Super Saiyan

Super Saiyan (スーパーサイヤ人, Sūpā Saiya-jin; lit. "Super Saiya person") is an advanced transformation assumed by extraordinarily powerful members and hybrids of the Saiyan race in the Dragon Ball franchise.

The Super Saiyan form first premiered in April 1991, within chapter 317 of the Dragon Ball manga, entitled "Life or Death". It also made its anime debut in 1991, first appearing in Dragon Ball Z episode 95, "Transformed at Last".

History
The ability to become a Super Saiyan was once considered to be nothing but a legend, as it had not been performed for over one-thousand years. Vegeta stated that a Super Saiyan has achieved a level of power so overwhelming that it could only be maintained in a transformed state. Despite only being told through legend, Frieza, who has Saiyans in his army, became paranoid over the possibility of truth behind the legend due to the constantly growing power of the Saiyan race. Because of this fear, Frieza came to the conclusion that he must annihilate the Saiyan race by destroying Planet Vegeta, thus apparently sparking the end of the Super Saiyan legend. However, twenty-five years later, the Super Saiyan legend was proven to be true when Goku accomplished the feat during his titanic battle against the evil tyrant, Frieza.

In Dragon Ball Super, while explaining Goku's Super Saiyan form to Beerus as they were watching parts of Goku's battle with Frieza, Whis mentions that the Saiyan's knowledge of the form was lost to their race at some point in the past, resulting in it being viewed by most Saiyans as little more than a legend until it was rediscovered by Goku and the surviving Saiyans. The Namekian Grand Elder Guru also showed some awareness of the existence of Super Saiyans when he mistakenly thought that the Nameless Namekian had been killed by a Saiyan while speaking to Krillin about Kami and Piccolo's deaths, unaware of their split until after he probed Krillin's mind. Guru implied that only a Super Saiyan would have the power to kill a Super Namek like the Nameless Namekian. This indicates that Namekians may have encountered Super Saiyans in the distant past or had heard about them during the time the Namekian people were an interstellar race, as Guru possessed knowledge of them and the legend concerning the Original Super Saiyan Godrecorded in the Namekian Book of Legends.

Description
To use for the first time, the user must be of the Saiyan race or have some extent of Saiyan blood within them that is genetically large enough to access Super Saiyan. Their base or natural power must be much stronger than other Saiyans' standard power levels, and either undergo an extreme bout of rage by witnessing a terrible or remembering a terrible event, or undergo intense, true feelings of wanting to become stronger. By raising their energy simultaneously within all of this, they can become a Super Saiyan.

Hybrids may be able to easily access Super Saiyan instinctively because of their wide advantage of potential over pure-blooded Saiyans.

When in the Super Saiyan form for the first time, it is rather difficult to control the overflowing energy and contain the rage; which is nearly impossible to suspend and the Super Saiyan form may feel like it has a mind of its own. The Saiyan's hair, depending on their natural-born hairstyle stands on end, giving it a rising, flame-like appearance. Their hair and eyebrows brightens to a yellow-ish white when not using their aura, and a golden yellow when using their aura. Their eyes change to a turquoise-green color. Their natural aura also changes to a bright golden aura and calmly flows upwards. Muscle mass is also slightly increased.

The power increase of using Super Saiyan is colossal, as it multiplies the user's base power 50 times its normal amount. At first, the personality changes are drastic, causing the Saiyan to become ruthless, brutal and full of rage, and if the Saiyan was already like this beforehand it is only augmented further.

The energy consumption is moderate and there is significant strain when using the Super Saiyan form. However, it cannot be maintained infinitely unlike Broly's unique Super Saiyan form because of the energy consumption and the eventual strain.

When a Super Saiyan achieves an extremely high level of power beyond of what their transformation is capable of, they will exhibit sparks around their aura (like a Super Saiyan 2), this has only been displayed by Vegito, Goku (only in the anime), and Goku Black.

Super Saiyans from evil hybrid races will sometimes exhibit white hair.

Unfortunately, most of the time, the Super Saiyan transformation itself is not powerful enough to combat even stronger foes. The most famous examples are the Androids. However, if the Saiyan constantly trains their base form and masters Super Saiyan, their Super Saiyan form and beyond will become much stronger than the 50x multiplier range, with Goku and Vegeta being clear examples.

