Piccolo is a very tall and muscular Namekian.

While greatly resembling his

father/incarnation, he is noticeably shorter and somewhat thinner. He also has a
more solid facial structure with less pronounced cheekbones, a rounder chin, and a
straight nose. Piccolo only has four fingers with black nails in the Dragon Ball
manga, but five fingers with white nails in the anime series and the Dragon Ball
Super manga. Piccolo Jr.'s outfit when he was a kid is very similar to the one King
Piccolo is first seen wearing, with the same color scheme shown on the Kanzenban
manga covers. From the time he is a young adult onward, Piccolo wears a dark
purplish-blue gi, pointy orange shoes and sky blue obi (red in the manga). When not
fighting seriously, Piccolo also wears a white turban and a white cape along with
it.

Like Goku, Piccolo generally wears and trains with Weighted clothing. The cape
itself is not weighted, but there is weighted padding underneath; this is seen
twice in the series: when his cape is damaged while fighting Frieza in his second
form, and when it is damaged by Lord Slug's henchmen. As the series went on,
Piccolo Jr.'s outfit became more his own and by the time he faced the Androids. The
outfit's neckline becomes more low-cut like Goku's outfit, minus Goku's own
undershirt. In the manga, many of the movies, and certain video games (Supersonic
Warriors 2 and Super Dragon Ball Z), Piccolo wears a red obi rather than a sky blue
one.

Even though Piccolo Jr. discards his old symbol, he uses it once in the series when
he made his pupil Gohan a uniform after his previous outfit was torn in a Great Ape
transformation. In a filler episode in the anime, when both of them are forced by
Goku's wife Chi-Chi to go to driving school, Piccolo wears an old outfit of Goku's,
which he despised wearing.[8]

Personality
Throughout the franchise, regardless of Piccolo's allegiance, his general demeanor
has always been stern, if not grumpy, with an indifferent attitude towards others.
Piccolo rarely smiles and enjoys solitude. Piccolo is frequently seen meditating in
quiet places and drinking thawed ice water in the north area.[3] However, he shows
a noticeable cockiness when fighting. He can also be very confrontational toward
people, showing very direct and honest opinions about a situation or an individual.
Piccolo is known for his very precise and efficient methods in battle and likewise
is shown to be very analytical and tactical in battle, able to see through his
opponent's skills and weaknesses to devise effective strategies for victory. In the
Baby Saga, Baby openly acknowledged Piccolo as one of the most brilliant fighters
in the galaxy.

Originally, Piccolo inherited his father/former self's desire for world domination
and destroying Goku. He was determined to prove his superiority and possessed many
of the villainous properties of his father, such as a violent and destructive
nature and a total disregard for anything besides victory. This was shown during
his battle with Goku in the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament, where he shows
almost no mercy for his opponent, breaking all of Goku's limbs while laughing
sadistically, believing it was necessary after what Goku had done to his father.
Despite all this, Piccolo was not without a measure of restraint and honor, as he
for no reason saved a mother and daughter from debris during a storm.[9] He also
let Krillin walk away after submitting in the tournament. Piccolo has also shown
traits of pragmatism, teaming up with his archrival Goku and later the rest of the
Z Fighters when the threat of the Saiyans proves to be too much for him alone,
citing the aliens' defeat as a shared goal. According to Goku, his overall evil
nature became more of a stubborn and angry attitude than flat-out villainous.

After his battle against Goku, Piccolo gradually began to develop for the better as
the evil nature only dwelled through his desire to destroy Goku inherited from his
father/former self. Later, when he and Goku team up to battle Raditz, Piccolo began
to show more respect during the battle, even commemorating Goku on his noble
sacrifice despite still considering him an enemy and, during the battle against
Nappa, praised the other Z Fighters' bravery and tactics.

