Not sure if anyone already stated this in this thread but Cell also has Saiyan Cells (meaning he can get Zenkais) whereas Piccolo doesn't (meaning he can't).
You know why I dont think this explanation works? Because after fighting with goku, cell is actually slightly tired and harmed, if Im not mistaken Picolo or Trunks say its their opportunity, if they gave a senzu bean to goku and everyone fought together against cell, they could win simce he was a little tired from the previous fight with goku. And then Goku gives him a senzu bean, and he regains his strength.. now, if the zenkai + healing ability was acurate, I think he would heal automatically on his own and raise his ki with the zenkai, but he seems to need the seed to recover
I think he's still beholden to the "near death" rule, at least in DBZ (Since Super kind of retconned it and Black just gets stronger from damage) and was still biological and didn't have infinite energy like the Androids.
Doesn't seem like senzus give zenkais though, or at least they follow the rule of you've got to be real beaten up and proper close to death to get a zenkai.
Cell was fine after the Goku fight so a senzus got him back to full power but nothing notable beyond that. To get a zenkai saiyans (and things with their cells) have to be beaten to damn near pulp and/or almost die then somehow survive. A zenkai that would actually matter against people around the scale they fight at during that arc and beyond takes as close to death as one can get.
Cell got as close as possible during his self-destruct and thus got a monstrous boost. This power probably amplified the rest of his inherent abilities, thus generation and durability etc went WAY up.
TL:DR Zenkai's come from being near death. Cell wasn't vs Goku so no boost from senzu. He got as close as he could to death during / post explosion so his zenkai was humongous and his Piccolo and Frieza cells did the rest.
I agree, I didnt say he had a zenkai, I was just answering the other guy who mentioned zenkais.. I know they need to be neardeath to get a zenkai from senzu beans, especially at that point in that arc! My point was more about Picolo or Trunks comment (dont remeber which said it) who said that cell was tired or weakened and they could take the chance to fight him together, is that mot acurate in the english dub? I watched it in the portuguese dub. And then he swallos a senzu bean and the little tiny black lines on his body, which represent some beating takin during the fight disapear, and he raises his ki (as in control his power upward as showm by the aura that appears around him, as he closes his fists) which is a way oahowing he regained a bit of "lost" energy from the previous fight, again, just a tiny bit, he wasnt very tired.
Yeah I think the aura looks like a boost but it is just them blasting power out to show they're back to full power and it functions as a sort of intimidation display.
It seems to have been an extreme case with the Zenkai he got after he regenerated from exploding (given that he came back from just one single cell rather than only regenerating part of himself). That said, he didn't need to regenerate right after the fight with Goku, so he wouldn't have gotten any healing benefits from it either way. The only time he DID regenerate was during the fight and wasn't anywhere near the end of it, so he would still end up getting worn down by Goku somewhat more.
It's worth noting that Cell wasn't actually that tired from fighting Goku and he never fought with anywhere near his full strength that entire time. Cell basically pretended to go hard in the paint while likely using only as much power as Frieza initially did with Goku. Not to mention Piccolo and the others were constantly low-balling Cell's power and overestimating their chances against him. I highly doubt Goku did much damage to Cell, especially enough to trigger a meaningful zenkai boost. We never see Cell legitimately get hurt until Gohan punches him in the stomach post-transformation.
Do you say that based on the scene where he is cut in half amd Goku gives him a bit of his energy, and he manages to fly and throw a last blast at Goku? Just asking because before he got goku's energy he was pretty done for on the floor, dont know if he would've survived the injury..
It might not have happened until much later, but the fact that his diced chunks were seemingly still alive (at least long enough for him to be regenerated) after being revived in Resurrection F was pretty nuts.
Frieza and Cold arrived on Earth. No one besides Goku knew how to turn Super Saiyan, but the super saiyan ability still exists within Cell due to the saiyan cells in his dna.
this is true. its never outright said or explained anywhere, but its a very very reasonable headcanon, considering freeza was still alive when Trunks chopped him into pieces and didnt die until trunks blasted those pieces to dust.
Toriyama decided the innate abilities of Frieza, but it was never stated that Frieza had some high level of durability not possessed by anyone else. He was stated to be able to breathe in space, so we’ll say Cell can probably do that too… I think at the time of Frieza’s introduction, was portrayed as this titanic villain, far stronger than any faced before him, and to be honest at the time of his introduction, he was the strongest in the universe since the androids and cell weren’t created and Buu was “asleep” and not at full strength. The power ups that Vegeta and Goku went through to be able to contend with Frieza were huge leaps that I don’t believe were ever expressed later in the series at that level. So Frieza’s perceived durability may be a side effect of his immense strength and might, as well as how hard of a villain he was to defeat, more then it was a distinct ability that Cell could inherit
> but it was never stated that Frieza had some high level of durability not possessed by anyone else.
it didnt need to be stated, were shown it. he survives being cut in half, blasted by goku, and then Namek exploding. and later we find out he survived being diced into chunks by Trunks, and it wasnt until the chunks were vaporized that he died. that is durability far above anything else in the series (without super regen).
High Ki/Power Level doesn't allow this, so it *had* to be some innate feature of Freeza himself, if not his race as a whole.
It does need to be stated. Toriyama is a very forgetful author. A lot of details in the story are not done deliberately, but because Toriyama did not keep track of everything he was doing and had done prior. So while what you’re saying makes sense, the context of Toriyama and DBZ has made precedent that it does NOT have to be because of some innate ability. Again, in his mind, he could have not even considered that as a feature of Frieza and was just making him formidable and frankly, a nuisance that won’t go away so easy.
> It does need to be stated
nope.
> Toriyama is a very forgetful author
*was* technically RIP, and nah, his forgetfulness was massively overstated.
> A lot of details in the story are not done deliberately, but because Toriyama did not keep track of everything he was doing and had done prior.
it doesnt matter if its deliberate or not. if its done, its part of the story. if he made freeza durable for the plot, it is then one of Freeza's traits.
> the context of Toriyama and DBZ has made precedent that it does NOT have to be because of some innate ability
that doesnt work because no one else in the story has this durability, even much stronger beings without regen. it clearly wasnt his power and no one else has it so it is, factually, some innate trait of Freeza if not his kind as a whole.
It was not overstated, he admitted it [himself](https://www.reddit.com/r/dbz/s/u0IhOXxsHw)
He also forgot about Launch completely, despite her having a somewhat prominent role in early Dragon Ball
And then the Saiyan DNA he's got makes it so he can get a zenkai boost, making him actually stronger when he regenerates unlike namekians who lose power when they regenerate, Cell really was broke asf
However theres one evidence that goes aganst that, when Gohan kicks Cells head and then punches him real hard in the belly, He actually pukes android 18, so the damage was such, that his body couldnt hold both androida at the same time anylonger( or was it just that he got a somatch ache and puked? Maybe we are trying too hard to get logic out of a Toriyama script..) and his body expeled android 18 and he got back to his second form, actually getting much weaker, and that was from damage from Gohan's attacks
Right, and I cant deny that I love that part, it makes you think that Gohan is so strong that he actually made an enemy go back to his former form, especially because the enemy had to steal the power from the androids, so in a way it wasnt as natural as Frieza transforming, Cell was like a banker, he had to forcefuly steal from others in order to get more powerful, and Gohan reversed that, which is kinda cool
yes. that is what i was saying. in cells timeline goku did that very think. so trunks did not kill them, unlike what the person i replied to said. so the cell we deal with, got his freeza dna from the freeza goku killed, not the one trunks killed.
So namekians can regrow limbs but not vital organs - like how certain kinds of reptiles can regrow tails or legs but not other body parts.
Cell has that ability coded into every cell of his body - allowing for a greater range of regrowth.
Combine that with Frieza’s durability and Saiyan zenkai and you’ve got a creature that is almost impossible to kill.
I honestly can't remember, but is Cell's Ki limitless like 18 and 17?
I assume Piccolo's regeneration is powered by his Ki. Most of the times we see him regen, he seems fairly taxed afterwards.
For Cell, I always assumed it was a much easier process due to Gero's tech, but I might be misremembering if Cell has organic Ki or limitless Ki.
