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Attack Balls (アタックボール Atakku Bōru), also known as Space Pods (宇宙ポッド Uchū Poddo)[1] and Round Spaceships (丸型宇宙船 Marugata Uchūsen),[2][3] are spaceships used by those under King Cold, Cooler, and Frieza for interstellar travel. When the Saiyans were a part of the military, these vehicles also sent low-class Saiyans to distant locations, so that they would one day conquer and/or destroy worlds throughout the galaxy.

Overview[]

Saiyans board Attack Balls (DBZ Kai)

Saiyans board Attack Balls

The Saiyan Pods use incredible technology. These spaceships are purely for transportation purposes, carrying along unconscious people. Because of this, they are not outfitted with any particularly comfortable features but are made to not cause any strain on the body.[6]

Even though it is only five feet in diameter, it houses an advanced environmental system and an incredibly fuel-efficient faster-than-light drive. Those traveling inside the ball are kept in a state of suspended animation that minimizes the resources needed to keep them alive.

Attack Balls can travel for three years non-stop, but they must replenish their environmental system once every six months or twice a year. To do so, they must enter a world with an at least partially inhabitable atmosphere for ten minutes. Although relatively slow when in final approach or during launch, they can travel at a speed which enables them to cross interstellar distances within days or even hours, and to travel through a galaxy within a few years, making them some of the fastest spacecraft in the universe. These ships have exceptionally strong armor, which allows them to not be crushed or outright destroyed upon landing. This often has consequences for the destination point, as the extreme speed often causes massive explosions upon impact, wiping out everything within a certain radius and leaving nothing but a massive crater in its place. Specialized landing pads can reduce the damage to non-existent and are commonly found on worlds controlled by Frieza such as Planet Frieza 79 and Planet Vegeta in order to prevent damage caused by its force's craft whenever they return to base. The destruction they cause upon landing on planets targeted for invasion is of little concern to either Frieza's forces or the Saiyans that use them and given the amount damage they can cause during landing, it may even serve as a pre-emptive strike during invasions. The balls themselves are heavily armored from the outside to prevent any damage during landing, as well as standing up to Nappa's Volcano Explosion, but the interior is incredibly fragile, as a simple Ki Blast can destroy an Attack Ball from the inside. They also seemingly do not need any external force for takeoff, being self-sufficient enough to launch themselves into space on their own.

Naves inicio

Two Attack Balls in flight

The balls have a remote control, as demonstrated by Vegeta, which allows the owners to recall their pods to their location, or trigger a self-destruction, among other potential functions. The controllers look like a calculator, and can command more than one pod at a time, as the one held by Vegeta triggered Nappa's pod to explode. According to the anime, if Saiyans are on a planet that lacks a natural moon, the Attack Ball can compensate for this by making a holographic projection of a moon that is realistic enough to allow Blutz waves to be generated for the Saiyan to become a Great Ape upon being activated by the ship's built-in computer. This is especially evident while Gohan was training with Piccolo during the year of training before Nappa and Vegeta arrived on Earth. However, this method is presumably inferior to getting Blutz Waves from an actual moon, as the same event had Gohan having a delayed effect at turning Great Ape, instead fighting in a berserk manner in base form before eventually transforming. Also, in the anime, Vegeta uses his Scouter to summon both his and Nappa's pods to them on Arlia, and the pods seem to continue providing them oxygen even with the door open in outer space, as both Saiyans continue to breathe normally despite destroying Arlia. Presumably they are designed to be controlled via Scouter or remote, which can prove useful should one of them be destroyed. As scouters are prone to breaking or being destroyed in battle, the remote may serve as a backup control which makes sense as it is shown to be incredibly durable thus would be very useful as a backup controller while the Scouter-based control would be the primary means of summoning them.

