How Good is Dangerous Belial Almight? (Beyblade Review)

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The second entirely new release found in the B-191 Overdrive Special Starter Set is a completely reimagined Belial: Dangerous Belial Almight-2!

While it doesn’t have the same level of anticipation or excitement as the long awaited Bearing Dash Driver or the new Prominence Phoenix, it does have some expectations to live up to based on its previous iteration, B-180 Dynamite Belial Nexus Venture-2. 

The Dynamite Blade has become a mainstay in right-spin Stamina combos since its launch, and the Belial DB Core saw constant use right up until the Valkyrie DB Core released as a strong alternative. Can Dangerous Belial Almight reach the same competitive heights? 

We’ll be answering just that with a part-by-part breakdown below.

Note: All but one set of tests (Dangerous Blade vs. Dynamite Blade) were conducted with 2 players. All tests were conducted in the Burst Beystadium Standard Type.

This article was written in collaboration with WBO user Dan. Thank you, Dan! Editing, photos, formatting, and some testing by Blader Kei.

Finally, if you buy something through some of the links on this post, you won’t pay any extra, but I’ll get a small commission. This helps me keep things running. Thanks for your support!

Product Details

• Brand: TAKARA-TOMY
• Product Code: B-191
• Product Contents:
  • Dangerous Belial Almight-2
  • Prominence Phoenix Tapered Metal Universe-10
  • Savior Perseus Giga Bearing’-3 
  • Full Custom BeyLauncher LR
• System: Dynamite Battle Layer System
• Series: Beyblade Burst Dynamite Battle

Part Weights

• Dangerous Blade: 9.75g
• Belial 2 DB Core: 7.94g
• Almight Driver: 38.15g (Driver: 17.71g, Disk: 20.44g)

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Dangerous Blade Review

Coming from Dynamite, the Dangerous Blade appears to be a drastic departure design-wise. While it still maintains a triple pointed design, the length of each wing is noticeably smaller and what it lost in length it gained in height. The Dangerous Blade looks much more aggressive and more closely related to the Savior Blade than it does the Dynamite Blade.

Just like the Dynamite Blade, though, Dangerous can take full advantage of the “Gear” parts, meaning it is capable of using both L Gear in High Mode and F Gear in either Low or High Mode.

How good is the Dangerous Blade for Attack type Beyblades?

Unfortunately while visually speaking the comparison of the Dangerous Blade to Savior is accurate, in terms of performance the Dangerous Blade tends to leave much to be desired. 

All of our tests included the F Gear, for the following reasons:

• The Dangerous Blade could use the extra weight (becoming 15g with it on)
•  F Gear’s rubber does not impede on its Smash Attack power
• Without the F Gear on, the Dangerous Blade can be more easily destabilized as it has a terrible empty space that can be taken advantage of.

The L Gear is also compatible, as previously mentioned, but because it is only usable in High Mode, the Dangerous Blade’s most aggressive contact points will not usually connect with opponents. For this reason, L Gear and High Mode in general are not suitable for attack-oriented Dangerous Blade combos.

Here we compared both the Savior Blade and Dangerous Blade against a staple competitive combo: Vanish Bahamut Over Bearing-0. While Vanish on Bearing lacks the same defensive prowess as it would on Zone’+Z, the meta has shifted much more towards Bearing over the past 10 months in large part thanks to very burst resistant DB Cores.

While the results may only seem to be a few wins apart on paper, the difference in Smash Attack power is evident. In the Dangerous Blade attack type testing it behaved much like Rage, it lacked a little bit of power to translate big hits into knock-outs, often only a cm or two from pocketing Vanish. 

In Savior’s case, the 45% win rate is more of a low estimate, as many of the battles had numerous wall saves preventing a clear Savior victory. While Dangerous does have some power to it, it cannot rival the Savior Blade or Guilty Blade.

