several years later, in the span of a day, krillin is attacked by raditz while attending a reunion, and is unable to save gohan from piccolo, who takes him for training. a year afterward, krillin confronts the saiyan invaders vegeta and nappa along with his friends, following months of training in preparation for their arrival. after yamcha's death, he avenges his friend by killing most of the saibermen. in the battle against nappa, krillin tries to get involved in his fight with tenshinhan after nappa severs the latter's arm, though is stopped by nappa. krillin double teams nappa with piccolo, creating multiple copies of themselves with the "tri-form" and failing thanks to the clones cutting their power. krillin later goes toe-to-toe with nappa alone, launching a "kienzan" at him that nappa almost catches before vegeta warns him, and is saved from an attack from nappa by piccolo. after nappa is defeated, and goku arrives, krillin requests that he fight vegeta elsewhere to prevent their friends' corpses from being destroyed. he and gohan leave the battlefield but return after gohan worries for goku, who is being crushed by vegeta in his oozaru form. krillin unsuccessfully attempts cutting vegeta's tail in a sneak attack, and later is given the "genki dama" to launch at vegeta by goku, which misses initially but is bounded back by gohan. after vegeta yields from further conflict given his extensive injuries, krillin takes yajirobe's sword and moves in to kill him, but agrees to spare his life per goku's request. he then travels with gohan and bulma to planet namek to use the namekian dragon balls to revive their dead friends, since the earth's dragon balls vanished due to piccolo's death. once there, they save a young namekian called dende from death at the hands of frieza's henchmen. krillin receives an increase in power from guru, the grand elder of the namekians, when he unlocks his hidden potential. after a few close encounters with vegeta, krillin and gohan are forced to team up with him in order to fight frieza's strongest warriors, the ginyu force. they are overpowered by them until goku arrives and defeats the force. after krillin and gohan collect the seven dragon balls and wish back piccolo, they begin a battle against frieza, during which krillin is stabbed in the chest, removes frieza's tail following being healed by dende, thereby distracting frieza from continuing to crush gohan to death, and injures vegeta in an attempt to capitalize on his saiyan ability to grow stronger when in a near-death state at vegeta's request. after a long fight between goku and frieza, goku decides to use the "genki-dama", krillin giving his energy to piccolo so he can stall frieza and attacking frieza himself with his last bit of strength. when the group recovers from the "genki-dama", and frieza emerges unscathed, the latter detonates krillin from the inside, killing him instantly, which triggers goku's first ever transformation into a super saiyan. after frieza's defeat, krillin is revived by the namekian dragon balls.