There was also a much larger variant of Attack Balls seen in Dragon Ball Z: Broly - The Legendary Super Saiyan, which is capable of transporting an entire army to another planet. It was destroyed by Broly when venting his power. It was never explained if this Attack Ball variant was a standard or if this was a creation made solely by Paragus to give the illusion of the Saiyan rebirth to lure Vegeta into a trap. Dr. Brief also managed to take the remains of Goku's Attack Ball and rebuild it from scratch, allowing the same travel speed but with additional facilities.

In Dragon Ball Minus, there are bigger-than-usual Space Pods with the capability for two people in it. Only Bardock and Leek were seen using it.[7]

Known users[]

Team Bardock[]

GokuAndBardocksSpacePods

Goku and Bardock's Space Pods

In the special Dragon Ball Z: Bardock - The Father of Goku, Fasha, Tora, Shugesh, and Borgos use their Saiyan pods to get to Planet Meat to destroy the inhabitants. After doing just that, the low-class Saiyan team was ambushed by Dodoria's elite. Later, Bardock used his pod to arrive on Meat and later found his slain comrades. After defeating the elites only to be beaten by Dodoria himself, a bloody Bardock survived and went to his pod back to Planet Vegeta. On the way, Bardock's pod detected a pod carrying his second son, Kakarot, and going the opposite direction. On the Saiyan homeworld, Bardock left his pod bloody and exhausted. It was destroyed when Frieza used his Supernova on the Saiyan planet.

Goku[]

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Goku leaving Planet Vegeta

The space pod that sent Goku to Planet Earth landed somewhere in a jungle or forest and it was there that Grandpa Gohan found the young Saiyan and adopted grandson (there are two versions of this):

  • In flashbacks seen in Dragon Ball Z, Grandpa Gohan finds Goku in the Saiyan pod.
  • In the Bardock special, Goku is found by Grandpa Gohan and the pod is nearby.

Much later, Goku's old pod was discovered by Bulma's father and he rebuilt it from scratch. Mr Brief says that Goku's original pod was demolished and only few key parts available (though in an anime filler, the pod activated a projection of the full moon, forcing Gohan to transform into a Great Ape, forcing Piccolo to destroy it with his Special Beam Cannon). The redesigned space pod had a bedroom, a bathroom, a training room with artificial gravity machine, and could get Goku to planet Namek in a week. While the ship set a course for Namek, Goku trained in 10x, 20x, to 100x gravity. Goku rested the last day until it arrived on Namek. After becoming a Super Saiyan, Goku told Gohan to take Bulma and Piccolo to his ship, however, all of the people (excluding Goku and Frieza) on Namek were teleported off. The ship was most likely destroyed by Namek's explosion. However, it didn't stop the creation of at least two more Capsule Corporation Space Pods, as, at least in the anime, Vegeta stole a Capsule Corp Spaceship to try and locate Goku (this one was later destroyed during the three-year training period when Vegeta overexerted himself) and another was used to replace the one Vegeta destroyed during training. The one Vegeta trained in possessed a 300x gravity system (450x in the anime), in which was Vegeta's response to being three times more intense than Goku.

In Dragon Ball Minus and Broly, Bardock and Gine are shown stealing the pod under the cover of night. Bardock fearing Frieza was planning to exterminate the Saiyans after summoning all Saiyans to return to Planet Vegeta and his forces making inquiries among the Saiyans into the legend of the Super Saiyan and Super Saiyan God as well as Bardock's desire to save something for once choosing Kakarot as he like his father had been classified as a low-class warrior as Bardock knew it was futile for himself and Gine to flee with their son. Additionally due to the clandestine manner he was sent off world, Goku's trip to Earth was unauthorized though Gine and Bardock managed to pass it off as them sending Kakarot to conquer the planet which was common practice due to Raditz and the surviving Saiyans assuming that was the case as Gine informed Raditz of Kakarot being sent to Earth before Frieza destroyed the planet. Additionally, the anime flashbacks depict a scene of Kakarot being sent into space as Planet Vegeta is destroyed by a meteor impact, during Raditz's explanation of Goku's heritage and the destruction of Planet Vegeta thus the flashback could be Raditz's interpretation of what most likely happened when their parents sent Kakarot to Earth. This however contradicts the TV Special which depicts Kakarot being sent to Earth by the Saiyan Army shortly before the injured Bardock returns from Meat.

