With Piccolo dead the dragon balls on Earth have become inert and thus the remaining Z fighters must travel to Namek in order to collect the dragon balls there to revive Piccolo and their other friends. As a result from his fight with Vegeta, Goku is severely injured and recovering in a hospital, thus making him unable to go on the initial trip to Namek. Vegeta has left Earth to go recover himself and plot his revenge. Mr Popo has been teaching Bulma Namekian so she will be able to pilot the ship that Kami originally traveled to Earth to along with Krillin and Gohan. The Z fighters who were killed in the battle with the saiyans have embarked on snake way to undergo training with King Kai just as Goku did.

Bulma, Krillin, and Gohan finally embark on their way to head towards planet Namek around the time Vegeta lands on Freeza's planet to get the medical attention he needs. Apparently Freeza was made aware of the dragon balls around the time the saiyans had landed on Earth. Knowing that the creators of the dragon balls originate on Namek, Freeza had already set out and arrived at the planet Namek in order to get the balls and use the dragon's wish for himself. Vegeta seems to be well aware of this fact and plans on heading to Namek as soon as he possibly can once his body is healed. Apparently Vegeta is one of Freeza's higher calibur bruisers but at the end of the day Vegeta has the full intentions of betraying him and taking his place. When Vegeta's body is finally healed he takes another space pod and embarks to planet Namek to claim the dragon balls for himself.

On their way to Namek Bulma, Krillin, and Gohan encounter a transparent ship holding refugees from a planet that had been wiped out by Freeza's men. after the intiial misunderstanding is cleared up about Bulma and co being Freeza's henchmen they are freed and head along their way. They enter some sort of harsh area and the ship is sent off course and they land on some planet/asteroid. Also during this time, Goku, still encased in bandages, is furiously training awaiting for when his body is healed enough to where he can leave for Namek as well. With Krillin, Bulma, and Gohan on this planet they encounter two Namekians and notify them about their search for the dragon balls. The nameks agree to help the gang and they scour the world for the dragon balls overcoming every obstacle. After they collect the seven dragon balls something happens and they revert back into nothing, the entire planet itself actually starts shifting back into a dumpy looking asteroid. The two namekians revert to their true form as some type of alien and they explain that when the ship landed that they read the gang's consciousness and then created a hallucination for them to find their dragon balls while the two aliens fixed their ship with the intent of stealing it themselves to get off the asteroid. Krillin and Gohan beat them up and then they leave with Bulma on the ship to once again head to the real planet Namek.

The next destination is Planet Namek itself. Freeza and his henchmen have already been on the planet and have gotten to work. They're first seen destroying a namekian village to add a forth dragon ball to their collection. Vegeta lands on Namek and shortly after his arrival Krillin and the gang arrive as well. Two of Freeza's henchment initially spot the ship Gohan and co. landed in and they destroy it before being killed by Krillin and Gohan. Another one of Freeza's henchmen, Kui, goes after Vegeta and after a short exchange of taunts Vegeta quickly kills him. Deeming it unsafe for Bulma to travel, Krillin and Gohan leave her at a cave and head off to go spy on Freeza's activities. Around this time Yajirobe and Master Roshi show up at the hospital that Goku is in and give him some sensu beans. Goku eats one and is fully healed, and he immediately leaves to goto Capsule Corp. Goku uses as hip that Dr Briefs has built and launches to Namek with an ETA of 7 days; with sensu beans on hand and a ship designed for training he begins intensely training for a rematch with Vegeta and whoever else he may have to face. Gohan and Krillin stumble over Freeza, Zarbon, and Dodoria at a tiny namek village harrassing the villagers to acquire their fifth dragon ball. Some other nameks jump in and all of them are quickly disposed of by Dodoria. Going against what Krillin said Gohan knocks Dodoria out to rescue the child (Dende) who was about to get killed and him and Krillin both hightail it out of there while Freeza yells at Dodoria to follow suit.

Dodoria eventually catches up to Gohan, Krillin, and Dende so in desperation Krillin uses the solar flare on Dodoria so the three can run off and hide. Dodoria is unable to find them and just destroys the surrounding area up and leaves assuming everyone in the vicinity of the area died to the blast (although Krillin, Gohan, and Dende clearly avoided it). Unfortunately for Dodoria on his way back to Freeza he is intercepted by Vegeta. After a short skirmish Vegeta makes it very clear that he is much stronger than Dodoria. In exchange for his freedom Dodoria tells Vegeta about how Freeza blew up the planet Vegeta and annihilated the saiyan race due to him foreseeing them as a threat to his power. As Dodoria started to fly off Vegeta quickly changed his mind on sparing Dodoria's life and blew him away with a ki blast. Vegeta flies off leaving Krillin, Gohan, and Dende unattended (as he couldn't find them) and tracks down a namekian village with his newfound ability to sense powers. There he slays the inhabitants and steals the dragon ball, thinking to hide it in the deep lake so that when Freeza shows up he will not be able to find it.