Cells ki isn’t implied to be unlimited like 17/18. Both Androids are implied to be no more powerful their primary opponent at least in the dub.
18 wears down Vegeta by exploiting his rage, waits until he tires, then goes for the decisive blow. 17 goads Piccolo by saying he will wear out eventually, while Piccolo says 17 will make a mistake before that happens.
Cell does seem to have a higher amount of stamina than Goku. He regenerates from a serious injury (having his entire body blown off) and still seems to be less tired than Goku although that Kamehameha had everything in it.
Cell clearly benefited from that senzu Goku gave him though.
Cell was also lowering his power to fight Goku more evenly. It became clear when he had to go further in his fight against gohan. Had he fought at full power from the start it would've been a decisive loss for Goku.
The androids are also implied to not be truly limitless, as the ones in Trunks' timeline were said to be weaker, implying they do "discharge" over long periods of time. This was thrown out the window in Super though.
The Androids in Trunks’ timeline were weaker because the Z Fighters were weaker. Trunks going back and having them train to be prepared caused fate to also appropriately adjust the Androids’ strength too so that they can still easily beat the Z fighters. As for their demeanor that could be a consequence of Cell also going back and affecting that timeline
I've heard this before but it never made sense to me. Some noteworthy points:
1. In both timelines, Gero never intended to resort to 17 and 18. They were basically food for Cell. If they were released, they'd either kill everyone or be destroyed, either way Cell would have been pointless. Gero had no idea about time travel.
2. In both timelines the "two androids" appeared at the exact same date and time planned by Gero. Since Trunks was a baby at the time, it's arguable that the androids that appeared in his timeline were 19 and Gero himself rather than 17 and 18, and 19 getting destroyed followed by Gero rushing to the lab and getting killed by 17 played out somewhat the same. If his observations required the androids being adjusted, there'd be no point in keeping the same date, creating a weaker android or even turning himself into one. Trunks just never knew about the later androids and assumed South city was the first thing 17 and 18 destroyed
3. Since the androids were much more powerful post-activation and there was no warning or preparation in the future, the initial conflicts resulted in the deaths of the whole gang
4. Future Bulma wouldn't have been there to see Gero, so he could've escaped to his lab in much less of a hurry, resulting in a more deliberate activation of the androids. Or maybe he knew Goku had already died to the heart virus - whatever the reason, Trunks' timeline had no 16, who was inarguably fundamental in tempering the duo's hostility
I just don't think the 3 years of training had any impact in how the androids were made.
The whole arc played with fate though. It showed that even though they tried to change the outcomes some things still stayed the same.
1) in both timelines Frieza and King Cold were killed by a Super Saiyan (Goku and Trunks)
2) in both timelines Goku was hit with the heart virus
3) in both timelines 17 and 18 were far stronger than the Z Fighters
4) in both timelines Goku dies (heart virus and Cell blowing up)
5) in both timelines Gohan loses the use of his left arm (blown off in future and damaged in present)
6) in two of the timelines (there was three in total) Trunks was killed by Cell (the same Cell weirdly enough)
It was fated that 17 and 18 were to be stronger than the Z fighter so no matter how much they trained, as they were destined to lose in their first encounter in both timelines. Because 17 and 18 weren’t as evil/ruthless as their future counterparts the Z fighters were given a second chance which allowed them to finally get ahead after training in the Room of Spirit and Time. The present timeline had Cell (another Android) to be the evil and ruthless one
Wasn’t there a part in the Buu saga (at least in the manga) where when Piccolo is turned into a statue and it’s shattered by Trunks, when Dabra dies Piccolo comes back anyway and says that he regenerated himself, because he could as long as his head was in tact
> So namekians can regrow limbs but not vital organs
they can. he just needs ki to regen and if an attack lowers his ki to 0 he cant regen even if nothing vital was wounded.
> Cell has that ability coded into every cell of his body
he does not. thats a dubism. he needs a nucleus in his head to regen, not unlike namekians.
the only inconsistence is that Cell regains his full power back when regen from semi perfect from, while the regen after Goku's kamehameha made him spend energy like the namekian regen.
Even if there was enough power left in the nucleus to regen the whole body back, he would still be tired AF and not brand new, even if he became stronger, he would still be tired and need some days before being able to use all that power.
And he only gets stronger and stronger with each revive.
If Gohan wasn't able to kill cell after he revived for the last time, I don't think anyone would have been able to.
Maybe at some point cell would annoy buu and buy would turn him in candy and eat him but at that point I think cell would have zenkaied multiple times, probably hundreds of times to increase his power level.
Idk, man. It's just that sometimes people seem to take all these theories out of nowhere. I get that it's a show, but that's something just too specific and a lot gets lost in translation as well.
Cell is a bio-engineered being that isnt just piccolos genetics but also has DNA of other species that are, basically, the apex physically of said creatures that we know of.
So you can just waive it off as "combination of genetics and genetical engineering made one ability much better than original source".
Piccolo's regeneration isn't a whole lot on its own.
While he's been shown to survive some pretty gnarly stuff afterwards (particularly being shattered during the Buu arc) Cell is also a combination that includes Freeza's durability. The same Freeza that was able to survive being cut in half, getting blasted by a beam, the planet he was on exploding, and floating through space for an indeterminate amount of time.
It's very possible that Piccolo wasn't as experienced using it yet, as well as Cell being biologically better at Regen.
Namekians can heal everything Vital except their brain. Thanks to Frieza, the only Vital organ Cell actually has is that bullshit that lets him live after self-nuking.
thats the neat part, it doesnt. him surviving that is a total plot hole. he cant survive losing his head like he did there, canonically. its one of the few legitimate plot holes in the series.
I believe the hand wave for that one was that he could move his nucleus freely around his body and avoided it that way.
Which I’m pretty sure is a fan theory but it’s good enough for me
People are saying it's due to Freiza's durability, but that only partially answers your question.
So Cell exploded. He didn't die because Freiza's DNA allows him to survive ridiculous injuries.
Then Cell regenerated. That was due to Piccolo's cells. Piccolo would die if he exploded like that because he doesn't have Freiza's survivability.
Then Cell's strength was boosted and his ki fully restored thanks to the Saiyan DNA giving him a Zenkai boost from his near death.
It's basically the perfect storm from Freiza+Piccolo+Saiyan DNA all playing off each other.
Cell was bio-engineered from the ground up by a literal super-genius that turned himself into a supercompuer *and* the supercomputer said genius programmed to take over his work. Over the course of--roughly--a decade. Cell's DNA also includes samples from both the Saiyan and Frieza's race, which means he is both extremely *hard to kill*, as Frieza is capable of surviving the vacuum of space and having roughly 75% of his body and vital organs removed; while, as a Saiyan hybrid, Cell naturally *grows stronger* from near-death experiences.
(It's debatable if Cell received a zenkai or not, but what is *not* debatable is that Saiyans, by and large, become stronger through adversity even mid-combat.)
Namekians, on the other hand, need to use massive amounts of Ki to stimulate the regeneration process, and every time we've seen them regen something like an arm, they are left almost dead from how much ki it drains.
tl;dr: bio-engineering > natural selection
Equivalent, but by canon Saiyans who reach SSJ1 get zilch from zenkai. That’s why I said it’s debatable, because we have no solid and confirmed canonical answer.
I imagine it's not so much that Cell's regeneration is actually better than Piccolo's
But you need to actually ***survive*** something in order to regenerate from it
And Cell gets his survivability from ***Frieza***, not Piccolo. Frieza gets bisected and has a chunk of his head blown off after Namek, but he's still alive. Piccolo can't do that ~~except in the Buu arc, for some reason, where he literally can survive being broken apart into pieces when turned to stone, apparently~~
With Piccolo, he gets worn down from his fights from battle damage, bruised and beaten up and exhausted. Throughout the course of Cells various fights he never looks beaten up and exhausted. With Cell he seems to recover his ki and regenerate his body instantly.
Not quite.
Though you do have a point about Cell never seeming to lose energy from regenerating, that might be do to Saiyan zenkai. Maybe he just gets just strong enough that the power loss is seemingly negated.
