What are the Dragon Balls?
The namesake of the series, the Dragon Balls play a major role throughout much of Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball GT.


In Dragon Ball and DBZ, the Dragon Balls are a collection of seven crystal spheres — each containing stars numbering from one to seven — which can be used to grant the summoner a wish. After the summoner's wish has been granted, the Dragon Balls scatter across the globe and cannot be used again for quite some time. The number of wishes (1-3), power of each wish, and the time between successive summonings (130 days to one year) depend on the set of Balls used. When the creator of a particular set of Dragon Balls dies, the balls instantly turn to stone until a successor can take his place and revive the dragon. You can read more about each set of Dragon Balls and their properties right here.

In Dragon Ball GT, the Dragon Balls have a much different appearance. The set of Balls used in this anime-only series was created by Piccolo before he split into Kami and Piccolo Daimaio. These Ultimate Dragon Balls (a.k.a. Black Star Dragon Balls), have some rather unique properties. For starters, these balls scatter across the entire universe after being used, rather than just being scattered around the globe. In addition, the Ultimate Dragon Balls put so much strain on the planet on which they are used that they must be returned to that planet within one year or the planet will be destroyed! Finally, the wishes granted by these Dragon Balls are so powerful that they cannot be reversed by any other set of Balls.

What wishes are made with these Balls?
Throughout Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, the various dragons are summoned 14 times for a grand total of 22 wishes. At the moment, we don't have any data pertaining to the wishes that take place in Dragon Ball GT. You can read a detailed chart of every wish — including who made the wish, where the wish was made, what was wished for, and any failed wish attempts that were made — right here.