While training Goku's young son, Gohan, while originally only for to prepare for
the coming Saiyans, Piccolo's heart and motives quickly begin to change as the boy
takes his time to talk with Piccolo and have normal discussions that do not result
in a violent outbreak, this stemming from Gohan agreeing on Goku's views of Piccolo
now being more grumpy than truly evil. During the time he was training Gohan, both
Mr. Popo and Kami noted the change in Piccolo's personality with Mr. Popo noting he
was no longer the Demon King of old referencing his loss of Demon Clan status and
Kami himself surmised that he had the same premonition of death that Kami himself
had and that Piccolo wanted to leave behind some kind of legacy even if it was in
the son of his sworn enemy. Around the start of Gohan's training Piccolo told Gohan
that if he feels resentment towards him, then he should curse his own fate like
Piccolo did, indicating Kami was right about Piccolo's motivation. During the
battle with Nappa, Piccolo goes as far as to sacrifice his life to save Gohan,
stating how his friendship and love had changed him forever. Piccolo has stated
that Gohan was the first person to see him not as a monster and was proud to call
him his friend. From then on, Piccolo became very protective of Gohan, proud in his
growth as a man and seeing Gohan a surrogate-son, to which Gohan himself came to
care for Piccolo as a dear uncle or even second father. This also truly cemented
his change from evil to good and a true friend and team-mate for the Z Fighters. He
also came to view Goku in a similar light as a dear friend and ally as after being
teleported from the self-destructing Planet Namek and learning of Goku's
intentions, Piccolo noted he would have preferred to fight alongside the noble
warrior to the end, showing his respect for the Earth's savior.

Piccolo and the two Namekians who inhabit his body

Despite having spent most of his life unaware of his origins as an alien rather
than a demon and shocked to learn such, Piccolo came to appreciate learning this
truth. To which, upon learning of Frieza's genocidal attack on the Namekians,
Piccolo was determined to fight Frieza and avenge his people, even when King Kai
warned him of the danger Frieza's might possesses. After fusing with Nail and
acquiring all his knowledge of Namekian culture, Piccolo felt whole as a person,
now able to understand his roots. The greatest change in his character was when he
made the choice to remerge with Kami so he could battle the androids. Kami's
willingness to do this showed how little evil was left in Piccolo, trusting that
Piccolo would use the extra strength along with Kami's divine powers and centuries-
worth of experience for good. Once reunited, all remaining traces of evil
disappeared from Piccolo. While still having a stern demeanor for the most part,
Piccolo showed genuine compassion for all living being beyond those he deemed a
friend, as he tried to get Cell to spare the man in Ginger Town. Furthermore,
during the Fusion Saga, when Super Buu exterminates the human race with a single
attack, Piccolo drops to his knees, both in shame for suggesting Buu to kill more
humans (believing that it was necessary in order to bide time for Goten and Trunks
to train, and as the Earthlings could be restored to life with the Dragon Balls)
and horror, with Piccolo desperately hoping for redemption and vowing to bring them
all back to life. Although he still has little to say unless it involves battle and
does not seem to understand the concept of romance, referring to it as "mushy
stuff", although this is understandable since Namekians lack romantic relations.

Piccolo, both stressed and angry

As Piccolo carries on in life, he becomes slightly more relaxed and joyful, which
simultaneously made it easier to stress and annoy him. He would partake and enjoy
various parties and social events, including Bulma's birthday and Gohan's wedding.
Even more, in Dragon Ball Super, Piccolo's kindness continued to show, displaying a
gentler and nurturing side, helping in the raising of Pan, showing a very efficient
job of it as he had a whole list set up on what to do for the baby and genuinely
enjoyed it. In Dragon Ball GT, his compassion and selflessness was even willing to
sacrifice his life permanently to make sure the Black Star Dragon Balls remained
unusable. While encouraging Gohan to find his own path in life, he still firmly
believes that Gohan must keep up his training to better protect that which he
loves. To which, he proudly accepted Gohan's request to retraining him after the
second battle against Frieza cost Piccolo his life again to save Gohan. During
which, Piccolo retains his harsh and merciless training methods, all in the goal of
restoring Gohan's fighting instinct and true power.

Unlike most Namekians, Piccolo has a history of consuming solid food in addition to
the Namekian's normally liquid diet of water. As a child, he is seen catching and
eating a fish. Even after it is revealed Namekians only require water to survive,
Piccolo occasionally eats solid food. In Dragon Ball Super he can be seen
occasionally with a plate of food during various social gathers implying Piccolo
eats socially. However, his favorite food is water from the Northern Mountains
indicating he still retains a normal Namekian diet in addition to eating solid
food.

In Xenoverse, Piccolo is shown to have learned from his father's mistakes even
using Master Mutaito's defeat of King Piccolo with the Denshi Jar and Evil
Containment Wave as an analogy of why one must use whatever items or abilities one
has at their disposal to win. This is further shown in the original manga/anime by
Piccolo's development of the Evil Containment Wave Reflection technique which he
used to counter Kami's use of the Evil Containment Wave essentially removing the
one threat his father had feared the most.