Elsewhere, Freeza and Zarbon are discussing the acquisition of the last two dragon balls, and without the scouters Freeza has ordered Zarbon and the other henchmen to scour the entire planet to find them. Krillin and Gohan have taken Dende back to Bulma and after their rendezvous Dende informs them of the namekian elder Guru, who is the creator of the dragon balls. Krillin and Dende set off to meet him while Gohan stays with Bulma; also, Goku has been informed by King Kai that Piccolo, Tien, Yamcha, and Chaotzu have successfully reached his planet to train. Along the way to Guru's, Krillin senses Vegeta so the two goto hide while Vegeta flies by. Vegeta has Zarbon alone and in his sights and intends to send out a message by killing him. Vegeta blindsides Zarbon and the two initiate a fight after a short discussion. Vegeta is clearly the stronger of the two so Zarbon is forced to morph into his monster form. Afterwards Zarbon makes quick work of Vegeta and tears him to pieces. Zarbon goes back to Freeza's ship to report this and along with him another henchmen has also arrived telling Freeza about the dragon ball Vegeta stole. Freeza quickly kills his henchmen and orders Zarbon to go retrieve Vegeta for questioning. He also displays his concern for the growing threat against him and has the Ginyu Force notified to come to Namek to squash out the opposition before it gets any stronger. Zarbon heads out and to find Vegeta and with Vegeta critically injured Zarbon takes him back to Freeza and the ship where he's placed in a healing container to regenerate in which afterwards Freeza will deal with him.

Around the time Vegeta and Zarbon started fighting Krillin and Dende had reached Guru's house. Krillin tells Guru about their plans to revive the z fighters and Guru reads his mind and sees his intentions are pure. He unlocks Krillin's potential power and also gifts him with a dragon ball, resting the fate of the universe in the earthlings' hands. Krillin also asks if Guru can unlock Gohan's powers to which he agrees to so Krillin flies off to get Gohan. Vegeta manages to recover to full health fairly fast as he feigned his injuries and breaks out of the pod and steals the five dragon balls Freeza had in his possession right out from under him. Afterwards Vegeta tails onto Krillin who is carelessly flying back to Bulma to report the good news. Vegeta finds Krillin and Bulma and soon Zarbon lands as he was sent to find Vegeta. Vegeta and Zarbon once again duel and this time it is lopsided in the other direction as Vegeta has an easy time overpowering Zarbon in both of his forms. Vegeta then kills Zarbon and forces Krillin to hand over the dragon ball and he leaves to get his other five.

Before Krillin had gotten back to Bulma, Gohan had seen a dragon ball on Bulma's radar and went to get it. It was the ball Vegeta had already hidden in the lake, Gohan mourned for the villagers Vegeta killed then proceeded to grab the ball. Elsewhere Goku was having problems of his own going through magnetized space, which almost killed him in the process as the ship was hard set to be 100 times earth's normal gravity inside. After Goku made it through the ordeal he vowed to train at 100 times earth's normal gravity until reaching Namek in order to be strong enough to fight his friends. Gohan on the other hand, was heading back to Bulma's after recovering the dragon ball when he sensed Vegeta heading his direction. He manages to outwit an arrogant Vegeta and goes on his way without Vegeta realizing he stole the dragon ball. Vegeta goes back to the namekian village and realizes that Gohan tricked him and overcome with rage flies out to go find him and recover the ball that he stole once again. Gohan had already reached Krillin and Bulma, and leaving the ball with Bulma he sets out with Krillin to goto Guru's house to unlock his hidden powers. Once there Guru does unlock his powers, greatly increasing his energy, and then Vegeta shows up to Guru's after sensing them, looking for his dragon ball. Vegeta, sensing that the Ginyu force is almost to Namek has put aside fighting them and is looking for a quick way to summon the dragon so they can team up and fight Freeza together.

