From 🐽Kaioken, to Super Saiyan, and ༺now Ultra Instinct, Dragon Ball has had its fair share of transformations over the years. Each one, typically first gained by Goku with a few notable exceptions, changed the landscape of action within the🦋 franchise and pioneered new eras of combat. Kaioken brought out a brutality that wasn’t often present in DB up to that point; Super Saiyan allowed for fights to last longer and with tougher foes; Super Saiyan God finally saw Goku attaining strength on par with the gods; and Ultra Instinct has now paved the way for battles on a universal level. Dragon Ball ju🎀st keeps upping the ante, and we couldn't love it more.
Of all the transformations in the series, the newest is by far the most interesting. It’s not recency bias, either, Ultra Instinct is genuinely an incredibly fascinating form, unlike anything theಞ series has done before. It’s intentionally mysterious, used only by the highest on the divine hierarchy, and now it’s in the hands of the greatest martial artist alive. Powerful, bombastic, anꦆd elusive, Ultra Instinct is a form ripe with secrets. There's a lot to unpack from the newest from the newest level in the series — and needless to say, fans are chomping at the bit to learn everything there is to know about Goku's newfound power.
25 Ultra Instinct Was Foreshadowed As Early As Resurrection F
W꧟hile Ultra Instinct will always be associated with the Tournament of Power for obvious 🐷reasons, let’s not forget that it existed as a concept as early as Resurrection F. For the arc itself, any suggestion that Ult𝄹ra Instinct exists is more in favor of Goku and Vegeta growing as martial artistsಞ. Whis mentions how they can move on their own if they just cleared their minds while focusing in on the battle at hand, but nobody could expect such a character heavy idea to blossom into Ultra Instinct.
Resurrection F was released in 2015, but we wouldn't get an official name for Ultra Instinct until 2017.
Come the Unive🍃rse Survival arc, clearing his mind and staying focused is exactly what Goku has to do to maintain UI. Looking back on🎃 the arc, we even see Whis using Ultra Instinct to dodge and mark his disciples. The two can’t get a single hit in because Whis genuinely is moving on his own. In the context of the film, it’s to display that the Saiyans still have much to learn. In the greater Dragon Ball contex💧t, it’s foreshado✤wing Goku’s inevitable endgame.
24 Toriyama’s Concept Art For Ultra Instinct Is Basically Just Super Saiyan God
Toriyama has neಌver been shy abou♈t cutting corners for Dragon Ball, but his concept art for Ultra Instinct is on another level entirely. Revealed in an issue of ꦗV-Jump, Ultra Instinct’s final concept art is basically just a recolor of the✅ Battle of Gods concept art for Super Saiyan God c🌠omplete with skinny Goku. There are only two changes: the eyes an🍸d the hair. It really does look like Toriyama took the Battle of Gods art and hastily colored over it. It’s quite sad, because the anime’ღs concept art for the form is actually incredible. For shame, Toriyama. The least you could have done was take off Goku’s shirt. Anything to separate it aesthetically from his previous form.
23 The Stages Of Ultra Instinct
The trickiest part about discussing Ultra Instinct is the unfortunate fact that there are two very different states of the form to discuss: Ultra Instinct -sign- and complete Ultra Instinct. When Goku is silver haired, that means he’s currently utilizing UIS. When Goku is white haired, that means he’s in the complete state. -Sign- is the more unstable of the two, and blatantly worse, but it does have its strengths, especia🌌lly in regards to Ki control. On top of that, it simply fizzles out when the user loses their focus. Complete Ultra Instinct is a better boost all around, allowing the user to fight at full power, but losing it caused Goku to take 𓃲a serious amount of damage. Both fall under the Ultra Instinct moniker, but they have their fair share of differences.
22 Toriyama Probably Didn’t Design Incomplete Ultra Instinct
To say that Dragon Ball has a lot of concept art would be a🍸n understatement. You can l🐼ook at any character, any form, and find at least some conceptual doodles drawn by none other than Akira Toriyama at some point. Super is no exception with Toriyama dishing out new art ⛦with every arc. There is one notable omission in the concept art department, though: the silver haired Ultra Instinct. While Toriyama definitely designed the white form, the silver only has concept art by the anime staff.
Toriyama drew concept art for complete Ultra Instinct, but not incomplete. Coincidence? I think not.
Most likely, Toriyama designed the white form and then Toei chose to retool it so Goku had a visual cue to illustrate the instability of Ultra Instinct. More than anything, it’s just telling that there’s concept art by Toriyama for white UI, but not silver. That alone seems to imply that the design for Ultra Instinct -sign- was, at the very least, conceived by the anime’s staff. Goku was probably always going to need to master UI, but Toriyama likely just envisione🧸d it all with t✱he white hair.