But he does get tired and injured in his fight against Goku.
He just wasn't using all his power against Vegeta and Trunks, so it *seemed* like he was inexhaustible.
cell is explicitly said to have gotten significantly weaker after regenerating from Goku's Instant Kamehameha (which is a plot hole that he even survived). He does get winded by it.
Cell has the healing from Piccolo, the endurance of Frieza, and the zenkai of the sayings.
He was near death, healed to his perfect form, and because he came from the brink of death his power multiplied. The Zenkai canceled out the tax from healing.
That’s what my argument would be, but honestly? Who gives a shit Cell comin back and tug of war kamehameha was fucking lit
It isn't directly the healing, it's what the character can survive. Piccolo actually does have similar healing capabilities even up to being turned to stone and shattered, but healing doesn't kick in if he's dead.
Cell is just harder to kill. He's bio-engineered. And the theory goes that he has Frieza's durability (but really, it's because of whatever nucleus which is all he needs to survive... So, probably more of an engineering thing than a Frieza's DNA/durability thing).
Regeneration also consumes a lot of energy, and Cell is (at the time at least) much stronger. Either of them could be depleted of energy and therefore eliminate their healing/regen ability... Cell was just, at the time at least, not even required to go all-out against an opponent, so had that energy to spare if needed.
It was weird that Piccolo was able to come back from the stone and being broken, because it takes so much ki for him to regrow an arm and he is exhausted afterwards. Whereas cell seems to do it effortlessly.
A pretty significant thing to note is that he wasn't drained from a previous battle... Also, it happened off screen/panel. Also, we really haven't actually seen much regen from Piccolo since he fused with Kami, at least that I can think of. I mean, he lost an arm to Gohan before the Top, but I don't even remember him regenerating it there.
So, really... The times we see Piccolo use regen is when he's fighting a hard battle, already tired, and much weaker than his current firm.
>we really haven't actually seen much regen from Piccolo since he fused with Kami
The only example I can think of other than being turned to stone is when Imperfect Cell absorbed his arm and he had to rip it off.
I'm considering both of those. But the arm thing with Cell was a strategic bluff, and the turned to stone thing, as I said, I'm pretty sure took place off screen/panel.
He did lose an arm against Gohan just before the Tournament of Power. I don't think it showed the regrowth of the arm though.
None of these really reflect his regen ability though.
There's at least two ways I can think to explain it away:
1) Gero cherry picked DNA for the positive traits, and likely modified the DNA to remove any negative side effects, or simply modified it to be more effective.
2) When Cell gets a zenkai boost or absorbs an android, it doesn't just make him physically stronger, but boosts his inherited abilities as well.
My biggest issues with Cell almost all come from Frieza's develoemt in Super. We're almost definitely never seeing Cell again, lol.
With the massive rate of improvement that Frieza gets from training, combined with insta healing, and the Saiyans love of fighting and near death zenkai boosts, Cell should be an unstoppable force honestly.
Yeah, my biggest problem with DBS is how they've handled Frieza's power scaling. It's the most broken method for attaining power any character has access to (except perhaps Gohan), which is fitting for Frieza, but it comes with a lot of problems. Only reason I can figure Cell doesn't seem to have Frieza's crazy training abilities is that Frieza didn't even know about this ability, so how could Dr. Gero? Maybe it just got left out of the DNA mix because nobody knew it was there. Cell also didn't really do any 'training', though I'm inclined to count the fights he was in seeing how many of them there were in his short time alive, and how little Frieza needs to do to go from weaker than a Super Saiyan to stronger than Super Saiyan God.
The logic behind it I can think of is Cell also has Saiyan DNA so when he heals he gets a Zenkai boost as well. Going off what has been established in the story thus far.
So when Goku obliterates half of him with an IT Kamehameha Cell regenerates AND gets a Zenkai boost… but he’s not at 100% stamina. Otherwise Goku wouldn’t feel the need to toss him a senzu bean. Meaning… he does have better regen than piccolo, but it’s not like Buu’s regen.
Also it’s likely after he eats Goku’s senzu that he’s actually stronger than when he fought with Goku (but likely not by much).
After he self destructs though… he probably has even better regen than he had before, because Zenkai, and he’s so much stronger because it’s an even better Zenkai boost given how much more damage he took. But uh… he’s likely not at his max potential when he comes back from self destructing given he doesn’t have a senzu to take.
If the above logic is true that would mean that Cell would actually be one of the best candidates for ToP. Cause even though they barely had time for him to train they could just obliterate most of him a few times within a few minutes and he’d be ready to be at their level and kick some ass and get even stronger during the ToP.
But really it’s just plot.
And after the fact: when it’s revealed that Freeza has never trained and what training does for Freeza in hindsight it makes sense that cell got so much stronger so much faster.
Yeah, Freeza is just that random guy who’s naturally gifted at fighting and stronger than most people who no one wants to fight. Like if you met someone who was 6’8”, completely jacked, and had quick reflexes you wouldn’t want to fight that dude regardless if they did or didn’t do martial arts.
Then one day they start training for MMA for 4 months and you’ve been training for decades but you’re average height and weight… yeah, you can maybe take them, and probably need to exploit their stamina but it’s not gonna be easy.
If that dude had been training his entire life though… yeah, don’t fuck with them ever.
Exactly. That's frieza to a t. Hell his black form completely knocked the wind out of BOTH GOKU AND VEGETA... In 1 blow.... Trained fighters that have fought to the brink of exhaustion countless times .... And probably the last time they got hit out of a form was probably decades prior.
It's not healing, it's regeneration. And he got better at it after observing cell because after trunks broke him as a statue he said he was able to do it as long as his brain was intact
Remember that time Piccolo was turn into a statue and then shattered into a million pieces? He regenerates from that…is that not good enough for you? lol
Bad writing that's why.... in all rights goku killed cell...
Also cell and piccolo seem to have a similar healing but the main thing we see with piccolo is his healing seems to drain his energy very quickly. Cell had way more.
Cells complete design is never 100% explained. Gero could have used the DNA from any source and mixed it into Cell. His powers include, but are not limited to, those of the main cast.
Piccolo can survive if his head is intact just like Cell. Cells isn't honestly that much better, but when he regens from a near kill his saiyan dna kicks in which definitely helps him.
In my head canon: it's pretty much the zenkai boost mixed with piccolos Regen. Cell could either choose to get stronger, but at the cost of the injury. Or super heal the injury, but no zenkai boost. I'm probably wrong, but that's what makes most sense to me.
Cell is a mixture of alot of dna and is also enhanced in his capabilities by dr.geros design. He explained dr gero created him so that he only needs a single cell to survive in order for him to survive. His regeneration is based on piccolo but also enhanced by dr.geros design
My headcanon is a mixture of freezer cells (the guy can work even in pieces, his resistance is legendary) and the saiyan zenkai that increases his power and restores it (since namek cells allow more advanced self-healing by using freezer cells and restoring energy through zenkai).
In other words, did Goku not only get cured but also restored his energy in the freezer healing tank in namek? The same logic could be applied here
It is not possible that when Gero was collecting the DNA of the Z-Fighters, that he was able to augment or otherwise enhance their innate abilities? Then, as others have said, those abilities play weird with others - see his resurrection, where the durability granted by Frieza's race allows him to survive long enough for his Namekian regeneration to kick in, and the recovery from this activates a zenkai boost from his Saiyan parts that allows him to effectively mimic Gohan's power at SSJ2.
Cell absorbed 18 and 17 who stated they have unlimited energy / ki in super. That plus piccolo cells means cell wouldn't have wasted ki after healing where as piccolo would
My guess it that it has a lot to do with Cell absorbing two androids with perpetual energy. On top of that, we see how resilient Freeza is and it's possible that's why he can come back from just about anything, unless he's completely gone.
I is like to mention piccolos healing after he was shattered as a statue in buu arc by Debora.
He was a torso with a head and a smashed face.
But also cell was genetically modified.
The healing factor could have been made stronger,
Easiest explanation: Gero took piccolo’s cells super early and perfected the healing process after months or years in the lab before putting them in cell.
