Is Kaio-ken increasing Goku's potential?

Question

We know that using Kaio-ken damages your body as you are forcing it to go beyond its limits. But is it also increasing your potential for the higher power? I mean as the body is facing the forced power up it will try to improve and endure that power the next time, right? I guess it works kinda like muscle training, the more you push your muscles the more they develop.

So can't Goku stay in the Kaio-ken mode for an extended period of time (while not fighting) to increase his capacities and go beyond Kaio-ken X20?

Answer 1

Kaioken is not a state or transformation. It is a special technique which multiplies Goku's power. Assuming Kaioken doesn't have a limit and you could reach a multiplier beyond 20, Goku doesn't necessarily need to keep utilizing the same to get used to the state. This is because Goku has to train his body to be able to adapt to the physical strain imposed by Kaioken. This requires excellent Ki control which is why Goku was able to stack it on top of SSJB and we never see him stacking it on top of SSJ2 or SSJ3 when he fought Beerus or Back in the Buu Saga against Kid Buu.

Also, it's been stated by Whis to Vegeta that God level training involves excellent Ki control and not just putting your body through a lot of physical strain. Also, Kaioken acts as a multiplier to Goku's current level of power and not his Base form unlike his other transformations. So in other words, if someone were to train and achieve a stronger transformation which is a higher multiplier, having a higher multiplier of kaioken wouldn't make a difference.

Suppose there existed a transformation which was a lot superior to SSJB(Not gonna use UI here), which is a significantly higher power multiplier than SSJB, then even 30 times SSJB, will not be able to stand up against that power.

The best way to illustrate the same would be with an example. Let us assume Goku has a power level of 2 and let there exist one transformation which is a 100 times multiplier and another transformation which is a 200 times multiplier. If Goku utilises the first transformation and is capable of using Kaioken * 3/ his power would be : 2*100 * 3=600. Incase of the second transformation, let's say he can only use Kaioken * 20, but his power would be : 2*200*20=800. (Please note these are not actual power levels and it's only an example to prove the same)

Answer 2

There is no mention of such thing in the series but it makes sense. What it is mentioned in the series it is, saiyans get stronger with every fight they have (zenkai boost), they get stronger when they are about to die and they recover (zenkai boost) , Piccolo also mentions he can't keep the pace of training of saiyans (and this is later re-affirmed when Goku, Gohan, Trunks and Vegeta and Piccolo go to the time chamber and all the saiyans become stronger than Piccolo who was superior to them after fusing with Kami) . So everytime saiyans push or hurt their bodies they become stronger, much stronger than other races after training. So if kaioken takes Goku's body to its limit he should get stronger after recovering it.

Answer 3

Agree. It's a mult, not a transformation. However, it could have higher adverse affects when used on higher current powers. This is because a mult, is basically changing, what I see as, the per-second power output (i.e. power level). No matter what sort of power level Goku achieves, he has a limit on how much he can temporarily force that power output to be multiples of itself. That is his limit as a human/saiyan. This is different from "power" growth via strain and training.

While he can train his use of power. He cannot easily train personal self-damage due to over-exertion. However, notice that he has increased Kaioken from Kaioken (a simple 50% increase) to Kaioken x 20. This means it's possible but probably a horrible use of time, energy, effort.