Mastered/Full-Power
If the Super Saiyan form is constantly trained and conditioned to remained transformed for extended periods of time, the form will automatically be mastered in itself and they will attain Super Saiyan Full Power, which replaces their former Super Saiyan form. With this permanent upgrade, the user can remain in a relaxed and natural state, free of anger and rage, instability and restless feeling. The Saiyan can even be happy and cheerful when in Super Saiyan Full Power. Their hair is more defined and so are their muscles, and the aura alters somewhat, making the radiating energy become reduced in tandem, shown visibly by the aura becoming smoother into a steady flow of waves rather than rapid bursts of spikes.

The Super Saiyan can desensitize themselves to the negative effects of the transformation. Their wild emotions are kept in check, allowing them to stay more focused, which results in a more strategic fighting style and pattern of thinking, and energy consumption is reduced to negligible amounts. As the energy consumption is now slow, the strain is also much less significant although it is still there. However, they can remain in the Super Saiyan form for extended periods of time--but nonetheless not infinitely like Broly.

By mastering the transformation, the Super Saiyan is able to retain transformation almost subconsciously, allowing them to transform seemingly indefinitely. In the anime, they are even shown able to sleep in this state peacefully, which is shown to radiate a positive feel to the environment as even wildlife are attracted to them. In requiring less ki to contribute to transform or even maintaining this state itself, the maximum amount of ki can thus be focused into attacks and stamina use, with no adverse effects present in the second and third grades. Once this state was mastered Goku was able to keep up with Perfect Cell, something which the Super Saiyan Second Grade and Third Grades could not do. Vegeta notes the incredible side effects of the transformation by stating that feeling Goku or Gohan's Super Saiyan Full Power form isn't the same feeling he gets around a normal Super Saiyan. A minor downside to this form is that with the Saiyan's power instinctively remaining at full strength, it requires much more focus and control over all their actions. While Goku and Gohan were drinking orange juice from glasses, they repeatedly broke the glasses from the difficulty of controlling their strength.

God-enhanced
Supposedly the final stage of Super Saiyan, once the Saiyan masters Super Saiyan God and is able to absorb the divine power of the form into their base form, they automatically have a god-enhanced Super Saiyan form. However, when transforming--they actually transform into Super Saiyan Blue instead. However, they can still access their regular, mastered Super Saiyan state after accessing Super Saiyan Blue for the first time.

While there are no confirmations on power differences, it is noted that the Saiyan's Super Saiyan hair may very slightly change. The Super Saiyan's appearance during this time looks altered somewhat, specifically Goku, in his regular Super Saiyan form, a single forward-facing bang of his hair appeared to jut out from the main bangs, somewhat resembling his Super Saiyan Blue hairstyle, presumably it is due to his absorption of the powers of Super Saiyan God, and achieving the Super Saiyan Blue form, (previously, when Goku is in his regular Super Saiyan form before he trained with Whis after he mastered the power of Super Saiyan God, and attained the Super Saiyan Blue form, he lacks this additional bang of hair, until then), but like the latter, this bang does not always appear, it is absent in some scenes. Both Goku and Vegeta's auras in this regular state were slightly altered, instead of smooth and flowing like it was in the Cell arc, but somehow a bit more jagged and spiked, becoming closer to the original version of the form, and the aura somewhat gains a slightly more goldish hue than how it was originally (like what Goku's aura looked like during his fight against Beerus).

Variants

 * Super Saiyan Second Grade - Achieved when the user channels more bodily power into their regular Super Saiyan form, causing great enhancement in speed and strength.
 * Super Saiyan Third Grade - Achieved when the user draws even more bodily power, achieving even more strength that is almost comparable to Super Saiyan 2--with the sacrifice of losing a tremendous amount of speed.
 * Super Saiyan 2 - Achieved when the user draws twice as much power in their Super Saiyan form altogether, resulting in a far greater enhancement in both speed and strength.
 * Strengthened - Achieved when the user uses their maximum power in Super Saiyan 2.
 * Super Saiyan Rage - Achieved when the user undergoes an insane, incredible amounts of rage in their Super Saiyan 2 form, resulting in further enhancement of their capabilities stronger than even Super Saiyan 3. Gaining a double aura consisting of a thick golden and light blue aura, as well as very dense bio-electricity.
 * Super Saiyan 3 - Achieved when the user draws out every drop of their potential or eight times their power in Super Saiyan, resulting in extremely enhanced speed and strength once more.

