It is also possible for scouters to give inaccurate readings, since Raditz believed his to be giving incorrect signals and going haywire when it read Gohan's power level at 710 (in that case, the reading was accurate).Ī Tuffle locking onto Saiyans with his Scouter. The first generation ones explode when reading a power level over 22,000, something that is corrected in the improved second generation scouters. According to Daizenshuu 7, there are only two generations of scouters. Newer models (such as Dodoria's and the ones used by the Ginyu Special Corps) can read higher power levels without problems, at least up to 180,000, though their limits are not known. Older models (such as Raditz's and Zarbon's) seem to explode when reading levels between 21,000 and 22,000.
![dragon ball fusions scouting guide dragon ball fusions scouting guide](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Dxgm1WyIKN4/hqdefault.jpg)
Dodoria suggested that it was a problem with older scouter models. The reason for this is not mentioned explicitly in the anime or the manga, but the recorded cases have happened when the Scouter is detecting a high battle power level, possibly overloading it. Nappa says he believed that was how Raditz had been killed.Īnother disadvantage is that Scouters may explode on certain conditions. Their main drawback is that a trained person is capable of consciously lowering their ki (see Power Up), and can therefore fool Scouter users into thinking they have a lower batlle power. Scouters do have some disadvantages, however. Though it is possible to sense others' ki without advanced machinery, as the Z Warriors do, Scouters provide the ability to read power levels to less-trained fighters. It is also a possibility that the colors serve merely as an aesthetic. It is possible that the colors may be attributed to the capacity of power each can read. Zarbon's blue Scouter, however, broke after escalating to a reading of 22,000, while Dodoria's green Scouter was suggested to be newer as it read a battle power level of 24,000 without exploding. The most frequently seen color was green, which is suggested to be a standard model, while alternate colors such as blue, red, and purple are suggested to be upgraded models. It is unknown what the color of the Scouter means. The battle power was given as a number without any units of measurement (5 for the Farmer, 334 for Son Goku before he took his heavy clothes off, etc).
![dragon ball fusions scouting guide dragon ball fusions scouting guide](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kHC6PFKEkbs/hqdefault.jpg)
The first Scouter to be seen was the one Raditz wore in the first episode of Dragon Ball Z upon his arrival on Planet Earth. The Scouter appeared as a semi-transparent colored monocle that covered the left eye. They could also tell the location and battle power of an individual, as demonstrated when members of Freeza's Force used Scouters to hunt down enemies. Scouters also served the purpose of gathering information about soldiers wearing it and for interstellar communication, as seen between Raditz and Vegeta. Akira Toriyama simply stated in an interview that it could not be done by conventional means.
![dragon ball fusions scouting guide dragon ball fusions scouting guide](https://nintendoeverything.com/wp-content/uploads/dragon-ball-fusions-91615/dragon-ball-fusions-4.jpg)
It was never explained what units of measure were used to read Ki levels. The Scouter's primary purpose was to calculate the individual battle power or ki concentration of biological characters by converting the readings into numbers.