Krillin and Gohan reluctantly agreed to Vegeta's demands to ally together after they sensed the power of the Ginyu Force themselves. The trio quickly headed back to where Vegeta had the other five dragon balls hidden as the Ginyu Force was landing on the Planet Namek. Immediately after landing the Ginyu Force were addressed and briefed on what they were there to do by Freeza and flew off to find Vegeta. As Krillin and Gohan landed with Vegeta they changed their minds about partnering with him to help Vegeta gain immortality and as the three began to bicker the Ginyu Force arrived. The Ginyu Force had no problem recovering the seven dragon balls, including the two in Vegeta and Krillin's possession. Captain Ginyu took the seven balls and headed back to Freeza's ship to report the good news. The other four members stayed behind and played rock, paper, scissors to decide which one of them was first to fight and Guldo won. Krillin and Gohan squared off against Guldo, who had the ability to manipulate time, and although they were easily stronger than him he outsmarted them and froze an instance of space around them. After Guldo went in for the kill Vegeta interfered, decapitating Guldo and then killing him after one last conversation. Afterwards Recoome was up to fight Vegeta and Vegeta shocked the remaining three Ginyu Force members with his maximum power. Although a shock is all it was, after his barrage Recoome emerged unscratched aside from his armor and then started pounding on Vegeta. Vegeta fought as hard as he could but he was no match for Recoome and Krillin and Gohan had to jump in to save Vegeta before Recoome killed him. After Krillin disrupted Recoome's eraser gun, Recoome kicked Krillin and knocked him out of the fight. With Vegeta and Krillin out of action Gohan was the last one standing to fight Recoome. He tried to do everything, projectiles, close combat, whatever he could think of and Recoome just had fun with him and toyed around with him. After awhile of taking a beating Recoome finally broke Gohan's neck, and it seemed to be over.

Fortunately for the trio, as Gohan lay lifeless, Goku's ship flew overhead, distracting the Ginyu Force members. Goku landed and quickly headed over to the fighting area as he sensed the three diminished power levels quickly slipping. Goku gave Gohan and Krillin sensu beans and after reading Krillin's mind about the situation they've dealt with on Namek, Goku tossed Vegeta one as well. Afterwards he told them to stay back as he went one on one with Recoome. He quickly showed Recoome that he was way too fast for Recoome to hit, and warned Jeice and Burter as well. Recoome was unimpressed and claimed to be charging an attack that would destroy the immediate surroundings, as he was powering up Goku struck him and knocked him out in one hit. Jeice and Burter were shocked at this but didn't take it seriously, as both of them jumped in to see how strong Goku really was. They tried fighting him in combat and with energy and Goku was able to easily evade or block everything they threw at him while taunting them in the process. Finally Jeice used his crusher ball attack at Burter's request to get Goku off the ground, and after Goku reflected it towards Burter he snuck up behind Burter after he dodged the loose projectile. Afterwards Jeice and Burter attacked Goku futilely once more, to which Goku counter attacked and knocked Burter out. Jeice freaked out and ran away to go fetch Captain Ginyu.

Around that same time Captain Ginyu had already reported back to Freeza with the seven dragon balls. They tried to make a wish for Freeza's immortality but nothing happened. Freeza then remembered what one of the elders said about him not being able to make a wish even if he had found all seven of the dragon balls and then set out himself to find any namek left to force them to tell him how to get his wish. Unfortunately the only nameks left were Guru, Nail and Dende. Once Freeza showed up at Guru's house Nail requested to fight him in exchange to tell him how to summon the dragon. The real reason Nail had done so was to buy the earthlings time to summon the dragon themselves while distracting Freeza. Nail was very successful in distracting Freeza as Fereza entertained himself with beating up Nail and toying with him for awhile. After Freeza had realized he was being played he quickly left. While Ginyu stayed waiting at the ship Jeice reported back to him what had happened with Goku and enraged Ginyu flew off to go challenge Goku himself. Vegeta bailed on them and Gohan and Krillin followed him at Goku's request to get the balls while Goku fought Captain Ginyu. The two fought each other to a stalemate to which Captain Ginyu goaded Goku on to show him his true power. Goku complied and powered up, easily showing that he was more of a match for Ginyu and Jeice both combined. Ginyu then did his metamorphosis attack on Goku after punching a hole in his own chest to leave Goku with his own broken body. Jeice then flew off with Ginyu in Goku's body to return to the ship.