The biggest thing holding back the Dangerous Blade from being a legitimate attack type threat is the lower half of the blade design. Because it is meant to accommodate the F Gear, it has a huge chunk carved out of itself that could have otherwise been more weight concentrated under its three wings.

Because of this, the supposed accommodation for F Gear ends up necessitating it. Even Dangerous Blade’s weight has been calculated with this in mind, not even scratching 10g Gear-less. 

Had it been more like the Dynamite Blade, where the F Gear was much more complementary and rested well below the Blade proper, perhaps Dangerous Blade would have been like a second Savior.

Simply put, Dangerous had a lot of promise as an alternative for right-spin attack, but falls just short primarily because of the ill-suited placement of F Gear.

How good is the Dangerous Blade for Stamina Combos?

Since Dangerous left us wanting more in terms of raw attack power, we had to turn our sights to other avenues where the Dangerous Blade could shine. Rather than fulfilling a different role than the Dynamite Blade, Dangerous could become a direct competitor. 

Prior to B-191, the options for right-spin Stamina combos were slim: the Dynamite Blade and Astral Blade were your only competitive options. This may no longer be the case, though!

Here is how the Dangerous Blade performs against both opposite-spin and same-spin matchups.

We chose Dangerous Belial 2 Over Bearing-3 because the Belial 2 DB Core is near-mandatory for Dangerous to not burst over the course of a drawn-out battle, and Bearing provides a solid matchup spread across the board.

Against the Vanish Blade it became clear the two are very evenly matched, and when one managed to snatch a victory amongst many draws, the other would match it soon after. In general, there are draws aplenty but they do not tend to be disproportionately skewed towards the Vanish Blade (as most of its meta matchups tend to be).

Unlike the majority of opposite spin matchups, it may be advisable to launch the Dangerous Blade at full strength, not only because it has a burst stopper in the Belial 2 DB Core, but because it needs to cause as much damage to the opponent as it can from the start of battle.

Compared to existing Stamina based Beyblades, Dangerous is highly dependent on being able to inflict critical damage throughout the course of a match. 

The Dangerous Blade will not be able to siphon energy from the opposite-spinning Beyblade as reliably as other Blades, so relying on it to do so and weak launching is not ideal.

Against the Astral Blade in left spin we decided to cut these matches short, it seemed to be clear that Dangerous has a very favourable matchup here, as when it wasn’t a draw Dangerous was able to win often enough with multiple rotations. 

In one instance there was a Burst Finish, Astral was launched hard and Dangerous launched weakly. This matchup can be fairly volatile as both Blades have a fair amount of recoil, but you shouldn’t expect to burst the Bahamut DB Core with regularity.

It should be noted here that Astral in right spin should rely on the Belial 2 DB Core too, to prevent bursting in other matchups. Because bursting was not an issue (it happened once after a tremendous set of hits), and we lacked a duplicate Belial 2 DB Core, it seemed fair to use these results.

Unlike the opposite spin Astral matchup, the Dangerous Blade had a much harder time here. While it still tended to come out ahead often enough, the victories on either side were typically by a large margin and when Astral won, it won by multiple rotations.

The Dangerous Blade’s win condition for this matchup, provided both players launch at a comparable strength, is to try and make as much early contact as possible with the Astral Blade. In general, the Dangerous Blade would do well when it was able to destabilize and weaken the Astral Blade early on. 

In the matches where little to no contact was made, the Astral Blade came out on top by an extra few rotations without fail. Despite the seemingly good record here, remember that this matchup is heavily dependent on getting big and consistent hits throughout the match. 

In a competitive setting, you may get numerous suboptimal matches in a row, putting the Dangerous Blade at a noticeable disadvantage. You should strategize your launch and position with this in mind.

Essentially, you either win hard or lose hard with the Dangerous Blade against right-spinning Astral. This should be taken on a match-by-match basis, meaning in general you have a decent shot to win a round (in this case safely above 50%), but don’t be surprised if rounds go very sour.

Despite covering the fact that the Prominence Blade is a rather poor same-spin choice in our previous article, to be thorough we decided to pit these two B-191 releases against each other. 

