There are five races to choose from in Dragon Ball Xenoverse: Saiyan, Earthling, Namekian, Majin and Frieza. You can have up to eight created characters that cover all race and gender options in the game. We already went over some of the basics of selecting your race, so now it’s time to dig deeper into the Saiyan race to determine if they are the most powerful in the universe (at least as far as Xenoverse is concerned).
Saiyans aren’t the only good race in Dragon Ball Xenoverse. Be sure to check out how Namekians fare to see if you can create a character more powerful than Piccolo.
Race Overview
Just like in the anime and manga, the Saiyan race offers higher attack power than other races. Unfortunately, that higher attack power comes at the price of overall health in Xenoverse. If you select a Saiyan custom character, you’ll have lower health than the other races, but your attack power will rise even higher if your health falls below 25 percent. On top of that, if you’re fighting in a team battle and a teammate revives you or uses an item to get revived, all of your stats increase.
As a male Saiyan, you’ll have more powerful basic attacks and longer lasting effects of items and abilities that offer any type of buff (increased attack power, health regeneration, etc.). On the downside, male Saiyans have weaker Super Attacks. The female Saiyans regenerate Ki and Stamina faster than the males, and they can use the all-important Z-Assist items more frequently, but their health drops to the lowest in the game to compensate.
Let’s take a closer look at the strengths and weaknesses of this warrior race.
Strengths
- High attack power
- Increased Stamina and Ki regeneration (female only)
- Can use Z-Assists more often (female only)
- Items buffs are more effective (male only)
- Super Saiyan transformations
Think of a Saiyan as a glass cannon. With the lowest health in the game (especially the females), you can’t take much damage, but they can dish out enough damage to silence an opponent in no time. While everyone will likely want to jump on the Saiyan bandwagon as soon as you turn on the game, Saiyans aren’t a race for beginners. Against good opponents, you will die and die quickly. However, once you get the hang of Xenoverse, you can beat down opponents before they have a chance to inflict significant damage.
Z-Assists are very good in this game, and female Saiyans can use them more frequently than other races and genders. Use this to your advantage, along with the increased Stamina and Ki regeneration to level opponents as quickly as possible. This race benefits from high attack power, and the females know this better than anyone. Males have slightly more health and can better use items, but the females can dish out more damage, which is important.
The Super Saiyan transformations can also be useful, but you can’t just activate it and go nuts on an opponent. The entire time you’re a Super Saiyan your Ki will drain. During this time, you can use an unlimited amount of Super Attacks and Ultimate Attacks, but you’ll be left virtually defenseless once your Ki is exhausted. That means you need to put a lot of points into Max Ki and probably Ki Blast Supers to maximize the effectiveness of the Super Saiyan transformations. However, you also need something that will stun an opponent like Solar Flare so that you have a chance to connect with your unlimited supply of Super and Ultimate Attacks.
Weaknesses
- Low health
- Weaker Super Attacks (male only)
Low health is the biggest weakness a Saiyan has and it should not be taken lightly. You can and will be KO’d very quickly if you’re not careful, especially if you opt to go with a female Saiyan, who has even lower health than a male. The other true weakness of a Saiyan is that males have weaker Super Attacks, but that’s easily compensated with a few attribute points when you level up.
While Saiyans have few weaknesses, they are very big weaknesses. It’s vital to have solid defense or put a lot of points into Max Health if you want to do well as a Saiyan. They are too easy to KO otherwise, with some characters able to finish off a Saiyan in one or two combos if you don’t have the Stamina to Vanish. If you want to play as a Saiyan but find yourself dying a lot, increase your Max Health as much as possible to compensate for their shortcomings.
Leveling Recommendations
Max Health (15 percent) – If you’re good, you won’t need to put many points into Max Health. However, even a good player will get hit a few times, so you should add at least 15 percent of your points into the Max Health category to help compensate for a Saiyan’s low health. If you’re a female Saiyan, this is even more important.
Max Ki (30 percent) – Most people who play as a Saiyan do so because they want access to the Super Saiyan transformations. To use Super Saiyan well, you need a good amount of Ki. Once you’re out of Ki you will drop out of Super Saiyan and have a hard time defending yourself, so the more Ki you have the better off you’ll be. You also need Ki to blast opponents with Super and Ultimate Attacks to make full use of Saiyan’s high attack power.
Max Stamina (30 percent) – The only reason it’s important to increase your Max Stamina considerably as a Saiyan is because you need to be able to escape combos whenever you get hit. The more you can use Vanish, and the longer you can go without getting your guard broken, the better off you’ll be as a Saiyan.
Basic Attacks (optional) – Saiyans already have higher attack power than other races, which means you can go all out and put a lot of points into Basic Attacks to further increase that advantage. Alternately, you can choose to spend your points in other areas since you’ll already have high attack. If you have trouble finishing off opponents, adding a few points into Basic Attacks or one of the Super categories can be beneficial.
Strike/Ki Blast Supers (optional) – You’re going to need to inflict as much damage as possible, as often as possible. Part of this means dishing out big damage from your Super Attacks, especially while you’re a Super Saiyan. However, before you put too many points into Strike of Ki Blast Supers, figure out which Super Attacks you prefer and pour all of your points into that one category to maximize your damage.
Published: Mar 4, 2015 08:25 pm