Krillin, Vegeta, and Gohan had reached Freeza's ship and easily found the dragon balls with the radar. They tried to summon the dragon to no avail and concluded that a password was needed. Afterwards Jeice and Ginyu showed up which had confused the trio for a short time, until Goku showed up in Ginyu's body and revealed what happened. Gohan and Krillin beat up Ginyu in Goku's body as Vegeta fought Jeice. Vegeta quickly overpowered Jeice and killed him while Krillin and Gohan beat up Ginyu. Ginyu was going to metamorph to Vegeta's body but Goku jumped in the way which reverted the two back to their original bodies. Ginyu then taunted Vegeta and let Vegeta beat him up awhile to further injure him. Goku realized that Ginyu was still planning to metamorph into Vegeta's body and tried to warn him. Vegeta ignored him and still went after Ginyu so when Ginyu powered up his metamorphasis again, Goku threw a frog inbetween him and Vegeta so Ginyu and a frog switched bodies. Afterwards the Ginyu Force had been dealt with and Vegeta lead Krillin and Gohan with Goku to a recovery chamber and put Goku in it so he could heal and be ready to fight Freeza later. Vegeta then went to nap while Gohan and Krillin had planned on finding Dende or someone to help them summon the dragon. Fortunately for them, Dende was already on his way and had reached them. They summoned Porunga and wished for Piccolo to be brought back to life and then brought to Namek. Afterwards Guru died and the dragon dissapeared before a third wish could be granted. By then Vegeta was awake and at the site and Freeza, seeing the dragon, was there as well. With the dragon gone Vegeta and Freeza were both angry and squared off.

Piccolo tells the other three to back off saying that he can beat Freeza. Freeza and Piccolo begin fighting and seem to be evenly matched. Vegeta, scared of both fighters thinks that it's a good idea for him to run away while the two greatest powers are fighting. Freeza interrupts his battle with Piccolo to chase down Vegeta and punch him back into the field before him and Piccolo resume. Piccolo reveals to Freeza that he and Nail had merged and stops playing around and powers up to start beating Freeza around. The battle seems to be turning against Freeza until he reveals that he still hasn't reached his full power. Freeza then undergoes his second transformation right before Piccolo's eyes and then resumes the battle, easily making quick work of Piccolo. Gohan steps in to help Piccolo and shakes Freeza off him. Meanwhile Vegeta has Krillin blast a hole through him so that Dende can kill him and make him stronger. Freeza, still unsatisfied with his inability to quickly kill everyone reveals that he has one transformation left and begins to transform. As Freeza is transforming he sees Dende healing Piccolo. After Freeza is finished transforming the first thing he does is kills Dende to the shock of everyone. Afterwards, fully healed, Vegeta boldly challenges Freeza himself, confident in his new ability.

Vegeta and Freeza square off with Vegeta looking somewhat impressive. He doesn't ever really manage to land a hit on Freeza as Freeza just simply evades him. Afterwards Freeza points out that Vegeta is still insignificant compared to him and then starts pounding Vegeta. Goku's healing has finally finished and just in time as he steps in while Freeza is beating up Vegeta. Freeza casts Vegeta aside and Vegeta taunts him saying that Goku will be the saiyan to finally kill him. Tired of heating Vegeta, Freeza then kills him and then takes up the fight against Goku. Freeza at first doesn't take Goku seriously, but after Goku lands a few hits he stops screwing around and actually starts to fight him. Freeza half heartedly fights Goku as he knows he is more than a match for Goku and is arrogant enough to prove so. Goku swears that he'll do anything to stop Freeza and pulls out every card in his hand. He tries a 30x Kaio Ken Kamehameha, which is canceled out, and finally he has to resort to the spirit bomb. Unfortunately he needs energy from several planets to be able to defeat Freeza so he has to use his mouth as well as the help of others to distract Freeza while he forms the spirit bomb. Freeza isn't swift enough to look in the sky as to what Goku is doing and beats him up a bit as well as Piccolo while Goku makes the spirit bomb. With the spirit bomb finally finished Goku launches it at Freeza. Freeza finally realizes what's going on after it is too late and is unable to evade the spirit bomb, let alone stop it. The spirit bomb smashes into the planet with him in the middle of it and explodes, seemingly killing him.

Everyone is relieved that Freeza appears to be dead, but it is short lived. Soon enough Freeza appears out of the crater and he's pissed. The first thing he does is shoot a laser through Piccolo's chest, severely injuring him. Next he shoots Krillin and throws him in the air, vowing to not let him get away this time. Goku pleads with him to stop and Freeza ignores him, forcing Krillin to explode and killing him. Goku flips out and starts powering up to Freeza's surprise, and then transforms into a super saiyan. He orders Gohan to take Piccolo and get Bulma and to retreat back to his ship to immediately leave the planet, and he says he'll take care of Freeza. Freeza laughs and tries to attack Gohan but Goku stops him and then starts beating him up. Freeza realizing that he is potentially outmatched launches a blast into the planet's core, claiming that Namek will be destroyed shortly so regardless of the outcome Goku will be killed. Goku then allows him to power up to his full strength as Goku says he wants to beat Freeza and there be no doubt that Freeza has lost to a saiyan. Back on earth Kame and Mr Popo have collected the dragon balls as per request of King Kai and they have summoned Shenlong in order to bring everyone that Freeza had killed in the past year back to life. This was done in hopes that Guru would also be brought back to life and it was successful as Guru was alive again.