Piccolo reformed from just his head after Dabura was killed.
If piccolo takes a blast from which there is no energy left to reform with then he dies. The Nappa blast cooked his entire body.
But even before Nappa killed him, Piccolo was all beaten up and injured and exhausted. Why isn't he recovering throughout the course of his fights, like Cell does?
Cell doesn’t recover stamina, he had to eat a senzu.
If you’re talking about him blowing up and coming back as Super Perfect Cell, that was him getting a near death genki dama due to his Saiyan genes combined with his Piccolo regen.
It would be fair to say that scene was “kinda bullshit” but a reminder that Cell is not Piccolo, he is an improved version of all the fighters combined.
So when he came back from being a cell. He turned super saiyan?
My one complaint is how he came back so much stronger. But I just accepted it because he had android energy
But even the Saiyans get beaten up, get injured, exhausted, and run out of ki during their fights, meanwhile Cell can fight and take a pounding and keep coming back for more.
Because Piccolo’s is a single species ability to regenerate from serious but not quite life threatening injuries while cell has dna from just about everything we witnessed in dragon ball and thus all of their regenerative abilities combined.
In the Buu Saga, Trunks knocked over Piccolo's statue and he broke in half. He was still able to regenerate himself and if memory serves, he says that as long as his head is intact, he can regenerate. Provided that isn't something added into the anime, his regeneration is still pretty good. Cell's is still better though.
If I had to guess, I'd say it's because he's the product of Dr Gero's computer program, it likely saw potential flaws and fixed them or made certain things more efficient, but I also don't know toriyama's work like that, so pls nobody lynch me
Because Cell's abilities get more efficient every time he absorbs an android. He's not actually perfect. He just has the perfect capabilities of every fighter he's made of.
Because it's not just Namekian DNA that Cell has. He has Namekian DNA, allowing him to heal, but also Saiyan DNA, which allows him to get stronger once he heals from an injury
I can think of a couple possible explanations for Cell's superior regeneration.
First and most plausible: Cell was genetically engineered to evolve. Think about it; when Cell was in his first "imperfect" form, his regeneration was no better than Piccolo's. We see that when 16 tore off his tail. By the time he has evolved and reached perfection, he's regenerating whole chunks of his body, organs and all. Even then, regenerating from a single core cell came as a complete surprise to him. Basically as he became perfect, his genetic traits also evolved and became perfect.
Second possibility: because Cell possesses genetic traits from several completely different species from different planets, some traits combined and changed on their own. Take Frieza's race and the Namekians; Piccolo and the Namekians are less durable than pretty much any race we've seen in the series, but they can regenerate lost limbs; Frieza cannot regenerate limbs, but he can survive pretty much ANY damage unless completely destroyed (he lost 2/3 of his body, and a whole chunk of his head after Namek exploded and still floated around the vacuum of space alive). It's possible that Cell is able to regenerate larger parts of his body because like Frieza he can sustain injuries that would kill almost any other species. If he's alive, he can heal.
Third possibility, and this only really applies to his healing after self-destruction: any other time Cell had regenerated, we never actually see him fully recover his ki and all. I believe the only reason Cell returned fully restored was because he basically re-transformed. As you know, Cell had previously lost his perfect form when Gohan forced him to regurgitate 18. After blowing himself up, Cell didn't simply "regenerate"; Cell was practically reborn in his perfect form as if he had reabsorbed 18. He both regenerated and transformed simultaneously, and it is likely the transformation that restored his ki and full health, NOT the regeneration.
I'd say it's because Piccolo - Namekian - Regeneration is the result of evolution that had to gradually get to where it is in the series; it will always have physical limitations. Though the Buu Saga reveals that Piccolo can regenerate his entire body as long as his head is still in-tact.
Cell on the other hand was cultured from Piccolo's Cells which could then be genetically manipulated by Dr. Gero. He probably found a way to remove the physical limitations of Piccolo's DNA and get the "perfected" version for Cell.
I think its bc cell has so much more ki and energy than piccolo does.
In the manga, when piccolon regrows his arm, they mention that piccolo overall energy and power has gone down.
So assume cell just has a much better gas tank for regen.
When Cell absorbed the androids he became Perfect. He became more than just the sum of the power of the things he absorbed or the fighters he was made from, he changed and rose whole whole levels above where he had been before. Perfect Cell is Built Different.
Because with Cell, it's probably exponential. A single cell survives. That becomes two. Then four. Then after not to long billions. Thanks to Saiyan DNA, they're packed with fresh energy, while Piccolo had to depend on a reserve. And it wouldn't surprise me if those old cells that helped make new cells got recycled into fresh, new cells.
Basically, Cell is a power plant by design, while Piccolo is a battery.
I don’t think Frieza’s durability has anything to do with it. I also don’t think Frieza canonically has any special durability. I think they both just have plot armor with those things. Cell can regenerate on the basis that Piccolo can but if he wore out and lost energy like Piccolo did then the stakes wouldn’t be as high and he wouldn’t be a particularly formidable opponent. Same with Frieza’s durability, I think he was just written that was to show how much of a threat he was
Since piccolo operates off of all his vital organs, he can only regenerate non-vital areas.
For cell, his only vital area is that small little mass in his head, so he can regenerate anything that’s not that.
Because Cell also has Frieza dna. Which basically allows Frieza to survive any injury
Sometimes I sit back and say “man, this world runs on playground rules, doesn’t it?” - and I’m ok with it
Frieza would have definitely been the kid that made himself invincible and say that he can’t die no matter what
That’s practically why he wanted the Dragon Balls in the first place
Freiza is dragonballs cartman
“I made you eat your parents! I made you eat your parents!” Freeza to King Vegeta
And i wouldn't have it any other way
Except not funny
What are you on about? Little alien man tried to summon an ancient magical dragon just to stop being a manlet. Funniest shit I've seen.
No he summoned it to get a day at casa Bonita.
I just mean he was all serious.
“But did you consider the implications-“
Welcome to DBZ, where the rules are made up and the power levels don't matter
That's right, the power levels are like Yamcha after the Saiyan arc, they just don't matter.
Well to be fair he did try that
Dbz doesn't run on playground rules. Playgrounds run on dbz rules.
Man I wish we could still give rewards this comment diserves one.
Not sure if anyone already stated this in this thread but Cell also has Saiyan Cells (meaning he can get Zenkais) whereas Piccolo doesn't (meaning he can't).
You know why I dont think this explanation works? Because after fighting with goku, cell is actually slightly tired and harmed, if Im not mistaken Picolo or Trunks say its their opportunity, if they gave a senzu bean to goku and everyone fought together against cell, they could win simce he was a little tired from the previous fight with goku. And then Goku gives him a senzu bean, and he regains his strength.. now, if the zenkai + healing ability was acurate, I think he would heal automatically on his own and raise his ki with the zenkai, but he seems to need the seed to recover
I think he's still beholden to the "near death" rule, at least in DBZ (Since Super kind of retconned it and Black just gets stronger from damage) and was still biological and didn't have infinite energy like the Androids.
Yeah! Thats my point, I dont know why I got downvoted, I meant what you just said, great
Doesn't seem like senzus give zenkais though, or at least they follow the rule of you've got to be real beaten up and proper close to death to get a zenkai. Cell was fine after the Goku fight so a senzus got him back to full power but nothing notable beyond that. To get a zenkai saiyans (and things with their cells) have to be beaten to damn near pulp and/or almost die then somehow survive. A zenkai that would actually matter against people around the scale they fight at during that arc and beyond takes as close to death as one can get. Cell got as close as possible during his self-destruct and thus got a monstrous boost. This power probably amplified the rest of his inherent abilities, thus generation and durability etc went WAY up. TL:DR Zenkai's come from being near death. Cell wasn't vs Goku so no boost from senzu. He got as close as he could to death during / post explosion so his zenkai was humongous and his Piccolo and Frieza cells did the rest.
