Ki suppression control

Question

So i was wondering does ki suppression drain energy from the user, since they always need to think about this and maintain focus to some extent.

To start things of we know that not everyone can hide their Ki since it is a skill that has to be learned. We saw an an example of that when the sayajins arrived on earth and were surprised by the fact that the earthlings could control their power level and change it on will. Later on Namek, we saw that people are able to track down others who are unable to do that, that is why Dodoria and the others are always "powered up", and why the scouters were able to read their true power level ( i am not taking transformations into the account here).

Usually one of the common reasons besides trying to stay "low", is said to be to preserve energy but if you take into account the examples i mentioned above, that would mean that people are constantly losing energy without doing anything, which seems totally illogical. Even if that was the case somehow the loss should be minimal.

Taking everything into account there just does not seem to be a reason to do that, besides if you want to hide yourself on purpose. I doubt this was anywhere explained in depth, or that there will ever be a 100% verified answer but i would like to see what others thinks about this.

Answer 1

No, suppressing your power level does not exhaust you.

The Z-Fighters keep their power levels low for two reasons:

1. To hide their true strength from their opponents
2. To be able to raise their power levels extremely high when a fight does break out.

It's never stated (as far as I know) whether suppressing your power level saves a significant amount of energy. It's also never stated whether it takes energy to do this, either. However, based on the fact that the Z-Fighters go about their day-to-day lives with suppressed power levels, I'd argue it takes little to no stamina to maintain this, and may potentially save your ki reserves (though this is speculation).

I would argue, though, that learning to suppress your power level gives you a greater ability to manipulate your own ki, and therefore raise and lower it as needed. For an example of this, look at Ginyu's fight with Goku.

According to the wiki, Goku's max power level when he fought the Ginyu Force without Kaio-Ken was 90,000. It was 5,000 when supressed. He used this deceptively low power level to decimate the Ginyu Force, since they constantly underestimated him. However, when Captain Ginyu managed to take over Goku's body, his max power level was merely 23,000. I would speculate that in addition to the fact that this was a new body, Ginyu had no training in manipulating his own power level, so he could not even begin to approach Goku's normal strength without Kaio-Ken.

In summary, suppressing your power level has no notable disadvantages, and allows the user to both conceal their true strength and to utilize said strength to its maximum potential.

Answer 2

There are two different answers for this question.

• With reference to Dragon Ball Z: It is used as a form of defense mechanism to avoid danger. If a fighter were to constantly release all his energy, it is more likely he would be detected and this technique does help in this fashion which we see multiple times.
  
  Another reason for doing the same is that the Z fighters reside on earth. Hence, energy control is indeed vital. When Goku and Gohan returned as SSJ's during the cell saga, just a pat on the back from Goku was strong enough to send Chi chi flying as he forgot to control his energy. Gohan kept on breaking utensils. These Saiyans are capable of destroying planets. If they stay powered up all the time, they would practically end up destroying every little thing they touch.
• With reference to Dragon Ball Super: It was stated by Whis says to Vegeta that, immense ki control was necessary instead of vigorous training if he wanted to defeat Beerus in a fight. During the course of training between Goku and Vegeta, when they first attained SSJB for a brief second, Whis said that it was necessary so that the opponent wouldn't be able to detect your true level of strength. This makes sense as when Beerus first went to earth, Just a glare/ the pressure from his energy was able to keep Vegeta at Bay. Even when Whis goes to earth for the second time and Vegeta wanted to attack Whis, he felt an immense pressure that was holding him back.
  
  This technique has shown to have multiple advantages. For instance, it is impossible to detect the actual level of power during the course of combat. Meaning, unless you happen to be an extremely skilled/ experienced fighter, it is impossible to gauge how strong Super Saiyan Blue is as you'd only feel an immense pressure from the transformation and can't sense it's level of power. Also, better ki control allows Goku to suppress his power to fight against Multiple Opponents. For instance, we see Goku use a very suppressed SSJB Kamehameha against Krillin in his SSJB Form. This wouldn't work in any of his Super Saiyan forms as Goku wouldn't have as much control over his energy. We also see Goku use powered up/ Suppressed version of the forms in a lot of battles.
  Finally, it was stated by the Old Kai that using Kaioken along with a Super Saiyan transformation(Which lacks any ki control), would be deadly. Goku is able to achieve this in his Super Saiyan Blue form which revolves around mastery of ki control.