The ability of the Saiyans to power up and get stronger in Dragon Ball had always been fascinating to the fans. Over the years, we've been treated to lots of incredible Saiyan transformations in the series, from Goku's Super Saiyan form against Freeza to Gohan's Super Saiyan 2 against Cell.

Arguably, the most incredible of these Super Saiyan transformations is its third and final form, known as Super Saiyan 3. This form isn't known to many Saiyans, but it is one of the strongest power-ups that we've ever seen in the series. Here are 10 facts that you didn't know about the Super Saiyan 3 transformation.

10 The Super Saiyan Potential

Saiyans are known to have incredible potential and power that almost seems like it is limitless at times. When transforming into the Super Saiyan form, this power keeps on multiplying, and when a Saiyan masters Super Saiyan 3, they get to the absolute pinnacle of the Saiyan power.

According to what the series tells us, Super Saiyan 3 is what squeezes every bit of potential from the body of a Saiyan, making it the strongest known Saiyan transformation that we have seen to date.

9 Its Users

Anime Gotenks Super Saiyan 3

Although different Dragon Ball media, such as the games and the promotional anime, show multiple characters being able to use this transformation, Super Saiyan 3 can actually be used by just two known characters in Dragon Ball.

Goku is the first one who pulled this off after training in the Other World, and after him, Gotenks, the fusion of Goten and Trunks, was the second one who managed to gain this power. Of course, in Gotenks' case, Goku's guidance could also have played a role in them achieving this form.

8 Super Saiyan Mastery

Although Super Saiyan 3 is known to be the strongest of all the Super Saiyan forms, it doesn't change the fact that it is not the most convenient of states to enter.

According to Akira Toriyama, from Saikyō Jump's June 2014 interview, Super Saiyan 3 form is just a powered-up version of the regular Super Saiyan, and if trained hard enough, the regular Super Saiyan form can be used to reach a similar power level. What's more, all this is actually advantageous to the user as the regular Super Saiyan form isn't as taxing on the body as Super Saiyan 3.

7 How To Achieve It

The way to achieve Super Saiyan 3 has never been clearly mentioned to us in Dragon Ball. If achieving the form were all about power, Vegeta would've been able to utilize it as well. However, it seems as though there is something unnatural about the Super Saiyan 3 form. Goku could only gain this power when he died and trained in the Other World.

On the other hand, neither Trunks not Goten were able to achieve this form on their own; however, once they fused together to form Gotenks, achieving this form became possible for them.

6 Energy Consumption

Super Saiyan 3 is, undoubtedly, an extremely powerful form that allows a Saiyan to fight at the highest possible power output. However, it is actually not an ideal state to enter at all. From what we know, Super Saiyan 3 is said to be a form that maximizes the ki output of a user, which is why the state appears to be so powerful.

However, in doing so, it also makes the user lose their ki far too rapidly and puts a tremendous amount of strain on the body. As such, this form can only be maintained for a short duration of time.

5 Double-edged Sword

As mentioned previously, Super Saiyan 3 is a form that drains the ki of a user at an incredibly fast speed and puts a tremendous amount of strain on their body, but that's certainly not all there is to its down-sides.

On top of everything, Super Saiyan 3's awakening is known to produce a violent blast of power, which is so dangerous that the person undergoing the transformation could potentially end up killing themselves. However, once successfully achieved, this form increases the user's power tremendously.

4 The Solution

Goku goes Super Saiyan mode in Dragon Ball Z.

Due to its down-sides, the Super Saiyan 3 state appears to be a double-edged sword. However, that's not to say that it can't be used efficiently. Goku, in particular, seems to have gotten around its side effects by only using this form for a short span to overwhelm his enemies.

He did this against Future Trunks while sparring, and when used in this manner, it appears that the form can be put to very good use. The user also doesn't suffer the side effects that they usually do when used sporadically.

3 The Power Multiplier

The Super Saiyan 3 form is said to be able to multiply the power of a person who has achieved the Super Saiyan 2 state by at least 4 times. This implies that it is at least 8 times as strong as the regular Super Saiyan transformation.

The Super Saiyan state itself is a 50 times multiplier on the base state of a Saiyan, which means that a Super Saiyan 3 form makes a user 400 times as strong as they are in their base state.

2 The Initial Idea

Akira Toriyama is known to have drafted quite a number of designs for Super Saiyan 3 before actually settling for the one that we're so familiar with. In the original draft, Super Saiyan 3 appears to have had a tail. For some reason, the tail was completely omitted once the final version of this form was done by Toriyama.

At the same time, this tail was then used in the Super Saiyan 4 transformation, as seen in Dragon Ball GT. Why exactly Toriyama chose to not give Super Saiyan 3 a tail isn't known, but we hope to get an answer to that someday.

1 The Funimation Dub

According to the Funimation Dub of Dragon Ball Z, Goku states something interesting that suggests that Super Saiyan 3 drains a lot more energy in the living state than in the non-living state.

To be more precise, according to Goku, this form drains twice as much energy when alive as it does when he uses it when dead. This was stated after Goku's energy got depleted upon fighting Kid Buu in the Super Saiyan 3 state. While it could be true, there isn't much to back up this statement at all.

NEXT: Dragon Ball Z: 10 Characters Who Invented Their Own Techniques