Goku's training is never-ending, and as a result the Saiyan continuously improves on the arsenal of techniques he's acquired, occasionally adding new ones. Throughout Dragon Ball Super, he's faced with a number of dangerous threats to the Earth and even reality itself—and each time he has to find ways to bring them down using what he knows.
Whether in the manga or the anime, these abilities have brought down alien conquerors, gods, and centuries-old criminals. It's worth noting, transformations like Super Saiyan aren't included, though these have also made it possible for Goku and his friends to even be capable of defending themselves, and deserve their own separate, special recognition.
10 Evil Containment Wave
A shout out to Dragon Ball, Goku was forced to learn how to master the Evil Containment Wave during the Goku Black arc. Realizing they had no way to defeat their opponents, Goku went back and learned the technique from Master Roshi. Fortunately, he has more than enough energy to seal someone off without worrying about dying from it and was able to successfully use it to seal off Master Roshi’s turtle partner. When he was going to use it on Goku Black and Zamasu though, he wasn’t quite so lucky.
9 Kamehameha Blaster
Broly forced Goku and Vegeta to step their game up several times. During Goku’s battle against Broly he came up with yet another version of the Kamehameha, referred to as the Kamehameha Blaster. This combines the Kamehameha wave with a volley of ki blasts meant to force the opponent into taking damage. Unfortunately by this point Broly was much stronger than either of them and was capable of easily avoiding it.
8 Kaio-Ken
The manga has long had no purpose for Kaio-Ken, multiple times saying the technique flat out wouldn’t work when used in conjunction with Super Saiyan. As a result, Goku hasn’t used it since defeating Freiza.
But in the anime, it’s completely different, and during Goku’s battle with Hit he figured out a way to use Super Saiyan Blue with Kaio-Ken to make him strong enough to do battle with the assassin. It was used again during the Tournament of Power against Jiren, where he managed to master using Kaio-Ken times ten...but it didn’t really make him that much more effective.
7 Spirit Bomb
There’s some argument to be made that the Spirit Bomb actually wasn’t all that useful in the series...or that it was actually the most useful move in all of Dragon Ball Super. Goku used it once in his battle against Jiren in the hopes that it would be powerful enough to bring him down. He got energy from all the other members of Universe 7—but it didn’t work. Instead, Jiren just knocked the ball right back to Goku and it wound up hitting him instead. However, rather than being the end of Goku, it meant Goku found his way to Ultra Instinct, reaching a new level of power and making it possible to beat Jiren.
6 Kamehameha
Goku’s signature attack—this was something he used multiple times throughout Super. Everyone’s familiar with its power, and there’s no protracted battle he has where he doesn’t rely on the move at least once. The technique was most useful during the return of Freiza, where the alien decided to destroy the planet in response to Vegeta defeating him. When Whis re-wound time to restore the Earth, Goku came in with a quick Kamehameha to destroy Freiza and save everyone else.
5 Ultra Instinct – Sign -
Goku’s original attempt at Ultra Instinct happened after a Spirit Bomb he threw at Jiren was reflected back. Though in theory he should have been able to bounce it away, he took the move head-on, and it should have been the end of him. But it wasn’t. Goku managed to tap into something deep, reaching the first step in the realm of the gods, the power of Ultra Instinct, allowing him to instinctively dodge and react to attacks before his opponent made them. This was the first time anyone was able to do anything to harm Jiren.
4 Regeneration
An ability that isn’t talked about much or used, Goku gained the power of regeneration after learning how to master the power of godly ki energy. During his battle against Beerus, Beerus got serious long enough to impale Goku in the chest.
Rather than that being the end of the battle though, Goku used the power of his new Super Saiyan God form to heal the hole in his chest and get right back into fighting.
3 Hakai
Hakai should be one of Goku’s most powerful techniques...if he knew how to actually use it. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t, and his first attempt happened under extreme duress. In the manga he used the technique against Fused Zamasu, taking the god ki from his Perfect Super Saiyan Blue form and concentrating it into a single Hakai blast. It was actually working too, as it slowly started destroying Fused Zamasu until he used someone else as a shield to stop Goku from finishing it off.
2 Fusion Dance
During the battle against Broly, both Goku and Vegeta realized they had no chance of defeating the legendary Super Saiyan’s power. With no access to the earrings, Goku and Vegeta sought Piccolo out and trained to learn the Fusion Dance. Fortunately for them, it worked and Gogeta was created. With Gogeta’s Super Saiyan Blue power, Broly was no match and found himself quickly defeated.
1 Autonomous Ultra Instinct
For Goku, this was the single most powerful move he achieved in the anime and in the manga. Autonomous Ultra Instinct allowed Goku to use the full power of Ultra Instinct to easily deal with Jiren. In the manga, Goku had to be trained to reach this form by Merus, who taught him to master his emotions even after a specific emotional shock. Though anime Goku still struggles to achieve this ability, the manga version can use it whenever he wants, fortunately.