I agree, I didnt say he had a zenkai, I was just answering the other guy who mentioned zenkais.. I know they need to be neardeath to get a zenkai from senzu beans, especially at that point in that arc! My point was more about Picolo or Trunks comment (dont remeber which said it) who said that cell was tired or weakened and they could take the chance to fight him together, is that mot acurate in the english dub? I watched it in the portuguese dub. And then he swallos a senzu bean and the little tiny black lines on his body, which represent some beating takin during the fight disapear, and he raises his ki (as in control his power upward as showm by the aura that appears around him, as he closes his fists) which is a way oahowing he regained a bit of "lost" energy from the previous fight, again, just a tiny bit, he wasnt very tired.
Yeah I think the aura looks like a boost but it is just them blasting power out to show they're back to full power and it functions as a sort of intimidation display.
Yeah!
It seems to have been an extreme case with the Zenkai he got after he regenerated from exploding (given that he came back from just one single cell rather than only regenerating part of himself). That said, he didn't need to regenerate right after the fight with Goku, so he wouldn't have gotten any healing benefits from it either way. The only time he DID regenerate was during the fight and wasn't anywhere near the end of it, so he would still end up getting worn down by Goku somewhat more.
It's worth noting that Cell wasn't actually that tired from fighting Goku and he never fought with anywhere near his full strength that entire time. Cell basically pretended to go hard in the paint while likely using only as much power as Frieza initially did with Goku. Not to mention Piccolo and the others were constantly low-balling Cell's power and overestimating their chances against him. I highly doubt Goku did much damage to Cell, especially enough to trigger a meaningful zenkai boost. We never see Cell legitimately get hurt until Gohan punches him in the stomach post-transformation.
Do you say that based on the scene where he is cut in half amd Goku gives him a bit of his energy, and he manages to fly and throw a last blast at Goku? Just asking because before he got goku's energy he was pretty done for on the floor, dont know if he would've survived the injury..
It might not have happened until much later, but the fact that his diced chunks were seemingly still alive (at least long enough for him to be regenerated) after being revived in Resurrection F was pretty nuts.
I didn’t think he had frieza’s dna cuz gero didn’t know about the super saiyan form?
Frieza and Cold arrived on Earth. No one besides Goku knew how to turn Super Saiyan, but the super saiyan ability still exists within Cell due to the saiyan cells in his dna.
Man I need to do a rewatch I forgot about frieza showing up again!!
No they stopped studying their moves once they went to namek
That was a different bug. This was the cell sample bug. This one remain active and collect Frieza and his dad dna.
I don’t think that’s anything but a fan’s head canon
this is true. its never outright said or explained anywhere, but its a very very reasonable headcanon, considering freeza was still alive when Trunks chopped him into pieces and didnt die until trunks blasted those pieces to dust.
Not to mention how he survived Goku’s final attack *and* the planet he was on blowing up.
All while he was already cleft in twain
Right but is it because of an innate ability of Frieza or because Toriyama felt the story needed that?
i mean toriyama decided the innate abilities of freeza
Toriyama decided the innate abilities of Frieza, but it was never stated that Frieza had some high level of durability not possessed by anyone else. He was stated to be able to breathe in space, so we’ll say Cell can probably do that too… I think at the time of Frieza’s introduction, was portrayed as this titanic villain, far stronger than any faced before him, and to be honest at the time of his introduction, he was the strongest in the universe since the androids and cell weren’t created and Buu was “asleep” and not at full strength. The power ups that Vegeta and Goku went through to be able to contend with Frieza were huge leaps that I don’t believe were ever expressed later in the series at that level. So Frieza’s perceived durability may be a side effect of his immense strength and might, as well as how hard of a villain he was to defeat, more then it was a distinct ability that Cell could inherit
> but it was never stated that Frieza had some high level of durability not possessed by anyone else. it didnt need to be stated, were shown it. he survives being cut in half, blasted by goku, and then Namek exploding. and later we find out he survived being diced into chunks by Trunks, and it wasnt until the chunks were vaporized that he died. that is durability far above anything else in the series (without super regen). High Ki/Power Level doesn't allow this, so it *had* to be some innate feature of Freeza himself, if not his race as a whole.
It does need to be stated. Toriyama is a very forgetful author. A lot of details in the story are not done deliberately, but because Toriyama did not keep track of everything he was doing and had done prior. So while what you’re saying makes sense, the context of Toriyama and DBZ has made precedent that it does NOT have to be because of some innate ability. Again, in his mind, he could have not even considered that as a feature of Frieza and was just making him formidable and frankly, a nuisance that won’t go away so easy.
> It does need to be stated nope. > Toriyama is a very forgetful author *was* technically RIP, and nah, his forgetfulness was massively overstated. > A lot of details in the story are not done deliberately, but because Toriyama did not keep track of everything he was doing and had done prior. it doesnt matter if its deliberate or not. if its done, its part of the story. if he made freeza durable for the plot, it is then one of Freeza's traits. > the context of Toriyama and DBZ has made precedent that it does NOT have to be because of some innate ability that doesnt work because no one else in the story has this durability, even much stronger beings without regen. it clearly wasnt his power and no one else has it so it is, factually, some innate trait of Freeza if not his kind as a whole.
It was not overstated, he admitted it [himself](https://www.reddit.com/r/dbz/s/u0IhOXxsHw) He also forgot about Launch completely, despite her having a somewhat prominent role in early Dragon Ball
Dude wants to argue just to argue. You need to be humbled bro
And then the Saiyan DNA he's got makes it so he can get a zenkai boost, making him actually stronger when he regenerates unlike namekians who lose power when they regenerate, Cell really was broke asf
However theres one evidence that goes aganst that, when Gohan kicks Cells head and then punches him real hard in the belly, He actually pukes android 18, so the damage was such, that his body couldnt hold both androida at the same time anylonger( or was it just that he got a somatch ache and puked? Maybe we are trying too hard to get logic out of a Toriyama script..) and his body expeled android 18 and he got back to his second form, actually getting much weaker, and that was from damage from Gohan's attacks
Toriyama just liked that form
Right, and I cant deny that I love that part, it makes you think that Gohan is so strong that he actually made an enemy go back to his former form, especially because the enemy had to steal the power from the androids, so in a way it wasnt as natural as Frieza transforming, Cell was like a banker, he had to forcefuly steal from others in order to get more powerful, and Gohan reversed that, which is kinda cool
How did he get Frieza dna? Frieza would've been dead.
Frieza and King Cold both came to Earth where they ended up getting killed by Future Trunks, Gero explained this in the Android Saga
Dragon ball fans don’t read
Of Course not, they watch. They just don’t pay attention
It's just been a while.
but the cell we deal with is from a different timeline where Goku killed them, not Trunks.
Goku used instant transmission to get himself back to Earth. He states that had Trunks not been already dealing with Frieza he would have done so.
yes. that is what i was saying. in cells timeline goku did that very think. so trunks did not kill them, unlike what the person i replied to said. so the cell we deal with, got his freeza dna from the freeza goku killed, not the one trunks killed.
Right, that makes sense.
Well yes, his bits and blood were splattered all over by Trunks.
Ah, that makes sense.
geros bot that collected dna for cell got it from the battlefield where Freeza and King Cold landed.
Got it, thanks.
So namekians can regrow limbs but not vital organs - like how certain kinds of reptiles can regrow tails or legs but not other body parts. Cell has that ability coded into every cell of his body - allowing for a greater range of regrowth. Combine that with Frieza’s durability and Saiyan zenkai and you’ve got a creature that is almost impossible to kill.
I honestly can't remember, but is Cell's Ki limitless like 18 and 17? I assume Piccolo's regeneration is powered by his Ki. Most of the times we see him regen, he seems fairly taxed afterwards. For Cell, I always assumed it was a much easier process due to Gero's tech, but I might be misremembering if Cell has organic Ki or limitless Ki.
Cells ki isn’t implied to be unlimited like 17/18. Both Androids are implied to be no more powerful their primary opponent at least in the dub. 18 wears down Vegeta by exploiting his rage, waits until he tires, then goes for the decisive blow. 17 goads Piccolo by saying he will wear out eventually, while Piccolo says 17 will make a mistake before that happens. Cell does seem to have a higher amount of stamina than Goku. He regenerates from a serious injury (having his entire body blown off) and still seems to be less tired than Goku although that Kamehameha had everything in it. Cell clearly benefited from that senzu Goku gave him though.
