The Super Saiyan form first premiered in August of 1991 within chapter 317 of the Dragon Ball manga entitled "Life or Death". It also made its anime debut in 1991, first appearing in Dragon Ball Z episode 95, "Transformed at Last". Within Dragon Ball Z two further transformations, the second and third levels, succeed Super Saiyan, while the premier form also has three additional branch states, two that are ascensions and one that is a mastering of the basic Super Saiyan form. Dragon Ball GT introduced a fourth form, and there are three additional forms related to the Super Saiyan state that appear exclusively in the films: False Super Saiyan, Legendary Super Saiyan, and Super Saiyan God.
3.super saiyan 2
in order to achieve this transformation, the Saiyan must first gain a huge amount of energy (usually by training), far beyond that required for the first Super Saiyan form. Once enough energy is acquired, the Saiyan must experience a powerful emotional upheaval, much like the Super Saiyan transformation, but to a greater extent. Because of the intense emotion required to initiate the transformation, any mastery of the Full-Power Super Saiyan state, and mental stability attained therein, is negated, and the naturally remorseless nature of the Saiyan race is magnified, requiring them to remaster the personality changes. Even the gentle, polite Gohan became a hotheaded, merciless fighter after transforming, opting to torture Cell rather than kill him, despite Goku's pleas. The power output emitted by this form is greatly increased as well, as it doubles the strength of the regular Super Saiyan transformation.
2.super saiyan 3
Where the third stage of Super Saiyan's purpose was 100% utilization of physical stamina, the purpose of the Super Saiyan 3 transformation is to increase the utilization of ki, and as a result, the transformation rapidly consumes the energy of the user. This notably leads to extended levels of fatigue, even long after powering down. If the user has died and is not encumbered by a living body, this strain is reduced somewhat, and additional energy depletion is minimized (such as in Goku's case during his first fight with Majin Buu). The difference between Super Saiyan 3 and Super Saiyan 2, its predecessor, is immediately noticeable as speed, strength and endurance are all pushed far beyond the normal limits.
The first time that Goku used this form on Earth,
its power caused massive tidal waves and hurricanes and nearly shook
the planet apart. During subsequent transformations, Goku seemingly
controlled it enough to prevent such dangerous side-effects. In
addition, this power could be sensed even as far as the distance between
Earth and Supreme Kai's planet, something that not only shocked Supreme Kai, Kibito, and Gohan, but worried them as well.
However, with the enormous power, there are some very serious setbacks stemming from the rapid use of ki energy. When the then-deceased Goku showed Babidi and Majin Buu the form, he cut his remaining temporal revival energy in half, and in the anime when he shows his power to the excited Trunks and Goten, his energy was completely dissipated, forcing him to return to Other World.
super saiyan 4
In this form, the Saiyan's hair color differs, the same goes for the tail and the body is covered in red fur. A Saiyan in this form also possesses a shadow trim around the eyes and over the eyelids that varies in color, such as crimson. The hair is lengthened, but not nearly as long as a Super Saiyan 3's. The aura in this form loses the arcs of electricity and replaces it with sparkles and also becoming pure fire. In the case of the Fusion Dance warrior Gogeta, the coloration of the aforementioned features seemingly switch, as Gogeta's hair became a bright shade of red whereas his fur became a dark shade of brown and the trim around his eyes were black instead of red. The massive power and speed enhancements brought on by this form easily make it the strongest Saiyan form in the GT series.
For example, while Goku's Super Saiyan 3 form was almost unable to even faze Baby Vegeta, as soon as Goku transformed into a Super Saiyan 4, their roles in power became polar opposites, with Baby Vegeta being almost unable to hurt Goku at all. The users of this transformation have powerful signature techniques. For example, Goku develops an attack he calls 10x Kamehameha, as it is ten times (10x) stronger than the Super Kamehameha, while Vegeta, in his Super Saiyan 4 state, uses an attack he calls the Final Shine Attack, which is a more powerful version of his Final Flash attack (although, Vegeta is first seen using this attack against Super 17 with one hand while in his first Super Saiyan form).
Usage
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Goku's next opponent would be Super 17, who had easily defeated the other Z Fighters, and who proved to be Super Saiyan 4's first real challenge. Because of his energy absorbing abilities, Super 17 was able to turn all of Goku's energy attacks into his own power, making him stronger with each attack. Eventually, Goku reverted to his base form and killed the android (with the assistance of Android 18) using his Dragon Fist attack followed by a Kamehameha.