With Guru back Porunga is back as well. Communicating telepathically between King Kai, Kami, and Guru, Goku arranges it so Dende's last wish is to send all of the people on Namek except for Freeza and Goku himself back to Earth. Porunga grants this wish and then Goku tells Freeza what he has been plotting much to Freeza's dismay. Goku continues to beat up Freeza regardless of Freeza's counter attacks. He informs Freeza that he is now a superior fighter and tells him to live with his shame, but before he can leave Freeza attacks him to set off another round. Goku reluctantly complies and flies around him as Freeza sends out his own destructo discs to kill Goku. Goku eventually blindsides Freeza and slaps him around, and then Freeza's discs end up cutting Freeza in half. With Freeza dying and begging Goku at his feet, Goku gives Freeza some power in order for Freeza to live. Freeza ends up using this power to attack Goku, to which Goku counters and seemingly kills Freeza. Goku then flies back to Freeza's ship and is unable to get it to start, and it looks like he's stranded on Namek with Freeza's corpse as it explodes.

Back on Earth news of Freeza's defeat and Goku's apparent demise has reached the ears of everyone. Rejoicing is done over this universal victory and Guru, dying once again, passes on the ability to create the dragon balls to the second eldest namek before passing. Half of a year later the namekian dragon is summoned to bring Krillin back to earth and revived, the last wish was used to bring Goku back as well. Much to everyone's surprise Purunga told everyone that Goku was alive and well and had no desire to return to earth yet. So instead Yamcha was revived. Next time the balls were gathered Tien and Chaotzu were revived again and the final wish was used to find a new home planet for the remaining namekians on earth (minus Piccolo). Unfortunately shortly after this time Garlic Jr. reemerged back from the deadzone to once again try to take Kami's seat as guardian of earth and to enslave everyone. He used the power of a newfound star to bolster his energy. Kami and Mr Popo reversed the effects of Garlic Jr's hex that he put on the people of earth while Gohan, Piccolo and Krillin faced off against Garlic Jr. Thanks to the effort of Gohan detroying the Makyo Star, Garlic Jr was once again sucked into the deadzone and put away.

Time passed, and then the unexpected happened. Gohan wakes up freaking out as he can sense Freeza's power reaching the earth. He quickly grabs his gear and flies off, meeting Krillin and the other Z Fighters in the process. Freeza was apparently alive and well as Goku didn't completely kill him. After Namek blew up he floated in space dying and was rescued by his father, King Cold. Afterwards since he had lost most of his body he was mechanically rebuilt to be stronger than he used to be and his first call was to goto earth and destroy it to make Goku suffer. Unfortunately for Freeza, when he landed someone much stronger was already waiting for him. Trunks, not revealing himself declared that Goku would be arriving and either him or Freeza would be around to greet him. Trunks then transformed into a super saiyan before King Cold and Freeza and gave Freeza three shots to kill him. After Freeza gave him everything he had, Trunks caught him by surprise and cut him in half with his sword. Afterwards he slice and dice'd Freeza and then killed him. The Z fighters and King Cold were all shocked over this enigma so easily disposing Freeza. King Cold tried to reason with Trunks at first, then underestimated Trunks ability, which ended up costing him his life. With Freeza and King Cold dead Trunks got rid of their ship and then told the Z fighters to come over and wait for Goku with him. Vegeta was naturally furious over this as Goku had already shown himself to be a super saiyan and now there was another.

Two hours later Goku arrived at that location surprised that everyone was there waiting for him. They pointed out the mysterious person was the one who said he'd be there and then him and Goku went to talk. Trunks revealed himself to Goku privately, his name, him being Bulma and Vegeta's son, and the future he came from. He told Goku that his future was destroyed by androids, how Goku would die from a heart disease and how the rest of the z fighters would be killed as well. He told Goku that the androids would be arriving in three years and they were much stronger than anything ever faced, then gave Goku an antidote for the heart disease he would contract. Trunks then left to go back to his own time with the promise of returning three years later to help with the androids. Piccolo overheard their conversation but promised Goku he wouldn't tell anything extra about it aside from the arrival of the androids. Goku let the others know of this terrible news and thus the z fighters began training for the arrival of the androids.