Dragon Ball is a franchise with a ton of very iconic points that have made it the much-beloved property that it is today, and chief among these aspects are the transformations that various characters go through during the series. Whenever the heroes are faced with a brand-new villain who just so happens to be far stronger than anything that they have seen before, they are able to dig even deeper within themselves to bring out a new transformation that can more reliably fight the threat. However, the transformations that the Saiyans go through tend to get way more time in the spotlight as compared to others.
While the Saiyans are indeed the race that can effectively be called the 'main characters', their transformations, for the most part, either make their hair longer or change it to a different color. While this doesn't mean these are bad by any means, they can overshadow transformations that other characters go through during their battles as well, which often are some of the strongest in the series. So, whether these transformations belong to heroes or villains, let's take a look at the most powerful, non-Saiyan transformations in the series.
Super Buu
While his strength would be eclipsed in the current state of Dragon Ball Super, Super Buu was an absolute terror when he was first introduced into the series in the Buu Saga. What made him very dangerous were 2 main abilities; cellular regeneration which allowed him to completely regenerate his body if even a miniscule part of it remained and absorption. Due to the latter ability, Buu was able to continuously increase in power as he absorbed Gotenks and Piccolo, not only retaining his strength but adding to it with the power of the two he absorbed. He even gains further intelligence, which helps him in finally being able to absorb Ultimate Gohan, turning into the most powerful form we had ever seen up to that point in the series.
Gohan absorbed Super Buu was so powerful that Goku knew even Super Saiyan 3 could not hurt him because Buu now had his own destructive power along with that of Gotenks, Piccolo and Ultimate Gohan. This forced Goku and Vegeta to fuse into the ultimate warrior, Vegito, who was able to overpower Super Buu effortlessly. Despite this, Super Buu was easily the most terrifying transformation we had ever seen up to that point and he had the ability to only grow stronger, earning him a secure spot on this list.
Golden Frieza
Despite only having trained for a mere 4 months, Frieza was able to unlock this insanely powerful form which was largely on par with Super Saiyan Blue. Ever since he came back, he proved himself to be stronger than the standard Super Saiyan God form, which led to Goku using a power that we hadn't seen before. The end of the Dragon Ball Super: Resurrection F, however, showed us that his Golden Form needed time to be properly honed and perfected as the strain it put on Frieza was too great and caused him to lose his power and get utterly outclassed by Super Saiyan Blue Vegeta.
However, the Golden Form was perfected by Frieza in his time away in hell after the events of Resurrection F as was seen when Goku went on to recruit him for the Tournament of Power and they were evenly matched in their sparring match. However, while they both did manage to knock each other out with a single punch, it should be noted that Goku was knocked out of his Super Saiyan Blue transformation while Frieza managed to stay in his Golden Form. In the Tournament of Power, Frieza held his own very well and using his Golden Form sparingly, he was able to knock out many characters from other universes and performed very well against God of Destruction mode Toppo.
God of Destruction Toppo
Even before the Tournament of Power, we knew that Toppo was a fighter from Universe 11 who was primed to become the next God of Destruction after Belmod was going to retire. While this gave us a hint of how strong he may have been, it wasn't until the actual tournament that we would see just how much potential he holds. While getting beaten by Frieza, Toppo discarded all the values of justice that he had previously held, eventually embracing the power of a Destroyer and unlocking his God of Destruction transformation.
With this transformation, he was able to viciously beat Frieza who was in his second-strongest form and was able to fight and overpower Golden Frieza later on. In his Destroyer form, Toppo is can use the Hakai or 'Destruction' ability of the Gods of Destruction which is able to erase almost anything from existence, a technique even Goku couldn't use properly and despite getting eminimated by Super Saiyan Blue Evolution Vegeta, Toppo was a serious force to be reckoned with.
Burning Ultimate Warrior
Burning Ultimate Warrior was Jiren's only transformation that almost brought him up to Ultra Instinct levels of power as he was able to hold his own for quite some time against Goku. Jiren was teased from the beginning of the tournament as being an insanely powerful individual who could defeat most characters by just using his stare and despite engaging in fights throughout the tournament, he never showed what he was truly capable of. Towards the end of the tournament, Goku perfected his Ultra Instinct technique and was able to defeat Jiren and overcome his power.
This caused Jiren to finally go all out and while this wasn't exactly enough to pose too much danger to Ultra Instinct, it was quite clear that Jiren's Ultimate Burning Warrior transformation was a form that no other character could even touch. With this form, he was able to fire Ki blasts that could take out the entire stage of the tournament, vastly adding to the legend of him being a mortal more powerful than his God of Destruction. Unfortunately, we haven't seen much of Jiren or his form since the Tournament of Power, but it is safe to assume he is training to perfect the transformation, making him even stronger than before.
