Out of every Dragon Ball villain we've come to known over the years, Frieza is definitely one we wouldn't want to run into alone. At his current level, he's one of the strongest characters in the entire franchise, and if he ever decides to train again, he'd potentially become the strongest character we've ever seen! He's well known for moves like his Death Beam, Nova Strike, Supernova, and Earth Breaker, but his Death Ball is a technique that's often overlooked.
This is because he's never actually used the basic version of this attack in the series. He was preparing to launch one at Goku, but was interrupted right when Goku decided to launch a Spirit Bomb of his own at Frieza. Despite this, we've seen Frieza's Death Ball in several videogames, so we're well aware of its power at the time Freiza debuted it on Namek, making it easy to tell which moves would be the right ones to counter such a sinister-looking sphere.
10 Stronger: Spirit Bomb
As usual, we always start with the most obvious answer first. We've seen evidence that a Spirit Bomb could easily overpower a Death Ball in the show, although it should be noted that Frieza didn't have nearly as much time to charge his Death Ball to a size that could compete with the Spirit Bomb. Still, even with the energy Goku could salvage from a desolate Planet Namek, Frieza was incapable of pushing the attack back.
This gives us reason to believe that even if Frieza had charged his Death Ball for a few more seconds, it would've still been no match against Goku's own ace in the hole. Now that Goku's able to tap into the power of a Super Saiyan transformation to further push the Spirit Bomb into an opponent, Frieza would definitely be toast, even if he fired the Death Ball in his Golden Form. Don't believe us? Try for yourself in Jump Force and let us know what happens.
9 Weaker: Chaos Ball
We haven't really seen Frost's Chaos Ball used in the series, but it has appeared as Frost's strongest attack in many Dragon Ball games like Dragon Ball Heroes and Dragon Ball Z Dokkan Battle. It's a move that's nearly identical to Frieza's Death Ball in every way except for a few minor changes in color, but if we take Frieza during his first-ever fight with Goku and Frost at the height of his vitality during the Tournament of Power, we're confident that the Chaos Ball would be no match against a tried and true Death Ball.
Even when the two were both in their 100% Full Power forms, Frieza was easily able to blow Frost away without even trying, despite the new strength Frost acquired after his crushing defeat during the initial tournament against Universe 7. He just doesn't have the talent and raw power to best Frieza at any stage in a power struggle. Not in now, and definitely not back then.
8 Stronger: Supernova
Frieza's Supernova is the infamous attack that he used to destroy Planet Vegeta. While this move was capable of destroying an entire planet in seconds, we've never seen the Death Ball come close to doing so, even in videogames. Sure, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 allows the Death Ball to track a target, almost guaranteeing its chances of striking a winded opponent, but Frieza's Supernova is so large, that once it's launched, most opponents have no choice but to engage it head-on.
While he's never used it on Goku in the series, his brother Cooler has, and although the attack was reflected in the end, it did manage to pin Super Saiyan Goku down for a bit after having been charged for only a few seconds. Frieza's standard Death Ball, on the other hand, couldn't even stand up against a Spirit Bomb after having been charged up for almost an equal amount of time.
7 Weaker: Mystic Flasher
Nail's Mystic Flasher is admittedly one of the coolest-looking techniques in all of Dragon Ball. It's actually pretty handy in Xenoverse 2 if you can anticipate your opponent's next move. Sure, this attack might look strong, but against even First Form Frieza, this energy wave had no effect at all.
We know for a fact if Nail were to use this move on Frieza's Death Ball, he'd instantly be overpowered, but at least he'd look pretty cool doing it...
6 Stronger: Final Flash
After training in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber with Future Trunks, Vegeta stepped out to face Cell with some new techniques under his belt, his Final Flash being the strongest. Initially, he used it to obliterate one side of Cell's body, and even when he charged the attack for the first time, streams of electricity decimated the ground around him.
Even in Dragon Ball Super, Vegeta's Final Flash enabled him to knock someone like Jiren to the floor for a split second, despite the Universe 11 warrior being leagues above him. It's safe to say that like Krillin's Destructo Disc, Vegeta's Final Flash allows him to make a stand against opponents with significantly more power than him, so much so, that we're confident that Vegeta in his base form could launch a Final Flash that would be more than capable of sending one of Frieza's Death Balls back where it came from!
5 Weaker: Spirit Ball
The Spirit Ball is a move that Yamcha began to develop in the months he spent training for the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament during those Dragon Ball days. After further developing the technique, he's now able to effortlessly control a bright sphere of energy that can change direction and strike opponents more than once before detonating.
Though the attack can be charged, it's one of Yamcha's skills, which means it can only go so far. We can tell just by looking at Frieza's premature Death Ball which move is superior.
4 Stronger: Eraser Cannon
Most famously, Broly used his Eraser Cannon to blow up a planet that was barely visible in the distant sky, meaning that this attack is capable of traveling several miles in a few brief seconds while packing enough of a punch to demolish a planet without leaving behind a single trace.
Even Frieza's Supernova took a few seconds before it burrowed deep enough into Planet Vegeta to destroy it, so it's reasonable to say that the Death Ball, or any other one of Frieza's attacks for that matter, wouldn't hold a candle next to Broly's Eraser Cannon.
3 Weaker: Final Spirit Cannon
Final Spirit Cannon is the attack that Bardock used to make his final stand against Frieza in Dragon Ball Z: Bardock - The Father of Goku.
Needless to say, despite this move being Bardock's strongest attack, it didn't do a thing against Frieza's Supernova, launched in his First Form, so we know hands down it wouldn't even be able to get close to Final Form Frieza's Death Ball.
2 Stronger: Big Bang Crash
Without hesitation, Semi-Perfect Cell used his Big Bang Crash, a decent-sized projectile of red energy capable of wiping entire islands from the face of the Earth.
While a fully-charged Death Ball is most likely capable of the same amount of destruction, we know for a fact that it not only takes longer to charge up, but wouldn't hold a candle to one of Semi-Perfect Cell's techniques, given the fact that he was a lot stronger than Frieza at the time.
1 Weaker: Neo Tri-Beam
When Tien used his Neo Tri-Beam to keep Semi-Perfect Cell pinned down in a crater, fans nearly lost it. We couldn't believe Tien had developed a technique strong enough to pin Cell down! What fans often forget is that while the attack did keep him busy, it didn't injure him at all.
Against Frieza, who at the time was much weaker than Cell, Tien's Neo Tri-Beam would be able to hold him back as well, while probably even inflicting minimal damage, but due to the sheer concentration of energy accumulated in one of Frieza's infamous Death Balls, it's difficult to imagine Tien actually holding off one of those bad boys with guts alone.