Raditz[]

RaditzSpacePod

Raditz's Space Pod

The first seen ball was Raditz's ball. After finding his younger brother, Goku, was useless to him, Raditz stole his nephew Gohan and put the boy in his Attack Ball. Later, an angry Gohan burst out of the ball, destroying it completely. Later after the defeat of Vegeta, Goku remembers Raditz's space pod and suggests using it to travel to Namek, but then he recalls that Gohan destroyed it.

In Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, after the Saiyan Saga, it is revealed that Bulma had Capsule Corporation personnel investigate the pod's crash site in East Ravine to collect pieces of the wreckage. Dr. Brief also decides to investigate the crash site himself in the hopes of using the tech to build his own spaceship, indicating that he used the recovered fragments to help develop the Capsule Corporation Spaceship along with the remains of Goku's recovered pod. Additionally, Bulma asks the pod's destroyer, Gohan, to help see if they missed anything. He finds a mysterious chip which turns out to be a fried communications chip which contains fragments of audio. Though the audio is broken it is obvious it is the Saiyans talking about a planet they are invading having caught Frieza's interest. Gohan and Bulma however fail to understand what they are talking about, and Bulma tries to laugh it off as nothing concerning them, though the narration text states what it meant would soon become clear referencing their fateful confrontation with the Frieza Force on Namek.

Nappa and Vegeta[]

TravelingVegeta&Nappa

Vegeta and Nappa in their attack balls

After Raditz's death and the discovery of the Dragon Balls, Nappa and Vegeta used their Attack Balls to get to planet Earth. On the way, the two Saiyans stop and Vegeta destroys planet Arlia (this happens in the anime only, they go straight on without any stops in the manga). A year later, Nappa and Vegeta arrive and land in East City. Later, after Nappa's death and Vegeta's defeat, Vegeta uses a remote control to have his pod arrive at his position and Vegeta escapes in his pod to Planet Frieza 79. It is then found by Krillin, who gives it to Bulma who uses the remote on Nappa's pod, only to have it accidentally explode while it is being filmed for the television. Later, a revitalized Vegeta uses his space pod to get from the Planet Frieza 79 to Planet Namek. After the pod landed on Namek, it was left behind by Vegeta. Cranberry then found it after being revived and used it to escape Namek, he landed it on an unknown planet but was captured by Jaco, leaving the final fate of this attack ball unknown.

Cui[]

Cui, one of Frieza's employees, uses an attack ball to attack Bun's planet, as well as to get to Namek. Cui's space pod is never seen again and is most likely destroyed when Namek exploded. Cui is not the only one of Frieza's soldiers to use a ball to get to the planets that he destroys for Frieza, as the soldiers who get to Bun's planet with Cui also used attack balls.

Ginyu Force[]

Ginyuforcespacepods

Ginyu Force's Space Pods

The space pods used by Captain Ginyu, Recoome, Burter, Jeice, and Guldo are same as Saiyan space pods, the only difference is their pods have the Ginyu Force's logo on them. The Ginyu Force pods land next to Frieza's Spaceship. After defeating Frieza, Goku uses one of the pods to escape Namek's explosion. While resting from his long, exhausting fight against Frieza, the pod lands on Planet Yardrat (It's implied that had the Ginyu Force, and by extension, Frieza, lived after fighting on Namek, they would've conquered Yardrat for Frieza's empire). After his pod was repaired, the newly healed Goku (in Yardrat clothing) used it to travel back to Earth. The other pods are presumed to be destroyed in Namek's explosion. Vegeta may have used this particular space pod to arrive on New Namek and head back to Earth in Dragon Ball Z: The Return of Cooler, due to it being the only Space Pod/Attack Ball accounted for by the time of the movie (though it's possible that Dr. Briefs and/or Bulma could have created one based on the original design). In the Alternate Timeline where Future Goku was returning to Earth after learning Instant Transmission from the Yardrats, he used his newly learned technique to teleport back to the planet while travelling on the space pod to confront Future Frieza and his father.

In Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, Goku discovers that the Ginyu Force Attack Ball he used to escape Namek held combat data on former Ginyu Force member Bonyu. Upon returning to Earth, the data was recovered and uploaded into the Capsule Corporation Training Room allowing Goku to spar against a virtual representation of Bonyu.

Paragus[]

Broly the LSS - Paragus crushed by Broly

Paragus' space pod crushed by Broly

As Comet Camori was close to destroying the New Planet Vegeta and with his son Broly being out of control, Paragus prepared a space pod in an attempt to escape from the doomed planet alone during the chaos. However, as Paragus boarded the pod, his son came along. After exposing Paragus' lie of planning to seek shelter together by the single seat capacity, he brutally crushed the pod with his bare hands, despite its armored hull, killing his father in the process. Broly then threw the deformed Attack Ball towards the comet, completely destroying it.

Broly[]

Dragon Ball Z
MalojaCollectsBlood

Majola collects Broly's blood from the space pod

After being dealt a critical wound by Goku, Broly managed to board an Attack Pod to escape the destruction of New Planet Vegeta. The pod was implied to have been damaged during his escape from the planet, as small pieces of debris were seen floating around the pod both during Broly's arrival on Earth and his flashback to his defeat on New Planet Vegeta when emerging from his coma due to Goten crying nearby. The pod was also apparently fairly large compared to usual, as Broly was implied to have still been in his Legendary Super Saiyan state when seated inside. The pod made its way to Earth and, upon landing in the mountains near Natade Village, Broly broke the door clean off and fell into a coma from exhaustion, with water filling in the crater created by the ship's impact and freezing over. Seven years later, after awakening and breaking free from his frozen grave, Broly once again met his defeat, after which Majola traveled to the crater and retrieved a frozen blood sample from the damaged pod to sell to Lord Jaguar who provided it to his scientists Dr. Collie and Nain leading to the birth of Broly's Bio-Warrior clone, Bio-Broly.

Dragon Ball Super

After learning Broly's power surpasses his son's and that he might be legendary Super Saiyan, King Vegeta has him sent to Planet Vampa. Upon arriving at the planet, the pod seemed to have been ruined in a crash landing. It is implied that Broly had destroyed the pod as a result of looking at Vampa's moon and triggering his Great Ape transformation upon landing.

Tarble and Gure[]

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Tarble and Gure's Pods arrive on Earth

Tarble and Gure traveled to Earth in their space pods to get help from Vegeta, in order to defeat Abo and Kado. When they arrived on Earth, Tarble and Gure, while in their space pods, destroyed some buildings and roads in West City.

In Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2, Tarble's ultimate attack is performed with his space pod, likely inspired by his and Gure's pods crashing down in West City.

Abo and Kado[]

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Abo and Kado exiting their pods

As once members of Frieza's army, the Abo and Kado brothers possess their own space pods for interplanetary travel. In pursuit of Tarble and Gure, the two used their space pods to chase their targets down to Earth. They landed on a green field and pursued their goal. After being defeated and changing their ways, the two joined the Dragon Team's celebration party before presumably leaving on their pods.

Tagoma and Sorbet[]

When the former officer of the Third Stellar Region, Sorbet, and his bodyguard, Tagoma came to Earth to resurrect Frieza, they used a space pod. Their space pod however, is a much different variant from the ones used earlier. It is larger, as it is able to fit two people at once, and it resembles the Frieza Force spaceships, but it is much smaller. It is able to fit inside Sorbet's Spaceship as well.

Variations[]

Capsule Corporation[]

A much larger craft constructed by Dr. Brief based on the Attack Ball that Goku arrived on Earth in.

Turles Crusher Corps' large variant[]

A large variant of the standard Attack Pod built by Rasin and Lakasei.

Glass Generated[]

Ice Pod

Attack Ball created by Lagss' glass.

