krillin trains for three years to confront dr. gero who tries to use his androids to kill goku. krillin is momentarily forced to leave his friends with the androids to take yamcha away from the battlefield in the aftermath of his deadly encounter with gero, who krillin finds the base of and signals the others to his location after having a fight with gero. when the androids, #16, #17 and #18 are released, krillin is the only hero present that does not engage #17 and #18 due to his fear. after the duo defeat his friends, krillin unsuccessfully pleads for the androids to spare goku's life, and becomes infatuated with the female #18 after she kisses him on the cheek, and he then heals his defeated friends. after krillin encounters the artificial life form cell, krillin and trunks travel to dr. gero's laboratory basement, where krillin kills the present timeline version of cell and the two discover the weakness to the androids is a deactivating controller, which bulma constructs and gives to krillin. krillin soon after encounters #18 with the module and after a period of deliberation, destroys it. because of this, regardless of his efforts, cell absorbs her and achieves his perfect form. enraged over her loss, krillin engages cell in combat, the latter standing in place while krillin's attacks have no effect and striking krillin only once, placing krillin in a near-death state. after krillin is revived by trunks, he warns trunks of cell's strength, having been able to sense his true power right before being attacked. he moves vegeta away from the impending fight between trunks and cell, healing vegeta during the battle between the two. he later participates in the cell games, a martial arts tournament created by cell for entertainment, and fights one of the cell juniors who attack him and his friends, but is saved by gohan. after gohan punches cell in the stomach, he regurgitates android #18 and krillin cares for her comatose body while gohan destroys cell. after cell's death, krillin then travels to the lookout, where he uses the second wish from the dragon balls to remove the bombs from #17 and #18.