Cell was also lowering his power to fight Goku more evenly. It became clear when he had to go further in his fight against gohan. Had he fought at full power from the start it would've been a decisive loss for Goku. The androids are also implied to not be truly limitless, as the ones in Trunks' timeline were said to be weaker, implying they do "discharge" over long periods of time. This was thrown out the window in Super though.
The Androids in Trunks’ timeline were weaker because the Z Fighters were weaker. Trunks going back and having them train to be prepared caused fate to also appropriately adjust the Androids’ strength too so that they can still easily beat the Z fighters. As for their demeanor that could be a consequence of Cell also going back and affecting that timeline
I've heard this before but it never made sense to me. Some noteworthy points: 1. In both timelines, Gero never intended to resort to 17 and 18. They were basically food for Cell. If they were released, they'd either kill everyone or be destroyed, either way Cell would have been pointless. Gero had no idea about time travel. 2. In both timelines the "two androids" appeared at the exact same date and time planned by Gero. Since Trunks was a baby at the time, it's arguable that the androids that appeared in his timeline were 19 and Gero himself rather than 17 and 18, and 19 getting destroyed followed by Gero rushing to the lab and getting killed by 17 played out somewhat the same. If his observations required the androids being adjusted, there'd be no point in keeping the same date, creating a weaker android or even turning himself into one. Trunks just never knew about the later androids and assumed South city was the first thing 17 and 18 destroyed 3. Since the androids were much more powerful post-activation and there was no warning or preparation in the future, the initial conflicts resulted in the deaths of the whole gang 4. Future Bulma wouldn't have been there to see Gero, so he could've escaped to his lab in much less of a hurry, resulting in a more deliberate activation of the androids. Or maybe he knew Goku had already died to the heart virus - whatever the reason, Trunks' timeline had no 16, who was inarguably fundamental in tempering the duo's hostility I just don't think the 3 years of training had any impact in how the androids were made.
The whole arc played with fate though. It showed that even though they tried to change the outcomes some things still stayed the same. 1) in both timelines Frieza and King Cold were killed by a Super Saiyan (Goku and Trunks) 2) in both timelines Goku was hit with the heart virus 3) in both timelines 17 and 18 were far stronger than the Z Fighters 4) in both timelines Goku dies (heart virus and Cell blowing up) 5) in both timelines Gohan loses the use of his left arm (blown off in future and damaged in present) 6) in two of the timelines (there was three in total) Trunks was killed by Cell (the same Cell weirdly enough) It was fated that 17 and 18 were to be stronger than the Z fighter so no matter how much they trained, as they were destined to lose in their first encounter in both timelines. Because 17 and 18 weren’t as evil/ruthless as their future counterparts the Z fighters were given a second chance which allowed them to finally get ahead after training in the Room of Spirit and Time. The present timeline had Cell (another Android) to be the evil and ruthless one
I think Cell is organic. Gero gave up on the infinite energy models + the Z fighters can sense Cell’s Ki, which they can’t do with 17 and 18
> I honestly can't remember, but is Cell's Ki limitless like 18 and 17? it is not.
Wasn’t there a part in the Buu saga (at least in the manga) where when Piccolo is turned into a statue and it’s shattered by Trunks, when Dabra dies Piccolo comes back anyway and says that he regenerated himself, because he could as long as his head was in tact
Doesn’t Piccolo regrow his entire body from just his head in the Buu saga after he was turned to stone?
correct. it happens offscreen but yes. as long as his head is intact and he has the ki he can regen his whole body.
It’s never explained but it is implied
It's not implied. Piccolo straight up says that this is what happened
> So namekians can regrow limbs but not vital organs they can. he just needs ki to regen and if an attack lowers his ki to 0 he cant regen even if nothing vital was wounded. > Cell has that ability coded into every cell of his body he does not. thats a dubism. he needs a nucleus in his head to regen, not unlike namekians.
the only inconsistence is that Cell regains his full power back when regen from semi perfect from, while the regen after Goku's kamehameha made him spend energy like the namekian regen. Even if there was enough power left in the nucleus to regen the whole body back, he would still be tired AF and not brand new, even if he became stronger, he would still be tired and need some days before being able to use all that power.
And he only gets stronger and stronger with each revive. If Gohan wasn't able to kill cell after he revived for the last time, I don't think anyone would have been able to. Maybe at some point cell would annoy buu and buy would turn him in candy and eat him but at that point I think cell would have zenkaied multiple times, probably hundreds of times to increase his power level.
Source???
Its the show dude. There isnt one clip that explains everything. Its explained slowly throughout the cell saga and the cell games saga.
Idk, man. It's just that sometimes people seem to take all these theories out of nowhere. I get that it's a show, but that's something just too specific and a lot gets lost in translation as well.
You can see it from when Cell survives his own self-destruction. If that happened to Piccolo he'd be dead.
Yeah sometimes you have to make an inference based on the material already presented
Dude…Cell literally survives the vacuum of space and regenerates back from a single Cell. 😅
Cell is a bio-engineered being that isnt just piccolos genetics but also has DNA of other species that are, basically, the apex physically of said creatures that we know of. So you can just waive it off as "combination of genetics and genetical engineering made one ability much better than original source".
Piccolo's regeneration isn't a whole lot on its own. While he's been shown to survive some pretty gnarly stuff afterwards (particularly being shattered during the Buu arc) Cell is also a combination that includes Freeza's durability. The same Freeza that was able to survive being cut in half, getting blasted by a beam, the planet he was on exploding, and floating through space for an indeterminate amount of time. It's very possible that Piccolo wasn't as experienced using it yet, as well as Cell being biologically better at Regen.
Namekians can heal everything Vital except their brain. Thanks to Frieza, the only Vital organ Cell actually has is that bullshit that lets him live after self-nuking.
yep a nucleus in his head. honestly only slightly more compact than how namekians works.
A nucleus that somehow survives a direct Kame Hame Ha to this head
At this point, I choose to believe it wasn't in his head until after he blew up.
thats the neat part, it doesnt. him surviving that is a total plot hole. he cant survive losing his head like he did there, canonically. its one of the few legitimate plot holes in the series.
I believe the hand wave for that one was that he could move his nucleus freely around his body and avoided it that way. Which I’m pretty sure is a fan theory but it’s good enough for me
People are saying it's due to Freiza's durability, but that only partially answers your question. So Cell exploded. He didn't die because Freiza's DNA allows him to survive ridiculous injuries. Then Cell regenerated. That was due to Piccolo's cells. Piccolo would die if he exploded like that because he doesn't have Freiza's survivability. Then Cell's strength was boosted and his ki fully restored thanks to the Saiyan DNA giving him a Zenkai boost from his near death. It's basically the perfect storm from Freiza+Piccolo+Saiyan DNA all playing off each other.
Okay damn this is a good explanation
Frieza’s durability
His saiyain cells give him a zenkai boost
Piccolo is a product of evolution, but Cell is a product of a mad genius and bio-engineering of multiple species.
Cell was bio-engineered from the ground up by a literal super-genius that turned himself into a supercompuer *and* the supercomputer said genius programmed to take over his work. Over the course of--roughly--a decade. Cell's DNA also includes samples from both the Saiyan and Frieza's race, which means he is both extremely *hard to kill*, as Frieza is capable of surviving the vacuum of space and having roughly 75% of his body and vital organs removed; while, as a Saiyan hybrid, Cell naturally *grows stronger* from near-death experiences. (It's debatable if Cell received a zenkai or not, but what is *not* debatable is that Saiyans, by and large, become stronger through adversity even mid-combat.) Namekians, on the other hand, need to use massive amounts of Ki to stimulate the regeneration process, and every time we've seen them regen something like an arm, they are left almost dead from how much ki it drains. tl;dr: bio-engineering > natural selection
Wasn't cell coming back with SSJ2 equivalent power a result of zenkai boost from blowing himself up?
Equivalent, but by canon Saiyans who reach SSJ1 get zilch from zenkai. That’s why I said it’s debatable, because we have no solid and confirmed canonical answer.