Ultra Instinct and Planet Moro
Upon absorbing Merus, Moro was able to imitate his skills with the Ultra Instinct technique, which allowed him to fight with Ultra Instinct Goku on a more even footing. At one stage, Moro was also able to greatly wound Goku by seemingly killing him by thrusting his entire arm through Goku's chest. However, Moro was eventually defeated by Goku's Ultra Instinct and Vegeta's Forced Spirit Fission technique, which was able to greatly weaken Moro to the point where he could not do much against the heroes.
However, this was when Moro decided to merge with the Earth itself, posing a threat to the entire planet and vastly growing in power. Once again, this transformation was enough to initially overpower the heroes and almost destroy the entire world as Moro started to lose his mind. It was promptly dealt with when Goku unlocked his new technique of creating a massive Ki avatar that came about when Vegeta tweaked his Spirit Fission technique to now give power rather than take it away. He gathered all of the power from the Z-Fighters and threw it to Goku, who was finally able to defeat Moro once and for all.
Berserker Gas
When we entered the Granolah arc and saw that there was a new character that was even more powerful than Ultra Instinct Goku (as he was able to one-shot him), the fandom was convinced that Granolah was the strongest enemy we would see in this arc. However, this prediction was shown to be wrong not once, but twice within the same arc. The first character to show vastly greater levels of strength than what we had seen before was Gas who, similar to Granolah, wished for unfathomable levels of power in exchange for many years taken off of his life. He was an enemy who harbored an ability very different from anything that we had ever seen in the franchise at that point.
This power was the ability to form weapons made of Ki but when that proved to be ineffective against Goku and Vegeta, Gas then resorted to the standard Ki, strength and speed-based techniques that we have been seeing since the start of the series. As Goku continued to power up, so did Gas until he reached his Berserker form which was then controlled and easily able to overpower everyone else. However, Gas was defeated when all 3 of the heroes were able to work together to put him down. Still, he was vastly stronger than them as his body continued to grow and was only defeated by the strongest transformation in the series which came shortly after.
Orange Piccolo
Orange Piccolo was a form that officially reintroduced Piccolo in the highest tiers of power within the entire Dragon Ball franchise. Fans felt that this was a long time coming as Piccolo had been a fan-favorite ever since the start of Dragon Ball Z and it was very refreshing to see him take a more central role in the story. During the Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero movie, Piccolo fought Gamma #2 but was woefully underpowered, causing him to make a wish via Shenron to unlock his full potential, which Shenron did and added a little extra on the side.
As Piccolo was getting overpowered, he eventually remembered the extra power that Shenron added and unlocked his incredible new 'Orange Piccolo' transformation. This transformation had a vast arsenal of abilities that allowed Piccolo to be far stronger than even the Gamma Androids, who went toe-to-toe with Ultimate Gohan, beating Gamma #2 to the ground with just one punch. He was also completely impervious to their physical and Ki attacks, and also briefly fought Cell Max on equal footing. These feats alone were enough to propel him to the level of Ultra Instinct Goku and Ultra Ego Vegeta.
Black Frieza
Everyone's favorite galactic dictator is back and has taken a form that no other mortal can currently even hold a candle to. In the closing moments of the Granolah arc, we were still unsure about what the Oracle Fish meant when it predicted the coming of the actual strongest warrior in the entire universe. As Gas' body continued to evolve and grow in power to match the onslaught by Granolah, Goku and Vegeta, it had reached a state where it started to look decrepit and was falling apart as skin was hanging off the bones sticking out from his limbs. This was when Frieza made his long-awaited return to the series.
It was then revealed that Elec wanted Gas to quickly eliminate the heroes, so he could eventually defeat Frieza who was on his way to Planet Cereal already. What he didn't account for, however, was just how powerful Frieza had gotten since they last met, as he was able to take out this vastly powerful version of Gas with just one hit. This was when Frieza revealed his ultimate 'Black Frieza' form and proceeded to take out both Goku and Vegeta with just one punch, who at the time were using their Ultimate Techniques. Considering how Goku was using the technique of Angels and Vegeta was using the technique of Gods of Destruction, many in the fandom take this to mean that Frieza has reached the same tier of power as Beerus by fully utilizing his potential in the time chamber he found, firmly cementing himself as the strongest mortal in the series.
Dragon Ball Super is available to stream on Crunchyroll and Funimation.