Appearing since the start of the franchise, the Dragon Balls are little orange wish orbs that, once a set of 7 are gathered together and the correct phrase is shouted, grant nearly any wish. Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot allows you to collect these 7 mystical balls during downtime in the story or anytime during the postgame. You will, however, be limited by a few rules.
You’ll be presented with a list of possible wishes, and these wishes will be even more powerful and plentiful should you wish them at the right time.
Using The Dragon Radar
Bulma will notify you when the Dragon Balls are currently available to collect. You cannot collect the Dragon Balls during most story moments, either because you will need to move to the next objective or because the story is at a moment in Dragon Ball Z when the Dragon Balls are inactive. Speaking of, the Dragon Balls will also be inactive during your playtime just after making a wish, but this will not follow the canon explanation of needing a full year to recharge; you will only have to wait around twenty minutes before you can collect the Dragon Balls again, and Bulma will be sure to notify you. If you are playing with a PlayStation controller, she will even give an audio cue through the speaker built into the controller.
If the Balls are active, you can check where they are through the World Map. A Dragon Ball will appear in the bottom left corner of an area’s icon if there is a Dragon Ball. It’s possible for there to be more than one Dragon Ball in an area at the same time, but this will become less likely later in the game after you’ve unlocked access to more areas.
Once you choose your area and fast travel there, you’ll then want to pop up your Area Map. Look for where the Dragon Ball is and set a map marker to find it easier as you fly around. This marker will only vanish when you remove it yourself, so you’ll have to open your Area Map again after you get the Dragon Ball. Also, be careful that sometimes you’ll have to wait for some images to load if they share a location. When Area Map images share a location, the game will slowly cycle through every image, fading them in and out one at a time. While this prevents clutter, it can still lead to confusion.
Dragon Balls will be on the ground, sometimes underwater, and will glow orange. There are other items on the ground, such as D Medals, quest objectives, or just herbs for cooking, so if you are looking for a Dragon Ball, remember they glow brightly and orange, be careful of picking up the wrong item and then fast traveling away.
There’s an animation to further help you know you got the Dragon Ball, and you’ll even get to see which star number it is.
How Wishing Works
Go to the Main Menu and select Dragon Balls when you’ve collected them all. If you only have a couple, you’ll see which you have and a reminder to collect the rest. If you have all 7, then you can make a select number of wishes. As the game recounts the story of Dragon Ball Z, the number of wishes you can make will depend on how many wishes the original story allowed at that point in time. During your first chance to get wishes, you will only have the ability to wish once. Eventually, during the Android Saga, the Balls will be upgraded, and you can make 2 wishes. Not long after, Dende will then be able to upgrade Shenron into granting you a total of 3 wishes.
Your wishes are from a pool of choices:
- Free Zeni
- Free Z Orbs
- Free Items
- Resurrecting A Villain You Killed During The Story For A Rematch
The first three are repeatable endlessly and will scale with your story progress, while the rematches can only be done once per villain.
Villain Resurrections
Once you’ve resurrected the villain, the wish will not only be grayed out, but you’ll see a marking next to it. You’ll be able to wish back more villains as the story progresses, but they will only remain as strong as when you were first allowed to resurrect them. Say you wish back Nappa in the postgame, Nappa is one of the first villains you can bring back, and if you save him for last, he will still be at the same level if you’d resurrected him from your first chance. It’s not a wasted wish, as this is how you earn Nappa’s Soul Emblem, but if you want a challenging fight, you’ll want to resurrect him from the first go instead of hoping for a level 100 Nappa. There are also a few villains resurrected from a different method:
- Frieza
- Cell
- Dabura
- Kid Buu
Frieza, Cell, and Dabura are brought back during a side quest on New Planet Namek during the postgame, while Kid Buu gets a different side quest also from the postgame.
The Repeatable Wishes
Wishing for Zeni, Z Orbs, and Rare Items can be done indefinitely but only once per wish. The further along you are in the game, the more you’ll earn. Free Zeni will help you buy vehicles and upgrades, the Z Orbs will be enough to afford character powers, while the rare items are mostly food and gifts for your Soul Emblems. The Zeni and Z Orbs will likely be more worth your while, especially in the postgame with how much you’ll be granted.