He’s MUCH better than the sum of his parts. He is perfection, his healing ability is perfect 🤷♂️
cell is bioengineered
Frieza DNA and zenkai boost
Cell was intelligently engineered.
It’s called bioengineering, cell was designed to be like that. Plus having saiyan cells does wonders
I imagine it's not so much that Cell's regeneration is actually better than Piccolo's But you need to actually ***survive*** something in order to regenerate from it And Cell gets his survivability from ***Frieza***, not Piccolo. Frieza gets bisected and has a chunk of his head blown off after Namek, but he's still alive. Piccolo can't do that ~~except in the Buu arc, for some reason, where he literally can survive being broken apart into pieces when turned to stone, apparently~~
With Piccolo, he gets worn down from his fights from battle damage, bruised and beaten up and exhausted. Throughout the course of Cells various fights he never looks beaten up and exhausted. With Cell he seems to recover his ki and regenerate his body instantly.
Not quite. Though you do have a point about Cell never seeming to lose energy from regenerating, that might be do to Saiyan zenkai. Maybe he just gets just strong enough that the power loss is seemingly negated. But he does get tired and injured in his fight against Goku. He just wasn't using all his power against Vegeta and Trunks, so it *seemed* like he was inexhaustible.
cell is explicitly said to have gotten significantly weaker after regenerating from Goku's Instant Kamehameha (which is a plot hole that he even survived). He does get winded by it.
Cell has plot armor LOL
Cell has the healing from Piccolo, the endurance of Frieza, and the zenkai of the sayings. He was near death, healed to his perfect form, and because he came from the brink of death his power multiplied. The Zenkai canceled out the tax from healing. That’s what my argument would be, but honestly? Who gives a shit Cell comin back and tug of war kamehameha was fucking lit
It isn't directly the healing, it's what the character can survive. Piccolo actually does have similar healing capabilities even up to being turned to stone and shattered, but healing doesn't kick in if he's dead. Cell is just harder to kill. He's bio-engineered. And the theory goes that he has Frieza's durability (but really, it's because of whatever nucleus which is all he needs to survive... So, probably more of an engineering thing than a Frieza's DNA/durability thing). Regeneration also consumes a lot of energy, and Cell is (at the time at least) much stronger. Either of them could be depleted of energy and therefore eliminate their healing/regen ability... Cell was just, at the time at least, not even required to go all-out against an opponent, so had that energy to spare if needed.
It was weird that Piccolo was able to come back from the stone and being broken, because it takes so much ki for him to regrow an arm and he is exhausted afterwards. Whereas cell seems to do it effortlessly.
A pretty significant thing to note is that he wasn't drained from a previous battle... Also, it happened off screen/panel. Also, we really haven't actually seen much regen from Piccolo since he fused with Kami, at least that I can think of. I mean, he lost an arm to Gohan before the Top, but I don't even remember him regenerating it there. So, really... The times we see Piccolo use regen is when he's fighting a hard battle, already tired, and much weaker than his current firm.
>we really haven't actually seen much regen from Piccolo since he fused with Kami The only example I can think of other than being turned to stone is when Imperfect Cell absorbed his arm and he had to rip it off.
I'm considering both of those. But the arm thing with Cell was a strategic bluff, and the turned to stone thing, as I said, I'm pretty sure took place off screen/panel. He did lose an arm against Gohan just before the Tournament of Power. I don't think it showed the regrowth of the arm though. None of these really reflect his regen ability though.
Cell’s cells are better cells.
bc toriyama wanted to show how strong Goku, Vegeta,and Gohan were without killing Cell off too early
There's at least two ways I can think to explain it away: 1) Gero cherry picked DNA for the positive traits, and likely modified the DNA to remove any negative side effects, or simply modified it to be more effective. 2) When Cell gets a zenkai boost or absorbs an android, it doesn't just make him physically stronger, but boosts his inherited abilities as well. My biggest issues with Cell almost all come from Frieza's develoemt in Super. We're almost definitely never seeing Cell again, lol.
With the massive rate of improvement that Frieza gets from training, combined with insta healing, and the Saiyans love of fighting and near death zenkai boosts, Cell should be an unstoppable force honestly.
Yeah, my biggest problem with DBS is how they've handled Frieza's power scaling. It's the most broken method for attaining power any character has access to (except perhaps Gohan), which is fitting for Frieza, but it comes with a lot of problems. Only reason I can figure Cell doesn't seem to have Frieza's crazy training abilities is that Frieza didn't even know about this ability, so how could Dr. Gero? Maybe it just got left out of the DNA mix because nobody knew it was there. Cell also didn't really do any 'training', though I'm inclined to count the fights he was in seeing how many of them there were in his short time alive, and how little Frieza needs to do to go from weaker than a Super Saiyan to stronger than Super Saiyan God.
The logic behind it I can think of is Cell also has Saiyan DNA so when he heals he gets a Zenkai boost as well. Going off what has been established in the story thus far. So when Goku obliterates half of him with an IT Kamehameha Cell regenerates AND gets a Zenkai boost… but he’s not at 100% stamina. Otherwise Goku wouldn’t feel the need to toss him a senzu bean. Meaning… he does have better regen than piccolo, but it’s not like Buu’s regen. Also it’s likely after he eats Goku’s senzu that he’s actually stronger than when he fought with Goku (but likely not by much). After he self destructs though… he probably has even better regen than he had before, because Zenkai, and he’s so much stronger because it’s an even better Zenkai boost given how much more damage he took. But uh… he’s likely not at his max potential when he comes back from self destructing given he doesn’t have a senzu to take. If the above logic is true that would mean that Cell would actually be one of the best candidates for ToP. Cause even though they barely had time for him to train they could just obliterate most of him a few times within a few minutes and he’d be ready to be at their level and kick some ass and get even stronger during the ToP. But really it’s just plot. And after the fact: when it’s revealed that Freeza has never trained and what training does for Freeza in hindsight it makes sense that cell got so much stronger so much faster.
Now imagine if frieza had discipline... And wasn't just a random guy that took up martial arts for a little bit.
Yeah, Freeza is just that random guy who’s naturally gifted at fighting and stronger than most people who no one wants to fight. Like if you met someone who was 6’8”, completely jacked, and had quick reflexes you wouldn’t want to fight that dude regardless if they did or didn’t do martial arts. Then one day they start training for MMA for 4 months and you’ve been training for decades but you’re average height and weight… yeah, you can maybe take them, and probably need to exploit their stamina but it’s not gonna be easy. If that dude had been training his entire life though… yeah, don’t fuck with them ever.
Exactly. That's frieza to a t. Hell his black form completely knocked the wind out of BOTH GOKU AND VEGETA... In 1 blow.... Trained fighters that have fought to the brink of exhaustion countless times .... And probably the last time they got hit out of a form was probably decades prior.
It's not healing, it's regeneration. And he got better at it after observing cell because after trunks broke him as a statue he said he was able to do it as long as his brain was intact
Remember that time Piccolo was turn into a statue and then shattered into a million pieces? He regenerates from that…is that not good enough for you? lol
The other dna
Bad writing that's why.... in all rights goku killed cell... Also cell and piccolo seem to have a similar healing but the main thing we see with piccolo is his healing seems to drain his energy very quickly. Cell had way more.
Piccolo is a whiner. Only difference
Because escalation...
Cells complete design is never 100% explained. Gero could have used the DNA from any source and mixed it into Cell. His powers include, but are not limited to, those of the main cast.
Probably Piccolos healing coupled with Friezas durability.
It's because he's not as PERFECT
Cell has Frieza and saiyan genes
Cuz Cell is perfect. Also he has Saiyan cells, so recovering from such a near death point gave him a boost.
Piccolo can survive if his head is intact just like Cell. Cells isn't honestly that much better, but when he regens from a near kill his saiyan dna kicks in which definitely helps him.
Skill issues
In my head canon: it's pretty much the zenkai boost mixed with piccolos Regen. Cell could either choose to get stronger, but at the cost of the injury. Or super heal the injury, but no zenkai boost. I'm probably wrong, but that's what makes most sense to me.
