Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero will have more than 180 characters on its roster at launch, and that’s because many character transformations and fusions represent individual character slots, but you don’t have to pick these enhanced versions of fighters from the start to play as them.
It’s possible (and sometimes strategic, as we’ll show below) to upgrade your character(s) in the middle of battle. Doing so, however, isn’t super obvious, and so we turn to a quick and useful guide from IGN to find out exactly how to pull this off.
Much of the gameplay in Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero is team-based. That’s not to say you’ll be able to call in assists from onlooking partners, but you can assemble teams of up to five fighters to duke it out against others with similar ensembles.
If you’re playing in ranked modes, however, you’ll be restricted in who all you’re able to choose based on Destruction Points (DP). Each character is assigned a DP value between 1-10, and you’ll have to keep your total DP score under 15 when put together teams in ranked modes.
The more powerful the character, the higher their DP score, but fusing or transforming characters into more powerful versions does not increase this score. Therein lies the importance of knowing how to upgrade mid-battle, plus it’s really cool as transformations and fusions make up some of the most memorable moments in the anime.
Not all characters can evolve like this, but you’ll be able to conspicuously see who can and cannot right from the character select screen as those who can will have “transformation information” prominently displayed when you hover over them.
Once in the midst of the fight, you’ll need to build up a certain amount of skill counter stocks to make the transformation of you choice. Once the requirements are met, you’ll be able to pull up a sub menu (using the D-pad if you’re on a standard controller) and select the version of your character you’d like to ascend into.
This is more or less the process for fusions as well. Pick two characters who synergize in this way (you’ll be tipped off by the character select screen again) and use the in-game sub menu once you have enough skill points.
The video below covers this all with added visuals, so give it a watch and let us know how much fun you’re having with Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero thus far in the comments.
Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero is set to release on October 11, 2024 for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC, and those who pre-order the Deluxe or higher editions will get three days of early access.