Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot DLC 1 has no doubt been the subject of some controversy due to its rather limited scope and lack of any real end game content, but there is yet another issue which many may have overlooked. Whis has officially replaced Bonyu as the game's best grind, leaving the unique and interesting sixth member of the Ginyu Force to fall further into obscurity. Unfortunately, this was bound to happen sooner or later, it is just too bad that the developer couldn't find any other purpose for Bonyu than to be the player's punching bag in order to hit level 250.
When Bonyu was originally announced for Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, fans were quite excited. Bonyu represented a new, powerful female warrior and added diversity to the franchise in terms of body type. She was also portrayed as the most intelligent of all the Ginyu Force. Unfortunately, when the game actually released, it was revealed that Bonyu wouldn't even actually be in the game, but instead would be available to fight as a simulation in the Training Room. This was disappointing to many, as her sole purpose was to be defeated by the player over and over again for experience points.
Level Grinding in Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot Base Game
Before the DLC released, the best way to level up and hit level 250 (the maximum level in Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot) was to battle the level 100 Bonyu in the training simulator over and over again. With food boosting experience points and a fully leveled training community board, she would give an impressive amount of exp, around 380,000 if memory serves. Though early on she was somewhat difficult to take down, after passing her level she became rather easy to one shot with any character that had a transformation.
This meant that Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot had created an incredibly interesting character designed by the creator of Dragon Ball, Akira Toriyama himself, to simply relegate her to the Training Room. She played no role in the story, had no sub-stories which involved her, and the characters hardly reacted when learning about her existence in the first place. The DLC has given players a better option for level grinding experience, which means that though Bonyu will no longer be subject to repeated defeats at the hands of perfectionist players, she matters even less now in the grand scheme of Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot than before.
Level Grinding in Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot DLC 1
To be fair, Whis seems much more suited for the role of trainer than Bonyu. Though the Bonyu fight was difficult at first and made sense that it would help characters get stronger, once the player passed her level it felt somewhat silly. Whis on the other hand, though easy to defeat, is clearly holding back a lot of power. Each time the player defeats Whis at any of the various levels of training he offers, they will be awarded with Sacred Water which can be used to level up.
Sacred Water can only bring players to a certain level. For example, the basic Sacred Water grant 5000 experience points but only works up to level 50, whereas the Ultimate Sacred Water gives 1.5 million experience and works all the way up to level 250. This method is clearly the superior training method, as on top of these items Whis actually grants more experience than Bonyu at higher levels. Players looking to hit max level that don't have the DLC will still need to resort to training with Bonyu, but those with the DLC will likely never see her again.
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