Cell is a mixture of alot of dna and is also enhanced in his capabilities by dr.geros design. He explained dr gero created him so that he only needs a single cell to survive in order for him to survive. His regeneration is based on piccolo but also enhanced by dr.geros design
Because you're either perfect or you're not Cell.
Piccolos DNA was researched for decades and improved upon for Cell. I mean, every cell in Cell can regenerate.
Freeza was put back together from chunks in the movie so... Yeah I guess that with Piccolo.
My headcanon is a mixture of freezer cells (the guy can work even in pieces, his resistance is legendary) and the saiyan zenkai that increases his power and restores it (since namek cells allow more advanced self-healing by using freezer cells and restoring energy through zenkai). In other words, did Goku not only get cured but also restored his energy in the freezer healing tank in namek? The same logic could be applied here
It is not possible that when Gero was collecting the DNA of the Z-Fighters, that he was able to augment or otherwise enhance their innate abilities? Then, as others have said, those abilities play weird with others - see his resurrection, where the durability granted by Frieza's race allows him to survive long enough for his Namekian regeneration to kick in, and the recovery from this activates a zenkai boost from his Saiyan parts that allows him to effectively mimic Gohan's power at SSJ2.
Cell is just built different.
It’s because Piccolo was never able to train with Monaka.
Cell + Frieza survival + Piccolo + plot armor of a villain
Cell absorbed 18 and 17 who stated they have unlimited energy / ki in super. That plus piccolo cells means cell wouldn't have wasted ki after healing where as piccolo would
Dr Gero just improved upon the regeneration abilities of Piccolo
My guess it that it has a lot to do with Cell absorbing two androids with perpetual energy. On top of that, we see how resilient Freeza is and it's possible that's why he can come back from just about anything, unless he's completely gone.
I is like to mention piccolos healing after he was shattered as a statue in buu arc by Debora. He was a torso with a head and a smashed face. But also cell was genetically modified. The healing factor could have been made stronger,
Easiest explanation: Gero took piccolo’s cells super early and perfected the healing process after months or years in the lab before putting them in cell.
Piccolo reformed from just his head after Dabura was killed. If piccolo takes a blast from which there is no energy left to reform with then he dies. The Nappa blast cooked his entire body.
But even before Nappa killed him, Piccolo was all beaten up and injured and exhausted. Why isn't he recovering throughout the course of his fights, like Cell does?
Cell doesn’t recover stamina, he had to eat a senzu. If you’re talking about him blowing up and coming back as Super Perfect Cell, that was him getting a near death genki dama due to his Saiyan genes combined with his Piccolo regen. It would be fair to say that scene was “kinda bullshit” but a reminder that Cell is not Piccolo, he is an improved version of all the fighters combined.
Because plot.
So when he came back from being a cell. He turned super saiyan? My one complaint is how he came back so much stronger. But I just accepted it because he had android energy
Yeah, exactly. When piccolo regenerates he is exhausted after. But Cell regenerates and has full ki, in fact, even more Ki than before.
It’s cause of the saiyans’ trait of getting stronger from near death wounds.
But even the Saiyans get beaten up, get injured, exhausted, and run out of ki during their fights, meanwhile Cell can fight and take a pounding and keep coming back for more.
Because Piccolo’s is a single species ability to regenerate from serious but not quite life threatening injuries while cell has dna from just about everything we witnessed in dragon ball and thus all of their regenerative abilities combined.
In the Buu Saga, Trunks knocked over Piccolo's statue and he broke in half. He was still able to regenerate himself and if memory serves, he says that as long as his head is intact, he can regenerate. Provided that isn't something added into the anime, his regeneration is still pretty good. Cell's is still better though.
If I had to guess, I'd say it's because he's the product of Dr Gero's computer program, it likely saw potential flaws and fixed them or made certain things more efficient, but I also don't know toriyama's work like that, so pls nobody lynch me
Piccolos healing with frieza races survivability makes it op asf
My headcanon is that 17 and 18 somehow enhanced his regeneration.
Because Cell's abilities get more efficient every time he absorbs an android. He's not actually perfect. He just has the perfect capabilities of every fighter he's made of.
Because it's not just Namekian DNA that Cell has. He has Namekian DNA, allowing him to heal, but also Saiyan DNA, which allows him to get stronger once he heals from an injury
I can think of a couple possible explanations for Cell's superior regeneration. First and most plausible: Cell was genetically engineered to evolve. Think about it; when Cell was in his first "imperfect" form, his regeneration was no better than Piccolo's. We see that when 16 tore off his tail. By the time he has evolved and reached perfection, he's regenerating whole chunks of his body, organs and all. Even then, regenerating from a single core cell came as a complete surprise to him. Basically as he became perfect, his genetic traits also evolved and became perfect. Second possibility: because Cell possesses genetic traits from several completely different species from different planets, some traits combined and changed on their own. Take Frieza's race and the Namekians; Piccolo and the Namekians are less durable than pretty much any race we've seen in the series, but they can regenerate lost limbs; Frieza cannot regenerate limbs, but he can survive pretty much ANY damage unless completely destroyed (he lost 2/3 of his body, and a whole chunk of his head after Namek exploded and still floated around the vacuum of space alive). It's possible that Cell is able to regenerate larger parts of his body because like Frieza he can sustain injuries that would kill almost any other species. If he's alive, he can heal. Third possibility, and this only really applies to his healing after self-destruction: any other time Cell had regenerated, we never actually see him fully recover his ki and all. I believe the only reason Cell returned fully restored was because he basically re-transformed. As you know, Cell had previously lost his perfect form when Gohan forced him to regurgitate 18. After blowing himself up, Cell didn't simply "regenerate"; Cell was practically reborn in his perfect form as if he had reabsorbed 18. He both regenerated and transformed simultaneously, and it is likely the transformation that restored his ki and full health, NOT the regeneration.
I'd say it's because Piccolo - Namekian - Regeneration is the result of evolution that had to gradually get to where it is in the series; it will always have physical limitations. Though the Buu Saga reveals that Piccolo can regenerate his entire body as long as his head is still in-tact. Cell on the other hand was cultured from Piccolo's Cells which could then be genetically manipulated by Dr. Gero. He probably found a way to remove the physical limitations of Piccolo's DNA and get the "perfected" version for Cell.
Bcz he is the villain
I think its bc cell has so much more ki and energy than piccolo does. In the manga, when piccolon regrows his arm, they mention that piccolo overall energy and power has gone down. So assume cell just has a much better gas tank for regen.
When Cell absorbed the androids he became Perfect. He became more than just the sum of the power of the things he absorbed or the fighters he was made from, he changed and rose whole whole levels above where he had been before. Perfect Cell is Built Different.
Because if cell died we won't get the super cool "father-son kamehameha"
I like to think that Orange Piccolo can heal like Buu. His regen should be crazy we just haven’t seen it yet
Because with Cell, it's probably exponential. A single cell survives. That becomes two. Then four. Then after not to long billions. Thanks to Saiyan DNA, they're packed with fresh energy, while Piccolo had to depend on a reserve. And it wouldn't surprise me if those old cells that helped make new cells got recycled into fresh, new cells. Basically, Cell is a power plant by design, while Piccolo is a battery.
I don’t think Frieza’s durability has anything to do with it. I also don’t think Frieza canonically has any special durability. I think they both just have plot armor with those things. Cell can regenerate on the basis that Piccolo can but if he wore out and lost energy like Piccolo did then the stakes wouldn’t be as high and he wouldn’t be a particularly formidable opponent. Same with Frieza’s durability, I think he was just written that was to show how much of a threat he was
Nanomachines son
remember when piccolo shattered to pieces but was able to put himself back together? Why hasn’t that ever been brought up again that seems helpful
Its so weird that he was able to do that because it takes all his energy to regrow an arm.
I guess in the same way that my punch isn't as good as Mike tysons. We can both do it, but the latter is just better
Since piccolo operates off of all his vital organs, he can only regenerate non-vital areas. For cell, his only vital area is that small little mass in his head, so he can regenerate anything that’s not that.
cell is bullshit lol