21 The Mushin Connection: Ultra Instinct Has Basis In Reality
Your mind is clear. You have abandoned the very concept of ego. Fear, hate, rage. These are all emotions that escape you. Every act💞ion you take is an action entirely on its own. There is no thought, no hesitation. For the ꧒first time in your life, you truly understand what free will is as your body moves on its own. I’m not talking about Ultra Instinct, but, rather, Mushin.
Believe it or not, UI does have basis in reality. Mushin is a legitimate mental state in martial arts and meditation where you clear your mind entirely and allow your body to react naturally. Much like Ultra Instinct, it’s a state attainable only by the most talented of masters. It can be a hard concept to process as “real,” but it’s also important to consider that Mushin doesn🙈’t mean you’re flying around like Goku to defeat Jiren. All it means is that you’re relyiꦅng entirely on your natural instincts in a state of pure zen.
20 Whis Is The First Character To Use Ultra Instinct In The Series
♈Before Goku ever got his Saiyan hands on Ultra Instinct, we actually saw Wꦗhis use it back in Resurrection F. At the time, it could be assumed that he was just outclassing Goku and Vegeta with speed, but hindsight makes it rather obvious that Whis was using a fully realized state oᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚf UI. Not only does he dodge every single attack thrown at him, he also finds time to mark both of his pupils’ uniforms. We’ve seen speed in Dragon Ball, and this isn’t it. Whis using Ultra Instinct is further evidenced by the fact that he berates his students for lacking a clear mind and letting their thoughts stray away from the battle. For Whis, dodging an🀅d attacking is entirely instinctive. It might not have been called Ultra Instinct at the time, but all the properties were there.
19 Ultra Instinct Doesn’t Actually Make You That Much Stronger
Unlike other transformations in the series, Ultra Instinct doesn’t actually make the user stronger. Rather, it gives them the means to surpass their natural limitations in order to attain strength. The difference ℱfrom other transformations𒊎 like Super Saiyan, you may ask, is that turning SSJ actually explicitly multiplies your strength. You can train it as your base as seen in the Cell saga, but it also gives you a boost.
Regular Goku actually hits harder than UI Goku at first.
When Goku triggers Ultra Instinct for the first time, it actually makes him weaker if Kefla is to be believed. His punches and kicks barely register while still mastering the state. It’s only through pure concentration that Goku is able to tap into a power stronger than his own. Even then, though, it’s still not his natural stren🍬gth he’s using. There’s no doubt Goku will inevitably figure out how to use UI properly, but, as of Super’s ending, it didn’t make him s🐬tron💫ger. It just gave him the means to be.
18 Beerus Can Use Ultra Instinct In The Manga
In the anime, the only characters we see use Ultra Instinct are Whis and Goku. Both make sense since Whis is an angel and Goku’s strongest master, and Goku is our main character. It is a b♏it odd that Ultra Instinct is billed as the state of the gods but is never used by a god, but it still works. Until you read the manga and see Beerus using it against the other Gods of Destruction. At the start of the Universe Survival arc, Zeno forces all of the GoDs to fight and Beerus busts out UI almost immediately.
Why the difference? Well, the manga act⛄ually skipped adapting Resurrection F which means readers never got foreshadowing for the transformation. By having Beerus trigger it at the start of the arc, Whis’ demonst𓆏ration is effectively replaced with a proper physical showing of the state. It does mean the manga’s Ultra Instinct isn’t foreshadowed early, potentially making the payoff a bit less impactful than in the anime, but Beerus’ version of UI does a great job at offering some fresh foreshadowing to re𒁃place Whis’ version.
17 Goku Completed Ultra Instinct, But He Didn’t Master It
Complete doesn’t mean mastered, and𒐪 that’s important to recognize when discussing Ultra Instinct. Although Goku completed Ultra Instinct by the end of the Tournament of Power, he didn’t technically master it. Why is that? Simple, Goku still doesn’t have complete control over the transformation. On top of rejecting his body near the end of the Tournament of Power, Goku has no clue how it actu🍰ally works outside of the moment. Every time he uses it, he effectively blanks and allows his instincts to take over. It's a lot to wrap your head around, but it is founded in logic. More importantly, there’s still one thing Goku has zero control over when it comes to Ultra Instinct …
16 Goku Can’t Trigger Ultra Instinct On His Own
Ultra Instinct stands out as the only one Goku’s transf⛦ormations that can be triggered on its own. Like with Vegeta and Super Saiyan 4 in Dragon Ball GT, Goku needs external help to transform. Since UI is a state of mind in many ways, triggering it requires a clear mind, a focus on the battle, and a desperate will to fight. Every time Goku transforms, it’s because he’s in a dangerous situation. The first time, he’s about to be disintegrated by the Genki Dama; the second, he’s on the verge of defeat at the hands of Kefla; and the third, he’s the on꧃ly person left st⛎anding who can defeat Jiren. Unlike SSJ which can just be turned on and off like a light switch, the stars have to align for Ultra Instinct to come out.