Dangerous Blade simply put too much pressure on the Prominence Blade, often removing its armor even in Heavy Mode. Dangerous easily out-spun it in most every match, which is why we cut it at 10 rounds, save for one fortunate knock-out on Prominence’s part. 

Not much has changed, the Prominence Blade proves to be even more specialized than Dangerous, which can still keep up with at least some same-spin opponents.

Is the Dangerous Blade better than the Dynamite Blade for Stamina Combos?

Since we are encroaching on the Dynamite Blade’s already established niche, it makes sense to do a comparison. How well does the Dynamite/Devil Blade do in these very same scenarios?

When it comes to the Vanish matchup, the amount of draws are obnoxious, something competitive bladers know all too well. The fact is, after so many consecutive draws it becomes difficult to determine which is certainly better. In a competitive setting, this matchup would have caused a reset.

In general, while the Dynamite Blade can hold its own against Vanish, it doesn’t tend to have the upper hand. In this matchup, the aggressive Dangerous Blade has a slight edge over the Dynamite Blade, and at the very least is on par with it. 

Definitely a good sign for the Dangerous Blade, considering how prominent Vanish Blade is.

Compared to the Dangerous Blade’s commanding lead, the Devil Blade seemed to struggle much more with opposite-spin Astral Blade. Part of the reason may be that despite being fairly high recoil, the Astral Blade is able to conserve a lot of its own energy against a fairly low-recoil opponent. 

A possible explanation could be that since the Dangerous Blade was able to inflict meaningful damage to the Astral Blade on top of its own innate recoil, Astral Blade couldn’t handle it nearly as well. 

The Dynamite matchup is more like a one-way street, making it much easier for the Astral Blade to cope and come out on top. In a surprise to no one by now, the Astral Blade can dish it but it can’t take it.

Here you’ll notice that Devil performed similar, if not slightly better than the same combo using the Dangerous Blade instead. What isn’t shown here is that one Bearing used is slightly more aggressive than the other, which was a legitimate hindrance to the Devil Blade’s domination over same-spin Astral. 

The Devil Blade performs noticeably better with a more docile Bearing here, and when parts were swapped at the halfway mark, the Astral Blade only came out on top three out of ten times. So with that in mind, these numbers are likely a little lower than they would be if only docile Bearings were used. 

Compared to the Dangerous Blade’s requirement of consistent and meaningful contact with a right-spinning Astral, Devil Blade’s key to victory was much more simple: don’t get knocked around much. If the Devil Blade manages to stay in roughly the same spot and not get knocked around too hard, it is easily the best same-spin Stamina Blade for right spin.

In the head to head between the two, it went about as well as you might expect it to for the Dangerous Blade:

It is clearly no contest. The Dangerous Blade’s only hope in a majority of its matchups is to hit the opponent into submission, but since the Dynamite Blade is particularly soft-edged with the F Gear, the Dangerous Blade cannot do enough damage before being completely out of energy.

When generally comparing the two, the Dynamite/Devil Blade is much more well-rounded in the fact it performs similarly well against either spin direction. The Dangerous Blade clearly prefers to be in the opposite spin, out of fear it may cross paths with the Dynamite Blade.

Also, because the Dangerous Blade relies on being able to pummel the opponent, it is technically less easy to use than the Dynamite Blade which requires much less spacial awareness, simply launch and go. 

At the end of the day, while in multiple instances the Dangerous Blade seems like a slightly more reliable choice (ex. Being able to edge out opposite-spin opponents with more frequency), its predecessor has more ease of use. 

The Dangerous Blade, in most regards, is more dangerous to use than the Dynamite Blade simply because a lot has to go right in order for it to surpass the Dynamite Blade in matchup spread. 

For many people, the ‘risk’ involved in making sure Dangerous Blade gets clean hits off is not worth the potential reward of being slightly superior to the simpler Dynamite Blade.

