier—they don’t outperform SSJ2, which is more balanced.

Why is this confusing?

Because Dragon Ball’s way of measuring power changes over time: after the early arcs, it focuses more on ki control, technique, stamina, and form advantages than on fixed math. Multipliers help explain the “ladder” of the classic transformations, but they don’t cover everything—especially once story context matters.

After DBZ, power multipliers stopped appearing, mostly because a character's own power was constantly changing during the same battle, and maybe also because it took away some of the competition over who would win a particular fight — you just had to look at the multiplier and that was it.

In short: a quick, useful rule of thumb is SSJ ≈ 50x, SSJ2 ≈ 100x, SSJ3 ≈ 400x, and the bulky grades are “less efficient” boosts between SSJ and SSJ2.