Power Level

The **Power Level** (戦闘力, Sentō Ryoku; literally "combat power" or "fighting strength"), alternatively known as **Battle Level**, is a concept found in the *Dragon Ball*franchise created by Akira Toriyama.

The actual term "Power Level" usually refers to readings produced by scouters, which are sensory devices used by Frieza's crew that detect a person's ki. The reading is converted into numbers of an unspecified unit, and the resulting number is the "Power Level", or an estimation of that person's physical capability. However, other types of devices like Babidi's ki detection device can also produce numbers based on detection of ki, but these readings are generally not referenced by fans. Power Level is generally an ambiguous term that describes the concept of physical ability.

## **Use**

The use of power levels is to get an estimation of how a battle will fare between two opponents of known power levels. In general, if one has a higher power level than one's opponent, then he/she can defeat the one with the weaker power level. For example, "Person A" has a fighting power of 10,000 and "Person B" has a fighting power of 5,000. "Person A" can most certainly defeat "Person B". However, the factors of speed, strength, and technique can also come into account when deciding the outcome of a fight.

It should be noted that, when factoring in the edge a fighter has over an opponent, the difference in power levels as a flat number is apparently not important, but rather, the relative or percentage difference between the power levels of the two combatants.  Also, a stronger power level does not always mean that fighter will always win, as fighter possesses techniques that doesn't physically manifest on that fighter's body (i.e. Guldo's psychokinesis and time manipulation).

## **Values**

The Power Level can be divided into 3 catagories: Strength, Spirit and Magic.

* **Strength:** This catagories measures the character's fighting skills, physical strength and speed.
* **Spirit:** This catagories measures the characters' composure, determination and perseverance. Robotic characers has zero Spirit due of lacking emotions.
* **Magic:** A catagory that measures the energy essence of the characters. It's commonly used by characters capable of manipulating elements, psychokinesis, magic spell, etc. Ki, Mana and Chakra falls in the Magic Catagory.

Combining them both will results the final total of the Power Level.

Examples:

Average Adult Male: Strength 10, Spirit 5 and Magic 0 = 15

## **Other Type of Power Level**

In *Digimon Next*, the Power Level is known as ***Digimon Power*** (*DP* for short). It was used to measure the Digimon's catagories. Exclusive to Digimon, catagories Defense and Hit Point are included, since Digimons are digital life-forms. Defense involves endurance, fortification and immunity while HP involves their very being of existence. Attributes and Race are double-edge swords to their DP as a Dragon's Roar Vaccine Type can greatly injuries Deep Saver Virus Type but they themselves are vulnerable to Deep Saver Data Type, regardless their high defense level.

In *Mega Man NT Warrior*, NetOps once descibed MegaMan and ProtoMan's battle as Giga-Class then Tera-Class, so that means the NetNavi's Power Level are known as ***Byte Level***. Just like Digimon, it involves Strength and Spirit but Magic catagory are replaced with Memory Bank and Link Power. Memory Bank is the catogory that measures on the NetNavi's data storage and customization, which influence their other catagories. It can be easily manipulated with Navi Customization Program (NCP). Link Power is the measurement between the bonds of NetOp and NetNavi, which brought birth to Full Synchronization when Link Power are at its highest peak. Link Power can also increase by the shared bonds from other individuals. Byte Level also have 4 Classes: Standard, Mega, Giga and Tera.

## **Devices**

Power Level can be measured by various methods:

* **Scouters**: In *Dragon Ball* Z's *Saiyan*and *Frieza Saga*, Scouters were introduced along with Power Level. Scouters were used to locate and measure the character's Power Level but it only measure their fighting strength and *Ki*, not Spirit and Strength's other catagories. Because of the villains heavily relies on Scouter, they constantly underestimated the Z-Warriors' powers. However, Scouters had their limits and will explode if they tried to measure the Power Level beyond its limits as Raditz, Cui and Dodoria's Scouters exploded from measuring Goku and Vegeta's Power Level, which were over 24,000 (the former was using Kaio-Ken x3).
* **iC Digivice:** In *Digimon Next*, the iC Digivices are equipped with a sensor that scans Digimon's DP but can only measure up to 7,000 (as Zanbamon's DP cause the sensor to malfunction once it hits 8,000). However, *Digimon Savers* does not use this function.
* **Computer Scanner:** In *Dragon Ball Z*, *Mega Man NT Warrior* and *Digimon Savers*, characters can use satellite sensors or computer data scanner to measure the fighters' power level. However, in DBZ, the computer exploded when measuring Super Saiyan Goku's Power Level (150,000,000) and in MMNTW, the computer suffers the same fate when measuring Cross-Fusion Mega Man's Power Level while in Full Synchro.
* **Balor's Magical Eye:** In *Seven Deadly Sin*, Balor, the One-Eyed God, can use his eye to see through his opponents and measure their Power Levels. Merlin, Crimson Pig's Gluttonly from Seven Deadly Sin, created a magical item based of Balor's Eye and gave it to Hawk to measure the character's Strength, Spirit and Magic and combine for the total number of Power Level. Unlike the technological items, Balor's Eye has no limit capacity of measuring Power Level.
* ***Ki*Sense/Mana Sense:** In *DBZ* and *Gwen 10 the Series* Fanfiction, characters with the ability to sense *ki* or Mana can use this ability to measure one's life essence, thus analyze completely of the character's catagories but they cannot state the numbers. They can also tell if the character is evil or good, as well as ID their allies and opponents.
* **Power Level Scanner:** In *Gwen 10 The Series* fanfiction, Cooper created the Power Level Scanner under Rose Levin's suggestion to measure one's Power Level. According to Cooper, it can scan Power Level all the way to Ultimate Level.