Unique Variants

 * Spirit Bomb Super Saiyan - Achieved when the user has Super Saiyan and fuses it with a Spirit Bomb.
 * Super Saiyan God - Achieved when the user has a pure heart of good and undergoes the Super Saiyan God Ritual, or achieves it through unknown methods of training. It grants them the use of godly ki and enhances the Saiyan's capabilities to an amount far greater than Super Saiyan 3 entirely. It allows the user to fight opponents who have godly power at a decent level.
 * Super Saiyan Blue - Achieved when a mortal Saiyan absorbs the power of Super Saiyan God into their base form and transforms into a Super Saiyan. Their capabilities are multiplied far beyond a Super Saiyan God. The user's hair stands on end and brightens to light blue as well as their aura, gaining perfect ki control and energy reserving
 * Super Saiyan Rosé - Achieved when a natural born Saiyan deity, or a Saiyan of god-like status and position absorbs the power of Super Saiyan God into their base form and transforms into a Super Saiyan. Only achieved by Goku Black, it is an extremely rare form and equals Super Saiyan Blue, as well as allowing them to manipulate their aura into energy weapons, and enhance their energy-type techniques greatly to the point their color alters to the form's color. The user's hair stands on end and appears fierce-like, as it brightens to a bright or violet pink. It has all the default capabilities of Super Saiyan Blue. It is presumably only accessed by divine beings with Saiyan capabilities as there has never been a Saiyan deity before.

Canonicity unknown

 * Golden Great Ape - A Saiyan Great Ape transformed into a Super Saiyan. Introduced in Vegeta's flashback on Namek in Dragon Ball Z (anime) and appears in Dragon Ball GT.
 * Super Saiyan 4 - A Saiyan Great Ape transformed into a Super Saiyan. Introduced in Vegeta's flashback on Namek in Dragon Ball Z (anime) and appears in Dragon Ball GT.
 * Tuffleized Super Saiyan - A white-haired variant of the Super Saiyan form used by a fully Tuffleized Saiyan. A user of this form can ascend further into the Strongest Forms by obtaining more energy. Introduced in Dragon Ball GT.
 * Strongest Form 1 - The Saiyan-Tuffle hybrid's equivalent of the Super Saiyan 2 form. Introduced in Dragon Ball GT.
 * Strongest Form 2 - The Saiyan-Tuffle hybrid's equivalent of the Super Saiyan 3 form. Introduced in Dragon Ball GT.

Non-Canon

 * Legendary Super Saiyan - A non-canon form, it is achieved by users with genetically exclusive Super Saiyan genes, it is claimed to be true Super Saiyan form. A very rare form, the only known user is Broly. The user gains massive bulk, body mass, muscular and height increase, while altering their hair color to a bright or default green and their eyes pure white. It is said to be a sinister Saiyan form of evil, as there has never been a Legendary Super Saiyan that was good.
 * Legendary Super Saiyan 2 - Achieved by Broly in Dragon Ball: Miracle Battle Cardass who draws twice as much power in his Legendary Super Saiyan form.
 * Legendary Super Saiyan 3 - Achieved by Broly in Dragon Ball Heroes who draws every drop of his potential or eight times his Legendary Super Saiyan form's amount.
 * Legendary Golden Great Ape - Achieved by Broly in Dragon Ball Heroes, who wishes to Black Smoke Shenron to make him a Golden Great Ape, and proceed to Legendary Super Saiyan 4.
 * Legendary Super Saiyan 4 - Achieved by Broly in Dragon Ball Heroes, who gains control of his Legendary Golden Great Ape form, leading to his Legendary Super Saiyan 4 form.
 * Legendary Super Saiyan 4 Full-Power - Achieved by Broly in Dragon Ball Heroes, who uses the Legendary Super Saiyan 4 form's maximum potential.
 * Broly God - Achieved by Broly in Dragon Ball Z: Super Tenkaichi Budokai, it is his equivalent of both the Super Saiyan God and Blue forms. He gains use of godly ki and extremely powerful capabilities, far stronger than Super Saiyan Blue.
 * Super Mira - The Demon-Saiyan hybrid version of Super Saiyan that replaces the golden glow and green irises with white pointed hair and blood red eyes. Introduced in Dragon Ball Heroes.