Finally, there was an absence of other prominent Stamina Drivers such as Zone’+Z, Rise, and Mobius. These Drivers were intentionally omitted as Dangerous finds the most safety among a wide matchup spread when using Bearing with Belial 2. 

Verdict: The Dangerous Blade

Overall, if you’re fine with a bit of nuance to your matchups, the Dangerous Blade makes for a solid opposite-spin focused Blade. It tends to slightly outperform its predecessor in those scenarios, though in same-spin matchups where Dynamite is the most commonly used Blade, Dangerous simply can’t win.

If you’re used to seeing more of Astral Blade or Vanish Blade locally, there may be a lot of value to be had using Dangerous Blade instead of Dynamite Blade.

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Belial 2 DB Core Review

What makes the Belial 2 DB Core different from others?

To put it bluntly, the Belial 2 DB Core is a must-have DB Core.

It is a solid 9g, which is roughly 1 or 2g higher than the average, and it also features a burst stopper. This stopper is ejected when the Beyblade is launched with enough force. Once ejected, the stopper will not retract on its own.

After the second click the Driver cannot progress further without making contact with this stopper. If launched too lightly, though, this stopper will not eject and you will have to rely solely on the Belial 2 DB Core’s teeth. They aren’t pushovers, but it doesn’t provide the same amount of security its stopper does.

While it would absolutely prevent the typically burst-prone Savior from ever coming apart, not only does it require a lot of force to eject (therefore making the Savior combo more likely to self knock-out) because it is part of Beyblade Burst Dynamite Battle’s new “Overdrive System”, but that level of safety is only really needed when facing an opponent’s own attack combo.

A decent amount of already existing DB Cores can mitigate Savior’s recoil with decent success, at the very least enough to knock-out Stamina types. For this reason, the burst stopping power of Belial 2 is best reserved for the most fragile: non-Dash based Stamina type Drivers. 

Part of the reason left spinning Stamina types have seen so much use is because of the safety the Bahamut DB Core provides. Bahamut DB Core can run blindly into just about any Beyblade without fear of bursting. The same could not be said for any right-spin DB Cores until now.

With the Belial 2 DB Core, right-spin has that safety. You can fully launch the Bearing Driver or Rise Driver to your heart’s content without fear of a Burst Finish upon first impact with an Attack type, or at the very end of a match against an opposing Stamina type.

How good is the Belial 2 DB Core’s burst resistance?

To highlight just how potent this stopper is, we paired the most recoil-prone right-spin Blade, Astral, with the weakest springed Driver, Bearing, and pitted it against Savior. This same-spin matchup tends to be very explosive, and under normal circumstances, a single hit or two would spell the end for Bearing-based Astral combos.

In any other right-spin DB Core’s most gruesome matchup, Belial 2 passed with flying colours. Belial 2 failed to burst 19 times, despite direct contact being made multiple times, including multiple knock-outs. In the one instance where it did burst, it was Savior’s first hit that sent Astral flying directly into the back of the pocket, where it violently bursted. 

It isn’t actually impossible to burst the Belial 2 DB Core, but very very difficult. It is easily in the same class as Bahamut, but with the advantage of being heavier and distributed well enough to not suffer in Stamina match ups. 

What you should expect to happen when launching hard is that Belial 2’s burst stopper will eject, meaning after the second click the opponent’s Beyblade will have an incredibly difficult time bursting your combo. 

In almost every round in this test the Savior Blade was able to get to the second click, but only once was it able to actually overcome the burst stopper. 

What this means is that in an Attack matchup you should be safe from bursting even on a weak spring Bearing, and in a Stamina matchup you should feel very comfortable with knowing there will be little to no late-game bursting.

Learn more about the burst resistance of the Belial 2 DB Core in our Prominence Phoenix review where we compared the Phoenix DB Core to Belial 2 as well as several others.

How good is the Belial 2 DB Core’s stamina?