Through her glass manipulating abilities, Lagss creates a working glass Attack Ball for Hearts, who uses it to reach Earth.

Video Games Appearances[]

In Goku Hishōden, Kyōshū! Saiyan, Super Saiya Densetsu, Super Gokuden: Kakusei-Hen, The Legacy of Goku, Budokai, Budokai 2, Budokai 3, Sagas, Harukanaru Densetsu, Attack of the Saiyans, Online, Budokai HD Collection, and Kakarot, Vegeta and Nappa use the Attack Balls briefly in cutscenes.

In The Legacy of Goku II, the Ginyu Force Attack Ball used by Goku to escape Namek appears.

In Buu's Fury, Ginyu's ship reappears as the Z-Fighter Exhibit #7, with the in-game description being "Goku used this ship to escape from Namek. This ship used to belong to the Ginyu Force."

In Super Dragon Ball Z, an Attack Ball is seen in the Eastern Capital battle stage.

In the Budokai Tenkaichi series, an Attack Ball is seen in the Rocky Area battle stage.

In Online, a version of the Attack Ball can be crafted and used as a vehicle to fly without using the Flight skill.

Round Ufo Attack

Tarble's Attack Ball in Raging Blast 2

In Raging Blast 2, Tarble uses his Attack Ball as part his Round UFO Attack.

In Ultimate Tenkaichi, Goku's Attack Ball appears in a cutscene.

In Battle of Z, an Attack Ball is seen in the Spinach Wastes battle stage.

Super Saiyan Pod vs Frog Ginyu

Attack Ball vs. Frog Ginyu in Xenoverse

In Xenoverse, Vegeta's Attack Ball appears after Great Ape Vegeta's defeat by the Future Warrior, Krillin, and Gohan. Like in the original history, Krillin tries to kill the injured Vegeta as he tries entering his Attack Ball but is stopped by the Future Warrior to preserve history and Goku manages convinces Krillin to let Vegeta go, allowing Vegeta to escape in his Attack Ball and leave Earth. Humorously through the use of cheats it is possible to select an Attack Ball as a playable character.

In Xenoverse 2, a model of an Attack Ball appears randomly on a dresser near the front door inside Kame House and is one of several vehicle models that randomly appear on said dresser every time the Future Warrior enters Kame House. Vegeta's Attack Ball also appears in the main story to carry the injured Vegeta away after his defeat by the Future Warrior, Gohan, and Krillin. As part of the Super Pack 2 DLC, the Attack Ball known as Vehicle Capsule #318 appears as a vehicle which can be used by the Future Warrior to travel around Conton City as well as the Capsule Corporation, Guru's House, Majin Buu's House, and Satan House rifts.

In Kakarot, it is named Round Spaceship. The Ginyu Force Round Spaceship Goku used to escape Namek contained data on former Ginyu Force member Bonyu which is later retrieved by the Female Researcher after Goku returns to Earth and uses it to add a virtual simulation of Bonyu that Goku can train against in the Capsule Corporation's Training Room.

Trivia[]

  • The remote control of this spaceship is virtually indestructible. It was intact after a Kaio-ken Kamehameha, Fusion Spirit Bomb, and being crushed by a Great Ape.
  • The craft can also have its speed compared to others. The Attack Ball could reach Namek in six days. Thus, they are roughly five times faster than the Nameless Namekian's Spaceship, which took roughly a month to do the same, and have speed between 1075 and 1575 c, c being the speed of light, 186,000 miles or 300,000 kilometers a second, compared to the latter's speed, which is between 215 and 315 c.
  • Its speed is comparable and/or equivalent to that of the Capsule Corporation Spaceship Goku used to reach Namek, which also took roughly six days to reach Namek. As Dr. Brief created the spaceship from pieces of Goku's Attack Ball, Dr. Brief was, presumably, able to reverse engineer and create just as powerful an engine (or modify the one from Goku's Attack Ball) as that used by the Attack Ball, as well as use the data he had from the Nameless Namekian's Spaceship.

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