The Belial 2 DB Core has top-tier same-spin stamina. It is equal to, if not better than the Valkyrie DB Core, which was previously the best DB Core for same-spin stamina.

For more information and testing on the Belial 2 DB Core’s stamina, check our review of the Phoenix DB Core here.

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Almight Driver Review

The final component we’ll be looking at is the Almight Driver. It is akin to the Generate, Hyrbid and Ignition’ Drivers in the fact that it melds the Forge Disc and Driver together.

Unlike the previously mentioned Drivers, the Almight Driver is fully compatible with DB Beyblade’s Low Mode, as well as the V Gear.

What is the Almight Driver’s gimmick?

Almight has an interesting gimmick on top of the already far out design as part of the new “Overdrive System” in Beyblade Burst Dynamite Battle:

1. When launched with force the bottom shaft and tip become fixed in place (with slight give) and take on a Hole Flat form.
2. When launched with less force the shaft and tip remain free-spinning and the Driver is more like a Flat/Semi-Flat form.

When launched hard the Hole Flat provides Almight with much more speed and aggression around the stadium, but almost makes it much more difficult to control. When launched with less force, the pointed flat form is much more docile and lends itself much better to endurance battles.

As fun as that gimmick is, providing you with two very different play styles, the reality is that hard launching Almight Driver with precision is incredibly difficult, and the payoff is very low. It is a fairly tall Driver meaning that attack oriented Blades won’t be able to make as much direct contact as they’d like with their opponents, even if they’re getting adequate speed.

The more docile mode is definitely preferred in a competitive setting, and that mode is our primary focus in this article. With the V Gear attached, the overall shape of the Almight Driver is incredibly round and smooth, lending it some noticeable Life After Death a la Plastic’s Spiral Change Base. 

Does the Almight Driver have good stamina?

So, how does the Almight’s docile mode with V Gear accessory stack up against current competitive Stamina combos? 

First up, we tested it against the most recent Blade to enter the opposite-spin Stamina fray: Prominence. Every match we weak launched the Almight Driver to ensure it started in its docile mode.

The first thing you’ll notice is that all of these matches only go on for 10 rounds. In every case there were an overwhelming amount of draws that if done in a competitive setting, resetting would be nearly guaranteed. 

For this reason, and the fact that it seemed to be never-ending when Almight Driver was in play, rounds were capped at 10 every time.

It was nearly impossible to determine victors without slowed video assistance, with Prominence winning handily only once or twice. This isn’t necessarily a bad outcome for the Almight Driver, despite what the win percentage may have you believe.

In opposite spin matchups, the Almight Driver with V Gear can be difficult to overcome, in general it is more likely to draw than it is to win, and it is in this matchup a tie between draws and losses. At the very least, it seems very difficult for Almight to outright lose in opposite-spin.

Another not-so-exciting performance from the Almight Driver that would put a lot of watchers to sleep. By this point the trend continued to build, Almight Driver is looking a lot like a slightly inferior Drift Driver. It excels in drawing, but it has a very hard time doing anything more. 

After this we reversed the setup, with the Almight Driver combo in right-spin and the opponent in left-spin.

This setup was actually much more promising for Almight Driver than Vanish, even though it had a “0%” win percentage. The Almight Driver is at a height where a lot of the contact made with Devil/Dynamite Blade would be with the F Gear almost exclusively. 

Rounds were about as tight as they could get here, and the Almight Driver made it a challenge for the Bearing Driver combo to win at all.

In the one round where a draw was not determined, it was what one might expect: only the most minute of movements in Vanish’s favour, that could only be reliably noticed with recorded assistance.

Having found what appeared to be the best current setup to make the most of the Almight Driver, we turned to the Astral Blade opposite-spin matchup.

This was more of the same: many draws. In one case though, Almight Driver was actually able to secure an outspin on Astral Blade. Despite it merely evening up the score, it is still nothing to scoff at. Almight appears to be able to consistently draw with the best of them in opposite spin. 

Our final opposite spin test was the undisputed king, Drift Driver. Notorious for its ability to single handedly win or draw on nearly any Blade, the Drift Driver is nothing short of oppressive in the right matchups.

Unfortunately, as great as Almight Driver  is at drawing against the likes of Bearing (and Zone’+Z in informal testing), Drift was still able to squeak out the tiniest of wins twice over the course of 10 rounds. This isn’t drastically worse than its other performances so far, but it doesn’t set it apart from Drift as a viable/superior alternative.

With that out of the way comes the very depressing part about the Almight Driver: its same-spin performance. 

Because same-spin performance is a pure endurance test and less about siphoning spin at the end of a match, being able to launch at full strength without penalty (like potentially bursting or being knocked-out) is of utmost importance. 

Since the Almight Driver enters a different, more aggressive mode, when launched hard, it doesn’t have nearly the same controllability and loses a ton of stamina while it thrashes about. Because this is unavoidable, you simply cannot hard launch Almight Driver in its docile mode, victory is nearly impossible.

Here’s what we mean:

The Almight Driver has two choices in same-spin stamina matches:

1. Launch at full strength, hoping that not much stamina is lost while stalling the ridge or self-destructing.
2. Launch slightly weaker but run the very likely risk that the opponent will launch harder and win by default.

This isn’t exactly the most promising scenario for the Almight Driver. It should be noted that it is possible to win in same-spin if the stars align, but it cannot be overstated how much the mode gimmick ruins Almight Driver’s chances of being a legitimate alternative to the Drift Driver.

When reaching the center with decent spin left, or having its ability to stall impeded by consistent hits, the Almight Driver’s aggressive mode design (Hole Flat) isn’t a huge hit to its endurance thanks to the smooth shape afforded to it by V Gear. 

It doesn’t happen all that often, but when you do manage to have the Almight Driver’s aggression curbed very early on without losing a lot of spin, its height allows it to destabilize Bearing based combos to some degree of success, as seen with its few victories on Vanish.

Since it is equally abysmal in same-spin as the Drift Driver, which is also often assured a loss, it is very difficult to recommend Almight Driver. It can draw just as well, but can’t clinch out victories as frequently. If it had access to its docile mode when launched hard, making it also a very respectable Driver in same-spin, there would be no contest. 

Where does the Almight Driver fit into the Beyblade metagame?

You’ll notice below all the Win Percentages in opposite spin matches we’ve dedicated a line for “Draw Percentage”, and while it wasn’t out of 20 full rounds, Almight tends to hover between a 80 to 90 percent draw rate. In a competitive setting, being able to draw reliably isn’t the worst. It certainly beats outright losing.

In some tournament formats just 3 consecutive draws force a match reset where both players have to pick completely new parts and battle again. 

The Almight Driver may not be able to win easily against opposite spin in the way Drift sometimes can, but it certainly draws very well in the same way, enough to possibly ensure a reset. With that reset you can learn a lot about the style of combo your opponent(s) tend to use, or just mentally regroup and strategize an entirely new battle plan.

That in mind, just like the Drift Driver, the Almight Driver is a huge gamble since it is all or nothing! If you go up against a same-spin opponent your only legitimate option is to launch hard and pray you don’t self-destruct or expend too much energy circling the stadium ridge.

In the end, it appears to be a more impractical Drift Driver that actually had all the ingredients to be a superior Drift Driver. For many people it is far too risky to use, and there isn’t a compelling argument to use it over Drift without a better same-spin matchup spread.

Practically speaking, Almight is best left off of your competitive deck since the Drift Driver fulfills the same role with similar risk in same-spin, and slightly more reliability to win in opposite spin matches.

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What do you think of Dangerous Belial Almight-2? Comment below!

If you’re thinking of picking up the B-191 Overdrive Special Starter Set and have any questions, feel free to ask below and I’ll do my best to answer.

And if you’ve already picked it up, I’d love to hear about your thoughts and testing experiences with Dangerous Belial Almight-2!